146 JOHN FLAXMAN AND HIS WORKS. II. Sculpture, in her turn, Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass To guard them, and to immortalize her trust.-COWPER. his lyre and poetical compositions lie neglected on the ground. "I have but one book, sir," said Collins to Johnson, "but that is the best." It is a work of more His monument to Mrs. Morley, in Gloucester cathedral, is considered to be a work of high order, though belonging to Flaxman's early years. This lady perished with her child at sea, and is poetically repreWHEN Flaxman was twenty-seven years old he ventured sented as called up by angels, with her babe, from the The effect is spoken to enter upon business for himself, and apart from his waves, and ascending into heaven. father. Among other preliminaries to the new regula- of by Cunningham as inexpressibly touching-elevating tion of his career, he united himself in marriage with the mind, and not without tears. Anne Denman, a woman whom he had long loved, and than mortal loveliness, expressing the sentiment of imserene simplicity which who well deserved his affection. This step was taken by mortality, and possessing a our artist from a belief that, in the society of her whom accords with holy thoughts. Of the grouping of angels he loved, he should be able to work with an intenser in another work of this date, the same biographer respirit. But Sir Joshua Reynolds looked upon this mat-marks that, "if ever figures were capable of rising from ter in a very different light. "So, Flaxman," said the earth, these are, for they are buoyant without any president, one day, as he chanced to meet him, "I am effort." told you are married: if so, sir, I tell you you are ruined for an artist!" It is said that Flaxman went home, sat down beside his wife, took her hand, and said with a smile, “I am ruined for an artist." "John," said she, "how has this happened? and who has done it?" happened," he answered, “in the church, and Ann Denman has done it: I met Sir Joshua Reynolds just now, and he said that marriage had ruined me in my profession." "It So unfavourable an opinion, coming from an authority so high and reputed, seemed, like a cloud, to dull the prospect before them, but it was a cloud that passed away, and left "the sunshine of the breast" clear as it was before; for they very wisely considered the opinion of the president to be no more than the unguarded and peevish remark of a wealthy old bachelor. The course of experience soon showed, and confirmed him in the belief, that “wedlock is for a man's good, rather than for his harm." How could it be otherwise in his case? His wife was amiable and accomplished, had a taste for art and literature, and considerable knowledge of French, Italian, and Greek. But, what was more grateful than all in a wife, she was an enthusiastic admirer of his genius, she cheered and encouraged him in his moments of despondency, and regulated modestly and prudently his domestic economy. "That tranquillity of mind, so essential to those who live by thought, was of his household; and the sculptor, happy in the company of one who had taste and enthusiasm, soon renewed with double zeal the studies which courtship and matrimony had for a time interrupted." Flaxman's household, soon after his marriage, is thus described by one who respected and admired his genius and worth. I remember him well; so do I his wife, and also his humble little house in Wardour-street. All was neat-nay, elegant-the figures from which he studied were the finest antiques the nature which he copied was the fairest that could be had—and all in his studio was propriety and order. But what struck me most was that air of devout quiet which reigned everywhere: the models which he made, and the designs which he drew, were not more serene than he was himself, and his wife had that meek composure of manner which he so much loved in art. Yet, better than all, was the devout feeling of this singular man: there was no ostentatious display of piety-nay, he was in some sort a lover of mirth and sociality, but he was a reader of the Scriptures, and a worshipper of sincerity; and, if ever Purity visited the earth, she resided with John Flaxman. By incessant study and labour, for five years from the time of his marriage, Flaxman accumulated the means of visiting Italy, in order to study, in the Roman school, the productions of ancient and modern artists. During those five years he exhibited only seven works, nor were these his best. One of his first monuments was in meof Collins, the poet, for Chichester cathedral*. It mory represents the poet sitting and reading the Bible, while * See Saturday Magazine,Vol. V., p. 27. In the year 1787 he set out for Rome, in company with his wife. His departure was thus alluded to in the newspapers::-"We understand that Flaxman, the sculptor, is about to leave his modest mansion in Wardour street for Rome." In Rome he sojourned for about seven years, admiring, studying, labouring, and thus supporting himself and his wife. He seems to have imbibed the idea of illustrating divine Revelation by his works, when he should return to the land of his birth. In the mean while it was necessary for him, as for many others of the children of genius, to seek his bread, by practising his art in accordance with the inclinations of those who employed