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History, mindless of its real object, sinkingto Biography, has been swelled into a diffusecatalogue of individuals, who, tutored by differentschools, or picking something from thereal establishers of Art, have done little morethan repeat, or imitate through the mediumof either, what those had found in Nature, discriminated,selected, and applied to Art, accordingto her dictates. Without wishing todepreciate the merit of that multitude whofelt, proved themselves strong enough, and[4]strenuously employed life to follow, it must bepronounced below the historian's dignity toallow them more than a transitory glance.Neither originality, nor selection and combinationof materials scattered over the variousclasses of Art by others, have much right toattention from him who only investigates thereal progress of Art, if the first proves to haveadded nothing essential to the system by novelty,and the second to have only diluted energy,and by a popular amalgama to have pleased thevulgar. Novelty, without enlarging the circleof knowledge, may delight or strike, but isnearer allied to whim than to invention; andan eclectic system, without equality of parts, asit originated in want of comprehension, totterson the brink of mediocrity.

The first ideas of Expression, Character,Form, Chiaroscuro, and Colour, originated inTuscany: Masaccio, Lionardo da Vinci, M.Agnolo, Bartolomeo della Porta. The first wascarried off before he could give more than hintsof dramatic composition; the second appears tohave established character on physiognomy, andto have seen the first vision of chiaroscuro,though he did not penetrate the full extent of[5]its charm; the third had power, knowledge,and life sufficiently great, extensive, and long,to have fixed style on its basis, had not anirresistible bias drawn off his attention fromthe modesty and variety of Nature; Bacciogave amplitude to drapery, and colour to form.

Of the Tuscan School that succeeded these,the main body not only added nothing to theirdiscoveries, but, if their blind attachment tothe singularities rather than the beauties ofthe third be excepted, equally inattentive toexpression, character, propriety of form, thecharms of chiaroscuro, and energies of colour,contented themselves to give to tame or puerileideas, obvious and common-place conceptions,a kind of importance by mastery of executionand a bold but monotonous and always manneredoutline; and though Andrea del Sarto,with Francia Bigio, Giacopo da Pontormo, andRosso, may be allowed to have thought sometimesfor themselves and struck out paths oftheir own, will it be asserted that they enlargedor even filled the circle traced out before?The most characteristic work of Andrea's originalpowers, is, no doubt, the historic series inS. Giovanni dei Scalzi; yet, when compared[6]with the patriarchal simplicity of the groupsin the Lunette of the Sistine Chapel, thenavet of his characters and imagery will befound too much tainted with contemporary,local, and domestic features, for Divine, Apostolic,and Oriental agents. His drapery, wheneverhe escapes from the costume of the day,combines with singular felicity the breadth ofthe Frati, and the acute angles of AlbertDurer; but neither its amplitude, nor thesolemn repose and tranquillity of his scenery,can supply the want of personal dignity, orconsecrate vulgar forms and trivial features.

The Roman school like an Oriental sun rose,not announced by dawn, and, setting, left notwilight. Raffaello established his school onthe Drama; its scenery, its expression, itsforms; History, Lyrics, Portrait, became underhis hand the organs of passion and character.With his demise the purity of this principlevanished. Julio Romano, too original to adopt,formed a school of his own at Mantoua, which,as it was founded on no characteristic principle,added nothing to Art, and did not long surviveits founder. Polydoro Caldara was more ambitiousto emulate the forms of the antique than[7]to propagate the style of his master, which wasnot comprehended by Penny, called Il Fattore,mangled by Perrino del Vaga, became common-placein the hands of the Zuccari, barbarousmanner during the usurpation of GiuseppeCesari, sunk to tameness in the timidimitation of Sacchi and Maratta, and expiredunder the frigid method of Mengs.

A certain national, though original character,marks the brightest epoch of the VenetianSchool. However deviating from each other,Tiziano, Tintoretto, Jacopo da Ponte, andPaolo Veronese, acknowledge but one elementof imitation, Nature herself: this principleeach bequeathed to his school, and no attemptto adulterate its simplicity by uniting differentmethods, distinguishes their immediate successors:hence they preserved features of originalitylonger than the surrounding schools,whom the vain wish to connect incompatibleexcellence, soon degraded to mediocrity, andfrom that plunged to insignificance.

