It is no doubt true, that painters have nevertheless con tinued to be drawn to the representation of mythological subjects, and many of the finest productions of modern art are of this description. A very obvious reason can be as signed in the temptation and scope afforded to fancy, and particularly in the opportunity admitted of displaying skill in the naked and voluptuous, which does not suit the gra vity of scripture history. flow far these attainments are counterbalanced by the sacrifice of probability, and the in terest excited by the representation of true history, may admit of doubt. An eastern tale, which we know to be the mere sport of fiction, may amuse, but it never can exercise those powers over the judgment and feelings, which the affecting incidents of reality so readily call forth. The ex cellence of art may fascinate the eye as much in one ease as in the other, but it must renounce all pretensions to the highest and noblest sphere of painting. Where mere fic tion is the theme, it must step clown from the rank of a sublime, to that of a simply pleasing art.
Dante and Boccaccio gave Florence the credit of being the mother and restorer of the fine arts in Italy, but there are many other cities which do not willingly admit of this precedence. Bologna, particularly, and Siena, boast of having had painters of as great antiquity and merit as Ci mabue, by whom painting was first brought into notice in Florence. Venice lays claim to the same merit, and doubt less other towns, both in Italy and beyond the Alps, have similar pretensions. As the resuscitation of learning and the liberal arts was prepared by causes of general influ ence, long and silently working out their effect ; so was the diffusion very generally spread, and nearly simultaneous over that portion of Europe predisposed to yield to its ope ration. Among the older Italian writers, the question of priority in the study of the arts is a subject of bitter con troversy, like the contest excited among the Grecian cities for the honour of having given birth to Homer. Cham pions have arisen in defence of the primacy of each of the different Italian states, who claim the honour of reviving the arts ; and each, as might be expected, boasting of hav ing put all doubt on the subject to silence.
But as it is clear that Italy never was absolutely deprived of pictures or painters; and that, although there seems, during the whole period of the dark ages, not only to have been Greek painters practising there, but likewise native Italian artists, who competed with them for employment ; we cannot correctly say that there was any distinct revival about which to contend. The art began to improve gene rally, and at the same time, wherever it was practised, so soon as the circumstances of the times held forth any en couragement; which, doubtless, would be more or less fa vourable to some states than to others. And as Florence, in particular, was happily situated in this respect, the ef fects naturally showed themselves more prominent. There
fore, although, perhaps, not strictly entitled to the name of Restorer of the Fine Arts, Florence decidedly took the lead in this great event.
However much the arts may have shot up in various quarters of the world, in consequence of existing circum stances propitiatory to their success, we still find that Italy is the favourite soil, where art has never failed to spring up as an indigenous plant, so soon as the obstacles to its growth are removed. Greece had its glorious age under Pericles, but the sun once set, has never risen again; while every tempest that has passed over Italy, has, like the winter storm, given place in clue season, to the genial in fluence of reviving nature. The field again began to show its verdure, and invite that cultivation which should en able it to bear fruit. With the first dawn of European his tory we find the Etruscans the only possessors of the fine arts. After oppression had laid waste the field, the flowers again sprung forth under Augustus. Then followed the overwhelming tide of northern barbarity. No sooner had it passed away, than the seeds which lay dormant in their native soil, sprung up afresh, and haste-cd to maturity, under the auspices of Leo the Tenth. The cultivation of the arts, no doubt, became general, but it was this land of genius that sent forth her artists to light up the latent sparks of taste in every quarter of Europe.
The Abbe du Bos has no difficulty in accounting for this pre-eminence of Italy, in matters of taste, from phy sical causes alone, and chiefly from the influence of cli mate. It is singular, that a notion so replete with absur dity, and which contradicts itsell at every step, should have found so many followers. That climate, which is ever the same under the same latitude, should at one period be pro pitious, at another malign, that it should be so various in its effects upon those acting under its influence, the artists at one time rioting in all the extravagancies of fancy, at another plodding with cold and spiritless formality, and the foggy Hollander competing in excellence with the na tive of serene Italy, are contradictions which will not rea dily be admitted. But the prevalence of this opinion on the Continent is quite of a piece with the silliness of their belie! as to the malign influence of the climate and coal fires of Great Britain. According to their idea, any stray spark of genius or taste that may have wandered to Britain, becomes effectually- neutralized by the baleful influence of our atmosphere ; our tempers are brutified, and our spirits so sunk, that in the fatal month of November, we have great difficulty in supporting the continuance of existence. It is not surprising that authors who gravely assert and reason upon such absurdities, should believe in the influ ence of climate, in rearing up genius as it does the native plants of the soil.