The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851

An old picture has been discovered in the city of Hanover which seems to be proved a genuine Leonardo Da Vinci. It is known that Leonardo, as well as Zenale and the French artist Bourgogne, was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, on occasion of the birth of his twin sons, to paint a picture glorifying the mother (Beatrice D'Este) and the event. Zenale and Bourgogne resorted to the Christian narrative, and represented the Duchess as the Virgin, and her two sons as the Saviour and John the Baptist; Leonardo, on the other hand, took his frame-work from the Greek mythology, and painted Leda and the Dioscures. The picture was greatly admired at the time, though that the figure of the Duchess of Milan should be represented nude was thought rather bad even then. The picture soon disappeared, and Vasari says that in his time it was no longer in existence, or else was probably at Fontainebleau. Other writers say it is in other places, but plainly none of them know any thing about it. The present picture was bought about five years since at an auction by a gentleman of Hanover. The conception and treatment agree perfectly with the original descriptions of Leonardo's work, while the coloring, drawing, and expression are pronounced altogether his.

The Art-Union At Vienna opened its galleries to the public of that pleasure-loving city during December last, and more than two thousand persons visited them daily. The best pictures were by the Düsseldorf artists Tidemann and Achenbach. The Religious Service of the Haugians, by the first, is said by one critic to overwhelm the spectator by its spirit of earnest piety, before it allows him to admire the incomparable art of its execution. The members of the sect are represented as assembled in a simple room, which is lighted from above. The light is modified by the dust which is caused by the crowd. Simple grandeur, adds the writer, makes this picture one of the most remarkable productions of modern art. It was sold for 2400 florins, or about 1000 dollars. Achenbach's landscape Venner Lake in Sweden, was also greatly admired; its price was 1800 florins. Hübner's Emigrants and Hasenclever's Pastor's Family were also favorites. Among the Vienna artists Führichs carried off the palm in this exhibition. He is a historical painter.

The Gazette of Cremona states, that a very splendid picture by Raffaelle has been brought to light in that city by a learned connoisseur, who, of course, would part with the priceless gem for a fixed sum! The composition portrays the Virgin worshipping the Infant Saviour, with St. Joseph in the back-ground. The Art Journal altogether discredits the story we translated from the German for the last International respecting a picture by Michael Angelo, said to have been discovered in London.

Letters from Rome speak in high terms of an alto relievo monument just modelled there by the German sculptor Steinhauser for a family in Philadelphia. The monument was designed to commemorate two sisters and a brother, and to be erected in a chapel built specially for the purpose. The artist has represented the three persons as gently sleeping, in a partially sitting posture, at the foot of a cross. The elder sister leans against the cross, and clasps the younger sister with one arm and the brother with the other. This sister is made the personation of Love, the younger of Faith, with one hand on an open book, and the boy of Hope, bearing a pomegranate flower in his hand. Above them floats the angel of the resurrection. The figures are of the size of life, and are said happily to combine the classical antique in form with Christian sentiment in expression. The whole is to be executed in marble, and surrounded with a frame-work of Gothic architecture. The work was awarded to Steinhauser as the result of a public competition, in which Crawford was one of the participants.

Adolf Schrödter, one of the first painters of the Düsseldorf School, has just produced a series of nine colored sketches by way of illustrations to a poem of A. von Marens entitled "The Court of Wine." He represents King Wine as leading a triumphal march enthroned on a wine-press, wreathed with vine leaves and drawn with grape vines by jolly vintagers of every age and sex. Behind follow as chamberlains a band of coopers, a jester dancing on a cask, and a troop of gay youths full of all "quips and cranks and youthful wiles." Then come, represented by most happily conceived figures, the German rivers on whose shores are the world-famous vineyards whose names make epicures smack their lips; then the German impersonations of Saus and Braus, or Joviality and Good Living; after them a troop of cooks, and next a queer company of dancers. We see a poet crowned with vine leaves, a tipsy-happy Capuchin monk and a jester laughing at him. The series closes with a love-scene, broken in upon by a watchman armed with a big spit hung with herrings, beer-cans, sausages, and other furniture of a German restaurant. The whole are treated with that affluence of national humor for which Schrödter is unequalled.

