Volume 3 / Book 4 — The Fine Arts.

The present king of Prussia, great and glaring as are his faults as a politician, deserves the credit of doing a great deal for the advancement of art and the decoration of his capital and residence, Berlin. He is building there a new metropolitan church which is expected to be a splendid edifice, and will be such as far as the most lavish expenditure of money can make it. He has just completed a New Museum to contain the large and excellent collections of Egyptian antiquities (including those brought home by Prof. Lepsius), of the antiquities of the middle ages, of Slavonic and Germanic relics, of plaster casts from the antique, the collection known as the "Copper-Plate Cabinet," &c., &c., all of which have heretofore been most inconveniently arranged for inspection in the Old Museum and in various royal palaces, or else packed away somewhere out of sight. This edifice was designed by the architect Stüler; its foundations were laid in 1843, and its interior has just been completed with a luxury, variety, and extent of ornament, in the mosaic work of the floors, and the decorations of the walls and ceiling, which are not equalled by any other public building. Among the artists employed in these decorations are the sculptors Wredow, Gramzow, Stürmer, Schievelbein, and Berges; here, too, is to be seen Kaulbach's great series of frescoes, of which the Babel is already finished, and the Destruction of Jerusalem nearly so. The landscape painters Græb, Pape, Biermann, Schirmer, Max Schmidt, contribute a great number of frescoes of Egyptian and oriental subjects. A critic in the Grenzboten who eulogizes the beauties both of design and execution in the separate parts of the edifice, still says, and we think not without reason, that it does not form a united and organic whole. He says, too, that in it the old works are rather used as decorations for the architecture than the latter as a setting for them; "I cannot avoid the impression that here the old monuments of art are not the end, but the means to the execution of the great edifice of modern times in which it is sought to embody the entire encyclopædistic, historical experience in art belonging to the present epoch."

Another edifice which this prince intends as a monument of his reign, is the new Campo Santo, or burial-place for members of the royal family, which he is erecting at Berlin. This building, which will surround a court where are the tombs, is to be ornamented with frescoes by the eminent painter Cornelius. This artist has just completed the third great cartoon for these frescoes. Its subject is the Resurrection. Its place is on the right of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" and opposite to the "Four sides of the Apocalypse," which is on the left of the "Downfall of Babylon." Thus on one side of the hall is represented the destruction of Evil, on the other the triumph of the Good. The Resurrection, which has been changed somewhat from the original design, is described as follows: On a rock is seen an angel in a position of repose, with the book of life and death unopened on his lap, his right hand grasping the sword of justice. His face is thoughtful and sublimely earnest. On the left are figures full of terror and despair, on the right all is heavenly joy and satisfaction. In the centre is a re-united family animated by the delight of meeting again. At the side of this family are two girls and above them three youths, noble and beautiful persons. The faces of the maidens are turned upward, illuminated by the eternal light of heaven. On the same side of the family are three persons advanced in age, one woman and two men, waiting in pious hope and submission for the decision of the judge; on the other side, a little higher, three figures seek and find that salvation is theirs; a youth whose foot reaches back among the condemned is drawn mildly forth by an angel, and beside him is a tender maiden with her young brother in her arms, whom she holds lovingly, as she follows the celestial messenger. The group on which Justice sorrowfully fulfils its office, occupies about a quarter of the canvas; it consists of two youthful and two more aged figures. On a height a woman wrings her hands in the anguish of remorse, while another gazes in despair upon the ground. A youth lies backward leaning on his right hand, shading his eyes with his left as if not to see the approach of destruction. The older pair, a man and woman, have thrown themselves to the earth; the woman hides her face in her hands, the man, leaning on his elbows, tears his hair with his hands; his face expresses the consciousness of a sin which can find no forgiveness. The artist has aimed throughout to convey the idea that salvation and damnation are not inflicted or conferred upon the persons, but are the result of the inward state of each soul and conscience. The angel with the book of life and death can announce no sentence which has not already been pronounced by the very being to which it refers. The execution of the whole is spoken of as sublime and grandiose.

The well-known German painter, Hiltensperger, has received the commission to design and partly to execute for the new imperial palace at St. Petersburg (an edifice destined to serve as a museum of antique art) a series of paintings, representing the history of art among the Greeks and Romans. A part of the designs are already completed, and receive the warm praise of those to whom they have been exhibited. In order to avoid the monotony which seems inherent in the subject, he represents the peculiarities of each artist introduced by a symbolic picture; for instance, the inventor of battle pictures is designated by a picture of that sort; the discoverer of an effect of light, by a boy blowing a fire, &c. Historical epochs and their transitions are denoted by allegorical figures, like day and night.

