484 
tare, could fcarcély be fupported, efpe- 
cially if it were obliged to appear regular- 
Fy at ftated periods 
At Florence I conld not ftop longer 
than four days; and what are four days 
in a city whieh, next to Rome, contains 
the moft numerous and the moit preci: ws 
treafures of the arts, and where four 
“months would f{carcely be fufficient to fur- 
vey, with prover attention, all that is 
worthy of notice? EF immediately relin- 
quifhed the idea of feeing every thing, 
and confined myfelf to the moit capital 
works and the firft-rate artilts refidirg in 
that city. The Palazzo Pitti is now 
icarcely worth the trouble of going to {ee 
tt. Ve French carried off between fixty 
and feventy pictures, and among them all 
the good pieces it contained. In the Gal- 
jery I miffed not a fingle article, either 
ftatue or piture, excepting the Venus de 
Medici. The tivo ftatues of the family 
of Niobe (the fecond daughter and the 
fon, who lies dead and extended on the 
ground), together with other pieces which 
had been removed to Palermo, had re- 
cently been brought back, and, to my 
great Joy, E found them in their former 
places. The ttatuary, Santarelli, a na- 
tive of Rome, who has relided, for the 
lat ten years, at Florence, is one of the 
able artifts in his ine. He likewife im- 
bofles portraits in wax, and his fuccefS in 
taking likeneffes procured him abundance 
of employment during the war. He has 
hkewsfe much talent for mechanics. At 
the houle of Fabre, a pupil of David's 
fchool, who obtained fome diftinGion in 
the laft exhibitions of the Academy of 
Rome, before the death of Baffeville, and 
has, fince that period, conftantly. refided 
at Florence, I faw an hiftorical picture, 
the fubjeét of which is taken from Al- 
fieri’s Tragedy of Saul, and reprefents a 
vifion of that king, tormented by his evil 
confeience. It would be d ficult to dir- 
cover the fubje& without foie expiana- 
tion; but the artift, in excufe of himlelf, 
fays, that he chofe tiis circumftance at 
the particular defire of Alfieri, who had 
much more talent for the compefition of a 
tragedy than of a picture. 1 never ob- 
ferved in any modern painter fuch a per- 
feét execution of all the parts, fuch a maf- 
terly difpofition of the colours ; and in the 
mechanical part of his profeflion Fabre is 
indifputabiy as accomplifhed an artift as 
can pofiibly exilt. The plan and ground 
of the picture, which comprife a good 
deal of landfeape, are fo exquifitely beau- 
tiful, with regard to the difpofiticn, co- 
flours, and proportions, that, excepting 
Reinhart, I know no Jandicape-painter 
State of Literature and the Arts in Italy. . 
[Jan. 2, 
who could excel it. The fame commen 
dation may be given to all the other fubor- 
dinate parts of the piece, but does not ap- 
ply to the principal objedt: for aecus 
racy in the details, brillianey in the co- 
louring, and the bigheit degree ot perfec- 
tion in the execution, are rot fufficient to 
form a good dramatic pitlure: and thofe 
are alinoft the only good qualities of this 
piece. Tle compofition is patched, the 
action theatrical, the expreffion cver- 
charged, and the fiyle has the ufual faulis 
of the French fchool; the figures are im- 
variably mufcular, the drapery precifely 
folded into a thoufand fmall plairs, and 
the light thrown upon the moit brilliant 
colours, (o that the eye has no repole, ex- 
cepting in the landfeape. ‘The carnation 
refembles ivory, and the naked parts are 
daubed. The tone of the whole is much 
too glaring and lively for a grave fubject. 
At the fame artift’s I faw feveral fine 
‘portraits, in which his great mechan.cal 
merit is ably difplayed. . Among thefe 
were the portraits of General Clarke, who 
commands at Florence, and of the Queen 
of Etruria, both ftriking likenefles. 
Fabre pofledes a beautiful ancient por- 
trait, which he attributes to Raphael, and . 
fix admirable land{capes, two by Cafpir, 
two by Pouffin, and two by Annibal Ca- 
racci, which are all in the higheft pre- 
fervation, and are alone a fufficient in- 
ducement to vifit the artift. Another 
French painter, named Defmarez, like- 
wife deferves the traveller’s notice. He 
belongs alfo to the Freneh fchool, but a 
greater contraft canrot exifk than between 
him and Fabre, and it is interefting to fee 
the former immediately after the jatrer. 
Fabre has neither invention nor fire 3 his 
whole art is mechanical, ard he aims 
only at neatnefs and per‘ection, with 
which he charms the eye of the amateur. 
Defmarez poffefiks the talent of invention, 
fire, and energy; he is partial to grave, 
pathetic and tragic feenes, and his co- 
Jouring is Muitable to the gravity of his 
fubjeéts, but it is rude, inaccurate, in- 
harmonious, and rather repulfive than 
agreeable to the eye. He has more talent 
than art. If both agree in any point, 
it is in that whick they derive from their 
common fchool; in the theatrical difpofi- 
tion and overcharged expreffion of the pol- 
tures and attitudes, in which cunfiitts the 
real eflence of the French {chool, aud, per- 
haps, generally of the French manner of 
confidering nature. Defmarez, however, 
inconieflably poflefles.a genius for dramatic 
painting, and a creat-ve imagination, of 
which Fabre is deititute ; only it isa pity 
ihat he has been fpoiled by his {chool. 
2 All 
sia Gok Ee ee a = eo 
