Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/384

 314 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Nov., PICTURE GALLERIES. ONE of the most important and bene- ficial means of promoting and popu- larizing the Fine Arts is the establish- ment of Picture Galleries and Museums. We gather, that even among the ancients, existed the custom of having apartments ill the mansions of the rich and noble, for the purpose of displaying choice and valued pictures. This is mentioned by Titruvius, who Very briefly describes these Pinacothecce, as they were called. In our own times, private collections of paintings and — where these are exten- sive — galleries have been of common occurrence, as in England, for instance ; yet too often formed, not from appre- ciation and love of the Art, or from a wish to promote its advancement ; but from ostentation. The desire to culti- A'ate any art, whether immediately use- ful, fashionable, or costly, flatters self- love; and is convenient for embellishing the apartments of stately piles. As we have said, this, in England, is too fre- quently the ruling motive. Still it has, nevertheless, been productive of great benefit to the Art, in disseminating a more general knowledge and creating a more elevated and refined public taste. There are, of course, distinguished ex- ceptions to this, among noblemen and gentlemen, who possess private collec- tions in England; and who — actuated in their formation by the purest and most unselfish motives — have done much to aid the great work of art-refinement, to benefit its professors, and to establish that true taste and feeling, in the great mass of the people, from which alone great results can spring. The infusion of a true feeling of art, among a com- mercial people, is a work exceedingly slow in its achievement. In America, we are not wanting in the onward march of improvement in the great career of Art. We are also fully awake to the fact, that there is no more certain secu- rity for the permanent endurance of a Republic, than the progressive enlarge- ment of the faculties for mental culture and refinement among its citizens. Private Galleries are now of common occurrence, in all our larger cities, Phil- adelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore, &c. They are rapidly becoming, and are considered almost in the light of, necessary appendages to mansions of the first class ; though not yet absolute appendages ; and rather to be regarded in the character of luxury and elegance, than necessity. Still, there are many of our people, who are not content to remain satisfied with the bare attainment of all the conve- niences of modern civilization, for the supply of their physical wants and necessities ; but who have a craving for enjoyments and elegancies, which may minister to their mental pleasures. Surely, there is no mode, whereby a cul- tivated and refined mind can more ration- ally and laudably acquire enjoyment, than in the possession of pictures, from the contemplation of which can be de- rived lessons fraught with as profound and valuable instruction, as can be drawn by some from books, from society, or from Nature itself. It enables us to have always at our command, for enjoy- ment whenever the inclination arises, a rich and inexhaustible mine of knowl- edge, whence the mind constantly draws more and rarer treasures. We here quote the words of Addison, to show what a thorough and just ap- preciation he had of other benefits derivable from a picture gallery. " I "frequently," says he, "make a little " part}', with two or three select friends, "to visit any thing curious that may be " under cover. My principal entertain- "ments of this kind are pictures, inso- "much that, when I have found the " weather set in to be very bad, I have