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Show CONCLUSION. 529 Bacchus, he differs from the Flemish painters, who exhibit a falling figure, which is, if we may so express it, in the air. This would be unworthy of the majesty of a God; he paints him firm on his legs ; but the gaiety of intoxication, and the delight felt at seeing the liquor which he pours into his goblet, are so well expressed, that nothing can be more admirable. In the Passion, in the gallery of Florence, he has painted the Virgin Mary standing up, and looking at her crucified son without grief-:without pity-without regret-without tears. H e supposes that to her the grand mystery has been imparted, and that she is enabled to support, with grandeur, that spectacle of death. " There is no w^ork of Michael Angelo in which he has not thrown something noble; his roughest sketches, like the verses which Virgil has left unfinished, are grand. Giulio Romano, in his Chamber of the Giants, at Mantua, where he has represented Jupiter hurling his thunder at them, exhibits all the Gods in a state of terror. But Juno is near Jupiter ; she indicates to him, with a calm air, a giant on whom he ought to lanch the thunderbolt; thus he imparts to her an air of grandeur which none of the other figures possess. Those who are nearest to Jupiter are the most collected, and this is very natural ; in a battle, terror ceases in the bosoms of those who are near the party that has the advantage." This, I should call painting philosophically, rather than nobly. The great writer w h o makes the preceding observations, appears to lay more stress on the moral than the physical part of the works of painters and sculptors. The artist w ho gives more grace and regularity of features to a face than it naturally possesses-who improves the eleo-ance of a form-who agreeably softens all the contours who throws more harmony and d' ensemble into a |
