102 
in this cafe of trying to lay a folid foun- 
dation for the arts in England, would 
have ventured to make; and, having fo 
devoted myfelf, however little my fuccefs 
has been in awakening the public, I will 
not now fhrink from that tafk, even were 
it to {pare my belt friends. 
As awork calculated to illuftrate Ho- 
mer, no one will fulpect me of withing to 
impede its progrefs: for the defign has 
been that, which, for many years, I have 
moft defired to fee accomplifhed. All I 
objeét to is, that if thefe partial and in- 
terefted reprefentations be at all given 
credit to, the artift, who works for fame, 
will have a very high ftep of his ladder 
taken from under him; by which I mean the 
advantage he may derive from a judicious 
ftudy of the originals of thefe immortal 
fketches of the Greeks ; where attitude, 
expreffion, and action depend not fo much 
pi correct form, as grandeur of thought, 
and a happy concomitant flow of the pen- 
cil, guided as it were by the very foul of 
the artift. Sublimity of expreffion in the 
airs of the heads; Grecian elegance uni- 
ted with fimplicity of action; grandeur 
and greatnefs in the whole vifible effeét 5 
and often a grace almoft beyond the reach 
of regulated art; are the leading charac- 
teriftics of many of thefe hatty compofi- 
tions; Aafty in the fenfe of hafty execu- 
tion, for im was abfolutely neceflary. to 
their exiftence; or probably not invented 
on the fpur of neceffity, but rather from 
the prototype of a mind full of images, 
(fuch as the fruitful one of our own 
Blake) or defigns ready at hand for the 
copyilt. And now we are upon the fub- 
ject, perhaps it will not be uninterefting 
to your readers, to be informed of a cir- 
cumftance that, hitherto, has, I believe, 
efcaped the obfervation of thofe moft con- 
verfant in the objects we allude to; which 
js, that in-every well preferved fpecimen 
of the genuine Greek vafes, there is ftill 
to be oblerved, on holding them fideways 
to the licht, a flight indication of the 
fubject marked on the vafe with the 
" greateft  gentlenefs ; fhewing where the 
head, body, and limbs, fhould fall, as 
well as the ornaments; a mere fkelcton as 
jt were. » On two: now before me, I fee 
the limbs hinted at beneath the Crapery ; 
fo faint, it Is true, that nothing but a 
clofe examination could have difcovered it; 
but as indelibly burnt im as any of the 
ernaments whatever. ‘ This evinces in- 
difputably that they were all executed by 
able hands; and that the hand which 
executed them required only fome little 
i+ 
Letter from Mr, Cumberland. 
{March 1, 
ftay and {upport beyond that of the ima- 
gination. I have feen, with the higheft 
admiration, many hundreds, all faulty, 
if we look for finifhed drawing; but I 
never yet faw one that bore not along with 
it marks of elegant thoughts, tafte in 
compofition, and the fingers of the Gracese 
The artifts, who either defigned or exe- 
cuted them, were the Parmigianos of 
Greece, with minds chaftened by much 
bolder ideas of proportion ; for they had 
fine nature and the fafcinations of {culp- 
ture around them ; judges in the people ; 
and Applaufe, thenurfe of Virtue, always 
fuperintending. The joints of the fingers, 
or the nails of the toes, fo ftudioufly 
marked in fome engravings, were to them 
matters of little confideration : not even 
the number of thofe members was of im- 
portance to them, fo long as tie attion 
of the foot or hand was arrived’ at. ° The . 
mafs of hair was marked with general in- 
dications of either its form or motion ;-but 
they never dreamt that a great artift 
would arife, who, after five times copying 
it, would reduce it to threads, by way of 
being unufually correé&t. In faét, the 
world is moft grofsly deceived, and has 
long been, by moft-of thd ‘{plendid works 
of art; and be it fo, if fo it is contended 
it fhould be—artifts have very little to do 
with that, who can feldom afford to buy 
them ‘of the over-reaching dealers, and 
mult get their knowledge at the fountains* 
heads : they ferve well enough as orna= 
mented catalogues of mufeums, to fwell 
the ‘bibliothecal importance of would-be 
men of tafte, and vain travellers, who 
love to open the folio-jaws-of admiration, 
and behold the cart. maximas of credulity. 
When the day fhall come, that the 
works of the bef ancient’ mafters will 
find: hands’ as religious as Huffey’s to 
trace them; and another engraver like 
Mark Antonio Raimondi; to immortalize 
them-on the tablet of copper, I can nei- 
ther now conjefture or look forward to; 
fo circunfcribed is the horizon of all pre- 
fent hope: but fill, faintly as I have 
been able to’ make my country hear 
my ardent calls to aroufe her colleétive 
powers of difcrimination, and put forward 
to the gaol: of fuperiority in art; and 
wretchedly as fhe has ‘fuffered her future 
fame in fine arts to be facrificed to the 
fordid views of fuch of her fons as follow 
it only ‘tor its emoluments’; I wil] not fo 
far forego the object, that has fo long 
played around my fancy,and embraced my 
moft patriotic thoughts, as tacitly to fee 
any ftumbling blocks thrown in the way 
of 
