The Country House (with Designs)Châteauneuf, Alexis de
History
The Country House (with Designs)
Châteauneuf, Alexis de
Architecture -- England -- History -- 19th century; Architecture, Domestic -- England; Country homes -- England
Enlightened connoisseurs see excellence both in the Dutch and Italian
schools, but they are often embarrassed in arranging them together. I
am convinced, however, from instances I have seen, that this is to be
accomplished satisfactorily. It is sometimes argued, that no one reads
Milton and Crabbe alternately; but this is hardly a parallel case. Many
go to a gallery to look at a particular picture, and see nothing else;
the eye is blind when the attention is not actively exerted. So in a
room, the spectator selects his favourites--his favourites at least for
the time, and scarcely looks beyond them. At another moment, he will
perhaps direct his undivided attention to works which he passed over on
a former occasion. A certain congruity is sometimes to be accomplished,
by attending to impressions rather than names and schools. Many an
Italian picture would not be out of place with the Flemish and Dutch
school; while Vandyck, Rembrandt, Cuyp, and others, might sometimes
harmonize in many respects with the genius of the south. The
arrangement of pictures comprehends some of the difficulties which the
artist experiences in the production of _one_; for a certain balance
and repose are as essential for the eye, as an harmonious impression
for the mind. Much must, therefore, depend on the nature of the
materials; and the (assumed) different character of your two drawing
rooms may here be an advantage.
You, I know, will not ask whether the productions of the English school
are admissible in this "Tribune" as well as elsewhere. Such is the
variety of English art, that the more refined Dutch, the Flemish, and
the Italian taste, may be recognized in it by turns, and no modern
pictures harmonize with the scheme of colour and effect which
characterize the master-works of former ages so well as the English of
the last century. Thus much of schools, and those we have not mentioned
may be tried by the same tests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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