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firft, however, that Mr. MENGS ftudied moft, and he could ne ver tire in contemplating the works of that immortal artift. Our Editor obferves, at the fame time, that the ftiles of Raphael and Mengs were very different; and he pretends, that it was referved for the latter to rise above Nature, while the former contented himself with imitating her in her beft and fairest actual forms. We contefted this judgment with refpect to Raphael in our former extract, when it was pronounced by MENGS; and we alleged against it Raphael's letter to Count Balthazar Caftiglioni. Our Editor mentions this letter; but fuppofes it to have been written towards the end of that great painter's life, when, only, our Editor thinks, that he began to conceive the poffibility of heightening the charms of real Nature by ideal beauty. He alleges ftill, that Raphael's productions are within the bounds of real Nature, that his Madonas are the portraits of the finest women of his time, and that the famous Madona della Ledia is no more than a handfome country girl, who gives the breaft to a beautiful child.-We fhall difpute no longer this point; but would be glad to fee M. D'AZARA favoured with a fight of the Cartoons at the Queen's house.-For the reft, his manner of expreffing the ideal beauty that characterises the most celebrated pieces of the Chev. MENGS, does not feem to us to fhew that he had a juft notion of the thing.

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He fpeaks with more precifion and truth, perhaps, when he fays, that Raphael, almoft wholly attentive to expreffion, in which he excelled, was more or lefs negligent in his claro-obfcuro and colouring; that his tints are fometimes crude, and his carnations not always of an agreeable red; and that his pictures, generally speaking, have a monotony of colouring, which makes them please lefs at first fight, and require reflection to produce their full effect. But', fays he, the pictures of Mr. MENGS unite the most fublime expreffion with the greatest truth and harmony of colouring, and that happy and judicious management of the different effects of light, which delights the fenfes at the first impreffion, and pleases reafon on the most attentive examination. They are full of that grace which is felt, but cannot be analysed. The painter of Urbino copied Nature in her moft beautiful forms; but the German artist copied, improved, and ennobled her. The former facrificed only at the thrine of Reafon; the latter at that of Reafon and the Graces at the fame time.'-Here we fufpect that M. D'AZARA has got into the ideal, at least in panegyric, notwithstanding the illuftrious merit of the artist, whom he contemplates with the blended eyes of taste and friendship:-do not read blinded.

MENGS handled the pencil in a manner peculiar to himfelf. He accumulated layers of colours on his pictures, that they might receive and reflect a greater quantity of light (Is

this fo peculiar ?); and was fo nice in this refpect, that he always prepared his pallet himself.' This we believe he had in common with a great number of painters. He had a thorough chemical knowledge of the nature of each colour, and of the effect it muft produce long after the evaporation of the oil. He was perfectly acquainted with the theory of light, and of its decompofition by the prism into seven colours; but in practice he admitted only three primitive colours, the yellow, red, and blue, and of these he compofed all his tints.

Our Editor gives a very strong and a very remarkable proof of the fuccefs with which Mr. MENGS had ftudied the works of the ancients, when he informs us, that all the technical materials, that enrich the celebrated Abbé WINKELMAN's Hiftory of the Arts (of Painting and Sculpture), were furnifhed by this excellent artift.

The Chevalier D'AZARA, after having difplayed the merit of the artist, attracts our attention and tender esteem to the character of the man; and here we fhall follow him with peculiar pleasure.