Mr. Hill, a retired clergyman residing near the Cattskill mountains, where he has given his leisure to the study of photography, after numerous experiments, has succeeded in obtaining colored pictures of extraordinary beauty. Portraits and landscapes, by his process, are said to be as fresh and vivid in color as those produced by the best camera obscura. The subject is an interesting one, and will have an important bearing upon the arts. We have noticed it more fully under the head of Scientific Miscellany.

Mr. Hackett, or Baron Hackett, as we believe he is entitled to be called, is now in England. We have seen no announcements of his appearance in the theatres, but believe that like Macready, he had engagements, and was to make a "last appearance" in London during the present season. As the originator of the line of Yankee characters, he has, like the originators of almost every thing else, seen others step in and divide the palm with him. As an artist, he is more finished than his competitors, and as a general actor he is above all comparison with them. They confine themselves to one range of characters, he shows a versatility of talent, and goes through a variety which it requires some genius to conceive, as well as mere talent at imitation. His Falstaff—though we cannot concede it to be exactly the character drawn by Shakspeare—is the best delineation in its way given by any actor now on the stage, and his Monsieur Mallet is in all respects admirable.

The Statue of Giovanni Di Medici, by Baccio Bandinelli, has just been placed on its pedestal in the place before the church of San Lorenzo at Florence. It is three hundred years since this statue was made, and during all this time it has been kept in the great council hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, while its proper pedestal has been vacant. It represents Giovanni (the famous leader of the bande nere, or black bands, the Bayard of Italy, and the father of Cosmo I., the first Grand Duke of Florence) in a sitting posture, with the commander's baton in his hand. It is of little value as a work of art.

Lortzing, the eminent German composer of operas, who died lately, left behind him only four Prussian thalers, or $3, on which his family had to exist a week. This was his sole property aside from music-books and a little furniture. And yet during his life he was a great favorite of the German people, and could not justly be called a spendthrift.

A very interesting series of lectures, by Henry James, George W. Curtis, Parke Godwin, and Mr. Huntington, was delivered before the artists of New-York, at the hall of the Academy of Fine Arts, in January and February. The ability displayed in the lectures, and the interest they excited, will induce measures for another course of the same kind next year.

A suggestion for extending the Triennial Exhibition of the works of Belgian artists, which opens at Brussels in August of the present year, to the painters and sculptors of all nations, has been discussed in that city.

A colossal statue of Wallace has recently been finished by a Mr. Patrick Park, at Edinburgh. It was publicly uncovered in the presence of a large party, composed in part of a regiment of Highlanders.

Noticing Brady, Lester, and Davignon's Gallery of Illustrious Americans, the London Spectator observes:

"In no people do the chief men appear as more thoroughly incarnate of the national traits; each outwardly a several Americanism. Here we have the massive potency of Daniel Webster,—on whose ponderous brow and fixed abashing eyes is set the despotism of intellect; Silas Wright,—a well-grown and cultivated specimen of the ordinary statesman; Henry Clay and Col. Fremont,—two halves of the perfected go-ahead spirit; the first shrewd, not to be evaded, knowing; the second impassable to obstacles and alive only to the thing to be done. The heads are finely and studiously lithographed from daguerreotypes by Brady, and suffice to show how utterly fallacious is the notion that character is lost in this process."

A portrait of the author of Don Quixotte, after a painting by Velasquez, has been discovered in Paris, and has created some sensation, as none of the portraits of the great Spanish poet hitherto existing were considered very authentic. The renown of Cervantes being not fairly established till after his death, little pains were taken to preserve his features during lifetime. His portrait had been painted by Pacheco; but there existed but a poor copy of this, and it was from this copy that all engravings have been taken. The hope, therefore, of possessing a portrait of the poet by such a man as Velasquez, is cheering; and there are some facts which go far enough to prove the thorough authenticity of that now discovered.

The Exhibition of the British Institution was opened to private view, in London, on the 8th of February, and to the public on the Monday following. The number of works in painting and sculpture amounts to 548, and, as a whole, the Exhibition is considered as scarcely up to the average.

