On examining these interesting remains, it must be far less the object of the accurate observer to dwell on the excellence, real or imaginary, to which the people of Italy had in those days attained, than to estimate the precise degree, not only in what they had acquired, but in what they were deficient, and to measure the height to which their genius and invention had reached, the exact estimate of which being now our only guide to a true judgment of their merits.

To a mind liable to be influenced by a feeling of romance, the remains of those early works collected at Portici would furnish an ample theme for thought. They are works preserved, and preserved alone as if by enchantment, while all that was coeval with them was consumed: it is like the Eastern tale of the seven sleepers, only that we awake in an anterior time, in an age of retrospect. These remains are the most remarkable examples of antique art which we have yet discovered; and from them we may judge of the desolation which the intermediate centuries have wrought. They present to us the exact handiwork of the artist, in the most fragile material, with the impression of brush and tool, with the unchanged flow of the once liquid colour, affected in its layers by the movement of his hand, or by the respirations almost of the breath of the artist on the delicate material. The washes of colour are said to be of wax, and they seem imbedded on a ground of lime or plaster, to the whiteness of which the colours owe much of their lightness and brilliancy. If, as it is supposed, these are the inferior examples of provincial towns, and cannot be taken as a specimen of the works of art in

the Roman or Grecian capitals, they must raise our ideas of the power, though they furnish no exact notion of the style of the great masters of their time.

But whether perspective be found in ancient art or otherwise, it is quite clear that art may be so used as to conceal its absence; the geometrical elevation of a building is purposely without it. A single figure, or any number of figures, may be arranged at the same distance, parallel to the plane of the picture; but the moment the artist endeavours to give nature in all the varied appearances she may assume to the eye, then perspective, and all the concomitant parts of art which she assists and regulates-situation, light, and shadow-must be used as an integral part of her system and her power.

By a gift so rare as this, from science to art, what a change has been wrought upon the whole system of pictorial composition! By this, the formidable difficulty of upright lines, so prevalent in early art, has been overcome; by this the objects and figures, instead of being placed at full length and entire, may be exhibited, by means of receding and advancing lines, within a much less extensive portion of the picture; by this, style is no longer influenced by the material, but exercises a command and control over it, and, like the harmony of colour and the unity of light and shadow, by that perfect balance of all its parts which we call keeping, a work of art becomes complete in its impression on the spectator's mind.

After attempting to show, by the foregoing remarks, how much art, from its early growth, has been assisted by the ingenuity of science in adding to its

powers of imitation, it will most likely occur to the mind as a consequence of this, that in proportion to what is attempted by art, will art be removed from that simplicity which forms its greatest charm, and that, in a system where the powers become complicated, the singleness of object, and all the effect which belongs to it, is at an end. In answer to this, it may be admitted that simplicity is a delightful quality, and brings a recommendation to many objects with which it is allied, whether it addresses itself to the sense or to the reason. But simplicity will not do of itself

alone: unless sustained and contrasted with some power of a varied description, it is by itself, and always by itself, a tiresome and dubious virtue.

WILKIE

CHAPTER VI.

SQUARE.—ROYAL

REMOVES TO VICARAGE PLACE, KENSINGTON.—REMOVAL OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY TO TRAFALGAR ACADEMY EXHIBITION OF 1837.-ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA.WILKIE COMMANDED TO PAINT THE QUEEN'S FIRST COUNCIL.LETTERS TO MR. COLLINS, R.A., MISS WILKIE, AND SIR ROBERT PEEL.

WILKIE did not consume all his time in penning these Remarks, but, obeying his own injunction of always doing something, also employed his pencil on subjects which had long been present to his fancy:-the Sir David Baird, The Escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven, The Empress Josephine and the Sorceress of Saint Domingo, and The Cotter's Saturday Night. The success of his Peep-o'-Day Boy suggested a portrait of Daniel O'Connell to an admirer of the distinguished Irishman; and Wilkie, with some wonder, and perhaps reluctance, accepted the commission. was busy on these works when he moved to a house, large and commodious, in Vicarage Place, from whence he dates the following letter.

He

TO LADY BAIRD.

Vicarage Place, Kensington, 30th Jan. 1837.

The figure of Sir David Baird is entirely painted in, and I think that the air of the whole is

impressive: the dress I had made up for the purpose. Sir James M'Grigor has just called, and bears his testimony to the entire resemblance; he approves, too, of the dress, which is like that he recollects Sir David wearing in Egypt. Mrs. Agnes and Mrs. Joanna Baillie have also borne a flattering testimony to the likeness. They had called to see what pictures I had in hand, and, on entering my painting-room, exclaimed aloud, "See, there is Sir David Baird;" and, on inquiry, I found that they knew nothing of the subject of the picture, and had no other clue to the likeness but their having seen Sir David Baird in Edinburgh, shortly after his return from Spain.

The figures of the orderly and the pioneer are also painted in, and make a considerable show in the centre of the picture. I have taken out the dogs, considering the wishes of my employer in all cases as a law; but I have as yet devised nothing to supply their place.

D. W.

TO WILLIAM COLLINS, ESQ. R.A., ROME.

Dear Collins,

Vicarage Place, Kensington, 6th Feb. 1837.

Your most welcome letter from Rome has given us all great pleasure, and enables me to write and report all that is doing. First, then, Reynolds requested me to look over his plate of The Sunday Morning, which I did twice with chalk, &c. He has made a very good mezzotinto plate of it, and has done his best. The figures are extremely good, the landscape well; the chief defect the showing too much