Among portraits by this school deserving especial mention is that of King Jerome of Westphalia, brother of Napoleon, by the two Müllers, where the genius of the artist is most conspicuous, although the subject contributes little. As in the case of the Palace of the Sun, described by Ovid, Materiam superabat opus. This work is a beautiful example of skill in representation of fur and lace, not yielding even to Drevet.
Longhi was a universal master, and his portraits are only parts of his work. That of Washington, which is rare, is evidently founded on Stuart's painting, but afterLonghi. a design of his own, which is now in the possession of the Swiss Consul at Venice. The artist felicitated himself on the hair, which is modelled after the French masters.[7] The portraits of Michael Angelo, and of Dandolo, the venerable Doge of Venice, are admired; so also is the Napoleon, as King of Italy, with the iron crown and finest lace. But his chief portrait is that of Eugene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy, full length, remarkable for plume in the cap, which is finished with surpassing skill.
Contemporary with Longhi was another Italian engraver of widely extended fame, who was not the product of the French school, Raffaelle Morghen, born at FlorenceMorghen. in 1758. His works have enjoyed a popularity beyond those of other masters, partly from the interest of their subjects, and partly from their soft and captivating style, although they do not possess the graceful power of Nanteuil and Edelinck, and are without variety. He was scholar and son-in-law of Volpato, of Rome; himself scholar of Wagner, of Venice, whose homely round faces were not high models in art. The Aurora, of Guido, and the Last Supper, of Leonardo da Vinci, stand high in engraving, especially the latter, which occupied Morghen three years. Of his two hundred and one works, no less than seventy-three are portraits, among which are the Italian poets Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, also Boccaccio, and a head called Raffaelle, but supposed to be that of Bendo Altoviti, the great painter's friend, and especially the Duke of Mencada on horseback, after Vandyck, which has received warm praise. But none of his portraits is calculated to give greater pleasure than that of Leonardo da Vinci, which may vie in beauty even with the famous Pompone. Here is the beauty of years and of serene intelligence. Looking at that tranquil countenance, it is easy to imagine the large and various capacities which made him not only painter, but sculptor, architect, musician, poet, discoverer, philosopher, even predecessor of Galileo and Bacon. Such a character deserves the immortality of art. Happily an old Venetian engraving reproduced in our day,[8] enables us to see this same countenance at an earlier period of life, with sparkle in the eye.
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
Firenze presso Luigi Bardi e C'Borgo degli Albizzi No 460
Raffaelle Morghen left no scholars who have followed him in portraits; but his own works are still regarded, and a monument in Santa Croce, the Westminster Abbey of Florence, places him among the mighty dead of Italy.
Thus far nothing has been said of English engravers. Here, as in art generally, England seems removed from the rest of the world; Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos. But though beyond the sphere of Continental art, the island of Shakespeare was not inhospitable to some of its representatives. Vandyck, Rubens, Sir Peter Lely, and Sir Godfrey Kneller, all Dutch artists, painted the portraits of Englishmen, and engraving was first illustrated by foreigners. Jacob Houbraken, another Dutch artist, born in 1698, was employed to execute portraits for Birch's "Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain," publishedHoubraken at London in 1743, and in these works may be seen the æsthetic taste inherited from his father, author of the biography of Dutch artists, and improved by study of the French masters. Although without great force or originality of manner, many of these have positive beauty. I would name especially the Sir Walter Raleigh and John Dryden.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
(Painted by Federigo Zuccaro, and Engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi.)
Different in style was Bartolozzi, the Italian, who made his home in England for forty years, ending in 1807, when he removed to Lisbon. The considerable genius which heBartolozzi. possessed was spoilt by haste in execution, superseding that care which is an essential condition of art. Hence sameness in his work and indifference to the picture he copied. Longhi speaks of him as "most unfaithful to his archetypes," and, "whatever the originals, being always Bartolozzi." Among his portraits of especial interest are several old "wigs," as Mansfield and Thurlow; also the Death of Chatham, after the picture of Copley in the Vernon Gallery. But his prettiest piece undoubtedly is Mary Queen of Scots, with her little son James I., after what Mrs. Jameson calls "the lovely picture of Zuccaro at Chiswick." In the same style are his vignettes, which are of acknowledged beauty.