The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq.: Composed from Materials Furnished by HimselfGalt, John
General
The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq.: Composed from Materials Furnished by Himself
Galt, John
West, Benjamin, 1738-1820
"But to sum up Titian's powers of conception, no one has equalled him in
the propriety and fitness of colour. His pictures of St. Peter Martyr; the
David and Goliah; and the Last Supper, which is in the Escurial, stand in
the very highest rank in art. On the latter of these pictures being
finished, Titian in his letter to the King, announcing the circumstance,
says that it had been the labour of seven years. But by his original
sketch in oil colours, which I have the good fortune to possess, and by
which we may form an estimate, although the general effect and composition
are unrivalled, the characters of the heads of the apostles are not equal
to those of Leonardo da Vinci on the same subject.
"Antonio Allegri da Correggio is the sixth source, whose emanating powers
have illuminated the fine arts in the modern world. A superstitious mind,
on seeing his works, would suppose that he had received his tuition in
painting from the angels; as his figures seem to belong to another race of
being than man, and to have something too celestial for the forms of earth
to have presented to his view. Such have been the sayings of many on
seeing his works at Parma, but, to my conception, he painted from the
nature with which he was surrounded. His pictures of the Note, St.
Gierolimo, and the St. George, are evident proofs of the observation. In
the first of these pictures his mental conception shines supreme. It is
the idea of illuminating the child in the subject of our Saviour's
nativity. This splendid thought of giving light to the infant Christ,
whose divine mission was to illuminate the human mind from Pagan darkness,
no painter has since been so bold as to omit in any composition on the
same subject. The two latter pictures have all the beauties seen in the
paintings of this master, but they are deficient in appropriate character.
"The inspiring power of Correggio's works illuminated the genius of
Parmegiano, the energetic movements of whose graceful figures have never
been equalled, nor are they deficient in the moral influence of the art.
His Moses breaking the tables in a church at Parma, and his picture of the
vision of St. Gierolimo, now in England, are filled with the impress of
his intellectual powers, and stand pre-eminent over all his works.
"I have thus taken a survey of the works of art, which stand supreme among
the productions of Grecian and Italian genius, and which are the sources
from which the subsequent schools have derived most of the principles of
their celebrity.
"The papal vortex drew into it nearly all the various powers of human
refinement, and the inspiring influence of the first school in art having
centered in Rome gave it superiority, till the Constable Bourbon, by
sacking that city, obliged the fine arts to fly from their place, like
doves from the vultures: they never re-appeared at Rome but with
secondary power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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