THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For APR I L, 1774. ART. 1. Schola Italica Picture. The Italian School of Painting; confifting of Forty Prints, taken from the Works of all the great Italian Masters; beginning with Michael Angelo, and ending with the Caracci. Executed under the Inspection of Mr. Hamilton, at Rome; by the most eminent Engravers. Folio. Grand Paper. 4. 14 s. 6d. Published by Mr. Hamilton, 1773; and fold by Mr. Bell, in the Strand, London. THE HE prevailing taste of this nation for paintings, and elegant engravings, leaves us no room to doubt the welcome reception of this collection of beautiful prints, among the admirers and promoters of the fine arts; for, as a late writer has obferved, Italy is to the moderns, what Egypt was to the ancients: a country abounding not only with many natural curiofities, and the nobleft remains of antiquity, but with the richest productions of the polite arts: architecture, fculpture, paint ing, and mufic, having there been carried to the highest degree of perfection to which the ingenuity of mankind hath yet attained. Most of these plates are, indeed, excellent performances ; and this publication is a proof that there are, at this time, engravers at Rome, who, to fay the leaft of their merit, are equal to any other artists in Europe. We would here particularly diftinguish Dom. Cunego, and Volpato: whofe engravings from fome capital paintings of the first masters, are, we are tempted to fay, admirable, not only for the management of the tool, but for correctness of drawing. The great artifts whofe pencilled beauties are here reflected by the graver, are as follow, viz. Michael Angelo Buonaroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra. Bartolomeo, Andrea del Sarto, Rafael d'Urbino, Julio Romano, Polidoro, Parmegiano, Cor.. reggio, Barocci, Giorgioni, Titian, Paul Veronefe, Tintorett, Baffan, Palma, the Caracci, Domenichino, Guido Reni, Guercino, Albano, Lanfranco, and Michael Angelo Caravaggio. VOL. L. R The The general merit of the paintings produced by the celebrated mafters above-mentioned, is fo well and fo univerfally known, that it would be fuperfluous to expatiate on them. In one respect, however, we cannot entirely approve of this felection from their works; for although Mr. Hamilton may, as a painter, have been fufficiently happy in his choice, yet we muft obferve, that the religion of the country hath, in our opi nion, led moft of the Roman Catholic painters into fome very improper reprefentations. While we admire their masterly execu tion, we laugh at their legendary fubjects, their martyrdoms, and their marriages of faints: fo that where the artist intended to excite devotion in the mind of the fpectator, the object exhibited hath often produced a contrary effect. But it is not merely to Chriftian fubjects that we object; fome of thofe afforded by the Old Teftament are, furely, unfit to appear on the canvas, or the plate. Here, for instance, is a piece of Michael Angelo's, on the fall of man; and another by the fame maiter, on the formation of Eve, in which laft is a very fine figure of an old gentleman, who might pafs extremely well for a Plato, or a Confucius, and attract our reverence; but when we confider it as a reprefentation of the form and figure of the SUPREME BEING," whom no eye hath "feen, or can fee," we are fhocked at the prefumption of the painter; and what was defigned to raife our conceptions to the utmost height of fublimity, tends only to excite an idea extremely derogatory to the infinite majefty of the awful ubject, The levities of the Heathen deities, heroes, nymphs, and fatyrs, afford an ample and lefs exceptionable field for the exercife of the painter's imagination. Many of the metamorphofes in Ovid give no reasonable caufe of offence either to the religion or the morality of the prefent times; and of thefe there are fome very beautiful reprefentations in the noble collec There are several other attempts to reprefent the Almighty in ap human form, by their greatest painters; and fome of thefe pieces have been admired for their beauty and grandeur; but by what crite mon are fuch performances judged ? The painters have endeavoured to vindicate their practice of reprefenting Divine Beings under human figures; and have pleaded the authority of the Old Teftament in general, and of Daniel's vifion in particular, viz. chap. viii. ver. 9. "I beheld till the thrones were caft down, and the ANCIENT OF DAYS did fit, whofe garment was white as fnow, and the hair of his head like the pure "wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burn"ing fire." But how idle is it to quote fuch figurative perfonifi cations, and from thefe examples to paint the Invisible God like an old Patriarch, with a long beard, which, at the best, is but the refemblance of a man in the decline of life! 6 tion. tion now before us: but it were rather to be wished that the vi cious amours of Jupiter and Apollo, with the drunken freaks of Bacchus, &c. &c. were all made to give way entirely, and for ever, to more innocent and more edifying objects. The ftores of Nature, all beauteous, elegant, and grand, are inexhauftible. Let thefe be ftudied, as they have laudably been, by many excellent artifts, rather than the monstrous fictions of the poets. Let the pen of the hiftorian, however, continue to find employment for the pencil. Hillory will always furnith proper fubjects for the emulation, inftruction, or delight of mankind; and perhaps it may with, trath be faid, that one of the greateft atchievements of the human genius, is a capital hiftory-piece, executed with all the powers and the art of a Raphael, a Titian, a Corregio, or a Rubens. ART. II. The Inflexible Captive; a Tragedy. E By Mifs Hannah 1774. To Greece no more the tuneful maids