DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0145
SCHOOLS OF PAINTING,
ISl
This school was formed only in the year \70Q. To bestow any encomiums on its founder
(Sir Joshua Reynolds) would be perfectly superfluous. His works indicate a genius which has
seldom been surpassed : and his discourses to the Academicians, joined to his example as a
painter, have disseminated, and will secure his reputation, as long as England or the world at
large, shall esteem the worth of great abilities.
Whoever examines the pictures of the English school, namely the Death of General Wolfe,
the Departure of Reguhis for Carthage, the Arrival of Agrippina, and some other subjects, can-
not hesitate a moment to pronounce that this society is acquainted with true greatness of style,
boldness of expression, and the art of managing a great number of figures. It is the wish of
every lover of the arts, and fortunate it will no doubt be. for the fame of British painters, if the
members of this class be more solicitous to preserve rigid exactness with regard to their forms,
than to produce poignant and astonishing effects.
The taste of the English school appears to be formed on the great masters of the Italian and
Flemish schools. Sir Joshua was a great admirer of Michael Angelo, and particularly recom-
mends him to the attention of the academicians:—" I feel (says he) a self-congratulation in
knowing myself capable of such sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect, not without va-
nity, that these discourses bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine man ; and I
should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in this academy and from this place,
might be the name of Michael Angelo." But though he thus enthusiastically admired, this very
great man, yet he allows, what cannot indeed be denied, that he was capricious in his inyentions:
—" and this (sayshe) may make some circumspection necessary in studying his works: for though
they appear to become him, an imitation of them is always dangerous, and will prove sometimes
ridiculous. In that dread circle none durst tread but he. To me, I confess, his caprice does
not lower the estimation of his genius, even though it is sometimes, I acknowledge, carried to the
extreme; and however those eccentric excursions are considered, we must at the same time re-
collect that these faults, if they are faults, are such as never could occur to a mean and vulgar
mind: that they flowed from the same source which produced his greatest beauties; and were
therefore such as none but himself was capable of committing; they were the powerful impulses
of a mind unused to subjection of any kind, and too high to be controuled by cold criticism."
The greater part of the foregoing schools are now extinct. Italy alone had four schools, and
at this time there remain but a few Italian artists known to foreigners. The school of Rubens in
Flanders is no more. The Dutch school, if it still exist, is not known beyond the limits of that
country : and not more than two or three artists remain of the German school.
The enquirer may discover a probable cause which gave to each school its peculiar manner.
The purity and taste of the Roman artists are the natural consequences of the excellent ediaca1-
tion of the first masters of that school; and also of the precious remains of antiquity preserved
in that magnificent city. The gaudy taste of the Venetian school is owing to the riches and lux-
ury of those who had it in their power to reward the artist, and whose vicious taste must be grati-
fied at the expense of the real beauties of the art. The commerce of the East, and consequently
great population and the peculiarly insulated situation of the city of Venice, conspired to render
the artist more conversant with tumult than rural scenes. And the frequency of festivals, mas-
querades and public assemblies, rendered those scenes objects of general attention. A similar
cause operated in the Dutch school. The painters of that country, accustomed to visit taverns
and
ISl
This school was formed only in the year \70Q. To bestow any encomiums on its founder
(Sir Joshua Reynolds) would be perfectly superfluous. His works indicate a genius which has
seldom been surpassed : and his discourses to the Academicians, joined to his example as a
painter, have disseminated, and will secure his reputation, as long as England or the world at
large, shall esteem the worth of great abilities.
Whoever examines the pictures of the English school, namely the Death of General Wolfe,
the Departure of Reguhis for Carthage, the Arrival of Agrippina, and some other subjects, can-
not hesitate a moment to pronounce that this society is acquainted with true greatness of style,
boldness of expression, and the art of managing a great number of figures. It is the wish of
every lover of the arts, and fortunate it will no doubt be. for the fame of British painters, if the
members of this class be more solicitous to preserve rigid exactness with regard to their forms,
than to produce poignant and astonishing effects.
The taste of the English school appears to be formed on the great masters of the Italian and
Flemish schools. Sir Joshua was a great admirer of Michael Angelo, and particularly recom-
mends him to the attention of the academicians:—" I feel (says he) a self-congratulation in
knowing myself capable of such sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect, not without va-
nity, that these discourses bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine man ; and I
should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in this academy and from this place,
might be the name of Michael Angelo." But though he thus enthusiastically admired, this very
great man, yet he allows, what cannot indeed be denied, that he was capricious in his inyentions:
—" and this (sayshe) may make some circumspection necessary in studying his works: for though
they appear to become him, an imitation of them is always dangerous, and will prove sometimes
ridiculous. In that dread circle none durst tread but he. To me, I confess, his caprice does
not lower the estimation of his genius, even though it is sometimes, I acknowledge, carried to the
extreme; and however those eccentric excursions are considered, we must at the same time re-
collect that these faults, if they are faults, are such as never could occur to a mean and vulgar
mind: that they flowed from the same source which produced his greatest beauties; and were
therefore such as none but himself was capable of committing; they were the powerful impulses
of a mind unused to subjection of any kind, and too high to be controuled by cold criticism."
The greater part of the foregoing schools are now extinct. Italy alone had four schools, and
at this time there remain but a few Italian artists known to foreigners. The school of Rubens in
Flanders is no more. The Dutch school, if it still exist, is not known beyond the limits of that
country : and not more than two or three artists remain of the German school.
The enquirer may discover a probable cause which gave to each school its peculiar manner.
The purity and taste of the Roman artists are the natural consequences of the excellent ediaca1-
tion of the first masters of that school; and also of the precious remains of antiquity preserved
in that magnificent city. The gaudy taste of the Venetian school is owing to the riches and lux-
ury of those who had it in their power to reward the artist, and whose vicious taste must be grati-
fied at the expense of the real beauties of the art. The commerce of the East, and consequently
great population and the peculiarly insulated situation of the city of Venice, conspired to render
the artist more conversant with tumult than rural scenes. And the frequency of festivals, mas-
querades and public assemblies, rendered those scenes objects of general attention. A similar
cause operated in the Dutch school. The painters of that country, accustomed to visit taverns
and