,illustration3 ,maya ,sculpture 7portion7 from ,piedras ,negras ,frontispiece ,,vision ,,and ,,design ,,by ,,roger ,,fry ,,london ,,chatto ,,windus #aibj ,all rights reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,england ,,by ,,william ,,clowes ,,and ,,sons1 ,,limited ,,london ,,and ,,beccles ,,preface ,this book contains a selection from my writings on ,art extending over a period of twenty years4 ,some essays have never before been published in ,england2 and ,i have also added a good deal of new matter and made slight corrections throughout4 ,in the laborious work of hunting up lost and forgotten publications1 and in the work of selection1 revision1 and arrangement ,i owe everything to ,mr4 ,r4 ,r4 ,tatlock's devoted and patient labour4 ,,dedicated ,,to ,,my ,,sister ,,margery ,,without ,,whose ,,gentle ,,but ,,persistent ,,pressure ,,this ,,book ,,would ,,never ,,have ,,been ,,made ,,contents ,,page ,,art ,,and ,,life #a ,,an ,,essay ,,in ,,sthetics #aa ,,the ,,ottoman ,,and ,,the ,,whatnot #bf ,,the ,,artist',s ,,vision #ca ,,art ,,and ,,socialism #cf ,,art ,,and ,,science #eb ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,the ,,bushmen #ef ,,negro ,,sculpture #fe ,,ancient ,,american ,,art #fi ,,the ,,munich ,,exhibition ,,of ,,mohammedan ,,art #gf ,,giotto #hg ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,florence #aag ,,the ,,jacquemart-,,andr ,,collection #abc ,d,,rer ,,and ,,his ,,contemporaries #abg ,,el ,,greco #acd ,,three ,,pictures ,,in ,,tempera ,,by ,,william ,,blake #adj ,,claude #ade ,,aubrey ,,beardsley',s ,,drawings #aec ,,the ,,french ,,post-,,impressionists #aef ,,drawings ,,at ,,the ,,burlington ,,fine ,,arts ,,club #afj ,,paul ,c,,zanne #afh ,,renoir #age ,a ,,possible ,,domestic ,,architecture #agi ,,jean ,,marchand #ahd ,,retrospect #ahh ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,to ,,face ,,page ,,maya ,,sculpture 7,,portion7 ,,from ,,piedras ,,negras ,frontispiece ,,thirteenth-,,century ,,sculpture ,,in ,,the ,,cloister ,,of ,,st4 ,,john ,,lateran #i ,,group ,,from ,,the ,,burghers ,,of ,,calais4 ,,by ,,auguste ,,rodin #i ,,sculpture ,,in ,,plaster4 ,,by ,,henri-,,matisse #i ,,la ,,donna ,,gravida4 ,,by ,,raphael #aj ,,portrait ,,of ,,miss ,,gertrude ,,stein4 ,,by ,,pablo ,,picasso #aj ,,negro ,,sculpture #ff ,,fatimite ,,bronzes #hj ,,persian ,,painting1 ,,end ,,of ,,thirteenth ,,century #hf ,,piet4 ,,by ,,giotto #ajh ,,crucifixion4 ,,by ,,castagno #aag ,,st4 ,,george ,,and ,,the ,,dragon4 ,,by ,,ucello #abc ,,virgin ,,and ,,child4 ,,by ,,baldovinetti #abe ,,holy ,,family4 ,,by ,,signorelli #abf ,,the ,,calumny ,,of ,,apelles4 ,,by ,,rembrandt1 ,,mantegna1 ,d,,rer #aca ,,celestial ,,sphere4 ,,tarocchi ,,print #acb ,,celestial ,,sphere4 ,,by ,d,,rer #acb ,,allegory4 ,,by ,,el ,,greco #acf ,,bathsheba4 ,,by ,,william ,,blake #adb ,,landscape4 ,,by ,,claude #adh ,,landscape ,,in ,,water-,,colour4 ,,by ,,claude #aej ,,tea ,,party4 ,,by ,,henri-,,matisse #aef ,,still ,,life4 ,,by ,,pablo ,,picasso #aef ,,profile4 ,,by ,,georges ,,rouault #aei ,,apotheosis ,,of ,,napoleon4 ,,by ,,ingres #afc ,,pencil ,,drawing4 ,,by ,,corot #afe ,,pen ,,drawing4 ,,by ,,henri-,,matisse #aff ,,portrait ,,of ,,the ,,artist4 ,,by ,c,,zanne #afh ,,gardanne4 ,,by ,c,,zanne #agj ,,sc,,ne ,,de ,,plein ,,air4 ,,by ,c,,zanne #agb ,,the ,,artist',s ,,wife4 ,,by ,c,,zanne #agb ,,le ,,ruisseau4 ,,by ,c,,zanne #agd ,,judgement ,,of ,,paris4 ,,by ,,renoir #agf ,,still ,,life4 ,,by ,,marchand #ahd ,,la ,,baignade4 ,,by ,,seurat #aij ,,still ,,life4 ,,by ,,derain #aib ,,the ,,transfiguration4 ,,by ,,raphael #aif ,,vision ,,and ,,design ,,art ,,and ,,life#a ,when we look at ancient works of art we habitually treat them not merely as objects of sthetic enjoyment but also as successive deposits of the human imagination4 ,it is indeed this view of works of art as crystallised history that accounts for much of the interest felt in ancient art by those who have but little sthetic feeling and who find nothing to interest them in the work of their contemporaries where the historical motive is lacking and they are left face to face with bare sthetic values4 ,i once knew an old gentleman who had retired from his city office to a country house--a fussy1 feeble little being who had cut no great figure in life4 ,he had built himself a house which was preternaturally hideous2 his taste was deplorable and his manners indifferent2 but he had a dream1 the dream of himself as an exquisite and refined intellectual dandy living in a society of elegant frivolity4 ,to realise this dream he had spent large sums in buying up every scrap of eighteenth-century ,french furniture which he could lay hands on4 ,these he stored in an immense upper floor in his house which was always locked except when he went up to indulge in his dream and to become for a time a courtier at ,versailles doing homage to the du ,barry1 whose toilet-tables and what-nots were strewn pell-mell about the room without order or effect of any kind4 ,such is an extreme instance of the historical way of looking at works of art4 ,for this old gentleman1 as for how many an ,american millionaire1 art was merely a help to an imagined dream life4 ,to many people then it seems an easy thing to pass thus directly from the work of art to the life of the time which produced it4 ,we all in fact weave an imagined ,middle ,ages around the parish church and an imagined ,renaissance haunts us in the college courts of ,oxford and ,cambridge4 ,we don't1 ,i fancy1 stop to consider very closely how true the imagined life is3 we are satisfied with the prospect of another sort of life which we might have lived1 which we often think we might have preferred to our actual life4 ,we don't stop to consider much how far the pictured past corresponds to any reality1 certainly not to consider what proportion of the whole reality of the past life gets itself embalmed in this way in works of art4 ,thus we picture our ,middle ,ages as almost entirely occupied with religion and war1 our ,renaissance as occupied in learning1 and our eighteenth century as occupied in gallantry and wit4 ,whereas1 as a matter of fact1 all of these things were going on all the time while the art of each period has for some reason been mainly taken up with the expression of one or another activity4 ,there is indeed a certain danger in accepting too navely the general atmosphere--the ethos1 which the works of art of a period exhale4 ,thus when we look at the thirteenth-century sculpture of ,chartres or ,beauvais we feel at once the expression of a peculiar gracious piety1 a smiling and gay devoutness which we are tempted to take for the prevailing mood of the time--and which we perhaps associate with the revelation of just such a type of character in ,s4 ,francis of ,assisi4 ,a study of ,salimbeni's chronicle with its interminable record of squalid avarice and meanness1 or of the fierce brutalities of ,dante's ,inferno are necessary correctives of such a pleasant dream4 ,it would seem then that the correspondence between art and life which we so habitually assume is not at all constant and requires much correction before it can be trusted4 ,let us approach the same question from another point and see what result we obtain4 ,let us consider the great revolutions in art and the revolutions in life and see if they coincide4 ,and here let me try to say what ,i mean by life as contrasted with art4 ,i mean the general intellectual and instinctive reaction to their surroundings of those men of any period whose lives rise to complete self-consciousness4 ,their view of the universe as a whole and their conception of their relations to their kind4 ,of course their conception of the nature and function of art will itself be one of the most varying aspects of life and may in any particular period profoundly modify the correspondence of art to life4 ,perhaps the greatest revolution in life that we know of at all intimately was that which effected the change from ,paganism to ,christianity4 ,that this was no mere accident is evident from the fact that ,christianity was only one of many competing religions1 all of which represented a closely similar direction of thought and feeling4 ,any one of these would have produced practically the same effect1 that of focussing men's minds on the spiritual life as opposed to the material life which had pre-occupied them for so long4 ,one cannot doubt then that here was a change which denoted a long prepared and inevitable readjustment of men's attitude to their universe4 ,now the art of the ,roman ,empire showed no trace whatever of this influence2 it went on with precisely the same motives and principles which had satisfied ,paganism4 ,the subjects changed and became mainly ,christian1 but the treatment was so exactly similar that it requires more than a cursory glance to say if the figure on a sarcophagus is ,christ or ,orpheus1 ,moses or sculapius4 ,the next great turning-point in history is that which marks the triumph of the forces of reaction towards the close of the twelfth century--a reaction which destroyed the promising hopes of freedom of thought and manners which make the twelfth century appear as a foretaste of modern enlightenment4 ,here undoubtedly the change in life corresponds very closely with a great change in art--the change from the ,romanesque to the ,gothic1 and at first sight we might suppose a causal connection between the two4 ,but when we consider the nature of the changes in the two sequences1 this becomes very doubtful4 ,for whereas in the life of the ,middle ,ages the change was one of reaction--the sharp repression by the reactionary forces of a gradual growth of freedom--the change in art is merely the efflorescence of certain long prepared and anticipated effects4 ,the forms of ,gothic architecture were merely the answer to certain engineering problems which had long occupied the inventive ingenuity of twelfth-century architects1 while in the figurative arts the change merely showed a new self-confidence in the rendering of the human figure1 a newly developed mastery in the handling of material4 ,in short1 the change in art was in the opposite direction to that in life4 ,whereas in life the direction of movement was sharply bent backwards1 in art the direction followed on in a continuous straight line4 ,it is true that in one small particular the reaction did have a direct effect on art4 ,the preaching of ,s4 ,bernard of ,clairvaux did impose on the architects who worked for the ,cistercian order a peculiar architectural hypocrisy4 ,they were bound by his traditional influence to make their churches have an appearance of extreme simplicity and austerity1 but they wanted nevertheless to make them as magnificent and imposing as possible4 ,the result was a peculiar style of ostentatious simplicity4 ,paray le ,monial is the only church left standing in which this curious and1 in point of fact1 depressing evidence of the direct influence of the religious reaction on art is to be seen1 and1 as a curiosity in psychological expression1 it is well worth a visit4 ,for the rest the movement of art went on entirely unaffected by the new orientation of thought4 ,we come now to the ,renaissance1 and here for the first time in our survey we may1 ,i think1 safely admit a true correspondence between the change in life and the change in art4 ,the change in life1 if one may generalise on such a vast subject1 was towards the recognition of the rights of the individual to complete self-realisation and the recognition of the objective reality of the material universe which implied the whole scientific attitude--and in both these things the exemplar which men put before themselves was the civilisation of ,greece and ,rome4 ,in art the change went pari passu with the change in life1 each assisting and directing the other--the first men of science were artists like ,brunelleschi1 ,ucello1 ,piero della ,francesca and ,leonardo da ,vinci4 ,the study of classical literature was followed in strict connection with the study of classical canons of art1 and the greater sense of individual importance found its expression in the new naturalism which made portraiture in the modern sense possible4 ,for once then art and the other functions of the human spirit found themselves in perfect harmony and direct alliance1 and to that harmony we may attribute much of the intensity and self-assurance of the work of the great ,renaissance artists4 ,it is one of the rarest of good fortunes for an artist to find himself actually understood and appreciated by the mass of his educated contemporaries1 and not only that1 but moving alongside of and in step with them towards a similar goal4 ,the ,catholic reaction retarded and impeded the main movement of ,renaissance thought1 but it did not really succeed either in suppressing it or changing the main direction of its current4 ,in art it undoubtedly had some direct effect1 it created a new kind of insincerity of expression1 a florid and sentimental religiosity--a new variety of bad taste1 the rhetorical and over-emphatic4 ,and ,i suspect that art was already prepared for this step by a certain exhaustion of the impulsive energy of the ,renaissance--so that here too we may admit a correspondence4 ,the seventeenth century shows us no violent change in life1 but rather the gradual working out of the principles implicit in the ,renaissance and the ,catholic reaction4 ,but here we come to another curious want of correspondence between art and life1 for in art we have a violent revolution1 followed by a bitter internecine struggle among artists4 ,this revolution was inaugurated by ,caravaggio1 who first discovered the surprising emotional possibilities of chiaroscuro and who combined with this a new idea of realism--realism in the modern sense1 viz41 the literal acceptance of what is coarse1 common1 squalid or undistinguished in life--realism in the sense of the novelists of ,zola's time4 ,to ,caravaggio's influence we might trace not only a great deal of ,rembrandt's art but the whole of that movement in favour of the extravagantly impressive and picturesque1 which culminated in the romantic movement of the nineteenth century4 ,here1 then1 is another surprising want of correspondence between art and life4 ,in the eighteenth century we get a curious phenomenon4 ,art goes to court1 identifies itself closely with a small aristocratic clique1 becomes the exponent of their manners and their tastes4 ,it becomes a luxury4 ,it is no longer in the main stream of spiritual and intellectual effort1 and this seclusion of art may account for the fact that the next great change in life--the ,french ,revolution and all its accompanying intellectual ferment--finds no serious correspondence in art4 ,we get a change1 it is true2 the ,french ,republicans believed they were the counterpart of the ,romans1 and so ,david had to invent for them that peculiarly distressing type of the ancient ,roman--always in heroic attitudes1 always immaculate1 spotless and with a highly polished #8,mme4 ,tussaud' surface4 ,by-the-by1 ,i was almost forgetting that we do owe ,mme4 ,tussaud to the ,french ,revolution4 ,but the real movement of art lay in quite other directions to ,david--lay in the gradual unfolding of the ,romanticist conception of the world--a world of violent emotional effects1 of picturesque accidents1 of wild nature1 and this was a long prepared reaction from the complacent sophistication of eighteenth-century life4 ,it is possible that one may associate this with the general state of mind that produced the ,revolution1 since both were a revolt against the established order of the eighteenth century2 but curiously enough it found its chief ally in the reaction which followed the ,revolution1 in the neo-,christianism of ,chateaubriand and the new sentimental respect for the age of faith--which1 incidentally1 appeared so much more picturesque than the age of reason4 ,it would be interesting at this point to consider how far during the nineteenth century reactionary political and religious thought was inspired primarily by sthetic considerations--a curious instance of the counter-influence of art on life might perhaps be discovered in the devotees of the ,oxford movement4 ,but this would take us too far afield4 ,the foregoing violently foreshortened view of history and art will show1 ,i hope1 that the usual assumption of a direct and decisive connection between life and art is by no means correct4 ,it may1 ,i hope1 give pause to those numerous people who have already promised themselves a great new art as a result of the present war1 though perhaps it is as well to let them enjoy it in anticipation1 since it is1 ,i fancy1 the only way in which they are likely to enjoy a great art of any kind4 ,what this survey suggests to me is that if we consider this special spiritual activity of art we find it no doubt open at times to influences from life1 but in the main self-contained--we find the rhythmic sequences of change determined much more by its own internal forces--and by the readjustment within it1 of its own elements--than by external forces4 ,i admit1 of course1 that it is always conditioned more or less by economic changes1 but these are rather conditions of its existence at all than directive influences4 ,i also admit that under certain conditions the rhythms of life and of art may coincide with great effect on both2 but in the main the two rhythms are distinct1 and as often as not play against each other4 ,we have1 ,i hope1 gained some experience with which to handle the real subject of my inquiry1 the relation of the modern movement in art to life4 ,to understand it we must go back to the impressionist movement1 which dates from about #ahgj4 ,the artists who called themselves impressionists combined two distinct ideas4 ,on the one hand they upheld1 more categorically than ever before1 the complete detachment of the artistic vision from the values imposed on vision by everyday life--they claimed1 as ,whistler did in his 8#aj o'clock10 to be pure artists4 ,on the other hand a group of them used this freedom for the quasi-scientific description of new effects of atmospheric colour and atmospheric perspective1 thereby endowing painting with a quite new series of colour harmonies1 or at least of harmonies which had not been cultivated by ,european painters for many hundreds of years4 ,they did more than this--the effects thus explored were completely unfamiliar to the ordinary man1 whose vision is limited to the mere recognition of objects with a view to the uses of everyday life4 ,he was forced1 in looking at their pictures1 to accept as artistic representation something very remote from all his previous expectations1 and thereby he also acquired in time a new tolerance in his judgments on works of art1 a tolerance which was destined to bear a still further strain in succeeding developments4 ,as against these great advantages which art owes to impressionism we must set the fact that the pseudo-scientific and analytic method of these painters forced artists to accept pictures which lacked design and formal co-ordination to a degree which had never before been permitted4 ,they1 or rather some of them1 reduced the artistic vision to a continuous patchwork or mosaic of coloured patches without architectural framework or structural coherence4 ,in this1 impressionism marked the climax of a movement which had been going on more or less steadily from the thirteenth century--the tendency to approximate the forms of art more and more exactly to the representation of the totality of appearance4 ,when once representation had been pushed to this point where further development was impossible1 it was inevitable that artists should turn round and question the validity of the fundamental assumption that art aimed at representation2 and the moment the question was fairly posed it became clear that the pseudo-scientific assumption that fidelity to appearance was the measure of art had no logical foundation4 ,from that moment on it became evident that art had arrived at a critical moment1 and that the greatest revolution in art that had taken place since ,grco-,roman impressionism became converted into ,byzantine formalism was inevitable4 ,it was this revolution that ,czanne inaugurated and that ,gauguin and van ,goch continued4 ,there is no need here to give in detail the characteristics of this new movement3 they are sufficiently familiar4 ,but we may summarise them as the re-establishment of purely sthetic criteria in place of the criterion of conformity to appearance--the rediscovery of the principles of structural design and harmony4 ,the new movement has1 also1 led to a new canon of criticism1 and this has changed our attitude to the arts of other times and countries4 ,so long as representation was regarded as the end of art1 the skill of the artist and his proficiency in this particular feat of representation were regarded with an admiration which was in fact mainly non-sthetic4 ,with the new indifference to representation we have become much less interested in skill and not at all interested in knowledge4 ,we are thus no longer cut off from a great deal of barbaric and primitive art the very meaning of which escaped the understanding of those who demanded a certain standard of skill in representation before they could give serious consideration to a work of art4 ,in general the effect of the movement has been to render the artist intensely conscious of the sthetic unity of the work of art1 but singularly nave and simple as regards other considerations4 ,it remains to be considered whether the life of the past fifty years has shown any such violent reorientation as we have found in the history of modern art4 ,if we look back to the days of ,herbert ,spencer and ,huxley1 what changes are there in the general tendencies of life8 ,the main ideas of rationalism seem to me to have steadily made way--there have been minor counter revolutions1 it is true1 but the main current of active thought has surely moved steadily along the lines already laid down4 ,i mean that the scientific attitude is more and more widely accepted4 ,the protests of organised religion and of various mysticisms seem to grow gradually weaker and to carry less weight4 ,hardly any writers or thinkers of first-rate calibre now appear in the reactionary camp4 ,i see1 in short1 no big change in direction1 no evident revulsion of feeling4 ,none the less ,i suppose that a ,spencer would be impossible now and that the materialism of to-day is recognisably different from the materialism of ,spencer4 ,it would be very much less navely ,illustration3 #acth ,cent4 ,sculpture in the ,cloister of ,s4 ,john ,lateran ,illustration3 ,auguste ,rodin4 ,group from 8,the ,burghers of ,calais0 ,illustration3 ,henri ,matisse4 ,sculpture in ,plaster ,property of the ,artist ,plate ,i4 self-confident4 ,it would admit far greater difficulties in presenting its picture of the universe than would have occurred to ,spencer4 ,the fact is that scepticism has turned on itself and has gone behind a great many of the axioms that seemed self-evident to the earlier rationalists4 ,i do not see that it has at any point threatened the superstructure of the rationalist position1 but it has led us to recognise the necessity of a continual revision and reconstruction of these data4 ,rationalism has become less arrogant and less narrow in its vision4 ,and this is partly due also to the adventure of the scientific spirit into new regions4 ,i refer to all that immense body of study and speculation which starts from ,robertson ,smith's 8,religion of the ,israelites40 ,the discovery of natural law in what seemed to earlier rationalists the chaotic fancies and caprices of the human imagination4 ,the assumption that man is a mainly rational animal has given place to the discovery that he is1 like other animals1 mainly instinctive4 ,this modifies immensely the attitude of the rationalist--it gives him a new charity and a new tolerance4 ,what seemed like the wilful follies of mad or wicked men to the earlier rationalists are now seen to be inevitable responses to fundamental instinctive needs4 ,by observing mankind the man of science has lost his contempt for him4 ,now this ,i think has had an important bearing on the new movement in art4 ,in the first place ,i find something analogous in the new orientation of scientific and artistic endeavour4 ,science has turned its instruments in on human nature and begun to investigate its fundamental needs1 and art has also turned its vision inwards1 has begun to work upon the fundamental necessities of man's sthetic functions4 ,but besides this analogy1 which may be merely accidental and not causal1 ,i think there can be little doubt that the new scientific development 7for it is in no sense a revolution7 has modified men's attitude to art4 ,to ,herbert ,spencer religion was primitive fear of the unknown and art was sexual attraction--he must have contemplated with perfect equanimity1 almost with satisfaction1 a world in which both these functions would disappear4 ,i suppose that the scientific man of to-day would be much more ready to admit not only the necessity but the great importance of sthetic feeling for the spiritual existence of man4 ,the general conception of life in the mid-nineteenth century ruled out art as noxious1 or at best1 a useless frivolity1 and above all as a mere survival of more primitive stages of evolution4 ,on the other hand1 the artist of the new movement is moving into a sphere more and more remote from that of the ordinary man4 ,in proportion as art becomes purer the number of people to whom it appeals gets less4 ,it cuts out all the romantic overtones of life which are the usual bait by which men are induced to accept a work of art4 ,it appeals only to the sthetic sensibility1 and that in most men is comparatively weak4 ,in the modern movement in art1 then1 as in so many cases in past history1 the revolution in art seems to be out of all proportion to any corresponding change in life as a whole4 ,it seems to find its sources1 if at all1 in what at present seem like minor movements4 ,whether the difference between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will in retrospect seem as great in life as they already do in art ,i cannot guess--at least it is curious to note how much more conscious we are of the change in art then we are in the general change in thought and feeling4 ,,note4--,the original lecture was not illustrated1 but the opportunity of publishing this summary of it has suggested the possibility of introducing a few examples to illustrate one point1 viz41 the extent to which the works of the new movement correspond in aim with the works of early art while being sharply contrasted with those of the penultimate period4 ,this will be1 perhaps1 most evident in ,plate ,i1 where ,i have placed a figure from the cloisters of ,s4 ,john ,lateran1 carved by a thirteenth-century sculptor--then one of ,rodin's ,burghers of ,calais1 and then ,matisse's unfinished alto-rilievo figure4 ,here there is no need to underline the startling difference shown by ,rodin's descriptive method from the more purely plastic feeling of the two other artists4 ,matisse and the thirteenth-century artist are much closer together than ,matisse and ,rodin4 ,in ,plate ,,ii ,i have placed ,picasso beside ,raphael4 ,here the obvious fact is the common preoccupation of both artists with certain problems of plastic design and the similarity of their solutions4 ,had ,i had space to put a ,sargent beside these the same violent contrast would have been produced4 ,illustration3 ,raphael4 8,la ,donna ,gravida0 ,pitti ,palace1 ,florence ,illustration3 ,pablo ,picasso4 ,portrait of ,miss ,gertrude ,stein ,miss ,gertrude ,stein ,plate ,,ii4 ,,an ,,essay ,,in ,,sthetics#b ,a certain painter1 not without some reputation at the present day1 once wrote a little book on the art he practises1 in which he gave a definition of that art so succinct that ,i take it as a point of departure for this essay4 8,the art of painting10 says that eminent authority1 8is the art of imitating solid objects upon a flat surface by means of pigments40 ,it is delightfully simple1 but prompts the question--,is that all8 ,and1 if so1 what a deal of unnecessary fuss has been made about it4 ,now1 it is useless to deny that our modern writer has some very respectable authorities behind him4 ,plato1 indeed1 gave a very similar account of the affair1 and himself put the question--is it then worth while8 ,and1 being scrupulously and relentlessly logical1 he decided that it was not worth while1 and proceeded to turn the artists out of his ideal republic4 ,for all that1 the world has continued obstinately to consider that painting was worth while1 and though1 indeed1 it has never quite made up its mind as to what1 exactly1 the graphic arts did for it1 it has persisted in honouring and admiring its painters4 ,can we arrive at any conclusions as to the nature of the graphic arts1 which will at all explain our feelings about them1 which will at least put them into some kind of relation with the other arts1 and not leave us in the extreme perplexity1 engendered by any theory of mere imitation8 ,for1 ,i suppose1 it must be admitted that