anxiously; and as it came not, she desired some servants to catch it again. Hennig immediately sent for a bit of sugar, and with it climbed up the tree on which the bird was perched but it skipped higher up. Louisa and the people from the house called to Hennig to descend, but he with great ease and caution climbed on the most slender branches. At last he caught the bird, hid it in his bosom, and came down again. Louisa asked: " Is it not dead?"—" Oh no, (said he) I am only afraid of it's escaping again."-He then opened two buttons of his waistcoat and said: "Will you now catch it, while I see that it does not get out below?" Louisa put her hand into the opening of the waistcoat, but recollected immediately that this too was unbecoming. She however took the bird from Hennig's highbeating heart, and rejoiced when she had drawn back her hand. She now hastened to her room, thinking by the way: "This is a mischievous youth indeed! Do what I will, I find myself in improper situations with him, while he still looks indifferent."

M. LA FONTAINE, whose Clara Duplessis has been lately translated into English *, is, if we are rightly informed, a clergyman of the reformed church in Saxony. It may, to some, appear unworthy of such a character to engage in compositions like the present:-but, as novels are eagerly read by those who ridicule, despise, or neglect moral instructions from the pulpit, or from books written for that purpose, it is clear that the species of writing in question, so far from affecting the gravity of the clerical character, must, if chosen by a man of worth, talents, and prudence, (such as the present performance bespeaks its author to be) entitle him to some share of praise, in the eyes of all those who, anxious for the purity of public morals, cannot help lamenting that the most popular publications, with little exception, are the least subservient

to virtue.

ART. XXVII. Umrisse Griechischer, &c. i. e. Outlines of Grecian Paintings on Antique Vases lately dug up in Campania and Sicily, and now in the Possession of Sir William Hamilton. Designed by WILLIAM TISCHBEIN, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples. Folio. Vol. I. Weimar. 1796.

ART. XXVIII. Griechische l'asengernälde, &c. i. e. Grecian Paintings on Vases. With Archeological and Artistical Illustrations of the Original Prints. Published by C. A. BOTTIGER. I. Vol. 8vo. Weimar. 1797.

A MONG civilized nations, true excellence has always been found to stand the test of time. If this remark needed any proof, it might be sufficiently illustrated by the increasing

* For our account of the original, see Appendix to our 22d vol. N. S. p. 570.

8

admiration

admiration for the Grecian writers and artists, whose works continue to be held immortal and regarded as inimitable by the best informed men among the moderns. Sometimes, indeed, exceptions are made to the literary superiority of the antients, but their pre-eminence in the fine arts has hitherto stood unrivalled and undisputed; and it is a fact, however humiliating to modern efforts, that the greater the artist of our own times, the more enthusiastic are his encomiums on the taste of the antients.

If England, notwithstanding the spleen and inveteracy of an overbearing neighbour, now ranks above all other nations in Europe, not a small portion of her fame is owing to that laud, able zeal, exerted by some of her most illustrious sons, of introducing into their country a taste for the antient monuments of art, and encouraging its professors both at home and abroad. Among these patrons of genius, stands foremost Sir William Hamilton; a character highly respectable not only for his hospitality and private worth, but for the indefatigable attention which he pays to a very hazardous part of natural history, and to the preservation of antient productions of the fine arts, once so happily cultivated in the country in which he now resides. The nation will never regret having purchased his valuable collection of antient vases, for which, independent of the advantages resulting from them to the artist in general, it has been fully reimbursed by the ingenious use which the late Mr. Wedgwood so well knew how to make of them. The classical ground, whence they were obtained, hides under its surface so many monuments of antiquity, that Sir William has since, though with much expence and trouble, made another collection, not inferior to the former, and has published engravings from it under the following title: "Collection of Engravings from Antient Vases, mostly of pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the Course of the Years 1789 and 1790, now in the Possession of Sir William Hamilton*. Published by William Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples, 1791." Royal Folio. 3 Vols. (the 4th is still expected).

The importance of Sir William's new collection, the dearness of the original engravings published from it at Naples, and chiefly an idea that they were susceptible of a more full and satisfactory explanation, seem to have occasioned the present

* For our account of the 1st vol. of this Collection, see Appendix to our 14th vol. N. S. p. 555.-For the 2d vol. see Apdendix to Rev. vol. xxi. p. 535.

edition,

edition, in which the prints are struck off from the original plates, but are accompanied with a new commentary by M. BOTTIGER.

The vases found in middle and lower Italy were not long ago depreciated by some who, misled by Dempster, Gori, Passeri, Caylus, and Montfaucon, thought them Etrurian workmanship, and considered the paintings on them as the rude attempts of infant art, rather than master-pieces of consummate skill, which many of them incontestibly are:-but since d'Hancarville's publication of the engravings from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, which now graces the British Museum, the value of those vases is much better understood; and Sir W. Hamilton says, in the introduction to the engravings from his second collection, that, although since his first work appeared a far greater number of vases have been dug up than before, the price of them has ever since been rapidly increasing.