Mr. MENGS was naturally timid, and was born with a certain caft of melancholy, which is a frequent attendant on fenfibility and genius. This was nourished by the clole retirement in which his father made him pass the early period of his life. It is not therefore furprifing that he knew little of the world, was a ftranger to the tone and manners of the age, and had in his air and deportment fomething that feemed to announce diffidence and conftraint. Nevertheless he delivered his opinion in matters, relative to the art he profeffed, with a bold fincerity that feemed fometimes harsh, and gave offence; but when this happened it always gave him pain upon reflection, and he was not easy until he had made amends for it by friendly counfels and kind offices. The purity and fimplicity of his manners were remarkable; and it was eafy to obferve, that his enthusiasm for the arts had fuppreffed in him every other paffion. In point of veracity he was fevere and inflexible; nothing could engage him to depart from ftrict truth in any inftance. Among a multitude of proofs that our Editor fays he could bring of this, he mentions the following incident:-In his laft journey from Rome to Spain, entering into the French territories at Pont-de-Beauvoifin, the officers of the Cuftom-houfe found, in his baggage, gold fnuff boxes enriched with diamonds, which he had received as prefents from feveral princes. They afked him if these boxes were defigned for fale, or were only intended for his private ufe. His answer was, I am not a merchant, Gentlemen, and I never take fnuff. The officers, highly pleafed with this frankness, were entirely difpofed to renounce their feizure, and, being defirous that the honeft man fhould keep his boxes, they preffed him urgently to a general declaration, that he made ufe of them; but all their intreaties

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intreaties were infufficient to draw from him the leaft affirmation of this nature, and he continued to affure them that he had never taken a pinch of fnuff in his life. They were therefore obliged to confider the fnuff-boxes as objects of commerce, and to feize them as fuch. And had not our Editor and the Marquis of Liano interpofed afterwards, and employed, unfolicited, all their credit at Paris in favour of Mr. MENGS, the boxes would never have been returned.

Notwithstanding that there was frequently fomething not very pleafing in the external manners of this worthy man, benignity and generofity were the predominant lines of his character; and his difintereftednefs went fo far as to encroach upon the duties he owed to his family; at leaft, it prevented that prudent economy which was neceffary to fecure them an easy subsistence after his death. It appeared, in fettling his accounts, he had received, in the last eighteen years of his life, 160,000 crowns (about 40,000 pounds), and yet he left fcarcely wherewithal to pay the expences of his funeral.

This fortune does not appear very brilliant, when we confider the reputation of the Chevalier MENGS, and that there was fcarcely a fovereign in Europe, who did not employ him. The Emprefs of Ruffia, who patronizes the arts with an exquifite tafte, and an almost unbounded munificence, ordered two pictures from this great artist, and left him the choice of the fubjects. His death prevented his even beginning them; and the two thousand crowns that had been advanced to him by the Empress as a part of his reward, were generously given to his family.

The King of Spain gave the Chevalier MENGS generous marks of his protection and favour during his life, and has, fince his death, portioned his five daughters, and granted penfions to his two fons.

M. D'AZARA, after this interefting account of the artist and the man, gives a catalogue of the productions of his pencil, that are to be feen in Spain, or that were executed there. The principal of thefe (befide fuch as have been already mentioned) are as follows: The Cieling of the Saloon of Trajan, where the King dines, painted in Frefco, and reprefenting the Apotheofis of that Emperor (who was born in Spain), and the Virtues conducting him to the Temple of Fame.-Two pictures, which decorate the bed-chamber of Charles III, in the palace at Madrid,one reprefenting the Conception, and the other St. Anthony of Padua, which have fo hit the royal tafte, that his Majefty has them always carried about with him, when he changes his place of refidence. -A Crucifixion.-The Cieling of the Theatre of Aranjuez, in the centre of which MENGS has reprefented Time, incenfed, carrying off Pleasure; the reft of the Cieling exhibits Caryatides in

claro

claro-obfcuro.-A fine Magdalene in the palace of St. Ildephon fo.-A Madona, with the child Jefus and Jofeph, which belongs to the Prince of Afturias, and is greatly esteemed by that Prince, who is known to be a connoiffeur, particularly in head drapery. The principal picture in the church of St. Ifidore at Madrid, reprefenting the Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and fome Spanish Saints.-An Ecce Homo.-A Mater Dolorofa, probably in the ftile of Pergolefi.-A Portrait of Charles III.; and a Portrait of Catherine II., Emprefs of Ruffia, which is an allegorical compofition, enriched with a variety of figures.-Thefe are the principal pieces of Mr. MENGS that are mentioned in the lift of the Chevalier D'AZARA; but many other firft-rate performances have immortalized his pencil: The Saloon of the Mufæum Clementinum at Rome, which he painted in Frefco.The Perfeus and Andromeda, which he painted for an English nobleman, and which, captured in its paffage by a French privateer, became the property of M. de Sartine. The Greek fe male Dancer, large as life, painted in crayons, on wood, for the Marquis Croimare at Paris; and the Apollo, in the midst of the Mufes, in the villa Albano, in comparison with which (fays an excellent judge) the Apollo in the Aurora of Guido is but a mortal. All these are capital pictures, and will preferve the name of this admirable artift from oblivion.

