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FINE ARTS. 



the removal of this, the picture presented in- 

 dubitable evidence of being a work in Raphael's 

 best manner. At Florence sculpture is success- 

 fully practised by a number of American artists, 

 some of whom have been long resident in the 

 city. Of these the oldest is Hiram Powers, who 

 is much employed in executing copies of his 

 chief works, and who is now engaged upon a 

 new ideal bust of " Clytie." W. T. Hart, of 

 Kentucky, known by his statue of Henry Clay, 

 at New Orleans, has been modelling an ideal 

 group representing the triumph of Virtue over 

 Love, and has nearly finished in marble a copy 

 of his Henry Clay, for the city of Louisville. 

 Thomas Ball, of Boston, has been engaged upon 

 a statue of Edwin Forrest, of heroic size, as he 

 appeared in the part of " Coriolanus ; " and also 

 upon a statuette, three feet high, of President 

 Lincoln freeing the slave; and a head for a 

 colossal statue of Edward Everett, to be eight 

 and a hal f feet in height and in an attitude of ora- 

 tory. J. A. Jackson is engaged in reproducing 

 in marble his group of " Eve and Abel ; " and 

 Colonel Henry, of Kentucky, who served as a 

 cavalry officer during three years of the Ameri- 

 can civil war, and suffered nearly a year's im- 

 prisonment in Richmond, has produced a suc- 

 cessful bust of President Lincoln, and an ideal 

 piece representing "A Libby Prisoner listening 

 to Kilpatrick's Guns." He is now engaged on 

 a bas-relief of a " Soldier's Dream in the Libby 

 Prison." The inauguration of the monument 

 raised in Florence in honor of Dante, took place 

 on May 14th, the six hundredth anniversary of 

 his birth, in the presence of King Victor Eman- 

 uel and deputies from every province, town, 

 academy, society, and important institution 

 in the kingdom. Early in the year reports 

 were extensively circulated of important exca- 

 vations and discoveries in Pompeii, which 

 proved to be unfounded. During the greater 

 part of the year, in consequence of a want 

 of funds, no excavations of importance were 

 undertaken; but the slight amount of work 

 done served to discover a life-size equestrian 

 statue, in bronze, pronounced to be a represen- 

 tation of the Emperor Nero, and which is soon 

 to be set up in the Naples Museum. The face 

 and general attitude of the figure resemble the 

 well-known statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, 

 which, however, is upward of a century later 

 in date. During some excavations in the little 

 town of Civita Lavinia, built on the ruins of 

 Lanuvium, a colossal statue of the Emperor 

 Claudius was discovered. The figure is upright, 

 resting on the right leg, and is draped with a 

 great cloak, which, falling over the left shoul- 

 der, leaves the breast naked. Its dignified posi- 

 tion well suits the type of Jove, under whose 

 attributes the emperor is represented, with a 

 crown of oak leaves on his head and the eagle 

 at his feet. The hands, which, with the arms, 

 a portion of the drapery, and the upper part 

 of the eagle, are unfortunately missing, un- 

 doubtedly held some emblems of the power of 

 the father of the gods. The statue appears to 



have been anciently restored, but it was never 

 completely finished behind, from which circum- 

 stance it is to be inferred that it originally oc- 

 cupied a niche, as the front parts are worked 

 to perfection. The features especially are tran- 

 scribed with marvellous accuracy and fidelity, 

 and serve by their expression to confirm all 

 that ancient historians have transmitted to us 

 respecting the stupidity of the Emperor Clau- 

 dius, of whom a more faithful portrait cannot 

 be found in any of the sculpture galleries of 

 Rome. 



UNITED STATES. During the recent war 

 the Fine Arts witnessed a very considerable 

 development in the United States, the result in 

 part of the intellectual activity which the con- 

 test promoted, and in a very considerable de- 

 gree also of the abundance and wide diffusion 

 of paper money. Contrary to general expecta- 

 tion, painters and sculptors found a ready mar- 

 ket for their productions, and at one period the 

 mania for collecting became so prevalent that 

 large numbers of pictures by modern European 

 artists were imported into the country, and sold 

 at what seemed enormous prices even in the 

 inflated currency which formed the circulating 

 medium. During the latter part of 1863 and 

 the first six months of 1864, upwards of 

 thirty collections of pictures were disposed 

 of at auction, in the city of New York, real- 

 izing, probably, not less than half a million 

 of dollars, and at an advance of from fifty to 

 one hundred per cent, on the original cost. 

 The most important of these sales was that of 

 Mr. John "Wolfe's gallery, comprising principal- 

 ly excellent specimens of the best modern 

 French, German, and Belgian painters, which 

 realized $114,000 in currency equivalent, at 

 the commencement of 1864, to about $75,000 

 in specie. The success of this sale was a great 

 incentive to other collectors to dispose of their 

 works; but the sums realized by the "Wolfe 

 gallery, even when reduced to a specie basis, 

 were too high to become a recognized standard 

 of value ; and gradually, as the market became 

 overstocked, prices declined to their normal 

 rate. 



The succeeding year witnessed comparatively 

 few public sales in the chief art emporiums, 

 and a much lower scale of prices. In conse- 

 quence, however, of the demand so prevalent 

 in 1864, large numbers of foreign pictures 

 continued to be imported, which were sold at 

 prices affording a fair remuneration to the deal- 

 ers. These works were confined almost exclu- 

 sively to the modern German, French, and 

 Belgian schools, the prominent painters of 

 which are already so well known in the United 

 States that no considerable collection is with- 

 out specimens by one or more of them. Not- 

 withstanding the intimate commercial relations 

 between the United States and Great Britain, 

 the demand for pictures by British painters is 

 so slight that probably not more than one 

 of them is imported into the country where 

 twenty of the productions of Continental schools 