Of French Taste we have a new illustration in the fact that M. de Triqueti, the sculptor, has completed a statue of Our Saviour, six and a half feet high, for one of the decorations of the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The late railway works, undertaken near Prague, in Bohemia, have brought to light a great number of objects which may constitute a new species of European art, we mean that if the Czecho-Slaves before the introduction of Christianity. Some of the ancient sculptures found relate to the Slavian goddess Ziwa, most undoubtedly analogous to the Indian Siwa.

Mr. S. S. Osgood has recently completed several very admirable portraits, one of which is of himself, and painted with remarkable ability. Another is of Mary E. Hewitt, one of our most respected literary women, whose fine face is reflected with equal fidelity and felicity from Mr. Osgood's canvas.

Record of Scientific Discovery

Photography.—Two alleged improvements in Photography have laid claim to public attention: one the product of France, the other of the United States. The French discovery was recently communicated to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, by M. Blanquart-Evrard, and consists in a mode of whitening the sides of the camera, and also the interior of the tube, to which opticians have hitherto been accustomed to give a coating of black. By the new improvement, it is claimed, a saving of one-half is effected in the time required to produce a picture, beside the additional advantages of increased uniformity of action, and less necessity for a powerful light, together with less resistance from red, yellow and green rays. The plan has been experimented upon with success both in France and England. The second and latest invention is the Hillotype; so-called, in the absence of a better name, from Mr. L. L. Hill, of Greene Co., N. Y., who claims the discovery of a process, whereby photographic impressions can be produced with the complete colors of nature. It is stated that a number of successful experiments have established the practicability of the new plan, and that landscapes, sunset-scenes, portraits, &c., have been produced with marvellous fidelity. We shall presently know more of these asseverations. As yet, the entire process is concealed, and, as in certain other instances, may never come to light.

The London Society of Arts.—In a paper by Mr. Murchison, read before the London Society of Arts, we find an interesting account of the origin and early history of that distinguished body. Efforts having been perseveringly made for the establishment of an institution for the promotion of the arts, sciences, and manufactures of the kingdom, the Society of Arts was finally organized in London, in the year 1754, under the auspices of Lord Rodney and other prominent persons. The success of this organization was encouraging and signal. Subscriptions poured in upon it, and a large number of members were soon enrolled. Premiums were then established; the first being one of £30 for the discovery of pure cobalt, and another of the same amount for the cultivation of madder. The progress of the Society from that period to the present has been uniformly encouraging, and it now ranks among the foremost scientific institutions of the day.

An anecdote of the artist Barry, some of whose best works adorn the walls of the Society's Rooms, is related in connection with this accompt. Barry being in distress, the sum of £1200 was subscribed by the members for his relief, and with this amount it was determined to procure for him a life annuity. The funds were so applied; the payment of the annuity to Barry being confided to the father of the late Sir Robert Peel. After the receipt of the first quarter of the first year, however, the artist died. The balance of the purchase money was absorbed in the coffers of Sir Robert.

Gold.—M. Fremy, successor to Gay-Lussac in the chair of chemistry at the Garden of Plants, Paris, has submitted to the French Academy the results of his Chemical Researches on Gold. It was considered important to these researches to study the combinations of the oxides of gold with the alkalis so extensively employed in gilding. The aurates were easily produced, but it was impossible to obtain the combination of alkalis and the protoxide of gold. Auric acid was produced by boiling the perchlaide of gold with excess of potash, precipitating the auric acid by sulphuric acid, and purifying the former by solution in concentrated nitric acid; afterward precipitating by means of water and washing the auric acid until the liquor contained no trace of nitric acid. The auric acid combines immediately with potash and soda. Mr. Fremy promises an examination of the question whether gold is able, in combining with oxygen, to form a salifiable base, as has been asserted. The present experiment was undertaken mainly in reference to its use in electro-gilding.

Light and Heat.—Prof. Moigno lately presented to the French Academy a memoir on the experiments of Neeft, in Frankfort, on the development of Light and Heat in the galvanic circuit. M. Moigno witnessed these experiments in person, and considers it proved, first, that light always appears at the negative pole, and that this primitive light is independent of combustion; second, that the source of the heat is properly the positive poles, and that this heat is originally dark heat; thirdly, that light and heat do not unite at the instant of evolution, but only after the intensity of each has reached a certain point; from this union ensue the phenomena of flame and combustion.

