diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-8.txt | 5879 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 136379 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 937737 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/36819-h.htm | 8147 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 113312 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 307388 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-1s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 125029 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 63744 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-2s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23439 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 124202 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819-h/images/ill-3s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 36056 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819.txt | 5879 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36819.zip | bin | 0 -> 136233 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
16 files changed, 19921 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36819-8.txt b/36819-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..772a78f --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5879 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with +Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected + Vol. II (of 3) + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD. + +VOL. II. + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD + +WITH TALES AND MISCELLANIES NOW FIRST COLLECTED. + +BY MRS. JAMESON, + +AUTHOR OF "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN," "LIVES OF CELEBRATED FEMALE +SOVEREIGNS," &c. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + +SECOND EDITION. + + + LONDON + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. + 1835. + + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + + SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER, + PART II. + + (_Continued._) + + PAGE + +I. MUNICH--The New Palace--The Beauty of its + Decorations--Particular Account of the Modern Paintings + on the Walls 1-18 + The Frescos of Julius Schnorr from the Nibelungen-Lied 20 + The Frescos in the Royal Chapel 37 + The Opera--Madame Schechner 42 + The Kunstverein 46 + Karl von Holtëi 49 + Fête of the Obelisk 50 + The Gallery--Pictures and Painters 60 + Madame de Freyberg--A visit to Thalkirchen 64 + Tomb of Eugène Beauharnais 68 + The Sculpture in the Glyptothek 75 + Plan of the Pinnakothek or National Gallery 79 + The Revival of Fresco Painting 92 + Bavarian Sculptors 94 + The Valhalla 96 + Stieler, the Portrait Painter 101 + Gallery of the Duc de Leuchtenberg 103 + Society at Munich 106 + The Liederkranz 110 + + +II. NUREMBERG 118 + The Old Fortress 123 + Albert Durer 125 + Hans Sachs and Peter Vischer 127 + The Cemetery 132 + Travelling in Germany 134 + + +III. DRESDEN 138 + The Opera--Madame Schröder Devrient in the "Capaletti" 145 + Ludwig Tieck 148 + The Dresden Gallery and the Italian School 155 + Rosalba--Violante Siries--Henrietta Walters--Maria + von Osterwyck--Elizabeth Sirani--the Sofonisba 171 + Thoughts on Female Artists--Louisa and Eliza Sharpe--The + Countess Julie von Egloffstein 179 + Moritz Retzsch 183 + English and German Art 197 + Catalogue of German Artists 201 + + * * * * * + + A Visit to Hardwicke 213 + A Visit to Althorpe 275 + + + + +SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. + +(_Continued._) + + + + +VOL. II. + + Page 7, line 13, _for_ to _read_ too. + 18, -- 2, _for_ Neurather _read_ Neureuther. + 68, -- 5, _for_ Scheckner _read_ Schechner. + 72, -- 16, ditto. ditto. + 94, -- 23, _for_ interior _read_ exterior. + 133, -- 1, note, _for_ Frederic Augustus _read_ Anthony. + 203, -- 16, _for_ Steiler _read_ Stieler. + 204, -- 21, _for_ Neurather _read_ Neureuther. + 209, -- 2, _for_ Reitchel _read_ Rietschel. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. + +MUNICH (CONTINUED). + + +_Tuesday._--M. de Klenze called this morning and conducted me over the +whole of the new palace. The design, when completed, will form a vast +quadrangle. It was begun about seven years ago; and as only a certain +sum is set apart every year for the works, it will probably be seven +years more before the portion now in progress, which is the south side +of the quadrangle, can be completed. + +The exterior of the building is plain, but has an air of grandeur even +from its simplicity and uniformity. It reminds me of Sir Philip Sydney's +beautiful description--"A house built of fair and strong stone; not +affecting so much any extraordinary kind of fineness, as an honourable +representing of a firm stateliness; all more lasting than beautiful, but +that the consideration of the exceeding lastingness made the eye believe +it was exceeding beautiful." + +When a selfish despot designs a palace, it is for himself he builds. +He thinks first of his own personal tastes and peculiar habits, and the +arrangements are contrived to suit his exclusive propensities. Thus, for +Nero's overwhelming pride, no space, no height, could suffice; so he +built his "golden house" upon a scale which obliged its next possessor +to pull it to pieces, as only fit to lodge a colossus. George the Fourth +had a predilection for low ceilings, so all the future inhabitants of +the Pimlico palace must endure suffocation; and as his majesty did not +live on good terms with his wife, no accommodation was prepared for a +future queen of England. + +The commands which the king of Bavaria gave De Klenze were in a +different spirit. "Build me a palace, in which nothing within or without +shall be of transient fashion or interest; a palace for my posterity, +and my people, as well as myself; of which the decorations shall be +durable as well as splendid, and shall appear one or two centuries hence +as pleasing to the eye and taste as they do now." "Upon this principle," +said De Klenze, looking round, "I designed what you now see." + +On the first floor are the apartments of the king and queen, all facing +the south: a parallel range of apartments behind contains accommodation +for the attendants, ladies of honour, chamberlains, &c.; a grand +staircase on the east leads to the apartments of the king, another on +the west to those of the queen; the two suites of apartments uniting in +the centre, where the private and sleeping rooms communicate with each +other. All the chambers allotted to the king's use are painted with +subjects from the Greek poets, and those of the queen from the German +poets. + +We began with the king's apartments. The approach to the staircase I did +not quite understand, for it appears small and narrow; but this part of +the building is evidently incomplete. + +The staircase is beautiful, but simple, consisting of a flight of wide +broad steps of the native marble; there is no gilding; the ornaments on +the ceiling represent the different arts and manufactures carried on in +Bavaria. Over the door which opens into the apartments is the king's +motto in gold letters, GERECHT und BEHARRLICH--Just and Firm. Two +Caryatides support the entrance: on one side the statue of Astrea, and +on the other the Greek Victory without wings--the first expressing +justice, the last firmness or constancy. These figures are colossal, +and modelled by Schwanthaler in a grand and severe style of art. + +I. The first antechamber is decorated with great simplicity. On the +cornice round the top is represented the history of Orpheus and the +expedition of the Argonauts, from Linus, the earliest Greek poet. The +figures are in outline, shaded in brown, but without relief or colour, +exactly like those on the Etruscan vases. The walls are stuccoed in +imitation of marble. + +II. The second antechamber is less simple in its decoration. The frieze +round the top is broader, (about three feet,) and represents the +Theogony, the wars of the Titans, &c. from Hesiod. The figures are +in outline, and tinted, but without relief, in the manner of some of +the ancient Greek paintings on vases, tombs, &c. The effect is very +classical, and very singular. Schwanthaler, by whom these decorations +were designed, has displayed all the learning of a profound and +accomplished scholar, as well as the skill of an artist. In general +feeling and style they reminded me of Flaxman's outlines to Æschylus. + +The walls of this room are also stuccoed in imitation of marble, +with compartments, in which are represented, in the same style, other +subjects from the "Weeks and Days," and the "Birth of Pandora." The +ornaments are in the oldest Greek style. + +III. A saloon, or reception room, for those who are to be presented to +the king. On this room, which is in a manner public, the utmost luxury +of decoration is to be expended; but it is yet unfinished. The subjects +are from Homer. In compartments on the ceiling are represented the gods +of Greece; the gorgeous ornaments with which they are intermixed being +all in the Greek style. Round the frieze, at the top of the room, the +subjects are taken from the four Homeric hymns. The walls will be painted +from the Iliad and Odyssey, in compartments, mingled with the richest +arabesques. The effect of that part of the room which is finished is +indescribably splendid; but I cannot pause to dwell upon minutiæ. + +IV. The throne-room. The decorations of this room combine, in an +extraordinary degree, the utmost splendour and the utmost elegance. The +whole is adorned with bas-reliefs in white stucco, raised upon a ground +of dead gold. The compositions are from Pindar. Round the frieze are +the games of Greece, the chariot and foot-race, the horse-race, the +wrestlers, the cestus, &c. Immediately over the throne, Pindar, singing +to his lyre, before the judges of the Olympic games. On each side a +comic and a tragic poet receiving a prize. The exceeding lightness and +grace, the various fancy, the purity of style, the vigour of life and +movement displayed here, all prove that Schwanthaler has drank deep of +classical inspiration, and that he has not looked upon the frieze of the +Parthenon in vain. The subjects on the walls are various groups from +the same poet; over the throne is the king's motto, and on each side, +Alcides and Achilles; the history of Jason and Medea, Castor and Pollux, +Deucalion and Pyrrha, &c. occupy compartments, differing in form and +size. The decoration of this magnificent room appeared to me a _little_ +too much broken up into parts--and yet, on the whole, it is most +beautiful; the Graces as well as the Muses presided over the whole of +these "fancies, chaste and noble;" and there is excellent taste in the +choice of the poet, and the subjects selected, as harmonizing with the +destination of the room: all are expressive of power, of triumph, of +moral or physical greatness.[1] The walls are of dead gold, from the +floor to the ceiling, and the gilding of this room alone cost 72,000 +florins. + +V. A saloon, or antechamber. The ceiling and walls admirably painted, +from the tragedies of Æschylus. + +VI. The king's study, or cabinet de travail. The subjects from Sophocles, +equally classical in taste, and rich in colour and effect. In the arch +at one end of this room are seven compartments, in which are inscribed +in gold letters, the sayings of the seven Greek sages. + +Schwanthaler furnished the outlines of the compositions from Æschylus +and Sophocles, which are executed in colours by Wilhelm Röckel of +Schleissheim. + +VII. The king's dressing-room. The subjects from Aristophanes, painted +by Hiltensberger of Suabia, certainly one of the best painters here. +There is exquisite fantastic grace and spirit in these designs. + +"It was fit," said de Klenze, "that the first objects which his majesty +looked upon on rising from his bed should be gay and mirth-inspiring." + +VIII. The king's bedroom. The subjects from Theocritus, by different +painters, but principally Professor Heinrich Hess and Bruchmann. This +room pleased me least. + +No description could give an adequate idea of the endless variety, and +graceful and luxuriant ornament harmonizing with the various subjects, +and the purpose of each room, and lavished on the walls and ceilings, +even to infinitude. The general style is very properly borrowed from +the Greek decorations at Herculaneum and Pompeii; not servilely copied, +but varied with an exhaustless prodigality of fancy and invention, and +applied with exquisite taste. The combination of the gayest, brightest +colours has been studied with care, their proportion and approximation +calculated on scientific principles; so that the result, instead of +being gaudy and perplexing to the eye, is an effect the most captivating, +brilliant, and harmonious that can be conceived. + +The material used is the _encaustic_ painting, which has been revived +by M. de Klenze. He spent four months at Naples analysing the colours +used in the encaustic paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii, and by +innumerable experiments reducing the process to safe practice. Professor +Zimmermann explained to me the other day, as I stood beside him while +he worked, the general principle, and the advantages of this style. +It is much more rapid than oil painting; it is also much less expensive, +requiring both cheaper materials and in smaller quantity. It dries more +quickly: the surface is not so glazy and unequal, requiring no particular +light to be seen to advantage. The colours are wonderfully bright: it is +capable of as high a finish, and it is quite as durable as oils. Both +mineral and vegetable colours can be used. + +Now to return. The king's bedchamber opens into the queen's apartments, +but to take these in order we must begin at the beginning. The staircase, +which is still unfinished, will be in a much richer style of architecture +than that on the king's side: it is sustained with beautiful columns of +native marble. + +I. Antechamber; painted from the history and poems of Walther von der +Vogelweide, by Gassen of Coblentz, a young painter of distinguished +merit. + +Walther "of the bird-meadow," for that is the literal signification +of his name, was one of the most celebrated of the early Suabian +Minnesingers,[2] and appears to have lived from 1190 to 1240. He led a +wandering life, and was at different times in the service of several +princes of Germany. He figured at the famous "strife of poets," at the +castle of Wartsburg, which took place in 1207, in presence of Hermann, +landgrave of Thuringia and the landgravine Sophia: this is one of the +most celebrated incidents in the history of German poetry. He also +accompanied Leopold VII. to the Holy Land. His songs are warlike, +patriotic, moral, and religious. "Of love he has always the highest +conception, as of a principle of action, a virtue, a religious affection; +and in his estimation of female excellence, he is below none of his +contemporaries."[3] + +In the centre of the ceiling is represented the poetical contest at +Wartsburg, and Walther is reciting his verses in presence of his rivals +and the assembled judges. At the upper end of the room Walther is +exhibited exactly as he describes himself in one of his principal poems, +seated on a high rock in a melancholy attitude, leaning on his elbow, +and contemplating the troubles of his desolate country; in the opposite +arch, the old poet is represented as feeding the little birds which are +fluttering round him--in allusion to his will, which directed that the +birds should be fed yearly upon his tomb. Another compartment represents +Walther showing to his Geliebte (his mistress) the reflection of her +own lovely face in his polished shield. There are other subjects which +I cannot recall. The figures in all these groups are the size of life. + +II. The next room is painted from the poems of Wolfram of Eschenbach, +another, and one of the most fertile of the old Minnesingers; he also +was present at the contest at Wartsburg, "and wandered from castle to +castle like a true courteous knight, dividing his time between feats of +arms and minstrelsy." He versified, in the German tongue, the romance +of the "Saint-Greal," making it an original production, and the central +point, if the expression may be allowed, of an innumerable variety of +adventures, which he has combined, like Ariosto, in artful perplexity, +in the poems of Percival and Titurel.[4] These adventures furnish the +subjects of the paintings on the ceiling and walls, which are executed +by Hermann of Dresden, one of the most distinguished of the pupils of +Cornelius. + +The ornaments in these two rooms, which are exceedingly rich and +appropriate, are in the old gothic style, and reminded me of the +illuminations in the ancient MSS. + +III. A saloon (salon de service) appropriated to the ladies in waiting: +painted from the ballads of Bürger, by Foltz of Bingen. The ceiling +of this room is perfectly exquisite--it is formed entirely of small +rosettes, (about a foot in diameter,) varying in form, and combining +every hue of the rainbow--the delicacy and harmony of the entire effect +is quite indescribable. The rest of the decorations are not finished, +but the choice of the poet and the subjects, considering the destination +of the room, delighted me. The fate of "Lenora," and that of the "Curate's +Daughter," will be edifying subjects of contemplation for the maids of +honour. + +IV. The throne-room. Magnificent in the general effect; elegant and +appropriate in the design. + +On the ceiling, which is richly ornamented, are four medallions, +exhibiting, under the effigies of four admirable women, the four +_feminine_ cardinal virtues. Constancy is represented by Maria Theresa; +maternal love, by Cornelia; charity, by St. Elizabeth, (the Margravine +of Thuringia;[5]) and filial tenderness, by Julia Pia Alpinula. + + And there--O sweet and sacred be the name! + Julia, the daughter, the devoted, gave + Her youth to Heaven; her heart beneath a claim + Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. + LORD BYRON. + + +"I always avoid emblematical and allegorical figures, wherever it is +possible, for they are cold and arbitrary, and do not speak to the +heart!" said M. de Klenze, perceiving how much I was charmed with the +idea of thus personifying the womanly virtues. + +The paintings round the room are from the poems of Klopstock, and +executed by Wilhelm Kaulbach, an excellent artist. Only the frieze is +finished. It consists of a series of twelve compartments: three on each +side of the room, and divided from each other by two boys of colossal +size, grouped as Caryatides, and in very high relief. These compartments +represent the various scenes of the Herman-Schlacht; the sacrifices of +the Druids; the adieus of the women; the departure of the warriors; +the fight with Varus; the victory; the return of Herman to his wife +Thusnelda, &c. + +Herman, or, as the Roman historians call him, Arminius, was a chieftain +of the Cheruscans, a tribe of northern Germany. After serving in Illyria, +and there learning the Roman arts of warfare, he came back to his native +country, and fought successfully for its independence. He defeated, +beside a defile near Detmold, in Westphalia, the Roman legions under +the command of Varus, with a slaughter so mortifying, that the proconsul +is said to have killed himself, and Augustus to have received the +news of the catastrophe with indecorous expressions of grief. It is +this defeat of Varus which forms the theme of one of Klopstock's +chorus-dramas, entitled, "The Battle of Herman." The dialogue is concise +and picturesque; the characters various, consistent, and energetic; a +lofty colossal frame of being belongs to them all, as in the paintings +of Caravaggio. To Herman, the disinterested zealot of patriotism and +independence, a preference of importance is wisely given; yet, perhaps, +his wife Thusnelda acts more strongly on the sympathy by the enthusiastic +veneration and affection she displays for her hero-consort.[6] + +V. Saloon, or drawing-room. The paintings from Wieland, by Eugene +Neureuther, (already known in England by his beautiful arabesque +illustrations of Goethe's ballads.) The frieze only of this room, which +is from the Oberon, is in progress. + +VI. The queen's bedroom. The paintings from Goethe, and chiefly by +Kaulbach. The ceiling is exquisite, representing in compartments various +scenes from Goethe's principal lyrics; the Herman and Dorothea; Pausias +and Glycera, &c., intermixed with the most rich and elegant ornaments in +relief. + +VII. The queen's study, or private sitting-room. A small but very +beautiful room, with paintings from Schiller, principally by Lindenschmidt +of Mayence. On the ceiling are groups from the Wallenstein; the Maid +of Orleans; the Bride of Corinth; Wilhelm Tell; and on the walls, in +compartments, mingled with the most elegant ornaments, scenes from the +Fridolin, the Toggenburg, the Dragon of Rhodes, and other of his lyrics. + +VIII. The queen's library. As the walls will be covered with book-cases, +all the splendour of decoration is lavished on the ceiling, which is +inexpressibly rich and elegant. The paintings are from the works of +Ludwig Tieck--from the Octavianus, the Genoneva, Fortunatus, the Puss +in Boots, &c., and executed by Von Schwind. + +The dining-room is magnificently painted with subjects from Anacreon, +intermixed with ornaments and bacchanalian symbols, all in the richest +colouring. In the compartments on the ceiling, the figures are the size +of life--in those round the walls, half-life size. Nothing can exceed +the luxuriant fancy, the gaiety, the classical elegance, and amenity of +some of these groups. They are all by Professor Zimmermann. + +One of these paintings, a group representing, I think, Anacreon with the +Graces, (it is at the east end of the room,) is usually pointed out as +an example of the perfection to which the encaustic painting has been +carried: in fact, it would be difficult to exceed it in the mingled +harmony, purity, and brilliance of the colouring. + +M. Zimmermann told me, that when he submitted the cartoons for these +paintings to the king's approbation, his majesty desired a slight +alteration to be made in a group representing a nymph embraced by a +bacchanal; not as being in itself faulty, but "à cause de ses enfans," +his eldest daughters being accustomed to dine with himself and the +queen. + +Now it must be remembered that these seventeen rooms form the domestic +apartments of the royal family; and magnificent as they are, a certain +elegance, cheerfulness, and propriety have been more consulted than +parade and grandeur: but on the ground-floor there is a suite of state +apartments, prepared for the reception of strangers, &c., on great and +festive occasions; and these excited my admiration more than all the +rest together. + +The paintings are entirely executed in fresco, on a grand scale, by +Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, certainly one of the greatest living +artists of Europe: and these four rooms will form, when completed, the +very triumph of the romantic school of painting. It is not alone the +invention displayed in the composition, nor the largeness, boldness, and +freedom of the drawing, nor the vigour and splendour of the colouring; +it is the enthusiastic sympathy of the painter with his subject; the +genuine spirit of the old heroic, or rather Teutonic ages of Germany, +breathed through and over his singular creations, which so peculiarly +distinguish them. They are the very antipodes of all our notions of +the classical--they take us back to the days of Gothic romance, and +legendary lore--to the "fiery Franks and furious Huns"--to the heroes, +in short, of the Nibelungen Lied, from which all the subjects are taken. + +To enable the merely English reader to feel, or at least understand, the +interest attached to this grand series of paintings, without which it is +impossible to do justice to the artist, it is necessary to give a slight +sketch of the poem which he has thus magnificently illustrated.[7] + +"This national epic, as it is justly termed by M. Von der Hagen, has +lately attracted a most unprecedented degree of attention in Germany. It +now actually forms a part of the philological courses in many of their +universities, and it has been hailed with almost as much veneration as +the Homeric songs. Some allowance must be made for German enthusiasm, +but it cannot be denied that the Nibelungen Lied, though a little too +bloody and dolorous, possesses extraordinary merits." The hero and heroine +of this poem are Siegfried, (son of Siegmund, king of Netherland, and of +Sighelind his queen,) and Chrimhilde, princess of Burgundy. Siegfried, +or Sifrit, the Sigurd of the Scandinavian Sagas, is the favourite hero +of the northern parts of Germany. His spear, "a mighty pine beam," was +preserved with veneration at Worms; and there, in the church of St. +Cecilia, he is supposed to have been buried. The German romances do +not represent him as being of gigantic proportions, but they all agree +that he became invulnerable by bathing in the blood of a dragon, which +guarded the treasures of the Nibelungen, and which he overcame and +killed; but it happened that as he bathed, a leaf fell and rested +between his shoulders, and consequently, that one little spot, about +a hand's breadth, still remained susceptible of injury. Siegfried also +possesses the wondrous tarn-cap, which had the power of rendering the +wearer invisible. + +This formidable champion, after winning the love and the hand of the +fair princess Chrimhilde, and performing a thousand valiant deeds, is +treacherously murdered by the three brothers of Chrimhilde, Gunther, +king of Burgundy, Ghiseler, Gernot, and their uncle Hagen, instigated by +queen Brunhilde, the wife of Gunther. Chrimhilde meditates for years the +project of a deep and deadly revenge on the murderers of her husband. +This vengeance is in fact the subject of the Nibelungen Lied, as the +wrath of Achilles is the subject of the Iliad. + +The poem opens thus beautifully with a kind of argument of the whole +eventful story. + + "In ancient song and story marvels high are told + Of knights of bold emprize and adventures mani-fold; + Of joy and merry feasting, of lamenting, woe, and fear; + Of champions' bloody battles many marvels shall ye hear. + + A noble maid and fair, grew up in Burgundy, + In all the land about fairer none might be; + She became a queen full high, Chrimhild was she hight, + But for her matchless beauty fell many a blade of might. + + For love and for delight was framed that lady gay, + Many a champion bold sighed for that gentle May; + Beauteous was her form! beauteous without compare! + The virgin's virtues might adorn many a lady fair. + + Three kings of might had the maiden in their care, + King Gunther and king Gernot, champions bold they were, + And Ghiselar the young, a chosen peerless blade: + The lady was their sister, and much they loved the maid." + + +Then follows an enumeration of the heroes in attendance on king Gunther: +Haghen, the fierce; Dankwart, the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight; +and others; "all champions bold and free;"--and then the poet proceeds +to open the argument. + + "One night the queen Chrimhild dreamt her as she lay, + How she had trained and nourished a falcon, wild and gay; + When suddenly two eagles fierce the gentle hawk have slain-- + Never, in this world felt she such cruel pain! + + To her mother, Uta, she told her dream with fear. + Full mournfully she answered to what the maid did spier, + 'The falcon, whom you cherished, a gentle knight is he: + God take him to his ward! thou must lose him suddenly.' + + 'What speak you of the knight? dearest mother, say! + Without the love of Champion, to my dying day, + Ever thus fair will I remain, nor take a wedded fere + To gain such pain and sorrow--though the knight were without peer!' + + 'Speak not thou too rashly!' her mother spake again. + 'If ever in this world, thou heart-felt joy wilt gain, + Maiden must thou be no more; Leman must thou have. + God will grant thee for thy mate, some gentle knight and brave.' + + 'O leave thy words, lady mother; speak not of wedded mate, + Full many a gentle maiden hath found the truth too late: + Still has their fondest love ended with woe and pain; + Virgin will I ever be, nor the love of Leman gain.' + + In virtues high and noble that gentle maiden dwelt, + Full many a night and day, nor love for Leman felt. + To never a knight or champion would she plight her virgin truth, + Till she was gained for wedded fere by a right noble youth. + + That youth, he was the falcon, she in her dream beheld, + Who by the two fierce eagles, dead to the ground was fell'd: + But since right dreadful vengeance she took upon his foen; + For the death of that bold hero, died full many a mother's son." + + +After this exordium the story commences, the first half ending with the +assassination of Siegfried. + +Some years after the murder of Siegfried, Chrimhilde gives her hand to +Etzel, (or Attila,) king of the Huns, in order that through his power +and influence she may be enabled to execute her long-cherished schemes +of vengeance. The assassins accordingly, and all their kindred and +followers, are induced to visit King Etzel at Vienna, where, by the +instigation of Chrimhilde, a deadly feud arises; in the course of which +almost the whole army on both sides are cruelly slaughtered. By the +powerful, but reluctant aid of Dietrich of Bern,[8] Hagen, the murderer +of Siegfried, is at last vanquished, and brought bound to the feet of +the queen, who at once raises the sword of her departed hero, and with +her own hand strikes off the head of his enemy. Hildebrand instantly +avenges the atrocious and unhospitable act, by stabbing the queen, who +falls exulting on the body of her hated victim. + +When Gunther's arms, and those of his brothers and champions, are +brought to Worms, Brunhilde repents too late of her treachery to +Siegfried, and the old queen Uta dies of grief. As to King Etzel, the +poet professes himself ignorant, "whether he died in battle, or was +taken up to heaven, or fell out of his skin, or was swallowed up +by the devil;" leaving to his reader the choice of these singular +catastrophes;--and thus the story ends.[9] + +The rivalry between Chrimhilde and her amazonian sister-in-law, +Brunhilde, forms the most interesting and amusing episode in the poem; +and the characters of the two queens--the fierce haughty Brunhilde, +and the impassioned, devoted, confiding Chrimhilde--(whom the very +excess of conjugal love converts into a relentless fury,) are admirably +discriminated. "The work is divided into thirty-eight books, or +_adventures_; and besides a liberal allowance of sorcery and wonders, +contains a great deal of clear and animated narrative, and innumerable +curious and picturesque traits of the manners of the age. The characters +of the different warriors, as well as those of the two queens, and their +heroic consorts, are very naturally and powerfully drawn--especially +that of Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, in whom the virtues of an +heroic and chivalrous leader are strangely united with the atrocity and +impenitent hardihood of an assassin. + +"The author of the Lay of the Nibelungen has not been ascertained. In +its present form it must have existed between the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries;--this is proved by the language; but the manners, tone, +thoughts, and actions, which are all in perfect keeping, bear testimony +to an antiquity far beyond that of the present dress of the poem." + +Here then was a boundless, an inexhaustible fund of inspiration for such +a painter as Julius Schnorr; and his poetical fancy appears to have +absolutely revelled in the grand, the gay, the tragic subjects afforded +to his creative pencil. + +In the first room, immediately over the entrance, he has represented the +poet, or presumed author of the Nibelungen--an inspired figure, attended +by two listening genii. On each side, but a little lower down, are two +figures looking towards him; on one side a beautiful female, striking +a harp, and attended by a genius crowned with roses--represents song +or poesy. On the other side, a sybil listening to the voice of Time, +represents tradition. The figures are all colossal. + +Below, on each side of this door, are two beautiful groups. That to +the right of the spectator represents Siegfried and Chrimhilde. She is +leaning on the shoulder of her warlike husband with an air of the most +inimitable and graceful abandonment in her whole figure: a falcon sits +upon her hand, on which her eyes are turned with the most profound +expression of tenderness and melancholy; she is thinking upon her dream, +in which was foreshadowed the early and terrible doom of her husband. + +It is said at Munich, that the wife of Schnorr, an exquisitely beautiful +woman, whom he married under romantic circumstances, was the model of +his Chrimhilde, and that one of her spontaneous attitudes furnished the +idea of this exquisite group, on which I never look without emotion. The +depth and splendour of the colouring adds to the effect. The figures are +rather above the size of life. + +On the opposite side of the door, as a _pendant_, we have Gunther, and +his queen, Brunhilde. He holds one of her hands, with a deprecating +expression. She turns from him with an averted countenance, exhibiting +in her whole look and attitude, grief, rage, and shame. It is evident +that she has just made the fatal discovery of her husband's obligations +to Siegfried, which urges her to the destruction of the latter. I have +heard travellers ignorantly criticise the grand, and somewhat exaggerated +forms of Brunhilde, as being "really quite coarse and unfeminine." In +the poem she is represented as possessing the strength of twelve men; +and when Hagen sees her throw a spear, which it required four warriors +to lift, he exclaims to her alarmed suitor, King Gunther, + + "Aye! how is it, King Gunther? here must you tine your life! + The lady you would gain, well might be the devil's wife!" + + +It is by the secret assistance of Siegfried, and his tarn-cap, that +Gunther at length vanquishes and humbles this terrible heroine, and she +avenges her humiliation by the murder of Siegfried. + +Around the room are sixteen full-length portraits of the other principal +personages who figure in the Nibelungen Lied--_portraits_ they may well +be called, for their extraordinary spirit, and truth of character. In +one group we have the fierce Hagen, the courteous Dankwart, and between +them, Volker tuning his viol; of him it is said-- + + Bolder and more knight-like fiddler, never shone the sun upon, + + +and he plays a conspicuous part in the catastrophe of the poem. + +Opposite to this group, we have queen Uta, the mother of Chrimhilde, +between her sons, Gernot and Ghiselar: in another compartment, Siegmund +and Sighelind, the father and mother of Siegfried. + +Over the window opposite to the entrance, Hagen is consulting the +mermaids of the Danube, who foretell the destruction which awaits him +at the court of Etzel: and lower down on each side of the window, King +Etzel with his friend Rudiger, and those faithful companions in arms, +old Hildebrand and Dietrich of Bern. The power of invention, the +profound feeling of character, and extraordinary antiquarian knowledge +displayed in these figures, should be seen to be understood. Those which +most struck me (next to Chrimhilde and her husband) were the figures +of the daring Hagen and the venerable queen Uta. + +On the ceiling, which is vaulted, and enriched with most gorgeous +ornaments, intermixed with heraldic emblazonments, are four small +compartments in fresco: in which are represented, the marriage of +Siegfried and Chrimhilde, the murder of Siegfried, the vengeance of +Chrimhilde, and the death of Chrimhilde. These are painted in vivid +colours on a black ground. + +On the whole, on looking round this most splendid and interesting room, +I could find but one fault: I could have wished that the ornaments on +the walls and ceiling (so rich and beautiful to the eye) had been more +completely and consistently gothic in style; they would then have +harmonized better with the subjects of the paintings. + +In the next room, the two sides are occupied by two grand frescos, each +about five-and-twenty feet in length, and covering the whole wall. In +the first, Siegfried brings the kings of Saxony and Denmark prisoners to +the court of king Gunther. The second represents the reception of the +victorious Siegfried by the two queens, Uta and Chrimhilde. This is the +first interview of the lovers, and furnishes one of the most admired +passages in the poem. + + "And now the beauteous lady, like the rosy morn, + Dispersed the misty clouds; and he who long had borne + In his heart the maiden, banish'd pain and care, + As now before his eyes stood the glorious maiden fair. + + From her embroidered garment, glittered many a gem, + And on her lovely cheek, the rosy red did gleam; + Whoever in his glowing soul had imaged lady bright, + Confessed that fairer maiden never stood before his sight. + + And as the moon at night, stands high the stars among, + And moves the mirky clouds above, with lustre bright and strong; + So stood before her maidens, that maid without compare: + Higher swelled the courage of many a champion there." + + +Between the two doors there is the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde. +The second of these frescos is nearly finished; of the others I only +saw the cartoons, which are magnificent. The third room will contain, +arranged in the same manner, three grand frescos, representing 1st. +the scene in which the rash curiosity of Chrimhilde prevails over the +discretion of her husband, and he gives her the ring and the girdle +which he had snatched as trophies from the vanquished Brunhilde.[10] +2ndly. The death of Siegfried, assassinated by Hagen, who stabs the hero +in the back, as he stoops to drink from the forest-well. And 3rdly. +The body of Siegfried exposed in the cathedral at Worms, and watched by +Chrimhilde, "who wept three days and three nights by the corse of her +murdered lord, without food and without sleep." + +The fourth room will contain the second marriage of Chrimhilde; her +complete and sanguinary vengeance; and her death. None of these are +yet in progress. But the three cartoons of the death of Siegfried; +the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde; and the fatal curiosity of +Chrimhilde, I had the pleasure of seeing in Professor Schnorr's studio +at the academy; I saw at the same time his picture of the death of the +emperor Frederic Barbarossa, which has excited great admiration here, +but I confess I do not like it; nor do I think that Schnorr paints as +well in oils as in fresco--the latter is certainly his forte. + +Often have I walked up and down these superb rooms, looking up at +Schnorr and his assistants, and watching intently the preparation and +the process of the fresco painting--and often I thought, "What would +some of our English painters--Etty, or Hilton, or Briggs, or Martin--O +what would they give to have two or three hundred feet of space before +them, to cover at will with grand and glorious creations,--scenes from +Chaucer, or Spenser, or Shakspeare, or Milton, proudly conscious that +they were painting for their country and posterity, spurred on by the +spirit of their art and national enthusiasm, and generously emulating +each other!" Alas! how different!--with us such men as Hilton and Etty +illustrate annuals, and the genius of Turner shrinks into a vignette! + +I should add, before I throw down my weary pen, that every part of the +new palace, from the _ensemble_ down to the minutest details of the +ornaments (the paintings excepted) has been designed by De Klenze, who +executed seven hundred drawings with his own hand for this palace alone, +without reckoning his designs for the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek. + +This has been a busy and exciting day. Then in the evening a +_soirée_--music-- + + * * * * * + +O quite tired in spirits, in voice, in mind, in heart, in frame! + +_Oct. 14th._--Accompanied by my kind friend, Madame de K----, and +conducted by Roekel, the painter, I visited the unfinished chapel +adjoining the new palace. It is painted (or rather _painting_) in +fresco, on a gold ground, with extraordinary richness and beauty, +uniting the old Greek, or rather Byzantine manner, with the old Italian +style of decoration. It reminded me, in the general effect, of the +interior of St. Mark's at Venice,--but, of course, the details are +executed in a grander feeling, and in a much higher style of art. The +pillars are of the native marble, and the walls will be covered with +a kind of Mosaic of various marbles, intermixed with ornaments in +relief, in gilding, in colours--all combined, and harmonizing together. +The ceiling is formed of two large domes or cupolas. In the first is +represented the Old Testament: in the very centre, the Creator; in a +circle round him, the six days' creation. Around this again, in a larger +circle, the building of the ark; the Deluge; the sacrifice of Noah; and +the first covenant. In the four corners, the colossal figures of the +patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are designed in a +very grand and severe style. The second cupola is dedicated to the +New Testament. In the centre, the Redeemer: around him four groups of +cherubs, three in each group. We were on the scaffold erected for the +painters--near enough to remark the extreme beauty and various expression +in these heads, which must, I am afraid, be lost when viewed from below. +Around, in a circle, the twelve apostles; and in the four corners, the +four evangelists, corresponding with the four patriarchs in the other +dome. In the arch between the two domes, as connecting the Old and New +Testaments, we have the Nativity and other scenes from the life of the +Virgin. In the arch at the farthest end will be placed the Crucifixion, +as the consummation of all. + +The painter to whom the direction of the whole work has been entrusted, +is professor Heinrich Häss, (or Hess,) one of the most celebrated of the +German historical painters. He was then employed in painting the Nativity, +stretched upon his back on a sort of inclined chair. Notwithstanding the +inconvenience and even peril of leaving his work while the plaster was +wet, he came down from his giddy height to speak to us, and explained +the general design of the whole. I expressed my honest admiration of the +genius, and the grand feeling displayed in many of the figures; and, in +particular, of the group he was then painting, of which the extreme +simplicity charmed me; but as honestly, I expressed my surprise that +nothing _new_ in the general style of the decoration had been attempted; +a representation of the Omnipotent Being was merely excusable in more +simple and unenlightened times, when the understandings of men could +only be addressed through their senses--and merely tolerable, when +Michael Angelo gave us that grand personification of Almighty Power +moving "on the wings of the wind" to the creation of the first man. But +now, in these thinking, reasoning times, it is not so well to venture +into those paths, upon which daring Genius, supported by blind Faith, +rushed without fear, because without a doubt. The theory of religion +belongs to poetry, and its practice to painting. I was struck by the +wonderful stateliness of the ornaments and borders used in decorating +these sacred subjects: they are neither Greek, nor gothic, nor +arabesque--but composed merely of simple forms and straight lines, +combined in every possible manner, and in every variety of pure colour. +One might call them _Byzantine_; at least, they reminded me of what +I had seen in the old churches at Venice and Pisa. + +I was pleased by the amiable and open manners of professor Hess. Much +of his life has been spent in Italy, and he speaks Italian well, but no +French. In general, the German artists absolutely detest and avoid the +language and literature of France, but almost all speak Italian, and +many can read, if they do not speak, English. He told me that he had +spent two years on the designs and cartoons for this chapel; he had been +painting here daily for the last two years, and expected to be able to +finish the whole in about two years and a half more: thus giving six +years and a half, or more probably seven years, to this grand task. +He has four pupils, or assistants, besides those employed in the +decorations only. + +_Oct. 15th._--After dinner we drove through the beautiful English +garden--a public promenade--which is larger and more diversified than +Kensington Gardens; but the trees are not so fine, being of younger +growth. A branch of the Isar rolls through this garden, sometimes an +absolute torrent, deep and rapid, foaming and leaping along, between its +precipitous banks,--sometimes a strong but gentle stream, flowing "at +its own sweet will" among smooth lawns. Several pretty bridges cross it +with "airy span;" there are seats for repose, and cafés and houses where +refreshment may be had, and where, in the summer-time, the artisans and +citizens of Munich assemble to dance on the Sunday evenings;--altogether +it was a beautiful day, and a delightful drive. + +In the evening at the opera with the ambassadress and a large party. +It was the queen's fête, and the whole court was present. The theatre +was brilliantly illuminated--crowded in every part: in short, it was +all very gay and very magnificent; as to hearing a single note of the +opera, (the Figaro,) that was impossible; so I resigned myself to the +conversation around me. "Are you fond of music?" said I, innocently, to +a lady whose volubility had ceased not from the moment we entered the +box. "Moi! si je l'aime!--mais avec passion!" And then without pause +or mercy continued the same incessant flow of _spirituel_ small-talk +while Scheckner-Wagen and Meric, now brought for the first time into +competition, and emulous of each other,--one pouring forth her full +_sostenuto_ warble, like a wood-lark,--the other trilling and running +divisions, like a nightingale--were uniting their powers in the "Sull' +Aria;" but though I could not hear I could see. I was struck to-night +more than ever by the singular dignity of the demeanour of Madame +Scheckner-Wagen. She is not remarkable for beauty, nor is there any +thing of the common made-up theatrical grace in her deportment--still +less does she remind us of queen Medea--queen Pasta, I should say--the +imperial syren who drowned her own identity and ours together in her +"cup of enchanted sounds;"--no--but Scheckner-Wagen treads the stage +with the air of a high-bred lady, to whom applause or censure are things +indifferent--and yet with an exceeding modesty. In short, I never saw +an actress who inspired such an immediate and irresistible feeling of +respect and interest for the individual _woman_. I do not say that this +is the _ne plus ultra_ of good acting--on the contrary; though it is a +mistake to imagine that the moral character of an actress or a singer +goes for nothing with an audience--but of this more at some future +time. Madame Scheckner's style of singing has the same characteristic +simplicity and dignity: her voice is of a fine full quality, well +cultivated, well managed. I have known her a little indolent and careless +at times, but never forced or affected; and I am told that in some of +the grand classical German operas, Gluck's Iphigenia, for instance, her +acting as well as her singing is admirable. + +I wish, if ever we have that charming Devrient-Schröeder, and her vocal +suite, again in England, they would give us the Iphigenia, or the Armida, +or the Idomeneo. She is another who must be heard in her native music +to be justly appreciated. Madame Milder _was_ a third, but her reign is +past. This extraordinary creature absolutely could not, or would not, +sing the modern Italian music; no one, I believe, ever heard her sing +a note of Rossini in her life. Madame Vespermann is here, but she sings +no more in public. She was formed by Winter, and was a fine classical +singer, though no original genius like the Milder; and her voice, if +I may judge by what remains of it, could never have been of first-rate +quality. + +Well--after the opera--while scandal, and tea, and refreshments were +served up together--I had a long conversation with Count ---- on the +politics and statistics of Bavaria, the tone of feeling in the court, +the characters and revenues of some of the leading nobles--particularly +Count d'Armansberg, the former minister, (now in Greece taking care of +the young King Otho,) and Prince Wallerstein, the present minister of +the interior. He described the king's extremely versatile character, and +his _vivacités_, and lamented his present unpopularity with the liberal +party in Germany, the disputes between him and the Chambers, and the +opinions entertained of the recent conferences between the king and his +brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, at Lintz, &c. I learnt much that +was new, much that was interesting to me, but do not understand these +matters sufficiently to say any thing more about them. + +The two richest families in Bavaria are the Tour-and-Taxis, and the Arco +family. The annual revenue of the Prince of Tour-and-Taxis amounts to +upwards of five millions of florins, and he lays out about a million +and a half yearly in land. He seldom or never comes to Munich, but +resides chiefly on his enormous estates, or at Ratisbon, which is _his_ +metropolis,--in fact, this rich and powerful noble is little less than +a sovereign prince. + + * * * * * + +_16th._--I went with Madame von A---- and her daughters to the +=Kunstverein=, or "Society of Arts." A similar institution of amateurs +and artists, maintained by subscription, exists, I believe, in all the +principal cities of Germany. The young artists exhibit their works here, +whether pictures, models, or engravings. Some of these are removed and +replaced by others almost every day, so that there is a constant variety. +As yet, however, I have seen no _very_ striking, though many pleasing +pictures; but I have added several names to my list of German +artists.[11] To-day at the Kunstverein, there was a series of small +pictures framed together, the subjects from Victor Hugo's romance of +Notre Dame. These attracted general attention, partly as the work of +a stranger, partly from their own merit, and the popularity of Victor +Hugo. The painter, M. Couder, is a young Frenchman, now on his return +from Italy to Paris. I understand that he has obtained leave to paint +one of the frescos in the Pinakothek, as a trial of skill. Of the +designs from Notre Dame, the central and largest picture is the scene in +the garret between Phoebus and Esmeralda, when the former is stabbed +by the priest Frollo: one can hardly imagine a more admirable subject +for painting, if properly treated; but this is a failure in effect and +in character. It fails in effect because the light is too generally +diffused:--it is day-light, not lamp-light. The monk ought to have been +thrown completely into shadow, only _just_ visible, terribly, mysteriously +visible, to the spectator. It fails in character because the figure of +Esmeralda, instead of the elegant, fragile, almost etherial creature she +is described, rather reminds us of a coarse Italian contadina; and, for +the expression--a truly poetical painter would have averted the face, +and thrown the whole expression into the attitude. It will hardly be +believed that of such a subject, the painter has made a _cold_ picture, +merely by not feeling the bounds within which he ought to have kept. +The small pictures are much better, particularly the Sachet embracing +her child, and the tumult in front of Notre Dame. There were some other +striking pictures by the same artist, particularly Chilperic and +Fredegonde strangling the young queen Galsuinde, painted with shocking +skill and truth. That taste for horrors, which is now the reigning +fashion in French art and French literature, speaks ill for French +_sensibilité_--a word they are so fond of--for that sensibility cannot +be great which requires such extravagant _stimuli_. Painters and authors, +all alike! They remind me of the sentimental negresses of queen Carathis, +in the Tale of Vathek--"qui avaient un gout particulier pour les +pestilences." Couder, however, has undoubted talent. His portrait of +De Klenze, painted since he came here, is all but _alive_. + +In the evening at the theatre with M. and Mad. S----. We had Karl +von Holtëi's melo-drama of Lenore, founded on Bürger's well-known +ballad;--but with the omission of the spectre, which was something like +acting Hamlet "with the part of Hamlet left out, by particular desire." +Lenore is, however, one of the prettiest and most effective of the +_petites pièces_ I have seen here--very tragical and dolorous of course. +Madlle. Schöller acted Lenore with more feeling and power than I thought +was in her. There is a mad scene, in which she fancies her lover at her +window, calling to her, as the spectre calls in the ballad-- + + "Sleep'st thou, or wak'st thou, Leonore?" + + +And which was so fine as a picture, and so well acted, that it quite +thrilled me--no easy matter. Holtëi is one of the first dramatists in +Germany for comedies, melo-dramas, farces, and musical pieces. In this +particular department he has no rival. He played to-night himself, being +for his own benefit, and sung his popular Mantel Lied, or _cloak-song_, +which, like his other songs, may be heard from one end of Germany to the +other. + +_18th._--A grand military fête. The consecration of the great bronze +obelisk, which the king has erected in the Karoline-Platz, to the +_glory_ and the memory of the thirty-seven thousand Bavarian conscripts +who followed, or rather were dragged by, Napoleon to the fatal Russian +campaign in 1812. Of these, about six thousand returned alive: most of +them mutilated, or with diseases which shortened their existence. Of +many thousands no account ever reached home. They perished, God knows +how or where. There was, in particular, a detachment, or a battery of +six thousand Bavarians, so completely destroyed that it was as if the +earth had swallowed them, or the snows had buried them, for not one +remained to tell the tale of how or where they died. Of those who did +return, about one thousand one hundred survive, of whom four hundred +continue in the army; the rest had returned to their civil pursuits, and +had become peasants or tradesmen in different parts of the kingdom. Now, +it appears, that several hundreds of these men have arrived in Munich +within the last few days in order to be present at the ceremony: and +some, from the mere sentiment of honour, have travelled from afar--even +from Upper Bavaria and the Flemish Provinces, a distance of more than +eighty leagues, (two hundred and fifty miles.) On this occasion, +according to the arrangements previously made, the veteran soldiers who +remained in the army, were alone to be admitted within the enclosure +round the monument. The others, I believe about five hundred in number, +who had quitted the service, but who had equally fought, suffered, bled, +in the same disastrous expedition, demanded, very naturally, the same +privilege. It was refused; because forsooth they had no uniforms, and +the unseemly intrusion of drab coats and blue worsted stockings among +epaulettes and feathers and embroidered facings, would certainly spoil +the symmetry--the effect of the _coup d'oeil_! They complained, +murmured aloud, resisted; and all night there was fighting in the +streets and taverns between them and the police. This morning they went +up in a body to Marshal Wrede, (who is said to have betrayed the army,) +and were _renvoyés_. They then went up to the palace; and at last, +at a late hour this morning, the king gave orders that they should be +admitted within the circle; but it was too late--the affront had sunk +deep. The permission, which in the first instance ought indeed to +have been rather an invitation, now seemed forced, ungraceful, and +ungracious. There was a palpable cloud of discontent over all; for the +popular feeling was with them. For myself, a mere stranger, such was +my indignation, the whole proceeding appeared to me so heartless, +so unkingly, so unkind, and my sympathy with these brave men was so +profound, that I could scarce persuade myself to go;--however, I went. +I had been invited to view the ceremony from the balcony of the French +ambassador's house, which is exactly opposite to the obelisk. + +I had indulged my ill-humour till it was late; already all the avenues +leading to the Karoline-Platz were occupied by the military, and my +carriage was stopped. As I was within fifty yards of the ambassador's +house, it did not much signify, and I dismissed the carriage; but they +would not allow the lacquais to pass. Wondering at all these precautions +I dismissed _him_ too. A little further on I was myself stopped, and +civilly _commanded_ to turn back. I pleaded that I only wished to enter +the house to which I pointed. "It was impossible." Now, what I had not +cared for a moment before became at once an object to be attained, and +which I was resolved to attain. I was really curious and anxious to see +how all this would end, for the indifferent or lowering looks of the +crowd had struck me. I observed to a well-dressed man, who politely +tried to make way for me, that it was strange to see so much severity of +discipline at a public fête. "Public fête!" he repeated with scornful +bitterness; "Je vous demande pardon, madame! c'est une fête pour quelques +uns, mais ce n'est pas une fête pour nous, ce n'est pas pour le peuple!" + +At length I fortunately met an officer, with whom I was slightly +acquainted, who immediately conducted me to the door. The spectacle, +merely as a _spectacle_, was not striking; but to me it had a peculiar +interest. There was a raised platform on one side for the queen and her +children, who, attended by a numerous court, were spectators. An outer +circle was formed by several regiments of guards, and within this +circle the soldiers who had served in Russia were drawn up near the +obelisk, which was covered for the present with a tarpauling. But all +my attention was fixed on the disbanded soldiers without uniforms, who +stood together in a dark dense column, contrasting with the glittering +and gorgeous array of those around them. The king rode into the circle, +accompanied by his brother, Prince Charles, the arch-duke Francis of +Austria, Marshal Wrede, and followed by a troop of generals, equerries, +&c. There was a dead silence, and not a shout was raised to greet him. +A few of the disbanded soldiers, who were nearest to him, took off +their hats, others kept them on. The trumpets sounded a salute: the +bands struck up our "God save the King," which is nationalized as _the_ +loyal anthem all over Germany. The canvass covering fell at once, and +displayed the obelisk, which is entirely of bronze, raised upon four +granite steps. It bears a simple inscription. I think it is "Ludwig I., +king, to the soldiers of Bavaria who fell in the Russian campaign;" or +nearly to that purpose. Marshal Wrede then alighted from his horse and +addressed the soldiers. This was a striking moment; for while the outer +circle of military remained immovable as statues, the soldiers within, +both those with, and those without uniforms, finding themselves out of +ear-shot, advanced a few steps, and then breaking their ranks, pressed +forward in a confused mass, surrounding the king and his officers, +in the most eager but respectful manner. I could not distinguish one +sentence of the harangue, which, as I afterwards heard, was any thing +rather than satisfactory. + +I heard it remarked round me that the Duke de Leuchtenberg, (the son +of Eugène Beauharnais,) was not present, neither as one of the royal +cortège nor as a spectator. + +The whole lasted about twenty minutes. The day was cold; and, in truth, +the ceremony was _cold_, in every sense of the word. The Karoline-Platz +is so large that not a third part of the open space was occupied. Had +the people, who lingered sullen and discontented outside the military +barrier, been admitted under proper restrictions, it had been a grand +and imposing sight; but, perhaps the king is following the Austrian +tactics, and seeking to crush systematically every thing like feeling or +enthusiasm in his people. I know not how he will manage it; for he is +himself the very antipodes of Austrian carelessness and sluggishness: +a restless enthusiast--fond of intellectual excitement--fond of +novelty--with no natural taste, one would think, for Metternich's +_vieilleries_. If he adopt Austrian principles, his theory and his +practice, his precept and example, will always be at variance. At the +conclusion of the ceremony the king and his suite rode up to the +platform and saluted the queen: and when she--who is so universally +and truly beloved here that I believe the people would die for her at +anytime--rose to depart, I heard a cheer, the first and last this day! +The disbanded soldiers approached the platform, at first timidly by twos +and threes, and then in great numbers, taking off their hats. She stood +up, leaning on the princess Matilda, and bowed. The royal cortège then +disappeared. The military bands struck up, and one battalion after +another filed off. I expected that the crowd would have rushed in, but +the people seemed completely chilled and disgusted. Only a few appeared. +In about half an hour the obelisk was left alone in its solitude. + +I spent the rest of the day with Madame de V----, and returned home quite +tired and depressed. + +I understand this morning (Saturday) that the king has ordered a +gratuity and dinner to be given to the disbanded soldiers. I hope it is +true, King Louis! You ought at least to understand your _metier de Roi_ +better than to degrade the "pomp and circumstance of _glorious_ war" in +the eyes of your people, and make them feel for what a poor recompence +they may fight, bleed, die--be made at once victims and executioners in +the contests of royal and ambitious gamblers! + +I saw to-day, at the house of the court banker, Eichthal, a most +charming picture by the Baroness de Freyberg, the sister of my good +friend, M. Stuntz. It is a Madonna and child--loveliest of subjects for +a woman and a mother!--she is sure to put her heart into it, at least; +but, in this particular picture, the surpassing delicacy of touch, the +softness and purity of the colouring, the masterly drawing in the hands +of the Virgin, and the limbs of the child, equalled the feeling and the +expression--and, in truth, _surprised_ me. Madame de Freyberg gave this +picture to her father, who is not rich, and, unhappily, blind. Of him, +the present possessor purchased it for fifteen hundred florins, (about +140_l._) and now values it at twice the sum. In the possession of her +brother, I have seen others of her productions, and particularly a head +of one of his children, of exceeding beauty, and very much in the old +Italian style. + +In the evening, a very lively and amusing _soirée_ at the house of Dr. +Martius. We had some very good music. Young Vieux-temps, a pupil of De +Beriot, was well accompanied by an orchestra of amateurs. I met here +also a young lady of whom I had heard much--Josephine Lang, looking +so gentle, so unpretending, so imperturbable, that no one would have +accused or suspected her of being one of the Muses in disguise, until +she sat down to the piano, and sang her own beautiful and original +compositions in a style peculiar to herself. She is a musician by +nature, by choice, and by profession, exercising her rare talent +with as much modesty as good-nature. The painter Zimmermann, who has a +magnificent bass voice, sung for me Mignon's song--"Kennst du das Land!" +And, lastly, which was the most interesting amusement of the evening, +Karl von Holtei read aloud the second act of Goethe's Tasso. He read +most admirably, and with a voice which kept attention enchained, +enchanted; still it was genuine reading. He kept equally clear of acting +and of declamation. + +_Oct. 20th. Sunday._--I went with M. Stuntz to hear a grand mass at the +royal chapel. + + * * * * * + +_21st._--It rained this morning:--went to the gallery, and amused myself +for two hours walking up and down the rooms, sometimes pausing upon my +favourite pictures, sometimes abandoned to the reveries suggested by +these glorious creations of the human intellect. + + 'Twas like the bright procession + Of skiey visions in a solemn dream, + From which men wake as from a paradise, + And draw fresh strength to tread the thorns of life! + + +While looking at the Castor and Pollux of Rubens, I remembered what the +biographers asserted of this most wonderful man--that he spoke fluently +seven languages, besides being profoundly skilled in many sciences, and +one of the most accomplished diplomatists of his time. Before he took +up his palette in the morning, he was accustomed to read, or hear read, +some fine passages out of the ancient poets; and thus releasing his soul +from the trammels of low-thoughted care, he let her loose into the airy +regions of imagination. + +What Goethe says of poets, must needs be applicable to painters. He +says, "If we look only at the principal productions of a poet, and +neglect to study himself, his character, and the circumstances with +which he had to contend, we fall into a sort of atheism, which forgets +the Creator in his creation." + +I think most people admire pictures in this sort of atheistical fashion; +yet next to loving pictures, and all the pleasure they give, and revelling +in all the feelings they awaken, all the new ideas with which they enrich +our mental hoard--next to this, or equal with it, is the inexhaustible +interest of studying the painter in his works. It is a lesson in human +nature. Almost every picture (which is the production of mind) has +an individual character, reflecting the predominant temperament--nay, +sometimes, the occasional mood of the artist, its creator. Even portrait +painters, renowned for their exact adherence to nature, will be found to +have stamped upon their portraits a general and distinguishing character. +There is, besides the physiognomy of the individual represented, the +physiognomy, if I may so express myself, of the picture; detected +at once by the mere connoisseur as a distinction of manner, style, +execution: but of which the reflecting and philosophical observer might +discover the key in the mind or life of the individual painter. + +In the heads of Titian, what subtlety of intellect mixed with sentiment +and passion! In those of Velasquez, what chivalrous grandeur, what +high-hearted contemplation! When Ribera painted a head--what power of +sufferance! In those of Giorgione, what profound feeling! In those +of Guido, what elysian grace! In those of Rubens what energy of +intellect--what vigorous life! In those of Vandyke, what high-bred +elegance! In those of Rembrandt, what intense individuality! Could Sir +Joshua Reynolds have painted a vixen without giving her a touch of +sentiment? Would not Sir Thomas Lawrence have given refinement to a +cook-maid? I do believe that Opie would have made even a calf's head +look sensible, as Gainsborough made our queen Charlotte look picturesque. + +If I should whisper that since I came to Germany I have not seen one +really fine modern portrait, the Germans would never forgive me; they +would fall upon me with a score of great names--Wach, Stieler, Vogel, +Schadow--and beat me, like Chrimhilde, "black and blue." But before they +are angry, and absolutely condemn me, I wish they would place one of +their own most admired portraits beside those of Titian or Vandyke, +or come to England, and look upon our school of portraiture here! I +think they would allow, that with all their merits, they are in the +wrong road. Admirable, finished drawing; wonderful dexterity of hand; +exquisite and most conscientious truth of imitation, they have; but they +abuse these powers. They do not seem to feel the application of the +highest, grandest principles of art to portrait painting--they think too +much of the accessories. Are not these clever and accomplished men aware +that imitation may be carried so far as to cease to be nature--to be +error, not truth? For instance, by the common laws of vision I can +behold perfectly only one thing at a time. If I look into the face +of a person I love or venerate, do I see _first_ the embroidery of the +canezou or the pattern on the waistcoat? if not--why should it be so in +a picture? The vulgar eye alone is caught by such misplaced skill--the +vulgar artist only ought to seek to captivate by such means. + +These would sound in England as the most trite and impertinent +remarks--the most self-evident propositions: nevertheless they are +truths which the generality of the German portrait painters and their +admirers have not yet felt. + + * * * * * + +I drove with my kind-hearted friends, M. and Madame Stuntz, to +Thalkirchen, the country-house of the Baron de Freyberg. The road +pursued the banks of the rapid, impetuous Isar, and the range of the +Tyrolian alps bounded the prospect before us. An hour's drive brought +us to Thalkirchen, where we were obviously quite unexpected, but that +was nothing:--I was at once received as a friend, and introduced +without ceremony to Madame de Freyberg's painting-room. Though now the +fond mother of a large _little_ family, she still finds some moments +to devote to her art. On her easel was the portrait of the Countess +M---- (the sister of De Freyberg) with her child, beautifully +painted--particularly the latter. In the same room was an unfinished +portrait of M. de Freyberg, evidently painted _con amore_, and full +of spirit and character; a head of Cupid, and a piping boy, quite +in the Italian manner and feeling; and a picture of the birth of +St. John, exquisitely finished. I was most struck by the heads of two +Greeks--members, I believe, of the deputation to King Otho--painted with +her peculiar delicacy and transparency of colour, and, at the same time, +with a breadth of style and a freedom in the handling, which I have not +yet seen among the German portrait painters. A glance over a portfolio +of loose sketches and unfinished designs added to my estimation of her +talents. She excels in children--her own serving her as models. I do not +hesitate to say of this gifted woman, that while she equals Angelica +Kauffman in grace and delicacy, she far exceeds her in _power_, both +of drawing and colouring. She reminded me more of the Sofonisba,[12] but +it is a different, and, I think, a more delicate style of colour, than +I have observed in the pictures of the latter. + +We had coffee, and then strolled through the grounds--the children +playing around us. If I was struck by the genius and accomplishments +of Madame de Freyberg, I was not less charmed by the frank and noble +manners of her husband, and his honest love and admiration of his wife, +whom he married in despite of all prejudices of birth and rank. + +In this truly German dwelling there was an extreme simplicity, a sort of +negligent elegance, a picturesque and refined homeliness, the presiding +influence of a most poetical mind and eye every where visible, and a +total indifference to what we English denominate _comfort_; yet with +the obvious presence of that crowning comfort of all comforts--cordial +domestic love and union--which impressed me altogether with pleasant +ideas, long after borne in my mind, and not yet, nor ever to be, +effaced. How little is needed for happiness, when we have not been +spoiled in the world, nor our tastes vitiated by artificial wants and +habits! When the hour of departure came, and De Freyberg was handing +me to the carriage, he made me advance a few steps, and pause to look +round; he pointed to the western sky, still flushed with a bright +geranium tint, between the amber and the rose; while against it lay the +dark purple outline of the Tyrolian mountains. A branch of the Isar, +which just above the house overflowed and spread itself into a wide +still pool, mirrored in its clear bosom not only the glowing sky and +the huge dark mountains, and the banks and trees blended into black +formless masses, but the very stars above our heads;--it was a heavenly +scene!--"You will not forget this," said De Freyberg, seeing I was +touched to the heart; "you will think of it when you are in England, +and in recalling it, you will perhaps remember us--who will not forget +_you_! Adieu, madame!" + +Afterwards to the opera: it was Herold's "Zampa:" noisy, riotous music, +which I hate. I thought Madame Schechner's powers misplaced in this +opera--yet she sang magnificently. + +Spent the morning with Dr. Martius, looking over the beautiful plates +and illustrations of his travels and scientific works. It appears from +what he told me, that the institution of the botanic garden is recent, +and is owing to the late king Max-Joseph, who was a generous patron of +scientific and benevolent institutions--as munificent as his son is +magnificent. + +One of the most interesting monuments in Munich, is the tomb of Eugene +Beauharnais, in the church of St. Michael. It is by Thorwaldson, and one +of his most celebrated works. It is finely placed, and all the parts are +admirable: but I think it wants completeness and entireness of effect, +and does not tell its story well. Upon a lofty pedestal, there is first, +in the centre, the colossal figure of the duke stepping forward; one hand +is pressed upon his heart, and the other presents the civic crown--(but +to whom?)--his military accoutrements lie at his feet. The drapery is +admirably managed, and the attitude simple and full of dignity. On his +left is the beautiful and well-known group of the two genii, Love and +Life, looking disconsolate. On the right, the seated muse of History +is inscribing the virtues and exploits of the hero; and as, of all the +satellites of Napoleon, Eugene has left behind the fairest name, I +looked at her, and her occupation, with complacency. The statue is, +moreover, exceedingly beautiful and expressive--so are the genii; and +the figure of Eugene is magnificent; and yet the combination of the +whole is not effective. Another fault is, the colour of the marble, +which has a grey tinge, and ought at least to have been relieved by +constructing the pedestal and accompaniments of black marble; whereas +they are of a reddish hue. + +The widow of Eugene, the eldest sister of the king of Bavaria, raised +this monument to her husband, at an expense of eighty thousand florins. +As the whole design is classical, and otherwise in the purest taste and +grandest style of art, I exclaimed with horror at the sight of a vile +heraldic crown, which is lying at the feet of the muse of History. +I was sure that Thorwaldson would never voluntarily have committed +such a solecism. I was informed that the princess-widow insisted on +the introduction of this piece of barbarity as emblematical of the +vice-royalty of Italy; any royalty being apparently better than none. + +I remember that when travelling in the Netherlands, at a time when the +people were celebrating the _Fête-Dieu_, I saw a village carpenter +busily employed in erecting a _réposoir_ for the Madonna, of painted +boards and draperies and wreaths of flowers. In the mean time, as if +to deprecate criticism, he had chalked in large letters over his work, +"_La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile_." I could not help +smiling at this application of one of those undeniable truisms which +no one thinks it necessary to remember. When I recall the pleasure I +derived from this noble work of Thorwaldson, all the genius, all the +skill, all the patience, all the time, expended on its production, I +think the foregoing trifling criticisms appear very ungrateful and +impertinent; and yet, as a friend of mine insisted, when I was once upon +a time pleading for mercy on certain defects and deficiencies in some +other walk of art, "Toleration is the nurse of mediocrity." Artists +themselves, as I often observe,--even the vainest of them--prefer +discriminating admiration to wholesale praise. In the Frauen Kirche, +there is another most admirable monument, a _chef d'oeuvre_, in the +Gothic style. It is the tomb of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, who died +excommunicated in 1347; a stupendous work, cast in bronze. At the four +corners are four colossal knights kneeling, in complete armour, each +bearing a lance and ensign, and guarding the recumbent effigy of the +emperor, which lies beneath a magnificent Gothic canopy. At the two +sides are standing colossal figures, and I suppose about eight or +ten other figures on a smaller scale, all of admirable design and +workmanship.[13] It should seem, that in the sixteenth century the art +of casting in bronze was not only brought to the highest perfection in +Germany, but found employment on a very grand scale. + +In the evening there was a concert at the Salle de l'Odeon--the third +I have attended since I came here. This concert room is larger than any +public room in London, and admirably constructed for music. Over the +orchestra, in a semi-circle, are the busts of the twelve great German +composers who have flourished during the last hundred years, beginning +with Handel and Bach, and ending with Weber and Beethoven. On this +occasion the hall was crowded. We had all the best performers of Munich, +led by the Kapelmeister Stuntz, and Schechner and Meric, who sang +_à l'envie l'une de l'autre_. The concert began at seven, and ended +a little after nine; and much as I love music, I felt I had had enough. +They certainly manage these social pleasures much better here than in +London, where a grand concert almost invariably proves a most awful bore, +from which we return wearied, yawning, jarred, satiated. + +Count ---- amused me this evening with his laconic summing up of the +rise, progress, and catastrophe of a Polish amour;--se passioner, se +battre, se ruiner, enlever, épouser, et divorcer; and so ends this +six-act tragico-comico-heroico pastoral. + +_23rd._--To-day went over the Pinakothek (the new grand national picture +gallery) with M. de Klenze, the architect, and Comtesse de V----. This +is the second time; but I have not yet a clear and connected idea of the +general design, the building being still in progress. As far as I can +understand the arrangements, they will be admirable. The destination of +the edifice seems to have been the first thing kept in view. The situation +of particular pictures has been calculated, and accurate experiments +have been made for the arrangement of the light, &c. Professor Zimmermann +has kindly promised to take me over the whole once more. He has the +direction of the fresco paintings here. + + * * * * * + +Society is becoming so pleasant, and engagements of every kind so +multifarious, that I have little time for scribbling memoranda. New +characters unfold before me, new scenes of interest occupy my thoughts. +I find myself surrounded with friends, where only a few weeks ago I had +scarcely one acquaintance. Time ought not to linger--and yet it does +sometimes. + +Our circumstances alter; our opinions change; our passions die; our +hopes sicken, and perish utterly:--our spirits are broken; our health +is broken, and even our hearts are broken; but WILL survives--the +unconquerable strength of will, which is in later life what passion +is when young. In this world, there is always something to be done +or suffered, even when there is no longer any thing to be desired or +attained. + +The Glyptothek is, at certain hours, open to strangers _only_, and +strangers do not at present abound: hence it has twice happened that +I have found myself in the gallery alone--to-day for the second time. +I felt that, under some circumstances, an hour of solitude in a gallery +of sculpture may be an epoch in one's life. There was not a sound, no +living thing near, to break the stillness; and lightly, and with a +feeling of awe, I trod the marble pavements, looking upon the calm, +pale, motionless forms around me, almost expecting they would open their +marble lips and speak to me--or, at least, nod--like the statue in Don +Giovanni: and still, as the evening shadows fell deeper and deeper, they +waxed, methought, sadder, paler, and more life-like. A dim, unearthly +glory effused those graceful limbs and perfect forms, of which the +exact outline was lost, vanishing into shade, while the sentiment--the +_ideal_--of their immortal loveliness, remained distinct, and became +every moment more impressive: and thus they stood; and their melancholy +beauty seemed to melt into the heart. + +As the Graces round the throne of Venus, so music, painting, sculpture, +wait as handmaids round the throne of Poetry. "They from her golden urn +draw light," as planets drink the sunbeams; and in return they array the +divinity which created and inspired them, in those sounds, and hues, and +forms, through which she is revealed to our mortal senses. The pleasure, +the illusion, produced by music, when it is the _voice_ of poetry, is, +for the moment, by far the most complete and intoxicating, but also +the most transient. Painting, with its lovely colours blending into +life, and all its "silent poesy of form," is a source of pleasure more +lasting, more intellectual. Beyond both, is sculpture, the noblest, the +least illusive, the most enduring of the imitative arts, because it +charms us not by what it seems to be, but by what it is; because if the +pleasure it imparts be less exciting, the impression it leaves is more +profound and permanent; because it is, or ought to be, the abstract idea +of power, beauty, sentiment, made visible in the cold, pure, impassive, +and almost eternal marble. + +It seems to me that the grand secret of that grace of repose which we +see developed in the antique statues, may be defined as _the presence_ +_of thought, and the absence of volition_. The moment we have, in +sculpture, the expression of will, or effort, we have the idea of +something fixed in its place by an external cause, and a consequent +diminution of the effect of internal power. This is not well expressed, +I fear. Perhaps I might illustrate the thought thus: the Venus de Medici +looks as if she were content to stand on her pedestal and be worshipped; +Canova's Hebe looks as if she would fain step off the pedestal--if she +could: the Apollo Belvedere, as if he could step from his pedestal--if +he would. + +Among the Greeks, in the best ages of sculpture, and in all their very +finest statues, this seems to be the presiding principle--viz. that in +sculpture the repose of suspended motion, or of subsided motion, is +graceful; but arrested motion, and all effort, to be avoided. When the +ancients did express motion, they made it flowing or continuous, as in +the frieze of the Parthenon. + + + + +ALONE. + +IN THE GALLERY OF SCULPTURE AT MUNICH. + + + Ye pale and glorious forms, to whom was given + All that we mortals covet under heaven-- + Beauty, renown, and immortality, + And worship!--in your passive grandeur, ye. + + There's nothing new in life, and nothing old; + The tale that we might tell hath oft been told. + Many have look'd to the bright sun with sadness, + Many have look'd to the dark grave with gladness; + Many have griev'd to death--have lov'd to madness! + + What has been, is;--what is, will be;--I know, + Even while the heart drops blood, it must be so. + I live and smile--for O the griefs that kill, + Kill slowly--and I bear within me still + My conscious self, and my unconquer'd will! + + And knowing what I have been--what has made + My misery, I will be no more betray'd + By hollow mockeries of the world around, + Or hopes and impulses, which I have found + Like ill-aim'd shafts, that kill by their rebound. + + Complaint is for the feeble, and despair + For evil hearts. Mine still can hope--still bear-- + Still hope for others what it never knew + Of truth and peace; and silently pursue + A path beset with briers, "and wet with tears like dew!" + + + * * * * * + +To-day I devoted to the Pinakothek--for the last time! + +Just before I left England our projected national gallery had excited +much attention. Those who were usually indifferent to such matters were +roused to interest; and I heard the merits of different designs, so +warmly, even so violently discussed in public and in private, that for +a long time the subject kept possession of my mind. On my arrival here, +the Pinakothek (for that is the designation given to the new national +gallery of Munich) became to me a principal object of interest. I have +been most anxious to comprehend both the general design and the nature +of the arrangements in detail; but I might almost doubt my own competency +to convey an exact idea of what I understand and admire, to the +comprehension of another. I must try, however, while the impressions +remain fresh and strong, and the memory not yet encumbered and distracted, +as it must be, even a few hours hence, by the variety, and novelty, and +interest, of all I see and hear around me. + +The Pinakothek was founded in 1826; the king himself laying the first +stone with much pomp and ceremony on the 7th of April, the birthday of +Rafaelle. + +It is a long, narrow edifice, facing the south, measuring about five +hundred feet from east to west, and about eighty or eighty-five feet +in depth. At the extremities are two wings, or rather projections. The +body of the building is of brick, but not of common brickwork: for the +bricks, which are of a particular kind of clay, have a singular tint, +a kind of greenish yellow; while the friezes, balustrades, architraves +of the windows, in short, all the ornamental parts, are of stone, the +colour of which is a fine warm grey; and as the stone workmanship is +extremely rich, and the brickwork of unrivalled elegance and neatness, +and the colours harmonize well, the combination produces a very handsome +effect, rendering the exterior as pleasing to the eye, as the scientific +adaptation of the building to its peculiar purpose is to the understanding. + +Along the roof runs a balustrade of stone, adorned with twenty-four +colossal statues of celebrated painters. A public garden, which is +already in preparation, will be planted around, beautifully laid out +with shady walks, flower-beds, fountains, urns, and statues. I believe +the enclosure of this garden will be about a thousand feet each way, and +that it will ultimately be bounded (at least on three sides) with rows +of houses forming a vast square, of which the Pinakothek will occupy +the centre. It consists of a ground-floor and an upper-story. The +ground-floor will comprise, 1st, the collection of the Etruscan vases; +2ndly, the Mosaics, ancient and modern, of which there are here some +rare and admirable specimens; 3rdly, the cabinet of drawings by the old +masters; 4thly, the cabinet of engravings, which is said to be one of +the richest in Europe; 5thly, a library of all works pertaining to the +fine arts; lastly, a noble entrance-hall: a private entrance; with +accommodations for students, and other offices. + +The upper-story is appropriated to the pictures, and is calculated to +contain not less than fifteen hundred specimens, selected from various +galleries, and arranged according to the schools of art. + +We ascend from the entrance-hall by a wide and handsome staircase of +stone, very elegantly carved, which leads first to a kind of vestibule, +where the attendants and keepers of the gallery are in waiting. Thence, +to a splendid reception-room, about fifty feet in length: this will +contain the full-length portraits of the founders of the gallery of +Munich--the Palatine John William; the Elector, Maximilian Emanuel of +Bavaria; the Duke Charles of Deuxponts; the Palatine Charles Theodore; +Maximilian Joseph I., king of Bavaria; and his son, (the present +monarch,) Louis I. The ceiling and the frieze of this room are +splendidly decorated with groups of figures and ornaments in white +relief, on a gold ground, and the walls will be hung with crimson +damask. + +Along the south front of the building from east to west runs a gallery +or corridor about four hundred feet in length, and eighteen in width, +lighted on one side by twenty-five lofty arched windows, having on the +other side ten doors, opening into the suite of picture galleries, or +rather halls. These occupy the centre of the building, and are lighted +from above by vast lanthorns. They are eight in number, varying in +length from fifty to eighty feet, but all forty feet in width and fifty +feet in height from the floor to the summit of the lanthorn. The walls +will be hung with silk damask, either of a dark crimson or a dark +green--according to the style of art for which the room is destined. +The ceilings are vaulted, and the decorations are inexpressibly rich, +composed of magnificent arabesques, intermixed with the effigies of +celebrated painters, and groups illustrative of the history of art, &c., +all moulded in white relief upon a ground of dead gold. Mayer, one of +the best sculptors in Munich, has the direction of these works. + +Behind these vast galleries, or saloons, there is a range of cabinets, +twenty-three in number, appropriated to the smaller pictures of the +different schools: these are each about nineteen feet by fifteen in +size, and lighted from the north, each having one high lateral window. +The ceilings and upper part of the walls are painted in fresco, (or +distemper, I am not sure which,) with very graceful arabesques of a +quiet colour;--the hangings will also be of silk damask. + +Of the principal saloons, the first is appropriated to the productions +of modern and living artists, and has three cabinets attached to it. +The second will contain the old German pictures, including the famous +Boisserée gallery, and has four cabinets attached to it. The third, +fourth, and fifth saloons (of which the central one, the hall of Rubens, +is eighty feet in length) are devoted, with the nine adjoining cabinets, +to the Flemish and Dutch schools. The sixth, with four cabinets, will +contain the French and Spanish pictures; and the seventh and eighth, +with three cabinets, will contain the Italian school of painting. All +these apartments communicate with each other by ample doors; but from +the corridor already mentioned, which opens into the whole suite, the +visitor has access to any particular gallery, or school of painting, +without passing through the others: an obvious advantage, which will +be duly estimated by those who, in visiting a gallery of painting, +have felt their eyes dazzled, their heads bewildered, their attention +distracted, by too much variety of temptation and attraction, before +they have reached the particular object or school of art to which their +attention was especially directed. + +To this beautiful and most convenient corridor, or, as it is called +here, _loggia_, we must now return. I have said that it is four hundred +feet in length, and lighted by five-and-twenty arched windows,--which, +by the way, command a splendid prospect, bounded by the far-off +mountains of the Tyrol. The wall opposite to these windows is divided +into twenty-five corresponding compartments, arched, and each surmounted +by a dome; these compartments are painted in fresco with arabesques, +something in the style of Rafaelle's Loggie in the Vatican; while +every arch and cupola contains (also painted in fresco) scenes from the +life of some great painter, arranged chronologically: thus, in fact, +exhibiting a graphic history of the rise and progress of modern +painting--from Cimabue down to Rubens. + +Of this series of frescos, which are now in progress, a few only are +finished, from which, however, a very satisfactory idea may be formed, +of the whole design. The first cupola is painted from a poem of A. W. +Schlegel "Der Bund der Kirche mit den Künsten," which celebrates the +alliance between religion (or rather the church) and the fine arts. +The second cupola represents the Crusades, because from these wild +expeditions (for so Providence ordained that good should spring from +evil) arose the regeneration of art in Europe. With the third cupola +commences the series of painters. In the arch, or lunette, is +represented the Madonna of Cimabue carried in triumphal procession +through the streets of Florence to the church of Santa Maria Novella; +and in the dome above, various scenes from the painter's life. In the +next cupola is the history of Giotto; then follows Angelico da Fesole, +who, partly from humility and partly from love for his art, refused to +be made Archbishop of Florence; then, fourthly, Masaccio; fifthly, +Bellini: in one compartment he is represented painting the favourite +sultana of Mahomet II. Several of the succeeding cupolas still remain +blank, so we pass them over and arrive at Leonardo da Vinci, painting +the queen Joanna of Arragon; then Michael Angelo, meditating the design +of St. Peter's; then the history of Rafaelle: in the dome are various +scenes from his life. The lunette represents his death: he is extended +on a couch, beside which sits his virago love, the Fornarina "in disperato +dolor;" Pope Leo X. and Cardinal Bembo are looking on overwhelmed with +grief;--in the background is the Transfiguration. + +I wonder, if Rafaelle had survived this fatal illness, which of the +two alternatives he would have chosen--the cardinal's hat or the niece +of Cardinal Bibbiena? M. de Klenze gave us, the other night, a most +picturesque and animated description of the opening of Rafaelle's +tomb,--at which he had himself assisted--the discovery of his remains, +and those of his betrothed bride, the niece of Cardinal Bibbiena, +deposited near him. She survived him several years, but in her last +moments requested to be buried in the same tomb with him. This was at +least quite in the _genre romantique_. + +"Charming!" exclaimed one of the ladies present. + +"_Et genereux!_" exclaimed another. + +The series of the Italian painters will end with the Carracci. Those of +the German painters will begin with Van Eyck, and end with Rubens. Of +many of the frescos which are not yet executed, I saw the cartoons in +professor Zimmermann's studio. + +Though the general decoration of this gallery was planned by Cornelius, +the designs for particular parts, and the direction of the whole, have +been confided to Zimmermann, who is assisted in the execution by five +other painters. One particular picture, which represents Giotto exhibiting +his Madonna to the pope, was pointed out to my especial admiration +as the most finished specimen of fresco painting which has yet been +executed here; and in truth, for tenderness and freshness of colour, +softness in the shadows, and delicacy in the handling, it might bear +comparison with any painting in oils. We were standing near it on a high +scaffold, and it endured the closest and most minute consideration; +but when seen from below, it may possibly be less effective. It shows, +however, the extreme finish of which the fresco painting is susceptible. +This was executed by Hiltensperger, of Swabia, from the cartoon of +Zimmermann. At one end of this gallery there is to be a large fresco, +representing his majesty King Louis, introduced by the muse of Poetry +to the assembled poets and painters of Germany. Now, this species of +allegorical adulation appears to me flat and out of date. I well remember +that long ago the famous picture of Voltaire, introduced into the Elysian +fields by Henri Quatre, and making his best bow to Racine and Molière, +threw me into a convulsion of laughter: and the cartoon of this royal +apotheosis provoked the same irrepressible feeling of the ridiculous. +I wish somebody would hint to King Louis that this is not in good taste, +and that there are many, many ways in which the compliment (which he +truly merits) might be better managed. + +On the whole, however, it may truly be said that the luxuriant and +appropriate decorations of this gallery, the variety of colour and +ornament lavished on it, agreeably prepare the eye and the imagination +for that glorious feast of beauty within, to which we are immediately +introduced: and thus the overture to the Zauberflöte, (which we heard +last night,) with its rich involved harmonies, its brilliant and +exciting movements, attuned the ear and the fancy to enjoy the grand, +thrilling, bewitching, love-breathing melodies of the opera which +followed. + +I omitted to mention that there are also on the upper floor of the +Pinakothek two rooms, each about forty feet square; one called the +_Reserve-Saal_, is intended for the reception of those pictures which +are temporarily removed from their places, new acquisitions, &c. +The other room is fitted up with every convenience for students and +copyists. + +The whole of this immense edifice is warmed throughout by heated air; +the stoves being detached from the body of the building, and so managed +as to preclude the possibility of danger from fire. + +It does not appear to be yet decided whether the floors will be of the +Venetian stucco, or of parquet. + +Such, then, is the general plan of the Pinakothek, the national gallery +of Bavaria. I make no comment, except that I felt and recognised in +every part the presence of a directing mind, and the absence of all +narrow views, all truckling to the interests, or tastes, or prejudices, +or convenience, of any particular class of persons. It is very possible +that when finished it will be found by scientific critics not absolutely +_perfect_, which, as we know, all human works are at least intended and +expected to be; but it is equally clear that an honest anxiety for the +glory of art, and the benefit of the public--not the caprices of the +king, nor the individual vanity of the architect--has been the moving +principle throughout. + + * * * * * + +Fresco painting, or, as the Italians call it, _buon fresco_, had +been entirely discontinued since the time of Raphael Mengs. It was +revived at Rome in 1809-10, when the late M. Bartholdy, the Prussian +consul-general, caused a saloon in his house to be painted in fresco by +Peter Cornelius, Overbeck, and Philip Veith, all German artists, then +resident at Rome. The subjects are taken from the Scriptures, and one +of the admirable cartoons of Overbeck, (Joseph sold by his brethren,) I +saw at Frankfort. These first essays are yet to be seen in Bartholdy's +house, in the Via Sistina at Rome. They are rather hard, but in a +grand style of composition. The success which attended this spirited +undertaking, excited much attention and enthusiasm, and induced the +Marchese Massimi to have his villa near the Lateran adorned in the same +style. Accordingly, he had three grand halls or saloons, painted with +subjects from Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso. The first was given to Philip +Veith, the second to Julius Schnorr, and the third to Overbeck. Veith +did not finish his work, which was afterwards terminated by Koch; the +two other painters completed their task, much to the satisfaction of the +Marchese, and to the admiration of all Rome. + +But these were mere experiments--mere attempts, compared to what has +since been executed in the same style at Munich. It is true that the +art of fresco-painting had never been entirely lost. The theory of the +process was well known, and also the colours formerly used; only +practice, and the opportunity of practice, were wanting. This has been +afforded; and there is now at Munich a school of fresco painting, under +the direction of Cornelius, Julius Schnorr, and Zimmermann, in which +the mechanical process has been brought to such perfection, that the +neatness of the execution may vie with oils, and they can even cut +out a feature, and replace it if necessary. The palette has also been +augmented by the recent improvements in chemistry, which have enabled +the fresco painter to apply some most precious colours, unknown to the +ancient masters: only earths and metallic colours are used. I believe it +is universally known that the colours are applied while the plaster is +wet, and that the preparation of this plaster is a matter of much care +and nicety. A good deal of experience and manual dexterity is necessary +to enable the painter to execute with rapidity, and calculate the exact +degree of humidity in the plaster, requisite for the effect he wishes to +produce. + +It has been said that fresco painting is unfitted for our climate, +damp and sea-coal fires being equally injurious; but the new method of +warming all large buildings, either by steam or heated air, obviates, +at least, _this_ objection. + +_26th._--The morning was spent in the ateliers of two Bavarian sculptors, +Mayer and Bandel. To Mayer, the king has confided the decoration of +the exterior of the Pinakothek, of which he showed me the drawings and +designs. He has also executed the colossal statue of Albert Durer, in +stone, for the interior of that building. + +It appears that the pediment of the Glyptothek, now vacant, will be +adorned by a group of fourteen or fifteen figures, representing all the +different processes in the art of sculpture; the modeller in clay, the +hewer of the marble, the caster in bronze, the carver in wood or ivory, +&c. all in appropriate attitudes, all colossal, and grouped into a whole. +The general design was modelled, I believe, by Eberhardt, professor +of sculpture in the academy here; and the execution of the different +figures has been given to several young sculptors, among them Mayer and +Bandel. This has produced a strong feeling of emulation. I observed that +notwithstanding the height and the situation to which they are destined, +nearly one-half of each figure being necessarily turned from the +spectator below, each statue is wrought with exceeding care, and +perfectly finished on every side. I admired the purity of the marble, +which is from the Tyrol. Mayer informs me, that about three years ago +enormous quarries of white marble were discovered in the Tyrol, to the +great satisfaction of the king, as it diminishes, by one-half, the +expense of the material. This native marble is of a dazzling whiteness, +and to be had in immense masses without flaw or speck; but the grain +is rather coarse. + +More than twenty years ago, when the king of Bavaria was Prince Royal, +and could only anticipate at some distant period the execution of his +design, he projected a building, of which, at least, the name and +purpose must be known to all who have ever stepped on German ground. +This is the VALHALLA, a temple raised to the national glory, and intended +to contain the busts or statues of all the illustrious characters of +Germany, whether distinguished in literature, arts, or arms, from their +ancient hero and patriot Herman, or Arminius, down to Goethe, and those +who will succeed him. The idea was assuredly noble, and worthy of a +sovereign. The execution--never lost sight of--has been but lately +commenced. The Valhalla has been founded on a lofty cliff, which rises +above the Danube, not far from Ratisbon.[14] It will form a conspicuous +object to all who pass up and down the Danube, and the situation, nearly +in the centre of Germany, is at least well chosen. But I could hardly +express (or repress) my surprise, when I was shown the design for this +building. The first glance recalled the Theseum at Athens; and then +follows the very natural question, why should a Greek model have been +chosen for an edifice, the object, and purpose, and name of which are so +completely, essentially, exclusively gothic? What, in Heaven's name, has +the Theseum to do on the banks of the Danube? It is true that the purity +of forms in the Greek architecture, the effect of the continuous lines +and the massy Doric columns, must be grand and beautiful to the eye, +place the object where you will; and in the situation designed for it, +particularly imposing; but surely it is not appropriate;--the name, +and the form, and the purpose, are all at variance--throwing our most +cherished associations into strange confusion. Nor could the explanations +and eloquent reasoning with which my objections were met, succeed in +convincing me of the propriety of the design, while I acknowledged +its magnificence. The sculptor Mayer showed me a group of figures for +one of the pediments of this Greek Valhalla, admirably appropriate to +the purpose of the building--but not to the building itself. It represents +Herman introduced by Hermoda (or Mercury) into the Valhalla, and received +by Odin and Freya. Iduna advances to meet the hero, presenting the +apples of immortality, and one of the Vahlküre pours out the mead, to +refresh the soul of the Einheriar.[15] To the right of this group are +several figures representing the chief epochs in the history of Germany. + +This design wants unity; and it is a manifest incongruity to allude +to the introduction of Christianity, where the mythological Valhalla +forms the chief point of interest; notwithstanding, it gave me exceeding +pleasure, as furnishing an unanswerable proof of the possible application +of sculpture on a grand scale, to the forms of romantic or gothic poetry: +all the figures, the accompaniments, attributes, are strictly Teutonic; +the effect of the whole is grand and interesting; but what would it be +on a Greek temple? would it not appear misplaced and discordant? + +I am informed, that of the two pediments of the Valhalla, one will be +given to Rauch of Berlin, and the other to Schwanthaler. + +The sculptor Bandel, with his quick eye, his ample brow, his animated, +benevolent face, and his rapid movements, looks like what he is--a genius. + +In his atelier I saw some things, just like what I see in all the ateliers +of young sculptors--cold imitations, feeble versions of mythological +subjects--but I saw some other things so fresh and beautiful in feeling, +as to impress me with a high idea of his poetical and creative power. +I longed to bring to England one or two casts of his charming Cupid +Penseroso, of which the original marble is at Hanover. There is also +a very exquisite bas-relief of Adam and Eve sleeping: the good angel +watching on one side, and the evil angel on the other. This lovely group +is the commencement of a series of bas-reliefs, designed, I believe, for +a frieze, and not yet completed, representing the four ages of the world: +the age of innocence; the heroic age, or age of physical power; the age +of poetry, and the age of philosophy. This new version of the old idea +interested me, and it is developed and treated with much grace and +originality. Bandel told us that he is just going, with his beautiful +wife and two or three little children, to settle at Carrara for a few +years. The marble quarries there are now colonised by young sculptors of +every nation. + + * * * * * + +The king of Bavaria has a gallery of beauties, (the portraits of some of +the most beautiful women of Germany and Italy,) which he shuts up from +the public eye, like any grand Turk--and neither bribery nor interest +can procure admission. A lovely woman, to whom I was speaking of it +yesterday, and who has been admitted in effigy into this harem, seemed +to consider the compliment rather equivocal. "Depend upon it, my dear," +said she, "that fifty years hence we shall be all confounded together, +as the king's _very_ intimate friends; and, to tell you the truth, I am +not ambitious of the honour, more particularly as there are some of my +illustrious _companions in charms_ who are enough to throw discredit +on the whole set!" + +I saw in Stieler's atelier two portraits for this collection: one, a +woman of rank--a dark beauty; the other, a servant girl here, with a +head like one of Raffaelle's angels, almost divine; she is painted +in the little filagree silver cap, the embroidered boddice, and silk +handkerchief crossed over the bosom, the costume of the women of Munich, +to which the king is extremely partial. I am assured that this young +girl, who is not more than seventeen, is as remarkable for her piety, +simplicity, and spotless reputation, as for her singular beauty. I have +seen her, and the picture merely does her justice. Several other women +of the _bourgeoisie_ have been pointed out to me as included in the +king's collection. One of these, the daughter, I believe, of an +herb-woman, is certainly one of the most exquisite creatures I ever +beheld. On the whole, I should say, that the lower orders of the people +of Munich are the handsomest race I have seen in Germany. + +Stieler is the court and fashionable portrait painter here--the Sir +Thomas Lawrence of Munich--that is, in the estimation of the Germans. +He is an accomplished man, with amiable manners, and a talent for +rising in the world; or, as I heard some one call it, the organ of +_getting-oniveness_. For the elaborate finish of his portraits, for +expertness and delicacy of hand, for resemblance and exquisite drawing, +I suppose he has few equals; but he has also, in perfection, what I +consider the faulty peculiarities of the German school. Stieler's +artificial roses are _too_ natural: his caps, and embroidered scarfs, +and jewelled bracelets, are more real than the things themselves--or +seem so; for certainly I never gave to the real objects the attention +and the admiration they challenge in his pictures. The famous bunch of +grapes, which tempted the birds to peck, could be nothing compared to +the felt of Prince Charles's hat in Stieler's portrait: it actually +invites the hat-brush. Strange perversion of power in the artist! +stranger perversion of taste in those who admire it!--_Ma pazienza!_ + + * * * * * + +The Duc de Leuchtenberg opens his small but beautiful gallery twice +a week: Mondays and Thursdays. The doors are thrown open and every +respectable person may walk in, without distinction or ceremony. It is +a delightful morning lounge; there are not more than one hundred and +fifty pictures--enough to excite and gratify, not satiate, admiration. +The first room contains a collection of paintings by modern and living +artists of France, Germany, and Italy. There is a lovely little picture +by Madame de Freyberg of the Maries at the sepulchre of Christ; and by +Heinrich Hess, a group of the three Christian graces--Faith, Hope, and +Charity, seated under the German oak, and painted with great simplicity +and sentiment; of his celebrated brother, Peter Hess, and Wagenbauer, +and Jacob Dorner, and Quaglio, there are beautiful specimens. The French +pictures did not please me: Girodet's picture of Ossian and the French +heroes is a monstrous combination of all manner of affectations. + +I should not forget a fine portrait of Napoleon, by Appiani, crowned +with laurel; and another picture, which represents him throned, with all +the insignia of state and power, and supported on either side by Victory +and Peace. For a moment we pause before that proud form, to think of all +he was, all he might have been--to draw a moral from the fate of +selfishness. + + He rose by blood, he built on man's distress, + And th'inheritance of desolation left + To great expecting hopes.[16] + + +Among the pictures of the old masters there are many fine ones, and +three or four of peculiar interest. There is the famous head by +Bronzino, generally entitled, Petrarch's Laura, but assuredly without +the slightest pretensions to authenticity. The face is that of a prim, +starched _précieuse_, to which the peculiar style of this old portrait +painter, with his literal nature, his hardness, and leaden colouring, +imparts additional coldness and rigidity. + +But the finest picture in the gallery--perhaps one of the finest in the +world--is the Madonna and Child of Murillo: one of those rare productions +of mind which baffle the copyist, and defy the engraver,--which it is +worth making a pilgrimage but to gaze on. How true it is that "a thing +of beauty is a joy for ever!" + +When I look at Murillo's roguish, ragged beggar-boys in the royal +gallery, and then at the Leuchtenberg gallery turn to contemplate his +Madonna and his ascending angel, both of such unearthly and inspired +beauty, a feeling of the wondrous grasp and versatility of the man's +mind almost makes me giddy. + +The lithographic press of Munich is celebrated all over Europe. Aloys +Senefelder, the inventor of the art, has the direction of the works, with +a well-merited pension, and the title of Inspector of Lithography.[17] + + * * * * * + +The people of Munich are not only a well-dressed and well-looking, but a +social, kind-hearted race. The number of unions, or societies, instituted +for benevolent or festive purposes, is, for the size of the place, +almost incredible.[18] I had a catalogue of more than forty given to +me this morning; they are for all ranks and professions, and there is +scarcely a person in the city who is not enlisted into one or more +of these communities. Some have reading-rooms, and well-furnished +libraries, to which strangers are at once introduced, gratis; they give +balls and concerts during the winter, which not only include their own +members and their friends, but one society will sometimes invite and +entertain another. + +The young artists of Munich, who constitute a numerous body, formed +themselves into an association, and gave very elegant balls and +concerts, at first among themselves and their immediate friends and +connexions; but the circle increased--these balls became more and more +splendid--even the king and the royal family frequently honoured them +with their presence. It became a point of honour to exceed in elegance +and profusion all the entertainments given by the other societies of +Munich. Every body danced, praised, and enjoyed themselves. At length it +occurred to some of the most considerate and kind-hearted of the people, +that these young men were going beyond their means to entertain their +friends and fellow-citizens. It had evidently become a matter of great +expense, and perhaps ostentation, and they resolved to put down this +competition at once. An association was formed of persons of all +classes, and they gave a fête to the painters of Munich, which eclipsed +in magnificence every thing of the kind before or since. It was a ball +and supper, on the most ample and splendid scale, and took place at the +Odeon. Each lady's ticket contained the name of the cavalier, to whose +especial protection and gallantry she was consigned for the evening; and +so much _tacte_ was shown in this arrangement, that I am told very few +were discontented with their lot. Nearly three thousand persons were +present, and it was the month of February; yet every lady on entering +the room was presented by her cavalier with a bouquet of hot-house +flowers; and the Salle de l'Odeon was adorned with a profusion of plants +and flowering shrubs, collected from all the conservatories, private and +public, within twenty miles of the capital. The king, the queen, their +family and suite, and many of the principal nobles were invited, with, +of course, a large portion of the gentry and trades-people of Munich; +but, notwithstanding the miscellaneous nature of the assemblage, and the +immense number of persons present, all was harmony, and good-breeding, +and gaiety. This fête produced the desired result; the young painters +took the hint, and though they still give balls, which are exceedingly +pleasant, they are on a more modest scale than heretofore. + +The Liederkranz (literally, the circle, or garland of song) is a society +of musicians--amateurs and professors--who give concerts here, at which +the compositions of the members are occasionally performed. One of these +concerts (Fest-Production) took place this evening at the Odeon; and +having duly received, as a stranger, my ticket of invitation, I went +early with a very pleasant party. + +The immense room was crowded in every part, and presented a most +brilliant spectacle, from the number of military costumes, and the +glittering head-dresses of the Munich girls. Our hosts formed the +orchestra. The king and queen had been invited, and had signified their +gracious intention of being present. The first row of seats was assigned +to them; but no other distinction was made between the royal family and +the rest of the company. + +The king is generally punctual on these occasions, but from some accident +he was this evening delayed, and we had to wait his arrival about ten +minutes; the company were all assembled--servants were already parading +up and down the room with trays, heaped with ices and refreshments--the +orchestra stood up, with fiddle-sticks suspended; the chorus, with mouths +half open--and the conductor, Stuntz, brandished his roll of music. At +length a side door was thrown open: a voice announced "the king;" the +trumpets sounded a salute; and all the people rose and remained standing +until the royal guests were seated. The king entered first, the queen +hanging on his arm. The duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, and his duchess,[19] +followed; then the princess Matilda, leading her younger brother and +sister, prince Luitpold and the princess Adelgonde;--the former a fine +boy of about twelve years old, the latter a pretty little girl of about +seven or eight: a single lady of honour; the baron de Freyberg, as +principal equerry; the minister von Schencke, and one or two other +officers of the household were in attendance. The king bowed to the +gentlemen in the orchestra, then to the company, and in a few moments +all were seated. + +The music was entirely vocal, consisting of concerted pieces only, for +three or more voices, and all were executed in perfection. I observed +several little boys and young girls, of twelve or fourteen, singing in +the chorusses, apparently much to their own satisfaction--certainly to +ours. Their voices were delicious, and perfectly well managed, and their +merry laughing faces were equally pleasant to look upon. + +We had first a grand loyal anthem, composed for the occasion by Lenz, +in which the king and queen, and their children, were separately +apostrophized. Prince Maximilian, now upon his travels, and young king +Otto, "far off upon the throne of Hellas," were not forgotten; and as +the princess Matilda has lately been _verlobt_ (betrothed) to the +hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, they put the _Futur_ into a +couplet, with great effect. It seems that this marriage has been for +some time in negociation; its course did not "run quite smooth," and the +heart of the young princess is supposed to be more deeply interested in +the affair than is usual in royal alliances. She is also very generally +beloved, so that when the chorus sang, + + "Hoch lebe Ludwig und Mathilde! + Ein Herz stets Brautigam und Braut!" + + +all eyes were turned towards her with a smiling expression of sympathy +and kindness, which really touched me. As I sat, I could only see her +side-face, which was declined. There was also an allusion to the late +king Max-Joseph, "das beste Herz," who died about five years ago, and +who appears to have been absolutely adored by his people. All this +passed off very well, and was greatly applauded. At the conclusion the +king rose from his seat, and said something courteous and good-natured +to the orchestra, and then sat down. The other pieces were by old +Schack, (the intimate friend of Mozart,) Stuntz, Chelard, and Marschner; +a drinking song by Hayden, and one of the chorusses in the _Cosi fan +Tutte_ were also introduced. The whole concluded with the "song of the +heroes in the Valhalla," composed by Stuntz. + +Between the acts there was an interval of at least half an hour, during +which the queen and the princess Matilda walked up and down in front of +the orchestra, entered into conversation with the ladies who were seated +near, and those whom the rules of etiquette allowed to approach unsummoned +and pay their respects. The king, meanwhile, walked round the room +unattended, speaking to different people, and addressing the young +bourgeoises, whose looks or whose toilette pleased him, with a bow and +a smile; while they simpered and blushed, and drew themselves up when +he had passed. + +As I see the king frequently, his face is familiar to me, but to-night +he looked particularly well, and had on a better coat than he usually +condescends to wear,--quite plain, however, and without any order or +decoration. He is now in his forty-seventh year, not handsome, with a +small well-formed head, an intelligent brow, and a quick penetrating +eye. His figure is slight and well-made, his movements quick, and his +manner lively--at times even abrupt and impatient. His utterance is +often so rapid as to be scarcely intelligible to those who are most +accustomed to him. I often meet him walking arm-in-arm with M. de +Schenke, M. de Klenze, and others of his friends--for apparently this +eccentric, accomplished sovereign has _friends_, though I believe he +is not so popular as his father was before him. + +The queen (Theresa, princess of Saxe-Hilburghausen) has a sweet open +countenance, and a pleasing, elegant figure. The princess Matilda, who +is now nineteen, is the express image of her mother, whom she resembles +in her amiable disposition, as well as her person; her figure is very +pretty, and her deportment graceful. She looked pensive this evening, +which was attributed by the good people around me to the recent +departure of the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who has been here for some +time paying his court. + +About ten, the concert was over. The king and queen remained a few +minutes in conversation with those around them, without displaying +any ungracious hurry to depart; and the whole scene left a pleasant +impression upon my fancy. To an English traveller in Germany nothing is +more striking than the easy familiar terms on which the sovereign and +his family mingle with the people on these and the like occasions; it +certainly would not answer in England: but as they say in this expressive +language--_Ländlich, sittlich_.