¥799-] 
into our plan to give aregular detail of its 
merits or errors ; fuffice it for the prefent 
to obferve, that the {mall pictures which 
have been latt introduced, are, generally 
fpeaking, admirably painted, and the 
fmall prints which are engraved from 
them, are generally in a very {pirited and 
good ftile. This great work draws faft 
towards a conclufion: the fourteenth Num- 
ber is publifhed; that and the numbers 
which follow we fhall notice in a future. 
review. 
Mackurn’s difpofal of the pi&tures in 
his Poers’ Gauuery, bya plan built 
on the laft State Lottery, was conducted 
in a manner highly honourable to him- 
felf; though we fear that, from the pref- 
fure of the times, it did not prove fo pro- 
fitable to the proprietor as his long and 
generous exertions in the Arts warranted 
him to hope. We have been informed 
that this fpirited tradefman-has in fpecu- 
lation another plan, for giving to the ar- 
tifts of this country an opportunity of 
fhewing how far they are improved, or are 
jmproving. Succefs to his endeavours 4 
‘The new ftreams into which the Arts 
are meandered are infinite! In the exhi- 
bition of The Panorama, we fee the tri- 
umph of perfpective. In Mifs Lin- 
Woon’s pittures in needlework, a for- 
midable rival of painting’; and in the 
painted glafs, by the Pearsons of High- 
gate, a fplendour that puts to the bluth 
every produétion on canvas; but nothing 
which has yet appeared in this country 
has any claim to be put in competition 
with — 
THE MILTON GALLFRY. 
In fublimity of fubje&t, grandeur of de- 
fign, and fpirited execution, this gallery 
not only takes the lead of any work now 
exhibiting, but perhaps of any work of 
one artifi that ever was exhibited. “As 
Milton is ranked as the Enelith epic poet, 
Fufeli has attained a right to be denomi- 
nated the epic painter of England; and 
this gallery is an honourable monument, 
not only of his genius, but of his in- 
duftry. 
In 40 pictures from the moft fublime 
paflages of our moft fublime poet, there 
muft be expected to be fomewhat to blame, 
—but there is alfo much, very much, to 
commend. Many of the figures are as 
large, or Jarger than nature, with the 
contours accurately and boldly pro- 
nounced, in all the varieties of attitude 
m which the human figure can be placed, 
and the various paflions, which mark the 
minds confruétion in the eye and counte- 
nance, delineated with a precilion of pen- 
Retralpedt of the Progreft of the Fine Arts. 
' 
559 
cil and energy of thought that has been 
rarcly equalled. 
The fubject gave the painter an oppor- 
tunity of impreffing his characters with 
an elevation and dignity more thanhuman, 
and his talents enabled him to avail him- 
felf of the circumftance. If the figure 
of Satan calling up his legions (piéture 2d) 
were reduced to a miniature, it would 
renain gigantic, grand, andfublime. The 
Night Hag, in the Lapland Orgies (pic- 
ture 8th), is the fineft fqualid figure we 
ever faw. The rapture of Adam, on the 
firft fight of Eve (No. £8), 1s conceived 
in the true fpirit of poetry, and moft ex- 
quifitely delineated. In picture the 22d, 
where 
——** The aggregated foil 
‘¢ Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, 
- 6 As with a trident, fiote,”” 
there is a ftrength, an exertion, a force, 
that we never before faw difplayed upon 
canvas. Itis, literally, more than human. 
In picture 24, the perfonisication of 
‘© Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, 
and moon-firuck madne/s,” is horribly fine; 
and when oppofed to number 30, 31, and 
32, of Faery Mab, the Friar’s Lanthorn, 
and the Lubbar Fiend, difplays a verfati- 
lity of talent, and perfect knowledge of 
the paffions. Inthe firft of thefe, there 
is an arch comicality, which, though of 
quite a different defcription, reminded us 
of the late lamented Prefident’s admirable 
picture of Puck, in the Shakefpeare Gal- 
lery. To fay that this sitile Fay, isa fit 
companion for the knights tzzy Elf, is a 
high praife, and it deferves it. 
The laft mentioned pigture, of The Lub- 
bar Fiend, is fo heavily recumbent, fo 
perfectly a dead weight, fo completely a fi- 
gure of molten lead, that, to lift him, we 
mutt employ all the powers of the lever : 
One might almoft as toon move the Man- 
fion- houte. 
Had the Rout of Comus (picture 35), 
been exhibited alone, we fhould perhaps 
have thought it entitled to praiic; but 
with fuch a number of other works, that 
fo ftrongly difplay the fervid emanations 
of a vigorous mind, an exuberant and 
poetic imagination, we thought, it bor- 
dered on tie theatrical. 
The fketches from Milton, as wellas 
Shakefpezre, have a merit ihat cannot 
be fully felt, except by thofe who have 
feen and confidered the progrefs of a pic- 
ture from its embriotic to its finifhed ftate; 
but they are marked with fuch indications 
of the paffions, as eminentiy difplav the 
artift, and prove him a pericét matter of 
what we will for once yenture to call //- 
fd Ome grammar 

