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    8^0 __J* HB . IBA DER. [No. 438, Atcust ...

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    TWO BOOKS ON PICTURES. Artistic and Desc...

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    Guillaume De Guileville. The Ancient Poe...

    Library , nor do ve find that after all his toil and labour there is one reader the less of Sterne ' s masterpiece for all the time consumed by Dr . Terrier ¦ on those celebrated Illustrations of Sterne . It is true he has bared the base metal ; but the delicate manipulation that converted it into gold is only enhanced by the discovery of tie little value of the ori g inal ore . Of all religious allegories—and the early literature of " modern [ Europe teems with them—there is only one -which is pre-eminently destined to go down to posterity . It is one of three books selected by Dr . Johnson as forming the entire catalogue of those -which evearybody wishes were longer , and a

    \ rork placed on the level in point of lasting popularity with Robinson Crusoe aad Bon . Quixote . Yet it is upon the originality of the idea and construction of this book that the reader is now called upon , to decide j but this idea had probably another origin than the Pelerinage de VHomme 3 & we shall fcere suggest . la the year 1780 , M > . Wbntuer , of the Minories , by accident met with a copy of Foil ' s Acts and Monuments of Memorable Matters happening in the Church , which is better known as The Book of Martyrs , in which the margins were much scribbled over with doggrel rhymes , such , as

    ;¦—Hear is one atont and strong indeed , He doth not waver like as doth a Reed ; A sign he gives them , yea . last of all , That are obedient to the heavenly calL Oathe title-page appears in Iar 4 > e uoieial characters the signature JOHN BUNYAN , and scattered through the volume , in various places , in a greatly unproved style of writing , and occasionally dated , are the vords Jo . Bunyan , lib . ij . This precious relic passedafterwards into the hands of Mr . James Bonn , and . from him to the Bedford Town Library , ttke most fitting place for its preservation .

    John Bunyatt , as we all know , was bora in 162 b , sat the village of JElston , near Bedford , and bred to the business of a brazier . The copy of JPox ' s Acts jttzd Monuments to which we have alluded was evidently acquired by him about the time that he joined the Parliament forces—perhaps even it may have formed part of the plunder of some noble mansion . According to his own statement it was at that period 4 hat he became converted and joined the Baptists . In 1656 he was already a popular preacher , a selfeducated , pious , and truthful man ; but at the Restoration he was imprisoned on account of his

    / preaching , and kept in confinement for twelve years . It is more than probable that during this long coutfinement lie first planned the allegory of Pilgrim ' s Pn ?^/ v ?« , which , was to make his name immortal , and the marginal dates referred to prove that the jicts ohcI Monuments of John Fox . were the solace -of his prison . Shortly after the succession of James It . to the throne , the celebrated declaration tot liberty of conscience was issued , and Bunyan , -who had been released some few years previously through the kind offices of Bishop Barlow , settled at Bedford , and became again a popular preacher

    amongst the . Baptists , wliere he remained to the ¦ date of bis death in 1688 . During these last years <© f his life he completed his celebrated allegory , and , -whatever may have been its original plan and form , ie would appear , beyond all doubt , prior to its publication , to have borrowed some few ideas from the Ftlerinage de I'Homme of Guillaume de Guileville . -And it is to show how many thoughts , and how aauch of his plan he owes to a book which in turn -owes its sole celebrity to these circumstances , that the notes of the late Mr . Nathaniel Hill , which are ¦ the foundation of this volume , have been so

    diligently collected and so carefull y edited . Our space will not allow us to follow the curious : and interesting deductions made by tbe edit ors in *> roof of the premises raised by them . Those who feel interest in tracing the prevalence of allegorical writing in the middle ages ; in comparing the earlier . productions of De Guileville , of Piers Plowman , Walter Maf « r , Hampole , and others , with Bunyan ' s celebrated allegory ; or in studying the quaint translation , by Lidgate , the Monk of Bury , of the