[20] + +_Munich, Oct. 28th, 1833._ + + + + +II. + +NUREMBERG. + + +Nuremberg--with its long, narrow, winding, involved streets, its +precipitous ascents and descents, its completely gothic physiognomy--is +by far the strangest old city I ever beheld; it has retained in every +part the aspect of the middle ages. No two houses resemble each other; +yet, differing in form, in colour, in height, in ornament, all have a +family likeness; and with their peaked and carved gabels, and projecting +central balconies, and painted fronts, stand up in a row, like so many +tall, gaunt, stately old maids, with the toques and stomachers of the +last century. In the upper part of the town, we find here and there a +new house, built, or rebuilt, in a more modern fashion; and even a gay +modern theatre, and an unfinished modern church; but these, instead +of being embellishments, look ill-favoured and mean, like patches of +new cloth on a rich old brocade. Age is here, but it does not suggest +the idea of dilapidation or decay, rather of something which has been +put under a glass-case, and preserved with care from all extraneous +influences. The buildings are so ancient, the fashions of society so +antiquated, the people so penetrated with veneration for themselves and +their city, that in the few days I spent there, I began to feel quite +old too--my mind was _wrinkled up_, as it were, with a reverence for +the past. I wondered that people condescended to talk of any event +more recent than the thirty years' war, and the defence of Gustavus +Adolphus;[21] and all names of modern date, even of greatest mark, were +forgotten in the fame of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Peter Vischer: +the trio of worthies, which, in the estimation or imagination of the +Nurembergers, still live with the freshness of a yesterday's remembrance, +and leave no room for the heroes of to-day. My enthusiasm for Albert +Durer was all ready prepared, and warm as even the Nurembergers could +desire; but I confess, that of that renowned cobbler and meister-singer, +Hans Sachs, I knew little but what I had learnt from the pretty comedy +bearing his name, which I had seen at Manheim; and of the illustrious +Peter Vischer I could only remember that I had seen, in the academy at +Munich, certain casts from his figures, which had particularly struck +me. Yet to visit Nuremberg without some previous knowledge of these +luminaries of the middle ages, is to lose much of that pleasure of +association, without which the eye wearies of the singular, and the mind +becomes satiated with change. + +Nuremberg was the gothic Athens: it was never the seat of government, +but as a free imperial city it was independent and self-governed, and +took the lead in arts and in literature. Here it was that clocks and +watches, maps and musical instruments, were manufactured for all +Germany; here, in that truly German spirit of pedantry and simplicity, +were music, painting, and poetry, at once honoured as sciences, and +cultivated as handicrafts, each having its guild, or corporation, +duly chartered, like the other trades of this flourishing city, and +requiring, by the institution of the magistracy, a regular apprenticeship. +It was here that, on the first discovery of printing, a literary barber +and meister-singer (Hans Foltz) set up a printing-press in his own +house; and it was but the natural consequence of all this industry, +mental activity, and social cultivation, that Nuremberg should have +been one of the first cities which declared for the Reformation. + +But what is most curious and striking in this old city, is to see +it stationary, while time and change are working such miracles and +transformations every where else. The house where Martin Behaim, four +centuries ago, invented the sphere, and drew the first geographical +chart, is still the house of a map-seller. In the house where cards were +first manufactured, cards are now sold. In the very shops where clocks +and watches were first seen, you may still buy clocks and watches. The +same families have inhabited the same mansions from one generation to +another for four or five centuries. The great manufactories of those +toys, commonly called Dutch toys, are at Nuremberg. I visited the +wholesale depot of Pestelmayer, and it is true that it would cut a poor +figure compared to some of our great Birmingham show-rooms; but the +enormous scale on which this commerce is conducted, the hundreds of +waggon-loads and ship-loads of these trifles and gimcracks, which find +their way to every part of the known world, even to America and China, +must interest a thinking mind. Nothing gave me a more comprehensive +idea of the value of the whole, than a complaint which I heard from a +Nuremberger, (and which, though seriously made, sounded not a little +ludicrous,) of the falling off in the trade of _pill-boxes_! he said +that since the fashionable people of London and Paris had taken to +paper pill-boxes, the millions of wooden or chip boxes which used to +be annually sent from Nuremberg to all parts of Europe were no longer +required; and he computed the consequent falling off of the profits +at many thousand florins. + +Nuremberg was rendered so agreeable to me by the kindness and hospitality +I met with, that instead of merely passing through it, I spent some days +wandering about its precincts; and as it is not very frequently visited +by the English, I shall note a few of the objects which have dwelt on +my memory, premising, that for the artist and the antiquary it affords +inexhaustible materials. + +The whole city, which is very large, lies crowded and compact within its +walls; but the fortifications, once the wonder of all Germany, and their +three hundred and sixty-five towers, once the glory and safeguard of +the inhabitants, exist no longer. Four huge circular towers stand at the +principal gates,--four huge towers of almost dateless antiquity, and +blackened with age, but of such admirable construction, that the masonry +appears, from its entireness and smoothness, as if raised yesterday. +The old castle or fortress, which stands on a height commanding the +town and a glorious view, is a strange, dismantled, incongruous heap of +buildings. It happened, that in the summer of 1833, the king of Bavaria, +accompanied by the queen and the princess Matilda, had paid his good +city of Nuremberg a visit, and had been most royally entertained by the +inhabitants. The apartments in the old castle, long abandoned to the +rats and spiders, had been prepared for the royal guests, and, when I +saw it, three or four months afterwards, nothing could be more uncouth +and fantastical than the effect of these irregular rooms, with all +manner of angles, with their carved worm-eaten ceilings, their curious +latticed and painted windows, and most preposterous stoves, now all +tricked out with fresh paint here and there, and hung with gay glazed +papers of the most modern fashion, and the most gaudy patterns. Even the +chapel, with its four old pillars, which, according to the legend, had +been brought by Old Nick himself from Rome, and the effigy of the monk +who had cheated his infernal adversary, by saying the Litanies faster +than had ever been known before or since, had, in honour of the king's +visit, received a new coat of paint. There are some very curious old +pictures in the castle, (which luckily were not repainted for the same +grand occasion,) among them an original portrait of Albert Durer. In +the courtyard of the fortress stands an extraordinary relic--the old +lime-tree planted by the Empress Cunegunde, wife of the Emperor Henry +III.; every thing is done to preserve it from decay, and it still bears +its leafy honours, after beholding the revolution of seven centuries. + +From the fortress we look down upon the house of Albert Durer, which +is preserved with religious care; it has been hired by a society of +artists, who use it as a club-room: his effigy in stone is over the +door. In every house there is a picture or print of him; or copies, +or engravings from his works, and his head hangs in every print shop. +The street in which he lived is called by his name; and the inhabitants +have moreover built a fountain to his honour, and planted trees around +it;--in short, Albert Durer is wherever we look--wherever we move. What +can Fuseli mean by saying that Albert Durer "was a man of extreme +ingenuity without being a genius?" Does the man of mere ingenuity step +before his age as Albert Durer did, not as an artist only, but as a man +of science? Is not genius the creative power? and did not Albert Durer +possess this power in an extraordinary degree? Could Fuseli have seen +his four apostles, now in the gallery of Munich, when he said that +Albert Durer never had more than an occasional _glimpse_ of the sublime? + +Fuseli, as an _artist_, is an example of what I have seen in other +minds, otherwise directed. The stronger the faculties, the more of +original power in the mind, the less diffused is the sympathy, and the +more is the judgment swayed by the individual character. Thus Fuseli, in +his remarks on painters--excellent and eloquent as they are--scarcely +ever does justice to those who excel in colour. He perceives and admits +the excellence, but he shows in his criticisms, as in his pictures, +that the faculty was wanting to feel and appreciate it: his remarks on +Correggio and Rubens are a proof of this. In listening to the criticisms +of an author on literature--of a painter on pictures--and, generally, to +the opinion which one individual expresses of the character and actions +of another, it is wise to take into consideration the modification of +mind in the person who speaks, and how far it may, or _must_, influence, +even where it does not absolutely distort, the judgment; so many minds +are what the Germans call _one-sided_! The education, habits, mental +existence of the individual, are the refracting medium through which the +rays of truth pass to the mind, more or less bent or absorbed in their +passage. We should make philosophical allowance for different degrees +of density. + +Hans Sachs,[22] the old poet of Nuremberg, did as much for the Reformation +by his songs and satires, as Luther and the doctors by their preaching; +besides being one of the worshipful company of meister-singers, he found +time to make shoes, and even enrich himself by his trade: he informs us +himself that he had composed and written with his own hand "four thousand +two hundred mastership songs; two hundred and eight comedies, tragedies, +and farces; one thousand seven hundred fables, tales, and miscellaneous +poems; and seventy-three devotional, military, and love songs." It is +said he excelled in humour, but it was such as might have been expected +from the times--it was vigorous and coarse. "Hans," says the critic, +"tells his tale like a convivial burgher, fond of his can, and still +fonder of his drollery."[23] If this be the case, his house has received +a very appropriate designation: it is now an ale-house, from which, as I +looked up, the mixed odours of beer and tobacco, and the sound of voices +singing in chorus, streamed through the old latticed windows. "Drollery" +and "the can" were as rife in the dwelling of the immortal shoemaker as +they would have been in his own days, and in his own jovial presence. + +In the church of St. Sibbald, now the chief Protestant church, I was +surprised to find that most of the Roman Catholic symbols and relics +remained undisturbed: the large crucifix, the old pictures of the saints +and Madonnas had been reverentially preserved. The perpetual light which +had been vowed four centuries ago by one of the Tucher family, was still +burning over his tomb; no puritanic zeal had quenched that tiny flame +in its chased silver lamp; and through successive generations, and all +revolutions of politics and religion, maintained and fed by the pious +honesty of the descendants, it still shone on, + + Like the bright lamp that lay in Kildare's holy fane, + And burned through long ages of darkness and storm! + + +In this Protestant church, even the shrine of St. Sibbald has kept its +place, if not to the honour and glory of the saint, at least to the +honour and glory of the city of Nuremberg; it is considered as the +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Peter Vischer, a famous sculptor and caster in +bronze, cotemporary with Albert Durer. It was begun in 1506, and +finished in 1519, and is adorned with ninety-six figures, among which +the twelve apostles, all varying in character and attitude, are really +miracles of grace, power, and expression; the base of the shrine rests +upon six gigantic snails, and the whole is cast in bronze, and finished +with exquisite skill and fancy. At one end of this extraordinary +composition the artificer has placed his own figure, not obtrusively, +but retired, in a sort of niche; he is represented in his working dress, +with his cap, leather apron, and tools in his hand. According to +tradition, he was paid for his work by the pound weight, twenty gulden +(or florins) for every hundred weight of metal; and the whole weighs one +hundred and twenty centners, or hundred weight. + +The man who showed us this shrine was descended from Peter Vischer, +lived in the same house which he and his sons had formerly inhabited, +and carried on the same trade, that of a smith and brass-founder. + +The Moritz-Kapel, near the church, is an old gothic chapel once +dedicated to St. Maurice, now converted into a public gallery of +pictures of the old German school. The collection is exceedingly +curious; there are about one hundred and forty pictures, and besides +specimens of Mabuse, Albert Durer, Van Eyck, Martin Schoen, Lucas +Kranach, and the two Holbeins, I remember some portraits by a certain +Hans Grimmer, which impressed me by their truth and fine painting. It +appears from this collection that for some time after Albert Durer, the +German painters continued to paint on a gold ground. Kulmbach, whose +heads are quite marvellous for finish and expression, generally did so. +This gallery owes its existence to the present king, and has been well +arranged by the architect Heideldoff and professor von Dillis of Munich. + +In the market-place of Nuremberg stands the Schönebrunnen, that is, +the beautiful fountain; it bears the date 1355, and in style resembles +the crosses which Edward I. erected to Queen Eleanor, but is of more +elaborate beauty; it is covered with gothic figures, carved by one of +the most ancient of the German sculptors, Schonholfer, who modestly +styles himself a stone-cutter. Here we see, placed amicably close, +Julius Cæsar, Godfrey of Boulogne, Judas Maccabæus, Alexander the Great, +Hector of Troy, Charlemagne, and king David: all old acquaintances, +certainly, but whom we might have supposed that nothing but the day of +judgment could ever have assembled together in company. + +Talking of the day of judgment reminds me of the extraordinary cemetery +of Nuremberg, certainly as unlike every other cemetery, as Nuremberg is +unlike every other city. Imagine upon a rising ground, an open space +of about four acres, completely covered with enormous slabs, or rather +blocks of solid stone, about a foot and a half in thickness, seven feet +in length, and four in breadth, laid horizontally, and just allowing +space for a single person to move between them. The name, and the +armorial bearings of the dead, cast in bronze, and sometimes rich +sculpture, decorate these tombs: I remember one, to the memory of a +beautiful girl, who was killed as she lay asleep in her father's garden +by a lizard creeping into her mouth. The story is represented in bronze +bas-relief, and the lizard is so constructed as to move when touched. +From this I shrunk with disgust, and turned to the sepulchre of a famous +worthy, who measured the distance from Nuremberg to the holy sepulchre +with his garter: the implement of his pious enterprise, twisted into a +sort of true-love knot, is carved on his tomb. Two days afterwards I +entered the dominions of a reigning monarch, who is at this present +moment performing a journey to Jerusalem round the walls of his room.[24] +How long-lived are the follies of mankind! Have, then, five centuries +made so little difference? + +The tombs of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Sandraart, were pointed out +to me, resembling the rest in size and form. I was assured that these +huge sepulchral stones exceed three thousand in number, and the whole +aspect of this singular burial-place is, in truth, beyond measure +striking--I could almost add, appalling. + +I was not a little surprised and interested to find that the principal +Gazette of Nuremberg, which has a wide circulation through all this part +of Germany, extending even to Frankfort, Munich, Dresden, and Leipsig, +is entirely in female hands. Madame de Schaden is the proprietor, and +the responsible editor of the paper; she has the printing apparatus +and offices under her own roof, and though advanced in years, conducts +the whole concern with a degree of activity, spirit, and talent, which +delighted me. The circulation of this paper amounts to about four +thousand: a trifling number compared to our papers, but a large number +in this economical country, where the same paper is generally read by +fifty or sixty persons at least. + + * * * * * + +All travellers agree that benevolence and integrity are the national +characteristics of the Germans. Of their honesty I had daily proofs: +I do not consider that I was ever imposed upon or overcharged during my +journey, except once, and then it was by a Frenchman. Their benevolence +is displayed in the treatment of animals, particularly of their horses. +It was somewhere between Nuremberg and Hof, that, for the first and +only time, I saw a postilion flog his horse unmercifully, or at least +unreasonably. The Germans very seldom beat their horses: they talk to +them, remonstrate, encourage, or upbraid them. I have frequently known +a voiturier, or a postilion, go a whole stage--which is seldom less +than fifteen English miles--at a very fair pace, without once even +raising the whip; and have often witnessed, not without amusement, long +conversations between a driver and his steed--the man, with his arm +thrown over the animal's neck, discoursing in a strange jargon, and the +intelligent brute turning his eye on his master with such a responsive +expression! In this part of Germany there is a popular verse repeated by +the postilions, which may be called the German _rule of the road_. It is +the horse who speaks-- + + Berg auf, ubertrieb mich nicht; + Berg ab, ubereil mich nicht; + Auf ebenen Weg, vershöne mich nicht; + Im Stahl, vergiss mich nicht. + + +which is, literally, + + Up hill, overdrive me not; + Down hill, hurry me not; + On level ground, spare me not; + In the stable, forget me not. + + +The German postilions form a very numerous and distinct class; they wear +a half-military costume--a laced or embroidered jacket, across which +is invariably slung the bugle-horn, with its parti-coloured cord and +tassels: huge jack-boots, and a smart glazed hat, not unfrequently +surmounted with a feather (as in Hesse Cassel and Saxe Weimer) complete +their appearance. They are in the direct service and pay of the +government; they must have an excellent character for fidelity and good +conduct before they are engaged, and the slightest failing in duty +or punctuality, subjects them to severe punishment; thus they enjoy +some degree of respectability as a body, and Marschner thought it not +unworthy of his talents to compose a fine piece of music, which he +called The Postilion's "Morgen-lied," or morning song. I found them +generally a good-humoured, honest set of men; obliging, but not servile +or cringing; they are not allowed to smoke without the express leave +of the traveller, nor to stop or delay on the road on any pretence +whatever. In short, though the burley German postilions do not present +the neat compact turn-out of an English post-boy, nor the horses any +thing like the speed of "Newman's greys," or the Brighton Age, and +though the traveller must now and then submit to arbitrary laws and +individual inconvenience; still the travelling regulations all over +Germany, more especially in Prussia, are so precise, so admirable, +and so strictly enforced, that no where could an unprotected female +journey with more complete comfort and security. This I have proved by +experience, after having tried every different mode of conveyance in +Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Saxony, and Hesse. My road expenses, for myself +and an attendant, seldom exceeded a Napoleon a-day. + + + + +III. + +MEMORANDA AT DRESDEN.[25] + + +Beautiful, stately Dresden! if not the queen, the fine lady of the +German cities! Surrounded with what is most enchanting in nature, and +adorned with what is most enchanting in art, she sits by the Elbe like +a fair one in romance, wreathing her towery diadem--so often scathed by +war--with the vine and the myrtle, and looking on her own beauty imaged +in the river flood, which, after rolling an impetuous torrent through +the mountain gorges, here seems to pause and spread itself into a lucid +mirror to catch the reflection of her airy magnificence. No doubt misery +and evil dwell in Dresden, as in all the congregated societies of men, +but no where are they less obtrusive. The city has all the advantages, +and none of the disadvantages, of a capital; the treasures of art +accumulated here, the mild government, the delightful climate, the +beauty of the environs, and the cheerfulness and simplicity of social +intercourse, have rendered it a favourite residence for artists and +literary characters, and to foreigners one of the most captivating +places in the world. How often have I stood in the open space in front +of the gorgeous Italian church, or on the summit of the flight of steps +leading to the public walk, gazing upon the noble bridge which bestrides +the majestic Elbe, and connects the new and the old town; or, pursuing +with enchanted eye the winding course of the river to the foot of those +undulating purple hills, covered with villas and vineyards, till a +feeling of quiet grateful enjoyment has stolen over me, like that which +Wordsworth describes:-- + + Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, + And passing even into my purer mind + With tranquil restoration. + + +But it is not only the natural beauties of the scene which strike a +stranger; the city itself has this peculiarity in common with Florence, +to which it has been so often compared, that instead of being an +accident in the landscape--a dim, smoky, care-haunted spot upon the +all-lovely face of nature--a discord in the soothing harmony of that +quiet enchanting scene which steals like music over the fancy;--it is +rather a charm the more--an ornament--a crowning splendour--a fulfilling +and completing chord. Its unrivalled elegance and neatness, a general +air of cheerfulness combined with a certain dignity and tranquillity, +the purity and elasticity of the atmosphere, the brilliant shops, the +well-dressed women, and the lively looks and good-humoured alertness +of the people, who, like the Florentines, are more remarkable for +their tact and acuteness than for their personal attractions;--all +these advantages render Dresden, though certainly one of the smallest, +and by no means one of the richest capitals in Europe, one of the +most delightful residences on the continent. I am struck, too, by the +silver-toned voices of the women, and the courtesy and vivacity of the +men; for in Bavaria the intonation is broad and harsh, and the people, +though frank, and honest, and good-natured, are rather slow, and not +particularly polished in their demeanour. + +It is the general aspect of Dresden which charms us: it is not +distinguished by any vast or striking architectural decorations, if we +except the Italian church, which, with all its thousand faults of style, +pleases from its beautiful situation and its exceeding richness. This +is the only Roman Catholic church in Dresden: for it is curious enough, +that while the national religion, or, if I may so use the word, the +state religion, is Protestant--the court religion is Catholic; the royal +family having been for several generations of that persuasion;[26] but +this has caused neither intolerance on the one hand, nor jealousy on the +other. The Saxons, the first who hailed and embraced the doctrines of +Luther, seem quite content to allow their anointed king to go to heaven +his own way; and though the priests who surround him are, of course, +mindful to keep up their own influence, there is no spirit of proselytism; +and I believe the most perfect equality with regard to religious matters +prevails here. The Catholic church is almost always half full of +Protestants, attracted by the delicious music, for all the corps d'opera +sing in the choir. High mass begins about the time that the sermon is +over in the other churches, and you see the Protestants hurrying from +their own service, crowding in at the portals of the Catholic church, +and taking their places, the men on one side and the women on the other, +with looks of infinite gravity and devotion: the king being always +present, it would here be a breach of etiquette to behave as I have +often seen the English behave in the Catholic churches--precisely as +if in a theatre. But if the good old monarch imagines that his heretic +subjects are to be converted by Cesi's[27] divine voice, he is +wonderfully mistaken. + +The people of Dresden have always been distinguished by their love of +music; I was therefore rather surprised to find here a little paltry +theatre, ugly without, and mean within; a new edifice has been for some +time in contemplation, therefore to decorate or repair the old one may +seem superfluous. That it is not nearly large enough for the place is +its worst fault. I have never been in it that it was not crowded to +suffocation. At this time Bellini's opera, _I Capelletti_, is the rage +at Dresden, or rather Madame Devrient's impersonation of the Romeo, has +completely turned all heads and melted all hearts--that are fusible. The +Capelletti is only the last of the thousand-and-one versions of Romeo +and Juliet, and though the last, not the best of Bellini's operas; and +Devrient is not generally heard to the greatest advantage in the modern +Italian music; but her _conception_ of the part of Romeo is new and +belongs to herself; like a woman of feeling and genius she has put +her stamp upon it: it is quite distinct from the same character as +represented by Pasta and Malibran--_character_ perhaps I should not say, +for in the lyrical drama there is properly no room for any such gradual +development of individual sentiments and motives; a powerful and graceful +sketch, of which the outline is filled up by music, is all that the +artist is required to give; and within this boundary a more beautiful +delineation of youthful fervid passion I never beheld: if Devrient must +yield to Pasta in grandeur, and to Malibran in versatility of power and +liquid flexibility of voice, she yields to neither in pathos, to neither +in delicious modulation, to neither in passion, power, and originality, +though in her, in a still greater degree, the talent of the artist is +modified by individual temperament. Like other gifted women, who are +blessed or cursed with a most excitable nervous system, Devrient is a +good deal under the influence of moods of feeling and temper, and in +the performance of her favourite parts, (as this of Romeo, the Armida, +Emmeline in the Sweitzer Familie,) is subject to inequalities, which are +not caprices, but arise from an exuberance of soul and power, and only +render her performance more interesting. Every night that I have seen +her since my arrival here, even in parts which are unworthy of her, as +in the "Eagle's Nest,"[28] has increased my estimate of her talents; +and last night, when I saw her for the third time in the Romeo, she +certainly surpassed herself. The duet with Juliet, (Madlle. Schneider,) +at the end of the first act, threw the whole audience into a tumult of +admiration; they invariably encore this touching and impassioned scene, +which is really a positive cruelty, besides being a piece of stupidity; +for though it _may_ be as well sung the second time, it _must_ suffer in +effect from the repetition. The music, though very pretty, is in itself +nothing, without the situation and sentiment; and after the senses and +imagination have been wound up to the most thrilling excitement by tones +of melting affection and despair, and Romeo and Juliet have been finally +torn asunder by a flinty-hearted stick of a father, with a black cloak +and a bass voice--_selon les regles_--it is ridiculous to see them come +back from opposite sides of the stage, bow to the audience, and then, +throwing themselves into each other's arms, pour out the same passionate +strains of love and sorrow. As to Devrient's acting in the last scene, +I think even Pasta's Romeo would have seemed colourless beside hers; +and this arises perhaps from the character of the music, from the very +different style in which Zingarelli and Bellini have treated their +last scene. The former has made Romeo tender and plaintive, and Pasta +accordingly subdued her conception to this tone; but Bellini has thrown +into the same scene more animation, and more various effect.[29] Devrient, +thus enabled to colour more highly, has gone beyond the composer. +There was a flush of poetry and passion, a heartbreaking struggle +of love and life against an overwhelming destiny, which thrilled me. +Never did I hear any one sing so completely from her own soul as this +astonishing creature. In certain tones and passages her voice issued +from the depths of her bosom as if steeped in tears; and her countenance, +when she hears Juliet sigh from the tomb, was such a sudden and divine +gleam of expression as I have never seen on any face but Fanny Kemble's. +I was not surprised to learn that Madame Devrient is generally ill after +her performance, and unable to sing in this part more than once or twice +a week. + + * * * * * + +Tieck is the literary Colossus of Dresden; perhaps I should say of +Germany. There are those who dispute his infallibility as a critic; +there are those who will not walk under the banners of his philosophy; +but since the death of Goethe, I believe Ludwig Tieck holds undisputed +the first rank as an original poet, and powerful writer, and has +succeeded, by right divine, to the vacant throne of genius. His house +in the Altmarkt, (the tall red house at the south-east corner,) +henceforth consecrated by that power which can "hallow in the core of +human hearts even the ruin of a wall,"[30] is the resort of all the +enlightened strangers who flock to Dresden: even those who know nothing +of Tieck but his name, deem an introduction to him as indispensable +as a visit to the Madonna del Sisto. To the English, he is particularly +interesting: his knowledge of our language and literature, and especially +of our older writers, is profound. Endued with an imagination which +luxuriates in the world of marvels, which "dwells delightedly midst fays +and talismans," and embraces in its range of power what is highest, +deepest, most subtle, most practical--gifted with a creative spirit, for +ever moving and working within the illimitable universe of fancy, Tieck +is yet one of the most poignant satirists and profound critics of the +age. He has for the last twenty years devoted his time and talents, in +conjunction with Schlegel, to the study, translation, and illustration +of Shakspeare. The combination of these two minds has done perhaps what +no single mind could have effected in developing, elucidating, and +clothing in a new language the creations of that mighty and inspired +being. + +It is to be hoped that some translator will rise up among us to do +justice in return to Tieck. No one tells a fairy tale like him: the +earnest simplicity of style and manner is so exquisite that he always +gives the idea of one whose hair was on end at his own wonders, who was +entangled by the spell of his own enchantments. A few of these lighter +productions (his Volksmärchen, or popular Tales) have been rendered into +our language; but those of his works which have given him the highest +estimation among his own countrymen still remain a sealed fountain to +English readers.[31] + +It was with some trepidation I found myself in the presence of this +extraordinary man. Notwithstanding his profound knowledge of our +language, he rarely speaks English, and, like Alfieri, he _will not_ +speak French. I addressed him in English, and he spoke to me in German. +The conversation in my first visit fell very naturally upon Shakspeare, +for I had been looking over his admirable new translation of Macbeth, +which he had just completed. Macbeth led us to the English theatre and +English acting--to Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles, and the actual +character and state of our stage. + +While he spoke I could not help looking at his head, which is +wonderfully fine; the noble breadth and amplitude of his brow, and his +quiet, but penetrating eye, with an expression of latent humour hovering +round his lips, formed altogether a striking physiognomy. The numerous +prints and portraits of Tieck which are scattered over Germany are very +defective as resemblances. They have a heavy look; they give the weight +and power of his head, but nothing of the _finesse_ which lurks in +the lower part of his face. His manner is courteous, and his voice +particularly sweet and winning. He is apparently fond of the society of +women; or the women are fond of his society, for in the evening his room +is generally crowded with fair worshippers. Yet Tieck, like Goethe, is +accused of entertaining some unworthy sentiments with regard to the sex; +and is also said, like Goethe, not to have upheld us in his writings, +as the true philosopher, to say nothing of the true poet, ought to have +done. It is a fact upon which I shall take an opportunity of enlarging, +that almost all the greatest men who have lived in the world, whether +poets, philosophers, artists, or statesmen, have derived their mental +and physical organization, more from the mother's than the father's +side; and the same is true, unhappily, of those who have been in an +extraordinary degree perverted. And does not this lead us to some awful +considerations on the importance of the moral and physical well-being +of women, and their present condition in society, as a branch of +legislation and politics, which must ere long be modified? Let our lords +and masters reflect, that if an extensive influence for good or for evil +be not denied to us, an influence commencing not only with, but before +the birth of their children, it is time that the manifold mischiefs +and miseries lurking in the bosom of society, and of which woman is at +once the wretched instrument and more wretched victim, be looked to. +Sometimes I am induced to think that Tieck is misinterpreted or libelled +by those who pretend to take the tone from his writings and opinions: it +is evident that he delights in being surrounded by a crowd of admiring +women, therefore he must in his heart honour and reverence us as being +morally equal with man,--for who could suspect the great Tieck of that +paltry coxcombry which can be gratified by the adulation of inferior +beings? + +Tieck's extraordinary talent for reading aloud is much and deservedly +celebrated: he gives dramatic readings two or three times a week +when his health and his avocations allow this exertion; the company +assemble at six, and it is advisable to be punctual to the moment; soon +afterwards tea is served: he begins to read at seven precisely, when the +doors are closed against all intrusion whatever, and he reads through a +whole play without pause, rest, omission, or interruption. Thus I heard +him read Julius Cæsar and the Midsummer Night's Dream, (in the German +translation by himself and Schlegel,) and except Mrs. Siddons, I never +heard any thing comparable as dramatic reading. His voice is rich, and +capable of great variety of modulation. I observed that the humorous and +declamatory passages were rather better than the pathetic and tender +passages: he was quite at home among the elves and clowns in the Midsummer +Night's Dream, of which he gave the fantastic and comic parts with +indescribable humour and effect. As to the translation, I could only +judge of its marvellous fidelity, which enabled me to follow him, word +for word,--but the Germans themselves are equally enchanted by its +vigour, and elegance, and poetical colouring. + + * * * * * + +The far-famed gallery of Dresden is, of course, the first and grand +attraction to a stranger. + +The regulation of this gallery, and the difficulty of obtaining +admission, struck me at first as rather inhospitable and ill-natured. +In the summer months it is open to the public two days in the week; but +during the winter months, from September to March, it is closed. In +order to obtain admittance, during this _recess_, you must pay three +dollars to one of the principal keepers on duty, and a gratuity to the +porter,--in all about half-a-guinea. Having once paid this sum, you are +free to enter whenever the gallery has been opened for another party. +The ceremony is, to send the laquais-de-place at nine in the morning to +inquire whether the gallery will be open in the course of the day; if +the answer be in the affirmative, it is advisable to make your appearance +as early as possible, and I believe you may stay as long as you please; +(at least _I_ did;) nothing more is afterwards demanded, though something +may perhaps be expected--if you are a _very_ frequent visitor. All this +is rather ungracious. It is true that the gallery is not a national, but +a royal gallery,--that it was founded and enriched by princes for their +private recreation; that Augustus III. purchased the Modena gallery for +his kingly pleasure; that from the original construction of the building +it is impossible to heat it with stoves, without incurring some risk, +and that to oblige the poor professors and attendants to linger benumbed +and shivering in the gallery from morning to night is cruel. In fact, it +would be difficult to give an idea of the deadly cold which prevails in +the inner gallery, where the beams of the sun scarcely ever penetrate. +And it may happen that only a chance visitor, or one or two strangers, +may ask admittance in the course of the day. But poor as Saxony now +is,--drained, and exhausted, and maimed by successive wars, and trampled +by successive conquerors, this glorious gallery, which Frederic spared, +and Napoleon left inviolate, remains the chief attraction to strangers; +and it may be doubted whether there is good policy in making admittance +to its treasures a matter of difficulty, vexation, and expense. There +would be little fear, if all strangers were as obstinate and enthusiastic +as myself,--for, to confess the truth, I know not what obstacle, or +difficulty, or inconvenience, could have kept me out; if all legal avenues +had been hermetically sealed, I would have prayed, bribed, persevered, +till I had attained my purpose, and after travelling three hundred +miles to achieve an object, what are a few dollars? But still it _is_ +ungracious, and methinks, in this courteous and liberal capital these +regulations ought to be reformed or modified. + +On entering the gallery for the first time, I walked straight forward, +without pausing, or turning to the right or the left, into the +Raffaelle-room, and looked round for the Madonna del Sisto,--literally +with a kind of misgiving. Familiar as the form might be to the eye and +the fancy, from numerous copies and prints, still the unknown original +held a sanctuary in my imagination, like the mystic Isis behind her +veil: and it seemed that whatever I beheld of lovely, or perfect, +or soul-speaking in art, had an unrevealed rival in my imagination: +something was beyond--there was a criterion of possible excellence as +yet only conjectured--for I had not seen the Madonna del Sisto. Now, +when I was about to lift my eyes to it, I literally hesitated--I drew a +long sigh, as if resigning myself to disappointment, and looked----Yes! +there she was indeed! that divinest image that ever shaped itself in +palpable hues and forms to the living eye! What a revelation of ineffable +grace, and purity, and truth, and goodness! There is no use attempting +to say any thing about it; too much has already been said and written--and +what are words? After gazing on it again and again, day after day, I feel +that to attempt to describe the impression is like measuring the infinite, +and sounding the unfathomable. When I looked up at it today it gave me +the idea, or rather the feeling, of a vision descending and floating +down upon me. The head of the virgin is quite superhuman: to say that +it is beautiful, gives no idea of it. Some of Correggio's and Guido's +virgins--the virgin of Murillo at the Leuchtenberg palace--have more +beauty, in the common meaning of the word; but every other female face, +however lovely, however majestic, would, I am convinced, appear either +trite or exaggerated, if brought into immediate comparison with this +divine countenance. There is such a blessed calm in every feature! and +the eyes, beaming with a kind of internal light, look straight out +of the picture--not at you or me--not at any thing belonging to this +world,--but through and through the universe. The unearthly Child is a +sublime vision of power and grandeur, and seems not so much supported as +enthroned in her arms, and what fitter throne for the Divinity than a +woman's bosom full of innocence and love? The expression in the face of +St. Barbara, who looks down, has been differently interpreted: to me she +seems to be giving a last look at the earth, above which the group is +raised as on a hovering cloud. St. Sixtus is evidently pleading in all +the combined fervour of faith, hope, and charity, for the congregation +of sinners, who are supposed to be kneeling before the picture--that is, +for _us_--to whom he points. Finally, the cherubs below, with their +upward look of rapture and wonder, blending the most childish innocence +with a sublime inspiration, complete the harmonious whole, uniting +heaven with earth. + +While I stood in contemplation of this all-perfect work, I felt the +impression of its loveliness in my deepest heart, not only without the +power, but without the thought or wish to give it voice or words, till +some lines of Shelley's--lines which were not, but, methinks, ought to +have been, inspired by the Madonna--came, uncalled, floating through my +memory-- + + Seraph of Heaven! too gentle to be human, + Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman + All that is insupportable in thee, + Of light, and love, and immortality! + Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse! + Veil'd Glory of this lampless universe! + Thou Harmony of Nature's art! + I measure + The world of fancies, seeking one like thee, + And find--alas! mine own infirmity![32] + + +On the first morning I spent in the gallery, a most benevolent-looking +old gentleman came up to me, and half lifting his velvet cap from his +grey hairs, courteously saluted me by name. I replied, without knowing +at the moment to whom I spoke. It was Böttigar, the most formidable--no, +not _formidable_--but the most erudite scholar, critic, antiquarian, +in Germany. Böttigar, I do believe, has read every book that ever was +written; knows every thing that ever was known; and is acquainted with +every body, who is _any body_, in the four quarters of the world. He +is not the author of any large work, but his writings, in a variety +of form, on art, ancient and modern,--on literature, on the classics, +on the stage, are known over all Germany; and in his best days few +have exercised so wide an influence over opinion and literature. It is +_said_, that in his latter years his criticism has been too vague, his +praise too indiscriminate, to be trusted; but I know not why this should +excite indignation, though it may produce mistrust; in Böttigar's +conformation, benevolence must always have been prominent, and in the +decline of his life--for he is now seventy-eight--this natural courtesy +combining with a good deal of vanity and imagination, would necessarily +produce the result of extreme mildness,--a disposition to see, or try to +see, all _en beau_. The happier for him, and the pleasanter for others. +We were standing together in the room with the Madonna, but I did not +allude to it, nor attempt to express by a word the impression it had +made on me; but he seemed to understand my silence; he afterwards told +me that it is ascertained that Raffaelle employed only three months in +executing this picture: it was thrown upon his canvas in a glow of +inspiration, and is painted very lightly and thinly. When Palmeroli, +the Italian restorer, was brought here at an expense of more than three +thousand ducats, he ventured to clean and retouch the background and +accessories, but dared not touch the figures of the Virgin and the +Child, which retain their sombre tint. This has perhaps destroyed the +harmony of the general effect, but if the man mistrusted himself he was +right: in such a case, however, he had better have let the background +alone. In taking down the picture for the purpose of cleaning, it was +discovered that a part of the original canvas, about a quarter of a +yard, was turned back in order to make it fit the frame. Every one must +have observed, that in Müller's engraving, and all the known copies of +this Madonna, the head is too near the top of the picture, so as to mar +the just proportion. This is now amended: the veil, or curtain, which +appears to have been just drawn aside to disclose the celestial vision, +does not now reach the boundary of the picture, as heretofore; the +original effect is restored, and it is infinitely better. + +As if to produce a surfeit of excellence, the five Correggios hang +together in the same room with the Raffaelle.[33] They are the Madonna +di San Georgio; the Madonna di San Francisco; the Madonna di Santo +Sebastiano; the famous Nativity, called La Notte; and the small Magdalene +reading, of which there exist an incalculable number of copies and +prints. I know not that any thing can be added to what has been said a +hundred times over of these wondrous pieces of poetry. Their excellence +and value, as unequalled productions of art, may not perhaps be understood +by all,--the poetical charm, the something more than meets the eye, is +not perhaps equally felt by all,--but the sentiment is intelligible to +every mind, and goes at once to every heart; the most uneducated eye, the +merest tyro in art, gazes with delight on the Notte; and the Magdalene +reading has given perhaps more pleasure than any known picture,--it is +so quiet, so simple, so touching, in its heavenly beauty! Those who may +not perfectly understand what artists mean when they dwell with rapture +on Correggio's wonderful chiaro-scuro, should look close into this +little picture, which hangs at a convenient height: they will perceive +that they can look through the shadows into the substance,--as it might +be, into the flesh and blood;--the shadows seem accidental--as if +between the eye and the colours, and not incorporated with them; in this +lies the inimitable excellence of this master. + +The Magdalene was once surrounded by a rich frame of silver gilt, +chased, and adorned with gems, turquoises, and pearls: but some years +ago a thief found means to enter at the window, and carried off the +picture for the sake of the frame. A reward of two hundred ducats and a +pardon were offered for the picture only, and in a fortnight afterwards +it was happily restored to the gallery uninjured; but I did not hear that +the frame and jewels were ever recovered. + +Of Correggio's larger pictures, I think the Madonna di San Georgio +pleased me most. The Virgin is seated on a throne, holding the sacred +Infant, who extends his arms and smiles out upon the world he has come +to save. On the right stands St. George, his foot on the dragon's head; +behind him St. Peter Martyr; on the left, St. Geminiano and St. John the +Baptist. In the front of the picture two heavenly boys are playing with +the sword and helmet of St. George, which he has apparently cast down +at the foot of the throne. All in this picture is grand and sublime, +in the feeling, the forms, the colouring, the expression. But what, +says a wiseacre of a critic, rubbing up his school chronology, what have +St. Francis, and St. George, and St. John the Baptist, to do in the same +picture with the Virgin Mary? Did not St. George live nine hundred years +after St. John? and St. Francis five hundred years after St. George? +and so on. Yet this is properly no anachronism--no violation of the +proprieties of action, place, or time. These and similar pictures, +as the St. Jerome at Parma, and Raffaelle's Madonna, are not to be +considered as historical paintings, but as grand pieces of lyrical and +sacred poetry. In this particular picture, which was an altarpiece in the +church of Our Lady at Parma, we have in St. George the representation +of religious magnanimity; in St. John, religious enthusiasm; in St. +Geminiani, religious munificence; in St. Peter Martyr, religious +fortitude; and these are grouped round the most lovely impersonation +of innocence, chastity, and heavenly love. Such, as it appears to me, +is the true intention and signification of this and similar pictures. + +But in the "Notte" (the Nativity) the case is different. It is properly +an historical picture; and if Correggio had placed St. George, or St. +Francis, or the Magdalene, as spectators, we might then exclaim at the +absurdity of the anachronism; but here Correggio has converted the +literal representation of a circumstance in sacred history into a divine +piece of poetry, when he gave us that emanation of supernatural light, +streaming from the form of the celestial Child, and illuminating the +extatic face of the virgin mother, who bends over her infant undazzled; +while another female draws back, veiling her eyes with her hand, as if +unable to endure the radiance. Far off, through the gloom of night, we +see the morning just breaking along the eastern horizon--emblem of the +"day-spring from on high." + +This is precisely one of those pictures of which no copy or engraving +could convey any adequate idea; the sentiment of maternity (in which +Correggio excelled) is so exquisitely tender, and the colouring so +inconceivably transparent and delicate. + +I suppose it is a sort of treason to say that in the Madonna di San +Francisco, the face of the virgin is tinctured with affectation; but +such was and _is_ my impression. + +If I were to plan a new Dresden gallery, the Madonna del Sisto and the +"Notte" should each have a sanctuary apart, and be lighted from above; +at present they are ill-placed for effect. + +When I could move from the Raffaelle room, I took advantage of the +presence and attendance of Professor Matthaï, (who is himself a painter +of eminence here,) and went through a regular course of the Italian +schools of painting, beginning with Giotto. The collection is extremely +rich in the early Ferarese and Venetian painters, and it was most +interesting thus to trace the gradual improvement and development of the +school of colourists through Squarcione, Mantegna, the Bellini, Giorgione, +Paris Bordone, Palma, and Titian; until richness became exuberance, and +power verged upon excess in Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. + +Certainly, I feel no inclination to turn my notebook into a catalogue; +but I must mention Titian's Christo della Moneta:--such a head!--so pure +from any trace of passion!--so refined, so intellectual, so benevolent! +The only head of Christ I ever entirely approved. + +Here they have Giorgione's master-piece--the meeting of Rachel and +Jacob; and the three daughters of Palma, half-lengths, in the same +picture. The centre one, Violante, is a most lovely head. + +There is here an extraordinary picture by Titian, representing Lucrezia +Borgia, presented by her husband to the Madonna. The portraits are the +size of life, half-lengths. I looked in vain in the countenance of +Lucrezia for some trace, some testimony of the crimes imputed to her; +but she is a fair, golden-haired, gentle-looking creature, with a feeble +and vapid expression. The head of her husband, Alphonso, is fine and +full of power. There are, I suppose, not less than fourteen or fifteen +pictures by Titian. + +The Concina family, by Paul Veronese, esteemed his finest production, +is in the Dresden gallery, with ten others of the same master. Of Guido, +there are ten pictures, particularly that extraordinary one, _called_ +Ninus and Semiramis, life size. Of the Carracci, at least eight or nine, +particularly the genius of Fame, which should be compared with that of +Guido. There are numerous pictures of Albano and Ribera; but very few +specimens of Salvator Rosa and Domenichino. + +On the whole, I suppose that no gallery, except that of Florence, can +compete with the Dresden gallery in the treasures of Italian art. In +all, there are five hundred and thirty-four Italian pictures. + +I pass over the Flemish, Dutch, and French pictures, which fill the +outer gallery: these exceed the Italian school in number, and many of +them are of surpassing merit and value, but, having just come from +Munich, where the eye and fancy are both satiated with this class of +pictures, I gave my attention principally to the Italian masters. + +There is one room here entirely filled with the crayon paintings of +Rosalba, including a few by Liotard. Among them is a very interesting +head of Metastasio, painted when he was young. He has fair hair and blue +eyes, with small features, and an expression of mingled sensibility and +acuteness: no power. + +Rosalba Carriera, perhaps the finest crayon painter who ever existed, +was a Venetian, born at Chiozza in 1675. She was an admirable creature +in every respect, possessing many accomplishments, besides the beautiful +art in which she excelled. Several anecdotes are preserved which prove +the sweetness of her disposition, and the clear simplicity of her mind. +Spence, who knew her personally, calls her "the most modest of painters;" +yet she used to say playfully, "I am charmed with every thing I do, for +eight hours after it is done!" This was natural while the excitement +of conception was fresh upon the mind. No one, however, could be more +fastidious and difficult about their own works than Rosalba. She was not +only an observer of countenance by profession, but a most acute observer +of character, as revealed in all its external indications. She said of +Sir Godfrey Kneller, after he had paid her a visit, "I concluded he could +not be religious, for he has no modesty." The general philosophical truth +comprised in these few words is not less admirable than the acuteness +of the remark, as applied to Kneller--a professed sceptic, and the most +self-sufficient coxcomb of his time. + +Rosalba was invited at different times to almost all the courts of +Europe, and painted most of the distinguished persons of her time at +Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, and Paris; the lady-like refinements of her +mind and manners, which also marked her style of painting, recommended +her not less than her talents. She used, after her return to Italy, to +say her prayers in German, "because the language was so expressive."[34] + +Rosalba became blind before her death, which occurred in 1757. Her +works in the Dresden gallery amount to at least one hundred and +fifty--principally portraits--but there are also some exquisite fancy +heads. + +Thinking of Rosalba, reminds me that there are some pretty stories +told of women, who have excelled as professed artists. In general +the conscious power of maintaining themselves, habits of attention +and manual industry, the application of our feminine superfluity of +sensibility and imagination to a tangible result--have produced fine +characters. The daughter of Tintoretto, when invited to the courts of +Maximilian and Philip II. refused to leave her father. Violante Siries +of Florence gave a similar proof of filial affection; and when the grand +duke commanded her to paint her own portrait for the Florentine gallery, +where it now hangs, she introduced the portrait of her father, because +he had been her first instructor in art. When Henrietta Walters, the +famous Dutch miniature painter, was invited by Peter the Great and +Frederic, to their respective courts, with magnificent promises of +favour and patronage, she steadily refused; and when Peter, who had +no idea of giving way to obstacles, particularly in the female form, +pressed upon her in person the most splendid offers, and demanded the +reason of her refusal, she replied, that she was contented with her +lot, and could not bear the idea of living out of a free country. + +Maria von Osterwyck, one of the most admirable flower painters, +had a lover, to whom she was a little partial, but his idleness and +dissipation distressed her. At length she promised to give him her hand +on condition that during one year he would work regularly ten hours a +day, observing that it was only what she had done herself from a very +early age. He agreed; and took a house opposite to her that she might +witness his industry; but habit was too strong, his love or his resolution +failed, and he broke the compact. She refused to be his wife; and no +entreaties could afterwards alter her determination never to accept the +man who had shown so little strength of character, and so little real +love. She was a wise woman, and as the event showed, not a heartless +one. She died unmarried, though surrounded by suitors. + +It was the fate of Elizabeth Sirani, one of the most beautiful women, as +well as one of the most exquisite painters of her time, to live in the +midst of those deadly feuds between the pupils of Guido and those of +Domenichino, and she was poisoned at the age of twenty-six. She left +behind her one hundred and fifty pictures, an astonishing number if +we consider the age at which the world was deprived of this wonderful +creature, for they are finished with the utmost care in every part. +Madonnas and Magdalenes were her favourite subjects. She died in 1526. +Her best pictures are at Florence. + +Sofonisba Angusciola had two sisters, Lucia and Europa, almost as gifted, +though not quite so celebrated as herself: these three "virtuous +gentlewomen," as Vasari calls them, lived together in the most +delightful sisterly union. One of Sofonisba's most beautiful pictures +represents her two sisters playing at chess, attended by the old duenna, +who accompanied them every where. When Sofonisba was invited to the court +of Spain, in 1560, she took her sisters with her--in short, they were +inseparable. They were all accomplished women. "We hear," said the pope, +in a complimentary letter to Sofonisba, on one of her pictures, "that +this your great talent is among the least you possess:" which letter is +said by Vasari to be a _sufficient_ proof of the genius of Sofonisba--as +if the holy Father's infallibility extended to painting! Luckily we have +proofs more undeniable in her own most lovely works--glowing with life +like those of Titian; and in the testimony of Vandyke, who said of her +in her later years, that "he had learned more from one old blind woman +in Italy than from all the masters of his art." + +It is worth remarking, that almost all the women who have attained +celebrity in painting, have excelled in portraiture. The characteristic +of Rosalba is an exceeding elegance; of Angelica Kauffman exceeding +grace; but she wants nerve. Lavinia Fontana threw a look of sensibility +into her most masculine heads--she died broken-hearted for the loss of +an only son, whose portrait is her masterpiece.[35] The Sofonisba had +most dignity, and in her own portrait[36] a certain dignified simplicity +in the air and attitude strikes us immediately. Gentileschi has most +power: she was a gifted, but a profligate woman. All those whom I have +mentioned were women of undoubted genius; for they have each a style +apart, peculiar, and tinted by their individual character: but all, +except Gentileschi, were _feminine_ painters. They succeeded best in +feminine portraits, and when they painted history they were only admirable +in that class of subjects which came within the province of their sex; +beyond that boundary they became _fade_, insipid, or exaggerated: thus +Elizabeth Sirani's Annunciation is exquisite, and her Crucifixion +feeble; Angelica Kauffman's Nymphs and Madonnas are lovely; but her +picture of the warrior Herman, returning home after the defeat of the +Roman legions, is cold and ineffective. The result of these reflections +is, that there is a walk of art in which women may attain perfection, +and excel the other sex; as there is another department from which they +are excluded. You must change the physical organization of the race of +women before we produce a Rubens or a Michael Angelo. Then, on the other +hand, I fancy, no _man_ could paint like Louisa Sharpe, any more than +write like Mrs. Hemans. Louisa Sharpe, and her sister, are, in painting, +just what Mrs. Hemans is in poetry; we see in their works the same +characteristics--no feebleness, no littleness of design or manner, +nothing vapid, trivial, or affected,--and nothing masculine; all is +super-eminently, essentially feminine, in subject, style, and sentiment. +I wish to combat in every way that oft-repeated, but most false compliment +unthinkingly paid to women, that genius is of no sex; there may be +equality of power, but in its quality and application there will and must +be difference and distinction. If men would but remember this truth, +they would cease to treat with ridicule and jealousy the attainments and +aspirations of women, knowing that there never could be real competition +or rivalry. If women would admit this truth, they would not presume out +of their sphere:--but then we come to the necessity for some key to the +knowledge of ourselves and others--some scale for the just estimation of +our own qualities and powers, compared with those of others--the great +secret of self-regulation and happiness--the beginning, middle, and end +of all education. + +But to return from this tirade. I wish my vagrant pen were less +discursive. + +In the works of art, the presence of a power, felt rather than perceived, +and kept subordinate to the sentiment of grace, should mark the female +mind and hand. This is what I love in Rosalba, in our own Mrs. Carpenter, +in Madame de Freyberg, and in Eliza and Louisa Sharpe: in the latter +there is a high tone of moral as well as poetical feeling. Thus her +picture of the young girl coming out of church after disturbing the +equanimity of a whole congregation by her fine lady airs and her silk +attire, is a charming and most graceful satire on the foibles of +her sex. The idea, however, is taken from the Spectator. But Louisa +Sharpe can also create. Of another lovely picture,--that of the young, +forsaken, disconsolate, repentant mother, who sits drooping over her +child, "with looks bowed down in penetrative shame," while one or two of +the rigidly-righteous of her own sex turn from her with a scornful and +upbraiding air--I believe the subject is original; but it is obviously +one which never could have occurred, except to the most consciously pure +as well as the gentlest and kindest heart in the world. Never was a more +beautiful and Christian lesson conveyed by woman to woman; at once a +warning to our weakness, and a rebuke to our pride.[37] + +_Apropos_ of female artists: I met here with a lady of noble birth and +high rank, the Countess Julie von Egloffstein,[38] who in spite of the +prejudices still prevailing in Germany, has devoted herself to painting +as a profession. Her vocation for the art was early displayed; but +combated and discouraged as derogatory to her rank and station; she was +for many years _demoiselle d'honneur_ to the grand Duchess Luise of +Weimar. Under all these circumstances, it required real strength of mind +to take the step she has taken; but a less decided course could not well +have emancipated her from trammels, the force of which can hardly be +estimated out of Germany. A recent journey to Italy, undertaken on account +of her health, fixed her determination, and her destiny for life. + +In looking over her drawings and pictures, I was particularly struck +by one singularity, which yet, on reflection, appears perfectly +comprehensible. This high-born and court-bred woman shows a decided +predilection for the picturesque in humble life, and seems to have +turned to simple nature in perfect simplicity of heart. Being +self-taught and self-formed, there is nothing mannered or conventional +in her style; and I do hope she will assert the privilege of genius, +and, looking only into nature out of her own heart and soul, form and +keep a style to herself. I remember one little picture, painted either +for the queen of England or the queen of Bavaria, representing a young +Neapolitan peasant, seated at her cottage door, contemplating her child, +cradled at her feet, while the fishing bark of her husband is sailing +away in the distance. In this little bit of natural poetry there was no +seeking after effect, no prettiness, no pretension; but a quiet genuine +simplicity of feeling, which surprised while it pleased me. When I have +looked at the Countess Julie in her painting-room, surrounded by her +drawings, models, casts--all the powers of her exuberant enthusiastic +mind flowing free in their natural direction, I have felt at once +pleasure, and admiration, and respect. It should seem that the energy +of spirit and real magnanimity of mind which could trample over social +prejudices, not the less strong because manifestly absurd, united to +genius and perseverance, may, if life be granted, safely draw upon +futurity both for success and for fame. + + * * * * * + +I consider my introduction to Moritz Retzsch as one of the most +memorable and agreeable incidents of my short sojourn at Dresden. + +This extraordinary genius, who is almost as popular and interesting in +England as in his own country, seems to have received from Nature a +double portion of the inventive faculty--that rarest of all her good +gifts, even to those who are her especial favourites. As his published +works by which he is principally known in England (the Outlines to +the Faust, to Shakspeare, to Schiller's Song of the Bell, &c.) are +illustrations of the ideas of others, few but those who may possess some +of his original drawings are aware, that Retzsch is himself a poet of +the first order, using his glorious power of graphic delineation to +throw into form the conceptions, thoughts, aspirations, of his own +glowing imagination and fertile fancy. Retzsch was born at Dresden in +1779, and has never, I believe, been far from his native place. From +childhood he was a singular being, giving early indications of his +imitative power by drawing or carving in wood, resemblances of the +objects which struck his attention, without the slightest idea in +himself or others of becoming eventually an artist; and I have even +heard that, when he was quite a youth, his enthusiastic mind, labouring +with a power which he felt rather than knew, his love of the wilder +aspects of nature, and impatience of the restraints of artificial life, +had nearly induced him to become a huntsman or forester (Jäger) in the +royal service. However, at the age of twenty, his love of art became a +decided vocation. The little property he had inherited or accumulated +was dissipated during that war, which swept like a whirlwind over all +Germany, overwhelming prince and peasant, artist, mechanic, in one +wide-spreading desolation. Since that time Retzsch has depended on his +talents alone--content to live poor in a poor country. He has, by the +exertion of his talents, achieved for himself a small independence, and +contributed to the support of a large family of relations, also ruined +by the casualties of war. His usual residence is at his own pretty +little farm or vineyard a few miles from Dresden. When in the town, +where his duties as professor of the Academy frequently call him, he +lodges in a small house in the Neustadt, close upon the banks of the +Elbe, in a retired and beautiful situation. Thither I was conducted +by our mutual friend, N----, whose appreciation of Retzsch's talents, +and knowledge of his peculiarities, rendered him the best possible +intermediator on this occasion. + +The professor received us in a room which appeared to answer many +purposes, being obviously a sleeping as well as a sitting-room, but +perfectly neat. I saw at once that there was every where a woman's +superintending eye and thoughtful care; but did not know at the moment +that he was married. He received us with open-hearted frankness, at +the same time throwing on the stranger one of those quick glances +which seemed to look through me: in return, I contemplated him with +inexpressible interest. His figure is rather larger, and more portly +than I had expected; but I admired his fine Titanic head, so large, and +so sublime in its expression; his light blue eye, wild and wide, which +seemed to drink in meaning and flash out light; his hair profuse, +grizzled, and flowing in masses round his head: and his expanded brow +full of poetry and power. In his deportment he is a mere child of nature, +simple, careless, saying just what he feels and thinks at the moment, +without regard to forms; yet pleasing from the benevolent earnestness +of his manner, and intuitively polite without being polished. + +After some conversation, he took us into his painting room. As a +colourist, I believe his style is criticised, and open to criticism; +it is at least singular; but I must confess that while I was looking +over his things I was engrossed by the one conviction;--that while his +peculiar merits, and the preference of one manner to another may be a +matter of argument or taste, it is certain, and indisputable, that no +one paints _like_ Retzsch, and that, in the original power and fertility +of _conception_, in the quantity of _mind_ which he brings to bear upon +his subject, he is in his own style unequalled and inimitable. I was +rather surprised to see in some of his designs and pencil drawings, the +most elaborate delicacy of touch, and most finished execution of parts, +combined with a fancy which seems to run wild over his paper or his +canvas; but only _seems_--for it must be remarked, that with all this +luxuriance of imagination, there is no exaggeration, either of form or +feeling; he is peculiar, fantastic, even extravagant--but never false in +sentiment or expression. The reason is, that in Retzsch's character the +moral sentiments are strongly developed; where _they_ are deficient, let +the artist who aims at the highest poetical department of excellence, +despair; for no possession of creative talent, nor professional skill, +nor conventional taste, will supply that main deficiency. + +I saw in Retzsch's atelier many things novel, beautiful, and interesting; +but will note only a few, which have dwelt upon my memory, as being +characteristic of the man as well as the artist. + +There was, on a small pannel, the head of an angel smiling. He said he +was often pursued by dark fancies, haunted by melancholy forebodings, +desponding over himself and his art, "and he resolved to create an angel +for himself, which should smile upon him out of heaven." So he painted +his most lovely head, in which the radiant spirit of joy seems to +beam from every feature at once; and I thought while I looked upon it, +that it were enough to exorcise a whole legion of blue devils. It is +rarely that we can associate the mirthful with the beautiful and the +sublime--even I could have deemed it next to impossible; but the +effulgent cheerfulness of this divine face corrected that idea, which, +after all, is not in bright lovely Nature, but in the shadow which the +mighty spirit of Humanity casts from his wings, as he hangs brooding +over her between heaven and earth. + +Afterwards he placed upon his easel a wondrous face, which made me +shrink back--not with terror, for it was perfectly beautiful--but +with awe, for it was unspeakably fearful: the hair streamed back from +the pale brow--the orbs of sight appeared at first two dark, hollow, +unfathomable spaces, like those in a skull; but when I drew nearer, and +looked attentively, two lovely living eyes looked at me again out of +the depth of shadow, as of from the bottom of an abyss. The mouth was +divinely sweet, but sad, and the softest repose rested on every feature. +This, he told me, was the ANGEL OF DEATH: it was the original conception +of a head for the large picture now at Vienna, representing the Angel +of Death bearing aloft two children into the regions of the blessed: +the heavens opening above, and the earth and stars sinking beneath +his feet. + +The next thing which struck me was a small picture--two satyrs butting +at each other, while a shepherd carries off the nymph for whom they are +contending. This was most admirable for its grotesque power and spirit, +and, moreover, extremely well coloured. Another in the same style +represented a satyr sitting on a wine-skin, out of which he drinks; two +arch-looking nymphs are stealing on him from behind, and one of them +pierces the wine-skin with her hunting-spear. + +There was a portrait of himself, but I would not laud it--in fact, he +has not done himself justice. Only a colossal bust, in the same style, +and wrought with the same feeling as Dannecker's bust of Schiller, could +convey to posterity an adequate idea of the head and countenance of +Retzsch. I complimented him on the effect which his Hamlet had produced +in England; he told me, that it had been his wish to illustrate the +Midsummer Night's Dream, or the Tempest, rather than Macbeth: the former +he will still undertake, and, in truth, if any one succeeds in embodying +a just idea of a Miranda, a Caliban, a Titania, and the poetical +burlesque of the Athenian clowns, it will be Retzsch, whose genius +embraces at once the grotesque, the comic, the wild, the wonderful, the +fanciful, the elegant! + +A few days afterwards we accepted Retzsch's invitation to visit him at +his _campagna_--for whether it were farm-house, villa, or vineyard, or +all together, I could not well decide. The drive was delicious. The +road wound along the banks of the magnificent Elbe, the gently-swelling +hills, all laid out in vineyards, rising on our right; and though it was +in November, the air was soft as summer. Retzsch, who had perceived our +approach from his window, came out to meet us--took me under his arm as +if we had been friends of twenty years standing, and leading me into his +picturesque _domicile_, introduced me to his wife--as pretty a piece of +domestic poetry as one shall see in a summer's day. She was the daughter +of a vine-dresser, whom Retzsch fell in love with while she was yet +almost a child, and educated for his wife--at least so runs the tale. At +the first glance I detected the original of that countenance which, more +or less idealized, runs through all his representations of female youth +and beauty: here was the model, both in feature and expression; she +smiled upon us a most cordial welcome, regaled us with delicious coffee +and cakes prepared by herself, then taking up her knitting sat down +beside us; and while I turned over admiringly the beautiful designs +with which her husband had decorated her album, the looks of veneration +and love with which she regarded him, and the expression of kindly, +delighted sympathy with which she smiled upon me, I shall not easily +forget. As for the album itself, queens might have envied her such +homage: and what would not a dilettante collector have given for such +a possession! + +I remember two or three of these designs which must serve to give +an idea of the rest:--1st. The good Genius descending to bless his +wife.--2nd. The birthday of his wife--a lovely female infant is asleep +under a vine, which is wreathed round the tree of life; the spirits +of the four elements are bringing votive gifts with which they endow +her.--3rd. The Enigma of Human Life.--The Genius of Humanity is +reclining on the back of a gigantic sphinx, of which the features are +averted, and partly veiled by a cloud; he holds a rose half-withered in +his hand, and looks up with a divine expression towards two butterflies +which have escaped from the chrysalis state, and are sporting above his +head; at his feet are a dead bird and reptile--emblematical of sin and +death.--4th. The genius of art, represented as a young Apollo, turns, +with a melancholy, abstracted air, the handle of a barrel-organ, while +Vulgarity, Ignorance, and Folly, listen with approbation; meantime his +lyre and his palette lie neglected at his feet, together with an empty +purse and wallet: the mixture of pathos, poetry, and satire, in this +little drawing, can hardly be described in words.--5th. Hope, represented +by a lovely group of playful children, who are peeping under a hat for +a butterfly, which they fancy they have caught, but which has escaped, +and is hovering above their reach.--6th. Temptation presented to youth +and innocence by an evil spirit, while a good genius warns them to +beware.--In this drawing, the figures of the boy and girl, but more +particularly of the latter, appeared to me of the most consummate and +touching beauty.--7th. His wife walking on a windy day: a number of +little sylphs are agitating her drapery, lifting the tresses of her +hair, playing with her sash; while another party have flown off with +her hat, and are bearing it away in triumph. + +After spending three or four hours delightfully, we drove home in +silence by the gleaming, murmuring river, and beneath the light of the +silent stars. On a subsequent visit, Retzsch showed me many more of +these delicious _phantasie_, or fancies, as he termed them,--or more +truly, little pieces of moral and lyrical poetry, thrown into palpable +form, speaking in the universal language of the eye to the universal +heart of man. I remember, in particular, one of striking and even of +appalling interest. The Genius of Humanity and the Spirit of Evil are +playing at chess for the souls of men: the Genius of Humanity has lost +to his infernal adversary some of his principal pieces,--love, humility, +innocence, and lastly, peace of mind;--but he still retains faith, +truth, and fortitude; and is sitting in a contemplative attitude, +considering his next move; his adversary, who opposes him with pride, +avarice, irreligion, luxury, and a host of evil passions, looks at him +with a _Mephistophiles'_ expression, anticipating his devilish triumph. +The pawns on the one side are prayers--on the other, doubts. A little +behind stands the Angel of conscience as arbitrator. In this most +exquisite allegory, so beautifully, so clearly conveyed to the heart, +there lurked a deeper moral than in many a sermon. + +There was another beautiful little allegory of Love in the character of +a Picklock, opening, or trying to open, a variety of albums, lettered, +the "Human Heart, No. 1; Human Heart, No. 2;" while Philosophy lights +him with her lanthorn. There were besides many other designs of equal +poetry, beauty, and moral interest--I think, a whole portfolio full of +them. + +I endeavoured to persuade Retzsch that he could not do better than +publish some of these exquisite _Fancies_, and when I left him he +entertained the idea of doing so at some future period. To adopt his own +language, the Genius of Art could not present to the Genius of Humanity +a more delightful and a more profitable gift.[39] + + * * * * * + +The following list of German painters comprehends those _only_ whose +works I had an opportunity of considering, and who appeared to me to +possess decided merit. I might easily have extended this catalogue to +thrice its length, had I included all those whose names were given to me +as being distinguished and celebrated among their own countrymen. From +Munich alone I brought a list of two hundred artists, and from other +parts of Germany nearly as many more. But in confining myself to those +whose productions I _saw_, I adhere to a principle which, after all, +seems to be the best--viz. never to speak but of what we _know_; and then +only of the individual impression: it is necessary to know so many things +before we can give, with confidence, an opinion about any one thing! + +While the literary intercourse between England and Germany increases +every day, and a mutual esteem and understanding is the natural +consequence of this approximation of mind, there is a singular and +mutual ignorance in all matters appertaining to art, and consequently, +a good deal of injustice and prejudice on both sides. The Germans were +amazed and incredulous, when I informed them that in England there are +many admirers of art, to whom the very names of Schnorr, Overbeck, +Rauch, Peter Hess, Wach, Wagenbauer, and even their great Cornelius, are +unknown; and I met with very clever, well-informed Germans, who had, by +some chance, _heard_ of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and knew _something_ of +Wilkie, Turner, and Martin, from the engravings after their works; who +thought Sir Joshua Reynolds and his engraver Reynolds one and the same +person; and of Callcott, Landseer, Etty, and Hilton, and others of our +shining lights, they knew nothing at all. I must say, however, that they +have generally a more just idea of English art than we have of German +art, and their veneration for Flaxman, like their veneration for +Shakspeare, is a sort of enthusiasm all over Germany. Those who have +contemplated the actual state of art, and compared the prevalent tastes +and feelings in both countries, will allow that much advantage would +result from a better mutual understanding. We English accuse the German +artists of mannerism, of a formal, hard, and elaborate execution,--a +pedantic style of composition and sundry other sins. The Germans accuse +us, in return, of excessive coarseness and carelessness, a loose sketchy +style of execution, and a general inattention to truth of character.[40] +"You English have no school of art," was often said to me; I could have +replied--if it had not been a solecism in grammar--"You Germans have +_too much_ school." The "esprit de secte," which in Germany has broken +up their poetry, literature, and philosophy into schisms and schools, +descends unhappily to art, and every professor, to use the Highland +expression, has _his tail_. + +At the same time, we cannot deny to the Germans the merit of great +earnestness of feeling, and that characteristic integrity of purpose +which they throw into every thing they undertake or perform. Art with +them, is oftener held in honour, and pursued truly for its own sake, +than among us: too many of our English artists consider their lofty +and noble vocation, simply as the means to an end, be that end fame or +gain. Generally speaking, too, the German artists are men of superior +cultivation, so that when the creative inspiration falls upon them, the +material on which to work is already stored up: "nothing can come of +nothing," and the sun-beams descend in vain on the richest soil, where +the seed has not been sown. + +It is certain that we have not in England any historical painters who +have given evidence of their genius on so grand a scale as some of the +historical painters of Germany have recently done. _We_ know that it +is not the genius, but the opportunity which has been wanting, but we +cannot ask foreigners to admit this,--they can only judge from results, +and they must either suppose us to be without eminent men in the higher +walks of art,--or they must wonder, with their magnificent ideas of +the incalculable wealth of our nobles, the prodigal expenditure of our +rulers, and the grandeur of our public institutions, that painting has +not oftener been summoned in aid of her eldest sister architecture. +On the other hand, their school of portraiture and landscape is decidedly +inferior to ours. Not only have they no landscape painters who can compare +with Callcott and Turner, but they do not appear to have _imagined_ the +kind of excellence achieved by these wonderful artists. I should say, +generally, that their most beautiful landscapes want atmosphere. I used +to feel while looking at them as if I were in the exhausted receiver of +an air-pump. Of their portraits I have already spoken; the eye which has +rested in delight upon one of Wilkie's or Phillips's fine manly portraits, +(not to mention Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and Lawrence,) cannot +easily be reconciled to the hard, frittered manner of some of the most +admired of the German painters; it is a difference of taste, which +I will not call natural but national;--the remains of the old gothic +school which, as the study of Italian art becomes more diffused, will +be modified or pass away. + + * * * * * + + +HISTORY. + +Peter Cornelius, born at Dusseldorf in 1778, was for a considerable time +the director (president) of the academy there, and is now the director +of the academy of art at Munich: much of his time, however, is spent +in Italy. The Germans esteem him their best historical painter. He has +invention, expression, and power, but appears to me rather deficient in +the feeling of beauty and tenderness. His grand works are the fresco +painting in the Glyptothek at Munich, already described. + +Friedrich Overbeck, born at Lubeck in 1789: he excels in scriptural +subjects, which he treats with infinite grandeur and simplicity of +feeling. + +Wilhelm Wach, born at Berlin in 1787: first painter to the king of +Prussia and professor in the academy of Berlin: esteemed one of the +best painters and most accomplished men in Germany. Not having visited +Berlin, where his finest works exist, I have as yet seen but one picture +by this painter--the head of an angel, at the palace of Peterstein, +sublimely conceived, and most admirably painted. In the style of colour, +in the singular combination of grand feeling and delicate execution, +this picture reminded me of Leonardo da Vinci. + +Professor Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, born at Leipsig in 1794. His +frescos from the Nibelungen Lied in the new palace at Munich have been +already mentioned at length. + +Professor Heinrich Hesse: the frescos in the Royal Chapel at Munich, +already described. + +Wilhelm Tischbein, born at Heyna in 1751. He is director of the academy +at Naples, and highly celebrated. He must not be confounded with his +uncle, a mediocre artist, who was the court painter of Hesse Cassel, and +whose pictures swarm in all the palaces there. + +Philip Veit, of Frankfort--fresco painter. + +Joseph Schlotthauer, professor of historical and fresco painting at +Munich. (I believe this artist is dead. He held a high rank.) + +Clement Zimmermann, now employed in the Pinakothek, and in the new +palace at Munich, where he takes a high rank as painter, and is not less +distinguished by his general information, and his frank and amiable +character. + +Moritz Retzsch of Dresden. + +Professor Vogel, of Dresden, principal painter to the king of Saxony. +He paints in fresco and history, but excels in portraits. + +Stieler, of Munich, court painter to the king of Bavaria, esteemed one +of the best portrait painters in Germany. + +Goetzenberger, fresco painter. He is employed in painting the University +Hall at Bonn. + +Eduard Bendeman, of Berlin. I saw at the exhibition of the Kunstverein +at Dusseldorf, a fine picture by this painter--"The Hebrews in Exile." + + "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept." + + +The colouring I thought rather hard, but the conception and drawing were +in a grand style. + +Wilhelm Schadow, director of the academy at Dusseldorf. + +Hetzsch of Stuttgardt. + +The brothers Riepenhausen, of Göttingen, resident at Rome. They are +celebrated for their designs of the pictures of Polygnotus, as described +by Pausanius. + +Koehler. He exhibited at the Kunstverein at Dusseldorf a picture of +"Rebecca at the well," very well executed. + +Ernst Förster, of Altenburg, employed in the palace at Munich. This +clever young painter married the daughter of Jean Paul Richter. + +Gassen, of Goblentz; Hiltensberger, of Suabia; Hermann, of Dresden; +Foltz, of Bingen; Kaulbach, of Munich; Eugene Neureuther, of Munich; +Wilhelm Röckel, of Schleissheim; Von Schwind, of Vienna; Wilhelm +Lindenschmidt, of Mayence. All these painters are at present in the +service of the king of Bavaria. + +Julius Hübner; Hildebrand; Lessing; Sohn; history and portraits;--these +four painters are the most distinguished scholars of the Dusseldorf +school. + + +SMALL SUBJECTS AND CONVERSATION PIECES. + +Peter Hess, of Munich, one of the most eminent painters in Germany. +In his choice of subjects he reminded me sometimes of Eastlake, and +sometimes of Wilkie, and his style is rather in Wilkie's first manner. +His pictures are full of spirit, truth, and character. + +Dominique Quaglio, of Munich. Interiors, &c. He also ranks very high: +he reminds me of Fraser. + +Major-General von Heydeck, of Munich, an amateur painter of merited +celebrity. In the collection of M. de Klenze, and in the Leuchtenberg +Gallery, there are some small battle pieces, scenes in Greece and Spain, +and other subjects by Von Heydeck, very admirably painted. + +F. Müller, of Cassel. At the exhibition at Dusseldorf I saw a picture +by this artist, "A rustic bridal procession in the Campagna," painted +with a freedom and lightness of pencil not common among the German +artists. + +Plüddeman, of Colberg. + +T. B. Sonderland, of Dusseldorf. Fairs and merrymakings. + +H. Rustige. The same subjects. Both are good artists. + +H. Kretzschmar, of Pomerania. His picture of "Little Red Ridinghood," +(Rothkäppchen,) at the Kunstverein, at Dusseldorf, had great merit. + +Adolf Scrötte. Rustic scenes in the Dutch manner. + + +LANDSCAPE. + +Dahl, a Norwegian settled at Dresden, esteemed one of the best landscape +painters in Germany. There is a very fine sea-piece by this artist in +the possession of the Countess von Seebach at Dresden, with, however, +all the characteristic _peculiarities_ of the German school. + +T. D. Passavant, of Frankfort. + +Friedrich, of Dresden, one of the most _poetical_ of the German +landscape painters. He is rather a mannerist in colour, like Turner, +but in the opposite excess: his genius revels in gloom, as that of +Turner revels in light. + +Professor von Dillis, of Munich. + +Max Wagenbauer, of Munich. He is called most deservedly, the German +Paul Potter. + +Jacob Dorner, of Munich. A charming painter; perhaps a little too minute +in his finishing. + +Catel, of Dusseldorf. Scenes on the Mediterranean. This painter resides +chiefly in Italy; but in the collection of M. de Klenze I saw some +admirable specimens of his works. + +Biermann, of Berlin, is a fine landscape painter. + +Prëyer, certainly the most exquisite of modern flower painters. +I believe he is from Dusseldorf. + +Rothman, of Heidelberg. I saw some pictures and sketches by this young +painter, full of genius and feeling. + +Fries, of Munich, a young painter of great promise. He put an end to his +own life, while I was at Munich, in a fit of delirium, caused by fever, +and was very generally lamented. + +Wilhelm Schirmer, of Juliers, an exceedingly fine landscape painter. + +Audeas Achenbach, of Dusseldorf: he has also great merit. + + * * * * * + + +There are several female artists in Germany, of more or less celebrity. +The Baroness von Freyberg (born Electrina Stuntz) holds the first rank +in original talent. She resides near Munich, but no longer paints +professionally. + +The Countess Julie von Egloffstein has also the rare gift of original +and creative genius. + +Luise Seidler, of Weimar; Madlle. de Winkel and Madame de Loqueyssie, of +Dresden, are distinguished in their art. The two latter are exquisite +copyists. + +In architecture, Leo von Klenze and Professor Girtner, of Munich; and +Heideloff of Nuremberg, are deservedly celebrated in Germany. + +The most distinguished sculptors in Germany are Christian Rauch, and +Christian Friedrich Tieck, of Berlin; Johan Heinrich von Dannecker, +of Stuttgardt; Schwanthaler, Eberhardt, Bandel, Kirchmayer, Mayer, all +of Munich; Reitschel of Dresden; and Imhoff, of Cologne. Those of their +works which I had an opportunity of seeing have been mentioned in the +course of these sketches. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +HARDWICKE. + + +Who that has exulted over the heroic reign of our gorgeous Elizabeth, +or wept over the fate of Mary Stuart, but will remember the name of the +only woman whose high and haughty spirit out-faced the lion port of one +queen, and whose audacity trampled over the sorrows of the other-- + + "Brow-beating her fair form, and troubling her sweet pride!" + + +But this is anticipation. If it be so laudable, according to the +excellent, oft quoted advice of the giant Moulineau, to _begin at the +beginning_,[41] what must it be to improve upon the precept? for so, +in relating the fallen and fading glories of Hardwicke, do I intend +to exceed even "mon ami le Belier," in historic accuracy, and take +up our tale at a period ere Hardwicke itself--the Hardwicke that now +stands--had a beginning. + +There lived, then, in the days of queen Bess, a woman well worthy to +be her majesty's namesake,--Elizabeth Hardwicke, more commonly called, +in her own country, Bess of Hardwicke, and distinguished in the page +of history as the _old_ Countess of Shrewsbury. She resembled Queen +Elizabeth in all her best and worst qualities, and, putting royalty +out of the scale, would certainly have been more than a match for that +sharp-witted virago, in subtlety of intellect, and intrepidity of temper +and manner. + +She was the only daughter of John Hardwicke, of Hardwicke,[42] and being +early left an orphan and an heiress, was married ere she was fourteen +to a certain Master Robert Barley, who was about her own age. Death +dissolved this premature union within a few months, but her husband's +large estates had been settled on her and her heirs; and at the age of +fifteen, dame Elizabeth was a blooming widow, amply dowered with fair +and fertile lands, and free to bestow her hand again where she listed. + +Suitors abounded, of course: but Elizabeth, it should seem, was hard to +please. She was beautiful, if the annals of her family say true,--she +had wit, and spirit, and, above all, an infinite love of independence. +After taking the management of her property into her own hands, she for +some time reigned and revelled (with all decorum be it understood) in +what might be truly termed, a state of single blessedness; but at length, +tired of being lord and lady too--"master o'er her vassals," if not +exactly "queen o'er herself"--she thought fit, having reached the +discreet age of four-and-twenty, to bestow her hand on Sir William +Cavendish. He was a man of substance and power, already enriched by vast +grants of abbey lands in the time of Henry VIII.,[43] all which, by the +marriage contract, were settled on the lady. After this marriage, they +passed some years in retirement, having the wisdom to keep clear of the +political storms and factions which intervened between the death of +Henry VIII. and the accession of Mary, and yet the sense to profit by +them. While Cavendish, taking advantage of those troublous times, went +on adding manor after manor to his vast possessions, dame Elizabeth +was busy providing heirs to inherit them; she became the mother of six +hopeful children, who were destined eventually to found two illustrious +dukedoms, and mingle blood with the oldest nobility of England--nay, +with royalty itself. "Moreover," says the family chronicle, "the said +dame Elizabeth persuaded her husband, out of the great love he had for +her, to sell his estates in the south and purchase lands in her native +county of Derby, wherewith to endow her and her children, and at her +farther persuasion he began to build the noble seat of Chatsworth, but +left it to her to complete, he dying about the year 1559." + +Apparently this second experiment in matrimony pleased the lady of +Hardwicke better than the first, for she was not long a widow. We are +not in this case informed how long--her biographer having discreetly +left it to our imagination; and the Peerages, though not in general +famed for discretion on such points, have in this case affected the same +delicate uncertainty. However this may be, she gave her hand, after no +long courtship, to Sir William St. Loo, captain of Elizabeth's guard, +and then chief butler of England--a man equally distinguished for his +fine person and large possessions, but otherwise not superfluously +gifted by nature. So well did the lady manage _him_, that with equal +hardihood and rapacity, she contrived to have all his "fair lordships in +Gloucestershire and elsewhere" settled on herself and her children, to +the manifest injury of St. Loo's own brothers, and his daughters by a +former union: and he dying not long after without any issue by her, she +made good her title to his vast estates, added them to her own, and they +became the inheritance of the Cavendishes. + +But three husbands, six children, almost boundless opulence, did not yet +satisfy this extraordinary woman--for extraordinary she certainly was, +not more in the wit, subtlety, and unflinching steadiness of purpose +with which she amassed wealth and achieved power, but in the manner in +which she used both. She ruled her husband, her family, her vassals, +despotically, needing little aid, suffering no interference, asking +no counsel. She managed her immense estates, and the local power and +political weight which her enormous possessions naturally threw into her +hands, with singular capacity and decision. She farmed the lands; she +collected her rents; she built; she planted; she bought and sold; she +lent out money on usury; she traded in timber, coals, lead: in short, +the object she had apparently proposed to herself, the aggrandisement +of her children by all and any means, she pursued with a wonderful +perseverance and good sense. Power so consistently wielded, purposes so +indefatigably followed up, and means so successfully adapted to an end, +are, in a female, very striking. A slight sprinkling of the softer +qualities of her sex, a little more elevation of principle, would have +rendered her as respectable and admirable as she was extraordinary; but +there was in this woman's mind the same "fond de vulgarité" which we +see in the character of Queen Elizabeth, and which no height of rank, +or power, or estate, could do away with. In this respect the lady of +Hardwicke was much inferior to that splendid creature, Anne Clifford, +Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Cumberland, another masculine spirit +in the female form, who had the same propensity for building castles and +mansions, the same passion for power and independence, but with more +true generosity and magnanimity, and a touch of poetry and genuine +nobility about her which the other wanted: in short, it was all the +difference between the amazon and the heroine. It is curious enough that +the Duke of Devonshire should be the present representative of both +these remarkable women. + +But to return: Bess of Hardwicke was now approaching her fortieth year; +she had achieved all but nobility--the one thing yet wanting to crown +her swelling fortunes. About the year 1565 (I cannot find the exact +date) she was sought in marriage by George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. +There is no reason to doubt what is asserted, that she had captivated +the earl by her wit and her matronly beauty.[44] He could hardly have +married her from motives of interest: he was himself the richest and +greatest subject in England; a fine chivalrous character, with a +reputation as unstained as his rank was splendid, and his descent +illustrious. He had a family by a former wife, (Gertrude Manners,) to +inherit his titles, and _her_ estates were settled on her children by +Cavendish. It should seem, therefore, that mutual inclination alone +could have made the match advantageous to either party; but Bess of +Hardwicke was still Bess of Hardwicke. She took advantage of her power +over her husband in the first days of their union. "She induced +Shrewsbury by entreaties or threats to sacrifice, in a measure, +the fortune, interest, and happiness of himself and family to the +aggrandisement of her and her family."[45] She contrived in the first +place to have a large jointure settled on herself; and she arranged +a double union, by which the wealth and interests of the two great +families should be amalgamated. She stipulated that her eldest daughter, +Mary Cavendish, should marry the earl's son, Lord Talbot; and that his +youngest daughter, Grace Talbot, should marry her eldest son, Henry +Cavendish. + +The French have a proverb worthy of their gallantry--"_Ce que femme +veut, Dieu veut_:" but even in the feminine gender we are sometimes +reminded of another proverb equally significant--"_L'homme propose et +Dieu dispose_." Now was Bess of Hardwicke queen of the Peak; she had +built her erie so high, it seemed to dally with the winds of heaven; her +young eaglets were worthy of their dam, ready plumed to fly at fortune; +she had placed the coronet of the oldest peerage in England on her +own brow, she had secured the reversion of it to her daughter, and she +had married a man whose character was indeed opposed to her own, but +who, from his chivalrous and confiding nature was calculated to make her +happy, by leaving her mistress of herself. + +In 1568 Mary Stuart, flying into England, was placed in the custody of +the Earl of Shrewsbury, and remained under his care for sixteen years, a +long period of restless misery to the unhappy earl not less than to his +wretched captive. In this dangerous and odious charge was involved the +sacrifice of his domestic happiness, his peace of mind, his health, and +great part of his fortune, His castle was converted into a prison, his +servants into guards, his porter into a turnkey, his wife into a spy, +and himself into a jailor, to gratify the ever-waking jealousy of Queen +Elizabeth.[46] But the earl's greatest misfortune was the estrangement, +and at length enmity, of his violent, high-spirited wife. She beheld the +unhappy Mary with a hatred for which there was little excuse, but many +intelligible reasons: she saw her, not as a captive committed to her +womanly mercy, but as an intruder on her rights. Her haughty spirit +was continually irritated by the presence of one in whom she was forced +to acknowledge a superior, even in that very house and domain where +she herself had been used to reign as absolute queen and mistress. The +enormous expenses which this charge entailed on her household were +distracting to her avarice; and, worse than all, jealousy of the youthful +charms and winning manners of the Queen of Scots, and of the constant +intercourse between her and her husband, seem at length to have driven +her half frantic, and degraded her, with all her wit, and sense, and +spirit, into the despicable treacherous tool of the more artful and +despotic Elizabeth, who knew how to turn the angry and jealous passions +of the countess to her own purposes. + +It was not, however, all at once that matters rose to such a height: +the fire smouldered for some time ere it burst forth. There is a letter +preserved among the Shrewsbury Correspondence[47] which the countess +addressed to her husband from Chatsworth, at a time when the earl was +keeping guard over Mary at Sheffield castle. It is a most curious +specimen of character. It treats chiefly of household matters, of the +price and goodness of malt and hops, iron and timber, and reproaches him +for not sending her money which was due to her, adding, "I see out of +sight out of mind with you;" she sarcastically inquires "how his charge +and _love_ doth;" she sends him "some _letyss_ (lettuces) for that he +loves them," (this common sallad herb was then a rare delicacy;) and +she concludes affectionately, "God send my juill helthe." The incipient +jealousy betrayed in this letter soon after broke forth openly with +a degree of violence towards her husband, and malignity towards his +prisoner, which can hardly be believed. There is distinct evidence that +Shrewsbury was not only a trustworthy, but a rigorous jailor; that he +detested the office forced upon him; that he often begged in the most +abject terms to be released from it; and that harassed on every side by +the tormenting jealousy of his wife, the unrelenting severity and +mistrust of Elizabeth, and the complaints of Mary, he was seized with +several fits of illness, and once by a mental attack, or "phrenesie," as +Cecil terms it, brought on by the agitation of his mind; yet the idea of +resigning his office, except at the pleasure of Queen Elizabeth, never +seems to have entered his imagination. + +On one occasion Lady Shrewsbury went so far as to accuse her husband +openly of intriguing with his prisoner, in every sense of the word; and +she at the same time abused Mary in terms which John Knox himself could +not have exceeded. Mary, deeply incensed, complained of this outrage: +the earl also appealed to Queen Elizabeth, and the countess and her +daughter, Lady Talbot, were obliged to declare upon oath, that this +accusation was false, scandalous, and malicious, and that they were not +the authors of it. This curious affidavit of the mother and daughter is +preserved in the Record Office. + +In a letter to Lord Leicester, Shrewsbury calls his wife "his wicked +and malicious wife," and accuses her and "her imps," as he irreverently +styles the whole brood of Cavendishes, of conspiring to sow dissensions +between him and his eldest son. These disputes being carried to +Elizabeth, she set herself with heartless policy to foment them in every +possible way. She deemed that her safety consisted in employing one part +of the earl's family as spies on the other. In some signal quarrel about +the property round Chatsworth, she commanded the earl to submit to his +wife's pleasure: and though no "tame snake" towards his imperious lady, +as St. Loo and Cavendish had been before him, he bowed at once to the +mandate of his unfeeling sovereign--such was the despotism and such the +loyalty of those days. His reply, however, speaks the bitterness of his +heart. "Sith that her majesty hath set down this hard sentence against +me to my perpetual infamy and dishonour, that I should be ruled and +overrunne by my wife, so bad and wicked a woman; yet her majesty shall +see that I will obey her majesty's commandment, though no curse or +plague on the earth could be more grievous to me." * * "It is too much," +he adds, "to be made my wife's pensioner." Poor Lord Shrewsbury! Can one +help pitying him? + +Not the least curious part of this family history is the double dealing +of the imperious countess. While employed as a spy on Mary, whom she +detested, she, from the natural fearlessness and frankness of her +temper, not unfrequently betrayed Elizabeth, whom she also detested. +While in attendance on Mary, she often gratified her own satirical +humour, and amused her prisoner by giving her a coarse and bitter +portraiture of Elizabeth, her court, her favourites, her miserable +temper, her vanity, and her personal defects. Some report of these +conversations soon reached the queen, (who is very significantly drawn +in one of her portraits in a dress embroidered over with eyes and ears,) +and she required from Mary an account of whatever Lady Shrewsbury had +said to her prejudice. Mary, hating equally the rival who oppressed her +and the domestic harpy who daily persecuted her, was nothing loath to +indulge her feminine spite against the two, and sent Elizabeth such a +circumstantial list of the most gross and hateful imputations, (all +the time politely assuring her good sister that she did not believe a +word of them,) that the rage and mortification of the queen must have +exceeded all bounds.[48] She kept the letter secret; but Lady Shrewsbury +never was suffered to appear at court after the death of Mary had +rendered her services superfluous. + +Through all these scenes, the Lady of Hardwicke still pursued her +settled purpose. Her husband complained that he was "never quiet to +satisfy her greedie appetite for money for purchases to set up her +children." Her ambition was equally insatiate, and generally successful: +but in one memorable instance she overshot her mark. She contrived +(unknown to her lord) to marry her favourite daughter, Elizabeth +Cavendish, to Lord Lennox, the younger brother of the murdered Darnley, +and consequently standing in the same degree of relationship to the +crown. Queen Elizabeth, in the extremity of her rage and consternation, +ordered both the dowager Lady Lennox and Lady Shrewsbury to the Tower, +where the latter remained for some months; we may suppose, to the great +relief of her husband. He used, however, all his interest to excuse her +delinquency, and at length procured her liberation. But this was not +all. Elizabeth Cavendish, the young Lady Lennox, while yet in all her +bridal bloom, died in the arms of her mother, who appears to have +suffered that searing, lasting grief which stern hearts sometimes feel. +The only issue of this marriage was an infant daughter, that unhappy +Arabella Stuart, who was one of the most memorable victims of jealous +tyranny which our history has recorded. Her very existence, from her +near relationship to the throne, was a crime in the eyes of Elizabeth +and James I. There is no evidence that Lady Shrewsbury indulged in any +ambitious schemes for this favourite granddaughter, "her dear jewel, +Arbell," as she terms her;[49] but she did not hesitate to enforce her +claims to royal blood by requiring 600_l._ a year from the treasury +for her board and education as became the queen's kinswoman. Elizabeth +allowed her 200_l._ a year, and this pittance Lady Shrewsbury accepted. +Her rent-roll was at this time 60,000_l._ a year, equal to at least +200,000_l._ at the present day. + +The Earl of Shrewsbury died in 1590, at enmity to the last moment +with his wife and son; and the Lady of Hardwicke having survived four +husbands, and seeing all her children settled and prosperous, still +absolute mistress over her family, resided during the last seventeen +years of her life in great state and plenty at Hardwicke, her birth +place. Here she superintended the education of Arabella Stuart, who, +as she grew up to womanhood, was kept by her grandmother in a state +of seclusion, amounting almost to imprisonment, lest the jealousy of +Elizabeth should rob her of her treasure.[50] + +Next to the love of money and power, the chief passion of this magnificent +old beldam, was building. It is a family tradition, that some prophet +had foretold that she should never die as long as she was building, and +she died at last, in 1607, during a hard frost, when her labourers were +obliged to suspend their work. She built Chatsworth, Oldcotes, and +Hardwicke; and Fuller adds in his quaint style that she left "two sacred +(besides civil) monuments of her memory; one that I hope will not be +taken away, (her splendid tomb, erected by herself,[51]) and one that +I am sure cannot be taken away, being registered in the court of heaven, +viz. her stately almshouses for twelve poor people at Derby." + +Of Chatsworth, the hereditary palace of the Dukes of Devonshire, all its +luxurious grandeur, all its treasures of art, it is not here "my hint +to speak." It has been entirely rebuilt since the days of its founder. +Oldcotes was once a magnificent place. There is a tradition at Hardwicke +that old Bess, being provoked by a splendid mansion which the Suttons +had lately erected within view of her windows, declared she would build +a finer dwelling for the owlets, (hence Owlcots or Oldcotes.) She kept +her word, more truly perhaps than she intended, for Oldcotes has since +become literally a dwelling for the owls; the chief part of it is in +ruins, and the rest converted into a farmhouse. Her younger daughter, +Frances Cavendish, married Sir Henry Pierrepoint, of Holme-Pierpoint, +and one of the granddaughters married another Pierrepoint--through one +of these marriages, but I know not which, Oldcotes has descended to the +present Earl Manvers. + +The mansion of Hardwicke was commenced about the year 1592, and finished +in 1597. It stands about a stone's throw from the old house in which +the old countess was born, and which she left standing, as if, says her +biographer, she intended to construct her bed of state close by her +cradle. This fine old ruin remains, grey, shattered, and open to all the +winds of heaven, almost overgrown with ivy, and threatening to tumble +about the ears of the bats and owls which are its sole inhabitants. +One majestic room remains entire. It is called the "Giant's Chamber" +from two colossal figures in Roman armour which stand over the huge +chimney-piece. This room has long been considered by architects as a +perfect specimen of grand and beautiful proportion, and has been copied +at Chatsworth and at Blenheim.[52] + +It must have been in this old hall, and not in the present edifice, that +Mary Stuart resided during her short stay at Hardwicke. I am sorry to +disturb the fanciful or sentimental tourists and sight-seers; but so it +is, or rather, so it must have been. Yet it is not surprising that the +memory of Mary Stuart should now form the principal charm and interest +of Hardwicke, and that she should be in a manner the tutelary genius of +the place. Chatsworth has been burned and rebuilt. Tutbury, Sheffield +castle, Wingfield, Fotheringay, and the old house of Hardwicke, in short, +every place which Mary inhabited during her captivity, all lie in ruins, +as if struck with a doleful curse. But Hardwicke Hall exists just as +it stood in the reign of Elizabeth. The present Duke of Devonshire, +with excellent taste and feeling, keeps up the old costume within and +without. The bed and furniture which had been used by Mary, the cushions +of her oratory, the tapestry wrought by her own hands, have been removed +hither, and are carefully preserved. There can be no doubt of the +authenticity of these relics, and there is enough surely to consecrate +the whole to our imagination. Moreover, we have but to go to the window +and see the very spot, the very walls which once enclosed her, the very +casements from which she probably gazed with a sigh over the far hills; +and indulge, without one intrusive doubt, in all the romantic and +fascinating, and mysterious, and sorrowful associations, which hang +round the memory of Mary Stuart. + +With what different eyes may people view the same things! "We receive +but what we give," says the poet; and all the light, and glory, and +beauty, with which certain objects are in a manner _suffused_ to the eye +of fancy, must issue from our own souls, and be reflected back to us, +else 'tis all in vain. + + "We may not hope from outward forms to win, + The passion and the life, whose fountains are within!" + + +When Gray, the poet, visited Hardwicke, he fell at once into a very +poet-like rapture, and did not stop to criticise pictures, and question +authorities. He says in one of his letters to Dr. Wharton, "of all the +places I have seen in my return from you, Hardwicke pleased me most. One +would think that Mary queen of Scotts was but just walked down into the +park with her guard for half an hour: her gallery, her room of audience, +her ante-chamber, with the very canopies, chair of state, footstool, +_lit de repos_, oratory, carpets, hangings, just as she left them, a +little tattered indeed, but the more venerable," &c. &c. + +Now let us hear Horace Walpole, antiquarian, virtuoso, dilettante, +filosofastro--but, in truth, no poet. He is, however, in general so +good-natured, so amusing, and so tasteful, that I cannot conceive what +put him into such a Smelfungus humour when he visited Hardwicke, with +a Cavendish too at his elbow as his cicerone! + +He says, "the duke sent Lord John with me to Hardwicke, where I was +again disappointed; but I will not take relations from others; they +either don't see for themselves, or can't see for me. How I had been +promised that I should be charmed with Hardwicke, and told that the +Devonshires ought to have established themselves there! Never was I less +charmed in my life. The house is not gothic, but of that _betweenity_ +that intervened when Gothic declined, and Palladian was creeping in; +rather, this is totally naked of either. It has vast chambers--aye, +vast, such as the nobility of that time delighted in, and did not +know how to furnish. The great apartment is exactly what it was +when the Queen of Scots was kept there.[53] Her council-chamber (the +council-chamber of a poor woman who had only two secretaries, a +gentleman usher, an apothecary, a confessor, and three maids) is so +outrageously spacious that you would take it for King David's, who +thought, contrary to all modern experience, that in the multitude of +counsellors there is wisdom. At the upper end is the State, with a +long table, covered with a sumptuous cloth, embroidered and embossed +with gold--at least what was gold; so are all the tables. Round the +top of the chamber runs a monstrous frieze, ten or twelve feet deep, +representing a stag-hunt in miserable plastered relief.[54] + +"The next is her dressing-room, hung with patchwork on black velvet; +then her state bed-chamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, +and now hangs in costly golden tatters; the hangings, part of which they +say her majesty worked, are composed of figures as large as life, sewed +and embroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c., and represent the +virtues that were necessary to her, or that she was found to have--as +patience, temperance,[55] &c. The fire-screens are particular;--pieces +of yellow velvet, fringed with gold, hung on a cross-bar of wood, which +is fixed on the top of a single stick that rises from the foot.[56] The +only furniture which has any appearance of taste are the table and +cabinets, which are of oak, richly carved." + +(I must observe _en passant_, that I wonder Horace did not go mad about +the chairs, which are exactly in the Strawberry Hill taste, only infinitely +finer, crimson velvet, with backs six feet high, and sumptuously carved.) + +"There is a private chamber within, where she lay: her arms and style +over the door. The arras hangs over all the doors. The gallery is sixty +yards in length, covered with bad tapestry and wretched pictures of Mary +herself, Elizabeth in a gown of sea-monsters, Lord Darnley, James the +Fifth and his queen, (curious,) and a whole history of kings of England +not worth sixpence a-piece."[57] + +"There is a fine bank of old oaks in the park over a lake: nothing else +pleased me there." + +Nothing else! Monsieur Traveller?--certes, this is one way of seeing +things! Yet, perhaps, if I had only visited Hardwicke as a casual object +of curiosity--had merely walked over the place--I had left it, like +Gray, with some vague impression of pleasure, or like Walpole, with some +flippant criticisms, according to the mood of the moment; or, at the +most, I had quitted it as we generally leave show-places, with some +confused recollections of state-rooms, and blue-rooms, and yellow-rooms, +and storied tapestries, and nameless, or mis-named pictures, floating +through the muddled brain; but it was far otherwise: I was ten days at +Hardwicke--ten delightful days--time enough to get it by heart; aye, +and what is more, ten _nights_; and I am convinced that to feel all the +interest of such a place one should sleep in it. There is much, too, +in first impressions, and the circumstances under which we approached +Hardwicke were sufficiently striking. It was on a gusty, dark autumnal +evening; and as our carriage wound slowly up the hill, we could but +just discern an isolated building, standing above us on the edge of the +eminence, a black mass against the darkening sky. No light was to be +seen, and when we drove clattering under the old gateway, and up the +paved court, the hollow echoes broke a silence which was almost awful. +Then we were ushered into a hall so spacious and lofty that I could +not at the moment discern its bounds; but I had glimpses of huge +escutcheons, and antlers of deer, and great carved human arms projecting +from the walls, intended to sustain lamps or torches, but looking as +if they were stretched out to clutch one. Thence up a stone staircase, +vast, and grand, and gloomy--leading we knew not where, and hung with +pictures of we knew not what--and conducted into a chamber fitted up +as a dining-room, in which the remnants of antique grandeur, the rich +carved oak wainscoting, the tapestry above it, the embroidered chairs, +the collossal armorial bearings above the chimney and the huge recessed +windows, formed a curious contrast with the comfortable modern sofas and +easy chairs, the blazing fire, and table hospitably spread in expectation +of our arrival. Then I was sent to repose in a room hung with rich faded +tapestry. On one side of my bed I had king David dancing before the ark, +and on the other, the judgment of Solomon. The executioner in the latter +piece, a grisly giant, seven or eight feet high, seemed to me, as the +arras stirred with the wind, to wave his sword, and looked as if he were +going to eat up the poor child, which he flourished by one leg; and for +some time I lay awake, unable to take my eyes from the figure. At length +fatigue overcame this unpleasant fascination, and I fell asleep. + +The next morning I began to ramble about, and so day after day, till +every stately chamber, every haunted nook, every secret door, curtained +with heavy arras, and every winding stair, became familiar to me. What +a passion our ancestors must have had for space and light! and what an +ignorance of comfort! Here are no ottomans of eider down, no spring +cushions, no "boudoirs etroits, où l'on ne boude point," no "demijour +de rendezvous;" but what vast chambers! what interminable galleries! +what huge windows pouring in floods of sunshine! what great carved +oak-chests, such as Iachimo hid himself in! now stuffed full of rich +tattered hangings, tarnished gold fringes, and remnants of embroidered +quilts! what acres--not yards--of tapestries, once of "sky-tinctured +woof," now faded and moth-eaten! what massy chairs and immovable tables! +what heaps of portraits, the men looking so grim and magnificent, and +the women so formal and faded! Before I left the place I had them all by +heart; there was not one among them who would not have bowed or curtsied +to me out of their frames. + +But there were three rooms in which I especially delighted, and passed +most of my time. The first was the council-chamber described by Walpole: +it is sixty-five feet in length, by thirty-three in width, and +twenty-six feet high. Rich tapestry, representing the story of Ulysses, +runs round the room to the height of fifteen or sixteen feet, and above +it the stag-hunt in ugly relief. On one side of this room there is a +spacious recess, at least eighteen or twenty feet square; and across +this, from side to side, to divide it from the body of the room, was +suspended a magnificent piece of tapestry, (real Gobelin's,) of the time +of Louis Quatorze, still fresh and even vivid in tint, which from its +weight hung in immense wavy folds; above it we could just discern the +canopy of a lofty state-bed, with nodding ostrich plumes, which had been +placed there out of the way. The effect of the whole, as I have seen +it, when the red western light streamed through the enormous windows, +was, in its shadowy beauty and depth of colour, that of a "realized +Rembrandt"--if, indeed, even Rembrandt ever painted any thing at once +so elegant, so fanciful, so gorgeous, and so gloomy. + +From this chamber, by a folding-door, beautifully inlaid with ebony, +but opening with a common latch, we pass into the library, as it is +called. Here the Duke of Devonshire generally sits when he visits +Hardwicke, perhaps on account of the glorious prospect from the windows. +It contains a grand piano, a sofa, and a range of book-shelves, on +which I found some curious old books. Here I used to sit and read +the voluminous works of that dear, half-mad, absurd, but clever and +good-natured Duchess of Newcastle,[58] and yawn and laugh alternately; +or pore over Guillim on Heraldry;--fit studies for the place! + +In this room are some good pictures, particularly the portrait of Lady +Anne Boyle, daughter of the first Earl of Burlington, the Lady Sandwich +of Charles the Second's time. This is, without exception, the finest +specimen of Sir Peter Lely I ever saw--so unlike the usual style of his +half-dressed, leering women--so full of pensive grace and simplicity--the +hands and arms so exquisitely drawn, and the colouring so rich and so +tender, that I was at once surprised and enchanted. There is also a +remarkably fine picture of a youth with a monkey on his shoulder, said +to be Jeffrey Hudson, (Queen Henrietta's celebrated dwarf,) and painted +by Vandyke. I doubt both. + +Over the chimney of this room there is a piece of sculptured bas-relief, +in Derbyshire marble, representing Mount Parnassus, with Apollo and the +Muses; in one corner the arms of Queen Elizabeth, and in the other her +cypher, E. R., and the royal crown. I could neither learn the meaning +of this nor the name of the artist. Could it have been a gift from +Queen Elizabeth? There is (I think in the next room) another piece of +sculpture representing the Marriage of Tobias; and I remember a third, +representing a group of Charity. The workmanship of all these is +surprisingly good for the time, and some of the figures very graceful. +I am surprised that they escaped the notice of Horace Walpole, in his +remarks on the decorations of Hardwicke.[59] Richard Stephens, a Flemish +sculptor and painter, and Valerio Vicentino, an Italian carver in +precious stones, were both employed by the munificent Cavendishes of +that time; and these pieces of sculpture were probably the work of one +of these artists. + +When tired of turning over the old books, a door concealed behind the +arras admitted me at once into the great gallery--my favourite haunt +and daily promenade. It is near one hundred and eighty feet in length, +lighted along one side by a range of stupendous windows, which project +outwards from so many angular recesses. In the centre pier is a throne, +or couch of state, on a raised platform, under a canopy of crimson and +gold, surmounted by plumes of ostrich feathers. The walls are partly +tapestried, and covered with some hundreds of family pictures; none +indeed of any superlative merit--none that emulate within a thousand +degrees the matchless Vandykes and glorious Titians of Devonshire House; +but among many that are positively bad, and more that are lamentably +mediocre as works of art, there are several of great interest. At each +end of this gallery is a door, and, according to the tradition of the +place, every night, at the witching hour of twelve, Queen Elizabeth +enters at one door, and Mary of Scotland at the other; they advance to +the centre, curtsey profoundly, then sit down together under the canopy +and converse amicably,--till the crowing of the cock breaks up the +conference, and sends the two majesties back to their respective +hiding-places. + +Somebody who was asked if he had ever seen a ghost? replied, gravely, +"No; but I was once _very near_ seeing one!" In the same manner I was +once _very near_ being a witness to one of these ghostly confabs. + +Late one evening, having left my sketch-book in the gallery, I went to +seek it. I made my way up the great stone staircase with considerable +intrepidity, passed through one end of the council-chamber without +casting a glance through the palpable obscure, the feeble ray of my +wax-light just spreading about a yard around me, and lifting aside the +tapestry door, stepped into the gallery. Just as the heavy arras fell +behind me, with a dull echoing sound, a sudden gust of wind came rushing +by, and extinguished my taper. Angels and ministers of grace defend +us!--not that I felt afraid--O no! but just a little what the Scotch +call "eerie." A thrill, not altogether unpleasant, came over me: the +visionary turn of mind which once united me in fancy "with the world +unseen," had long been sobered and reasoned away. I heard no "viewless +paces of the dead," nor "airy skirts unseen that rustled by;" but what I +did see and hear was enough. The wind whispering and moaning along the +tapestried walls, and every now and then rattling twenty or thirty +windows at once, with such a crash!--and the pictures around just +sufficiently perceptible in the faint light to make me fancy them +staring at me. Then immediately behind me was the very recess, or rather +abyss, where Queen Elizabeth was at that moment settling her +farthingale, to sally out upon me; and before me, but lost in blackest +gloom, the spectral door, where Mary--not that I should have minded +encountering poor Mary, provided always that she had worn her own +beautiful head where heaven placed it, and not carried it, as Bertrand +de Born carried _his_ "a guisa di lanterna."