if imitation is the sole purpose of the graphic arts1 it is surprising that the works of such arts are ever looked upon as more than curiosities1 or ingenious toys1 are ever taken seriously by grown-up people4 ,moreover1 it will be surprising that they have no recognisable affinity with other arts1 such as music or architecture1 in which the imitation of actual objects is a negligible quantity4 ,to form such conclusions is the aim ,i have put before myself in this essay4 ,even if the results are not decisive1 the inquiry may lead us to a view of the graphic arts that will not be altogether unfruitful4 ,i must begin with some elementary psychology1 with a consideration of the nature of instincts4 ,a great many objects in the world1 when presented to our senses1 put in motion a complex nervous machinery1 which ends in some instinctive appropriate action4 ,we see a wild bull in a field2 quite without our conscious interference a nervous process goes on1 which1 unless we interfere forcibly1 ends in the appropriate reaction of flight4 ,the nervous mechanism which results in flight causes a certain state of consciousness1 which we call the emotion of fear4 ,the whole of animal life1 and a great part of human life1 is made up of these instinctive reactions to sensible objects1 and their accompanying emotions4 ,but man has the peculiar faculty of calling up again in his mind the echo of past experiences of this kind1 of going over it again1 8in imagination0 as we say4 ,he has1 therefore1 the possibility of a double life2 one the actual life1 the other the imaginative life4 ,between these two lives there is this great distinction1 that in the actual life the processes of natural selection have brought it about that the instinctive reaction1 such1 for instance1 as flight from danger1 shall be the important part of the whole process1 and it is towards this that the man bends his whole conscious endeavour4 ,but in the imaginative life no such action is necessary1 and1 therefore1 the whole consciousness may be focussed upon the perceptive and the emotional aspects of the experience4 ,in this way we get1 in the imaginative life1 a different set of values1 and a different kind of perception4 ,we can get a curious side glimpse of the nature of this imaginative life from the cinematograph4 ,this resembles actual life in almost every respect1 except that what the psychologists call the conative part of our reaction to sensations1 that is to say1 the appropriate resultant action is cut off4 ,if1 in a cinematograph1 we see a runaway horse and cart1 we do not have to think either of getting out of the way or heroically interposing ourselves4 ,the result is that in the first place we see the event much more clearly2 see a number of quite interesting but irrelevant things1 which in real life could not struggle into our consciousness1 bent1 as it would be1 entirely upon the problem of our appropriate reaction4 ,i remember seeing in a cinematograph the arrival of a train at a foreign station and the people descending from the carriages2 there was no platform1 and to my intense surprise ,i saw several people turn right round after reaching the ground1 as though to orientate themselves2 an almost ridiculous performance1 which ,i had never noticed in all the many hundred occasions on which such a scene had passed before my eyes in real life4 ,the fact being that at a station one is never really a spectator of events1 but an actor engaged in the drama of luggage or prospective seats1 and one actually sees only so much as may help to the appropriate action4 ,in the second place1 with regard to the visions of the cinematograph1 one notices that whatever emotions are aroused by them1 though they are likely to be weaker than those of ordinary life1 are presented more clearly to the consciousness4 ,if the scene presented be one of an accident1 our pity and horror1 though weak1 since we know that no one is really hurt1 are felt quite purely1 since they cannot1 as they would in life1 pass at once into actions of assistance4 ,a somewhat similar effect to that of the cinematograph can be obtained by watching a mirror in which a street scene is reflected4 ,if we look at the street itself we are almost sure to adjust ourselves in some way to its actual existence4 ,we recognise an acquaintance1 and wonder why he looks so dejected this morning1 or become interested in a new fashion in hats--the moment we do that the spell is broken1 we are reacting to life itself in however slight a degree1 but1 in the mirror1 it is easier to abstract ourselves completely1 and look upon the changing scene as a whole4 ,it then1 at once1 takes on the visionary quality1 and we become true spectators1 not selecting what we will see1 but seeing everything equally1 and thereby we come to notice a number of appearances and relations of appearances1 which would have escaped our vision before1 owing to that perpetual economising by selection of what impressions we will assimilate1 which in life we perform by unconscious processes4 ,the frame of the mirror then1 does1 to some extent1 turn the reflected scene from one that belongs to our actual life into one that belongs rather to the imaginative life4 ,the frame of the mirror makes its surface into a very rudimentary work of art1 since it helps us to attain to the artistic vision4 ,for that is what1 as you will already have guessed1 ,i have been coming to all this time1 namely that the work of art is intimately connected with the secondary imaginative life1 which all men live to a greater or lesser extent4 ,that the graphic arts are the expression of the imaginative life rather than a copy of actual life might be guessed from observing children4 ,children1 if left to themselves1 never1 ,i believe1 copy what they see1 never1 as we say1 8draw from nature10 but express1 with a delightful freedom and sincerity1 the mental images which make up their own imaginative lives4 ,art1 then1 is an expression and a stimulus of this imaginative life1 which is separated from actual life by the absence of responsive action4 ,now this responsive action implies in actual life moral responsibility4 ,in art we have no such moral responsibility--it presents a life freed from the binding necessities of our actual existence4 ,what then is the justification for this life of the imagination which all human beings live more or less fully8 ,to the pure moralist1 who accepts nothing but ethical values1 in order to be justified1 it must be shown not only not to hinder but actually to forward right action1 otherwise it is not only useless but1 since it absorbs our energies1 positively harmful4 ,to such a one two views are possible1 one the ,puritanical view at its narrowest1 which regards the life of the imagination as no better or worse than a life of sensual pleasure1 and therefore entirely reprehensible4 ,the other view is to argue that the imaginative life does subserve morality4 ,and this is inevitably the view taken by moralists like ,ruskin1 to whom the imaginative life is yet an absolute necessity4 ,it is a view which leads to some very hard special pleading1 even to a self-deception which is in itself morally undesirable4 ,but here comes in the question of religion1 for religion is also an affair of the imaginative life1 and1 though it claims to have a direct effect upon conduct1 ,i do not suppose that the religious person if he were wise would justify religion entirely by its effect on morality1 since that1 historically speaking1 has not been by any means uniformly advantageous4 ,he would probably say that the religious experience was one which corresponded to certain spiritual capacities of human nature1 the exercise of which is in itself good and desirable apart from their effect upon actual life4 ,and so1 too1 ,i think the artist might if he chose take a mystical attitude1 and declare that the fullness and completeness of the imaginative life he leads may correspond to an existence more real and more important than any that we know of in mortal life4 ,and in saying that1 his appeal would find a sympathetic echo in most minds1 for most people would1 ,i think1 say that the pleasures derived from art were of an altogether different character and more fundamental than merely sensual pleasures1 that they did exercise some faculties which are felt to belong to whatever part of us there may be which is not entirely ephemeral and material4 ,it might even be that from this point of view we should rather justify actual life by its relation to the imaginative1 justify nature by its likeness to art4 ,i mean this1 that since the imaginative life comes in the course of time to represent more or less what mankind feels to be the completest expression of its own nature1 the freest use of its innate capacities1 the actual life may be explained and justified in its approximation here and there1 however partially and inadequately1 to that freer and fuller life4 ,before leaving this question of the justification of art1 let me put it in another way4 ,the imaginative life of a people has very different levels at different times1 and these levels do not always correspond with the general level of the morality of actual life4 ,thus in the thirteenth century we read of barbarity and cruelty which would shock even us2 we may ,i think admit that our moral level1 our general humanity is decidedly higher to-day1 but the level of our imaginative life is incomparably lower2 we are satisfied there with a grossness1 a sheer barbarity and squalor which would have shocked the thirteenth century profoundly4 ,let us admit the moral gain gladly1 but do we not also feel a loss2 do we not feel that the average business man would be in every way a more admirable1 more respectable being if his imaginative life were not so squalid and incoherent8 ,and1 if we admit any loss then1 there is some function in human nature other than a purely ethical one1 which is worthy of exercise4 ,now the imaginative life has its own history both in the race and in the individual4 ,in the individual life one of the first effects of freeing experience from the necessities of appropriate responsive action is to indulge recklessly the emotion of self-aggrandisement4 ,the day-dreams of a child are filled with extravagant romances in which he is always the invincible hero4 ,music--which of all the arts supplies the strongest stimulus to the imaginative life1 and at the same time has the least power of controlling its direction--music1 at certain stages of people's lives1 has the effect merely of arousing in an almost absurd degree this egoistic elation1 and ,tolstoy appears to believe that this is its only possible effect4 ,but with the teaching of experience and the growth of character the imaginative life comes to respond to other instincts and to satisfy other desires1 until1 indeed1 it reflects the highest aspirations and the deepest aversions of which human nature is capable4 ,in dreams and when under the influence of drugs the imaginative life passes out of our own control1 and in such cases its experiences may be highly undesirable1 but whenever it remains under our own control it must always be on the whole a desirable life4 ,that is not to say that it is always pleasant1 for it is pretty clear that mankind is so constituted as to desire much besides pleasure1 and we shall meet among the great artists1 the great exponents1 that is1 of the imaginative life1 many to whom the merely pleasant is very rarely a part of what is desirable4 ,but this desirability of the imaginative life does distinguish it very sharply from actual life1 and is the direct result of that first fundamental difference1 its freedom from necessary external conditions4 ,art1 then1 is1 if ,i am right1 the chief organ of the imaginative life1 it is by art that it is stimulated and controlled within us1 and1 as we have seen1 the imaginative life is distinguished by the greater clearness of its perception1 and the greater purity and freedom of its emotion4 ,first with regard to the greater clearness of perception4 ,the needs of our actual life are so imperative1 that the sense of vision becomes highly specialised in their service4 ,with an admirable economy we learn to see only so much as is needful for our purposes2 but this is in fact very little1 just enough to recognise and identify each object or person2 that done1 they go into an entry in our mental catalogue and are no more really seen4 ,in actual life the normal person really only reads the labels as it were on the objects around him and troubles no further4 ,almost all the things which are useful in any way put on more or less this cap of invisibility4 ,it is only when an object exists in our lives for no other purpose than to be seen that we really look at it1 as for instance at a ,china ornament or a precious stone1 and towards such even the most normal person adopts to some extent the artistic attitude of pure vision abstracted from necessity4 ,now this specialisation of vision goes so far that ordinary people have almost no idea of what things really look like1 so that oddly enough the one standard that popular criticism applies to painting1 namely1 whether it is like nature or not1 is one which most people are1 by the whole tenour of their lives1 prevented from applying properly4 ,the only things they have ever really looked at being other pictures2 the moment an artist who has looked at nature brings to them a clear report of something definitely seen by him1 they are wildly indignant at its untruth to nature4 ,this has happened so constantly in our own time that there is no need to prove it4 ,one instance will suffice4 ,monet is an artist whose chief claim to recognition lies in the fact of his astonishing power of faithfully reproducing certain aspects of nature1 but his really nave innocence and sincerity was taken by the public to be the most audacious humbug1 and it required the teaching of men like ,bastien-,lepage1 who cleverly compromised between the truth and an accepted convention of what things looked like1 to bring the world gradually round to admitting truths which a single walk in the country with purely unbiassed vision would have established beyond doubt4 ,but though this clarified sense perception which we discover in the imaginative life is of great interest1 and although it plays a larger part in the graphic arts than in any other1 it might perhaps be doubted whether1 interesting1 curious1 fascinating as it is1 this aspect of the imaginative life would ever by itself make art of profound importance to mankind4 ,but it is different1 ,i think1 with the emotional aspect4 ,we have admitted that the emotions of the imaginative are generally weaker than those of actual life4 ,the picture of a saint being slowly flayed alive1 revolting as it is1 will not produce the actual physical sensations of sickening disgust that a modern man would feel if he could assist at the actual event2 but they have a compensating clearness of presentment to the consciousness4 ,the more poignant emotions of actual life have1 ,i think1 a kind of numbing effect analogous to the paralysing influence of fear in some animals2 but even if this experience be not generally admitted1 all will admit that the need for responsive action hurries us along and prevents us from ever realising fully what the emotion is that we feel1 from co-ordinating it perfectly with other states4 ,in short1 the motives we actually experience are too close to us to enable us to feel them clearly4 ,they are in a sense unintelligible4 ,in the imaginative life1 on the contrary1 we can both feel the emotion and watch it4 ,when we are really moved at the theatre we are always both on the stage and in the auditorium4 ,yet another point about the emotions of the imaginative life--since they require no responsive action we can give them a new valuation4 ,in real life we must to some extent cultivate those emotions which lead to useful action1 and we are bound to appraise emotions according to the resultant action4 ,so that1 for instance1 the feelings of rivalry and emulation do get an encouragement which perhaps they scarcely deserve1 whereas certain feelings which appear to have a high intrinsic value get almost no stimulus in actual life4 ,for instance1 those feelings to which the name of the cosmic emotion has been somewhat unhappily given find almost no place in life1 but1 since they seem to belong to certain very deep springs of our nature1 do become of great importance in the arts4 ,morality1 then1 appreciates emotion by the standard of resultant action4 ,art appreciates emotion in and for itself4 ,this view of the essential importance in art of the expression of the emotions is the basis of ,tolstoy's marvellously original and yet perverse and even exasperating book1 8,what is ,art10 and ,i willingly confess1 while disagreeing with almost all his results1 how much ,i owe to him4 ,he gives an example of what he means by calling art the means of communicating emotions4 ,he says1 let us suppose a boy to have been pursued in the forest by a bear4 ,if he returns to the village and merely states that he was pursued by a bear and escaped1 that is ordinary language1 the means of communicating facts or ideas2 but if he describes his state first of heedlessness1 then of sudden alarm and terror as the bear appears1 and finally of relief when he gets away1 and describes this so that his hearers share his emotions1 then his description is a work of art4 ,now in so far as the boy does this in order to urge the villagers to go out and kill the bear1 though he may be using artistic methods1 his speech is not a pure work of art2 but if of a winter evening the boy relates his experience for the sake of the enjoyment of his adventure in retrospect1 or better still1 if he makes up the whole story for the sake of the imagined emotions1 then his speech becomes a pure work of art4 ,but ,tolstoy takes the other view1 and values the emotions aroused by art entirely for their reaction upon actual life1 a view which he courageously maintains even when it leads him to condemn the whole of ,michelangelo1 ,raphael and ,titian1 and most of ,beethoven1 not to mention nearly everything he himself has written1 as bad or false art4 ,such a view would1 ,i think1 give pause to any less heroic spirit4 ,he would wonder whether mankind could have always been so radically wrong about a function that1 whatever its value be1 is almost universal4 ,and in point of fact he will have to find some other word to denote what we now call art4 ,nor does ,tolstoy's theory even carry him safely through his own book1 since1 in his examples of morally desirable and therefore good art1 he has to admit that these are to be found1 for the most part1 among works of inferior quality4 ,here1 then1 is at once the tacit admission that another standard than morality is applicable4 ,we must therefore give up the attempt to judge the work of art by its reaction on life1 and consider it as an expression of emotions regarded as ends in themselves4 ,and this brings us back to the idea we had already arrived at1 of art as the expression of the imaginative life4 ,if1 then1 an object of any kind is created by man not for use1 for its fitness to actual life1 but as an object of art1 an object subserving the imaginative life1 what will its qualities be8 ,it must in the first place be adapted to that disinterested intensity of contemplation1 which we have found to be the result of cutting off the responsive action4 ,it must be suited to that heightened power of perception which we found to result therefrom4 ,and the first quality that we demand in our sensations will be order1 without which our sensations will be troubled and perplexed1 and the other quality will be variety1 without which they will not be fully stimulated4 ,it may be objected that many things in nature1 such as flowers1 possess these two qualities of order and variety in a high degree1 and these objects do undoubtedly stimulate and satisfy that clear disinterested contemplation which is characteristic of the sthetic attitude4 ,but in our reaction to a work of art there is something more--there is the consciousness of purpose1 the consciousness of a peculiar relation of sympathy with the man who made this thing in order to arouse precisely the sensations we experience4 ,and when we come to the higher works of art1 where sensations are so arranged that they arouse in us deep emotions1 this feeling of a special tie with the man who expressed them becomes very strong4 ,we feel that he has expressed something which was latent in us all the time1 but which we never realised1 that he has revealed us to ourselves in revealing himself4 ,and this recognition of purpose is1 ,i believe1 an essential part of the sthetic judgment proper4 ,the perception of purposeful order and variety in an object gives us the feeling which we express by saying that it is beautiful1 but when by means of sensations our emotions are aroused we demand purposeful order and variety in them also1 and if this can only be brought about by the sacrifice of sensual beauty we willingly overlook its absence4 ,thus1 there is no excuse for a china pot being ugly1 there is every reason why ,rembrandt's and ,degas' pictures should be1 from the purely sensual point of view1 supremely and magnificently ugly4 ,this1 ,i think1 will explain the apparent contradiction between two distinct uses of the word beauty1 one for that which has sensuous charm1 and one for the sthetic approval of works of imaginative art where the objects presented to us are often of extreme ugliness4 ,beauty in the former sense belongs to works of art where only the perceptual aspect of the imaginative life is exercised1 beauty in the second sense becomes as it were supersensual1 and is concerned with the appropriateness and intensity of the emotions aroused4 ,when these emotions are aroused in a way that satisfies fully the needs of the imaginative life we approve and delight in the sensations through which we enjoy that heightened experience1 because they possess purposeful order and variety in relation to those emotions4 ,one chief aspect of order in a work of art is unity2 unity of some kind is necessary for our restful contemplation of the work of art as a whole1 since if it lacks unity we cannot contemplate it in its entirety1 but we shall pass outside it to other things necessary to complete its unity4 ,in a picture this unity is due to a balancing of the attractions to the eye about the central line of the picture4 ,the result of this balance of attractions is that the eye rests willingly within the bounds of the picture4 ,dr4 ,denman ,ross of ,harvard ,university has made a most valuable study of the elementary considerations upon which this balance is based in his 8,theory of ,pure ,design40 ,he sums up his results in the formula that a composition is of value in proportion to the number of orderly connections which it displays4 ,dr4 ,ross wisely restricts himself to the study of abstract and meaningless forms4 ,the moment representation is introduced forms have an entirely new set of values4 ,thus a line which indicated the sudden bend of a head in a certain direction would have far more than its mere value as line in the composition because of the attraction which a marked gesture has for the eye4 ,in almost all paintings this disturbance of the purely decorative values by reason of the representative effect takes place1 and the problem becomes too complex for geometrical proof4 ,this merely decorative unity is1 moreover1 of very different degrees of intensity in different artists and in different periods4 ,the necessity for a closely woven geometrical texture in the composition is much greater in heroic and monumental design than in genre pieces on a small scale4 ,it seems also probable that our appreciation of unity in pictorial design is of two kinds4 ,we are so accustomed to consider only the unity which results from the balance of a number of attractions presented to the eye simultaneously in a framed picture that we forget the possibility of other pictorial forms4 ,in certain ,chinese paintings the length is so great that we cannot take in the whole picture at once1 nor are we intended to do so4 ,sometimes a landscape is painted upon a roll of silk so long that we can only look at it in successive segments4 ,as we unroll it at one end and roll it up at the other we traverse wide stretches of country1 tracing1 perhaps1 all the vicissitudes of a river from its source to the sea1 and yet1 when this is well done1 we have received a very keen impression of pictorial unity4 ,such a successive unity is of course familiar to us in literature and music1 and it plays its part in the graphic arts4 ,it depends upon the forms being presented to us in such a sequence that each successive element is felt to have a fundamental and harmonious relation with that which preceded it4 ,i suggest that in looking at drawings our sense of pictorial unity is largely of this nature2 we feel1 if the drawing be a good one1 that each modulation of the line as our eye passes along it gives order and variety to our sensations4 ,such a drawing may be almost entirely lacking in the geometrical balance which we are accustomed to demand in paintings1 and yet have1 in a remarkable degree1 unity4 ,let us now see how the artist passes from the stage of merely gratifying our demand for sensuous order and variety to that where he arouses our emotions4 ,i will call the various methods by which this is effected1 the emotional elements of design4 ,the first element is that of the rhythm of the line with which the forms are delineated4 ,the drawn line is the record of a gesture1 and that gesture is modified by the artist's feeling which is thus communicated to us directly4 ,the second element is mass4 ,when an object is so represented that we recognise it as having inertia we feel its power of resisting movement1 or communicating its own movement to other bodies1 and our imaginative reaction to such an image is governed by our experience of mass in actual life4 ,the third element is space4 ,the same sized square on two pieces of paper can be made by very simple means to appear to represent either a cube two or three inches high1 or a cube of hundreds of feet1 and our reaction to it is proportionately changed4 ,the fourth element is that of light and shade4 ,our feelings towards the same object become totally different according as we see it strongly illuminated against a black background or dark against light4 ,a fifth element is that of colour4 ,that this has a direct emotional effect is evident from such words as gay1 dull1 melancholy in relation to colour4 ,i would suggest the possibility of another element1 though perhaps it is only a compound of mass and space3 it is that of the inclination to the eye of a plane1 whether it is impending over or leaning away from us4 ,now it will be noticed that nearly all these emotional elements of design are connected with essential conditions of our physical existence3 rhythm appeals to all the sensations which accompany muscular activity2 mass to all the infinite adaptations to the force of gravity which we are forced to make2 the spatial judgment is equally profound and universal in its application to life2 our feeling about inclined planes is connected with our necessary judgments about the conformation of the earth itself2 light1 again1 is so necessary a condition of our existence that we become intensely sensitive to changes in its intensity4 ,colour is the only one of our elements which is not of critical or universal importance to life1 and its emotional effect is neither so deep nor so clearly determined as the others4 ,it will be seen1 then1 that the graphic arts arouse emotions in us by playing upon what one may call the overtones of some of our primary physical needs4 ,they have1 indeed1 this great advantage over poetry1 that they can appeal more directly and immediately to the emotional accompaniments of our bare physical existence4 ,if we represent these various elements in simple diagrammatic terms1 this effect upon the emotions is1 it must be confessed1 very weak4 ,rhythm of line1 for instance1 is incomparably weaker in its stimulus of the muscular sense than is rhythm addressed to the ear in music1 and such diagrams can at best arouse only faint ghost-like echoes of emotions of differing qualities2 but when these emotional elements are combined with the presentation of natural appearances1 above all with the appearance of the human body1 we find that this effect is indefinitely heightened4 ,when1 for instance1 we look at ,michelangelo's 8,jeremiah10 and realise the irresistible momentum his movements would have1 we experience powerful sentiments of reverence and awe4 ,or when we look at ,michelangelo's 8,tondo0 in the ,uffizi1 and find a group of figures so arranged that the planes have a sequence comparable in breadth and dignity to the mouldings of the earth mounting by clearly-felt gradations to an overtopping summit1 innumerable instinctive reactions are brought into play4#c ,at this point the adversary 7as ,leonardi da ,vinci calls him7 is likely enough to retort1 8,you have abstracted from natural forms a number of so-called emotional