290 Vases in Garden Scenery. 



Art. V. On the Use of Vases as Ornarnental Objects in Garden 

 Scenerij. By Caltcanthus. 



The attention of the antiquary, the architect, and the land- 

 scape-gardener can scarcely be directed to forms of greater 

 interest than those of the vases which, in ancient as well as in 

 modern times, have marked the progress of cultivated taste. 

 To the landscape-gardener they afford the means of enriching 

 and heightening the character of his compositions, as well as of 

 harmonising and blending the features of landscape with those 

 of architecture. Assuming, on the authority of Burke and 

 Uvedale Price, that the sublime, the beautiful, and the pictur- 

 esque are three distinct qualities, let us consider which of them 

 chiefly prevails in the different forms of the vase. We shall not 

 there find much to excite feelings of the sublime, unless it be 

 from the circumstances of colossal magnitude and visionary ob- 

 scurity ; as was the case in the vase exhibited a few years ago 

 at the Queen's Bazaar in Oxford Street. The size of this truly 

 Cyclopean goblet, aided by the artifice of strong lights relieved 

 by masses of shadow, could hardly fail to create admiration, 

 amounting to awe, in even the most insensible spectator: a 

 savage would have bowed down and worshipped it. The general 

 outline of this vase was not remarkable for elegance, and the 

 ornamental details, though exquisitely finished, did not show 

 any very striking originality of design, so that, except large- 

 ness of size, and a sort of indistinctness and gloom caused by 

 the judicious arrangement of strong lights, I can discover no 

 cause for those feelings with which I, and most other spectators, 

 were impressed. In most cases, however, I think that, whether 

 we view the early specimens of Etruria, the elegant designs of 

 Greece, or the more florid productions of imperial Rome, we 

 find the form of the vase one of pure and unmixed beauty; 

 distinct from Price's definition of the picturesque, and still fur- 

 ther remote from the sublime. The smoothness and polish of 

 the material, whether marble, cement, or bronze, increase the 

 effect produced by elegance of form. 



In the geometrical style of gardening, terraces, balustrades, 

 and parterres were for the most part in perfect harmony with 

 the vases and statues which contributed to ornament and enliven 

 them. Perhaps this style might, even at the present time, be 

 occasionally introduced with advantage ; but modern art has 

 declared so strongly against it, that the admirers of avenues 

 and labyrinths have no alternative but to bow in submission, 

 and endeavour to prove that their love of the old style does not 

 arise from inability to comprehend the principles of the new. 



In the modern, or natural, system of landscape-gardening, to 

 which England has the honour of giving a name, the vase 