Chinese Coal.—A late number of the Chinese Repository contains some notices of Coal in China, by Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in which occur a number of curious and interesting facts. Coal deposits are found to exist throughout the mountain ranges which girt the great plain of China; but unskilful mining and the difficulty of transportation enhance its cost and limit the consumption, so that it is little used except for culinary and manufacturing purposes. The best comes from Pingting-chau in Shánsí; the quality most in demand in central China is called the Kwang coal, and is brought from various districts in Húnán. Numerous varieties are produced in the province of Kiangsú—slaty, cannel, bituminous and anthracite. This portion of the mineral wealth of China is computed at nearly six millions of dollars. The scarcity of the supply is owing not to the poverty of the mines, but chiefly to the want of facilities for mining, which can alone be supplied by the steam-engine.

Water of the Ocean.—The results of observations on the different Chemical Conditions of Water, at the Surface of the Ocean and at the Bottom, on Soundings, have been communicated by Mr. A. A. Hayes, State Assayer of Massachusetts; who states, that while pursuing the subject of copper corrosion at the surface of the ocean, he was some years since led to examine samples of copper, which had remained some time at the bottom of the ocean. He found that copper and bronze, and even a brass compound, from the bottom, were thickly incrusted with a sulphuret of copper, frequently found in crystallized layers, having a constant chemical composition, entirely free from chlorine or oxygen, the corroding agents of the surface. Specimens of copper and bronze from mud and clay at different depths, and in one instance from clean sand below a powerful rapid, gave thick layers of sulphuret of copper, or copper and tin. Instances of the corrosion of silver are also adduced. Mr. Hayes concludes that the waters from the land, which are never destitute of organic matter in a changing state, exert a very important influence in causing the differences of chemical condition in the ocean. Organic matter, he argues, dissolved from the surface of the earth, or from rocks percolating the strata, assumes a state in which it powerfully attracts oxygen; and waters holding this matter in solution readily decompose sulphates of lime and soda even when partially exposed to atmospheric air.

The Asteroids.—A letter from Prof. Lewis R. Gibbs, of the Charleston Observatory, given in the Charleston Evening News, enumerates thirteen Kuam Asteroids; three having been discovered during the past year. The following Table gives their names in order of discovery, date of discovery, name and residence of discoverer, and the mean distances of the Asteroids from the sun, that of the earth being called 1:

It appears that of these thirteen Asteroids, three have been discovered by Hind of London, three by Gasparis of Naples, two by Hencke of Driessen, two by Olbers of Bremen, while Piazzi of Palermo, Harding of Lilienthal, and Graham of Markree, have each discovered one. Eight out of the twelve orbits ascertained have an inclination of less than ten degrees. The London Athenæum states that the Lalande Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences has been awarded to M. de Gasparis for his discovery of the planet Hygeia. The prize for 1850 was shared between Gasparis for his two discoveries in November, and Mr. Hind for his discovery of Clio on the 13th of September.

Geology of Spain.—A late number of the Journal of the British Geological Society contains an interesting and valuable paper by Don Joaquin Ezquerra Del Bayo, on the Geology of Spain. The Geological constitution of the country is stated to consist of three principal divisions—the Crystalline, Transition, and Secondary formations. The gneiss rocks of the first division occupy about a fifth of the surface of the soil, extending longitudinally from north to south. The plutonic rocks which penetrate them are generally granite of various degrees of firmness. The most important of the granitic ramifications to the east passes by the Sierra de Gridos, Sierra d'Avila, and the Guadarrama, to Soma Sierra, in a north-east direction. The great granitic outburst of Truxillo and of the mountains of Toledo does not extend so far to the east. A third, which has probably given its present form to the Sierra Morena, terminates at Linares, in the province of Jaen. The rocks are not rich in useful metals compared with their great development, but lead and copper are found in great quantities in the district of Linares, and rich argentiferous veins have been lately discovered at Hiendeleucina. Other veins have become exhausted. The successive formations of the country present some curious features. "Our soil," says Don Joaquin, "has never been at rest, nor is it so even at present. Earthquakes are still often felt at Granada, and along the coast of the province of Alicante, where their effects have been disastrous." Among the numerous fossils found upon the coast of Spain are some species of mollusca of an extraordinary size, and in the vicinity of Cuevas de Vera the remains of elephants have been found, isolated and distributed in different directions, proving the existence of a more tropical climate in former times than now prevails in those districts.