elements which you yourself admit are very weak when stated with diagrammatic purity2 you then put them back1 with the help of ,michelangelo1 into the natural forms whence they were derived1 and at once they have value1 so that after all it appears that the natural forms contain these emotional elements ready made up for us1 and all that art need do is to imitate ,nature40 ,but1 alas6 ,nature is heartlessly indifferent to the needs of the imaginative life2 ,god causes ,his rain to fall upon the just and upon the unjust4 ,the sun neglects to provide the appropriate limelight effect even upon a triumphant ,napoleon or a dying ,csar4#d ,assuredly we have no guarantee that in nature the emotional elements will be combined appropriately with the demands of the imaginative life1 and it is1 ,i think1 the great occupation of the graphic arts to give us first of all order and variety in the sensuous plane1 and then so to arrange the sensuous presentment of objects that the emotional elements are elicited with an order and appropriateness altogether beyond what ,nature herself provides4 ,let me sum up for a moment what ,i have said about the relation of art to ,nature1 which is1 perhaps1 the greatest stumbling-block to the understanding of the graphic arts4 ,i have admitted that there is beauty in ,nature1 that is to say1 that certain objects constantly do1 and perhaps any object may1 compel us to regard it with that intense disinterested contemplation that belongs to the imaginative life1 and which is impossible to the actual life of necessity and action2 but that in objects created to arouse the sthetic feeling we have an added consciousness of purpose on the part of the creator1 that he made it on purpose not to be used but to be regarded and enjoyed2 and that this feeling is characteristic of the sthetic judgment proper4 ,when the artist passes from pure sensations to emotions aroused by means of sensations1 he uses natural forms which1 in themselves1 are calculated to move our emotions1 and he presents these in such a manner that the forms themselves generate in us emotional states1 based upon the fundamental necessities of our physical and physiological nature4 ,the artist's attitude to natural form is1 therefore1 infinitely various according to the emotions he wishes to arouse4 ,he may require for his purpose the most complete representation of a figure1 he may be intensely realistic1 provided that his presentment1 in spite of its closeness to natural appearance1 disengages clearly for us the appropriate emotional elements4 ,or he may give us the merest suggestion of natural forms1 and rely almost entirely upon the force and intensity of the emotional elements involved in his presentment4 ,we may1 then1 dispense once for all with the idea of likeness to ,nature1 of correctness or incorrectness as a test1 and consider only whether the emotional elements inherent in natural form are adequately discovered1 unless1 indeed1 the emotional idea depends at any point upon likeness1 or completeness of representation4 ,,the ,,ottoman ,,and ,,the ,,whatnot#e ,such were the outlandish names of the two great clans that marched under the flag of the ,antimacassar to the resounding periods of ,mr4 ,podsnap's rhetoric4 ,for all the appearance of leisure1 for all the absence of hustle1 those were strenuous days4 ,respectability and 8the young person0 were perpetually menaced by inveterate human nature1 and were always or nearly always just being saved as by a miracle4 ,but in the end it was the boast of the ,victorians that they had established a system of taboos almost as complicated and as all-pervading as that of the ,ojibbeways or the ,waramunga4 ,the ,ottoman1 which seated two so conveniently1 was liable to prove a traitor1 but what the ,ottoman risked could be saved by the ,whatnot1 with ,tennyson and ,john ,greenleaf ,whittier to counsel and assuage4 ,one of the things they used to say in those days1 quite loudly and distinctly1 was3 8,distance lends enchantment to the view40 ,it seemed so appropriate at the frequent and admirably organised picnics that at last it was repeated too often1 and the time came when1 under pain of social degradation1 it was forbidden to utter the hated words4 ,but now that we are busy bringing back the ,ottoman and the ,whatnot from the garret and the servants' hall to the drawing-room1 we may once more repeat the phrase with impunity1 and indeed this article has no other purpose than to repeat once more 7and with how new a relish673 8,distance lends enchantment to the view40 ,also1 with our passion for science and exact measurement1 we shall wish to discover the exact distance at which enchantment begins4 ,and this is easier than might be supposed2 for any one who has lived long enough will have noticed that a certain distance lends a violent disgust to the view--that as we recede there comes a period of oblivion and total unconsciousness1 to be succeeded when consciousness returns by the ecstasy1 the nature of which we are considering4 ,i1 alas6 can remember the time when the ,ottoman and ,whatnot still lingered in the drawing-rooms of the less fashionable and more conservative bourgeoisie2 lingered despised1 rejected1 and merely awaiting their substitutes4 ,i can remember the sham ,chippendale and the sham old oak which replaced them4 ,i can remember a still worse horror--a genuine modern style which as yet has no name1 a period of black polished wood with spidery lines of conventional flowers incised in the wood and then gilt4 ,these things must have belonged to the eighties--,i think they went with the bustle2 but as they are precisely at the distance where unconsciousness has set in1 it is more difficult to me to write the history of this period than it would be to tell of the sequence of styles in the ,tang dynasty4 ,and now1 having watched the ,whatnot disappear1 ,i have the privilege of watching its resurrection4 ,i have passed from disgust1 through total forgetfulness1 into the joys of retrospection4 ,now my belief is that none of these feelings have anything to do with our sthetic reactions to the objects as works of art4 ,the odd thing about either real or would-be works of art1 that is to say1 about any works made with something beyond a purely utilitarian aim--the odd thing is that they can either affect our sthetic sensibilities or they can become symbols of a particular way of life4 ,in this aspect they affect our historical imagination through our social emotions4 ,that the historical images they conjure up in us are probably false has very little to do with it2 the point is that they exist for us1 and exist for most people1 far more vividly and poignantly than any possible sthetic feelings4 ,and somehow the works of each period come to stand for us as symbols of some particular and special aspect of life4 ,a ,limoges casket evokes the idea of a life of chivalrous adventure and romantic devotion2 an ,italian cassone gives one a life of intellectual ferment and ,boccaccian freedom2 before a ,caffieri bronze or a ,riesener bureau one imagines oneself an exquisite aristocrat proof against the deeper passions1 and gifted with a sensuality so refined and a wit so ready that gallantry would be a sufficient occupation for a lifetime4 ,whoever handling a ,louis ,,xv4 tabatire reflected how few of the friends of its original owner ever washed1 and how many of them were marked with smallpox8 ,the fun of these historical evocations is precisely in what they leave out4 ,and in order that this process of selection and elimination may take place1 precise and detailed knowledge must have faded from the collective memory1 and the blurred but exquisite outlines of a generalisation must have been established4 ,we have just got to this point with the ,victorian epoch4 ,it has just got its vague and generalised ,stimmung4 ,we think as we look at ,leech's drawings1 or sit in a bead-work chair1 of a life which was the perfect flower of bourgeoisie4 ,the aristocracy with their odd irregular ways1 the ,meredith heroines and heroes1 are away in the background2 the ,victorian life is of the upper bourgeoisie4 ,it is immensely leisured1 untroubled by social problems1 unblushingly sentimental1 impenitently unintellectual1 and devoted to sport4 ,the women are exquisitely trained to their social functions2 they respond unfailingly to every sentimental appeal2 they are beautifully ill-informed1 and yet yearning for instruction2 they have adorable tempers and are ever so mildly mischievous4 ,the men can afford1 without fear of impish criticism1 to flaunt their whiskers in the sea breeze1 and to expatiate on their contempt for everything that is not correct4 ,here1 ,i suppose1 is something like the outline of that generalised historical fancy that by now emanates so fragrantly from the marble inlaid tables and the beadwork screens of the period4 ,how charming and how false it is1 one sees at once when one reflects that we imagine the ,victorians for ever playing croquet without ever losing their tempers4 ,it is evident1 then1 that we have just arrived at the point where our ignorance of life in the ,victorian period is such as to allow the incurable optimism of memory to build a quite peculiar little earthly paradise out of the boredoms1 the snobberies1 the cruel repressions1 the mean calculations and rapacious speculations of the mid-nineteenth century4 ,go a little later1 and the imagination is hopelessly hampered by familiarity with the facts of life which the roseate mist has not yet begun to transmute4 ,but let those of us who are hard at work collecting ,victorian paper-weights1 stuffed hummingbirds and wax flowers reflect that our successors will be able to create quite as amusing and wonderful interiors out of the black wood cabinets and 8sthetic0 crewel-work of the eighties4 ,they will not be able to do this until they have constructed the appropriate social picture1 the outlines of which we cannot dimly conceive4 ,we have at this moment no inkling of the kind of lies they will invent about the eighties to amuse themselves2 we only know that when the time comes the legend will have taken shape1 and that1 from that moment on1 the objects of the time will have the property of emanation4 ,so far it has been unnecessary even to consider whether the objects of the ,victorian period are works of art or not2 all that is necessary is that they should have some margin of freedom from utility1 some scope for the fancy of their creators4 ,and the ,victorian epoch is1 ,i think1 unusually rich in its capacity for emanation1 for it was the great period of fancy work4 ,as the age-long traditions of craftsmanship and structural design1 which had lingered on from the ,middle ,ages1 finally faded out under the impact of the new industrialism1 the amateur stepped in1 his brain teeming with fancies4 ,craftsmanship was dead1 the craftsman replaced either by the machine or by a purely servile and mechanical human being1 a man without tradition1 without ideas of his own1 who was ready to accomplish whatever caprices the amateur or the artist might set him to4 ,it was an age of invention and experiment1 an age of wildly irresponsible frivolity1 curiosity and sentimentality4 ,to gratify sentiment1 nature was opposed to the hampering conventions of art2 to gratify fatuous curiosity1 the most improbable and ill-suited materials conceivable were used4 ,what they call in ,france le style coco is exactly expressive of this4 ,a drawing of a pheasant is coloured by cutting up little pieces of real pheasant's feathers and sticking them on in the appropriate places4 ,realistic flowers are made out of shells glued together1 or1 with less of the pleasant shock of the unexpected1 out of wax or spun glass4 ,they experiment in colour1 using the new results of chemistry boldly1 greens from arsenic1 magenta and maroons from coal-tar1 with results sometimes happy1 sometimes disastrous2 but always we feel behind everything the capricious fancy of the amateur with his desire to contribute by some joke or conjuring trick to the social amenities4 ,the general groundwork of design1 so far as any tradition remains at all1 is a kind of bastard baroque passing at times into a flimsy caricature of rococo1 but almost always so overlaid and transfigured by the fancies of the amateur as to be hardly recognisable1 and yet all1 by now1 so richly redolent of its social legend as to have become a genuine style4 ,there is reason enough1 then1 why we should amuse ourselves by collecting ,victorian objects of art1 or at least those of us who have the special social-historical sensibility highly developed4 ,but so curiously intertwisted are our emotions that we are always apt to put a wrong label on them1 and the label 8beauty0 comes curiously handy for almost any of the more spiritual and disinterested feelings4 ,so our collector is likely enough to ask us to admire his objects1 not for their social emanations1 but for their intrinsic sthetic merit1 which1 to tell the truth1 is far more problematical4 ,certain it is that the use of material at this period seems to be less discriminating1 and the sense of quality feebler1 than at any previous period of the world's history1 at all events since ,roman times--,pompeii1 by-the-by1 was a thoroughly ,victorian city4 ,the sense of design was also chaotically free from all the limitations of purpose and material1 and ,i doubt if it attained to that perfect abstract sense of harmony which might justify any disregard of those conditions4 ,no1 on the whole it will be better to recognise fully how endearing1 how fancy-free1 how richly evocative are the objects of the ,victorian period than to trouble our heads about their sthetic value4 ,the discovery of ,victorian art is due to a few enterprising and original artists4 ,in a future article ,i hope to show why it is to the artist rather than to the collector that we always owe such discoveries1 and also why artists are of all people the most indifferent to the sthetic value of the objects they recommend to our admiration4 ,,the ,,artist',s ,,vision#f ,in the preceding article ,i stated that artists always lead the way in awakening a new admiration for forgotten and despised styles1 and that in doing so they anticipate both the archologist and the collector4 ,i also suggested that they were of all people the least fitted to report upon the sthetic value of the objects they pressed upon us4 ,biologically speaking1 art is a blasphemy4 ,we were given our eyes to see things1 not to look at them4 ,life takes care that we all learn the lesson thoroughly1 so that at a very early age we have acquired a very considerable ignorance of visual appearances4 ,we have learned the meaning for life of appearances so well that we understand them1 as it were1 in shorthand4 ,the subtlest differences of appearance that have a utility value still continue to be appreciated1 while large and important visual characters1 provided they are useless for life1 will pass unnoticed4 ,with all the ingenuity and resource which manufacturers put into their business1 they can scarcely prevent the ordinary eye from seizing on the minute visual characteristics that distinguish margarine from butter4 ,some of us can tell ,canadian cheddar at a glance1 and no one was ever taken in by sham sude gloves4 ,the sense of sight supplies prophetic knowledge of what may affect the inner fortifications1 the more intimate senses of taste and touch1 where it may already be too late to avert disaster4 ,so we learn to read the prophetic message1 and1 for the sake of economy1 to neglect all else4 ,children have not learned it fully1 and so they look at things with some passion4 ,even the grown man keeps something of his unbiological1 disinterested vision with regard to a few things4 ,he still looks at flowers1 and does not merely see them4 ,he also keeps objects which have some marked peculiarity of appearance that catches his eye4 ,these may be natural1 like precious stones1 fossils1 incrustations and such like2 or they may be manufactured entirely with a view to pleasing by peculiarities of colour or shape1 and these are called ornaments4 ,such articles1 whether natural or artificial1 are called by those who sell them #8curios1' and the name is not an unhappy one to denote the kind of interest which they arouse4 ,as ,i showed in a previous article1 such objects get attached to them a secondary interest1 arising from the kind of social milieu that they were made for1 so that they become not merely curious for the eye1 but stimulating to our social-historical imagination4 ,the vision with which we regard such objects is quite distinct from the practical vision of our instinctive life4 ,in the practical vision we have no more concern after we have read the label on the object2 vision ceases the moment it has served its biological function4 ,but the curiosity vision does contemplate the object disinterestedly2 the object ex hypothesi has no significance for actual life2 it is a play or fancy object1 and our vision dwells much more consciously and deliberately upon it4 ,we notice to some extent its forms and colours1 especially when it is new to us4 ,but human perversity goes further even than this in its misapplication of the gift of sight4 ,we may look at objects not even for their curiosity or oddity1 but for their harmony of form and colour4 ,to arouse such a vision the object must be more than a #8curio'3 it has to be a work of art4 ,i suspect that such an object must be made by some one in whom the impulse was not to please others1 but to express a feeling of his own4 ,it is probably this fundamental difference of origin between the #8curio' or ornament and the work of art that makes it impossible for any commercial system1 with its eye necessarily on the customer1 ever to produce works of art1 whatever the ingenuity with which it is attempted4 ,but we are concerned here not with the origin1 but with the vision4 ,this is at once more intense and more detached from the passions of the instinctive life than either of the kinds of vision hitherto discussed4 ,those who indulge in this vision are entirely absorbed in apprehending the relation of forms and colour to one another1 as they cohere within the object4 ,suppose1 for example1 that we are looking at a ,sung bowl2 we apprehend gradually the shape of the outside contour1 the perfect sequence of the curves1 and the subtle modifications of a certain type of curve which it shows2 we also feel the relation of the concave curves to the outside contour2 we realise that the precise thickness of the walls is consistent with the particular kind of matter of which it is made1 its appearance of density and resistance2 and finally we recognise1 perhaps1 how satisfactory for the display of all these plastic qualities are the colour and the dull lustre of the glaze4 ,now while we are thus occupied there comes to us1 ,i think1 a feeling of purpose2 we feel that all these sensually logical conformities are the outcome of a particular feeling1 or of what1 for want of a better word1 we call an idea2 and we may even say that the pot is the expression of an idea in the artist's mind4 ,whether we are right or not in making this deduction1 ,i believe it nearly always occurs in such sthetic apprehension of an object of art4 ,but in all this no element of curiosity1 no reference to actual life1 comes in2 our apprehension is unconditioned by considerations of space or time2 it is irrelevant to us to know whether the bowl was made seven hundred years ago in ,china1 or in ,new ,york yesterday4 ,we may1 of course1 at any moment switch off from the sthetic vision1 and become interested in all sorts of quasi-biological feelings2 we may inquire whether it is genuine or not1 whether it is worth the sum given for it1 and so forth2 but in proportion as we do this we change the focus of our vision2 we are more likely to examine the bottom of the bowl for traces of marks than to look at the bowl itself4 ,such1 then1 is the nature of the sthetic vision1 the vision with which we contemplate works of art4 ,it is to such a vision1 if to anything outside himself1 that the artist appeals1 and the artist in his spare hours may himself indulge in the sthetic vision2 and if one can get him to do so1 his verdict is likely to be as good as any one's4 ,the artist's main business in life1 however1 is carried on by means of yet a fourth kind of vision1 which ,i will call the creative vision4 ,this1 ,i think1 is the furthest perversion of the gifts of nature of which man is guilty4 ,it demands the most complete detachment from any of the meanings and implications of appearances4 ,almost any turn of the kaleidoscope of nature may set up in the artist this detached and impassioned vision1 and1 as he contemplates the particular field of vision1 the 7sthetically7 chaotic and accidental conjunction of forms and colours begins to crystallise into a harmony2 and as this harmony becomes clear to the artist1 his actual vision becomes distorted by the emphasis of the rhythm which has been set up within him4 ,certain relations of directions of line become for him full of meaning2 he apprehends them no longer casually or merely curiously1 but passionately1 and these lines begin to be so stressed and stand out so clearly from the rest that he sees them far more distinctly than he did at first4 ,similarly colours1 which in nature have almost always a certain vagueness and elusiveness1 become so definite and clear to him1 owing to their now necessary relation to other colours1 that if he chooses to paint his vision he can state them positively and definitely4 ,in such a creative vision the objects as such tend to disappear1 to lose their separate unities1 and to take their places as so many bits in the whole mosaic of vision4 ,the texture of the whole field of vision becomes so close that the coherence of the separate patches of tone and colour within each object is no stronger than the coherence with every other tone and colour throughout the field4 ,in such circumstances the greatest object of art becomes of no more significance than any casual piece of matter2 a man's head is no more and no less important than a pumpkin1 or1 rather1 these things may be so or not according to the rhythm that obsesses the artist and crystallises his vision4 ,since it is the habitual practice of the artist to be on the look out for these peculiar arrangements of objects that arouse the creative vision1 and become material for creative contemplation1 he is liable to look at all objects from this point of view4 ,in so far as the artist looks at objects only as part of a whole field of vision which is his own potential picture1 he can give no account of their sthetic value4 ,every solid object is subject to the play of light and shade1 and becomes a mosaic of visual patches1 each of which for the artist is related to other visual patches in the surroundings4 ,it is irrelevant to ask him1 while he is looking with this generalised and all-embracing vision1 about the nature of the objects which compose it4 ,he is likely even to turn away from works of art in which he may be tempted to relapse into an sthetic vision1 and so see them as unities apart from their surroundings4 ,by preference he turns to objects which make no strong sthetic appeal in themselves4 ,but he may like objects which attract by some oddity or peculiarity of form or colour1 and thereby suggest to him new and intriguing rhythms4 ,in his continual and restless preoccupation with appearance he is capable of looking at objects from which both sthetic and even curious vision may turn instinctively1 or which they may never notice1 so little prospect of satisfaction do they hold out4 ,but the artist may always find his satisfaction1 the material for his picture1 in the most unexpected quarters4 ,objects of the most despised periods1 or objects saturated for the ordinary man with the most vulgar and repulsive associations1 may be grist to his mill4 ,and so it happened that while the man of culture and the connoisseur firmly believed that art ended with the brothers ,adam1 ,mr4 ,walter ,sickert was already busy getting hold of stuffed birds and wax flowers just for his own queer game of tones and colours4 ,and now the collector and the art-dealer will be knocking at ,mr4 ,sickert's door to buy the treasures at twenty times the price the artist paid for them4 ,perhaps there are already younger artists who are getting excited about the tiles in the refreshment room at ,south ,kensington1 and1 when the social legend has gathered round the names of ,sir ,arthur ,sullivan and ,connie ,gilchrist1 will inspire in the cultured a deep admiration for the 8sthetic0 period4 ,the artist is of all men the most constantly observant of his surroundings1 and the least affected by their intrinsic sthetic value4 ,he is more likely on the whole to paint a slum in ,soho than ,st4 ,paul's1 and more likely to do a lodging-house interior than a room at ,hampton ,court4 ,he may1 of course1 do either1 but his necessary detachment comes more easily in one case than the other4 ,the artist is1 ,i believe1 a very good critic if you can make him drop his own job for a minute1 and really attend to some one else's work of art2 but do not go to him when he is on duty as an artist if you want a sound judgment about objects of art4 ,the different visions ,i have discussed are like the different gears of a motor-car1 only that we sometimes step from one gear into another without knowing it1 and the artist may be on the wrong gear for answering us truly4 ,mr4 ,walter ,sickert is likely to have a ,sickert in his eye when he gives us a panegyric on a bedroom candlestick4 ,,art ,,and ,,socialism#g ,i am not a ,socialist1 as ,i understand that word1 nor can ,i pretend to have worked out those complex estimates of economic possibility which are needed before one can endorse the hopeful forecasts of ,lady ,warwick1 ,mr4 ,money1 and ,mr4 ,wells4 ,what ,i propose to do here is first to discuss what effect plutocracy1 such as it is to-day1 has had of late1 and is likely to have in the near future1 upon one of the things which ,i should like to imagine continuing upon our planet--namely1 art4 ,and then briefly to prognosticate its chances under such a regime as my colleagues have sketched4 ,as ,i understand it1 art is one of the chief organs of what1 for want of a better word1 ,i must call the spiritual life4 ,it both stimulates and controls those indefinable overtones of the material life of man which all of us at moments feel to have a quality of permanence and reality that does not belong to the rest of our experience4 ,nature demands with no uncertain voice that the physical needs of the body shall be satisfied first2 but we feel that our real human life only begins at the point where that is accomplished1 that the man who works at some uncreative and uncongenial toil merely to earn enough food to enable him to continue to work has not1 properly speaking1 a human life at all4 ,it is the argument of commercialism1 as it once was of aristocracy1 that the accumulation of surplus wealth in a few hands enables this spiritual life to maintain its existence1 that no really valuable or useless work 7for from this point of view only useless work has value7 could exist in the community without such accumulations of wealth4 ,the argument has been employed for the disinterested work of scientific research4 ,a doctor of naturally liberal and generous impulses told me that he was becoming a reactionary simply because he feared that public bodies would never give the money necessary for research with anything like the same generosity as is now shown by the great plutocrats4 ,but ,sir ,ray ,lankester does not find that generosity sufficient1 and is prepared at least to consider a ,state more ample-spirited4 ,the situation as regards art and as regards the disinterested love of truth is so similar that we might expect this argument in favour of a plutocratic social order to hold equally well for both art and science1 and that the artist would be a fervent upholder of the present system4 ,as a matter of fact1 the more representative artists have rarely been such1 and not a few1 though working their life long for the plutocracy1 have been vehement ,socialists4 ,despairing of the conditions due to modern commercialism1 it is not unnatural that lovers of beauty should look back with nostalgia to the age when society was controlled by a landed aristocracy4 ,i believe1 however1 that from the point of view of the encouragement of great creative art there is not much difference between an aristocracy and a plutocracy4 ,the aristocrat usually had taste1 the plutocrat frequently has not4 ,now taste is of two kinds1 the first consisting in the negative avoidance of all that is ill-considered and discordant1 the other positive and a by-product2 it is that harmony which always results from the expression of intense and disinterested emotion4 ,the aristocrat1 by means of his good taste of the negative kind1 was able to come to terms with the artist2 the plutocrat has not4 ,but both alike desire to buy something which is incommensurate with money4 ,both want art to be a background to their radiant self-consciousness4 ,they want to buy beauty as they