42 GBSSNEB AND THE CULMINATION OP THE PASTORAL, IDYL. 



Ausdruck haben, wenn sie die Kenntniss beider Stiicke mehr ver- 

 banden."' This tendency naturally developed much KleinmaJerei. 

 In his Brief liber die Landschaftsmalerei Gessner characterizes his 

 early work as a painter; this criticism is also the best character- 

 istic of his literary jsroductions, including the idyl. He writes: 

 "Meine Neigung ging A'^orziiglich auf die Landschaft. Das Beste 

 und der Hauptendzweck ist doch immer die Natur. So dacht' ich 

 und zeichnete nach der Natur. Aber ich wollte der Natur allzugenau 

 f olgen und sah mich in Kleinigkeiten des Detail verwickelt. die den 

 Effekt des Ganzen storten; und fast immer fehlte mir die Manier, 

 die den Gegenstanden der Natur ihren wahren Charakter beibe- 

 halt."2 



Just as the grand nature of the Alps finds no reflection in 

 Gessner 's idyls, he also fails to imitate Haller m introducing actual 

 idyllic life of the mountain people who dwelled in almost patriar- 

 chal simplicity. However, Gessner did people his beautified nature 

 with inhabitants: shepherds, satyrs, fauns, and zephyrs. Even 

 though the former are more natural than Fontenelle's shepherds 

 ("courtiers clad m silk"), yet two causes contributed to make the 

 characters represented seem unreal and lifeless. In the first place 

 they were only of minor importance as compared with the scenery 

 of which they were intended to be the ornaments and decorations. 

 In the second place, the scenes are laid in an ideal Arcadia, an 

 innocent Golden Age, and in consequence the characters are 

 vague and unreal, too innocent and virtuous to be really human. 

 This Arcadian innocence and goodness makes the characters all 

 of one general type; it was always the same shepherd in different 

 situations. This poverty of character-types is all the more 

 noticeable as there is hardly any action in the idyls. In twenty 



1 Continuing, Gessner writes: "Der Landschafts-maler muss sehr zubeklag-en 

 sein, den z. B. die Gemalde eines Tliomson nicht begeistern konnen. Ich babe in 

 dlesem grossen Meister viele Gemalde gefunden, die aus den besten Werken der 

 grossesten Maler genommen sclieinen, und die der Kunstler ganz auf seiu Tucli 

 libertragen konnte.'' Brockes is also mentioned, p. 288. 



3 See Brief iiber die Landscbaftsmalerei in Gessners Werke (Deut Nat. Lit.) 

 p. 282. 