An old picture has been discovered in the city of Hanover which seems to be proved a genuine Leonardo Da Vinci. It is known that Leonardo, as well as Zenale and the French artist Bourgogne, was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, on occasion of the birth of his twin sons, to paint a picture glorifying the mother (Beatrice D'Este) and the event. Zenale and Bourgogne resorted to the Christian narrative, and represented the Duchess as the Virgin, and her two sons as the Saviour and John the Baptist; Leonardo, on the other hand, took his frame-work from the Greek mythology, and painted Leda and the Dioscures. The picture was greatly admired at the time, though that the figure of the Duchess of Milan should be represented nude was thought rather bad even then. The picture soon disappeared, and Vasari says that in his time it was no longer in existence, or else was probably at Fontainebleau. Other writers say it is in other places, but plainly none of them know any thing about it. The present picture was bought about five years since at an auction by a gentleman of Hanover. The conception and treatment agree perfectly with the original descriptions of Leonardo's work, while the coloring, drawing, and expression are pronounced altogether his.

The Art-Union At Vienna opened its galleries to the public of that pleasure-loving city during December last, and more than two thousand persons visited them daily. The best pictures were by the Düsseldorf artists Tidemann and Achenbach. The Religious Service of the Haugians, by the first, is said by one critic to overwhelm the spectator by its spirit of earnest piety, before it allows him to admire the incomparable art of its execution. The members of the sect are represented as assembled in a simple room, which is lighted from above. The light is modified by the dust which is caused by the crowd. Simple grandeur, adds the writer, makes this picture one of the most remarkable productions of modern art. It was sold for 2400 florins, or about 1000 dollars. Achenbach's landscape Venner Lake in Sweden, was also greatly admired; its price was 1800 florins. Hübner's Emigrants and Hasenclever's Pastor's Family were also favorites. Among the Vienna artists Führichs carried off the palm in this exhibition. He is a historical painter.

The Gazette of Cremona states, that a very splendid picture by Raffaelle has been brought to light in that city by a learned connoisseur, who, of course, would part with the priceless gem for a fixed sum! The composition portrays the Virgin worshipping the Infant Saviour, with St. Joseph in the back-ground. The Art Journal altogether discredits the story we translated from the German for the last International respecting a picture by Michael Angelo, said to have been discovered in London.

Letters from Rome speak in high terms of an alto relievo monument just modelled there by the German sculptor Steinhauser for a family in Philadelphia. The monument was designed to commemorate two sisters and a brother, and to be erected in a chapel built specially for the purpose. The artist has represented the three persons as gently sleeping, in a partially sitting posture, at the foot of a cross. The elder sister leans against the cross, and clasps the younger sister with one arm and the brother with the other. This sister is made the personation of Love, the younger of Faith, with one hand on an open book, and the boy of Hope, bearing a pomegranate flower in his hand. Above them floats the angel of the resurrection. The figures are of the size of life, and are said happily to combine the classical antique in form with Christian sentiment in expression. The whole is to be executed in marble, and surrounded with a frame-work of Gothic architecture. The work was awarded to Steinhauser as the result of a public competition, in which Crawford was one of the participants.

Adolf Schrödter, one of the first painters of the Düsseldorf School, has just produced a series of nine colored sketches by way of illustrations to a poem of A. von Marens entitled "The Court of Wine." He represents King Wine as leading a triumphal march enthroned on a wine-press, wreathed with vine leaves and drawn with grape vines by jolly vintagers of every age and sex. Behind follow as chamberlains a band of coopers, a jester dancing on a cask, and a troop of gay youths full of all "quips and cranks and youthful wiles." Then come, represented by most happily conceived figures, the German rivers on whose shores are the world-famous vineyards whose names make epicures smack their lips; then the German impersonations of Saus and Braus, or Joviality and Good Living; after them a troop of cooks, and next a queer company of dancers. We see a poet crowned with vine leaves, a tipsy-happy Capuchin monk and a jester laughing at him. The series closes with a love-scene, broken in upon by a watchman armed with a big spit hung with herrings, beer-cans, sausages, and other furniture of a German restaurant. The whole are treated with that affluence of national humor for which Schrödter is unequalled.

Mr. Hill, a retired clergyman residing near the Cattskill mountains, where he has given his leisure to the study of photography, after numerous experiments, has succeeded in obtaining colored pictures of extraordinary beauty. Portraits and landscapes, by his process, are said to be as fresh and vivid in color as those produced by the best camera obscura. The subject is an interesting one, and will have an important bearing upon the arts. We have noticed it more fully under the head of Scientific Miscellany.

