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    EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY..11112 K...

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    The King Of Rome. History Of The Consula...

    npmehifg the 'term « of its duration . Few-minds , it is'true , had perceived ithe pxojfenndV biddan causes of - the iruin that was to come ; bat vague -apprehensions had j ^ jaad upon'the masses , ; tlre ir sense of ^ security ( w as gone , although ftheir ^ abmission appeared complete . ' : ¦ < . 3 ? he decline of * inttustry , 'the privations of the poor , the intrigues of'the Ohurch , 'the ^ disturbed , relations of-the several powers , ibrcing upon N " apo-¦ febn ' the i 61 ea of a Council df Conciliation , filled up the interval between the fniperial birth and < he baptism at Notre-Dame . The afternoon of the day fixed for the ceremony was also . appointed for £ he first meeting of this While lie alliances and his

    capncih " was preparing new smoothing away domestic embarrassments , JSapoleon schemed how to convert the christen-W , of'his son into a significant state occasion . He would summon round t he'cradle all the . great officers and public bodies of the Empire ; he would tring the tCatholic Church itself to the altar , and force it to consecrate the title of the King of 'Home . But the bishops m Paris shrank from this deception . They declined to assist on iihe same day at the christening and at the council , and thus deprived the Emperor of the strength he-might have gniuea ^ from the idea that the Papal See itself , by its representatives , had sanctioned the Roman authority of Napdleon ' s son . Joseph and Jerome Bonaparte , -with the Duke of Wurtemberg , visited Paris , to be present at £ he . ceremony . . The Emperor of . Austria , by proxy , stood as sponsor for the

    child .: — Q 3 re Bntire . population of Paris stood massed together as the splendid cortege enterrfltheicityjfrom St . Cloud . It had ^ already enjoyed some compensation ! for the commercial sufferings of the past yearrin the . partial return of industrial activity , in the prodigal expenditure of the revenue . at home , in the civil as well as in the war departments . It received . with pleas ore . this new pledge granted by Heaven of the ¦ continuance of an unprecedentedipower , which was not that of one man only , bat of ^ 11 France ; and if it had experienced days of . dis qu ietude and discontent , that was when Napoleon seemed to be imperilling . the duration of that power . The public applause was marked , not indeed by the enthusiasm of former times , but by an excitement always ^ produced in Paris by the spectacle of success and glory , by pompous ceremonies , and rbrilliant fetes . Paris glittered with a thousand ¦ fires- ; ithe theatres were opened gratuitously to the ¦ eager population ; the public squares were cowered with gifts , presented to the people of . Parisxby thethappy father of the-King of Rome .

    ' \ Rumours of a pacific settlement of Europe—^ though the disastrous Russian war was at hand—contributed to the pleasantry of ihese official rejoicings : — Napoleon , accompanied by his wife and family , . conducted his child to Notre Dame , and there presented him to the ministers of his religion . A hundred bishops and . twenty cardinals , the senate , the legislative corps , the mayors of the great towns , the representatives of Europe , filled the holy precincts-within which the imperial child was to receive the waters of baptism . When the priest had performed the rite , and restored the King of Rome to the governess of the Children of France , Madame « Ie Montesquiou , that lady handed it to the Emperor , who , taking it in his arms , and raising it above his head , offered it to the salutations of the whole magnificent con-¦ spurse , with an emotion that was shared by alL . . . How deep is the mystery that envelops human lifb I W ! hat would have been the dismal astonishment of that . assemblage , brilliant with prosperity and . grandeur , had a veil been lifted , to discover the ruins , the blood , the fires of the future , the flames of Moscow , the ice of the Beresina , Leipsic , Fontainebleau , Elba , St . Helena , and— . lastly , the death of that august infant , in exile , eighteen years of age , without one of the crowns now clustered

    on his head ! Quitting the metropolitan church in the midst of a prodigious multitude , ISapoleon repaired to the Hotel de Ville , where an imperial banquet had been prepared . Absolute governments are sometimes distinguished by their voluntary flattery of the people ; the city of Paris , especially , has received from its masters the most prodigal caresses ¦ which have cost them nothing . It was there that Napoleon had desired to celebrate the birth of his son , it was there he passed the day . The citizens admitted to the festival saw him seated at table , with a crown on his head , surrounded by the kings « f , iis family and by a , host of foreign princes , taking his repast in public , like the ancient German monarch successors to the Empire of the West . Fascinated by this resplendent scene , the Parisians applauded , nattering themselves , as if duration belonged to grandeur and wisdom to glory .

