The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 — John Shaqi
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810
History
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810
Drama -- Periodicals; Theater -- Periodicals
While Bellamy assumes the piety, the tenderness, and the sorrows of a
Cordelia, or heightens the repentance of a Shore, we own that a Tintoret
has done some pictures equal to Corregio. The first of these is the
painter to whom I would resemble this rising actress, the latter only
breathes in Cibber. No woman ever excelled Miss Bellamy in the
requisites from nature, and were but her love to the profession, her
application to its necessary studies, and her patience in going through
the difficulties that lie in the road to eminence in it, equal to her
abilities, she would have few equals. The outlines of her figures are
sometimes faulty, but the colouring always pleases.
All that Corregio executed by the pencil we see in real life from Mrs.
Cibber; the strength of lights and shadows, of the glaring and the
obscure, are equal in the representations of both, but were never
equalled by any other in either art. The dignity of sorrow, and natural
and unaffected graces which that artist gives to his Madonas, this lady
diffuses over the whole figure in the tragic scene that requires it; we
are equally struck by both: we see nothing like either: and we admire
the execution while we have no conception of the manner in which it is
performed. The strength and heightening are alike admirable in each, and
the consummate sweetness only to be rivalled by the expressive strength
of the colouring. In the conduct and finish of their pieces, both have
done wonders; and as the pictures of Corregio are so equal in their
several parts, that, though the labour of years, they seem to have been
finished in one day, so that the longest characters of this actress are
so uniform throughout, that it is evident there are no careless
absences, no false extravagances in any part, but that the whole is the
resemblance of one temper actuated, though under various circumstances,
by one passion.
In Mrs. Pritchard one sees revived the extensive powers of Hannibal
Carrache: while we pursue her through the varied forms she assumes we
cannot but acknowledge the character of Corregio, the fire of Titian,
and the dignity of Raphael; this lady, of all the players, as that
master of all the painters, comes nearest the character of a universal
genius.
Woodward strikes the judicious eye with a strong resemblance of Paul
Veronese: he has all the vivacity and ease of that great painter, and
fully equals him in his fancy for the singular and the shining in his
draperies; but, as he shares his beauties, he is not without his faults.
His composition is sometimes improper, and his design always incorrect;
but with these blemishes, however, his colouring is so well calculated
to catch the eye, that he never fails to strike at first sight, and
makes so happy an impression on the generality of an audience, that they
never perceive what is deficient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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