MODERN SCCLPTURE• IN the preceding columns we have traced the his tory of ancient art till genius appeared no longer to animate its efforts. It is not intended to assert that art itself became extinct; it is impossible to conceive the existence of a people. rich and luxurious, among whom the fine arts to a certain degree had ceased to be cultivated. But when in Italy an imperial master of the world is found pilfering from the virtuous re cord of a predecessor a few ornaments to adorn the tribute of their applause or of their flattery, which the living talents of his subjects could not supply— when her own matchless speech ceased to be under stood in Greece—the ancient annals of human im provement might, as appeared, be closed. Long, dreary, and void is the darkness which must elapse before the books can be again unsealed in light. Still the human spirit was at work; the stroke of sculp ture, rudely directed indeed, might be heard feebly sounding through the gloom; the pencil yet traced its barbarous mimicry on the chapel and the palace; the legend of the monk, the learning of the cell, filled the seats where philosophy and the muses once presided. In the west a series of monuments in Italy and Sicily enable us to trace the vitality, if not the progress of art, from Sylla to Nicholas of Pisa. In the east, the collections of the Byzantine historians, and even the remains now existing in Constantinople, prove a simi lar het. The literature of the middle ages evinces, in both empires, the activity of imagination if not of judgment. The preservation of the classic monu ments exhibits also a degree of taste, incompatible with the supposition of those ages possessing no arts of their own. In the commencement of the twelfth century, or even later, many of the master pieces of Greek sculpture, transported to the eastern capital by Constantine and his successors, were to be seen uninjured; they just caught to reflect for a moment the first ray of returning intelligence, then sunk for ever. To restrict our remarks to the subject under in the provinces of the west, the kindred stu dies of sculpture and architecture preserved through out the lapse of those ages emphatically termed dark,
.;ome degree of reputation. The gloomy magnificence of the feudal baron, as formerly the polished elegance d' the Roman patrician depended on their aid. A c in the monuments of those Italian cities, is Naples, Pisa, Siena, Venice, whose antiquities unite, as it were, ancient with modern history, we trace an almost continuous cultivation of those arts.
An attempt, however, to record and to arrange the scattered evidences, unknown names, or probable con jectures, with which this space might be filled up. would neither be wise nor entertaining. We pass at once then from the age of Constantine to the revival of arts and letters in the Italian republics. In rapidly sketching the history of modern sculpture, our chief attention is commanded by the genius of Italy, on which the greatest artists of other nations must be content to appear as attendant stars. Our subject will readily admit of the following division. I. Re vival of the art, including the sculptors from the 12th to the termination of the 15th century. II. Perfection —Michael Angelo and his school. III. Decline Bernini and his followers. IV. Restoration—Canova and his contemporaries.
From the preliminary remarks, it will appear that the extinction of the arts in the west has been assum ed improperly as total. Their revival has in like manner been too exclusively ascribed to resources derived from the east. From various causes of par tial judgment, the two grand events which in suc cession changed both the political and intellectual aspect of western Europe, the invasion of the empire by the Goths, and the fall of Constantinople, have been represented as exercising immediate and decisive influence on art. The occupation of Italy by the bar barous warriors who overthtew the Roman power, was followed, it is said, by the total destruction both of the monuments and the knowledge of learning and refinement. On the other hand, the reappearance of the arts in the twelfth, and their splendour in the fif teenth century, have been attributed, the former to an occasional influx of Greek artists, the latter to the misfortunes of the eastern capital, whose natives, seeking protection in Italy, enlightened the country of their exile.