r Italians, it fails to carry us back to ancient
and primitive simplicity. The early pictures delineating Christian
subjects are modelled upon Greek forms and dresses, and having been
made the foundation of those works afterwards produced by the great
restorers of painting, have gained a hold upon our ideas, which, if not
impossible, is yet difficult to throw off. As the late Sir David Wilkie
travelled into the East with the express purpose of painting the
subjects mentioned in Scripture in more strict accordance with the
people and their habits, it may be of advantage to give the student his
opinions. In his Journal, he says--"After seeing with great attention
the city of Jerusalem and the district of Syria that extends from Jaffa
to the river Jordan, I am satisfied it still presents a new field for
the genius of Scripture painting to work upon. It is true the great
Italian painters have created an art, the highest of its kind, peculiar
to the subjects of sacred history; and in some of their examples,
whether from facility of inquiry or from imagination, have come very
near all the view of Syria could supply. The Venetians, (perhaps
from their intercourse with Cyprus and the Levant,) Titian, Paul
Veronese, and Sebastian del Piombo, have in their pictures given
the nearest appearance to a Syrian people. Michael Angelo, too, from
his generalizing style, has brought some of his prophets and sybils
to resemble the old Jews about the streets of the Holy City; but in
general, though the aspect of Nature will sometimes recall the finest
ideas of Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaelle, yet these masters still want
much that could be supplied here, and have a great deal of matters quite
contrary to what the country could furnish. These contrarieties, indeed,
are so great, that in discussions with the learned here, I find a
disposition to that kind of change that would soon set aside the whole
system of Italian and European art; but as these changes go too much
upon the supposition that the manners of Scripture are precisely
represented by the present race in Syria, it is too sweeping to be borne
out by what we actually know. At the same time, there are so many
objects in this country so perfectly described, so incapable of change,
and that give such an air of truth to the local allusions of Sacred
Writ, that one can scarcely imagine that these, had they been known to
the painters of Italy, would not have added to the impressive power of