    Pelerinage die I'Momme , will look -with pleasure upon this beautifully printed and illustrated volume , which is executed in the old style , and illustrated with facsimiles of old cuts and illuminations , -after the manner which has rendered the twin names of Wbitiingharn and Pickering so deservedly popular with the lovers of bibliographical curiosities . From the , preface we extract tho following fragment from Churn ' s Lectures on the Pilprwrs Progress , as likely to bo both , new and interesting to our readers :- » - Tha education of Banyan -was an education , for

    eternity , under the power of the Bible an « l tbe schooling of the Holy Spirit . This is all that tlie pilgrims in this world really had to make them good , great , powerful ; he has given an account of his own conversion and life ) especially of the workings of the grace of God and the guidance of His providence , in a little work entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners . It is powerfully written , though with extreme and studied plainness ; and almost all tbe' material obtained and worked

    into various shapes by his various biographers was gained in this book . In it you see at every step the woTk of the Divine Artist on one of the most precious living stones that ever His wisdom And mercy selected in this -world to shine in tbe gloTy of His living triangle . Nay , to lay aside every figure but that employed by the Holy Spirit , you see the refiner ' s fire , and the crucible , and the gold in it , and the Heavenly Refiner Himself sitting by it , and bending over it , and carefully removing the dross , and tempering the beat , and watching and waiting for His own perfect image . How beautiful , ho-w sacred , how solemn , how interesting , how thrilling

    the process ! In laying Mr . Hill's collection of papers before their readers the editors trust , in the words of Chaucer , that out of them some few grains of corn may be gleaned : — " For out of the olde feldis , as men saieth , cometh all the new come fro yere to yere ; and out of olde bokis iii gode faieth cometh all this new science that men lere . " And if , as we know to have been the case , a true knowledge of Greek particles has been sufficient to secure for its

    possessor high and responsible office , industry like that of the late Mr . Hill mast no less merit reward ; and though not appreciated by the many , any more than would be a bishop ' s critical acumen as to the value of Greek inseparable prepositions , still there axe many who delight in this species of literary geology , and to whom the beautiful structure is not the less pleasing because they have first ascertained from which quarry every stone has been taken which forms part of the harmonious whole . To them we cordially recommend this Bokeqfthe Pylgrymage of Man , as one that is peculiarly suited to please them .

    8^0 __J* Hb . Iba Der. [No. 438, Atcust ...

    8 ^ 0 __ J * . IBA DER . [ No . 438 , Atcust U 185 R i — — _ — - _ - ¦ ¦¦ ¦ -- ~ - _ ii ^ jl —~~"__^ i _" j _ Z ' j z ¦ - 9 - ^ -OtJo ^

    Two Books On Pictures. Artistic And Desc...

    TWO BOOKS ON PICTURES . Artistic and Descriptive Notes of the Most Remarkable Pictures in the British Institution Exhibition of the Ancient Masters , Pall-mall , 1858 . By George Scharf , Jun ., F . S . A ., F . K . S . L . Bosworth and Harrison . A Long Vacation in Continental Picture Galleries . By the Rev . T . A \ . Jex . Blake , M . A .. John ~ W . Parker and Son . Under the auspices of the Government , Mr . Ralph Wornum wrote a very admirable catalogue of the pictures in the National Gallery , which had the additional advantage of being carefully revised b y Sir Charles Eastlake : we have thus the benefit of the

    combined knowledge of two gentlemen , either of whom was b y his learning , taste , and antiquarian research , relative to the fine arts , as proved by other evidences , well qualified to undertake and to fulfil the Bpecific requirement . Whereupon Mr . Seharf , F . S . A ., F . R . S . L ., Secretary to the National Portrait Gallery , Professor of Fine Art at the Queen ' s College , London , and late Director and Art Secretary of the Manchester Exhibition , an opportunity offering , seizes it to demonstrate , Coriolanus-like , " alone" he'd do it , forgetful of Emerson ' s axiom , "He who imitates commits suicide . " This Mr . Scharf's unconscious incapacity soon develops . Because Mr . Wornum in his Catalogue adopts the

    alphabetical arrangement , Mr . Seharf does " also , but not likewise , " . for he forgets that in the National Gallery every frame round a picture has the name of the painter placed on it as well as the number in the Catalogue , and in the British Institution the number only j the consequence is , as we know by unpleasant experience , " confusion worse confounded . " So inadequate are the means to an end , that the first thing Mr . S . does is to break through his own rule of alphabetical order by beginning with Leonardo da Vinci ! It is true lie qualifies this by a note " that the extraordinary interest of these three pictures" induces a

    departure from the rule . The question of " extraordinary interest" is a matter of judgment and taste , and we must confess , from tho evidence before us , we have no trust in Iho development of cither as exhibited by Mr . Seharf . He prints , " Tlicso pages are not intended to form a complete catalogue , they arc only supplemental notes of the best and most interesting pictures . The latter comprise also that very important class of works which , for want of merit , attractiveness , or a knowledge of the circumstances connected with them , would otherwise he pasted over . " Now tlvc number of pictures in tho Gallery arc 187 , and tho works mentioned in tho

