XXVIII. 1800-48. the attitude is unlike anything in the antique. His CHAP. "Triumph of Alexander" is the finest series of basso-relievos that modern genius has produced. It is a singular circumstance, indicating how many exceptions must be made to the general opinion that the fine arts can flourish only in the regions of the sun, that the mighty genius of Thorwaldsen has been warmed into life on the shores of the Baltic, and only required to be matured in taste amidst the monuments of Rome. 76. and Kiss. DANNEKER is another proof that it is in the north that we are now to look for the successors of Phidias. His Danneker "Ariadne seated on the Panther" has all the delicacy and beauty of the antique, while, at the same time, it is quite original; the eternal imitation of Greek forms and attitudes has been abandoned by one who had yet inhaled to the full extent their spirit. The study of antiquity, whether in art or literature, is the best foundation for fresh excellence, if it is done in a worthy spirit—that is, by a perception of its taste, and a desire to rival, not copy, its remains. Considered as the study of achieved and impassable excellence, which is to be imitated, not emulated, it is nothing but a fetter on the human mind, and may chain it for ages to correct mediocrity. The recent sculptors of Germany have shown that they have studied the antique in the true spirit. Kiss's group of the "Amazon combating the Tiger" is worthy of being placed beside the finest Metopes of the Parthenon; for it is not merely ideal beauty, but ideal beauty in the moment of violent action,-a difficult but not impossible combination, and which, when mastered, reveals the highest powers, as well as conception of art. pare the Apollo Belvidere with the fighting gladiator, and this will at once appear. The bronze statues recently erected at Berlin and Munich, by Kiss, Rausch, and several of their countrymen, have opened, as it were, a new era in art, and showed that regeneration may in the end spring even from the conquests of barbarism, and VOL. V. L Com CHAP. that in art as well as nature, the "Goths have broken in and amended the puny breed." XXVIII. 77. 1800-48. The modern school of German painting is not less Painting in characteristic of the combined caution and daring, imitaGermany. tion and originality, industry and genius, which nature 78. Their romantic character. seems to have impressed as its signet-mark on the Teutonic race. In portrait-painting it has by no means attained the level of Titian or Vandyke, of Reynolds or Raeburn ; perhaps the existing society in Germany does not afford sufficient encouragement for such a school to arise in that department of art. But it is otherwise in landscapepainting; in that branch the German masters have attained an eminence beyond their contemporaries in any other country of Europe, and in some respects on a level with the finest remains of ancient art. They have reached that which is the very essence of beauty in painting-combined minuteness of finishing and generality of effect. The breadth of their pieces renders them impressive at any distance, their exquisite details worthy of admiration on the closest inspection. This combination, so uniformly conspicuous in the works of nature, and so charmingly imitated in her most gifted disciples, Claude and Poussin, is the chief characteristic and chief excellence of the modern school of German painting. The landscapes of the chief modern German artists are much in the style of Ruysdael, so far as the colouring and general effect go; but the subjects are much wilder and more romantic they savour more of Salvator's conceptions. The rugged and magnificent scenery of Norway, with its fiords, its rapids, its cataracts, its dark forests and snowy mountains, its herds of reindeer and clouds of birds, has strongly attracted the Teutonic imagination. It has flown back to the mountains of Scandinavia as to its native seats, and inhaled the spirit which, in the mighty island of the west, has inspired the kindred genius of poetry : "Oh, lover of the desert, hail! Ne'er echoing to the woodman's stroke, Majestic, on her craggy throne !"-WARTON. CHAP. XXVIII. 1800-48. 