him. The space to which we are here necessarily limited prevents us from entering into a detail of the illustrations of Homer, of Eschylus, and of Dante, which he executed by commission: they were all discharged from his mind on the purest principles of nature and the antique, and finished off with the nicest adjustments of manual skill. Flaxman spent about seven years at Rome, which he Before his return home he turned to the best account. was elected a member of the academies of Florence and Carrara. Napoleon Buonaparte had just begun to attract the attention of mankind, and the events in the north of Italy probably quickened our sculptor's return. “I remember, a night or two before my departure from Rome," he once observed to a friend, "that the ambassador of the French proudly showed us, at an evening party, a medal of Buonaparte. There,' said he, ‘is the hero who is to shake the monarchies of the earth, and raise the glory of the Republic.' I looked at the head, and said at once, 'This citizen Buonaparte of yours is the very image of Augustus Cæsar.' Image of a tyrant!' exclaimed the Frenchman, 'no, indeed: I tell you he is another sort of a man-he is a young enthusi astic hero, and dreams of nothing but liberty and equality!'" Reflecting men on this side the Channel, as well as on the Continent, more incredulous than the Frenchman, soon began to suspect Buonaparte to be the enemy of all who opposed him, and the tyrant of all who obeyed him. Ön his return to England Flaxman established himself in Buckingham-street, Fitzroy-square, where he at once became known by his monument in memory of the Earl of Mansfield. This work had been commissioned during his residence at Rome. The judge is seated, and in his robes; Wisdom is on one side, Justice on the other; and behind is a recumbent youth, whom the common accounts of the monument describe as Death, but who is, nevertheless, more like an unhappy mortal on whom sentence has been passed, and by Wisdom delivered up to Justice. For this magnificent work he had 25001. The statue of Mansfield is calm, simple, severe, and solitary: he sits alone, above all pomp, all passion, and all pride;' and there is that in his look which would embolden the innocent, and strike terror to the guilty. The figure of the condemned youth is certainly a fine conception. Hope has forsaken him, and already in his ears is the thickening hum of the multitude, eager to see him make his final account with time. This work raised high expectations. Banks said, when he saw it, "This little man cuts us all out!' While he was engaged on the statue of Mansfield, he designed with pen and pencil a series of allegorical representations, in which the chief adventurer is the Knight of the Burning Cross, a Christian hero, whose fortitude, faith, and courage, make him, though at first sorely assailed and almost vanquished, the conqueror in the end. These designs were executed as a tribute of affection to his wife, in whose society he had now lived fourteen years, and enjoyed the purest domestic happi ness that could fall to the lot of man. In 1797 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in the same year he sent to the exhibition three sketches in bas-relief from the New Testament, along with the monument of Sir William Jones. This monument now stands in the chapel of University College; Oxford; it is a bas-relief, and represents the accomplished judge engaged with some venerable Brahmins in a digest of the Hindoo code of laws. It is not considered that Flaxman excelled in works of this sort; he cannot be said to have had the art of giving grace or beauty to modern dresses, or to modern looks. The sketches before alluded to were from scriptural designs, and were distinguished for their elegance of grouping, and the clear language which they spoke. One was Christ raising the daughter of Jairus: the figures are one fourth the size of life, and but slightly raised; but for perfect innocence and serene loveliness, nothing can compete with them. He afterwards carved this in marble, on an enlarged scale, for a monument. The second was scarcely inferior, and might be said to have for its text,-" Comfort the feebleminded, support the weak." (1 Thess. v. 14.) Ministering angels attend, in order to alleviate human sorrow. The third sketch is "Feeding the Hungry." In the year 1800 he was made a member of the Royal Academy, and on this occasion presented to the collection of the institution a marble group of Apollo and Marpessa. Flaxman longed to be employed on some national work; and accordingly he proposed, when the subject of the grand naval pillar was agitated, to make a statue of Britannia, 200 feet high, and place it on Greenwich Hill. This proposal, however, was coldly received, and allowed to drop-one critic accused him of wishing "to hew Greenwich Hill into a woman large enough to graze a couple of goats in her lap," while another gave notice, -"There is to be a show at Greenwich of little Flaxman and big Britannia." The many noble works which now came from the hand of Flaxman made many people feel that a sculptor had at length appeard to vindicate the dignity of our national genius. One of these was a monument in memory of the family of Sir Francis Baring, for Micheldean Church, in Hampshire: an excellent work, and said to be one of the