Mr. Hackett, or Baron Hackett, as we believe he is entitled to be called, is now in England. We have seen no announcements of his appearance in the theatres, but believe that like Macready, he had engagements, and was to make a "last appearance" in London during the present season. As the originator of the line of Yankee characters, he has, like the originators of almost every thing else, seen others step in and divide the palm with him. As an artist, he is more finished than his competitors, and as a general actor he is above all comparison with them. They confine themselves to one range of characters, he shows a versatility of talent, and goes through a variety which it requires some genius to conceive, as well as mere talent at imitation. His Falstaff—though we cannot concede it to be exactly the character drawn by Shakspeare—is the best delineation in its way given by any actor now on the stage, and his Monsieur Mallet is in all respects admirable.

The Statue of Giovanni Di Medici, by Baccio Bandinelli, has just been placed on its pedestal in the place before the church of San Lorenzo at Florence. It is three hundred years since this statue was made, and during all this time it has been kept in the great council hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, while its proper pedestal has been vacant. It represents Giovanni (the famous leader of the bande nere, or black bands, the Bayard of Italy, and the father of Cosmo I., the first Grand Duke of Florence) in a sitting posture, with the commander's baton in his hand. It is of little value as a work of art.

Lortzing, the eminent German composer of operas, who died lately, left behind him only four Prussian thalers, or $3, on which his family had to exist a week. This was his sole property aside from music-books and a little furniture. And yet during his life he was a great favorite of the German people, and could not justly be called a spendthrift.

A very interesting series of lectures, by Henry James, George W. Curtis, Parke Godwin, and Mr. Huntington, was delivered before the artists of New-York, at the hall of the Academy of Fine Arts, in January and February. The ability displayed in the lectures, and the interest they excited, will induce measures for another course of the same kind next year.

A suggestion for extending the Triennial Exhibition of the works of Belgian artists, which opens at Brussels in August of the present year, to the painters and sculptors of all nations, has been discussed in that city.

A colossal statue of Wallace has recently been finished by a Mr. Patrick Park, at Edinburgh. It was publicly uncovered in the presence of a large party, composed in part of a regiment of Highlanders.

Noticing Brady, Lester, and Davignon's Gallery of Illustrious Americans, the London Spectator observes:

"In no people do the chief men appear as more thoroughly incarnate of the national traits; each outwardly a several Americanism. Here we have the massive potency of Daniel Webster,—on whose ponderous brow and fixed abashing eyes is set the despotism of intellect; Silas Wright,—a well-grown and cultivated specimen of the ordinary statesman; Henry Clay and Col. Fremont,—two halves of the perfected go-ahead spirit; the first shrewd, not to be evaded, knowing; the second impassable to obstacles and alive only to the thing to be done. The heads are finely and studiously lithographed from daguerreotypes by Brady, and suffice to show how utterly fallacious is the notion that character is lost in this process."

A portrait of the author of Don Quixotte, after a painting by Velasquez, has been discovered in Paris, and has created some sensation, as none of the portraits of the great Spanish poet hitherto existing were considered very authentic. The renown of Cervantes being not fairly established till after his death, little pains were taken to preserve his features during lifetime. His portrait had been painted by Pacheco; but there existed but a poor copy of this, and it was from this copy that all engravings have been taken. The hope, therefore, of possessing a portrait of the poet by such a man as Velasquez, is cheering; and there are some facts which go far enough to prove the thorough authenticity of that now discovered.

The Exhibition of the British Institution was opened to private view, in London, on the 8th of February, and to the public on the Monday following. The number of works in painting and sculpture amounts to 548, and, as a whole, the Exhibition is considered as scarcely up to the average.

Of French Taste we have a new illustration in the fact that M. de Triqueti, the sculptor, has completed a statue of Our Saviour, six and a half feet high, for one of the decorations of the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The late railway works, undertaken near Prague, in Bohemia, have brought to light a great number of objects which may constitute a new species of European art, we mean that if the Czecho-Slaves before the introduction of Christianity. Some of the ancient sculptures found relate to the Slavian goddess Ziwa, most undoubtedly analogous to the Indian Siwa.

Mr. S. S. Osgood has recently completed several very admirable portraits, one of which is of himself, and painted with remarkable ability. Another is of Mary E. Hewitt, one of our most respected literary women, whose fine face is reflected with equal fidelity and felicity from Mr. Osgood's canvas.