DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0302
84
THE DO RE GALLERY.
PLATE CIV.
SCENERY ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
In this plate we have another illustration from “ Atala,” depicting the magnificent forest
scenery on the Mississippi. The immense elaboration of minute work in the foliage of
the trees, and in the leaves of the creepers and grasses, is a study in executive art ;
and the general effect is no less splendid. The whole picture glitters with light, and
richness, and suggested variety of colour. It is like a glimpse of Paradise in the early
solitude of time. ,
PLATE CV.
THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT (LA FONTAINE).
A grasshopper that had sung through the summer-time grew pinched and poor as the
winter advanced. Not a scrap of bread nor a drop of drink was in her larder. In this
extremity she went to the ant, her neighbour, and prayed for a loan of wheat, to make
herself a loaf until the sunshine should return. “ I will repay you every grain,” she said,
“both principal and interest, and that before harvest—on my honour.” The ant, however,
is a prudent animal, never very well disposed to lend : r indeed, that is certainly her least
fault. Said she to the grasshopper: “How did you spend the summer?” “I sang gaily
night and day, to please all people.” “You sang? Very well, then: dance now.”
Like other old fables, this has a human moral ; and M. Dore has translated the grass-
hopper and the ant of the text into two women. One is an industrious, common-place
worker; the other, an itinerant minstrel. As a picture, nothing can be better; but we
have pointed out, in the general Introduction to this volume, an objection to the applica-
tion of the moral, which we need not here repeat.
PLATE CVI.
THE PEOPLE MOURNING OVER JERUSALEM.
The excellent plate thus entitled, with its severe Oriental architecture, and its multiplicity
of figures, all in admirably varied attitudes, yet all expressing a common grief, is founded
on passages in the Lamentations of Jeremiah :—“ How doth the city sit solitary, that was
full of people! how is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the nations,
and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in
THE DO RE GALLERY.
PLATE CIV.
SCENERY ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
In this plate we have another illustration from “ Atala,” depicting the magnificent forest
scenery on the Mississippi. The immense elaboration of minute work in the foliage of
the trees, and in the leaves of the creepers and grasses, is a study in executive art ;
and the general effect is no less splendid. The whole picture glitters with light, and
richness, and suggested variety of colour. It is like a glimpse of Paradise in the early
solitude of time. ,
PLATE CV.
THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT (LA FONTAINE).
A grasshopper that had sung through the summer-time grew pinched and poor as the
winter advanced. Not a scrap of bread nor a drop of drink was in her larder. In this
extremity she went to the ant, her neighbour, and prayed for a loan of wheat, to make
herself a loaf until the sunshine should return. “ I will repay you every grain,” she said,
“both principal and interest, and that before harvest—on my honour.” The ant, however,
is a prudent animal, never very well disposed to lend : r indeed, that is certainly her least
fault. Said she to the grasshopper: “How did you spend the summer?” “I sang gaily
night and day, to please all people.” “You sang? Very well, then: dance now.”
Like other old fables, this has a human moral ; and M. Dore has translated the grass-
hopper and the ant of the text into two women. One is an industrious, common-place
worker; the other, an itinerant minstrel. As a picture, nothing can be better; but we
have pointed out, in the general Introduction to this volume, an objection to the applica-
tion of the moral, which we need not here repeat.
PLATE CVI.
THE PEOPLE MOURNING OVER JERUSALEM.
The excellent plate thus entitled, with its severe Oriental architecture, and its multiplicity
of figures, all in admirably varied attitudes, yet all expressing a common grief, is founded
on passages in the Lamentations of Jeremiah :—“ How doth the city sit solitary, that was
full of people! how is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the nations,
and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in