less and longing cat. The innocent goldfinch-of God, would doubtless remind them of "the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," (which purification the Baptist was expressly sent to proclaim.) These religious writers are fond (at least all but the Edgeworth) of descanting upon typical meanings, and would doubtless admonish Baroccio and his abettors accordingly.

That the critics have not misconstrued the artist here, as in the case of Julio Romano; and that Baroccio is liable for the full amount of ethical damages, is further deducible from the action of the right hand and arm of the Madonna, which, although it must be allowed to compose secundem artem with the rest of the forms, and to fall in happily with their pyramidal arrangement, expresses, that she really-like the very commonest of unreflecting mammas, with whom wicked education commences -solicits the attention of her darling infant to the inhuman torture of the cat and goldfinch, and confidently trusts that the Son of the Most High, to announce whom the angel Gabriel had been dispatched from heaven to her, will find it exceedingly diverting, and will enjoy the joke as mightily as old Joseph. It would be fortunate for this Madonna (as well as for del Sarto's) were they entitled to any sympathy, that the National Gallery does not yet possess a Holy Virgin of Raphael, and that they do not hang very near to the Holy Family of Garofalo; or assuredly they would either blush or be put out of countenance, more especially the present parody from the pencil of Baroccio.

Mr. Ottley, however, in a great measure redeems himself; and while he joins, though too faintly, in

reprehending the painter, offers, with a tribute to his professional merit, a more acceptable apology, than we have felt ourselves called upon to condemn from the pen of Mr. Valpy's anonymous critic. Mr. Ottley adds, "In treating the subject of the Madonna and Child, or of the Holy Family, preceding artists had seldom forgotten that a certain devoutness of sentiment, and dignified deportment, in the figures, could not properly be altogether dispensed with:-and though sometimes they would allot secular employments to these venerated personages, exhibiting Joseph at his carpenter's bench, or the virgin filling a vase with water from a streamlet, still they were careful to avoid any thing approaching to unbecoming levity." [But it is surely a weightier matter than this peccadillo acknowledgment implies.] "It is, however, due to Baroccio to observe, that his pictures in general have no want of that devout feeling, the absence of which we have thought it our duty to notice in the present instance. In other respects, this is a good specimen of his talents, of his grouping, of the easy flow of his pencil, and of the beauties and vices of his colouring; which last have occasioned it to be remarked, that, like Parrhasius of old, he fed his figures on roses."

The technical merits of the picture are certainly considerable, and had they been employed in the embellishment of a suitable subject, would have been worthy of high commendation. They are only not suited to a single page of the solemn importance of the mysterious history of human Redemption. As an exhibition of colour and chiar-oscuro, the Holy Family of Baroccio is bland, dulcet, luxurious— suited, perhaps, to unholy subjects, and would be

harmonious, but for the somewhat too cutting shapes of a curtain, and the termination of a wall, or partition, behind the figures:

of

But that is all. It does not elevate the soul toward religious sentiment, as such exhibitions ought. It is not " calculated to awaken feelings of piety," but the very contrary. Had it been called by any other name than it is, we had contemplated it with much more complacency. A domestic scene (for example) in the neighbourhood of Versailles, and of the age the Grand Monarque, or any thing of that sort, might have reconciled us to much of its beauty and sophistication. The simpering, mindless milliner of a mamma-whom nobody would suspect of being intended for the Holy Mary, but for the, absolutely necessary or unfortunate, halo of golden light which encircles her head; and the pleased and curly-pated children, might then have seemed at home: averting our eyes as much as possible from the goldfinch and the cat, we might then have been tempted to say, What charming little fellows! ah! these are of the Fiamingo breed: what fine lofty craniums they are blessed with! What pity it is that early education should be carried on upon a plan so radically bad, where the children are so well formed: what a wretched system of purblind conventionalities must prevail at Versailles, to reach so infectiously to its nurseries: no wonder that in after life,

"Custom should consecrate to Fame,

What Reason else would give to shame.”

Notwithstanding that the colouring, and the cha

racters of the countenances of this work, partake so much of false refinement; of prettiness; of Parrhasian rose-feeding; and courtly education, such as attends on the commencement of the corruption of taste in art and morals; yet the draperies are cast into masterly and agreeable folds, and the red, and blue, and the pale pink, and the yellow, and the red and white roses of the boys, are in good accordance. But, after all that Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Ottley have written on this latter topic-if the Children and the Madonna are to be supposed to have taken the colours of their food-peaches had been more pertinent to the present performance.

Mr. Carr obtained this picture from the Cesare palace in Perugia.

SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS.

LODOVICO CARACCI.

"SEPARATE the precepts from the practice of the Caracci (says Fuseli) and they are in possession of my submissive homage;" implying that, apart from certain precepts prescribed to their disciples, they merit the homage of those who have any sound pretensions to good taste in pictures. In that case, let due homage be paid to Lodovico Caracci and his admirable nephews, for their practice is separate from their precepts. Looking at their works, our knowledge or ignorance of their ostensible theory, or the system of rudimental principles which they found it eligible to impart to their pupils, is quite accidental, and in itself entirely disconnected from their productions. Fuseli might fancy himself obliged to advert

to those celebrated rules of the school of Bologna, because he was addressing students from his academical chair; but connoisseurs, or mere spectators of the works of the illustrious family who were the founders of that school, have nothing at all to do with them; and the less, inasmuch as the practice of the Caraccii does not appear to have been more than occasionally, and very gently, influenced by those eclectic rules.

According to Sir Joshua Reynolds, rules of art, are to be regarded as fences, to be occasionally removed, and placed where trespass is expected. Lodovico Caracci perhaps, entertaining the same sentiment, and living in an age and country, when and where various conflicting precepts, or principles, were set before the pupils of the various masters in painting, with the solemn gravity of aphoristic authority, framed his, by selecting from all, what was meritorious in each. Through some inadvertency (as we will suppose) our professor, in one place, terms this "indiscriminate imitation," and pronounces it to be a course of proceeding which conducts the student in painting toward mediocrity. It is, however, a course of proceeding which, in some other arts, has led toward refinement and perfection. Nor does the professor Opie quite agree on this point with the professor Fuseli: and, perhaps, after all, no other obvious course of instruction may remain after the broader channels, or roads, of originality in art, are presumed to be preoccupied : although such preoccupation may not, and does not, obstruct those flights of GENIUS which wise preceptors never pre

tend to teach.

Mr. Ottley has described this picture of the Hebrew Elders soliciting Susanna, with not more, but (as we