She is old, (a most touching point);
lamenting aloud, clutches passionately the heavy-weighted body on her
knee; her mouth is open. Altogether it is one of the most powerful
appeals possible to be conceived; for there are few but will consider
this identification with humanity to be of more effect than any
refined or emasculate treatment of the same subject by later artists,
in which we have the fact forgotten for the sake of the type of
religion, which the Virgin was always taken to represent, whence she
is shown as still young; as if, nature being taken typically, it were
not better to adhere to the emblem throughout, confident by this
means to maintain its appropriateness, and, therefore, its value and
force.
In the Niello work here mentioned there is a delineation of the Fall,
in which the serpent has given to it a human head with a most sweet,
crafty expression. Now in these two instances the style is somewhat
rude; but there are passion and feeling in it. This is not a question
of mere execution, but of mind, however developed. Let us not
mistake, however, from this that execution should be neglected, but
only maintained as a most important _aid_, and in that quality alone,
so that we do not forget the soul for the hand. The power of
representing an object, that its entire intention may be visible, its
lesson felt, is all that is absolutely necessary: mere technicalities
of performance are but additions; and not the real intent and end of
painting, as many have considered them to be.
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