finest pieces of motionless poetry in the land. It embodies the words,-" Thy will be done thy kingdom come-deliver us from evil." To the first motto belongs a devotional figure, as large as life, a perfect image of piety and resignation: this figure forms the frontispiece of our former article, p. 105. On one side" Thy kingdom come"--a mother and daughter ascend to the skies, welcomed, rather than supported by angels; and on the other-"Deliver us from evil" a male figure in subdued agony appears in the air, while spirits of good and evil contend for the mastery. It was well said by Flaxman that "the Christian religion presents personages and subjects no less favourable to painting and sculpture than the ancient classics." We cannot stay even to catalogue the other works of nearly equal beauty, though not of such extent, which followed this splendid monument. Of historical works he executed several; but they are not thought to be his | ablest performances. Much of his poetic invention seems to have forsaken him, when he approached subjects of modern days. Hence it was, that, in such works, there was an occasional absence of true proportion, which no emendation could completely remedy. This is said to have resulted from his habit, in the former part of his life, of working his marbles from half-sized models, -a system which is injurious to true proportion; as the defects of the small model are much more than proportionally aggravated in the full-sized marble. When Flaxman latterly became sensible of the advantage of using large models, the change for the better was conspicuous in several of his historical works, both ancient and beauty of classic antiquity, and seemed to slumber in the modern; but still his spirit followed after the grace and representations of ordinary modern life. The subject of our frontispiece is the meeting of Hector and Andromache, in one of the scenes of the Trojan war, as described by Homer in the sixth book of as exhibiting a severer kind of beauty—a mixture of of the Iliad. This production of Flaxman's is spoken manliness and matronly love. The quiet dignity of the hero is truly wonderful. With haste to meet him sprung the joyful fair, Silent the warrior smiled, and pleased, resigned When the peace of Amiens, in the year 1802, opened the way to France, Flaxman visited Paris, to see the splendid collections of paintings in the Louvre. These had been taken, by the right of conquest, from the states of Italy, but were restored by the decision of the allies at the downfall of Buonaparte. Whatever pleasure our artist might have felt in his professional visit to France, he seems to have been anything but delighted with the ruling spirits of the coming empire. He held it to be unsafe, or at least unwise, to keep company with persons, however clever and brilliant, whose moral and religious opinions were inimical to the natural law of mercy and loving-kindness, and to the religion revealed by heaven. He returned the civilities of the First Consul with stately courtesy, refused to be introduced to him, and left France with a confirmed opinion, that the physiognomy of Buonaparte corresponded with that of Augustus, and that ere long he would openly play the part of a tyrant. At this time, Flaxman, though a professing member of the Established Church, had long listened to the doctrines of Swedenborg, and was become all but a proselyte. He did not, however, openly associate with this sect; though it was evident that he coloured his conversation and way of life, to a certain extent, with the mysticism of this visionary. Flaxman was, in religion, certainly of a devout and quiet imagination: but still his domestic character was gay, cheerful, and companionable. In the next paper we will describe the latter scenes of the sculptor's life. ON CHESS. VIII. CHESS WRITERS AND PLAYERS, (continued.) armour. We have already spoken of the appearance of a regular treatise on chess, by Jacobus de Cesolis, about the year 1200. This Cesolis, (whose name, we may observe, is spelt in upwards of twenty different ways,) is said to have been a native of the village of Cessoles, near the frontiers of Picardy and Champagne. His manuscript was translated into German verse by Conrad Ammenhusen, a monk of Stettin, in 1337. After the invention of printing, the work of Cesolis went through many editions and translations. Editions in Latin, German, Dutch, French, Italian, and English, appeared within a short period of each other. The English translation, by William Caxton, printed in 1474, is a small folio of 144 pages, dedicated "to the right noble, right excellent, and vertuous Prince George, Duc of Clarence, Erle of Warwyk and of Salysburye, grete Chamberlayn of Englonde, and leutenant of Irelond, oldest broder of Kynge Edward (IV.)" It begins thus:-"I have put me indeyour to translate a lityll book, late comen in to myn handes, out of frensh in to englishe, in which I find thauctorites, dictees, and stories of auncient doctours, philosophes, poetes, and of other wyse men which been recounted, and applied unto chesse." This translation of Caxton's is the more interesting on account of its being the second book ever printed in England, and the first in which metal types were employed. The forms and names of the chess-pieces, as given by Cesolis, are as follows:-The king