The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 341, November 15, 1828 by Various
page 17 of 56 (30%)
page 17 of 56 (30%)
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porte sur les epaules, des Gonfalonniers_." The same work notices a
breach of the _unity of design_ in Paul Veronese, "_qui dans la partie droite d'un de ses tableaux, a represente Jesus Christ benissant l'eau, dont il va ĂȘtre baptise par St. Jean Baptiste; et dans la partie gauche notre Seigneur tente par le diable_."--Upon the celebrated "Transfiguration" of Raphael, I heard an artist remark, "undoubtedly it is the first picture in the world, yet the painter has erred in these respects:--the upper portion of the picture is occupied by the subject, but the lower and fore-ground by the _Healing of the Demoniac_. Now that event did not happen until after the transfiguration, and we infringe upon our Saviour's _ubiquity_ by supposing it to occur (contrary to the sacred story) at the same time. _He_ may, indeed, as _God_ be _omnipresent_, but as _man_, the New Testament no where asserts that the Incarnate Presence was in different places at the same moment." Instances of erroneous judgment are frequent in those who illustrate holy writ. Some have attempted to embody _Him_, "whom no man hath seen at any time." Some have filled their skies with beings as little aerial as possible, or apotheoses of the Virgin and sundry saints. Angels, as some represent them, even in whole lengths, are by _anatomists_ regarded as _monsters_; but what then are the chubby winged heads _without bodies_, with which some artists etherealize their works. Some err by mingling on the same canvass the sacred and profane; scripture characters and the non-descripts of heathen mythology. Nor is poetry free from the latter error, as is exemplified in the major and minor epics, &c., of many Christian poets. The drawings of the monks, splendid in colouring and beautiful in finish, are mostly ludicrous in design, from glaring anachronisms, erroneous perspective, &c. I saw a print in Montfauçon, where fish were gamboling like porpusses on the surface of the sea, and one or two were visible _through the paddles_ of a boat. In the |
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