what he can have stopped in that dreadful place for, waves her hand for
the little boy to come away.

I have no hesitation in saying that, as compared with the ancient and
stereotyped conceptions of the "Taking down from the Cross," there is a
living feeling in that picture which is of great price. It may perhaps
be weak, nay, even superficial, or untenable--that will depend on the
other conditions of character out of which it springs--but, so far as it
reaches, it is pure and good; and we may gain more by looking
thoughtfully at such a picture than at any even of the least formal
types of the work of older schools. It would be unfair to compare it
with first-rate, or even approximately first-rate designs; but even
accepting such unjust terms, put it beside Rembrandt's ghastly white
sheet, laid over the two poles at the Cross-foot, and see which has most
good in it for you of any communicable kind.

27. I trust, then, that I fully admit whatever may, on due deliberation,
be alleged in favor of modern Art. Nay, I have heretofore asserted more
for some modern Art than others were disposed to admit, nor do I
withdraw one word from such assertion. But when all has been said and
granted that may be, there remains this painful fact to be dealt
with,--the consciousness, namely, both in living artists themselves and
in us their admirers, that something, and that not a little, is wrong
with us; that they, relentlessly examined, could not say they thoroughly
knew how to paint, and that we, relentlessly examined, could not say we
thoroughly know how to judge. The best of our painters will look a
little to us, the beholders, for confirmation of his having done well.
We, appealed to, look to each other to see what we ought to say. If we
venture to find fault, however submissively, the artist will probably
feel a little uncomfortable: he will by no means venture to meet us with
a serenely crushing "Sir, it cannot be better done," in the manner of
Albert Duerer. And yet, if it could not be better done, he, of all men,
should know that best, nor fear to say so; it is good for himself, and
for us, that he should assert that, if he knows that. The last time my
dear old friend William Hunt came to see me, I took down one of his
early drawings for him to see (three blue plums and one amber one, and
two nuts). So he looked at it, happily, for a minute or two and then
said, "Well, it's very nice, isn't it? I did not think I could have done