1905.] 
All the compofitions I faw at his houfe, 
confifting principally of {mall tketches, 
painted in oil, were of trag-e fubjects 5 for 
inftance, the Death of Lucretia, the Death 
of Virginia, the Death of Cafar, &c.a 
Dying Cato, as large as life, tearing his 
bowels out of his body, is a truly horrible 
figure, which he executed for Lord Brif- 
tol, ‘and had almott completed; but as 
that eccentric Mzcenas of the arts is now 
dead, he will’ {carcely find another cuf- 
tomer for it. This the ariift himtelf ap- 
prehended when I brought him tke unex- 
pected account ot his Lordfhip’s death 
from Rome. It was late betore Definarez 
embraced the profeffion. The revolution 
which has otherwile been fo prejudicial 
to the arts, brought them, in him, a worthy 
pupil. Before the revolution he was fe- 
cretary to the French embafly at Stqck- 
holm, and praétifed'at his leifure for his 
own amufement; but when he lof that 
poft, he devoted himfelf to the art. with 
fach zeal and fuccefs, that he has arrived at 
this degree of perfeétion in the moft dith- 
cult of its branches. He is ftill in the 
prime of life, fo that probably his talents 
may not yet be completely developed. He 
lives entirely in his art, has a cultivated 
underftanding, gravity of character, and 
yet great vivacity in converfation. I 
fhould vather have taken tiis artift for an 
Italian than a Frenchman, and to me hig 
acquaintance was extremely interefting. 
You may be fure I did not omit to vifit 
our worthy count:yman, Don Filippo 
Hackert. He does not indeed refide here, 
as he did at Naples, in a royal manfion, 
but he has handfome and fpacious apart- 
ments in a palace; and the great number 
of his works, fome jult begun, others half 
finifhed or completed, proves him, not- 
withfanding his increafing age, to be the 
fame active and induffrious artift that he 
has been all his life. Through the im- 
menfe multitude of pieces which he has 
continually in hand, his art has at length 
become purely mechanical. Hackert 
compofes little; he has enjoyed the felicity 
of refiding the beft part of his life in a 
country where nature is fo highly pic- 
ture(que that the artilt may produce a 
fine picture by only copying the views, 
and filling up the fere-ground, not fo 
much ffom his own invention as from 
ftudies after nature. Of this defcription 
are moft of Hackert’s pieces. To the 
poetry of the art he never attained. His 
land{capes are poetic only in the fame de- 
gree as nature, which he copied, pofiefled 
@ poetic character. His diftances are in 
general fine, and have the genuine tone of 
State of Literature and the Arts in Italy, 
485 
an Italian climate. Almoft ali his middie 
grounds are now of a uniform bright 
ereen, and his fore-grounds of a pale blu. 
ih green colour, which not rarely deliroys 
the harmony of the back-grounds. The 
figures commonly introduced into his pic- 
tures are the fhepherds, fhepherdeffes, 
herd{men, and cattle of thofe countries 
where he found his originals; but the 
Jadies and gentlemen, with whom he was 
frequently obliged to deccrate the Jand- 
feaoes which he painted at Naples for 
the king, are intolerable. Hackert was 
juft employed upon three land{capes, def- 
tined for’ Weimar, all of which were’ 
about half finifhed. It was the latter end 
of July when I faw him, and yet he af- 
fured me that all three would be fent off 
to Weimar in September. Two of them, 
a View near Rome from the Villa Ma- 
adama, over Pont Molle, of the Sabine 
Mountains, illuminated by the fetting 
Sun; and another of Fiefole and the Vale 
of Arno, near Florence, are for the Duke 
of Weimar, and the third for an Englith 
gentleman reSding in thattown., OF the 
other numerous paintings of this artift’s, 
which f faw, I thall fay nothing. A per- 
fon can fearcely look at all Hackert’s 
paintings in two hours ; they fill two 
fpacious rooms, and forma {mail gallery. 
The fpeétator would be induced to be- 
lieve, that they are the productions of fe- 
veral perfons, though they are the labour 
of his hands alone. I cannot, however, 
deny, that Hackert’s whole fyftem has 
fomething of the air of a manufactory. 
I fhould like to fay a few words cen- 
cerning the matter-pieces of modern fculp. 
ture, the ftatues of Michael Angelo Buo- 
narotti, in the Capella dei Depofiti, the 
architecture of which is the work of the 
fame artitt. But when a perfon attempis 
to {peak of the chef d’a@uvres of the art, 
he feels that he ventures upon fomething 
that baffles defcription. I have feen thefe 
works at feveral different times, and al- 
ways with new, with increafed admira. 
tion, and with reverence for that fublime 
genius by which they were created. “All 
capital works of art poffefs the property, 
and it is ateft of their excellence, that 
they give the more pleafure the ofteser 
they are feen, and the more the effence of 
the art is in the mean time developed to 
the obferver. His 2zdmiration contiaues 
to increafe,the more intimate his acquaint- 
ance with them becomes. Such is Hke- 
wife the cafe with the works of Michael 
Angelo. That fulnefs of charaéter, fo 
diftinétly expreffed, that colofial magni- 
tude, that beldnefs and energy, thofe 
mighty 