In the Paris Academy of Sciences an extended Report was read at a recent meeting from a committee on M. Rochet d'Hericourt's third journey in Abyssinia, in the northern part. He started in 1847, and returned in 1849. In Geography he determined directly, by observation of the meridian heights of the sun, the latitude of a large number of geographical points in Egypt, in Arabia Petræa, along the coasts of the Red Sea, and in the north of Abyssinia. His meteorological observations were constant, and are pronounced especially exact. So, those of the magnetic inclination. The results are furnished in the Report. He attended closely and successfully to the geology of the regions which he traversed. The geological constitution of Abyssinia is now made known over the greater part of its surface. The herbary which the traveller brought to the Museum of Natural History, consists of 150 species, the most of them, however, of plants already known. Three new ones are described. He succeeded in getting home a sheep of Abyssinia, remarkable for the long hairs of its fleece. Some of his specimens of fish are new. Much attention is given to his new species of Epeira, or silk-spider. At the sight of the silk which forms the web of the insect, he conceived the hope that it might be turned to account for the silk-manufacture. It is very fine and soft, long and firm enough, and of a beautiful yellow color. This spider inhabits the large trees, shrubbery, and hedges, and extends its webs to the neighboring habitations; and the webs are nearly all more than a yard in diameter. The quantity is prodigious. "M. d'Hericourt," says the Report, "like every person who has attempted tissues with spiders' webs or cocoons, has not sufficiently regarded the difficulty of domesticating them, as is done with the silk-worm, in order to multiply them adequately, and provide them with such insects of prey, or sufficient nourishment." The Committee proposed the formal thanks of the Academy to the traveller, for the scientific harvest of his new journey, and an expression of the interest felt in the speedy publication of his narrative.

Shooting-Stars.—M. Quetelet states, in relation to the Shooting-Stars of August, 1850, that the number per hour on the evening of the 9th of August was about 60 for Brussels; on the evening of the 10th, 111 for Brussels, 180 for Markree, Ireland, and 58 for Rome. The direction was the same in each place.

Recent Deaths

Death of an Officer of Louis XV.'s Mousquetaires.—The Journal de Francfort states that Viscount Frederic Adolphe de Gardinville, of Athies, mousquetaire gris in the service of Louis XV., and knight of the order of St. Louis, has just died, aged 113, at his country house, near Homburg. This officer was born on the twenty-eighth of January, 1738, and had retired to Homburg after the dissolution of the army of the Condé.

The Rev. John Ogilby, D.D., of New-York, died in Paris on the second of February. He was rector of St. Mark's church, in the Bowery, and had been for nine years professor of Ecclesiastical History in the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His health had been impaired for several years, and he had visited Europe in the hope that change of climate and associations would improve it.

The venerable and accomplished George Thomson, the correspondent of Burns, died recently in Leith Links, at the advanced age of ninety-two. Mr. Thomson's early connection with the poet Burns is universally known, and his collection of Scottish Songs, for which many of Burns's finest pieces were originally written, has been before the public for more than half a century. His letters to the poet are incorporated with all the large editions of Burns, and the greater portion of them will be included in the new life by Chambers.

The Emir Bechir, who, during fifty years, played so important a part in Syria, died lately at Kaoi-keni, a village on the Bosphorus. His eldest son, Halib, and younger son, Emir, who had both embraced Islamism, died a few days before him. Izzet Pasha is appointed Governor of Damascus.

Dr. Leuret, the physician of Bicêtre, who is well-known to the scientific world by his profound works on mental derangement and the anatomy of the brain, died on the sixth of January, at Nancy, his birthplace, after a long illness.

