1808.] 
face, to every hair upon the beard, or ap- 
pearance of hair upon the chin, to every 
{pot on the nails, or vein on the hand, they 
were what one of our eloquent auctioneers 
would call unique! In their draperies, 
they diftinguifhed the various qualities of 
filk and fatin, or linen and wooilen, with 
an exact precifion, and the trimming of a 
fur cloax they painted with a flofkinefs, 
that it would feem as if breathing upon it 
would give it motion. If this will not 
entitle them to the praife of genius, no 
one will refufe them. the meed of indultry; 
and though we cannot fay too little about 
the fertility of their imaginations, it is not 
eafy to fay too much of the dexterity of 
their pencils. 
In this {chool of patient perfevering in- 
duttry, Balthazar Denner holds the firtt 
rank. He was born at Hambro 1686, 
and is well known by his laboured por- 
traits of old men and women, which cha- 
raéteriz: him as a moft minute imitator of 
nature. But as it was faid by his con- 
temporaries that he could not delineate the 
head vf a young female with equal fidelity, 
he painted this portrait of his own daugh- 
ter, in the character of a Magdalen, to re- 
fute the affertion. It is believed to be 
the only portrait of a young perfon that 
he ever produced, and he preferved it as 
his chef-d’@uvre, in his own poffeflion, 
until his death, which happened in 1749. 
The original does not appear to have 
had any portion of beauty, and her father 
had not tafte enough to give her any por- 
tion of grace; fo that this piéture has no 
her attraction than a finifhing which is 
ina degree magical, The tincture and 
foftnefs of the fkin, the veins under the 
fkin, the humidity of the lips, a little 
chapped by a cold, and the’ liquid fluid 
flowing in the eye, are abfolute deceptions. 
The whole is fo aftonifhingly like nature, 
that, were it not for the accompaniments, 
it might be pafled by without attention as 
Correé? Lift of New Publications, § 
@59 
afemale figure looking through a frame. 
Over it isa fmall portait on canvas, of 
an old man holding his fpeétacles: but 
this, though finifhed with immenfe care, 
will not excite fo much obfervation as the 
other, becaufe Denner’s portraits of old 
men are not fo uncommon. 
There are, in the fame room, two pic- 
tures of kitchen-utenfils, by AZ. Dechtel, a 
native of Bavaria, in which the painter 
has difplayed fuch knowledge of his art, 
and power of pencil, as lead us to regret 
that he did not employ bis hand on {ubjects 
more worthy of his abilities. 
By Albert Durer, of wnom Hogarth af- 
ferts that he never ‘deviates tuto graces 
there is a very correct picture of a 
Madona and Child. "This artitt was born 
at Nuremberg 1470, and may be juftiy 
deemed the tather of the German {ciool, 
His knowledge of mathematics, architec- 
ture, fculpture, painting, engraving, and 
engraving figures on wood, was very ex- 
tenfive. A genuine picture by him in 
good prefervation, is curious and valuable. 
By Hans Holbein there are two Portraits, 
and a De(cent from the Crofs. This very 
fine portrait-painter was well known in 
England, and indeed throughout Europe. 
Lavater fays of him, that, ‘¢ though he 
is fometimes deficient in tafte and freedom, 
yet truth, minute and 4rict truth, marked 
all his productions. Jo deipife what is 
minute, is to defpife nature: what can be 
more minute and lefs confufed than na- 
ture? The beft portrait of Erafmus by 
Holbein, greatly exceeds any portrait that 
Vandyke ever painted, in Soth fimplhicity 
and truth.”” This praife muft oe received 
with fome reftrigtions as the language of 
one who {peaks of the artift as connected 
with the phifiognomift ; for many of thele 
precife painters have facrificed the tpirit 
of the whole to. the microicopic minute- 
nefs of the parts. 
LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN SEPTEMBER. 
é ee 
eS As the List of New Publications, contained in the Mouthly Magazine, is the 
ONLY COMPLETE LIST’ PUBLISHED, and confequently the only one 
that can be ufeful to the Public for purpofes of general reference’; it is requested 
that Authors and Publifbers will continue to communicate Notices of their bjorks, 
(pol paid), and they will always be faithfully inferted FREE of EXPANCE. 
AGRICULTURE. ) 
The firft forty Volumes of Arthur Young’s 
Annals of Agriculture, complete, in boards, 
price 25]. or any fingle Number, or Volume, 
to complete Setts, Phillips. 
ANTIQUITIES, 
Plates VIII and 1X. of the Fourth Volume 
of Vetufta Monumenta. 155 ? 
Afiatic Refearches ; or, Tranfaétions of the 
Society at Bengal for enquiring into the Hii- 
dei z tory 
