THE FIRST STEP.

appear coarse and clumsy in one considerably reduced in dimensions; and the exquisite finish of a lace-ruffor an embroidered garment which we admire in silver in a plateau, could not but be regarded as frivolousin any bronze of a monumental character.

The late Mr. Wyatt of Rome, whose skill in apportioning the exact amount of finish he bestowed onevery part of his statues to the material of which it was intended to convey an idea was truly remarkable,was accustomed to acknowledge gratefully the assistance he had received in theory from the interesting workof Quatremere de Quincy on “ Imitation in the Fine Arts.” By a careful study of the general principleslaid down in that excellent work, of those which the critical acumen of Visconti and Winckelmann has derivedfrom the antique, and of those which Sir Charles Eastlake has so admirably expressed in his “ Contributions tothe Literature of the Fine Arts,” a just scale may be established in the artist’s mind of the proprieties andlimitations under which contemporary costume and the most ordinary actions may be rendered without excitingany discordant emotions.

It is by a judicious attention to such principles, that Pietro Magni has been enabled to enlist oursympathies for the graceful and natural incident he has represented, without allowing either an undueobtrusion of manual dexterity or a slothful coarseness of execution to disturb the truthfulness with which theidea of maternal affection and youthful confidence has been represented.