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HIE CIVIL ENtJlNliER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. [Novkmber, 



in early life, "ould liave corrected liis taste; tlioiijili Sir Cieorge lieaiuiioiit 

 feared his eye was defective, anil Reynolds predicted liis style wonld attract 

 tlie iuiiorant and ruin tlie art; lie has not ruined it, bnt he did it serions 

 harm. There is an interesting anecdote of the two men, so completely illus- 

 trative of each, that I will relate it. At a nohleman's house, there exists an 

 exquisite picture by an old master. Ueynolds, when there, always had it 

 taken down, and witli due humility dwelt on it for hours. Lawrence subse- 

 quently used to visit the same house. The nobleman, astonished at Law- 

 rcnce's apathy, offered to have it taken down, which Lawrence declined, and 

 retired to billiards. 



Will) regard to the necessity for the artist to dissect, Haydon is 

 most strenuous on that point, and we think with justice, even if 

 abstract reasoning did nut sanction it, practical ex[)erience is evidently 

 in its favour. Let any one who can draw try lo compose a figure in 

 any attitude, and put in the muscles of the tliigli or of the calf of the 

 leg without a mode), and he will find what uncertainty he will have 

 as to their form, and the difhcully of getting a resemblance to nature. 

 Thestudy of the living model and of the antique will of course do much, 

 but even this will be greatly forwarded if the student knows whence 

 his musc'cs come, whither they go and how they act, and for this 

 there is nothing like dissection. The author states what led him to 

 his opinions on the essential characteristics of man. 



Many years ago, whilst dissecting a lion, iu my early youth, I was amaz- 

 ingly impressed with its similarity as well as its difl'erence in muscular and 

 bone construction to the human figure. It was evident the lion was but a 

 modification of the human being, varied in organic construction and muscular 

 arrangement, only where it was necessary be should be, that his bodily powers 

 might suit his instincts, bis propensities, bis appetites, and his lower degree 

 of reasoning power. On comparing the two, I found the human being stood 

 erectly on two feet, the lion horizontally on four. On placing the lion on 

 bis two bind feet, resting on the heels and toes like a himian being, I found 

 be could not remain so ; I found he had no power of grasping with his fore- 

 paws (answering to the human hand, and but a moditir-ation) ; I found he 

 could not move his fore-paw arms right from the shoulder, nor his hind-feet 

 limbs right from the hip; I found his feet flat, his body long, his brain di- 

 minished, his eyes above the centre of his head, his jaw immense, and vast 

 muscle occupying that portion of the skull, to assist the action of tlie jaw, 

 which is filled by brain in a human creature; I found his spine long, his pan- 

 bone narrow, his inner ancle lower than the outer, his chest contracted, and 

 his fore-arm as long as his upper arm. I put down these distinctions as 

 points characteristic in head and figure of a brutal and unintellectual being. 

 I tlien examined the man : I found his power of grasping with the hand, by 

 the action of his thumb, perfect ; I found the motion of his arm free from 

 the shoulder-joint, and bis thighs free from the hip ; I fcuud his feet arched, 

 his inner ancle the highest, his pan-bone large, which, by resistance to the 

 action of the great extensor of the legs, increases their power, his eyes at 

 the centre of his skull, his upper-arm longer than the fore-arm, his spine 

 short, and his brain enormous. I put down these distinctions as characte- 

 ristic in face and figure of a superior and intellectual being. These differences 

 are facts — they were intentional, or accidental I: — they were formed by the 

 Creator, or they were not ! — if they were as they were, there was reason in 

 the differences, and that reason issued from the Creator's mind. Surely, 

 then, it was justifiable to lay down a principle of form from ascertaining these 

 distinctions. Full of delight, reference was at once made to the Metopes of 

 the Temple of Theseus (which, being executed fifty years before the Parthe- 

 non, were more likely to develope system than the later works from the 

 Parthenon itself, where art is so exquisitely concealed) ; and all the points 

 put down as characteristic of a perfect human figure, were so evident, as not 

 to be mistaken; and both in the works of the Parthenon, executed by Phidias 

 and his school, and in those of the Temple of Theseus, the principles of a 

 standard figure were so distinct, that I will defy any artist to have developed 

 them so systematically and so decidedly witliout intention and without 

 knowledge. 



We are inclined to agree with tlie author that the Greeks dissected, 

 we liave positive evidence on the point, and the reasoning moreover 

 on the negative side is, as he shows, defective. We agree with him, 

 also, as to Michael Angelo ; with him, we fully appreciate the talents 

 Michael Angclo possessed, but it is incontestable that his sculpture really 

 is generally extravagant and wanting in repose. We agree also with 

 liim that a man may become a great master without going to Italy, 

 hut his own impressions in the Louvre (p. 2oS) must show him that 

 there is the greatest benefit in foreign travel, were it only to make 

 a break in the conventional effect of home study it would be desirable. 

 A young man mixing only with fellow countrymen and among exhibi- 

 tion works wants some lesson to remind him that there is other art 

 besides the meretricious parades of Trafalgar Scpiare or Pall Mall. 