belong, TO MORE, BROOKS, LENOX, AIKIN, CARTER due, And favouring Phoebus owns the BRITISH NINE. LEVATED with the honour of our fair countrywomen, we had almost forgot the feverity of criticifm and the infirmi ties of age, and were hobbling into rhyme; but, leaving to them the palm of verfe, and contenting ourfelves with waiting on them in their excurfions, we fltall attend our very ingenious and amiable Author through the well-drawn fcenes of her Inflexible Captive. This tragedy is founded on the Attilio Regolo of Metaftafio; but, being extended to five acts, Mifs More was frequently under a neceffity of becoming original, and of depending on her own invention. Prefixed to the play is the following argument: Amongst all the great names, which have done honour to antiquity in general, and to the Roman republic in particular, that of Marcus Attilius Regulus has, by the general confent of all ages, been confidered as one of the most respectable, fince he not only facrificed his labours, his liberty, and his life, for the good of his country, but by a greatness of foul, almoft peculiar to himself, contrived to make his very misfortunes contribute to that glorious end. -After the Romans had met with various fucceffes in the firft Punic war, under the command of Regulus, victory at length declared for the oppofite party, the Roman army was totally overthrown, and Regulus himself taken prisoner, by Xantippus, a Lacedæmonian general in the service of the Carthaginians: the victorious enemy exult Author of The Search after Happiness, recommended in our Review for September, 1773. R 2 ing ing in fo important a conqueft, kept him many years in clofe imprifonment, and loaded him with the most cruel indignities. They thought it was now in their power to make their own terms with Rome, and determined to fend Regulus thither, with their ambaffador, to negotiate a peace, or, at leaft, an exchange of captives, thinking he would gladly perfuade his countrymen to discontinue a war, which neceffarily prolonged his captivity. They previously exacted from him an oath to return fhould his embaffy prove unfuc cessful; at the fame time giving him to understand, that he must expect to fuffer a cruel death if he failed in it; this they artfully intimated as the ftrongest motive for him to leave no means unattempted to accomplish their purpose. At the unexpected arrival of this venerable hero, the Romans expreffed the wildeft tranfports of joy, and would have fubmitted to almost any conditions to procure his enlargement; but Regulus, fo. far fr availing himself of his influence with the Senate to obtain any perfonal advantages, employed it to induce them to reject propofals fo evidently tending to difhonour their country, declaring his fixed refolution to return to bondage and death rather than violate his oath. 'He at last extorted from them their confent; and departed amidst the tears of his family, the importunities of his friends, the applaufes of the Senate, and the tumultuous oppofition of the people ; and as a great poet of his own nation beautifully obferves, "he embarked for Carthage as calm and unconcerned, as if, on finishing the tedious law-faits of his clients, he was retiring to Venafrian fields, or the fweet country of Tarentum * ” " In the above, and many other important particulars, the Author has paid the ftrifteft regard to historical truth: in fome less effential points, where the thought it would rather obftruct than ad. vance her purpose, fhe has ventured to deviate from it; particularly, in fixing the return of Regulus to Rome, pofterior to the death of his wife Martia. In this, as well as in the general conduct of the ftory, fhe has followed the Italian poet Metaltafio, in his opera on this fubject.' It is not worth while here to detain our Readers by a display of erudition, in ftating the arguments that have been adduced by learned men, at different periods, for and against the punishment and patriotism, and even the existence of fuch a man as Regulus. If there never was fuch a perfon, there would, perhaps, be no great hardiness in pronouncing that there never will be fuch a one; but it is our opinion that the truth lies here, where it generally lies, in the middle, and that there was fome diftinguished Roman called Regulus, the events of whofe life have been hyperbolically related, and whofe patriotic character has been overcharged. In pity, at least, of modern patriotifm, and in charity, we should think fo. The Regulus, like the reft of Metaftafio's works, abounds, almost every where, with thofe fine moral diftinctions fo pecu HOR. book iii. ode 5. liar to his genius and manner; and to fay that thefe have undergone no difadvantage in the Inflexible Captive, would be fhewing ourfelves very pénurious in the fair Author's praife. She has, indeed, in all inftances, fupported, in many, improved, upon the fense and spirit of the Italian poet; and where she has found it neceffary to have recourfe to herself, and enlarge the original plan, fhe has done it with a degree of judgment that could be expected only from every privilege of experience, with a degree of genius which leaves not even Metaftafio to look down upon her Of that dignity of foul and fentiment which distinguish this tragedy, take the following fpecimen, from the converfation that paffed between Regulus and his fon Publius, &c, ACT III. Scene a Portico of a Palace without the Gates of Rome, the Abode of the Carthaginian Ambassador. REG. PUB. PUB. REG. PUB. REG. PUB. Enter REGULUS and PUBLIUS, meeting. REG. They're not yet met. Away Support my counfel in th' affembled fenate, Ah! Tpare thy fon the most ungrateful task. Doft thou then think that mine's a frantic brav'ry, Yet fure our country Is a zobole, my Publius, Of which we all are parts, nor fhould a citizen R 3 But |