want to buy love2 and the painter1 picture-dealer1 and the pander try perennially to persuade them that it is possible4 ,but living beauty cannot be bought2 it must be won4 ,i have said that the aristocrat1 by his taste1 by his feeling for the accidentals of beauty1 did manage to get on to some kind of terms with the artist4 ,hence the art of the eighteenth century1 an art that is prone before the distinguished patron1 subtly and deliciously flattering and yet always fine4 ,in contrast to that the art of the nineteenth century is coarse1 turbulent1 clumsy4 ,it marks the beginning of a revolt4 ,the artist just managed to let himself be coaxed and cajoled by the aristocrat1 but when the aristocratic was succeeded by the plutocratic patron with less conciliatory manners and no taste1 the artist rebelled2 and the history of art in the nineteenth century is the history of a band of heroic ,ishmaelites1 with no secure place in the social system1 with nothing to support them in the unequal struggle but a dim sense of a new idea1 the idea of the freedom of art from all trammels and tyrannies4 ,the place that the artists left vacant at the plutocrat's table had to be filled1 and it was filled by a race new in the history of the world1 a race for whom no name has yet been found1 a race of pseudo-artists4 ,as the prostitute professes to sell love1 so these gentlemen professed to sell beauty1 and they and their patrons rollicked good-humouredly through the ,victorian era4 ,they adopted the name and something of the manner of artists2 they intercepted not only the money1 but the titles and fame and glory which were intended for those whom they had supplanted4 ,but1 while they were yet feasting1 there came an event which seemed at the time of no importance1 but which was destined to change ultimately the face of things1 the exhibition of ancient art at ,manchester in #aheg4 ,and with this came ,ruskin's address on the ,political ,economy of ,art1 a work which surprises by its prophetic foresight when we read it half a century later4 ,these two things were the ,mene ,tekel of the orgy of ,victorian ,philistinism4 ,the plutocrat saw through the deception2 it was not beauty the pseudo-artist sold him1 any more than it was love which the prostitute gave4 ,he turned from it in disgust and decided that the only beauty he could buy was the dead beauty of the past4 ,thereupon set in the worship of patine and the age of forgery and the detection of forgery4 ,i once remarked to a rich man that a statue by ,rodin might be worthy even of his collection4 ,he replied1 8,show me a ,rodin with the patine of the fifteenth century1 and ,i will buy it40 ,patine1 then1 the adventitious material beauty which age alone can give1 has come to be the object of a reverence greater than that devoted to the idea which is enshrined within the work of art4 ,people are right to admire patine4 ,nothing is more beautiful than gilded bronze of which time has taken toll until it is nothing but a faded shimmering splendour over depths of inscrutable gloom2 nothing finer than the dull glow which ,pentelic marble has gathered from past centuries of sunlight and warm ,mediterranean breezes4 ,patine is good1 but it is a surface charm added to the essential beauty of expression2 its beauty is literally skin-deep4 ,it can never come into being or exist in or for itself2 no patine can make a bad work good1 or the forgers would be justified4 ,it is an adjectival and ancillary beauty scarcely worthy of our prolonged contemplation4 ,there is to the philosopher something pathetic in the ,plutocrat's worship of patine4 ,it is1 as it were1 a compensation for his own want of it4 ,on himself all the rough thumb and chisel marks of his maker--and he is self-made--stand as yet unpolished and raw2 but his furniture1 at least1 shall have the distinction of age-long acquaintance with good manners4 ,but the net result of all this is that the artist has nothing to hope from the plutocrat4 ,to him we must be grateful indeed for that brusque disillusionment of the real artist1 the real artist who might have rubbed along uneasily for yet another century with his predecessor1 the aristocrat4 ,let us be grateful to him for this2 but we need not look to him for further benefits1 and if we decide to keep him the artist must be content to be paid after he is dead and vicariously in the person of an art-dealer4 ,the artist must be content to look on while sums are given for dead beauty1 the tenth part of which1 properly directed1 would irrigate whole nations and stimulate once more the production of vital artistic expression4 ,i would not wish to appear to blame the plutocrat4 ,he has often honestly done his best for art2 the trouble is not of his making more than of the artist's1 and the misunderstanding between art and commerce is bound to be complete4 ,the artist1 however mean and avaricious he may appear1 knows that he cannot really sell himself for money any more than the philosopher or the scientific investigator can sell himself for money4 ,he takes money in the hope that he may secure the opportunity for the free functioning of his creative power4 ,if the patron could give him that instead of money he would bless him2 but he cannot1 and so he tries to get him to work not quite freely for money2 and in revenge the artist indulges in all manner of insolences1 even perhaps in sharp practices1 which make the patron feel1 with some justification1 that he is the victim of ingratitude and wanton caprice4 ,it is impossible that the artist should work for the plutocrat2 he must work for himself1 because it is only by so doing that he can perform the function for which he exists2 it is only by working for himself that he can work for mankind4 ,if1 then1 the particular kind of accumulation of surplus wealth which we call plutocracy has failed1 as surely it has signally failed1 to stimulate the creative power of the imagination1 what disposition of wealth might be conceived that would succeed better8 ,first of all1 a greater distribution of wealth1 with a lower standard of ostentation1 would1 ,i think1 do a great deal to improve things without any great change in other conditions4 ,it is not enough known that the patronage which really counts to-day is exercised by quite small and humble people4 ,these people with a few hundreds a year exercise a genuine patronage by buying pictures at ten1 twenty1 or occasionally thirty pounds1 with real insight and understanding1 thereby enabling the young ,ishmaelite to live and function from the age of twenty to thirty or so1 when perhaps he becomes known to richer buyers1 those experienced spenders of money who are always more cautious1 more anxious to buy an investment than a picture4 ,these poor1 intelligent first patrons to whom ,i allude belong mainly to the professional classes2 they have none of the pretensions of the plutocrat and none of his ambitions4 ,the work of art is not for them1 as for him1 a decorative backcloth to his stage1 but an idol and an inspiration4 ,merely to increase the number and potency of these people would already accomplish much2 and this is to be noticed1 that if wealth were more evenly distributed1 if no one had a great deal of wealth1 those who really cared for art would become the sole patrons1 since for all it would be an appreciable sacrifice1 and for none an impossibility4 ,the man who only buys pictures when he has as many motor-cars as he can conceivably want would drop out as a patron altogether4 ,but even this would only foster the minor and private arts2 and what the history of art definitely elucidates is that the greatest art has always been communal1 the expression--in highly individualised ways1 no doubt--of common aspirations and ideals4 ,let us suppose1 then1 that society were so arranged that considerable surplus wealth lay in the hands of public bodies1 both national and local2 can we have any reasonable hope that they would show more skill in carrying out the delicate task of stimulating and using the creative power of the artist8 ,the immediate prospect is certainly not encouraging4 ,nothing1 for instance1 is more deplorable than to watch the patronage of our provincial museums4 ,the gentlemen who administer these public funds naturally have not realised so acutely as private buyers the lesson so admirably taught at ,christie's1 that pseudo or ,royal-,academic art is a bad investment4 ,nor is it better if we turn to national patronage4 ,in ,great ,britain1 at least1 we cannot get a postage stamp or a penny even respectably designed1 much less a public monument4 ,indeed1 the tradition that all public ,british art shall be crassly mediocre and inexpressive is so firmly rooted that it seems to have almost the prestige of constitutional precedent4 ,nor will any one who has watched a committee commissioning a presentation portrait1 or even buying an old master1 be in danger of taking too optimistic a view4 ,with rare and shining exceptions1 committees seem to be at the mercy of the lowest common denominator of their individual natures1 which is dominated by fear of criticism2 and fear and its attendant1 compromise1 are bad masters of the arts4 ,speaking recently at ,liverpool1 ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw placed the present situation as regards public art in its true light4 ,he declared that the corruption of taste and the emotional insincerity of the mass of the people had gone so far that any picture which pleased more than ten per cent4 of the population should be immediately burned4444 ,this1 then1 is the fundamental fact we have to face4 ,and it is this that gives us pause when we try to construct any conceivable system of public patronage4 ,for the modern artist puts the question of any socialistic--or1 indeed1 of any completely ordered--state in its acutest form4 ,he demands as an essential to the proper use of his powers a freedom from restraint such as no other workman expects4 ,he must work when he feels inclined2 he cannot work to order4 ,hence his frequent quarrels with the burgher who knows he has to work when he is disinclined1 and cannot conceive why the artist should not do likewise4 ,the burgher watches the artist's wayward and apparently quite unmethodical activity1 and envies his job4 ,now1 in any ,socialistic ,state1 if certain men are licensed to pursue the artistic calling1 they are likely to be regarded by the other workers with some envy4 ,there may be a competition for such soft jobs among those who are naturally work-shy1 since it will be evident that the artist is not called to account in the same way as other workers4 ,if we suppose1 as seems not unlikely1 in view of the immense numbers who become artists in our present social state1 that there would be this competition for the artistic work of the community1 what methods would be devised to select those required to fill the coveted posts8 ,frankly1 the history of art in the nineteenth century makes us shudder at the results that would follow4 ,one scarcely knows whether they would be worse if ,bumble or the ,academy were judge4 ,we only know that under any such conditions none of the artists whose work has ultimately counted in the spiritual development of the race would have been allowed to practise the coveted profession4 ,there is in truth1 as ,ruskin pointed out in his 8,political ,economy of ,art10 a gross and wanton waste under the present system4 ,we have thousands of artists who are only so by accident and by name1 on the one hand1 and certainly many--one cannot tell how many--who have the special gift but have never had the peculiar opportunities which are to-day necessary to allow it to expand and function4 ,but there is1 what in an odd way consoles us1 a blind chance that the gift and the opportunity may coincide2 that ,shelley and ,browning may have a competence1 and ,czanne a farm-house he could retire to4 ,bureaucratic ,socialism would1 it seems1 take away even this blind chance that mankind may benefit by its least appreciable1 most elusive treasures1 and would carefully organise the complete suppression of original creative power2 would organise into a universal and all-embracing tyranny the already overweening and disastrous power of endowed official art4 ,for we must face the fact that the average man has two qualities which would make the proper selection of the artist almost impossible4 ,he has1 first of all1 a touching proclivity to awe-struck admiration of whatever is presented to him as noble by a constituted authority2 and1 secondly1 a complete absence of any immediate reaction to a work of art until his judgment has thus been hypnotised by the voice of authority4 ,then1 and not till then1 he sees1 or swears he sees1 those adorable ,emperor's clothes that he is always agape for4 ,i am speaking1 of course1 of present conditions1 of a populace whose emotional life has been drugged by the sugared poison of pseudo-art1 a populace saturated with snobbishness1 and regarding art chiefly for its value as a symbol of social distinctions4 ,there have been times when such a system of public patronage as we are discussing might not have been altogether disastrous4 ,times when the guilds represented more or less adequately the genuine artistic intelligence of the time2 but the creation1 first of all1 of aristocratic art1 and finally of pseudo-art1 have brought it about that almost any officially organised system would at the present moment stereotype all the worst features of modern art4 ,now1 in thus putting forward the extreme difficulties of any system of publicly controlled art1 we are emphasising perhaps too much the idea of the artist as a creator of purely ideal and abstract works1 as the medium of inspiration and the source of revelation4 ,it is the artist as prophet and priest that we have been considering1 the artist who is the articulate soul of mankind4 ,now1 in the present commercial ,state1 at a time when such handiwork as is not admirably fitted to some purely utilitarian purpose has become inanely fatuous and grotesque1 the artist in this sense has undoubtedly become of supreme importance as a protestant1 as one who proclaims that art is a reasonable function1 and one that proceeds by a nice adjustment of means to ends4 ,but if we suppose a state in which all the ordinary objects of daily life--our chairs and tables1 our carpets and pottery--expressed something of this reasonableness instead of a crazy and vapid fantasy1 the artist as a pure creator might become1 not indeed of less importance--rather more--but a less acute necessity to our general living than he is to-day4 ,something of the sanity and purposefulness of his attitude might conceivably become infused into the work of the ordinary craftsman1 something1 too1 of his creative energy and delight in work4 ,we must1 therefore1 turn for a moment from the abstractly creative artist to the applied arts and those who practise them4 ,we are so far obliged to protect ourselves from the implications of modern life that without a special effort it is hard to conceive the enormous quantity of 8art0 that is annually produced and consumed4 ,for the special purpose of realising it ,i take the pains to write the succeeding paragraphs in a railway refreshment-room1 where ,i am actually looking at those terribly familiar but fortunately fleeting images which such places afford4 ,and one must remember that public places of this kind merely reflect the average citizen's soul1 as expressed in his home4 ,the space my eye travels over is a small one1 but ,i am appalled at the amount of 8art0 that it harbours4 ,the window towards which ,i look is filled in its lower part by stained glass2 within a highly elaborate border1 designed by some one who knew the conventions of thirteenth-century glass1 is a pattern of yellow and purple vine leaves with bunches of grapes1 and flitting about among these many small birds4 ,in front is a lace curtain with patterns taken from at least four centuries and as many countries4 ,on the walls1 up to a height of four feet1 is a covering of lincrusta walton stamped with a complicated pattern in two colours1 with sham silver medallions4 ,above that a moulding but an inch wide1 and yet creeping throughout its whole with a degenerate descendant of a ,grco-,roman carved guilloche pattern2 this has evidently been cut out of the wood by machine or stamped out of some composition--its nature is so perfectly concealed that it is hard to say which4 ,above this is a wall-paper in which an effect of eighteenth-century satin brocade is imitated by shaded staining of the paper4 ,each of the little refreshment-tables has two cloths1 one arranged symmetrically with the table1 the other a highly ornate printed cotton arranged 8artistically0 in a diagonal position4 ,in the centre of each table is a large pot in which every beautiful quality in the material and making of pots has been carefully obliterated by methods each of which implies profound scientific knowledge and great inventive talent4 ,within each pot is a plant with large dark-green leaves1 apparently made of india-rubber4 ,this painful catalogue makes up only a small part of the inventory of the 8art0 of the restaurant4 ,if ,i were to go on to tell of the legs of the tables1 of the electric-light fittings1 of the chairs into the wooden seats of which some tremendous mechanical force has deeply impressed a large distorted anthemion--if ,i were to tell of all these things1 my reader and ,i might both begin to realise with painful acuteness something of the horrible toil involved in all this display4 ,display is indeed the end and explanation of it all4 ,not one of these things has been made because the maker enjoyed the making2 not one has been bought because its contemplation would give any one any pleasure1 but solely because each of these things is accepted as a symbol of a particular social status4 ,i say their contemplation can give no one pleasure2 they are there because their absence would be resented by the average man who regards a large amount of futile display as in some way inseparable from the conditions of that well-to-do life to which he belongs or aspires to belong4 ,if everything were merely clean and serviceable he would proclaim the place bare and uncomfortable4 ,the doctor who lines his waiting-room with bad photogravures and worse etchings is acting on exactly the same principle2 in short1 nearly all our 8art0 is made1 bought1 and sold merely for its value as an indication of social status4 ,now consider the case of those men whose life-work it is to stimulate this eczematous eruption of pattern on the surface of modern manufactures4 ,they are by far the most numerous 8artists0 in the country4 ,each of them has not only learned to draw but has learned by sheer application to put forms together with a similitude of that coherence which creative impulse gives4 ,probably each of them has somewhere within him something of that creative impulse which is the inspiration and delight of every savage and primitive craftsman2 but in these manufacturer's designers the pressure of commercial life has crushed and atrophied that creative impulse completely4 ,their business is to produce1 not expressive design1 but dead patterns4 ,they are compelled1 therefore1 to spend their lives behaving in an entirely idiotic and senseless manner1 and that with the certainty that no one will ever get positive pleasure from the result2 for one may hazard the statement that until ,i made the effort just now1 no one of the thousands who use the refreshment-rooms ever really looked at the designs4 ,this question of the creation and consumption of art tends to become more and more pressing4 ,i have shown just now what an immense mass of art is consumed1 but this is not the same art as that which the genuine artist produces4 ,the work of the truly creative artist is not merely useless to the social man--it appears to be noxious and inassimilable4 ,before art can be 8consumed0 the artistic idea must undergo a process of disinfection4 ,it must have extracted and removed from it all1 or nearly all1 that makes it sthetically valuable4 ,what occurs when a great artist creates a new idea is somewhat as follows3 ,we know the process well enough1 since it has taken place in the last fifty years4 ,an artist attains to a new vision4 ,he grasps this with such conviction that he is able to express it in his work4 ,those few people in his immediate surroundings who have the faculty of sthetic perception become very much excited by the new vision4 ,the average man1 on the other hand1 lacks this faculty and1 moreover1 instinctively protects the rounded perfection of his universe of thought and feeling from the intrusion of new experience2 in consequence he becomes extremely irritated by the sight of works which appear to him completely unintelligible4 ,the misunderstanding between this small minority and the public becomes violent4 ,then some of the more intelligent writers on art recognise that the new idea is really related to past sthetic expressions which have become recognised4 ,then a clever artist1 without any individual vision of his own1 sees the possibility of using a modification of the new idea1 makes an ingenious compromise between it and the old1 generally accepted notions of art4 ,the public1 which has been irritated by its incomprehension of the new idea1 finding the compromise just intelligible1 and delighted to find itself cleverer than it thought1 acclaims the compromising intermediary as a genius4 ,the process of disinfection thus begun goes on with increasing energy and rapidity1 and before long the travesty of the new idea is completely assimilable by the social organism4 ,the public1 after swallowing innumerable imitations of the new idea1 may even at last reluctantly accept the original creator as a great man1 but generally not until he has been dead for some time and has become a vague and mythical figure4 ,it is literally true to say that the imitations of works of art are more assimilable by the public than originals1 and therefore always tend to fetch a higher price in the market at the moment of their production4 ,the fact is that the average man uses art entirely for its symbolic value4 ,art is in fact the symbolic currency of the world4 ,the possession of rare and much coveted works of art is regarded as a sign of national greatness4 ,the growth and development of the ,kaiser ,friedrich museum was due to the active support of the late ,emperor1 a man whose distaste for genuine art is notorious1 but whose sense of the symbolic was highly developed4 ,large and expensively ornamented buildings become symbols of municipal greatness4 ,the amount of useless ornaments on faades of their offices is a valuable symbol of the financial exuberance of big commercial undertakings2 and1 finally1 the social status of the individual is expressed to the admiring or envious outer world by the streamlines of an aristocratic motor-car1 or the superfluity of lace curtains in the front windows of a genteel suburban villa4 ,the social man1 then1 lives in a world of symbols1 and though he presses other things into his service1 such1 for instance1 as kings1 footmen1 dogs1 women1 he finds in art his richest reservoir of symbolic currency4 ,but in a world of symbolists the creative artist and the creative man of science appear in strange isolation as the only people who are not symbolists4 ,they alone are up against certain relations which do not stand for something else1 but appear to have ultimate value1 to be real4 ,art as a symbolic currency is an important means of the instinctive life of man1 but art as created by the artist is in violent revolt against the instinctive life1 is an expression of the reflective and fully conscious life4 ,it is natural enough1 then1 that before it can be used by the instinctive life it must be deprived by travesty of its too violent assertion of its own reality4 ,travesty is necessary at first to make it assimilable1 but in the end long familiarity may rob even original works of art of their insistence1 so that1 finally1 even the great masterpieces may become the most cherished symbols of the lords of the instinctive life1 may1 as in fact they frequently do1 become the property of millionaires4 ,a great deal of misunderstanding and ill-feeling between the artist and the public comes from a failure to realise the necessity of this process of assimilation of the work of art to the needs of the instinctive life4 ,i suspect that a very similar process takes place with regard to truth4 ,in order that truth may not outrage too violently the passions and egoisms of the instinctive life it1 too1 must undergo a process of deformation4 ,society1 for example1 accepts as much of the ascertainable truth as it can stand at a given period in the form of the doctrine of its organised religion4 ,now what effect would the development of the ,great ,state which this book anticipates have upon all this8 ,first1 ,i suppose that the fact that every one had to work might produce a new reverence1 especially in the governing body1 for work1 a new sense of disgust and horror at wasteful and purposeless work4 ,mr4 ,money has written of waste of work2 here in unwanted pseudo-art is another colossal waste4 ,add to this ideal of economy in work the presumption that the workers in every craft would be more thoroughly organised and would have a more decisive voice in the nature and quality of their productions4 ,under the present system of commercialism the one object1 and the complete justification1 of producing any article is1 that it can be made either by its intrinsic value1 or by the fictitious value put upon it by advertisement1 to sell with a sufficient profit to the manufacturer4 ,in any socialistic state1 ,i imagine--and to a large extent the ,great ,state will be socialistic at least--there would not be this same automatic justification for manufacture2 people would not be induced artificially to buy what they did not want1 and in this way a more genuine scale of values would be developed4 ,moreover1 the workman would be in a better position to say how things should be made4 ,after years of a purely commercial standard1 there is left even now1 in the average workman1 a certain bias in favour of sound and reasonable workmanship as opposed to the ingenious manufacture of fatuous and fraudulent objects2 and1 if we suppose the immediate pressure of sheer necessity to be removed1 it is probable that the craftsman1 acting through his guild organisations1 would determine to some extent the methods of manufacture4 ,guilds might1 indeed1 regain something of the political influence that gave us the ,gothic cathedrals of the ,middle ,ages4 ,it is quite probable that this guild influence would act as a check on some innovations in manufacture which1 though bringing in a profit1 are really disastrous to the community at large4 ,of such a nature are all the so-called improvements whereby decoration1 the whole value of which consists in its expressive power1 is multiplied indefinitely by machinery4 ,when once the question of the desirability of any and every production came to be discussed1 as it would be in the ,great ,state1 it would inevitably follow that some reasonable and scientific classifications would be undertaken with regard to machinery4 ,that is to say1 it would be considered in what processes and to what degree machinery ought to replace handiwork1 both from the point of view of the community as a whole and from that of the producer4 ,so far as ,i know1 this has never been undertaken even with regard to mere economy1 no one having calculated with precision how far the longer life of certain hand-made articles does not more than compensate for increased cost of production4 ,and ,i suppose that in the ,great ,state other things besides mere economy would come into the calculation4 ,the ,great ,state will live1 not hoard4 ,it is probable that in many directions we should extend mechanical operations immensely1 that such things as the actual construction of buildings1 the mere laying and placing of the walls might become increasingly mechanical4 ,such methods1 if confined to purely structural elements1 are capable of beauty of a special kind1 since they can express the ordered ideas of proportion1 balance1 and interval as conceived by the creative mind of the architect4 ,but in process of time one might hope to see a sharp line of division between work of this kind and such purely expressive and non-utilitarian design as we call ornament2 and it would be felt clearly that into this field no mechanical device should intrude1 that1 while ornament might be dispensed with1 it could never be imitated1 since its only reason for being is that it conveys the vital expressive power of a human mind acting constantly and directly upon matter4 ,finally1 ,i suppose that in the ,great ,state we might hope to see such a considerable levelling of social conditions that the false values put upon art by its symbolising of social status would be largely destroyed and1 the pressure of mere opinion being relieved1 people would develop some more immediate reaction to the work of art than they can at present achieve4 ,supposing1 then1 that under the ,great ,state it was