This quality of aerial perspective is, of all the attributes of landscape, the most delightful and fascinating to a picturesque eye ; and we cannot cease to wonder how its charms could possibly have escaped the notice of the Greeks. Although they had an acquaintance with linear perspective, as appears from what Euclid, Vitruvius, and and other ancient authors have written, and even that most difficult part, comprehending the rules of fore shortening. of their knowledge of aerial perspective there is not the slightest indication. Yet the Greeks inhabited one of the most picturesque countries of Europe, and were abundantly alive to the beauties of nature ; not withstanding which landscape never seems to have en gaged their attention. But, indeed, in many things con nected with the history of painting, our a przori conclusions arc set at nought. It is not from the uninteresting flats of Flanders, or the fenny borders of Dutch canals, that we should look for the successful cultivation of a picturesque taste ; or for the countries where so many admirable land scape painters have arisen. Yet for one that has appear ed in the most romantic regions of Europe, ten have risen to eminence among the sand hills and bogs of Holland. If we were to pitch upon the country in Europe where the most frippery and taste for landscape painting existed, we would say that it was in Switzerland, the very gem of romantic scenery.
\Ve have now concluded what we had to say on the state of painting since its revival in the fourteenth century. \Ve had proposed to add a short inquiry as to the compa rative merits of ancient and modern art, but the subject has so imperceptibly woven itself into our account of the different modern schools, that we think it superfluous now to revert more particularly to that matter. We shall only subjoin a few observations as to the means ge nerally esteemed most efficacious for promoting the interests of painting, although we are well aware that it is not a subject on which we have any thing very satisfactory to advance.
\Ve may safely infer from the foregoing historical ketch, that it is little consistent with the nature of the fine arts, to remain for any length of time stationary. We have seen them invariably subjected to vicissitudes during their whole progress ; nor have these vicissitudes, either of improvement or decay, followed the causes that might ifave been expected to induce them. On the contrary, they have only tended to prove the very fallible nature of our best exertions, and of all the expedients hitherto in dustriously brought into action, with a view to promote the interests of the fine arts ; and that, not merely to the extent of falling short of the anticipated effects, but of pro ducing directly the reverse of what was intended.
A great deal has been written on this subject, and many projects, both original and revived, have been keenly urged as the only infallible means of eliciting the wished for patronage. But whether that encouragement, which was to prove so efficacious, was of a public or of a private nature, there was little in experience to warrant much confidence in its effects : and accordingly the in stitution of academies, and other such fostering asso ciations, has been as keenly decried by some, as being positively prejudicial. We must allow that history seems to countenance this latter opinion, when we sec that wherever public institutions have been established, and exertions made for the preservation and encouragement of the arts, there they seem almost uniformly to have dis appeared. At least, instead of advancing, they have ge nerally retrograded. All the great masters of Italy had run their brilliant course before the establishment of the Della Crusca, or any other Dillettanti association ; and whether it was that the busy vaunting academies which sprung up in Florence, and most of the other cities of Italy, were the mere adventitious stays of a tottering fabric ; true it is, that from the period of their establish ment, the art of painting sank ; and has ever since re mained in a state of degradation, almost contemptible. \Ve are not aware that any improvement in the arts has resulted from the exertions of the French academy, while we must allow that among English artists, many of the greatest names preceded the institution of our academy.
We have just witnessed the formation of a similar asso ciation for the encouragement of the fine arts in our na tive city. It has our sincere and ardent wishes for the successful accomplishment of its patriotic views ; and we trust that, in the promotion of the arts, it may become an honourable exception to the usual fate that seems to await this system of patronage. Hitherto, whatever promise of genius or predilection for the arts arose in this part of the island, has, for obvious reasons, generally flowed towards the southern capital, and there merged in the aggregate mass of aspirants to eminence in the British school. One advantage may therefore result from the institution al luded to, in offering some local support to native artists, who find it convenient to cultivate their profession at home, by facilitating their means of study. But let them not form unreasonable expectations, and charge, (as has often been done with acrimony,) the disappointments arising from any overrated estimate of their own talent, upon a want of due support ; where that support could neither supply defective genius, nor sustain the mistaken measure we are too apt to form of our own acquirements.