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of his patronage of Art. This magnificent scheme was an additional means of employing the best painters of the British school in large and important works at a time when the Church refused to patronise Painting, and the titled and wealthy of the land, with the single exception of the king, encouraged portrait only. It did much also for Engraving; and, among other admirable specimens of that Art, we owe to the Shakspeare Gallery, Sharpe's transcendant work from West's "Lear," a work showing that the power of a first-rate engraver, even of other men's designs, does not lie within the scope of mere talent; but that it is genius, and of a higher order than that displayed by many a painter, who looks upon engravers as artists much below him.

Boydell built, for the reception of his pictures, the rooms in Pall Mall, now belonging to the British Institution, and employed the greatest sculptor then living to decorate the front. It was his intention to bequeath the building and its contents to the nation. But the outbreak of the French Revolution, by stopping entirely the sale of his prints on the Con

* Northcote, in his very amusing history of "The Slighted Beauty" (Painting), thus contrasts her exclusion from our churches with the favour shown to her " Stony-hearted brazenfaced sister" (Sculpture), of whom he says, "She would make no scruple at any time to sap the principal pillars for support, root up the foundation, build up partition walls in the aisles, cover the pavement, etc. One thing, however, must be allowed in favour of this sister, she always spoke well of the dead. Thus, for instance, she would get up in the midst of the church, and, in her own way, make long harangues in various languages, filled with flattery and falsehood, praising the dead to gratify the living."

tinent, where it had been extensive, and the war that followed diminishing the demand for them at home, his means were so crippled, that he was unable to fulfil his patriotic wish.

To the honour of Boydell, it should always be remembered that the project of the Shakspeare Gallery originated in his wish to disprove the opinion held by foreigners, that English artists were incapable of excelling in historic or poetic subjects; an opinion that had entire possession of the minds of our aristocratic and wealthy classes, and which had forced Hogarth to address himself to the public through the medium of engraving.

When Opie, the plain, blunt, honest man of genius, was deserted by the world of fashion, Boydell engaged him in those works on which his fame now rests, the best of which, and one of the greatest works of the British School, is his "Death of David Rizzio," a picture that, instead of being buried in the Council Chamber, at Guildhall, should be seen in the National Gallery.

His love of Art was intense. It was said of him that, "as other artists painted to live, he lived only to paint." His life, indeed, seems to have been shortened by his industry. Had he worked less hard or been less ambitious to excel, he might now be living. Yet he was modest, and long after the "Death of Rizzio" was produced, he would exclaim to his wife, in moments of depression, I shall never, never make a painter."

Dissatisfaction with himself, however, no doubt contributed, as will ever be the case with a strong

mind, to his excellence; it is the feeble who are liable to be discouraged into nothingness, while the conceited are apt to be elated into the same condition. The occasional despondency of such a man as Opie only rouses him to fresh exertion, and his history is a fair illustration of the true sense in which a great painter is self-taught, a sense, indeed, in which all great painters, men who know what they want, and who know where to look for it, are so. Their best instructors being often those they never saw.

Michael Angelo was taught the mechanical practice of painting by Ghirlandajo; but the master who completely awakened his imagination to the grandeur that was to become his distinction, was the unknown sculptor of that "mass of breathing stone" which. refuses any other condition than that of a fragment.*

Raphael was first the pupil of his father, then of Perugino, but had he stopped where the last left him, instead of seeking further instruction from every source of beauty and truth in Art and Nature that was within his reach, he would never have placed himself where he is, nearer to our hearts than any other painter that ever lived. The true masters of Rubens were Michael Angelo and Titian, and certainly no one was less the master of Reynolds than Hudson, in whose house he was placed as a pupil.

When Sir Joshua says to the student, "If you have great abilities, industry will improve them," he says well, but it is to be regretted that he also said, "If you have not, industry will supply their place."

* If Flaxman failed, as he himself thought, in his attempt to restore the Torso, who can hope to succeed?

When, however, at another time, he tells us that "nothing is denied to well-directed industry," he gives a comprehensive definition of genius in the last three words; for the industry of all the great painters I have mentioned was directed, as it could only be well directed, by that native mental superiority which the world has agreed to call genius.

SECTION VI.

On Genius, Imagination, and Taste.

GENIUS seems to be a rare co-existence of many faculties; or perhaps it may be more correct to say that the co-existence of many faculties is necessary to its development; and, as these vary in every individual, the genius of no two has ever been exactly alike. It seems also that the absence, or subordination of some of the intellectual tastes may be serviceable to the exercise of genius; for Leonardo da Vinci, whose life was a long one, has left fewer specimens than any other painter, of that Art, of which he was so great an ornament, because he was almost a universal genius.

In connection with Painting it may be useful to consider two qualities, which, if they do not alone constitute genius, are essential to it,-Imagination and Taste.

Imagination seems to be a power to which instruction can scarcely reach, and if in any degree amenable to direction, it can only be so through Taste, a faculty that is admitted to be capable of much improvement by cultivation.

By Taste, in its most perfect condition, I understand a result from the union of the best sense with

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