herein shows that, in his eyes, every stroke of the brush by Mr Turner
is important--indeed, is a considerable addition to our national
wealth. In the picture of the "Building of Carthage," the foreground
is occupied by a group of children sailing toy-boats, which he thinks
to be an "exquisite choice of incident expressive of the ruling
passion." He, with a whimsical extravagance in praise of Turner,
which, commencing here, runs throughout all the rest of the volume,
says--"Such a thought as this is something far above all art; it is
epic poetry of the highest order." Epic poetry of the highest order!
Ungrateful will be our future epic poets if they do not learn from
this--if such is done by boys sailing toy-boats, surely boys flying a
kite will illustrate far better the great astronomical knowledge of
our days. But he is rather unfortunate in this bit of criticism; for
he compares this incident with one of Claude's, which we, however,
think a far better and more poetical incident. "Claude, in subjects of
_the same kind_," (not, by the by, a very fair statement,) "commonly
introduces people carrying red trunks with iron locks about, and
dwells, with infantine delight, on the lustre of the leather and the
ornaments of the iron. The intellect can have no occupation here, we
must look to the imitation or to nothing." As to the "_infantine
delight_," we presume it is rather with the boys and their toy-boats;
but let us look a little into these trunks--no, we may not--there is
something more in them than our graduate imagines--the very iron
locks and precious leather mean to tell you there is something still
more precious within, worth all the cost of freightage; and you see, a
little off, the great argosie that has brought the riches; and we
humbly think that the ruling passion of a people whose "princes were
merchants, and whose merchants princes," as happily expressed by the
said "red trunks" as the rise of Carthage by the boys and boats; and
in the fervour of this bit of "exquisite" epic choice, probably Claude
did look with delight on the locks and the leather; and, whenever we
look upon that picture again, we shall be ready to join in the
delight, and say, in spite of our graduate's "contempt," there is
nothing like leather. If the boys and boats express the beginning, the
red trunks express the thing done--merchandise "brought home to every
man's door;" so that the one serves for an "idea of relation," quite
as well as the other. And here ends section the first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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