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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
beyond the limits of human execution. Where there is room for this play of the imagination, there we shall always find we are impressed the strongest, and it is partly in this respect that the Germans fail to speak eloquently with the brush. In their treatment of the genre, as at present developed, there is an evident tendency toward the exaggeration of type, action and even costume which degenerates often into broad caricature. This inclination to caricature is not limited to the less noted of the genre painters, but affects all to a greater or less degree, and it results, it is plain, from pushing too far the admiration for peculiarities of type, and from a low order of perceptive faculties ivhich grasps only the broadest distinctions of character. The ability of caricaturing holds the lowest rank among the qualifications of an artist, and wherever this element exists in a picture, the work loses by so much its seriousness, and palls the sooner on the spectator’s vision. In an imaginative and imagination-inspiring picture, —and these qualities are inseparable—there always remains something undiscovered, there is a continual enticement to the unveiling of new beauties. Such charms are rarely found in the German genres.
Carl Piloty’s great historical picture, The Triumph of 6rer- manicus, was hung in the Salon d’Uonneur, and was the most important of the academic works shown. It is a picture of great personal presence; it makes itself seen and impels study, attracting almost solely from its exceptionally powerful expression. Briefly described, it represents the triumphal procession of Germanicus on the occasion of his return from Germany by command of the jealous Tiberius, as it moves through a triumphal arch and passes in front of the imperial throne. The emperor, accompanied by courtesans, and surrounded by his favorite officials, sits gloomily regarding the scene from the height of a raised throne. Directly hi front, with chained wrists, walks Thusnelda, leading her little son Thumelicus. Before her march three sturdy followers chained to the yoke, and a venerable harper whom a brutal Roman soldier drags along by the long white beard, grasping the tether of a huge bear with the same brawny hand. Behind Thusnelda follow her maids and sisters, moved by different emotions of their unconquered spirit, and in the distance on a