79. architec Architecture has shared in the general movement of the German mind during the last half-century, and many German imposing monuments of that noble art have arisen in the ture. German field. They differ from the stately cathedrals of the medieval ages; they have not the austere but impressive gloom of the Gothic style. They share in the brilliancy of Grecian imagination, without the passion for variety which has corrupted its style in the Italian cities. The magnificent peristyle of the Walhalla overhangs in awful sublimity the stream of the Danube; the beautiful fronts of the Glyptothek charm the eye amidst the pillared scenery of Munich. Nowhere is to be seen a finer specimen of the masculine grandeur of the Doric style than in the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin, or of the riches of the Ionic and Corinthian, than in the palace-front and some of the public edifices of that capital. Yet is it perhaps to be regretted that the vast genius of Germany has in this art in a manner forgot its proper vocation, and sought the beautiful in the refinement of imitation rather than the boldness of originality. Certainly the stately magnificence of the cathedral of Ulm, the graceful spire of Strasbourg, the exquisite beauty of that of Cologne, destined to be the most perfect Gothic edifice in the world, show that the Teutonic genius has no need to recur to the Parthenon of Athens, or St Peter's of Rome, for the most impressive models of architectural beauty. If it be true, as the wisest of men in every age have affirmed, that "Music hath charms to tame the savage breast," 80. General passion for music in CHAP. there is no country which should be so civilised as XXVIII. Germany, for there is none where melody has so pro1800-48. foundly moved the hearts of the people. The taste for it is not confined, as in some other countries, to the higher or more cultivated classes, but extends to the Germany. whole inhabitants. Enter that church in Silesia, and you will hear Luther's Hymn sung in a style which would do honour to any opera in Europe; join in the evening devotions of that cottage in Saxony, and you will see how music has softened and refined those rugged breasts; join in the enraptured circle which surrounds the magnificent assemblage of regimental bands on the Parade of Mayence, and the strong bent of German taste to the enjoyments of music will at once appear. Nothing has so much tended to advance the civilisation and refine the feelings of the country as this strong and universal disposition; for alone of all the creations of human genius, music is necessarily and universally pure and ennobling in its influence. Literature may be perverted to the worst of purposes, and become the corrupter instead of the purifier of mankind; painting, by the exhibition of meretricious objects, can too powerfully inflame the senses; poetry may become the syren which lures us by the light of genius to perdition; but the influence of music can never be pernicious, or lead to anything but the refinement of the feelings. Incapable of application to any purpose of practical utility, having no voice which reaches the other senses, it only speaks the more powerfully to the heart; and rouses, by its all-magic influence, when not indulged to such a degree as to enervate the mind, no other feelings but those which tend to deeds of heroism or thoughts of love. 81. BEETHOVEN is by common consent, and the universal Beethoven. opinion of the best judges, put at the very head of modern composers. Sublimity and variety are his great characteristics; he is the Michael Angelo of music. Like XXVIII. 1800-48. that great master of painting, his conceptions are vast CHAP. and daring, and his powers equal to their full expression. He is essentially, and beyond any other composer, sublime; but, like Milton, he knows how to relieve intense emotion by the awakening of softer feelings; and none can more powerfully thrill the heart by grandeur and melt it by symphony. Music in his hands exhibits its full powers, and takes its place at once where Madame de Staël has assigned it, as the first of the fine arts, the most ethereal in its nature, the most refining in its tendency, the most severed from the grossness of sense, and which penetrates at once, like a sunbeam from heaven, into the inmost recesses of the soul. Beethoven's pieces, however, like Milton's Paradise Lost, or Michael Angelo's frescoes, are not adapted for ordinary capacities, nor are they calculated to awaken universal admiration. They are too complicated for an uninitiated ear, which is always most powerfully attracted by simplicity and melody. Beyond any other of the fine arts, the pleasure of music is felt by the most illiterate classes; you cannot see a military band go through the street without perceiving that. But a scientific education, and no small proficiency in the art, are indispensable to a perception of its highest excellences, which none feel entirely but such as are themselves capable of expressing them. 82. If Beethoven is the Michael Angelo of music, MOZART is its Raphael. Not less than that divine master of the Mozart. sister art, his in most soul was filled with the mysterious harmonies, the thrilling thoughts, which, emerging, as it were, through the chinks of thought, fill the minds of all who feel this influence with sympathetic rapture. They throw the mind for a few seconds or minutes into a species of trance or reverie, too enchanting for long endurance, and which affords perhaps the nearest foretaste which this world presents of the joys of heaven. It is the peculiarity of the highest efforts and most perfect |