Fine Art in Romantic Literature [pp. 52-66]

Fine Art in Romantic Literature.
FINE ART IN ROMANTIC LITERATURE.
I.
THE literature usually known as Classical
is the creation of a remote past; the Romantic is the comparatively recent and familiar.
Popular opinion does, indeed, often couple
the Romantic with the ancient and unfamniliar, but it must be observed that this ancient
is rather mediaeval than antique, and where
antique materials are employed they are remoulded in conformity with the sentiments
of a later age, so that the Theseus of the
Knight's Tale" and of the "Midsummer
Night's Dream" is no longer the Theseus of
Sophocles and of Plutarch. To borrow the
technical language of geology, the early classical art of Europe belongs to the paleozoic
period, while Romantic art represents the
mesozoic and caenozoic epochs. Fully to
comprehend either, it is necessary to take
into account its opposite, or rather its complement. The art of antiquity illustrates
that of the present; in Romantic art we
witness the consummation of a development
which is for a moment arrested in the marble of Praxiteles and the hexameters of Homer. Antiquity forms the background upon
which the modern world is projected; into
the foreground are crowded our engrossing
interests, the permanent charm of existence
-nay, our very life itself. A flood of linmpid waters rolls past our doors, charged,
it may be, with a pungency and vivific
quality which it has gathered from the
air, the herbage, and the chalybeate or calcareous soil of its banks, but we seldom
allow our imagination to wander to the
sweet springs far above. The plow turns
over the rich, black mould, full of the genial
elements which shall nourish the coming
harvest, but we are unmindful that it rests
on the de/rifts of the crumbling crag, and on
fragments torn from the shoulders of the distant hill. But comparison is always interesting, and, in the discussion of our subject,
almost indispensable. As the majestic
presence of such an Alpine peak as the
Jungfrau, the unsullied whiteness of its
snows, and its regal indifference to the concerns of ordinary humanity, are more keenly
realized by him who, after arduous journeyings, gazes upward from the valley of Lauterbrunnen, or the lovely surroundings of Interlaken; and, as the fitness of the smiling
vale for the abode of man, the deep greenness of its vegetation, the windings of its
streams, and the glancing silver of its lakes,
are best appreciated by the traveler who
looks down from the scanty pastures which
encroach upon the eternal snows; so, if it
were possible to comprehend the two in a
single panorama, the splendors of classical
antiquity might be flashed upon the beholder from its own serene heights, while the
chequered, romantic scenery of the lowlands
should at the same time refresh his aching
vision, and inspire in him a blissful contentment with the lowlier lot. To furnish such
a panoramic view would be beyond the limits
of the task assigned, but a preliminary
glimpse at a few examples of the art of each
period may assist us in conceiving the true
nature of Romantic literature.
II.
NOT far from a sluggish river, which pours
its reluctant waters through a tract of marshy
ground in Southern Italy, rise the ruined columns of the temple of Neptune at Paestum.
Venerable with the touch of time, which has
worn the travertine into hollows, while apparently gilding the surface of the stone,, it is
still more imposing because of the massive
and solid character of these low, fluted pillars. Each is a short, thick-shouldered giant,
placed to support a heavy entablature. This
architecture is simple, rugged, and bold; a
severe taste has dictated its proportions; it
was consecrated to the worship of the earth
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[July,