    • It will be easy for the reader to separate the coincidences of the first and second ceremony from the circumstances that form their contrast . In the original Napoleon the world saw a man who had usurped an empire by the force of commanding mental powers , of military success , of administrative fferiius . When ho anointed his young child King of Home , it was alter Italy had been subjugated by his prowess ; he had been false to the commonwealth ; he had been cruel and treacherous ; but , beyond and above bis public crimes , his public achievements , his victories , the comparison of liia intellect with the little intellects of his generation , constituted the basis and

    origin of bis power . How far is the parallel completed here ? History will decide . . . M . Thiers' thirteenth volume brings the grand processional narrative to ihe famous passage of the Niemen . There , where two hundred thousand cavalry nnd four hundred thousand infantry , with an Inferno of artillery , were spread under the eye of fhis Xerxes , who dreamed of building Ins frontier fortress on the Pole , the historian pauses once more . But between the birth of the King of Koine and the commencement of this unpropitious march , many events occurred deserving narration and criticism .

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    Exhibition Of The Royal Academy..11112 K...

    EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY . . 11112 KINI > OF SXOKY TOLD . Cbhhats nothing would benefit bo much by a political revolution as the world oUrt , nothing suffers so much from the quiet atato of society us painting . -Loofchlg * roMnd tSo collection of : tho Koyol Academy , tins year , one is Btruok by the ff * mftil absence of action . In some cases the artist attempts to compensate tho "WntoT . action in the figures , by the working of some abstracted problem ; cnfefcvauriQK . to paint in the outward features , or in the aituation the working ot an 4 mn » d emotion—always a difficult tusk , anil seldom suited to the graphic arts . Sometimes the painter , otriving to find Bufllcieiit interest to engugo his

    OTOB ^ pencil spectator ^ labouraitf'the-accessories ; and thefitmitweof = the iseeneis brought / out with jpainfal distinctness , ; and sameness . It may happen that strong enrotions £ o-rexi 6 t with extreme . quiescence in the attitude , and we have an example in one of the prettiest pidtureB < df rtfae 'whole collection—Mr Noel , RatokCs ; picture of " Home . " Ajsoldier-hasreturned , maimed and siefcj to his own humble house . His aged mother is bent almost as much with grief as tenderness ; her head resting-upon iiis shoulder . His wife'has ineli by him . and has herarms round him , her'cheek > restmg-against his breast ^ h er eyes closed her features stiffened in'that-state of excessive emotion which is aiear fekin to fainting . A child lies in a cradle in a corner of the room . The picture is lighted from the fire . It is painted with great care in every part , the furniture being executed with a finish that approaches almost to still life . There is one defect in the picture which is rather serious— 'the countenance of the man , the form of "the features , the expression , are all such as mark rather an elevated

    condition , and render the common soldier , garbed as he is in the coarae uniform of -the line , a contradiction'to the verisimilitude df the whole design . It might be taken'for the > return of some great man in disguise . This is purely 'the result of the jarring'between the ideal in the treatment of the man ' s head , taxi , the matter-of-fact in the treatment of the accessories that occupy the larger-part of ¦ the field of the picture . The chiefdnterest , however , ' centres in -the 'face of die woman . It is beautiful , it is perfectly natural , it is a very exact representation of the particular state of emotion ; being natural , and the emotion itself being of a kind that sways human nature without distinction of class , 'the head and countenance of the woman are at once ideal and natural . The design , therefore , and the exeaution of the picture are generally successful . The "treatment-of the accessories is such that the view of the spectator naturally turns to the centre of : ihe canvas , which is the central-point in the subject ; and , however minutely the accessories are painted , they do not distract the attention . It is one of the happiest specimens of painting in the modern manner , where art endeavours to keep parallel with the minute haatter-of-factness = of the newspaper .