The Dutch papers report the death, at Amsterdam, aged seventy-two, of a marine painter of eminence, M. Kockkoek, father of the distinguished landscape painter of the same name.

Joanna Baillie, whose literary life reached back into the last century, and whose early recollections were of the days of Burke, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the great men who figured before the French Revolution, died at Hampsted, near London, on the evening of Sunday, the twenty-third of February, at the great age of nearly ninety years. During the principal part of her life she lived with a maiden sister, Agnes—also a poetess—to whom she addressed her beautiful Birthday poem. They were of a family in which talent and genius were hereditary. Their father was a Scottish clergyman, and their mother a sister of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. They were born at Bothwell, within a short distance of the rippling of the broad waters of the Clyde. Joanna's child-life and associations are beautifully mirrored in the poem to which we have alluded. Early in life the sisters removed to London, where their brother, the late Sir Matthew Baillie—the favorite medical adviser of George III.—was settled as a physician, and there her earliest poetical works appeared, anonymously. When she began to write, she tells us in one of her prefaces, not one of the eminent authors of modern times was known, and Mr. Hayley and Miss Seward were the poets spoken of in society. The brightest stars in the poetical firmament, with very few exceptions, have risen and set since then; the greatest revolutions in empire and in opinion have taken place; but she lived on as if no echo of the upturnings and overthrows which filled the world reached the quiet of her home; the freshness of her inspirations untarnished; writing from the fulness of a true heart of themes belonging equally to all the ages. Personally she was scarcely known in literary society; but from her first appearance as an author, no woman commanded more respect and admiration by her works; and the most celebrated of her contemporaries vied with each other in doing her honor. Scott calls her the Shakspeare of her sex:

——"The wild harp silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er,
When she, the bold enchantress, came
With fearless hand and heart on flame,—
From the pale willow snatched the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspiring strain
Deem'd their own Shakspeare lived again!"

Her first volume was published in 1798, under the title, A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy. A second volume was published in 1802, and a third in 1812. During the interval, she gave the world a volume of miscellaneous dramas, including the Family Legend, a tragedy founded upon a story of one of the Macleans of Appin, which, principally through the good offices of Sir Walter Scott, was brought out at the Edinburgh Theatre. She visited Scott, in Edinburgh, in 1808, and in the following year the Family Legend was played in that city fourteen nights in succession. Scott wrote for it a prologue, and Mackenzie, the author of The Man of Feeling, contributed an epilogue. The same piece was performed in London in 1814. The only "Play of the Passions" ever represented on a stage was De Montfort, first brought out by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, and played eleven nights. In 1821 it was revived by Edmund Kean, but fruitlessly. Miss O'Neil then played the heroine. Kean subsequently brought out De Montfort in Philadelphia and New-York. No actors of inferior genius have ventured to attempt it, and probably it will not again be represented.

The "Plays of the Passions" are Miss Baillie's most remarkable works. In this series each passion is made the subject of a tragedy and a comedy. In the comedies she failed completely; they are pointless tales in dialogue. Her tragedies, however, have great merit, though possessing a singular quality for works of such an aim, in being without the earnestness and abruptness of actual and powerful feeling. By refinement and elaboration she makes the passions sentiments. She fears to distract attention by multiplying incidents; her catastrophes are approached by the most gentle gradations; her dramas are therefore slow in action and deficient in interest. Her characters possess little individuality; they are mere generalizations of intellectual attributes, theories personified. The very system of her plays has been the subject of critical censure. The chief object of every dramatic work is to please and interest, and this object may be arrived at as well by situation as by character. Character distinguishes one person from another, while by passion nearly all men are alike. A controlling passion perverts character, rather than develops it; and it is therefore in vain to attempt the delineation of a character by unfolding the progress of a passion. It has been well observed too, that unity of passion is impossible since to give a just relief and energy to any particular passion, it should be presented in opposition to one of a different sort so as to produce a powerful conflict in the heart.

J Baillie

In dignity and purity of style, Miss Baillie has not been surpassed by any of the poets of her sex. Her dialogue is formed on the Shakespearian model and she has succeeded perhaps better than any other dramatist in imitating the manner of the greatest poet of the world.