LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT AND Co., 22, LUDGATE STREET. MDCCCXL. Price Seven Shillings and Sixpence, bound in cloth. ен Cyc 376 COMMITTEE. Chairman-The Right Hon. LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S., memoer of the National Institute of France. ¿Vice-Chairman-JOHN WOOD Esq. Robert Inglis, Esq., Treasurer. Rev. C. Bridgman, Rev. C. Gutzlaff, Secretaries. J. R. Morrison, Esq.. William Roberts, Esq. C. C. Dendy, Esq. Thomas Evans, Esq. Edward Strutt, Esq., M.P LOCAL COMMITTEES.' Devonport and Stonehouse-John Cole, Esq. Lt. Col. C. Hamilton Smith, F.R.S. John Milford, Esq. (Conver.) 1 Professor Mylne. J. Mulleneux, Esq., Treasurer. Maidenhead-R. Goolden, Esq., F.L.S. The Right Hon. Lord Nugent. ' W. S. O'Brien, Esq., M.P. The Right Hon. Sir Henry Parnell, Bt, M.P. John Case, Esq. Masham-Rev. George Waddington, M.A. Presteign-Dr. A. W. Davis, M.D. Ripon Rev. H.P. Hamilton, M.A.F.R.S.G.S. Humphreys Jones, Esq. Ryde, I. of Wight-Sir Rd. Simeon, Bt. T. Sopwith, Esq., F.G.S. Newport, Isle of Wight-Ab. Clarke, Esq. T. Cooke, Jun., Esq. R. G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. THOMAS COATES, Esq., Secretary, No. 59, Lincoln's Inn Fields, J. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., F.G S London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWns and Soxu, Stamford Street," MUR USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. MUR " city and in the National Museum at Madrid. Many of his works are in France, particularly in the collection of Marshal Soult,* and in the collections of the English ability and gentry. The Dresden Gallery has a fine Virgin and Child by his hand. Several of his pictures are at Mum, and others at Vienna, in the possession of Prince Esterhazy By the collection of several Murillos from the convents of Seville, a museum has recently been formed in the cathedral of that city; and there are many more in the National Museum at Madrid. The picture which Murillo preferred to all his other works was that of St. Thomas de Villa Nueva distributing Alms to the Sick and the Poor.' This, we presume, is the picture in the possession of Mr. Wells, of which Dr. Waagen says, This fine picture was formerly in the church of the Franciscans at Genoa. The subject was a peculiarly happy one for Murillo. In the head of the saint, in which priestly dignity and gravity are admirably expressed, he proves his ability in treating such religious subjects from the legends of the monkish saints. The cripples and the sick afforded him, on the other hand, an ample field to show his skill in representations from common life, which we so highly admire in his beggar boys.' Dr. Waagen describes likewise another picture of the same subject, 10 feet high and 6 feet wide, now in Lord Ashburton's collection, purchased by his lordship of General Sebastiani, and which was formerly at Seville. We refer to Dr. Waagen's work on Arts and Artists in England' for descriptions of the numerous pictures by Murillo in our English collections. Murillo raised the art of painting in Spain not only by his own works, but by founding an academy at Seville, of which he was president from the year 1660 till his death. Bermudez, Diccion. de Profes. Españo. de Bellas Artes; Ponz, Viuge de España; El Artista, 1835; La Revista de Madrid, Enero, 1839.) (Cean to copy MURILLO, BARTOLOMEO ESTEBAN, the most eminent artist of the school of Seville, and the most distinguished colourist of the Spanish painters, was born at Seville in the year 1618. As he manifested at a very early age an inclination to painting, he was placed under his uncle, Juan del Castillo, an artist of merit, whose favourite subjects were fairs and markets, and whose pupils, Alonso Cano, Murillo, and Pedro Moya, rank as the best Andalusian artists. Under him Murillo made rapid progress, and painted several pictures while he remained with his uncle. After leaving him he continued to improve in drawing as well as in painting. For some time he painted in the Florentine style, which then prevailed in Spain, and several works of this his first period are still preserved at Seville. In order to improve himself in drawing, he was on the point of going to England to see Vandyck, when he heard of the death of that great master. He then applied with great diligence to the painting of small pictures of saints, for the trade with America, by which he obtained funds sufficient to undertake, in 1643, a journey to Madrid. Here he derived great advantage from the instruction of his countryman Velazquez, who likewise obtained for him permission the master-pieces of Titian, Rubens, Vandyck, and Ribera, in the royal collection. Returning to Seville in 1645, he excited general admiration by his paintings in the Convent of St. Francis. They were in the style of Spagnoleto (José Ribera) and Velazquez, then unknown at Seville, and procured him many commissions. He painted several historical pictures for the king of Spain, which gained him great reputation in his own country, and, being sent to Rome as a present to the pope, so highly pleased the Italians, that they called him a second Paul Veronese. He likewise painted many grand altar-pieces for the churches and convents in Madrid, Seville, Cordova, Cadiz, and Granada. Among these are eight large pictures representing the works of Mercy, for the church of St. George in the hospital De la Caridad' of Seville, which are distinguished for their admirable composition and force of colourmg. Other equally excellent works adorned the church of Los Venerables and the Capucin convent, for which latter be painted twenty-eight pictures, which were afterwards sent to America. He was engaged on an altar-piece representing the marriage of St. Catherine, for the Capucin Convent at Cadiz, when he met with an accident on the scaffolding, from which he never recovered, and he died at Seville, on the 3rd of April, 1685. But though Murillo was thus eminent in the higher departments of the art, his favourite subjects were beggar boys as large as life engaged in various amusements, which be generally designed after nature. His pictures of such subjects are highly esteemed for their merit, and may be in the collections of the English nobility; but there numberless copies. Murillo excelled likewise in portheils and landscapes. His works are distinguished by the entire absence of the servility of imitation; and by the | their striking character of truth, nature, and simplicity; by delicacy of his which in fact seem perfect every at test pictures are striking the Rock,' and 'Christ 1805, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His principal works eding the Five Thousand,' in the convent of St. Francis, at Seville; and St. Antony of Padua,' in the cathedral of that MURPHY, ARTHUR, a dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born near Elphin, in the county of Roscommon, Ireland, December 27, 1730. His father was a merchant in Dublin. In 1740, Arthur Murphy was entered at the college of St. Omer, where he remained nearly seven years, and, on his return to Ireland, passed two years in a merchant's counting-house at Cork. From thence he came to London, and obtained a situation as clerk in a bankinghouse, shortly after which he commenced his career as a public writer. On the 21st of October, 1752, he started The Gray's Inn Journal,' a periodical in the style of the which he carried on to October 12th, 1754. On the 18th of the same month he tried his fortune as an actor on the stage of Covent Garden, and in the character of Othello. His success was but moderate, and after a second season, during which he acted at Drury Lane, he quitted the boards for ever, and resumed his former occupation as a writer by commencing a periodical political journal called 'The Test. He also began to study the law, but was refused admission to the societies of the Temple and of Gray's Inn on the ground of his having been an actor. He succeeded finally in obtaining admission to " Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar, appointed a commis Moses P. C., No. 977. Two of these, the Prodigal Son' and 'Abraham and the three Angels have been purchased by the Duke of Sutherland. VOL. XVI.-B |