 The assertions of our author as to the supremacy of Greek painting 

 must have the support of actual facts before we can receive them as 

 anything more than ingenious assumptions. We must confess we are 

 strongly inclined to believe that Greek art did not make the advances 

 assumed, and we set at naught the hyperbolical expressions of con- 

 temporaries, for investigation will teach us how such have been rais- 



applied even in modern times. A good feature in Haydon's instruc- 

 tion, and a fine characteristic of the man, is that he never forgets 

 natiuiuil interests, nor the connection of High Art with the humblest 

 pursuits of manufacture, inculcating the importance of design as a 

 grand principle in education. 



Among the good advice with which the volume is thickly sown, the 

 foUowing will be appreciated by the young architect and engineer, by 

 the old architect and engineer, as well as by the young painter and 

 the old painter — 



It was exceedingly fine of Sir Joshua, after making a large fortune, to tell 

 the young men : " Were I now to begin the world again, to catch the slightest 

 of Michael Angelo's perfections, to kiss the hem of his garment, wonld be 

 glory and distinction enough for an ambitious man : I would tread in the 

 steps of tliat great master." The question is, why did he not do it when he 

 heijan the world .' for this simple reason, he never had genius for it ! Genius, 

 he assured, is not a passive quality, and cannot conveniently be buttoned up 

 for another opportunity, to be let out as .Eolus does the winds, whenever the 

 possessor is in the caprice. Genius is a gilt which sits on a possessor like 

 a night-mare ; haunts biui when a lisping cliild, a restless youth, or in con- 

 firmed manhood. Ueynolds, Romney, Lawrence, and Chantrey, were always 

 predicting what grand things they would do, as soon as they were above the 

 necessities of life ; as soon as snow ceased to fall and water to be frozen ; as 

 soon as babies cease to be tormented with ahdominal twangs, and Daffy's 

 elixir was no longer wanted ; as soon as all was calm and sinless, and free 

 from bad passion: when they were so, would not their judgment he more 

 mature ? When they have secured an independence, would not their genius 

 he in a fitter condition for fancy .' To this millennium of quiet they are 

 always looking ; at last it is the very time, to-raorrow they'll begin. In 

 comes another sitter — then come the guineas — then the dining out — then 

 tlie bewithing flattery of some darling be has just painted successfully, and 

 very like about the eyes. In the mean time, some youth, whom God has 

 gifted, in poverty and struggle, spends his money, meant for food, to get clay 

 for a model; coiicei\es a grand figure — sets to work, without waiting for the 

 three per cents., and you find, in an obscure, cheerless, wretched room, a 

 gigantic figure of Milo towering to the ceiling, as fine a combination of High 

 Art and true Nature as has ever appeared since the Greeks 1 



I am no friend to that lachrymose croaking about time of life ; I am juit 

 as able now, at fifty-eight years, to set to work on a new acquirement as at 

 eighteen years, and perhaps more able. " Was I to begin the world again," 

 said Reynolds ; of course he would do all sorts of things he had neglected to 

 do, and follow Michael Angelo's steps. Now, he had been saying this 

 forty years, why did he not at once, like Tintoretto, write over the door of 

 his painting-room, " The day to Titian, the night to Michael Angclo .'" and 

 in six months we should have had his limbs more like legs and thighs than 

 nine pins. Why ? because he only had the consciousness of imperfection 

 without surticient power to impel the remedy. After lamenting thus to 

 Burke, he would sit down to a game of whist, or adjourn to the club, to listen 

 to the declamations of Johnson. Let every man begin at once, not to-mor- 

 row, hut to-day, not by and bye at four, but now, at six in the morning, or 

 as soon as it is light. No, no; Lawrence never would have executed a great 

 historical picture, Chantrey, a grand heroic statue, nor Reynolds have be- 

 come the Michael Angelo of the eighteenth century, had he began the world 

 again ; he would have done precisely what he did when he began it before : 

 these lamentations of mispassed time are only artful palliatives to conscious 

 defects. It is a refutable sophistry to say, the higher walk addresses the 

 mind, the lower, the senses ; the higher walk addresses the mind through the 

 senses, and if the senses are shocked by the wretchedness of the imitation, 

 and the want of power in the instrument of producing reality, the thoughts 

 conveyed are not more impreisive, because the means are inefficient — they 

 are less so — and every thought, poetical, epic, pathetic, or comical, will have 

 ten times more effect on the imagination in proportion to the abstract per- 

 fection of the reality of imitating the objects used to convey them. Study 

 the great works of the great men for ever, bnt never as a substitute, always 

 as an assistant to nature. Never hold any communion in early life with 

 those who set out despising the illustrious dead, and you will find many — 

 don't argue, fly ; and above all things study alone. I can always predict the 

 fate of any student who shares a painting-room with another for the sake of 

 society. God help him who feels such a want with such a delightful vision 

 in bis brain, or at his side, by day and by night, as Painting ! If you have 

 genius, industry alone will make you ready for its inspirations ; if you have 

 not, industry at least will give you knowledge. 



As to the grand doctrine of the ideal in art, we have long since de- 

 clared that we do not believe in it. We think common sense in art 

 is of much more importance than the ideal, and we are convinced a 

 living human being, with all his imperfections, is worth tlie finest 

 coaguluin of selected beauties which ever were, or ever could be put 

 together. This does not, however, affect the practical value of 

 Haydon's work, which we are satisfiied must, for a long while, be a 

 great and popular authority, and as such we strongly recommend to 

 all our readers engaged in the pursuit of architecture or the other 

 branches of the fine arts, while we are firmly convinced that it adds to 

 the claims of its author on the public gratitude and public admiration. 