*This valuable publication of the WORKS and LIFE of the Chevalier MENGS, in 2 Vols. 4to. may be had of the Importer, Mr. Molini, in Woodstock-ftreet, at One Guinea in Sheets.

ART. VII.

A

Bibliotheca Arabico-Hifpana Efcurialenfis, &c. i. e. The Arabic
Library of the Efcurial; or a Defcriptive Catalogue of all the
Manufcript Works compofed in Arabic, by Arabico-Spanish
Authors, which are contained, in the Monaftery of the Efcurial:
Drawn up by Don MICHEL CASTRIO, a Syrian-Maronite Priest,
Librarian to his Majefty Charles III. King of Spain, and Interpre-
ter of Oriental Languages. Published by the King's order, at
Madrid, in 2 vols. Folio.

TTE learn from the inftructive preface, which is prefixed
W to this great work, that Philip II., when he founded
the monastery of the Efcurial, was defirous of enriching it
with the most valuable manufcripts of all kinds, and in all lan-
guages; and this fhews, that all the fparks of humanity were not
extinguished in this hideous monarch. Several learned men, more
efpecially Arias Montanus, and Hurtado de Mendoza, were char-
ged with the execution of the King's defign. While they col-
lected manufcripts for the King, they referved feveral for them-
APP. REV. Vol. xlv.

M m

felves,

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felves, which, after their decease, were added to the royal col lection.

Under the reign of Philip III., Pietro de Lafa, being on a cruize near Salé, took two veffels, where, among other etfects belonging to Zeidan King of Morocco, he found 3000 manufcripts, on political, philofophical, and medical fubjects, as alfo on the true fenfe and interpretation of the Koran. This was a new and valuable acquifition for the library of the Efcurial; but, on the 7th of June 1671, a fire unhappily broke out, which consumed a great part of these manufcripts, so that there remained only about 1805, which escaped the flames. The catalogues of the contents of this famous collection, that had been drawn up by Arias Montanus, the firft librarian, by F. Jofeph de Siguenza, his fucceffor, and by David Colvil, a learned Scotíman, were confumed by this fire. The accounts we have had, fince that fatal event, of this famous collection, are very imper fect; they are contained in two catalogues; one of which is in Arabic and Latin, and gives the titles of the manufcripts; the other, which is only in Latin, mentions 419 only. Don CASIRIO undertook the learned catalogue, now under confideration, fo long ago as the year 1753.

He divides all these manufcripts into thirteen claffes: Rhetoric, Poetry, Philology, Mifcellanies, Lexicons, Philosophy, Politics, Medicine, Natural Hiftory, Jurifprudence, Theology, Geography, and Hiftory: He places at the fide of the Arabian titles a Latin tranflation of them: He copies the beginning and the conclufion of each work: He informs us of the birth, country, morals, profeffion, employments, and rank of the respective authors, of the time when they wrote, the date of their death, and the degree of eftcem in which their writings are held by the Mahometans.

Under the reigns of Almanzor and Almaimon, the Arabians applied themselves, with great fuccefs, to the study of philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and natural hiftory. They tranflated, into their language, the most valuable writings of the Greeks, Syrians, Perfians, Egyptians, and Indians, of which the originals are, for the most part, loft: Such are, the fifth, fixth, and feventh books of the Conic Sections of Apollonius of Pergæa, that were preserved in the library of the Medicis, and tranflated from Arabic into Latin, with a commentary by Abraham Echellenfis. Such alfo are the 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th books of the Commentary of Galen, on the 2d and 6th books of the Epidemics of Hippocrates, which is only to be found in the library of the Efcurial.

ART.

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