found impossible1 at all events at first1 to stimulate and organise the abstract creative power of the pure artist1 the balance might after all be in favour of the new order if the whole practice of applied art could once more become rational and purposeful4 ,in a world where the objects of daily use and ornament were made with practical common sense1 the sthetic sense would need far less to seek consolation and repose in works of pure art4 ,nevertheless1 in the long run mankind will not allow this function1 which is necessary to its spiritual life1 to lapse entirely4 ,i imagine1 however1 that it would be much safer to penalise rather than to stimulate such activity1 and that simply in order to sift out those with a genuine passion from those who are merely attracted by the apparent ease of the pursuit4 ,i imagine that the artist would naturally turn to one of the applied arts as his means of livelihood2 and we should get the artist coming out of the bottega1 as he did in fifteenth-century ,florence4 ,there are1 moreover1 innumerable crafts1 even besides those that are definitely artistic1 which1 if pursued for short hours 7,sir ,leo ,money has shown how short these hours might be71 would leave a man free to pursue other callings in his leisure4 ,the majority of poets to-day are artists in this position4 ,it is comparatively rare for any one to make of poetry his actual means of livelihood4 ,our poets are1 first of all1 clerks1 critics1 civil servants1 or postmen4 ,i very much doubt if it would be a serious loss to the community if the pure graphic artist were in the same position4 ,that is to say1 that all our pictures would be made by amateurs4 ,it is quite possible to suppose that this would be not a loss1 but a great gain4 ,the painter's means of livelihood would probably be some craft in which his artistic powers would be constantly occupied1 though at a lower tension and in a humbler way4 ,the ,great ,state aims at human freedom2 essentially1 it is an organisation for leisure--out of which art grows2 it is only a purely bureaucratic ,socialism that would attempt to control the sthetic lives of men4 ,so ,i conceive that those in whom the instinct for abstract creative art was strongest would find ample opportunities for its exercise1 and that the temptation to simulate this particular activity would be easily resisted by those who had no powerful inner compulsion4 ,in the ,great ,state1 moreover1 and in any sane ,socialism1 there would be opportunity for a large amount of purely private buying and selling4 ,mr4 ,wells's ,modern ,utopia1 for example1 hypothecates a vast superstructure of private trading4 ,a painter might sell his pictures to those who were engaged in more lucrative employment1 though one supposes that with the much more equal distribution of wealth the sums available for this would be incomparably smaller than at present2 a picture would not be a speculation1 but a pleasure1 and no one would become an artist in the hope of making a fortune4 ,ultimately1 of course1 when art had been purified of its present unreality by a prolonged contact with the crafts1 society would gain a new confidence in its collective artistic judgment1 and might even boldly assume the responsibility which at present it knows it is unable to face4 ,it might choose its poets and painters and philosophers and deep investigators1 and make of such men and women a new kind of kings4 ,,art ,,and ,,science#h ,the author of an illuminating article1 8,the ,place of ,science10 in ,the ,athenum for ,april #aath1 distinguishes between two aspects of intellectual activity in scientific work4 ,of these two aspects one derives its motive power from curiosity1 and this deals with particular facts4 ,it is only when1 through curiosity1 man has accumulated a mass of particular observations that the second intellectual activity manifests itself1 and in this the motive is the satisfaction which the mind gets from the contemplation of inevitable relations4 ,to secure this end the utmost possible generalisation is necessary4 ,in a later article ,s4 says boldly that this satisfaction is an sthetic satisfaction3 8,it is in its sthetic value that the justification of the scientific theory is to be found1 and with it the justification of the scientific method40 ,i should like to pose to ,s4 at this point the question of whether a theory that disregarded facts would have equal value for science with one which agreed with facts4 ,i suppose he would say ,no2 and yet1 so far as ,i can see1 there would be no purely sthetic reason why it should not4 ,the sthetic value of a theory would surely depend solely on the perfection and complexity of the unity attained1 and ,i imagine that many systems of scholastic theology1 and even some more recent systems of metaphysic1 have only this sthetic value4 ,i suspect that the sthetic value of a theory is not really adequate to the intellectual effort entailed unless1 as in a true scientific theory 7by which ,i mean a theory which embraces all the known relevant facts71 the sthetic value is reinforced by the curiosity value which comes in when we believe it to be true4 ,but now1 returning to art1 let me try to describe rather more clearly its analogies with science4 ,both of these aspects--the particularising and the generalising--have their counterparts in art4 ,curiosity impels the artist to the consideration of every possible form in nature3 under its stimulus he tends to accept each form in all its particularity as a given1 unalterable fact4 ,the other kind of intellectual activity impels the artist to attempt the reduction of all forms1 as it were1 to some common denominator which will make them comparable with one another4 ,it impels him to discover some sthetically intelligible principle in various forms1 and even to envisage the possibility of some kind of abstract form in the sthetic contemplation of which the mind would attain satisfaction--a satisfaction curiously parallel to that which the mind gets from the intellectual recognition of abstract truth4 ,if we consider the effects of these two kinds of intellectual activity1 or rather their exact analogues1 in art1 we have to note that in so far as the artist's curiosity remains a purely intellectual curiosity it interferes with the perfection and purity of the work of art by introducing an alien and non-sthetic element and appealing to non-sthetic desires2 in so far as it merely supplies the artist with new motives and a richer material out of which to build his designs1 it is useful but subsidiary4 ,thus the objection to a 8subject picture10 in so far as one remains conscious of the subject as something outside of1 and apart from1 the form1 is a valid objection to the intrusion of intellect1 of however rudimentary a kind1 into an sthetic whole4 ,the ordinary historical pictures of our annual shows will furnish perfect examples of such an intrusion1 since they exhibit innumerable appeals to intellectual recognitions without which the pictures would be meaningless4 ,without some previous knowledge of ,caligula or ,mary ,queen of ,scots we are likely to miss our way in a great deal of what passes for art to-day4 ,the case of the generalising intellect1 or rather its analogue1 in art is more difficult4 ,here the recognition of relations is immediate and sensational--perhaps we ought to consider it as curiously akin to those cases of mathematical geniuses who have immediate intuition of mathematical relations which it is beyond their powers to prove--so that it is by analogy that we may talk of it at all as intellectual4 ,but the analogy is so close that ,i hope it may justify the use ,i here suggest4 ,for in both cases the utmost possible generalisation is aimed at1 and in both the mind is held in delighted equilibrium by the contemplation of the inevitable relations of all the parts in the whole1 so that no need exists to make reference to what is outside the unity1 and this becomes for the time being a universe4 ,it will be seen how close the analogies are between the methods and aims of art and science1 and yet there remains an obstinate doubt in the mind whether at any point they are identical4 ,probably in order to get much further we must wait for the psychologists to solve a number of problems2 meanwhile this at least must be pointed out--that1 allowing that the motives of science are emotional1 many of its processes are purely intellectual1 that is to say1 mechanical4 ,they could be performed by a perfectly non-sentient1 emotionless brain1 whereas at no point in the process of art can we drop feeling4 ,there is something in the common phraseology by which we talk of seeing a point or an argument1 whereas we feel the harmony of a work of art2 and for some reason we attach a more constant emotional quality to feeling than to seeing1 which is so constantly used for coldly practical ends4 ,from the merest rudiments of pure sensation up to the highest efforts of design each point in the process of art is inevitably accompanied by pleasure2 it cannot proceed without it4 ,if we describe the process of art as a logic of sensation1 we must remember that the premises are sensations1 and that the conclusion can only be drawn from them by one who is in an emotional state with regard to them4 ,thus a harmony in music cannot be perceived by a person who merely hears accurately the notes which compose it--it can only be recognised when the relations of those notes to one another are accompanied by emotion4 ,it is quite true that the recognition of inevitability in thought is normally accompanied by a pleasurable emotion1 and that the desire for this mental pleasure is the motive force which impels to the making of scientific theory4 ,but the inevitability of the relations remains equally definite and demonstrable whether the emotion accompanies it or not1 whereas an sthetic harmony simply does not exist without the emotional state4 ,the harmony is not true 7to use our analogy7 unless it is felt with emotion4 ,none the less1 perhaps1 the highest pleasure in art is identical with the highest pleasure in scientific theory4 ,the emotion which accompanies the clear recognition of unity in a complex seems to be so similar in art and in science that it is difficult not to suppose that they are psychologically the same4 ,it is1 as it were1 the final stage of both processes4 ,this unity-emotion in science supervenes upon a process of pure mechanical reasoning2 in art it supervenes upon a process of which emotion has all along been an essential concomitant4 ,it may be that in the complete apprehension of a work of art there occurs more than one kind of feeling4 ,there is generally a basis of purely physiological pleasure1 as in seeing pure colours or hearing pure sounds2 then there is the specifically sthetic emotion by means of which the necessity of relations is apprehended1 and which corresponds in science to the purely logical process2 and finally there is the unity-emotion1 which may not improbably be of an identical kind in both art and science4 ,in the art of painting we may distinguish between the unity of texture and the unity of design4 ,i know quite well that these are not really completely separable1 and that they are to some extent mutually dependent2 but they may be regarded as separate for the purpose of focussing our attention4 ,certainly we can think of pictures in which the general architecture of the design is in no way striking or remarkable which yet please us by the perfection of the texture1 that is to say1 the ease with which we apprehend the necessary relationship of one shape1 tone or colour with its immediately surrounding shapes1 tones or colours2 our sthetic sense is continually aroused and satisfied by the succession of inevitable relationships4 ,on the other hand1 we know of works of art in which the unity and complexity of the texture strike us far less than the inevitable and significant relationship of the main divisions of the design--pictures in which we should say that the composition was the most striking beauty4 ,it is when the composition of a picture1 adequately supported as it must be by significance of texture1 reveals to us the most surprising and yet inevitable relationships that we get most strongly the final unity-emotion of a work of art4 ,it is these pictures that are1 as ,s4 would say of certain theories1 the most significant for contemplation4 ,nor before such works can we help implicitly attributing to their authors the same kind of power which in science we should call 8great intellect10 though perhaps in both the term 8great imaginative organisation0 would be better4 ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,the ,,bushmen#i ,in the history of mankind drawing has at different times and among different races expressed so many different conceptions1 and has used such various means1 that it would seem to be not one art1 but many4 ,it would seem1 indeed1 that it has its origins in several quite distinct instincts of the human race1 and it may not be altogether unimportant even for the modern draughtsman to investigate these instincts in their simpler manifestations in order to check and control his own methods4 ,the primitive drawing of our own race is singularly like that of children4 ,its most striking peculiarity is the extent to which it is dominated by the concepts of language4 ,in a child's drawing we find a number of forms which have scarcely any reference to actual appearances1 but which directly symbolise the most significant concepts of the thing represented4 ,for a child1 a man is the sum of the concept's head 7which in turn consists of eyes1 nose1 mouth71 arms1 hands 7five fingers71 legs1 feet4 ,torso is not a concept which interests him1 and it is1 therefore1 usually reduced to a single line which serves to link the concept-symbol head with those of the legs4 ,the child does1 of course1 know that the figure thus drawn is not like a man1 but it is a kind of hieroglyphic script for a man1 and satisfies his desire for expression4 ,precisely the same phenomenon occurs in primitive art2 the symbols for concepts gradually take on more and more of the likeness to appearances1 but the mode of approach remains even in comparatively advanced periods the same4 ,the artist does not seek to transfer a visual sensation to paper1 but to express a mental image which is coloured by his conceptual habits4 ,prof4 ,loewy#aj has investigated the laws which govern representation in early art1 and has shown that the influence of the early artist's ideas of representation persist in ,greek sculpture down to the time of ,lysippus4 ,he enumerates seven peculiarities of early drawing1 of which the most important are that the figures are shown with each of their parts in its broadest aspect1 and that the forms are stylised--i4e4 present linear formations that are regular or tend to regularity4 ,of the first of these peculiarities ,egyptian and ,assyrian sculpture1 even of the latest and most developed periods1 afford constant examples4 ,we see there the head in profile1 the eye full face1 the shoulders and breast full face1 and by a sudden twist in the body the legs and feet again in profile4 ,in this way each part is presented in that aspect which most clearly expresses its corresponding visual concepts4 ,thus a foot is much more clearly denoted by its profile view than by the rendering of its frontal appearance--while no one who was asked to think of an eye would visualise it to himself in any other than a full-face view4 ,in such art1 then1 the body is twisted about so that each part may be represented by that aspect which the mental image aroused by the name of the part would have1 and the figure becomes an ingenious compound of typical conceptual images4 ,in the case of the head two aspects are accepted as symbolic of the concept 8head10 the profile and the full-face2 but it is very late in the development of art before men are willing to accept any intermediate position as intelligible or satisfactory4 ,it is generally supposed that early art avoids foreshortening because of its difficulty4 ,one may suppose rather that it is because the foreshortened view of a member corresponds so ill with the normal conceptual image1 and is therefore not accepted as sufficiently expressive of the idea4 ,yet another of the peculiarities named by ,prof4 ,loewy must be mentioned1 namely1 that the 8conformation and movement of the figures and their parts are limited to a few typical shapes40 ,and these movements are always of the simplest kinds1 since they are governed by the necessity of displaying each member in its broadest and most explicit aspect4 ,in particular the crossing of one limb over another is avoided as confusing4 ,such in brief outline are some of the main principles of drawing both among primitive peoples and among our own children4 ,it is not a little surprising then to find1 when we turn to ,miss ,tongue's careful copies of the drawings executed by the ,bushmen of ,south ,africa#aa that the principles are more often contradicted than exemplified4 ,we find1 it is true1 a certain barbaric crudity and simplicity which give these drawings a superficial resemblance to children's drawings or those of primitive times1 but a careful examination will show how different they are4 ,the drawings are of different periods1 though none of them probably are of any considerable antiquity1 since the habit of painting over an artist's work when once he was forgotten obtained among the bushmen no less than with more civilised people4 ,these drawings are also of very different degrees of skill4 ,they represent for the most part scenes of the chase and war1 dances and festivals1 and in one case there is an illustration to a bushman story and one figure is supposed to represent a ghost4 ,there is no evidence of deliberate decorative purpose in these paintings4 ,the figures are cast upon the walls of the cave in such a way as to represent1 roughly1 the actual scenes4#ab ,nothing could be more unlike primitive art than some of these scenes4 ,for instance1 the battle fought between two tribes over the possession of some cattle1 is entirely unlike battle scenes such as we find in early ,assyrian reliefs4 ,there the battle is schematic1 all the soldiers of one side are in profile to right1 all the soldiers of the opposing side are in profile to left4 ,the whole scene is perfectly clear to the intelligence1 it follows the mental image of what a battle ought to be1 but is entirely unlike what a battle ever is4 ,now1 in the ,bushman drawing1 there is nothing truly schematic2 it is difficult to find out the soldiers of the two sides2 they are all mixed up in a confused hurly-burly1 some charging1 others flying1 and here and there single combats going on at a distance from the main battle4 ,but more than this1 the men are in every conceivable attitude1 running1 standing1 kneeling1 crouching1 or turning sharply round in the middle of flight to face the enemy once more4 ,in fact we have1 in all its confusion1 all its indeterminate variety and accident1 a rough silhouette of the actual appearance of such a scene as viewed from above1 for the ,bushman makes this sacrifice of actual appearance to lucidity of statement--that he represents the figures as spread out over the ground1 and not as seen one behind another4 ,or take again ,plate ,,xi of ,miss ,tongue's album2 the scene is the ,veldt with elands and rheboks scattered over its surface4 ,the animals are arranged in the most natural and casual manner2 sometimes in this case part of one animal is hidden by the animal in front2 but what strikes one most is the fact that extremely complicated poses are rendered with the same ease as the more frequent profile view1 and that momentary actions are treated with photographic verisimilitude4 ,see ,figs4 #a and #b4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #a4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #b4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #c4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #d4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #e4 ,another surprising instance of this is shown in ,fig4 #c1 taken from ,plate ,,xix of ,miss ,tongue's book1 and giving a rhebok seen from behind in a most difficult and complicated attitude4 ,or again1 the man running in ,fig4 #e4 ,here is the silhouette of a most complicated gesture with foreshortening of one thigh and crossing of the arm holding the bow over the torso1 rendered with apparent certainty and striking verisimilitude4 ,most curious of all are the cases of which ,fig4 #d is an example1 of animals trotting1 in which the gesture is seen by us to be true only because our slow and imperfect vision has been helped out by the instantaneous photograph4 ,fifty years ago we should have rejected such a rendering as absurd2 we now know it to be a correct statement of one movement in the action of trotting4 ,another point to be noticed is that in primitive and in children's art such features as eyes1 ears1 horns1 tails1 since they correspond to well-marked concepts1 always tend to be drawn disproportionately large and prominent4 ,now1 in the ,bushman drawings1 the eye1 the most significant of all1 is frequently omitted1 and when represented bears its true proportion to the head4 ,similarly1 horns1 ears1 and tails are never exaggerated4 ,indeed1 however faulty these drawings may be1 they have one great quality1 namely1 that each figure is seen as a single entity1 and the general character of the silhouette is aimed at rather than a sum of the parts4 ,those who have taught drawing to children will know with what infinite pains civilised man arrives at this power4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #f4 ,by way of contrast to these extraordinary performances of the ,bushman draughtsman1 ,i give in outline1 ,fig4 #f1 the two horses of a chariot on an early 7,dipylon7 ,greek vase4 ,the man who drew it was incomparably more of an artist2 but how entirely his intellectual and conceptual way of handling phenomena has obscured his vision6 ,his two horses are a sum of concept-symbols1 arranged with great orderliness and with a decorative feeling1 but without any sort of likeness to appearance4 ,mr4 ,balfour1 in his preface to ,miss ,tongue's book1 notices briefly some of these striking characteristics of the ,bushman drawings4 ,he says3-- 8,the paintings are remarkable not only for the realism exhibited by so many1 but also for a freedom from the limitation to delineation in profile which characterises for the most part the drawings of primitive peoples1 especially where animals are concerned4 ,attitudes of a kind difficult to render were ventured upon without hesitation1 and an appreciation even of the rudiments of perspective is occasionally to be noted1 though only in a crude and uncertain form4 ,the practice of endeavouring to represent more than could be seen at one time1 a habit so characteristic of the art of primitive peoples as also of civilised children1 is far less noticeable in ,bushman art than might have been expected from the rudimentary general culture of these people1 and one does not see instances of both eyes being indicated upon a profile face1 or a mouth in profile on a full face1 such as are so familiar in the undeveloped art of children and of most backward races40 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #g4 ,since1 then1 ,bushman drawing has little analogy to the primitive art of our own races1 to what can we relate it8 ,the ,bushmen of ,australia have apparently something of the same power of transcribing pure visual images1 but the most striking case is that of ,palolithic man4 ,in the caves of the ,dordogne and of ,altamira in ,spain1 ,palolithic man has left paintings which date from about #aj1jjj ,b4,c41 in which1 as far as mere naturalism of representation of animals goes1 he has surpassed anything that not only our own primitive peoples1 but even the most accomplished animal draughtsmen have ever achieved4 ,fig4 #g shows in outline a bison from ,altamira4 ,the certainty and completeness of the pose1 the perfect rhythm and the astonishing verisimilitude of the movement are evident even in this4 ,the ,altamira drawings show a much higher level of accomplishment than those of the ,bushmen1 but the general likeness is so great as to have suggested the idea that the ,bushmen are descendants of ,palolithic man who have remained at the same rudimentary stage as regards the other arts of life1 and have retained something of their unique power of visual transcription4 ,whether this be so or not1 it is to be noted that all the peoples whose drawing shows this peculiar power of visualisation belong to what we call the lowest of savages2 they are certainly the least civilisable1 and the ,south ,african ,bushmen are regarded by other native races in much the same way that we look upon negroes4 ,it would seem not impossible that the very perfection of vision1 and presumably of the other senses#ac with which the ,bushmen and ,palolithic man were endowed1 fitted them so perfectly to their surroundings that there was no necessity to develop the mechanical arts beyond the elementary instruments of the chase4 ,we must suppose that ,neolithic man1 on the other hand1 was less perfectly adapted to his surroundings1 but that his sensual defects were more than compensated for by increased intellectual power4 ,this greater intellectual power manifested itself in his desire to classify phenomena1 and the conceptual view of nature began to predominate4 ,and it was this habit of thinking of things in terms of concepts which deprived him for ages of the power to see what they looked like4 ,with ,neolithic man drawing came to express man's thought about things rather than his sensations of them1 or rather1 when he tried to reproduce his sensations1 his habits of thought intervened1 and dictated to his hand orderly1 lucid1 but entirely non-naturalistic forms4 ,how deeply these visual-conceptual habits of ,neolithic man have sunk into our natures may be seen by their effects upon hysterical patients1 a statement which ,i owe to the kindness of ,dr4 ,henry ,head1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,if the word 8chest0 is mentioned most people see a vague image of a flat surface on which are marked the sternum and the pectoral muscles2 when the word 8back0 is given1 they see another flat or almost flat surface with markings of the spine and the shoulder-blades2 but scarcely any one1 having these two mental images called up1 thinks of them as parts of a continuous cylindrical body4 ,now1 in the case of some hysterical patients ansthesia is found just over some part of the body which has been isolated from the rest in thought by means of the conceptual image4 ,it will occur1 for instance1 in the chest1 but will not go beyond the limits which the conceptualised visual image of a chest defines4 ,or it will be associated with the concept hand1 and will stop short at the wrists4 ,it is not surprising1 then1 that a mode of handling the continuum of natural appearance1 which dictates even the behaviour of disease1 should have profoundly modified all artistic representations of nature since the conceptual habit first became strongly marked in ,neolithic man4 ,an actual definition of drawing given by a child may be quoted in this connection1 8,first ,i think and then ,i draw a line round my think40 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #h4 ,it would be an exaggeration to suppose that ,palolithic and ,bushman drawings are entirely uninfluenced by the concepts which even the most primitive people must form4 ,indeed1 the preference for the profile view of animals--though as we have seen other aspects are frequent--would alone indicate this1 but they appear to have been at a stage of intellectual development where the concepts were not so clearly grasped as to have begun to interfere with perception1 and where therefore the retinal image passed into a clear memory picture with scarcely any intervening mental process4 ,in the art of even civilised man we may1 ,i think1 find great variations in the extent to which the conceptualising of visual images has proceeded4 ,egyptian and ,assyrian art remained intensely conceptual throughout1 no serious attempt was made to give greater verisimilitude to the symbols employed4 ,the ,mycenan artists1 on the other hand1 seem to have been appreciably more perceptual1 but the ,greeks returned to an intensely conceptualised symbolism in which some of their greatest works of art were expressed1 and only very gradually did they modify their formul so as to admit of some approach to verisimilitude1 and even so the appeal to vision was rather by way of correcting and revising accepted conceptual images than as the foundation of a work of art4 ,the art of ,china1 and still more of ,japan1 has been distinctly more perceptual4 ,indeed1 the ,japanese drawings of birds and animals approach more nearly than those of any other civilised people to the immediacy and rapidity of transcription of ,bushman and ,palolithic art4 ,the ,bushman silhouettes of cranes 7,fig4 #h7 might almost have come from a ,japanese screen ,like ,japanese drawings1 they show an alertness to accept the silhouette as a