the incapacity of the people at home, and that a nod from him would set his dependents to tear up and trample on every thing we hold sacred. Reynolds could not draw-his colouring was white, was blue, was red, was every thing that would damn him; he stole what he had, and mangled what he stole. Gainsborough's landscapes were mere nosegays; and West, who was so much the fashion, afforded a convincing proof that drawing was not sought after, and that a true idea of art was wanting."

To confute such a sweeping censurer as this, Barry could bring knowledge and sense; but he was deficient in that courtesy and graciousness of manner which takes the sting out of contradiction. He was vehement, and he was incensed: nor did he seek to conceal his indignation; the consequences are clearly described by his own pen:-"I had no sooner attempted to excuse our artists from these aspersions-but I was immediately pointed out as a person who, not coinciding with the designs of the dealers, might be dangerous in the company or English cavaliers, where it was necessary every now and then to run out into the praises of an indifferent antique head, with a modern body and legs cobbled to it, or of an old picture, which they christen in the name of this or that master, and which has no other merit but that-as nothing is visible, nothing can be objected to it. As the English have much money to lay out in virtù, and as they have perhaps a greater passion for the ancients than they have, generally speaking, judgment to distinguish among them, those in whose hands they fall here, and to whom their commissions are sent, take care to provide heads with bodies and legs, and vice versa. Fragments of all the gods are jumbled together, legs and heads of fairies and graces, till a monster is produced. Though for the most part intrigue and mercenary

ways are prevalent here, truth is never without a witness."

All this was honest, intrepid, and imprudent. His fame was yet to make, and his character was much in those men's power, and he was made to feel it. Sly old antiquarians cunningly inveigled him into conversation, and exhibited him to the English travellers, as, heated with controversy, he threw his sarcasms, right and left, among all who sold and all who purchased busts without heads, and daubings of the dark masters. This consumed his time, took his attention from study, and invaded that tranquillity of mind which is so necessary for all noble pursuits. In the midst of these distractions, a long and friendly letter from Sir Joshua Reynolds sought to reclaim him from disputation, and bind him heartily to Michael Angelo and Raphael. "If you should not relish their works at first," said the President," which may probably be the case, as they have none of those qualities which are captivating at first sight, never cease looking till you find something like inspiration come over you, till you think every other painter insipid in comparison, and to be admired only for petty excellencies."

Barry failed to discover in the compositions of these illustrious masters the entire proportion, and grace, and simplicity of the Grecian sculpture. He was too ardent in his nature to keep this belief to himself; he preached this unheard-of heresy in Rome, with the fervour of a devotee; and thus unbosomed himself to Burke. "I see," he said, "in no part of Raphael's works any figure that I may call truly and correctly beautiful, like the Antinous, or the Venus of Medici; or any that is truly good, like the bust of Alexander; or sublime, like the Apollo. As to the Torso, the Laocoon, and such like characters, he appears not at all qualified to succeed in them. As to his cartoons and his pictures in the Vatican, they may be more expressive

of the passions, and may be more correct in a mediocrity of character-a little more than that which comes into any of those works, or even into his Transfiguration. Michael Angelo appears still less near the standard than Raphael. He is infinitely above Raphael in knowledge and correctness, yet his ostentation and show of this, and Raphael's art of concealing with choice of subject and pleasing wellwrought draperies-his want of it, bring them nearly to a level, at least with the bulk of mankind; yet I rather believe fewer people have attained Michael Angelo's merits than Raphael's, though no one has come near Raphael upon the whole."

Barry loved simple beauty of form. Reynolds admired the splendid effects of light and shade. The former saw and worshipped in the marbles of Greece a severe and dignified grandeur, all attained without startling attitudes or violent motion: the latter discovered the perfection of art in the profuse draperies, imposing effects, and quiet grace of Angelo and Raphael. These two men were in their natures essentially dissimilar, and looked upon the works of the great masters with very different eyes. How Sir Joshua received the account of Barry's heresy concerning Michael Angelo we are not informed, but we gather from a letter addressed to him soon afterward, that Barry was unwilling to be suspected of coldness or indifference concerning the glories of the Sistine Chapel. But poor Barry was an indifferent dissembler: his raptures were felt to be artificial: the President shrugged his shoulders, as was his custom, and never advised him more.

In the third year of his residence in Rome, he made an excursion to Naples. "At Nitri, a miserable little town in the Neapolitan Territory," he says in one of his letters," are monuments which gave me heartfelt pleasure. One is a piece of raw hide, a little broader than the sole of the foot, tied on in the manner of the ancient sandal. I bought a pair

of them, which I will put on, to show you the vil lany of our cursed Gothic shoes, which, by the line which the termination of the upper leather makes upon the stocking, cuts off the foot from the Leg, and loses that fine idea of one limb which is kept up in this vestige of a sandal. Another monument is the manner of tying up the hair of the women. I gave one of them money-made drawings of it-loosed it, and made drawings again-so that I know every thing about it, and shall be of great use to the ladies when I come home. Blessed be the poverty of this people, and long may it continue to their posterity! it has preserved to them, though in a state of ignorance, the elegant notions of their forefathers: it has kept it out of their power to flaunt about after the deliriums and new-fangled whims of fashionable people in great cities; and you shall not be able in your Londons, your Parises and Romes, to cull me out such an object as one of these women standing near a fountain, with her sweet antique-formed vase on her head. At Naples also is to be seen the same way of tying up the hair as in many bustos-the cloth which lies across it in other heads of antiquity, and the reta, net or cap, inclosing all; and even without quitting the vulgar women of Naples, I will show you among them all the different head-dresses of the Nine Muses. I find the love of antiquity growing upon me every day."

After a brief interval, fatigued with studying from the antique, with discovering resemblances between the dresses of the Italian rustics and the classic costume of Attica, and with gazing on Titian, whom he at this time preferred to all painters of these latter days Barry once more sought amusement in disputes with fellow artists, and in hostile bickerings with wandering virtuosi and pedestrian picture dealers. Burke had long been sensible of this grievous infirmity in his friend's temper, and in a

series of eloquent and affectionate letters, endeavoured to sooth down his rugged spirit, and sugar over the bitterness of his nature. It was all in vain. "You have given," thus writes Burke, "a strong and, I fancy, a very faithful picture of the dealers in taste with you. It is very right that you should know and remark their little arts; but as fraud will intermeddle in every transaction of life, where we cannot oppose ourselves to it with effect, it is by no means our duty or our interest to make ourselves uneasy, or multiply enemies on account of it. In particular, you may be assured that the traffic in antiquity, and all the enthusiasm, folly, or fraud which may be in it, never did, nor never can, hurt the merit of living artists: quite the contrary, in my opinion; for I have ever observed that whatever it be that turns the minds of men to any thing relative to the arts, brings artists more and more into credit and repute; and though now and then the mere broker and dealer in such things runs away with a great deal of the profit, yet in the end ingenious men will find themselves gainers by the dispositions which are nourished and diffused in the world by such pursuits. I praise exceedingly your resolution of going on well with those whose practices you cannot altogether approve-there is no living in this world upon any other terms."

If Barry ever formed the resolution of living on terms of peace with these men of virtù, his intractable temper soon broke it. He was now, by his own account, become so fastidious in his taste that even Titian could no longer please him-he looked with scorn upon all works below his own airdrawn standard of excellence, and regarded and addressed with sarcastic displeasure all "whose gods were not his gods." It was his misfortune that he uniformly fancied himself the conqueror in these uncivil debates: hence a growing belief that the time must come when there would be a reaction