sits on his throne, with a crown on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and a globe in his left. The queen on a chair, with a mantle of ermine. The alfin, or bishop, is represented as a lawyer, seated, with a book outspread on his knees; and the distinction is drawn that he on the white square is for civil, and he on the black square for criminal cases. The knights are on horseback, in full The rooks, legates, or vicars, are men on horseback, quite unarmed. The description of the pawns is, however, the most remarkable, on account of the variety in their form, and in the offices assigned to them. The king's pawn has a pair of scales in his right hand, in his left a measuring wand, and a purse hanging at his waist-band. The queen's pawn is a man seated in an arm-chair, with a book in one hand, a vial in the other, and various surgical instruments stuck in his girdle. This personage represents a physician, who, to be perfect, ought, according to our author, to be a grammarian, logician, rhetorician, astrologer, arithmetician, geometrician, and musician. The king's bishop's pawn is a man with a pair of shears in one hand, a knife in the other, an inkhorn at his button-hole, and a pen behind his ear. The queen's bishop's pawn is a man standing at his own door, with a glass of wine in one hand, a loaf in the other, and a bunch of keys at his girdle. The king's knight's pawn is a smith, with hammer and trowel. The queen's knight's pawn carries keys, and compasses, and an open purse. The king's rook's pawn is a husbandman, with bill-hook in hand, and a pruning knife at his girdle. The queen's rook's pawn, with dishevelled hair, and in rags, displays four dice in one hand, and a crust of bread in the other, a bag being suspended from his shoulder. All these pawns are defined by Caxton to represent the following description of per sons: Labourers, and tilinge of the erthe. Smythes, and other werkes in yron and metals. Marchaunts and chaungers. Phisicyens and cirurgiens, and apotecaries. Taverners and hostelers. Gardes of the cities and tollers and customers. The second edition of The Game and Playe of the Chesse, (such was the title of Caxton's book,) appeared in 1490. It is decorated with seventeen prints, and has a curious preface, which, with the concluding paragraph of the work, also written by Caxton, we now lay before our readers. The holy appostle and doctour of the peple, Saynt Poule, sayth in his epystle, Alle that is wryten is wryten unto our doctryne, and for our servying. Wherfore many noble notable werkys and historyes to the ende that it myght clerkes have endevoyred them to wryte and compyle many come to the knowledge and understondying of suche as ben ygnoraunt of which the nombre is infenyte, and accordying to the same saith Salamon that the nombre of foles is infenyte, and emong alle other good werkys it is a werke of ryght special recomendacion to enforme, and to late undstonde wysedom and vertue unto them that be not lernyd, ne can not dyscerne wysedom fro folye. Thene emonge whom there was an excellent doctour of dyvynyte in the royaume of fraunce of the ordre of thospytal of saynt iohns of iherusalem whiche entended the same and hath made a book of chesse moralysed, which at such time as i was resident in Brudgys in the counte of flaunders cam into my handes, which whan i had redde and overseen, me semed ful necessarye for to be had in englische, and in eschewing of ydlenes. And to thende that some which have not seen it ne understonde frenssh ne latyn, i delybered in myself to translate it into our maternal tonge, and when i had acheyved the said translacion i did doo sett in emprynte a solde. Wherfore by cause this said boke is ful of holsom certyn nombre of them, which anone were despesshed and wysedom and requysyte unto every estate and degree, i have purposed to emprynte it shewing therfore the figures of such persones as longen to the playe, in whom al astates and degrees ben comprysed, besechen al them that this litel werke shall see, here, or rede, to have me for excused for the rude and symple makyng and reducyng into our englisshe, and whereas is defaute to correcte and amende and in so doyng they shall deserve meryte and thanke, and i shall pray for them, that god of his grete mercy shal rewarde them in his everlastyng blisse in heven, to the whiche he brynge us, that wyth his precious blood redemed us Amen, 2 The closing paragraph is as follows: And a man that lyveth in this worlde without vertues liveth not as a man, but as a beste. Thenne let euery man of what condycion he be that redyth, or herith this litel book redde, take thereby ensample to amende hym. The work of Cesolis, though it went through so many editions and translations, gave no rules for the playing of the game. This deficiency was soon after supplied in the treatises of Vicent and of Lucena, (both ascribed to the year 1495,) but more completely by that of Damiano, a Portuguese, in 1512. The latter work was originally written in Spanish and Italian, and consists chiefly of the openings of the game known as the Giuoco Piano. The Ends of Games" and "Problems" difficult of solution, which conclude his volume, are many of them taken from the work of Lucena. His small book is, however, deficient in the principal openings, and expatiates chiefly on games