single whole instead of reconstructing it from separately apprehended parts4 ,it is partly due to ,japanese influence that our own ,impressionists have made an attempt to get back to that ultra-primitive directness of vision4 ,indeed they deliberately sought to deconceptualise art4 ,the artist of to-day has therefore to some extent a choice before him of whether he will think form like the early artists of ,european races or merely see it like the ,bushmen4 ,whichever his choice1 the study of these drawings can hardly fail to be of profound interest4 ,the ,bushmen paintings on the walls of caves and sheltered rocks are fast disappearing2 the race itself1 of which ,miss ,bleek gives a fascinating account1 is now nothing but a remnant4 ,the treatment that they have received at the hands of the white settlers does not seem to have been conspicuously more sympathetic or intelligent than that meted out to them by negro conquerors1 and thus the opportunity of solving some of the most interesting problems of human development has been for ever lost4 ,the gratitude of all students of art is due to ,miss ,tongue and ,miss ,bleek1 by whose zeal and industry these remains of a most curious phase of primitive art have been adequately recorded4 ,,negro ,,sculpture#ad ,what a comfortable mental furniture the generalisations of a century ago must have afforded6 ,what a right little1 tight little1 round little world it was when ,greece was the only source of culture1 when ,greek art1 even in ,roman copies1 was the only indisputable art1 except for some ,renaissance repetitions6 ,philosophy1 the love of truth1 liberty1 architecture1 poetry1 drama1 and for all we knew music--all these were the fruits of a special kind of life1 each assisted the development of the other1 each was really dependent on all the rest4 ,consequently if we could only learn the ,greek lessons of political freedom and intellectual self-consciousness all the rest would be added unto us4 ,and now1 in the last sixty years1 knowledge and perception have poured upon us so fast that the whole well-ordered system has been blown away1 and we stand bare to the blast1 scarcely able to snatch a hasty generalisation or two to cover our nakedness for a moment4 ,our desperate plight comes home to one at the ,chelsea ,book ,club1 where are some thirty chosen specimens of negro sculpture4 ,if to our ancestors the poor ,indian had 8an untutored mind10 the ,congolese's ignorance and savagery must have seemed too abject for discussion4 ,one would like to know what ,dr4 ,johnson would have said to any one who had offered him a negro idol for several hundred pounds4 ,it would have seemed then sheer lunacy to listen to what a negro savage had to tell us of his emotions about the human form4 ,and now one has to go all the way to ,chelsea in a chastened spirit and prostrate oneself before his 8stocks and stones40 ,we have the habit of thinking that the power to create expressive plastic form is one of the greatest of human achievements1 and the names of great sculptors are handed down from generation to generation1 so that it seems unfair to be forced to admit that certain nameless savages have possessed this power not only in a higher degree than we at this moment1 but than we as a nation have ever possessed it4 ,and yet that is where ,i find myself4 ,i have to admit that some of these things are great sculpture--greater1 ,i think1 than anything we produced even in the ,middle ,ages4 ,certainly they have the special qualities of sculpture in a higher degree4 ,they have indeed complete plastic freedom2 that is to say1 these ,african artists really conceive form in three dimensions4 ,now this is rare in sculpture4 ,all archaic ,european sculpture--,greek and ,romanesque1 for instance--approaches plasticity from the point of view of bas-relief4 ,the statue bears traces of having been conceived as the combination of front1 back1 and side bas-reliefs4 ,and this continues to make itself felt almost until the final development of the tradition4 ,complete plastic freedom with us seems only to come at the end of a long period1 when the art has attained a high degree of representational skill and when it is generally already decadent from the point of view of imaginative significance4 ,now1 the strange thing about these ,african sculptures is that they bear1 as far as ,i can see1 no trace of this process4 ,without ever attaining anything like representational accuracy they have complete freedom4 ,the sculptors seem to have no difficulty in getting away from the two-dimensional plane4 ,the neck and the torso are conceived as cylinders1 not as masses with a square section4 ,the head is conceived as a pear-shaped mass4 ,it is conceived as a single whole1 not arrived at by approach from the mask1 as with almost all primitive ,european art4 ,the mask itself is conceived as a concave plane cut out of this otherwise perfectly unified mass4 ,and here we come upon another curious difference between negro sculpture and our own1 namely1 that the emphasis is utterly different4 ,our emphasis has always been affected by our preferences for certain forms which appeared to us to mark the nobility of man4 ,thus we shrink from giving the head its full development2 we like to lengthen the legs and generally to force the form into a particular type4 ,these preferences seem to be dictated not by a plastic bias1 but by our reading of the physical symbols of certain qualities which we admire in our kind1 such1 for instance1 as agility1 a commanding presence1 or a pensive brow4 ,the negro1 it seems1 either has no such ,illustration3 ,negro ,sculpture ,collection ,guillaume ,plate ,,iii4 preferences1 or his preferences happen to coincide more nearly with what his feeling for pure plastic design would dictate4 ,for instance1 the length1 thinness1 and isolation of our limbs render them extremely refractory to fine plastic treatment1 and the negro scores heavily by his willingness to reduce the limbs to a succession of ovoid masses sometimes scarcely longer than they are broad4 ,generally speaking1 one may say that his plastic sense leads him to give its utmost amplitude and relief to all the protuberant parts of the body1 and to get thereby an extraordinarily emphatic and impressive sequence of planes4 ,so far from clinging to two dimensions1 as we tend to do1 he actually underlines1 as it were1 the three-dimensionalness of his forms4 ,it is in some such way1 ,i suspect1 that he manages to give to his forms their disconcerting vitality1 the suggestion that they make of being not mere echoes of actual figures1 but of possessing an inner life of their own4 ,if the negro artist wanted to make people believe in the potency of his idols he certainly set about it in the right way4 ,besides the logical comprehension of plastic form which the negro shows1 he has also an exquisite taste in his handling of material4 ,no doubt in this matter his endless leisure has something to do with the marvellous finish of these works4 ,an instance of this is seen in the treatment of the tattoo cicatrices4 ,these are always rendered in relief1 which means that the artist has cut away the whole surface around them4 ,i fancy most sculptors would have found some less laborious method of interpreting these markings4 ,but this patient elaboration of the surface is characteristic of most of these works4 ,it is seen to perfection in a wooden cup covered all over with a design of faces and objects that look like clubs in very low relief4 ,the galbe of this cup shows a subtlety and refinement of taste comparable to that of the finest ,oriental craftsmen4 ,it is curious that a people who produced such great artists did not produce also a culture in our sense of the word4 ,this shows that two factors are necessary to produce the cultures which distinguish civilised peoples4 ,there must be1 of course1 the creative artist1 but there must also be the power of conscious critical appreciation and comparison4 ,if we imagined such an apparatus of critical appreciation as the ,chinese have possessed from the earliest times applied to this negro art1 we should have no difficulty in recognising its singular beauty4 ,we should never have been tempted to regard it as savage or unrefined4 ,it is for want of a conscious critical sense and the intellectual powers of comparison and classification that the negro has failed to create one of the great cultures of the world1 and not from any lack of the creative sthetic impulse1 nor from lack of the most exquisite sensibility and the finest taste4 ,no doubt also the lack of such a critical standard to support him leaves the artist much more at the mercy of any outside influence4 ,it is likely enough that the negro artist1 although capable of such profound imaginative understanding of form1 would accept our cheapest illusionist art with humble enthusiasm4 ,,ancient ,,american ,,art#ae ,nothing in the history of our ,western civilisation is more romantic nor for us more tantalising than the story of the discovery and the wanton destruction of the ancient civilisations of ,america4 ,here were two complex civilisations which had developed in complete independence of the rest of the world2 even so completely independent of each other that1 for all their general racial likeness1 they took on almost opposite characters4 ,if only we could know these alternative efforts of the human animal to come to terms with nature and himself with something like the same fulness with which we know the civilisations of ,greece and ,rome1 what might we not learn about the fundamental necessities of mankind8 ,they would have been for us the opposite point of our orbit2 they would have given us a parallax from which we might have estimated the movements of that dimmest and most distant phenomenon1 the social nature of man4 ,and as it is1 what scraps of ill-digested and ill-arranged information and what fragments of ruined towns have to suffice us6 ,still1 so fascinating is the subject that we owe ,mr4 ,joyce#af a debt of gratitude for the careful and thorough accumulation of all the material which the archological remains afford4 ,these by themselves would be only curious or beautiful as the case may be2 their full value and significance can only come out when they are illustrated by whatever is known of their place in the historical sequence of the civilisations4 ,mr4 ,joyce gives us what is known of the outlines of ,mexican and ,peruvian history as far as it can be deciphered from the early accounts of ,spanish invaders and from the original documents1 and he brings the facts thus established to bear on the antiquities4 ,unfortunately for the reader of these books1 the story is terribly involved and complicated even when it is not dubious4 ,thus in ,mexico we have to deal with an almost inextricable confusion of tribes and languages having much in common1 but each interpreting their common mythology and religion in a special manner4 ,even ,greek mythology1 which we once seemed to know fairly well1 takes on under the pressure of modern research an unfamiliar formlessness--becomes indistinct and shifting in its outlines2 and the various civilisations of ,mexico1 each with its innumerable gods and goddesses with varying names and varying attributes1 produce on the mind a sense of bewildering and helpless wonder1 and still more a sense of pervading horror at the underlying nature of the human imagination4 ,for one quality emerges in all the different aspects of their religions1 its hideous inhumanity and cruelty1 its direct inspiration of all the most ingenious tortures both in peace and war--above all1 the close alliance between religion and war1 and going with both of these the worship of suffering as an end in itself4 ,only at one point in this nightmare of inhumanity do we get a momentary sense of pleasure--itself a savage one--that is in the knowledge that at certain sacred periods the priests1 whose main business was the torturing of others1 were themselves subjected to the purificatory treatment4 ,a bas-relief in the ,british ,museum shows with grim realism the figure of a kneeling priest with pierced tongue1 pulling a rope through the hole4 ,under such circumstances one would at least hesitate to accuse the priesthood of hypocrisy4 ,when we turn to ,peru the picture is less grim4 ,the ,incas do not seem to have been so abjectly religious as the ,aztecs2 they had at least abolished human sacrifice1 which the ,aztecs practised on a colossal scale1 and though the tyranny of the governing classes was more highly organised1 it was inspired by a fairly humane conception4 ,but we must leave the speculations on such general questions1 which are as regards these books incidental to the main object1 and turn to the consideration of the archological remains and the investigation of their probable sequence and dating4 ,our attitude to the artistic remains of these civilisations has a curious history4 ,the wonder of the ,spanish invaders at the sight of vast and highly organised civilisations where only savagery was expected has never indeed ceased1 but the interest in their remains has changed from time to time4 ,the first emotion they excited besides wonder was the greed of the conquerors for the accumulated treasure4 ,then among the more cultivated ,spaniards supervened a purely scientific curiosity to which we owe most of our knowledge of the indigenous legend and history4 ,then came the question of origins1 which is still as fascinating and unsettled as ever1 and to the belief that the ,mexicans were the lost ten tribes of ,israel we owe ,lord ,kingsborough's monumental work in nine volumes on ,mexican antiquities4 ,to such odd impulses perhaps1 rather than to any serious appreciation of their artistic merits1 we owe the magnificent collection of ,mexican antiquities in the ,british ,museum4 ,indeed1 it is only in this century that1 after contemplating them from every other point of view1 we have begun to look at them seriously as works of art4 ,probably the first works to be admitted to this kind of consideration were the ,peruvian pots in the form of highly realistic human heads and figures4#ag ,still more recently we have come to recognise the beauty of ,aztec and ,maya sculpture1 and some of our modern artists have even gone to them for inspiration4 ,this is1 of course1 one result of the general sthetic awakening which has followed on the revolt against the tyranny of the ,grco-,roman tradition4 ,both in ,mexico and ,peru we have to deal with at least two1 possibly four1 great cultures1 each overthrown in turn by the invasion of less civilised1 more warlike tribes1 who gradually adopt the general scheme of the older civilisation4 ,in ,mexico there is no doubt about the superiority1 from an artistic point of view1 of the earlier culture--the ,aztecs had everything to learn from the ,maya1 and they never rose to the level of their predecessors4 ,the relation is1 in fact1 curiously like that of ,rome to ,greece4 ,unfortunately we have to learn almost all we know of ,maya culture through their ,aztec conquerors1 but the ruins of ,yucatan and ,guatemala are by far the finest and most complete vestiges left to us4 ,in ,peru also we find in the ,tihuanaco gateway a monument of some pre-,inca civilisation1 and one that in regard to the art of sculpture far surpasses anything that the later culture reveals4 ,it is of special interest1 moreover1 for its strong stylistic likeness to the ,maya sculpture of ,yucatan4 ,this similarity prompts the interesting speculation that the earlier civilisations of the two continents had either a common origin or points of contact1 whereas the ,inca and ,aztec cultures seem to drift entirely apart4 ,the ,aztecs carry on at a lower level the ,maya art of sculpture1 whereas the ,incas seem to drop sculpture almost entirely1 a curious fact in view of the ambitious nature of their architectural and engineering works4 ,one seems to guess that the comparatively humane socialistic tyranny of the ,incas developed more and more along purely practical lines1 whilst the hideous religiosity of the ,aztecs left a certain freedom to the imaginative artist4 ,in looking at the artistic remains of so remote and strange a civilisation one sometimes wonders how far one can trust one's sthetic appreciation to interpret truly the feelings which inspired it4 ,in certain works one cannot doubt that the artist felt just as we feel in appreciating his work4 ,this must1 ,i think1 hold on the one hand of the rich ornamental arabesques of ,maya buildings or the marvellous inlaid feather and jewel work of either culture2 and on the other hand1 when we look at the caricatural realistic figures of ,truxillo pottery we need scarcely doubt that the artist's intention agrees with our appreciation1 for such a use of the figure is more or less common to all civilisations4 ,but when we look at the stylistic sculpture of ,maya and ,aztec art1 are we1 one wonders1 reading in an intention which was not really present8 ,one wonders1 for instance1 how far external and accidental factors may not have entered in to help produce what seems to us the perfect and delicate balance between representational and purely formal considerations4 ,whether the artist was not held back both by ritualistic tradition and the difficulty of his medium from pushing further the actuality of his presentation--whether1 in fact1 the artist deplored or himself approved just that reticence which causes our admiration4 ,at times ,maya sculpture has a certain similarity to ,indian religious sculptural reliefs1 particularly in the use of flat surfaces entirely incrusted with ornaments in low relief2 but on the whole the comparison is all in favour of the higher sthetic sensibility of the ,maya artists1 whose co-ordination of even the most complicated forms compares favourably with the incoherent luxuriance of most ,indian work4 ,in this1 as in so many of its characteristics1 ,maya art comes much nearer to early ,chinese sculpture2 and again one wonders that such a civilisation should have produced such sensitive and reasoned designs--designs which seem to imply a highly developed self-conscious sthetic sensibility4 ,nor do the ,maya for all their hieratic ritualism seem to fall into the dead1 mechanical repetition which the endless multiplication of religious symbols usually entails1 as1 for instance1 most markedly in ,egyptian art4 ,but this strange difference between what we know of ,mexican civilisation and what we might have interpreted from the art alone is only one more instance of the isolation of the sthetic from all other human activities4 ,the ,frontispiece to this book gives an example of ,maya sculpture from ,piedras ,negras4 ,mr4 ,joyce1 in his learned and plausible theory of the dating of ,mexican monuments1 ascribes these remains to a date of about #ej-bjj ,a4,d4 ,they are certainly among the finest remains of ,maya sculpture1 and this example shows at once the extreme richness of the decorative effect and the admirable taste with which this is co-ordinated in a plastic whole in which the figure has its due predominance4 ,though the relief of the ornamental part is kept flat and generally square in section1 it has nothing of the dryness and tightness that such a treatment often implies4 ,mr4 ,joyce's books are compiled with amazing industry1 and contain a vast accumulation of information4 ,if we have a complaint1 it is that for those who are not specialists this information is poured out in almost too uniform a flood1 with too little by way of general ideas to enable the mind to grasp or relate them properly4 ,if some of the minor details of obscure proper names had been relegated to the notes1 it would have been possible to seize the general outlines more readily4 ,the books are rather for reference than adapted to consecutive reading4 ,in his judgments on the various speculations to which these civilisations have given rise ,mr4 ,joyce is1 as one would expect from so careful a scholar1 cautious and negative4 ,he does not1 as far as ,i remember1 even allude to the theory of the ,lost ,ten ,tribes1 but he does condescend to discuss the theory of cultural influence from ,eastern ,asia which has more than once been put forward by respectable ethnologists4 ,he decides against this fascinating hypothesis more definitely than one would expect--more ,illustration definitely1 ,i should say1 than the facts before us allow4 ,he declares1 for instance1 that the calendrical system of ,mexico shows no similarity with those of ,eastern ,asia1 whereas ,dr4 ,lehmann gives a circumstantial account of a very curious likeness1 the almost exact correspondence of two quite peculiar systems of reckoning4 ,my own bias in favour of the theory of ,eastern ,asiatic influence is1 ,i confess1 based on what may seem very insufficient grounds1 namely1 the curious likeness of the general treatment of naturalistic forms and the peculiar character of the stylisation of natural forms in early ,chinese and ,american art4 ,it is of course impossible to define a likeness of general character which depends so largely on feeling1 but it consists to some extent in the predilection for straight lines and rectangles--a spiral in nature becoming in both early ,chinese and ,american art a sequence of rectangular forms with rounded corners4 ,what is more remarkable is that the further back we go in ,chinese art the greater the resemblance becomes1 so that a ,chou bronze1 or still more the carved horns which have survived from the ,shang dynasty1 are extraordinarily like ,maya or ,tihuanaco sculpture4 ,again1 it is curious to note how near to early ,chinese bronzes are the tripod vases of the ,guetar ,indians4 ,all these may of course be of quite independent origin1 but their similarity cannot be dismissed lightly in view of the long persistence in any civilisation of such general habits of design4 ,thus the general habits of design of the ,cretan civilisation persisted into ,greek and even ,roman and ,christian art2 the habits of design of ,chinese artists have persisted1 though through great modifications1 for more than three thousand years4 ,one other fact which may seem almost too isolated and insignificant may perhaps be put forward here4 ,in a history of the ,mormons1 published in #ahea1 there is given a figure of an inscribed bronze 7see ,figure7 which was dug up by the ,mormons in ,utah in #ahdc4 ,since ,brigham ,young pretended to have dug up the original book of ,mormon his followers had a superstitious reverence for all such treasure trove1 and probably the bronze still exists and might be worth investigation4 ,now this drawing1 here reproduced1 looks to me like an extremely bad and unintelligent reproduction of an early ,chinese object1 in general appearance not unlike certain early pieces of jade4 ,it is fairly certain that at the time the ,mormons discovered this1 no such objects had found their way out of ,china1 since the interest in and knowledge of this period of ,chinese art is of much later growth4 ,so it appears conceivable that the object1 whatever its nature1 is a relic of some early cultural invasion from ,eastern ,asia4 ,the physical possibilities of such invasions from the ,far ,east certainly seem to be under-estimated by ,mr4 ,joyce4 ,,the ,,munich ,,exhibition ,,of ,,mohammedan ,,art#ah ,it would be hard to exaggerate the importance of this exhibition for those who are interested in the history not alone of ,oriental but of ,european art4 ,perhaps the most fascinating problem that presents itself to the art historian is that of the origins of medival art4 ,until we understand more or less completely how in the dim centuries of the later ,empire and early middle age the great transformation of ,grco-,roman into medival art was accomplished1 we cannot quite understand the ,renaissance itself1 nor even the form which the whole modern art of ,europe has come in the course of centuries to assume4 ,and on this problem the ,munich exhibition throws many illuminating sidelights4 ,early ,mohammedan art is seen here to be a meeting point of many influences4 ,there are still traces of the once widespread ,hellenistic tradition1 though this is seen to be retreating before the refluent wave of aboriginal ideas4 ,sassanid art had already been the outcome of these contending forces1 and the pre-eminence of ,sassanid art in forming early ,mohammedan styles is clearly brought out in this exhibition4 ,then there is a constant exchange with ,byzantium1 and finally continual waves of influence1 sometimes fertilising1 sometimes destructive1 from that great reservoir of ,central ,asian civilisation1 the importance of which is now at last being gradually revealed to us by the discoveries of ,dr4 ,stein1 ,drs4 ,lecoq and ,grunwedel1 and ,m4 ,pelliot4 ,and through this great clearing-house of early ,mohammedan art there are signs of influences passing from ,west to ,east4 ,the most striking example is that of the plate in cloisonne enamel from the ,landes ,museum at ,innsbruck4 ,here we have the one certain example of ,mohammedan cloisonne enamel established by its dedication to a prince of the ,orthokid dynasty of the twelfth century4 ,it is extraordinary that this solitary example should alone have survived from what must1 judging from the technical excellence of this specimen1 have once been a flourishing craft4 ,the general effect of the intricate pattern of animal forms upon a whiteish ground suggests1 on the one hand1 the earliest examples of ,limoges enamels1 and on the other the early ,chinese1 and there can be little doubt that the ,chinese did in fact derive their knowledge of cloisonne1 which they themselves called 8,western ware10 from these early ,mohammedan craftsmen1 who had themselves learned the technique from ,byzantium4 ,but on the whole the stream of influence is in the opposite direction1 from ,east to ,west1 and one realises at ,munich that in the great period of artistic discovery and formation of styles the near ,east and the ,west were developing in closest contact and harmony4 ,indeed the most fertile1 if not actually the most resplendent1 period of both arts1 was attained whilst they were still almost indistinguishable4 ,if it were not for the habit of these early ,mohammedan craftsmen of interweaving inscriptions into their designs1 a habit which endears them quite especially to art-historians1 how many works of ,oriental manufacture would have been ascribed to ,europe8 ,in spite of these inscriptions1 indeed1 such an authority as ,m4 ,babelon has sought to place to the account of ,western artists the superb cut crystal vessels1 of which the noblest example is the inscribed ewer of the tenth century in the treasury of ,s4 ,mark's4 ,or take again the textiles4 ,in the exhibition there are a number of fragments of textiles of the tenth to the twelfth centuries1 in which the general principle of design is the same2 for the most part the surface is covered by circular reserves in which severely conventionalised figures of hunters1 lions1 or monsters are placed in pairs symmetrically confronted4 ,only minute study has enabled specialists to say that some were made in ,sassanid1 ,persia1 some in ,byzantium1 some in ,sicily1 and some in ,western ,europe4 ,the dominant style in all these is again derived from ,sassanid art4 ,and here once more one must note the strange recrudescence after so long of ,assyrian types and motives1 and its invasion of ,western ,europe1 through ,byzantium1 ,sicily1 and ,spain4 ,what strikes us most in comparing ,grco-,roman art with the new art which gradually emerges in the middle ages is that1 on the one hand1 we have a series of decorative designs never so remarkable for vitality as for their elegance1 and become by the time of the ,roman ,empire only less perfunctory and mechanical than the patterns of modern times2 and on the other hand an art in which the smallest piece of pattern-making shows a tense vitality even in its most purely geometrical manifestations1 and the figure is used with a new dramatic expressiveness unhindered by the artist's ignorance of actual form4 ,now in the splendid photographs of the ,sassanid rock carvings which ,dr4 ,sarre has taken and which are exposed at ,munich1 we can see something of this process of the creation of the new vital system of design4 ,in the earlier reliefs1 those of the time of ,sapor1 we have1 it is true1 a certain theatrical splendour of pose and setting1 but in the actual forms some flaccidity and inflation4 ,the artists who wrought them show still the predominance of the worn-out ,hellenistic tradition which spread in ,alexander's wake over ,asia4 ,in the stupendous relief of ,chosroes at ,tak-i-,bostan1 on the other hand1 we have all the dramatic energy1 the heraldic splendour of the finest medival art1 and the source of this new inspiration is seen to be the welling up once more of the old indigenous ,mesopotamian art4 ,we have once more that singular feeling for stress1 for muscular tension1 and for dramatic oppositions1 which distinguish the bas-reliefs of ,babylon and ,nineveh from all other artistic expressions of the antique world4 ,it would be possible by the help of exhibits at ,munich to trace certain ,assyrian forms right through to ,medival ,european art4 ,take1 for