    Catalogue 139 > then why did he Jlot ioclu & 1 LT ? J unnamed ? Was it because they had merh lu 8 tiveness , & c ? . But we must coufeSf the above quS " tation is an enigma to us . 1 U ° - Of Mr . Seharf ' s judgment hi exclnsm ,, readc » Arill form then- o \ n concluSn ^ cn Te inform them that a very fine " studv of i i , Z ?" iiT that "last of the VcnJia « s , » Tv ^ oh ^{ ^ traordmanly lutcrcstiug" oil niuiaturc C t screen ) by Hans Holbcn arc amongst the uumber As a proof of his taste , he writes :- « £ ™^ . ' paying the effect of a raping . tempest with C / S waves , Backliuysen stands unrivalled ! " OuJlX sprawhng picture , a" combination of i ) avid and T f Brun , by Camuccini , « A truly grand hiS composition , uniting in a very rave degree for modern times all the best Qualities of compositioS drawing , and colour ! ! " Sotticellft VirriR fcS " is especially beautiful and grand in ! n its an proacb , to a scul p tor's treatment ! !! " He calls a very poor Moreiand " very refined in f ~ . i ; n » . *

    and as a proof of his critical acumen on origiuafit ' v he doubts not Nos . 71 and 78 being by MuriUo mid never even hints at thc ducstioaallcnos of No . loO being by Hilton . Witk regard to the two former , let him look again ; and of the latter , let him ask Mr . Roth-well ' s opinion . In writing on a picture by TJwins , EA ( No . 180 ) j he delivers himself of the following extraordinary paragrapli : — ° One of those contrasts of grief ana mirth which ensure a certain amount of success to all who adopt it How different would have been the treatment , had one of the earnest men , called pre-RaphaeliLes , undertaken the same tbenie . ' ?

    Ay , truly ! and if Mr . Seharf had not written this Catalogue , how would that remarkable body of men called Grub Street have treated , the subject ? And now , a last few words about Mr . Scharf ' s antiquarian knowledge , and that on a subject , ni consequence of the stir that is now being made , and has been agitated for some years , even the meerest tyro is thoroughl y well acquainted with , namely , the foundation of the Royal Academy . Iri the biographical notice of Sir Joshua , he writes "that Reynolds " travelled in Italy and oilier countries from 1749 to 1752 . Founded the Royal Academy in 17 G 8 . " Now , so far from-the knight having anything to do with the founding he studiously held fumself aloof

    from any public demonstration of knowledge that such formation was going on , and there is little doubt that he played a very astute part throughout the whole game . " It is notorious that the Eoyal Academy was planned and proposed b y Chamhers , West , Coates , and Moscr ; further , it had been arranged with the king , that Reynolds , althougli not in the secret nor consulted respecting the formation of the academy , should be president , which honourable position he first of all refused , but was afterwards induced to accept through the bribe of knighthood . Injustice to other men we avail ourselves of a sentence of one of our contemporaries , adding thereto one word . " Mr . Seharf is ( not ) our best antiquarian Art-critic . "

    The Rev . Mr . Blake ' s book is the result , of notes made during two several tours on the Continent in the year 1857 ; it contains historical ^ critical , and biographical notices of pictures and painters in tlie following cities and towns : —Antwerp , Berlin , Bologna , Brussels , Dresden , Florence , Frankfort , Ghent , Hesse Cassel , Lille , Milan , Munich , l ' adua , Rome , Venice , niid Vienna , ami fully satisfies the pungent necessity of its birth . AH who have travelled abroad with a . desire to sec the art wcaltli

    have suffered from the expense , cumbrous - nience , and insufficiency of foreign cnlalogucs , whilst many have been aiul arc precluded from gaining any information on the subject from the fact ot their being -written in a foreign language Mr . Blalce has now supplied a desideratum , lucid , m stylo , comprehensive in matter , cheap and portabw in form . Tho plan upon which ho has raised Uw superstructure is thus stated : — . noticed

    , Pictures of every school and every kind aro freely , from the wish that none might be missed wln «» could be at nil -worth looking at , rnther tliantliftt " should bo omitted which wore not decidedly ( inc . Still tlio traveller will find that much timo lias boon saved by omitting all really inferior works , going straight t ° ° beet , anil proceeding Byntcmaticully round tho rooni . This enunciation of principle and doctoral loiiol design must meet wil . h our fullest approhal . ioii , » c ' cause it proves u kcou insight of f . h < : ro <|« iire »» cnis and develops a power for tlieir fulfilment . Tl » c ^ ^" * Wo woHlcl . enM Mr . Schnrfa cspftciul attention to a quotation undcrnottth , quotod from tho Rev . Mr . J $ l » l «'

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14081858/page/18/