ART. IV. I

Antiquités Etrufques, Grecques et Romaines, Tirées du Cabinet de M. Hamilton, Envoyé Extraordinaire de S. M. Britannique encour de Naples. Tomes I. & II. Folio.A Collection of Etrufcan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities, from the Cabinet of the Hon. William Hamilton, his Britannic Majefty's Envoy at the Court of Naples. Folio. Vols. I. and II. Naples printed. Imported by Cadell. London. 1770.

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HEN we find ourfelves obliged to look back two or three thoufand years for the moft perfect models in the productions of the human understanding and genius; when, upon confulting the most ancient authors, we find them fili fpeaking with reverence of antiquity; and when we actually fee, before our eyes, an infinite variety of exquifite works, preserved for ages under heaps of ruins, which no productions of the prefent times can equal, one might be apt to think that the faculties of men have been long in a decline,-and that the bloom and beauty of the world are gone to decay.

But to whatever reflections the admirable works of antiquity may lead us, concerning the general improvement of the world, it is very certain that nothing can fo much improve.. most of the fine arts as the judicious and careful ftudy of the works of the ancients; which has of late years been rendered much more easy to the artifts of every country, by the publication of many excellent collections of antiquities; among which the work before us will merit a very honourable place.

In the Appendix to the 41ft volume of our Review, upon the receipt of the first volume, we gave a general account of the nature and defign of this work, intending a more diftin&t and fatisfactory view of the performance when the fecond volume fhould come to our hands.

We have the first and second volumes now before us; and,. after a careful perufal and examination of them, cannot help confidering them as a very valuable prefent to the artifts, and as being well calculated to answer the liberal and generous views of Mr. Hamilton in their publication.

The preface, in the firft volume, is followed by feveral differtations, written by the very ingenious Monf. D'Hancarville, on the origin, literature, hiftory, manners, architecture, fculpture, and painting of the ancient Etrufcans.-Thefe differtations are written in French, and accompanied with a very bold English tranflation on the oppofite page; and the author of them difplays much learning and fine tafte. From the ftudy of the works of the ancients he has attempted to investigate the chief maxims by which they were enabled to carry their works to that amazing perfection which hath rendered them

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objects of veneration to fucceeding ages, and will make them to be confidered as models, for our ftudy and imitation, as long, as they can be preferved from abfolute deftruction.

A few of thefe maxims, by way of specimens of the work, we apprehend, cannot be unacceptable to our Readers.

After having obferved that the ancients called nothing beautiful but what was good, and looked upon nothing as agreeable but what was neceffary, or at least useful, he goes on to obferve, that the maxims of preferving as models, and reprefentirgthofe objects which gave room for useful invention, or were anciently in ufe, as well as adapting ornament to ferviceable things, with a view only of augmenting their conveniency, were employed by the ancients in the manufacture of their vafes, as well as in all the arts that made ufe of proportions. Thefe two important maxims fometimes united, fometimes taken feparately, became a cam-. mon tie between the fine arts and the moft mechanical; thefe. borrowed defign from the firft, who learnt from them many, ufeful practices, which it would be improper to infert in this, place; but we may conceive how much both the one and the other must have gained by this union, to which, most likely, is owing the perfection of the arts of the ancients, and the grand tafte which we obferve in their works of every kind.' Vol. I. Page 78. It is upon the fame principle of augmenting conveniency in architecture, that it was a rule to place over all the principal members of an edifice a projecting body, which is called a cornice; which ferved to preferve the parts below it from the injuries of the weather.

We learn further from this critical inveftigation of the an-, cient principles of compofition, that when they divided an edi fice into feveral parts, to avoid too much famenefs (what refembles monotony in mufic) they established it however as a maxim not to divide the whole more than was necessary to prevent uniformity; for otherwife that unity would have been loft which they al ways aimed to preferve.' It was to preferve this rule of unity, our Author obferves, that the ancients avoided breaks, with as much care at least as we take in fearching after them; and directed the ordonnance of their edifices in fuch a manner that no one part drawing to itself a particular attention, should take off eye from confidering the whole together.

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We cannot help obferving, as we go along, that an inattention to thefe maxims, or a total ignorance of them, has deformed most of our modern buildings;-and that the multitudes of breaks, especially, which feveral of our architects are so fond of, will ever prevent their works from fatisfying a chafte eye, educated and refined by the beautiful models of antiquity.

In confequence of the fpirit of the laft maxim our Author alfo informs us, that the ancients included their public edifices in fuch spaces, that their extenfion, although fufficient to shew the whole of the buildings therein contained, nevertheless leffened not in the leaft the grandeur of the architecture: thus the fquares appeared dependent upon the buildings, and not thefe upon the fquares; precifely contrary to what has been done to St. Peter's at Rome, where the temple, which is the chief thing, appears only as an acceffory to the fquare intended to be made for the temple itfelf.'

How many fine houfes do we know in this kingdom that have loft their magnificence by having the fpaces in which they ftand too much enlarged and opened; and how eafy would it be to reffore them to their proper grandeur, by a fuitable compart ment, if trees could be made to grow as fpeedily as they can be hewn down! But a full-grown tree is fo great an ornament when properly placed, and fo long in forming when it is wanted, that gentlemen who delight in ornamenting their grounds, fhould confider well what they are about before they demolish beauties that they can never hope to fee restored.