    Mr . Ward ' s picture , "The JLagt / Earting of Marie Antoinette with her Son , " is'in the flame style , but is not aWppy specimen , and is not thebeBt exanxple of the particular painter . It is not only that the attitudes ; are more set , the features " also more "fixed and more laboured ; but , while the whole picture presents a certain fixity in . the action , the excessive labour of the accessories and the general diffusion of light destroy the unity , and place the furniture almost on a par with the human figures . Each bit of the picture looks like a separate study , and the whole design a cento of such studies casually brought together , and accidentally forming rather an effective theatrical group . There is more freedom , and therefore more force , in Mr . Ebmoee ' s rpioture of " Charles the Fifth at Yuste . " The superannuated monarch is bidding farewell worldwhile hisfeebte

    to his pictures , the sunshine , and the pleasures of the , » eye and his fatigued taste almost prevent him from Bnatching that last taste for which his lingering love of life hungers . Here is a very abstract idea , treated somewhat after the intense manner ; and one little trifle will show the want of truth that lies at the bottom of the artist ' s failure . A man so declining as Charles would inevitably exhibit the feebleness of his muscular system as much in the eyelids as in any other part of his frame , and he could . not gaze upon Titian ' s painting with eyes so open as the painter has given him . It is , therefore , not the dying Chakies the Eifth , but some actor in the guise of Charles , who has put on the outward manner of death with all the inward force of life . But are we to blame a painter who is endeavouring to get an intense idea out of the grouping of inanimate objects and a feeble old gentleman ?

    Who can paint a regret ? - The nightmare of inaction , the habit of substituting still life for aotivelife , has so completely gained upon the modern school , save where they have-rushed into the praj-Raphaelite style , that some of the most established painters of the day actually cannot put figures into action . Here is Mr . Charees Landsbjjb , who paints " The Assassination of Alboin , King of the Lombards , and whoa © king stands to be assassinated as steadily as if he wero afraid to spoil a stage effect . Mr . Hannah endeavours to paint Newton ' s reflections unseeing an apple fall in his garden at Woolsthorpe—an interesting expomuent . in praa-Raphaelite treatment of an orchard with a sitting figure by twilight . Mr . Cross , who is capable of better things , endeavours to paint . Lucy 1 kbbtc > n-s repartee , when she said to Queen Mauy , wlio was looking on her . father s ; picture — " J was thinking how strange it was that you should wish to kill » jy futlier , only because he loved yours faithfully . " Now the point of this anecdote lies > entirely in the repartee ; there is nothing very historically striking in the position , and the aim of the painter at fetching out the kind of force that lies in the antithesis spoils the simplicity of the desi without rendering it forcible

    gn , We ^ l & t ™ pte ™ < M <* t £ &™ r * level , which are both remarkable , and both of which imply powers in the painters to deal with the more obvious passion and action that are suitable to picture . One is the small pain ting numbered 413 , which is left anonymous from the accident that the card dropped out of the picture when the catalogue was made . It is painted by Mr . BuuroH , it is in the prae-Raphaellte manner , and is not particularly intelligible in story . A . cavalier , who appears to have been gambling , has been killed m a duel yi th swords- a young lady is attending him in his dying moments and appears to bo nTourning : a man in Koundhead costume stands immediately behind : lie may be aTH . £ perhaps the girl ' , brother , hut his relation to the group is not very «^ which is that of grief under countentneo

    vious Tho expressuon ou the girl ' s face , . habitually ' commanded , requires an explanation that the catalogue does not give . T !« S 2 u > ' p eness ' of the cavalier , the condition of his features , at once stiffened and relaxed by the coldnctu of death , and the vaguo expression , flhow a nower of dealing with tho aspect of mortality which might be developed ,-if it were eiuanc pa edfrom a certain schoolboy stiffness , to toll a story with much fon-e The accessories , of course , are handled after the priu-Iinphaelito manner ; and wo find that the painter will bestow a * much labour in working outa bramble a bit of tree trunk , or a torn card , « s ho will in . elaboratinga countenanceI Not only so ,-ho is so intent upon presenting the products ot his work , that tiicvaVe arranged like specimens in a hortus aiccus , each m a position paralleltotheplane of tho picture , and thus totally violating the freedom and

    ^ tt ^ p teSroTctSSSljJng dead upon his bed with-the epigraph :-" Cut ia tho branch that might have grown . full straight , ; And burned ia Apollo ' s laurftl bough . " " boxfulfff tonmpora isnear him ; his costume betrays tho junction of extremo mtaSy ™ Si ? Mo attempt to keep up appearances : hi » fiwe j lwjjj SSSSSssSSSse

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14061856/page/19/