Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 2 of 3)Spooner, Shearjashub
History
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 2 of 3)
Spooner, Shearjashub
Art -- Anecdotes; Artists -- Anecdotes
A monument to Titian, from the studio of the brothers Zandomenghi, was
erected in Venice in 1852; and the civil, ecclesiastical, and military
authorities were present at the ceremony of inauguration. It represents
Titian, surrounded by figures impersonating the Fine Arts; below are
impersonations of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The basement
is adorned with five bas-reliefs, representing as many celebrated
paintings by the great artist.
HORACE VERNET.
Among all the artists of our day, is one standing almost alone, and
singularly characterized in many respects. He is entirely wanting in
that lofty religious character which fills with pureness and beauty the
works of the early masters; he has not the great and impressive
historical qualities of the school of Raffaelle, nor the daring
sublimity of Michael Angelo; he has not the rich luxury of color that
renders the works of the great Venetians so gorgeous, nor even that sort
of striking reality which makes the subjects rendered by the Flemish
masters incomparably life-like. Yet he is rich in qualities deeply
attractive and interesting to the people, especially the French people,
of our own day. He displays an astonishing capacity and rapidity of
execution, an almost unparalleled accuracy of memory, a rare life and
motion on the canvass, a vigorous comprehension of the military tactics
of the time, a wonderful aptitude at rendering the camp and field potent
subjects for the pencil, notwithstanding the regularity of movement,
and the unpicturesque uniformity of costume demanded by the military
science of our day. Before a battle-piece, of Horace Vernet (and only
his battle-pieces are his masterpieces), the crowd stands breathless and
horrified at the terrible and bloody aspect of war; while the military
connoisseur admires the ability and skill of the feats of arms, so
faithfully rendered that he forgets he is not looking at real soldiers
in action. In the landscapes and objects of the foreground or
background, there are not that charm of color and aerial depth and
transparency in which the eye revels, yet there is a hard vigorous
actuality which adds to the force and energy of the actors, and
strengthens the idea of presence at the battle, without attracting or
charming away the mind from the terrible inhumanities principally
represented. No poetry, no romance, no graceful and gentle beauty; but
the stern dark reality as it might be written in an official bulletin,
or related in a vigorous, but cold and accurate, page of history. Such
is the distinguishing talent of Horace Vernet--talent sufficient,
however, to make his pictures the attractive centres of crowds at the
Louvre Exhibitions, and to make himself the favorite of courts and one
of the _illustrissimi_ of Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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