instance1 the lion heads on the pre-,babylonian mace from ,goudea in the ,louvre2 one finds a precisely similar convention for the lion head on the ,sassanid repouss metalwork found in ,russia4 ,once again it occurs in the superb carved rock crystal waterspout lent by the ,karlsruhe ,museum 7,room #ed71 and one finds it again on the font of ,lincoln ,cathedral and in the lions that support the doorway columns of ,italian cathedrals4 ,in all these there is a certain community of style1 a certain way of symbolising the leonine nature which one may look for in vain in ,greek and ,grco-,roman art4 ,even if this seem too forced an interpretation of facts1 it is none the less clear that everywhere in early ,mohammedan art this recrudescence of ,assyrian forms may be traced1 and that their influence was scarcely less upon ,europe than upon the near ,east4 ,dr4 ,sarre has taken a tracing of the pattern which is represented in low relief upon the robes of ,chosroes in the ,tak-i-,bostan relief4 ,in ,south ,kensington ,museum there is an almost identical piece of silk brocade which actually comes from the ruins of ,khorsabad1 and in the same museum one may find more than one ,byzantine imitation of this design and closely similar ones made in ,sicily2 and the conventional winged monster which forms the basis of these designs has a purely ,assyrian air4 ,in ,egypt1 too1 it would seem that there was before the ,arab invasion a marked recrudescence of indigenous native design which enabled the ,coptic craftsmen gradually to transform the motives given to them by ,roman conquerors into something entirely non-,hellenistic4 ,and the incredible beauty of the ,fatimite textiles of the tenth1 eleventh1 and twelfth centuries1 of which a few precious relics are shown in ,room #ag1 preserve something1 especially in the bird forms1 of this antique derivation4 ,but to return once more to ,sassanid art4 ,the specimens from the ,hermitage and ,prince ,bobrinsky's collections form an object lesson of extraordinary interest in the development of early ,mohammedan art4 ,they have inherited and still retain that extreme realisation of massive splendour1 that fierce assertion of form and positive statement of relief which belongs to the art of the great primitive ,empires1 and most of all to the art of ,mesopotamia1 and yet they already adumbrate the forms of ,mohammedan art into which they pass by insensible degrees4 ,here1 too1 we find vestiges of the dying ,hellenistic tradition4 ,one of ,prince ,bobrinsky's bronzes1 a great plate1 has1 for instance1 a design composed of classic vases1 from which spring stems which bend round into a series of circles1 a design which might almost be matched as regards form1 though not as regards spirit1 in the wall decorations of ,pompeii4 ,or take again the superb repouss silver plate representing a ,sassanid king spearing a lion4 ,here the floating drapery of the king and the edge of his tunic show a deliberately schematised rendering of the traditional folds of the ,greek peplos4 ,but how much more ,assyrian than ,greek is the whole effect--the dramatic tension of the figures expressed by an emphasis on all the lines of muscular effort1 as in the legs of the horse and the lions4 ,how ,assyrian1 too1 is the feeling for relief1 and the predilection for imbricated or closely set parallel lines as in the lions' manes4 ,in the conventional rock under one of the lions one seems to see also a hint of ,chinese forms4 ,still more ,assyrian is another plate1 the arrangement of which recalls the reliefs of ,assurbanipal or ,sennacherib1 and yet already there are forms which anticipate ,mohammedan art2 the gate of the city1 its crenelations1 and the forms of the helmets of the soldiers1 all have an air of similarity with far later ,mohammedan types4 ,another plate1 not reproduced here1 shows a ,sassanid king regaling himself with wine and music1 and gives already more than a hint of the favourite designs of the ,rhages potters or the bronze workers of ,mossoul4 ,among ,prince ,bobrinsky's bronzes which were found in the ,caucasus is a late ,sassanid aquamanile in the form of a bird4 ,it is already almost ,mohammedan1 though retaining something of the extreme solidity and weight of earlier art4 ,once more1 in the aggressive schematisation of the form of the tail and the suggestion of feathers by a series of deeply marked parallel lines1 we get a reminiscence of ,assyrian art1 while in the treatment of the crest there is the more florid interweaving of curves which adumbrate not only ,mohammedan but ,indian forms4 ,in the aquamanile in the form of a horse 7see ,plate7 the ,sassanid influence is still predominant1 but there can be no doubt that this is already ,mohammedan1 probably of the eighth or ninth century4 ,we have already here the characteristics of ,fatimite bronzes1 of which a few specimens are shown at ,munich4 ,the great griffin of ,pisa could not1 of course1 be moved from the ,campo ,santo1 nor are the two specimens in the ,louvre shown1 but the stag from the ,bavarian ,national ,museum is there and affords a most interesting comparison with ,prince ,bobrinsky's horse4 ,both have the same large generalisation of form1 and in both we have the curious effect of solidity and mass produced by the shortened hind legs1 with the half-squatting movement to which that gives rise4 ,the ,bobrinsky horse is obviously more primitive1 and probably indicates the beginnings of a school of bronze plastic in ,mesopotamia ,illustration3 ,fatimite ,bronzes ,bobrinsky ,collection ,plate ,,iv4 nearly parallel to that of ,egypt4 ,this school1 however1 never developed as fully along sculptural lines1 and at a comparatively early date abandoned sculpture for the art of bronze inlay1 of which ,mossoul was the great centre in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries4 ,in the incised designs on the horse we have an example of the early forms of the palmette ornament and of the interlacing curves which form the basis of most subsequent ,mohammedan patterns4 ,within the reserves formed by the intreccie are small figures1 of which one--that of a man seated and playing the lute--can just be made out in the reproduction4 ,it is already typical of the figure design which the ,mohammedan artists developed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries4 ,by way of comparison with this ,mesopotamian example1 ,plate1 ,fig4 #b1 shows a supreme example of ,fatimite sculpture of the twelfth century4 ,it is1 indeed1 a matter for regret that ,mohammedan artists so soon abandoned an art for which they showed such extraordinary aptitude4 ,the lion which comes from the ,kassel ,museum has already been published by ,m4 ,migeon1#ai but is of such rare beauty and interest in relation to the ,sassanid works here described that it seemed desirable to reproduce it again4 ,it shows the peculiar characteristics of all the art produced for the ,fatimite court1 its exquisite perfection and refinement of taste1 its minuteness of detail and finish together with a large co-ordination of parts1 a rhythmic feeling for contour and the sequence of planes1 which have scarcely ever been equalled4 ,and all these qualities of refinement1 almost of sophistication1 which ,fatimite art possesses1 do not1 as we see here1 destroy the elementary imaginative feeling for the vitality of animal forms4 ,in the case in which this masterpiece of ,mohammedan sculpture is shown there is also seen the celebrated lion which once belonged to the painter ,fortuny4 ,noble though this is in general conception1 the coarseness of its workmanship and the want of subtlety in its proportions1 in comparison with the ,kassel lion1 makes it evident that it is not from the same school of ,egyptian craftsmen1 but probably of ,spanish origin4 ,yet another of the ,bobrinsky bronzes of about the same date as the horse is already typically ,mohammedan as may be seen by the leaf forms and the intreccie of the crest1 but how much of the antique ,sassanid proportions and sense of relief is still retained6 ,it is believed to be from ,western ,turkestan and of the eighth or ninth century4 ,one must suppose that ,sassanid forms travelled ,north and ,east as well as ,south and ,west1 and helped in the formation of that ,central ,asian art which becomes the dominant factor in the later centuries of ,mohammedan1 more especially of ,persian1 art4 ,before leaving the question of ,sassanid influences ,i must mention the series of bronze jugs in the ,bobrinsky and ,sarre collections4 ,the general form is obviously derived from classic originals1 but they have a peculiar spout of a rectangular shape placed at right angles on the top of the main opening4 ,the effect of this is to give two openings1 one for pouring the water in1 the other for pouring it out at right angles4 ,now in the early ,mossoul water jugs we see numerous examples of what are clearly derivations of this form passing by gradual degrees into the familiar neck with spout attached but not separated1 which is typical of later ,mohammedan water jugs4 ,this evolution can be traced step by step in the ,munich ,exhibition1 and leaves no doubt of the perfect continuity of ,sassanid and ,mohammedan forms4#bj ,one of the features of early ,mohammedan art is the vitality of its floral and geometrical ornament1 the system of which is uniformly spread throughout the ,mohammedan world4 ,the question of where and how this system of ornament arose is not easily solved1 but there are indications that ,egypt was the place of its earliest development4 ,its characteristic forms seem certainly derived from the universal palmette of ,grco-,roman decoration4 ,the palmette1 so rigid1 unvarying and frequently so lifeless in the hands of ,grco-,roman artists1 became the source of the flexible and infinitely varied systems of ,mohammedan design1 so skilfully interwoven1 so subtly adapted to their purpose1 that the supremacy of ,mohammedan art in this particular has been recognised and perpetuated in the word ,arabesque4 ,it is curious to note that the history of this development is almost a repetition of what occurred many centuries before in the formation of the system of ,celtic ornament4 ,there1 too1 the ,greek palmette was the point of departure4 ,the ,celtic bronze-workers adopted a cursive abbreviation of it which allowed of an almost too unrestrained flexibility in their patterns1 but one peculiarly adapted to their bronze technique4 ,in the case of ,mohammedan art it would seem that the change from the palmette was effected by ,coptic wood-carvers and by the artists who decorated in plaster the earliest ,egyptian mosques4 ,indeed1 one may suspect that the transformation of ,grco-,roman ornament had already been initiated by ,coptic workers in pre-,mohammedan times4 ,one or two exhibits of ,coptic reliefs in woodwork in ,room #dh show how far this process had already gone4 ,the ,coptic wood-carvers arrived at an extremely simple and economical method of decoration by incisions with a gouge1 each ending in a spiral curve1 and so set as to leave in relief a sequence of forms resembling a half-palmette1 and at times approaching very closely to the characteristic interlacing 8trumpet0 forms of ,celtic ornament4 ,a similar method was employed with even greater freedom and with a surprising richness and variety of effect in the plaster decorations of the earliest mosques1 such as that of ,ibn ,tulun4 ,in this way there was developed a singularly easy and rhythmic manner of filling any given space with interlaced and confluent forms suited to the caligraphic character of ,mohammedan design4 ,it cannot be denied that in course of time it pandered to the besetting sin of the oriental craftsman1 his intolerable patience and thoughtless industry1 and became in consequence as dead in its mere intricacy and complexity as the ,grco-,roman original in its frigid correctness4 ,the periods of creation in ornamental design seem indeed to be even rarer than those of creation in the figurative arts1 and if the greater part of ,mohammedan art shows1 along with increasing technical facility1 a constant degradation in ornamental design it is no exception to a universal rule4 ,at any rate1 up to the end of the thirteenth century its vitality was as strong and its adaptability even greater than the ornamental design of ,christian ,europe4 ,the design based on the half-palmette adapted itself easily to other materials than wood and plaster4 ,in an even more cursive form it was used alike by miniaturists and the closely allied painters on pottery4 ,of the former a good instance is that of a manuscript of ,dioscorides1 written and painted by ,abdullah ben el-,fadhl in the year #abbc ,a4,d4 ,it is of ,mesopotamian origin and shows in the decorative treatment of the figures a close affinity with the painting on contemporary pottery from ,rakka4 ,it is surprising how much character and even humour the artist gives to figures which are conceived in a purely calligraphic and abstract manner1 and what richness and nobility of style there is in the singularly economical and rapid indications of brocaded patterns in the robes4 ,here we see how1 in the hands of the miniaturists1 the half-palmette ornament becomes even more cursive and flexible1 more readily adapted to any required space than in the hands of the wood-carver and plasterer4 ,the whole of the figure-design of this period1 as seen in the pottery of ,rakka1 ,rhages1 and ,sultanabad1 shows the same characteristics4 ,it is all calligraphic rather than naturalistic1 but it is notable how much expression is attained within the flexible formula which these ,mohammedan artists had evolved4 ,the requirements of the potter's craft stimulated the best elements of such a school of draughtsmanship1 and for their power of creating an illusion of real existence by the sheer swiftness and assurance of their rhythm1 few draughtsmen have surpassed the unknown masters who threw their indications of scenes from contemporary life upon the fragile bowls and lustred cups of early ,syrian and ,persian pottery4 ,it is generally believed now that not only in ceramics and metal work1 but even in glass1 ,fatimite culture was pre-eminent4 ,probably no such collection of enamelled oriental glass has ever been brought together as that at ,munich4 ,an example of glass of ,egyptian origin bearing the date #gcg ,a4,d41 belonging to ,dr4 ,fouquet1 shows how early the manufacture of glass was already established in ,egypt4 ,to ,egypt1 too1 must be ascribed the splendid crystals and carved glass-work in which the ,munich ,exhibition is particularly rich4 ,one of these is the so-called ,hedwig glass from the ,rijksmuseum1 at ,amsterdam4 ,it has two finely conventionalised lions and eagles which resemble the types of ,fatimite sculpture4 ,it is described by ,migeon 78,manuel10 p4 #cgh7 as being of moulded glass1 but the design is probably cut on the wheel in the manner employed for rock-crystal4 ,among the examples of carved crystal one of the finest is the less well-known example of a waterspout in the shape of a lion's head1 lent by the ,karlsruhe ,museum4 ,in all these figures the distinctive quality of ,fatimite art1 its combination of massive grandeur of design with extreme refinement1 are apparent4 ,none the less1 the evidence in favour of ,syrian and ,mesopotamian centres of glass-industry is very strong1 and if many of the pieces1 especially the earliest ones1 are still relegated to ,egypt1 some of the finest are still ascribed1 though on no very conclusive grounds1 to the ,syrian workshops4 ,the finest of these belong to the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries1 and1 generally speaking1 the work of the fourteenth century shows a decline4 ,perhaps the most splendid specimen known is the large bottle from the treasury of ,s4 ,stephen's1 ,vienna4 ,the glass in this and the kindred piece from the same place shows a peculiar brownish yellow tone almost of the colour of honey1 which gives the most perfect background to the enamelled figure-decoration4 ,in the choice of subjects with a predominance of scenes from the chase there is undoubtedly a considerable resemblance to the scenes on the encrusted bronze work of ,mossoul1 and this1 so far as it goes1 makes in favour of a ,syrian origin4 ,but whatever their origin1 the finest of these pieces show a decorative splendour and a perfection of taste which has assured their appreciation from the days of the ,crusaders4 ,already in the inventory of ,charles ,v4 of ,france such pieces1 frequently mounted on silver stands1 figure among the ,king's choicest treasures4 ,nor was the appreciation of this beautiful craft confined to ,europe4 ,one of the many proofs of a continual interchange between the ,mohammedan and ,chinese civilisations is seen in the number of examples of this glass which have come from ,china4 ,in ,munich there is a magnificent bowl lent by ,dr4 ,sarre which is of ,chinese provenance1 and numerous other pieces have been recorded4 ,the collection of incrusted bronzes at ,munich is extremely rich1 ranging from the twelfth-century work1 in which plastic relief is still used1 accompanied by sparse incrustations of red copper upon the almost strawy yellow bronze1 to the fourteenth and fifteenth-century work1 in which plastic relief has altogether disappeared1 and elaborate incrustations of silver and even gold give to the surface an extreme profusion of delicate interwoven traceries4 ,here1 too1 the earliest work shows the finest sense of design4 ,the specimen from the ,piet ,latauderie collection1 still retains in its relief of stylistic animals a feeling for mass and grandeur inherited from ,sassanid metal-workers1 and the incrustations1 though exquisitely wrought1 are kept in due subordination to the general design4 ,some of the thirteenth-century pieces1 though already tending to too great intricacy1 still attain to a finely co-ordinated effect by the use of reserves filled with boldly designed figures4 ,some of the best of these contain scenes borrowed from ,christian mythology1 among which ,i may mention1 as a superb example1 the great bowl belonging to the ,duc d',arenberg4 ,i have alluded at various points to the influence of ,chinese art upon ,mohammedan4 ,among the most decisive and curious instances of this is a bronze mirror with the signs of the ,zodiac in relief4 ,round the edge is an inscription of dedication to one of the ,orthokid princes4 ,it is of ,mesopotamian workmanship4 ,here the derivation from ,chinese mirrors1 which date back to ,han times1 is unmistakable1 and is seen in every detail1 even to the griffin-head in the centre1 pierced to allow of the string by which it was carried4 ,illustration3 ,persian ,painting1 end of #acth century ,morgan ,collection ,plate ,v4 ,,giotto#ba ,,the ,,church ,,of ,s4 ,,francesco ,,at ,,assisi ,we find abundant evidences in studying early ,christian art that ,christianity at its origin exercised no new stimulating influence upon its development1 but if it were claimed for the ,franciscan movement that it brought about the great outburst of ,italian art the position would be harder to refute3 and indeed what ,s4 ,francis accomplished1 the literal acceptance by official ,christendom of ,christ's teaching1 was tantamount to the foundation of a new religion1 and the heresy of some of his followers1 who regarded his as a final dispensation superseding that of the ,new ,testament1 can scarcely have seemed unreasonable to those who witnessed the change in the temper of society which his example brought about4 ,s4 ,francis was the great orthodox heretic4 ,what he effected within the bounds of the ,church1 for a time at all events1 was only accomplished for later times by a rupture with the ,papal power4 ,he established the idea of the equality of all men before ,god and the immediate relationship of the individual soul to the ,deity4 ,he enabled every man to be his own priest4 ,to the fervour with which these ideas were grasped by his countrymen we may ascribe to some extent the extreme individualism of the ,italian ,renaissance1 the absence of the barriers of social caste to the aspirations of the individual and the passionate assertion on his part of the right to the free use of all his activities4 ,no doubt the individualism of1 say1 a ,sigismondo ,malatesta in the fifteenth century was very different to anything which ,s4 ,francis would have approved2 none the less such a view of life was rendered possible by the solvent action of his teaching on the fixed forms of society4 ,but of more immediate importance to our purpose is the sthetic element in ,s4 ,francis' teaching4 ,to say that in his actions ,s4 ,francis aimed at artistic effect would perhaps give a wrong impression of his character1 but it is true that his conception of holiness was almost as much an sthetic as a moral one4 ,to those who know ,s4 ,bonaventura's life a number of stories will suggest themselves1 which indicate a perfectly harmonious attitude to life rather than a purely moral one3 stories such as that of the sheep which was given to him1 and which he received joyfully because of its simplicity and innocence1 8and holding it in his hands he admonished it to be intent to praise ,god and to keep itself from offending the brethren2 and the sheep observed fully the commandment of the ,blessed ,francis1 and when it heard the brethren singing in the choir ran thither quickly1 and without any teaching bent before the altar of the ,blessed ,virgin and bleated1 as though it had human reason40 ,s4 ,francis1 the 8,jongleur de ,dieu10 was actually a poet before his conversion1 and his whole life had the pervading unity and rhythm of a perfect work of art4 ,not that he was a conscious artist4 ,the whole keynote of the ,franciscan teaching was its spontaneity1 but his feelings for moral and sthetic beauty were intimately united4 ,indeed1 his life1 like the ,italian art which in a sense arose from it1 like the ,gothic ,french art which was a simultaneous expression of the same spirit1 implies an attitude1 as rare in life as in art1 in which spiritual and sensuous beauty are so inextricably interwoven that instead of conflicting they mutually intensify their effects4 ,not only was the legend of ,s4 ,francis' life full of suggestions of poetical and artistic material1 but his followers rewrote the ,new ,testament from the ,franciscan point of view1 emphasising the poetical and dramatic elements of the story4 ,in particular they shifted the focus of interest by making the relationship of the ,virgin to her son the central motive of the whole4 ,it will be seen that ,italian artists down to ,raphael turned rather to the ,franciscan than the ,vulgate version4#bb ,in fact1 ,s4 ,bonaventura and the great poet of the movement1 the cultivated and ecstatic ,jacopone di ,todi1 did for the ,christian legend very much what ,pindar did for classical mythology2 without altering the doctrine they brought into full relief its human and poetical significance4 ,it is not surprising1 then1 to find that the great church at ,assisi1 built with all the magnificence that the whole of ,italy could contribute to honour the spouse of ,divine ,poverty1 should be the cradle of the new art of ,italy--the neo-,christian or ,franciscan art1 as we might almost call it4 ,the lower church of ,s4 ,francesco was probably decorated almost immediately after the building was finished1 between #abdj and #abej1 but these early works are almost obliterated by a second decoration undertaken after #acjj4 ,we must therefore turn to the upper church1 the paintings of which were probably completed before #acjj1 as the chief source of our knowledge of the emergence of the new ,italian style4 ,it was there that the ,italian genius first attained to self-expression in the language of monumental painting--a language which no other nation of modern ,europe has ever been able to command except in rare and isolated instances4 ,and here we plunge at once into a very difficult1 perhaps an insoluble problem3 who were the painters who carried out this immense scheme of decoration8 ,the archives of the church have been searched in vain1 and we are left with a sentence of ,ghiberti's commentary1 and ,vasari1 who here proves an uncertain guide1 so that we are thrown chiefly on the resources of internal evidence4 ,the paintings of the upper church may be briefly enumerated thus3 ,in the choir are faint remains of frescoes of the life of the ,virgin2 in the right transept a ,crucifixion and other subjects almost obliterated2 in the left transept another ,crucifixion1 better preserved1 and archangels in the triforium4 ,the nave is divided into an upper and lower series2 the upper series contains scenes of the ,old and ,new ,testaments1 the lower is devoted to the legend of ,s4 ,francis1 and in alternate vaults of the roof are paintings of single figures4 ,it would be out of place to discuss all these frescoes in detail1 but it may be worth while to select certain typical ones1 around which the rest may be grouped1 and see how far they bear out what little documentary and traditional authority we have4 ,we will begin with the ,crucifixion of the left transept1 which is clearly by an artist of decided and marked personality4 ,it is certainly less pleasing and less accomplished than the works of the later ,byzantine school1 and in spite of certain motives1 such as the floating drapery of the ,christ1 which show ,byzantine reminiscences1 it is derived in the main from the native ,italian tradition4 ,this is shown in the stumpy proportions of the figures and the crude1 not to say hideous1 realism of the faces of the crowd4 ,the classical origin of the tradition is still traceable in the sandalled feet and the reminiscence of the toga in some of the draperies4 ,but the chief interest lies in the serious attempt made by the artist to give dramatic reality to the scene in a way never attempted by the less human ,byzantines4 ,the action of the ,magdalen throwing up both arms in despair is really impressive1 and this is a more vivacious rendering of a gesture traditional in ,western early ,christian art2 an instance occurs in the fifth century ,,ms4 of ,genesis at ,vienna4 ,but the artist shows his originality more in the expressive and sometimes beautiful poses of the weeping angels and the natural movements of the ,virgin and ,s4 ,john4 ,very nearly allied to this are the archangels of the triforium1 and some of the frescoes of the upper scenes in the nave1 such as the ,nativity and the ,betrayal4 ,these belong to the same group1 though they are not necessarily by the master of the ,crucifixion himself4 ,as we proceed along the nave1 still keeping to the upper series1 we come upon another distinct personality1 whose work is typified in the ,deception of ,isaac4 ,in certain qualities this master is not altogether unlike the master of the ,crucifixion4 ,like him1 he replaces the purely schematic linear rendering of drapery by long streaks of light and dark paint1 so arranged as to give the idea of actual modelling in relief4 ,but he does this not only with greater naturalism1 but with a greatly increased sense of pure beauty4 ,the painting is not hieratic and formal1 as the ,byzantine would have made it1 nor has it that overstrained attempt at dramatic vehemence which we saw in the ,crucifixion4 ,the faces have remarkable beauty1 and throughout there is a sense of placid and dignified repose which is rare in medival work4 ,it is1 in fact1 decidedly classical1 and classical1 too1 in a sense different from the vague reminiscences of classic origin which permeate early ,christian art1 and were faintly echoed in the ,crucifixion4 ,rachel especially1 with her full1 well-rounded eyes1 wide apart and set deep in their sockets1 her straight nose and small mouth1 might almost have come straight from a ,pompeian picture4 ,the hair1 too1 instead of being in tangled masses1 as in the ,crucifixion1 or rendered by parallel lines1 as in the ,sacrifice of ,isaac1 is drawn into elegantly disposed curls1 which yet have something of the quality of hair1 and which remind us of the treatment in classic bronzes4 ,the last vault of the nave1 with the ,doctors of the ,church1 is by an artist who is extremely similar to the last1 and clearly belongs to the same group4 ,the level brows nearly meeting over the bridge of the nose1 the straight profile and the curled hair show the similarity1 as does also the drapery4 ,the classic tendencies of this artist may be seen in the amorini caryatides in the extreme corners of the spandril1 while the decoration of one of the arches of the church by the same hand has1 arising from an urn of pure classic design1 a foliated scrollwork1 in which centaurs disport themselves4 ,in the lower series representing the ,life of ,s4 ,francis we are at once struck by the resemblances to the last two paintings4 ,the ,pope1 who is approving the rule of ,s4 ,francis1 is almost a repetition of one of the ,doctors of the ,church4 ,we have the same peculiar drapery with shiny1 slippery1 high lights1 broadly washed on in well-disposed folds4 ,the faces1 too1 though they are more individual and far more expressive1 are1 nevertheless1 built on the same lines4 ,they have similar straight profiles1 the same deeply-cut level