BENJAMIN WEST'S JOURNEY TO ROME. 401 delphia to Leghorn, in a merchant vessel. He seized it with a pleasure which was augmented by a signal act of kind and delicate liberality, on the part of a man on whom he had no claims but such as generous spirits feel imposed upon them by merit wherever they find it. At Leghorn, where he arrived about Midsummer of the year 1760, at the age of twenty-two, he experienced the utmost kindness from the merchants to whom the cargo of the ship was consigned; and they gratified his eagerness to reach the grand metropolis of the arts (Rome), by presenting him with letters to Cardinal Albani, and several of the most distinguished characters for erudition and taste in Rome; and, as he was unacquainted with French or Italian, they recommended him to the care of a French courier, who had occasion to pass that way. It is not easy to conceive a state of mind more perfectly adapted than that of the young American genius, to receive a full and most exquisite impression of the character of art, and nature, and man, in Italy; excepting, perhaps, in the circumstance of a deficiency of classical attainment. But even as to this requisite, the assiduous care of Dr. Smith had co-operated with the artist's inquisitiveness and quick apprehension, to his attainment of a considerable share of what may be called the essence and spirit of ancient history. Probably not even Gibbon felt so powerful an emotion at the first sight of "The Eternal City." WEST'S RECEPTION AT ROME. "When the travellers had reached the last stage of their journey, while their horses were baiting, West walked on alone. It was a beautiful morning; the air was perfectly placid, not a speck of vapour in the sky, and a profound tranquillity seemed almost sensibly diffused over the landscape. The appearance of nature was calculated to lighten and elevate the spirits; but the general silence and nakedness of the scene touched the feelings with solemnity approaching to awe. Filled with the idea of the metropolitan city, the artist hastened on till he reached an elevated part of the high road, which afforded him a view of a spacious champaign country, bounded by hills, and in the midst of it the sublime dome of St. Peter's. The magnificence of this view of the Campagna excited in his imagination an agitated train of reflections that partook more of the nature of feeling than of thought. He looked for a spot to rest D D on, that he might contemplate at leisure a scene at once so noble and so interesting." The young painter was introduced, almost at the instant of his arrival, into the very centre of the most brilliant assemblage of cognoscenti in Europe, under the auspices of Mr. Robinson, afterwards Lord Grantham: something of a transition, truly, from a Quakers' Meeting at Springfield. The circumstance of an American, and a Quaker, or a very Indian from the woods, as Cardinal Albani supposed he must be, come to study the fine arts at Rome, appeared so extraordinary, that they were all immediately swarming and buzzing about him. Their curiosity, however, was not malignant; they seem to have been all disposed with one accord to caress, and instruct, and patronize him. But they must have the amusement of making some experiments upon him. THE APOLLO BELVEDERE LIKE A MOHAWK WARRIOR. Their first experiment was to show him, suddenly, the Apollo Belvedere : "At the hour appointed the company assembled; and a procession, consisting of upwards of thirty of the most magnificent equipages in the capital of Christendom, and filled with some of the most erudite characters in Europe, conducted the young Quaker to view the master-pieces of art. It was agreed that the Apollo should be first submitted to his view, because it was the most perfect work of all the ornaments of Rome, and, consequently, the best calculated to produce the effect which the company were anxious to witness. The statue then stood in a case, enclosed with doors, which could be so opened as to disclose it at once to full view. West was placed in the situation where it was seen to the most advantage, and the spectators arranged themselves on each side. When the keeper threw open the doors, the artist felt himself surprised with a sudden recollection altogether different from the gratification which he expected; and, without being aware of the force of what he said, exclaimed: "My God, how like it is to a young Mohawk warrior!" It was not because the terms of this sentence brought the idea of the Almighty God into connexion with a stone idol, that the superfine company present would be offended: it was the profane association of the idol with the idea of an THE APOLLO BELVEDERE LIKE A MOHAWK WARRIOR. 403 Indian warrior, that "mortified them exceedingly," we are told, when the speech was translated to them. Robinson signified to West their chagrin, and asked for a distinct explanation: "West described to him the education of the Mohawks; their dexterity with the bow and arrow; the admirable elasticity of their limbs; and how much their active life expands the chest, while the quick breathing of their speed in the chase, dilates their nostrils with that apparent consciousness of vigour which is so nobly depicted in the Apollo. 