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Article OIFK, AEGHITEGTURAL CHAPTEB. ← Page 2 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oifk, Aeghitegtural Chapteb.
deepest impressions of the sublime are instantaneous in their action . The verse of the poet , the words of the divine , the superstition of the multitude , nay , even the delineation of the painter , are wrought to the highest intensity hy the burst of the thunder storm , by the blaze of the lightning of heaven , which for one moment alone is made sensible , hut which fills
the mind with lasting awe . There are few impressions of the sublime go beyond this one stroke of nature , which is momentary and evanescent , nor are those impressions greater which arise from the contemplation of solid and lasting ' -monuments . Thus the sentiment of the sublime does not solely dependon the ideas of solidity and durability , but is influenced by great events and great phenomena , which have in them , by their grandeur , the capability of working on the mind of man .
The sublime does not depend on the quarry or the blocks that are got from it , but on the power which is given to these by the intellectual effort of the artist ; and in like way the admiration of the beautiful may be as lawfully raised and as lawfully enjoyed when raised by transitory influence as by the living form , the best bodied oil pa marble . The rainbow itself is beautiful , and lasts but a few minutes ; but how little durable is the gorgeous sunset , which unites both the sublime
and the beautiful , and changes 4 ts tints as does the chameleon , as readily and with less persistence of action—while we are charmed with an ethereal blue , it deepens or it fades to rose , and the gilding , while we comment on its splendour , is effaced by purple . Here again the popular voice / and the acknowledgedexponents of authority are agreed in their opinions ; and so far as art is concerned , to chronicle the fleeting phase of a sunrise or a sunset is an undertaking in which Claude and Turner have competed , as
one of the grandest achievements to be attained . Passing to artificial representations , the public sentiment will be found in harmony with the teachings of nature , if not obedient to the restraints of criticism , for over much of Europe there is not a great celebration but a display of fireworks is made , where the whole material is consumed for the ^ oruscations of a few moments , and yet the pyrotechnist can as safely rely on commanding' the emotions of all ranks and all ages in the multitude , as could the
greatest painter of Italy , or the carver of the Venus , who before him had trodden the way to the shrine of beauty . An illumination , and indeed every exhibition of light and fire , is transient ; hut such enjoyments are called for by the public voice , regardless of the fact that gas jets or gold and amber drops cannot constitute the permanent picture gallery of the Vatican or the Louvre . The fountain of fire at the Panopticon in Leicester-square was always hailed with applause , although it died from the sight while expectation was raised to the highest pitch .
There is the oxy-hydrogcn microscope , with its shadows thrown on a paper screen , and where nothing more material than coloured shadows may typify to the spectators the high altar of St . Peter ' s or the gilded azulcjos of the Alhambra . ; and which shadows are all sufficient to satisfy the spectators for the time being , though they have before them neither the marble of the Vatican nor its bronzes , nor its gilding , its paintings , statuary , and
mosaics ; and they pause not to ask whether their pleasures are to be delayed or their emotions checked , because they gaze on shadows , when pleasure only should be felt by the real marble of St . Peter ' s , paid for in golden ducats , and the cost whereof has been written down in journals and ledgers . It is happy often for the public that they can enjoy pleasure without the stop-watch of the critic to count its pulses , or his rule to measure out its lawful dimensions . ' Passing from the theatre of the Polytechnic to the theatre it may be of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oifk, Aeghitegtural Chapteb.
deepest impressions of the sublime are instantaneous in their action . The verse of the poet , the words of the divine , the superstition of the multitude , nay , even the delineation of the painter , are wrought to the highest intensity hy the burst of the thunder storm , by the blaze of the lightning of heaven , which for one moment alone is made sensible , hut which fills
the mind with lasting awe . There are few impressions of the sublime go beyond this one stroke of nature , which is momentary and evanescent , nor are those impressions greater which arise from the contemplation of solid and lasting ' -monuments . Thus the sentiment of the sublime does not solely dependon the ideas of solidity and durability , but is influenced by great events and great phenomena , which have in them , by their grandeur , the capability of working on the mind of man .
The sublime does not depend on the quarry or the blocks that are got from it , but on the power which is given to these by the intellectual effort of the artist ; and in like way the admiration of the beautiful may be as lawfully raised and as lawfully enjoyed when raised by transitory influence as by the living form , the best bodied oil pa marble . The rainbow itself is beautiful , and lasts but a few minutes ; but how little durable is the gorgeous sunset , which unites both the sublime
and the beautiful , and changes 4 ts tints as does the chameleon , as readily and with less persistence of action—while we are charmed with an ethereal blue , it deepens or it fades to rose , and the gilding , while we comment on its splendour , is effaced by purple . Here again the popular voice / and the acknowledgedexponents of authority are agreed in their opinions ; and so far as art is concerned , to chronicle the fleeting phase of a sunrise or a sunset is an undertaking in which Claude and Turner have competed , as
one of the grandest achievements to be attained . Passing to artificial representations , the public sentiment will be found in harmony with the teachings of nature , if not obedient to the restraints of criticism , for over much of Europe there is not a great celebration but a display of fireworks is made , where the whole material is consumed for the ^ oruscations of a few moments , and yet the pyrotechnist can as safely rely on commanding' the emotions of all ranks and all ages in the multitude , as could the
greatest painter of Italy , or the carver of the Venus , who before him had trodden the way to the shrine of beauty . An illumination , and indeed every exhibition of light and fire , is transient ; hut such enjoyments are called for by the public voice , regardless of the fact that gas jets or gold and amber drops cannot constitute the permanent picture gallery of the Vatican or the Louvre . The fountain of fire at the Panopticon in Leicester-square was always hailed with applause , although it died from the sight while expectation was raised to the highest pitch .
There is the oxy-hydrogcn microscope , with its shadows thrown on a paper screen , and where nothing more material than coloured shadows may typify to the spectators the high altar of St . Peter ' s or the gilded azulcjos of the Alhambra . ; and which shadows are all sufficient to satisfy the spectators for the time being , though they have before them neither the marble of the Vatican nor its bronzes , nor its gilding , its paintings , statuary , and
mosaics ; and they pause not to ask whether their pleasures are to be delayed or their emotions checked , because they gaze on shadows , when pleasure only should be felt by the real marble of St . Peter ' s , paid for in golden ducats , and the cost whereof has been written down in journals and ledgers . It is happy often for the public that they can enjoy pleasure without the stop-watch of the critic to count its pulses , or his rule to measure out its lawful dimensions . ' Passing from the theatre of the Polytechnic to the theatre it may be of