[60] As to what followed, it +is a secret. Suffice it that I found myself safe by the fireside in my +bedroom, without any very distinct recollection of how I got there. + +Of all the scenes in which to moralize and meditate, a picture gallery +is to me the most impressive. With the most intense feeling of the +beauty of painting, I cannot help thinking with Dr. Johnson, that as +far as regards portraits, their chief excellence and value consist +in the likeness and the authenticity,[61] and not in the merit of the +execution. When we can associate a story or a sentiment with every face +and form, they almost live to us--they do in a manner speak to us. There +is speculation in those fixed eyes--there is eloquence in those mute +lips--and, O! what tales they tell! One of the first pictures which +caught my attention as I entered the gallery was a small head of Arabella +Stuart, when an infant. The painting is poor enough: it is a little +round rosy face in a child's cap, and she holds an embroidered doll in +her hand. Who could look on this picture, and not glance forward through +succeeding years, and see the pretty playful infant transformed into the +impassioned woman, writing to her husband--"In sickness, and in despair, +wheresoever thou art, or howsoever I be, it sufficeth me always that +thou art mine!" Arabella Stewart was not clever; but not Heloise, nor +Corinne, nor Madlle. De l'Espinasse ever penned such a dear little +morsel of touching eloquence--so full of all a woman's tenderness! Her +stern grandmother, the lady and foundress of Hardwicke, hangs near. +There are three pictures of her: all the faces have an expression of +sense and acuteness, but none of them the beauty which is attributed to +her. There are also two of her husbands, Cavendish and Shrewsbury. The +former a grave, intelligent head; the latter very striking from +the lofty furrowed brow, the ample beard, and regular but care-worn +features. A little farther on we find his son Gilbert, seventh earl of +Shrewsbury, and Mary Cavendish, wife of the latter and daughter of Bess +of Hardwicke. She resembled her mother in features as in character. +The expression is determined, intelligent, and rather cunning. Of her +haughty and almost fierce temper, a curious instance is recorded. She +had quarrelled with her neighbours, the Stanhopes, and not being able +to defy them with sword and buckler, she sent one of her gentlemen, +properly attended, with a message to Sir Thomas Stanhope, to be +delivered in presence of witnesses, in these words--"My lady hath +commanded me to say thus much to you: that though you be more wretched, +vile, and miserable than any creature living, and for your wickedness +become more ugly in shape than the vilest toad in the world; and one to +whom none of any reputation would vouchsafe to send any message; yet +she hath thought good to send thus much to you, that she be contented +you should live, (and doth noways wish your death,) but to this end: +that all the plagues and miseries that may befall any man, may light on +such a caitiff as you are," &c.; (and then a few anathemas, yet more +energetic, not fit to be transcribed by "pen polite," but ending with +_hell-fire_.) "With many other opprobrious and hateful words which could +not be remembered, because the bearer would deliver it but once, as he +said he was commanded; but said, if he had failed in any thing, it was +in speaking it more mildly, and not in terms of such disdain as he was +commanded." We are not told whether the gallantry of Stanhope suffered +him to throw the herald out of the window, who brought him this gentle +missive. As for the termagant countess, his adversary, she was afterwards +imprisoned in the Tower for upwards of two years, on account of Lady +Arabella Stuart's stolen match with Lord Seymour. She ought assuredly to +have "brought forth men-children only;" but she left no son. Her three +daughters married the earls of Pembroke, of Arundel, and of Kent. + +The portraits of James V. of Scotland and his Queen, Mary of Guise, are +extremely curious. There is something ideal and elegant about the head +of James V.--the look we might expect to find in a man who died from +wounded feeling. His more unhappy daughter, poor Mary, hangs near--a +full length in a mourning habit, with a white cap, (of her own peculiar +fashion,) and a veil of white gauze. This, I believe, is the celebrated +picture so often copied and engraved. It is dated 1578, the thirty-sixth +of her age, and the tenth of her captivity. The figure is elegant, and +the face pensive and sweet.[62] Beside her, in strong contrast, hangs +Elizabeth, in a most preposterous farthingale, and a superabundance +of all her usual absurdities and enormities of dress. The petticoat is +embroidered over with snakes, crocodiles, and all manner of creeping +things. We feel almost inclined to ask whether the artist could possibly +have intended them as emblems, like the eyes and ears in her picture +at Hatfield; but it may have been one of the three thousand gowns, +in which Spenser's Gloriana, Raleigh's Venus, loved to array her old +wrinkled, crooked carcase. Katherine of Arragon is here--a small head +in a hood: the face not only harsh, as in all her pictures, but vulgar, +a characteristic I never saw in any other. There is that peculiar +expression round the mouth, which might be called either decision or +obstinacy. And here too is the famous Lucy Harrington, Countess of +Bedford, the friend and patroness of Ben Jonson, looking sentimental in +a widow's dress, with a white pocket handkerchief. There is character +enough in the countenance to make us turn with pleasure to Ben Jonson's +exquisite eulogium on her. + + "I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet, + Hating that solemn vice of greatness, _pride_: + I meant each softest virtue there should meet, + Fit in that softer bosom to reside. + Only a learned and a manly soul + I purposed her; that should with even powers + The rock, the spindle, and the sheers controul + Of destiny, and spin her own free hours!" + + +Farther on is another more celebrated woman, Christian Bruce, the second +Countess of Devonshire, so distinguished in the reigns of Charles I. +and Charles II. She had all the good qualities of Bess of Hardwicke: +her sense, her firmness, her talents for business, her magnificent and +independent spirit, and none of her faults. She was as feminine as she +was generous and high-minded; fond of literature, and a patroness of +poets and learned men:--altogether a noble creature. She was the mother +of that lovely Lady Rich, "the wise, the fair, the virtuous, and the +young,"[63] whose picture by Vandyke is at Devonshire-house, and there +are two pictures at Hardwicke of her handsome, gallant, and accomplished +son, Charles Cavendish, who was killed at the battle of Gainsborough. +Many fair eyes almost wept themselves blind for his loss, and his mother +never recovered the "sore heart-break of his death." + +There are several pictures of her grandson, the first Duke of +Devonshire--the patriot, the statesman, the munificent patron of letters, +the poet, the man of gallantry, and, to crown all, the handsomest man of +his day. He was one of the leaders in the revolution of 1688--for be it +remembered that the Cavendishes, from generation to generation, have +ennobled their nobility by their love of liberty, as well as their love +of literature and the arts. One picture of this duke on horseback, _en +grand costume à la Louis Quatorze_, is so embroidered and bewigged, so +plumed, and booted, and spurred, that he is scarcely to be discerned +through his accoutrements. A cavalier of those days in full dress must +have been a ponderous concern; but then the ladies were as formidably +vast and aspiring. The petticoats at this time were so discursive, and +the head-dresses so ambitious, that I think it must have been to save +in canvass what they expended in satin or brocade, that so many of the +pretty women of that day were painted _en bergère_. + +Apropos to the first Duke of Devonshire: I cannot help remarking the +resemblance of the present duke to his illustrious ancestor, as well +as to several other portraits, and particularly to a very distant +relative--the first Countess of Burlington, who was, I believe, the +great-grandmother of his grace's grandmother;--in both these instances +the likeness is so striking as to be recognized at once, and not without +a smiling exclamation of surprise. + +Another interesting picture is that of Rachael Russell, the second +Duchess of Devonshire, daughter of that heroine and saint, Lady Russell: +the face is very beautiful, and the air elegant and high-bred--with +rather a pouting expression in the full red lips. + +Here is also the third duchess, Miss Hoskins, a great city heiress. +The painter, I suspect, has flattered her, for she had not in her day +the reputation of beauty. When I looked at this picture, so full of +delicate, and youthful, and smiling loveliness, I could not help +recurring to a passage in Horace Walpole's letters, in which he alludes +to this sylph-like being, as the "ancient grace," and congratulates +himself on finding her in good-humour. + +But of all the female portraits, the one which struck me most was that +of Lady Charlotte Boyle, the young Marchioness of Hartington, in a +masquerade habit of purple satin, embroidered with silver; a fanciful +little cap and feathers, thrown on one side, and the dark hair escaping +in luxuriant tresses; she holds a mask in her hand, which she has just +taken off, and looks round upon us in all the consciousness of happy and +high-born loveliness. She was the daughter and heiress of Richard Boyle, +the last Earl of Burlington and Cork, and Baroness Clifford in her own +right. The merits of the Cavendishes were their own, but their riches +and power, in several instances, were brought into the family by a +softer influence. Through her, I believe, the vast estates of the Boyles +and Cliffords in Ireland and the north of England, including Chiswick +and Bolton Abbey, have descended to her grandson, the present duke.[64] +There are several pictures of her here--one playing on the harpsichord, +and another, small and very elegant, in which she is mounted on a +spirited horse. There are two heads of her in crayons, by her mother, +Lady Burlington,[65] ill-executed, but said to be like her. And another +picture, representing her and her beautiful but ill-fated sister, Lady +Dorothy, who was married very young to Lord Euston, and died six months +afterwards, in consequence of the brutal treatment of her husband.[66] +All the pictures of Lady Hartington have the same marked character of +pride, intellect, vivacity, and loveliness. But short was her gay and +splendid career! She died of a decline in the sixth year of her marriage, +at the age of four-and-twenty. + +Here is also her father, Lord Burlington, celebrated by Pope, (who has +dedicated to him the second of his epistles "on the use of riches,") +and styled by Walpole, "the Apollo of the Arts," which he not only +patronised, but studied and cultivated; his enthusiasm for architecture +was such, that he not only designed and executed buildings for himself, +(the villa at Chiswick, for example,) but contributed great sums to +public works; and at his own expense published an edition of the designs +of Palladio and of Inigo Jones. In one picture of Lord Burlington +there is a head of his idol, Inigo Jones, in the background. There is +also a good picture of Robert Boyle, the philosopher, a spare, acute, +contemplative, interesting face, in which there is as much sensibility +as thought. He is said to have died of grief for the loss of his +favourite sister, Lady Ranelagh; and when we recollect who and what +_she_ was--the sole friend of his solitary heart--the partner of his +studies, and with qualities which rendered her the object of Milton's +enthusiastic admiration, and almost tender regard, we scarce think less +of her brother's philosophy, that it afforded him no consolation for the +loss of _such_ a sister. + +On the other side hangs another philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury, +whose bold speculations in politics and metaphysics, and the odium +they drew on him, rendered his whole life one continued warfare with +established prejudices and opinions. He was tutor in the family of the +first Earl of Devonshire, in 1607--remained constantly attached to the +house of Cavendish--and never lost their countenance and patronage in +the midst of all the calumnies heaped upon him. He died at Hardwicke +under the protection of the first Duke of Devonshire, in 1678. This +curious portrait represents him at the age of ninety-two. The picture +is not good as a picture, but striking from the evident truth of the +expression--uniting the last lingering gleam of thought with the +withered, wrinkled, and almost ghastly decrepitude of extreme age. +It has, I believe, been engraved by Hollar. + +I looked round for Henry Cavendish, the great chemist and natural +philosopher--another bright ornament of a family every way ennobled--but +there is no portrait of him at Hardwicke. I was also disappointed not to +find the "limned effigy," as she would call it, of my dear Margaret of +Newcastle. + +There are plenty of kings and queens, truly not worth "sixpence +a-piece," as Walpole observes; but there is one picture I must not +forget--that of the brave and accomplished Earl of Derby, who was +beheaded at Bolton-le-Moor, the husband of the heroic "Lady of Lathom," +who figures in Peveril of the Peak. The head has a grand melancholy +expression, and I should suppose it to be a copy from Vandyke. + +Besides these, were many others calculated to awaken in the thoughtful +mind both sweet and bitter fancies. How often have I walked up and down +this noble gallery lost in "commiserating reveries" on the vicissitudes of +departed grandeur!--on the nothingness of all that life could give!--on +the fate of youthful beauties who lived to be broken-hearted, grow old, +and die!--on heroes that once walked the earth in the blaze of their +fame, now gone down to dust, and an endless darkness!--on bright faces, +"petries de lis et de roses," since time-wrinkled!--on noble forms since +mangled in the battle-field!--on high-born heads that fell beneath the +axe of the executioner!--O ye starred and ribboned! ye jewelled and +embroidered! ye wise, rich, great, noble, brave, and beautiful, of all +your loves and smiles, your graces and excellencies, your deeds and +honours--does then a "painted board circumscribe all?" + + + + +ALTHORPE. + +A FRAGMENT. + + +It was on such a day as I have seen in Italy in the month of December, +but which, in our chill climate, seemed so unseasonably, so ominously +beautiful, that it was like the hectic loveliness brightening the eyes +and flushing the cheek of consumption,--that I found myself in the +domains of Althorpe. Autumn, dying in the lap of Winter, looked out with +one bright parting smile;--the soft air breathed of Summer; the withered +leaves, heaped on the path, told a different tale. The slant, pale sun +shone out with all heaven to himself; not a cloud was there, not a breeze +to stir the leafless woods--those venerable woods, which Evelyn loved +and commemorated:[67] the fine majestic old oaks, scattered over the +park, tossed their huge bare arms against the blue sky; a thin hoar +frost, dissolving as the sun rose higher, left the lawns and hills +sparkling and glancing in its ray; now and then a hare raced across the +open glade-- + + "And with her feet she from the plashy earth + Raises a mist, which glittering in the sun, + Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run." + + +Nothing disturbed the serene stillness except a pheasant whirring from a +neighbouring thicket, or at intervals the belling of the deer--a sound +so peculiar, and so fitted to the scene, that I sympathized in the +taste of one of the noble progenitors of the Spencers, who had built +a hunting-lodge in a sequestered spot, that he might hear "the harte +bell." + +This was a day, an hour, a scene, with all its associations, its +quietness and beauty, "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." +All worldly cares and pains were laid asleep; while memory, fancy, and +feeling waked. Althorpe does not frown upon us in the gloom of remote +antiquity; it has not the warlike glories of some of the baronial +residences of our old nobility; it is not built like a watch-tower +on a hill, to lord it over feudal vassals; it is not bristled with +battlements and turrets. It stands in a valley, with the gradual hills +undulating round it, clothed with rich woods. It has altogether a look +of compactness and comfort, without pretension, which, with the pastoral +beauty of the landscape, and low situation, recall the ancient vocation +of the family, whose grandeur was first founded, like that of the +patriarchs of old, on the multitude of their flocks and herds.[68] It +was in the reign of Henry the Eighth that Althorpe became the principal +seat of the Spencers, and no place of the same date can boast so many +delightful, romantic, and historical associations. There is Spenser the +poet, "high-priest of all the Muses' mysteries," who modestly claimed, +as an honour, his relationship to those Spencers who now, with a just +pride, boast of _him_, and deem his Faery Queen "the brightest jewel in +their coronet;" and the beautiful Alice Spencer, countess of Derby, who +was celebrated in early youth by her poet-cousin, and for whom Milton, +in her old age, wrote his "Arcades." At Althorpe, in 1603, the queen and +son of James the First were, on their arrival in England, nobly +entertained with a masque, written for the occasion by Ben Jonson, in +which the young ladies and nobles of the country enacted nymphs and +fairies, satyrs and hunters, and danced to the sound of "excellent soft +music," their scenery the natural woods, their stage the green lawn, +their canopy the summer sky. What poetical picturesque hospitality! +In these days it would have been a dinner, with French cooks and +confectioners express from London to dress it. Here lived Waller's +famous Sacharissa, the first Lady Sunderland--so beautiful and good, +so interesting in herself, she needed not his wit nor his poetry to +enshrine her. Here she parted from her young husband,[69] when he left +her to join the king in the field; and here, a few months after, she +received the news of his death in the battle of Newbury, and saw her +happiness wrecked at the age of three-and-twenty. Here plotted her +distinguished son, that Proteus of politics, the second Lord Sunderland. +Charles the First was playing at bowls on the green at Althorpe, when +Colonel Joyce's detachment surprised him, and carried him off to +imprisonment and to death. Here the excellent and accomplished Evelyn +used to meditate in the "noble gallerie," and in the "ample gardens," of +which he has left us an admiring and admirable description, which would +be as suitable today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago, with the +single exception of the great proprietor, deservedly far more honoured +in this generation than was his apostate time-serving ancestor, the +Lord Sunderland of Evelyn's day.[70] When the Spencers were divided, +the eldest branch of the family becoming Dukes of Marlborough and the +youngest Earls Spencer--if the former inherited glory, Blenheim, and +poverty--to the latter have belonged more true and more substantial +distinctions: for the last three generations the Spencers have been +remarked for talents, for benevolence, for constancy, for love of +literature, and patronage of the fine arts. + +The house retains the form described by Evelyn--that of a half H: +a slight irregularity is caused by the new gothic room, built by +the present earl, to contain part of his magnificent library, which, +like the statue in the Castle of Otranto, had grown "too big for what +contained it." We entered by a central door the large and lofty hall, or +vestibule, hung round with pictures of fox-chases and those who figured +in them, famous hunters, quadruped and biped, all as large as life, +spread over as much canvass as would make a mainsail for a man-of-war. +These huge perpetrations are of the time of Jack Spencer, a noted Nimrod +in his day; and are very fine, as we were told, but they did not +interest me. I had caught a glimpse of the superb staircase, hung round +with pictures above and below, and not the less interesting as having +been erected by Sacharissa herself during the few years she was mistress +of Althorpe. A face looked at us from over an opposite door, which there +was no resisting. Does the reader remember Horace Walpole's pleasant +description of a party of _seers_ posting through the apartments of a +show-place? "They come; ask what such a room is called?--write it down; +admire a lobster or cabbage in a Dutch market piece; dispute whether the +last room was green or purple; and then hurry to the inn, for fear the +fish should be over-dressed."[71] We were not such a party; but with +imaginations ready primed to take fire, and memories enriched with all +the associations the place could suggest, to us every portrait was a +history. The orthodox style of seeing the house is to turn to the left, +and view the ground-floor apartments first; but the face I have mentioned +seemed to beckon me straight-forward, and I could not choose but obey +the invitation: it was that of Lady Bridgewater, the loveliest of the +four lovely daughters of the Duke of Marlborough: she had the misfortune +to be painted by Jervas, and the good fortune to be celebrated by Pope +as the "tender sister, daughter, friend, and wife;" and again-- + + "Thence Beauty, waking, all her forms supplies-- + An angel's sweetness--or Bridgewater's eyes." + + +Jervas was supposed to have been presumptuously and desperately in love +with this beautiful woman, who died at the age of five-and-twenty: hence +Pope has taken the liberty--by a poetical licence, no doubt--to call +her, in his Epistle to Jervas, "_thy_ Bridgewater." Two of her fair +sisters, the Duchess of Montagu and Lady Godolphin, hung near her; and +above, her fairer sister, Lady Sunderland. Ascending the magnificent +staircase, a hundred faces look down upon us, in a hundred different +varieties of expression, in a hundred different costumes. Here are Queen +Anne and Sarah Duchess of Marlborough placed amicably side by side, +as in the days of their romantic friendship, when they conversed and +corresponded as Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman: the beauty, the intellect, +the spirit, are all on the side of the imperious duchess; the poor queen +looks like what she was, a good-natured fool. On the left is the cunning +abigail, who supplanted the duchess in the favour of Queen Anne--Mrs. +Masham. Proceeding along the gallery, we are met by the portrait of that +angel-devil, Lady Shrewsbury,[72] whose exquisite beauty fascinates at +once and shocks the eye like the gorgeous colours of an adder. I believe +the story of her holding the Duke of Buckingham's horse while he shot +her husband in a duel, has been disputed; but her attempt to assassinate +Killegrew, while she sat by in her carriage,[73] is too true. So far had +her depravities unsexed her! + + ----"Lorsque la vertu, avec peine abjurée, + Nous fait voir une femme à ses fureurs livrée, + S'irritant par l'effort que ce pas a couté, + Son âme avec plus d'art a plus de cruauté." + + +She was even less famous for the number of her lovers, than the +catastrophes of which she was the cause. + + "Had ever nymph such reason to be glad? + Two in a duel fell, and one ran mad." + + +Not two, but half a dozen fell in duels; and if her lovers "ran mad," +it was in despite, not in despair. Lady Shrewsbury is past jesting or +satire; and after a first involuntary pause of admiration before her +matchless beauty, we turn away with horror. For the rest of the +portraits on this vast staircase, it would take a volume to give a +_catalogue raisonnée_ of them. We pass, then, into a corridor hung with +two large and very mediocre landscapes, representing Tivoli and Terni. +Any attempt, even the best, to paint a cataract _must_ be abortive. How +render to the fancy the two grandest of its features--sound and motion? +the thunder and the tumult of the headlong waters? We will pass on to +the gallery, and lose ourselves in its enchantments. + +Where shall we begin?--Any where. Throw away the catalogue: all are old +acquaintances. We are tempted to speak to them, and they look as if they +could curtsey to us. The very walls breathe around us. What Vandykes--what +Lelys--what Sir Joshuas! what a congregation of all that is beauteous +and noble!--what Spencers, Sydneys, Digbys, Russells, Cavendishes, +and Churchills!--O what a scene to moralize, to philosophize, to +sentimentalize in!--what histories in those eyes, that look, yet see +not!--what sermons on those lips, that all but speak; I would rather +reflect in a picture-gallery, than elegize in a churchyard. The "poca +polvere che nulla sente," can only tell us we must die; these, with +a more useful and deep-felt morality, tell us how to live. + +Yet I cannot say I felt thus pensive and serious the first time I +looked round the gallery at Althorpe. Curiosity, excitement, interest, +admiration--a crowd of quick successive images and recollections +fleeting across the memory--left me no time to think. I remember being +startled, the moment I entered, by a most extraordinary picture,--the +second Prince of Orange, and his preceptor Katts, by Flinck. The eyes of +the latter are really shockingly alive; they stare out of the canvass, +and glitter and fascinate like those of a serpent. If I had been a Roman +Catholic, I should have crossed myself, as I looked at them, to shield +me from their evil and supernatural expression.[74] The picture of the +two Sforzas, Maximilian and his brother Francis, by Albert Durer, is +quite a curiosity; and so is another, by Holbein, near it, containing +the portraits of Henry the Eighth, his daughter Mary, and his jester, +Will Somers,--all full of individuality and truth. The expression in +Mary's face, at once saturnine, discontented and vulgar, is especially +full of character. These last three pictures are curious and valuable as +specimens of art; but they are not pleasing. We turn to the matchless +Vandykes, at once admirable as paintings, and yet more interesting as +portraits. A full-length of his master and friend, Rubens, dressed in +black, is magnificent; the attitude particularly graceful. Near the +centre of the gallery is the charming full-length of Queen Henrietta +Maria, a well-known and celebrated picture. She is dressed in white +satin, and stands near a table on which is a vase of white roses, and, +more in the shade, her regal crown. Nothing can be in finer taste than +the contrast between the rich, various, but subdued colours of the +carpet and background, and the delicate, and harmonious, and brilliant +tints which throw out the figure. None of the pictures I had hitherto +seen of Henrietta, either in the king's private collection, or at +Windsor, do justice to the sparkling grace of her figure, or the +vivacity and beauty of her eyes, so celebrated by all the contemporary +poets. Waller, for instance:-- + + "Could Nature then no private woman grace, + Whom we might dare to love, with such a face, + Such a complexion, and so radiant eyes, + Such lovely motion, and such sharp replies?" + + +Davenant styles her, very beautifully, "The rich-eyed darling of a +monarch's breast." Lord Holland, in the description he sent from Paris, +dwells on the charm of her eyes, her smile, and her graceful figure, +though he admits her to be rather _petite_; and if the poet and the +courtier be distrusted, we have the authority of the puritanic Sir +Symond d'Ewes, who allows the influence of her "excellent and sparkling +black eyes." Henrietta could be very seductive, and had all the French +grace of manner; but, as is well known, she could play the virago, "and +cast such a scowl, as frightened all the lords and ladies in waiting." +Too much importance is attached to her character and her influence over +her husband, in the histories of that time. She was a fascinating, but +a superficial and volatile Frenchwoman. With all her feminine love +of sway, she had not sufficient energy to govern; and with all her +disposition to intrigue, she never had discretion enough to keep her +own or the king's secrets. When she rushed through a storm of bullets +to save a favourite lap-dog; or when, amid the shrieks and entreaties +of her terrified attendants, she commanded the captain of her vessel to +"blow up the ship rather than strike to the Parliamentarian,"--it was +more the spirit and wilfulness of a woman, who, with all her faults, +had the blood of Henri Quatre in her veins, than the mental energy +and resolute fortitude of a heroine. Near her hangs her daughter, who +inherited her grace, her beauty, her petulance,--the unhappy Henriette +d'Orleans,[75] fair, radiant, and lively, with a profusion of beautiful +hair; it is impossible to look from the mother to the daughter, without +remembering the scene in Retz's memoirs, when the queen said to him, in +excuse for her daughter's absence, "My poor Henrietta is obliged to lie +in bed, for I have no wood to make a fire for her--et la pauvre enfant +était transie de froid." + +Another picture by Vandyke hangs at the top of the room, one of the +grandest and most spirited of his productions. It represents William, +the first Duke of Bedford, the father of Lord William Russell, when +young, and his brother-in-law, the famous (and infamous) Digby, Earl +of Bristol. How admirably Vandyke has caught the characters of the two +men!--the fine commanding form of the duke, as he steps forward, the +frank, open countenance, expressive of all that is good and noble, speak +him what he was--not less than that of Digby, which, though eminently +handsome, has not one elevated or amiable trait in the countenance; the +drapery, background, and more especially the hands, are magnificently +painted. On one side of this superb picture, hangs the present Earl +Spencer when a youth; and on the other, his sister, Georgiana Duchess +of Devonshire, at the age of eighteen, looking all life and high-born +loveliness, and reminding one of Coleridge's beautiful lines to her:-- + + "Light as a dream your days their circlets ran + From all that teaches brotherhood to man, + Far, far removed! from want, from grief, from fear! + Obedient music lull'd your infant ear; + Obedient praises soothed your infant heart; + Emblazonments and old ancestral crests, + With many a bright obtrusive form of art, + Detain'd your eye from nature. Stately vests, + That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, + Rich viands and the pleasurable wine, + Were yours unearn'd by toil."---- + + +And he thus beautifully alludes to her maternal character; for this +accomplished woman set the example to the highest ranks, of nursing +her own children:-- + + "You were a mother! at your bosom fed + The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, + Each twilight thought, each nascent feeling read, + Which you yourself created." + + +Alas, that such a beginning should have such an end! + +Both these are whole-lengths, by Sir Joshua Reynolds: the middle tints +are a little flown, else they were perfect; they suffer by being hung +near the glowing yet mellowed tints of Vandyke. + +We have here a whole bevy of the heroines of De Grammont, delightful +to those who have what Walpole used to call the "De Grammont madness" +upon them. Here is that beautiful, audacious termagant, Castlemaine, +very like her picture at Windsor, and with the same characteristic bit +of storm gleaming in the background.--Lady Denham,[76] the wife of +the poet, Sir John Denham, and niece of that Lord Bristol who figures +in Vandyke's picture above mentioned--a lovely creature, and a sweet +picture.--Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, who so long +ruled the heart and councils of Charles the Second, in Lely's finest +style; the face has a look of blooming innocence, soon exchanged +for coarseness and arrogance.--The indolent, alluring Middleton, +looking from under her sleepy eyelids, "trop coquette pour rebuter +personne."--"La Belle Hamilton," the lovely prize of the volatile De +Grammont; very like her portrait at Windsor, with the same finely formed +bust and compressed ruby lips, but with an expression more vivacious and +saucy, and less elevated.--Two portraits of Nell Gwyn, with the fair +brown air and small bright eyes they ought to have; _au reste_, with +such prim, sanctified mouths, and dressed with such elaborate decency, +that instead of reminding us of the "parole sciolte d'ogni freno, risi, +vezzi, giuochi"--they are more like Beck Marshall, the puritan's +daughter, on her good behaviour.[77] + +Here is that extraordinary woman Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, +the fame of whose beauty and gallantries filled all Europe, and once the +intended wife of Charles the Second, though she afterwards intrigued in +vain for the less (or more) eligible post of _maitresse en titre_. What +an extraordinary, wild, perverted, good-for-nothing, yet interesting set +of women, were those four Mancini sisters! all victims, more or less, to +the pride, policy, or avarice, of their cardinal uncle; all gifted by +nature with the fervid Italian blood and the plotting Italian brain; all +really _aventuriéres_, while they figured as duchesses and princesses. +They wore their coronets and ermine as strolling players wear their +robes of state--with a sort of picturesque awkwardness--and they proved +rather too scanty to cover a multitude of sins. + +This head of Hortense Mancini, as Cleopatra dissolving the pearl, is the +most spirited, but the least beautiful portrait I have seen of her. An +appropriate pendant on the opposite side is her lover, philosopher, and +eulogist, the witty St. Evremond--Grammont's "Caton de Normandie;" but +instead of looking like a good-natured epicurean, a man "who thought as +he liked, and liked what he thought,"[78] his nose is here wrinkled up +into an expression of the most supercilious scorn, adding to his native +ugliness.[79] Both these are by Kneller. Farther on, is another of +Charles's beauties, whose _sagesse_ has never been disputed--Elizabeth +Wriothesley, Countess of Northumberland, the sister of that half saint, +half heroine, and _all_ woman--Lady Russell. + +There is also a lovely picture of that magnificent brunette, Miss Bagot. +"Elle avait," says Hamilton, "ce teint rembruni qui plait tant quand +il plait." She married Berkeley Lord Falmouth, a man who, though +unprincipled, seems to have loved her; at least, was not long enough +her husband to forget to be her lover: he was killed, shortly after his +marriage, in the battle of Southwold-bay. This is assuredly one of the +most splendid pictures Lely ever painted; and it is, besides, full of +character and interest. She holds a cannon-ball in her lap, (only an +airy emblematical cannon-ball, for she poises it like a feather,) and +the countenance is touched with a sweet expression of melancholy: hence +it is plain that she sat for it soon after the death of her first +husband, and before her marriage with the witty Earl of Dorset.--Near +her hangs another fair piece of witchcraft, "La Belle Jennings," who in +her day played with hearts as if they had been billiard balls; and no +wonder, considering what _things_ she had to deal with:[80] there was +a great difference between her vivacity and that of her vivacious +sister, the Duchess of Marlborough.--Old Sarah hangs near her. One +would think that Kneller, in spite, had watched the moment to take a +characteristic likeness, and catch, not the Cynthia, but the Fury of +the minute; as for instance, when she cut off her luxuriant tresses, so +worshipped by her husband, and flung them in his face; for so she tosses +back her disdainful head, and curls her lip like an insolent, pouting, +spoiled, grown-up baby. The life of this woman is as fine a lesson on +the emptiness of all worldly advantages, boundless wealth, power, fame, +beauty, wit, as ever was set forth by moralist or divine. + + "By spirit robb'd of power--by warmth, of friends-- + By wealth, of followers! without one distress, + Sick of herself through very selfishness."[81] + + +And yet I suspect that the Duchess of Marlborough has never met with +justice. History knows her only as Marlborough's wife, an intriguing +dame d'honneur, and a cast-off favourite. Vituperated by Swift, +satirized by Pope, ridiculed by Walpole--what angel could have stood +such bedaubing, and from such pens? + + "O she has fallen into a pit of ink!" + + +But glorious talents she had, strength of mind, generosity, the power to +feel and inspire the strongest attachment,--and all these qualities were +degraded, or rendered useless, by _temper_! Her avarice was not the love +of money for its own sake, but the love of power; and her bitter contempt +for "knaves and fools" may be excused, if not justified. Imagine such +a woman as the Duchess of Marlborough out-faced, out-plotted by that +crowned cypher, that sceptred commonplace, queen Anne! It should seem +that the constant habit of being forced to serve, outwardly, where she +really ruled,--the consciousness of her own brilliant and powerful +faculties brought into immediate hourly comparison with the confined +trifling understanding of her mistress, a disdain of her own forced +hypocrisy, and a perception of the heartless baseness of the courtiers +around her, disgusting to a mind naturally high-toned, produced at +length that extreme of bitterness and insolence which made her so often +"an embodied storm." She was always a termagant--but of a very different +description from the vulgar Castlemaine. + +Though the picture of Colonel Russell, by Dobson, is really fine +as a portrait, the recollection of the scene between him and Miss +Hamilton[82]--his love of dancing, to prove he was not old and +asthmatical,--and his attachment to his "_chapeau pointu_," make it +impossible to look at him without a smile--but a good-humoured smile, +such as his lovely mistress gave him when she rejected him with so +much politeness.--Arabella Churchill, the sister of the great Duke of +Marlborough, and mistress of the Duke of York, has been better treated +by the painter than by Hamilton; instead of "La grande créature, pale et +decharnée," she appears here a very lovely woman. But enough of these +equivocal ladies. No--before we leave them, there are yet two to be +noticed, more equivocal, more interesting, and more extraordinary than +all the rest put together--Bianca di Capello, who, from a washerwoman, +became Grand Duchess of Florence, with less beauty than I should have +expected, but as much _countenance_; and the beautiful, but appalling +picture of Venitia Digby, painted after she was dead, by Vandyke: she +was found one morning sitting up in her bed, leaning her head on her +hand, and lifeless; and thus she is painted. Notwithstanding the ease +and grace of the attitude, and the delicacy of the features, there is +no mistaking this for slumber: a heavier hand has pressed upon those +eyelids, which will never more open to the light: there is a leaden +lifelessness about them, too shockingly true and real-- + + "It thrills us with mortality, + And curdles to the gazer's heart." + + +Her picture at Windsor is the most perfectly beautiful and impressive +female portrait I ever saw. How have I longed, when gazing at it, to +conjure her out of her frame, and bid her reveal the secret of her +mysterious life and death!--Nearly opposite to the dead Venitia, in +strange contrast, hangs her husband, who loved her to madness, or was +mad before he married her, in the very prime of life and youth. This +picture, by Cornelius Jansen, is as fine as any thing of Vandyke's: the +character expresses more of intellectual power and physical strength, +than of that elegance of face and form we should have looked for in +such a fanciful being as Sir Kenelm Digby: he looks more like one of +the Athletæ than a poet, a metaphysician, and a "squire of dames." + +There are three pictures of Waller's famed Sacharissa, the first Lady +Sunderland: one in a hat, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, gay and +blooming; the second, far more interesting, was painted about the +time of her marriage with the young Earl of Sunderland, or shortly +after--very sweet and lady-like. I should say that the high-breeding +of the face and air was more conspicuous than the beauty; the neck and +hands exquisite. Both these are Vandyke's. A third picture represents +her about the time of her second marriage: the expression wholly +changed--cold, sad, faded, but pretty still: one might fancy her +contemplating, with a sick heart, the portrait of Lord Sunderland, the +lover and husband of her early youth, who hangs on the opposite side of +the gallery, in complete armour: he fell in the same battle with Lord +Falkland, at the age of three-and-twenty. The brother of Sacharissa, +the famous Algernon Sidney, is suspended near her; a fine head, full of +contemplation and power. + +Among the most interesting pictures in the gallery is an undoubted +original of Lady Jane Grey. After seeing so many hideous, hard, +prim-looking pictures and prints of this gentle-spirited heroine, it +is consoling to trust in the genuineness of a face which has all the +sweetness and dignity we look for, and ought to find. Then, by way of +contrast, we have that most curious picture of Diana of Poitiers, once +in the Crawfurd collection: it is a small half-length; the features fair +and regular; the hair is elaborately dressed with a profusion of jewels; +but there is no drapery whatever--"force pierreries et trés peu de +linge," as Madame de Sevigné described the two Mancini.[83] Round the +head is the legend from the 42d Psalm--"Comme le cerf braie après +le décours des eaues, ainsi brait mon ame après toi, O Dieu," which +is certainly an extraordinary application. In the days of Diana of +Poitiers, the beautiful mistress of Henry the Second of France, it +was the court fashion to sing the Psalms of David to dance and song +tunes;[84] and the courtiers and beauties had each their favourite +psalm, which served as a kind of _devise_: this may explain the very +singular inscription on this very singular picture. Here are also the +portraits of Otway and Cowley, and of Montaigne; the last from the +Crawfurd collection. + +I had nearly omitted to mention a magnificent whole-length of the Duc +de Guise--who was stabbed in the closet of Henry the Third--whose life +contains materials for ten romances and a dozen epics, and whose death +has furnished subjects for as many tragedies. And not far from him that +not less daring, and more successful chief, Oliver Cromwell: a page is +tying on his sash. There is a vulgar power and boldness about this head, +in fine contrast with the high-born, fearless, chivalrous-looking Guise. + +In the library is the splendid picture of Sofonisba Angusciola, by +herself: she is touching the harpsichord, for like many others of her +craft, she excelled in music. Angelica Kauffman had nearly been an +opera-singer. The instances of great painters being also excellent +musicians are numerous; Salvator Rosa could have led an orchestra, and +Vernet could not exist without Pergolesi's piano. But I cannot recollect +an instance of a great musician by profession, who has also been a +painter: the range of faculties is generally more confined. + +Rembrandt's large picture of his mother, which is, I think, the most +magnificent specimen of this master now in England, hangs over the +chimney in the same room with the Sofonisba. + +The last picture I can distinctly remember is a portrait by Sir Joshua +Reynolds, with all his perfections combined in their perfection. It is +that of a beautiful Frenchwoman, an intimate friend of the last Lady +Spencer--with as much intellect, sentiment, and depth of feeling as +would have furnished out twenty ordinary heads; all harmony in the +colouring, all grace in the drawing. + +Here then was food for the eye and for the memory--for sweet and bitter +fancy--for the amateur, and for the connoisseur--for antiquary, historian, +painter, and poet. Well might Horace Walpole say that the gallery at +Althorpe was "endeared to the pensive spectator." He tells us in his +letters, that when here, (about seventy years since,) he surprised the +housekeeper by "his intimate acquaintance with all the faces in the +gallery." I was amused at the thought that we caused a similar surprise +in our day. I hope his female cicerone was as civil and intelligent as +ours; as worthy to be the keeper of the pictorial treasures of Althorpe. +When we lingered and lingered, spell-bound, and apologized for making +such unconscionable demands on her patience, she replied, "that she was +flattered; that she felt affronted when any visitor hurried through the +apartments." Old Horace would have been delighted with her; and not less +with the biblical enthusiasm of a village glazier, whom we found dusting +the books in the library, and who had such a sublime reverence for old +editions, unique copies, illuminated MSS., and rare bindings, that it +was quite edifying. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +END OF VOL. II. + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: In the throne-room at the Buckingham Palace the idea of +grandeur is suggested by a vile heraldic crown, stuck on the capitals of +the columns. Conceive the flagrant, the vulgar barbarity of taste!! It +cannot surely be attributed to the architect?] + +[Footnote 2: There is a very pretty little edition of his lyrical poems, +rendered into the modern German by Karl Simrock, and published at Berlin +in 1833.] + +[Footnote 3: See a very interesting account of Walther von der Vogelweide, +with translations of some of his poems in "The Lays of the Minnesingers," +published in 1825.] + +[Footnote 4: See a very learned and well-written article on the ancient +German and northern poetry in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 26.] + +[Footnote 5: The legend of this charming saint, one of the most popular +in Germany, is but little known among us. She was the wife of a margrave +of Thuringia, who was a fierce, avaricious man, while she herself was +all made up of tenderness and melting pity. She lived with her husband +in his castle on the Wartsburg, and was accustomed to go out every +morning to distribute alms among the poor of the valley: her husband, +jealous and covetous, forbade her thus to exercise her bounty; but as +she regarded her duty to God and the poor, even as paramount to conjugal +obedience, she secretly continued her charitable offices. Her husband +encountered her one morning at sunrise, as she was leaving the castle +with a covered basket containing meat, bread, and wine, for a starving +family. He demanded, angrily, what she had in her basket! Elizabeth, +trembling, not for herself, but for her wretched protegés, replied, with +a faltering voice, that she had been gathering roses in the garden. +The fierce chieftain, not believing her, snatched off the napkin, and +Elizabeth fell on her knees.--But, behold, a miracle had been operated +in her favour!--The basket was full of roses, fresh gathered, and wet +with dew.] + +[Footnote 6: See Taylor's "Historic Survey of German Poetry." Herman +was afterwards murdered by a band of conspirators, and Thusnelda, on +learning the fate of her husband, died brokenhearted.] + +[Footnote 7: The notices which follow are abridged from the essay "on +Ancient German and Northern Poetry," before mentioned--from the preface +to the edition of the Nibelungen Lied, by M. Von der Hagen--and the +analysis of the poem in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities. +My own first acquaintance with the Nibelungen Lied, I owed to an +accomplished friend, who gave me a detailed and lively analysis of the +story and characters; and certainly no child ever hung upon a tale of +ogres and fairies with more intense interest than I did upon her recital +of the adventures of the Nibelungen.] + +[Footnote 8: Dietrich of Bern (i. e. Theodoric of Verona,) is the great +hero of South Germany--the King Arthur of Teutonic romance, who figures +in all the warlike lays and legends of the middle ages.] + +[Footnote 9: See the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 213.] + +[Footnote 10: In the altercation between the two queens, Chrimhilde +boasts of possessing these trophies, and displays them in triumph to her +mortified rival; for which indiscretion, as she afterwards complains, +"her husband was in high anger, and _beat her black and blue_." This +treatment, however, which seems to have been quite a matter of course, +does not diminish the fond idolatry of the wife,--rather increases it.] + +[Footnote 11: This list will be subjoined at the end of these Sketches.] + +[Footnote 12: Sofonisba Augusciola, one of the most charming of portrait +painters. She died in 1626, at the age of ninety-three.] + +[Footnote 13: I regret that I omitted to note the _name_ of the artist +of this magnificent work. There is a still more admirable monument of +the same period in the church at Inspruck, the tomb of the archduke, +Ferdinand of Tyrol, consisting, I believe, of twelve colossal statues +in bronze.] + +[Footnote 14: The first stone of the Valhalla was laid by the King of +Bavaria, on the 18th of October 1830.] + +[Footnote 15: The Einheriar are the souls of heroes admitted into the +Valhalla.] + +[Footnote 16: Daniel.] + +[Footnote 17: Lithography was invented at Munich between 1795 and 1798, +for so long were repeated experiments tried before the art became useful +or general. Senefelder, the inventor, was an actor, and the son of an +actor. The first occasion of the invention was his wish to print a +little drama of his own, in some manner less expensive than the usual +method of type. The first successful experiment was the printing of some +music, published (1796) by Gleissner, one of the king of Bavaria's band: +the first drawing attempted was a vignette to a sheet of music. In the +course of his attempts to pursue and perfect his discovery, Senefelder +was reduced to such poverty, that he offered himself to enlist for a +common soldier, and, luckily, was refused. He again took heart, and, +supported through every difficulty and discouragement by his own +strong and enthusiastic mind, he at length overcame all obstacles, and +has lived to see his invention established and spread over the whole +civilized world. Hitherto, I believe, the stone used by lithographers +is found only in Bavaria, whence it is sent to every part of Europe and +America, and forms a most profitable article of commerce. The principal +quarries are at Solenholfen, on the Danube, about fifty miles from +Munich. + +Senefelder has published a little memoir of the origin and progress of +the invention, in which he relates with great simplicity the hardship, +and misery, and contumely, he encountered before he could bring it into +use. He concludes with an earnest prayer, "that it may contribute to the +benefit and improvement of mankind, and that it may never be abused to +any dishonourable or immoral purpose." + +If I remember rightly, a detailed history of the art was given in one of +the early numbers of the Foreign Review.] + +[Footnote 18: The population of Munich is estimated at about 60,000. It +does not enter into my plan, at present, to give any detailed account +of the public institutions, whether academies, schools, hospitals, or +prisons; yet I cannot but mention the prison at Munich, which more than +pays its own expenses, instead of being a burthen to the state; the +admirable hospital for the poor, in which all who cannot find work +elsewhere, are provided with occupation; two large hospitals for the +sick poor, in which rooms and attendance are also provided for those who +do not choose to be a burthen to their friends, nor yet dependent on +charity; the orphan school; the female school, endowed by the king; +the foundling and lying-in hospitals, establishments unhappily most +_necessary_ in Munich, and certainly most admirably conducted. These, +and innumerable private societies for the assistance, the education, and +the improvement of the lower classes, ought to receive the attention of +every intelligent traveller. + +There are no poor laws in operation at Munich, no mendicity societies, +no tract, and soup and blanket charities; yet pauperism, mendicity, +and starvation, are nearly unknown. For the system of regulations by +which these evils have been repressed or altogether remedied, I believe +Bavaria is indebted to the celebrated American, Count Rumford, who was +in the service of the late king, Max-Joseph, from 1790 to 1799. + +Several new manufactories have lately been established, particularly +of glass and porcelain, and the latter is carried to a high degree of +perfection.] + +[Footnote 19: Ida of Saxe-Meiningen, sister of the queen of England.] + +[Footnote 20: It is difficult to translate this laconic proverb, because +we have not the corresponding words in English: the meaning may be +rendered--"_according to the country, so are the manners_."] + +[Footnote 21: When the city was besieged by Wallenstein in 1632.] + +[Footnote 22: Born at Nuremberg in 1494.] + +[Footnote 23: See the admirable "Essay on the Early German and Northern +Poetry," already alluded to.] + +[Footnote 24: Anthony, the present king of Saxony. He is, however, in +his dotage, being now in his eighty-fifth year.] + +[Footnote 25: The description of Dresden and its environs, in Russel's +Tour in Germany, is one of the best written passages in that amusing +book--so admirably graphic and faithful, that nothing can be added to +it _as a description_, therefore I have effaced those notes which it +has rendered superfluous. It must, however, be remembered by those who +refer to Mr. Russel's work, that a revolution has taken place, by which +the king, now fallen into absolute dotage, has been removed from the +direct administration of the government, and a much more popular and +liberal tone prevails in the Estates: the two princes, nephews of the +king, whom Mr. Russel mentions as "persons of whom scarcely any body +thinks of speaking at all," have since made themselves extremely +conspicuous;--Prince Frederic has been declared regent, and is +apparently much respected and beloved; and Prince John has distinguished +himself as a speaker in the Assembly of the States, and takes the +liberal side on most occasions. A spirit of amelioration is at work in +Dresden, as elsewhere, and the ten or twelve years which have elapsed +since Mr. Russel's visit have not passed away without some salutary +changes, while more are evidently at hand. + +Mr. Russel speaks of the secrecy with which the sittings of the Chambers +were then conducted: they are now public, and the debates are printed in +the Gazette at considerable length.] + +[Footnote 26: Augustus II. abjured the Protestant religion in 1700, in +order to obtain the crown of Poland.] + +[Footnote 27: The first tenor at Dresden in 1833.] + +[Footnote 28: An opera by Franz Glazer of Berlin. The subject, which is +the well-known story of the mother who delivers her infant when carried +away by the eagle, or rather vulture of the Alps, might make a good +melodrama, but is not fit for an opera--and the music is _trainante_ +and monotonous.] + +[Footnote 29: Zingarelli composed his _Romeo e Giulietta_ in 1797: Bellini +produced the Capelletti at Venice in 1832, for our silver-voiced +Caradori and the contr'alto Giudita Grisi, sister of that accomplished +singer, Giulietta Grisi. Thirty-five years are an age in +the history of music. Of the two operas, Bellini's is the most effective, +from the number of the conceited pieces, without containing +a single air which can be placed in comparison with five or six +in Zingarelli's opera.] + +[Footnote 30: Lord Byron.] + +[Footnote 31: "Tieck," says Carlyle, "is a poet _born_ as well as +made.--He is no mere observist and compiler, rendering back to us, +with additions or subtractions, the beauty which existing things have +of themselves presented to him; but a true Maker, to whom the actual +and external is but the _excitement_ for ideal creations, representing +and ennobling its effects. His feeling or knowledge, his love or scorn, +his gay humour or solemn earnestness; all the riches of his inward +world are pervaded and mastered by the living energy of the soul which +possesses them, and their finer essence is wafted to us in his poetry, +like Arabian odours, on the wings of the wind. But this may be said of +all true poets; and each is distinguished from all, by his individual +characteristics. Among Tieck's, one of the most remarkable is his +combination of so many gifts, in such full and simple harmony. His +ridicule does not obstruct his adoration; his gay southern fancy +lives in union with a northern heart; with the moods of a longing and +impassioned spirit, he seems deeply conversant; and a still imagination, +in the highest sense of that word, reigns over all his poetic world."] + +[Footnote 32: Vide Shelley's Epipsychidion.] + +[Footnote 33: Mr. Russel is quite right in his observation that the +Correggios are hung too near together: the fact is, that in the Dresden +gallery, the pictures are not well hung, nor well arranged; there is too +little light in the inner gallery, and too much in the outer gallery. +Lastly, the numbers are so confused that I found the catalogue of little +use. A new arrangement and a new catalogue, by Professor Matthaï, are in +contemplation.] + +[Footnote 34: Spence.] + +[Footnote 35: Lanzi says, that many of the works of Lavinia Fontana +might easily pass for those of Guido;--her best works are at Bologna. +She died in 1614.] + +[Footnote 36: At Althorpe.] + +[Footnote 37: The Miss Sharpes were at Dresden while I was there, +and their names and some of their works were fresh in my mind and eye +when I wrote the above; but I think it fair to add, that I had not the +opportunity I could have wished of cultivating their acquaintance. These +three sisters, all so talented, and so inseparable,--all artists, and +bound together in affectionate communion of hearts and interests, +reminded me of the Sofonisba and her sisters.] + +[Footnote 38: She is the "Julie" celebrated in some of Goethe's minor +poems.] + +[Footnote 39: Since this was written, in November 1833, Retzsch has sent +over to England a series of these _Fancies_ for publication.] + +[Footnote 40: We have among us a young German painter, (Theodor von +Holst,) who, uniting the exuberant enthusiasm and rich imagination of +his country, with a just appreciation of the style of English art, is +likely to achieve great things.] + +[Footnote 41: "Belier! mon ami! commence par le commencement!"--_Contes +de Hamilton._] + +[Footnote 42: A manor situated on the borders of Derbyshire, between +Chesterfield and Mansfield.] + +[Footnote 43: The Cavendishes were originally of Suffolk. Whether this +William Cavendish was the same who was gentleman usher and secretary to +Cardinal Wolsey, is, I believe, a disputed point.] + +[Footnote 44: Bishop Kennel's memoirs of the family of Cavendish.] + +[Footnote 45: Lodge's Illustrations of British History.] + +[Footnote 46: Scott's Memoir of Sir Ralph Sadler.] + +[Footnote 47: Lodge's "Illustrations."] + +[Footnote 48: This celebrated letter is yet preserved, and well known +to historians and antiquarians. It is sufficient to say that scarce any +part of it would bear transcribing.] + +[Footnote 49: See two of her letters in Sir Henry Ellis's Collection.] + +[Footnote 50: See some letters in Ellis's Collection, vol. ii. series 1, +which show with what constant jealousy Lady Shrewsbury and her charge +were watched by the court.] + +[Footnote 51: In All Hallows, in Derby. After leaving Hardwicke, I went, +of course, to pay my respects to it. It is a vast and gorgeous shrine of +many coloured marbles, covered with painting, gilding, emblazonments, +and inscriptions, within which the lady lies at full length in a golden +ruff, and a most sumptuous farthingale.] + +[Footnote 52: As the measurements are interesting from this fact, I took +care to note them exactly; as follows:--length 55 ft. 6 inches; breadth +30 ft. 6 inches; height 24 ft. 6 inches.] + +[Footnote 53: Horace Walpole, as an antiquarian, should have known that +Mary was never kept _there_.] + +[Footnote 54: It had formerly been richly painted, and must then have had +an effect superior to tapestry; the colours are still visible here +and there.] + +[Footnote 55: Mary's own account of her occupations displays the natural +elegance of her mind. "I asked her grace, since the weather did cut off +all exercises abroad, how she passed her time within? She sayd that all +day she wrought with her needle, and that the diversitie of the colours +made the work appear less tedious, and that she continued at it till +pain made her to give o'er: and with that laid her hand on her left +side, and complayned of an old grief newly increased there. Upon this +occasion she, the Scottish queen, with the agreeable and lively wit +natural to her, entered into a pretty disputable comparison between +carving, painting, and working with the needle, affirming painting, in +her opinion, for the most commendable quality."--_Letter of Nicholas +White to Cecil._] + +[Footnote 56: I was as much delighted by these singular fire-screens +as Horace himself could have been; they are about seven feet high. The +yellow velvet suspended from the bar is embossed with black velvet, and +intermingled with embroidery of various colours and gold--something +like a Persian carpet--but most dazzling and gorgeous in the effect. +I believe there is nothing like them any where.] + +[Footnote 57: Now replaced by the family portraits brought from +Chatsworth.] + +[Footnote 58: Margaret Cavendish, wife of the first Duke of Newcastle.] + +[Footnote 59: Anecdotes of Painting. Reigns of Elizabeth and James I.] + +[Footnote 60: Dante. Inferno, Canto 28.] + +[Footnote 61: Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 144. Boswell asked, "Are you +of that opinion as to the portraits of ancestors one has never seen?" +JOHNSON. "It then becomes of still _more_ consequence that they should +be like."] + +[Footnote 62: This picture and the next are said to be by Richard +Stevens, of whom there is some account in Walpole, (Anecdotes of +Painting.) Mary also sat to Hilliard and to Zucchero. The lovely picture +by Zucchero is at Chiswick. There is another small head of her at +Hardwicke, said to have been painted in France, in a cap and feather. +The turn of the head is airy and graceful. As to the features, they have +been so marred by some _soi-disant_ restorer, it is difficult to say +what they may have been originally.] + +[Footnote 63: Waller's lines on Lady Rich.] + +[Footnote 64: William, sixth Duke of Devonshire.] + +[Footnote 65: "Lady Dorothy Savile, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax: +she had no less attachment to the arts than her husband; she drew in +crayons, and succeeded admirably in likenesses, but working with too +much rapidity, did not do justice to her genius; she had an uncommon +talent too for caricature."--_Anecdotes of Painting._] + +[Footnote 66: He was a monster; and no wife of the coarsest plebeian +profligate could have suffered more than did this lovely, amiable being, +of the highest blood and greatest fortune in England. "She was," says +the affecting inscription on her picture at Chiswick, "the comfort and +joy of her parents, the delight of all who knew her angelic temper, and +the admiration of all who saw her beauty. She was married October 10th, +1741, and delivered by death from misery, May 2nd, 1742. + +But how did it happen that from a condition like this, there was no +release but by _death_?--See Horace Walpole's Correspondence to Sir +Horace Mann, vol. i. p. 328.] + +[Footnote 67: I was much struck with the inscription on a stone tablet, +in a fine old wood near the house: "This wood was planted by Sir William +Spencer, Knighte of the Bathe, in the year of our Lord 1624:"--on the +other side, "Up and bee doing, and God will prosper." It is mentioned in +Evelyn's "Sylva."] + +[Footnote 68: See the accounts of Sir John Spencer, in Collins's +Peerage, and prefixed to Dibdin's "Ædes Althorpianæ."] + +[Footnote 69: Henry, first Earl of Sunderland.] + +[Footnote 70: This Lord Sunderland not only changed his party and his +opinions, but his religion, with every breath that blew from the court.] + +[Footnote 71: Horace Walpole's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 227.] + +[Footnote 72: Anne Brudenel.] + +[Footnote 73: See Pepys's Diary.] + +[Footnote 74: I was told that a female servant of the family was so +terrified by this picture that she could never be prevailed on to pass +through the door near which it hangs, but made a circuit of several +rooms to avoid it.] + +[Footnote 75: She is supposed to have been poisoned by her husband, at +the instigation of the Chevalier de Lorraine.] + +[Footnote 76: Elizabeth Brooke, poisoned at the age of twenty.] + +[Footnote 77: See the scene between Beck Marshall and Nell Gwyn, +in "Pepys."] + +[Footnote 78: Walpole.] + +[Footnote 79: The gay, gallant St. Evremond, besides being naturally +ugly, had a wen between his eye-brows. There is a fine picture of him +and Hortense as Vertumnus and Pomona, in the Stafford gallery.] + +[Footnote 80: The pictures of Miss Jennings are very rare. This one +at Althorpe was copied for H. Walpole, and I have heard of another in +Ireland. Miss Jennings was afterwards Duchess of Tyrconnel.] + +[Footnote 81: Pope. One hates him for taking a thousand pounds to +suppress this character of Atossa, and publishing it after all; yet +who for a thousand pounds would have lost it?] + +[Footnote 82: See his declaration of love--"Je suis frère du Comte +de Bedford; je commande le regiment des gardes," &c.] + +[Footnote 83: The Princess Colonna and the Duchesse de Mazarin.] + +[Footnote 84: Clement Marot had composed a version of the Psalms, then +very popular. See _Bayle_, and the Curiosities of Literature.] + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's Note: Errata as given in the original have been applied to +the text. Other than the most exceedingly obvious typographical errors, +all inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, diacriticals, archaic usage, etc. +have been preserved as printed in the original. The equals signs used +to bracket the name "Kunstverein" in the entry for the 16th in the first +section indicate characters in a Fraktur typeface.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad +with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + +***** This file should be named 36819-8.txt or 36819-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36819/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36819-8.zip b/36819-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd8d43b --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-8.zip diff --git a/36819-h.zip b/36819-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e12e88e --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h.zip diff --git a/36819-h/36819-h.htm b/36819-h/36819-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bb2d41 --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/36819-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8147 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<meta content="pg2html (binary v0.20)" name="generator" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + Visits and Sketches at Home And Abroad (2nd. ed., v. 2 of 3), + by Mrs. Jameson. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; margin: 1.5em auto 1.5em auto; } + hr.full { width: 100%; margin: 1.5em auto 1.5em auto; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + .poem { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1.5em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2.5em; } + .poem p.i8 { margin-left: 4.5em; } + .poem p.i22 { margin-left: 11.5em; } + .quote { margin-left: 6%; margin-right: 6%; + text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + .figure { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 90%; } + .center { text-indent: 0; text-align: center; } + .right { text-indent: 0; text-align: right; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + a,img { text-decoration: none!important; border:none!important; } + table { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 75%; } + td { padding: 0em .5em 0em .5em; vertical-align: top; } + table.toc > td { margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 2em; } + span.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; + font-size: 8pt; color: gray; background-color: inherit; } + div.stanza * span.pagenum { display:none!important; } + p.continued { text-indent: 0em; } +</style> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with +Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected + Vol. II (of 3) + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagei" name="pagei"></a>[i]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> +<big>VISITS AND SKETCHES</big><br /> <small>AT HOME AND ABROAD.</small> +</p> +<p class="center"> +VOL. II. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageii" name="pageii"></a>[ii]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii"></a>[iii]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0002" id="h2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + <big>VISITS AND SKETCHES</big><br /> + AT HOME AND ABROAD +<br /> +<small> + WITH<br /> TALES AND MISCELLANIES NOW FIRST COLLECTED. +</small> +</h1> + +<p class="center"> +BY MRS. JAMESON, +<br /> +<small> +AUTHOR OF THE "CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN," "LIVES OF CELEBRATED FEMALE +SOVEREIGNS," &c. +</small> +</p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> +IN THREE VOLUMES. +</p> +<p class="center"> +<big>VOL. II.</big> +</p> +<p class="center"> +SECOND EDITION. +</p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> + LONDON <br /> +<small> + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. <br /> + 1835. +</small> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiv" name="pageiv"></a>[iv]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> + LONDON: <br /> +<small> + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. +</small> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>[v]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_TOC" id="h2H_TOC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CONTENTS OF VOL. II. +</h2> + +<table class="toc" summary="Table of Contents"> + +<tr><td colspan="3"> +<p class="center"> + <span class="sc">Sketches of Art, Literature, and Character, Part II.</span> +<br /> +<small> (<i>Continued.</i>) </small> +</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td></td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td>I. </td><td><span class="sc">Munich</span>—The New Palace—The Beauty of its + Decorations—Particular Account of the Modern Paintings + on the Walls </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page1">1-18</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Frescos of Julius Schnorr from the Nibelungen-Lied </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page20">20</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Frescos in the Royal Chapel </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page37">37</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Opera—Madame Schechner </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page42">42</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Kunstverein </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page46">46</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Karl von Holtëi </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page49">49</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Fête of the Obelisk </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page50">50</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Gallery—Pictures and Painters </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page60">60</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Madame de Freyberg—A visit to Thalkirchen </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page64">64</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Tomb of Eugène Beauharnais </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page68">68</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Sculpture in the Glyptothek </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page75">75</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Plan of the Pinnakothek or National Gallery </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page79">79</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Revival of Fresco Painting </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page92">92</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Bavarian Sculptors </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page94">94</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Valhalla </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page96">96</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Stieler, the Portrait Painter </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page101">101</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Gallery of the Duc de Leuchtenberg </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page103">103</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Society at Munich </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page106">106</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Liederkranz </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page110">110</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>[vi]</span> + + II. </td><td><span class="sc">Nuremberg</span></td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page118">118</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Old Fortress </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page123">123</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Albert Durer </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page125">125</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Hans Sachs and Peter Vischer </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page127">127</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Cemetery </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page132">132</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Travelling in Germany </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page134">134</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td>III. </td><td><span class="sc">Dresden</span> </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page138">138</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Opera—Madame Schröder Devrient in the "Capaletti" </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page145">145</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Ludwig Tieck </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page148">148</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>The Dresden Gallery and the Italian School </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page155">155</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Rosalba—Violante Siries—Henrietta Walters—Maria + von Osterwyck—Elizabeth Sirani—the Sofonisba </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page171">171</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Thoughts on Female Artists—Louisa and Eliza Sharpe—The + Countess Julie von Egloffstein </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page179">179</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Moritz Retzsch </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page183">183</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>English and German Art </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page197">197</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>Catalogue of German Artists </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page201">201</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3"><hr /></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>A Visit to Hardwicke </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page213">213</a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td>A Visit to Althorpe </td> +<td align="right" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="#page275">275</a> </td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>[vii]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> +<big>SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER.</big> +</p> +<p class="center"> +(<i>Continued.</i>) +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>[viii]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>[ix]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> +VOL. II. +</p> + +<table summary="List of Errata"> +<tr><td> Page </td><td> 7,</td><td>line</td><td>13,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>to <i>read</i> too. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> 18,</td><td> — </td><td> 2,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>Neurather <i>read</i> Neureuther. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> 68,</td><td> — </td><td> 5,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>Scheckner <i>read</i> Schechner. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> 72,</td><td> — </td><td>16,</td><td> </td><td> ditto. ditto. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> 94,</td><td> — </td><td>23,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>interior <i>read</i> exterior. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>133,</td><td> — </td><td> 1,</td><td>note,</td><td><i>for</i> Frederic Augustus <i>read</i> Anthony. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>203,</td><td> — </td><td>16,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>Steiler <i>read</i> Stieler. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>204,</td><td> — </td><td>21,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>Neurather <i>read</i> Neureuther. </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>209,</td><td> — </td><td> 2,</td><td><i>for</i></td><td>Reitchel <i>read</i> Rietschel. </td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>[x]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[1]</span></p> + +<div class="figure"> +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<a href="images/ill-1.jpg"><img src="images/ill-1s.jpg" width="500" height="540" +alt="" /></a> +</div> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0003" id="h2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. +</h2> +<h3> + MUNICH (CONTINUED). +</h3> + +<p> +<i>Tuesday.</i>—M. de Klenze called this morning and conducted me over the +whole of the new palace. The design, when completed, will form a vast +quadrangle. It was begun about seven years ago; and as only a certain +sum is set apart every year for the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[2]</span> + + works, it will probably be seven +years more before the portion now in progress, which is the south side +of the quadrangle, can be completed. +</p> +<p> +The exterior of the building is plain, but has an air of grandeur even +from its simplicity and uniformity. It reminds me of Sir Philip Sydney's +beautiful description—"A house built of fair and strong stone; not +affecting so much any extraordinary kind of fineness, as an honourable +representing of a firm stateliness; all more lasting than beautiful, but +that the consideration of the exceeding lastingness made the eye believe +it was exceeding beautiful." +</p> +<p> +When a selfish despot designs a palace, it is for himself he builds. +He thinks first of his own personal tastes and peculiar habits, and the +arrangements are contrived to suit his exclusive propensities. Thus, for +Nero's overwhelming pride, no space, no height, could suffice; so he +built his "golden house" upon a scale which obliged its next possessor +to pull it to pieces, as only fit to lodge a colossus. George the Fourth +had a predilection for low ceilings, so all the future inhabitants of +the Pimlico palace must endure suffocation; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[3]</span> + + and as his majesty did not +live on good terms with his wife, no accommodation was prepared for a +future queen of England. +</p> +<p> +The commands which the king of Bavaria gave De Klenze were in a +different spirit. "Build me a palace, in which nothing within or without +shall be of transient fashion or interest; a palace for my posterity, +and my people, as well as myself; of which the decorations shall be +durable as well as splendid, and shall appear one or two centuries hence +as pleasing to the eye and taste as they do now." "Upon this principle," +said De Klenze, looking round, "I designed what you now see." +</p> +<p> +On the first floor are the apartments of the king and queen, all facing +the south: a parallel range of apartments behind contains accommodation +for the attendants, ladies of honour, chamberlains, &c.; a grand +staircase on the east leads to the apartments of the king, another on +the west to those of the queen; the two suites of apartments uniting in +the centre, where the private and sleeping rooms communicate with each +other. All the chambers allotted to the king's use are painted + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[4]</span> + + with +subjects from the Greek poets, and those of the queen from the German +poets. +</p> +<p> +We began with the king's apartments. The approach to the staircase I did +not quite understand, for it appears small and narrow; but this part of +the building is evidently incomplete. +</p> +<p> +The staircase is beautiful, but simple, consisting of a flight of wide +broad steps of the native marble; there is no gilding; the ornaments on +the ceiling represent the different arts and manufactures carried on in +Bavaria. Over the door which opens into the apartments is the king's +motto in gold letters, <span class="sc">Gerecht</span> und <span class="sc">Beharrlich</span>—Just and Firm. Two +Caryatides support the entrance: on one side the statue of Astrea, and +on the other the Greek Victory without wings—the first expressing +justice, the last firmness or constancy. These figures are colossal, +and modelled by Schwanthaler in a grand and severe style of art. +</p> +<p> +I. The first antechamber is decorated with great simplicity. On the +cornice round the top is represented the history of Orpheus and the +expedition of the Argonauts, from Linus, the earliest Greek + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[5]</span> + + poet. The +figures are in outline, shaded in brown, but without relief or colour, +exactly like those on the Etruscan vases. The walls are stuccoed in +imitation of marble. +</p> +<p> +II. The second antechamber is less simple in its decoration. The frieze +round the top is broader, (about three feet,) and represents the +Theogony, the wars of the Titans, &c. from Hesiod. The figures are +in outline, and tinted, but without relief, in the manner of some of +the ancient Greek paintings on vases, tombs, &c. The effect is very +classical, and very singular. Schwanthaler, by whom these decorations +were designed, has displayed all the learning of a profound and +accomplished scholar, as well as the skill of an artist. In general +feeling and style they reminded me of Flaxman's outlines to Æschylus. +</p> +<p> +The walls of this room are also stuccoed in imitation of marble, +with compartments, in which are represented, in the same style, other +subjects from the "Weeks and Days," and the "Birth of Pandora." The +ornaments are in the oldest Greek style. +</p> +<p> +III. A saloon, or reception room, for those who are to be presented to +the king. On this room, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[6]</span> + + which is in a manner public, the utmost luxury +of decoration is to be expended; but it is yet unfinished. The subjects +are from Homer. In compartments on the ceiling are represented the gods +of Greece; the gorgeous ornaments with which they are intermixed being +all in the Greek style. Round the frieze, at the top of the room, the +subjects are taken from the four Homeric hymns. The walls will be painted +from the Iliad and Odyssey, in compartments, mingled with the richest +arabesques. The effect of that part of the room which is finished is +indescribably splendid; but I cannot pause to dwell upon minutiæ. +</p> +<p> +IV. The throne-room. The decorations of this room combine, in an +extraordinary degree, the utmost splendour and the utmost elegance. The +whole is adorned with bas-reliefs in white stucco, raised upon a ground +of dead gold. The compositions are from Pindar. Round the frieze are +the games of Greece, the chariot and foot-race, the horse-race, the +wrestlers, the cestus, &c. Immediately over the throne, Pindar, singing +to his lyre, before the judges of the Olympic games. On each side a +comic and a tragic poet receiving a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[7]</span> + + prize. The exceeding lightness and +grace, the various fancy, the purity of style, the vigour of life and +movement displayed here, all prove that Schwanthaler has drank deep of +classical inspiration, and that he has not looked upon the frieze of the +Parthenon in vain. The subjects on the walls are various groups from +the same poet; over the throne is the king's motto, and on each side, +Alcides and Achilles; the history of Jason and Medea, Castor and Pollux, +Deucalion and Pyrrha, &c. occupy compartments, differing in form and +size. The decoration of this magnificent room appeared to me a <i>little</i> +too much broken up into parts—and yet, on the whole, it is most +beautiful; the Graces as well as the Muses presided over the whole of +these "fancies, chaste and noble;" and there is excellent taste in the +choice of the poet, and the subjects selected, as harmonizing with the +destination of the room: all are expressive of power, of triumph, of +moral or physical greatness.<a href="#note-1" name="noteref-1"><small> 1</small></a> + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[8]</span> + + The walls are of dead gold, from the +floor to the ceiling, and the gilding of this room alone cost 72,000 +florins. +</p> +<p> +V. A saloon, or antechamber. The ceiling and walls admirably painted, +from the tragedies of Æschylus. +</p> +<p> +VI. The king's study, or cabinet de travail. The subjects from Sophocles, +equally classical in taste, and rich in colour and effect. In the arch +at one end of this room are seven compartments, in which are inscribed +in gold letters, the sayings of the seven Greek sages. +</p> +<p> +Schwanthaler furnished the outlines of the compositions from Æschylus +and Sophocles, which are executed in colours by Wilhelm Röckel of +Schleissheim. +</p> +<p> +VII. The king's dressing-room. The subjects from Aristophanes, painted +by Hiltensberger of Suabia, certainly one of the best painters here. +There is exquisite fantastic grace and spirit in these designs. +</p> +<p> +"It was fit," said de Klenze, "that the first objects which his majesty +looked upon on rising from his bed should be gay and mirth-inspiring." +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>[9]</span></p> + +<p> +VIII. The king's bedroom. The subjects from Theocritus, by different +painters, but principally Professor Heinrich Hess and Bruchmann. This +room pleased me least. +</p> +<p> +No description could give an adequate idea of the endless variety, and +graceful and luxuriant ornament harmonizing with the various subjects, +and the purpose of each room, and lavished on the walls and ceilings, +even to infinitude. The general style is very properly borrowed from +the Greek decorations at Herculaneum and Pompeii; not servilely copied, +but varied with an exhaustless prodigality of fancy and invention, and +applied with exquisite taste. The combination of the gayest, brightest +colours has been studied with care, their proportion and approximation +calculated on scientific principles; so that the result, instead of +being gaudy and perplexing to the eye, is an effect the most captivating, +brilliant, and harmonious that can be conceived. +</p> +<p> +The material used is the <i>encaustic</i> painting, which has been revived +by M. de Klenze. He spent four months at Naples analysing the colours + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>[10]</span> + + used in the encaustic paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii, and by +innumerable experiments reducing the process to safe practice. Professor +Zimmermann explained to me the other day, as I stood beside him while +he worked, the general principle, and the advantages of this style. +It is much more rapid than oil painting; it is also much less expensive, +requiring both cheaper materials and in smaller quantity. It dries more +quickly: the surface is not so glazy and unequal, requiring no particular +light to be seen to advantage. The colours are wonderfully bright: it is +capable of as high a finish, and it is quite as durable as oils. Both +mineral and vegetable colours can be used. +</p> +<p> +Now to return. The king's bedchamber opens into the queen's apartments, +but to take these in order we must begin at the beginning. The staircase, +which is still unfinished, will be in a much richer style of architecture +than that on the king's side: it is sustained with beautiful columns of +native marble. +</p> +<p> +I. Antechamber; painted from the history and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>[11]</span> + + poems of Walther von der +Vogelweide, by Gassen of Coblentz, a young painter of distinguished +merit. +</p> +<p> +Walther "of the bird-meadow," for that is the literal signification +of his name, was one of the most celebrated of the early Suabian +Minnesingers,<a href="#note-2" name="noteref-2"><small> 2</small></a> and appears to have lived from 1190 to 1240. He led a +wandering life, and was at different times in the service of several +princes of Germany. He figured at the famous "strife of poets," at the +castle of Wartsburg, which took place in 1207, in presence of Hermann, +landgrave of Thuringia and the landgravine Sophia: this is one of the +most celebrated incidents in the history of German poetry. He also +accompanied Leopold VII. to the Holy Land. His songs are warlike, +patriotic, moral, and religious. "Of love he has always the highest +conception, as of a principle of action, a virtue, a religious affection; +and in his + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[12]</span> + + estimation of female excellence, he is below none of his +contemporaries."<a href="#note-3" name="noteref-3"><small> 3</small></a> +</p> +<p> +In the centre of the ceiling is represented the poetical contest at +Wartsburg, and Walther is reciting his verses in presence of his rivals +and the assembled judges. At the upper end of the room Walther is +exhibited exactly as he describes himself in one of his principal poems, +seated on a high rock in a melancholy attitude, leaning on his elbow, +and contemplating the troubles of his desolate country; in the opposite +arch, the old poet is represented as feeding the little birds which are +fluttering round him—in allusion to his will, which directed that the +birds should be fed yearly upon his tomb. Another compartment represents +Walther showing to his Geliebte (his mistress) the reflection of her +own lovely face in his polished shield. There are other subjects which +I cannot recall. The figures in all these groups are the size of life. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[13]</span></p> + +<p> +II. The next room is painted from the poems of Wolfram of Eschenbach, +another, and one of the most fertile of the old Minnesingers; he also +was present at the contest at Wartsburg, "and wandered from castle to +castle like a true courteous knight, dividing his time between feats of +arms and minstrelsy." He versified, in the German tongue, the romance +of the "Saint-Greal," making it an original production, and the central +point, if the expression may be allowed, of an innumerable variety of +adventures, which he has combined, like Ariosto, in artful perplexity, +in the poems of Percival and Titurel.<a href="#note-4" name="noteref-4"><small> 4</small></a> These adventures furnish the +subjects of the paintings on the ceiling and walls, which are executed +by Hermann of Dresden, one of the most distinguished of the pupils of +Cornelius. +</p> +<p> +The ornaments in these two rooms, which are exceedingly rich and +appropriate, are in the old + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[14]</span> + + gothic style, and reminded me of the +illuminations in the ancient MSS. +</p> +<p> +III. A saloon (salon de service) appropriated to the ladies in waiting: +painted from the ballads of Bürger, by Foltz of Bingen. The ceiling +of this room is perfectly exquisite—it is formed entirely of small +rosettes, (about a foot in diameter,) varying in form, and combining +every hue of the rainbow—the delicacy and harmony of the entire effect +is quite indescribable. The rest of the decorations are not finished, +but the choice of the poet and the subjects, considering the destination +of the room, delighted me. The fate of "Lenora," and that of the "Curate's +Daughter," will be edifying subjects of contemplation for the maids of +honour. +</p> +<p> +IV. The throne-room. Magnificent in the general effect; elegant and +appropriate in the design. +</p> +<p> +On the ceiling, which is richly ornamented, are four medallions, +exhibiting, under the effigies of four admirable women, the four +<i>feminine</i> cardinal virtues. Constancy is represented by Maria Theresa; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>[15]</span> + + maternal love, by Cornelia; charity, by St. Elizabeth, (the Margravine +of Thuringia;<a href="#note-5" name="noteref-5"><small> 5</small></a>) and filial tenderness, by Julia Pia Alpinula. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> And there—O sweet and sacred be the name! </p> +<p class="i4"> Julia, the daughter, the devoted, gave </p> +<p class="i2"> Her youth to Heaven; her heart beneath a claim </p> +<p class="i4"> Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. </p> +<p class="right"> <span class="sc">Lord Byron.</span> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>[16]</span></p> + +<p> +"I always avoid emblematical and allegorical figures, wherever it is +possible, for they are cold and arbitrary, and do not speak to the +heart!" said M. de Klenze, perceiving how much I was charmed with the +idea of thus personifying the womanly virtues. +</p> +<p> +The paintings round the room are from the poems of Klopstock, and +executed by Wilhelm Kaulbach, an excellent artist. Only the frieze is +finished. It consists of a series of twelve compartments: three on each +side of the room, and divided from each other by two boys of colossal +size, grouped as Caryatides, and in very high relief. These compartments +represent the various scenes of the Herman-Schlacht; the sacrifices of +the Druids; the adieus of the women; the departure of the warriors; +the fight with Varus; the victory; the return of Herman to his wife +Thusnelda, &c. +</p> +<p> +Herman, or, as the Roman historians call him, Arminius, was a chieftain +of the Cheruscans, a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[17]</span> + + tribe of northern Germany. After serving in Illyria, +and there learning the Roman arts of warfare, he came back to his native +country, and fought successfully for its independence. He defeated, +beside a defile near Detmold, in Westphalia, the Roman legions under +the command of Varus, with a slaughter so mortifying, that the proconsul +is said to have killed himself, and Augustus to have received the +news of the catastrophe with indecorous expressions of grief. It is +this defeat of Varus which forms the theme of one of Klopstock's +chorus-dramas, entitled, "The Battle of Herman." The dialogue is concise +and picturesque; the characters various, consistent, and energetic; a +lofty colossal frame of being belongs to them all, as in the paintings +of Caravaggio. To Herman, the disinterested zealot of patriotism and +independence, a preference of importance is wisely given; yet, perhaps, +his wife Thusnelda acts more strongly on the sympathy by the enthusiastic +veneration and affection she displays for her hero-consort.<a href="#note-6" name="noteref-6"><small> 6</small></a> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[18]</span></p> + +<p> +V. Saloon, or drawing-room. The paintings from Wieland, by Eugene +Neureuther, (already known in England by his beautiful arabesque +illustrations of Goethe's ballads.) The frieze only of this room, which +is from the Oberon, is in progress. +</p> +<p> +VI. The queen's bedroom. The paintings from Goethe, and chiefly by +Kaulbach. The ceiling is exquisite, representing in compartments various +scenes from Goethe's principal lyrics; the Herman and Dorothea; Pausias +and Glycera, &c., intermixed with the most rich and elegant ornaments in +relief. +</p> +<p> +VII. The queen's study, or private sitting-room. A small but very +beautiful room, with paintings from Schiller, principally by Lindenschmidt +of Mayence. On the ceiling are groups from the Wallenstein; the Maid +of Orleans; the Bride of Corinth; Wilhelm Tell; and on the walls, in +compartments, mingled with the most elegant ornaments, scenes from the +Fridolin, the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[19]</span> + + Toggenburg, the Dragon of Rhodes, and other of his lyrics. +</p> +<p> +VIII. The queen's library. As the walls will be covered with book-cases, +all the splendour of decoration is lavished on the ceiling, which is +inexpressibly rich and elegant. The paintings are from the works of +Ludwig Tieck—from the Octavianus, the Genoneva, Fortunatus, the Puss +in Boots, &c., and executed by Von Schwind. +</p> +<p> +The dining-room is magnificently painted with subjects from Anacreon, +intermixed with ornaments and bacchanalian symbols, all in the richest +colouring. In the compartments on the ceiling, the figures are the size +of life—in those round the walls, half-life size. Nothing can exceed +the luxuriant fancy, the gaiety, the classical elegance, and amenity of +some of these groups. They are all by Professor Zimmermann. +</p> +<p> +One of these paintings, a group representing, I think, Anacreon with the +Graces, (it is at the east end of the room,) is usually pointed out as +an example of the perfection to which the encaustic painting has been +carried: in fact, it would be + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[20]</span> + + difficult to exceed it in the mingled +harmony, purity, and brilliance of the colouring. +</p> +<p> +M. Zimmermann told me, that when he submitted the cartoons for these +paintings to the king's approbation, his majesty desired a slight +alteration to be made in a group representing a nymph embraced by a +bacchanal; not as being in itself faulty, but "à cause de ses enfans," +his eldest daughters being accustomed to dine with himself and the +queen. +</p> +<p> +Now it must be remembered that these seventeen rooms form the domestic +apartments of the royal family; and magnificent as they are, a certain +elegance, cheerfulness, and propriety have been more consulted than +parade and grandeur: but on the ground-floor there is a suite of state +apartments, prepared for the reception of strangers, &c., on great and +festive occasions; and these excited my admiration more than all the +rest together. +</p> +<p> +The paintings are entirely executed in fresco, on a grand scale, by +Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, certainly one of the greatest living +artists of Europe: and these four rooms will form, when + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>[21]</span> + + completed, the +very triumph of the romantic school of painting. It is not alone the +invention displayed in the composition, nor the largeness, boldness, and +freedom of the drawing, nor the vigour and splendour of the colouring; +it is the enthusiastic sympathy of the painter with his subject; the +genuine spirit of the old heroic, or rather Teutonic ages of Germany, +breathed through and over his singular creations, which so peculiarly +distinguish them. They are the very antipodes of all our notions of +the classical—they take us back to the days of Gothic romance, and +legendary lore—to the "fiery Franks and furious Huns"—to the heroes, +in short, of the Nibelungen Lied, from which all the subjects are taken. +</p> +<p> +To enable the merely English reader to feel, or at least understand, the +interest attached to this grand series of paintings, without which it is +impossible to do justice to the artist, it is necessary to give a slight +sketch of the poem which he has thus magnificently illustrated.<a href="#note-7" name="noteref-7"><small> 7</small></a> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[22]</span></p> + +<p> +"This national epic, as it is justly termed by M. Von der Hagen, has +lately attracted a most unprecedented degree of attention in Germany. It +now actually forms a part of the philological courses in many of their +universities, and it has been hailed with almost as much veneration as +the Homeric songs. Some allowance must be made for German enthusiasm, +but it cannot be denied that the Nibelungen Lied, though a little too +bloody and dolorous, possesses extraordinary merits." The hero and heroine +of this poem are Siegfried, (son of Siegmund, king of Netherland, and of +Sighelind his queen,) and Chrimhilde, princess of Burgundy. Siegfried, +or Sifrit, the Sigurd of the Scandinavian Sagas, is the favourite + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[23]</span> + + hero +of the northern parts of Germany. His spear, "a mighty pine beam," was +preserved with veneration at Worms; and there, in the church of St. +Cecilia, he is supposed to have been buried. The German romances do +not represent him as being of gigantic proportions, but they all agree +that he became invulnerable by bathing in the blood of a dragon, which +guarded the treasures of the Nibelungen, and which he overcame and +killed; but it happened that as he bathed, a leaf fell and rested +between his shoulders, and consequently, that one little spot, about +a hand's breadth, still remained susceptible of injury. Siegfried also +possesses the wondrous tarn-cap, which had the power of rendering the +wearer invisible. +</p> +<p> +This formidable champion, after winning the love and the hand of the +fair princess Chrimhilde, and performing a thousand valiant deeds, is +treacherously murdered by the three brothers of Chrimhilde, Gunther, +king of Burgundy, Ghiseler, Gernot, and their uncle Hagen, instigated by +queen Brunhilde, the wife of Gunther. Chrimhilde meditates for years the +project of a deep + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[24]</span> + + and deadly revenge on the murderers of her husband. +This vengeance is in fact the subject of the Nibelungen Lied, as the +wrath of Achilles is the subject of the Iliad. +</p> +<p> +The poem opens thus beautifully with a kind of argument of the whole +eventful story. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "In ancient song and story marvels high are told </p> +<p class="i2"> Of knights of bold emprize and adventures mani-fold; </p> +<p class="i2"> Of joy and merry feasting, of lamenting, woe, and fear; </p> +<p class="i2"> Of champions' bloody battles many marvels shall ye hear. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> A noble maid and fair, grew up in Burgundy, </p> +<p class="i2"> In all the land about fairer none might be; </p> +<p class="i2"> She became a queen full high, Chrimhild was she hight, </p> +<p class="i2"> But for her matchless beauty fell many a blade of might. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> For love and for delight was framed that lady gay, </p> +<p class="i2"> Many a champion bold sighed for that gentle May; </p> +<p class="i2"> Beauteous was her form! beauteous without compare! </p> +<p class="i2"> The virgin's virtues might adorn many a lady fair. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Three kings of might had the maiden in their care, </p> +<p class="i2"> King Gunther and king Gernot, champions bold they were, </p> +<p class="i2"> And Ghiselar the young, a chosen peerless blade: </p> +<p class="i2"> The lady was their sister, and much they loved the maid." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[25]</span></p> + +<p> +Then follows an enumeration of the heroes in attendance on king Gunther: +Haghen, the fierce; Dankwart, the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight; +and others; "all champions bold and free;"—and then the poet proceeds +to open the argument. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "One night the queen Chrimhild dreamt her as she lay, </p> +<p class="i2"> How she had trained and nourished a falcon, wild and gay; </p> +<p class="i2"> When suddenly two eagles fierce the gentle hawk have slain— </p> +<p class="i2"> Never, in this world felt she such cruel pain! </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> To her mother, Uta, she told her dream with fear. </p> +<p class="i2"> Full mournfully she answered to what the maid did spier, </p> +<p class="i2"> 'The falcon, whom you cherished, a gentle knight is he: </p> +<p class="i2"> God take him to his ward! thou must lose him suddenly.' </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> 'What speak you of the knight? dearest mother, say! </p> +<p class="i2"> Without the love of Champion, to my dying day, </p> +<p class="i2"> Ever thus fair will I remain, nor take a wedded fere </p> +<p class="i2"> To gain such pain and sorrow—though the knight were without peer!' </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> 'Speak not thou too rashly!' her mother spake again. </p> +<p class="i2"> 'If ever in this world, thou heart-felt joy wilt gain, </p> +<p class="i2"> Maiden must thou be no more; Leman must thou have. </p> +<p class="i2"> God will grant thee for thy mate, some gentle knight and brave.' </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name="page26"></a>[26]</span> + + 'O leave thy words, lady mother; speak not of wedded mate, </p> +<p class="i2"> Full many a gentle maiden hath found the truth too late: </p> +<p class="i2"> Still has their fondest love ended with woe and pain; </p> +<p class="i2"> Virgin will I ever be, nor the love of Leman gain.' </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> In virtues high and noble that gentle maiden dwelt, </p> +<p class="i2"> Full many a night and day, nor love for Leman felt. </p> +<p class="i2"> To never a knight or champion would she plight her virgin truth, </p> +<p class="i2"> Till she was gained for wedded fere by a right noble youth. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> That youth, he was the falcon, she in her dream beheld, </p> +<p class="i2"> Who by the two fierce eagles, dead to the ground was fell'd: </p> +<p class="i2"> But since right dreadful vengeance she took upon his foen; </p> +<p class="i2"> For the death of that bold hero, died full many a mother's son." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +After this exordium the story commences, the first half ending with the +assassination of Siegfried. +</p> +<p> +Some years after the murder of Siegfried, Chrimhilde gives her hand to +Etzel, (or Attila,) king of the Huns, in order that through his power +and influence she may be enabled to execute her long-cherished schemes +of vengeance. The assassins accordingly, and all their kindred and +followers, are induced to visit King Etzel at Vienna, where, by the +instigation of Chrimhilde, a deadly feud + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>[27]</span> + + arises; in the course of which +almost the whole army on both sides are cruelly slaughtered. By the +powerful, but reluctant aid of Dietrich of Bern,<a href="#note-8" name="noteref-8"><small> 8</small></a> Hagen, the murderer +of Siegfried, is at last vanquished, and brought bound to the feet of +the queen, who at once raises the sword of her departed hero, and with +her own hand strikes off the head of his enemy. Hildebrand instantly +avenges the atrocious and unhospitable act, by stabbing the queen, who +falls exulting on the body of her hated victim. +</p> +<p> +When Gunther's arms, and those of his brothers and champions, are +brought to Worms, Brunhilde repents too late of her treachery to +Siegfried, and the old queen Uta dies of grief. As to King Etzel, the +poet professes himself ignorant, "whether he died in battle, or was +taken up to heaven, or fell out of his skin, or was swallowed up +by the devil;" leaving to his reader the choice of these + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[28]</span> + + singular +catastrophes;—and thus the story ends.<a href="#note-9" name="noteref-9"><small> 9</small></a> +</p> +<p> +The rivalry between Chrimhilde and her amazonian sister-in-law, +Brunhilde, forms the most interesting and amusing episode in the poem; +and the characters of the two queens—the fierce haughty Brunhilde, +and the impassioned, devoted, confiding Chrimhilde—(whom the very +excess of conjugal love converts into a relentless fury,) are admirably +discriminated. "The work is divided into thirty-eight books, or +<i>adventures</i>; and besides a liberal allowance of sorcery and wonders, +contains a great deal of clear and animated narrative, and innumerable +curious and picturesque traits of the manners of the age. The characters +of the different warriors, as well as those of the two queens, and their +heroic consorts, are very naturally and powerfully drawn—especially +that of Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, in whom the virtues of an +heroic and chivalrous leader are strangely united with the atrocity and +impenitent hardihood of an assassin. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>[29]</span></p> + +<p> +"The author of the Lay of the Nibelungen has not been ascertained. In +its present form it must have existed between the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries;—this is proved by the language; but the manners, tone, +thoughts, and actions, which are all in perfect keeping, bear testimony +to an antiquity far beyond that of the present dress of the poem." +</p> +<p> +Here then was a boundless, an inexhaustible fund of inspiration for such +a painter as Julius Schnorr; and his poetical fancy appears to have +absolutely revelled in the grand, the gay, the tragic subjects afforded +to his creative pencil. +</p> +<p> +In the first room, immediately over the entrance, he has represented the +poet, or presumed author of the Nibelungen—an inspired figure, attended +by two listening genii. On each side, but a little lower down, are two +figures looking towards him; on one side a beautiful female, striking +a harp, and attended by a genius crowned with roses—represents song +or poesy. On the other side, a sybil listening to the voice of Time, +represents tradition. The figures are all colossal. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>[30]</span></p> + +<p> +Below, on each side of this door, are two beautiful groups. That to +the right of the spectator represents Siegfried and Chrimhilde. She is +leaning on the shoulder of her warlike husband with an air of the most +inimitable and graceful abandonment in her whole figure: a falcon sits +upon her hand, on which her eyes are turned with the most profound +expression of tenderness and melancholy; she is thinking upon her dream, +in which was foreshadowed the early and terrible doom of her husband. +</p> +<p> +It is said at Munich, that the wife of Schnorr, an exquisitely beautiful +woman, whom he married under romantic circumstances, was the model of +his Chrimhilde, and that one of her spontaneous attitudes furnished the +idea of this exquisite group, on which I never look without emotion. The +depth and splendour of the colouring adds to the effect. The figures are +rather above the size of life. +</p> +<p> +On the opposite side of the door, as a <i>pendant</i>, we have Gunther, and +his queen, Brunhilde. He holds one of her hands, with a deprecating + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[31]</span> + + expression. She turns from him with an averted countenance, exhibiting +in her whole look and attitude, grief, rage, and shame. It is evident +that she has just made the fatal discovery of her husband's obligations +to Siegfried, which urges her to the destruction of the latter. I have +heard travellers ignorantly criticise the grand, and somewhat exaggerated +forms of Brunhilde, as being "really quite coarse and unfeminine." In +the poem she is represented as possessing the strength of twelve men; +and when Hagen sees her throw a spear, which it required four warriors +to lift, he exclaims to her alarmed suitor, King Gunther, +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Aye! how is it, King Gunther? here must you tine your life! </p> +<p class="i2"> The lady you would gain, well might be the devil's wife!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +It is by the secret assistance of Siegfried, and his tarn-cap, that +Gunther at length vanquishes and humbles this terrible heroine, and she +avenges her humiliation by the murder of Siegfried. +</p> +<p> +Around the room are sixteen full-length portraits of the other principal +personages who figure in the Nibelungen Lied—<i>portraits</i> they may well +be + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[32]</span> + + called, for their extraordinary spirit, and truth of character. In +one group we have the fierce Hagen, the courteous Dankwart, and between +them, Volker tuning his viol; of him it is said— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Bolder and more knight-like fiddler, never shone the sun upon, </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="continued"> +and he plays a conspicuous part in the catastrophe of the poem. +</p> +<p> +Opposite to this group, we have queen Uta, the mother of Chrimhilde, +between her sons, Gernot and Ghiselar: in another compartment, Siegmund +and Sighelind, the father and mother of Siegfried. +</p> +<p> +Over the window opposite to the entrance, Hagen is consulting the +mermaids of the Danube, who foretell the destruction which awaits him +at the court of Etzel: and lower down on each side of the window, King +Etzel with his friend Rudiger, and those faithful companions in arms, +old Hildebrand and Dietrich of Bern. The power of invention, the +profound feeling of character, and extraordinary antiquarian knowledge +displayed in these figures, should be seen to be understood. Those which +most struck me (next to Chrimhilde + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name="page33"></a>[33]</span> + + and her husband) were the figures +of the daring Hagen and the venerable queen Uta. +</p> +<p> +On the ceiling, which is vaulted, and enriched with most gorgeous +ornaments, intermixed with heraldic emblazonments, are four small +compartments in fresco: in which are represented, the marriage of +Siegfried and Chrimhilde, the murder of Siegfried, the vengeance of +Chrimhilde, and the death of Chrimhilde. These are painted in vivid +colours on a black ground. +</p> +<p> +On the whole, on looking round this most splendid and interesting room, +I could find but one fault: I could have wished that the ornaments on +the walls and ceiling (so rich and beautiful to the eye) had been more +completely and consistently gothic in style; they would then have +harmonized better with the subjects of the paintings. +</p> +<p> +In the next room, the two sides are occupied by two grand frescos, each +about five-and-twenty feet in length, and covering the whole wall. In +the first, Siegfried brings the kings of Saxony and Denmark prisoners to +the court of king Gunther. The second represents the reception of the +victorious + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name="page34"></a>[34]</span> + + Siegfried by the two queens, Uta and Chrimhilde. This is the +first interview of the lovers, and furnishes one of the most admired +passages in the poem. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "And now the beauteous lady, like the rosy morn, </p> +<p class="i2"> Dispersed the misty clouds; and he who long had borne </p> +<p class="i2"> In his heart the maiden, banish'd pain and care, </p> +<p class="i2"> As now before his eyes stood the glorious maiden fair. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> From her embroidered garment, glittered many a gem, </p> +<p class="i2"> And on her lovely cheek, the rosy red did gleam; </p> +<p class="i2"> Whoever in his glowing soul had imaged lady bright, </p> +<p class="i2"> Confessed that fairer maiden never stood before his sight. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> And as the moon at night, stands high the stars among, </p> +<p class="i2"> And moves the mirky clouds above, with lustre bright and strong; </p> +<p class="i2"> So stood before her maidens, that maid without compare: </p> +<p class="i2"> Higher swelled the courage of many a champion there." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Between the two doors there is the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde. +The second of these frescos is nearly finished; of the others I only +saw the cartoons, which are magnificent. The third room will contain, +arranged in the same manner, three + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>[35]</span> + + grand frescos, representing 1st. +the scene in which the rash curiosity of Chrimhilde prevails over the +discretion of her husband, and he gives her the ring and the girdle +which he had snatched as trophies from the vanquished Brunhilde.<a href="#note-10" name="noteref-10"><small> 10</small></a> +2ndly. The death of Siegfried, assassinated by Hagen, who stabs the hero +in the back, as he stoops to drink from the forest-well. And 3rdly. +The body of Siegfried exposed in the cathedral at Worms, and watched by +Chrimhilde, "who wept three days and three nights by the corse of her +murdered lord, without food and without sleep." +</p> +<p> +The fourth room will contain the second marriage of Chrimhilde; her +complete and sanguinary vengeance; and her death. None of these are yet +in progress. But the three cartoons of the death + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>[36]</span> + + of Siegfried; the marriage +of Siegfried and Chrimhilde; and the fatal curiosity of Chrimhilde, I +had the pleasure of seeing in Professor Schnorr's studio at the academy; +I saw at the same time his picture of the death of the emperor Frederic +Barbarossa, which has excited great admiration here, but I confess I do +not like it; nor do I think that Schnorr paints as well in oils as in +fresco—the latter is certainly his forte. +</p> +<p> +Often have I walked up and down these superb rooms, looking up at +Schnorr and his assistants, and watching intently the preparation and +the process of the fresco painting—and often I thought, "What would +some of our English painters—Etty, or Hilton, or Briggs, or Martin—O +what would they give to have two or three hundred feet of space before +them, to cover at will with grand and glorious creations,—scenes from +Chaucer, or Spenser, or Shakspeare, or Milton, proudly conscious that +they were painting for their country and posterity, spurred on by the +spirit of their art and national enthusiasm, and generously emulating +each other!" Alas! how + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[37]</span> + + different!—with us such men as Hilton and Etty +illustrate annuals, and the genius of Turner shrinks into a vignette! +</p> +<p> +I should add, before I throw down my weary pen, that every part of the +new palace, from the <i>ensemble</i> down to the minutest details of the +ornaments (the paintings excepted) has been designed by De Klenze, who +executed seven hundred drawings with his own hand for this palace alone, +without reckoning his designs for the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek. +</p> +<p> +This has been a busy and exciting day. Then in the evening a +<i>soirée</i>—music— +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +O quite tired in spirits, in voice, in mind, in heart, in frame! +</p> +<p> +<i>Oct. 14th.</i>—Accompanied by my kind friend, Madame de K——, and +conducted by Roekel, the painter, I visited the unfinished chapel +adjoining the new palace. It is painted (or rather <i>painting</i>) in +fresco, on a gold ground, with extraordinary richness and beauty, +uniting the old Greek, or rather Byzantine manner, with the old Italian + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>[38]</span> + + style of decoration. It reminded me, in the general effect, of the +interior of St. Mark's at Venice,—but, of course, the details are +executed in a grander feeling, and in a much higher style of art. The +pillars are of the native marble, and the walls will be covered with +a kind of Mosaic of various marbles, intermixed with ornaments in +relief, in gilding, in colours—all combined, and harmonizing together. +The ceiling is formed of two large domes or cupolas. In the first is +represented the Old Testament: in the very centre, the Creator; in a +circle round him, the six days' creation. Around this again, in a larger +circle, the building of the ark; the Deluge; the sacrifice of Noah; and +the first covenant. In the four corners, the colossal figures of the +patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are designed in a +very grand and severe style. The second cupola is dedicated to the +New Testament. In the centre, the Redeemer: around him four groups of +cherubs, three in each group. We were on the scaffold erected for the +painters—near enough to remark the extreme beauty and various + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>[39]</span> + + expression +in these heads, which must, I am afraid, be lost when viewed from below. +Around, in a circle, the twelve apostles; and in the four corners, the +four evangelists, corresponding with the four patriarchs in the other +dome. In the arch between the two domes, as connecting the Old and New +Testaments, we have the Nativity and other scenes from the life of the +Virgin. In the arch at the farthest end will be placed the Crucifixion, +as the consummation of all. +</p> +<p> +The painter to whom the direction of the whole work has been entrusted, +is professor Heinrich Häss, (or Hess,) one of the most celebrated of the +German historical painters. He was then employed in painting the Nativity, +stretched upon his back on a sort of inclined chair. Notwithstanding the +inconvenience and even peril of leaving his work while the plaster was +wet, he came down from his giddy height to speak to us, and explained +the general design of the whole. I expressed my honest admiration of the +genius, and the grand feeling displayed in many of the figures; and, in +particular, of the group he was then painting, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>[40]</span> + + of which the extreme +simplicity charmed me; but as honestly, I expressed my surprise that +nothing <i>new</i> in the general style of the decoration had been attempted; +a representation of the Omnipotent Being was merely excusable in more +simple and unenlightened times, when the understandings of men could +only be addressed through their senses—and merely tolerable, when +Michael Angelo gave us that grand personification of Almighty Power +moving "on the wings of the wind" to the creation of the first man. But +now, in these thinking, reasoning times, it is not so well to venture +into those paths, upon which daring Genius, supported by blind Faith, +rushed without fear, because without a doubt. The theory of religion +belongs to poetry, and its practice to painting. I was struck by the +wonderful stateliness of the ornaments and borders used in decorating +these sacred subjects: they are neither Greek, nor gothic, nor +arabesque—but composed merely of simple forms and straight lines, +combined in every possible manner, and in every variety of pure colour. +One might call them + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>[41]</span> + + <i>Byzantine</i>; at least, they reminded me of what +I had seen in the old churches at Venice and Pisa. +</p> +<p> +I was pleased by the amiable and open manners of professor Hess. Much +of his life has been spent in Italy, and he speaks Italian well, but no +French. In general, the German artists absolutely detest and avoid the +language and literature of France, but almost all speak Italian, and +many can read, if they do not speak, English. He told me that he had +spent two years on the designs and cartoons for this chapel; he had been +painting here daily for the last two years, and expected to be able to +finish the whole in about two years and a half more: thus giving six +years and a half, or more probably seven years, to this grand task. +He has four pupils, or assistants, besides those employed in the +decorations only. +</p> +<p> +<i>Oct. 15th.</i>—After dinner we drove through the beautiful English +garden—a public promenade—which is larger and more diversified than +Kensington Gardens; but the trees are not so fine, being of younger +growth. A branch of the Isar rolls + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>[42]</span> + + through this garden, sometimes an +absolute torrent, deep and rapid, foaming and leaping along, between its +precipitous banks,—sometimes a strong but gentle stream, flowing "at +its own sweet will" among smooth lawns. Several pretty bridges cross it +with "airy span;" there are seats for repose, and cafés and houses where +refreshment may be had, and where, in the summer-time, the artisans and +citizens of Munich assemble to dance on the Sunday evenings;—altogether +it was a beautiful day, and a delightful drive. +</p> +<p> +In the evening at the opera with the ambassadress and a large party. +It was the queen's fête, and the whole court was present. The theatre +was brilliantly illuminated—crowded in every part: in short, it was +all very gay and very magnificent; as to hearing a single note of the +opera, (the Figaro,) that was impossible; so I resigned myself to the +conversation around me. "Are you fond of music?" said I, innocently, to +a lady whose volubility had ceased not from the moment we entered the +box. "Moi! si je l'aime!—mais avec passion!" And then without pause + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>[43]</span> + + or mercy continued the same incessant flow of <i>spirituel</i> small-talk +while Scheckner-Wagen and Meric, now brought for the first time into +competition, and emulous of each other,—one pouring forth her full +<i>sostenuto</i> warble, like a wood-lark,—the other trilling and running +divisions, like a nightingale—were uniting their powers in the "Sull' +Aria;" but though I could not hear I could see. I was struck to-night +more than ever by the singular dignity of the demeanour of Madame +Scheckner-Wagen. She is not remarkable for beauty, nor is there any +thing of the common made-up theatrical grace in her deportment—still +less does she remind us of queen Medea—queen Pasta, I should say—the +imperial syren who drowned her own identity and ours together in her +"cup of enchanted sounds;"—no—but Scheckner-Wagen treads the stage +with the air of a high-bred lady, to whom applause or censure are things +indifferent—and yet with an exceeding modesty. In short, I never saw +an actress who inspired such an immediate and irresistible feeling of +respect and interest for the individual <i>woman</i>. