Gives us the classic scene, the sober gloom, a See Note 1, at the end of the poem. b See Note 11. c See Note 111. Gives thee the secrets of the' abyss to spy To paint what he in Patmos, who heard cry These all are thine; yet still so versatile,c a See Note IV. c See Note VI. b See Note v. C That every subject finds its proper tone, F. From you this candour! so much praise from you! This panegyric strain is something new: But will it last? A. Last! 'Tis my chief delight. Place objects worthy praise before my sight, That pours its rage upon the guilty throng, But those whose souls o'erflow with spleen and gall. Ape the dull school of Mengs, and such as he, a See Note VII. b See the life prefixed to the Opere di Mengs, by D'Azarra. Lo! where soars Fuseli, through realms of light a Lear's caution to Kent: "Come not between the dragon and his wrath." b And how applicable is Homer's description of the cestus of Venus to the voluptuous airs of some of Mr. Fuseli's female figures: Ενθα δε δι θελκτηρια παντα τίτυκίο Ενθ' ενι μεν φιλότης, εν δ' Ίμερος, εν IL. XIV. Notwithstanding Mr. Fuseli's acknowledged excellence in the intellectual department of the art, notwithstanding the energy which he pours into almost every subject, and that impassioned expression which is peculiar to his pencil, his method of treating the human figure may be deemed in some measure objectionable. Mr. F. has not confined his peculiarity of style to the extremities (parts in which the mannerist is most generally conspicuous); in an instant, at the first glance, While these, and more than than these, whom genius fires, Whom purest zeal to raise the art inspires, you recognize his hand, whether it is employed on a knee, clavicle, the pectoral muscles, the deltoides, the trapezius, or any of the anatomical parts particularly marked by the painter; nor do I think that a leg or an arm from one of his figures would unite with the works of any other master, ancient or modern. In his style he has great uniformity; it possesses theServetur ad imum qualis ab incepto processerit;" and the observance of that rule is so general in his paintings, that you recognize it in the most minute parts, from a ringlet that curls over the forehead of one of his figures, to the extreme point of a sandal or a slipper. I will not compare Mr. Fuseli's style with that of Tintoret, but I think that some of those terms at least, by which Vasari chose to designate the manner of the latter, are not very inapplicable to it: “Nelle cose della pittura capricioso presto e resoluto, et il piu terribile cervello, che habbia avuto mai la pittura, come si puo vedere in tutte le sue opere; e ne' componimenti delli storie, fantastische, e fatte da lui diversamente e fuori dell'uso degli altri pittori: anzi ha superato la stravaganza con le nuove, e capricciose inventioni, e strani ghiribizzi del suo intelletto che ha lavorato a caso, e senza disegno, quasi monstrando che quest' arte e una baia." |