where advantage is given. The work of Damiano was reprinted under the direction of D. Antonio Porto, who unjustly prefixed his own name as the author, although he had not made the slightest addition to the volume, or alteration of it. In 1527 Mark Jerome Vida, of Cremona, bishop of Alba, published a Latin poem on chess, called Scacchia Ludus; which has gone through many editions in Latin, Italian, French, and English. Pope notices this author in his Essay on Criticism: Immortal Vida, on whose honoured brow, And Warton, in his Essay on Pope, speaks of Vida's poem in the following terms:-" It was a happy choice to write a poem on chess; nor is the execution less happy. The various stratagems and manifold intricacies of this ingenious game, so difficult to be described in Latin, are here expressed with the greatest perspicuity and elegance, so that, perhaps, the game might be learned from this description." That this poem was valued and admired by contemporary authors is plain from the language of Pasquier, who wrote in 1560, and thus speaks :-" Jerom Vida represented this fine game of chess in the form of a battle, and his Latin verses are in the true spirit of Virgil." Specimens of the various English versification of this work are given by Twiss, but they do not appear to us sufficiently interesting for insertion here. In 1561 appeared, in Spanish, the "Book of the liberal Invention and Art of the Game of Chess, by Ruy Lopez de Sigura, clerk, inhabitant of the town of Cafra. Directed to the illustrious lord, Don Garcia de Toledo." This work is said to have added little to the knowledge of chess; and the author, while censuring Damiano, and speaking contemptuously likewise of all the Italian players, was himself guilty of many errors, which were still further increased by his translator and printer. A few years after the publication of this book, the vanity of the author met with a severe check in the defeat he suffered in the presence of Philip II., king of Spain, as the following anecdote will show:-A young man of Cutri, in Calabria, named Leonardo, went to Rome, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII., to study the law; but gave his attention much more to the study of chess, in which game he became so skilful, that though very young, and therefore called Il Puttino, the boy, he soon conquered all the best players. Ruy Lopez, who was an ecclesiastic, and at that time considered the first chess-player in Europe, came to Rome at this time, to solicit the pope for a benefice which had then become vacant at the court of Philip II. of Spain. Having heard of the young Leonard's fame, he sought his acquaintance, and conquered him two following days; which vexed Leonardo so much that he immediately went to Naples, and devoted himself to the study and practice of chess for the space of two years. Returning from thence to his native place, he learned that his brother had been taken by corsairs, and chained to the oar. Leonardo set out to ransom him, and agreed with the reis or captain of the galley on the price of his dismissal, which was to be two hundred crowns. Finding that the captain understood chess, Leonardo engaged him in play, and succeeded in winning from him the price agreed on for his brother's ransom, and two hundred crowns besides. With this he returned to Naples; from thence he sailed to Genoa, Marseilles, and Barcelona, playing with and conquering all he met; and then travelled to Madrid, where he soon revenged himself on his old antagonist, Ruy Lopez, by beating him at chess in the presence of the king. On this occasion Philip presented Leonardo with a thousand crowns, besides jewels, furs, &c. The victor then went to Lisbon, where success and honours likewise attended him, and where he received the title of knight-errant. On revisiting Calabria, at a subsequent period, he was poisoned by some envious person in the palace of Prince Bisignano, and died in the forty-sixth year of his age. Such are some of the particulars of the life of Leonardo of Cutri, as given in the work Il Puttino, published by Salvio, of Naples, of whose reputation as a master of chess we shall speak in due order. CHURCHES IN LONDON.-Place yourself on the summit of that magnificent church which crowns our imperial city; from thence, survey the prospect unfolded to your ken. Immediately below you are thickly spread the monuments of former munificence and piety, those numerous churches reared by kings, and nobles, and merchants, and religious bodies. Direct your view a little further, and, gradually, these, the most interesting features of the landscape, are found to disappear, until, at length, it is only here and there that some solitary tower or steeple breaks the monotonous expanse of house-tops, showing us that God is not utterly forgotten,-that some few among his creatures still possess the privilege of worshipping their great Creator. So situated, while above all seems fair and bright, and below all is gilded by the sunshine, I behold, on the verge of the horizon, a dark belt of angry clouds, slowly but surely "gathering blackness," from whence, ere long, there will burst forth the tempest and the storm,-" hail-stones and coals of fire."-BISHOP BLOMFIELD. VACCINATION.-Most people now have their children vacci- [From Useful Hints, Second Series; published by |