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THE TRIUMPH OF ART. 
—— 
In forming artists, ‘“‘ Art’”’ hath thus decreed,— 
To make some good, but others to EXCEED. 
SHAKSPEARE. 
ART TRIUMPHS MOST when its produc- 
tions closely resemble NATURE. ‘Thus, it is 
a compliment to say of it that it produces 
the impression of the actual scene. Ars est 
celare artem. 
In Venice, the paintings of Titian and of 
the Venetian artists generally exact from the 
traveller a yet higher tribute, for the hues 
and forms around him constantly remind him 
of their works. It is curious and instructive 
to trace the natural relation of cause and 
effect between the atmosphere and scenery of 
Venice and the peculiar characteristics of the 
Venetian school. 
Under the circumstances in which we 
usually see the landscape, the earth absorbs 
a considerable portion of the light which 
falls from the Heavens; but inVenice every- 
thing multiplies and increases it. The sea 
is a wide and glittering mirror, and every 
ripple and wave, and every oar-blade, like 
the facets of a gem, breaks and scatters the 
incident ray. ‘Vhe rich marble fronts of the 
palaces lend themselves to the same results. 
Thus the air in Venice seems saturated with 
sunbeams, and the shadows themselves are 
only veiled and softened lights. Such an 
atmosphere seems to demand a corresponding 
style of dress, decoration, and architecture. 
Gilding and polished marble, which, under 
the grey sky, and in the watery light of 
England, would seem tawdry, are here neces- 
sary embellishments. The richest and 
brightest colors,—red, yellow, and purple, 
content the eye from their being so in unison 
with the dazzling and luminous medium 
through which everything is seen. ‘The 
Venetian painters were evidently diligent 
students of the nature that was around them. 
They have transferred to their canvas all the 
magic effects produced by the combination 
of air, light, and water. ‘There are pictures 
by Titian, so steeped in golden splendors 
that they look as if they would light up a 
dark room, like a solar lamp. The pictures 
which are to be seen in the academy are a 
tempting theme; but I will not descant upon 
them. It is very easy to transcribe the 
emotions which paintings awaken, but it isno 
easy matter to say why a picture is so painted 
as that it must awaken certain emotions. 
Many persons feel art; some understand 
it—but few feel and understand it. But 
there is an element of compensation in all 
things. The want of a nicely critical skill 

in art is not on all accounts to be regretted. 
When I stood before Titian’s “‘ Assumption 
of the Virgin,” and felt as if lifted off my 
feet by the power and beauty of that incom- 
parable picture, I could not lament that I 


KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
did not see the slight imperfections in drawing 
and design which more trained and more 
fastidious eyes detect in it. 
The works of Paul Veronese are not of 
the highest merit, by any means, but they 
are valuable as illustrations of Venetian life 
and manners. There is a large picture of 
his, occupying one end of a room in the 
Academy, the “ Supper at the House of Levi,” 
which is a fair specimen of his excellences 
and defects. It wants imagination, depth of 
feeling, and spiritual beauty, and there is a 
touch of the upholsterer in its conception 
and treatment. It is, moreover, historically 
untrue, with no Jewish or Oriental features 
in it; but is really a splendid entertainment 
in Venice, with Venetian noblemen and 
women for guests. 
But though other pictures are more admi- 
rable, few are more ‘fascinating than this. 
Its power over the spectatoris quite magnetic. 
There is such brilliant coloring, such admi- 
rable perspective, such depth and transpa- 
rency of atmosphere, such life and movement, 
that the longer you look upon it the more it 
seems like a real scene. You begin to 
wonder that the servants linger so long 
upon the stairs, and that the impatient 
master, who seems to be quickening their 
steps, does not rejoin his guests. Even its 
anachronisms have now a value of their own, 
since the time of the event and the time of 
the picture are equal to us in the remote 
past. It is true that it is not Judeea; but it 
is a most living Venice. These were the 
men, the politic sages, the accomplished 
noblemen, the gallant soldiers, that upheld 
so long the state of Venice, and bore her 
winged lion over so many lands and seas. 
These were the superb and impassioned 
women to whom their vows were breathed, 
and at whose feet their laurels were laid. 
Such pictures are historical in more senses 
than one. They have an authentic value as 
records, and are silent contemporary witnesses 
to the splendor and glory of Venice. 

THE CHILD’S FIRST LESSON. 

No teaching is there like a mother’s! No 
lessons sink into the virgin soil of childhood so 
deeply as those learned at a mother’s knee. The 
seed sown thus may then be hidden for years; 
but it still lives, and influences the life and actions 
of the learner ever after. Ill fares it with the 
man who has no remembrance of kneeling, as a 
child, beside his mother’s knee, and learning his 
first lesson from her lips. He knows nothing of’ 
life’s holiest memories. Great is the responsibility 
of the mother who confides her child’s first 
teachings to another—who allows a stranger to 
write on the tablets of her child’s mind that 
which will bias its whole life career, and be as 
indestructible as the mind itself. 