Yet, although the utility of Grecian paintings preserved on antient vases be allowed with respect to the artist, it would be very circumscribed without a perfect knowlege, or, when that cannot be obtained, a plausible conjecture, respecting the subjects represented. This, at first view, seems to be no very arduous task, considering the respectable number of contemporary authors, from whom light may be derived on whatever regards the mythology and history of antient Greece:- but, on consulting the works of antiquaries, who have undertaken to illustrate antient monuments of any kind, it will soon be found, that not a few of them load their information with an ostentatious display of the dullest erudition. There is no literary department, indeed, which requires such extensive reading and so much irksome toil, as the employment of the antiquary, on account of the minutia which frequently furnish the only clue to arrive at any certainty. Learning, however, without an equal share of sagacity and taste, is in this branch of literature more hurtful than beneficial. We are therefore happy in informing our readers that the illustrations of antique vases, now before us, have for their author a scholar who possesses those joint qualifications in an eminent degree. M. BÖTTIGER, whose treatise on the present state of letters in France was duly noticed in our Appendix to vol. xxi., shews in this work how successfully he has travelled through that vast field of literature, a single part of which is in general sufficient to employ the life of any man of letters.

By this performance, when completed, both the scholar and the artist, who may want either leisure or inclination to peruse more voluminous works, will be enabled to form a correct idea of the beginning, progress, and perfection of the art in

antient

antient Greece: for M. BöTTIGER seems to be the first who has brought into system the chaotic matter dispersed in many hundred unwieldy volumes of antiquities, coins, &c. He fixes the following periods of the art among the Greeks. First period: in Ionia and on the islands-Ionian art. Second period: in Sicily and Magna Grecia-Doric art. Third period in the mother country, Athens, Corinth, Sicyon, Agina. Attic-Corinthian art.

From a work of this nature, extracts cannot conveniently be given but we shall select one of M. BOTTIGER's learned ob

servations.

Suetonius in Cæs. c. 81. mentioning the new settlers at Capua, has the following passage: "Coloni-aliquantum vasculorum Operis antiqui Scrutantes reperiebant." By these words, Winckelmann, D'Hancarville, and Sir William Hamilton have supposed to be meant the earthen vases of Campania: but the present author thus rectifies their error.

In this passage, nothing is said of earthen vases with figures on them. On the contrary, wherever productions of the art are mentioned, vascula signify without exception vessels used for drinking, and made either of metal or bronze; in the same manner as by vascularii, which word so often occurs in antient inscriptions, none but goldsmiths or metal-cup-makers are to be understood, in contradistinction to the fictiliares or workers in pottery. See Salmas. ad Solin. p. 736. b. G., and Reinesius ad Inscrípt. X. 10. p. 604. The passage in question, therefore, by no means proves what it is supposed to do. The new settlers dug into tombs for the purpose of stealing vases of bronze made by antient artists, which fetched a very great price among the curious in antient Rome. There is another much more specious passage in Strabo VIII. p. 585. B. 586. A., which has hitherto been overlooked, where likewise a new colony of the Emperor is said to have rummaged the ground in the environs of Corinth, then about to be rebuilt. For, says Strabo, they found axirav Topsvudτων πλήθη, πολλὰ δὲ και χαλκώματα. Hence here, too, in tombs were found vessels of bronze, i. e. vascula, as well as corpdxive Topsúpaτa,. which, latter words are rendered in some translations, opera testacea, by which persons not conversant in Greek might be misled to exclaim: here undoubtedly mention is made of our Grecian vases! The word Topala, however, will not admit of any acceptation but that of bass reliefs, or half raised figures, (see Heyne's Antiquarian Essays II. p. 130.) wherefore the above words in the quotation from Strabo cannot be expounded by painted vases such as those of Campania, or what are called Hetrurian vases, but must be interpreted with Salmasius (in Almeloveen's edition) by earthen vases with half raised figures on them; or, as I am rather inclined to do, by friezes and other small relievos in terra cotta.

Those of our readers, who have considered with some attention the Hamiltonian collection in the British Museum, APP. REV. VOL, XXIV.

Rr

may

may perhaps remember that the Grecian vases are embellished, at both the top and the bottom, with various garlands and labyrinthic windings, now generally called by the French term arabesques, and of late much imitated in paperhangings and pieces of furniture; a style which is known among artists under the name of ornamenting à l'Etrusque. These decorations on antient vases are more consistent with propriety than the arabesques of a later period, so much reprobated by Vitruvius. It has, therefore, exercised the ingenuity of modern virtuosi, to discover on what principle the Grecian artists first introduced them on vases. This was a field worthy of M. BÖTTIGER's talents, which he has exerted to the satisfaction (we doubt not) of every competent judge in this matter; though we cannot, without interrupting the strain of his reasoning and transgressing our bounds, give any specimen of his elaborate dissertation on the subject.

This volume contains the illustration of two vases, and some very interesting letters of the Director TISCHBEIN to the author.

As the German language is not very generally known by artists and men of letters in this country, we presume that any bookseller would find his account (if the times be not too unfavourable) in publishing M. BöTTIGER's work in an English translation.

ART. XXIX. Campagne du Général BUONAPARTE, &c. i. e. The Campaigns of General BUONAPARTE in Italy, during the 4th and 5th Years of the French Republic (1796 and 1797). By a General Officer. 8vo. pp. 377. Paris. 1797. Imported by De Boffe, London, Price 6s. 6d. sewed.

AN English account of Buonaparte's campaign was noticed by

us in M. R. vol. xxiii. p. 378. The present volume contains the French official account, and consists almost wholly of public papers; of the returns, dispatches, proclamations, and speeches of the various military and civil agents of the republic. Most of these documents were published singly in the newspapers, at the times of their respective first promulgation; and they are here cemented together with the smallest possible quantity of narrative text, and of critical commentary:-yet they form, united, a story more interesting than the antient romance of Quintus Curtius. Where wonders of nature and of art decorate the scenery of each enterprise; where every footstep is impressed on classic ground; where shades of the illustrious dead seem climbing on every ruin, to mark the magnificent progress of the invader; it is with an emotion not reserved for common history that the reader fol

Lows