were not prepared to learn that "the foreground of the 'Napoleon' in
last year's Academy," is "one of the most exquisite pieces of rock
truth ever put on canvass." In fact, we really, in ignorance to be
ashamed of, did not know there was any rock there at all. We only
remember Napoleon and his cocked-hat--now, this is extraordinary; for
as _we_ only or chiefly remember the cocked-hat, so he sees the said
cocked-hat in Salvator's rocks, where we never saw such a thing,
though "he has succeeded in covering his foregrounds with forms which
approximate to those of drapery, of ribands, of _crushed cocked-hats_,
of locks of hair, of waves, of leaves, or any thing, in short,
flexible or tough, but which, of course, are not only unlike, but
directly contrary to the forms which nature has impressed on rocks."
And the nature of rocks he must know, having the "Napoleon" before
him. "In the 'Napoleon' I can illustrate by no better example, for I
can reason as well from this as I could with my foot on the native
rock." What rocks of Salvator's, besides the No. 220 of the Dulwich
gallery, he has seen, we cannot pretend to say; we have, within these
few days, seen one, and could not discover the "commas," the "Chinese
for rocks," nor Sanscrit for rocks, but did read the language of
nature, without the necessity of any writing under--"This is a rock."
Poor Claude, he knew nothing of perspective, and his efforts
"invariably ended in reducing his pond to the form of a round O, and
making it look perpendicular;" but in one instance Claude luckily hits
upon "a little bit of accidental truth;" he is circumstantial in its
locality--"the little piece of ground above the cattle, between the
head of the brown cow and the tail of the white one, is well
articulated, just where it turns into shade."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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