1803.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
NOTICES relative to the FINE ARTS ia 
GERMANY :—Written at the CONCLU- 
SLON of the LEIPZIG-FAIR, 1802. 
Great number and variety of paint- 
ings, engravings, and other works 
of art, were exhibited at the laft Leip- 
zis Eafter-fair: but the fale of them 
was very trifling in proportion. - The new 
fafhionable architeétonic decorations of 
rooms and paper-hangings occupy the 
places that ufed to be allotted to pictures ; 
and the number of amateurs, who might 
with to fill their port-folios, decreafes eve- 
ry year, owing, in a great meafure, to the 
political fituation of a part of Germany. 
The fine arts themfelves feem to be there 
on the decline ; as many of the moft in- 
genions artifts are forced, by the imperi- 
ous law of neceflity, to degrade themfelves 
into mere labourers, to execute the de- 
figns, and to pleafe the vitiated tafte, of 
ignorant men of wealth. Indeed, if a 
ftranger happened to ftep into the auction- 
rcom at the Leipzig-fair, and heard the 
very high prices bid for a middling Fle- 
mifh piece, or for 4 copy from a copy of 
fome celebrated Italian mafter (as, for in- 
ftance, 200 ducats for a pretended pro- 
duction of Andrea del Sarto), he would 
naturally have concluded, that there was a 
very great demand for pictures, and that a 
confiderable number of rich virtuofi were 
prefent. But in Leipzig, as well as in 
London, many unwarrantable tricks are 
ulfed to deceive the unwary; and thefe 
feemingly high prices were offered only 
by the puffers employed by the fellers. 
Bartolozzi and Colnaghi, and other En- 
glith dealers, had large affortments of En- 
glifh prints, aqua-tinta, plain and coloured 
impreffions, battle-pieces, coftumes, and a 
variety of {plendid things in the fentimen- 
tal toilette-tafte; which were eagerly 
bought by the Germans, in preference to 
many better productions of their own ar- 
tilts. Smirke’s Seven Ages, from Shake- 
{peare, were fold for five guineas: but this 
price was not well calculated for the pock- 
ets of the continental amateurs. So far 
are the Germans from emulating the En- 
glith in honouring their bei poets, that, 
while in this country the Shakefpeare Gal- 
lery met with diftinguifhed encouragement, 
Frauenholz is not,able to continue his fe- 
ries of plates from Wieland’s Oberon, and 
no publifher can be found, who would un- 
dertake the engraving of Fuger’s cele- 
brated drawings to Klopftock’s Meffiah. 
Chr. Preftel, from Frankfort on the 
Mayne, who had been formerly fettled in 
Monruny Mac, No, 95. 
wt fe 
Notices relative to thé Fine Arts in’ Germany. 
483 
London, and acquired there a perfect 
knowledge of the Englifh print and pic- 
ture-trade, had a confiderable collection of 
the productions of Englifh artifts, and 
likewife fome excellent works of his own. 
His Ruyfdaeles, from the Brabeck Galle- 
ry in Soderwerden, cannot fail to give fa- 
tisfaction, Of his newly-invented mechod 
of colouring engravings with oi!-colours, 
fo that they refemble the original pictures, 
feveral excellent {pecimens were exhibited. 
at the fair, and completely removed every 
doubr that had been expreffed of its an~ 
{wering the intended purpofe. Mr. Pref- 
tel’s method is entirely different from that 
invented by Mr. J. R. Smith, engraver to 
the Prince of Wales. 
Several French dealers had likewife come 
from Paris with the neweft produétions of 
the French artifts. ‘Che bet affortmenrs 
were to be feen at Olterwald’s, fen. from 
Paris. The Pi@urefque Tour through 
Syria and Dalmatia, by Caffas, the pain- 
ter, is executed in a manner that does 
honour to the French engravers. It 
would be difficult to find publifhers and ° 
artifts in Germany to undertake and exé- 
cute fuch a Voyage Pittorefque. Of the 
flight fketches of architetural plans and 
decorations, which feem to be at prefent 
the favourite fubjects. of the French ar- 
tifts, a variety of fpecimens and pattern- 
books were fhewn. The three fir num- 
bers of the Grand Prix d’ ArchiteCture Cou 
ronnés par [’Inftitute National, defervedly 
attracted moft notice. From thefe and 
from Landon’s Annals, in which the cut- 
lines of the beft pieces of Iiabey, Guerin, 
and other eminent painters are given in 
miniature, we are enabled to form fome 
idea of the manner, &c. of the prefent 
French fchool. Nor had the Chalcogra- 
phic Inftitute of the Piranef, which is pa- 
tronifed by Bonaparte, neglected to fend 
fome of their productions; the newelt and 
belt. of which were the coloured engrav- 
ings of thirteen frefco paintings in the 
Villa Altoviti in Rome. But the chef 
ad euvre of the French {chool was certain- 
ly the Pfyche of Gerard, engraved by 
Godefroy €the fame artift, whofe ‘* Girl 
teachiug her Dog to read” —L’ Education 
de Carlin), is fo great a favourite in the 
fafhionable world in Paris. It is rarely 
that we find fo tafteful a union of different 
ftyles of engraving. 
Agreeably to his promife, Mr. L. Va- 
rifco came from Italy with an aflor;ment 
of pigtures and prints. But that country 
yielded -but little to reward the trowble of 
the gleaner: the minds of every. clafs of 
men had been fo occupied with politics, 
a. that 
