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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), January 1833, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag, ON THE STATE OF THE FINE ARTS IN ENGLAND.

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      Untitled Article

      Much has been written , and more said , of the lamentable condition to which the arts of the elder time are reduced in these

      degenerate days ; and more especially that of painting . * Where * cry the believers in the superior excellency of all ancient thi c where now shall we discover an Apelles , a Zeuxis , a Parrhasi . ' Let not these good people alarm themselves ; there are abundance of such geniuses in embryo , requiring only a sufficient motive to call them forth . It is true that we do not exactly

      know what the real excellence of the above-named painters may have bjeen , but we will take it for granted that it was very high since specimens of the sister art of sculpture have descended to us , which have hitherto been unmatched by any modern artists . Yet still , I will abide by my position , that if it be possible to furnish the same , or greater motives for excellence , than the ancient artists possessed to stimulate them to exertion , a more than

      corresponding talent will be aroused ; not perhaps to excel—perfection cannot be excelled—but to rival anything and everything that the world has yet beheld in painting , sculpture , or archi-(tecture , and to superadd to them many other branches of art , of which the ancient world was ignorant . Hearts are still pregnant with celestial fire * as they have ever been ; but as the fire lies dormant in the flint till it is stricken , so does the fire of the spirit await the accident which is needful to urge it into a blaze .

      The ancient Greeks , who carried the arts of painting , sculpture , and architecture so successfully into practice , as their remains and fragments abundantly testify , had peculiar advantages , and strong motives , for what they did . The wish to attain excellence is mainly grafted on the desire of attaining fame and consideration amongst our fellow-creatures , from which power

      and influence may spring in turn . In modern times , and more especially in England , the thing sought for , above all others , is money—because the possessor of money can command thereby the possession of all sensual and most mental gratifications : in short , money is power , according to the present construction of ^

      Untitled Article

      MONTHLY REPOSITORY . NEW SERIES , No . LXXIII .

      Untitled Article

      JANUARY , 1833 .

      On The State Of The Fine Arts In England.

      ON THE STATE OF THE FINE ARTS IN ENGLAND .

      Untitled Article

      No . 73 . B

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/1/