Such,' fays our Author, page 92, after giving the history and reafons for the establishment of thefe maxims, was the progrefs of architecture, fuch were the meafures it adopted, and the principles which it established. In all the antique buildings we have examined in France, Italy, Iftria, as well as in all the drawings taken from the monuments of Greece, Spalatro, Palmyra, and Balbec, we have found the chief part of thefe rules conftantly employed. In proportion as in the execution they have given the preference of fome of thefe important maxims to thofe that were lefs fo, or have preferred the latter to the former, the productions of art have been more or less beautiful, or have had more or less character; fo the hiftory of gooi tafte in architecture might be followed from its birth to its perfection, and from that epoch to its decay, by feeking out, according to the times, the ufe or abuse of thefe maxims: it is thus that the Goths, whilft they preferved the types, by changing the divifions which had been pointed out, and the eftablished proportions, caufed architecture to change its face entirely, and fo the Gothic ftyle prevailed. No fooner were the types neglected but it became quite barbarous, and no other but ill fhaped maffes of buildings were known; fuch as are fill to be feen in almost every country of Europe, and which are more like caverns than temples or palaces.' And we may add, that nothing but a minute attention to these excellent models, or the general knowledge and obfervation of those confummate principles which produced the masterpieces of antiquity, can ever bring the arts of any age to perfection.APP. Rev. vol. xlii. LI

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It is in the works of Gorius; Montfaucon; that friend of mankind, and of every thing that was graceful and ornamental in human life, the excellent Count Caylus; the much lamented Abbé Winckelmann, at whofe untimely death all the Mules wept; in fuch works as this with which Mr. Hamilton has been pleafed to prefent the public; in many other publications of the fame kind; and in the original works of the ancients, to which our artifts can have accefs, that they must expect to find juft and beautiful ideas.—It is in these mines that they must fearch for hidden treasure.

In the fecond volume, after a preliminary discourse upon painting, we have a pretty long chapter upon ancient vafes, which make the proper fubject of thefe volumes; treating (1) of the general ufes the ancients made of them; (2) where, when, and by whom they were made; (3) how they are found; and (4) of the manner of painting them.

This part we muft particularly recommend to the attention and ftudy of fuch of our ingenious Artifts as are engaged in the laudable employment of imitating thefe fine ornaments, and in preferving and handing down to future ages thofe beautiful forms and defigns, which, probably, were copied from the works of the finest geniuses that ever adorned the world. And we venture to prophely, that if our Artists can conceive the beauty of the antique, and infpire their works with the magic of fine outlines and eafy attitudes; if they can compofe with fuitable ftrength and fitness, and adorn with fimplicity, they will not only affift the labours of the learned in demolishing the remains of Gothic barbarifm, but also completely deftroy that Auttering gew-gaw tafte with which our airy neighbours have emafculated the fine arts wherever their influence has prevailed.

After this chapter we have a fhort explanation of the plates in the first volume, in French, and not tranflated; and we are referred to the third volume for the explanation of the plates in the fecond, which third volume may, perhaps, be published a year or two hence.

This is an unpardonable fault in a work of this kind, and fhews that the tricks of bookfellers and publishers are not confined to our own country: but, perhaps, we are cenfuring in a wrong place; for we are forry to fay this is the fault of the Writer, who attempts to defend an abfurdity of which he ought to be ashamed.-However, upon the whole, this is an excellent work; the vases, and their ornaments, are well and accurately drawn; their proportions are exactly given by a scale; the figures in the paintings, which are illuminated with their proper colours, are well executed by a mafterly hand; and though much better than thofe upon the vafes from which they are taken (for we have feen feveral of the vases of this collection)

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tion) yet probably not equal to the original paintings, from which the Etrufcan Potters took their defigns, as there is reason to believe they were many of them taken from the pictures of the greatest mafters of thofe times, and that by preferving and reftoring thefe designs we may be put in poffeffion of some of - thofe forms and attitudes that were traced out by Timanthes, Protogenes, or the graceful hand of Apelles.

In thefe two volumes there are 260 plates of vafes, fections of vafes, and of coloured copies of the paintings and borders with which the vales are ornamented, including feveral plates of head and tail pieces to embellish the printed parts of the work, all taken from the antique, and well engraved.

The differtations difcover much critical taste in the Author, but are written in too diffuse a manner, and want that distinctnefs and fimplicity which Monf. D'Hancarville knows so well how to admire and recommend in the works of the ancient artifts.

Though we differ from the Author, we cannot help thinking the first volume, in all respects, fuperior to the second; but as he propofes to take in the fairest vafes of the Vatican, and those of fome other choice collections; and as he promises to reveal to our artists a fyftem upon which vafes may be formed with infinite variety, we hope the two remaining volumes will not difappoint the expectations which Monf. D'Hancarville has raised in his readers; and we should be forry if any misfortune should prevent or retard the finishing of this valuable work.

ART. V.

Recherches Philofophiques fur les Americains, &c.-Philofophical Enquiries concerning the Americans, or interefting Memoirs towards a Hiftory of the Human Species. By M. de P***. In 2 Vols. 12mo. Berlin. Decker, 1768 and 1769.

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HE greateft event recorded in the annals of mankind, if we except thofe related in the facred hiftory, is doubtless the discovery and rapid conqueft of the new world, at the end of the 15th century. The fplendor however attending the difcovery of this immenfe region was tarnished by the inhumanity, perfidy, and almoft univerfal devaftation, and the deftruction both of men and monuments, attending the conqueft of it. Oviedo, even in his time, complained that his countrymen had made fuch hafte to deftroy the Americans, that they fcarce allowed the naturalift time to study them. The materials from which the author has drawn his obfervations and reafonings on this country, and on the fingular race of men which inhabit it, and who differ fo much both in temperament

and manners from thofe of the old continent, are principally taken from authors who were cotemporary to the discovery: al

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