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name="page44"></a>[44]</span> + + I do not say that this +is the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of good acting—on the contrary; though it is a +mistake to imagine that the moral character of an actress or a singer +goes for nothing with an audience—but of this more at some future +time. Madame Scheckner's style of singing has the same characteristic +simplicity and dignity: her voice is of a fine full quality, well +cultivated, well managed. I have known her a little indolent and careless +at times, but never forced or affected; and I am told that in some of +the grand classical German operas, Gluck's Iphigenia, for instance, her +acting as well as her singing is admirable. +</p> +<p> +I wish, if ever we have that charming Devrient-Schröeder, and her vocal +suite, again in England, they would give us the Iphigenia, or the Armida, +or the Idomeneo. She is another who must be heard in her native music +to be justly appreciated. Madame Milder <i>was</i> a third, but her reign is +past. This extraordinary creature absolutely could not, or would not, +sing the modern Italian music; no one, I believe, ever heard her sing +a note of Rossini in her life. Madame Vespermann + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>[45]</span> + + is here, but she sings +no more in public. She was formed by Winter, and was a fine classical +singer, though no original genius like the Milder; and her voice, if +I may judge by what remains of it, could never have been of first-rate +quality. +</p> +<p> +Well—after the opera—while scandal, and tea, and refreshments were +served up together—I had a long conversation with Count —— on the +politics and statistics of Bavaria, the tone of feeling in the court, +the characters and revenues of some of the leading nobles—particularly +Count d'Armansberg, the former minister, (now in Greece taking care of +the young King Otho,) and Prince Wallerstein, the present minister of +the interior. He described the king's extremely versatile character, and +his <i>vivacités</i>, and lamented his present unpopularity with the liberal +party in Germany, the disputes between him and the Chambers, and the +opinions entertained of the recent conferences between the king and his +brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, at Lintz, &c. I learnt much that +was new, much that was interesting to me, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>[46]</span> + + but do not understand these +matters sufficiently to say any thing more about them. +</p> +<p> +The two richest families in Bavaria are the Tour-and-Taxis, and the Arco +family. The annual revenue of the Prince of Tour-and-Taxis amounts to +upwards of five millions of florins, and he lays out about a million +and a half yearly in land. He seldom or never comes to Munich, but +resides chiefly on his enormous estates, or at Ratisbon, which is <i>his</i> +metropolis,—in fact, this rich and powerful noble is little less than +a sovereign prince. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +<i>16th.</i>—I went with Madame von A—— and her daughters to the +<b>Kunstverein</b>, or "Society of Arts." A similar institution of amateurs +and artists, maintained by subscription, exists, I believe, in all the +principal cities of Germany. The young artists exhibit their works here, +whether pictures, models, or engravings. Some of these are removed and +replaced by others almost every day, so that there is a constant variety. +As yet, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>[47]</span> + + however, I have seen no <i>very</i> striking, though many pleasing +pictures; but I have added several names to my list of German +artists.<a href="#note-11" name="noteref-11"><small> 11</small></a> To-day at the Kunstverein, there was a series of small +pictures framed together, the subjects from Victor Hugo's romance of +Notre Dame. These attracted general attention, partly as the work of +a stranger, partly from their own merit, and the popularity of Victor +Hugo. The painter, M. Couder, is a young Frenchman, now on his return +from Italy to Paris. I understand that he has obtained leave to paint +one of the frescos in the Pinakothek, as a trial of skill. Of the +designs from Notre Dame, the central and largest picture is the scene in +the garret between Phœbus and Esmeralda, when the former is stabbed +by the priest Frollo: one can hardly imagine a more admirable subject +for painting, if properly treated; but this is a failure in effect and +in character. It fails in effect because the light is too generally +diffused:—it is day-light, not lamp-light. The monk ought to have been +thrown completely into shadow, only <i>just</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>[48]</span> + + visible, terribly, mysteriously +visible, to the spectator. It fails in character because the figure of +Esmeralda, instead of the elegant, fragile, almost etherial creature she +is described, rather reminds us of a coarse Italian contadina; and, for +the expression—a truly poetical painter would have averted the face, +and thrown the whole expression into the attitude. It will hardly be +believed that of such a subject, the painter has made a <i>cold</i> picture, +merely by not feeling the bounds within which he ought to have kept. +The small pictures are much better, particularly the Sachet embracing +her child, and the tumult in front of Notre Dame. There were some other +striking pictures by the same artist, particularly Chilperic and +Fredegonde strangling the young queen Galsuinde, painted with shocking +skill and truth. That taste for horrors, which is now the reigning +fashion in French art and French literature, speaks ill for French +<i>sensibilité</i>—a word they are so fond of—for that sensibility cannot +be great which requires such extravagant <i>stimuli</i>. Painters and authors, +all alike! They remind me of the sentimental + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name="page49"></a>[49]</span> + + negresses of queen Carathis, +in the Tale of Vathek—"qui avaient un gout particulier pour les +pestilences." Couder, however, has undoubted talent. His portrait of +De Klenze, painted since he came here, is all but <i>alive</i>. +</p> +<p> +In the evening at the theatre with M. and Mad. S——. We had Karl +von Holtëi's melo-drama of Lenore, founded on Bürger's well-known +ballad;—but with the omission of the spectre, which was something like +acting Hamlet "with the part of Hamlet left out, by particular desire." +Lenore is, however, one of the prettiest and most effective of the +<i>petites pièces</i> I have seen here—very tragical and dolorous of course. +Madlle. Schöller acted Lenore with more feeling and power than I thought +was in her. There is a mad scene, in which she fancies her lover at her +window, calling to her, as the spectre calls in the ballad— +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Sleep'st thou, or wak'st thou, Leonore?" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +And which was so fine as a picture, and so well acted, that it quite +thrilled me—no easy matter. Holtëi is one of the first dramatists in +Germany + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[50]</span> + + for comedies, melo-dramas, farces, and musical pieces. In this +particular department he has no rival. He played to-night himself, being +for his own benefit, and sung his popular Mantel Lied, or <i>cloak-song</i>, +which, like his other songs, may be heard from one end of Germany to the +other. +</p> +<p> +<i>18th.</i>—A grand military fête. The consecration of the great bronze +obelisk, which the king has erected in the Karoline-Platz, to the +<i>glory</i> and the memory of the thirty-seven thousand Bavarian conscripts +who followed, or rather were dragged by, Napoleon to the fatal Russian +campaign in 1812. Of these, about six thousand returned alive: most of +them mutilated, or with diseases which shortened their existence. Of +many thousands no account ever reached home. They perished, God knows +how or where. There was, in particular, a detachment, or a battery of +six thousand Bavarians, so completely destroyed that it was as if the +earth had swallowed them, or the snows had buried them, for not one +remained to tell the tale of how or where they died. Of those who did +return, about one thousand one + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name="page51"></a>[51]</span> + + hundred survive, of whom four hundred +continue in the army; the rest had returned to their civil pursuits, and +had become peasants or tradesmen in different parts of the kingdom. Now, +it appears, that several hundreds of these men have arrived in Munich +within the last few days in order to be present at the ceremony: and +some, from the mere sentiment of honour, have travelled from afar—even +from Upper Bavaria and the Flemish Provinces, a distance of more than +eighty leagues, (two hundred and fifty miles.) On this occasion, +according to the arrangements previously made, the veteran soldiers who +remained in the army, were alone to be admitted within the enclosure +round the monument. The others, I believe about five hundred in number, +who had quitted the service, but who had equally fought, suffered, bled, +in the same disastrous expedition, demanded, very naturally, the same +privilege. It was refused; because forsooth they had no uniforms, and +the unseemly intrusion of drab coats and blue worsted stockings among +epaulettes and feathers and embroidered facings, would certainly + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>[52]</span> + + spoil +the symmetry—the effect of the <i>coup d'œil</i>! They complained, +murmured aloud, resisted; and all night there was fighting in the +streets and taverns between them and the police. This morning they went +up in a body to Marshal Wrede, (who is said to have betrayed the army,) +and were <i>renvoyés</i>. They then went up to the palace; and at last, +at a late hour this morning, the king gave orders that they should be +admitted within the circle; but it was too late—the affront had sunk +deep. The permission, which in the first instance ought indeed to +have been rather an invitation, now seemed forced, ungraceful, and +ungracious. There was a palpable cloud of discontent over all; for the +popular feeling was with them. For myself, a mere stranger, such was +my indignation, the whole proceeding appeared to me so heartless, +so unkingly, so unkind, and my sympathy with these brave men was so +profound, that I could scarce persuade myself to go;—however, I went. +I had been invited to view the ceremony from the balcony of the French +ambassador's house, which is exactly opposite to the obelisk. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name="page53"></a>[53]</span></p> + +<p> +I had indulged my ill-humour till it was late; already all the avenues +leading to the Karoline-Platz were occupied by the military, and my +carriage was stopped. As I was within fifty yards of the ambassador's +house, it did not much signify, and I dismissed the carriage; but they +would not allow the lacquais to pass. Wondering at all these precautions +I dismissed <i>him</i> too. A little further on I was myself stopped, and +civilly <i>commanded</i> to turn back. I pleaded that I only wished to enter +the house to which I pointed. "It was impossible." Now, what I had not +cared for a moment before became at once an object to be attained, and +which I was resolved to attain. I was really curious and anxious to see +how all this would end, for the indifferent or lowering looks of the +crowd had struck me. I observed to a well-dressed man, who politely +tried to make way for me, that it was strange to see so much severity of +discipline at a public fête. "Public fête!" he repeated with scornful +bitterness; "Je vous demande pardon, madame! c'est une fête pour quelques + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name="page54"></a>[54]</span> + + uns, mais ce n'est pas une fête pour nous, ce n'est pas pour le peuple!" +</p> +<p> +At length I fortunately met an officer, with whom I was slightly +acquainted, who immediately conducted me to the door. The spectacle, +merely as a <i>spectacle</i>, was not striking; but to me it had a peculiar +interest. There was a raised platform on one side for the queen and her +children, who, attended by a numerous court, were spectators. An outer +circle was formed by several regiments of guards, and within this +circle the soldiers who had served in Russia were drawn up near the +obelisk, which was covered for the present with a tarpauling. But all +my attention was fixed on the disbanded soldiers without uniforms, who +stood together in a dark dense column, contrasting with the glittering +and gorgeous array of those around them. The king rode into the circle, +accompanied by his brother, Prince Charles, the arch-duke Francis of +Austria, Marshal Wrede, and followed by a troop of generals, equerries, +&c. There was a dead silence, and not a shout was raised to greet + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[55]</span> + + him. +A few of the disbanded soldiers, who were nearest to him, took off +their hats, others kept them on. The trumpets sounded a salute: the +bands struck up our "God save the King," which is nationalized as <i>the</i> +loyal anthem all over Germany. The canvass covering fell at once, and +displayed the obelisk, which is entirely of bronze, raised upon four +granite steps. It bears a simple inscription. I think it is "Ludwig I., +king, to the soldiers of Bavaria who fell in the Russian campaign;" or +nearly to that purpose. Marshal Wrede then alighted from his horse and +addressed the soldiers. This was a striking moment; for while the outer +circle of military remained immovable as statues, the soldiers within, +both those with, and those without uniforms, finding themselves out of +ear-shot, advanced a few steps, and then breaking their ranks, pressed +forward in a confused mass, surrounding the king and his officers, +in the most eager but respectful manner. I could not distinguish one +sentence of the harangue, which, as I afterwards heard, was any thing +rather than satisfactory. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>[56]</span></p> + +<p> +I heard it remarked round me that the Duke de Leuchtenberg, (the son +of Eugène Beauharnais,) was not present, neither as one of the royal +cortège nor as a spectator. +</p> +<p> +The whole lasted about twenty minutes. The day was cold; and, in truth, +the ceremony was <i>cold</i>, in every sense of the word. The Karoline-Platz +is so large that not a third part of the open space was occupied. Had +the people, who lingered sullen and discontented outside the military +barrier, been admitted under proper restrictions, it had been a grand +and imposing sight; but, perhaps the king is following the Austrian +tactics, and seeking to crush systematically every thing like feeling or +enthusiasm in his people. I know not how he will manage it; for he is +himself the very antipodes of Austrian carelessness and sluggishness: +a restless enthusiast—fond of intellectual excitement—fond of +novelty—with no natural taste, one would think, for Metternich's +<i>vieilleries</i>. If he adopt Austrian principles, his theory and his +practice, his precept and example, will always be at variance. At the +conclusion of the ceremony + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>[57]</span> + + the king and his suite rode up to the +platform and saluted the queen: and when she—who is so universally +and truly beloved here that I believe the people would die for her at +anytime—rose to depart, I heard a cheer, the first and last this day! +The disbanded soldiers approached the platform, at first timidly by twos +and threes, and then in great numbers, taking off their hats. She stood +up, leaning on the princess Matilda, and bowed. The royal cortège then +disappeared. The military bands struck up, and one battalion after +another filed off. I expected that the crowd would have rushed in, but +the people seemed completely chilled and disgusted. Only a few appeared. +In about half an hour the obelisk was left alone in its solitude. +</p> +<p> +I spent the rest of the day with Madame de V——, and returned home quite +tired and depressed. +</p> +<p> +I understand this morning (Saturday) that the king has ordered a +gratuity and dinner to be given to the disbanded soldiers. I hope it is +true, King Louis! You ought at least to understand your <i>metier de Roi</i> +better than to degrade the "pomp and circumstance of <i>glorious</i> war" in +the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name="page58"></a>[58]</span> + + eyes of your people, and make them feel for what a poor recompence +they may fight, bleed, die—be made at once victims and executioners in +the contests of royal and ambitious gamblers! +</p> +<p> +I saw to-day, at the house of the court banker, Eichthal, a most +charming picture by the Baroness de Freyberg, the sister of my good +friend, M. Stuntz. It is a Madonna and child—loveliest of subjects for +a woman and a mother!—she is sure to put her heart into it, at least; +but, in this particular picture, the surpassing delicacy of touch, the +softness and purity of the colouring, the masterly drawing in the hands +of the Virgin, and the limbs of the child, equalled the feeling and the +expression—and, in truth, <i>surprised</i> me. Madame de Freyberg gave this +picture to her father, who is not rich, and, unhappily, blind. Of him, +the present possessor purchased it for fifteen hundred florins, (about +140<i>l.</i>) and now values it at twice the sum. In the possession of her +brother, I have seen others of her productions, and particularly a head +of one of his children, of exceeding beauty, and very much in the old +Italian style. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>[59]</span></p> + +<p> +In the evening, a very lively and amusing <i>soirée</i> at the house of Dr. +Martius. We had some very good music. Young Vieux-temps, a pupil of De +Beriot, was well accompanied by an orchestra of amateurs. I met here +also a young lady of whom I had heard much—Josephine Lang, looking +so gentle, so unpretending, so imperturbable, that no one would have +accused or suspected her of being one of the Muses in disguise, until +she sat down to the piano, and sang her own beautiful and original +compositions in a style peculiar to herself. She is a musician by +nature, by choice, and by profession, exercising her rare talent +with as much modesty as good-nature. The painter Zimmermann, who has a +magnificent bass voice, sung for me Mignon's song—"Kennst du das Land!" +And, lastly, which was the most interesting amusement of the evening, +Karl von Holtei read aloud the second act of Goethe's Tasso. He read +most admirably, and with a voice which kept attention enchained, +enchanted; still it was genuine reading. He kept equally clear of acting +and of declamation. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[60]</span></p> + +<p> +<i>Oct. 20th. Sunday.</i>—I went with M. Stuntz to hear a grand mass at the +royal chapel. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +<i>21st.</i>—It rained this morning:—went to the gallery, and amused myself +for two hours walking up and down the rooms, sometimes pausing upon my +favourite pictures, sometimes abandoned to the reveries suggested by +these glorious creations of the human intellect. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8"> 'Twas like the bright procession </p> +<p class="i2"> Of skiey visions in a solemn dream, </p> +<p class="i2"> From which men wake as from a paradise, </p> +<p class="i2"> And draw fresh strength to tread the thorns of life! </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +While looking at the Castor and Pollux of Rubens, I remembered what the +biographers asserted of this most wonderful man—that he spoke fluently +seven languages, besides being profoundly skilled in many sciences, and +one of the most accomplished diplomatists of his time. Before he took +up his palette in the morning, he was accustomed to read, or hear read, +some fine passages out of the ancient poets; and thus releasing his soul +from the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>[61]</span> + + trammels of low-thoughted care, he let her loose into the airy +regions of imagination. +</p> +<p> +What Goethe says of poets, must needs be applicable to painters. He +says, "If we look only at the principal productions of a poet, and +neglect to study himself, his character, and the circumstances with +which he had to contend, we fall into a sort of atheism, which forgets +the Creator in his creation." +</p> +<p> +I think most people admire pictures in this sort of atheistical fashion; +yet next to loving pictures, and all the pleasure they give, and revelling +in all the feelings they awaken, all the new ideas with which they enrich +our mental hoard—next to this, or equal with it, is the inexhaustible +interest of studying the painter in his works. It is a lesson in human +nature. Almost every picture (which is the production of mind) has +an individual character, reflecting the predominant temperament—nay, +sometimes, the occasional mood of the artist, its creator. Even portrait +painters, renowned for their exact adherence to nature, will be found to +have stamped upon their portraits a general and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>[62]</span> + + distinguishing character. +There is, besides the physiognomy of the individual represented, the +physiognomy, if I may so express myself, of the picture; detected +at once by the mere connoisseur as a distinction of manner, style, +execution: but of which the reflecting and philosophical observer might +discover the key in the mind or life of the individual painter. +</p> +<p> +In the heads of Titian, what subtlety of intellect mixed with sentiment +and passion! In those of Velasquez, what chivalrous grandeur, what +high-hearted contemplation! When Ribera painted a head—what power of +sufferance! In those of Giorgione, what profound feeling! In those of +Guido, what elysian grace! In those of Rubens what energy of intellect—what +vigorous life! In those of Vandyke, what high-bred elegance! +In those of Rembrandt, what intense individuality! Could Sir Joshua +Reynolds have painted a vixen without giving her a touch of sentiment? +Would not Sir Thomas Lawrence have given refinement to a cook-maid? +I do believe that Opie would have made even a calf's head + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>[63]</span> + + look sensible, +as Gainsborough made our queen Charlotte look picturesque. +</p> +<p> +If I should whisper that since I came to Germany I have not seen one +really fine modern portrait, the Germans would never forgive me; they +would fall upon me with a score of great names—Wach, Stieler, Vogel, +Schadow—and beat me, like Chrimhilde, "black and blue." But before they +are angry, and absolutely condemn me, I wish they would place one of +their own most admired portraits beside those of Titian or Vandyke, +or come to England, and look upon our school of portraiture here! I +think they would allow, that with all their merits, they are in the +wrong road. Admirable, finished drawing; wonderful dexterity of hand; +exquisite and most conscientious truth of imitation, they have; but they +abuse these powers. They do not seem to feel the application of the +highest, grandest principles of art to portrait painting—they think too +much of the accessories. Are not these clever and accomplished men aware +that imitation may be carried so far as to cease to be nature—to be +error, not truth? For instance, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>[64]</span> + + by the common laws of vision I can +behold perfectly only one thing at a time. If I look into the face +of a person I love or venerate, do I see <i>first</i> the embroidery of the +canezou or the pattern on the waistcoat? if not—why should it be so in +a picture? The vulgar eye alone is caught by such misplaced skill—the +vulgar artist only ought to seek to captivate by such means. +</p> +<p> +These would sound in England as the most trite and impertinent +remarks—the most self-evident propositions: nevertheless they are +truths which the generality of the German portrait painters and their +admirers have not yet felt. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I drove with my kind-hearted friends, M. and Madame Stuntz, to +Thalkirchen, the country-house of the Baron de Freyberg. The road +pursued the banks of the rapid, impetuous Isar, and the range of the +Tyrolian alps bounded the prospect before us. An hour's drive brought +us to Thalkirchen, where we were obviously quite unexpected, but that +was nothing:—I was at once received as a friend, and introduced +without ceremony + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[65]</span> + + to Madame de Freyberg's painting-room. Though now the +fond mother of a large <i>little</i> family, she still finds some moments +to devote to her art. On her easel was the portrait of the Countess +M—— (the sister of De Freyberg) with her child, beautifully +painted—particularly the latter. In the same room was an unfinished +portrait of M. de Freyberg, evidently painted <i>con amore</i>, and full +of spirit and character; a head of Cupid, and a piping boy, quite +in the Italian manner and feeling; and a picture of the birth of +St. John, exquisitely finished. I was most struck by the heads of two +Greeks—members, I believe, of the deputation to King Otho—painted with +her peculiar delicacy and transparency of colour, and, at the same time, +with a breadth of style and a freedom in the handling, which I have not +yet seen among the German portrait painters. A glance over a portfolio +of loose sketches and unfinished designs added to my estimation of her +talents. She excels in children—her own serving her as models. I do not +hesitate to say of this gifted woman, that while she equals Angelica + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[66]</span> + + Kauffman in grace and delicacy, she far exceeds her in <i>power</i>, both +of drawing and colouring. She reminded me more of the Sofonisba,<a href="#note-12" name="noteref-12"><small> 12</small></a> but +it is a different, and, I think, a more delicate style of colour, than +I have observed in the pictures of the latter. +</p> +<p> +We had coffee, and then strolled through the grounds—the children +playing around us. If I was struck by the genius and accomplishments +of Madame de Freyberg, I was not less charmed by the frank and noble +manners of her husband, and his honest love and admiration of his wife, +whom he married in despite of all prejudices of birth and rank. +</p> +<p> +In this truly German dwelling there was an extreme simplicity, a sort of +negligent elegance, a picturesque and refined homeliness, the presiding +influence of a most poetical mind and eye every where visible, and a +total indifference to what we English denominate <i>comfort</i>; yet with +the obvious presence of that crowning comfort of all comforts—cordial + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>[67]</span> + + domestic love and union—which impressed me altogether with pleasant +ideas, long after borne in my mind, and not yet, nor ever to be, +effaced. How little is needed for happiness, when we have not been +spoiled in the world, nor our tastes vitiated by artificial wants and +habits! When the hour of departure came, and De Freyberg was handing +me to the carriage, he made me advance a few steps, and pause to look +round; he pointed to the western sky, still flushed with a bright +geranium tint, between the amber and the rose; while against it lay the +dark purple outline of the Tyrolian mountains. A branch of the Isar, +which just above the house overflowed and spread itself into a wide +still pool, mirrored in its clear bosom not only the glowing sky and +the huge dark mountains, and the banks and trees blended into black +formless masses, but the very stars above our heads;—it was a heavenly +scene!—"You will not forget this," said De Freyberg, seeing I was +touched to the heart; "you will think of it when you are in England, +and in + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[68]</span> + + recalling it, you will perhaps remember us—who will not forget +<i>you</i>! Adieu, madame!" +</p> +<p> +Afterwards to the opera: it was Herold's "Zampa:" noisy, riotous music, +which I hate. I thought Madame Schechner's powers misplaced in this +opera—yet she sang magnificently. +</p> +<p> +Spent the morning with Dr. Martius, looking over the beautiful plates +and illustrations of his travels and scientific works. It appears from +what he told me, that the institution of the botanic garden is recent, +and is owing to the late king Max-Joseph, who was a generous patron of +scientific and benevolent institutions—as munificent as his son is +magnificent. +</p> +<p> +One of the most interesting monuments in Munich, is the tomb of Eugene +Beauharnais, in the church of St. Michael. It is by Thorwaldson, and one +of his most celebrated works. It is finely placed, and all the parts are +admirable: but I think it wants completeness and entireness of effect, +and does not tell its story well. Upon a lofty pedestal, there is first, +in the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>[69]</span> + + centre, the colossal figure of the duke stepping forward; one hand +is pressed upon his heart, and the other presents the civic crown—(but +to whom?)—his military accoutrements lie at his feet. The drapery is +admirably managed, and the attitude simple and full of dignity. On his +left is the beautiful and well-known group of the two genii, Love and +Life, looking disconsolate. On the right, the seated muse of History +is inscribing the virtues and exploits of the hero; and as, of all the +satellites of Napoleon, Eugene has left behind the fairest name, I +looked at her, and her occupation, with complacency. The statue is, +moreover, exceedingly beautiful and expressive—so are the genii; and +the figure of Eugene is magnificent; and yet the combination of the +whole is not effective. Another fault is, the colour of the marble, +which has a grey tinge, and ought at least to have been relieved by +constructing the pedestal and accompaniments of black marble; whereas +they are of a reddish hue. +</p> +<p> +The widow of Eugene, the eldest sister of the king of Bavaria, raised +this monument to her + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>[70]</span> + + husband, at an expense of eighty thousand florins. +As the whole design is classical, and otherwise in the purest taste and +grandest style of art, I exclaimed with horror at the sight of a vile +heraldic crown, which is lying at the feet of the muse of History. +I was sure that Thorwaldson would never voluntarily have committed +such a solecism. I was informed that the princess-widow insisted on +the introduction of this piece of barbarity as emblematical of the +vice-royalty of Italy; any royalty being apparently better than none. +</p> +<p> +I remember that when travelling in the Netherlands, at a time when the +people were celebrating the <i>Fête-Dieu</i>, I saw a village carpenter +busily employed in erecting a <i>réposoir</i> for the Madonna, of painted +boards and draperies and wreaths of flowers. In the mean time, as if +to deprecate criticism, he had chalked in large letters over his work, +"<i>La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile</i>." I could not help +smiling at this application of one of those undeniable truisms which +no one thinks it necessary to remember. When I recall the pleasure I +derived from this noble work of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[71]</span> + + Thorwaldson, all the genius, all the +skill, all the patience, all the time, expended on its production, I +think the foregoing trifling criticisms appear very ungrateful and +impertinent; and yet, as a friend of mine insisted, when I was once upon +a time pleading for mercy on certain defects and deficiencies in some +other walk of art, "Toleration is the nurse of mediocrity." Artists +themselves, as I often observe,—even the vainest of them—prefer +discriminating admiration to wholesale praise. In the Frauen Kirche, +there is another most admirable monument, a <i>chef d'œuvre</i>, in the +Gothic style. It is the tomb of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, who died +excommunicated in 1347; a stupendous work, cast in bronze. At the four +corners are four colossal knights kneeling, in complete armour, each +bearing a lance and ensign, and guarding the recumbent effigy of the +emperor, which lies beneath a magnificent Gothic canopy. At the two +sides are standing colossal figures, and I suppose about eight or +ten other figures on a smaller scale, all of admirable design and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[72]</span> + + workmanship.<a href="#note-13" name="noteref-13"><small> 13</small></a> It should seem, that in the sixteenth century the art +of casting in bronze was not only brought to the highest perfection in +Germany, but found employment on a very grand scale. +</p> +<p> +In the evening there was a concert at the Salle de l'Odeon—the third +I have attended since I came here. This concert room is larger than any +public room in London, and admirably constructed for music. Over the +orchestra, in a semi-circle, are the busts of the twelve great German +composers who have flourished during the last hundred years, beginning +with Handel and Bach, and ending with Weber and Beethoven. On this +occasion the hall was crowded. We had all the best performers of Munich, +led by the Kapelmeister Stuntz, and Schechner and Meric, who sang +<i>à l'envie l'une de l'autre</i>. The concert began at seven, and ended +a little after nine; and much as I love music, I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[73]</span> + + felt I had had enough. +They certainly manage these social pleasures much better here than in +London, where a grand concert almost invariably proves a most awful bore, +from which we return wearied, yawning, jarred, satiated. +</p> +<p> +Count —— amused me this evening with his laconic summing up of the +rise, progress, and catastrophe of a Polish amour;—se passioner, se +battre, se ruiner, enlever, épouser, et divorcer; and so ends this +six-act tragico-comico-heroico pastoral. +</p> +<p> +<i>23rd.</i>—To-day went over the Pinakothek (the new grand national picture +gallery) with M. de Klenze, the architect, and Comtesse de V——. This +is the second time; but I have not yet a clear and connected idea of the +general design, the building being still in progress. As far as I can +understand the arrangements, they will be admirable. The destination of +the edifice seems to have been the first thing kept in view. The situation +of particular pictures has been calculated, and accurate experiments +have been made for the arrangement of the light, &c. Professor Zimmermann +has kindly promised to take me over the whole + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>[74]</span> + + once more. He has the +direction of the fresco paintings here. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Society is becoming so pleasant, and engagements of every kind so +multifarious, that I have little time for scribbling memoranda. New +characters unfold before me, new scenes of interest occupy my thoughts. +I find myself surrounded with friends, where only a few weeks ago I had +scarcely one acquaintance. Time ought not to linger—and yet it does +sometimes. +</p> +<p> +Our circumstances alter; our opinions change; our passions die; our +hopes sicken, and perish utterly:—our spirits are broken; our health +is broken, and even our hearts are broken; but <small class="sc">WILL</small> survives—the +unconquerable strength of will, which is in later life what passion +is when young. In this world, there is always something to be done +or suffered, even when there is no longer any thing to be desired or +attained. +</p> +<p> +The Glyptothek is, at certain hours, open to strangers <i>only</i>, and +strangers do not at present abound: hence it has twice happened that +I have + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name="page75"></a>[75]</span> + + found myself in the gallery alone—to-day for the second time. +I felt that, under some circumstances, an hour of solitude in a gallery +of sculpture may be an epoch in one's life. There was not a sound, no +living thing near, to break the stillness; and lightly, and with a +feeling of awe, I trod the marble pavements, looking upon the calm, +pale, motionless forms around me, almost expecting they would open their +marble lips and speak to me—or, at least, nod—like the statue in Don +Giovanni: and still, as the evening shadows fell deeper and deeper, they +waxed, methought, sadder, paler, and more life-like. A dim, unearthly +glory effused those graceful limbs and perfect forms, of which the +exact outline was lost, vanishing into shade, while the sentiment—the +<i>ideal</i>—of their immortal loveliness, remained distinct, and became +every moment more impressive: and thus they stood; and their melancholy +beauty seemed to melt into the heart. +</p> +<p> +As the Graces round the throne of Venus, so music, painting, sculpture, +wait as handmaids round the throne of Poetry. "They from her + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page76" name="page76"></a>[76]</span> + + golden urn +draw light," as planets drink the sunbeams; and in return they array the +divinity which created and inspired them, in those sounds, and hues, and +forms, through which she is revealed to our mortal senses. The pleasure, +the illusion, produced by music, when it is the <i>voice</i> of poetry, is, +for the moment, by far the most complete and intoxicating, but also +the most transient. Painting, with its lovely colours blending into +life, and all its "silent poesy of form," is a source of pleasure more +lasting, more intellectual. Beyond both, is sculpture, the noblest, the +least illusive, the most enduring of the imitative arts, because it +charms us not by what it seems to be, but by what it is; because if the +pleasure it imparts be less exciting, the impression it leaves is more +profound and permanent; because it is, or ought to be, the abstract idea +of power, beauty, sentiment, made visible in the cold, pure, impassive, +and almost eternal marble. +</p> +<p> +It seems to me that the grand secret of that grace of repose which we +see developed in the antique statues, may be defined as <i>the presence</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>[77]</span> + + <i>of thought, and the absence of volition</i>. The moment we have, in +sculpture, the expression of will, or effort, we have the idea of +something fixed in its place by an external cause, and a consequent +diminution of the effect of internal power. This is not well expressed, +I fear. Perhaps I might illustrate the thought thus: the Venus de Medici +looks as if she were content to stand on her pedestal and be worshipped; +Canova's Hebe looks as if she would fain step off the pedestal—if she +could: the Apollo Belvedere, as if he could step from his pedestal—if +he would. +</p> +<p> +Among the Greeks, in the best ages of sculpture, and in all their very +finest statues, this seems to be the presiding principle—viz. that in +sculpture the repose of suspended motion, or of subsided motion, is +graceful; but arrested motion, and all effort, to be avoided. When the +ancients did express motion, they made it flowing or continuous, as in +the frieze of the Parthenon. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name="page78"></a>[78]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> + ALONE. +<br /> +<small>IN THE GALLERY OF SCULPTURE AT MUNICH.</small> +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Ye pale and glorious forms, to whom was given </p> +<p class="i2"> All that we mortals covet under heaven— </p> +<p class="i2"> Beauty, renown, and immortality, </p> +<p class="i2"> And worship!—in your passive grandeur, ye. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> There's nothing new in life, and nothing old; </p> +<p class="i2"> The tale that we might tell hath oft been told. </p> +<p class="i2"> Many have look'd to the bright sun with sadness, </p> +<p class="i2"> Many have look'd to the dark grave with gladness; </p> +<p class="i2"> Many have griev'd to death—have lov'd to madness! </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> What has been, is;—what is, will be;—I know, </p> +<p class="i2"> Even while the heart drops blood, it must be so. </p> +<p class="i2"> I live and smile—for O the griefs that kill, </p> +<p class="i2"> Kill slowly—and I bear within me still </p> +<p class="i2"> My conscious self, and my unconquer'd will! </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> And knowing what I have been—what has made </p> +<p class="i2"> My misery, I will be no more betray'd </p> +<p class="i2"> By hollow mockeries of the world around, </p> +<p class="i2"> Or hopes and impulses, which I have found </p> +<p class="i2"> Like ill-aim'd shafts, that kill by their rebound. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[79]</span> + + Complaint is for the feeble, and despair </p> +<p class="i2"> For evil hearts. Mine still can hope—still bear— </p> +<p class="i2"> Still hope for others what it never knew </p> +<p class="i2"> Of truth and peace; and silently pursue </p> +<p class="i2"> A path beset with briers, "and wet with tears like dew!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p> +To-day I devoted to the Pinakothek—for the last time! +</p> +<p> +Just before I left England our projected national gallery had excited +much attention. Those who were usually indifferent to such matters were +roused to interest; and I heard the merits of different designs, so +warmly, even so violently discussed in public and in private, that for +a long time the subject kept possession of my mind. On my arrival here, +the Pinakothek (for that is the designation given to the new national +gallery of Munich) became to me a principal object of interest. I have +been most anxious to comprehend both the general design and the nature +of the arrangements in detail; but I might almost doubt my own competency +to convey an exact idea of what I understand and admire, to the +comprehension of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name="page80"></a>[80]</span> + + another. I must try, however, while the impressions +remain fresh and strong, and the memory not yet encumbered and distracted, +as it must be, even a few hours hence, by the variety, and novelty, and +interest, of all I see and hear around me. +</p> +<p> +The Pinakothek was founded in 1826; the king himself laying the first +stone with much pomp and ceremony on the 7th of April, the birthday of +Rafaelle. +</p> +<p> +It is a long, narrow edifice, facing the south, measuring about five +hundred feet from east to west, and about eighty or eighty-five feet +in depth. At the extremities are two wings, or rather projections. The +body of the building is of brick, but not of common brickwork: for the +bricks, which are of a particular kind of clay, have a singular tint, +a kind of greenish yellow; while the friezes, balustrades, architraves +of the windows, in short, all the ornamental parts, are of stone, the +colour of which is a fine warm grey; and as the stone workmanship is +extremely rich, and the brickwork of unrivalled elegance and neatness, +and the colours harmonize well, the combination + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name="page81"></a>[81]</span> + + produces a very handsome +effect, rendering the exterior as pleasing to the eye, as the scientific +adaptation of the building to its peculiar purpose is to the understanding. +</p> +<p> +Along the roof runs a balustrade of stone, adorned with twenty-four +colossal statues of celebrated painters. A public garden, which is +already in preparation, will be planted around, beautifully laid out +with shady walks, flower-beds, fountains, urns, and statues. I believe +the enclosure of this garden will be about a thousand feet each way, and +that it will ultimately be bounded (at least on three sides) with rows +of houses forming a vast square, of which the Pinakothek will occupy +the centre. It consists of a ground-floor and an upper-story. The +ground-floor will comprise, 1st, the collection of the Etruscan vases; +2ndly, the Mosaics, ancient and modern, of which there are here some +rare and admirable specimens; 3rdly, the cabinet of drawings by the old +masters; 4thly, the cabinet of engravings, which is said to be one of +the richest in Europe; 5thly, a library of all works pertaining + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name="page82"></a>[82]</span> + + to the +fine arts; lastly, a noble entrance-hall: a private entrance; with +accommodations for students, and other offices. +</p> +<p> +The upper-story is appropriated to the pictures, and is calculated to +contain not less than fifteen hundred specimens, selected from various +galleries, and arranged according to the schools of art. +</p> +<p> +We ascend from the entrance-hall by a wide and handsome staircase of +stone, very elegantly carved, which leads first to a kind of vestibule, +where the attendants and keepers of the gallery are in waiting. Thence, +to a splendid reception-room, about fifty feet in length: this will +contain the full-length portraits of the founders of the gallery of +Munich—the Palatine John William; the Elector, Maximilian Emanuel of +Bavaria; the Duke Charles of Deuxponts; the Palatine Charles Theodore; +Maximilian Joseph I., king of Bavaria; and his son, (the present +monarch,) Louis I. The ceiling and the frieze of this room are +splendidly decorated with groups of figures and ornaments in white +relief, on a gold ground, and the walls will be hung with crimson +damask. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name="page83"></a>[83]</span></p> + +<p> +Along the south front of the building from east to west runs a gallery +or corridor about four hundred feet in length, and eighteen in width, +lighted on one side by twenty-five lofty arched windows, having on the +other side ten doors, opening into the suite of picture galleries, or +rather halls. These occupy the centre of the building, and are lighted +from above by vast lanthorns. They are eight in number, varying in +length from fifty to eighty feet, but all forty feet in width and fifty +feet in height from the floor to the summit of the lanthorn. The walls +will be hung with silk damask, either of a dark crimson or a dark +green—according to the style of art for which the room is destined. +The ceilings are vaulted, and the decorations are inexpressibly rich, +composed of magnificent arabesques, intermixed with the effigies of +celebrated painters, and groups illustrative of the history of art, &c., +all moulded in white relief upon a ground of dead gold. Mayer, one of +the best sculptors in Munich, has the direction of these works. +</p> +<p> +Behind these vast galleries, or saloons, there is + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page84" name="page84"></a>[84]</span> + + a range of cabinets, +twenty-three in number, appropriated to the smaller pictures of the +different schools: these are each about nineteen feet by fifteen in +size, and lighted from the north, each having one high lateral window. +The ceilings and upper part of the walls are painted in fresco, (or +distemper, I am not sure which,) with very graceful arabesques of a +quiet colour;—the hangings will also be of silk damask. +</p> +<p> +Of the principal saloons, the first is appropriated to the productions +of modern and living artists, and has three cabinets attached to it. +The second will contain the old German pictures, including the famous +Boisserée gallery, and has four cabinets attached to it. The third, +fourth, and fifth saloons (of which the central one, the hall of Rubens, +is eighty feet in length) are devoted, with the nine adjoining cabinets, +to the Flemish and Dutch schools. The sixth, with four cabinets, will +contain the French and Spanish pictures; and the seventh and eighth, +with three cabinets, will contain the Italian school of painting. All +these apartments communicate with each other by + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>[85]</span> + + ample doors; but from +the corridor already mentioned, which opens into the whole suite, the +visitor has access to any particular gallery, or school of painting, +without passing through the others: an obvious advantage, which will +be duly estimated by those who, in visiting a gallery of painting, +have felt their eyes dazzled, their heads bewildered, their attention +distracted, by too much variety of temptation and attraction, before +they have reached the particular object or school of art to which their +attention was especially directed. +</p> +<p> +To this beautiful and most convenient corridor, or, as it is called +here, <i>loggia</i>, we must now return. I have said that it is four hundred +feet in length, and lighted by five-and-twenty arched windows,—which, +by the way, command a splendid prospect, bounded by the far-off +mountains of the Tyrol. The wall opposite to these windows is divided +into twenty-five corresponding compartments, arched, and each surmounted +by a dome; these compartments are painted in fresco with arabesques, +something in the style of Rafaelle's Loggie in the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name="page86"></a>[86]</span> + + Vatican; while +every arch and cupola contains (also painted in fresco) scenes from the +life of some great painter, arranged chronologically: thus, in fact, +exhibiting a graphic history of the rise and progress of modern +painting—from Cimabue down to Rubens. +</p> +<p> +Of this series of frescos, which are now in progress, a few only are +finished, from which, however, a very satisfactory idea may be formed, +of the whole design. The first cupola is painted from a poem of A. W. +Schlegel "Der Bund der Kirche mit den Künsten," which celebrates the +alliance between religion (or rather the church) and the fine arts. +The second cupola represents the Crusades, because from these wild +expeditions (for so Providence ordained that good should spring from +evil) arose the regeneration of art in Europe. With the third cupola +commences the series of painters. In the arch, or lunette, is +represented the Madonna of Cimabue carried in triumphal procession +through the streets of Florence to the church of Santa Maria Novella; +and in the dome above, various scenes from the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name="page87"></a>[87]</span> + + painter's life. In the +next cupola is the history of Giotto; then follows Angelico da Fesole, +who, partly from humility and partly from love for his art, refused to +be made Archbishop of Florence; then, fourthly, Masaccio; fifthly, +Bellini: in one compartment he is represented painting the favourite +sultana of Mahomet II. Several of the succeeding cupolas still remain +blank, so we pass them over and arrive at Leonardo da Vinci, painting +the queen Joanna of Arragon; then Michael Angelo, meditating the design +of St. Peter's; then the history of Rafaelle: in the dome are various +scenes from his life. The lunette represents his death: he is extended +on a couch, beside which sits his virago love, the Fornarina "in disperato +dolor;" Pope Leo X. and Cardinal Bembo are looking on overwhelmed with +grief;—in the background is the Transfiguration. +</p> +<p> +I wonder, if Rafaelle had survived this fatal illness, which of the +two alternatives he would have chosen—the cardinal's hat or the niece +of Cardinal Bibbiena? M. de Klenze gave us, the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page88" name="page88"></a>[88]</span> + + other night, a most +picturesque and animated description of the opening of Rafaelle's +tomb,—at which he had himself assisted—the discovery of his remains, +and those of his betrothed bride, the niece of Cardinal Bibbiena, +deposited near him. She survived him several years, but in her last +moments requested to be buried in the same tomb with him. This was at +least quite in the <i>genre romantique</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Charming!" exclaimed one of the ladies present. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Et genereux!</i>" exclaimed another. +</p> +<p> +The series of the Italian painters will end with the Carracci. Those of +the German painters will begin with Van Eyck, and end with Rubens. Of +many of the frescos which are not yet executed, I saw the cartoons in +professor Zimmermann's studio. +</p> +<p> +Though the general decoration of this gallery was planned by Cornelius, +the designs for particular parts, and the direction of the whole, have +been confided to Zimmermann, who is assisted in the execution by five +other painters. One + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page89" name="page89"></a>[89]</span> + + particular picture, which represents Giotto exhibiting +his Madonna to the pope, was pointed out to my especial admiration +as the most finished specimen of fresco painting which has yet been +executed here; and in truth, for tenderness and freshness of colour, +softness in the shadows, and delicacy in the handling, it might bear +comparison with any painting in oils. We were standing near it on a high +scaffold, and it endured the closest and most minute consideration; +but when seen from below, it may possibly be less effective. It shows, +however, the extreme finish of which the fresco painting is susceptible. +This was executed by Hiltensperger, of Swabia, from the cartoon of +Zimmermann. At one end of this gallery there is to be a large fresco, +representing his majesty King Louis, introduced by the muse of Poetry +to the assembled poets and painters of Germany. Now, this species of +allegorical adulation appears to me flat and out of date. I well remember +that long ago the famous picture of Voltaire, introduced into the Elysian +fields by Henri Quatre, and making his best bow to Racine and Molière, +threw me into a convulsion + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page90" name="page90"></a>[90]</span> + + of laughter: and the cartoon of this royal +apotheosis provoked the same irrepressible feeling of the ridiculous. +I wish somebody would hint to King Louis that this is not in good taste, +and that there are many, many ways in which the compliment (which he +truly merits) might be better managed. +</p> +<p> +On the whole, however, it may truly be said that the luxuriant and +appropriate decorations of this gallery, the variety of colour and +ornament lavished on it, agreeably prepare the eye and the imagination +for that glorious feast of beauty within, to which we are immediately +introduced: and thus the overture to the Zauberflöte, (which we heard +last night,) with its rich involved harmonies, its brilliant and +exciting movements, attuned the ear and the fancy to enjoy the grand, +thrilling, bewitching, love-breathing melodies of the opera which +followed. +</p> +<p> +I omitted to mention that there are also on the upper floor of the +Pinakothek two rooms, each about forty feet square; one called the +<i>Reserve-Saal</i>, is intended for the reception of those pictures which + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page91" name="page91"></a>[91]</span> + + are temporarily removed from their places, new acquisitions, &c. +The other room is fitted up with every convenience for students and +copyists. +</p> +<p> +The whole of this immense edifice is warmed throughout by heated air; +the stoves being detached from the body of the building, and so managed +as to preclude the possibility of danger from fire. +</p> +<p> +It does not appear to be yet decided whether the floors will be of the +Venetian stucco, or of parquet. +</p> +<p> +Such, then, is the general plan of the Pinakothek, the national gallery +of Bavaria. I make no comment, except that I felt and recognised in +every part the presence of a directing mind, and the absence of all +narrow views, all truckling to the interests, or tastes, or prejudices, +or convenience, of any particular class of persons. It is very possible +that when finished it will be found by scientific critics not absolutely +<i>perfect</i>, which, as we know, all human works are at least intended and +expected to be; but it is equally clear that an honest anxiety for the +glory of art, and the benefit of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page92" name="page92"></a>[92]</span> + + public—not the caprices of the +king, nor the individual vanity of the architect—has been the moving +principle throughout. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Fresco painting, or, as the Italians call it, <i>buon fresco</i>, had +been entirely discontinued since the time of Raphael Mengs. It was +revived at Rome in 1809-10, when the late M. Bartholdy, the Prussian +consul-general, caused a saloon in his house to be painted in fresco by +Peter Cornelius, Overbeck, and Philip Veith, all German artists, then +resident at Rome. The subjects are taken from the Scriptures, and one +of the admirable cartoons of Overbeck, (Joseph sold by his brethren,) I +saw at Frankfort. These first essays are yet to be seen in Bartholdy's +house, in the Via Sistina at Rome. They are rather hard, but in a +grand style of composition. The success which attended this spirited +undertaking, excited much attention and enthusiasm, and induced the +Marchese Massimi to have his villa near the Lateran adorned in the same +style. Accordingly, he had three grand halls or saloons, painted with +subjects from Dante, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page93" name="page93"></a>[93]</span> + + Ariosto, and Tasso. The first was given to Philip +Veith, the second to Julius Schnorr, and the third to Overbeck. Veith +did not finish his work, which was afterwards terminated by Koch; the +two other painters completed their task, much to the satisfaction of the +Marchese, and to the admiration of all Rome. +</p> +<p> +But these were mere experiments—mere attempts, compared to what has +since been executed in the same style at Munich. It is true that the +art of fresco-painting had never been entirely lost. The theory of the +process was well known, and also the colours formerly used; only +practice, and the opportunity of practice, were wanting. This has been +afforded; and there is now at Munich a school of fresco painting, under +the direction of Cornelius, Julius Schnorr, and Zimmermann, in which +the mechanical process has been brought to such perfection, that the +neatness of the execution may vie with oils, and they can even cut +out a feature, and replace it if necessary. The palette has also been +augmented by the recent improvements in chemistry, which have enabled +the fresco painter + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page94" name="page94"></a>[94]</span> + + to apply some most precious colours, unknown to the +ancient masters: only earths and metallic colours are used. I believe it +is universally known that the colours are applied while the plaster is +wet, and that the preparation of this plaster is a matter of much care +and nicety. A good deal of experience and manual dexterity is necessary +to enable the painter to execute with rapidity, and calculate the exact +degree of humidity in the plaster, requisite for the effect he wishes to +produce. +</p> +<p> +It has been said that fresco painting is unfitted for our climate, +damp and sea-coal fires being equally injurious; but the new method of +warming all large buildings, either by steam or heated air, obviates, +at least, <i>this</i> objection. +</p> +<p> +<i>26th.</i>—The morning was spent in the ateliers of two Bavarian sculptors, +Mayer and Bandel. To Mayer, the king has confided the decoration of +the exterior of the Pinakothek, of which he showed me the drawings and +designs. He has also executed the colossal statue of Albert Durer, in +stone, for the interior of that building. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page95" name="page95"></a>[95]</span></p> + +<p> +It appears that the pediment of the Glyptothek, now vacant, will be +adorned by a group of fourteen or fifteen figures, representing all the +different processes in the art of sculpture; the modeller in clay, the +hewer of the marble, the caster in bronze, the carver in wood or ivory, +&c. all in appropriate attitudes, all colossal, and grouped into a whole. +The general design was modelled, I believe, by Eberhardt, professor +of sculpture in the academy here; and the execution of the different +figures has been given to several young sculptors, among them Mayer and +Bandel. This has produced a strong feeling of emulation. I observed that +notwithstanding the height and the situation to which they are destined, +nearly one-half of each figure being necessarily turned from the +spectator below, each statue is wrought with exceeding care, and +perfectly finished on every side. I admired the purity of the marble, +which is from the Tyrol. Mayer informs me, that about three years ago +enormous quarries of white marble were discovered in the Tyrol, to the +great satisfaction of the king, as it diminishes, by one-half, the +expense of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page96" name="page96"></a>[96]</span> + + material. This native marble is of a dazzling whiteness, +and to be had in immense masses without flaw or speck; but the grain +is rather coarse. +</p> +<p> +More than twenty years ago, when the king of Bavaria was Prince Royal, +and could only anticipate at some distant period the execution of his +design, he projected a building, of which, at least, the name and +purpose must be known to all who have ever stepped on German ground. +This is the <span class="sc">Valhalla</span>, a temple raised to the national glory, and intended +to contain the busts or statues of all the illustrious characters of +Germany, whether distinguished in literature, arts, or arms, from their +ancient hero and patriot Herman, or Arminius, down to Goethe, and those +who will succeed him. The idea was assuredly noble, and worthy of a +sovereign. The execution—never lost sight of—has been but lately +commenced. The Valhalla has been founded on a lofty cliff, which rises +above the Danube, not far from Ratisbon.<a href="#note-14" name="noteref-14"><small> 14</small></a> It will form a conspicuous +object to all who pass up and down + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page97" name="page97"></a>[97]</span> + + the Danube, and the situation, nearly +in the centre of Germany, is at least well chosen. But I could hardly +express (or repress) my surprise, when I was shown the design for this +building. The first glance recalled the Theseum at Athens; and then +follows the very natural question, why should a Greek model have been +chosen for an edifice, the object, and purpose, and name of which are so +completely, essentially, exclusively gothic? What, in Heaven's name, has +the Theseum to do on the banks of the Danube? It is true that the purity +of forms in the Greek architecture, the effect of the continuous lines +and the massy Doric columns, must be grand and beautiful to the eye, +place the object where you will; and in the situation designed for it, +particularly imposing; but surely it is not appropriate;—the name, +and the form, and the purpose, are all at variance—throwing our most +cherished associations into strange confusion. Nor could the explanations +and eloquent reasoning with which my objections were met, succeed in +convincing me of the propriety of the design, while I acknowledged + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page98" name="page98"></a>[98]</span> + + its magnificence. The sculptor Mayer showed me a group of figures for +one of the pediments of this Greek Valhalla, admirably appropriate to +the purpose of the building—but not to the building itself. It represents +Herman introduced by Hermoda (or Mercury) into the Valhalla, and received +by Odin and Freya. Iduna advances to meet the hero, presenting the +apples of immortality, and one of the Vahlküre pours out the mead, to +refresh the soul of the Einheriar.<a href="#note-15" name="noteref-15"><small> 15</small></a> To the right of this group are +several figures representing the chief epochs in the history of Germany. +</p> +<p> +This design wants unity; and it is a manifest incongruity to allude +to the introduction of Christianity, where the mythological Valhalla +forms the chief point of interest; notwithstanding, it gave me exceeding +pleasure, as furnishing an unanswerable proof of the possible application +of sculpture on a grand scale, to the forms of romantic or gothic poetry: +all the figures, the accompaniments, attributes, are strictly Teutonic; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page99" name="page99"></a>[99]</span> + + the effect of the whole is grand and interesting; but what would it be +on a Greek temple? would it not appear misplaced and discordant? +</p> +<p> +I am informed, that of the two pediments of the Valhalla, one will be +given to Rauch of Berlin, and the other to Schwanthaler. +</p> +<p> +The sculptor Bandel, with his quick eye, his ample brow, his animated, +benevolent face, and his rapid movements, looks like what he is—a genius. +</p> +<p> +In his atelier I saw some things, just like what I see in all the ateliers +of young sculptors—cold imitations, feeble versions of mythological +subjects—but I saw some other things so fresh and beautiful in feeling, +as to impress me with a high idea of his poetical and creative power. +I longed to bring to England one or two casts of his charming Cupid +Penseroso, of which the original marble is at Hanover. There is also +a very exquisite bas-relief of Adam and Eve sleeping: the good angel +watching on one side, and the evil angel on the other. This lovely group +is the commencement of a series of bas-reliefs, designed, I believe, for +a frieze, and not yet completed, representing + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>[100]</span> + + the four ages of the world: +the age of innocence; the heroic age, or age of physical power; the age +of poetry, and the age of philosophy. This new version of the old idea +interested me, and it is developed and treated with much grace and +originality. Bandel told us that he is just going, with his beautiful +wife and two or three little children, to settle at Carrara for a few +years. The marble quarries there are now colonised by young sculptors of +every nation. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The king of Bavaria has a gallery of beauties, (the portraits of some of +the most beautiful women of Germany and Italy,) which he shuts up from +the public eye, like any grand Turk—and neither bribery nor interest +can procure admission. A lovely woman, to whom I was speaking of it +yesterday, and who has been admitted in effigy into this harem, seemed +to consider the compliment rather equivocal. "Depend upon it, my dear," +said she, "that fifty years hence we shall be all confounded together, +as the king's <i>very</i> intimate friends; and, to tell you the truth, I am +not ambitious + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>[101]</span> + + of the honour, more particularly as there are some of my +illustrious <i>companions in charms</i> who are enough to throw discredit +on the whole set!" +</p> +<p> +I saw in Stieler's atelier two portraits for this collection: one, a +woman of rank—a dark beauty; the other, a servant girl here, with a +head like one of Raffaelle's angels, almost divine; she is painted +in the little filagree silver cap, the embroidered boddice, and silk +handkerchief crossed over the bosom, the costume of the women of Munich, +to which the king is extremely partial. I am assured that this young +girl, who is not more than seventeen, is as remarkable for her piety, +simplicity, and spotless reputation, as for her singular beauty. I have +seen her, and the picture merely does her justice. Several other women +of the <i>bourgeoisie</i> have been pointed out to me as included in the +king's collection. One of these, the daughter, I believe, of an +herb-woman, is certainly one of the most exquisite creatures I ever +beheld. On the whole, I should say, that the lower orders of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>[102]</span> + + people +of Munich are the handsomest race I have seen in Germany. +</p> +<p> +Stieler is the court and fashionable portrait painter here—the Sir +Thomas Lawrence of Munich—that is, in the estimation of the Germans. +He is an accomplished man, with amiable manners, and a talent for +rising in the world; or, as I heard some one call it, the organ of +<i>getting-oniveness</i>. For the elaborate finish of his portraits, for +expertness and delicacy of hand, for resemblance and exquisite drawing, +I suppose he has few equals; but he has also, in perfection, what I +consider the faulty peculiarities of the German school. Stieler's +artificial roses are <i>too</i> natural: his caps, and embroidered scarfs, +and jewelled bracelets, are more real than the things themselves—or +seem so; for certainly I never gave to the real objects the attention +and the admiration they challenge in his pictures. The famous bunch of +grapes, which tempted the birds to peck, could be nothing compared to +the felt of Prince Charles's hat in Stieler's portrait: it actually +invites the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>[103]</span> + + hat-brush. Strange perversion of power in the artist! +stranger perversion of taste in those who admire it!—<i>Ma pazienza!</i> +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The Duc de Leuchtenberg opens his small but beautiful gallery twice +a week: Mondays and Thursdays. The doors are thrown open and every +respectable person may walk in, without distinction or ceremony. It is +a delightful morning lounge; there are not more than one hundred and +fifty pictures—enough to excite and gratify, not satiate, admiration. +The first room contains a collection of paintings by modern and living +artists of France, Germany, and Italy. There is a lovely little picture +by Madame de Freyberg of the Maries at the sepulchre of Christ; and by +Heinrich Hess, a group of the three Christian graces—Faith, Hope, and +Charity, seated under the German oak, and painted with great simplicity +and sentiment; of his celebrated brother, Peter Hess, and Wagenbauer, +and Jacob Dorner, and Quaglio, there are beautiful specimens. The French +pictures did not please me: Girodet's + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>[104]</span> + + picture of Ossian and the French +heroes is a monstrous combination of all manner of affectations. +</p> +<p> +I should not forget a fine portrait of Napoleon, by Appiani, crowned +with laurel; and another picture, which represents him throned, with all +the insignia of state and power, and supported on either side by Victory +and Peace. For a moment we pause before that proud form, to think of all +he was, all he might have been—to draw a moral from the fate of +selfishness. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> He rose by blood, he built on man's distress, </p> +<p class="i2"> And th'inheritance of desolation left </p> +<p class="i2"> To great expecting hopes.<a href="#note-16" name="noteref-16"><small> 16</small></a> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Among the pictures of the old masters there are many fine ones, and +three or four of peculiar interest. There is the famous head by +Bronzino, generally entitled, Petrarch's Laura, but assuredly without +the slightest pretensions to authenticity. The face is that of a prim, +starched <i>précieuse</i>, to which the peculiar style of this old portrait +painter, with + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>[105]</span> + + his literal nature, his hardness, and leaden colouring, +imparts additional coldness and rigidity. +</p> +<p> +But the finest picture in the gallery—perhaps one of the finest in the +world—is the Madonna and Child of Murillo: one of those rare productions +of mind which baffle the copyist, and defy the engraver,—which it is +worth making a pilgrimage but to gaze on. How true it is that "a thing +of beauty is a joy for ever!" +</p> +<p> +When I look at Murillo's roguish, ragged beggar-boys in the royal +gallery, and then at the Leuchtenberg gallery turn to contemplate his +Madonna and his ascending angel, both of such unearthly and inspired +beauty, a feeling of the wondrous grasp and versatility of the man's +mind almost makes me giddy. +</p> +<p> +The lithographic press of Munich is celebrated all over Europe. Aloys +Senefelder, the inventor of the art, has the direction of the works, with +a well-merited pension, and the title of Inspector of Lithography.<a href="#note-17" name="noteref-17"><small> 17</small></a> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>[106]</span></p> + +<hr /> +<p> +The people of Munich are not only a well-dressed and well-looking, but a +social, kind-hearted race. The number of unions, or societies, instituted + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>[107]</span> + + for benevolent or festive purposes, is, for the size of the place, +almost incredible.<a href="#note-18" name="noteref-18"><small> 18</small></a> I had + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>[108]</span> + + a catalogue of more than forty given to +me this morning; they are for all ranks and professions, and there is +scarcely a person in the city who is not enlisted into one or more +of these communities. Some have reading-rooms, and well-furnished +libraries, to which strangers are at once introduced, gratis; they give +balls and concerts during the winter, which not only include their own +members and their friends, but one society will sometimes invite and +entertain another. +</p> +<p> +The young artists of Munich, who constitute a numerous body, formed +themselves into an association, and gave very elegant balls and +concerts, at first among themselves and their immediate friends and +connexions; but the circle increased—these balls became more and more +splendid—even + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>[109]</span> + + the king and the royal family frequently honoured them +with their presence. It became a point of honour to exceed in elegance +and profusion all the entertainments given by the other societies of +Munich. Every body danced, praised, and enjoyed themselves. At length it +occurred to some of the most considerate and kind-hearted of the people, +that these young men were going beyond their means to entertain their +friends and fellow-citizens. It had evidently become a matter of great +expense, and perhaps ostentation, and they resolved to put down this +competition at once. An association was formed of persons of all +classes, and they gave a fête to the painters of Munich, which eclipsed +in magnificence every thing of the kind before or since. It was a ball +and supper, on the most ample and splendid scale, and took place at the +Odeon. Each lady's ticket contained the name of the cavalier, to whose +especial protection and gallantry she was consigned for the evening; and +so much <i>tacte</i> was shown in this arrangement, that I am told very few +were discontented with their lot. Nearly three thousand + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>[110]</span> + + persons were +present, and it was the month of February; yet every lady on entering +the room was presented by her cavalier with a bouquet of hot-house +flowers; and the Salle de l'Odeon was adorned with a profusion of plants +and flowering shrubs, collected from all the conservatories, private and +public, within twenty miles of the capital. The king, the queen, their +family and suite, and many of the principal nobles were invited, with, +of course, a large portion of the gentry and trades-people of Munich; +but, notwithstanding the miscellaneous nature of the assemblage, and the +immense number of persons present, all was harmony, and good-breeding, +and gaiety. This fête produced the desired result; the young painters +took the hint, and though they still give balls, which are exceedingly +pleasant, they are on a more modest scale than heretofore. +</p> +<p> +The Liederkranz (literally, the circle, or garland of song) is a society +of musicians—amateurs and professors—who give concerts here, at which +the compositions of the members are occasionally performed. One of these +concerts (Fest-Production) + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>[111]</span> + + took place this evening at the Odeon; and +having duly received, as a stranger, my ticket of invitation, I went +early with a very pleasant party. +</p> +<p> +The immense room was crowded in every part, and presented a most +brilliant spectacle, from the number of military costumes, and the +glittering head-dresses of the Munich girls. Our hosts formed the +orchestra. The king and queen had been invited, and had signified their +gracious intention of being present. The first row of seats was assigned +to them; but no other distinction was made between the royal family and +the rest of the company. +</p> +<p> +The king is generally punctual on these occasions, but from some accident +he was this evening delayed, and we had to wait his arrival about ten +minutes; the company were all assembled—servants were already parading +up and down the room with trays, heaped with ices and refreshments—the +orchestra stood up, with fiddle-sticks suspended; the chorus, with mouths +half open—and the conductor, Stuntz, brandished his roll of music. At +length a side door was thrown open: + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>[112]</span> + + a voice announced "the king;" the +trumpets sounded a salute; and all the people rose and remained standing +until the royal guests were seated. The king entered first, the queen +hanging on his arm. The duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, and his duchess,<a href="#note-19" name="noteref-19"><small> 19</small></a> +followed; then the princess Matilda, leading her younger brother and +sister, prince Luitpold and the princess Adelgonde;—the former a fine +boy of about twelve years old, the latter a pretty little girl of about +seven or eight: a single lady of honour; the baron de Freyberg, as +principal equerry; the minister von Schencke, and one or two other +officers of the household were in attendance. The king bowed to the +gentlemen in the orchestra, then to the company, and in a few moments +all were seated. +</p> +<p> +The music was entirely vocal, consisting of concerted pieces only, for +three or more voices, and all were executed in perfection. I observed +several little boys and young girls, of twelve or fourteen, singing in +the chorusses, apparently much to their own satisfaction—certainly to +ours. Their voices + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>[113]</span> + + were delicious, and perfectly well managed, and their +merry laughing faces were equally pleasant to look upon. +</p> +<p> +We had first a grand loyal anthem, composed for the occasion by Lenz, +in which the king and queen, and their children, were separately +apostrophized. Prince Maximilian, now upon his travels, and young king +Otto, "far off upon the throne of Hellas," were not forgotten; and as +the princess Matilda has lately been <i>verlobt</i> (betrothed) to the +hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, they put the <i>Futur</i> into a +couplet, with great effect. It seems that this marriage has been for +some time in negociation; its course did not "run quite smooth," and the +heart of the young princess is supposed to be more deeply interested in +the affair than is usual in royal alliances. She is also very generally +beloved, so that when the chorus sang, +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Hoch lebe Ludwig und Mathilde! </p> +<p class="i2"> Ein Herz stets Brautigam und Braut!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="continued"> +all eyes were turned towards her with a smiling + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>[114]</span> + + expression of sympathy +and kindness, which really touched me. As I sat, I could only see her +side-face, which was declined. There was also an allusion to the late +king Max-Joseph, "das beste Herz," who died about five years ago, and +who appears to have been absolutely adored by his people. All this +passed off very well, and was greatly applauded. At the conclusion the +king rose from his seat, and said something courteous and good-natured +to the orchestra, and then sat down. The other pieces were by old +Schack, (the intimate friend of Mozart,) Stuntz, Chelard, and Marschner; +a drinking song by Hayden, and one of the chorusses in the <i>Cosi fan +Tutte</i> were also introduced. The whole concluded with the "song of the +heroes in the Valhalla," composed by Stuntz. +</p> +<p> +Between the acts there was an interval of at least half an hour, during +which the queen and the princess Matilda walked up and down in front of +the orchestra, entered into conversation with the ladies who were seated +near, and those whom the rules of etiquette allowed to approach + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>[115]</span> + + unsummoned +and pay their respects. The king, meanwhile, walked round the room +unattended, speaking to different people, and addressing the young +bourgeoises, whose looks or whose toilette pleased him, with a bow and +a smile; while they simpered and blushed, and drew themselves up when +he had passed. +</p> +<p> +As I see the king frequently, his face is familiar to me, but to-night +he looked particularly well, and had on a better coat than he usually +condescends to wear,—quite plain, however, and without any order or +decoration. He is now in his forty-seventh year, not handsome, with a +small well-formed head, an intelligent brow, and a quick penetrating +eye. His figure is slight and well-made, his movements quick, and his +manner lively—at times even abrupt and impatient. His utterance is +often so rapid as to be scarcely intelligible to those who are most +accustomed to him. I often meet him walking arm-in-arm with M. de +Schenke, M. de Klenze, and others of his friends—for apparently this +eccentric, accomplished sovereign + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>[116]</span> + + has <i>friends</i>, though I believe he +is not so popular as his father was before him. +</p> +<p> +The queen (Theresa, princess of Saxe-Hilburghausen) has a sweet open +countenance, and a pleasing, elegant figure. The princess Matilda, who +is now nineteen, is the express image of her mother, whom she resembles +in her amiable disposition, as well as her person; her figure is very +pretty, and her deportment graceful. She looked pensive this evening, +which was attributed by the good people around me to the recent +departure of the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who has been here for some +time paying his court. +</p> +<p> +About ten, the concert was over. The king and queen remained a few +minutes in conversation with those around them, without displaying +any ungracious hurry to depart; and the whole scene left a pleasant +impression upon my fancy. To an English traveller in Germany nothing is +more striking than the easy familiar terms on which the sovereign and +his family mingle with the people on these and the like occasions; it +certainly would + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>[117]</span> + + not answer in England: but as they say in this expressive +language—<i>Ländlich, sittlich</i>.<a href="#note-20" name="noteref-20"><small> 20</small></a> +</p> +<p> +<i>Munich, Oct. 28th, 1833.</i> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>[118]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0005" id="h2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + II. +</h2> +<h3> + NUREMBERG. +</h3> + +<p> +Nuremberg—with its long, narrow, winding, involved streets, its +precipitous ascents and descents, its completely gothic physiognomy—is +by far the strangest old city I ever beheld; it has retained in every +part the aspect of the middle ages. No two houses resemble each other; +yet, differing in form, in colour, in height, in ornament, all have a +family likeness; and with their peaked and carved gabels, and projecting +central balconies, and painted fronts, stand up in a row, like so many +tall, gaunt, stately old maids, with the toques and stomachers of the +last century. In the upper part of the town, we find here and there a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>[119]</span> + + new house, built, or rebuilt, in a more modern fashion; and even a gay +modern theatre, and an unfinished modern church; but these, instead +of being embellishments, look ill-favoured and mean, like patches of +new cloth on a rich old brocade. Age is here, but it does not suggest +the idea of dilapidation or decay, rather of something which has been +put under a glass-case, and preserved with care from all extraneous +influences. The buildings are so ancient, the fashions of society so +antiquated, the people so penetrated with veneration for themselves and +their city, that in the few days I spent there, I began to feel quite +old too—my mind was <i>wrinkled up</i>, as it were, with a reverence for +the past. I wondered that people condescended to talk of any event +more recent than the thirty years' war, and the defence of Gustavus +Adolphus;<a href="#note-21" name="noteref-21"><small> 21</small></a> and all names of modern date, even of greatest mark, were +forgotten in the fame of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Peter Vischer: +the trio of worthies, which, in the estimation or imagination of the +Nurembergers, still live with + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>[120]</span> + + the freshness of a yesterday's remembrance, +and leave no room for the heroes of to-day. My enthusiasm for Albert +Durer was all ready prepared, and warm as even the Nurembergers could +desire; but I confess, that of that renowned cobbler and meister-singer, +Hans Sachs, I knew little but what I had learnt from the pretty comedy +bearing his name, which I had seen at Manheim; and of the illustrious +Peter Vischer I could only remember that I had seen, in the academy at +Munich, certain casts from his figures, which had particularly struck +me. Yet to visit Nuremberg without some previous knowledge of these +luminaries of the middle ages, is to lose much of that pleasure of +association, without which the eye wearies of the singular, and the mind +becomes satiated with change. +</p> +<p> +Nuremberg was the gothic Athens: it was never the seat of government, +but as a free imperial city it was independent and self-governed, and +took the lead in arts and in literature. Here it was that clocks and +watches, maps and musical instruments, were manufactured for all +Germany; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>[121]</span> + + here, in that truly German spirit of pedantry and simplicity, +were music, painting, and poetry, at once honoured as sciences, and +cultivated as handicrafts, each having its guild, or corporation, +duly chartered, like the other trades of this flourishing city, and +requiring, by the institution of the magistracy, a regular apprenticeship. +It was here that, on the first discovery of printing, a literary barber +and meister-singer (Hans Foltz) set up a printing-press in his own +house; and it was but the natural consequence of all this industry, +mental activity, and social cultivation, that Nuremberg should have +been one of the first cities which declared for the Reformation. +</p> +<p> +But what is most curious and striking in this old city, is to see +it stationary, while time and change are working such miracles and +transformations every where else. The house where Martin Behaim, four +centuries ago, invented the sphere, and drew the first geographical +chart, is still the house of a map-seller. In the house where cards were +first manufactured, cards are now sold. In the very shops where clocks +and watches were + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>[122]</span> + + first seen, you may still buy clocks and watches. The +same families have inhabited the same mansions from one generation to +another for four or five centuries. The great manufactories of those +toys, commonly called Dutch toys, are at Nuremberg. I visited the +wholesale depot of Pestelmayer, and it is true that it would cut a poor +figure compared to some of our great Birmingham show-rooms; but the +enormous scale on which this commerce is conducted, the hundreds of +waggon-loads and ship-loads of these trifles and gimcracks, which find +their way to every part of the known world, even to America and China, +must interest a thinking mind. Nothing gave me a more comprehensive +idea of the value of the whole, than a complaint which I heard from a +Nuremberger, (and which, though seriously made, sounded not a little +ludicrous,) of the falling off in the trade of <i>pill-boxes</i>! he said +that since the fashionable people of London and Paris had taken to +paper pill-boxes, the millions of wooden or chip boxes which used to +be annually sent from Nuremberg to all parts of Europe were + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>[123]</span> + + no longer +required; and he computed the consequent falling off of the profits +at many thousand florins. +</p> +<p> +Nuremberg was rendered so agreeable to me by the kindness and hospitality +I met with, that instead of merely passing through it, I spent some days +wandering about its precincts; and as it is not very frequently visited +by the English, I shall note a few of the objects which have dwelt on +my memory, premising, that for the artist and the antiquary it affords +inexhaustible materials. +</p> +<p> +The whole city, which is very large, lies crowded and compact within its +walls; but the fortifications, once the wonder of all Germany, and their +three hundred and sixty-five towers, once the glory and safeguard of +the inhabitants, exist no longer. Four huge circular towers stand at the +principal gates,—four huge towers of almost dateless antiquity, and +blackened with age, but of such admirable construction, that the masonry +appears, from its entireness and smoothness, as if raised yesterday. The +old castle or fortress, which stands on a height commanding the town + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>[124]</span> + + and +a glorious view, is a strange, dismantled, incongruous heap of +buildings. It happened, that in the summer of 1833, the king of Bavaria, +accompanied by the queen and the princess Matilda, had paid his good +city of Nuremberg a visit, and had been most royally entertained by the +inhabitants. The apartments in the old castle, long abandoned to the +rats and spiders, had been prepared for the royal guests, and, when I +saw it, three or four months afterwards, nothing could be more uncouth +and fantastical than the effect of these irregular rooms, with all +manner of angles, with their carved worm-eaten ceilings, their curious +latticed and painted windows, and most preposterous stoves, now all +tricked out with fresh paint here and there, and hung with gay glazed +papers of the most modern fashion, and the most gaudy patterns. Even the +chapel, with its four old pillars, which, according to the legend, had +been brought by Old Nick himself from Rome, and the effigy of the monk +who had cheated his infernal adversary, by saying the Litanies faster +than had ever been known before or since, had, in + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>[125]</span> + + honour of the king's +visit, received a new coat of paint. There are some very curious old +pictures in the castle, (which luckily were not repainted for the same +grand occasion,) among them an original portrait of Albert Durer. In +the courtyard of the fortress stands an extraordinary relic—the old +lime-tree planted by the Empress Cunegunde, wife of the Emperor Henry +III.; every thing is done to preserve it from decay, and it still bears +its leafy honours, after beholding the revolution of seven centuries. +</p> +<p> +From the fortress we look down upon the house of Albert Durer, which +is preserved with religious care; it has been hired by a society of +artists, who use it as a club-room: his effigy in stone is over the +door. In every house there is a picture or print of him; or copies, +or engravings from his works, and his head hangs in every print shop. +The street in which he lived is called by his name; and the inhabitants +have moreover built a fountain to his honour, and planted trees around +it;—in short, Albert Durer is wherever we look—wherever we move. What +can Fuseli mean by saying that + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>[126]</span> + + Albert Durer "was a man of extreme +ingenuity without being a genius?" Does the man of mere ingenuity step +before his age as Albert Durer did, not as an artist only, but as a man +of science? Is not genius the creative power? and did not Albert Durer +possess this power in an extraordinary degree? Could Fuseli have seen +his four apostles, now in the gallery of Munich, when he said that +Albert Durer never had more than an occasional <i>glimpse</i> of the sublime? +</p> +<p> +Fuseli, as an <i>artist</i>, is an example of what I have seen in other +minds, otherwise directed. The stronger the faculties, the more of +original power in the mind, the less diffused is the sympathy, and the +more is the judgment swayed by the individual character. Thus Fuseli, in +his remarks on painters—excellent and eloquent as they are—scarcely +ever does justice to those who excel in colour. He perceives and admits +the excellence, but he shows in his criticisms, as in his pictures, +that the faculty was wanting to feel and appreciate it: his remarks on +Correggio and Rubens are a proof of this. In listening to the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>[127]</span> + + criticisms +of an author on literature—of a painter on pictures—and, generally, to +the opinion which one individual expresses of the character and actions +of another, it is wise to take into consideration the modification of +mind in the person who speaks, and how far it may, or <i>must</i>, influence, +even where it does not absolutely distort, the judgment; so many minds +are what the Germans call <i>one-sided</i>! The education, habits, mental +existence of the individual, are the refracting medium through which the +rays of truth pass to the mind, more or less bent or absorbed in their +passage. We should make philosophical allowance for different degrees +of density. +</p> +<p> +Hans Sachs,<a href="#note-22" name="noteref-22"><small> 22</small></a> the old poet of Nuremberg, did as much for the Reformation +by his songs and satires, as Luther and the doctors by their preaching; +besides being one of the worshipful company of meister-singers, he found +time to make shoes, and even enrich himself by his trade: he informs us +himself that he had composed and written with his own hand "four thousand +two hundred + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>[128]</span> + + mastership songs; two hundred and eight comedies, tragedies, +and farces; one thousand seven hundred fables, tales, and miscellaneous +poems; and seventy-three devotional, military, and love songs." It is +said he excelled in humour, but it was such as might have been expected +from the times—it was vigorous and coarse. "Hans," says the critic, +"tells his tale like a convivial burgher, fond of his can, and still +fonder of his drollery."<a href="#note-23" name="noteref-23"><small> 23</small></a> If this be the case, his house has received +a very appropriate designation: it is now an ale-house, from which, as I +looked up, the mixed odours of beer and tobacco, and the sound of voices +singing in chorus, streamed through the old latticed windows. "Drollery" +and "the can" were as rife in the dwelling of the immortal shoemaker as +they would have been in his own days, and in his own jovial presence. +</p> +<p> +In the church of St. Sibbald, now the chief Protestant church, I was +surprised to find that most of the Roman Catholic symbols and relics + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>[129]</span> + + remained undisturbed: the large crucifix, the old pictures of the saints +and Madonnas had been reverentially preserved. The perpetual light which +had been vowed four centuries ago by one of the Tucher family, was still +burning over his tomb; no puritanic zeal had quenched that tiny flame +in its chased silver lamp; and through successive generations, and all +revolutions of politics and religion, maintained and fed by the pious +honesty of the descendants, it still shone on, +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Like the bright lamp that lay in Kildare's holy fane, </p> +<p class="i2"> And burned through long ages of darkness and storm! </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +In this Protestant church, even the shrine of St. Sibbald has kept its +place, if not to the honour and glory of the saint, at least to the +honour and glory of the city of Nuremberg; it is considered as the +<i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of Peter Vischer, a famous sculptor and caster in +bronze, cotemporary with Albert Durer. It was begun in 1506, and +finished in 1519, and is adorned with ninety-six figures, among which +the twelve apostles, all varying in character and attitude, are really +miracles of grace, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>[130]</span> + + power, and expression; the base of the shrine rests +upon six gigantic snails, and the whole is cast in bronze, and finished +with exquisite skill and fancy. At one end of this extraordinary +composition the artificer has placed his own figure, not obtrusively, +but retired, in a sort of niche; he is represented in his working dress, +with his cap, leather apron, and tools in his hand. According to +tradition, he was paid for his work by the pound weight, twenty gulden +(or florins) for every hundred weight of metal; and the whole weighs one +hundred and twenty centners, or hundred weight. +</p> +<p> +The man who showed us this shrine was descended from Peter Vischer, +lived in the same house which he and his sons had formerly inhabited, +and carried on the same trade, that of a smith and brass-founder. +</p> +<p> +The Moritz-Kapel, near the church, is an old gothic chapel once +dedicated to St. Maurice, now converted into a public gallery of +pictures of the old German school. The collection is exceedingly +curious; there are about one hundred and forty pictures, and besides +specimens of Mabuse, Albert + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>[131]</span> + + Durer, Van Eyck, Martin Schoen, Lucas +Kranach, and the two Holbeins, I remember some portraits by a certain +Hans Grimmer, which impressed me by their truth and fine painting. It +appears from this collection that for some time after Albert Durer, the +German painters continued to paint on a gold ground. Kulmbach, whose +heads are quite marvellous for finish and expression, generally did so. +This gallery owes its existence to the present king, and has been well +arranged by the architect Heideldoff and professor von Dillis of Munich. +</p> +<p> +In the market-place of Nuremberg stands the Schönebrunnen, that is, +the beautiful fountain; it bears the date 1355, and in style resembles +the crosses which Edward I. erected to Queen Eleanor, but is of more +elaborate beauty; it is covered with gothic figures, carved by one of +the most ancient of the German sculptors, Schonholfer, who modestly +styles himself a stone-cutter. Here we see, placed amicably close, +Julius Cæsar, Godfrey of Boulogne, Judas Maccabæus, Alexander the Great, +Hector of Troy, Charlemagne, and king + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>[132]</span> + + David: all old acquaintances, +certainly, but whom we might have supposed that nothing but the day of +judgment could ever have assembled together in company. +</p> +<p> +Talking of the day of judgment reminds me of the extraordinary cemetery +of Nuremberg, certainly as unlike every other cemetery, as Nuremberg is +unlike every other city. Imagine upon a rising ground, an open space +of about four acres, completely covered with enormous slabs, or rather +blocks of solid stone, about a foot and a half in thickness, seven feet +in length, and four in breadth, laid horizontally, and just allowing +space for a single person to move between them. The name, and the +armorial bearings of the dead, cast in bronze, and sometimes rich +sculpture, decorate these tombs: I remember one, to the memory of a +beautiful girl, who was killed as she lay asleep in her father's garden +by a lizard creeping into her mouth. The story is represented in bronze +bas-relief, and the lizard is so constructed as to move when touched. +From this I shrunk with disgust, and turned to the sepulchre of a famous + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>[133]</span> + + worthy, who measured the distance from Nuremberg to the holy sepulchre +with his garter: the implement of his pious enterprise, twisted into a +sort of true-love knot, is carved on his tomb. Two days afterwards I +entered the dominions of a reigning monarch, who is at this present +moment performing a journey to Jerusalem round the walls of his room.<a href="#note-24" name="noteref-24"><small> 24</small></a> +How long-lived are the follies of mankind! Have, then, five centuries +made so little difference? +</p> +<p> +The tombs of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Sandraart, were pointed out +to me, resembling the rest in size and form. I was assured that these +huge sepulchral stones exceed three thousand in number, and the whole +aspect of this singular burial-place is, in truth, beyond measure +striking—I could almost add, appalling. +</p> +<p> +I was not a little surprised and interested to find that the principal +Gazette of Nuremberg, which has a wide circulation through all this part +of Germany, extending even to Frankfort, Munich, Dresden, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>[134]</span> + + and Leipsig, +is entirely in female hands. Madame de Schaden is the proprietor, and +the responsible editor of the paper; she has the printing apparatus +and offices under her own roof, and though advanced in years, conducts +the whole concern with a degree of activity, spirit, and talent, which +delighted me. The circulation of this paper amounts to about four +thousand: a trifling number compared to our papers, but a large number +in this economical country, where the same paper is generally read by +fifty or sixty persons at least. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +All travellers agree that benevolence and integrity are the national +characteristics of the Germans. Of their honesty I had daily proofs: +I do not consider that I was ever imposed upon or overcharged during my +journey, except once, and then it was by a Frenchman. Their benevolence +is displayed in the treatment of animals, particularly of their horses. +It was somewhere between Nuremberg and Hof, that, for the first and +only time, I saw a postilion flog his horse unmercifully, or at least +unreasonably. The Germans very seldom + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>[135]</span> + + beat their horses: they talk to +them, remonstrate, encourage, or upbraid them. I have frequently known +a voiturier, or a postilion, go a whole stage—which is seldom less +than fifteen English miles—at a very fair pace, without once even +raising the whip; and have often witnessed, not without amusement, long +conversations between a driver and his steed—the man, with his arm +thrown over the animal's neck, discoursing in a strange jargon, and the +intelligent brute turning his eye on his master with such a responsive +expression! In this part of Germany there is a popular verse repeated by +the postilions, which may be called the German <i>rule of the road</i>. It is +the horse who speaks— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Berg auf, ubertrieb mich nicht; </p> +<p class="i2"> Berg ab, ubereil mich nicht; </p> +<p class="i2"> Auf ebenen Weg, vershöne mich nicht; </p> +<p class="i2"> Im Stahl, vergiss mich nicht. </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="continued"> +which is, literally, +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Up hill, overdrive me not; </p> +<p class="i2"> Down hill, hurry me not; </p> +<p class="i2"> On level ground, spare me not; </p> +<p class="i2"> In the stable, forget me not. </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>[136]</span></p> + +<p> +The German postilions form a very numerous and distinct class; they wear +a half-military costume—a laced or embroidered jacket, across which +is invariably slung the bugle-horn, with its parti-coloured cord and +tassels: huge jack-boots, and a smart glazed hat, not unfrequently +surmounted with a feather (as in Hesse Cassel and Saxe Weimer) complete +their appearance. They are in the direct service and pay of the +government; they must have an excellent character for fidelity and good +conduct before they are engaged, and the slightest failing in duty +or punctuality, subjects them to severe punishment; thus they enjoy +some degree of respectability as a body, and Marschner thought it not +unworthy of his talents to compose a fine piece of music, which he +called The Postilion's "Morgen-lied," or morning song. I found them +generally a good-humoured, honest set of men; obliging, but not servile +or cringing; they are not allowed to smoke without the express leave +of the traveller, nor to stop or delay on the road on any pretence +whatever. In short, though the burley German postilions do not present +the neat compact turn-out of an English post-boy, nor + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>[137]</span> + + the horses any +thing like the speed of "Newman's greys," or the Brighton Age, and +though the traveller must now and then submit to arbitrary laws and +individual inconvenience; still the travelling regulations all over +Germany, more especially in Prussia, are so precise, so admirable, +and so strictly enforced, that no where could an unprotected female +journey with more complete comfort and security. This I have proved by +experience, after having tried every different mode of conveyance in +Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Saxony, and Hesse. My road expenses, for myself +and an attendant, seldom exceeded a Napoleon a-day. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>[138]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0006" id="h2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + III. +</h2> +<h3> + MEMORANDA AT DRESDEN.<a href="#note-25" name="noteref-25"><small> 25</small></a> +</h3> + +<p> +Beautiful, stately Dresden! if not the queen, the fine lady of the +German cities! Surrounded with what is most enchanting in nature, and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>[139]</span> + + adorned with what is most enchanting in art, she sits by the Elbe like +a fair one in romance, wreathing her towery diadem—so often scathed by +war—with the vine and the myrtle, and looking on her own beauty imaged +in the river flood, which, after rolling an impetuous torrent through +the mountain gorges, here seems to pause and spread itself into a lucid +mirror to catch the reflection of her airy magnificence. No doubt misery +and evil dwell in Dresden, as in all the congregated societies of men, +but no where are they less obtrusive. The city has all + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>[140]</span> + + the advantages, +and none of the disadvantages, of a capital; the treasures of art +accumulated here, the mild government, the delightful climate, the +beauty of the environs, and the cheerfulness and simplicity of social +intercourse, have rendered it a favourite residence for artists and +literary characters, and to foreigners one of the most captivating +places in the world. How often have I stood in the open space in front +of the gorgeous Italian church, or on the summit of the flight of steps +leading to the public walk, gazing upon the noble bridge which bestrides +the majestic Elbe, and connects the new and the old town; or, pursuing +with enchanted eye the winding course of the river to the foot of those +undulating purple hills, covered with villas and vineyards, till a +feeling of quiet grateful enjoyment has stolen over me, like that which +Wordsworth describes:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, </p> +<p class="i2"> And passing even into my purer mind </p> +<p class="i2"> With tranquil restoration. </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +But it is not only the natural beauties of the scene which strike a +stranger; the city itself has this + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>[141]</span> + + peculiarity in common with Florence, +to which it has been so often compared, that instead of being an +accident in the landscape—a dim, smoky, care-haunted spot upon the +all-lovely face of nature—a discord in the soothing harmony of that +quiet enchanting scene which steals like music over the fancy;—it is +rather a charm the more—an ornament—a crowning splendour—a fulfilling +and completing chord. Its unrivalled elegance and neatness, a general +air of cheerfulness combined with a certain dignity and tranquillity, +the purity and elasticity of the atmosphere, the brilliant shops, the +well-dressed women, and the lively looks and good-humoured alertness +of the people, who, like the Florentines, are more remarkable for +their tact and acuteness than for their personal attractions;—all +these advantages render Dresden, though certainly one of the smallest, +and by no means one of the richest capitals in Europe, one of the +most delightful residences on the continent. I am struck, too, by the +silver-toned voices of the women, and the courtesy and vivacity of the +men; for in Bavaria the intonation is broad and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>[142]</span> + + harsh, and the people, +though frank, and honest, and good-natured, are rather slow, and not +particularly polished in their demeanour. +</p> +<p> +It is the general aspect of Dresden which charms us: it is not +distinguished by any vast or striking architectural decorations, if we +except the Italian church, which, with all its thousand faults of style, +pleases from its beautiful situation and its exceeding richness. This +is the only Roman Catholic church in Dresden: for it is curious enough, +that while the national religion, or, if I may so use the word, the +state religion, is Protestant—the court religion is Catholic; the royal +family having been for several generations of that persuasion;<a href="#note-26" name="noteref-26"><small> 26</small></a> but +this has caused neither intolerance on the one hand, nor jealousy on the +other. The Saxons, the first who hailed and embraced the doctrines of +Luther, seem quite content to allow their anointed king to go to heaven +his own way; and though the priests who surround him are, of course, +mindful to keep up their own + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>[143]</span> + + influence, there is no spirit of proselytism; +and I believe the most perfect equality with regard to religious matters +prevails here. The Catholic church is almost always half full of +Protestants, attracted by the delicious music, for all the corps d'opera +sing in the choir. High mass begins about the time that the sermon is +over in the other churches, and you see the Protestants hurrying from +their own service, crowding in at the portals of the Catholic church, +and taking their places, the men on one side and the women on the other, +with looks of infinite gravity and devotion: the king being always +present, it would here be a breach of etiquette to behave as I have +often seen the English behave in the Catholic churches—precisely as +if in a theatre. But if the good old monarch imagines that his heretic +subjects are to be converted by Cesi's<a href="#note-27" name="noteref-27"><small> 27</small></a> divine voice, he is +wonderfully mistaken. +</p> +<p> +The people of Dresden have always been distinguished by their love of +music; I was therefore rather surprised to find here a little paltry +theatre, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>[144]</span> + + ugly without, and mean within; a new edifice has been for some +time in contemplation, therefore to decorate or repair the old one may +seem superfluous. That it is not nearly large enough for the place is +its worst fault. I have never been in it that it was not crowded to +suffocation. At this time Bellini's opera, <i>I Capelletti</i>, is the rage +at Dresden, or rather Madame Devrient's impersonation of the Romeo, has +completely turned all heads and melted all hearts—that are fusible. The +Capelletti is only the last of the thousand-and-one versions of Romeo +and Juliet, and though the last, not the best of Bellini's operas; and +Devrient is not generally heard to the greatest advantage in the modern +Italian music; but her <i>conception</i> of the part of Romeo is new and +belongs to herself; like a woman of feeling and genius she has put +her stamp upon it: it is quite distinct from the same character as +represented by Pasta and Malibran—<i>character</i> perhaps I should not say, +for in the lyrical drama there is properly no room for any such gradual +development of individual sentiments and motives; a powerful + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>[145]</span> + + and graceful +sketch, of which the outline is filled up by music, is all that the +artist is required to give; and within this boundary a more beautiful +delineation of youthful fervid passion I never beheld: if Devrient must +yield to Pasta in grandeur, and to Malibran in versatility of power and +liquid flexibility of voice, she yields to neither in pathos, to neither +in delicious modulation, to neither in passion, power, and originality, +though in her, in a still greater degree, the talent of the artist is +modified by individual temperament. Like other gifted women, who are +blessed or cursed with a most excitable nervous system, Devrient is a +good deal under the influence of moods of feeling and temper, and in +the performance of her favourite parts, (as this of Romeo, the Armida, +Emmeline in the Sweitzer Familie,) is subject to inequalities, which are +not caprices, but arise from an exuberance of soul and power, and only +render her performance more interesting. Every night that I have seen +her since my arrival here, even in parts which are + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>[146]</span> + + unworthy of her, as +in the "Eagle's Nest,"<a href="#note-28" name="noteref-28"><small> 28</small></a> has increased my estimate of her talents; +and last night, when I saw her for the third time in the Romeo, she +certainly surpassed herself. The duet with Juliet, (Madlle. Schneider,) +at the end of the first act, threw the whole audience into a tumult of +admiration; they invariably encore this touching and impassioned scene, +which is really a positive cruelty, besides being a piece of stupidity; +for though it <i>may</i> be as well sung the second time, it <i>must</i> suffer in +effect from the repetition. The music, though very pretty, is in itself +nothing, without the situation and sentiment; and after the senses and +imagination have been wound up to the most thrilling excitement by tones +of melting affection and despair, and Romeo and Juliet have been finally +torn asunder by a flinty-hearted stick of a father, with a black + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>[147]</span> + + cloak +and a bass voice—<i>selon les regles</i>—it is ridiculous to see them come +back from opposite sides of the stage, bow to the audience, and then, +throwing themselves into each other's arms, pour out the same passionate +strains of love and sorrow. As to Devrient's acting in the last scene, +I think even Pasta's Romeo would have seemed colourless beside hers; +and this arises perhaps from the character of the music, from the very +different style in which Zingarelli and Bellini have treated their +last scene. The former has made Romeo tender and plaintive, and Pasta +accordingly subdued her conception to this tone; but Bellini has thrown +into the same scene more animation, and more various effect.<a href="#note-29" name="noteref-29"><small> 29</small></a> Devrient, +thus enabled to colour more highly, has gone beyond the composer. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>[148]</span> + + There was a flush of poetry and passion, a heartbreaking struggle +of love and life against an overwhelming destiny, which thrilled me. +Never did I hear any one sing so completely from her own soul as this +astonishing creature. In certain tones and passages her voice issued +from the depths of her bosom as if steeped in tears; and her countenance, +when she hears Juliet sigh from the tomb, was such a sudden and divine +gleam of expression as I have never seen on any face but Fanny Kemble's. +I was not surprised to learn that Madame Devrient is generally ill after +her performance, and unable to sing in this part more than once or twice +a week. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Tieck is the literary Colossus of Dresden; perhaps I should say of +Germany. There are those who dispute his infallibility as a critic; +there are those who will not walk under the banners of his philosophy; +but since the death of Goethe, I believe Ludwig Tieck holds undisputed +the first rank as an original poet, and powerful writer, and has +succeeded, by right divine, to the vacant throne of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>[149]</span> + + genius. His house +in the Altmarkt, (the tall red house at the south-east corner,) +henceforth consecrated by that power which can "hallow in the core of +human hearts even the ruin of a wall,"<a href="#note-30" name="noteref-30"><small> 30</small></a> is the resort of all the +enlightened strangers who flock to Dresden: even those who know nothing +of Tieck but his name, deem an introduction to him as indispensable +as a visit to the Madonna del Sisto. To the English, he is particularly +interesting: his knowledge of our language and literature, and especially +of our older writers, is profound. Endued with an imagination which +luxuriates in the world of marvels, which "dwells delightedly midst fays +and talismans," and embraces in its range of power what is highest, +deepest, most subtle, most practical—gifted with a creative spirit, for +ever moving and working within the illimitable universe of fancy, Tieck +is yet one of the most poignant satirists and profound critics of the +age. He has for the last twenty years devoted his time and talents, in +conjunction with Schlegel, to the study, translation, and illustration +of Shakspeare. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>[150]</span> + + The combination of these two minds has done perhaps what +no single mind could have effected in developing, elucidating, and +clothing in a new language the creations of that mighty and inspired +being. +</p> +<p> +It is to be hoped that some translator will rise up among us to do +justice in return to Tieck. No one tells a fairy tale like him: the +earnest simplicity of style and manner is so exquisite that he always +gives the idea of one whose hair was on end at his own wonders, who was +entangled by the spell of his own enchantments. A few of these lighter +productions (his Volksmärchen, or popular Tales) have been rendered into +our language; but those of his works which have given him the highest +estimation among his own countrymen still remain a sealed fountain to +English readers.<a href="#note-31" name="noteref-31"><small> 31</small></a> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>[151]</span></p> + +<p> +It was with some trepidation I found myself in the presence of this +extraordinary man. Notwithstanding his profound knowledge of our +language, he rarely speaks English, and, like Alfieri, he <i>will not</i> +speak French. I addressed him in English, and he spoke to me in German. +The conversation in my first visit fell very naturally upon Shakspeare, +for I had been looking over his admirable new translation of Macbeth, +which he had just completed. Macbeth led us to the English theatre and +English acting—to Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles, and the actual +character and state of our stage. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>[152]</span></p> + +<p> +While he spoke I could not help looking at his head, which is +wonderfully fine; the noble breadth and amplitude of his brow, and his +quiet, but penetrating eye, with an expression of latent humour hovering +round his lips, formed altogether a striking physiognomy. The numerous +prints and portraits of Tieck which are scattered over Germany are very +defective as resemblances. They have a heavy look; they give the weight +and power of his head, but nothing of the <i>finesse</i> which lurks in +the lower part of his face. His manner is courteous, and his voice +particularly sweet and winning. He is apparently fond of the society of +women; or the women are fond of his society, for in the evening his room +is generally crowded with fair worshippers. Yet Tieck, like Goethe, is +accused of entertaining some unworthy sentiments with regard to the sex; +and is also said, like Goethe, not to have upheld us in his writings, +as the true philosopher, to say nothing of the true poet, ought to have +done. It is a fact upon which I shall take an opportunity of enlarging, +that almost all the greatest men who have lived in the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>[153]</span> + + world, whether +poets, philosophers, artists, or statesmen, have derived their mental +and physical organization, more from the mother's than the father's +side; and the same is true, unhappily, of those who have been in an +extraordinary degree perverted. And does not this lead us to some awful +considerations on the importance of the moral and physical well-being +of women, and their present condition in society, as a branch of +legislation and politics, which must ere long be modified? Let our lords +and masters reflect, that if an extensive influence for good or for evil +be not denied to us, an influence commencing not only with, but before +the birth of their children, it is time that the manifold mischiefs +and miseries lurking in the bosom of society, and of which woman is at +once the wretched instrument and more wretched victim, be looked to. +Sometimes I am induced to think that Tieck is misinterpreted or libelled +by those who pretend to take the tone from his writings and opinions: it +is evident that he delights in being surrounded by a crowd of admiring +women, therefore he must in his heart honour and reverence us as being + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>[154]</span> + + morally equal with man,—for who could suspect the great Tieck of that +paltry coxcombry which can be gratified by the adulation of inferior +beings? +</p> +<p> +Tieck's extraordinary talent for reading aloud is much and deservedly +celebrated: he gives dramatic readings two or three times a week +when his health and his avocations allow this exertion; the company +assemble at six, and it is advisable to be punctual to the moment; soon +afterwards tea is served: he begins to read at seven precisely, when the +doors are closed against all intrusion whatever, and he reads through a +whole play without pause, rest, omission, or interruption. Thus I heard +him read Julius Cæsar and the Midsummer Night's Dream, (in the German +translation by himself and Schlegel,) and except Mrs. Siddons, I never +heard any thing comparable as dramatic reading. His voice is rich, and +capable of great variety of modulation. I observed that the humorous and +declamatory passages were rather better than the pathetic and tender +passages: he was quite at home among the elves and clowns in + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>[155]</span> + + the Midsummer +Night's Dream, of which he gave the fantastic and comic parts with +indescribable humour and effect. As to the translation, I could only +judge of its marvellous fidelity, which enabled me to follow him, word +for word,—but the Germans themselves are equally enchanted by its +vigour, and elegance, and poetical colouring. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The far-famed gallery of Dresden is, of course, the first and grand +attraction to a stranger. +</p> +<p> +The regulation of this gallery, and the difficulty of obtaining +admission, struck me at first as rather inhospitable and ill-natured. +In the summer months it is open to the public two days in the week; but +during the winter months, from September to March, it is closed. In +order to obtain admittance, during this <i>recess</i>, you must pay three +dollars to one of the principal keepers on duty, and a gratuity to the +porter,—in all about half-a-guinea. Having once paid this sum, you are +free to enter whenever the gallery has been opened for another party. +The ceremony is, to send the laquais-de-place at nine in the morning to +inquire + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>[156]</span> + + whether the gallery will be open in the course of the day; if +the answer be in the affirmative, it is advisable to make your appearance +as early as possible, and I believe you may stay as long as you please; +(at least <i>I</i> did;) nothing more is afterwards demanded, though something +may perhaps be expected—if you are a <i>very</i> frequent visitor. All this +is rather ungracious. It is true that the gallery is not a national, but +a royal gallery,—that it was founded and enriched by princes for their +private recreation; that Augustus III. purchased the Modena gallery for +his kingly pleasure; that from the original construction of the building +it is impossible to heat it with stoves, without incurring some risk, +and that to oblige the poor professors and attendants to linger benumbed +and shivering in the gallery from morning to night is cruel. In fact, it +would be difficult to give an idea of the deadly cold which prevails in +the inner gallery, where the beams of the sun scarcely ever penetrate. +And it may happen that only a chance visitor, or one or two strangers, +may ask admittance in the course of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>[157]</span> + + day. But poor as Saxony now +is,—drained, and exhausted, and maimed by successive wars, and trampled +by successive conquerors, this glorious gallery, which Frederic spared, +and Napoleon left inviolate, remains the chief attraction to strangers; +and it may be doubted whether there is good policy in making admittance +to its treasures a matter of difficulty, vexation, and expense. There +would be little fear, if all strangers were as obstinate and enthusiastic +as myself,—for, to confess the truth, I know not what obstacle, or +difficulty, or inconvenience, could have kept me out; if all legal avenues +had been hermetically sealed, I would have prayed, bribed, persevered, +till I had attained my purpose, and after travelling three hundred +miles to achieve an object, what are a few dollars? But still it <i>is</i> +ungracious, and methinks, in this courteous and liberal capital these +regulations ought to be reformed or modified. +</p> +<p> +On entering the gallery for the first time, I walked straight forward, +without pausing, or turning to the right or the left, into the +Raffaelle-room, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>[158]</span> + + and looked round for the Madonna del Sisto,—literally +with a kind of misgiving. Familiar as the form might be to the eye and +the fancy, from numerous copies and prints, still the unknown original +held a sanctuary in my imagination, like the mystic Isis behind her +veil: and it seemed that whatever I beheld of lovely, or perfect, +or soul-speaking in art, had an unrevealed rival in my imagination: +something was beyond—there was a criterion of possible excellence as +yet only conjectured—for I had not seen the Madonna del Sisto. Now, +when I was about to lift my eyes to it, I literally hesitated—I drew a +long sigh, as if resigning myself to disappointment, and looked——Yes! +there she was indeed! that divinest image that ever shaped itself in +palpable hues and forms to the living eye! What a revelation of ineffable +grace, and purity, and truth, and goodness! There is no use attempting +to say any thing about it; too much has already been said and written—and +what are words? After gazing on it again and again, day after day, I feel +that to attempt to describe the impression + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>[159]</span> + + is like measuring the infinite, +and sounding the unfathomable. When I looked up at it today it gave me +the idea, or rather the feeling, of a vision descending and floating +down upon me. The head of the virgin is quite superhuman: to say that +it is beautiful, gives no idea of it. Some of Correggio's and Guido's +virgins—the virgin of Murillo at the Leuchtenberg palace—have more +beauty, in the common meaning of the word; but every other female face, +however lovely, however majestic, would, I am convinced, appear either +trite or exaggerated, if brought into immediate comparison with this +divine countenance. There is such a blessed calm in every feature! and +the eyes, beaming with a kind of internal light, look straight out +of the picture—not at you or me—not at any thing belonging to this +world,—but through and through the universe. The unearthly Child is a +sublime vision of power and grandeur, and seems not so much supported as +enthroned in her arms, and what fitter throne for the Divinity than a +woman's bosom full of innocence and love? The expression in the face of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>[160]</span> + + St. Barbara, who looks down, has been differently interpreted: to me she +seems to be giving a last look at the earth, above which the group is +raised as on a hovering cloud. St. Sixtus is evidently pleading in all +the combined fervour of faith, hope, and charity, for the congregation +of sinners, who are supposed to be kneeling before the picture—that is, +for <i>us</i>—to whom he points. Finally, the cherubs below, with their +upward look of rapture and wonder, blending the most childish innocence +with a sublime inspiration, complete the harmonious whole, uniting +heaven with earth. +</p> +<p> +While I stood in contemplation of this all-perfect work, I felt the +impression of its loveliness in my deepest heart, not only without the +power, but without the thought or wish to give it voice or words, till +some lines of Shelley's—lines which were not, but, methinks, ought to +have been, inspired by the Madonna—came, uncalled, floating through my +memory— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Seraph of Heaven! too gentle to be human, </p> +<p class="i2"> Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman </p> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>[161]</span> + + All that is insupportable in thee, </p> +<p class="i2"> Of light, and love, and immortality! </p> +<p class="i2"> Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse! </p> +<p class="i2"> Veil'd Glory of this lampless universe! </p> +<p class="i2"> Thou Harmony of Nature's art! </p> +<p class="i22"> I measure </p> +<p class="i2"> The world of fancies, seeking one like thee, </p> +<p class="i2"> And find—alas! mine own infirmity!<a href="#note-32" name="noteref-32"><small> 32</small></a> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +On the first morning I spent in the gallery, a most benevolent-looking +old gentleman came up to me, and half lifting his velvet cap from his +grey hairs, courteously saluted me by name. I replied, without knowing +at the moment to whom I spoke. It was Böttigar, the most formidable—no, +not <i>formidable</i>—but the most erudite scholar, critic, antiquarian, +in Germany. Böttigar, I do believe, has read every book that ever was +written; knows every thing that ever was known; and is acquainted with +every body, who is <i>any body</i>, in the four quarters of the world. He +is not the author of any large work, but his writings, in a variety of +form, on art, ancient and modern,—on + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>[162]</span> + + literature, on the classics, +on the stage, are known over all Germany; and in his best days few +have exercised so wide an influence over opinion and literature. It is +<i>said</i>, that in his latter years his criticism has been too vague, his +praise too indiscriminate, to be trusted; but I know not why this should +excite indignation, though it may produce mistrust; in Böttigar's +conformation, benevolence must always have been prominent, and in the +decline of his life—for he is now seventy-eight—this natural courtesy +combining with a good deal of vanity and imagination, would necessarily +produce the result of extreme mildness,—a disposition to see, or try to +see, all <i>en beau</i>. The happier for him, and the pleasanter for others. +We were standing together in the room with the Madonna, but I did not +allude to it, nor attempt to express by a word the impression it had +made on me; but he seemed to understand my silence; he afterwards told +me that it is ascertained that Raffaelle employed only three months in +executing this picture: it was thrown upon his canvas in a glow of +inspiration, and is painted very lightly and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>[163]</span> + + thinly. When Palmeroli, +the Italian restorer, was brought here at an expense of more than three +thousand ducats, he ventured to clean and retouch the background and +accessories, but dared not touch the figures of the Virgin and the +Child, which retain their sombre tint. This has perhaps destroyed the +harmony of the general effect, but if the man mistrusted himself he was +right: in such a case, however, he had better have let the background +alone. In taking down the picture for the purpose of cleaning, it was +discovered that a part of the original canvas, about a quarter of a +yard, was turned back in order to make it fit the frame. Every one must +have observed, that in Müller's engraving, and all the known copies of +this Madonna, the head is too near the top of the picture, so as to mar +the just proportion. This is now amended: the veil, or curtain, which +appears to have been just drawn aside to disclose the celestial vision, +does not now reach the boundary of the picture, as heretofore; the +original effect is restored, and it is infinitely better. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>[164]</span></p> + +<p> +As if to produce a surfeit of excellence, the five Correggios hang +together in the same room with the Raffaelle.<a href="#note-33" name="noteref-33"><small> 33</small></a> They are the Madonna +di San Georgio; the Madonna di San Francisco; the Madonna di Santo +Sebastiano; the famous Nativity, called La Notte; and the small Magdalene +reading, of which there exist an incalculable number of copies and +prints. I know not that any thing can be added to what has been said a +hundred times over of these wondrous pieces of poetry. Their excellence +and value, as unequalled productions of art, may not perhaps be understood +by all,—the poetical charm, the something more than meets the eye, is +not perhaps equally felt by all,—but the sentiment is intelligible to +every mind, and goes at once to every heart; the most uneducated + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>[165]</span> + + eye, the +merest tyro in art, gazes with delight on the Notte; and the Magdalene +reading has given perhaps more pleasure than any known picture,—it is +so quiet, so simple, so touching, in its heavenly beauty! Those who may +not perfectly understand what artists mean when they dwell with rapture +on Correggio's wonderful chiaro-scuro, should look close into this +little picture, which hangs at a convenient height: they will perceive +that they can look through the shadows into the substance,—as it might +be, into the flesh and blood;—the shadows seem accidental—as if +between the eye and the colours, and not incorporated with them; in this +lies the inimitable excellence of this master. +</p> +<p> +The Magdalene was once surrounded by a rich frame of silver gilt, +chased, and adorned with gems, turquoises, and pearls: but some years +ago a thief found means to enter at the window, and carried off the +picture for the sake of the frame. A reward of two hundred ducats and a +pardon were offered for the picture only, and in a fortnight afterwards +it was happily restored to the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>[166]</span> + + gallery uninjured; but I did not hear that +the frame and jewels were ever recovered. +</p> +<p> +Of Correggio's larger pictures, I think the Madonna di San Georgio +pleased me most. The Virgin is seated on a throne, holding the sacred +Infant, who extends his arms and smiles out upon the world he has come +to save. On the right stands St. George, his foot on the dragon's head; +behind him St. Peter Martyr; on the left, St. Geminiano and St. John the +Baptist. In the front of the picture two heavenly boys are playing with +the sword and helmet of St. George, which he has apparently cast down +at the foot of the throne. All in this picture is grand and sublime, +in the feeling, the forms, the colouring, the expression. But what, +says a wiseacre of a critic, rubbing up his school chronology, what have +St. Francis, and St. George, and St. John the Baptist, to do in the same +picture with the Virgin Mary? Did not St. George live nine hundred years +after St. John? and St. Francis five hundred years after St. George? and +so on. Yet this is properly no anachronism—no violation of the +proprieties + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>[167]</span> + + of action, place, or time. These and similar pictures, +as the St. Jerome at Parma, and Raffaelle's Madonna, are not to be +considered as historical paintings, but as grand pieces of lyrical and +sacred poetry. In this particular picture, which was an altarpiece in the +church of Our Lady at Parma, we have in St. George the representation +of religious magnanimity; in St. John, religious enthusiasm; in St. +Geminiani, religious munificence; in St. Peter Martyr, religious +fortitude; and these are grouped round the most lovely impersonation +of innocence, chastity, and heavenly love. Such, as it appears to me, +is the true intention and signification of this and similar pictures. +</p> +<p> +But in the "Notte" (the Nativity) the case is different. It is properly +an historical picture; and if Correggio had placed St. George, or St. +Francis, or the Magdalene, as spectators, we might then exclaim at the +absurdity of the anachronism; but here Correggio has converted the +literal representation of a circumstance in sacred history into a divine +piece of poetry, when he gave us that emanation of supernatural light, +streaming from + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>[168]</span> + + the form of the celestial Child, and illuminating the +extatic face of the virgin mother, who bends over her infant undazzled; +while another female draws back, veiling her eyes with her hand, as if +unable to endure the radiance. Far off, through the gloom of night, we +see the morning just breaking along the eastern horizon—emblem of the +"day-spring from on high." +</p> +<p> +This is precisely one of those pictures of which no copy or engraving +could convey any adequate idea; the sentiment of maternity (in which +Correggio excelled) is so exquisitely tender, and the colouring so +inconceivably transparent and delicate. +</p> +<p> +I suppose it is a sort of treason to say that in the Madonna di San +Francisco, the face of the virgin is tinctured with affectation; but +such was and <i>is</i> my impression. +</p> +<p> +If I were to plan a new Dresden gallery, the Madonna del Sisto and the +"Notte" should each have a sanctuary apart, and be lighted from above; +at present they are ill-placed for effect. +</p> +<p> +When I could move from the Raffaelle room, I took advantage of the +presence and attendance + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>[169]</span> + + of Professor Matthaï, (who is himself a painter +of eminence here,) and went through a regular course of the Italian +schools of painting, beginning with Giotto. The collection is extremely +rich in the early Ferarese and Venetian painters, and it was most +interesting thus to trace the gradual improvement and development of the +school of colourists through Squarcione, Mantegna, the Bellini, Giorgione, +Paris Bordone, Palma, and Titian; until richness became exuberance, and +power verged upon excess in Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. +</p> +<p> +Certainly, I feel no inclination to turn my notebook into a catalogue; +but I must mention Titian's Christo della Moneta:—such a head!—so pure +from any trace of passion!—so refined, so intellectual, so benevolent! +The only head of Christ I ever entirely approved. +</p> +<p> +Here they have Giorgione's master-piece—the meeting of Rachel and +Jacob; and the three daughters of Palma, half-lengths, in the same +picture. The centre one, Violante, is a most lovely head. +</p> +<p> +There is here an extraordinary picture by Titian, representing Lucrezia +Borgia, presented by + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>[170]</span> + + her husband to the Madonna. The portraits are the +size of life, half-lengths. I looked in vain in the countenance of +Lucrezia for some trace, some testimony of the crimes imputed to her; +but she is a fair, golden-haired, gentle-looking creature, with a feeble +and vapid expression. The head of her husband, Alphonso, is fine and +full of power. There are, I suppose, not less than fourteen or fifteen +pictures by Titian. +</p> +<p> +The Concina family, by Paul Veronese, esteemed his finest production, +is in the Dresden gallery, with ten others of the same master. Of Guido, +there are ten pictures, particularly that extraordinary one, <i>called</i> +Ninus and Semiramis, life size. Of the Carracci, at least eight or nine, +particularly the genius of Fame, which should be compared with that of +Guido. There are numerous pictures of Albano and Ribera; but very few +specimens of Salvator Rosa and Domenichino. +</p> +<p> +On the whole, I suppose that no gallery, except that of Florence, can +compete with the Dresden gallery in the treasures of Italian art. In +all, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>[171]</span> + + there are five hundred and thirty-four Italian pictures. +</p> +<p> +I pass over the Flemish, Dutch, and French pictures, which fill the +outer gallery: these exceed the Italian school in number, and many of +them are of surpassing merit and value, but, having just come from +Munich, where the eye and fancy are both satiated with this class of +pictures, I gave my attention principally to the Italian masters. +</p> +<p> +There is one room here entirely filled with the crayon paintings of +Rosalba, including a few by Liotard. Among them is a very interesting +head of Metastasio, painted when he was young. He has fair hair and blue +eyes, with small features, and an expression of mingled sensibility and +acuteness: no power. +</p> +<p> +Rosalba Carriera, perhaps the finest crayon painter who ever existed, +was a Venetian, born at Chiozza in 1675. She was an admirable creature +in every respect, possessing many accomplishments, besides the beautiful +art in which she excelled. Several anecdotes are preserved which prove +the sweetness of her disposition, and the clear + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>[172]</span> + + simplicity of her mind. +Spence, who knew her personally, calls her "the most modest of painters;" +yet she used to say playfully, "I am charmed with every thing I do, for +eight hours after it is done!" This was natural while the excitement +of conception was fresh upon the mind. No one, however, could be more +fastidious and difficult about their own works than Rosalba. She was not +only an observer of countenance by profession, but a most acute observer +of character, as revealed in all its external indications. She said of +Sir Godfrey Kneller, after he had paid her a visit, "I concluded he could +not be religious, for he has no modesty." The general philosophical truth +comprised in these few words is not less admirable than the acuteness +of the remark, as applied to Kneller—a professed sceptic, and the most +self-sufficient coxcomb of his time. +</p> +<p> +Rosalba was invited at different times to almost all the courts of +Europe, and painted most of the distinguished persons of her time at +Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, and Paris; the lady-like refinements of her +mind and manners, which also marked her + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>[173]</span> + + style of painting, recommended +her not less than her talents. She used, after her return to Italy, to +say her prayers in German, "because the language was so expressive."<a href="#note-34" name="noteref-34"><small> 34</small></a> +</p> +<p> +Rosalba became blind before her death, which occurred in 1757. Her +works in the Dresden gallery amount to at least one hundred and +fifty—principally portraits—but there are also some exquisite fancy +heads. +</p> +<p> +Thinking of Rosalba, reminds me that there are some pretty stories +told of women, who have excelled as professed artists. In general +the conscious power of maintaining themselves, habits of attention +and manual industry, the application of our feminine superfluity of +sensibility and imagination to a tangible result—have produced fine +characters. The daughter of Tintoretto, when invited to the courts of +Maximilian and Philip II. refused to leave her father. Violante Siries +of Florence gave a similar proof of filial affection; and when the grand +duke commanded her to paint her own portrait for the Florentine gallery, +where it now + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>[174]</span> + + hangs, she introduced the portrait of her father, because +he had been her first instructor in art. When Henrietta Walters, the +famous Dutch miniature painter, was invited by Peter the Great and +Frederic, to their respective courts, with magnificent promises of +favour and patronage, she steadily refused; and when Peter, who had +no idea of giving way to obstacles, particularly in the female form, +pressed upon her in person the most splendid offers, and demanded the +reason of her refusal, she replied, that she was contented with her +lot, and could not bear the idea of living out of a free country. +</p> +<p> +Maria von Osterwyck, one of the most admirable flower painters, +had a lover, to whom she was a little partial, but his idleness and +dissipation distressed her. At length she promised to give him her hand +on condition that during one year he would work regularly ten hours a +day, observing that it was only what she had done herself from a very +early age. He agreed; and took a house opposite to her that she might +witness his industry; but habit was too strong, his love + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>[175]</span> + + or his resolution +failed, and he broke the compact. She refused to be his wife; and no +entreaties could afterwards alter her determination never to accept the +man who had shown so little strength of character, and so little real +love. She was a wise woman, and as the event showed, not a heartless +one. She died unmarried, though surrounded by suitors. +</p> +<p> +It was the fate of Elizabeth Sirani, one of the most beautiful women, as +well as one of the most exquisite painters of her time, to live in the +midst of those deadly feuds between the pupils of Guido and those of +Domenichino, and she was poisoned at the age of twenty-six. She left +behind her one hundred and fifty pictures, an astonishing number if +we consider the age at which the world was deprived of this wonderful +creature, for they are finished with the utmost care in every part. +Madonnas and Magdalenes were her favourite subjects. She died in 1526. +Her best pictures are at Florence. +</p> +<p> +Sofonisba Angusciola had two sisters, Lucia and Europa, almost as gifted, +though not quite + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>[176]</span> + + so celebrated as herself: these three "virtuous +gentlewomen," as Vasari calls them, lived together in the most +delightful sisterly union. One of Sofonisba's most beautiful pictures +represents her two sisters playing at chess, attended by the old duenna, +who accompanied them every where. When Sofonisba was invited to the court +of Spain, in 1560, she took her sisters with her—in short, they were +inseparable. They were all accomplished women. "We hear," said the pope, +in a complimentary letter to Sofonisba, on one of her pictures, "that +this your great talent is among the least you possess:" which letter is +said by Vasari to be a <i>sufficient</i> proof of the genius of Sofonisba—as +if the holy Father's infallibility extended to painting! Luckily we have +proofs more undeniable in her own most lovely works—glowing with life +like those of Titian; and in the testimony of Vandyke, who said of her +in her later years, that "he had learned more from one old blind woman +in Italy than from all the masters of his art." +</p> +<p> +It is worth remarking, that almost all the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>[177]</span> + + women who have attained +celebrity in painting, have excelled in portraiture. The characteristic +of Rosalba is an exceeding elegance; of Angelica Kauffman exceeding +grace; but she wants nerve. Lavinia Fontana threw a look of sensibility +into her most masculine heads—she died broken-hearted for the loss of +an only son, whose portrait is her masterpiece.<a href="#note-35" name="noteref-35"><small> 35</small></a> The Sofonisba had +most dignity, and in her own portrait<a href="#note-36" name="noteref-36"><small> 36</small></a> a certain dignified simplicity +in the air and attitude strikes us immediately. Gentileschi has most +power: she was a gifted, but a profligate woman. All those whom I have +mentioned were women of undoubted genius; for they have each a style +apart, peculiar, and tinted by their individual character: but all, +except Gentileschi, were <i>feminine</i> painters. They succeeded best in +feminine portraits, and when they painted history they were only admirable +in that class of subjects which came within + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>[178]</span> + + the province of their sex; +beyond that boundary they became <i>fade</i>, insipid, or exaggerated: thus +Elizabeth Sirani's Annunciation is exquisite, and her Crucifixion +feeble; Angelica Kauffman's Nymphs and Madonnas are lovely; but her +picture of the warrior Herman, returning home after the defeat of the +Roman legions, is cold and ineffective. The result of these reflections +is, that there is a walk of art in which women may attain perfection, +and excel the other sex; as there is another department from which they +are excluded. You must change the physical organization of the race of +women before we produce a Rubens or a Michael Angelo. Then, on the other +hand, I fancy, no <i>man</i> could paint like Louisa Sharpe, any more than +write like Mrs. Hemans. Louisa Sharpe, and her sister, are, in painting, +just what Mrs. Hemans is in poetry; we see in their works the same +characteristics—no feebleness, no littleness of design or manner, +nothing vapid, trivial, or affected,—and nothing masculine; all is +super-eminently, essentially feminine, in subject, style, and sentiment. +I wish to combat in every way + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>[179]</span> + + that oft-repeated, but most false compliment +unthinkingly paid to women, that genius is of no sex; there may be +equality of power, but in its quality and application there will and must +be difference and distinction. If men would but remember this truth, +they would cease to treat with ridicule and jealousy the attainments and +aspirations of women, knowing that there never could be real competition +or rivalry. If women would admit this truth, they would not presume out +of their sphere:—but then we come to the necessity for some key to the +knowledge of ourselves and others—some scale for the just estimation of +our own qualities and powers, compared with those of others—the great +secret of self-regulation and happiness—the beginning, middle, and end +of all education. +</p> +<p> +But to return from this tirade. I wish my vagrant pen were less +discursive. +</p> +<p> +In the works of art, the presence of a power, felt rather than perceived, +and kept subordinate to the sentiment of grace, should mark the female +mind and hand. This is what I love in Rosalba, in our own Mrs. Carpenter, +in Madame de + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>[180]</span> + + Freyberg, and in Eliza and Louisa Sharpe: in the latter +there is a high tone of moral as well as poetical feeling. Thus her +picture of the young girl coming out of church after disturbing the +equanimity of a whole congregation by her fine lady airs and her silk +attire, is a charming and most graceful satire on the foibles of +her sex. The idea, however, is taken from the Spectator. But Louisa +Sharpe can also create. Of another lovely picture,—that of the young, +forsaken, disconsolate, repentant mother, who sits drooping over her +child, "with looks bowed down in penetrative shame," while one or two of +the rigidly-righteous of her own sex turn from her with a scornful and +upbraiding air—I believe the subject is original; but it is obviously +one which never could have occurred, except to the most consciously pure +as well as the gentlest and kindest heart in the world. Never was a more +beautiful and Christian lesson conveyed by woman to woman; at once a +warning to our weakness, and a rebuke to our pride.<a href="#note-37" name="noteref-37"><small> 37</small></a> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>[181]</span></p> + +<p> +<i>Apropos</i> of female artists: I met here with a lady of noble birth and +high rank, the Countess Julie von Egloffstein,<a href="#note-38" name="noteref-38"><small> 38</small></a> who in spite of the +prejudices still prevailing in Germany, has devoted herself to painting +as a profession. Her vocation for the art was early displayed; but +combated and discouraged as derogatory to her rank and station; she was +for many years <i>demoiselle d'honneur</i> to the grand Duchess Luise of +Weimar. Under all these circumstances, it required real strength of mind +to take the step she has taken; but a less decided course could not well +have emancipated her from trammels, the force of which can hardly be +estimated out of Germany. A + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>[182]</span> + + recent journey to Italy, undertaken on account +of her health, fixed her determination, and her destiny for life. +</p> +<p> +In looking over her drawings and pictures, I was particularly struck +by one singularity, which yet, on reflection, appears perfectly +comprehensible. This high-born and court-bred woman shows a decided +predilection for the picturesque in humble life, and seems to have +turned to simple nature in perfect simplicity of heart. Being +self-taught and self-formed, there is nothing mannered or conventional +in her style; and I do hope she will assert the privilege of genius, +and, looking only into nature out of her own heart and soul, form and +keep a style to herself. I remember one little picture, painted either +for the queen of England or the queen of Bavaria, representing a young +Neapolitan peasant, seated at her cottage door, contemplating her child, +cradled at her feet, while the fishing bark of her husband is sailing +away in the distance. In this little bit of natural poetry there was no +seeking after effect, no prettiness, no pretension; but a quiet genuine +simplicity of feeling, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>[183]</span> + + which surprised while it pleased me. When I have +looked at the Countess Julie in her painting-room, surrounded by her +drawings, models, casts—all the powers of her exuberant enthusiastic +mind flowing free in their natural direction, I have felt at once +pleasure, and admiration, and respect. It should seem that the energy +of spirit and real magnanimity of mind which could trample over social +prejudices, not the less strong because manifestly absurd, united to +genius and perseverance, may, if life be granted, safely draw upon +futurity both for success and for fame. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I consider my introduction to Moritz Retzsch as one of the most +memorable and agreeable incidents of my short sojourn at Dresden. +</p> +<p> +This extraordinary genius, who is almost as popular and interesting in +England as in his own country, seems to have received from Nature a +double portion of the inventive faculty—that rarest of all her good +gifts, even to those who are her especial favourites. As his published +works by which he is principally known in England (the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>[184]</span> + + Outlines to +the Faust, to Shakspeare, to Schiller's Song of the Bell, &c.) are +illustrations of the ideas of others, few but those who may possess some +of his original drawings are aware, that Retzsch is himself a poet of +the first order, using his glorious power of graphic delineation to +throw into form the conceptions, thoughts, aspirations, of his own +glowing imagination and fertile fancy. Retzsch was born at Dresden in +1779, and has never, I believe, been far from his native place. From +childhood he was a singular being, giving early indications of his +imitative power by drawing or carving in wood, resemblances of the +objects which struck his attention, without the slightest idea in +himself or others of becoming eventually an artist; and I have even +heard that, when he was quite a youth, his enthusiastic mind, labouring +with a power which he felt rather than knew, his love of the wilder +aspects of nature, and impatience of the restraints of artificial life, +had nearly induced him to become a huntsman or forester (Jäger) in the +royal service. However, at the age of twenty, his love of art became a +decided vocation. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>[185]</span> + + The little property he had inherited or accumulated +was dissipated during that war, which swept like a whirlwind over all +Germany, overwhelming prince and peasant, artist, mechanic, in one +wide-spreading desolation. Since that time Retzsch has depended on his +talents alone—content to live poor in a poor country. He has, by the +exertion of his talents, achieved for himself a small independence, and +contributed to the support of a large family of relations, also ruined +by the casualties of war. His usual residence is at his own pretty +little farm or vineyard a few miles from Dresden. When in the town, +where his duties as professor of the Academy frequently call him, he +lodges in a small house in the Neustadt, close upon the banks of the +Elbe, in a retired and beautiful situation. Thither I was conducted +by our mutual friend, N——, whose appreciation of Retzsch's talents, +and knowledge of his peculiarities, rendered him the best possible +intermediator on this occasion. +</p> +<p> +The professor received us in a room which appeared to answer many +purposes, being obviously + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>[186]</span> + + a sleeping as well as a sitting-room, but +perfectly neat. I saw at once that there was every where a woman's +superintending eye and thoughtful care; but did not know at the moment +that he was married. He received us with open-hearted frankness, at +the same time throwing on the stranger one of those quick glances +which seemed to look through me: in return, I contemplated him with +inexpressible interest. His figure is rather larger, and more portly +than I had expected; but I admired his fine Titanic head, so large, and +so sublime in its expression; his light blue eye, wild and wide, which +seemed to drink in meaning and flash out light; his hair profuse, +grizzled, and flowing in masses round his head: and his expanded brow +full of poetry and power. In his deportment he is a mere child of nature, +simple, careless, saying just what he feels and thinks at the moment, +without regard to forms; yet pleasing from the benevolent earnestness +of his manner, and intuitively polite without being polished. +</p> +<p> +After some conversation, he took us into his painting room. As a +colourist, I believe his style is criticised, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>[187]</span> + + and open to criticism; +it is at least singular; but I must confess that while I was looking +over his things I was engrossed by the one conviction;—that while his +peculiar merits, and the preference of one manner to another may be a +matter of argument or taste, it is certain, and indisputable, that no +one paints <i>like</i> Retzsch, and that, in the original power and fertility +of <i>conception</i>, in the quantity of <i>mind</i> which he brings to bear upon +his subject, he is in his own style unequalled and inimitable. I was +rather surprised to see in some of his designs and pencil drawings, the +most elaborate delicacy of touch, and most finished execution of parts, +combined with a fancy which seems to run wild over his paper or his +canvas; but only <i>seems</i>—for it must be remarked, that with all this +luxuriance of imagination, there is no exaggeration, either of form or +feeling; he is peculiar, fantastic, even extravagant—but never false in +sentiment or expression. The reason is, that in Retzsch's character the +moral sentiments are strongly developed; where <i>they</i> are deficient, let +the artist who aims at the highest poetical department + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>[188]</span> + + of excellence, +despair; for no possession of creative talent, nor professional skill, +nor conventional taste, will supply that main deficiency. +</p> +<p> +I saw in Retzsch's atelier many things novel, beautiful, and interesting; +but will note only a few, which have dwelt upon my memory, as being +characteristic of the man as well as the artist. +</p> +<p> +There was, on a small pannel, the head of an angel smiling. He said he +was often pursued by dark fancies, haunted by melancholy forebodings, +desponding over himself and his art, "and he resolved to create an angel +for himself, which should smile upon him out of heaven." So he painted +his most lovely head, in which the radiant spirit of joy seems to +beam from every feature at once; and I thought while I looked upon it, +that it were enough to exorcise a whole legion of blue devils. It is +rarely that we can associate the mirthful with the beautiful and the +sublime—even I could have deemed it next to impossible; but the +effulgent cheerfulness of this divine face corrected that idea, which, +after all, is not in bright lovely Nature, but in the shadow which the +mighty spirit of Humanity + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>[189]</span> + + casts from his wings, as he hangs brooding +over her between heaven and earth. +</p> +<p> +Afterwards he placed upon his easel a wondrous face, which made me +shrink back—not with terror, for it was perfectly beautiful—but +with awe, for it was unspeakably fearful: the hair streamed back from +the pale brow—the orbs of sight appeared at first two dark, hollow, +unfathomable spaces, like those in a skull; but when I drew nearer, and +looked attentively, two lovely living eyes looked at me again out of +the depth of shadow, as of from the bottom of an abyss. The mouth was +divinely sweet, but sad, and the softest repose rested on every feature. +This, he told me, was the <span class="sc">Angel of Death</span>: it was the original conception +of a head for the large picture now at Vienna, representing the Angel +of Death bearing aloft two children into the regions of the blessed: +the heavens opening above, and the earth and stars sinking beneath +his feet. +</p> +<p> +The next thing which struck me was a small picture—two satyrs butting +at each other, while a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>[190]</span> + + shepherd carries off the nymph for whom they are +contending. This was most admirable for its grotesque power and spirit, +and, moreover, extremely well coloured. Another in the same style +represented a satyr sitting on a wine-skin, out of which he drinks; two +arch-looking nymphs are stealing on him from behind, and one of them +pierces the wine-skin with her hunting-spear. +</p> +<p> +There was a portrait of himself, but I would not laud it—in fact, he +has not done himself justice. Only a colossal bust, in the same style, +and wrought with the same feeling as Dannecker's bust of Schiller, could +convey to posterity an adequate idea of the head and countenance of +Retzsch. I complimented him on the effect which his Hamlet had produced +in England; he told me, that it had been his wish to illustrate the +Midsummer Night's Dream, or the Tempest, rather than Macbeth: the former +he will still undertake, and, in truth, if any one succeeds in embodying +a just idea of a Miranda, a Caliban, a Titania, and the poetical +burlesque of the Athenian clowns, it + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>[191]</span> + + will be Retzsch, whose genius +embraces at once the grotesque, the comic, the wild, the wonderful, the +fanciful, the elegant! +</p> +<p> +A few days afterwards we accepted Retzsch's invitation to visit him at +his <i>campagna</i>—for whether it were farm-house, villa, or vineyard, or +all together, I could not well decide. The drive was delicious. The +road wound along the banks of the magnificent Elbe, the gently-swelling +hills, all laid out in vineyards, rising on our right; and though it was +in November, the air was soft as summer. Retzsch, who had perceived our +approach from his window, came out to meet us—took me under his arm as +if we had been friends of twenty years standing, and leading me into his +picturesque <i>domicile</i>, introduced me to his wife—as pretty a piece of +domestic poetry as one shall see in a summer's day. She was the daughter +of a vine-dresser, whom Retzsch fell in love with while she was yet +almost a child, and educated for his wife—at least so runs the tale. At +the first glance I detected the original of that countenance which, more +or less idealized, runs + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>[192]</span> + + through all his representations of female youth +and beauty: here was the model, both in feature and expression; she +smiled upon us a most cordial welcome, regaled us with delicious coffee +and cakes prepared by herself, then taking up her knitting sat down +beside us; and while I turned over admiringly the beautiful designs +with which her husband had decorated her album, the looks of veneration +and love with which she regarded him, and the expression of kindly, +delighted sympathy with which she smiled upon me, I shall not easily +forget. As for the album itself, queens might have envied her such +homage: and what would not a dilettante collector have given for such +a possession! +</p> +<p> +I remember two or three of these designs which must serve to give +an idea of the rest:—1st. The good Genius descending to bless his +wife.—2nd. The birthday of his wife—a lovely female infant is asleep +under a vine, which is wreathed round the tree of life; the spirits +of the four elements are bringing votive gifts with which they endow +her.—3rd. The Enigma of Human Life.—The Genius + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>[193]</span> + + of Humanity is +reclining on the back of a gigantic sphinx, of which the features are +averted, and partly veiled by a cloud; he holds a rose half-withered in +his hand, and looks up with a divine expression towards two butterflies +which have escaped from the chrysalis state, and are sporting above his +head; at his feet are a dead bird and reptile—emblematical of sin and +death.—4th. The genius of art, represented as a young Apollo, turns, +with a melancholy, abstracted air, the handle of a barrel-organ, while +Vulgarity, Ignorance, and Folly, listen with approbation; meantime his +lyre and his palette lie neglected at his feet, together with an empty +purse and wallet: the mixture of pathos, poetry, and satire, in this +little drawing, can hardly be described in words.—5th. Hope, represented +by a lovely group of playful children, who are peeping under a hat for +a butterfly, which they fancy they have caught, but which has escaped, +and is hovering above their reach.—6th. Temptation presented to youth +and innocence by an evil spirit, while a good genius warns them to +beware.—In this drawing, the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>[194]</span> + + figures of the boy and girl, but more +particularly of the latter, appeared to me of the most consummate and +touching beauty.—7th. His wife walking on a windy day: a number of +little sylphs are agitating her drapery, lifting the tresses of her +hair, playing with her sash; while another party have flown off with +her hat, and are bearing it away in triumph. +</p> +<p> +After spending three or four hours delightfully, we drove home in +silence by the gleaming, murmuring river, and beneath the light of the +silent stars. On a subsequent visit, Retzsch showed me many more of +these delicious <i>phantasie</i>, or fancies, as he termed them,—or more +truly, little pieces of moral and lyrical poetry, thrown into palpable +form, speaking in the universal language of the eye to the universal +heart of man. I remember, in particular, one of striking and even of +appalling interest. The Genius of Humanity and the Spirit of Evil are +playing at chess for the souls of men: the Genius of Humanity has lost +to his infernal adversary some of his principal pieces,—love, humility, +innocence, and lastly, peace of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>[195]</span> + + mind;—but he still retains faith, +truth, and fortitude; and is sitting in a contemplative attitude, +considering his next move; his adversary, who opposes him with pride, +avarice, irreligion, luxury, and a host of evil passions, looks at him +with a <i>Mephistophiles'</i> expression, anticipating his devilish triumph. +The pawns on the one side are prayers—on the other, doubts. A little +behind stands the Angel of conscience as arbitrator. In this most +exquisite allegory, so beautifully, so clearly conveyed to the heart, +there lurked a deeper moral than in many a sermon. +</p> +<p> +There was another beautiful little allegory of Love in the character of +a Picklock, opening, or trying to open, a variety of albums, lettered, +the "Human Heart, No. 1; Human Heart, No. 2;" while Philosophy lights +him with her lanthorn. There were besides many other designs of equal +poetry, beauty, and moral interest—I think, a whole portfolio full of +them. +</p> +<p> +I endeavoured to persuade Retzsch that he could not do better than +publish some of these exquisite <i>Fancies</i>, and when I left him he +entertained + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>[196]</span> + + the idea of doing so at some future period. To adopt his own +language, the Genius of Art could not present to the Genius of Humanity +a more delightful and a more profitable gift.<a href="#note-39" name="noteref-39"><small> 39</small></a> +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The following list of German painters comprehends those <i>only</i> whose +works I had an opportunity of considering, and who appeared to me to +possess decided merit. I might easily have extended this catalogue to +thrice its length, had I included all those whose names were given to me +as being distinguished and celebrated among their own countrymen. From +Munich alone I brought a list of two hundred artists, and from other +parts of Germany nearly as many more. But in confining myself to those +whose productions I <i>saw</i>, I adhere to a principle which, after all, +seems to be the best—viz. never to speak but of what we <i>know</i>; and then +only of the individual impression: it is necessary to know so many things +before + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>[197]</span> + + we can give, with confidence, an opinion about any one thing! +</p> +<p> +While the literary intercourse between England and Germany increases +every day, and a mutual esteem and understanding is the natural +consequence of this approximation of mind, there is a singular and +mutual ignorance in all matters appertaining to art, and consequently, +a good deal of injustice and prejudice on both sides. The Germans were +amazed and incredulous, when I informed them that in England there are +many admirers of art, to whom the very names of Schnorr, Overbeck, +Rauch, Peter Hess, Wach, Wagenbauer, and even their great Cornelius, are +unknown; and I met with very clever, well-informed Germans, who had, by +some chance, <i>heard</i> of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and knew <i>something</i> of +Wilkie, Turner, and Martin, from the engravings after their works; who +thought Sir Joshua Reynolds and his engraver Reynolds one and the same +person; and of Callcott, Landseer, Etty, and Hilton, and others of our +shining lights, they knew nothing at all. I must say, however, that they + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>[198]</span> + + have generally a more just idea of English art than we have of German +art, and their veneration for Flaxman, like their veneration for +Shakspeare, is a sort of enthusiasm all over Germany. Those who have +contemplated the actual state of art, and compared the prevalent tastes +and feelings in both countries, will allow that much advantage would +result from a better mutual understanding. We English accuse the German +artists of mannerism, of a formal, hard, and elaborate execution,—a +pedantic style of composition and sundry other sins. The Germans accuse +us, in return, of excessive coarseness and carelessness, a loose sketchy +style of execution, and a general inattention to truth of character.<a href="#note-40" name="noteref-40"><small> 40</small></a> +"You English have no school of art," was often said to me; I could have +replied—if it had not been a solecism in grammar—"You Germans have +<i>too much</i> school." The "esprit de secte," which in Germany has + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>[199]</span> + + broken +up their poetry, literature, and philosophy into schisms and schools, +descends unhappily to art, and every professor, to use the Highland +expression, has <i>his tail</i>. +</p> +<p> +At the same time, we cannot deny to the Germans the merit of great +earnestness of feeling, and that characteristic integrity of purpose +which they throw into every thing they undertake or perform. Art with +them, is oftener held in honour, and pursued truly for its own sake, +than among us: too many of our English artists consider their lofty +and noble vocation, simply as the means to an end, be that end fame or +gain. Generally speaking, too, the German artists are men of superior +cultivation, so that when the creative inspiration falls upon them, the +material on which to work is already stored up: "nothing can come of +nothing," and the sun-beams descend in vain on the richest soil, where +the seed has not been sown. +</p> +<p> +It is certain that we have not in England any historical painters who +have given evidence of their genius on so grand a scale as some of the +historical painters of Germany have recently done. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>[200]</span> + + <i>We</i> know that it +is not the genius, but the opportunity which has been wanting, but we +cannot ask foreigners to admit this,—they can only judge from results, +and they must either suppose us to be without eminent men in the higher +walks of art,—or they must wonder, with their magnificent ideas of +the incalculable wealth of our nobles, the prodigal expenditure of our +rulers, and the grandeur of our public institutions, that painting has +not oftener been summoned in aid of her eldest sister architecture. +On the other hand, their school of portraiture and landscape is decidedly +inferior to ours. Not only have they no landscape painters who can compare +with Callcott and Turner, but they do not appear to have <i>imagined</i> the +kind of excellence achieved by these wonderful artists. I should say, +generally, that their most beautiful landscapes want atmosphere. I used +to feel while looking at them as if I were in the exhausted receiver of +an air-pump. Of their portraits I have already spoken; the eye which has +rested in delight upon one of Wilkie's or Phillips's fine manly portraits, +(not to mention Reynolds, Gainsborough, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>[201]</span> + + Romney, and Lawrence,) cannot +easily be reconciled to the hard, frittered manner of some of the most +admired of the German painters; it is a difference of taste, which +I will not call natural but national;—the remains of the old gothic +school which, as the study of Italian art becomes more diffused, will +be modified or pass away. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h3> +HISTORY. +</h3> + +<p> +Peter Cornelius, born at Dusseldorf in 1778, was for a considerable time +the director (president) of the academy there, and is now the director +of the academy of art at Munich: much of his time, however, is spent +in Italy. The Germans esteem him their best historical painter. He has +invention, expression, and power, but appears to me rather deficient in +the feeling of beauty and tenderness. His grand works are the fresco +painting in the Glyptothek at Munich, already described. +</p> +<p> +Friedrich Overbeck, born at Lubeck in 1789: he + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>[202]</span> + + excels in scriptural +subjects, which he treats with infinite grandeur and simplicity of +feeling. +</p> +<p> +Wilhelm Wach, born at Berlin in 1787: first painter to the king of +Prussia and professor in the academy of Berlin: esteemed one of the +best painters and most accomplished men in Germany. Not having visited +Berlin, where his finest works exist, I have as yet seen but one picture +by this painter—the head of an angel, at the palace of Peterstein, +sublimely conceived, and most admirably painted. In the style of colour, +in the singular combination of grand feeling and delicate execution, +this picture reminded me of Leonardo da Vinci. +</p> +<p> +Professor Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, born at Leipsig in 1794. His +frescos from the Nibelungen Lied in the new palace at Munich have been +already mentioned at length. +</p> +<p> +Professor Heinrich Hesse: the frescos in the Royal Chapel at Munich, +already described. +</p> +<p> +Wilhelm Tischbein, born at Heyna in 1751. He is director of the academy +at Naples, and highly celebrated. He must not be confounded with his +uncle, a mediocre artist, who was the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>[203]</span> + + court painter of Hesse Cassel, and +whose pictures swarm in all the palaces there. +</p> +<p> +Philip Veit, of Frankfort—fresco painter. +</p> +<p> +Joseph Schlotthauer, professor of historical and fresco painting at +Munich. (I believe this artist is dead. He held a high rank.) +</p> +<p> +Clement Zimmermann, now employed in the Pinakothek, and in the new +palace at Munich, where he takes a high rank as painter, and is not less +distinguished by his general information, and his frank and amiable +character. +</p> +<p> +Moritz Retzsch of Dresden. +</p> +<p> +Professor Vogel, of Dresden, principal painter to the king of Saxony. +He paints in fresco and history, but excels in portraits. +</p> +<p> +Stieler, of Munich, court painter to the king of Bavaria, esteemed one +of the best portrait painters in Germany. +</p> +<p> +Goetzenberger, fresco painter. He is employed in painting the University +Hall at Bonn. +</p> +<p> +Eduard Bendeman, of Berlin. I saw at the exhibition of the Kunstverein +at Dusseldorf, a fine + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>[204]</span> + + picture by this painter—"The Hebrews in Exile." +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +The colouring I thought rather hard, but the conception and drawing were +in a grand style. +</p> +<p> +Wilhelm Schadow, director of the academy at Dusseldorf. +</p> +<p> +Hetzsch of Stuttgardt. +</p> +<p> +The brothers Riepenhausen, of Göttingen, resident at Rome. They are +celebrated for their designs of the pictures of Polygnotus, as described +by Pausanius. +</p> +<p> +Koehler. He exhibited at the Kunstverein at Dusseldorf a picture of +"Rebecca at the well," very well executed. +</p> +<p> +Ernst Förster, of Altenburg, employed in the palace at Munich. This +clever young painter married the daughter of Jean Paul Richter. +</p> +<p> +Gassen, of Goblentz; Hiltensberger, of Suabia; Hermann, of Dresden; +Foltz, of Bingen; Kaulbach, of Munich; Eugene Neureuther, of Munich; +Wilhelm Röckel, of Schleissheim; Von Schwind, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>[205]</span> + + of Vienna; Wilhelm +Lindenschmidt, of Mayence. All these painters are at present in the +service of the king of Bavaria. +</p> +<p> +Julius Hübner; Hildebrand; Lessing; Sohn; history and portraits;—these +four painters are the most distinguished scholars of the Dusseldorf +school. +</p> + +<h3> +SMALL SUBJECTS AND CONVERSATION PIECES. +</h3> + +<p> +Peter Hess, of Munich, one of the most eminent painters in Germany. +In his choice of subjects he reminded me sometimes of Eastlake, and +sometimes of Wilkie, and his style is rather in Wilkie's first manner. +His pictures are full of spirit, truth, and character. +</p> +<p> +Dominique Quaglio, of Munich. Interiors, &c. He also ranks very high: +he reminds me of Fraser. +</p> +<p> +Major-General von Heydeck, of Munich, an amateur painter of merited +celebrity. In the collection of M. de Klenze, and in the Leuchtenberg +Gallery, there are some small battle pieces, scenes in Greece and Spain, +and other subjects by Von Heydeck, very admirably painted. +</p> +<p> +F. Müller, of Cassel. At the exhibition at + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>[206]</span> + + Dusseldorf I saw a picture +by this artist, "A rustic bridal procession in the Campagna," painted +with a freedom and lightness of pencil not common among the German +artists. +</p> +<p> +Plüddeman, of Colberg. +</p> +<p> +T. B. Sonderland, of Dusseldorf. Fairs and merrymakings. +</p> +<p> +H. Rustige. The same subjects. Both are good artists. +</p> +<p> +H. Kretzschmar, of Pomerania. His picture of "Little Red Ridinghood," +(Rothkäppchen,) at the Kunstverein, at Dusseldorf, had great merit. +</p> +<p> +Adolf Scrötte. Rustic scenes in the Dutch manner. +</p> + +<h3> +LANDSCAPE. +</h3> + +<p> +Dahl, a Norwegian settled at Dresden, esteemed one of the best landscape +painters in Germany. There is a very fine sea-piece by this artist in +the possession of the Countess von Seebach at Dresden, with, however, +all the characteristic <i>peculiarities</i> of the German school. +</p> +<p> +T. D. Passavant, of Frankfort. +</p> +<p> +Friedrich, of Dresden, one of the most <i>poetical</i> of the German +landscape painters. He is rather + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>[207]</span> + + a mannerist in colour, like Turner, +but in the opposite excess: his genius revels in gloom, as that of +Turner revels in light. +</p> +<p> +Professor von Dillis, of Munich. +</p> +<p> +Max Wagenbauer, of Munich. He is called most deservedly, the German +Paul Potter. +</p> +<p> +Jacob Dorner, of Munich. A charming painter; perhaps a little too minute +in his finishing. +</p> +<p> +Catel, of Dusseldorf. Scenes on the Mediterranean. This painter resides +chiefly in Italy; but in the collection of M. de Klenze I saw some +admirable specimens of his works. +</p> +<p> +Biermann, of Berlin, is a fine landscape painter. +</p> +<p> +Prëyer, certainly the most exquisite of modern flower painters. +I believe he is from Dusseldorf. +</p> +<p> +Rothman, of Heidelberg. I saw some pictures and sketches by this young +painter, full of genius and feeling. +</p> +<p> +Fries, of Munich, a young painter of great promise. He put an end to his +own life, while I was at Munich, in a fit of delirium, caused by fever, +and was very generally lamented. +</p> +<p> +Wilhelm Schirmer, of Juliers, an exceedingly fine landscape painter. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>[208]</span></p> + +<p> +Audeas Achenbach, of Dusseldorf: he has also great merit. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +There are several female artists in Germany, of more or less celebrity. +The Baroness von Freyberg (born Electrina Stuntz) holds the first rank +in original talent. She resides near Munich, but no longer paints +professionally. +</p> +<p> +The Countess Julie von Egloffstein has also the rare gift of original +and creative genius. +</p> +<p> +Luise Seidler, of Weimar; Madlle. de Winkel and Madame de Loqueyssie, of +Dresden, are distinguished in their art. The two latter are exquisite +copyists. +</p> +<p> +In architecture, Leo von Klenze and Professor Girtner, of Munich; and +Heideloff of Nuremberg, are deservedly celebrated in Germany. +</p> +<p> +The most distinguished sculptors in Germany are Christian Rauch, and +Christian Friedrich Tieck, of Berlin; Johan Heinrich von Dannecker, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>[209]</span> + + of Stuttgardt; Schwanthaler, Eberhardt, Bandel, Kirchmayer, Mayer, all +of Munich; Reitschel of Dresden; and Imhoff, of Cologne. Those of their +works which I had an opportunity of seeing have been mentioned in the +course of these sketches. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>[210]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>[211]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +<big>HARDWICKE.</big> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>[212]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>[213]</span></p> + +<div class="figure"> +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<a href="images/ill-2.jpg"><img src="images/ill-2s.jpg" width="250" height="140" +alt="" /></a> +</div> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0007" id="h2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + HARDWICKE. +</h2> + +<p> +Who that has exulted over the heroic reign of our gorgeous Elizabeth, +or wept over the fate of Mary Stuart, but will remember the name of the +only woman whose high and haughty spirit out-faced the lion port of one +queen, and whose audacity trampled over the sorrows of the other— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Brow-beating her fair form, and troubling her sweet pride!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +But this is anticipation. If it be so laudable, according to the +excellent, oft quoted advice of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>[214]</span> + + giant Moulineau, to <i>begin at the +beginning</i>,<a href="#note-41" name="noteref-41"><small> 41</small></a> what must it be to improve upon the precept? for so, +in relating the fallen and fading glories of Hardwicke, do I intend +to exceed even "mon ami le Belier," in historic accuracy, and take +up our tale at a period ere Hardwicke itself—the Hardwicke that now +stands—had a beginning. +</p> +<p> +There lived, then, in the days of queen Bess, a woman well worthy to +be her majesty's namesake,—Elizabeth Hardwicke, more commonly called, +in her own country, Bess of Hardwicke, and distinguished in the page +of history as the <i>old</i> Countess of Shrewsbury. She resembled Queen +Elizabeth in all her best and worst qualities, and, putting royalty +out of the scale, would certainly have been more than a match for that +sharp-witted virago, in subtlety of intellect, and intrepidity of temper +and manner. +</p> +<p> +She was the only daughter of John Hardwicke, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>[215]</span> + + of Hardwicke,<a href="#note-42" name="noteref-42"><small> 42</small></a> and being +early left an orphan and an heiress, was married ere she was fourteen +to a certain Master Robert Barley, who was about her own age. Death +dissolved this premature union within a few months, but her husband's +large estates had been settled on her and her heirs; and at the age of +fifteen, dame Elizabeth was a blooming widow, amply dowered with fair +and fertile lands, and free to bestow her hand again where she listed. +</p> +<p> +Suitors abounded, of course: but Elizabeth, it should seem, was hard to +please. She was beautiful, if the annals of her family say true,—she +had wit, and spirit, and, above all, an infinite love of independence. +After taking the management of her property into her own hands, she for +some time reigned and revelled (with all decorum be it understood) in +what might be truly termed, a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>[216]</span> + + state of single blessedness; but at length, +tired of being lord and lady too—"master o'er her vassals," if not +exactly "queen o'er herself"—she thought fit, having reached the +discreet age of four-and-twenty, to bestow her hand on Sir William +Cavendish. He was a man of substance and power, already enriched by vast +grants of abbey lands in the time of Henry VIII.,<a href="#note-43" name="noteref-43"><small> 43</small></a> all which, by the +marriage contract, were settled on the lady. After this marriage, they +passed some years in retirement, having the wisdom to keep clear of the +political storms and factions which intervened between the death of +Henry VIII. and the accession of Mary, and yet the sense to profit by +them. While Cavendish, taking advantage of those troublous times, went +on adding manor after manor to his vast possessions, dame Elizabeth +was busy + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>[217]</span> + + providing heirs to inherit them; she became the mother of six +hopeful children, who were destined eventually to found two illustrious +dukedoms, and mingle blood with the oldest nobility of England—nay, +with royalty itself. "Moreover," says the family chronicle, "the said +dame Elizabeth persuaded her husband, out of the great love he had for +her, to sell his estates in the south and purchase lands in her native +county of Derby, wherewith to endow her and her children, and at her +farther persuasion he began to build the noble seat of Chatsworth, but +left it to her to complete, he dying about the year 1559." +</p> +<p> +Apparently this second experiment in matrimony pleased the lady of +Hardwicke better than the first, for she was not long a widow. We are +not in this case informed how long—her biographer having discreetly +left it to our imagination; and the Peerages, though not in general +famed for discretion on such points, have in this case affected + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>[218]</span> + + the same +delicate uncertainty. However this may be, she gave her hand, after no +long courtship, to Sir William St. Loo, captain of Elizabeth's guard, +and then chief butler of England—a man equally distinguished for his +fine person and large possessions, but otherwise not superfluously +gifted by nature. So well did the lady manage <i>him</i>, that with equal +hardihood and rapacity, she contrived to have all his "fair lordships in +Gloucestershire and elsewhere" settled on herself and her children, to +the manifest injury of St. Loo's own brothers, and his daughters by a +former union: and he dying not long after without any issue by her, she +made good her title to his vast estates, added them to her own, and they +became the inheritance of the Cavendishes. +</p> +<p> +But three husbands, six children, almost boundless opulence, did not yet +satisfy this extraordinary woman—for extraordinary she certainly was, +not more in the wit, subtlety, and unflinching + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>[219]</span> + + steadiness of purpose +with which she amassed wealth and achieved power, but in the manner in +which she used both. She ruled her husband, her family, her vassals, +despotically, needing little aid, suffering no interference, asking +no counsel. She managed her immense estates, and the local power and +political weight which her enormous possessions naturally threw into her +hands, with singular capacity and decision. She farmed the lands; she +collected her rents; she built; she planted; she bought and sold; she +lent out money on usury; she traded in timber, coals, lead: in short, +the object she had apparently proposed to herself, the aggrandisement +of her children by all and any means, she pursued with a wonderful +perseverance and good sense. Power so consistently wielded, purposes so +indefatigably followed up, and means so successfully adapted to an end, +are, in a female, very striking. A slight sprinkling of the softer +qualities of her sex, a little + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>[220]</span> + + more elevation of principle, would have +rendered her as respectable and admirable as she was extraordinary; but +there was in this woman's mind the same "fond de vulgarité" which we +see in the character of Queen Elizabeth, and which no height of rank, +or power, or estate, could do away with. In this respect the lady of +Hardwicke was much inferior to that splendid creature, Anne Clifford, +Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Cumberland, another masculine spirit +in the female form, who had the same propensity for building castles and +mansions, the same passion for power and independence, but with more +true generosity and magnanimity, and a touch of poetry and genuine +nobility about her which the other wanted: in short, it was all the +difference between the amazon and the heroine. It is curious enough that +the Duke of Devonshire should be the present representative of both +these remarkable women. +</p> +<p> +But to return: Bess of Hardwicke was now + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>[221]</span> + + approaching her fortieth year; +she had achieved all but nobility—the one thing yet wanting to crown +her swelling fortunes. About the year 1565 (I cannot find the exact +date) she was sought in marriage by George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. +There is no reason to doubt what is asserted, that she had captivated +the earl by her wit and her matronly beauty.<a href="#note-44" name="noteref-44"><small> 44</small></a> He could hardly have +married her from motives of interest: he was himself the richest and +greatest subject in England; a fine chivalrous character, with a +reputation as unstained as his rank was splendid, and his descent +illustrious. He had a family by a former wife, (Gertrude Manners,) to +inherit his titles, and <i>her</i> estates were settled on her children by +Cavendish. It should seem, therefore, that mutual inclination alone +could have made the match advantageous to either party; but Bess of +Hardwicke was still Bess of Hardwicke. She took advantage of her power + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>[222]</span> + + over her husband in the first days of their union. "She induced +Shrewsbury by entreaties or threats to sacrifice, in a measure, +the fortune, interest, and happiness of himself and family to the +aggrandisement of her and her family."<a href="#note-45" name="noteref-45"><small> 45</small></a> She contrived in the first +place to have a large jointure settled on herself; and she arranged +a double union, by which the wealth and interests of the two great +families should be amalgamated. She stipulated that her eldest daughter, +Mary Cavendish, should marry the earl's son, Lord Talbot; and that his +youngest daughter, Grace Talbot, should marry her eldest son, Henry +Cavendish. +</p> +<p> +The French have a proverb worthy of their gallantry—"<i>Ce que femme +veut, Dieu veut</i>:" but even in the feminine gender we are sometimes +reminded of another proverb equally significant—"<i>L'homme propose et +Dieu dispose</i>." Now was Bess of Hardwicke queen of the Peak; she had + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>[223]</span> + + built her erie so high, it seemed to dally with the winds of heaven; her +young eaglets were worthy of their dam, ready plumed to fly at fortune; +she had placed the coronet of the oldest peerage in England on her +own brow, she had secured the reversion of it to her daughter, and she +had married a man whose character was indeed opposed to her own, but +who, from his chivalrous and confiding nature was calculated to make her +happy, by leaving her mistress of herself. +</p> +<p> +In 1568 Mary Stuart, flying into England, was placed in the custody of +the Earl of Shrewsbury, and remained under his care for sixteen years, a +long period of restless misery to the unhappy earl not less than to his +wretched captive. In this dangerous and odious charge was involved the +sacrifice of his domestic happiness, his peace of mind, his health, and +great part of his fortune, His castle was converted into a prison, his +servants into guards, his porter into a turnkey, his + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>[224]</span> + + wife into a spy, +and himself into a jailor, to gratify the ever-waking jealousy of Queen +Elizabeth.<a href="#note-46" name="noteref-46"><small> 46</small></a> But the earl's greatest misfortune was the estrangement, +and at length enmity, of his violent, high-spirited wife. She beheld the +unhappy Mary with a hatred for which there was little excuse, but many +intelligible reasons: she saw her, not as a captive committed to her +womanly mercy, but as an intruder on her rights. Her haughty spirit +was continually irritated by the presence of one in whom she was forced +to acknowledge a superior, even in that very house and domain where +she herself had been used to reign as absolute queen and mistress. The +enormous expenses which this charge entailed on her household were +distracting to her avarice; and, worse than all, jealousy of the youthful +charms and winning manners of the Queen of Scots, and of the constant +intercourse between her and her husband, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>[225]</span> + + seem at length to have driven +her half frantic, and degraded her, with all her wit, and sense, and +spirit, into the despicable treacherous tool of the more artful and +despotic Elizabeth, who knew how to turn the angry and jealous passions +of the countess to her own purposes. +</p> +<p> +It was not, however, all at once that matters rose to such a height: +the fire smouldered for some time ere it burst forth. There is a letter +preserved among the Shrewsbury Correspondence<a href="#note-47" name="noteref-47"><small> 47</small></a> which the countess +addressed to her husband from Chatsworth, at a time when the earl was +keeping guard over Mary at Sheffield castle. It is a most curious +specimen of character. It treats chiefly of household matters, of the +price and goodness of malt and hops, iron and timber, and reproaches him +for not sending her money which was due to her, adding, "I see out of +sight out of mind with you;" she sarcastically inquires "how his charge +and <i>love</i> doth;" she sends him "some <i>letyss</i> (lettuces) + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>[226]</span> + + for that he +loves them," (this common sallad herb was then a rare delicacy;) and +she concludes affectionately, "God send my juill helthe." The incipient +jealousy betrayed in this letter soon after broke forth openly with +a degree of violence towards her husband, and malignity towards his +prisoner, which can hardly be believed. There is distinct evidence that +Shrewsbury was not only a trustworthy, but a rigorous jailor; that he +detested the office forced upon him; that he often begged in the most +abject terms to be released from it; and that harassed on every side by +the tormenting jealousy of his wife, the unrelenting severity and +mistrust of Elizabeth, and the complaints of Mary, he was seized with +several fits of illness, and once by a mental attack, or "phrenesie," as +Cecil terms it, brought on by the agitation of his mind; yet the idea of +resigning his office, except at the pleasure of Queen Elizabeth, never +seems to have entered his imagination. +</p> +<p> +On one occasion Lady Shrewsbury went so far + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>[227]</span> + + as to accuse her husband +openly of intriguing with his prisoner, in every sense of the word; and +she at the same time abused Mary in terms which John Knox himself could +not have exceeded. Mary, deeply incensed, complained of this outrage: +the earl also appealed to Queen Elizabeth, and the countess and her +daughter, Lady Talbot, were obliged to declare upon oath, that this +accusation was false, scandalous, and malicious, and that they were not +the authors of it. This curious affidavit of the mother and daughter is +preserved in the Record Office. +</p> +<p> +In a letter to Lord Leicester, Shrewsbury calls his wife "his wicked +and malicious wife," and accuses her and "her imps," as he irreverently +styles the whole brood of Cavendishes, of conspiring to sow dissensions +between him and his eldest son. These disputes being carried to +Elizabeth, she set herself with heartless policy to foment them in every +possible way. She deemed that her + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>[228]</span> + + safety consisted in employing one part +of the earl's family as spies on the other. In some signal quarrel about +the property round Chatsworth, she commanded the earl to submit to his +wife's pleasure: and though no "tame snake" towards his imperious lady, +as St. Loo and Cavendish had been before him, he bowed at once to the +mandate of his unfeeling sovereign—such was the despotism and such the +loyalty of those days. His reply, however, speaks the bitterness of his +heart. "Sith that her majesty hath set down this hard sentence against +me to my perpetual infamy and dishonour, that I should be ruled and +overrunne by my wife, so bad and wicked a woman; yet her majesty shall +see that I will obey her majesty's commandment, though no curse or +plague on the earth could be more grievous to me." * * "It is too much," +he adds, "to be made my wife's pensioner." Poor Lord Shrewsbury! Can one +help pitying him? +</p> +<p> +Not the least curious part of this family history + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>[229]</span> + + is the double dealing +of the imperious countess. While employed as a spy on Mary, whom she +detested, she, from the natural fearlessness and frankness of her +temper, not unfrequently betrayed Elizabeth, whom she also detested. +While in attendance on Mary, she often gratified her own satirical +humour, and amused her prisoner by giving her a coarse and bitter +portraiture of Elizabeth, her court, her favourites, her miserable +temper, her vanity, and her personal defects. Some report of these +conversations soon reached the queen, (who is very significantly drawn +in one of her portraits in a dress embroidered over with eyes and ears,) +and she required from Mary an account of whatever Lady Shrewsbury had +said to her prejudice. Mary, hating equally the rival who oppressed her +and the domestic harpy who daily persecuted her, was nothing loath to +indulge her feminine spite against the two, and sent Elizabeth such a +circumstantial list of the most gross and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>[230]</span> + + hateful imputations, (all +the time politely assuring her good sister that she did not believe a +word of them,) that the rage and mortification of the queen must have +exceeded all bounds.<a href="#note-48" name="noteref-48"><small> 48</small></a> She kept the letter secret; but Lady Shrewsbury +never was suffered to appear at court after the death of Mary had +rendered her services superfluous. +</p> +<p> +Through all these scenes, the Lady of Hardwicke still pursued her +settled purpose. Her husband complained that he was "never quiet to +satisfy her greedie appetite for money for purchases to set up her +children." Her ambition was equally insatiate, and generally successful: +but in one memorable instance she overshot her mark. She contrived +(unknown to her lord) to marry her favourite daughter, Elizabeth +Cavendish, to Lord Lennox, the younger brother of the murdered + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>[231]</span> + + Darnley, +and consequently standing in the same degree of relationship to the +crown. Queen Elizabeth, in the extremity of her rage and consternation, +ordered both the dowager Lady Lennox and Lady Shrewsbury to the Tower, +where the latter remained for some months; we may suppose, to the great +relief of her husband. He used, however, all his interest to excuse her +delinquency, and at length procured her liberation. But this was not +all. Elizabeth Cavendish, the young Lady Lennox, while yet in all her +bridal bloom, died in the arms of her mother, who appears to have +suffered that searing, lasting grief which stern hearts sometimes feel. +The only issue of this marriage was an infant daughter, that unhappy +Arabella Stuart, who was one of the most memorable victims of jealous +tyranny which our history has recorded. Her very existence, from her +near relationship to the throne, was a crime in the eyes of Elizabeth +and James I. There is no + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>[232]</span> + + evidence that Lady Shrewsbury indulged in any +ambitious schemes for this favourite granddaughter, "her dear jewel, +Arbell," as she terms her;<a href="#note-49" name="noteref-49"><small> 49</small></a> but she did not hesitate to enforce her +claims to royal blood by requiring 600<i>l.</i> a year from the treasury +for her board and education as became the queen's kinswoman. Elizabeth +allowed her 200<i>l.</i> a year, and this pittance Lady Shrewsbury accepted. +Her rent-roll was at this time 60,000<i>l.</i> a year, equal to at least +200,000<i>l.</i> at the present day. +</p> +<p> +The Earl of Shrewsbury died in 1590, at enmity to the last moment +with his wife and son; and the Lady of Hardwicke having survived four +husbands, and seeing all her children settled and prosperous, still +absolute mistress over her family, resided during the last seventeen +years of her life in great state and plenty at Hardwicke, her birth +place. Here she superintended the education of Arabella + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>[233]</span> + + Stuart, who, +as she grew up to womanhood, was kept by her grandmother in a state +of seclusion, amounting almost to imprisonment, lest the jealousy of +Elizabeth should rob her of her treasure.<a href="#note-50" name="noteref-50"><small> 50</small></a> +</p> +<p> +Next to the love of money and power, the chief passion of this magnificent +old beldam, was building. It is a family tradition, that some prophet +had foretold that she should never die as long as she was building, and +she died at last, in 1607, during a hard frost, when her labourers were +obliged to suspend their work. She built Chatsworth, Oldcotes, and +Hardwicke; and Fuller adds in his quaint style that she left "two sacred +(besides civil) monuments of her memory; one that I hope will not be +taken away, (her splendid tomb, erected + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>[234]</span> + + by herself,<a href="#note-51" name="noteref-51"><small> 51</small></a>) and one that +I am sure cannot be taken away, being registered in the court of heaven, +viz. her stately almshouses for twelve poor people at Derby." +</p> +<p> +Of Chatsworth, the hereditary palace of the Dukes of Devonshire, all its +luxurious grandeur, all its treasures of art, it is not here "my hint +to speak." It has been entirely rebuilt since the days of its founder. +Oldcotes was once a magnificent place. There is a tradition at Hardwicke +that old Bess, being provoked by a splendid mansion which the Suttons +had lately erected within view of her windows, declared she would build +a finer dwelling for the owlets, (hence Owlcots or Oldcotes.) She kept +her word, more truly perhaps + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>[235]</span> + + than she intended, for Oldcotes has since +become literally a dwelling for the owls; the chief part of it is in +ruins, and the rest converted into a farmhouse. Her younger daughter, +Frances Cavendish, married Sir Henry Pierrepoint, of Holme-Pierpoint, +and one of the granddaughters married another Pierrepoint—through one +of these marriages, but I know not which, Oldcotes has descended to the +present Earl Manvers. +</p> +<p> +The mansion of Hardwicke was commenced about the year 1592, and finished +in 1597. It stands about a stone's throw from the old house in which +the old countess was born, and which she left standing, as if, says her +biographer, she intended to construct her bed of state close by her +cradle. This fine old ruin remains, grey, shattered, and open to all the +winds of heaven, almost overgrown with ivy, and threatening to tumble +about the ears of the bats and owls which are its sole inhabitants. One +majestic room remains + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>[236]</span> + + entire. It is called the "Giant's Chamber" from +two colossal figures in Roman armour which stand over the huge +chimney-piece. This room has long been considered by architects as a +perfect specimen of grand and beautiful proportion, and has been copied +at Chatsworth and at Blenheim.<a href="#note-52" name="noteref-52"><small> 52</small></a> +</p> +<p> +It must have been in this old hall, and not in the present edifice, that +Mary Stuart resided during her short stay at Hardwicke. I am sorry to +disturb the fanciful or sentimental tourists and sight-seers; but so it +is, or rather, so it must have been. Yet it is not surprising that the +memory of Mary Stuart should now form the principal charm and interest +of Hardwicke, and that she should be in a manner the tutelary genius of +the place. Chatsworth has been burned and rebuilt. Tutbury, Sheffield +castle, Wingfield, Fotheringay, and the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>[237]</span> + + old house of Hardwicke, in short, +every place which Mary inhabited during her captivity, all lie in ruins, +as if struck with a doleful curse. But Hardwicke Hall exists just as +it stood in the reign of Elizabeth. The present Duke of Devonshire, +with excellent taste and feeling, keeps up the old costume within and +without. The bed and furniture which had been used by Mary, the cushions +of her oratory, the tapestry wrought by her own hands, have been removed +hither, and are carefully preserved. There can be no doubt of the +authenticity of these relics, and there is enough surely to consecrate +the whole to our imagination. Moreover, we have but to go to the window +and see the very spot, the very walls which once enclosed her, the very +casements from which she probably gazed with a sigh over the far hills; +and indulge, without one intrusive doubt, in all the romantic and +fascinating, and mysterious, and sorrowful associations, which hang +round the memory of Mary Stuart. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>[238]</span></p> + +<p> +With what different eyes may people view the same things! "We receive +but what we give," says the poet; and all the light, and glory, and +beauty, with which certain objects are in a manner <i>suffused</i> to the eye +of fancy, must issue from our own souls, and be reflected back to us, +else 'tis all in vain. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "We may not hope from outward forms to win, </p> +<p class="i2"> The passion and the life, whose fountains are within!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +When Gray, the poet, visited Hardwicke, he fell at once into a very +poet-like rapture, and did not stop to criticise pictures, and question +authorities. He says in one of his letters to Dr. Wharton, "of all the +places I have seen in my return from you, Hardwicke pleased me most. One +would think that Mary queen of Scotts was but just walked down into the +park with her guard for half an hour: her gallery, her room of audience, +her ante-chamber, with the very canopies, chair of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>[239]</span> + + state, footstool, +<i>lit de repos</i>, oratory, carpets, hangings, just as she left them, a +little tattered indeed, but the more venerable," &c. &c. +</p> +<p> +Now let us hear Horace Walpole, antiquarian, virtuoso, dilettante, +filosofastro—but, in truth, no poet. He is, however, in general so +good-natured, so amusing, and so tasteful, that I cannot conceive what +put him into such a Smelfungus humour when he visited Hardwicke, with +a Cavendish too at his elbow as his cicerone! +</p> +<p> +He says, "the duke sent Lord John with me to Hardwicke, where I was +again disappointed; but I will not take relations from others; they +either don't see for themselves, or can't see for me. How I had been +promised that I should be charmed with Hardwicke, and told that the +Devonshires ought to have established themselves there! Never was I less +charmed in my life. The house is not gothic, but of that <i>betweenity</i> +that intervened when Gothic declined, and Palladian was creeping + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>[240]</span> + + in; +rather, this is totally naked of either. It has vast chambers—aye, +vast, such as the nobility of that time delighted in, and did not +know how to furnish. The great apartment is exactly what it was +when the Queen of Scots was kept there.<a href="#note-53" name="noteref-53"><small> 53</small></a> Her council-chamber (the +council-chamber of a poor woman who had only two secretaries, a +gentleman usher, an apothecary, a confessor, and three maids) is so +outrageously spacious that you would take it for King David's, who +thought, contrary to all modern experience, that in the multitude of +counsellors there is wisdom. At the upper end is the State, with a +long table, covered with a sumptuous cloth, embroidered and embossed +with gold—at least what was gold; so are all the tables. Round the +top of the chamber runs a monstrous frieze, ten or twelve feet deep, +representing + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>[241]</span> + + a stag-hunt in miserable plastered relief.<a href="#note-54" name="noteref-54"><small> 54</small></a> +</p> +<p> +"The next is her dressing-room, hung with patchwork on black velvet; +then her state bed-chamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, +and now hangs in costly golden tatters; the hangings, part of which they +say her majesty worked, are composed of figures as large as life, sewed +and embroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c., and represent the +virtues that were necessary to her, or that she was found to have—as +patience, temperance,<a href="#note-55" name="noteref-55"><small> 55</small></a> &c. The fire-screens are particular;—pieces + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>[242]</span> + + of yellow velvet, fringed with gold, hung on a cross-bar of wood, which +is fixed on the top of a single stick that rises from the foot.<a href="#note-56" name="noteref-56"><small> 56</small></a> The +only furniture which has any appearance of taste are the table and +cabinets, which are of oak, richly carved." +</p> +<p> +(I must observe <i>en passant</i>, that I wonder Horace did not go mad about +the chairs, which + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>[243]</span> + + are exactly in the Strawberry Hill taste, only infinitely +finer, crimson velvet, with backs six feet high, and sumptuously carved.) +</p> +<p> +"There is a private chamber within, where she lay: her arms and style +over the door. The arras hangs over all the doors. The gallery is sixty +yards in length, covered with bad tapestry and wretched pictures of Mary +herself, Elizabeth in a gown of sea-monsters, Lord Darnley, James the +Fifth and his queen, (curious,) and a whole history of kings of England +not worth sixpence a-piece."<a href="#note-57" name="noteref-57"><small> 57</small></a> +</p> +<p> +"There is a fine bank of old oaks in the park over a lake: nothing else +pleased me there." +</p> +<p> +Nothing else! Monsieur Traveller?—certes, this is one way of seeing +things! Yet, perhaps, if I had only visited Hardwicke as a casual object +of curiosity—had merely walked over the place—I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>[244]</span> + + had left it, like +Gray, with some vague impression of pleasure, or like Walpole, with some +flippant criticisms, according to the mood of the moment; or, at the +most, I had quitted it as we generally leave show-places, with some +confused recollections of state-rooms, and blue-rooms, and yellow-rooms, +and storied tapestries, and nameless, or mis-named pictures, floating +through the muddled brain; but it was far otherwise: I was ten days at +Hardwicke—ten delightful days—time enough to get it by heart; aye, +and what is more, ten <i>nights</i>; and I am convinced that to feel all the +interest of such a place one should sleep in it. There is much, too, +in first impressions, and the circumstances under which we approached +Hardwicke were sufficiently striking. It was on a gusty, dark autumnal +evening; and as our carriage wound slowly up the hill, we could but +just discern an isolated building, standing above us on the edge of the +eminence, a black mass against the darkening + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>[245]</span> + + sky. No light was to be +seen, and when we drove clattering under the old gateway, and up the +paved court, the hollow echoes broke a silence which was almost awful. +Then we were ushered into a hall so spacious and lofty that I could +not at the moment discern its bounds; but I had glimpses of huge +escutcheons, and antlers of deer, and great carved human arms projecting +from the walls, intended to sustain lamps or torches, but looking as +if they were stretched out to clutch one. Thence up a stone staircase, +vast, and grand, and gloomy—leading we knew not where, and hung with +pictures of we knew not what—and conducted into a chamber fitted up +as a dining-room, in which the remnants of antique grandeur, the rich +carved oak wainscoting, the tapestry above it, the embroidered chairs, +the collossal armorial bearings above the chimney and the huge recessed +windows, formed a curious contrast with the comfortable modern sofas and +easy + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>[246]</span> + + chairs, the blazing fire, and table hospitably spread in expectation +of our arrival. Then I was sent to repose in a room hung with rich faded +tapestry. On one side of my bed I had king David dancing before the ark, +and on the other, the judgment of Solomon. The executioner in the latter +piece, a grisly giant, seven or eight feet high, seemed to me, as the +arras stirred with the wind, to wave his sword, and looked as if he were +going to eat up the poor child, which he flourished by one leg; and for +some time I lay awake, unable to take my eyes from the figure. At length +fatigue overcame this unpleasant fascination, and I fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +The next morning I began to ramble about, and so day after day, till +every stately chamber, every haunted nook, every secret door, curtained +with heavy arras, and every winding stair, became familiar to me. What +a passion our ancestors must have had for space and light! and what an + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>[247]</span> + + ignorance of comfort! Here are no ottomans of eider down, no spring +cushions, no "boudoirs etroits, où l'on ne boude point," no "demijour +de rendezvous;" but what vast chambers! what interminable galleries! +what huge windows pouring in floods of sunshine! what great carved +oak-chests, such as Iachimo hid himself in! now stuffed full of rich +tattered hangings, tarnished gold fringes, and remnants of embroidered +quilts! what acres—not yards—of tapestries, once of "sky-tinctured +woof," now faded and moth-eaten! what massy chairs and immovable tables! +what heaps of portraits, the men looking so grim and magnificent, and +the women so formal and faded! Before I left the place I had them all by +heart; there was not one among them who would not have bowed or curtsied +to me out of their frames. +</p> +<p> +But there were three rooms in which I especially delighted, and passed +most of my time. The first was the council-chamber described by + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>[248]</span> + + Walpole: +it is sixty-five feet in length, by thirty-three in width, and +twenty-six feet high. Rich tapestry, representing the story of Ulysses, +runs round the room to the height of fifteen or sixteen feet, and above +it the stag-hunt in ugly relief. On one side of this room there is a +spacious recess, at least eighteen or twenty feet square; and across +this, from side to side, to divide it from the body of the room, was +suspended a magnificent piece of tapestry, (real Gobelin's,) of the time +of Louis Quatorze, still fresh and even vivid in tint, which from its +weight hung in immense wavy folds; above it we could just discern the +canopy of a lofty state-bed, with nodding ostrich plumes, which had been +placed there out of the way. The effect of the whole, as I have seen +it, when the red western light streamed through the enormous windows, +was, in its shadowy beauty and depth of colour, that of a "realized +Rembrandt"—if, indeed, even Rembrandt ever painted any thing at once + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>[249]</span> + + so elegant, so fanciful, so gorgeous, and so gloomy. +</p> +<p> +From this chamber, by a folding-door, beautifully inlaid with ebony, +but opening with a common latch, we pass into the library, as it is +called. Here the Duke of Devonshire generally sits when he visits +Hardwicke, perhaps on account of the glorious prospect from the windows. +It contains a grand piano, a sofa, and a range of book-shelves, on +which I found some curious old books. Here I used to sit and read +the voluminous works of that dear, half-mad, absurd, but clever and +good-natured Duchess of Newcastle,<a href="#note-58" name="noteref-58"><small> 58</small></a> and yawn and laugh alternately; +or pore over Guillim on Heraldry;—fit studies for the place! +</p> +<p> +In this room are some good pictures, particularly the portrait of Lady +Anne Boyle, daughter of the first Earl of Burlington, the Lady Sandwich +of Charles the Second's time. This is, without + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>[250]</span> + + exception, the finest +specimen of Sir Peter Lely I ever saw—so unlike the usual style of his +half-dressed, leering women—so full of pensive grace and simplicity—the +hands and arms so exquisitely drawn, and the colouring so rich and so +tender, that I was at once surprised and enchanted. There is also a +remarkably fine picture of a youth with a monkey on his shoulder, said +to be Jeffrey Hudson, (Queen Henrietta's celebrated dwarf,) and painted +by Vandyke. I doubt both. +</p> +<p> +Over the chimney of this room there is a piece of sculptured bas-relief, +in Derbyshire marble, representing Mount Parnassus, with Apollo and the +Muses; in one corner the arms of Queen Elizabeth, and in the other her +cypher, E. R., and the royal crown. I could neither learn the meaning +of this nor the name of the artist. Could it have been a gift from +Queen Elizabeth? There is (I think in the next room) another piece of +sculpture representing the Marriage of Tobias; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>[251]</span> + + and I remember a third, +representing a group of Charity. The workmanship of all these is +surprisingly good for the time, and some of the figures very graceful. +I am surprised that they escaped the notice of Horace Walpole, in his +remarks on the decorations of Hardwicke.<a href="#note-59" name="noteref-59"><small> 59</small></a> Richard Stephens, a Flemish +sculptor and painter, and Valerio Vicentino, an Italian carver in +precious stones, were both employed by the munificent Cavendishes of +that time; and these pieces of sculpture were probably the work of one +of these artists. +</p> +<p> +When tired of turning over the old books, a door concealed behind the +arras admitted me at once into the great gallery—my favourite haunt +and daily promenade. It is near one hundred and eighty feet in length, +lighted along one side by a range of stupendous windows, which project +outwards from so many angular recesses. In the centre pier is a throne, +or couch of state, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>[252]</span> + + on a raised platform, under a canopy of crimson and +gold, surmounted by plumes of ostrich feathers. The walls are partly +tapestried, and covered with some hundreds of family pictures; none +indeed of any superlative merit—none that emulate within a thousand +degrees the matchless Vandykes and glorious Titians of Devonshire House; +but among many that are positively bad, and more that are lamentably +mediocre as works of art, there are several of great interest. At each +end of this gallery is a door, and, according to the tradition of the +place, every night, at the witching hour of twelve, Queen Elizabeth +enters at one door, and Mary of Scotland at the other; they advance to +the centre, curtsey profoundly, then sit down together under the canopy +and converse amicably,—till the crowing of the cock breaks up the +conference, and sends the two majesties back to their respective +hiding-places. +</p> +<p> +Somebody who was asked if he had ever seen a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>[253]</span> + + ghost? replied, gravely, +"No; but I was once <i>very near</i> seeing one!" In the same manner I was +once <i>very near</i> being a witness to one of these ghostly confabs. +</p> +<p> +Late one evening, having left my sketch-book in the gallery, I went to +seek it. I made my way up the great stone staircase with considerable +intrepidity, passed through one end of the council-chamber without +casting a glance through the palpable obscure, the feeble ray of my +wax-light just spreading about a yard around me, and lifting aside the +tapestry door, stepped into the gallery. Just as the heavy arras fell +behind me, with a dull echoing sound, a sudden gust of wind came rushing +by, and extinguished my taper. Angels and ministers of grace defend +us!—not that I felt afraid—O no! but just a little what the Scotch +call "eerie." A thrill, not altogether unpleasant, came over me: the +visionary turn of mind which once united me in fancy "with the world +unseen," + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>[254]</span> + + had long been sobered and reasoned away. I heard no "viewless +paces of the dead," nor "airy skirts unseen that rustled by;" but what I +did see and hear was enough. The wind whispering and moaning along the +tapestried walls, and every now and then rattling twenty or thirty +windows at once, with such a crash!—and the pictures around just +sufficiently perceptible in the faint light to make me fancy them +staring at me. Then immediately behind me was the very recess, or rather +abyss, where Queen Elizabeth was at that moment settling her +farthingale, to sally out upon me; and before me, but lost in blackest +gloom, the spectral door, where Mary—not that I should have minded +encountering poor Mary, provided always that she had worn her own +beautiful head where heaven placed it, and not carried it, as Bertrand +de Born carried <i>his</i> "a guisa di lanterna."<a href="#note-60" name="noteref-60"><small> 60</small></a> As to what followed, it +is a secret. Suffice it that I found + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>[255]</span> + + myself safe by the fireside in my +bedroom, without any very distinct recollection of how I got there. +</p> +<p> +Of all the scenes in which to moralize and meditate, a picture gallery +is to me the most impressive. With the most intense feeling of the +beauty of painting, I cannot help thinking with Dr. Johnson, that as +far as regards portraits, their chief excellence and value consist +in the likeness and the authenticity,<a href="#note-61" name="noteref-61"><small> 61</small></a> and not in the merit of the +execution. When we can associate a story or a sentiment with every face +and form, they almost live to us—they do in a manner speak to us. There +is speculation in those fixed eyes—there is eloquence in those mute +lips—and, O! what tales they tell! One of the first pictures which +caught my attention as I entered the gallery + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>[256]</span> + + was a small head of Arabella +Stuart, when an infant. The painting is poor enough: it is a little +round rosy face in a child's cap, and she holds an embroidered doll in +her hand. Who could look on this picture, and not glance forward through +succeeding years, and see the pretty playful infant transformed into the +impassioned woman, writing to her husband—"In sickness, and in despair, +wheresoever thou art, or howsoever I be, it sufficeth me always that +thou art mine!" Arabella Stewart was not clever; but not Heloise, nor +Corinne, nor Madlle. De l'Espinasse ever penned such a dear little +morsel of touching eloquence—so full of all a woman's tenderness! Her +stern grandmother, the lady and foundress of Hardwicke, hangs near. +There are three pictures of her: all the faces have an expression of +sense and acuteness, but none of them the beauty which is attributed to +her. There are also two of her husbands, Cavendish and Shrewsbury. The + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>[257]</span> + + former a grave, intelligent head; the latter very striking from +the lofty furrowed brow, the ample beard, and regular but care-worn +features. A little farther on we find his son Gilbert, seventh earl of +Shrewsbury, and Mary Cavendish, wife of the latter and daughter of Bess +of Hardwicke. She resembled her mother in features as in character. +The expression is determined, intelligent, and rather cunning. Of her +haughty and almost fierce temper, a curious instance is recorded. She +had quarrelled with her neighbours, the Stanhopes, and not being able +to defy them with sword and buckler, she sent one of her gentlemen, +properly attended, with a message to Sir Thomas Stanhope, to be +delivered in presence of witnesses, in these words—"My lady hath +commanded me to say thus much to you: that though you be more wretched, +vile, and miserable than any creature living, and for your wickedness +become more ugly in shape than the vilest toad in the world; and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>[258]</span> + + one to +whom none of any reputation would vouchsafe to send any message; yet +she hath thought good to send thus much to you, that she be contented +you should live, (and doth noways wish your death,) but to this end: +that all the plagues and miseries that may befall any man, may light on +such a caitiff as you are," &c.; (and then a few anathemas, yet more +energetic, not fit to be transcribed by "pen polite," but ending with +<i>hell-fire</i>.) "With many other opprobrious and hateful words which could +not be remembered, because the bearer would deliver it but once, as he +said he was commanded; but said, if he had failed in any thing, it was +in speaking it more mildly, and not in terms of such disdain as he was +commanded." We are not told whether the gallantry of Stanhope suffered +him to throw the herald out of the window, who brought him this gentle +missive. As for the termagant countess, his adversary, she was afterwards +imprisoned in the Tower for + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>[259]</span> + + upwards of two years, on account of Lady +Arabella Stuart's stolen match with Lord Seymour. She ought assuredly to +have "brought forth men-children only;" but she left no son. Her three +daughters married the earls of Pembroke, of Arundel, and of Kent. +</p> +<p> +The portraits of James V. of Scotland and his Queen, Mary of Guise, are +extremely curious. There is something ideal and elegant about the head +of James V.—the look we might expect to find in a man who died from +wounded feeling. His more unhappy daughter, poor Mary, hangs near—a +full length in a mourning habit, with a white cap, (of her own peculiar +fashion,) and a veil of white gauze. This, I believe, is the celebrated +picture so often copied and engraved. It is dated 1578, the thirty-sixth +of her age, and the tenth of her captivity. The figure is elegant, and +the face pensive and sweet.<a href="#note-62" name="noteref-62"><small> 62</small></a> Beside her, in strong contrast, hangs + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>[260]</span> + + Elizabeth, in a most preposterous farthingale, and a superabundance +of all her usual absurdities and enormities of dress. The petticoat is +embroidered over with snakes, crocodiles, and all manner of creeping +things. We feel almost inclined to ask whether the artist could possibly +have intended them as emblems, like the eyes and ears in her picture +at Hatfield; but it may have been one of the three thousand gowns, +in which Spenser's Gloriana, Raleigh's Venus, loved to array her old +wrinkled, crooked carcase. Katherine of Arragon is here—a small head +in a hood: the face not only harsh, as in all her pictures, but vulgar, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>[261]</span> + + characteristic I never saw in any other. There is that peculiar +expression round the mouth, which might be called either decision or +obstinacy. And here too is the famous Lucy Harrington, Countess of +Bedford, the friend and patroness of Ben Jonson, looking sentimental in +a widow's dress, with a white pocket handkerchief. There is character +enough in the countenance to make us turn with pleasure to Ben Jonson's +exquisite eulogium on her. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet, </p> +<p class="i4"> Hating that solemn vice of greatness, <i>pride</i>: </p> +<p class="i2"> I meant each softest virtue there should meet, </p> +<p class="i4"> Fit in that softer bosom to reside. </p> +<p class="i2"> Only a learned and a manly soul </p> +<p class="i4"> I purposed her; that should with even powers </p> +<p class="i2"> The rock, the spindle, and the sheers controul </p> +<p class="i4"> Of destiny, and spin her own free hours!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Farther on is another more celebrated woman, Christian Bruce, the second +Countess of Devonshire, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>[262]</span> + + so distinguished in the reigns of Charles I. +and Charles II. She had all the good qualities of Bess of Hardwicke: +her sense, her firmness, her talents for business, her magnificent and +independent spirit, and none of her faults. She was as feminine as she +was generous and high-minded; fond of literature, and a patroness of +poets and learned men:—altogether a noble creature. She was the mother +of that lovely Lady Rich, "the wise, the fair, the virtuous, and the +young,"<a href="#note-63" name="noteref-63"><small> 63</small></a> whose picture by Vandyke is at Devonshire-house, and there +are two pictures at Hardwicke of her handsome, gallant, and accomplished +son, Charles Cavendish, who was killed at the battle of Gainsborough. +Many fair eyes almost wept themselves blind for his loss, and his mother +never recovered the "sore heart-break of his death." +</p> +<p> +There are several pictures of her grandson, the first Duke of +Devonshire—the patriot, the statesman, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>[263]</span> + + the munificent patron of letters, +the poet, the man of gallantry, and, to crown all, the handsomest man of +his day. He was one of the leaders in the revolution of 1688—for be it +remembered that the Cavendishes, from generation to generation, have +ennobled their nobility by their love of liberty, as well as their love +of literature and the arts. One picture of this duke on horseback, <i>en +grand costume à la Louis Quatorze</i>, is so embroidered and bewigged, so +plumed, and booted, and spurred, that he is scarcely to be discerned +through his accoutrements. A cavalier of those days in full dress must +have been a ponderous concern; but then the ladies were as formidably +vast and aspiring. The petticoats at this time were so discursive, and +the head-dresses so ambitious, that I think it must have been to save +in canvass what they expended in satin or brocade, that so many of the +pretty women of that day were painted <i>en bergère</i>. +</p> +<p> +Apropos to the first Duke of Devonshire: I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>[264]</span> + + cannot help remarking the +resemblance of the present duke to his illustrious ancestor, as well +as to several other portraits, and particularly to a very distant +relative—the first Countess of Burlington, who was, I believe, the +great-grandmother of his grace's grandmother;—in both these instances +the likeness is so striking as to be recognized at once, and not without +a smiling exclamation of surprise. +</p> +<p> +Another interesting picture is that of Rachael Russell, the second +Duchess of Devonshire, daughter of that heroine and saint, Lady Russell: +the face is very beautiful, and the air elegant and high-bred—with +rather a pouting expression in the full red lips. +</p> +<p> +Here is also the third duchess, Miss Hoskins, a great city heiress. +The painter, I suspect, has flattered her, for she had not in her day +the reputation of beauty. When I looked at this picture, so full of +delicate, and youthful, and smiling + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>[265]</span> + + loveliness, I could not help +recurring to a passage in Horace Walpole's letters, in which he alludes +to this sylph-like being, as the "ancient grace," and congratulates +himself on finding her in good-humour. +</p> +<p> +But of all the female portraits, the one which struck me most was that +of Lady Charlotte Boyle, the young Marchioness of Hartington, in a +masquerade habit of purple satin, embroidered with silver; a fanciful +little cap and feathers, thrown on one side, and the dark hair escaping +in luxuriant tresses; she holds a mask in her hand, which she has just +taken off, and looks round upon us in all the consciousness of happy and +high-born loveliness. She was the daughter and heiress of Richard Boyle, +the last Earl of Burlington and Cork, and Baroness Clifford in her own +right. The merits of the Cavendishes were their own, but their riches +and power, in several instances, were brought into the family by a +softer influence. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>[266]</span> + + Through her, I believe, the vast estates of the Boyles +and Cliffords in Ireland and the north of England, including Chiswick +and Bolton Abbey, have descended to her grandson, the present duke.<a href="#note-64" name="noteref-64"><small> 64</small></a> +There are several pictures of her here—one playing on the harpsichord, +and another, small and very elegant, in which she is mounted on a +spirited horse. There are two heads of her in crayons, by her mother, +Lady Burlington,<a href="#note-65" name="noteref-65"><small> 65</small></a> ill-executed, but said to be like her. And another +picture, representing her and her beautiful but ill-fated sister, Lady +Dorothy, who was married very young to Lord Euston, and died six months +afterwards, in consequence of the brutal treatment of her husband.<a href="#note-66" name="noteref-66"><small> 66</small></a> + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>[267]</span> + + All the pictures of Lady Hartington have the same marked character of +pride, intellect, vivacity, and loveliness. But short was her gay and +splendid career! She died of a decline in the sixth year of her marriage, +at the age of four-and-twenty. +</p> +<p> +Here is also her father, Lord Burlington, celebrated by Pope, (who has +dedicated to him the second of his epistles "on the use of riches,") +and styled by Walpole, "the Apollo of the Arts," which he not only +patronised, but studied and cultivated; his enthusiasm for architecture +was + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>[268]</span> + + such, that he not only designed and executed buildings for himself, +(the villa at Chiswick, for example,) but contributed great sums to +public works; and at his own expense published an edition of the designs +of Palladio and of Inigo Jones. In one picture of Lord Burlington +there is a head of his idol, Inigo Jones, in the background. There is +also a good picture of Robert Boyle, the philosopher, a spare, acute, +contemplative, interesting face, in which there is as much sensibility +as thought. He is said to have died of grief for the loss of his +favourite sister, Lady Ranelagh; and when we recollect who and what +<i>she</i> was—the sole friend of his solitary heart—the partner of his +studies, and with qualities which rendered her the object of Milton's +enthusiastic admiration, and almost tender regard, we scarce think less +of her brother's philosophy, that it afforded him no consolation for the +loss of <i>such</i> a sister. +</p> +<p> +On the other side hangs another philosopher, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>[269]</span> + + Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury, +whose bold speculations in politics and metaphysics, and the odium +they drew on him, rendered his whole life one continued warfare with +established prejudices and opinions. He was tutor in the family of the +first Earl of Devonshire, in 1607—remained constantly attached to the +house of Cavendish—and never lost their countenance and patronage in +the midst of all the calumnies heaped upon him. He died at Hardwicke +under the protection of the first Duke of Devonshire, in 1678. This +curious portrait represents him at the age of ninety-two. The picture +is not good as a picture, but striking from the evident truth of the +expression—uniting the last lingering gleam of thought with the +withered, wrinkled, and almost ghastly decrepitude of extreme age. +It has, I believe, been engraved by Hollar. +</p> +<p> +I looked round for Henry Cavendish, the great chemist and natural +philosopher—another bright + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>[270]</span> + + ornament of a family every way ennobled—but +there is no portrait of him at Hardwicke. I was also disappointed not to +find the "limned effigy," as she would call it, of my dear Margaret of +Newcastle. +</p> +<p> +There are plenty of kings and queens, truly not worth "sixpence +a-piece," as Walpole observes; but there is one picture I must not +forget—that of the brave and accomplished Earl of Derby, who was +beheaded at Bolton-le-Moor, the husband of the heroic "Lady of Lathom," +who figures in Peveril of the Peak. The head has a grand melancholy +expression, and I should suppose it to be a copy from Vandyke. +</p> +<p> +Besides these, were many others calculated to awaken in the thoughtful +mind both sweet and bitter fancies. How often have I walked up and down +this noble gallery lost in "commiserating reveries" on the vicissitudes of +departed grandeur!—on the nothingness of all that life could give!—on +the fate of youthful beauties who lived to be + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>[271]</span> + + broken-hearted, grow old, +and die!—on heroes that once walked the earth in the blaze of their +fame, now gone down to dust, and an endless darkness!—on bright faces, +"petries de lis et de roses," since time-wrinkled!—on noble forms since +mangled in the battle-field!—on high-born heads that fell beneath the +axe of the executioner!—O ye starred and ribboned! ye jewelled and +embroidered! ye wise, rich, great, noble, brave, and beautiful, of all +your loves and smiles, your graces and excellencies, your deeds and +honours—does then a "painted board circumscribe all?" +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>[272]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>[273]</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +<big>ALTHORPE.</big> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>[274]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<p><!--[Blank Page]--><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>[275]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0008" id="h2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + ALTHORPE. +</h2> +<h3> + A FRAGMENT. +</h3> + +<p> +It was on such a day as I have seen in Italy in the month of December, +but which, in our chill climate, seemed so unseasonably, so ominously +beautiful, that it was like the hectic loveliness brightening the eyes +and flushing the cheek of consumption,—that I found myself in the +domains of Althorpe. Autumn, dying in the lap of Winter, looked out with +one bright parting smile;—the soft air breathed of Summer; the withered +leaves, heaped on the path, told a different tale. The slant, pale sun +shone out with all heaven to + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>[276]</span> + + himself; not a cloud was there, not a breeze +to stir the leafless woods—those venerable woods, which Evelyn loved +and commemorated:<a href="#note-67" name="noteref-67"><small> 67</small></a> the fine majestic old oaks, scattered over the +park, tossed their huge bare arms against the blue sky; a thin hoar +frost, dissolving as the sun rose higher, left the lawns and hills +sparkling and glancing in its ray; now and then a hare raced across the +open glade— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "And with her feet she from the plashy earth </p> +<p class="i2"> Raises a mist, which glittering in the sun, </p> +<p class="i2"> Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Nothing disturbed the serene stillness except a pheasant whirring from a +neighbouring thicket, or + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>[277]</span> + + at intervals the belling of the deer—a sound +so peculiar, and so fitted to the scene, that I sympathized in the +taste of one of the noble progenitors of the Spencers, who had built +a hunting-lodge in a sequestered spot, that he might hear "the harte +bell." +</p> +<p> +This was a day, an hour, a scene, with all its associations, its +quietness and beauty, "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." +All worldly cares and pains were laid asleep; while memory, fancy, and +feeling waked. Althorpe does not frown upon us in the gloom of remote +antiquity; it has not the warlike glories of some of the baronial +residences of our old nobility; it is not built like a watch-tower +on a hill, to lord it over feudal vassals; it is not bristled with +battlements and turrets. It stands in a valley, with the gradual hills +undulating round it, clothed with rich woods. It has altogether a look +of compactness and comfort, without pretension, which, with the pastoral + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>[278]</span> + + beauty of the landscape, and low situation, recall the ancient vocation +of the family, whose grandeur was first founded, like that of the +patriarchs of old, on the multitude of their flocks and herds.<a href="#note-68" name="noteref-68"><small> 68</small></a> It +was in the reign of Henry the Eighth that Althorpe became the principal +seat of the Spencers, and no place of the same date can boast so many +delightful, romantic, and historical associations. There is Spenser the +poet, "high-priest of all the Muses' mysteries," who modestly claimed, +as an honour, his relationship to those Spencers who now, with a just +pride, boast of <i>him</i>, and deem his Faery Queen "the brightest jewel in +their coronet;" and the beautiful Alice Spencer, countess of Derby, who +was celebrated in early youth by her poet-cousin, and for whom Milton, +in her old age, wrote his "Arcades." At Althorpe, in 1603, the queen and +son of James the First were, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>[279]</span> + + on their arrival in England, nobly +entertained with a masque, written for the occasion by Ben Jonson, in +which the young ladies and nobles of the country enacted nymphs and +fairies, satyrs and hunters, and danced to the sound of "excellent soft +music," their scenery the natural woods, their stage the green lawn, +their canopy the summer sky. What poetical picturesque hospitality! +In these days it would have been a dinner, with French cooks and +confectioners express from London to dress it. Here lived Waller's +famous Sacharissa, the first Lady Sunderland—so beautiful and good, +so interesting in herself, she needed not his wit nor his poetry to +enshrine her. Here she parted from her young husband,<a href="#note-69" name="noteref-69"><small> 69</small></a> when he left +her to join the king in the field; and here, a few months after, she +received the news of his death in the battle of Newbury, and saw her +happiness wrecked at the age of three-and-twenty. Here plotted her +distinguished + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>[280]</span> + + son, that Proteus of politics, the second Lord Sunderland. +Charles the First was playing at bowls on the green at Althorpe, when +Colonel Joyce's detachment surprised him, and carried him off to +imprisonment and to death. Here the excellent and accomplished Evelyn +used to meditate in the "noble gallerie," and in the "ample gardens," of +which he has left us an admiring and admirable description, which would +be as suitable today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago, with the +single exception of the great proprietor, deservedly far more honoured +in this generation than was his apostate time-serving ancestor, the +Lord Sunderland of Evelyn's day.<a href="#note-70" name="noteref-70"><small> 70</small></a> When the Spencers were divided, +the eldest branch of the family becoming Dukes of Marlborough and the +youngest Earls Spencer—if the former inherited glory, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>[281]</span> + + Blenheim, and +poverty—to the latter have belonged more true and more substantial +distinctions: for the last three generations the Spencers have been +remarked for talents, for benevolence, for constancy, for love of +literature, and patronage of the fine arts. +</p> +<p> +The house retains the form described by Evelyn—that of a half H: +a slight irregularity is caused by the new gothic room, built by +the present earl, to contain part of his magnificent library, which, +like the statue in the Castle of Otranto, had grown "too big for what +contained it." We entered by a central door the large and lofty hall, or +vestibule, hung round with pictures of fox-chases and those who figured +in them, famous hunters, quadruped and biped, all as large as life, +spread over as much canvass as would make a mainsail for a man-of-war. +These huge perpetrations are of the time of Jack Spencer, a noted Nimrod +in his day; and are very fine, as we were told, but they did not +interest me. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>[282]</span> + + I had caught a glimpse of the superb staircase, hung round +with pictures above and below, and not the less interesting as having +been erected by Sacharissa herself during the few years she was mistress +of Althorpe. A face looked at us from over an opposite door, which there +was no resisting. Does the reader remember Horace Walpole's pleasant +description of a party of <i>seers</i> posting through the apartments of a +show-place? "They come; ask what such a room is called?—write it down; +admire a lobster or cabbage in a Dutch market piece; dispute whether the +last room was green or purple; and then hurry to the inn, for fear the +fish should be over-dressed."<a href="#note-71" name="noteref-71"><small> 71</small></a> We were not such a party; but with +imaginations ready primed to take fire, and memories enriched with all +the associations the place could suggest, to us every portrait was a +history. The orthodox style of seeing the house is to turn to the left, +and view + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>[283]</span> + + the ground-floor apartments first; but the face I have mentioned +seemed to beckon me straight-forward, and I could not choose but obey +the invitation: it was that of Lady Bridgewater, the loveliest of the +four lovely daughters of the Duke of Marlborough: she had the misfortune +to be painted by Jervas, and the good fortune to be celebrated by Pope +as the "tender sister, daughter, friend, and wife;" and again— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Thence Beauty, waking, all her forms supplies— </p> +<p class="i2"> An angel's sweetness—or Bridgewater's eyes." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Jervas was supposed to have been presumptuously and desperately in love +with this beautiful woman, who died at the age of five-and-twenty: hence +Pope has taken the liberty—by a poetical licence, no doubt—to call +her, in his Epistle to Jervas, "<i>thy</i> Bridgewater." Two of her fair +sisters, the Duchess of Montagu and Lady Godolphin, hung near her; and +above, her fairer sister, Lady + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>[284]</span> + + Sunderland. Ascending the magnificent +staircase, a hundred faces look down upon us, in a hundred different +varieties of expression, in a hundred different costumes. Here are Queen +Anne and Sarah Duchess of Marlborough placed amicably side by side, +as in the days of their romantic friendship, when they conversed and +corresponded as Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman: the beauty, the intellect, +the spirit, are all on the side of the imperious duchess; the poor queen +looks like what she was, a good-natured fool. On the left is the cunning +abigail, who supplanted the duchess in the favour of Queen Anne—Mrs. +Masham. Proceeding along the gallery, we are met by the portrait of that +angel-devil, Lady Shrewsbury,<a href="#note-72" name="noteref-72"><small> 72</small></a> whose exquisite beauty fascinates at +once and shocks the eye like the gorgeous colours of an adder. I believe +the story of her holding the Duke of Buckingham's horse while he shot +her husband in a duel, has been disputed; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>[285]</span> + + but her attempt to assassinate +Killegrew, while she sat by in her carriage,<a href="#note-73" name="noteref-73"><small> 73</small></a> is too true. So far had +her depravities unsexed her! +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> ——"Lorsque la vertu, avec peine abjurée, </p> +<p class="i2"> Nous fait voir une femme à ses fureurs livrée, </p> +<p class="i2"> S'irritant par l'effort que ce pas a couté, </p> +<p class="i2"> Son âme avec plus d'art a plus de cruauté." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +She was even less famous for the number of her lovers, than the +catastrophes of which she was the cause. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Had ever nymph such reason to be glad? </p> +<p class="i2"> Two in a duel fell, and one ran mad." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Not two, but half a dozen fell in duels; and if her lovers "ran mad," +it was in despite, not in despair. Lady Shrewsbury is past jesting or +satire; and after a first involuntary pause of admiration before her +matchless beauty, we turn away with horror. For the rest of the +portraits on this vast + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>[286]</span> + + staircase, it would take a volume to give a +<i>catalogue raisonnée</i> of them. We pass, then, into a corridor hung with +two large and very mediocre landscapes, representing Tivoli and Terni. +Any attempt, even the best, to paint a cataract <i>must</i> be abortive. How +render to the fancy the two grandest of its features—sound and motion? +the thunder and the tumult of the headlong waters? We will pass on to +the gallery, and lose ourselves in its enchantments. +</p> +<p> +Where shall we begin?—Any where. Throw away the catalogue: all are old +acquaintances. We are tempted to speak to them, and they look as if they +could curtsey to us. The very walls breathe around us. What Vandykes—what +Lelys—what Sir Joshuas! what a congregation of all that is beauteous +and noble!—what Spencers, Sydneys, Digbys, Russells, Cavendishes, +and Churchills!—O what a scene to moralize, to philosophize, to +sentimentalize in!—what histories in + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>[287]</span> + + those eyes, that look, yet see +not!—what sermons on those lips, that all but speak; I would rather +reflect in a picture-gallery, than elegize in a churchyard. The "poca +polvere che nulla sente," can only tell us we must die; these, with +a more useful and deep-felt morality, tell us how to live. +</p> +<p> +Yet I cannot say I felt thus pensive and serious the first time I +looked round the gallery at Althorpe. Curiosity, excitement, interest, +admiration—a crowd of quick successive images and recollections +fleeting across the memory—left me no time to think. I remember being +startled, the moment I entered, by a most extraordinary picture,—the +second Prince of Orange, and his preceptor Katts, by Flinck. The eyes of +the latter are really shockingly alive; they stare out of the canvass, +and glitter and fascinate like those of a serpent. If I had been a Roman +Catholic, I should have crossed myself, as I looked at them, to shield +me from their evil and supernatural + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>[288]</span> + + expression.<a href="#note-74" name="noteref-74"><small> 74</small></a> The picture of the +two Sforzas, Maximilian and his brother Francis, by Albert Durer, is +quite a curiosity; and so is another, by Holbein, near it, containing +the portraits of Henry the Eighth, his daughter Mary, and his jester, +Will Somers,—all full of individuality and truth. The expression in +Mary's face, at once saturnine, discontented and vulgar, is especially +full of character. These last three pictures are curious and valuable as +specimens of art; but they are not pleasing. We turn to the matchless +Vandykes, at once admirable as paintings, and yet more interesting as +portraits. A full-length of his master and friend, Rubens, dressed in +black, is magnificent; the attitude particularly graceful. Near the +centre of the gallery is the charming full-length of Queen Henrietta + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>[289]</span> + + Maria, a well-known and celebrated picture. She is dressed in white +satin, and stands near a table on which is a vase of white roses, and, +more in the shade, her regal crown. Nothing can be in finer taste than +the contrast between the rich, various, but subdued colours of the +carpet and background, and the delicate, and harmonious, and brilliant +tints which throw out the figure. None of the pictures I had hitherto +seen of Henrietta, either in the king's private collection, or at +Windsor, do justice to the sparkling grace of her figure, or the +vivacity and beauty of her eyes, so celebrated by all the contemporary +poets. Waller, for instance:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Could Nature then no private woman grace, </p> +<p class="i2"> Whom we might dare to love, with such a face, </p> +<p class="i2"> Such a complexion, and so radiant eyes, </p> +<p class="i2"> Such lovely motion, and such sharp replies?" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Davenant styles her, very beautifully, "The + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>[290]</span> + + rich-eyed darling of a +monarch's breast." Lord Holland, in the description he sent from Paris, +dwells on the charm of her eyes, her smile, and her graceful figure, +though he admits her to be rather <i>petite</i>; and if the poet and the +courtier be distrusted, we have the authority of the puritanic Sir +Symond d'Ewes, who allows the influence of her "excellent and sparkling +black eyes." Henrietta could be very seductive, and had all the French +grace of manner; but, as is well known, she could play the virago, "and +cast such a scowl, as frightened all the lords and ladies in waiting." +Too much importance is attached to her character and her influence over +her husband, in the histories of that time. She was a fascinating, but +a superficial and volatile Frenchwoman. With all her feminine love +of sway, she had not sufficient energy to govern; and with all her +disposition to intrigue, she never had discretion enough to keep her +own or the king's secrets. When she rushed + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>[291]</span> + + through a storm of bullets +to save a favourite lap-dog; or when, amid the shrieks and entreaties +of her terrified attendants, she commanded the captain of her vessel to +"blow up the ship rather than strike to the Parliamentarian,"—it was +more the spirit and wilfulness of a woman, who, with all her faults, +had the blood of Henri Quatre in her veins, than the mental energy +and resolute fortitude of a heroine. Near her hangs her daughter, who +inherited her grace, her beauty, her petulance,—the unhappy Henriette +d'Orleans,<a href="#note-75" name="noteref-75"><small> 75</small></a> fair, radiant, and lively, with a profusion of beautiful +hair; it is impossible to look from the mother to the daughter, without +remembering the scene in Retz's memoirs, when the queen said to him, in +excuse for her daughter's absence, "My poor Henrietta is obliged to lie +in bed, for I have no + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>[292]</span> + + wood to make a fire for her—et la pauvre enfant +était transie de froid." +</p> +<p> +Another picture by Vandyke hangs at the top of the room, one of the +grandest and most spirited of his productions. It represents William, +the first Duke of Bedford, the father of Lord William Russell, when +young, and his brother-in-law, the famous (and infamous) Digby, Earl +of Bristol. How admirably Vandyke has caught the characters of the two +men!—the fine commanding form of the duke, as he steps forward, the +frank, open countenance, expressive of all that is good and noble, speak +him what he was—not less than that of Digby, which, though eminently +handsome, has not one elevated or amiable trait in the countenance; the +drapery, background, and more especially the hands, are magnificently +painted. On one side of this superb picture, hangs the present Earl +Spencer when a youth; and on the other, his sister, Georgiana Duchess +of Devonshire, at the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>[293]</span> + + age of eighteen, looking all life and high-born +loveliness, and reminding one of Coleridge's beautiful lines to her:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Light as a dream your days their circlets ran </p> +<p class="i2"> From all that teaches brotherhood to man, </p> +<p class="i2"> Far, far removed! from want, from grief, from fear! </p> +<p class="i2"> Obedient music lull'd your infant ear; </p> +<p class="i2"> Obedient praises soothed your infant heart; </p> +<p class="i4"> Emblazonments and old ancestral crests, </p> +<p class="i2"> With many a bright obtrusive form of art, </p> +<p class="i4"> Detain'd your eye from nature. Stately vests, </p> +<p class="i2"> That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, </p> +<p class="i2"> Rich viands and the pleasurable wine, </p> +<p class="i2"> Were yours unearn'd by toil."—— </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +And he thus beautifully alludes to her maternal character; for this +accomplished woman set the example to the highest ranks, of nursing +her own children:— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "You were a mother! at your bosom fed </p> +<p class="i4"> The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, </p> +<p class="i2"> Each twilight thought, each nascent feeling read, </p> +<p class="i4"> Which you yourself created." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>[294]</span></p> + +<p> +Alas, that such a beginning should have such an end! +</p> +<p> +Both these are whole-lengths, by Sir Joshua Reynolds: the middle tints +are a little flown, else they were perfect; they suffer by being hung +near the glowing yet mellowed tints of Vandyke. +</p> +<p> +We have here a whole bevy of the heroines of De Grammont, delightful +to those who have what Walpole used to call the "De Grammont madness" +upon them. Here is that beautiful, audacious termagant, Castlemaine, +very like her picture at Windsor, and with the same characteristic bit +of storm gleaming in the background.—Lady Denham,<a href="#note-76" name="noteref-76"><small> 76</small></a> the wife of +the poet, Sir John Denham, and niece of that Lord Bristol who figures +in Vandyke's picture above mentioned—a lovely creature, and a sweet +picture.—Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, who so long +ruled the heart and councils of Charles the Second, in Lely's finest + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>[295]</span> + + style; the face has a look of blooming innocence, soon exchanged +for coarseness and arrogance.—The indolent, alluring Middleton, +looking from under her sleepy eyelids, "trop coquette pour rebuter +personne."—"La Belle Hamilton," the lovely prize of the volatile De +Grammont; very like her portrait at Windsor, with the same finely formed +bust and compressed ruby lips, but with an expression more vivacious and +saucy, and less elevated.—Two portraits of Nell Gwyn, with the fair +brown air and small bright eyes they ought to have; <i>au reste</i>, with +such prim, sanctified mouths, and dressed with such elaborate decency, +that instead of reminding us of the "parole sciolte d'ogni freno, risi, +vezzi, giuochi"—they are more like Beck Marshall, the puritan's +daughter, on her good behaviour.<a href="#note-77" name="noteref-77"><small> 77</small></a> +</p> +<p> +Here is that extraordinary woman Hortense + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>[296]</span> + + Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, +the fame of whose beauty and gallantries filled all Europe, and once the +intended wife of Charles the Second, though she afterwards intrigued in +vain for the less (or more) eligible post of <i>maitresse en titre</i>. What +an extraordinary, wild, perverted, good-for-nothing, yet interesting set +of women, were those four Mancini sisters! all victims, more or less, to +the pride, policy, or avarice, of their cardinal uncle; all gifted by +nature with the fervid Italian blood and the plotting Italian brain; all +really <i>aventuriéres</i>, while they figured as duchesses and princesses. +They wore their coronets and ermine as strolling players wear their +robes of state—with a sort of picturesque awkwardness—and they proved +rather too scanty to cover a multitude of sins. +</p> +<p> +This head of Hortense Mancini, as Cleopatra dissolving the pearl, is the +most spirited, but the least beautiful portrait I have seen of her. An + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>[297]</span> + + appropriate pendant on the opposite side is her lover, philosopher, and +eulogist, the witty St. Evremond—Grammont's "Caton de Normandie;" but +instead of looking like a good-natured epicurean, a man "who thought as +he liked, and liked what he thought,"<a href="#note-78" name="noteref-78"><small> 78</small></a> his nose is here wrinkled up +into an expression of the most supercilious scorn, adding to his native +ugliness.<a href="#note-79" name="noteref-79"><small> 79</small></a> Both these are by Kneller. Farther on, is another of +Charles's beauties, whose <i>sagesse</i> has never been disputed—Elizabeth +Wriothesley, Countess of Northumberland, the sister of that half saint, +half heroine, and <i>all</i> woman—Lady Russell. +</p> +<p> +There is also a lovely picture of that magnificent brunette, Miss Bagot. +"Elle avait," says + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>[298]</span> + + Hamilton, "ce teint rembruni qui plait tant quand +il plait." She married Berkeley Lord Falmouth, a man who, though +unprincipled, seems to have loved her; at least, was not long enough +her husband to forget to be her lover: he was killed, shortly after his +marriage, in the battle of Southwold-bay. This is assuredly one of the +most splendid pictures Lely ever painted; and it is, besides, full of +character and interest. She holds a cannon-ball in her lap, (only an +airy emblematical cannon-ball, for she poises it like a feather,) and +the countenance is touched with a sweet expression of melancholy: hence +it is plain that she sat for it soon after the death of her first +husband, and before her marriage with the witty Earl of Dorset.—Near +her hangs another fair piece of witchcraft, "La Belle Jennings," who in +her day played with hearts as if they had been billiard balls; and no +wonder, considering what + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>[299]</span> + + <i>things</i> she had to deal with:<a href="#note-80" name="noteref-80"><small> 80</small></a> there was +a great difference between her vivacity and that of her vivacious +sister, the Duchess of Marlborough.—Old Sarah hangs near her. One +would think that Kneller, in spite, had watched the moment to take a +characteristic likeness, and catch, not the Cynthia, but the Fury of +the minute; as for instance, when she cut off her luxuriant tresses, so +worshipped by her husband, and flung them in his face; for so she tosses +back her disdainful head, and curls her lip like an insolent, pouting, +spoiled, grown-up baby. The life of this woman is as fine a lesson on +the emptiness of all worldly advantages, boundless wealth, power, fame, +beauty, wit, as ever was set forth by moralist or divine. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>[300]</span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "By spirit robb'd of power—by warmth, of friends— </p> +<p class="i2"> By wealth, of followers! without one distress, </p> +<p class="i2"> Sick of herself through very selfishness."<a href="#note-81" name="noteref-81"><small> 81</small></a> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +And yet I suspect that the Duchess of Marlborough has never met with +justice. History knows her only as Marlborough's wife, an intriguing +dame d'honneur, and a cast-off favourite. Vituperated by Swift, +satirized by Pope, ridiculed by Walpole—what angel could have stood +such bedaubing, and from such pens? +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "O she has fallen into a pit of ink!" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +But glorious talents she had, strength of mind, generosity, the power to +feel and inspire the strongest attachment,—and all these qualities were +degraded, or rendered useless, by <i>temper</i>! Her avarice was not the love +of money for its own + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>[301]</span> + + sake, but the love of power; and her bitter contempt +for "knaves and fools" may be excused, if not justified. Imagine such +a woman as the Duchess of Marlborough out-faced, out-plotted by that +crowned cypher, that sceptred commonplace, queen Anne! It should seem +that the constant habit of being forced to serve, outwardly, where she +really ruled,—the consciousness of her own brilliant and powerful +faculties brought into immediate hourly comparison with the confined +trifling understanding of her mistress, a disdain of her own forced +hypocrisy, and a perception of the heartless baseness of the courtiers +around her, disgusting to a mind naturally high-toned, produced at +length that extreme of bitterness and insolence which made her so often +"an embodied storm." She was always a termagant—but of a very different +description from the vulgar Castlemaine. +</p> +<p> +Though the picture of Colonel Russell, by + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>[302]</span> + + Dobson, is really fine +as a portrait, the recollection of the scene between him and Miss +Hamilton<a href="#note-82" name="noteref-82"><small> 82</small></a>—his love of dancing, to prove he was not old and +asthmatical,—and his attachment to his "<i>chapeau pointu</i>," make it +impossible to look at him without a smile—but a good-humoured smile, +such as his lovely mistress gave him when she rejected him with so +much politeness.—Arabella Churchill, the sister of the great Duke of +Marlborough, and mistress of the Duke of York, has been better treated +by the painter than by Hamilton; instead of "La grande créature, pale et +decharnée," she appears here a very lovely woman. But enough of these +equivocal ladies. No—before we leave them, there are yet two to be +noticed, more equivocal, more interesting, and more extraordinary than +all the rest put together—Bianca di Capello, who, from a washerwoman, +became Grand Duchess + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>[303]</span> + + of Florence, with less beauty than I should have +expected, but as much <i>countenance</i>; and the beautiful, but appalling +picture of Venitia Digby, painted after she was dead, by Vandyke: she +was found one morning sitting up in her bed, leaning her head on her +hand, and lifeless; and thus she is painted. Notwithstanding the ease +and grace of the attitude, and the delicacy of the features, there is +no mistaking this for slumber: a heavier hand has pressed upon those +eyelids, which will never more open to the light: there is a leaden +lifelessness about them, too shockingly true and real— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "It thrills us with mortality, </p> +<p class="i2"> And curdles to the gazer's heart." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Her picture at Windsor is the most perfectly beautiful and impressive +female portrait I ever saw. How have I longed, when gazing at it, to +conjure her out of her frame, and bid her reveal + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>[304]</span> + + the secret of her +mysterious life and death!—Nearly opposite to the dead Venitia, in +strange contrast, hangs her husband, who loved her to madness, or was +mad before he married her, in the very prime of life and youth. This +picture, by Cornelius Jansen, is as fine as any thing of Vandyke's: the +character expresses more of intellectual power and physical strength, +than of that elegance of face and form we should have looked for in +such a fanciful being as Sir Kenelm Digby: he looks more like one of +the Athletæ than a poet, a metaphysician, and a "squire of dames." +</p> +<p> +There are three pictures of Waller's famed Sacharissa, the first Lady +Sunderland: one in a hat, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, gay and +blooming; the second, far more interesting, was painted about the +time of her marriage with the young Earl of Sunderland, or shortly +after—very sweet and lady-like. I should say that the high-breeding +of the face and air was more conspicuous than + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>[305]</span> + + the beauty; the neck and +hands exquisite. Both these are Vandyke's. A third picture represents +her about the time of her second marriage: the expression wholly +changed—cold, sad, faded, but pretty still: one might fancy her +contemplating, with a sick heart, the portrait of Lord Sunderland, the +lover and husband of her early youth, who hangs on the opposite side of +the gallery, in complete armour: he fell in the same battle with Lord +Falkland, at the age of three-and-twenty. The brother of Sacharissa, +the famous Algernon Sidney, is suspended near her; a fine head, full of +contemplation and power. +</p> +<p> +Among the most interesting pictures in the gallery is an undoubted +original of Lady Jane Grey. After seeing so many hideous, hard, +prim-looking pictures and prints of this gentle-spirited heroine, it +is consoling to trust in the genuineness of a face which has all the +sweetness and dignity we look for, and ought to find. Then, by way of +contrast, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>[306]</span> + + we have that most curious picture of Diana of Poitiers, once +in the Crawfurd collection: it is a small half-length; the features fair +and regular; the hair is elaborately dressed with a profusion of jewels; +but there is no drapery whatever—"force pierreries et trés peu de +linge," as Madame de Sevigné described the two Mancini.<a href="#note-83" name="noteref-83"><small> 83</small></a> Round the +head is the legend from the 42d Psalm—"Comme le cerf braie après +le décours des eaues, ainsi brait mon ame après toi, O Dieu," which +is certainly an extraordinary application. In the days of Diana of +Poitiers, the beautiful mistress of Henry the Second of France, it +was the court fashion to sing the Psalms of David to dance and song +tunes;<a href="#note-84" name="noteref-84"><small> 84</small></a> and the courtiers and beauties had each their favourite +psalm, which served as a kind of <i>devise</i>: this may explain the very +singular inscription on + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>[307]</span> + + this very singular picture. Here are also the +portraits of Otway and Cowley, and of Montaigne; the last from the +Crawfurd collection. +</p> +<p> +I had nearly omitted to mention a magnificent whole-length of the Duc +de Guise—who was stabbed in the closet of Henry the Third—whose life +contains materials for ten romances and a dozen epics, and whose death +has furnished subjects for as many tragedies. And not far from him that +not less daring, and more successful chief, Oliver Cromwell: a page is +tying on his sash. There is a vulgar power and boldness about this head, +in fine contrast with the high-born, fearless, chivalrous-looking Guise. +</p> +<p> +In the library is the splendid picture of Sofonisba Angusciola, by +herself: she is touching the harpsichord, for like many others of her +craft, she excelled in music. Angelica Kauffman had nearly been an +opera-singer. The instances of great painters being also excellent +musicians are numerous; + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>[308]</span> + + Salvator Rosa could have led an orchestra, and +Vernet could not exist without Pergolesi's piano. But I cannot recollect +an instance of a great musician by profession, who has also been a +painter: the range of faculties is generally more confined. +</p> +<p> +Rembrandt's large picture of his mother, which is, I think, the most +magnificent specimen of this master now in England, hangs over the +chimney in the same room with the Sofonisba. +</p> +<p> +The last picture I can distinctly remember is a portrait by Sir Joshua +Reynolds, with all his perfections combined in their perfection. It is +that of a beautiful Frenchwoman, an intimate friend of the last Lady +Spencer—with as much intellect, sentiment, and depth of feeling as +would have furnished out twenty ordinary heads; all harmony in the +colouring, all grace in the drawing. +</p> +<p> +Here then was food for the eye and for the memory—for sweet and bitter +fancy—for the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>[309]</span> + + amateur, and for the connoisseur—for antiquary, historian, +painter, and poet. Well might Horace Walpole say that the gallery at +Althorpe was "endeared to the pensive spectator." He tells us in his +letters, that when here, (about seventy years since,) he surprised the +housekeeper by "his intimate acquaintance with all the faces in the +gallery." I was amused at the thought that we caused a similar surprise +in our day. I hope his female cicerone was as civil and intelligent as +ours; as worthy to be the keeper of the pictorial treasures of Althorpe. +When we lingered and lingered, spell-bound, and apologized for making +such unconscionable demands on her patience, she replied, "that she was +flattered; that she felt affronted when any visitor hurried through the +apartments." Old Horace would have been delighted with her; and not less +with the biblical enthusiasm of a village glazier, whom we found dusting +the books in the library, and who had such + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>[310]</span> + + a sublime reverence for old +editions, unique copies, illuminated MSS., and rare bindings, that it +was quite edifying. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figure"> +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<a href="images/ill-3.jpg"><img src="images/ill-3s.jpg" width="400" height="250" +alt="" /></a> +</div> + +<h3> +END OF VOL. II. +</h3> + +<p class="center"> +LONDON: +<br /> +<small> +IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. +</small> +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div><a name="h2H_FOOT" id="h2H_FOOT"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + FOOTNOTES: +</h2> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-1"><!--Note--></a> +1 (<a href="#noteref-1"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +In the throne-room at the Buckingham Palace the idea of +grandeur is suggested by a vile heraldic crown, stuck on the capitals of +the columns. Conceive the flagrant, the vulgar barbarity of taste!! It +cannot surely be attributed to the architect? +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-2"><!--Note--></a> +2 (<a href="#noteref-2"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +There is a very pretty little edition of his lyrical poems, +rendered into the modern German by Karl Simrock, and published at Berlin +in 1833. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-3"><!--Note--></a> +3 (<a href="#noteref-3"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See a very interesting account of Walther von der Vogelweide, +with translations of some of his poems in "The Lays of the Minnesingers," +published in 1825. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-4"><!--Note--></a> +4 (<a href="#noteref-4"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See a very learned and well-written article on the ancient +German and northern poetry in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 26. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-5"><!--Note--></a> +5 (<a href="#noteref-5"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The legend of this charming saint, one of the most popular +in Germany, is but little known among us. She was the wife of a margrave +of Thuringia, who was a fierce, avaricious man, while she herself was +all made up of tenderness and melting pity. She lived with her husband +in his castle on the Wartsburg, and was accustomed to go out every +morning to distribute alms among the poor of the valley: her husband, +jealous and covetous, forbade her thus to exercise her bounty; but as +she regarded her duty to God and the poor, even as paramount to conjugal +obedience, she secretly continued her charitable offices. Her husband +encountered her one morning at sunrise, as she was leaving the castle +with a covered basket containing meat, bread, and wine, for a starving +family. He demanded, angrily, what she had in her basket! Elizabeth, +trembling, not for herself, but for her wretched protegés, replied, with +a faltering voice, that she had been gathering roses in the garden. +The fierce chieftain, not believing her, snatched off the napkin, and +Elizabeth fell on her knees.—But, behold, a miracle had been operated +in her favour!—The basket was full of roses, fresh gathered, and wet +with dew. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-6"><!--Note--></a> +6 (<a href="#noteref-6"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See Taylor's "Historic Survey of German Poetry." Herman +was afterwards murdered by a band of conspirators, and Thusnelda, on +learning the fate of her husband, died brokenhearted. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-7"><!--Note--></a> +7 (<a href="#noteref-7"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The notices which follow are abridged from the essay "on +Ancient German and Northern Poetry," before mentioned—from the preface +to the edition of the Nibelungen Lied, by M. Von der Hagen—and the +analysis of the poem in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities. +My own first acquaintance with the Nibelungen Lied, I owed to an +accomplished friend, who gave me a detailed and lively analysis of the +story and characters; and certainly no child ever hung upon a tale of +ogres and fairies with more intense interest than I did upon her recital +of the adventures of the Nibelungen. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-8"><!--Note--></a> +8 (<a href="#noteref-8"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Dietrich of Bern (i. e. Theodoric of Verona,) is the great +hero of South Germany—the King Arthur of Teutonic romance, who figures +in all the warlike lays and legends of the middle ages. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-9"><!--Note--></a> +9 (<a href="#noteref-9"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 213. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-10"><!--Note--></a> +10 (<a href="#noteref-10"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +In the altercation between the two queens, Chrimhilde +boasts of possessing these trophies, and displays them in triumph to her +mortified rival; for which indiscretion, as she afterwards complains, +"her husband was in high anger, and <i>beat her black and blue</i>." This +treatment, however, which seems to have been quite a matter of course, +does not diminish the fond idolatry of the wife,—rather increases it. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-11"><!--Note--></a> +11 (<a href="#noteref-11"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> + This list will be subjoined at the end of these Sketches. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-12"><!--Note--></a> +12 (<a href="#noteref-12"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Sofonisba Augusciola, one of the most charming of portrait +painters. She died in 1626, at the age of ninety-three. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-13"><!--Note--></a> +13 (<a href="#noteref-13"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +I regret that I omitted to note the <i>name</i> of the artist +of this magnificent work. There is a still more admirable monument of +the same period in the church at Inspruck, the tomb of the archduke, +Ferdinand of Tyrol, consisting, I believe, of twelve colossal statues +in bronze. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-14"><!--Note--></a> +14 (<a href="#noteref-14"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The first stone of the Valhalla was laid by the King of +Bavaria, on the 18th of October 1830. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-15"><!--Note--></a> +15 (<a href="#noteref-15"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The Einheriar are the souls of heroes admitted into the +Valhalla. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-16"><!--Note--></a> +16 (<a href="#noteref-16"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Daniel. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-17"><!--Note--></a> +17 (<a href="#noteref-17"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Lithography was invented at Munich between 1795 and 1798, +for so long were repeated experiments tried before the art became useful +or general. Senefelder, the inventor, was an actor, and the son of an +actor. The first occasion of the invention was his wish to print a +little drama of his own, in some manner less expensive than the usual +method of type. The first successful experiment was the printing of some +music, published (1796) by Gleissner, one of the king of Bavaria's band: +the first drawing attempted was a vignette to a sheet of music. In the +course of his attempts to pursue and perfect his discovery, Senefelder +was reduced to such poverty, that he offered himself to enlist for a +common soldier, and, luckily, was refused. He again took heart, and, +supported through every difficulty and discouragement by his own +strong and enthusiastic mind, he at length overcame all obstacles, and +has lived to see his invention established and spread over the whole +civilized world. Hitherto, I believe, the stone used by lithographers +is found only in Bavaria, whence it is sent to every part of Europe and +America, and forms a most profitable article of commerce. The principal +quarries are at Solenholfen, on the Danube, about fifty miles from +Munich. +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +Senefelder has published a little memoir of the origin and progress of +the invention, in which he relates with great simplicity the hardship, +and misery, and contumely, he encountered before he could bring it into +use. He concludes with an earnest prayer, "that it may contribute to the +benefit and improvement of mankind, and that it may never be abused to +any dishonourable or immoral purpose." +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +If I remember rightly, a detailed history of the art was given in one of +the early numbers of the Foreign Review. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-18"><!--Note--></a> +18 (<a href="#noteref-18"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The population of Munich is estimated at about 60,000. It +does not enter into my plan, at present, to give any detailed account +of the public institutions, whether academies, schools, hospitals, or +prisons; yet I cannot but mention the prison at Munich, which more than +pays its own expenses, instead of being a burthen to the state; the +admirable hospital for the poor, in which all who cannot find work +elsewhere, are provided with occupation; two large hospitals for the +sick poor, in which rooms and attendance are also provided for those who +do not choose to be a burthen to their friends, nor yet dependent on +charity; the orphan school; the female school, endowed by the king; +the foundling and lying-in hospitals, establishments unhappily most +<i>necessary</i> in Munich, and certainly most admirably conducted. These, +and innumerable private societies for the assistance, the education, and +the improvement of the lower classes, ought to receive the attention of +every intelligent traveller. +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +There are no poor laws in operation at Munich, no mendicity societies, +no tract, and soup and blanket charities; yet pauperism, mendicity, +and starvation, are nearly unknown. For the system of regulations by +which these evils have been repressed or altogether remedied, I believe +Bavaria is indebted to the celebrated American, Count Rumford, who was +in the service of the late king, Max-Joseph, from 1790 to 1799. +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +Several new manufactories have lately been established, particularly +of glass and porcelain, and the latter is carried to a high degree of +perfection. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-19"><!--Note--></a> +19 (<a href="#noteref-19"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Ida of Saxe-Meiningen, sister of the queen of England. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-20"><!--Note--></a> +20 (<a href="#noteref-20"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +It is difficult to translate this laconic proverb, because +we have not the corresponding words in English: the meaning may be +rendered—"<i>according to the country, so are the manners</i>." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-21"><!--Note--></a> +21 (<a href="#noteref-21"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +When the city was besieged by Wallenstein in 1632. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-22"><!--Note--></a> +22 (<a href="#noteref-22"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Born at Nuremberg in 1494. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-23"><!--Note--></a> +23 (<a href="#noteref-23"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See the admirable "Essay on the Early German and Northern +Poetry," already alluded to. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-24"><!--Note--></a> +24 (<a href="#noteref-24"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Anthony, the present king of Saxony. He is, however, in +his dotage, being now in his eighty-fifth year. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-25"><!--Note--></a> +25 (<a href="#noteref-25"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The description of Dresden and its environs, in Russel's +Tour in Germany, is one of the best written passages in that amusing +book—so admirably graphic and faithful, that nothing can be added to +it <i>as a description</i>, therefore I have effaced those notes which it +has rendered superfluous. It must, however, be remembered by those who +refer to Mr. Russel's work, that a revolution has taken place, by which +the king, now fallen into absolute dotage, has been removed from the +direct administration of the government, and a much more popular and +liberal tone prevails in the Estates: the two princes, nephews of the +king, whom Mr. Russel mentions as "persons of whom scarcely any body +thinks of speaking at all," have since made themselves extremely +conspicuous;—Prince Frederic has been declared regent, and is +apparently much respected and beloved; and Prince John has distinguished +himself as a speaker in the Assembly of the States, and takes the +liberal side on most occasions. A spirit of amelioration is at work in +Dresden, as elsewhere, and the ten or twelve years which have elapsed +since Mr. Russel's visit have not passed away without some salutary +changes, while more are evidently at hand. +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +Mr. Russel speaks of the secrecy with which the sittings of the Chambers +were then conducted: they are now public, and the debates are printed in +the Gazette at considerable length. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-26"><!--Note--></a> +26 (<a href="#noteref-26"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Augustus II. abjured the Protestant religion in 1700, in +order to obtain the crown of Poland. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-27"><!--Note--></a> +27 (<a href="#noteref-27"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The first tenor at Dresden in 1833. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-28"><!--Note--></a> +28 (<a href="#noteref-28"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +An opera by Franz Glazer of Berlin. The subject, which is +the well-known story of the mother who delivers her infant when carried +away by the eagle, or rather vulture of the Alps, might make a good +melodrama, but is not fit for an opera—and the music is <i>trainante</i> +and monotonous. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-29"><!--Note--></a> +29 (<a href="#noteref-29"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Zingarelli composed his <i>Romeo e Giulietta</i> in 1797: Bellini +produced the Capelletti at Venice in 1832, for our silver-voiced +Caradori and the contr'alto Giudita Grisi, sister of that accomplished +singer, Giulietta Grisi. Thirty-five years are an age in +the history of music. Of the two operas, Bellini's is the most effective, +from the number of the conceited pieces, without containing +a single air which can be placed in comparison with five or six +in Zingarelli's opera. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-30"><!--Note--></a> +30 (<a href="#noteref-30"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Lord Byron. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-31"><!--Note--></a> +31 (<a href="#noteref-31"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +"Tieck," says Carlyle, "is a poet <i>born</i> as well as +made.—He is no mere observist and compiler, rendering back to us, +with additions or subtractions, the beauty which existing things have +of themselves presented to him; but a true Maker, to whom the actual +and external is but the <i>excitement</i> for ideal creations, representing +and ennobling its effects. His feeling or knowledge, his love or scorn, +his gay humour or solemn earnestness; all the riches of his inward +world are pervaded and mastered by the living energy of the soul which +possesses them, and their finer essence is wafted to us in his poetry, +like Arabian odours, on the wings of the wind. But this may be said of +all true poets; and each is distinguished from all, by his individual +characteristics. Among Tieck's, one of the most remarkable is his +combination of so many gifts, in such full and simple harmony. His +ridicule does not obstruct his adoration; his gay southern fancy +lives in union with a northern heart; with the moods of a longing and +impassioned spirit, he seems deeply conversant; and a still imagination, +in the highest sense of that word, reigns over all his poetic world." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-32"><!--Note--></a> +32 (<a href="#noteref-32"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Vide Shelley's Epipsychidion. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-33"><!--Note--></a> +33 (<a href="#noteref-33"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Mr. Russel is quite right in his observation that the +Correggios are hung too near together: the fact is, that in the Dresden +gallery, the pictures are not well hung, nor well arranged; there is too +little light in the inner gallery, and too much in the outer gallery. +Lastly, the numbers are so confused that I found the catalogue of little +use. A new arrangement and a new catalogue, by Professor Matthaï, are in +contemplation. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-34"><!--Note--></a> +34 (<a href="#noteref-34"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Spence. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-35"><!--Note--></a> +35 (<a href="#noteref-35"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Lanzi says, that many of the works of Lavinia Fontana +might easily pass for those of Guido;—her best works are at Bologna. +She died in 1614. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-36"><!--Note--></a> +36 (<a href="#noteref-36"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +At Althorpe. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-37"><!--Note--></a> +37 (<a href="#noteref-37"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The Miss Sharpes were at Dresden while I was there, +and their names and some of their works were fresh in my mind and eye +when I wrote the above; but I think it fair to add, that I had not the +opportunity I could have wished of cultivating their acquaintance. These +three sisters, all so talented, and so inseparable,—all artists, and +bound together in affectionate communion of hearts and interests, +reminded me of the Sofonisba and her sisters. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-38"><!--Note--></a> +38 (<a href="#noteref-38"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +She is the "Julie" celebrated in some of Goethe's minor +poems. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-39"><!--Note--></a> +39 (<a href="#noteref-39"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Since this was written, in November 1833, Retzsch has sent +over to England a series of these <i>Fancies</i> for publication. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-40"><!--Note--></a> +40 (<a href="#noteref-40"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +We have among us a young German painter, (Theodor von +Holst,) who, uniting the exuberant enthusiasm and rich imagination of +his country, with a just appreciation of the style of English art, is +likely to achieve great things. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-41"><!--Note--></a> +41 (<a href="#noteref-41"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +"Belier! mon ami! commence par le commencement!"—<i>Contes +de Hamilton.</i> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-42"><!--Note--></a> +42 (<a href="#noteref-42"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +A manor situated on the borders of Derbyshire, between +Chesterfield and Mansfield. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-43"><!--Note--></a> +43 (<a href="#noteref-43"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The Cavendishes were originally of Suffolk. Whether this +William Cavendish was the same who was gentleman usher and secretary to +Cardinal Wolsey, is, I believe, a disputed point. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-44"><!--Note--></a> +44 (<a href="#noteref-44"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> + Bishop Kennel's memoirs of the family of Cavendish. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-45"><!--Note--></a> +45 (<a href="#noteref-45"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Lodge's Illustrations of British History. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-46"><!--Note--></a> +46 (<a href="#noteref-46"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Scott's Memoir of Sir Ralph Sadler. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-47"><!--Note--></a> +47 (<a href="#noteref-47"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> + Lodge's "Illustrations." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-48"><!--Note--></a> +48 (<a href="#noteref-48"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +This celebrated letter is yet preserved, and well known +to historians and antiquarians. It is sufficient to say that scarce any +part of it would bear transcribing. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-49"><!--Note--></a> +49 (<a href="#noteref-49"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See two of her letters in Sir Henry Ellis's Collection. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-50"><!--Note--></a> +50 (<a href="#noteref-50"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See some letters in Ellis's Collection, vol. ii. series 1, +which show with what constant jealousy Lady Shrewsbury and her charge +were watched by the court. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-51"><!--Note--></a> +51 (<a href="#noteref-51"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +In All Hallows, in Derby. After leaving Hardwicke, I went, +of course, to pay my respects to it. It is a vast and gorgeous shrine of +many coloured marbles, covered with painting, gilding, emblazonments, +and inscriptions, within which the lady lies at full length in a golden +ruff, and a most sumptuous farthingale. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-52"><!--Note--></a> +52 (<a href="#noteref-52"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +As the measurements are interesting from this fact, I took +care to note them exactly; as follows:—length 55 ft. 6 inches; breadth +30 ft. 6 inches; height 24 ft. 6 inches. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-53"><!--Note--></a> +53 (<a href="#noteref-53"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Horace Walpole, as an antiquarian, should have known that +Mary was never kept <i>there</i>. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-54"><!--Note--></a> +54 (<a href="#noteref-54"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +It had formerly been richly painted, and must then have had +an effect superior to tapestry; the colours are still visible here +and there. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-55"><!--Note--></a> +55 (<a href="#noteref-55"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Mary's own account of her occupations displays the natural +elegance of her mind. "I asked her grace, since the weather did cut off +all exercises abroad, how she passed her time within? She sayd that all +day she wrought with her needle, and that the diversitie of the colours +made the work appear less tedious, and that she continued at it till +pain made her to give o'er: and with that laid her hand on her left +side, and complayned of an old grief newly increased there. Upon this +occasion she, the Scottish queen, with the agreeable and lively wit +natural to her, entered into a pretty disputable comparison between +carving, painting, and working with the needle, affirming painting, in +her opinion, for the most commendable quality."—<i>Letter of Nicholas +White to Cecil.</i> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-56"><!--Note--></a> +56 (<a href="#noteref-56"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +I was as much delighted by these singular fire-screens +as Horace himself could have been; they are about seven feet high. The +yellow velvet suspended from the bar is embossed with black velvet, and +intermingled with embroidery of various colours and gold—something +like a Persian carpet—but most dazzling and gorgeous in the effect. +I believe there is nothing like them any where. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-57"><!--Note--></a> +57 (<a href="#noteref-57"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Now replaced by the family portraits brought from +Chatsworth. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-58"><!--Note--></a> +58 (<a href="#noteref-58"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Margaret Cavendish, wife of the first Duke of Newcastle. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-59"><!--Note--></a> +59 (<a href="#noteref-59"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Anecdotes of Painting. Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-60"><!--Note--></a> +60 (<a href="#noteref-60"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Dante. Inferno, Canto 28. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-61"><!--Note--></a> +61 (<a href="#noteref-61"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 144. Boswell asked, "Are you +of that opinion as to the portraits of ancestors one has never seen?" +<span class="sc">Johnson</span>. "It then becomes of still <i>more</i> consequence that they should +be like." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-62"><!--Note--></a> +62 (<a href="#noteref-62"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +This picture and the next are said to be by Richard +Stevens, of whom there is some account in Walpole, (Anecdotes of +Painting.) Mary also sat to Hilliard and to Zucchero. The lovely picture +by Zucchero is at Chiswick. There is another small head of her at +Hardwicke, said to have been painted in France, in a cap and feather. +The turn of the head is airy and graceful. As to the features, they have +been so marred by some <i>soi-disant</i> restorer, it is difficult to say +what they may have been originally. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-63"><!--Note--></a> +63 (<a href="#noteref-63"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Waller's lines on Lady Rich. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-64"><!--Note--></a> +64 (<a href="#noteref-64"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +William, sixth Duke of Devonshire. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-65"><!--Note--></a> +65 (<a href="#noteref-65"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +"Lady Dorothy Savile, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax: +she had no less attachment to the arts than her husband; she drew in +crayons, and succeeded admirably in likenesses, but working with too +much rapidity, did not do justice to her genius; she had an uncommon +talent too for caricature."—<i>Anecdotes of Painting.</i> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-66"><!--Note--></a> +66 (<a href="#noteref-66"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +He was a monster; and no wife of the coarsest plebeian +profligate could have suffered more than did this lovely, amiable being, +of the highest blood and greatest fortune in England. "She was," says +the affecting inscription on her picture at Chiswick, "the comfort and +joy of her parents, the delight of all who knew her angelic temper, and +the admiration of all who saw her beauty. She was married October 10th, +1741, and delivered by death from misery, May 2nd, 1742. +</p> +<p class="foot"><br /> +But how did it happen that from a condition like this, there was no +release but by <i>death</i>?—See Horace Walpole's Correspondence to Sir +Horace Mann, vol. i. p. 328. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-67"><!--Note--></a> +67 (<a href="#noteref-67"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +I was much struck with the inscription on a stone tablet, +in a fine old wood near the house: "This wood was planted by Sir William +Spencer, Knighte of the Bathe, in the year of our Lord 1624:"—on the +other side, "Up and bee doing, and God will prosper." It is mentioned in +Evelyn's "Sylva." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-68"><!--Note--></a> +68 (<a href="#noteref-68"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See the accounts of Sir John Spencer, in Collins's +Peerage, and prefixed to Dibdin's "Ædes Althorpianæ." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-69"><!--Note--></a> +69 (<a href="#noteref-69"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Henry, first Earl of Sunderland. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-70"><!--Note--></a> +70 (<a href="#noteref-70"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +This Lord Sunderland not only changed his party and his +opinions, but his religion, with every breath that blew from the court. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-71"><!--Note--></a> +71 (<a href="#noteref-71"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Horace Walpole's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 227. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-72"><!--Note--></a> +72 (<a href="#noteref-72"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Anne Brudenel. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-73"><!--Note--></a> +73 (<a href="#noteref-73"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See Pepys's Diary. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-74"><!--Note--></a> +74 (<a href="#noteref-74"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +I was told that a female servant of the family was so +terrified by this picture that she could never be prevailed on to pass +through the door near which it hangs, but made a circuit of several +rooms to avoid it. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-75"><!--Note--></a> +75 (<a href="#noteref-75"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +She is supposed to have been poisoned by her husband, at +the instigation of the Chevalier de Lorraine. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-76"><!--Note--></a> +76 (<a href="#noteref-76"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Elizabeth Brooke, poisoned at the age of twenty. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-77"><!--Note--></a> +77 (<a href="#noteref-77"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See the scene between Beck Marshall and Nell Gwyn, +in "Pepys." +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-78"><!--Note--></a> +78 (<a href="#noteref-78"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Walpole. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-79"><!--Note--></a> +79 (<a href="#noteref-79"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The gay, gallant St. Evremond, besides being naturally +ugly, had a wen between his eye-brows. There is a fine picture of him +and Hortense as Vertumnus and Pomona, in the Stafford gallery. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-80"><!--Note--></a> +80 (<a href="#noteref-80"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The pictures of Miss Jennings are very rare. This one +at Althorpe was copied for H. Walpole, and I have heard of another in +Ireland. Miss Jennings was afterwards Duchess of Tyrconnel. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-81"><!--Note--></a> +81 (<a href="#noteref-81"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Pope. One hates him for taking a thousand pounds to +suppress this character of Atossa, and publishing it after all; yet +who for a thousand pounds would have lost it? +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-82"><!--Note--></a> +82 (<a href="#noteref-82"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +See his declaration of love—"Je suis frère du Comte +de Bedford; je commande le regiment des gardes," &c. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-83"><!--Note--></a> +83 (<a href="#noteref-83"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +The Princess Colonna and the Duchesse de Mazarin. +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +<a name="note-84"><!--Note--></a> +84 (<a href="#noteref-84"><small>return</small></a>)<br /> +Clement Marot had composed a version of the Psalms, then +very popular. See <i>Bayle</i>, and the Curiosities of Literature. +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="quote"> +<b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Errata as given in the original have been applied to +the text. Other than the most exceedingly obvious typographical errors, +all inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, diacriticals, archaic usage, etc. +have been preserved as printed in the original. The boldface used +to bracket the name "Kunstverein" in the entry for the 16th on <a href="#page46">page 46</a> +indicates characters in a Fraktur typeface. +</p> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad +with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + +***** This file should be named 36819-h.htm or 36819-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36819/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/36819-h/images/cover.jpg b/36819-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee4a306 --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-1.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e845314 --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-1.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-1s.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-1s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f607d8d --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-1s.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-2.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e75758d --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-2.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-2s.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-2s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..27db4ea --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-2s.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-3.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3552ffc --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-3.jpg diff --git a/36819-h/images/ill-3s.jpg b/36819-h/images/ill-3s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e43f56a --- /dev/null +++ b/36819-h/images/ill-3s.jpg diff --git a/36819.txt b/36819.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a0e92a --- /dev/null +++ b/36819.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5879 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with +Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected + Vol. II (of 3) + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD. + +VOL. II. + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD + +WITH TALES AND MISCELLANIES NOW FIRST COLLECTED. + +BY MRS. JAMESON, + +AUTHOR OF "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN," "LIVES OF CELEBRATED FEMALE +SOVEREIGNS," &c. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + +SECOND EDITION. + + + LONDON + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. + 1835. + + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + + SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER, + PART II. + + (_Continued._) + + PAGE + +I. MUNICH--The New Palace--The Beauty of its + Decorations--Particular Account of the Modern Paintings + on the Walls 1-18 + The Frescos of Julius Schnorr from the Nibelungen-Lied 20 + The Frescos in the Royal Chapel 37 + The Opera--Madame Schechner 42 + The Kunstverein 46 + Karl von Holtei 49 + Fete of the Obelisk 50 + The Gallery--Pictures and Painters 60 + Madame de Freyberg--A visit to Thalkirchen 64 + Tomb of Eugene Beauharnais 68 + The Sculpture in the Glyptothek 75 + Plan of the Pinnakothek or National Gallery 79 + The Revival of Fresco Painting 92 + Bavarian Sculptors 94 + The Valhalla 96 + Stieler, the Portrait Painter 101 + Gallery of the Duc de Leuchtenberg 103 + Society at Munich 106 + The Liederkranz 110 + + +II. NUREMBERG 118 + The Old Fortress 123 + Albert Durer 125 + Hans Sachs and Peter Vischer 127 + The Cemetery 132 + Travelling in Germany 134 + + +III. DRESDEN 138 + The Opera--Madame Schroeder Devrient in the "Capaletti" 145 + Ludwig Tieck 148 + The Dresden Gallery and the Italian School 155 + Rosalba--Violante Siries--Henrietta Walters--Maria + von Osterwyck--Elizabeth Sirani--the Sofonisba 171 + Thoughts on Female Artists--Louisa and Eliza Sharpe--The + Countess Julie von Egloffstein 179 + Moritz Retzsch 183 + English and German Art 197 + Catalogue of German Artists 201 + + * * * * * + + A Visit to Hardwicke 213 + A Visit to Althorpe 275 + + + + +SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. + +(_Continued._) + + + + +VOL. II. + + Page 7, line 13, _for_ to _read_ too. + 18, -- 2, _for_ Neurather _read_ Neureuther. + 68, -- 5, _for_ Scheckner _read_ Schechner. + 72, -- 16, ditto. ditto. + 94, -- 23, _for_ interior _read_ exterior. + 133, -- 1, note, _for_ Frederic Augustus _read_ Anthony. + 203, -- 16, _for_ Steiler _read_ Stieler. + 204, -- 21, _for_ Neurather _read_ Neureuther. + 209, -- 2, _for_ Reitchel _read_ Rietschel. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. + +MUNICH (CONTINUED). + + +_Tuesday._--M. de Klenze called this morning and conducted me over the +whole of the new palace. The design, when completed, will form a vast +quadrangle. It was begun about seven years ago; and as only a certain +sum is set apart every year for the works, it will probably be seven +years more before the portion now in progress, which is the south side +of the quadrangle, can be completed. + +The exterior of the building is plain, but has an air of grandeur even +from its simplicity and uniformity. It reminds me of Sir Philip Sydney's +beautiful description--"A house built of fair and strong stone; not +affecting so much any extraordinary kind of fineness, as an honourable +representing of a firm stateliness; all more lasting than beautiful, but +that the consideration of the exceeding lastingness made the eye believe +it was exceeding beautiful." + +When a selfish despot designs a palace, it is for himself he builds. +He thinks first of his own personal tastes and peculiar habits, and the +arrangements are contrived to suit his exclusive propensities. Thus, for +Nero's overwhelming pride, no space, no height, could suffice; so he +built his "golden house" upon a scale which obliged its next possessor +to pull it to pieces, as only fit to lodge a colossus. George the Fourth +had a predilection for low ceilings, so all the future inhabitants of +the Pimlico palace must endure suffocation; and as his majesty did not +live on good terms with his wife, no accommodation was prepared for a +future queen of England. + +The commands which the king of Bavaria gave De Klenze were in a +different spirit. "Build me a palace, in which nothing within or without +shall be of transient fashion or interest; a palace for my posterity, +and my people, as well as myself; of which the decorations shall be +durable as well as splendid, and shall appear one or two centuries hence +as pleasing to the eye and taste as they do now." "Upon this principle," +said De Klenze, looking round, "I designed what you now see." + +On the first floor are the apartments of the king and queen, all facing +the south: a parallel range of apartments behind contains accommodation +for the attendants, ladies of honour, chamberlains, &c.; a grand +staircase on the east leads to the apartments of the king, another on +the west to those of the queen; the two suites of apartments uniting in +the centre, where the private and sleeping rooms communicate with each +other. All the chambers allotted to the king's use are painted with +subjects from the Greek poets, and those of the queen from the German +poets. + +We began with the king's apartments. The approach to the staircase I did +not quite understand, for it appears small and narrow; but this part of +the building is evidently incomplete. + +The staircase is beautiful, but simple, consisting of a flight of wide +broad steps of the native marble; there is no gilding; the ornaments on +the ceiling represent the different arts and manufactures carried on in +Bavaria. Over the door which opens into the apartments is the king's +motto in gold letters, GERECHT und BEHARRLICH--Just and Firm. Two +Caryatides support the entrance: on one side the statue of Astrea, and +on the other the Greek Victory without wings--the first expressing +justice, the last firmness or constancy. These figures are colossal, +and modelled by Schwanthaler in a grand and severe style of art. + +I. The first antechamber is decorated with great simplicity. On the +cornice round the top is represented the history of Orpheus and the +expedition of the Argonauts, from Linus, the earliest Greek poet. The +figures are in outline, shaded in brown, but without relief or colour, +exactly like those on the Etruscan vases. The walls are stuccoed in +imitation of marble. + +II. The second antechamber is less simple in its decoration. The frieze +round the top is broader, (about three feet,) and represents the +Theogony, the wars of the Titans, &c. from Hesiod. The figures are +in outline, and tinted, but without relief, in the manner of some of +the ancient Greek paintings on vases, tombs, &c. The effect is very +classical, and very singular. Schwanthaler, by whom these decorations +were designed, has displayed all the learning of a profound and +accomplished scholar, as well as the skill of an artist. In general +feeling and style they reminded me of Flaxman's outlines to AEschylus. + +The walls of this room are also stuccoed in imitation of marble, +with compartments, in which are represented, in the same style, other +subjects from the "Weeks and Days," and the "Birth of Pandora." The +ornaments are in the oldest Greek style. + +III. A saloon, or reception room, for those who are to be presented to +the king. On this room, which is in a manner public, the utmost luxury +of decoration is to be expended; but it is yet unfinished. The subjects +are from Homer. In compartments on the ceiling are represented the gods +of Greece; the gorgeous ornaments with which they are intermixed being +all in the Greek style. Round the frieze, at the top of the room, the +subjects are taken from the four Homeric hymns. The walls will be painted +from the Iliad and Odyssey, in compartments, mingled with the richest +arabesques. The effect of that part of the room which is finished is +indescribably splendid; but I cannot pause to dwell upon minutiae. + +IV. The throne-room. The decorations of this room combine, in an +extraordinary degree, the utmost splendour and the utmost elegance. The +whole is adorned with bas-reliefs in white stucco, raised upon a ground +of dead gold. The compositions are from Pindar. Round the frieze are +the games of Greece, the chariot and foot-race, the horse-race, the +wrestlers, the cestus, &c. Immediately over the throne, Pindar, singing +to his lyre, before the judges of the Olympic games. On each side a +comic and a tragic poet receiving a prize. The exceeding lightness and +grace, the various fancy, the purity of style, the vigour of life and +movement displayed here, all prove that Schwanthaler has drank deep of +classical inspiration, and that he has not looked upon the frieze of the +Parthenon in vain. The subjects on the walls are various groups from +the same poet; over the throne is the king's motto, and on each side, +Alcides and Achilles; the history of Jason and Medea, Castor and Pollux, +Deucalion and Pyrrha, &c. occupy compartments, differing in form and +size. The decoration of this magnificent room appeared to me a _little_ +too much broken up into parts--and yet, on the whole, it is most +beautiful; the Graces as well as the Muses presided over the whole of +these "fancies, chaste and noble;" and there is excellent taste in the +choice of the poet, and the subjects selected, as harmonizing with the +destination of the room: all are expressive of power, of triumph, of +moral or physical greatness.[1] The walls are of dead gold, from the +floor to the ceiling, and the gilding of this room alone cost 72,000 +florins. + +V. A saloon, or antechamber. The ceiling and walls admirably painted, +from the tragedies of AEschylus. + +VI. The king's study, or cabinet de travail. The subjects from Sophocles, +equally classical in taste, and rich in colour and effect. In the arch +at one end of this room are seven compartments, in which are inscribed +in gold letters, the sayings of the seven Greek sages. + +Schwanthaler furnished the outlines of the compositions from AEschylus +and Sophocles, which are executed in colours by Wilhelm Roeckel of +Schleissheim. + +VII. The king's dressing-room. The subjects from Aristophanes, painted +by Hiltensberger of Suabia, certainly one of the best painters here. +There is exquisite fantastic grace and spirit in these designs. + +"It was fit," said de Klenze, "that the first objects which his majesty +looked upon on rising from his bed should be gay and mirth-inspiring." + +VIII. The king's bedroom. The subjects from Theocritus, by different +painters, but principally Professor Heinrich Hess and Bruchmann. This +room pleased me least. + +No description could give an adequate idea of the endless variety, and +graceful and luxuriant ornament harmonizing with the various subjects, +and the purpose of each room, and lavished on the walls and ceilings, +even to infinitude. The general style is very properly borrowed from +the Greek decorations at Herculaneum and Pompeii; not servilely copied, +but varied with an exhaustless prodigality of fancy and invention, and +applied with exquisite taste. The combination of the gayest, brightest +colours has been studied with care, their proportion and approximation +calculated on scientific principles; so that the result, instead of +being gaudy and perplexing to the eye, is an effect the most captivating, +brilliant, and harmonious that can be conceived. + +The material used is the _encaustic_ painting, which has been revived +by M. de Klenze. He spent four months at Naples analysing the colours +used in the encaustic paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii, and by +innumerable experiments reducing the process to safe practice. Professor +Zimmermann explained to me the other day, as I stood beside him while +he worked, the general principle, and the advantages of this style. +It is much more rapid than oil painting; it is also much less expensive, +requiring both cheaper materials and in smaller quantity. It dries more +quickly: the surface is not so glazy and unequal, requiring no particular +light to be seen to advantage. The colours are wonderfully bright: it is +capable of as high a finish, and it is quite as durable as oils. Both +mineral and vegetable colours can be used. + +Now to return. The king's bedchamber opens into the queen's apartments, +but to take these in order we must begin at the beginning. The staircase, +which is still unfinished, will be in a much richer style of architecture +than that on the king's side: it is sustained with beautiful columns of +native marble. + +I. Antechamber; painted from the history and poems of Walther von der +Vogelweide, by Gassen of Coblentz, a young painter of distinguished +merit. + +Walther "of the bird-meadow," for that is the literal signification +of his name, was one of the most celebrated of the early Suabian +Minnesingers,[2] and appears to have lived from 1190 to 1240. He led a +wandering life, and was at different times in the service of several +princes of Germany. He figured at the famous "strife of poets," at the +castle of Wartsburg, which took place in 1207, in presence of Hermann, +landgrave of Thuringia and the landgravine Sophia: this is one of the +most celebrated incidents in the history of German poetry. He also +accompanied Leopold VII. to the Holy Land. His songs are warlike, +patriotic, moral, and religious. "Of love he has always the highest +conception, as of a principle of action, a virtue, a religious affection; +and in his estimation of female excellence, he is below none of his +contemporaries."[3] + +In the centre of the ceiling is represented the poetical contest at +Wartsburg, and Walther is reciting his verses in presence of his rivals +and the assembled judges. At the upper end of the room Walther is +exhibited exactly as he describes himself in one of his principal poems, +seated on a high rock in a melancholy attitude, leaning on his elbow, +and contemplating the troubles of his desolate country; in the opposite +arch, the old poet is represented as feeding the little birds which are +fluttering round him--in allusion to his will, which directed that the +birds should be fed yearly upon his tomb. Another compartment represents +Walther showing to his Geliebte (his mistress) the reflection of her +own lovely face in his polished shield. There are other subjects which +I cannot recall. The figures in all these groups are the size of life. + +II. The next room is painted from the poems of Wolfram of Eschenbach, +another, and one of the most fertile of the old Minnesingers; he also +was present at the contest at Wartsburg, "and wandered from castle to +castle like a true courteous knight, dividing his time between feats of +arms and minstrelsy." He versified, in the German tongue, the romance +of the "Saint-Greal," making it an original production, and the central +point, if the expression may be allowed, of an innumerable variety of +adventures, which he has combined, like Ariosto, in artful perplexity, +in the poems of Percival and Titurel.[4] These adventures furnish the +subjects of the paintings on the ceiling and walls, which are executed +by Hermann of Dresden, one of the most distinguished of the pupils of +Cornelius. + +The ornaments in these two rooms, which are exceedingly rich and +appropriate, are in the old gothic style, and reminded me of the +illuminations in the ancient MSS. + +III. A saloon (salon de service) appropriated to the ladies in waiting: +painted from the ballads of Buerger, by Foltz of Bingen. The ceiling +of this room is perfectly exquisite--it is formed entirely of small +rosettes, (about a foot in diameter,) varying in form, and combining +every hue of the rainbow--the delicacy and harmony of the entire effect +is quite indescribable. The rest of the decorations are not finished, +but the choice of the poet and the subjects, considering the destination +of the room, delighted me. The fate of "Lenora," and that of the "Curate's +Daughter," will be edifying subjects of contemplation for the maids of +honour. + +IV. The throne-room. Magnificent in the general effect; elegant and +appropriate in the design. + +On the ceiling, which is richly ornamented, are four medallions, +exhibiting, under the effigies of four admirable women, the four +_feminine_ cardinal virtues. Constancy is represented by Maria Theresa; +maternal love, by Cornelia; charity, by St. Elizabeth, (the Margravine +of Thuringia;[5]) and filial tenderness, by Julia Pia Alpinula. + + And there--O sweet and sacred be the name! + Julia, the daughter, the devoted, gave + Her youth to Heaven; her heart beneath a claim + Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. + LORD BYRON. + + +"I always avoid emblematical and allegorical figures, wherever it is +possible, for they are cold and arbitrary, and do not speak to the +heart!" said M. de Klenze, perceiving how much I was charmed with the +idea of thus personifying the womanly virtues. + +The paintings round the room are from the poems of Klopstock, and +executed by Wilhelm Kaulbach, an excellent artist. Only the frieze is +finished. It consists of a series of twelve compartments: three on each +side of the room, and divided from each other by two boys of colossal +size, grouped as Caryatides, and in very high relief. These compartments +represent the various scenes of the Herman-Schlacht; the sacrifices of +the Druids; the adieus of the women; the departure of the warriors; +the fight with Varus; the victory; the return of Herman to his wife +Thusnelda, &c. + +Herman, or, as the Roman historians call him, Arminius, was a chieftain +of the Cheruscans, a tribe of northern Germany. After serving in Illyria, +and there learning the Roman arts of warfare, he came back to his native +country, and fought successfully for its independence. He defeated, +beside a defile near Detmold, in Westphalia, the Roman legions under +the command of Varus, with a slaughter so mortifying, that the proconsul +is said to have killed himself, and Augustus to have received the +news of the catastrophe with indecorous expressions of grief. It is +this defeat of Varus which forms the theme of one of Klopstock's +chorus-dramas, entitled, "The Battle of Herman." The dialogue is concise +and picturesque; the characters various, consistent, and energetic; a +lofty colossal frame of being belongs to them all, as in the paintings +of Caravaggio. To Herman, the disinterested zealot of patriotism and +independence, a preference of importance is wisely given; yet, perhaps, +his wife Thusnelda acts more strongly on the sympathy by the enthusiastic +veneration and affection she displays for her hero-consort.[6] + +V. Saloon, or drawing-room. The paintings from Wieland, by Eugene +Neureuther, (already known in England by his beautiful arabesque +illustrations of Goethe's ballads.) The frieze only of this room, which +is from the Oberon, is in progress. + +VI. The queen's bedroom. The paintings from Goethe, and chiefly by +Kaulbach. The ceiling is exquisite, representing in compartments various +scenes from Goethe's principal lyrics; the Herman and Dorothea; Pausias +and Glycera, &c., intermixed with the most rich and elegant ornaments in +relief. + +VII. The queen's study, or private sitting-room. A small but very +beautiful room, with paintings from Schiller, principally by Lindenschmidt +of Mayence. On the ceiling are groups from the Wallenstein; the Maid +of Orleans; the Bride of Corinth; Wilhelm Tell; and on the walls, in +compartments, mingled with the most elegant ornaments, scenes from the +Fridolin, the Toggenburg, the Dragon of Rhodes, and other of his lyrics. + +VIII. The queen's library. As the walls will be covered with book-cases, +all the splendour of decoration is lavished on the ceiling, which is +inexpressibly rich and elegant. The paintings are from the works of +Ludwig Tieck--from the Octavianus, the Genoneva, Fortunatus, the Puss +in Boots, &c., and executed by Von Schwind. + +The dining-room is magnificently painted with subjects from Anacreon, +intermixed with ornaments and bacchanalian symbols, all in the richest +colouring. In the compartments on the ceiling, the figures are the size +of life--in those round the walls, half-life size. Nothing can exceed +the luxuriant fancy, the gaiety, the classical elegance, and amenity of +some of these groups. They are all by Professor Zimmermann. + +One of these paintings, a group representing, I think, Anacreon with the +Graces, (it is at the east end of the room,) is usually pointed out as +an example of the perfection to which the encaustic painting has been +carried: in fact, it would be difficult to exceed it in the mingled +harmony, purity, and brilliance of the colouring. + +M. Zimmermann told me, that when he submitted the cartoons for these +paintings to the king's approbation, his majesty desired a slight +alteration to be made in a group representing a nymph embraced by a +bacchanal; not as being in itself faulty, but "a cause de ses enfans," +his eldest daughters being accustomed to dine with himself and the +queen. + +Now it must be remembered that these seventeen rooms form the domestic +apartments of the royal family; and magnificent as they are, a certain +elegance, cheerfulness, and propriety have been more consulted than +parade and grandeur: but on the ground-floor there is a suite of state +apartments, prepared for the reception of strangers, &c., on great and +festive occasions; and these excited my admiration more than all the +rest together. + +The paintings are entirely executed in fresco, on a grand scale, by +Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, certainly one of the greatest living +artists of Europe: and these four rooms will form, when completed, the +very triumph of the romantic school of painting. It is not alone the +invention displayed in the composition, nor the largeness, boldness, and +freedom of the drawing, nor the vigour and splendour of the colouring; +it is the enthusiastic sympathy of the painter with his subject; the +genuine spirit of the old heroic, or rather Teutonic ages of Germany, +breathed through and over his singular creations, which so peculiarly +distinguish them. They are the very antipodes of all our notions of +the classical--they take us back to the days of Gothic romance, and +legendary lore--to the "fiery Franks and furious Huns"--to the heroes, +in short, of the Nibelungen Lied, from which all the subjects are taken. + +To enable the merely English reader to feel, or at least understand, the +interest attached to this grand series of paintings, without which it is +impossible to do justice to the artist, it is necessary to give a slight +sketch of the poem which he has thus magnificently illustrated.[7] + +"This national epic, as it is justly termed by M. Von der Hagen, has +lately attracted a most unprecedented degree of attention in Germany. It +now actually forms a part of the philological courses in many of their +universities, and it has been hailed with almost as much veneration as +the Homeric songs. Some allowance must be made for German enthusiasm, +but it cannot be denied that the Nibelungen Lied, though a little too +bloody and dolorous, possesses extraordinary merits." The hero and heroine +of this poem are Siegfried, (son of Siegmund, king of Netherland, and of +Sighelind his queen,) and Chrimhilde, princess of Burgundy. Siegfried, +or Sifrit, the Sigurd of the Scandinavian Sagas, is the favourite hero +of the northern parts of Germany. His spear, "a mighty pine beam," was +preserved with veneration at Worms; and there, in the church of St. +Cecilia, he is supposed to have been buried. The German romances do +not represent him as being of gigantic proportions, but they all agree +that he became invulnerable by bathing in the blood of a dragon, which +guarded the treasures of the Nibelungen, and which he overcame and +killed; but it happened that as he bathed, a leaf fell and rested +between his shoulders, and consequently, that one little spot, about +a hand's breadth, still remained susceptible of injury. Siegfried also +possesses the wondrous tarn-cap, which had the power of rendering the +wearer invisible. + +This formidable champion, after winning the love and the hand of the +fair princess Chrimhilde, and performing a thousand valiant deeds, is +treacherously murdered by the three brothers of Chrimhilde, Gunther, +king of Burgundy, Ghiseler, Gernot, and their uncle Hagen, instigated by +queen Brunhilde, the wife of Gunther. Chrimhilde meditates for years the +project of a deep and deadly revenge on the murderers of her husband. +This vengeance is in fact the subject of the Nibelungen Lied, as the +wrath of Achilles is the subject of the Iliad. + +The poem opens thus beautifully with a kind of argument of the whole +eventful story. + + "In ancient song and story marvels high are told + Of knights of bold emprize and adventures mani-fold; + Of joy and merry feasting, of lamenting, woe, and fear; + Of champions' bloody battles many marvels shall ye hear. + + A noble maid and fair, grew up in Burgundy, + In all the land about fairer none might be; + She became a queen full high, Chrimhild was she hight, + But for her matchless beauty fell many a blade of might. + + For love and for delight was framed that lady gay, + Many a champion bold sighed for that gentle May; + Beauteous was her form! beauteous without compare! + The virgin's virtues might adorn many a lady fair. + + Three kings of might had the maiden in their care, + King Gunther and king Gernot, champions bold they were, + And Ghiselar the young, a chosen peerless blade: + The lady was their sister, and much they loved the maid." + + +Then follows an enumeration of the heroes in attendance on king Gunther: +Haghen, the fierce; Dankwart, the swift; Volker, the minstrel knight; +and others; "all champions bold and free;"--and then the poet proceeds +to open the argument. + + "One night the queen Chrimhild dreamt her as she lay, + How she had trained and nourished a falcon, wild and gay; + When suddenly two eagles fierce the gentle hawk have slain-- + Never, in this world felt she such cruel pain! + + To her mother, Uta, she told her dream with fear. + Full mournfully she answered to what the maid did spier, + 'The falcon, whom you cherished, a gentle knight is he: + God take him to his ward! thou must lose him suddenly.' + + 'What speak you of the knight? dearest mother, say! + Without the love of Champion, to my dying day, + Ever thus fair will I remain, nor take a wedded fere + To gain such pain and sorrow--though the knight were without peer!' + + 'Speak not thou too rashly!' her mother spake again. + 'If ever in this world, thou heart-felt joy wilt gain, + Maiden must thou be no more; Leman must thou have. + God will grant thee for thy mate, some gentle knight and brave.' + + 'O leave thy words, lady mother; speak not of wedded mate, + Full many a gentle maiden hath found the truth too late: + Still has their fondest love ended with woe and pain; + Virgin will I ever be, nor the love of Leman gain.' + + In virtues high and noble that gentle maiden dwelt, + Full many a night and day, nor love for Leman felt. + To never a knight or champion would she plight her virgin truth, + Till she was gained for wedded fere by a right noble youth. + + That youth, he was the falcon, she in her dream beheld, + Who by the two fierce eagles, dead to the ground was fell'd: + But since right dreadful vengeance she took upon his foen; + For the death of that bold hero, died full many a mother's son." + + +After this exordium the story commences, the first half ending with the +assassination of Siegfried. + +Some years after the murder of Siegfried, Chrimhilde gives her hand to +Etzel, (or Attila,) king of the Huns, in order that through his power +and influence she may be enabled to execute her long-cherished schemes +of vengeance. The assassins accordingly, and all their kindred and +followers, are induced to visit King Etzel at Vienna, where, by the +instigation of Chrimhilde, a deadly feud arises; in the course of which +almost the whole army on both sides are cruelly slaughtered. By the +powerful, but reluctant aid of Dietrich of Bern,[8] Hagen, the murderer +of Siegfried, is at last vanquished, and brought bound to the feet of +the queen, who at once raises the sword of her departed hero, and with +her own hand strikes off the head of his enemy. Hildebrand instantly +avenges the atrocious and unhospitable act, by stabbing the queen, who +falls exulting on the body of her hated victim. + +When Gunther's arms, and those of his brothers and champions, are +brought to Worms, Brunhilde repents too late of her treachery to +Siegfried, and the old queen Uta dies of grief. As to King Etzel, the +poet professes himself ignorant, "whether he died in battle, or was +taken up to heaven, or fell out of his skin, or was swallowed up +by the devil;" leaving to his reader the choice of these singular +catastrophes;--and thus the story ends.[9] + +The rivalry between Chrimhilde and her amazonian sister-in-law, +Brunhilde, forms the most interesting and amusing episode in the poem; +and the characters of the two queens--the fierce haughty Brunhilde, +and the impassioned, devoted, confiding Chrimhilde--(whom the very +excess of conjugal love converts into a relentless fury,) are admirably +discriminated. "The work is divided into thirty-eight books, or +_adventures_; and besides a liberal allowance of sorcery and wonders, +contains a great deal of clear and animated narrative, and innumerable +curious and picturesque traits of the manners of the age. The characters +of the different warriors, as well as those of the two queens, and their +heroic consorts, are very naturally and powerfully drawn--especially +that of Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, in whom the virtues of an +heroic and chivalrous leader are strangely united with the atrocity and +impenitent hardihood of an assassin. + +"The author of the Lay of the Nibelungen has not been ascertained. In +its present form it must have existed between the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries;--this is proved by the language; but the manners, tone, +thoughts, and actions, which are all in perfect keeping, bear testimony +to an antiquity far beyond that of the present dress of the poem." + +Here then was a boundless, an inexhaustible fund of inspiration for such +a painter as Julius Schnorr; and his poetical fancy appears to have +absolutely revelled in the grand, the gay, the tragic subjects afforded +to his creative pencil. + +In the first room, immediately over the entrance, he has represented the +poet, or presumed author of the Nibelungen--an inspired figure, attended +by two listening genii. On each side, but a little lower down, are two +figures looking towards him; on one side a beautiful female, striking +a harp, and attended by a genius crowned with roses--represents song +or poesy. On the other side, a sybil listening to the voice of Time, +represents tradition. The figures are all colossal. + +Below, on each side of this door, are two beautiful groups. That to +the right of the spectator represents Siegfried and Chrimhilde. She is +leaning on the shoulder of her warlike husband with an air of the most +inimitable and graceful abandonment in her whole figure: a falcon sits +upon her hand, on which her eyes are turned with the most profound +expression of tenderness and melancholy; she is thinking upon her dream, +in which was foreshadowed the early and terrible doom of her husband. + +It is said at Munich, that the wife of Schnorr, an exquisitely beautiful +woman, whom he married under romantic circumstances, was the model of +his Chrimhilde, and that one of her spontaneous attitudes furnished the +idea of this exquisite group, on which I never look without emotion. The +depth and splendour of the colouring adds to the effect. The figures are +rather above the size of life. + +On the opposite side of the door, as a _pendant_, we have Gunther, and +his queen, Brunhilde. He holds one of her hands, with a deprecating +expression. She turns from him with an averted countenance, exhibiting +in her whole look and attitude, grief, rage, and shame. It is evident +that she has just made the fatal discovery of her husband's obligations +to Siegfried, which urges her to the destruction of the latter. I have +heard travellers ignorantly criticise the grand, and somewhat exaggerated +forms of Brunhilde, as being "really quite coarse and unfeminine." In +the poem she is represented as possessing the strength of twelve men; +and when Hagen sees her throw a spear, which it required four warriors +to lift, he exclaims to her alarmed suitor, King Gunther, + + "Aye! how is it, King Gunther? here must you tine your life! + The lady you would gain, well might be the devil's wife!" + + +It is by the secret assistance of Siegfried, and his tarn-cap, that +Gunther at length vanquishes and humbles this terrible heroine, and she +avenges her humiliation by the murder of Siegfried. + +Around the room are sixteen full-length portraits of the other principal +personages who figure in the Nibelungen Lied--_portraits_ they may well +be called, for their extraordinary spirit, and truth of character. In +one group we have the fierce Hagen, the courteous Dankwart, and between +them, Volker tuning his viol; of him it is said-- + + Bolder and more knight-like fiddler, never shone the sun upon, + + +and he plays a conspicuous part in the catastrophe of the poem. + +Opposite to this group, we have queen Uta, the mother of Chrimhilde, +between her sons, Gernot and Ghiselar: in another compartment, Siegmund +and Sighelind, the father and mother of Siegfried. + +Over the window opposite to the entrance, Hagen is consulting the +mermaids of the Danube, who foretell the destruction which awaits him +at the court of Etzel: and lower down on each side of the window, King +Etzel with his friend Rudiger, and those faithful companions in arms, +old Hildebrand and Dietrich of Bern. The power of invention, the +profound feeling of character, and extraordinary antiquarian knowledge +displayed in these figures, should be seen to be understood. Those which +most struck me (next to Chrimhilde and her husband) were the figures +of the daring Hagen and the venerable queen Uta. + +On the ceiling, which is vaulted, and enriched with most gorgeous +ornaments, intermixed with heraldic emblazonments, are four small +compartments in fresco: in which are represented, the marriage of +Siegfried and Chrimhilde, the murder of Siegfried, the vengeance of +Chrimhilde, and the death of Chrimhilde. These are painted in vivid +colours on a black ground. + +On the whole, on looking round this most splendid and interesting room, +I could find but one fault: I could have wished that the ornaments on +the walls and ceiling (so rich and beautiful to the eye) had been more +completely and consistently gothic in style; they would then have +harmonized better with the subjects of the paintings. + +In the next room, the two sides are occupied by two grand frescos, each +about five-and-twenty feet in length, and covering the whole wall. In +the first, Siegfried brings the kings of Saxony and Denmark prisoners to +the court of king Gunther. The second represents the reception of the +victorious Siegfried by the two queens, Uta and Chrimhilde. This is the +first interview of the lovers, and furnishes one of the most admired +passages in the poem. + + "And now the beauteous lady, like the rosy morn, + Dispersed the misty clouds; and he who long had borne + In his heart the maiden, banish'd pain and care, + As now before his eyes stood the glorious maiden fair. + + From her embroidered garment, glittered many a gem, + And on her lovely cheek, the rosy red did gleam; + Whoever in his glowing soul had imaged lady bright, + Confessed that fairer maiden never stood before his sight. + + And as the moon at night, stands high the stars among, + And moves the mirky clouds above, with lustre bright and strong; + So stood before her maidens, that maid without compare: + Higher swelled the courage of many a champion there." + + +Between the two doors there is the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde. +The second of these frescos is nearly finished; of the others I only +saw the cartoons, which are magnificent. The third room will contain, +arranged in the same manner, three grand frescos, representing 1st. +the scene in which the rash curiosity of Chrimhilde prevails over the +discretion of her husband, and he gives her the ring and the girdle +which he had snatched as trophies from the vanquished Brunhilde.[10] +2ndly. The death of Siegfried, assassinated by Hagen, who stabs the hero +in the back, as he stoops to drink from the forest-well. And 3rdly. +The body of Siegfried exposed in the cathedral at Worms, and watched by +Chrimhilde, "who wept three days and three nights by the corse of her +murdered lord, without food and without sleep." + +The fourth room will contain the second marriage of Chrimhilde; her +complete and sanguinary vengeance; and her death. None of these are +yet in progress. But the three cartoons of the death of Siegfried; +the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde; and the fatal curiosity of +Chrimhilde, I had the pleasure of seeing in Professor Schnorr's studio +at the academy; I saw at the same time his picture of the death of the +emperor Frederic Barbarossa, which has excited great admiration here, +but I confess I do not like it; nor do I think that Schnorr paints as +well in oils as in fresco--the latter is certainly his forte. + +Often have I walked up and down these superb rooms, looking up at +Schnorr and his assistants, and watching intently the preparation and +the process of the fresco painting--and often I thought, "What would +some of our English painters--Etty, or Hilton, or Briggs, or Martin--O +what would they give to have two or three hundred feet of space before +them, to cover at will with grand and glorious creations,--scenes from +Chaucer, or Spenser, or Shakspeare, or Milton, proudly conscious that +they were painting for their country and posterity, spurred on by the +spirit of their art and national enthusiasm, and generously emulating +each other!" Alas! how different!--with us such men as Hilton and Etty +illustrate annuals, and the genius of Turner shrinks into a vignette! + +I should add, before I throw down my weary pen, that every part of the +new palace, from the _ensemble_ down to the minutest details of the +ornaments (the paintings excepted) has been designed by De Klenze, who +executed seven hundred drawings with his own hand for this palace alone, +without reckoning his designs for the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek. + +This has been a busy and exciting day. Then in the evening a +_soiree_--music-- + + * * * * * + +O quite tired in spirits, in voice, in mind, in heart, in frame! + +_Oct. 14th._--Accompanied by my kind friend, Madame de K----, and +conducted by Roekel, the painter, I visited the unfinished chapel +adjoining the new palace. It is painted (or rather _painting_) in +fresco, on a gold ground, with extraordinary richness and beauty, +uniting the old Greek, or rather Byzantine manner, with the old Italian +style of decoration. It reminded me, in the general effect, of the +interior of St. Mark's at Venice,--but, of course, the details are +executed in a grander feeling, and in a much higher style of art. The +pillars are of the native marble, and the walls will be covered with +a kind of Mosaic of various marbles, intermixed with ornaments in +relief, in gilding, in colours--all combined, and harmonizing together. +The ceiling is formed of two large domes or cupolas. In the first is +represented the Old Testament: in the very centre, the Creator; in a +circle round him, the six days' creation. Around this again, in a larger +circle, the building of the ark; the Deluge; the sacrifice of Noah; and +the first covenant. In the four corners, the colossal figures of the +patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are designed in a +very grand and severe style. The second cupola is dedicated to the +New Testament. In the centre, the Redeemer: around him four groups of +cherubs, three in each group. We were on the scaffold erected for the +painters--near enough to remark the extreme beauty and various expression +in these heads, which must, I am afraid, be lost when viewed from below. +Around, in a circle, the twelve apostles; and in the four corners, the +four evangelists, corresponding with the four patriarchs in the other +dome. In the arch between the two domes, as connecting the Old and New +Testaments, we have the Nativity and other scenes from the life of the +Virgin. In the arch at the farthest end will be placed the Crucifixion, +as the consummation of all. + +The painter to whom the direction of the whole work has been entrusted, +is professor Heinrich Haess, (or Hess,) one of the most celebrated of the +German historical painters. He was then employed in painting the Nativity, +stretched upon his back on a sort of inclined chair. Notwithstanding the +inconvenience and even peril of leaving his work while the plaster was +wet, he came down from his giddy height to speak to us, and explained +the general design of the whole. I expressed my honest admiration of the +genius, and the grand feeling displayed in many of the figures; and, in +particular, of the group he was then painting, of which the extreme +simplicity charmed me; but as honestly, I expressed my surprise that +nothing _new_ in the general style of the decoration had been attempted; +a representation of the Omnipotent Being was merely excusable in more +simple and unenlightened times, when the understandings of men could +only be addressed through their senses--and merely tolerable, when +Michael Angelo gave us that grand personification of Almighty Power +moving "on the wings of the wind" to the creation of the first man. But +now, in these thinking, reasoning times, it is not so well to venture +into those paths, upon which daring Genius, supported by blind Faith, +rushed without fear, because without a doubt. The theory of religion +belongs to poetry, and its practice to painting. I was struck by the +wonderful stateliness of the ornaments and borders used in decorating +these sacred subjects: they are neither Greek, nor gothic, nor +arabesque--but composed merely of simple forms and straight lines, +combined in every possible manner, and in every variety of pure colour. +One might call them _Byzantine_; at least, they reminded me of what +I had seen in the old churches at Venice and Pisa. + +I was pleased by the amiable and open manners of professor Hess. Much +of his life has been spent in Italy, and he speaks Italian well, but no +French. In general, the German artists absolutely detest and avoid the +language and literature of France, but almost all speak Italian, and +many can read, if they do not speak, English. He told me that he had +spent two years on the designs and cartoons for this chapel; he had been +painting here daily for the last two years, and expected to be able to +finish the whole in about two years and a half more: thus giving six +years and a half, or more probably seven years, to this grand task. +He has four pupils, or assistants, besides those employed in the +decorations only. + +_Oct. 15th._--After dinner we drove through the beautiful English +garden--a public promenade--which is larger and more diversified than +Kensington Gardens; but the trees are not so fine, being of younger +growth. A branch of the Isar rolls through this garden, sometimes an +absolute torrent, deep and rapid, foaming and leaping along, between its +precipitous banks,--sometimes a strong but gentle stream, flowing "at +its own sweet will" among smooth lawns. Several pretty bridges cross it +with "airy span;" there are seats for repose, and cafes and houses where +refreshment may be had, and where, in the summer-time, the artisans and +citizens of Munich assemble to dance on the Sunday evenings;--altogether +it was a beautiful day, and a delightful drive. + +In the evening at the opera with the ambassadress and a large party. +It was the queen's fete, and the whole court was present. The theatre +was brilliantly illuminated--crowded in every part: in short, it was +all very gay and very magnificent; as to hearing a single note of the +opera, (the Figaro,) that was impossible; so I resigned myself to the +conversation around me. "Are you fond of music?" said I, innocently, to +a lady whose volubility had ceased not from the moment we entered the +box. "Moi! si je l'aime!--mais avec passion!" And then without pause +or mercy continued the same incessant flow of _spirituel_ small-talk +while Scheckner-Wagen and Meric, now brought for the first time into +competition, and emulous of each other,--one pouring forth her full +_sostenuto_ warble, like a wood-lark,--the other trilling and running +divisions, like a nightingale--were uniting their powers in the "Sull' +Aria;" but though I could not hear I could see. I was struck to-night +more than ever by the singular dignity of the demeanour of Madame +Scheckner-Wagen. She is not remarkable for beauty, nor is there any +thing of the common made-up theatrical grace in her deportment--still +less does she remind us of queen Medea--queen Pasta, I should say--the +imperial syren who drowned her own identity and ours together in her +"cup of enchanted sounds;"--no--but Scheckner-Wagen treads the stage +with the air of a high-bred lady, to whom applause or censure are things +indifferent--and yet with an exceeding modesty. In short, I never saw +an actress who inspired such an immediate and irresistible feeling of +respect and interest for the individual _woman_. I do not say that this +is the _ne plus ultra_ of good acting--on the contrary; though it is a +mistake to imagine that the moral character of an actress or a singer +goes for nothing with an audience--but of this more at some future +time. Madame Scheckner's style of singing has the same characteristic +simplicity and dignity: her voice is of a fine full quality, well +cultivated, well managed. I have known her a little indolent and careless +at times, but never forced or affected; and I am told that in some of +the grand classical German operas, Gluck's Iphigenia, for instance, her +acting as well as her singing is admirable. + +I wish, if ever we have that charming Devrient-Schroeeder, and her vocal +suite, again in England, they would give us the Iphigenia, or the Armida, +or the Idomeneo. She is another who must be heard in her native music +to be justly appreciated. Madame Milder _was_ a third, but her reign is +past. This extraordinary creature absolutely could not, or would not, +sing the modern Italian music; no one, I believe, ever heard her sing +a note of Rossini in her life. Madame Vespermann is here, but she sings +no more in public. She was formed by Winter, and was a fine classical +singer, though no original genius like the Milder; and her voice, if +I may judge by what remains of it, could never have been of first-rate +quality. + +Well--after the opera--while scandal, and tea, and refreshments were +served up together--I had a long conversation with Count ---- on the +politics and statistics of Bavaria, the tone of feeling in the court, +the characters and revenues of some of the leading nobles--particularly +Count d'Armansberg, the former minister, (now in Greece taking care of +the young King Otho,) and Prince Wallerstein, the present minister of +the interior. He described the king's extremely versatile character, and +his _vivacites_, and lamented his present unpopularity with the liberal +party in Germany, the disputes between him and the Chambers, and the +opinions entertained of the recent conferences between the king and his +brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, at Lintz, &c. I learnt much that +was new, much that was interesting to me, but do not understand these +matters sufficiently to say any thing more about them. + +The two richest families in Bavaria are the Tour-and-Taxis, and the Arco +family. The annual revenue of the Prince of Tour-and-Taxis amounts to +upwards of five millions of florins, and he lays out about a million +and a half yearly in land. He seldom or never comes to Munich, but +resides chiefly on his enormous estates, or at Ratisbon, which is _his_ +metropolis,--in fact, this rich and powerful noble is little less than +a sovereign prince. + + * * * * * + +_16th._--I went with Madame von A---- and her daughters to the +=Kunstverein=, or "Society of Arts." A similar institution of amateurs +and artists, maintained by subscription, exists, I believe, in all the +principal cities of Germany. The young artists exhibit their works here, +whether pictures, models, or engravings. Some of these are removed and +replaced by others almost every day, so that there is a constant variety. +As yet, however, I have seen no _very_ striking, though many pleasing +pictures; but I have added several names to my list of German +artists.[11] To-day at the Kunstverein, there was a series of small +pictures framed together, the subjects from Victor Hugo's romance of +Notre Dame. These attracted general attention, partly as the work of +a stranger, partly from their own merit, and the popularity of Victor +Hugo. The painter, M. Couder, is a young Frenchman, now on his return +from Italy to Paris. I understand that he has obtained leave to paint +one of the frescos in the Pinakothek, as a trial of skill. Of the +designs from Notre Dame, the central and largest picture is the scene in +the garret between Phoebus and Esmeralda, when the former is stabbed +by the priest Frollo: one can hardly imagine a more admirable subject +for painting, if properly treated; but this is a failure in effect and +in character. It fails in effect because the light is too generally +diffused:--it is day-light, not lamp-light. The monk ought to have been +thrown completely into shadow, only _just_ visible, terribly, mysteriously +visible, to the spectator. It fails in character because the figure of +Esmeralda, instead of the elegant, fragile, almost etherial creature she +is described, rather reminds us of a coarse Italian contadina; and, for +the expression--a truly poetical painter would have averted the face, +and thrown the whole expression into the attitude. It will hardly be +believed that of such a subject, the painter has made a _cold_ picture, +merely by not feeling the bounds within which he ought to have kept. +The small pictures are much better, particularly the Sachet embracing +her child, and the tumult in front of Notre Dame. There were some other +striking pictures by the same artist, particularly Chilperic and +Fredegonde strangling the young queen Galsuinde, painted with shocking +skill and truth. That taste for horrors, which is now the reigning +fashion in French art and French literature, speaks ill for French +_sensibilite_--a word they are so fond of--for that sensibility cannot +be great which requires such extravagant _stimuli_. Painters and authors, +all alike! They remind me of the sentimental negresses of queen Carathis, +in the Tale of Vathek--"qui avaient un gout particulier pour les +pestilences." Couder, however, has undoubted talent. His portrait of +De Klenze, painted since he came here, is all but _alive_. + +In the evening at the theatre with M. and Mad. S----. We had Karl +von Holtei's melo-drama of Lenore, founded on Buerger's well-known +ballad;--but with the omission of the spectre, which was something like +acting Hamlet "with the part of Hamlet left out, by particular desire." +Lenore is, however, one of the prettiest and most effective of the +_petites pieces_ I have seen here--very tragical and dolorous of course. +Madlle. Schoeller acted Lenore with more feeling and power than I thought +was in her. There is a mad scene, in which she fancies her lover at her +window, calling to her, as the spectre calls in the ballad-- + + "Sleep'st thou, or wak'st thou, Leonore?" + + +And which was so fine as a picture, and so well acted, that it quite +thrilled me--no easy matter. Holtei is one of the first dramatists in +Germany for comedies, melo-dramas, farces, and musical pieces. In this +particular department he has no rival. He played to-night himself, being +for his own benefit, and sung his popular Mantel Lied, or _cloak-song_, +which, like his other songs, may be heard from one end of Germany to the +other. + +_18th._--A grand military fete. The consecration of the great bronze +obelisk, which the king has erected in the Karoline-Platz, to the +_glory_ and the memory of the thirty-seven thousand Bavarian conscripts +who followed, or rather were dragged by, Napoleon to the fatal Russian +campaign in 1812. Of these, about six thousand returned alive: most of +them mutilated, or with diseases which shortened their existence. Of +many thousands no account ever reached home. They perished, God knows +how or where. There was, in particular, a detachment, or a battery of +six thousand Bavarians, so completely destroyed that it was as if the +earth had swallowed them, or the snows had buried them, for not one +remained to tell the tale of how or where they died. Of those who did +return, about one thousand one hundred survive, of whom four hundred +continue in the army; the rest had returned to their civil pursuits, and +had become peasants or tradesmen in different parts of the kingdom. Now, +it appears, that several hundreds of these men have arrived in Munich +within the last few days in order to be present at the ceremony: and +some, from the mere sentiment of honour, have travelled from afar--even +from Upper Bavaria and the Flemish Provinces, a distance of more than +eighty leagues, (two hundred and fifty miles.) On this occasion, +according to the arrangements previously made, the veteran soldiers who +remained in the army, were alone to be admitted within the enclosure +round the monument. The others, I believe about five hundred in number, +who had quitted the service, but who had equally fought, suffered, bled, +in the same disastrous expedition, demanded, very naturally, the same +privilege. It was refused; because forsooth they had no uniforms, and +the unseemly intrusion of drab coats and blue worsted stockings among +epaulettes and feathers and embroidered facings, would certainly spoil +the symmetry--the effect of the _coup d'oeil_! They complained, +murmured aloud, resisted; and all night there was fighting in the +streets and taverns between them and the police. This morning they went +up in a body to Marshal Wrede, (who is said to have betrayed the army,) +and were _renvoyes_. They then went up to the palace; and at last, +at a late hour this morning, the king gave orders that they should be +admitted within the circle; but it was too late--the affront had sunk +deep. The permission, which in the first instance ought indeed to +have been rather an invitation, now seemed forced, ungraceful, and +ungracious. There was a palpable cloud of discontent over all; for the +popular feeling was with them. For myself, a mere stranger, such was +my indignation, the whole proceeding appeared to me so heartless, +so unkingly, so unkind, and my sympathy with these brave men was so +profound, that I could scarce persuade myself to go;--however, I went. +I had been invited to view the ceremony from the balcony of the French +ambassador's house, which is exactly opposite to the obelisk. + +I had indulged my ill-humour till it was late; already all the avenues +leading to the Karoline-Platz were occupied by the military, and my +carriage was stopped. As I was within fifty yards of the ambassador's +house, it did not much signify, and I dismissed the carriage; but they +would not allow the lacquais to pass. Wondering at all these precautions +I dismissed _him_ too. A little further on I was myself stopped, and +civilly _commanded_ to turn back. I pleaded that I only wished to enter +the house to which I pointed. "It was impossible." Now, what I had not +cared for a moment before became at once an object to be attained, and +which I was resolved to attain. I was really curious and anxious to see +how all this would end, for the indifferent or lowering looks of the +crowd had struck me. I observed to a well-dressed man, who politely +tried to make way for me, that it was strange to see so much severity of +discipline at a public fete. "Public fete!" he repeated with scornful +bitterness; "Je vous demande pardon, madame! c'est une fete pour quelques +uns, mais ce n'est pas une fete pour nous, ce n'est pas pour le peuple!" + +At length I fortunately met an officer, with whom I was slightly +acquainted, who immediately conducted me to the door. The spectacle, +merely as a _spectacle_, was not striking; but to me it had a peculiar +interest. There was a raised platform on one side for the queen and her +children, who, attended by a numerous court, were spectators. An outer +circle was formed by several regiments of guards, and within this +circle the soldiers who had served in Russia were drawn up near the +obelisk, which was covered for the present with a tarpauling. But all +my attention was fixed on the disbanded soldiers without uniforms, who +stood together in a dark dense column, contrasting with the glittering +and gorgeous array of those around them. The king rode into the circle, +accompanied by his brother, Prince Charles, the arch-duke Francis of +Austria, Marshal Wrede, and followed by a troop of generals, equerries, +&c. There was a dead silence, and not a shout was raised to greet him. +A few of the disbanded soldiers, who were nearest to him, took off +their hats, others kept them on. The trumpets sounded a salute: the +bands struck up our "God save the King," which is nationalized as _the_ +loyal anthem all over Germany. The canvass covering fell at once, and +displayed the obelisk, which is entirely of bronze, raised upon four +granite steps. It bears a simple inscription. I think it is "Ludwig I., +king, to the soldiers of Bavaria who fell in the Russian campaign;" or +nearly to that purpose. Marshal Wrede then alighted from his horse and +addressed the soldiers. This was a striking moment; for while the outer +circle of military remained immovable as statues, the soldiers within, +both those with, and those without uniforms, finding themselves out of +ear-shot, advanced a few steps, and then breaking their ranks, pressed +forward in a confused mass, surrounding the king and his officers, +in the most eager but respectful manner. I could not distinguish one +sentence of the harangue, which, as I afterwards heard, was any thing +rather than satisfactory. + +I heard it remarked round me that the Duke de Leuchtenberg, (the son +of Eugene Beauharnais,) was not present, neither as one of the royal +cortege nor as a spectator. + +The whole lasted about twenty minutes. The day was cold; and, in truth, +the ceremony was _cold_, in every sense of the word. The Karoline-Platz +is so large that not a third part of the open space was occupied. Had +the people, who lingered sullen and discontented outside the military +barrier, been admitted under proper restrictions, it had been a grand +and imposing sight; but, perhaps the king is following the Austrian +tactics, and seeking to crush systematically every thing like feeling or +enthusiasm in his people. I know not how he will manage it; for he is +himself the very antipodes of Austrian carelessness and sluggishness: +a restless enthusiast--fond of intellectual excitement--fond of +novelty--with no natural taste, one would think, for Metternich's +_vieilleries_. If he adopt Austrian principles, his theory and his +practice, his precept and example, will always be at variance. At the +conclusion of the ceremony the king and his suite rode up to the +platform and saluted the queen: and when she--who is so universally +and truly beloved here that I believe the people would die for her at +anytime--rose to depart, I heard a cheer, the first and last this day! +The disbanded soldiers approached the platform, at first timidly by twos +and threes, and then in great numbers, taking off their hats. She stood +up, leaning on the princess Matilda, and bowed. The royal cortege then +disappeared. The military bands struck up, and one battalion after +another filed off. I expected that the crowd would have rushed in, but +the people seemed completely chilled and disgusted. Only a few appeared. +In about half an hour the obelisk was left alone in its solitude. + +I spent the rest of the day with Madame de V----, and returned home quite +tired and depressed. + +I understand this morning (Saturday) that the king has ordered a +gratuity and dinner to be given to the disbanded soldiers. I hope it is +true, King Louis! You ought at least to understand your _metier de Roi_ +better than to degrade the "pomp and circumstance of _glorious_ war" in +the eyes of your people, and make them feel for what a poor recompence +they may fight, bleed, die--be made at once victims and executioners in +the contests of royal and ambitious gamblers! + +I saw to-day, at the house of the court banker, Eichthal, a most +charming picture by the Baroness de Freyberg, the sister of my good +friend, M. Stuntz. It is a Madonna and child--loveliest of subjects for +a woman and a mother!