'I have seen them often,' added he, 'standing in that very attitude, and pursuing, with an intense eye, the arrow which they had just discharged from the bow.' This descriptive explanation did not lose by Mr. Robinson's translation. The Italians were delighted, and allowed that a better criticism had rarely been pronounced on the statue." A PRESBYTERIAN AND THE POPE. West attended several performances of the grand ceremonies of superstition, one in St. Peter's church, where his Holiness presided in person; and he felt inevitably a most powerful impression from the immensity, the magnificence, and the solemn music. A Scotch priest of the name of Grant, an adherent of the Stuart family, was his guide and director. While they were all kneeling at the elevation of the host, they suddenly heard, to the equal astonishment of the priest and the Quaker, a voice exclaiming behind them, in a broad Scottish accent, O Lord, cast not the church down on them for this abomination!' an exclamation, fortunately for the rash and intrepid protester, not understood by the other auditors. It was uttered by a zealous, but not quite right-headed man, who had arrived at the very time at Rome, on a self-appointed mission, to convert the Pope. The notice of the incident is followed by the curious story of his adventures in the resolute prosecution of his purpose at Rome. By the interposition of King James in his behalf, he was saved from incurring any material injury, and ultimately shipped off for England. BENJAMIN WEST COMPARED TO RAPHAEL MENGS. The young American's attainments as a painter were soon disclosed in a manner which very much surprised the Robinson got together a Roman and English dilettanti. large party of them, on purpose to produce before them a portrait for which he had secretly sat to West. It was known that he had been sitting for his portrait to Mengs, a painter of the very highest reputation; and he gave no hint that the picture produced was by another hand. It was admired by the company as a signal improvement of Mengs's style of colouring; and only one keen inspector could detect some inferiority to Mengs in point of drawing. It was eloquently praised by all; and all were astonished when the real artist, to whom Robinson had been the while interpreting their plausive observations, was pointed out to them. As artists are reputed, in common with poets, a jealous and irritable race, it is highly to the credit of Mengs that he was greatly pleased with the strange Quaker interloper and rival, and gave him the most liberal and beneficial advice, which he has ever since recollected with gratitude. He ingenuously told West that his attainments were above any need of a laborious course of discipline and imitative labour at Rome, and sketched to him a plan for availing himself the most effectually of all the great schools and repositories of Italy. EFFECTS OF EXCITEMENT. It is no wonder that so exquisitely susceptible a mind, suddenly brought from a scene of quiet and humble simplicity, and plunged among such a combination of enchantments, should have been in a state of excitement little less than feverish. He became sleepless and ill; and the result of a consultation of the best physicians in Rome, was a formal communication to Mr. Robinson, that his friend must immediately quit the capital, and seek relief from the irritated state of his sensibility, in quiet and retirement. This relief he obtained by passing a short time at Leghorn. On his returning to Rome, the same vivid unmitigated impressions reduced him again to the same condition; and the fever, from which he once more recovered at Leghorn, left an affection in his ankle, which cost him a painful confinement of eleven months, to his couch and chamber at Florence, whither he had been conveyed for the benefit of consulting an eminent surgeon. EFFECTS OF EXCITEMENT. WEST'S GRAND TOUR AND ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 405 After West's perfect recovery, he made, in pursuance of Mengs's suggestions, an extensive tour for the study of the grand works in some of the principal cities of Italy; and finally, he came by Paris to England; having experienced throughout every part of his visit to Italy the most gratifying facilities, and the most marked liberality and kindness. Indeed, the whole narrative of his life is distinguished, almost beyond example, by favourable incidents and concurrences, by happy opportunities, by little auspicious interventions of kindness and patronage. In short, almost all things seemed to arrange themselves into a plan, without his control, to promote the purpose of his solicitude and ambition. RETROSPECT OF THE EIGHTEENTH DURING many generations, there has been a powerful excitement of mental energy in the pursuit of knowledge of all kinds; a various and wonderful fertility of literary productions; and a grand progress in sciences and arts. In several nations, and especially in our own, there has been an earnest speculation, accompanied with a multiplicity of experiments, on everything relating to the social economy, and on the principles of morals, politics, and legislation. And what has been the result of all this, at the beginning of the nineteenth century? It has been that, for a space of time nearly approaching the average term of human life, the ambitious and malignant passions have raged with an unparalleled intensity, through the civilized and Christian world, and deluged the wide field of Europe with blood. In contempt of all deprecation, remonstrance, prediction, and experience of suffering, the fury for destruction has driven on, accompanied with, and stimulated by, all kinds of crimes, irreligion, and delusion; and at its suspension at length, by a peace without the spirit * Travels in Brazil. By Henry Koster. 4to. 1816. |