If what is finite could grasp infinity, thevariety of Nature might be united by individualenergy; till then the attempt to amalgamateher scattered beauties by the imbecility[8]of Art, will prove abortive. Genius is thepupil of Nature; perceives, is dazzled, andimperfectly transmits one of her features: thussaw M. Agnolo, Raffaello, Tiziano, Correggio;and such were their technic legacies, as inseparablefrom their attendant flaws, as in equaldegrees irreconcilable. That Nature is notsubject to decrepitude, is proved by the superiorityof modern over ancient science; whathinders modern Art to equal that of classiceras, is the effect of irremovable causes.

But I hasten to the principal object of thisLecture, the consideration of the technic characterof Lionardo da Vinci, one, and in myopinion the first of the great restorers of modernArt, as deduced from his most importantwork, the Last Supper, surviving as a whole inthe magnificent copy of Marco Uggione, rescuedfrom a random pilgrimage by the courageand vigilance of our President, and by theAcademy made our own. The original of thiswork, the ultimate test of his most vigorouspowers, the proof of his theory, and what maybe called with propriety the first characteristiccomposition since the revival of the Art, wasthe principal ornament of the Refectory in[9]the Dominican Convent of S. Maria delleGratie, at Milan.

Let us begin with the centre, the seat of theprincipal figure, from which all the rest emanatelike rays. Sublimely calm, the face of theSaviour broods over the immense, whilst everyface and every limb around him, roused by hismysterious word, fluctuate in restless curiosityand sympathetic pangs.

Yet such was the judgment of Vasari, andin our days of Lanzi, both founded on the pretendedimpossibility of transcribing the beautyof forms and the varied energies of expressiondistributed by the artist among the disciples."The moment," says Lanzi, and says well, "isthat in which the Saviour says to the Disciples,"One of you will betray me!" On every oneof the innocent men the word acts like lightning:he who is at a greater distance, distrustinghis own ears, applies to his neighbour;others, according to their variety of character,betray raised emotions. One of them faints,[11]one is fixed in astonishment; this wildly rises,the simple candour of another tells that hecannot be suspected: Judas, meanwhile, assumesa look of intrepidity, but, though hecounterfeits innocence, leaves no doubt of beingthe traitor. Vinci used to tell, that for a yearhe wandered about, perplexed with the thoughthow to embody in one face the image of soblack a mind; and frequenting a village whicha variety of villains haunted, he met at last, bythe help of some associated features, with hisman. Nor was his success less conspicuous infurnishing both the Jameses with congenial andcharacteristic beauty; but being unable to findan ideal superior to theirs for Christ, he leftthe head, as Vasari affirms, imperfect, thoughArminine ascribes a high finish even to that."

Lest those who have read and recollect thecharacter of Lionardo which I have submittedto the public, should, from the predilectionwith which I have dwelt on what I think theprincipal feature of his performance, the faceand attitude of the hero, suspect I shift myground, or charge me with inconsistency, I repeatwhat I said then, when I was nearly unacquaintedwith this work, that the distinguishingfeature of his powers lay in thedelineation of character, which he often raisedto a species, and not seldom degraded to caricature.The triumphant proof of both is thegreat performance before us; the same mindthat could unite divine power with the puresthumanity, by an unaccountable dereliction, notonly of the dignity due to his subject, but ofsound sense, thought it not beneath him tohaunt the recesses of deformity to unkennel avillain. Did he confine villainy to deformity?If he had, he would have disdained to givehim two associates in feature; for the face ofhim who holds up his finger, and his who[13]argues on the left extremity of the table, seemto have proceeded, if not absolutely from thesame, from a very similar mould, yet they arein the number of the elect, and, though on thebrink of caricature, have the air of good men.Expression alone separates them from thetraitor, whom incapacity of remorse, hatred,rage at being discovered, and habitual meanness,seem to have divided into equal shares.

The portrait of Cesar Borgia, by Giorgione,now hung up for your study in the Academy forPainting, proves that the most atrocious mindmay lurk under good, sedate, and even handsomefeatures. Though his hand were notdrawing a dagger, who would expect mercy orremorse from the evil methodized villainy ofthat eye? But Judas was capable of remorse;intolerant of the dreadful suffering with whichthe horrid act had overwhelmed him, he rushedon confession of his crime, restitution, andsuicide.

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