--she is sure to put her heart into it, at least; +but, in this particular picture, the surpassing delicacy of touch, the +softness and purity of the colouring, the masterly drawing in the hands +of the Virgin, and the limbs of the child, equalled the feeling and the +expression--and, in truth, _surprised_ me. Madame de Freyberg gave this +picture to her father, who is not rich, and, unhappily, blind. Of him, +the present possessor purchased it for fifteen hundred florins, (about +140_l._) and now values it at twice the sum. In the possession of her +brother, I have seen others of her productions, and particularly a head +of one of his children, of exceeding beauty, and very much in the old +Italian style. + +In the evening, a very lively and amusing _soiree_ at the house of Dr. +Martius. We had some very good music. Young Vieux-temps, a pupil of De +Beriot, was well accompanied by an orchestra of amateurs. I met here +also a young lady of whom I had heard much--Josephine Lang, looking +so gentle, so unpretending, so imperturbable, that no one would have +accused or suspected her of being one of the Muses in disguise, until +she sat down to the piano, and sang her own beautiful and original +compositions in a style peculiar to herself. She is a musician by +nature, by choice, and by profession, exercising her rare talent +with as much modesty as good-nature. The painter Zimmermann, who has a +magnificent bass voice, sung for me Mignon's song--"Kennst du das Land!" +And, lastly, which was the most interesting amusement of the evening, +Karl von Holtei read aloud the second act of Goethe's Tasso. He read +most admirably, and with a voice which kept attention enchained, +enchanted; still it was genuine reading. He kept equally clear of acting +and of declamation. + +_Oct. 20th. Sunday._--I went with M. Stuntz to hear a grand mass at the +royal chapel. + + * * * * * + +_21st._--It rained this morning:--went to the gallery, and amused myself +for two hours walking up and down the rooms, sometimes pausing upon my +favourite pictures, sometimes abandoned to the reveries suggested by +these glorious creations of the human intellect. + + 'Twas like the bright procession + Of skiey visions in a solemn dream, + From which men wake as from a paradise, + And draw fresh strength to tread the thorns of life! + + +While looking at the Castor and Pollux of Rubens, I remembered what the +biographers asserted of this most wonderful man--that he spoke fluently +seven languages, besides being profoundly skilled in many sciences, and +one of the most accomplished diplomatists of his time. Before he took +up his palette in the morning, he was accustomed to read, or hear read, +some fine passages out of the ancient poets; and thus releasing his soul +from the trammels of low-thoughted care, he let her loose into the airy +regions of imagination. + +What Goethe says of poets, must needs be applicable to painters. He +says, "If we look only at the principal productions of a poet, and +neglect to study himself, his character, and the circumstances with +which he had to contend, we fall into a sort of atheism, which forgets +the Creator in his creation." + +I think most people admire pictures in this sort of atheistical fashion; +yet next to loving pictures, and all the pleasure they give, and revelling +in all the feelings they awaken, all the new ideas with which they enrich +our mental hoard--next to this, or equal with it, is the inexhaustible +interest of studying the painter in his works. It is a lesson in human +nature. Almost every picture (which is the production of mind) has +an individual character, reflecting the predominant temperament--nay, +sometimes, the occasional mood of the artist, its creator. Even portrait +painters, renowned for their exact adherence to nature, will be found to +have stamped upon their portraits a general and distinguishing character. +There is, besides the physiognomy of the individual represented, the +physiognomy, if I may so express myself, of the picture; detected +at once by the mere connoisseur as a distinction of manner, style, +execution: but of which the reflecting and philosophical observer might +discover the key in the mind or life of the individual painter. + +In the heads of Titian, what subtlety of intellect mixed with sentiment +and passion! In those of Velasquez, what chivalrous grandeur, what +high-hearted contemplation! When Ribera painted a head--what power of +sufferance! In those of Giorgione, what profound feeling! In those +of Guido, what elysian grace! In those of Rubens what energy of +intellect--what vigorous life! In those of Vandyke, what high-bred +elegance! In those of Rembrandt, what intense individuality! Could Sir +Joshua Reynolds have painted a vixen without giving her a touch of +sentiment? Would not Sir Thomas Lawrence have given refinement to a +cook-maid? I do believe that Opie would have made even a calf's head +look sensible, as Gainsborough made our queen Charlotte look picturesque. + +If I should whisper that since I came to Germany I have not seen one +really fine modern portrait, the Germans would never forgive me; they +would fall upon me with a score of great names--Wach, Stieler, Vogel, +Schadow--and beat me, like Chrimhilde, "black and blue." But before they +are angry, and absolutely condemn me, I wish they would place one of +their own most admired portraits beside those of Titian or Vandyke, +or come to England, and look upon our school of portraiture here! I +think they would allow, that with all their merits, they are in the +wrong road. Admirable, finished drawing; wonderful dexterity of hand; +exquisite and most conscientious truth of imitation, they have; but they +abuse these powers. They do not seem to feel the application of the +highest, grandest principles of art to portrait painting--they think too +much of the accessories. Are not these clever and accomplished men aware +that imitation may be carried so far as to cease to be nature--to be +error, not truth? For instance, by the common laws of vision I can +behold perfectly only one thing at a time. If I look into the face +of a person I love or venerate, do I see _first_ the embroidery of the +canezou or the pattern on the waistcoat? if not--why should it be so in +a picture? The vulgar eye alone is caught by such misplaced skill--the +vulgar artist only ought to seek to captivate by such means. + +These would sound in England as the most trite and impertinent +remarks--the most self-evident propositions: nevertheless they are +truths which the generality of the German portrait painters and their +admirers have not yet felt. + + * * * * * + +I drove with my kind-hearted friends, M. and Madame Stuntz, to +Thalkirchen, the country-house of the Baron de Freyberg. The road +pursued the banks of the rapid, impetuous Isar, and the range of the +Tyrolian alps bounded the prospect before us. An hour's drive brought +us to Thalkirchen, where we were obviously quite unexpected, but that +was nothing:--I was at once received as a friend, and introduced +without ceremony to Madame de Freyberg's painting-room. Though now the +fond mother of a large _little_ family, she still finds some moments +to devote to her art. On her easel was the portrait of the Countess +M---- (the sister of De Freyberg) with her child, beautifully +painted--particularly the latter. In the same room was an unfinished +portrait of M. de Freyberg, evidently painted _con amore_, and full +of spirit and character; a head of Cupid, and a piping boy, quite +in the Italian manner and feeling; and a picture of the birth of +St. John, exquisitely finished. I was most struck by the heads of two +Greeks--members, I believe, of the deputation to King Otho--painted with +her peculiar delicacy and transparency of colour, and, at the same time, +with a breadth of style and a freedom in the handling, which I have not +yet seen among the German portrait painters. A glance over a portfolio +of loose sketches and unfinished designs added to my estimation of her +talents. She excels in children--her own serving her as models. I do not +hesitate to say of this gifted woman, that while she equals Angelica +Kauffman in grace and delicacy, she far exceeds her in _power_, both +of drawing and colouring. She reminded me more of the Sofonisba,[12] but +it is a different, and, I think, a more delicate style of colour, than +I have observed in the pictures of the latter. + +We had coffee, and then strolled through the grounds--the children +playing around us. If I was struck by the genius and accomplishments +of Madame de Freyberg, I was not less charmed by the frank and noble +manners of her husband, and his honest love and admiration of his wife, +whom he married in despite of all prejudices of birth and rank. + +In this truly German dwelling there was an extreme simplicity, a sort of +negligent elegance, a picturesque and refined homeliness, the presiding +influence of a most poetical mind and eye every where visible, and a +total indifference to what we English denominate _comfort_; yet with +the obvious presence of that crowning comfort of all comforts--cordial +domestic love and union--which impressed me altogether with pleasant +ideas, long after borne in my mind, and not yet, nor ever to be, +effaced. How little is needed for happiness, when we have not been +spoiled in the world, nor our tastes vitiated by artificial wants and +habits! When the hour of departure came, and De Freyberg was handing +me to the carriage, he made me advance a few steps, and pause to look +round; he pointed to the western sky, still flushed with a bright +geranium tint, between the amber and the rose; while against it lay the +dark purple outline of the Tyrolian mountains. A branch of the Isar, +which just above the house overflowed and spread itself into a wide +still pool, mirrored in its clear bosom not only the glowing sky and +the huge dark mountains, and the banks and trees blended into black +formless masses, but the very stars above our heads;--it was a heavenly +scene!--"You will not forget this," said De Freyberg, seeing I was +touched to the heart; "you will think of it when you are in England, +and in recalling it, you will perhaps remember us--who will not forget +_you_! Adieu, madame!" + +Afterwards to the opera: it was Herold's "Zampa:" noisy, riotous music, +which I hate. I thought Madame Schechner's powers misplaced in this +opera--yet she sang magnificently. + +Spent the morning with Dr. Martius, looking over the beautiful plates +and illustrations of his travels and scientific works. It appears from +what he told me, that the institution of the botanic garden is recent, +and is owing to the late king Max-Joseph, who was a generous patron of +scientific and benevolent institutions--as munificent as his son is +magnificent. + +One of the most interesting monuments in Munich, is the tomb of Eugene +Beauharnais, in the church of St. Michael. It is by Thorwaldson, and one +of his most celebrated works. It is finely placed, and all the parts are +admirable: but I think it wants completeness and entireness of effect, +and does not tell its story well. Upon a lofty pedestal, there is first, +in the centre, the colossal figure of the duke stepping forward; one hand +is pressed upon his heart, and the other presents the civic crown--(but +to whom?)--his military accoutrements lie at his feet. The drapery is +admirably managed, and the attitude simple and full of dignity. On his +left is the beautiful and well-known group of the two genii, Love and +Life, looking disconsolate. On the right, the seated muse of History +is inscribing the virtues and exploits of the hero; and as, of all the +satellites of Napoleon, Eugene has left behind the fairest name, I +looked at her, and her occupation, with complacency. The statue is, +moreover, exceedingly beautiful and expressive--so are the genii; and +the figure of Eugene is magnificent; and yet the combination of the +whole is not effective. Another fault is, the colour of the marble, +which has a grey tinge, and ought at least to have been relieved by +constructing the pedestal and accompaniments of black marble; whereas +they are of a reddish hue. + +The widow of Eugene, the eldest sister of the king of Bavaria, raised +this monument to her husband, at an expense of eighty thousand florins. +As the whole design is classical, and otherwise in the purest taste and +grandest style of art, I exclaimed with horror at the sight of a vile +heraldic crown, which is lying at the feet of the muse of History. +I was sure that Thorwaldson would never voluntarily have committed +such a solecism. I was informed that the princess-widow insisted on +the introduction of this piece of barbarity as emblematical of the +vice-royalty of Italy; any royalty being apparently better than none. + +I remember that when travelling in the Netherlands, at a time when the +people were celebrating the _Fete-Dieu_, I saw a village carpenter +busily employed in erecting a _reposoir_ for the Madonna, of painted +boards and draperies and wreaths of flowers. In the mean time, as if +to deprecate criticism, he had chalked in large letters over his work, +"_La critique est aisee, mais l'art est difficile_." I could not help +smiling at this application of one of those undeniable truisms which +no one thinks it necessary to remember. When I recall the pleasure I +derived from this noble work of Thorwaldson, all the genius, all the +skill, all the patience, all the time, expended on its production, I +think the foregoing trifling criticisms appear very ungrateful and +impertinent; and yet, as a friend of mine insisted, when I was once upon +a time pleading for mercy on certain defects and deficiencies in some +other walk of art, "Toleration is the nurse of mediocrity." Artists +themselves, as I often observe,--even the vainest of them--prefer +discriminating admiration to wholesale praise. In the Frauen Kirche, +there is another most admirable monument, a _chef d'oeuvre_, in the +Gothic style. It is the tomb of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, who died +excommunicated in 1347; a stupendous work, cast in bronze. At the four +corners are four colossal knights kneeling, in complete armour, each +bearing a lance and ensign, and guarding the recumbent effigy of the +emperor, which lies beneath a magnificent Gothic canopy. At the two +sides are standing colossal figures, and I suppose about eight or +ten other figures on a smaller scale, all of admirable design and +workmanship.[13] It should seem, that in the sixteenth century the art +of casting in bronze was not only brought to the highest perfection in +Germany, but found employment on a very grand scale. + +In the evening there was a concert at the Salle de l'Odeon--the third +I have attended since I came here. This concert room is larger than any +public room in London, and admirably constructed for music. Over the +orchestra, in a semi-circle, are the busts of the twelve great German +composers who have flourished during the last hundred years, beginning +with Handel and Bach, and ending with Weber and Beethoven. On this +occasion the hall was crowded. We had all the best performers of Munich, +led by the Kapelmeister Stuntz, and Schechner and Meric, who sang +_a l'envie l'une de l'autre_. The concert began at seven, and ended +a little after nine; and much as I love music, I felt I had had enough. +They certainly manage these social pleasures much better here than in +London, where a grand concert almost invariably proves a most awful bore, +from which we return wearied, yawning, jarred, satiated. + +Count ---- amused me this evening with his laconic summing up of the +rise, progress, and catastrophe of a Polish amour;--se passioner, se +battre, se ruiner, enlever, epouser, et divorcer; and so ends this +six-act tragico-comico-heroico pastoral. + +_23rd._--To-day went over the Pinakothek (the new grand national picture +gallery) with M. de Klenze, the architect, and Comtesse de V----. This +is the second time; but I have not yet a clear and connected idea of the +general design, the building being still in progress. As far as I can +understand the arrangements, they will be admirable. The destination of +the edifice seems to have been the first thing kept in view. The situation +of particular pictures has been calculated, and accurate experiments +have been made for the arrangement of the light, &c. Professor Zimmermann +has kindly promised to take me over the whole once more. He has the +direction of the fresco paintings here. + + * * * * * + +Society is becoming so pleasant, and engagements of every kind so +multifarious, that I have little time for scribbling memoranda. New +characters unfold before me, new scenes of interest occupy my thoughts. +I find myself surrounded with friends, where only a few weeks ago I had +scarcely one acquaintance. Time ought not to linger--and yet it does +sometimes. + +Our circumstances alter; our opinions change; our passions die; our +hopes sicken, and perish utterly:--our spirits are broken; our health +is broken, and even our hearts are broken; but WILL survives--the +unconquerable strength of will, which is in later life what passion +is when young. In this world, there is always something to be done +or suffered, even when there is no longer any thing to be desired or +attained. + +The Glyptothek is, at certain hours, open to strangers _only_, and +strangers do not at present abound: hence it has twice happened that +I have found myself in the gallery alone--to-day for the second time. +I felt that, under some circumstances, an hour of solitude in a gallery +of sculpture may be an epoch in one's life. There was not a sound, no +living thing near, to break the stillness; and lightly, and with a +feeling of awe, I trod the marble pavements, looking upon the calm, +pale, motionless forms around me, almost expecting they would open their +marble lips and speak to me--or, at least, nod--like the statue in Don +Giovanni: and still, as the evening shadows fell deeper and deeper, they +waxed, methought, sadder, paler, and more life-like. A dim, unearthly +glory effused those graceful limbs and perfect forms, of which the +exact outline was lost, vanishing into shade, while the sentiment--the +_ideal_--of their immortal loveliness, remained distinct, and became +every moment more impressive: and thus they stood; and their melancholy +beauty seemed to melt into the heart. + +As the Graces round the throne of Venus, so music, painting, sculpture, +wait as handmaids round the throne of Poetry. "They from her golden urn +draw light," as planets drink the sunbeams; and in return they array the +divinity which created and inspired them, in those sounds, and hues, and +forms, through which she is revealed to our mortal senses. The pleasure, +the illusion, produced by music, when it is the _voice_ of poetry, is, +for the moment, by far the most complete and intoxicating, but also +the most transient. Painting, with its lovely colours blending into +life, and all its "silent poesy of form," is a source of pleasure more +lasting, more intellectual. Beyond both, is sculpture, the noblest, the +least illusive, the most enduring of the imitative arts, because it +charms us not by what it seems to be, but by what it is; because if the +pleasure it imparts be less exciting, the impression it leaves is more +profound and permanent; because it is, or ought to be, the abstract idea +of power, beauty, sentiment, made visible in the cold, pure, impassive, +and almost eternal marble. + +It seems to me that the grand secret of that grace of repose which we +see developed in the antique statues, may be defined as _the presence_ +_of thought, and the absence of volition_. The moment we have, in +sculpture, the expression of will, or effort, we have the idea of +something fixed in its place by an external cause, and a consequent +diminution of the effect of internal power. This is not well expressed, +I fear. Perhaps I might illustrate the thought thus: the Venus de Medici +looks as if she were content to stand on her pedestal and be worshipped; +Canova's Hebe looks as if she would fain step off the pedestal--if she +could: the Apollo Belvedere, as if he could step from his pedestal--if +he would. + +Among the Greeks, in the best ages of sculpture, and in all their very +finest statues, this seems to be the presiding principle--viz. that in +sculpture the repose of suspended motion, or of subsided motion, is +graceful; but arrested motion, and all effort, to be avoided. When the +ancients did express motion, they made it flowing or continuous, as in +the frieze of the Parthenon. + + + + +ALONE. + +IN THE GALLERY OF SCULPTURE AT MUNICH. + + + Ye pale and glorious forms, to whom was given + All that we mortals covet under heaven-- + Beauty, renown, and immortality, + And worship!--in your passive grandeur, ye. + + There's nothing new in life, and nothing old; + The tale that we might tell hath oft been told. + Many have look'd to the bright sun with sadness, + Many have look'd to the dark grave with gladness; + Many have griev'd to death--have lov'd to madness! + + What has been, is;--what is, will be;--I know, + Even while the heart drops blood, it must be so. + I live and smile--for O the griefs that kill, + Kill slowly--and I bear within me still + My conscious self, and my unconquer'd will! + + And knowing what I have been--what has made + My misery, I will be no more betray'd + By hollow mockeries of the world around, + Or hopes and impulses, which I have found + Like ill-aim'd shafts, that kill by their rebound. + + Complaint is for the feeble, and despair + For evil hearts. Mine still can hope--still bear-- + Still hope for others what it never knew + Of truth and peace; and silently pursue + A path beset with briers, "and wet with tears like dew!" + + + * * * * * + +To-day I devoted to the Pinakothek--for the last time! + +Just before I left England our projected national gallery had excited +much attention. Those who were usually indifferent to such matters were +roused to interest; and I heard the merits of different designs, so +warmly, even so violently discussed in public and in private, that for +a long time the subject kept possession of my mind. On my arrival here, +the Pinakothek (for that is the designation given to the new national +gallery of Munich) became to me a principal object of interest. I have +been most anxious to comprehend both the general design and the nature +of the arrangements in detail; but I might almost doubt my own competency +to convey an exact idea of what I understand and admire, to the +comprehension of another. I must try, however, while the impressions +remain fresh and strong, and the memory not yet encumbered and distracted, +as it must be, even a few hours hence, by the variety, and novelty, and +interest, of all I see and hear around me. + +The Pinakothek was founded in 1826; the king himself laying the first +stone with much pomp and ceremony on the 7th of April, the birthday of +Rafaelle. + +It is a long, narrow edifice, facing the south, measuring about five +hundred feet from east to west, and about eighty or eighty-five feet +in depth. At the extremities are two wings, or rather projections. The +body of the building is of brick, but not of common brickwork: for the +bricks, which are of a particular kind of clay, have a singular tint, +a kind of greenish yellow; while the friezes, balustrades, architraves +of the windows, in short, all the ornamental parts, are of stone, the +colour of which is a fine warm grey; and as the stone workmanship is +extremely rich, and the brickwork of unrivalled elegance and neatness, +and the colours harmonize well, the combination produces a very handsome +effect, rendering the exterior as pleasing to the eye, as the scientific +adaptation of the building to its peculiar purpose is to the understanding. + +Along the roof runs a balustrade of stone, adorned with twenty-four +colossal statues of celebrated painters. A public garden, which is +already in preparation, will be planted around, beautifully laid out +with shady walks, flower-beds, fountains, urns, and statues. I believe +the enclosure of this garden will be about a thousand feet each way, and +that it will ultimately be bounded (at least on three sides) with rows +of houses forming a vast square, of which the Pinakothek will occupy +the centre. It consists of a ground-floor and an upper-story. The +ground-floor will comprise, 1st, the collection of the Etruscan vases; +2ndly, the Mosaics, ancient and modern, of which there are here some +rare and admirable specimens; 3rdly, the cabinet of drawings by the old +masters; 4thly, the cabinet of engravings, which is said to be one of +the richest in Europe; 5thly, a library of all works pertaining to the +fine arts; lastly, a noble entrance-hall: a private entrance; with +accommodations for students, and other offices. + +The upper-story is appropriated to the pictures, and is calculated to +contain not less than fifteen hundred specimens, selected from various +galleries, and arranged according to the schools of art. + +We ascend from the entrance-hall by a wide and handsome staircase of +stone, very elegantly carved, which leads first to a kind of vestibule, +where the attendants and keepers of the gallery are in waiting. Thence, +to a splendid reception-room, about fifty feet in length: this will +contain the full-length portraits of the founders of the gallery of +Munich--the Palatine John William; the Elector, Maximilian Emanuel of +Bavaria; the Duke Charles of Deuxponts; the Palatine Charles Theodore; +Maximilian Joseph I., king of Bavaria; and his son, (the present +monarch,) Louis I. The ceiling and the frieze of this room are +splendidly decorated with groups of figures and ornaments in white +relief, on a gold ground, and the walls will be hung with crimson +damask. + +Along the south front of the building from east to west runs a gallery +or corridor about four hundred feet in length, and eighteen in width, +lighted on one side by twenty-five lofty arched windows, having on the +other side ten doors, opening into the suite of picture galleries, or +rather halls. These occupy the centre of the building, and are lighted +from above by vast lanthorns. They are eight in number, varying in +length from fifty to eighty feet, but all forty feet in width and fifty +feet in height from the floor to the summit of the lanthorn. The walls +will be hung with silk damask, either of a dark crimson or a dark +green--according to the style of art for which the room is destined. +The ceilings are vaulted, and the decorations are inexpressibly rich, +composed of magnificent arabesques, intermixed with the effigies of +celebrated painters, and groups illustrative of the history of art, &c., +all moulded in white relief upon a ground of dead gold. Mayer, one of +the best sculptors in Munich, has the direction of these works. + +Behind these vast galleries, or saloons, there is a range of cabinets, +twenty-three in number, appropriated to the smaller pictures of the +different schools: these are each about nineteen feet by fifteen in +size, and lighted from the north, each having one high lateral window. +The ceilings and upper part of the walls are painted in fresco, (or +distemper, I am not sure which,) with very graceful arabesques of a +quiet colour;--the hangings will also be of silk damask. + +Of the principal saloons, the first is appropriated to the productions +of modern and living artists, and has three cabinets attached to it. +The second will contain the old German pictures, including the famous +Boisseree gallery, and has four cabinets attached to it. The third, +fourth, and fifth saloons (of which the central one, the hall of Rubens, +is eighty feet in length) are devoted, with the nine adjoining cabinets, +to the Flemish and Dutch schools. The sixth, with four cabinets, will +contain the French and Spanish pictures; and the seventh and eighth, +with three cabinets, will contain the Italian school of painting. All +these apartments communicate with each other by ample doors; but from +the corridor already mentioned, which opens into the whole suite, the +visitor has access to any particular gallery, or school of painting, +without passing through the others: an obvious advantage, which will +be duly estimated by those who, in visiting a gallery of painting, +have felt their eyes dazzled, their heads bewildered, their attention +distracted, by too much variety of temptation and attraction, before +they have reached the particular object or school of art to which their +attention was especially directed. + +To this beautiful and most convenient corridor, or, as it is called +here, _loggia_, we must now return. I have said that it is four hundred +feet in length, and lighted by five-and-twenty arched windows,--which, +by the way, command a splendid prospect, bounded by the far-off +mountains of the Tyrol. The wall opposite to these windows is divided +into twenty-five corresponding compartments, arched, and each surmounted +by a dome; these compartments are painted in fresco with arabesques, +something in the style of Rafaelle's Loggie in the Vatican; while +every arch and cupola contains (also painted in fresco) scenes from the +life of some great painter, arranged chronologically: thus, in fact, +exhibiting a graphic history of the rise and progress of modern +painting--from Cimabue down to Rubens. + +Of this series of frescos, which are now in progress, a few only are +finished, from which, however, a very satisfactory idea may be formed, +of the whole design. The first cupola is painted from a poem of A. W. +Schlegel "Der Bund der Kirche mit den Kuensten," which celebrates the +alliance between religion (or rather the church) and the fine arts. +The second cupola represents the Crusades, because from these wild +expeditions (for so Providence ordained that good should spring from +evil) arose the regeneration of art in Europe. With the third cupola +commences the series of painters. In the arch, or lunette, is +represented the Madonna of Cimabue carried in triumphal procession +through the streets of Florence to the church of Santa Maria Novella; +and in the dome above, various scenes from the painter's life. In the +next cupola is the history of Giotto; then follows Angelico da Fesole, +who, partly from humility and partly from love for his art, refused to +be made Archbishop of Florence; then, fourthly, Masaccio; fifthly, +Bellini: in one compartment he is represented painting the favourite +sultana of Mahomet II. Several of the succeeding cupolas still remain +blank, so we pass them over and arrive at Leonardo da Vinci, painting +the queen Joanna of Arragon; then Michael Angelo, meditating the design +of St. Peter's; then the history of Rafaelle: in the dome are various +scenes from his life. The lunette represents his death: he is extended +on a couch, beside which sits his virago love, the Fornarina "in disperato +dolor;" Pope Leo X. and Cardinal Bembo are looking on overwhelmed with +grief;--in the background is the Transfiguration. + +I wonder, if Rafaelle had survived this fatal illness, which of the +two alternatives he would have chosen--the cardinal's hat or the niece +of Cardinal Bibbiena? M. de Klenze gave us, the other night, a most +picturesque and animated description of the opening of Rafaelle's +tomb,--at which he had himself assisted--the discovery of his remains, +and those of his betrothed bride, the niece of Cardinal Bibbiena, +deposited near him. She survived him several years, but in her last +moments requested to be buried in the same tomb with him. This was at +least quite in the _genre romantique_. + +"Charming!" exclaimed one of the ladies present. + +"_Et genereux!_" exclaimed another. + +The series of the Italian painters will end with the Carracci. Those of +the German painters will begin with Van Eyck, and end with Rubens. Of +many of the frescos which are not yet executed, I saw the cartoons in +professor Zimmermann's studio. + +Though the general decoration of this gallery was planned by Cornelius, +the designs for particular parts, and the direction of the whole, have +been confided to Zimmermann, who is assisted in the execution by five +other painters. One particular picture, which represents Giotto exhibiting +his Madonna to the pope, was pointed out to my especial admiration +as the most finished specimen of fresco painting which has yet been +executed here; and in truth, for tenderness and freshness of colour, +softness in the shadows, and delicacy in the handling, it might bear +comparison with any painting in oils. We were standing near it on a high +scaffold, and it endured the closest and most minute consideration; +but when seen from below, it may possibly be less effective. It shows, +however, the extreme finish of which the fresco painting is susceptible. +This was executed by Hiltensperger, of Swabia, from the cartoon of +Zimmermann. At one end of this gallery there is to be a large fresco, +representing his majesty King Louis, introduced by the muse of Poetry +to the assembled poets and painters of Germany. Now, this species of +allegorical adulation appears to me flat and out of date. I well remember +that long ago the famous picture of Voltaire, introduced into the Elysian +fields by Henri Quatre, and making his best bow to Racine and Moliere, +threw me into a convulsion of laughter: and the cartoon of this royal +apotheosis provoked the same irrepressible feeling of the ridiculous. +I wish somebody would hint to King Louis that this is not in good taste, +and that there are many, many ways in which the compliment (which he +truly merits) might be better managed. + +On the whole, however, it may truly be said that the luxuriant and +appropriate decorations of this gallery, the variety of colour and +ornament lavished on it, agreeably prepare the eye and the imagination +for that glorious feast of beauty within, to which we are immediately +introduced: and thus the overture to the Zauberfloete, (which we heard +last night,) with its rich involved harmonies, its brilliant and +exciting movements, attuned the ear and the fancy to enjoy the grand, +thrilling, bewitching, love-breathing melodies of the opera which +followed. + +I omitted to mention that there are also on the upper floor of the +Pinakothek two rooms, each about forty feet square; one called the +_Reserve-Saal_, is intended for the reception of those pictures which +are temporarily removed from their places, new acquisitions, &c. +The other room is fitted up with every convenience for students and +copyists. + +The whole of this immense edifice is warmed throughout by heated air; +the stoves being detached from the body of the building, and so managed +as to preclude the possibility of danger from fire. + +It does not appear to be yet decided whether the floors will be of the +Venetian stucco, or of parquet. + +Such, then, is the general plan of the Pinakothek, the national gallery +of Bavaria. I make no comment, except that I felt and recognised in +every part the presence of a directing mind, and the absence of all +narrow views, all truckling to the interests, or tastes, or prejudices, +or convenience, of any particular class of persons. It is very possible +that when finished it will be found by scientific critics not absolutely +_perfect_, which, as we know, all human works are at least intended and +expected to be; but it is equally clear that an honest anxiety for the +glory of art, and the benefit of the public--not the caprices of the +king, nor the individual vanity of the architect--has been the moving +principle throughout. + + * * * * * + +Fresco painting, or, as the Italians call it, _buon fresco_, had +been entirely discontinued since the time of Raphael Mengs. It was +revived at Rome in 1809-10, when the late M. Bartholdy, the Prussian +consul-general, caused a saloon in his house to be painted in fresco by +Peter Cornelius, Overbeck, and Philip Veith, all German artists, then +resident at Rome. The subjects are taken from the Scriptures, and one +of the admirable cartoons of Overbeck, (Joseph sold by his brethren,) I +saw at Frankfort. These first essays are yet to be seen in Bartholdy's +house, in the Via Sistina at Rome. They are rather hard, but in a +grand style of composition. The success which attended this spirited +undertaking, excited much attention and enthusiasm, and induced the +Marchese Massimi to have his villa near the Lateran adorned in the same +style. Accordingly, he had three grand halls or saloons, painted with +subjects from Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso. The first was given to Philip +Veith, the second to Julius Schnorr, and the third to Overbeck. Veith +did not finish his work, which was afterwards terminated by Koch; the +two other painters completed their task, much to the satisfaction of the +Marchese, and to the admiration of all Rome. + +But these were mere experiments--mere attempts, compared to what has +since been executed in the same style at Munich. It is true that the +art of fresco-painting had never been entirely lost. The theory of the +process was well known, and also the colours formerly used; only +practice, and the opportunity of practice, were wanting. This has been +afforded; and there is now at Munich a school of fresco painting, under +the direction of Cornelius, Julius Schnorr, and Zimmermann, in which +the mechanical process has been brought to such perfection, that the +neatness of the execution may vie with oils, and they can even cut +out a feature, and replace it if necessary. The palette has also been +augmented by the recent improvements in chemistry, which have enabled +the fresco painter to apply some most precious colours, unknown to the +ancient masters: only earths and metallic colours are used. I believe it +is universally known that the colours are applied while the plaster is +wet, and that the preparation of this plaster is a matter of much care +and nicety. A good deal of experience and manual dexterity is necessary +to enable the painter to execute with rapidity, and calculate the exact +degree of humidity in the plaster, requisite for the effect he wishes to +produce. + +It has been said that fresco painting is unfitted for our climate, +damp and sea-coal fires being equally injurious; but the new method of +warming all large buildings, either by steam or heated air, obviates, +at least, _this_ objection. + +_26th._--The morning was spent in the ateliers of two Bavarian sculptors, +Mayer and Bandel. To Mayer, the king has confided the decoration of +the exterior of the Pinakothek, of which he showed me the drawings and +designs. He has also executed the colossal statue of Albert Durer, in +stone, for the interior of that building. + +It appears that the pediment of the Glyptothek, now vacant, will be +adorned by a group of fourteen or fifteen figures, representing all the +different processes in the art of sculpture; the modeller in clay, the +hewer of the marble, the caster in bronze, the carver in wood or ivory, +&c. all in appropriate attitudes, all colossal, and grouped into a whole. +The general design was modelled, I believe, by Eberhardt, professor +of sculpture in the academy here; and the execution of the different +figures has been given to several young sculptors, among them Mayer and +Bandel. This has produced a strong feeling of emulation. I observed that +notwithstanding the height and the situation to which they are destined, +nearly one-half of each figure being necessarily turned from the +spectator below, each statue is wrought with exceeding care, and +perfectly finished on every side. I admired the purity of the marble, +which is from the Tyrol. Mayer informs me, that about three years ago +enormous quarries of white marble were discovered in the Tyrol, to the +great satisfaction of the king, as it diminishes, by one-half, the +expense of the material. This native marble is of a dazzling whiteness, +and to be had in immense masses without flaw or speck; but the grain +is rather coarse. + +More than twenty years ago, when the king of Bavaria was Prince Royal, +and could only anticipate at some distant period the execution of his +design, he projected a building, of which, at least, the name and +purpose must be known to all who have ever stepped on German ground. +This is the VALHALLA, a temple raised to the national glory, and intended +to contain the busts or statues of all the illustrious characters of +Germany, whether distinguished in literature, arts, or arms, from their +ancient hero and patriot Herman, or Arminius, down to Goethe, and those +who will succeed him. The idea was assuredly noble, and worthy of a +sovereign. The execution--never lost sight of--has been but lately +commenced. The Valhalla has been founded on a lofty cliff, which rises +above the Danube, not far from Ratisbon.[14] It will form a conspicuous +object to all who pass up and down the Danube, and the situation, nearly +in the centre of Germany, is at least well chosen. But I could hardly +express (or repress) my surprise, when I was shown the design for this +building. The first glance recalled the Theseum at Athens; and then +follows the very natural question, why should a Greek model have been +chosen for an edifice, the object, and purpose, and name of which are so +completely, essentially, exclusively gothic? What, in Heaven's name, has +the Theseum to do on the banks of the Danube? It is true that the purity +of forms in the Greek architecture, the effect of the continuous lines +and the massy Doric columns, must be grand and beautiful to the eye, +place the object where you will; and in the situation designed for it, +particularly imposing; but surely it is not appropriate;--the name, +and the form, and the purpose, are all at variance--throwing our most +cherished associations into strange confusion. Nor could the explanations +and eloquent reasoning with which my objections were met, succeed in +convincing me of the propriety of the design, while I acknowledged +its magnificence. The sculptor Mayer showed me a group of figures for +one of the pediments of this Greek Valhalla, admirably appropriate to +the purpose of the building--but not to the building itself. It represents +Herman introduced by Hermoda (or Mercury) into the Valhalla, and received +by Odin and Freya. Iduna advances to meet the hero, presenting the +apples of immortality, and one of the Vahlkuere pours out the mead, to +refresh the soul of the Einheriar.[15] To the right of this group are +several figures representing the chief epochs in the history of Germany. + +This design wants unity; and it is a manifest incongruity to allude +to the introduction of Christianity, where the mythological Valhalla +forms the chief point of interest; notwithstanding, it gave me exceeding +pleasure, as furnishing an unanswerable proof of the possible application +of sculpture on a grand scale, to the forms of romantic or gothic poetry: +all the figures, the accompaniments, attributes, are strictly Teutonic; +the effect of the whole is grand and interesting; but what would it be +on a Greek temple? would it not appear misplaced and discordant? + +I am informed, that of the two pediments of the Valhalla, one will be +given to Rauch of Berlin, and the other to Schwanthaler. + +The sculptor Bandel, with his quick eye, his ample brow, his animated, +benevolent face, and his rapid movements, looks like what he is--a genius. + +In his atelier I saw some things, just like what I see in all the ateliers +of young sculptors--cold imitations, feeble versions of mythological +subjects--but I saw some other things so fresh and beautiful in feeling, +as to impress me with a high idea of his poetical and creative power. +I longed to bring to England one or two casts of his charming Cupid +Penseroso, of which the original marble is at Hanover. There is also +a very exquisite bas-relief of Adam and Eve sleeping: the good angel +watching on one side, and the evil angel on the other. This lovely group +is the commencement of a series of bas-reliefs, designed, I believe, for +a frieze, and not yet completed, representing the four ages of the world: +the age of innocence; the heroic age, or age of physical power; the age +of poetry, and the age of philosophy. This new version of the old idea +interested me, and it is developed and treated with much grace and +originality. Bandel told us that he is just going, with his beautiful +wife and two or three little children, to settle at Carrara for a few +years. The marble quarries there are now colonised by young sculptors of +every nation. + + * * * * * + +The king of Bavaria has a gallery of beauties, (the portraits of some of +the most beautiful women of Germany and Italy,) which he shuts up from +the public eye, like any grand Turk--and neither bribery nor interest +can procure admission. A lovely woman, to whom I was speaking of it +yesterday, and who has been admitted in effigy into this harem, seemed +to consider the compliment rather equivocal. "Depend upon it, my dear," +said she, "that fifty years hence we shall be all confounded together, +as the king's _very_ intimate friends; and, to tell you the truth, I am +not ambitious of the honour, more particularly as there are some of my +illustrious _companions in charms_ who are enough to throw discredit +on the whole set!" + +I saw in Stieler's atelier two portraits for this collection: one, a +woman of rank--a dark beauty; the other, a servant girl here, with a +head like one of Raffaelle's angels, almost divine; she is painted +in the little filagree silver cap, the embroidered boddice, and silk +handkerchief crossed over the bosom, the costume of the women of Munich, +to which the king is extremely partial. I am assured that this young +girl, who is not more than seventeen, is as remarkable for her piety, +simplicity, and spotless reputation, as for her singular beauty. I have +seen her, and the picture merely does her justice. Several other women +of the _bourgeoisie_ have been pointed out to me as included in the +king's collection. One of these, the daughter, I believe, of an +herb-woman, is certainly one of the most exquisite creatures I ever +beheld. On the whole, I should say, that the lower orders of the people +of Munich are the handsomest race I have seen in Germany. + +Stieler is the court and fashionable portrait painter here--the Sir +Thomas Lawrence of Munich--that is, in the estimation of the Germans. +He is an accomplished man, with amiable manners, and a talent for +rising in the world; or, as I heard some one call it, the organ of +_getting-oniveness_. For the elaborate finish of his portraits, for +expertness and delicacy of hand, for resemblance and exquisite drawing, +I suppose he has few equals; but he has also, in perfection, what I +consider the faulty peculiarities of the German school. Stieler's +artificial roses are _too_ natural: his caps, and embroidered scarfs, +and jewelled bracelets, are more real than the things themselves--or +seem so; for certainly I never gave to the real objects the attention +and the admiration they challenge in his pictures. The famous bunch of +grapes, which tempted the birds to peck, could be nothing compared to +the felt of Prince Charles's hat in Stieler's portrait: it actually +invites the hat-brush. Strange perversion of power in the artist! +stranger perversion of taste in those who admire it!--_Ma pazienza!_ + + * * * * * + +The Duc de Leuchtenberg opens his small but beautiful gallery twice +a week: Mondays and Thursdays. The doors are thrown open and every +respectable person may walk in, without distinction or ceremony. It is +a delightful morning lounge; there are not more than one hundred and +fifty pictures--enough to excite and gratify, not satiate, admiration. +The first room contains a collection of paintings by modern and living +artists of France, Germany, and Italy. There is a lovely little picture +by Madame de Freyberg of the Maries at the sepulchre of Christ; and by +Heinrich Hess, a group of the three Christian graces--Faith, Hope, and +Charity, seated under the German oak, and painted with great simplicity +and sentiment; of his celebrated brother, Peter Hess, and Wagenbauer, +and Jacob Dorner, and Quaglio, there are beautiful specimens. The French +pictures did not please me: Girodet's picture of Ossian and the French +heroes is a monstrous combination of all manner of affectations. + +I should not forget a fine portrait of Napoleon, by Appiani, crowned +with laurel; and another picture, which represents him throned, with all +the insignia of state and power, and supported on either side by Victory +and Peace. For a moment we pause before that proud form, to think of all +he was, all he might have been--to draw a moral from the fate of +selfishness. + + He rose by blood, he built on man's distress, + And th'inheritance of desolation left + To great expecting hopes.[16] + + +Among the pictures of the old masters there are many fine ones, and +three or four of peculiar interest. There is the famous head by +Bronzino, generally entitled, Petrarch's Laura, but assuredly without +the slightest pretensions to authenticity. The face is that of a prim, +starched _precieuse_, to which the peculiar style of this old portrait +painter, with his literal nature, his hardness, and leaden colouring, +imparts additional coldness and rigidity. + +But the finest picture in the gallery--perhaps one of the finest in the +world--is the Madonna and Child of Murillo: one of those rare productions +of mind which baffle the copyist, and defy the engraver,--which it is +worth making a pilgrimage but to gaze on. How true it is that "a thing +of beauty is a joy for ever!" + +When I look at Murillo's roguish, ragged beggar-boys in the royal +gallery, and then at the Leuchtenberg gallery turn to contemplate his +Madonna and his ascending angel, both of such unearthly and inspired +beauty, a feeling of the wondrous grasp and versatility of the man's +mind almost makes me giddy. + +The lithographic press of Munich is celebrated all over Europe. Aloys +Senefelder, the inventor of the art, has the direction of the works, with +a well-merited pension, and the title of Inspector of Lithography.[17] + + * * * * * + +The people of Munich are not only a well-dressed and well-looking, but a +social, kind-hearted race. The number of unions, or societies, instituted +for benevolent or festive purposes, is, for the size of the place, +almost incredible.[18] I had a catalogue of more than forty given to +me this morning; they are for all ranks and professions, and there is +scarcely a person in the city who is not enlisted into one or more +of these communities. Some have reading-rooms, and well-furnished +libraries, to which strangers are at once introduced, gratis; they give +balls and concerts during the winter, which not only include their own +members and their friends, but one society will sometimes invite and +entertain another. + +The young artists of Munich, who constitute a numerous body, formed +themselves into an association, and gave very elegant balls and +concerts, at first among themselves and their immediate friends and +connexions; but the circle increased--these balls became more and more +splendid--even the king and the royal family frequently honoured them +with their presence. It became a point of honour to exceed in elegance +and profusion all the entertainments given by the other societies of +Munich. Every body danced, praised, and enjoyed themselves. At length it +occurred to some of the most considerate and kind-hearted of the people, +that these young men were going beyond their means to entertain their +friends and fellow-citizens. It had evidently become a matter of great +expense, and perhaps ostentation, and they resolved to put down this +competition at once. An association was formed of persons of all +classes, and they gave a fete to the painters of Munich, which eclipsed +in magnificence every thing of the kind before or since. It was a ball +and supper, on the most ample and splendid scale, and took place at the +Odeon. Each lady's ticket contained the name of the cavalier, to whose +especial protection and gallantry she was consigned for the evening; and +so much _tacte_ was shown in this arrangement, that I am told very few +were discontented with their lot. Nearly three thousand persons were +present, and it was the month of February; yet every lady on entering +the room was presented by her cavalier with a bouquet of hot-house +flowers; and the Salle de l'Odeon was adorned with a profusion of plants +and flowering shrubs, collected from all the conservatories, private and +public, within twenty miles of the capital. The king, the queen, their +family and suite, and many of the principal nobles were invited, with, +of course, a large portion of the gentry and trades-people of Munich; +but, notwithstanding the miscellaneous nature of the assemblage, and the +immense number of persons present, all was harmony, and good-breeding, +and gaiety. This fete produced the desired result; the young painters +took the hint, and though they still give balls, which are exceedingly +pleasant, they are on a more modest scale than heretofore. + +The Liederkranz (literally, the circle, or garland of song) is a society +of musicians--amateurs and professors--who give concerts here, at which +the compositions of the members are occasionally performed. One of these +concerts (Fest-Production) took place this evening at the Odeon; and +having duly received, as a stranger, my ticket of invitation, I went +early with a very pleasant party. + +The immense room was crowded in every part, and presented a most +brilliant spectacle, from the number of military costumes, and the +glittering head-dresses of the Munich girls. Our hosts formed the +orchestra. The king and queen had been invited, and had signified their +gracious intention of being present. The first row of seats was assigned +to them; but no other distinction was made between the royal family and +the rest of the company. + +The king is generally punctual on these occasions, but from some accident +he was this evening delayed, and we had to wait his arrival about ten +minutes; the company were all assembled--servants were already parading +up and down the room with trays, heaped with ices and refreshments--the +orchestra stood up, with fiddle-sticks suspended; the chorus, with mouths +half open--and the conductor, Stuntz, brandished his roll of music. At +length a side door was thrown open: a voice announced "the king;" the +trumpets sounded a salute; and all the people rose and remained standing +until the royal guests were seated. The king entered first, the queen +hanging on his arm. The duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, and his duchess,[19] +followed; then the princess Matilda, leading her younger brother and +sister, prince Luitpold and the princess Adelgonde;--the former a fine +boy of about twelve years old, the latter a pretty little girl of about +seven or eight: a single lady of honour; the baron de Freyberg, as +principal equerry; the minister von Schencke, and one or two other +officers of the household were in attendance. The king bowed to the +gentlemen in the orchestra, then to the company, and in a few moments +all were seated. + +The music was entirely vocal, consisting of concerted pieces only, for +three or more voices, and all were executed in perfection. I observed +several little boys and young girls, of twelve or fourteen, singing in +the chorusses, apparently much to their own satisfaction--certainly to +ours. Their voices were delicious, and perfectly well managed, and their +merry laughing faces were equally pleasant to look upon. + +We had first a grand loyal anthem, composed for the occasion by Lenz, +in which the king and queen, and their children, were separately +apostrophized. Prince Maximilian, now upon his travels, and young king +Otto, "far off upon the throne of Hellas," were not forgotten; and as +the princess Matilda has lately been _verlobt_ (betrothed) to the +hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, they put the _Futur_ into a +couplet, with great effect. It seems that this marriage has been for +some time in negociation; its course did not "run quite smooth," and the +heart of the young princess is supposed to be more deeply interested in +the affair than is usual in royal alliances. She is also very generally +beloved, so that when the chorus sang, + + "Hoch lebe Ludwig und Mathilde! + Ein Herz stets Brautigam und Braut!" + + +all eyes were turned towards her with a smiling expression of sympathy +and kindness, which really touched me. As I sat, I could only see her +side-face, which was declined. There was also an allusion to the late +king Max-Joseph, "das beste Herz," who died about five years ago, and +who appears to have been absolutely adored by his people. All this +passed off very well, and was greatly applauded. At the conclusion the +king rose from his seat, and said something courteous and good-natured +to the orchestra, and then sat down. The other pieces were by old +Schack, (the intimate friend of Mozart,) Stuntz, Chelard, and Marschner; +a drinking song by Hayden, and one of the chorusses in the _Cosi fan +Tutte_ were also introduced. The whole concluded with the "song of the +heroes in the Valhalla," composed by Stuntz. + +Between the acts there was an interval of at least half an hour, during +which the queen and the princess Matilda walked up and down in front of +the orchestra, entered into conversation with the ladies who were seated +near, and those whom the rules of etiquette allowed to approach unsummoned +and pay their respects. The king, meanwhile, walked round the room +unattended, speaking to different people, and addressing the young +bourgeoises, whose looks or whose toilette pleased him, with a bow and +a smile; while they simpered and blushed, and drew themselves up when +he had passed. + +As I see the king frequently, his face is familiar to me, but to-night +he looked particularly well, and had on a better coat than he usually +condescends to wear,--quite plain, however, and without any order or +decoration. He is now in his forty-seventh year, not handsome, with a +small well-formed head, an intelligent brow, and a quick penetrating +eye. His figure is slight and well-made, his movements quick, and his +manner lively--at times even abrupt and impatient. His utterance is +often so rapid as to be scarcely intelligible to those who are most +accustomed to him. I often meet him walking arm-in-arm with M. de +Schenke, M. de Klenze, and others of his friends--for apparently this +eccentric, accomplished sovereign has _friends_, though I believe he +is not so popular as his father was before him. + +The queen (Theresa, princess of Saxe-Hilburghausen) has a sweet open +countenance, and a pleasing, elegant figure. The princess Matilda, who +is now nineteen, is the express image of her mother, whom she resembles +in her amiable disposition, as well as her person; her figure is very +pretty, and her deportment graceful. She looked pensive this evening, +which was attributed by the good people around me to the recent +departure of the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who has been here for some +time paying his court. + +About ten, the concert was over. The king and queen remained a few +minutes in conversation with those around them, without displaying +any ungracious hurry to depart; and the whole scene left a pleasant +impression upon my fancy. To an English traveller in Germany nothing is +more striking than the easy familiar terms on which the sovereign and +his family mingle with the people on these and the like occasions; it +certainly would not answer in England: but as they say in this expressive +language--_Laendlich, sittlich_.[20] + +_Munich, Oct. 28th, 1833._ + + + + +II. + +NUREMBERG. + + +Nuremberg--with its long, narrow, winding, involved streets, its +precipitous ascents and descents, its completely gothic physiognomy--is +by far the strangest old city I ever beheld; it has retained in every +part the aspect of the middle ages. No two houses resemble each other; +yet, differing in form, in colour, in height, in ornament, all have a +family likeness; and with their peaked and carved gabels, and projecting +central balconies, and painted fronts, stand up in a row, like so many +tall, gaunt, stately old maids, with the toques and stomachers of the +last century. In the upper part of the town, we find here and there a +new house, built, or rebuilt, in a more modern fashion; and even a gay +modern theatre, and an unfinished modern church; but these, instead +of being embellishments, look ill-favoured and mean, like patches of +new cloth on a rich old brocade. Age is here, but it does not suggest +the idea of dilapidation or decay, rather of something which has been +put under a glass-case, and preserved with care from all extraneous +influences. The buildings are so ancient, the fashions of society so +antiquated, the people so penetrated with veneration for themselves and +their city, that in the few days I spent there, I began to feel quite +old too--my mind was _wrinkled up_, as it were, with a reverence for +the past. I wondered that people condescended to talk of any event +more recent than the thirty years' war, and the defence of Gustavus +Adolphus;[21] and all names of modern date, even of greatest mark, were +forgotten in the fame of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Peter Vischer: +the trio of worthies, which, in the estimation or imagination of the +Nurembergers, still live with the freshness of a yesterday's remembrance, +and leave no room for the heroes of to-day. My enthusiasm for Albert +Durer was all ready prepared, and warm as even the Nurembergers could +desire; but I confess, that of that renowned cobbler and meister-singer, +Hans Sachs, I knew little but what I had learnt from the pretty comedy +bearing his name, which I had seen at Manheim; and of the illustrious +Peter Vischer I could only remember that I had seen, in the academy at +Munich, certain casts from his figures, which had particularly struck +me. Yet to visit Nuremberg without some previous knowledge of these +luminaries of the middle ages, is to lose much of that pleasure of +association, without which the eye wearies of the singular, and the mind +becomes satiated with change. + +Nuremberg was the gothic Athens: it was never the seat of government, +but as a free imperial city it was independent and self-governed, and +took the lead in arts and in literature. Here it was that clocks and +watches, maps and musical instruments, were manufactured for all +Germany; here, in that truly German spirit of pedantry and simplicity, +were music, painting, and poetry, at once honoured as sciences, and +cultivated as handicrafts, each having its guild, or corporation, +duly chartered, like the other trades of this flourishing city, and +requiring, by the institution of the magistracy, a regular apprenticeship. +It was here that, on the first discovery of printing, a literary barber +and meister-singer (Hans Foltz) set up a printing-press in his own +house; and it was but the natural consequence of all this industry, +mental activity, and social cultivation, that Nuremberg should have +been one of the first cities which declared for the Reformation. + +But what is most curious and striking in this old city, is to see +it stationary, while time and change are working such miracles and +transformations every where else. The house where Martin Behaim, four +centuries ago, invented the sphere, and drew the first geographical +chart, is still the house of a map-seller. In the house where cards were +first manufactured, cards are now sold. In the very shops where clocks +and watches were first seen, you may still buy clocks and watches. The +same families have inhabited the same mansions from one generation to +another for four or five centuries. The great manufactories of those +toys, commonly called Dutch toys, are at Nuremberg. I visited the +wholesale depot of Pestelmayer, and it is true that it would cut a poor +figure compared to some of our great Birmingham show-rooms; but the +enormous scale on which this commerce is conducted, the hundreds of +waggon-loads and ship-loads of these trifles and gimcracks, which find +their way to every part of the known world, even to America and China, +must interest a thinking mind. Nothing gave me a more comprehensive +idea of the value of the whole, than a complaint which I heard from a +Nuremberger, (and which, though seriously made, sounded not a little +ludicrous,) of the falling off in the trade of _pill-boxes_! he said +that since the fashionable people of London and Paris had taken to +paper pill-boxes, the millions of wooden or chip boxes which used to +be annually sent from Nuremberg to all parts of Europe were no longer +required; and he computed the consequent falling off of the profits +at many thousand florins. + +Nuremberg was rendered so agreeable to me by the kindness and hospitality +I met with, that instead of merely passing through it, I spent some days +wandering about its precincts; and as it is not very frequently visited +by the English, I shall note a few of the objects which have dwelt on +my memory, premising, that for the artist and the antiquary it affords +inexhaustible materials. + +The whole city, which is very large, lies crowded and compact within its +walls; but the fortifications, once the wonder of all Germany, and their +three hundred and sixty-five towers, once the glory and safeguard of +the inhabitants, exist no longer. Four huge circular towers stand at the +principal gates,--four huge towers of almost dateless antiquity, and +blackened with age, but of such admirable construction, that the masonry +appears, from its entireness and smoothness, as if raised yesterday. +The old castle or fortress, which stands on a height commanding the +town and a glorious view, is a strange, dismantled, incongruous heap of +buildings. It happened, that in the summer of 1833, the king of Bavaria, +accompanied by the queen and the princess Matilda, had paid his good +city of Nuremberg a visit, and had been most royally entertained by the +inhabitants. The apartments in the old castle, long abandoned to the +rats and spiders, had been prepared for the royal guests, and, when I +saw it, three or four months afterwards, nothing could be more uncouth +and fantastical than the effect of these irregular rooms, with all +manner of angles, with their carved worm-eaten ceilings, their curious +latticed and painted windows, and most preposterous stoves, now all +tricked out with fresh paint here and there, and hung with gay glazed +papers of the most modern fashion, and the most gaudy patterns. Even the +chapel, with its four old pillars, which, according to the legend, had +been brought by Old Nick himself from Rome, and the effigy of the monk +who had cheated his infernal adversary, by saying the Litanies faster +than had ever been known before or since, had, in honour of the king's +visit, received a new coat of paint. There are some very curious old +pictures in the castle, (which luckily were not repainted for the same +grand occasion,) among them an original portrait of Albert Durer. In +the courtyard of the fortress stands an extraordinary relic--the old +lime-tree planted by the Empress Cunegunde, wife of the Emperor Henry +III.; every thing is done to preserve it from decay, and it still bears +its leafy honours, after beholding the revolution of seven centuries. + +From the fortress we look down upon the house of Albert Durer, which +is preserved with religious care; it has been hired by a society of +artists, who use it as a club-room: his effigy in stone is over the +door. In every house there is a picture or print of him; or copies, +or engravings from his works, and his head hangs in every print shop. +The street in which he lived is called by his name; and the inhabitants +have moreover built a fountain to his honour, and planted trees around +it;--in short, Albert Durer is wherever we look--wherever we move. What +can Fuseli mean by saying that Albert Durer "was a man of extreme +ingenuity without being a genius?" Does the man of mere ingenuity step +before his age as Albert Durer did, not as an artist only, but as a man +of science? Is not genius the creative power? and did not Albert Durer +possess this power in an extraordinary degree? Could Fuseli have seen +his four apostles, now in the gallery of Munich, when he said that +Albert Durer never had more than an occasional _glimpse_ of the sublime? + +Fuseli, as an _artist_, is an example of what I have seen in other +minds, otherwise directed. The stronger the faculties, the more of +original power in the mind, the less diffused is the sympathy, and the +more is the judgment swayed by the individual character. Thus Fuseli, in +his remarks on painters--excellent and eloquent as they are--scarcely +ever does justice to those who excel in colour. He perceives and admits +the excellence, but he shows in his criticisms, as in his pictures, +that the faculty was wanting to feel and appreciate it: his remarks on +Correggio and Rubens are a proof of this. In listening to the criticisms +of an author on literature--of a painter on pictures--and, generally, to +the opinion which one individual expresses of the character and actions +of another, it is wise to take into consideration the modification of +mind in the person who speaks, and how far it may, or _must_, influence, +even where it does not absolutely distort, the judgment; so many minds +are what the Germans call _one-sided_! The education, habits, mental +existence of the individual, are the refracting medium through which the +rays of truth pass to the mind, more or less bent or absorbed in their +passage. We should make philosophical allowance for different degrees +of density. + +Hans Sachs,[22] the old poet of Nuremberg, did as much for the Reformation +by his songs and satires, as Luther and the doctors by their preaching; +besides being one of the worshipful company of meister-singers, he found +time to make shoes, and even enrich himself by his trade: he informs us +himself that he had composed and written with his own hand "four thousand +two hundred mastership songs; two hundred and eight comedies, tragedies, +and farces; one thousand seven hundred fables, tales, and miscellaneous +poems; and seventy-three devotional, military, and love songs." It is +said he excelled in humour, but it was such as might have been expected +from the times--it was vigorous and coarse. "Hans," says the critic, +"tells his tale like a convivial burgher, fond of his can, and still +fonder of his drollery."[23] If this be the case, his house has received +a very appropriate designation: it is now an ale-house, from which, as I +looked up, the mixed odours of beer and tobacco, and the sound of voices +singing in chorus, streamed through the old latticed windows. "Drollery" +and "the can" were as rife in the dwelling of the immortal shoemaker as +they would have been in his own days, and in his own jovial presence. + +In the church of St. Sibbald, now the chief Protestant church, I was +surprised to find that most of the Roman Catholic symbols and relics +remained undisturbed: the large crucifix, the old pictures of the saints +and Madonnas had been reverentially preserved. The perpetual light which +had been vowed four centuries ago by one of the Tucher family, was still +burning over his tomb; no puritanic zeal had quenched that tiny flame +in its chased silver lamp; and through successive generations, and all +revolutions of politics and religion, maintained and fed by the pious +honesty of the descendants, it still shone on, + + Like the bright lamp that lay in Kildare's holy fane, + And burned through long ages of darkness and storm! + + +In this Protestant church, even the shrine of St. Sibbald has kept its +place, if not to the honour and glory of the saint, at least to the +honour and glory of the city of Nuremberg; it is considered as the +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Peter Vischer, a famous sculptor and caster in +bronze, cotemporary with Albert Durer. It was begun in 1506, and +finished in 1519, and is adorned with ninety-six figures, among which +the twelve apostles, all varying in character and attitude, are really +miracles of grace, power, and expression; the base of the shrine rests +upon six gigantic snails, and the whole is cast in bronze, and finished +with exquisite skill and fancy. At one end of this extraordinary +composition the artificer has placed his own figure, not obtrusively, +but retired, in a sort of niche; he is represented in his working dress, +with his cap, leather apron, and tools in his hand. According to +tradition, he was paid for his work by the pound weight, twenty gulden +(or florins) for every hundred weight of metal; and the whole weighs one +hundred and twenty centners, or hundred weight. + +The man who showed us this shrine was descended from Peter Vischer, +lived in the same house which he and his sons had formerly inhabited, +and carried on the same trade, that of a smith and brass-founder. + +The Moritz-Kapel, near the church, is an old gothic chapel once +dedicated to St. Maurice, now converted into a public gallery of +pictures of the old German school. The collection is exceedingly +curious; there are about one hundred and forty pictures, and besides +specimens of Mabuse, Albert Durer, Van Eyck, Martin Schoen, Lucas +Kranach, and the two Holbeins, I remember some portraits by a certain +Hans Grimmer, which impressed me by their truth and fine painting. It +appears from this collection that for some time after Albert Durer, the +German painters continued to paint on a gold ground. Kulmbach, whose +heads are quite marvellous for finish and expression, generally did so. +This gallery owes its existence to the present king, and has been well +arranged by the architect Heideldoff and professor von Dillis of Munich. + +In the market-place of Nuremberg stands the Schoenebrunnen, that is, +the beautiful fountain; it bears the date 1355, and in style resembles +the crosses which Edward I. erected to Queen Eleanor, but is of more +elaborate beauty; it is covered with gothic figures, carved by one of +the most ancient of the German sculptors, Schonholfer, who modestly +styles himself a stone-cutter. Here we see, placed amicably close, +Julius Caesar, Godfrey of Boulogne, Judas Maccabaeus, Alexander the Great, +Hector of Troy, Charlemagne, and king David: all old acquaintances, +certainly, but whom we might have supposed that nothing but the day of +judgment could ever have assembled together in company. + +Talking of the day of judgment reminds me of the extraordinary cemetery +of Nuremberg, certainly as unlike every other cemetery, as Nuremberg is +unlike every other city. Imagine upon a rising ground, an open space +of about four acres, completely covered with enormous slabs, or rather +blocks of solid stone, about a foot and a half in thickness, seven feet +in length, and four in breadth, laid horizontally, and just allowing +space for a single person to move between them. The name, and the +armorial bearings of the dead, cast in bronze, and sometimes rich +sculpture, decorate these tombs: I remember one, to the memory of a +beautiful girl, who was killed as she lay asleep in her father's garden +by a lizard creeping into her mouth. The story is represented in bronze +bas-relief, and the lizard is so constructed as to move when touched. +From this I shrunk with disgust, and turned to the sepulchre of a famous +worthy, who measured the distance from Nuremberg to the holy sepulchre +with his garter: the implement of his pious enterprise, twisted into a +sort of true-love knot, is carved on his tomb. Two days afterwards I +entered the dominions of a reigning monarch, who is at this present +moment performing a journey to Jerusalem round the walls of his room.[24] +How long-lived are the follies of mankind! Have, then, five centuries +made so little difference? + +The tombs of Albert Durer, Hans Sachs, and Sandraart, were pointed out +to me, resembling the rest in size and form. I was assured that these +huge sepulchral stones exceed three thousand in number, and the whole +aspect of this singular burial-place is, in truth, beyond measure +striking--I could almost add, appalling. + +I was not a little surprised and interested to find that the principal +Gazette of Nuremberg, which has a wide circulation through all this part +of Germany, extending even to Frankfort, Munich, Dresden, and Leipsig, +is entirely in female hands. Madame de Schaden is the proprietor, and +the responsible editor of the paper; she has the printing apparatus +and offices under her own roof, and though advanced in years, conducts +the whole concern with a degree of activity, spirit, and talent, which +delighted me. The circulation of this paper amounts to about four +thousand: a trifling number compared to our papers, but a large number +in this economical country, where the same paper is generally read by +fifty or sixty persons at least. + + * * * * * + +All travellers agree that benevolence and integrity are the national +characteristics of the Germans. Of their honesty I had daily proofs: +I do not consider that I was ever imposed upon or overcharged during my +journey, except once, and then it was by a Frenchman. Their benevolence +is displayed in the treatment of animals, particularly of their horses. +It was somewhere between Nuremberg and Hof, that, for the first and +only time, I saw a postilion flog his horse unmercifully, or at least +unreasonably. The Germans very seldom beat their horses: they talk to +them, remonstrate, encourage, or upbraid them. I have frequently known +a voiturier, or a postilion, go a whole stage--which is seldom less +than fifteen English miles--at a very fair pace, without once even +raising the whip; and have often witnessed, not without amusement, long +conversations between a driver and his steed--the man, with his arm +thrown over the animal's neck, discoursing in a strange jargon, and the +intelligent brute turning his eye on his master with such a responsive +expression! In this part of Germany there is a popular verse repeated by +the postilions, which may be called the German _rule of the road_. It is +the horse who speaks-- + + Berg auf, ubertrieb mich nicht; + Berg ab, ubereil mich nicht; + Auf ebenen Weg, vershoene mich nicht; + Im Stahl, vergiss mich nicht. + + +which is, literally, + + Up hill, overdrive me not; + Down hill, hurry me not; + On level ground, spare me not; + In the stable, forget me not. + + +The German postilions form a very numerous and distinct class; they wear +a half-military costume--a laced or embroidered jacket, across which +is invariably slung the bugle-horn, with its parti-coloured cord and +tassels: huge jack-boots, and a smart glazed hat, not unfrequently +surmounted with a feather (as in Hesse Cassel and Saxe Weimer) complete +their appearance. They are in the direct service and pay of the +government; they must have an excellent character for fidelity and good +conduct before they are engaged, and the slightest failing in duty +or punctuality, subjects them to severe punishment; thus they enjoy +some degree of respectability as a body, and Marschner thought it not +unworthy of his talents to compose a fine piece of music, which he +called The Postilion's "Morgen-lied," or morning song. I found them +generally a good-humoured, honest set of men; obliging, but not servile +or cringing; they are not allowed to smoke without the express leave +of the traveller, nor to stop or delay on the road on any pretence +whatever. In short, though the burley German postilions do not present +the neat compact turn-out of an English post-boy, nor the horses any +thing like the speed of "Newman's greys," or the Brighton Age, and +though the traveller must now and then submit to arbitrary laws and +individual inconvenience; still the travelling regulations all over +Germany, more especially in Prussia, are so precise, so admirable, +and so strictly enforced, that no where could an unprotected female +journey with more complete comfort and security. This I have proved by +experience, after having tried every different mode of conveyance in +Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Saxony, and Hesse. My road expenses, for myself +and an attendant, seldom exceeded a Napoleon a-day. + + + + +III. + +MEMORANDA AT DRESDEN.[25] + + +Beautiful, stately Dresden! if not the queen, the fine lady of the +German cities! Surrounded with what is most enchanting in nature, and +adorned with what is most enchanting in art, she sits by the Elbe like +a fair one in romance, wreathing her towery diadem--so often scathed by +war--with the vine and the myrtle, and looking on her own beauty imaged +in the river flood, which, after rolling an impetuous torrent through +the mountain gorges, here seems to pause and spread itself into a lucid +mirror to catch the reflection of her airy magnificence. No doubt misery +and evil dwell in Dresden, as in all the congregated societies of men, +but no where are they less obtrusive. The city has all the advantages, +and none of the disadvantages, of a capital; the treasures of art +accumulated here, the mild government, the delightful climate, the +beauty of the environs, and the cheerfulness and simplicity of social +intercourse, have rendered it a favourite residence for artists and +literary characters, and to foreigners one of the most captivating +places in the world. How often have I stood in the open space in front +of the gorgeous Italian church, or on the summit of the flight of steps +leading to the public walk, gazing upon the noble bridge which bestrides +the majestic Elbe, and connects the new and the old town; or, pursuing +with enchanted eye the winding course of the river to the foot of those +undulating purple hills, covered with villas and vineyards, till a +feeling of quiet grateful enjoyment has stolen over me, like that which +Wordsworth describes:-- + + Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, + And passing even into my purer mind + With tranquil restoration. + + +But it is not only the natural beauties of the scene which strike a +stranger; the city itself has this peculiarity in common with Florence, +to which it has been so often compared, that instead of being an +accident in the landscape--a dim, smoky, care-haunted spot upon the +all-lovely face of nature--a discord in the soothing harmony of that +quiet enchanting scene which steals like music over the fancy;--it is +rather a charm the more--an ornament--a crowning splendour--a fulfilling +and completing chord. Its unrivalled elegance and neatness, a general +air of cheerfulness combined with a certain dignity and tranquillity, +the purity and elasticity of the atmosphere, the brilliant shops, the +well-dressed women, and the lively looks and good-humoured alertness +of the people, who, like the Florentines, are more remarkable for +their tact and acuteness than for their personal attractions;--all +these advantages render Dresden, though certainly one of the smallest, +and by no means one of the richest capitals in Europe, one of the +most delightful residences on the continent. I am struck, too, by the +silver-toned voices of the women, and the courtesy and vivacity of the +men; for in Bavaria the intonation is broad and harsh, and the people, +though frank, and honest, and good-natured, are rather slow, and not +particularly polished in their demeanour. + +It is the general aspect of Dresden which charms us: it is not +distinguished by any vast or striking architectural decorations, if we +except the Italian church, which, with all its thousand faults of style, +pleases from its beautiful situation and its exceeding richness. This +is the only Roman Catholic church in Dresden: for it is curious enough, +that while the national religion, or, if I may so use the word, the +state religion, is Protestant--the court religion is Catholic; the royal +family having been for several generations of that persuasion;[26] but +this has caused neither intolerance on the one hand, nor jealousy on the +other. The Saxons, the first who hailed and embraced the doctrines of +Luther, seem quite content to allow their anointed king to go to heaven +his own way; and though the priests who surround him are, of course, +mindful to keep up their own influence, there is no spirit of proselytism; +and I believe the most perfect equality with regard to religious matters +prevails here. The Catholic church is almost always half full of +Protestants, attracted by the delicious music, for all the corps d'opera +sing in the choir. High mass begins about the time that the sermon is +over in the other churches, and you see the Protestants hurrying from +their own service, crowding in at the portals of the Catholic church, +and taking their places, the men on one side and the women on the other, +with looks of infinite gravity and devotion: the king being always +present, it would here be a breach of etiquette to behave as I have +often seen the English behave in the Catholic churches--precisely as +if in a theatre. But if the good old monarch imagines that his heretic +subjects are to be converted by Cesi's[27] divine voice, he is +wonderfully mistaken. + +The people of Dresden have always been distinguished by their love of +music; I was therefore rather surprised to find here a little paltry +theatre, ugly without, and mean within; a new edifice has been for some +time in contemplation, therefore to decorate or repair the old one may +seem superfluous. That it is not nearly large enough for the place is +its worst fault. I have never been in it that it was not crowded to +suffocation. At this time Bellini's opera, _I Capelletti_, is the rage +at Dresden, or rather Madame Devrient's impersonation of the Romeo, has +completely turned all heads and melted all hearts--that are fusible. The +Capelletti is only the last of the thousand-and-one versions of Romeo +and Juliet, and though the last, not the best of Bellini's operas; and +Devrient is not generally heard to the greatest advantage in the modern +Italian music; but her _conception_ of the part of Romeo is new and +belongs to herself; like a woman of feeling and genius she has put +her stamp upon it: it is quite distinct from the same character as +represented by Pasta and Malibran--_character_ perhaps I should not say, +for in the lyrical drama there is properly no room for any such gradual +development of individual sentiments and motives; a powerful and graceful +sketch, of which the outline is filled up by music, is all that the +artist is required to give; and within this boundary a more beautiful +delineation of youthful fervid passion I never beheld: if Devrient must +yield to Pasta in grandeur, and to Malibran in versatility of power and +liquid flexibility of voice, she yields to neither in pathos, to neither +in delicious modulation, to neither in passion, power, and originality, +though in her, in a still greater degree, the talent of the artist is +modified by individual temperament. Like other gifted women, who are +blessed or cursed with a most excitable nervous system, Devrient is a +good deal under the influence of moods of feeling and temper, and in +the performance of her favourite parts, (as this of Romeo, the Armida, +Emmeline in the Sweitzer Familie,) is subject to inequalities, which are +not caprices, but arise from an exuberance of soul and power, and only +render her performance more interesting. Every night that I have seen +her since my arrival here, even in parts which are unworthy of her, as +in the "Eagle's Nest,"[28] has increased my estimate of her talents; +and last night, when I saw her for the third time in the Romeo, she +certainly surpassed herself. The duet with Juliet, (Madlle. Schneider,) +at the end of the first act, threw the whole audience into a tumult of +admiration; they invariably encore this touching and impassioned scene, +which is really a positive cruelty, besides being a piece of stupidity; +for though it _may_ be as well sung the second time, it _must_ suffer in +effect from the repetition. The music, though very pretty, is in itself +nothing, without the situation and sentiment; and after the senses and +imagination have been wound up to the most thrilling excitement by tones +of melting affection and despair, and Romeo and Juliet have been finally +torn asunder by a flinty-hearted stick of a father, with a black cloak +and a bass voice--_selon les regles_--it is ridiculous to see them come +back from opposite sides of the stage, bow to the audience, and then, +throwing themselves into each other's arms, pour out the same passionate +strains of love and sorrow. As to Devrient's acting in the last scene, +I think even Pasta's Romeo would have seemed colourless beside hers; +and this arises perhaps from the character of the music, from the very +different style in which Zingarelli and Bellini have treated their +last scene. The former has made Romeo tender and plaintive, and Pasta +accordingly subdued her conception to this tone; but Bellini has thrown +into the same scene more animation, and more various effect.[29] Devrient, +thus enabled to colour more highly, has gone beyond the composer. +There was a flush of poetry and passion, a heartbreaking struggle +of love and life against an overwhelming destiny, which thrilled me. +Never did I hear any one sing so completely from her own soul as this +astonishing creature. In certain tones and passages her voice issued +from the depths of her bosom as if steeped in tears; and her countenance, +when she hears Juliet sigh from the tomb, was such a sudden and divine +gleam of expression as I have never seen on any face but Fanny Kemble's. +I was not surprised to learn that Madame Devrient is generally ill after +her performance, and unable to sing in this part more than once or twice +a week. + + * * * * * + +Tieck is the literary Colossus of Dresden; perhaps I should say of +Germany. There are those who dispute his infallibility as a critic; +there are those who will not walk under the banners of his philosophy; +but since the death of Goethe, I believe Ludwig Tieck holds undisputed +the first rank as an original poet, and powerful writer, and has +succeeded, by right divine, to the vacant throne of genius. His house +in the Altmarkt, (the tall red house at the south-east corner,) +henceforth consecrated by that power which can "hallow in the core of +human hearts even the ruin of a wall,"[30] is the resort of all the +enlightened strangers who flock to Dresden: even those who know nothing +of Tieck but his name, deem an introduction to him as indispensable +as a visit to the Madonna del Sisto. To the English, he is particularly +interesting: his knowledge of our language and literature, and especially +of our older writers, is profound. Endued with an imagination which +luxuriates in the world of marvels, which "dwells delightedly midst fays +and talismans," and embraces in its range of power what is highest, +deepest, most subtle, most practical--gifted with a creative spirit, for +ever moving and working within the illimitable universe of fancy, Tieck +is yet one of the most poignant satirists and profound critics of the +age. He has for the last twenty years devoted his time and talents, in +conjunction with Schlegel, to the study, translation, and illustration +of Shakspeare. The combination of these two minds has done perhaps what +no single mind could have effected in developing, elucidating, and +clothing in a new language the creations of that mighty and inspired +being. + +It is to be hoped that some translator will rise up among us to do +justice in return to Tieck. No one tells a fairy tale like him: the +earnest simplicity of style and manner is so exquisite that he always +gives the idea of one whose hair was on end at his own wonders, who was +entangled by the spell of his own enchantments. A few of these lighter +productions (his Volksmaerchen, or popular Tales) have been rendered into +our language; but those of his works which have given him the highest +estimation among his own countrymen still remain a sealed fountain to +English readers.[31] + +It was with some trepidation I found myself in the presence of this +extraordinary man. Notwithstanding his profound knowledge of our +language, he rarely speaks English, and, like Alfieri, he _will not_ +speak French. I addressed him in English, and he spoke to me in German. +The conversation in my first visit fell very naturally upon Shakspeare, +for I had been looking over his admirable new translation of Macbeth, +which he had just completed. Macbeth led us to the English theatre and +English acting--to Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles, and the actual +character and state of our stage. + +While he spoke I could not help looking at his head, which is +wonderfully fine; the noble breadth and amplitude of his brow, and his +quiet, but penetrating eye, with an expression of latent humour hovering +round his lips, formed altogether a striking physiognomy. The numerous +prints and portraits of Tieck which are scattered over Germany are very +defective as resemblances. They have a heavy look; they give the weight +and power of his head, but nothing of the _finesse_ which lurks in +the lower part of his face. His manner is courteous, and his voice +particularly sweet and winning. He is apparently fond of the society of +women; or the women are fond of his society, for in the evening his room +is generally crowded with fair worshippers. Yet Tieck, like Goethe, is +accused of entertaining some unworthy sentiments with regard to the sex; +and is also said, like Goethe, not to have upheld us in his writings, +as the true philosopher, to say nothing of the true poet, ought to have +done. It is a fact upon which I shall take an opportunity of enlarging, +that almost all the greatest men who have lived in the world, whether +poets, philosophers, artists, or statesmen, have derived their mental +and physical organization, more from the mother's than the father's +side; and the same is true, unhappily, of those who have been in an +extraordinary degree perverted. And does not this lead us to some awful +considerations on the importance of the moral and physical well-being +of women, and their present condition in society, as a branch of +legislation and politics, which must ere long be modified? Let our lords +and masters reflect, that if an extensive influence for good or for evil +be not denied to us, an influence commencing not only with, but before +the birth of their children, it is time that the manifold mischiefs +and miseries lurking in the bosom of society, and of which woman is at +once the wretched instrument and more wretched victim, be looked to. +Sometimes I am induced to think that Tieck is misinterpreted or libelled +by those who pretend to take the tone from his writings and opinions: it +is evident that he delights in being surrounded by a crowd of admiring +women, therefore he must in his heart honour and reverence us as being +morally equal with man,--for who could suspect the great Tieck of that +paltry coxcombry which can be gratified by the adulation of inferior +beings? + +Tieck's extraordinary talent for reading aloud is much and deservedly +celebrated: he gives dramatic readings two or three times a week +when his health and his avocations allow this exertion; the company +assemble at six, and it is advisable to be punctual to the moment; soon +afterwards tea is served: he begins to read at seven precisely, when the +doors are closed against all intrusion whatever, and he reads through a +whole play without pause, rest, omission, or interruption. Thus I heard +him read Julius Caesar and the Midsummer Night's Dream, (in the German +translation by himself and Schlegel,) and except Mrs. Siddons, I never +heard any thing comparable as dramatic reading. His voice is rich, and +capable of great variety of modulation. I observed that the humorous and +declamatory passages were rather better than the pathetic and tender +passages: he was quite at home among the elves and clowns in the Midsummer +Night's Dream, of which he gave the fantastic and comic parts with +indescribable humour and effect. As to the translation, I could only +judge of its marvellous fidelity, which enabled me to follow him, word +for word,--but the Germans themselves are equally enchanted by its +vigour, and elegance, and poetical colouring. + + * * * * * + +The far-famed gallery of Dresden is, of course, the first and grand +attraction to a stranger. + +The regulation of this gallery, and the difficulty of obtaining +admission, struck me at first as rather inhospitable and ill-natured. +In the summer months it is open to the public two days in the week; but +during the winter months, from September to March, it is closed. In +order to obtain admittance, during this _recess_, you must pay three +dollars to one of the principal keepers on duty, and a gratuity to the +porter,--in all about half-a-guinea. Having once paid this sum, you are +free to enter whenever the gallery has been opened for another party. +The ceremony is, to send the laquais-de-place at nine in the morning to +inquire whether the gallery will be open in the course of the day; if +the answer be in the affirmative, it is advisable to make your appearance +as early as possible, and I believe you may stay as long as you please; +(at least _I_ did;) nothing more is afterwards demanded, though something +may perhaps be expected--if you are a _very_ frequent visitor. All this +is rather ungracious. It is true that the gallery is not a national, but +a royal gallery,--that it was founded and enriched by princes for their +private recreation; that Augustus III. purchased the Modena gallery for +his kingly pleasure; that from the original construction of the building +it is impossible to heat it with stoves, without incurring some risk, +and that to oblige the poor professors and attendants to linger benumbed +and shivering in the gallery from morning to night is cruel. In fact, it +would be difficult to give an idea of the deadly cold which prevails in +the inner gallery, where the beams of the sun scarcely ever penetrate. +And it may happen that only a chance visitor, or one or two strangers, +may ask admittance in the course of the day. But poor as Saxony now +is,--drained, and exhausted, and maimed by successive wars, and trampled +by successive conquerors, this glorious gallery, which Frederic spared, +and Napoleon left inviolate, remains the chief attraction to strangers; +and it may be doubted whether there is good policy in making admittance +to its treasures a matter of difficulty, vexation, and expense. There +would be little fear, if all strangers were as obstinate and enthusiastic +as myself,--for, to confess the truth, I know not what obstacle, or +difficulty, or inconvenience, could have kept me out; if all legal avenues +had been hermetically sealed, I would have prayed, bribed, persevered, +till I had attained my purpose, and after travelling three hundred +miles to achieve an object, what are a few dollars? But still it _is_ +ungracious, and methinks, in this courteous and liberal capital these +regulations ought to be reformed or modified. + +On entering the gallery for the first time, I walked straight forward, +without pausing, or turning to the right or the left, into the +Raffaelle-room, and looked round for the Madonna del Sisto,--literally +with a kind of misgiving. Familiar as the form might be to the eye and +the fancy, from numerous copies and prints, still the unknown original +held a sanctuary in my imagination, like the mystic Isis behind her +veil: and it seemed that whatever I beheld of lovely, or perfect, +or soul-speaking in art, had an unrevealed rival in my imagination: +something was beyond--there was a criterion of possible excellence as +yet only conjectured--for I had not seen the Madonna del Sisto. Now, +when I was about to lift my eyes to it, I literally hesitated--I drew a +long sigh, as if resigning myself to disappointment, and looked----Yes! +there she was indeed! that divinest image that ever shaped itself in +palpable hues and forms to the living eye! What a revelation of ineffable +grace, and purity, and truth, and goodness! There is no use attempting +to say any thing about it; too much has already been said and written--and +what are words? After gazing on it again and again, day after day, I feel +that to attempt to describe the impression is like measuring the infinite, +and sounding the unfathomable. When I looked up at it today it gave me +the idea, or rather the feeling, of a vision descending and floating +down upon me. The head of the virgin is quite superhuman: to say that +it is beautiful, gives no idea of it. Some of Correggio's and Guido's +virgins--the virgin of Murillo at the Leuchtenberg palace--have more +beauty, in the common meaning of the word; but every other female face, +however lovely, however majestic, would, I am convinced, appear either +trite or exaggerated, if brought into immediate comparison with this +divine countenance. There is such a blessed calm in every feature! and +the eyes, beaming with a kind of internal light, look straight out +of the picture--not at you or me--not at any thing belonging to this +world,--but through and through the universe. The unearthly Child is a +sublime vision of power and grandeur, and seems not so much supported as +enthroned in her arms, and what fitter throne for the Divinity than a +woman's bosom full of innocence and love? The expression in the face of +St. Barbara, who looks down, has been differently interpreted: to me she +seems to be giving a last look at the earth, above which the group is +raised as on a hovering cloud. St. Sixtus is evidently pleading in all +the combined fervour of faith, hope, and charity, for the congregation +of sinners, who are supposed to be kneeling before the picture--that is, +for _us_--to whom he points. Finally, the cherubs below, with their +upward look of rapture and wonder, blending the most childish innocence +with a sublime inspiration, complete the harmonious whole, uniting +heaven with earth. + +While I stood in contemplation of this all-perfect work, I felt the +impression of its loveliness in my deepest heart, not only without the +power, but without the thought or wish to give it voice or words, till +some lines of Shelley's--lines which were not, but, methinks, ought to +have been, inspired by the Madonna--came, uncalled, floating through my +memory-- + + Seraph of Heaven! too gentle to be human, + Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman + All that is insupportable in thee, + Of light, and love, and immortality! + Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse! + Veil'd Glory of this lampless universe! + Thou Harmony of Nature's art! + I measure + The world of fancies, seeking one like thee, + And find--alas! mine own infirmity![32] + + +On the first morning I spent in the gallery, a most benevolent-looking +old gentleman came up to me, and half lifting his velvet cap from his +grey hairs, courteously saluted me by name. I replied, without knowing +at the moment to whom I spoke. It was Boettigar, the most formidable--no, +not _formidable_--but the most erudite scholar, critic, antiquarian, +in Germany. Boettigar, I do believe, has read every book that ever was +written; knows every thing that ever was known; and is acquainted with +every body, who is _any body_, in the four quarters of the world. He +is not the author of any large work, but his writings, in a variety +of form, on art, ancient and modern,--on literature, on the classics, +on the stage, are known over all Germany; and in his best days few +have exercised so wide an influence over opinion and literature. It is +_said_, that in his latter years his criticism has been too vague, his +praise too indiscriminate, to be trusted; but I know not why this should +excite indignation, though it may produce mistrust; in Boettigar's +conformation, benevolence must always have been prominent, and in the +decline of his life--for he is now seventy-eight--this natural courtesy +combining with a good deal of vanity and imagination, would necessarily +produce the result of extreme mildness,--a disposition to see, or try to +see, all _en beau_. The happier for him, and the pleasanter for others. +We were standing together in the room with the Madonna, but I did not +allude to it, nor attempt to express by a word the impression it had +made on me; but he seemed to understand my silence; he afterwards told +me that it is ascertained that Raffaelle employed only three months in +executing this picture: it was thrown upon his canvas in a glow of +inspiration, and is painted very lightly and thinly. When Palmeroli, +the Italian restorer, was brought here at an expense of more than three +thousand ducats, he ventured to clean and retouch the background and +accessories, but dared not touch the figures of the Virgin and the +Child, which retain their sombre tint. This has perhaps destroyed the +harmony of the general effect, but if the man mistrusted himself he was +right: in such a case, however, he had better have let the background +alone. In taking down the picture for the purpose of cleaning, it was +discovered that a part of the original canvas, about a quarter of a +yard, was turned back in order to make it fit the frame. Every one must +have observed, that in Mueller's engraving, and all the known copies of +this Madonna, the head is too near the top of the picture, so as to mar +the just proportion. This is now amended: the veil, or curtain, which +appears to have been just drawn aside to disclose the celestial vision, +does not now reach the boundary of the picture, as heretofore; the +original effect is restored, and it is infinitely better. + +As if to produce a surfeit of excellence, the five Correggios hang +together in the same room with the Raffaelle.[33] They are the Madonna +di San Georgio; the Madonna di San Francisco; the Madonna di Santo +Sebastiano; the famous Nativity, called La Notte; and the small Magdalene +reading, of which there exist an incalculable number of copies and +prints. I know not that any thing can be added to what has been said a +hundred times over of these wondrous pieces of poetry. Their excellence +and value, as unequalled productions of art, may not perhaps be understood +by all,--the poetical charm, the something more than meets the eye, is +not perhaps equally felt by all,--but the sentiment is intelligible to +every mind, and goes at once to every heart; the most uneducated eye, the +merest tyro in art, gazes with delight on the Notte; and the Magdalene +reading has given perhaps more pleasure than any known picture,--it is +so quiet, so simple, so touching, in its heavenly beauty! Those who may +not perfectly understand what artists mean when they dwell with rapture +on Correggio's wonderful chiaro-scuro, should look close into this +little picture, which hangs at a convenient height: they will perceive +that they can look through the shadows into the substance,--as it might +be, into the flesh and blood;--the shadows seem accidental--as if +between the eye and the colours, and not incorporated with them; in this +lies the inimitable excellence of this master. + +The Magdalene was once surrounded by a rich frame of silver gilt, +chased, and adorned with gems, turquoises, and pearls: but some years +ago a thief found means to enter at the window, and carried off the +picture for the sake of the frame. A reward of two hundred ducats and a +pardon were offered for the picture only, and in a fortnight afterwards +it was happily restored to the gallery uninjured; but I did not hear that +the frame and jewels were ever recovered. + +Of Correggio's larger pictures, I think the Madonna di San Georgio +pleased me most. The Virgin is seated on a throne, holding the sacred +Infant, who extends his arms and smiles out upon the world he has come +to save. On the right stands St. George, his foot on the dragon's head; +behind him St. Peter Martyr; on the left, St. Geminiano and St. John the +Baptist. In the front of the picture two heavenly boys are playing with +the sword and helmet of St. George, which he has apparently cast down +at the foot of the throne. All in this picture is grand and sublime, +in the feeling, the forms, the colouring, the expression. But what, +says a wiseacre of a critic, rubbing up his school chronology, what have +St. Francis, and St. George, and St. John the Baptist, to do in the same +picture with the Virgin Mary? Did not St. George live nine hundred years +after St. John? and St. Francis five hundred years after St. George? +and so on. Yet this is properly no anachronism--no violation of the +proprieties of action, place, or time. These and similar pictures, +as the St. Jerome at Parma, and Raffaelle's Madonna, are not to be +considered as historical paintings, but as grand pieces of lyrical and +sacred poetry. In this particular picture, which was an altarpiece in the +church of Our Lady at Parma, we have in St. George the representation +of religious magnanimity; in St. John, religious enthusiasm; in St. +Geminiani, religious munificence; in St. Peter Martyr, religious +fortitude; and these are grouped round the most lovely impersonation +of innocence, chastity, and heavenly love. Such, as it appears to me, +is the true intention and signification of this and similar pictures. + +But in the "Notte" (the Nativity) the case is different. It is properly +an historical picture; and if Correggio had placed St. George, or St. +Francis, or the Magdalene, as spectators, we might then exclaim at the +absurdity of the anachronism; but here Correggio has converted the +literal representation of a circumstance in sacred history into a divine +piece of poetry, when he gave us that emanation of supernatural light, +streaming from the form of the celestial Child, and illuminating the +extatic face of the virgin mother, who bends over her infant undazzled; +while another female draws back, veiling her eyes with her hand, as if +unable to endure the radiance. Far off, through the gloom of night, we +see the morning just breaking along the eastern horizon--emblem of the +"day-spring from on high." + +This is precisely one of those pictures of which no copy or engraving +could convey any adequate idea; the sentiment of maternity (in which +Correggio excelled) is so exquisitely tender, and the colouring so +inconceivably transparent and delicate. + +I suppose it is a sort of treason to say that in the Madonna di San +Francisco, the face of the virgin is tinctured with affectation; but +such was and _is_ my impression. + +If I were to plan a new Dresden gallery, the Madonna del Sisto and the +"Notte" should each have a sanctuary apart, and be lighted from above; +at present they are ill-placed for effect. + +When I could move from the Raffaelle room, I took advantage of the +presence and attendance of Professor Matthai, (who is himself a painter +of eminence here,) and went through a regular course of the Italian +schools of painting, beginning with Giotto. The collection is extremely +rich in the early Ferarese and Venetian painters, and it was most +interesting thus to trace the gradual improvement and development of the +school of colourists through Squarcione, Mantegna, the Bellini, Giorgione, +Paris Bordone, Palma, and Titian; until richness became exuberance, and +power verged upon excess in Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. + +Certainly, I feel no inclination to turn my notebook into a catalogue; +but I must mention Titian's Christo della Moneta:--such a head!--so pure +from any trace of passion!--so refined, so intellectual, so benevolent! +The only head of Christ I ever entirely approved. + +Here they have Giorgione's master-piece--the meeting of Rachel and +Jacob; and the three daughters of Palma, half-lengths, in the same +picture. The centre one, Violante, is a most lovely head. + +There is here an extraordinary picture by Titian, representing Lucrezia +Borgia, presented by her husband to the Madonna. The portraits are the +size of life, half-lengths. I looked in vain in the countenance of +Lucrezia for some trace, some testimony of the crimes imputed to her; +but she is a fair, golden-haired, gentle-looking creature, with a feeble +and vapid expression. The head of her husband, Alphonso, is fine and +full of power. There are, I suppose, not less than fourteen or fifteen +pictures by Titian. + +The Concina family, by Paul Veronese, esteemed his finest production, +is in the Dresden gallery, with ten others of the same master. Of Guido, +there are ten pictures, particularly that extraordinary one, _called_ +Ninus and Semiramis, life size. Of the Carracci, at least eight or nine, +particularly the genius of Fame, which should be compared with that of +Guido. There are numerous pictures of Albano and Ribera; but very few +specimens of Salvator Rosa and Domenichino. + +On the whole, I suppose that no gallery, except that of Florence, can +compete with the Dresden gallery in the treasures of Italian art. In +all, there are five hundred and thirty-four Italian pictures. + +I pass over the Flemish, Dutch, and French pictures, which fill the +outer gallery: these exceed the Italian school in number, and many of +them are of surpassing merit and value, but, having just come from +Munich, where the eye and fancy are both satiated with this class of +pictures, I gave my attention principally to the Italian masters. + +There is one room here entirely filled with the crayon paintings of +Rosalba, including a few by Liotard. Among them is a very interesting +head of Metastasio, painted when he was young. He has fair hair and blue +eyes, with small features, and an expression of mingled sensibility and +acuteness: no power. + +Rosalba Carriera, perhaps the finest crayon painter who ever existed, +was a Venetian, born at Chiozza in 1675. She was an admirable creature +in every respect, possessing many accomplishments, besides the beautiful +art in which she excelled. Several anecdotes are preserved which prove +the sweetness of her disposition, and the clear simplicity of her mind. +Spence, who knew her personally, calls her "the most modest of painters;" +yet she used to say playfully, "I am charmed with every thing I do, for +eight hours after it is done!" This was natural while the excitement +of conception was fresh upon the mind. No one, however, could be more +fastidious and difficult about their own works than Rosalba. She was not +only an observer of countenance by profession, but a most acute observer +of character, as revealed in all its external indications. She said of +Sir Godfrey Kneller, after he had paid her a visit, "I concluded he could +not be religious, for he has no modesty." The general philosophical truth +comprised in these few words is not less admirable than the acuteness +of the remark, as applied to Kneller--a professed sceptic, and the most +self-sufficient coxcomb of his time. + +Rosalba was invited at different times to almost all the courts of +Europe, and painted most of the distinguished persons of her time at +Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, and Paris; the lady-like refinements of her +mind and manners, which also marked her style of painting, recommended +her not less than her talents. She used, after her return to Italy, to +say her prayers in German, "because the language was so expressive."[34] + +Rosalba became blind before her death, which occurred in 1757. Her +works in the Dresden gallery amount to at least one hundred and +fifty--principally portraits--but there are also some exquisite fancy +heads. + +Thinking of Rosalba, reminds me that there are some pretty stories +told of women, who have excelled as professed artists. In general +the conscious power of maintaining themselves, habits of attention +and manual industry, the application of our feminine superfluity of +sensibility and imagination to a tangible result--have produced fine +characters. The daughter of Tintoretto, when invited to the courts of +Maximilian and Philip II. refused to leave her father. Violante Siries +of Florence gave a similar proof of filial affection; and when the grand +duke commanded her to paint her own portrait for the Florentine gallery, +where it now hangs, she introduced the portrait of her father, because +he had been her first instructor in art. When Henrietta Walters, the +famous Dutch miniature painter, was invited by Peter the Great and +Frederic, to their respective courts, with magnificent promises of +favour and patronage, she steadily refused; and when Peter, who had +no idea of giving way to obstacles, particularly in the female form, +pressed upon her in person the most splendid offers, and demanded the +reason of her refusal, she replied, that she was contented with her +lot, and could not bear the idea of living out of a free country. + +Maria von Osterwyck, one of the most admirable flower painters, +had a lover, to whom she was a little partial, but his idleness and +dissipation distressed her. At length she promised to give him her hand +on condition that during one year he would work regularly ten hours a +day, observing that it was only what she had done herself from a very +early age. He agreed; and took a house opposite to her that she might +witness his industry; but habit was too strong, his love or his resolution +failed, and he broke the compact. She refused to be his wife; and no +entreaties could afterwards alter her determination never to accept the +man who had shown so little strength of character, and so little real +love. She was a wise woman, and as the event showed, not a heartless +one. She died unmarried, though surrounded by suitors. + +It was the fate of Elizabeth Sirani, one of the most beautiful women, as +well as one of the most exquisite painters of her time, to live in the +midst of those deadly feuds between the pupils of Guido and those of +Domenichino, and she was poisoned at the age of twenty-six. She left +behind her one hundred and fifty pictures, an astonishing number if +we consider the age at which the world was deprived of this wonderful +creature, for they are finished with the utmost care in every part. +Madonnas and Magdalenes were her favourite subjects. She died in 1526. +Her best pictures are at Florence. + +Sofonisba Angusciola had two sisters, Lucia and Europa, almost as gifted, +though not quite so celebrated as herself: these three "virtuous +gentlewomen," as Vasari calls them, lived together in the most +delightful sisterly union. One of Sofonisba's most beautiful pictures +represents her two sisters playing at chess, attended by the old duenna, +who accompanied them every where. When Sofonisba was invited to the court +of Spain, in 1560, she took her sisters with her--in short, they were +inseparable. They were all accomplished women. "We hear," said the pope, +in a complimentary letter to Sofonisba, on one of her pictures, "that +this your great talent is among the least you possess:" which letter is +said by Vasari to be a _sufficient_ proof of the genius of Sofonisba--as +if the holy Father's infallibility extended to painting! Luckily we have +proofs more undeniable in her own most lovely works--glowing with life +like those of Titian; and in the testimony of Vandyke, who said of her +in her later years, that "he had learned more from one old blind woman +in Italy than from all the masters of his art." + +It is worth remarking, that almost all the women who have attained +celebrity in painting, have excelled in portraiture. The characteristic +of Rosalba is an exceeding elegance; of Angelica Kauffman exceeding +grace; but she wants nerve. Lavinia Fontana threw a look of sensibility +into her most masculine heads--she died broken-hearted for the loss of +an only son, whose portrait is her masterpiece.[35] The Sofonisba had +most dignity, and in her own portrait[36] a certain dignified simplicity +in the air and attitude strikes us immediately. Gentileschi has most +power: she was a gifted, but a profligate woman. All those whom I have +mentioned were women of undoubted genius; for they have each a style +apart, peculiar, and tinted by their individual character: but all, +except Gentileschi, were _feminine_ painters. They succeeded best in +feminine portraits, and when they painted history they were only admirable +in that class of subjects which came within the province of their sex; +beyond that boundary they became _fade_, insipid, or exaggerated: thus +Elizabeth Sirani's Annunciation is exquisite, and her Crucifixion +feeble; Angelica Kauffman's Nymphs and Madonnas are lovely; but her +picture of the warrior Herman, returning home after the defeat of the +Roman legions, is cold and ineffective. The result of these reflections +is, that there is a walk of art in which women may attain perfection, +and excel the other sex; as there is another department from which they +are excluded. You must change the physical organization of the race of +women before we produce a Rubens or a Michael Angelo. Then, on the other +hand, I fancy, no _man_ could paint like Louisa Sharpe, any more than +write like Mrs. Hemans. Louisa Sharpe, and her sister, are, in painting, +just what Mrs. Hemans is in poetry; we see in their works the same +characteristics--no feebleness, no littleness of design or manner, +nothing vapid, trivial, or affected,--and nothing masculine; all is +super-eminently, essentially feminine, in subject, style, and sentiment. +I wish to combat in every way that oft-repeated, but most false compliment +unthinkingly paid to women, that genius is of no sex; there may be +equality of power, but in its quality and application there will and must +be difference and distinction. If men would but remember this truth, +they would cease to treat with ridicule and jealousy the attainments and +aspirations of women, knowing that there never could be real competition +or rivalry. If women would admit this truth, they would not presume out +of their sphere:--but then we come to the necessity for some key to the +knowledge of ourselves and others--some scale for the just estimation of +our own qualities and powers, compared with those of others--the great +secret of self-regulation and happiness--the beginning, middle, and end +of all education. + +But to return from this tirade. I wish my vagrant pen were less +discursive. + +In the works of art, the presence of a power, felt rather than perceived, +and kept subordinate to the sentiment of grace, should mark the female +mind and hand. This is what I love in Rosalba, in our own Mrs. Carpenter, +in Madame de Freyberg, and in Eliza and Louisa Sharpe: in the latter +there is a high tone of moral as well as poetical feeling. Thus her +picture of the young girl coming out of church after disturbing the +equanimity of a whole congregation by her fine lady airs and her silk +attire, is a charming and most graceful satire on the foibles of +her sex. The idea, however, is taken from the Spectator. But Louisa +Sharpe can also create. Of another lovely picture,--that of the young, +forsaken, disconsolate, repentant mother, who sits drooping over her +child, "with looks bowed down in penetrative shame," while one or two of +the rigidly-righteous of her own sex turn from her with a scornful and +upbraiding air--I believe the subject is original; but it is obviously +one which never could have occurred, except to the most consciously pure +as well as the gentlest and kindest heart in the world. Never was a more +beautiful and Christian lesson conveyed by woman to woman; at once a +warning to our weakness, and a rebuke to our pride.[37] + +_Apropos_ of female artists: I met here with a lady of noble birth and +high rank, the Countess Julie von Egloffstein,[38] who in spite of the +prejudices still prevailing in Germany, has devoted herself to painting +as a profession. Her vocation for the art was early displayed; but +combated and discouraged as derogatory to her rank and station; she was +for many years _demoiselle d'honneur_ to the grand Duchess Luise of +Weimar. Under all these circumstances, it required real strength of mind +to take the step she has taken; but a less decided course could not well +have emancipated her from trammels, the force of which can hardly be +estimated out of Germany. A recent journey to Italy, undertaken on account +of her health, fixed her determination, and her destiny for life. + +In looking over her drawings and pictures, I was particularly struck +by one singularity, which yet, on reflection, appears perfectly +comprehensible. This high-born and court-bred woman shows a decided +predilection for the picturesque in humble life, and seems to have +turned to simple nature in perfect simplicity of heart. Being +self-taught and self-formed, there is nothing mannered or conventional +in her style; and I do hope she will assert the privilege of genius, +and, looking only into nature out of her own heart and soul, form and +keep a style to herself. I remember one little picture, painted either +for the queen of England or the queen of Bavaria, representing a young +Neapolitan peasant, seated at her cottage door, contemplating her child, +cradled at her feet, while the fishing bark of her husband is sailing +away in the distance. In this little bit of natural poetry there was no +seeking after effect, no prettiness, no pretension; but a quiet genuine +simplicity of feeling, which surprised while it pleased me. When I have +looked at the Countess Julie in her painting-room, surrounded by her +drawings, models, casts--all the powers of her exuberant enthusiastic +mind flowing free in their natural direction, I have felt at once +pleasure, and admiration, and respect. It should seem that the energy +of spirit and real magnanimity of mind which could trample over social +prejudices, not the less strong because manifestly absurd, united to +genius and perseverance, may, if life be granted, safely draw upon +futurity both for success and for fame. + + * * * * * + +I consider my introduction to Moritz Retzsch as one of the most +memorable and agreeable incidents of my short sojourn at Dresden. + +This extraordinary genius, who is almost as popular and interesting in +England as in his own country, seems to have received from Nature a +double portion of the inventive faculty--that rarest of all her good +gifts, even to those who are her especial favourites. As his published +works by which he is principally known in England (the Outlines to +the Faust, to Shakspeare, to Schiller's Song of the Bell, &c.) are +illustrations of the ideas of others, few but those who may possess some +of his original drawings are aware, that Retzsch is himself a poet of +the first order, using his glorious power of graphic delineation to +throw into form the conceptions, thoughts, aspirations, of his own +glowing imagination and fertile fancy. Retzsch was born at Dresden in +1779, and has never, I believe, been far from his native place. From +childhood he was a singular being, giving early indications of his +imitative power by drawing or carving in wood, resemblances of the +objects which struck his attention, without the slightest idea in +himself or others of becoming eventually an artist; and I have even +heard that, when he was quite a youth, his enthusiastic mind, labouring +with a power which he felt rather than knew, his love of the wilder +aspects of nature, and impatience of the restraints of artificial life, +had nearly induced him to become a huntsman or forester (Jaeger) in the +royal service. However, at the age of twenty, his love of art became a +decided vocation. The little property he had inherited or accumulated +was dissipated during that war, which swept like a whirlwind over all +Germany, overwhelming prince and peasant, artist, mechanic, in one +wide-spreading desolation. Since that time Retzsch has depended on his +talents alone--content to live poor in a poor country. He has, by the +exertion of his talents, achieved for himself a small independence, and +contributed to the support of a large family of relations, also ruined +by the casualties of war. His usual residence is at his own pretty +little farm or vineyard a few miles from Dresden. When in the town, +where his duties as professor of the Academy frequently call him, he +lodges in a small house in the Neustadt, close upon the banks of the +Elbe, in a retired and beautiful situation. Thither I was conducted +by our mutual friend, N----, whose appreciation of Retzsch's talents, +and knowledge of his peculiarities, rendered him the best possible +intermediator on this occasion. + +The professor received us in a room which appeared to answer many +purposes, being obviously a sleeping as well as a sitting-room, but +perfectly neat. I saw at once that there was every where a woman's +superintending eye and thoughtful care; but did not know at the moment +that he was married. He received us with open-hearted frankness, at +the same time throwing on the stranger one of those quick glances +which seemed to look through me: in return, I contemplated him with +inexpressible interest. His figure is rather larger, and more portly +than I had expected; but I admired his fine Titanic head, so large, and +so sublime in its expression; his light blue eye, wild and wide, which +seemed to drink in meaning and flash out light; his hair profuse, +grizzled, and flowing in masses round his head: and his expanded brow +full of poetry and power. In his deportment he is a mere child of nature, +simple, careless, saying just what he feels and thinks at the moment, +without regard to forms; yet pleasing from the benevolent earnestness +of his manner, and intuitively polite without being polished. + +After some conversation, he took us into his painting room. As a +colourist, I believe his style is criticised, and open to criticism; +it is at least singular; but I must confess that while I was looking +over his things I was engrossed by the one conviction;--that while his +peculiar merits, and the preference of one manner to another may be a +matter of argument or taste, it is certain, and indisputable, that no +one paints _like_ Retzsch, and that, in the original power and fertility +of _conception_, in the quantity of _mind_ which he brings to bear upon +his subject, he is in his own style unequalled and inimitable. I was +rather surprised to see in some of his designs and pencil drawings, the +most elaborate delicacy of touch, and most finished execution of parts, +combined with a fancy which seems to run wild over his paper or his +canvas; but only _seems_--for it must be remarked, that with all this +luxuriance of imagination, there is no exaggeration, either of form or +feeling; he is peculiar, fantastic, even extravagant--but never false in +sentiment or expression. The reason is, that in Retzsch's character the +moral sentiments are strongly developed; where _they_ are deficient, let +the artist who aims at the highest poetical department of excellence, +despair; for no possession of creative talent, nor professional skill, +nor conventional taste, will supply that main deficiency. + +I saw in Retzsch's atelier many things novel, beautiful, and interesting; +but will note only a few, which have dwelt upon my memory, as being +characteristic of the man as well as the artist. + +There was, on a small pannel, the head of an angel smiling. He said he +was often pursued by dark fancies, haunted by melancholy forebodings, +desponding over himself and his art, "and he resolved to create an angel +for himself, which should smile upon him out of heaven." So he painted +his most lovely head, in which the radiant spirit of joy seems to +beam from every feature at once; and I thought while I looked upon it, +that it were enough to exorcise a whole legion of blue devils. It is +rarely that we can associate the mirthful with the beautiful and the +sublime--even I could have deemed it next to impossible; but the +effulgent cheerfulness of this divine face corrected that idea, which, +after all, is not in bright lovely Nature, but in the shadow which the +mighty spirit of Humanity casts from his wings, as he hangs brooding +over her between heaven and earth. + +Afterwards he placed upon his easel a wondrous face, which made me +shrink back--not with terror, for it was perfectly beautiful--but +with awe, for it was unspeakably fearful: the hair streamed back from +the pale brow--the orbs of sight appeared at first two dark, hollow, +unfathomable spaces, like those in a skull; but when I drew nearer, and +looked attentively, two lovely living eyes looked at me again out of +the depth of shadow, as of from the bottom of an abyss. The mouth was +divinely sweet, but sad, and the softest repose rested on every feature. +This, he told me, was the ANGEL OF DEATH: it was the original conception +of a head for the large picture now at Vienna, representing the Angel +of Death bearing aloft two children into the regions of the blessed: +the heavens opening above, and the earth and stars sinking beneath +his feet. + +The next thing which struck me was a small picture--two satyrs butting +at each other, while a shepherd carries off the nymph for whom they are +contending. This was most admirable for its grotesque power and spirit, +and, moreover, extremely well coloured. Another in the same style +represented a satyr sitting on a wine-skin, out of which he drinks; two +arch-looking nymphs are stealing on him from behind, and one of them +pierces the wine-skin with her hunting-spear. + +There was a portrait of himself, but I would not laud it--in fact, he +has not done himself justice. Only a colossal bust, in the same style, +and wrought with the same feeling as Dannecker's bust of Schiller, could +convey to posterity an adequate idea of the head and countenance of +Retzsch. I complimented him on the effect which his Hamlet had produced +in England; he told me, that it had been his wish to illustrate the +Midsummer Night's Dream, or the Tempest, rather than Macbeth: the former +he will still undertake, and, in truth, if any one succeeds in embodying +a just idea of a Miranda, a Caliban, a Titania, and the poetical +burlesque of the Athenian clowns, it will be Retzsch, whose genius +embraces at once the grotesque, the comic, the wild, the wonderful, the +fanciful, the elegant! + +A few days afterwards we accepted Retzsch's invitation to visit him at +his _campagna_--for whether it were farm-house, villa, or vineyard, or +all together, I could not well decide. The drive was delicious. The +road wound along the banks of the magnificent Elbe, the gently-swelling +hills, all laid out in vineyards, rising on our right; and though it was +in November, the air was soft as summer. Retzsch, who had perceived our +approach from his window, came out to meet us--took me under his arm as +if we had been friends of twenty years standing, and leading me into his +picturesque _domicile_, introduced me to his wife--as pretty a piece of +domestic poetry as one shall see in a summer's day. She was the daughter +of a vine-dresser, whom Retzsch fell in love with while she was yet +almost a child, and educated for his wife--at least so runs the tale. At +the first glance I detected the original of that countenance which, more +or less idealized, runs through all his representations of female youth +and beauty: here was the model, both in feature and expression; she +smiled upon us a most cordial welcome, regaled us with delicious coffee +and cakes prepared by herself, then taking up her knitting sat down +beside us; and while I turned over admiringly the beautiful designs +with which her husband had decorated her album, the looks of veneration +and love with which she regarded him, and the expression of kindly, +delighted sympathy with which she smiled upon me, I shall not easily +forget. As for the album itself, queens might have envied her such +homage: and what would not a dilettante collector have given for such +a possession! + +I remember two or three of these designs which must serve to give +an idea of the rest:--1st. The good Genius descending to bless his +wife.--2nd. The birthday of his wife--a lovely female infant is asleep +under a vine, which is wreathed round the tree of life; the spirits +of the four elements are bringing votive gifts with which they endow +her.--3rd. The Enigma of Human Life.--The Genius of Humanity is +reclining on the back of a gigantic sphinx, of which the features are +averted, and partly veiled by a cloud; he holds a rose half-withered in +his hand, and looks up with a divine expression towards two butterflies +which have escaped from the chrysalis state, and are sporting above his +head; at his feet are a dead bird and reptile--emblematical of sin and +death.--4th. The genius of art, represented as a young Apollo, turns, +with a melancholy, abstracted air, the handle of a barrel-organ, while +Vulgarity, Ignorance, and Folly, listen with approbation; meantime his +lyre and his palette lie neglected at his feet, together with an empty +purse and wallet: the mixture of pathos, poetry, and satire, in this +little drawing, can hardly be described in words.--5th. Hope, represented +by a lovely group of playful children, who are peeping under a hat for +a butterfly, which they fancy they have caught, but which has escaped, +and is hovering above their reach.--6th. Temptation presented to youth +and innocence by an evil spirit, while a good genius warns them to +beware.--In this drawing, the figures of the boy and girl, but more +particularly of the latter, appeared to me of the most consummate and +touching beauty.--7th. His wife walking on a windy day: a number of +little sylphs are agitating her drapery, lifting the tresses of her +hair, playing with her sash; while another party have flown off with +her hat, and are bearing it away in triumph. + +After spending three or four hours delightfully, we drove home in +silence by the gleaming, murmuring river, and beneath the light of the +silent stars. On a subsequent visit, Retzsch showed me many more of +these delicious _phantasie_, or fancies, as he termed them,--or more +truly, little pieces of moral and lyrical poetry, thrown into palpable +form, speaking in the universal language of the eye to the universal +heart of man. I remember, in particular, one of striking and even of +appalling interest. The Genius of Humanity and the Spirit of Evil are +playing at chess for the souls of men: the Genius of Humanity has lost +to his infernal adversary some of his principal pieces,--love, humility, +innocence, and lastly, peace of mind;--but he still retains faith, +truth, and fortitude; and is sitting in a contemplative attitude, +considering his next move; his adversary, who opposes him with pride, +avarice, irreligion, luxury, and a host of evil passions, looks at him +with a _Mephistophiles'_ expression, anticipating his devilish triumph. +The pawns on the one side are prayers--on the other, doubts. A little +behind stands the Angel of conscience as arbitrator. In this most +exquisite allegory, so beautifully, so clearly conveyed to the heart, +there lurked a deeper moral than in many a sermon. + +There was another beautiful little allegory of Love in the character of +a Picklock, opening, or trying to open, a variety of albums, lettered, +the "Human Heart, No. 1; Human Heart, No. 2;" while Philosophy lights +him with her lanthorn. There were besides many other designs of equal +poetry, beauty, and moral interest--I think, a whole portfolio full of +them. + +I endeavoured to persuade Retzsch that he could not do better than +publish some of these exquisite _Fancies_, and when I left him he +entertained the idea of doing so at some future period. To adopt his own +language, the Genius of Art could not present to the Genius of Humanity +a more delightful and a more profitable gift.[39] + + * * * * * + +The following list of German painters comprehends those _only_ whose +works I had an opportunity of considering, and who appeared to me to +possess decided merit. I might easily have extended this catalogue to +thrice its length, had I included all those whose names were given to me +as being distinguished and celebrated among their own countrymen. From +Munich alone I brought a list of two hundred artists, and from other +parts of Germany nearly as many more. But in confining myself to those +whose productions I _saw_, I adhere to a principle which, after all, +seems to be the best--viz. never to speak but of what we _know_; and then +only of the individual impression: it is necessary to know so many things +before we can give, with confidence, an opinion about any one thing! + +While the literary intercourse between England and Germany increases +every day, and a mutual esteem and understanding is the natural +consequence of this approximation of mind, there is a singular and +mutual ignorance in all matters appertaining to art, and consequently, +a good deal of injustice and prejudice on both sides. The Germans were +amazed and incredulous, when I informed them that in England there are +many admirers of art, to whom the very names of Schnorr, Overbeck, +Rauch, Peter Hess, Wach, Wagenbauer, and even their great Cornelius, are +unknown; and I met with very clever, well-informed Germans, who had, by +some chance, _heard_ of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and knew _something_ of +Wilkie, Turner, and Martin, from the engravings after their works; who +thought Sir Joshua Reynolds and his engraver Reynolds one and the same +person; and of Callcott, Landseer, Etty, and Hilton, and others of our +shining lights, they knew nothing at all. I must say, however, that they +have generally a more just idea of English art than we have of German +art, and their veneration for Flaxman, like their veneration for +Shakspeare, is a sort of enthusiasm all over Germany. Those who have +contemplated the actual state of art, and compared the prevalent tastes +and feelings in both countries, will allow that much advantage would +result from a better mutual understanding. We English accuse the German +artists of mannerism, of a formal, hard, and elaborate execution,--a +pedantic style of composition and sundry other sins. The Germans accuse +us, in return, of excessive coarseness and carelessness, a loose sketchy +style of execution, and a general inattention to truth of character.[40] +"You English have no school of art," was often said to me; I could have +replied--if it had not been a solecism in grammar--"You Germans have +_too much_ school." The "esprit de secte," which in Germany has broken +up their poetry, literature, and philosophy into schisms and schools, +descends unhappily to art, and every professor, to use the Highland +expression, has _his tail_. + +At the same time, we cannot deny to the Germans the merit of great +earnestness of feeling, and that characteristic integrity of purpose +which they throw into every thing they undertake or perform. Art with +them, is oftener held in honour, and pursued truly for its own sake, +than among us: too many of our English artists consider their lofty +and noble vocation, simply as the means to an end, be that end fame or +gain. Generally speaking, too, the German artists are men of superior +cultivation, so that when the creative inspiration falls upon them, the +material on which to work is already stored up: "nothing can come of +nothing," and the sun-beams descend in vain on the richest soil, where +the seed has not been sown. + +It is certain that we have not in England any historical painters who +have given evidence of their genius on so grand a scale as some of the +historical painters of Germany have recently done. _We_ know that it +is not the genius, but the opportunity which has been wanting, but we +cannot ask foreigners to admit this,--they can only judge from results, +and they must either suppose us to be without eminent men in the higher +walks of art,--or they must wonder, with their magnificent ideas of +the incalculable wealth of our nobles, the prodigal expenditure of our +rulers, and the grandeur of our public institutions, that painting has +not oftener been summoned in aid of her eldest sister architecture. +On the other hand, their school of portraiture and landscape is decidedly +inferior to ours. Not only have they no landscape painters who can compare +with Callcott and Turner, but they do not appear to have _imagined_ the +kind of excellence achieved by these wonderful artists. I should say, +generally, that their most beautiful landscapes want atmosphere. I used +to feel while looking at them as if I were in the exhausted receiver of +an air-pump. Of their portraits I have already spoken; the eye which has +rested in delight upon one of Wilkie's or Phillips's fine manly portraits, +(not to mention Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and Lawrence,) cannot +easily be reconciled to the hard, frittered manner of some of the most +admired of the German painters; it is a difference of taste, which +I will not call natural but national;--the remains of the old gothic +school which, as the study of Italian art becomes more diffused, will +be modified or pass away. + + * * * * * + + +HISTORY. + +Peter Cornelius, born at Dusseldorf in 1778, was for a considerable time +the director (president) of the academy there, and is now the director +of the academy of art at Munich: much of his time, however, is spent +in Italy. The Germans esteem him their best historical painter. He has +invention, expression, and power, but appears to me rather deficient in +the feeling of beauty and tenderness. His grand works are the fresco +painting in the Glyptothek at Munich, already described. + +Friedrich Overbeck, born at Lubeck in 1789: he excels in scriptural +subjects, which he treats with infinite grandeur and simplicity of +feeling. + +Wilhelm Wach, born at Berlin in 1787: first painter to the king of +Prussia and professor in the academy of Berlin: esteemed one of the +best painters and most accomplished men in Germany. Not having visited +Berlin, where his finest works exist, I have as yet seen but one picture +by this painter--the head of an angel, at the palace of Peterstein, +sublimely conceived, and most admirably painted. In the style of colour, +in the singular combination of grand feeling and delicate execution, +this picture reminded me of Leonardo da Vinci. + +Professor Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, born at Leipsig in 1794. His +frescos from the Nibelungen Lied in the new palace at Munich have been +already mentioned at length. + +Professor Heinrich Hesse: the frescos in the Royal Chapel at Munich, +already described. + +Wilhelm Tischbein, born at Heyna in 1751. He is director of the academy +at Naples, and highly celebrated. He must not be confounded with his +uncle, a mediocre artist, who was the court painter of Hesse Cassel, and +whose pictures swarm in all the palaces there. + +Philip Veit, of Frankfort--fresco painter. + +Joseph Schlotthauer, professor of historical and fresco painting at +Munich. (I believe this artist is dead. He held a high rank.) + +Clement Zimmermann, now employed in the Pinakothek, and in the new +palace at Munich, where he takes a high rank as painter, and is not less +distinguished by his general information, and his frank and amiable +character. + +Moritz Retzsch of Dresden. + +Professor Vogel, of Dresden, principal painter to the king of Saxony. +He paints in fresco and history, but excels in portraits. + +Stieler, of Munich, court painter to the king of Bavaria, esteemed one +of the best portrait painters in Germany. + +Goetzenberger, fresco painter. He is employed in painting the University +Hall at Bonn. + +Eduard Bendeman, of Berlin. I saw at the exhibition of the Kunstverein +at Dusseldorf, a fine picture by this painter--"The Hebrews in Exile." + + "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept." + + +The colouring I thought rather hard, but the conception and drawing were +in a grand style. + +Wilhelm Schadow, director of the academy at Dusseldorf. + +Hetzsch of Stuttgardt. + +The brothers Riepenhausen, of Goettingen, resident at Rome. They are +celebrated for their designs of the pictures of Polygnotus, as described +by Pausanius. + +Koehler. He exhibited at the Kunstverein at Dusseldorf a picture of +"Rebecca at the well," very well executed. + +Ernst Foerster, of Altenburg, employed in the palace at Munich. This +clever young painter married the daughter of Jean Paul Richter. + +Gassen, of Goblentz; Hiltensberger, of Suabia; Hermann, of Dresden; +Foltz, of Bingen; Kaulbach, of Munich; Eugene Neureuther, of Munich; +Wilhelm Roeckel, of Schleissheim; Von Schwind, of Vienna; Wilhelm +Lindenschmidt, of Mayence. All these painters are at present in the +service of the king of Bavaria. + +Julius Huebner; Hildebrand; Lessing; Sohn; history and portraits;--these +four painters are the most distinguished scholars of the Dusseldorf +school. + + +SMALL SUBJECTS AND CONVERSATION PIECES. + +Peter Hess, of Munich, one of the most eminent painters in Germany. +In his choice of subjects he reminded me sometimes of Eastlake, and +sometimes of Wilkie, and his style is rather in Wilkie's first manner. +His pictures are full of spirit, truth, and character. + +Dominique Quaglio, of Munich. Interiors, &c. He also ranks very high: +he reminds me of Fraser. + +Major-General von Heydeck, of Munich, an amateur painter of merited +celebrity. In the collection of M. de Klenze, and in the Leuchtenberg +Gallery, there are some small battle pieces, scenes in Greece and Spain, +and other subjects by Von Heydeck, very admirably painted. + +F. Mueller, of Cassel. At the exhibition at Dusseldorf I saw a picture +by this artist, "A rustic bridal procession in the Campagna," painted +with a freedom and lightness of pencil not common among the German +artists. + +Plueddeman, of Colberg. + +T. B. Sonderland, of Dusseldorf. Fairs and merrymakings. + +H. Rustige. The same subjects. Both are good artists. + +H. Kretzschmar, of Pomerania. His picture of "Little Red Ridinghood," +(Rothkaeppchen,) at the Kunstverein, at Dusseldorf, had great merit. + +Adolf Scroette. Rustic scenes in the Dutch manner. + + +LANDSCAPE. + +Dahl, a Norwegian settled at Dresden, esteemed one of the best landscape +painters in Germany. There is a very fine sea-piece by this artist in +the possession of the Countess von Seebach at Dresden, with, however, +all the characteristic _peculiarities_ of the German school. + +T. D. Passavant, of Frankfort. + +Friedrich, of Dresden, one of the most _poetical_ of the German +landscape painters. He is rather a mannerist in colour, like Turner, +but in the opposite excess: his genius revels in gloom, as that of +Turner revels in light. + +Professor von Dillis, of Munich. + +Max Wagenbauer, of Munich. He is called most deservedly, the German +Paul Potter. + +Jacob Dorner, of Munich. A charming painter; perhaps a little too minute +in his finishing. + +Catel, of Dusseldorf. Scenes on the Mediterranean. This painter resides +chiefly in Italy; but in the collection of M. de Klenze I saw some +admirable specimens of his works. + +Biermann, of Berlin, is a fine landscape painter. + +Preyer, certainly the most exquisite of modern flower painters. +I believe he is from Dusseldorf. + +Rothman, of Heidelberg. I saw some pictures and sketches by this young +painter, full of genius and feeling. + +Fries, of Munich, a young painter of great promise. He put an end to his +own life, while I was at Munich, in a fit of delirium, caused by fever, +and was very generally lamented. + +Wilhelm Schirmer, of Juliers, an exceedingly fine landscape painter. + +Audeas Achenbach, of Dusseldorf: he has also great merit. + + * * * * * + + +There are several female artists in Germany, of more or less celebrity. +The Baroness von Freyberg (born Electrina Stuntz) holds the first rank +in original talent. She resides near Munich, but no longer paints +professionally. + +The Countess Julie von Egloffstein has also the rare gift of original +and creative genius. + +Luise Seidler, of Weimar; Madlle. de Winkel and Madame de Loqueyssie, of +Dresden, are distinguished in their art. The two latter are exquisite +copyists. + +In architecture, Leo von Klenze and Professor Girtner, of Munich; and +Heideloff of Nuremberg, are deservedly celebrated in Germany. + +The most distinguished sculptors in Germany are Christian Rauch, and +Christian Friedrich Tieck, of Berlin; Johan Heinrich von Dannecker, +of Stuttgardt; Schwanthaler, Eberhardt, Bandel, Kirchmayer, Mayer, all +of Munich; Reitschel of Dresden; and Imhoff, of Cologne. Those of their +works which I had an opportunity of seeing have been mentioned in the +course of these sketches. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +HARDWICKE. + + +Who that has exulted over the heroic reign of our gorgeous Elizabeth, +or wept over the fate of Mary Stuart, but will remember the name of the +only woman whose high and haughty spirit out-faced the lion port of one +queen, and whose audacity trampled over the sorrows of the other-- + + "Brow-beating her fair form, and troubling her sweet pride!" + + +But this is anticipation. If it be so laudable, according to the +excellent, oft quoted advice of the giant Moulineau, to _begin at the +beginning_,[41] what must it be to improve upon the precept? for so, +in relating the fallen and fading glories of Hardwicke, do I intend +to exceed even "mon ami le Belier," in historic accuracy, and take +up our tale at a period ere Hardwicke itself--the Hardwicke that now +stands--had a beginning. + +There lived, then, in the days of queen Bess, a woman well worthy to +be her majesty's namesake,--Elizabeth Hardwicke, more commonly called, +in her own country, Bess of Hardwicke, and distinguished in the page +of history as the _old_ Countess of Shrewsbury. She resembled Queen +Elizabeth in all her best and worst qualities, and, putting royalty +out of the scale, would certainly have been more than a match for that +sharp-witted virago, in subtlety of intellect, and intrepidity of temper +and manner. + +She was the only daughter of John Hardwicke, of Hardwicke,[42] and being +early left an orphan and an heiress, was married ere she was fourteen +to a certain Master Robert Barley, who was about her own age. Death +dissolved this premature union within a few months, but her husband's +large estates had been settled on her and her heirs; and at the age of +fifteen, dame Elizabeth was a blooming widow, amply dowered with fair +and fertile lands, and free to bestow her hand again where she listed. + +Suitors abounded, of course: but Elizabeth, it should seem, was hard to +please. She was beautiful, if the annals of her family say true,--she +had wit, and spirit, and, above all, an infinite love of independence. +After taking the management of her property into her own hands, she for +some time reigned and revelled (with all decorum be it understood) in +what might be truly termed, a state of single blessedness; but at length, +tired of being lord and lady too--"master o'er her vassals," if not +exactly "queen o'er herself"--she thought fit, having reached the +discreet age of four-and-twenty, to bestow her hand on Sir William +Cavendish. He was a man of substance and power, already enriched by vast +grants of abbey lands in the time of Henry VIII.,[43] all which, by the +marriage contract, were settled on the lady. After this marriage, they +passed some years in retirement, having the wisdom to keep clear of the +political storms and factions which intervened between the death of +Henry VIII. and the accession of Mary, and yet the sense to profit by +them. While Cavendish, taking advantage of those troublous times, went +on adding manor after manor to his vast possessions, dame Elizabeth +was busy providing heirs to inherit them; she became the mother of six +hopeful children, who were destined eventually to found two illustrious +dukedoms, and mingle blood with the oldest nobility of England--nay, +with royalty itself. "Moreover," says the family chronicle, "the said +dame Elizabeth persuaded her husband, out of the great love he had for +her, to sell his estates in the south and purchase lands in her native +county of Derby, wherewith to endow her and her children, and at her +farther persuasion he began to build the noble seat of Chatsworth, but +left it to her to complete, he dying about the year 1559." + +Apparently this second experiment in matrimony pleased the lady of +Hardwicke better than the first, for she was not long a widow. We are +not in this case informed how long--her biographer having discreetly +left it to our imagination; and the Peerages, though not in general +famed for discretion on such points, have in this case affected the same +delicate uncertainty. However this may be, she gave her hand, after no +long courtship, to Sir William St. Loo, captain of Elizabeth's guard, +and then chief butler of England--a man equally distinguished for his +fine person and large possessions, but otherwise not superfluously +gifted by nature. So well did the lady manage _him_, that with equal +hardihood and rapacity, she contrived to have all his "fair lordships in +Gloucestershire and elsewhere" settled on herself and her children, to +the manifest injury of St. Loo's own brothers, and his daughters by a +former union: and he dying not long after without any issue by her, she +made good her title to his vast estates, added them to her own, and they +became the inheritance of the Cavendishes. + +But three husbands, six children, almost boundless opulence, did not yet +satisfy this extraordinary woman--for extraordinary she certainly was, +not more in the wit, subtlety, and unflinching steadiness of purpose +with which she amassed wealth and achieved power, but in the manner in +which she used both. She ruled her husband, her family, her vassals, +despotically, needing little aid, suffering no interference, asking +no counsel. She managed her immense estates, and the local power and +political weight which her enormous possessions naturally threw into her +hands, with singular capacity and decision. She farmed the lands; she +collected her rents; she built; she planted; she bought and sold; she +lent out money on usury; she traded in timber, coals, lead: in short, +the object she had apparently proposed to herself, the aggrandisement +of her children by all and any means, she pursued with a wonderful +perseverance and good sense. Power so consistently wielded, purposes so +indefatigably followed up, and means so successfully adapted to an end, +are, in a female, very striking. A slight sprinkling of the softer +qualities of her sex, a little more elevation of principle, would have +rendered her as respectable and admirable as she was extraordinary; but +there was in this woman's mind the same "fond de vulgarite" which we +see in the character of Queen Elizabeth, and which no height of rank, +or power, or estate, could do away with. In this respect the lady of +Hardwicke was much inferior to that splendid creature, Anne Clifford, +Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Cumberland, another masculine spirit +in the female form, who had the same propensity for building castles and +mansions, the same passion for power and independence, but with more +true generosity and magnanimity, and a touch of poetry and genuine +nobility about her which the other wanted: in short, it was all the +difference between the amazon and the heroine. It is curious enough that +the Duke of Devonshire should be the present representative of both +these remarkable women. + +But to return: Bess of Hardwicke was now approaching her fortieth year; +she had achieved all but nobility--the one thing yet wanting to crown +her swelling fortunes. About the year 1565 (I cannot find the exact +date) she was sought in marriage by George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. +There is no reason to doubt what is asserted, that she had captivated +the earl by her wit and her matronly beauty.[44] He could hardly have +married her from motives of interest: he was himself the richest and +greatest subject in England; a fine chivalrous character, with a +reputation as unstained as his rank was splendid, and his descent +illustrious. He had a family by a former wife, (Gertrude Manners,) to +inherit his titles, and _her_ estates were settled on her children by +Cavendish. It should seem, therefore, that mutual inclination alone +could have made the match advantageous to either party; but Bess of +Hardwicke was still Bess of Hardwicke. She took advantage of her power +over her husband in the first days of their union. "She induced +Shrewsbury by entreaties or threats to sacrifice, in a measure, +the fortune, interest, and happiness of himself and family to the +aggrandisement of her and her family."[45] She contrived in the first +place to have a large jointure settled on herself; and she arranged +a double union, by which the wealth and interests of the two great +families should be amalgamated. She stipulated that her eldest daughter, +Mary Cavendish, should marry the earl's son, Lord Talbot; and that his +youngest daughter, Grace Talbot, should marry her eldest son, Henry +Cavendish. + +The French have a proverb worthy of their gallantry--"_Ce que femme +veut, Dieu veut_:" but even in the feminine gender we are sometimes +reminded of another proverb equally significant--"_L'homme propose et +Dieu dispose_." Now was Bess of Hardwicke queen of the Peak; she had +built her erie so high, it seemed to dally with the winds of heaven; her +young eaglets were worthy of their dam, ready plumed to fly at fortune; +she had placed the coronet of the oldest peerage in England on her +own brow, she had secured the reversion of it to her daughter, and she +had married a man whose character was indeed opposed to her own, but +who, from his chivalrous and confiding nature was calculated to make her +happy, by leaving her mistress of herself. + +In 1568 Mary Stuart, flying into England, was placed in the custody of +the Earl of Shrewsbury, and remained under his care for sixteen years, a +long period of restless misery to the unhappy earl not less than to his +wretched captive. In this dangerous and odious charge was involved the +sacrifice of his domestic happiness, his peace of mind, his health, and +great part of his fortune, His castle was converted into a prison, his +servants into guards, his porter into a turnkey, his wife into a spy, +and himself into a jailor, to gratify the ever-waking jealousy of Queen +Elizabeth.[46] But the earl's greatest misfortune was the estrangement, +and at length enmity, of his violent, high-spirited wife. She beheld the +unhappy Mary with a hatred for which there was little excuse, but many +intelligible reasons: she saw her, not as a captive committed to her +womanly mercy, but as an intruder on her rights. Her haughty spirit +was continually irritated by the presence of one in whom she was forced +to acknowledge a superior, even in that very house and domain where +she herself had been used to reign as absolute queen and mistress. The +enormous expenses which this charge entailed on her household were +distracting to her avarice; and, worse than all, jealousy of the youthful +charms and winning manners of the Queen of Scots, and of the constant +intercourse between her and her husband, seem at length to have driven +her half frantic, and degraded her, with all her wit, and sense, and +spirit, into the despicable treacherous tool of the more artful and +despotic Elizabeth, who knew how to turn the angry and jealous passions +of the countess to her own purposes. + +It was not, however, all at once that matters rose to such a height: +the fire smouldered for some time ere it burst forth. There is a letter +preserved among the Shrewsbury Correspondence[47] which the countess +addressed to her husband from Chatsworth, at a time when the earl was +keeping guard over Mary at Sheffield castle. It is a most curious +specimen of character. It treats chiefly of household matters, of the +price and goodness of malt and hops, iron and timber, and reproaches him +for not sending her money which was due to her, adding, "I see out of +sight out of mind with you;" she sarcastically inquires "how his charge +and _love_ doth;" she sends him "some _letyss_ (lettuces) for that he +loves them," (this common sallad herb was then a rare delicacy;) and +she concludes affectionately, "God send my juill helthe." The incipient +jealousy betrayed in this letter soon after broke forth openly with +a degree of violence towards her husband, and malignity towards his +prisoner, which can hardly be believed. There is distinct evidence that +Shrewsbury was not only a trustworthy, but a rigorous jailor; that he +detested the office forced upon him; that he often begged in the most +abject terms to be released from it; and that harassed on every side by +the tormenting jealousy of his wife, the unrelenting severity and +mistrust of Elizabeth, and the complaints of Mary, he was seized with +several fits of illness, and once by a mental attack, or "phrenesie," as +Cecil terms it, brought on by the agitation of his mind; yet the idea of +resigning his office, except at the pleasure of Queen Elizabeth, never +seems to have entered his imagination. + +On one occasion Lady Shrewsbury went so far as to accuse her husband +openly of intriguing with his prisoner, in every sense of the word; and +she at the same time abused Mary in terms which John Knox himself could +not have exceeded. Mary, deeply incensed, complained of this outrage: +the earl also appealed to Queen Elizabeth, and the countess and her +daughter, Lady Talbot, were obliged to declare upon oath, that this +accusation was false, scandalous, and malicious, and that they were not +the authors of it. This curious affidavit of the mother and daughter is +preserved in the Record Office. + +In a letter to Lord Leicester, Shrewsbury calls his wife "his wicked +and malicious wife," and accuses her and "her imps," as he irreverently +styles the whole brood of Cavendishes, of conspiring to sow dissensions +between him and his eldest son. These disputes being carried to +Elizabeth, she set herself with heartless policy to foment them in every +possible way. She deemed that her safety consisted in employing one part +of the earl's family as spies on the other. In some signal quarrel about +the property round Chatsworth, she commanded the earl to submit to his +wife's pleasure: and though no "tame snake" towards his imperious lady, +as St. Loo and Cavendish had been before him, he bowed at once to the +mandate of his unfeeling sovereign--such was the despotism and such the +loyalty of those days. His reply, however, speaks the bitterness of his +heart. "Sith that her majesty hath set down this hard sentence against +me to my perpetual infamy and dishonour, that I should be ruled and +overrunne by my wife, so bad and wicked a woman; yet her majesty shall +see that I will obey her majesty's commandment, though no curse or +plague on the earth could be more grievous to me." * * "It is too much," +he adds, "to be made my wife's pensioner." Poor Lord Shrewsbury! Can one +help pitying him? + +Not the least curious part of this family history is the double dealing +of the imperious countess. While employed as a spy on Mary, whom she +detested, she, from the natural fearlessness and frankness of her +temper, not unfrequently betrayed Elizabeth, whom she also detested. +While in attendance on Mary, she often gratified her own satirical +humour, and amused her prisoner by giving her a coarse and bitter +portraiture of Elizabeth, her court, her favourites, her miserable +temper, her vanity, and her personal defects. Some report of these +conversations soon reached the queen, (who is very significantly drawn +in one of her portraits in a dress embroidered over with eyes and ears,) +and she required from Mary an account of whatever Lady Shrewsbury had +said to her prejudice. Mary, hating equally the rival who oppressed her +and the domestic harpy who daily persecuted her, was nothing loath to +indulge her feminine spite against the two, and sent Elizabeth such a +circumstantial list of the most gross and hateful imputations, (all +the time politely assuring her good sister that she did not believe a +word of them,) that the rage and mortification of the queen must have +exceeded all bounds.[48] She kept the letter secret; but Lady Shrewsbury +never was suffered to appear at court after the death of Mary had +rendered her services superfluous. + +Through all these scenes, the Lady of Hardwicke still pursued her +settled purpose. Her husband complained that he was "never quiet to +satisfy her greedie appetite for money for purchases to set up her +children." Her ambition was equally insatiate, and generally successful: +but in one memorable instance she overshot her mark. She contrived +(unknown to her lord) to marry her favourite daughter, Elizabeth +Cavendish, to Lord Lennox, the younger brother of the murdered Darnley, +and consequently standing in the same degree of relationship to the +crown. Queen Elizabeth, in the extremity of her rage and consternation, +ordered both the dowager Lady Lennox and Lady Shrewsbury to the Tower, +where the latter remained for some months; we may suppose, to the great +relief of her husband. He used, however, all his interest to excuse her +delinquency, and at length procured her liberation. But this was not +all. Elizabeth Cavendish, the young Lady Lennox, while yet in all her +bridal bloom, died in the arms of her mother, who appears to have +suffered that searing, lasting grief which stern hearts sometimes feel. +The only issue of this marriage was an infant daughter, that unhappy +Arabella Stuart, who was one of the most memorable victims of jealous +tyranny which our history has recorded. Her very existence, from her +near relationship to the throne, was a crime in the eyes of Elizabeth +and James I. There is no evidence that Lady Shrewsbury indulged in any +ambitious schemes for this favourite granddaughter, "her dear jewel, +Arbell," as she terms her;[49] but she did not hesitate to enforce her +claims to royal blood by requiring 600_l._ a year from the treasury +for her board and education as became the queen's kinswoman. Elizabeth +allowed her 200_l._ a year, and this pittance Lady Shrewsbury accepted. +Her rent-roll was at this time 60,000_l._ a year, equal to at least +200,000_l._ at the present day. + +The Earl of Shrewsbury died in 1590, at enmity to the last moment +with his wife and son; and the Lady of Hardwicke having survived four +husbands, and seeing all her children settled and prosperous, still +absolute mistress over her family, resided during the last seventeen +years of her life in great state and plenty at Hardwicke, her birth +place. Here she superintended the education of Arabella Stuart, who, +as she grew up to womanhood, was kept by her grandmother in a state +of seclusion, amounting almost to imprisonment, lest the jealousy of +Elizabeth should rob her of her treasure.[50] + +Next to the love of money and power, the chief passion of this magnificent +old beldam, was building. It is a family tradition, that some prophet +had foretold that she should never die as long as she was building, and +she died at last, in 1607, during a hard frost, when her labourers were +obliged to suspend their work. She built Chatsworth, Oldcotes, and +Hardwicke; and Fuller adds in his quaint style that she left "two sacred +(besides civil) monuments of her memory; one that I hope will not be +taken away, (her splendid tomb, erected by herself,[51]) and one that +I am sure cannot be taken away, being registered in the court of heaven, +viz. her stately almshouses for twelve poor people at Derby." + +Of Chatsworth, the hereditary palace of the Dukes of Devonshire, all its +luxurious grandeur, all its treasures of art, it is not here "my hint +to speak." It has been entirely rebuilt since the days of its founder. +Oldcotes was once a magnificent place. There is a tradition at Hardwicke +that old Bess, being provoked by a splendid mansion which the Suttons +had lately erected within view of her windows, declared she would build +a finer dwelling for the owlets, (hence Owlcots or Oldcotes.) She kept +her word, more truly perhaps than she intended, for Oldcotes has since +become literally a dwelling for the owls; the chief part of it is in +ruins, and the rest converted into a farmhouse. Her younger daughter, +Frances Cavendish, married Sir Henry Pierrepoint, of Holme-Pierpoint, +and one of the granddaughters married another Pierrepoint--through one +of these marriages, but I know not which, Oldcotes has descended to the +present Earl Manvers. + +The mansion of Hardwicke was commenced about the year 1592, and finished +in 1597. It stands about a stone's throw from the old house in which +the old countess was born, and which she left standing, as if, says her +biographer, she intended to construct her bed of state close by her +cradle. This fine old ruin remains, grey, shattered, and open to all the +winds of heaven, almost overgrown with ivy, and threatening to tumble +about the ears of the bats and owls which are its sole inhabitants. +One majestic room remains entire. It is called the "Giant's Chamber" +from two colossal figures in Roman armour which stand over the huge +chimney-piece. This room has long been considered by architects as a +perfect specimen of grand and beautiful proportion, and has been copied +at Chatsworth and at Blenheim.[52] + +It must have been in this old hall, and not in the present edifice, that +Mary Stuart resided during her short stay at Hardwicke. I am sorry to +disturb the fanciful or sentimental tourists and sight-seers; but so it +is, or rather, so it must have been. Yet it is not surprising that the +memory of Mary Stuart should now form the principal charm and interest +of Hardwicke, and that she should be in a manner the tutelary genius of +the place. Chatsworth has been burned and rebuilt. Tutbury, Sheffield +castle, Wingfield, Fotheringay, and the old house of Hardwicke, in short, +every place which Mary inhabited during her captivity, all lie in ruins, +as if struck with a doleful curse. But Hardwicke Hall exists just as +it stood in the reign of Elizabeth. The present Duke of Devonshire, +with excellent taste and feeling, keeps up the old costume within and +without. The bed and furniture which had been used by Mary, the cushions +of her oratory, the tapestry wrought by her own hands, have been removed +hither, and are carefully preserved. There can be no doubt of the +authenticity of these relics, and there is enough surely to consecrate +the whole to our imagination. Moreover, we have but to go to the window +and see the very spot, the very walls which once enclosed her, the very +casements from which she probably gazed with a sigh over the far hills; +and indulge, without one intrusive doubt, in all the romantic and +fascinating, and mysterious, and sorrowful associations, which hang +round the memory of Mary Stuart. + +With what different eyes may people view the same things! "We receive +but what we give," says the poet; and all the light, and glory, and +beauty, with which certain objects are in a manner _suffused_ to the eye +of fancy, must issue from our own souls, and be reflected back to us, +else 'tis all in vain. + + "We may not hope from outward forms to win, + The passion and the life, whose fountains are within!" + + +When Gray, the poet, visited Hardwicke, he fell at once into a very +poet-like rapture, and did not stop to criticise pictures, and question +authorities. He says in one of his letters to Dr. Wharton, "of all the +places I have seen in my return from you, Hardwicke pleased me most. One +would think that Mary queen of Scotts was but just walked down into the +park with her guard for half an hour: her gallery, her room of audience, +her ante-chamber, with the very canopies, chair of state, footstool, +_lit de repos_, oratory, carpets, hangings, just as she left them, a +little tattered indeed, but the more venerable," &c. &c. + +Now let us hear Horace Walpole, antiquarian, virtuoso, dilettante, +filosofastro--but, in truth, no poet. He is, however, in general so +good-natured, so amusing, and so tasteful, that I cannot conceive what +put him into such a Smelfungus humour when he visited Hardwicke, with +a Cavendish too at his elbow as his cicerone! + +He says, "the duke sent Lord John with me to Hardwicke, where I was +again disappointed; but I will not take relations from others; they +either don't see for themselves, or can't see for me. How I had been +promised that I should be charmed with Hardwicke, and told that the +Devonshires ought to have established themselves there! Never was I less +charmed in my life. The house is not gothic, but of that _betweenity_ +that intervened when Gothic declined, and Palladian was creeping in; +rather, this is totally naked of either. It has vast chambers--aye, +vast, such as the nobility of that time delighted in, and did not +know how to furnish. The great apartment is exactly what it was +when the Queen of Scots was kept there.[53] Her council-chamber (the +council-chamber of a poor woman who had only two secretaries, a +gentleman usher, an apothecary, a confessor, and three maids) is so +outrageously spacious that you would take it for King David's, who +thought, contrary to all modern experience, that in the multitude of +counsellors there is wisdom. At the upper end is the State, with a +long table, covered with a sumptuous cloth, embroidered and embossed +with gold--at least what was gold; so are all the tables. Round the +top of the chamber runs a monstrous frieze, ten or twelve feet deep, +representing a stag-hunt in miserable plastered relief.[54] + +"The next is her dressing-room, hung with patchwork on black velvet; +then her state bed-chamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, +and now hangs in costly golden tatters; the hangings, part of which they +say her majesty worked, are composed of figures as large as life, sewed +and embroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c., and represent the +virtues that were necessary to her, or that she was found to have--as +patience, temperance,[55] &c. The fire-screens are particular;--pieces +of yellow velvet, fringed with gold, hung on a cross-bar of wood, which +is fixed on the top of a single stick that rises from the foot.[56] The +only furniture which has any appearance of taste are the table and +cabinets, which are of oak, richly carved." + +(I must observe _en passant_, that I wonder Horace did not go mad about +the chairs, which are exactly in the Strawberry Hill taste, only infinitely +finer, crimson velvet, with backs six feet high, and sumptuously carved.) + +"There is a private chamber within, where she lay: her arms and style +over the door. The arras hangs over all the doors. The gallery is sixty +yards in length, covered with bad tapestry and wretched pictures of Mary +herself, Elizabeth in a gown of sea-monsters, Lord Darnley, James the +Fifth and his queen, (curious,) and a whole history of kings of England +not worth sixpence a-piece."[57] + +"There is a fine bank of old oaks in the park over a lake: nothing else +pleased me there." + +Nothing else! Monsieur Traveller?--certes, this is one way of seeing +things! Yet, perhaps, if I had only visited Hardwicke as a casual object +of curiosity--had merely walked over the place--I had left it, like +Gray, with some vague impression of pleasure, or like Walpole, with some +flippant criticisms, according to the mood of the moment; or, at the +most, I had quitted it as we generally leave show-places, with some +confused recollections of state-rooms, and blue-rooms, and yellow-rooms, +and storied tapestries, and nameless, or mis-named pictures, floating +through the muddled brain; but it was far otherwise: I was ten days at +Hardwicke--ten delightful days--time enough to get it by heart; aye, +and what is more, ten _nights_; and I am convinced that to feel all the +interest of such a place one should sleep in it. There is much, too, +in first impressions, and the circumstances under which we approached +Hardwicke were sufficiently striking. It was on a gusty, dark autumnal +evening; and as our carriage wound slowly up the hill, we could but +just discern an isolated building, standing above us on the edge of the +eminence, a black mass against the darkening sky. No light was to be +seen, and when we drove clattering under the old gateway, and up the +paved court, the hollow echoes broke a silence which was almost awful. +Then we were ushered into a hall so spacious and lofty that I could +not at the moment discern its bounds; but I had glimpses of huge +escutcheons, and antlers of deer, and great carved human arms projecting +from the walls, intended to sustain lamps or torches, but looking as +if they were stretched out to clutch one. Thence up a stone staircase, +vast, and grand, and gloomy--leading we knew not where, and hung with +pictures of we knew not what--and conducted into a chamber fitted up +as a dining-room, in which the remnants of antique grandeur, the rich +carved oak wainscoting, the tapestry above it, the embroidered chairs, +the collossal armorial bearings above the chimney and the huge recessed +windows, formed a curious contrast with the comfortable modern sofas and +easy chairs, the blazing fire, and table hospitably spread in expectation +of our arrival. Then I was sent to repose in a room hung with rich faded +tapestry. On one side of my bed I had king David dancing before the ark, +and on the other, the judgment of Solomon. The executioner in the latter +piece, a grisly giant, seven or eight feet high, seemed to me, as the +arras stirred with the wind, to wave his sword, and looked as if he were +going to eat up the poor child, which he flourished by one leg; and for +some time I lay awake, unable to take my eyes from the figure. At length +fatigue overcame this unpleasant fascination, and I fell asleep. + +The next morning I began to ramble about, and so day after day, till +every stately chamber, every haunted nook, every secret door, curtained +with heavy arras, and every winding stair, became familiar to me. What +a passion our ancestors must have had for space and light! and what an +ignorance of comfort! Here are no ottomans of eider down, no spring +cushions, no "boudoirs etroits, ou l'on ne boude point," no "demijour +de rendezvous;" but what vast chambers! what interminable galleries! +what huge windows pouring in floods of sunshine! what great carved +oak-chests, such as Iachimo hid himself in! now stuffed full of rich +tattered hangings, tarnished gold fringes, and remnants of embroidered +quilts! what acres--not yards--of tapestries, once of "sky-tinctured +woof," now faded and moth-eaten! what massy chairs and immovable tables! +what heaps of portraits, the men looking so grim and magnificent, and +the women so formal and faded! Before I left the place I had them all by +heart; there was not one among them who would not have bowed or curtsied +to me out of their frames. + +But there were three rooms in which I especially delighted, and passed +most of my time. The first was the council-chamber described by Walpole: +it is sixty-five feet in length, by thirty-three in width, and +twenty-six feet high. Rich tapestry, representing the story of Ulysses, +runs round the room to the height of fifteen or sixteen feet, and above +it the stag-hunt in ugly relief. On one side of this room there is a +spacious recess, at least eighteen or twenty feet square; and across +this, from side to side, to divide it from the body of the room, was +suspended a magnificent piece of tapestry, (real Gobelin's,) of the time +of Louis Quatorze, still fresh and even vivid in tint, which from its +weight hung in immense wavy folds; above it we could just discern the +canopy of a lofty state-bed, with nodding ostrich plumes, which had been +placed there out of the way. The effect of the whole, as I have seen +it, when the red western light streamed through the enormous windows, +was, in its shadowy beauty and depth of colour, that of a "realized +Rembrandt"--if, indeed, even Rembrandt ever painted any thing at once +so elegant, so fanciful, so gorgeous, and so gloomy. + +From this chamber, by a folding-door, beautifully inlaid with ebony, +but opening with a common latch, we pass into the library, as it is +called. Here the Duke of Devonshire generally sits when he visits +Hardwicke, perhaps on account of the glorious prospect from the windows. +It contains a grand piano, a sofa, and a range of book-shelves, on +which I found some curious old books. Here I used to sit and read +the voluminous works of that dear, half-mad, absurd, but clever and +good-natured Duchess of Newcastle,[58] and yawn and laugh alternately; +or pore over Guillim on Heraldry;--fit studies for the place! + +In this room are some good pictures, particularly the portrait of Lady +Anne Boyle, daughter of the first Earl of Burlington, the Lady Sandwich +of Charles the Second's time. This is, without exception, the finest +specimen of Sir Peter Lely I ever saw--so unlike the usual style of his +half-dressed, leering women--so full of pensive grace and simplicity--the +hands and arms so exquisitely drawn, and the colouring so rich and so +tender, that I was at once surprised and enchanted. There is also a +remarkably fine picture of a youth with a monkey on his shoulder, said +to be Jeffrey Hudson, (Queen Henrietta's celebrated dwarf,) and painted +by Vandyke. I doubt both. + +Over the chimney of this room there is a piece of sculptured bas-relief, +in Derbyshire marble, representing Mount Parnassus, with Apollo and the +Muses; in one corner the arms of Queen Elizabeth, and in the other her +cypher, E. R., and the royal crown. I could neither learn the meaning +of this nor the name of the artist. Could it have been a gift from +Queen Elizabeth? There is (I think in the next room) another piece of +sculpture representing the Marriage of Tobias; and I remember a third, +representing a group of Charity. The workmanship of all these is +surprisingly good for the time, and some of the figures very graceful. +I am surprised that they escaped the notice of Horace Walpole, in his +remarks on the decorations of Hardwicke.[59] Richard Stephens, a Flemish +sculptor and painter, and Valerio Vicentino, an Italian carver in +precious stones, were both employed by the munificent Cavendishes of +that time; and these pieces of sculpture were probably the work of one +of these artists. + +When tired of turning over the old books, a door concealed behind the +arras admitted me at once into the great gallery--my favourite haunt +and daily promenade. It is near one hundred and eighty feet in length, +lighted along one side by a range of stupendous windows, which project +outwards from so many angular recesses. In the centre pier is a throne, +or couch of state, on a raised platform, under a canopy of crimson and +gold, surmounted by plumes of ostrich feathers. The walls are partly +tapestried, and covered with some hundreds of family pictures; none +indeed of any superlative merit--none that emulate within a thousand +degrees the matchless Vandykes and glorious Titians of Devonshire House; +but among many that are positively bad, and more that are lamentably +mediocre as works of art, there are several of great interest. At each +end of this gallery is a door, and, according to the tradition of the +place, every night, at the witching hour of twelve, Queen Elizabeth +enters at one door, and Mary of Scotland at the other; they advance to +the centre, curtsey profoundly, then sit down together under the canopy +and converse amicably,--till the crowing of the cock breaks up the +conference, and sends the two majesties back to their respective +hiding-places. + +Somebody who was asked if he had ever seen a ghost? replied, gravely, +"No; but I was once _very near_ seeing one!" In the same manner I was +once _very near_ being a witness to one of these ghostly confabs. + +Late one evening, having left my sketch-book in the gallery, I went to +seek it. I made my way up the great stone staircase with considerable +intrepidity, passed through one end of the council-chamber without +casting a glance through the palpable obscure, the feeble ray of my +wax-light just spreading about a yard around me, and lifting aside the +tapestry door, stepped into the gallery. Just as the heavy arras fell +behind me, with a dull echoing sound, a sudden gust of wind came rushing +by, and extinguished my taper. Angels and ministers of grace defend +us!--not that I felt afraid--O no! but just a little what the Scotch +call "eerie." A thrill, not altogether unpleasant, came over me: the +visionary turn of mind which once united me in fancy "with the world +unseen," had long been sobered and reasoned away. I heard no "viewless +paces of the dead," nor "airy skirts unseen that rustled by;" but what I +did see and hear was enough. The wind whispering and moaning along the +tapestried walls, and every now and then rattling twenty or thirty +windows at once, with such a crash!--and the pictures around just +sufficiently perceptible in the faint light to make me fancy them +staring at me. Then immediately behind me was the very recess, or rather +abyss, where Queen Elizabeth was at that moment settling her +farthingale, to sally out upon me; and before me, but lost in blackest +gloom, the spectral door, where Mary--not that I should have minded +encountering poor Mary, provided always that she had worn her own +beautiful head where heaven placed it, and not carried it, as Bertrand +de Born carried _his_ "a guisa di lanterna."[60] As to what followed, it +is a secret. Suffice it that I found myself safe by the fireside in my +bedroom, without any very distinct recollection of how I got there. + +Of all the scenes in which to moralize and meditate, a picture gallery +is to me the most impressive. With the most intense feeling of the +beauty of painting, I cannot help thinking with Dr. Johnson, that as +far as regards portraits, their chief excellence and value consist +in the likeness and the authenticity,[61] and not in the merit of the +execution. When we can associate a story or a sentiment with every face +and form, they almost live to us--they do in a manner speak to us. There +is speculation in those fixed eyes--there is eloquence in those mute +lips--and, O! what tales they tell! One of the first pictures which +caught my attention as I entered the gallery was a small head of Arabella +Stuart, when an infant. The painting is poor enough: it is a little +round rosy face in a child's cap, and she holds an embroidered doll in +her hand. Who could look on this picture, and not glance forward through +succeeding years, and see the pretty playful infant transformed into the +impassioned woman, writing to her husband--"In sickness, and in despair, +wheresoever thou art, or howsoever I be, it sufficeth me always that +thou art mine!" Arabella Stewart was not clever; but not Heloise, nor +Corinne, nor Madlle. De l'Espinasse ever penned such a dear little +morsel of touching eloquence--so full of all a woman's tenderness! Her +stern grandmother, the lady and foundress of Hardwicke, hangs near. +There are three pictures of her: all the faces have an expression of +sense and acuteness, but none of them the beauty which is attributed to +her. There are also two of her husbands, Cavendish and Shrewsbury. The +former a grave, intelligent head; the latter very striking from +the lofty furrowed brow, the ample beard, and regular but care-worn +features. A little farther on we find his son Gilbert, seventh earl of +Shrewsbury, and Mary Cavendish, wife of the latter and daughter of Bess +of Hardwicke. She resembled her mother in features as in character. +The expression is determined, intelligent, and rather cunning. Of her +haughty and almost fierce temper, a curious instance is recorded. She +had quarrelled with her neighbours, the Stanhopes, and not being able +to defy them with sword and buckler, she sent one of her gentlemen, +properly attended, with a message to Sir Thomas Stanhope, to be +delivered in presence of witnesses, in these words--"My lady hath +commanded me to say thus much to you: that though you be more wretched, +vile, and miserable than any creature living, and for your wickedness +become more ugly in shape than the vilest toad in the world; and one to +whom none of any reputation would vouchsafe to send any message; yet +she hath thought good to send thus much to you, that she be contented +you should live, (and doth noways wish your death,) but to this end: +that all the plagues and miseries that may befall any man, may light on +such a caitiff as you are," &c.; (and then a few anathemas, yet more +energetic, not fit to be transcribed by "pen polite," but ending with +_hell-fire_.) "With many other opprobrious and hateful words which could +not be remembered, because the bearer would deliver it but once, as he +said he was commanded; but said, if he had failed in any thing, it was +in speaking it more mildly, and not in terms of such disdain as he was +commanded." We are not told whether the gallantry of Stanhope suffered +him to throw the herald out of the window, who brought him this gentle +missive. As for the termagant countess, his adversary, she was afterwards +imprisoned in the Tower for upwards of two years, on account of Lady +Arabella Stuart's stolen match with Lord Seymour. She ought assuredly to +have "brought forth men-children only;" but she left no son. Her three +daughters married the earls of Pembroke, of Arundel, and of Kent. + +The portraits of James V. of Scotland and his Queen, Mary of Guise, are +extremely curious. There is something ideal and elegant about the head +of James V.--the look we might expect to find in a man who died from +wounded feeling. His more unhappy daughter, poor Mary, hangs near--a +full length in a mourning habit, with a white cap, (of her own peculiar +fashion,) and a veil of white gauze. This, I believe, is the celebrated +picture so often copied and engraved. It is dated 1578, the thirty-sixth +of her age, and the tenth of her captivity. The figure is elegant, and +the face pensive and sweet.[62] Beside her, in strong contrast, hangs +Elizabeth, in a most preposterous farthingale, and a superabundance +of all her usual absurdities and enormities of dress. The petticoat is +embroidered over with snakes, crocodiles, and all manner of creeping +things. We feel almost inclined to ask whether the artist could possibly +have intended them as emblems, like the eyes and ears in her picture +at Hatfield; but it may have been one of the three thousand gowns, +in which Spenser's Gloriana, Raleigh's Venus, loved to array her old +wrinkled, crooked carcase. Katherine of Arragon is here--a small head +in a hood: the face not only harsh, as in all her pictures, but vulgar, +a characteristic I never saw in any other. There is that peculiar +expression round the mouth, which might be called either decision or +obstinacy. And here too is the famous Lucy Harrington, Countess of +Bedford, the friend and patroness of Ben Jonson, looking sentimental in +a widow's dress, with a white pocket handkerchief. There is character +enough in the countenance to make us turn with pleasure to Ben Jonson's +exquisite eulogium on her. + + "I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet, + Hating that solemn vice of greatness, _pride_: + I meant each softest virtue there should meet, + Fit in that softer bosom to reside. + Only a learned and a manly soul + I purposed her; that should with even powers + The rock, the spindle, and the sheers controul + Of destiny, and spin her own free hours!" + + +Farther on is another more celebrated woman, Christian Bruce, the second +Countess of Devonshire, so distinguished in the reigns of Charles I. +and Charles II. She had all the good qualities of Bess of Hardwicke: +her sense, her firmness, her talents for business, her magnificent and +independent spirit, and none of her faults. She was as feminine as she +was generous and high-minded; fond of literature, and a patroness of +poets and learned men:--altogether a noble creature. She was the mother +of that lovely Lady Rich, "the wise, the fair, the virtuous, and the +young,"[63] whose picture by Vandyke is at Devonshire-house, and there +are two pictures at Hardwicke of her handsome, gallant, and accomplished +son, Charles Cavendish, who was killed at the battle of Gainsborough. +Many fair eyes almost wept themselves blind for his loss, and his mother +never recovered the "sore heart-break of his death." + +There are several pictures of her grandson, the first Duke of +Devonshire--the patriot, the statesman, the munificent patron of letters, +the poet, the man of gallantry, and, to crown all, the handsomest man of +his day. He was one of the leaders in the revolution of 1688--for be it +remembered that the Cavendishes, from generation to generation, have +ennobled their nobility by their love of liberty, as well as their love +of literature and the arts. One picture of this duke on horseback, _en +grand costume a la Louis Quatorze_, is so embroidered and bewigged, so +plumed, and booted, and spurred, that he is scarcely to be discerned +through his accoutrements. A cavalier of those days in full dress must +have been a ponderous concern; but then the ladies were as formidably +vast and aspiring. The petticoats at this time were so discursive, and +the head-dresses so ambitious, that I think it must have been to save +in canvass what they expended in satin or brocade, that so many of the +pretty women of that day were painted _en bergere_. + +Apropos to the first Duke of Devonshire: I cannot help remarking the +resemblance of the present duke to his illustrious ancestor, as well +as to several other portraits, and particularly to a very distant +relative--the first Countess of Burlington, who was, I believe, the +great-grandmother of his grace's grandmother;--in both these instances +the likeness is so striking as to be recognized at once, and not without +a smiling exclamation of surprise. + +Another interesting picture is that of Rachael Russell, the second +Duchess of Devonshire, daughter of that heroine and saint, Lady Russell: +the face is very beautiful, and the air elegant and high-bred--with +rather a pouting expression in the full red lips. + +Here is also the third duchess, Miss Hoskins, a great city heiress. +The painter, I suspect, has flattered her, for she had not in her day +the reputation of beauty. When I looked at this picture, so full of +delicate, and youthful, and smiling loveliness, I could not help +recurring to a passage in Horace Walpole's letters, in which he alludes +to this sylph-like being, as the "ancient grace," and congratulates +himself on finding her in good-humour. + +But of all the female portraits, the one which struck me most was that +of Lady Charlotte Boyle, the young Marchioness of Hartington, in a +masquerade habit of purple satin, embroidered with silver; a fanciful +little cap and feathers, thrown on one side, and the dark hair escaping +in luxuriant tresses; she holds a mask in her hand, which she has just +taken off, and looks round upon us in all the consciousness of happy and +high-born loveliness. She was the daughter and heiress of Richard Boyle, +the last Earl of Burlington and Cork, and Baroness Clifford in her own +right. The merits of the Cavendishes were their own, but their riches +and power, in several instances, were brought into the family by a +softer influence. Through her, I believe, the vast estates of the Boyles +and Cliffords in Ireland and the north of England, including Chiswick +and Bolton Abbey, have descended to her grandson, the present duke.[64] +There are several pictures of her here--one playing on the harpsichord, +and another, small and very elegant, in which she is mounted on a +spirited horse. There are two heads of her in crayons, by her mother, +Lady Burlington,[65] ill-executed, but said to be like her. And another +picture, representing her and her beautiful but ill-fated sister, Lady +Dorothy, who was married very young to Lord Euston, and died six months +afterwards, in consequence of the brutal treatment of her husband.[66] +All the pictures of Lady Hartington have the same marked character of +pride, intellect, vivacity, and loveliness. But short was her gay and +splendid career! She died of a decline in the sixth year of her marriage, +at the age of four-and-twenty. + +Here is also her father, Lord Burlington, celebrated by Pope, (who has +dedicated to him the second of his epistles "on the use of riches,") +and styled by Walpole, "the Apollo of the Arts," which he not only +patronised, but studied and cultivated; his enthusiasm for architecture +was such, that he not only designed and executed buildings for himself, +(the villa at Chiswick, for example,) but contributed great sums to +public works; and at his own expense published an edition of the designs +of Palladio and of Inigo Jones. In one picture of Lord Burlington +there is a head of his idol, Inigo Jones, in the background. There is +also a good picture of Robert Boyle, the philosopher, a spare, acute, +contemplative, interesting face, in which there is as much sensibility +as thought. He is said to have died of grief for the loss of his +favourite sister, Lady Ranelagh; and when we recollect who and what +_she_ was--the sole friend of his solitary heart--the partner of his +studies, and with qualities which rendered her the object of Milton's +enthusiastic admiration, and almost tender regard, we scarce think less +of her brother's philosophy, that it afforded him no consolation for the +loss of _such_ a sister. + +On the other side hangs another philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury, +whose bold speculations in politics and metaphysics, and the odium +they drew on him, rendered his whole life one continued warfare with +established prejudices and opinions. He was tutor in the family of the +first Earl of Devonshire, in 1607--remained constantly attached to the +house of Cavendish--and never lost their countenance and patronage in +the midst of all the calumnies heaped upon him. He died at Hardwicke +under the protection of the first Duke of Devonshire, in 1678. This +curious portrait represents him at the age of ninety-two. The picture +is not good as a picture, but striking from the evident truth of the +expression--uniting the last lingering gleam of thought with the +withered, wrinkled, and almost ghastly decrepitude of extreme age. +It has, I believe, been engraved by Hollar. + +I looked round for Henry Cavendish, the great chemist and natural +philosopher--another bright ornament of a family every way ennobled--but +there is no portrait of him at Hardwicke. I was also disappointed not to +find the "limned effigy," as she would call it, of my dear Margaret of +Newcastle. + +There are plenty of kings and queens, truly not worth "sixpence +a-piece," as Walpole observes; but there is one picture I must not +forget--that of the brave and accomplished Earl of Derby, who was +beheaded at Bolton-le-Moor, the husband of the heroic "Lady of Lathom," +who figures in Peveril of the Peak. The head has a grand melancholy +expression, and I should suppose it to be a copy from Vandyke. + +Besides these, were many others calculated to awaken in the thoughtful +mind both sweet and bitter fancies. How often have I walked up and down +this noble gallery lost in "commiserating reveries" on the vicissitudes of +departed grandeur!--on the nothingness of all that life could give!--on +the fate of youthful beauties who lived to be broken-hearted, grow old, +and die!--on heroes that once walked the earth in the blaze of their +fame, now gone down to dust, and an endless darkness!--on bright faces, +"petries de lis et de roses," since time-wrinkled!--on noble forms since +mangled in the battle-field!--on high-born heads that fell beneath the +axe of the executioner!--O ye starred and ribboned! ye jewelled and +embroidered! ye wise, rich, great, noble, brave, and beautiful, of all +your loves and smiles, your graces and excellencies, your deeds and +honours--does then a "painted board circumscribe all?" + + + + +ALTHORPE. + +A FRAGMENT. + + +It was on such a day as I have seen in Italy in the month of December, +but which, in our chill climate, seemed so unseasonably, so ominously +beautiful, that it was like the hectic loveliness brightening the eyes +and flushing the cheek of consumption,--that I found myself in the +domains of Althorpe. Autumn, dying in the lap of Winter, looked out with +one bright parting smile;--the soft air breathed of Summer; the withered +leaves, heaped on the path, told a different tale. The slant, pale sun +shone out with all heaven to himself; not a cloud was there, not a breeze +to stir the leafless woods--those venerable woods, which Evelyn loved +and commemorated:[67] the fine majestic old oaks, scattered over the +park, tossed their huge bare arms against the blue sky; a thin hoar +frost, dissolving as the sun rose higher, left the lawns and hills +sparkling and glancing in its ray; now and then a hare raced across the +open glade-- + + "And with her feet she from the plashy earth + Raises a mist, which glittering in the sun, + Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run." + + +Nothing disturbed the serene stillness except a pheasant whirring from a +neighbouring thicket, or at intervals the belling of the deer--a sound +so peculiar, and so fitted to the scene, that I sympathized in the +taste of one of the noble progenitors of the Spencers, who had built +a hunting-lodge in a sequestered spot, that he might hear "the harte +bell." + +This was a day, an hour, a scene, with all its associations, its +quietness and beauty, "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." +All worldly cares and pains were laid asleep; while memory, fancy, and +feeling waked. Althorpe does not frown upon us in the gloom of remote +antiquity; it has not the warlike glories of some of the baronial +residences of our old nobility; it is not built like a watch-tower +on a hill, to lord it over feudal vassals; it is not bristled with +battlements and turrets. It stands in a valley, with the gradual hills +undulating round it, clothed with rich woods. It has altogether a look +of compactness and comfort, without pretension, which, with the pastoral +beauty of the landscape, and low situation, recall the ancient vocation +of the family, whose grandeur was first founded, like that of the +patriarchs of old, on the multitude of their flocks and herds.[68] It +was in the reign of Henry the Eighth that Althorpe became the principal +seat of the Spencers, and no place of the same date can boast so many +delightful, romantic, and historical associations. There is Spenser the +poet, "high-priest of all the Muses' mysteries," who modestly claimed, +as an honour, his relationship to those Spencers who now, with a just +pride, boast of _him_, and deem his Faery Queen "the brightest jewel in +their coronet;" and the beautiful Alice Spencer, countess of Derby, who +was celebrated in early youth by her poet-cousin, and for whom Milton, +in her old age, wrote his "Arcades." At Althorpe, in 1603, the queen and +son of James the First were, on their arrival in England, nobly +entertained with a masque, written for the occasion by Ben Jonson, in +which the young ladies and nobles of the country enacted nymphs and +fairies, satyrs and hunters, and danced to the sound of "excellent soft +music," their scenery the natural woods, their stage the green lawn, +their canopy the summer sky. What poetical picturesque hospitality! +In these days it would have been a dinner, with French cooks and +confectioners express from London to dress it. Here lived Waller's +famous Sacharissa, the first Lady Sunderland--so beautiful and good, +so interesting in herself, she needed not his wit nor his poetry to +enshrine her. Here she parted from her young husband,[69] when he left +her to join the king in the field; and here, a few months after, she +received the news of his death in the battle of Newbury, and saw her +happiness wrecked at the age of three-and-twenty. Here plotted her +distinguished son, that Proteus of politics, the second Lord Sunderland. +Charles the First was playing at bowls on the green at Althorpe, when +Colonel Joyce's detachment surprised him, and carried him off to +imprisonment and to death. Here the excellent and accomplished Evelyn +used to meditate in the "noble gallerie," and in the "ample gardens," of +which he has left us an admiring and admirable description, which would +be as suitable today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago, with the +single exception of the great proprietor, deservedly far more honoured +in this generation than was his apostate time-serving ancestor, the +Lord Sunderland of Evelyn's day.[70] When the Spencers were divided, +the eldest branch of the family becoming Dukes of Marlborough and the +youngest Earls Spencer--if the former inherited glory, Blenheim, and +poverty--to the latter have belonged more true and more substantial +distinctions: for the last three generations the Spencers have been +remarked for talents, for benevolence, for constancy, for love of +literature, and patronage of the fine arts. + +The house retains the form described by Evelyn--that of a half H: +a slight irregularity is caused by the new gothic room, built by +the present earl, to contain part of his magnificent library, which, +like the statue in the Castle of Otranto, had grown "too big for what +contained it." We entered by a central door the large and lofty hall, or +vestibule, hung round with pictures of fox-chases and those who figured +in them, famous hunters, quadruped and biped, all as large as life, +spread over as much canvass as would make a mainsail for a man-of-war. +These huge perpetrations are of the time of Jack Spencer, a noted Nimrod +in his day; and are very fine, as we were told, but they did not +interest me. I had caught a glimpse of the superb staircase, hung round +with pictures above and below, and not the less interesting as having +been erected by Sacharissa herself during the few years she was mistress +of Althorpe. A face looked at us from over an opposite door, which there +was no resisting. Does the reader remember Horace Walpole's pleasant +description of a party of _seers_ posting through the apartments of a +show-place? "They come; ask what such a room is called?--write it down; +admire a lobster or cabbage in a Dutch market piece; dispute whether the +last room was green or purple; and then hurry to the inn, for fear the +fish should be over-dressed."[71] We were not such a party; but with +imaginations ready primed to take fire, and memories enriched with all +the associations the place could suggest, to us every portrait was a +history. The orthodox style of seeing the house is to turn to the left, +and view the ground-floor apartments first; but the face I have mentioned +seemed to beckon me straight-forward, and I could not choose but obey +the invitation: it was that of Lady Bridgewater, the loveliest of the +four lovely daughters of the Duke of Marlborough: she had the misfortune +to be painted by Jervas, and the good fortune to be celebrated by Pope +as the "tender sister, daughter, friend, and wife;" and again-- + + "Thence Beauty, waking, all her forms supplies-- + An angel's sweetness--or Bridgewater's eyes." + + +Jervas was supposed to have been presumptuously and desperately in love +with this beautiful woman, who died at the age of five-and-twenty: hence +Pope has taken the liberty--by a poetical licence, no doubt--to call +her, in his Epistle to Jervas, "_thy_ Bridgewater." Two of her fair +sisters, the Duchess of Montagu and Lady Godolphin, hung near her; and +above, her fairer sister, Lady Sunderland. Ascending the magnificent +staircase, a hundred faces look down upon us, in a hundred different +varieties of expression, in a hundred different costumes. Here are Queen +Anne and Sarah Duchess of Marlborough placed amicably side by side, +as in the days of their romantic friendship, when they conversed and +corresponded as Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman: the beauty, the intellect, +the spirit, are all on the side of the imperious duchess; the poor queen +looks like what she was, a good-natured fool. On the left is the cunning +abigail, who supplanted the duchess in the favour of Queen Anne--Mrs. +Masham. Proceeding along the gallery, we are met by the portrait of that +angel-devil, Lady Shrewsbury,[72] whose exquisite beauty fascinates at +once and shocks the eye like the gorgeous colours of an adder. I believe +the story of her holding the Duke of Buckingham's horse while he shot +her husband in a duel, has been disputed; but her attempt to assassinate +Killegrew, while she sat by in her carriage,[73] is too true. So far had +her depravities unsexed her! + + ----"Lorsque la vertu, avec peine abjuree, + Nous fait voir une femme a ses fureurs livree, + S'irritant par l'effort que ce pas a coute, + Son ame avec plus d'art a plus de cruaute." + + +She was even less famous for the number of her lovers, than the +catastrophes of which she was the cause. + + "Had ever nymph such reason to be glad? + Two in a duel fell, and one ran mad." + + +Not two, but half a dozen fell in duels; and if her lovers "ran mad," +it was in despite, not in despair. Lady Shrewsbury is past jesting or +satire; and after a first involuntary pause of admiration before her +matchless beauty, we turn away with horror. For the rest of the +portraits on this vast staircase, it would take a volume to give a +_catalogue raisonnee_ of them. We pass, then, into a corridor hung with +two large and very mediocre landscapes, representing Tivoli and Terni. +Any attempt, even the best, to paint a cataract _must_ be abortive. How +render to the fancy the two grandest of its features--sound and motion? +the thunder and the tumult of the headlong waters? We will pass on to +the gallery, and lose ourselves in its enchantments. + +Where shall we begin?--Any where. Throw away the catalogue: all are old +acquaintances. We are tempted to speak to them, and they look as if they +could curtsey to us. The very walls breathe around us. What Vandykes--what +Lelys--what Sir Joshuas! what a congregation of all that is beauteous +and noble!--what Spencers, Sydneys, Digbys, Russells, Cavendishes, +and Churchills!--O what a scene to moralize, to philosophize, to +sentimentalize in!--what histories in those eyes, that look, yet see +not!--what sermons on those lips, that all but speak; I would rather +reflect in a picture-gallery, than elegize in a churchyard. The "poca +polvere che nulla sente," can only tell us we must die; these, with +a more useful and deep-felt morality, tell us how to live. + +Yet I cannot say I felt thus pensive and serious the first time I +looked round the gallery at Althorpe. Curiosity, excitement, interest, +admiration--a crowd of quick successive images and recollections +fleeting across the memory--left me no time to think. I remember being +startled, the moment I entered, by a most extraordinary picture,--the +second Prince of Orange, and his preceptor Katts, by Flinck. The eyes of +the latter are really shockingly alive; they stare out of the canvass, +and glitter and fascinate like those of a serpent. If I had been a Roman +Catholic, I should have crossed myself, as I looked at them, to shield +me from their evil and supernatural expression.[74] The picture of the +two Sforzas, Maximilian and his brother Francis, by Albert Durer, is +quite a curiosity; and so is another, by Holbein, near it, containing +the portraits of Henry the Eighth, his daughter Mary, and his jester, +Will Somers,--all full of individuality and truth. The expression in +Mary's face, at once saturnine, discontented and vulgar, is especially +full of character. These last three pictures are curious and valuable as +specimens of art; but they are not pleasing. We turn to the matchless +Vandykes, at once admirable as paintings, and yet more interesting as +portraits. A full-length of his master and friend, Rubens, dressed in +black, is magnificent; the attitude particularly graceful. Near the +centre of the gallery is the charming full-length of Queen Henrietta +Maria, a well-known and celebrated picture. She is dressed in white +satin, and stands near a table on which is a vase of white roses, and, +more in the shade, her regal crown. Nothing can be in finer taste than +the contrast between the rich, various, but subdued colours of the +carpet and background, and the delicate, and harmonious, and brilliant +tints which throw out the figure. None of the pictures I had hitherto +seen of Henrietta, either in the king's private collection, or at +Windsor, do justice to the sparkling grace of her figure, or the +vivacity and beauty of her eyes, so celebrated by all the contemporary +poets. Waller, for instance:-- + + "Could Nature then no private woman grace, + Whom we might dare to love, with such a face, + Such a complexion, and so radiant eyes, + Such lovely motion, and such sharp replies?" + + +Davenant styles her, very beautifully, "The rich-eyed darling of a +monarch's breast." Lord Holland, in the description he sent from Paris, +dwells on the charm of her eyes, her smile, and her graceful figure, +though he admits her to be rather _petite_; and if the poet and the +courtier be distrusted, we have the authority of the puritanic Sir +Symond d'Ewes, who allows the influence of her "excellent and sparkling +black eyes." Henrietta could be very seductive, and had all the French +grace of manner; but, as is well known, she could play the virago, "and +cast such a scowl, as frightened all the lords and ladies in waiting." +Too much importance is attached to her character and her influence over +her husband, in the histories of that time. She was a fascinating, but +a superficial and volatile Frenchwoman. With all her feminine love +of sway, she had not sufficient energy to govern; and with all her +disposition to intrigue, she never had discretion enough to keep her +own or the king's secrets. When she rushed through a storm of bullets +to save a favourite lap-dog; or when, amid the shrieks and entreaties +of her terrified attendants, she commanded the captain of her vessel to +"blow up the ship rather than strike to the Parliamentarian,"--it was +more the spirit and wilfulness of a woman, who, with all her faults, +had the blood of Henri Quatre in her veins, than the mental energy +and resolute fortitude of a heroine. Near her hangs her daughter, who +inherited her grace, her beauty, her petulance,--the unhappy Henriette +d'Orleans,[75] fair, radiant, and lively, with a profusion of beautiful +hair; it is impossible to look from the mother to the daughter, without +remembering the scene in Retz's memoirs, when the queen said to him, in +excuse for her daughter's absence, "My poor Henrietta is obliged to lie +in bed, for I have no wood to make a fire for her--et la pauvre enfant +etait transie de froid." + +Another picture by Vandyke hangs at the top of the room, one of the +grandest and most spirited of his productions. It represents William, +the first Duke of Bedford, the father of Lord William Russell, when +young, and his brother-in-law, the famous (and infamous) Digby, Earl +of Bristol. How admirably Vandyke has caught the characters of the two +men!--the fine commanding form of the duke, as he steps forward, the +frank, open countenance, expressive of all that is good and noble, speak +him what he was--not less than that of Digby, which, though eminently +handsome, has not one elevated or amiable trait in the countenance; the +drapery, background, and more especially the hands, are magnificently +painted. On one side of this superb picture, hangs the present Earl +Spencer when a youth; and on the other, his sister, Georgiana Duchess +of Devonshire, at the age of eighteen, looking all life and high-born +loveliness, and reminding one of Coleridge's beautiful lines to her:-- + + "Light as a dream your days their circlets ran + From all that teaches brotherhood to man, + Far, far removed! from want, from grief, from fear! + Obedient music lull'd your infant ear; + Obedient praises soothed your infant heart; + Emblazonments and old ancestral crests, + With many a bright obtrusive form of art, + Detain'd your eye from nature. Stately vests, + That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, + Rich viands and the pleasurable wine, + Were yours unearn'd by toil."---- + + +And he thus beautifully alludes to her maternal character; for this +accomplished woman set the example to the highest ranks, of nursing +her own children:-- + + "You were a mother! at your bosom fed + The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, + Each twilight thought, each nascent feeling read, + Which you yourself created." + + +Alas, that such a beginning should have such an end! + +Both these are whole-lengths, by Sir Joshua Reynolds: the middle tints +are a little flown, else they were perfect; they suffer by being hung +near the glowing yet mellowed tints of Vandyke. + +We have here a whole bevy of the heroines of De Grammont, delightful +to those who have what Walpole used to call the "De Grammont madness" +upon them. Here is that beautiful, audacious termagant, Castlemaine, +very like her picture at Windsor, and with the same characteristic bit +of storm gleaming in the background.--Lady Denham,[76] the wife of +the poet, Sir John Denham, and niece of that Lord Bristol who figures +in Vandyke's picture above mentioned--a lovely creature, and a sweet +picture.--Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, who so long +ruled the heart and councils of Charles the Second, in Lely's finest +style; the face has a look of blooming innocence, soon exchanged +for coarseness and arrogance.--The indolent, alluring Middleton, +looking from under her sleepy eyelids, "trop coquette pour rebuter +personne."--"La Belle Hamilton," the lovely prize of the volatile De +Grammont; very like her portrait at Windsor, with the same finely formed +bust and compressed ruby lips, but with an expression more vivacious and +saucy, and less elevated.--Two portraits of Nell Gwyn, with the fair +brown air and small bright eyes they ought to have; _au reste_, with +such prim, sanctified mouths, and dressed with such elaborate decency, +that instead of reminding us of the "parole sciolte d'ogni freno, risi, +vezzi, giuochi"--they are more like Beck Marshall, the puritan's +daughter, on her good behaviour.[77] + +Here is that extraordinary woman Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, +the fame of whose beauty and gallantries filled all Europe, and once the +intended wife of Charles the Second, though she afterwards intrigued in +vain for the less (or more) eligible post of _maitresse en titre_. What +an extraordinary, wild, perverted, good-for-nothing, yet interesting set +of women, were those four Mancini sisters! all victims, more or less, to +the pride, policy, or avarice, of their cardinal uncle; all gifted by +nature with the fervid Italian blood and the plotting Italian brain; all +really _aventurieres_, while they figured as duchesses and princesses. +They wore their coronets and ermine as strolling players wear their +robes of state--with a sort of picturesque awkwardness--and they proved +rather too scanty to cover a multitude of sins. + +This head of Hortense Mancini, as Cleopatra dissolving the pearl, is the +most spirited, but the least beautiful portrait I have seen of her. An +appropriate pendant on the opposite side is her lover, philosopher, and +eulogist, the witty St. Evremond--Grammont's "Caton de Normandie;" but +instead of looking like a good-natured epicurean, a man "who thought as +he liked, and liked what he thought,"[78] his nose is here wrinkled up +into an expression of the most supercilious scorn, adding to his native +ugliness.[79] Both these are by Kneller. Farther on, is another of +Charles's beauties, whose _sagesse_ has never been disputed--Elizabeth +Wriothesley, Countess of Northumberland, the sister of that half saint, +half heroine, and _all_ woman--Lady Russell. + +There is also a lovely picture of that magnificent brunette, Miss Bagot. +"Elle avait," says Hamilton, "ce teint rembruni qui plait tant quand +il plait." She married Berkeley Lord Falmouth, a man who, though +unprincipled, seems to have loved her; at least, was not long enough +her husband to forget to be her lover: he was killed, shortly after his +marriage, in the battle of Southwold-bay. This is assuredly one of the +most splendid pictures Lely ever painted; and it is, besides, full of +character and interest. She holds a cannon-ball in her lap, (only an +airy emblematical cannon-ball, for she poises it like a feather,) and +the countenance is touched with a sweet expression of melancholy: hence +it is plain that she sat for it soon after the death of her first +husband, and before her marriage with the witty Earl of Dorset.--Near +her hangs another fair piece of witchcraft, "La Belle Jennings," who in +her day played with hearts as if they had been billiard balls; and no +wonder, considering what _things_ she had to deal with:[80] there was +a great difference between her vivacity and that of her vivacious +sister, the Duchess of Marlborough.--Old Sarah hangs near her. One +would think that Kneller, in spite, had watched the moment to take a +characteristic likeness, and catch, not the Cynthia, but the Fury of +the minute; as for instance, when she cut off her luxuriant tresses, so +worshipped by her husband, and flung them in his face; for so she tosses +back her disdainful head, and curls her lip like an insolent, pouting, +spoiled, grown-up baby. The life of this woman is as fine a lesson on +the emptiness of all worldly advantages, boundless wealth, power, fame, +beauty, wit, as ever was set forth by moralist or divine. + + "By spirit robb'd of power--by warmth, of friends-- + By wealth, of followers! without one distress, + Sick of herself through very selfishness."[81] + + +And yet I suspect that the Duchess of Marlborough has never met with +justice. History knows her only as Marlborough's wife, an intriguing +dame d'honneur, and a cast-off favourite. Vituperated by Swift, +satirized by Pope, ridiculed by Walpole--what angel could have stood +such bedaubing, and from such pens? + + "O she has fallen into a pit of ink!" + + +But glorious talents she had, strength of mind, generosity, the power to +feel and inspire the strongest attachment,--and all these qualities were +degraded, or rendered useless, by _temper_! Her avarice was not the love +of money for its own sake, but the love of power; and her bitter contempt +for "knaves and fools" may be excused, if not justified. Imagine such +a woman as the Duchess of Marlborough out-faced, out-plotted by that +crowned cypher, that sceptred commonplace, queen Anne! It should seem +that the constant habit of being forced to serve, outwardly, where she +really ruled,--the consciousness of her own brilliant and powerful +faculties brought into immediate hourly comparison with the confined +trifling understanding of her mistress, a disdain of her own forced +hypocrisy, and a perception of the heartless baseness of the courtiers +around her, disgusting to a mind naturally high-toned, produced at +length that extreme of bitterness and insolence which made her so often +"an embodied storm." She was always a termagant--but of a very different +description from the vulgar Castlemaine. + +Though the picture of Colonel Russell, by Dobson, is really fine +as a portrait, the recollection of the scene between him and Miss +Hamilton[82]--his love of dancing, to prove he was not old and +asthmatical,--and his attachment to his "_chapeau pointu_," make it +impossible to look at him without a smile--but a good-humoured smile, +such as his lovely mistress gave him when she rejected him with so +much politeness.--Arabella Churchill, the sister of the great Duke of +Marlborough, and mistress of the Duke of York, has been better treated +by the painter than by Hamilton; instead of "La grande creature, pale et +decharnee," she appears here a very lovely woman. But enough of these +equivocal ladies. No--before we leave them, there are yet two to be +noticed, more equivocal, more interesting, and more extraordinary than +all the rest put together--Bianca di Capello, who, from a washerwoman, +became Grand Duchess of Florence, with less beauty than I should have +expected, but as much _countenance_; and the beautiful, but appalling +picture of Venitia Digby, painted after she was dead, by Vandyke: she +was found one morning sitting up in her bed, leaning her head on her +hand, and lifeless; and thus she is painted. Notwithstanding the ease +and grace of the attitude, and the delicacy of the features, there is +no mistaking this for slumber: a heavier hand has pressed upon those +eyelids, which will never more open to the light: there is a leaden +lifelessness about them, too shockingly true and real-- + + "It thrills us with mortality, + And curdles to the gazer's heart." + + +Her picture at Windsor is the most perfectly beautiful and impressive +female portrait I ever saw. How have I longed, when gazing at it, to +conjure her out of her frame, and bid her reveal the secret of her +mysterious life and death!--Nearly opposite to the dead Venitia, in +strange contrast, hangs her husband, who loved her to madness, or was +mad before he married her, in the very prime of life and youth. This +picture, by Cornelius Jansen, is as fine as any thing of Vandyke's: the +character expresses more of intellectual power and physical strength, +than of that elegance of face and form we should have looked for in +such a fanciful being as Sir Kenelm Digby: he looks more like one of +the Athletae than a poet, a metaphysician, and a "squire of dames." + +There are three pictures of Waller's famed Sacharissa, the first Lady +Sunderland: one in a hat, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, gay and +blooming; the second, far more interesting, was painted about the +time of her marriage with the young Earl of Sunderland, or shortly +after--very sweet and lady-like. I should say that the high-breeding +of the face and air was more conspicuous than the beauty; the neck and +hands exquisite. Both these are Vandyke's. A third picture represents +her about the time of her second marriage: the expression wholly +changed--cold, sad, faded, but pretty still: one might fancy her +contemplating, with a sick heart, the portrait of Lord Sunderland, the +lover and husband of her early youth, who hangs on the opposite side of +the gallery, in complete armour: he fell in the same battle with Lord +Falkland, at the age of three-and-twenty. The brother of Sacharissa, +the famous Algernon Sidney, is suspended near her; a fine head, full of +contemplation and power. + +Among the most interesting pictures in the gallery is an undoubted +original of Lady Jane Grey. After seeing so many hideous, hard, +prim-looking pictures and prints of this gentle-spirited heroine, it +is consoling to trust in the genuineness of a face which has all the +sweetness and dignity we look for, and ought to find. Then, by way of +contrast, we have that most curious picture of Diana of Poitiers, once +in the Crawfurd collection: it is a small half-length; the features fair +and regular; the hair is elaborately dressed with a profusion of jewels; +but there is no drapery whatever--"force pierreries et tres peu de +linge," as Madame de Sevigne described the two Mancini.[83] Round the +head is the legend from the 42d Psalm--"Comme le cerf braie apres +le decours des eaues, ainsi brait mon ame apres toi, O Dieu," which +is certainly an extraordinary application. In the days of Diana of +Poitiers, the beautiful mistress of Henry the Second of France, it +was the court fashion to sing the Psalms of David to dance and song +tunes;[84] and the courtiers and beauties had each their favourite +psalm, which served as a kind of _devise_: this may explain the very +singular inscription on this very singular picture. Here are also the +portraits of Otway and Cowley, and of Montaigne; the last from the +Crawfurd collection. + +I had nearly omitted to mention a magnificent whole-length of the Duc +de Guise--who was stabbed in the closet of Henry the Third--whose life +contains materials for ten romances and a dozen epics, and whose death +has furnished subjects for as many tragedies. And not far from him that +not less daring, and more successful chief, Oliver Cromwell: a page is +tying on his sash. There is a vulgar power and boldness about this head, +in fine contrast with the high-born, fearless, chivalrous-looking Guise. + +In the library is the splendid picture of Sofonisba Angusciola, by +herself: she is touching the harpsichord, for like many others of her +craft, she excelled in music. Angelica Kauffman had nearly been an +opera-singer. The instances of great painters being also excellent +musicians are numerous; Salvator Rosa could have led an orchestra, and +Vernet could not exist without Pergolesi's piano. But I cannot recollect +an instance of a great musician by profession, who has also been a +painter: the range of faculties is generally more confined. + +Rembrandt's large picture of his mother, which is, I think, the most +magnificent specimen of this master now in England, hangs over the +chimney in the same room with the Sofonisba. + +The last picture I can distinctly remember is a portrait by Sir Joshua +Reynolds, with all his perfections combined in their perfection. It is +that of a beautiful Frenchwoman, an intimate friend of the last Lady +Spencer--with as much intellect, sentiment, and depth of feeling as +would have furnished out twenty ordinary heads; all harmony in the +colouring, all grace in the drawing. + +Here then was food for the eye and for the memory--for sweet and bitter +fancy--for the amateur, and for the connoisseur--for antiquary, historian, +painter, and poet. Well might Horace Walpole say that the gallery at +Althorpe was "endeared to the pensive spectator." He tells us in his +letters, that when here, (about seventy years since,) he surprised the +housekeeper by "his intimate acquaintance with all the faces in the +gallery." I was amused at the thought that we caused a similar surprise +in our day. I hope his female cicerone was as civil and intelligent as +ours; as worthy to be the keeper of the pictorial treasures of Althorpe. +When we lingered and lingered, spell-bound, and apologized for making +such unconscionable demands on her patience, she replied, "that she was +flattered; that she felt affronted when any visitor hurried through the +apartments." Old Horace would have been delighted with her; and not less +with the biblical enthusiasm of a village glazier, whom we found dusting +the books in the library, and who had such a sublime reverence for old +editions, unique copies, illuminated MSS., and rare bindings, that it +was quite edifying. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +END OF VOL. II. + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: In the throne-room at the Buckingham Palace the idea of +grandeur is suggested by a vile heraldic crown, stuck on the capitals of +the columns. Conceive the flagrant, the vulgar barbarity of taste!! It +cannot surely be attributed to the architect?] + +[Footnote 2: There is a very pretty little edition of his lyrical poems, +rendered into the modern German by Karl Simrock, and published at Berlin +in 1833.] + +[Footnote 3: See a very interesting account of Walther von der Vogelweide, +with translations of some of his poems in "The Lays of the Minnesingers," +published in 1825.] + +[Footnote 4: See a very learned and well-written article on the ancient +German and northern poetry in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 26.] + +[Footnote 5: The legend of this charming saint, one of the most popular +in Germany, is but little known among us. She was the wife of a margrave +of Thuringia, who was a fierce, avaricious man, while she herself was +all made up of tenderness and melting pity. She lived with her husband +in his castle on the Wartsburg, and was accustomed to go out every +morning to distribute alms among the poor of the valley: her husband, +jealous and covetous, forbade her thus to exercise her bounty; but as +she regarded her duty to God and the poor, even as paramount to conjugal +obedience, she secretly continued her charitable offices. Her husband +encountered her one morning at sunrise, as she was leaving the castle +with a covered basket containing meat, bread, and wine, for a starving +family. He demanded, angrily, what she had in her basket! Elizabeth, +trembling, not for herself, but for her wretched proteges, replied, with +a faltering voice, that she had been gathering roses in the garden. +The fierce chieftain, not believing her, snatched off the napkin, and +Elizabeth fell on her knees.--But, behold, a miracle had been operated +in her favour!--The basket was full of roses, fresh gathered, and wet +with dew.] + +[Footnote 6: See Taylor's "Historic Survey of German Poetry." Herman +was afterwards murdered by a band of conspirators, and Thusnelda, on +learning the fate of her husband, died brokenhearted.] + +[Footnote 7: The notices which follow are abridged from the essay "on +Ancient German and Northern Poetry," before mentioned--from the preface +to the edition of the Nibelungen Lied, by M. Von der Hagen--and the +analysis of the poem in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities. +My own first acquaintance with the Nibelungen Lied, I owed to an +accomplished friend, who gave me a detailed and lively analysis of the +story and characters; and certainly no child ever hung upon a tale of +ogres and fairies with more intense interest than I did upon her recital +of the adventures of the Nibelungen.] + +[Footnote 8: Dietrich of Bern (i. e. Theodoric of Verona,) is the great +hero of South Germany--the King Arthur of Teutonic romance, who figures +in all the warlike lays and legends of the middle ages.] + +[Footnote 9: See the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 213.] + +[Footnote 10: In the altercation between the two queens, Chrimhilde +boasts of possessing these trophies, and displays them in triumph to her +mortified rival; for which indiscretion, as she afterwards complains, +"her husband was in high anger, and _beat her black and blue_." This +treatment, however, which seems to have been quite a matter of course, +does not diminish the fond idolatry of the wife,--rather increases it.] + +[Footnote 11: This list will be subjoined at the end of these Sketches.] + +[Footnote 12: Sofonisba Augusciola, one of the most charming of portrait +painters. She died in 1626, at the age of ninety-three.] + +[Footnote 13: I regret that I omitted to note the _name_ of the artist +of this magnificent work. There is a still more admirable monument of +the same period in the church at Inspruck, the tomb of the archduke, +Ferdinand of Tyrol, consisting, I believe, of twelve colossal statues +in bronze.] + +[Footnote 14: The first stone of the Valhalla was laid by the King of +Bavaria, on the 18th of October 1830.] + +[Footnote 15: The Einheriar are the souls of heroes admitted into the +Valhalla.] + +[Footnote 16: Daniel.] + +[Footnote 17: Lithography was invented at Munich between 1795 and 1798, +for so long were repeated experiments tried before the art became useful +or general. Senefelder, the inventor, was an actor, and the son of an +actor. The first occasion of the invention was his wish to print a +little drama of his own, in some manner less expensive than the usual +method of type. The first successful experiment was the printing of some +music, published (1796) by Gleissner, one of the king of Bavaria's band: +the first drawing attempted was a vignette to a sheet of music. In the +course of his attempts to pursue and perfect his discovery, Senefelder +was reduced to such poverty, that he offered himself to enlist for a +common soldier, and, luckily, was refused. He again took heart, and, +supported through every difficulty and discouragement by his own +strong and enthusiastic mind, he at length overcame all obstacles, and +has lived to see his invention established and spread over the whole +civilized world. Hitherto, I believe, the stone used by lithographers +is found only in Bavaria, whence it is sent to every part of Europe and +America, and forms a most profitable article of commerce. The principal +quarries are at Solenholfen, on the Danube, about fifty miles from +Munich. + +Senefelder has published a little memoir of the origin and progress of +the invention, in which he relates with great simplicity the hardship, +and misery, and contumely, he encountered before he could bring it into +use. He concludes with an earnest prayer, "that it may contribute to the +benefit and improvement of mankind, and that it may never be abused to +any dishonourable or immoral purpose." + +If I remember rightly, a detailed history of the art was given in one of +the early numbers of the Foreign Review.] + +[Footnote 18: The population of Munich is estimated at about 60,000. It +does not enter into my plan, at present, to give any detailed account +of the public institutions, whether academies, schools, hospitals, or +prisons; yet I cannot but mention the prison at Munich, which more than +pays its own expenses, instead of being a burthen to the state; the +admirable hospital for the poor, in which all who cannot find work +elsewhere, are provided with occupation; two large hospitals for the +sick poor, in which rooms and attendance are also provided for those who +do not choose to be a burthen to their friends, nor yet dependent on +charity; the orphan school; the female school, endowed by the king; +the foundling and lying-in hospitals, establishments unhappily most +_necessary_ in Munich, and certainly most admirably conducted. These, +and innumerable private societies for the assistance, the education, and +the improvement of the lower classes, ought to receive the attention of +every intelligent traveller. + +There are no poor laws in operation at Munich, no mendicity societies, +no tract, and soup and blanket charities; yet pauperism, mendicity, +and starvation, are nearly unknown. For the system of regulations by +which these evils have been repressed or altogether remedied, I believe +Bavaria is indebted to the celebrated American, Count Rumford, who was +in the service of the late king, Max-Joseph, from 1790 to 1799. + +Several new manufactories have lately been established, particularly +of glass and porcelain, and the latter is carried to a high degree of +perfection.] + +[Footnote 19: Ida of Saxe-Meiningen, sister of the queen of England.] + +[Footnote 20: It is difficult to translate this laconic proverb, because +we have not the corresponding words in English: the meaning may be +rendered--"_according to the country, so are the manners_."] + +[Footnote 21: When the city was besieged by Wallenstein in 1632.] + +[Footnote 22: Born at Nuremberg in 1494.] + +[Footnote 23: See the admirable "Essay on the Early German and Northern +Poetry," already alluded to.] + +[Footnote 24: Anthony, the present king of Saxony. He is, however, in +his dotage, being now in his eighty-fifth year.] + +[Footnote 25: The description of Dresden and its environs, in Russel's +Tour in Germany, is one of the best written passages in that amusing +book--so admirably graphic and faithful, that nothing can be added to +it _as a description_, therefore I have effaced those notes which it +has rendered superfluous. It must, however, be remembered by those who +refer to Mr. Russel's work, that a revolution has taken place, by which +the king, now fallen into absolute dotage, has been removed from the +direct administration of the government, and a much more popular and +liberal tone prevails in the Estates: the two princes, nephews of the +king, whom Mr. Russel mentions as "persons of whom scarcely any body +thinks of speaking at all," have since made themselves extremely +conspicuous;--Prince Frederic has been declared regent, and is +apparently much respected and beloved; and Prince John has distinguished +himself as a speaker in the Assembly of the States, and takes the +liberal side on most occasions. A spirit of amelioration is at work in +Dresden, as elsewhere, and the ten or twelve years which have elapsed +since Mr. Russel's visit have not passed away without some salutary +changes, while more are evidently at hand. + +Mr. Russel speaks of the secrecy with which the sittings of the Chambers +were then conducted: they are now public, and the debates are printed in +the Gazette at considerable length.] + +[Footnote 26: Augustus II. abjured the Protestant religion in 1700, in +order to obtain the crown of Poland.] + +[Footnote 27: The first tenor at Dresden in 1833.] + +[Footnote 28: An opera by Franz Glazer of Berlin. The subject, which is +the well-known story of the mother who delivers her infant when carried +away by the eagle, or rather vulture of the Alps, might make a good +melodrama, but is not fit for an opera--and the music is _trainante_ +and monotonous.] + +[Footnote 29: Zingarelli composed his _Romeo e Giulietta_ in 1797: Bellini +produced the Capelletti at Venice in 1832, for our silver-voiced +Caradori and the contr'alto Giudita Grisi, sister of that accomplished +singer, Giulietta Grisi. Thirty-five years are an age in +the history of music. Of the two operas, Bellini's is the most effective, +from the number of the conceited pieces, without containing +a single air which can be placed in comparison with five or six +in Zingarelli's opera.] + +[Footnote 30: Lord Byron.] + +[Footnote 31: "Tieck," says Carlyle, "is a poet _born_ as well as +made.--He is no mere observist and compiler, rendering back to us, +with additions or subtractions, the beauty which existing things have +of themselves presented to him; but a true Maker, to whom the actual +and external is but the _excitement_ for ideal creations, representing +and ennobling its effects. His feeling or knowledge, his love or scorn, +his gay humour or solemn earnestness; all the riches of his inward +world are pervaded and mastered by the living energy of the soul which +possesses them, and their finer essence is wafted to us in his poetry, +like Arabian odours, on the wings of the wind. But this may be said of +all true poets; and each is distinguished from all, by his individual +characteristics. Among Tieck's, one of the most remarkable is his +combination of so many gifts, in such full and simple harmony. His +ridicule does not obstruct his adoration; his gay southern fancy +lives in union with a northern heart; with the moods of a longing and +impassioned spirit, he seems deeply conversant; and a still imagination, +in the highest sense of that word, reigns over all his poetic world."] + +[Footnote 32: Vide Shelley's Epipsychidion.] + +[Footnote 33: Mr. Russel is quite right in his observation that the +Correggios are hung too near together: the fact is, that in the Dresden +gallery, the pictures are not well hung, nor well arranged; there is too +little light in the inner gallery, and too much in the outer gallery. +Lastly, the numbers are so confused that I found the catalogue of little +use. A new arrangement and a new catalogue, by Professor Matthai, are in +contemplation.] + +[Footnote 34: Spence.] + +[Footnote 35: Lanzi says, that many of the works of Lavinia Fontana +might easily pass for those of Guido;--her best works are at Bologna. +She died in 1614.] + +[Footnote 36: At Althorpe.] + +[Footnote 37: The Miss Sharpes were at Dresden while I was there, +and their names and some of their works were fresh in my mind and eye +when I wrote the above; but I think it fair to add, that I had not the +opportunity I could have wished of cultivating their acquaintance. These +three sisters, all so talented, and so inseparable,--all artists, and +bound together in affectionate communion of hearts and interests, +reminded me of the Sofonisba and her sisters.] + +[Footnote 38: She is the "Julie" celebrated in some of Goethe's minor +poems.] + +[Footnote 39: Since this was written, in November 1833, Retzsch has sent +over to England a series of these _Fancies_ for publication.] + +[Footnote 40: We have among us a young German painter, (Theodor von +Holst,) who, uniting the exuberant enthusiasm and rich imagination of +his country, with a just appreciation of the style of English art, is +likely to achieve great things.] + +[Footnote 41: "Belier! mon ami! commence par le commencement!"--_Contes +de Hamilton._] + +[Footnote 42: A manor situated on the borders of Derbyshire, between +Chesterfield and Mansfield.] + +[Footnote 43: The Cavendishes were originally of Suffolk. Whether this +William Cavendish was the same who was gentleman usher and secretary to +Cardinal Wolsey, is, I believe, a disputed point.] + +[Footnote 44: Bishop Kennel's memoirs of the family of Cavendish.] + +[Footnote 45: Lodge's Illustrations of British History.] + +[Footnote 46: Scott's Memoir of Sir Ralph Sadler.] + +[Footnote 47: Lodge's "Illustrations."] + +[Footnote 48: This celebrated letter is yet preserved, and well known +to historians and antiquarians. It is sufficient to say that scarce any +part of it would bear transcribing.] + +[Footnote 49: See two of her letters in Sir Henry Ellis's Collection.] + +[Footnote 50: See some letters in Ellis's Collection, vol. ii. series 1, +which show with what constant jealousy Lady Shrewsbury and her charge +were watched by the court.] + +[Footnote 51: In All Hallows, in Derby. After leaving Hardwicke, I went, +of course, to pay my respects to it. It is a vast and gorgeous shrine of +many coloured marbles, covered with painting, gilding, emblazonments, +and inscriptions, within which the lady lies at full length in a golden +ruff, and a most sumptuous farthingale.] + +[Footnote 52: As the measurements are interesting from this fact, I took +care to note them exactly; as follows:--length 55 ft. 6 inches; breadth +30 ft. 6 inches; height 24 ft. 6 inches.] + +[Footnote 53: Horace Walpole, as an antiquarian, should have known that +Mary was never kept _there_.] + +[Footnote 54: It had formerly been richly painted, and must then have had +an effect superior to tapestry; the colours are still visible here +and there.] + +[Footnote 55: Mary's own account of her occupations displays the natural +elegance of her mind. "I asked her grace, since the weather did cut off +all exercises abroad, how she passed her time within? She sayd that all +day she wrought with her needle, and that the diversitie of the colours +made the work appear less tedious, and that she continued at it till +pain made her to give o'er: and with that laid her hand on her left +side, and complayned of an old grief newly increased there. Upon this +occasion she, the Scottish queen, with the agreeable and lively wit +natural to her, entered into a pretty disputable comparison between +carving, painting, and working with the needle, affirming painting, in +her opinion, for the most commendable quality."--_Letter of Nicholas +White to Cecil._] + +[Footnote 56: I was as much delighted by these singular fire-screens +as Horace himself could have been; they are about seven feet high. The +yellow velvet suspended from the bar is embossed with black velvet, and +intermingled with embroidery of various colours and gold--something +like a Persian carpet--but most dazzling and gorgeous in the effect. +I believe there is nothing like them any where.] + +[Footnote 57: Now replaced by the family portraits brought from +Chatsworth.] + +[Footnote 58: Margaret Cavendish, wife of the first Duke of Newcastle.] + +[Footnote 59: Anecdotes of Painting. Reigns of Elizabeth and James I.] + +[Footnote 60: Dante. Inferno, Canto 28.] + +[Footnote 61: Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 144. Boswell asked, "Are you +of that opinion as to the portraits of ancestors one has never seen?" +JOHNSON. "It then becomes of still _more_ consequence that they should +be like."] + +[Footnote 62: This picture and the next are said to be by Richard +Stevens, of whom there is some account in Walpole, (Anecdotes of +Painting.) Mary also sat to Hilliard and to Zucchero. The lovely picture +by Zucchero is at Chiswick. There is another small head of her at +Hardwicke, said to have been painted in France, in a cap and feather. +The turn of the head is airy and graceful. As to the features, they have +been so marred by some _soi-disant_ restorer, it is difficult to say +what they may have been originally.] + +[Footnote 63: Waller's lines on Lady Rich.] + +[Footnote 64: William, sixth Duke of Devonshire.] + +[Footnote 65: "Lady Dorothy Savile, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax: +she had no less attachment to the arts than her husband; she drew in +crayons, and succeeded admirably in likenesses, but working with too +much rapidity, did not do justice to her genius; she had an uncommon +talent too for caricature."--_Anecdotes of Painting._] + +[Footnote 66: He was a monster; and no wife of the coarsest plebeian +profligate could have suffered more than did this lovely, amiable being, +of the highest blood and greatest fortune in England. "She was," says +the affecting inscription on her picture at Chiswick, "the comfort and +joy of her parents, the delight of all who knew her angelic temper, and +the admiration of all who saw her beauty. She was married October 10th, +1741, and delivered by death from misery, May 2nd, 1742. + +But how did it happen that from a condition like this, there was no +release but by _death_?--See Horace Walpole's Correspondence to Sir +Horace Mann, vol. i. p. 328.] + +[Footnote 67: I was much struck with the inscription on a stone tablet, +in a fine old wood near the house: "This wood was planted by Sir William +Spencer, Knighte of the Bathe, in the year of our Lord 1624:"--on the +other side, "Up and bee doing, and God will prosper." It is mentioned in +Evelyn's "Sylva."] + +[Footnote 68: See the accounts of Sir John Spencer, in Collins's +Peerage, and prefixed to Dibdin's "AEdes Althorpianae."] + +[Footnote 69: Henry, first Earl of Sunderland.] + +[Footnote 70: This Lord Sunderland not only changed his party and his +opinions, but his religion, with every breath that blew from the court.] + +[Footnote 71: Horace Walpole's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 227.] + +[Footnote 72: Anne Brudenel.] + +[Footnote 73: See Pepys's Diary.] + +[Footnote 74: I was told that a female servant of the family was so +terrified by this picture that she could never be prevailed on to pass +through the door near which it hangs, but made a circuit of several +rooms to avoid it.] + +[Footnote 75: She is supposed to have been poisoned by her husband, at +the instigation of the Chevalier de Lorraine.] + +[Footnote 76: Elizabeth Brooke, poisoned at the age of twenty.] + +[Footnote 77: See the scene between Beck Marshall and Nell Gwyn, +in "Pepys."] + +[Footnote 78: Walpole.] + +[Footnote 79: The gay, gallant St. Evremond, besides being naturally +ugly, had a wen between his eye-brows. There is a fine picture of him +and Hortense as Vertumnus and Pomona, in the Stafford gallery.] + +[Footnote 80: The pictures of Miss Jennings are very rare. This one +at Althorpe was copied for H. Walpole, and I have heard of another in +Ireland. Miss Jennings was afterwards Duchess of Tyrconnel.] + +[Footnote 81: Pope. One hates him for taking a thousand pounds to +suppress this character of Atossa, and publishing it after all; yet +who for a thousand pounds would have lost it?] + +[Footnote 82: See his declaration of love--"Je suis frere du Comte +de Bedford; je commande le regiment des gardes," &c.] + +[Footnote 83: The Princess Colonna and the Duchesse de Mazarin.] + +[Footnote 84: Clement Marot had composed a version of the Psalms, then +very popular. See _Bayle_, and the Curiosities of Literature.] + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's Note: Errata as given in the original have been applied to +the text. Other than the most exceedingly obvious typographical errors, +all inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, diacriticals, archaic usage, etc. +have been preserved as printed in the original. The equals signs used +to bracket the name "Kunstverein" in the entry for the 16th in the first +section indicate characters in a Fraktur typeface.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad +with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL II *** + +***** This file should be named 36819.txt or 36819.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36819/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36819.zip b/36819.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eafb2e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/36819.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..853654c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #36819 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36819) |