brows1 which tend to meet in a line across the nose4 ,the general impression it makes is that it is by a younger artist than the master of the ,esau fresco1 but one who has a keener feeling for reality and a far deeper sense of the dramatic situation4 ,we will now turn to the historical evidence4 ,the earliest and best is that of ,ghiberti 7early fifteenth century71 who tells us simply that ,giotto painted the ,s4 ,francis legend4 ,vasari says that ,cimabue worked first in the lower church with ,greek artists1 and then did the whole of the upper church1 except the ,s4 ,francis legend1 which he ascribes to ,giotto4 ,in addition to these we have a sixteenth-century ,,ms4 and an account of the church by ,petrus ,rudolphus of the same period1 which agree that both ,giotto and ,cimabue painted in the upper church4 ,we may take it1 then1 that we have fairly good evidence for ascribing the ,s4 ,francis series in the main to ,giotto1 and a consensus of traditional opinion that somewhere in the other frescoes we ought to discover ,cimabue4 ,the name of ,cimabue is fraught with tender associations4 ,to the last generation1 happy in its innocence1 it was familiar as a household word4 ,browning could sing without a qualm3 8,my painter--who1 but ,cimabue80 ,the cult of ,cimabue became fashionable2 it offended ,philistine nostrils and received its due castigation from ,mr4 ,punch4 ,and now1 alas1 he would be a bold man who dared to say that he admired ,cimabue1 who dared to do more than profess a pious belief in his existence4 ,only recently a distinguished critic#bc has endeavoured to hand over to ,duccio di ,buoninsegna the very stronghold of the ,cimabue faith1 the altar-piece of the ,rucellai ,chapel in ,sta4 ,maria ,novella4 ,but the myth dies hard1 and ,florentine guides will still point out the portraits of all ,cimabue's relations in the little figures round the frame4 ,ever since the time of ,rumohr1 however1 who considered him to be little more than an emanation of ,vasari's brain heated by patriotic fervour1 it has been established that we have no documentary evidence for any single picture by him4 ,we do know1 however1 that at the very end of his life he executed the mosaic of the apse in the cathedral at ,pisa4 ,but this is a much restored work1 and originally can have been little but an adaptation of a ,byzantine design1 and it throws no light on his work as a painter4 ,in any case1 all criticisms of his reputation in his own day1 whether deserved or not1 must fall to the ground before ,dante's celebrated lines1 8,credette ,cimabue nella pittura ,tener lo campo1 ed ora ha ,giotto il grido10 for on this point ,dante is first-rate evidence4 ,and that being the case1 there is a probability1 almost amounting to certainty1 that the man who 8held the field0 in painting would be requisitioned for the greatest national undertaking of his day1 the decoration of ,s4 ,francesco at ,assisi1 even though1 as we have seen1 it would be impossible to accept ,vasari's statement that he did the whole4 ,in looking for ,cimabue among the groups of the upper church which we have selected1 it will be worth while to take as an experimental guide other works ascribed traditionally to our artist4 ,if these should agree in their artistic qualities with one another and with any one group at ,assisi1 we shall have some probability in favour of our view4 ,and the result of such a process is to find in the master of the ,crucifixion our elusive and celebrated painter4 ,it would be wearisome to go in detail through all these works2 it will suffice to say that in certain marked peculiarities they all agree with one another and with the ,crucifixion4 ,the most striking likeness will be found between the heads which appear under the ,virgin's throne in the picture in the ,academy at ,florence1 which ,vasari attributes to ,cimabue1 and the grotesque heads to the right of the ,crucifixion4 ,there is the same crude attempt at realism1 the same peculiar matted hair1 the same curious drawing of the eye-socket which gives the appearance of spectacles4 ,the characteristics of this picture will again be found in the ,cimabue of the ,louvre which comes from ,pisa1 where he is known to have worked4 ,very similar1 too1 in innumerable details of architectural setting1 of movement of hands and heads1 and of drapery is the fresco of the ,madonna ,enthroned and ,s4 ,francis1 in the lower church at ,assisi4 ,finally1 the ,rucellai ,madonna1 in spite of its very superior qualities1 which must be due to its being a later work1 answers in many detailed tests to the characteristics of this group of paintings4#bd ,and now1 having found our ,cimabue in the master of the ,crucifixion1 what must our verdict be on his character as an artist8 ,frankly we must admit that he is not to be thought of in the same category with the master of the ,esau fresco1 much less with ,duccio or ,giotto4#be ,there is1 however1 in his work that spark of vitality which the ,italians rightly prized above ,byzantine accomplishment4 ,he gave to his historical compositions a rude dramatic vigour1 and to his ,madonnas and ,angels a suggestion of sentimental charm which borders on affectation2 he was1 in fact1 a sentimental realist whose relation to the ,byzantine masters must have been something like that of ,caravaggio to the academic school of the ,caracci4 ,we come next to the master of the ,deception of ,isaac1 and the closely allied1 if not identical1 painter who did the ,four ,doctors of the vault4 ,we have already noticed the likeness of these works to the legend of ,s4 ,francis1 which we may take provisionally to be ,giotto's2 but1 in spite of the similarity of technique1 they are inspired by a very diverse sentiment4 ,they are not dramatic and intense as ,giotto's2 they show a more conscious aspiration after style2 the artist will not allow the requirements of formal beauty to be disturbed by the desire for expressive and life-like gestures4 ,where1 then1 could an artist of this period acquire such a sense of pure classic beauty in painting8 ,in sculpture it might be possible to find classic models throughout ,italy as ,niccolo did at ,pisa1 but ,rome was the only place which could fulfil the requirements for a painter4 ,there must at this time have been many more remains of classical painting among the ruins of the ,palatine than are now to be seen1 and it is a natural conclusion that the artist who painted the figure of ,rachel was directly inspired by them4 ,nor is there anything difficult in the assumption that this unknown precursor of ,giotto was a ,roman artist1 for the ,roman school of painting was by far the most precocious of any in ,italy4 ,at ,subiaco there are frescoes1 some of which must date from the lifetime of ,s4 ,francis1 which already1 as in the portrait of ,s4 ,francis himself1 show a certain freedom from ,byzantine formalism4 ,but it is in the works of the ,cosmati1 ,jacopo ,torriti1 ,rusutti1 and ,cavallini in the latter half of the thirteenth century that we see how vigorous and progressive an art was springing up in ,rome4#bf ,had not the removal of the ,popes to ,avignon in the fourteenth century left the city a prey to internal discord1 we can hardly doubt that the ,roman would have been one of the greatest and earliest developed schools of ,italian painting4 ,as it is1 we find in the mosaics under the apse of ,sta4 ,maria in ,trastevere1 executed about the year #abij1 compositions in every way comparable to ,giotto's frescoes4 ,these mosaics1 too1 have architectural accessories which are very similar to the architecture of the 8,doctors of the ,church0 at ,assisi4 ,the architecture based on a study of classic forms is of the kind always associated with the ,cosmati family4 ,it will be seen that it is quite distinct from the architecture of ,cimabue's and ,duccio's ,madonnas1 but that it becomes the normal treatment in ,giotto's frescoes4 ,there is1 then1 a curiously close analogy between the origins of neo-,christian painting and neo-,christian sculpture in ,italy2 just as ,giovanni ,pisano's work was preceded by the purely classic revival which culminated in ,niccolo's ,baptistery pulpit1 so in painting ,giotto's work emerges from a similar classic revival based on the study of ,roman wall-paintings4 ,the perfect similarity between ,niccolo ,pisano's sentiment and that of the master of the ,esau fresco may be realised by comparing the action of ,rachel's hand in the fresco with that of the ,virgin in the ,annunciation of the ,baptistery pulpit4 ,in both we have the same autarchic conception of character conveyed by the same measured ease of gesture1 which contrasts vividly with the more expansive ideals of neo-,christian art1 of which ,giotto appears from the first as the most perfect representative4 ,in examining the series of frescoes describing the life of ,s4 ,francis we find varieties in the proportions of the figures and in the types of features which suggest the co-operation of more than one artist1 but the spirit that inspires the compositions throughout is one4 ,and this afflatus which suddenly quickens so much that was either tentative or narrowly accomplished into a new fulness of life1 a new richness of expression1 is1 we may feel certain1 due to the genius of ,giotto4 ,if we look at one of these frescoes1 such1 for example1 as the ,presepio at ,greccio1 and at the same time endeavour to transport ourselves into the position of a contemporary spectator1 what will strike us most immediately and make the most startling general impression is its actuality4 ,here at last1 after so many centuries of copying the traditional forms handed down from a moribund ,pagan art--centuries during which these abstractions had become entirely divorced from the life of the time--here at last was an artist who gave a scene as it must have happened1 with every circumstance evidently and literally rendered4 ,the scene of the institution of the ,presepio takes place in a little chapel divided from the body of the church by a marble wall4 ,the pulpit and crucifix are therefore seen from behind1 the latter leaning forward into the church and showing from the chapel only the wooden battens and fastenings of the back4 ,the singing-desk in the centre is drawn with every detail of screws and adjustments1 while the costume of the bystanders is merely the ordinary fashionable dress of the day4 ,the research for actuality could not be carried farther than this4 ,when some years ago a ,french painter painted the scene of ,christ at the house of the ,pharisee with the figures in evening dress it aroused the most vehement protests1 and produced for a time a shock of bewilderment and surprise4 ,this is not to suggest any real analogy between the works of the two artists1 but merely that the innovation made by ,giotto must have been in every way as surprising to his contemporaries4 ,nor was ,giotto's1 like ,m4 ,braud's1 a succs de scandale2 on the contrary1 it was immediately recognised as satisfying a want which had been felt ever since the legend of ,s4 ,francis1 the setting of which belonged to their own time and country1 had been incorporated by the ,italians in their mythology4 ,the earliest artists had tried to treat the subject according to the formulas of ,byzantine biblical scenes1 but with such unsatisfactory results as may be seen in the altar-piece of the ,bardi ,chapel of ,sta4 ,croce at ,florence4 ,in ,giotto's frescoes at ,assisi it acquired for the first time a treatment in which the desire for actuality was fully recognised4 ,but actuality alone would not have satisfied ,giotto's patrons2 it was necessary that the events should be presented as scenes of everyday life1 but it was also necessary that they should possess that quality of universal and eternal significance which distinguishes a myth from a mere historical event4 ,it was even more necessary that they should be heroic than that they should be actual4 ,and it was in his power to satisfy such apparently self-contradictory conditions that ,giotto's unique genius manifested itself4 ,it was this that made him the greatest story-teller in line1 the supreme epic-painter of the world4 ,the reconciliation of these two aims1 actuality and universality1 is indeed the severest strain on the power of expression4 ,to what a temperature must the imagination be raised before it can fuse in its crucible those refractory squalid trivialities unconsecrated by time and untinged by romance with which the artist must deal if he is to be at once 8topical0 and heroic1 to be at one and the same time in 8,ercles' vein0 and ,mrs4 ,gamp's4 ,even in literature it is a rare feat4 ,homer could accomplish it1 and ,dante1 but most poets must find a way round4 ,in ,dante the power is constantly felt4 ,he could not only introduce the politics and personalities of his own time1 but he could use such similes as that of old tailors peering for their needles' eyes1 a half-burnt piece of paper1 dogs nozzling for fleas1 and still more unsavoury trivialities1 without for a moment lowering the high key in which his comedy was pitched4 ,the poet deals1 however1 with the vague and blurred mental images which words call up1 but the painter must actually present the semblance of the thing in all its drab familiarity4 ,and yet ,giotto succeeded4 ,he could make the local and particular stand for a universal idea4 ,but1 without detracting in any way from what was due to ,giotto's superlative genius1 it may be admitted that something was given by the propitious moment of his advent4 ,for the optics of the imagination are variable3 in an age like the present1 men and events grow larger as they recede into the mist of the past2 it is rarely that we think of a man as truly great till he has for long received the consecration of death4 ,but there must be periods when men have a surer confidence in their own judgments--periods of such creative activity that men can dare to measure the reputations of their contemporaries1 which are of their own creation1 against the reputations of antiquity--and in such periods the magnifying1 mythopoetical effect1 which for us comes only with time1 takes place at once1 and swells their contemporaries to heroic proportions4 ,it was thus that ,dante saw those of his own time--could even see himself--in the proportions they must always bear4 ,the fact that ,s4 ,francis was canonised two years after death1 and within twenty years was commemorated by the grandest monument in ,italy1 is a striking proof of that superb self-confidence4 ,we will return to the frescoes3 the evidence for their being in the main by ,giotto himself rests not only on the general consensus of tradition1 but upon the technical characteristics and1 most of all1 upon the imaginative conception of the subjects4 ,none the less1 in so big a work it is probable that assistants were employed to carry out ,giotto's designs1 and this will account for many slight discrepancies of style4 ,certain frescoes1 however--notably the last three of the series--show such marked differences that we must suppose that one of these assistants rose to the level of an original creative artist4 ,in the fresco of ,s4 ,francis kneeling before the ,pope1 we have already noticed ,giotto's close connection with the artists of the ,roman school4 ,their influence is not confined to the figures and drapery2 the architecture--in which it may be noted1 by the way1 that ,giotto has already arrived instinctively at the main ideas of linear perspective--with its minute geometrical inlays1 its brackets and mouldings1 derived from classic forms1 is entirely in the manner of the ,cosmati4 ,but the composition illustrates1 none the less1 the differences which separate him from the master of the ,esau fresco4 ,giotto is at this stage of his career not only less accomplished1 but he has nothing of that painter's elegant classical grace4 ,he has1 instead1 the greatest and rarest gift of dramatic expressiveness4 ,for though the poses1 especially of the bishop seated on the ,pope's left1 lack grace1 and the faces show but little research for positive beauty or regularity of feature1 the actual scene1 the dramatic situation1 is given in an entirely new and surprising way4 ,of what overwhelming importance for the history of the world this situation was1 perhaps ,giotto himself could scarcely realise4 ,for this probably represents1 not the approbation of the order of minor brethren by ,honorius ,,iii41 which was a foregone conclusion1 but the permission to preach given by ,innocent ,,iii41 a far more critical moment in the history of the movement4 ,for ,innocent ,,iii41 in whom the ,papacy reached the zenith of its power1 had already begun the iniquitous ,albigensian crusade1 and was likely to be suspicious of any unofficial religious teaching4 ,it cannot have been with unmixed pleasure that he saw before him this poverty-stricken group of ,francis and his eleven followers1 whose appearance declared in the plainest terms their belief in that primitive communistic ,christianity which1 in the case of ,petrus ,waldus1 had been branded by excommunication4 ,in fact1 the man who now asked for the ,papal blessing on his mission was in most respects a ,waldensian4 ,francis 7the name ,francesco is itself significant7 was probably by birth1 certainly by predilection#bg and temperament1 half a ,frenchman2 his mother came from ,provence1 and his father had business connections at ,lyons2 so that it is not impossible that ,francis was influenced by what he knew1 through them1 of the ,waldensian movement4 ,in any case1 his teaching was nearly identical with that of ,petrus ,waldus2 both taught religious individualism and1 by precept at all events1 communism4 ,it was1 therefore1 not unnatural that ,innocent should not respond at once to ,s4 ,francis' application4 ,according to one legend1 the ,pope's first advice to him was to consort with swine1 as befitted one of his miserable appearance4 ,but1 whatever his spontaneous impulses may have been1 he had the good sense to accept the one man through whom the ,church could again become popular and democratic4 ,of all that this acceptance involved1 no one who lived before the ,reformation could understand the full significance1 but ,giotto has here expressed something of the dramatic contrasts involved in this meeting of the greatest of saints and the most dominating of popes--something of the importance of the moment when the great heretic was recognised by the ,church4 ,in the fresco of ,s4 ,francis before the ,sultan we have a means of comparing ,giotto at this period with the later ,giotto of the ,bardi ,chapel1 in ,florence where the same scene is treated with more intimate psychological imagination2 but here already the story is told with a vividness and simplicity which none but ,giotto could command4 ,the weak and sinuous curves of the discomfited sages1 the ponderous and massive contour of the indignant ,sultan1 show that ,giotto's command of the direct symbolism of line is at least as great as ,duccio's in the ,three ,maries1 while his sense of the roundness and solid relief of the form is1 as ,mr4 ,berenson#bh has ably pointed out1 far greater4 ,we find in the ,sultan1 indeed1 the type for which ,giotto showed a constant predilection--a well-formed1 massive body1 with high rounded shoulders and short neck1 but with small and shapely hands4 ,as is natural in the work of an artist who set himself so definitely to externalise the tension of a critical moment1 his hands are always eloquent2 it is impossible to find in his work a case where the gestures of the hands are not explicit indications of a particular emotion4 ,the architecture in this fresco is a remarkable evidence of the classical tendencies which he inherited from the ,cosmati school4 ,the ,sultan's throne has1 it is true1 a quasi-,gothic gable1 but the coffered soffit1 and the whole of the canopy opposite to it1 with its winged genii1 pilasters1 and garlands are derived from classic sources4 ,we have already considered the ,presepio as an example of ,giotto's power of giving the actual setting of a scene without losing its heroic quality4 ,it is also an example of his power of visualising the psychological situation2 here1 the sudden thrill which permeates an assembly at a moment of unwonted exaltation4 ,it depicts the first representation of the ,nativity instituted at ,greccio by ,s4 ,francis2 it is the moment at which he takes the image of the ,infant ,christ in his arms1 when1 to the ecstatic imaginations of the bystanders1 it appeared for an instant transformed into a living child of transcendent beauty4 ,the monks at the back are still singing the ,lauds 7one can almost tell what note each is singing1 so perfect is ,giotto's command of facial expression71 but the immediate bystanders and the priest are lost in wrapt contemplation of ,s4 ,francis and the ,child4#bi ,one of the most beautiful of the whole series is the fresco which represents the nuns of ,s4 ,clare meeting the ,saint's body as it is borne to burial4 ,throughout the series ,giotto took ,bonaventura's life as his text1 and it is interesting to see how near akin the two renderings are1 both alike inspired by that new humanity of feeling which ,s4 ,francis' life had aroused4 ,having described the beauty of the ,saint's dead body1 8of which the limbs were so soft and delicate to the touch that they seemed to have returned to the tenderness of a child's1 and appeared by many manifest signs to be innocent as never having done wrong1 so like a child's were they10 he adds1 ,therefore it is not to be marvelled at if seeing a body so white and seeing therein those black nails and that wound in the side which seemed to be a fresh red rose of spring1 if those that saw it felt therefor great wonder and joy4 ,and in the morning when it was day the companies and people of the city and all the country round came together1 and being instructed to translate that most holy body from that place to the city of ,assisi1 moved with great solemnity of hymns and songs and divine offices1 and with a multitude of torches and of candles lighted and with branches of trees in their hands2 and with such solemnity going towards the city of ,assisi and passing by the church of ,s4 ,damiano1 in which stayed ,clara the noble virgin who is to-day a saint on earth and in heaven1 they rested there a little4 ,she and her holy virgins were comforted to see and kiss that most holy body of their father the blessed ,francis adorned with those holy stigmata and white and shining as has been said4 ,bonaventura1 we see1 had already conceived the scene with such consummate artistic skill that it was1 as it were1 ready made for ,giotto4 ,he had only to translate that description into line and colour2 and in doing so he has lost nothing of its beauty4 ,giotto1 like ,bonaventura1 is apparently perfectly simple1 perfectly direct and literal1 and yet the result is in both cases a work of the rarest imaginative power4 ,nor is it easy to analyse its mysterious charm4 ,giotto was a great painter in the strictest and most technical sense of the word1 but his technical perfection is not easily appreciated in these damaged works1 and one cannot explain the effect this produces by any actual beauty of the surface quality of the painting2 it depends rather on our perception1 through the general disposition and action of the figures1 of ,giotto's attitude to life1 of the instinctive rightness of feeling through which he was enabled to visualise the scene in its simplest and most inevitable form4 ,we come now to the three last frescoes of the series which show such marked differences from the rest1 though some of the peculiarities1 the minute hands and elegant features1 appear in parts of some of the preceding frescoes1 notably in our last3 we may imagine that an assistant working under ,giotto was1 as the work progressed1 given a larger and larger share in the execution1 and finally carried out the three last frescoes alone4 ,but this is pure hypothesis2 all we can do at present is to note the difference not only of types1 but even to some extent in the manner of conception1 that they evince4 ,one of them recounts the story of a woman of ,benevento devoted to ,s4 ,francis1 who died after forgetting one of her sins in her last confession4 ,at the intercession of the dead ,saint she was allowed to come to life again1 finish her confession1 and so defeat of his prey the black devil who had already come for her soul4 ,here the whole spacing out of the composition indicates a peculiar feeling1 very different from ,giotto's4 ,the artist crowds his figures into narrow1 closely-packed groups1 and leaves vast spaces of bare wall between4 ,in this particular instance the result is very impressive2 it intensifies the supreme importance of the confession and emphasises the loneliness and isolation of the soul that has already once passed away4 ,when we look at the individual figures the differences are even more striking2 the long thin figures1 the repetition of perpendicular lines1 the want of variety in the poses of the heads1 a certain timidity in the movements1 the long masks1 too big in proportion for the heads1 the tiny elegant features1 elongated necks1 and minute hands--all these characteristics contrast with ,giotto's tendency to massive proportions and easy expansive movements4 ,not that these figures have not great beauty2 only it is of a recondite and exquisite kind4 ,the artist that created these types must have loved what was sought out and precious2 though living so long before ,raphael1 he must have been something of a 8pre-,raphaelite40 ,we have no clue to the identity of this pseudo-,giotto2 he is quite distinct from ,giotto's known pupils1 and indeed may rather have been a contemporary artist who came under ,giotto's influence than one trained by him4 ,besides the frescoes at ,assisi1 we are fortunate enough to possess one other picture by this interesting artist4 ,it is a small altar-piece dedicated to ,s4 ,cecilia1 which hangs in the corridor of the ,uffizi1 and has been attributed both to ,cimabue and to ,giotto4 ,the long ,rosetti-like necks and heads1 the poses1 in which elegance is preferred to expressiveness1 and the concentration of the figures so as to leave large empty spaces even in these small compositions1 are sufficient grounds for attributing it to ,giotto's fellow-worker at ,assisi4#cj ,in the year #abih ,giotto entered into a contract with ,cardinal ,stefaneschi to execute for him the mosaic of the 8,navicella10 now in the porch of ,s4 ,peter's4 ,we have in this the first ascertainable date of ,giotto's life4 ,it is one which1 however1 fits very well with the internal evidences of his style1 as it would give the greater part of the last decade of the thirteenth century as the period of ,giotto's activity in the ,upper ,church at ,assisi4 ,one other work on the evidence of style we may attribute to the master's pre-,roman period1 and that is the ,madonna of the ,academy at ,florence4 ,here ,giotto followed the lines of ,cimabue's enthroned ,madonnas1 though with his own greatly increased sense of solidity in the modelling and vivacity in the poses4 ,it cannot1 however1 be considered as a prepossessing work4 ,it may be due to restoration that the picture shows no signs of ,giotto's peculiar feeling for tonality2 but even the design is scarcely satisfactory1 the relation of the ,madonna to the throne is such that her massive proportions leave an impression of ungainliness rather than of grandeur4 ,in the throne itself he has made an experiment in the new ,gothic architecture1 but he has hardly managed to harmonise it with the earlier classic forms of the ,cosmati1 which still govern the main design4 ,we shall see that in his work at ,rome he overcame all these difficulties4 ,in ,rome ,giotto worked chiefly for ,cardinal ,stefaneschi4 ,this is significant of ,giotto's close relations with the ,roman school1 for it was ,bartolo1 another member of the same family1 who commissioned the remarkable mosaics of ,sta4 ,maria in ,trastevere1 executed in #abij1 mosaics which show how far the ,roman school had already advanced towards the new art1 of which ,giotto's work was the consummation4 ,the mosaic of the 8,navicella10 which was the greatest undertaking of ,giotto's activity in ,rome1 is unfortunately terribly restored4 ,we can1 however1 still recognise the astonishing dramatic force of the conception and the unique power which ,giotto possessed of giving a vivid presentation of a particular event1 accompanied by the most circumstantial details1 and at the same time suggesting to the imagination a symbolical interpretation of universal and abstract significance4 ,even the surprising intrusion of a genre motive in the fisherman peacefully angling on the shore does not disturb our recognition of this universal interpretation1 which puts so clearly the relation of the ship of the ,church1 drifting helplessly with its distraught crew1 to the despairing ,peter1 who has here the character of an emissary and intermediary1 and the impassive and unapproachable figure of ,christ himself4 ,the daring originality which ,giotto shows in placing the predominant figure at the extreme edge of the composition1 the feeling for perspective which enabled him to give verisimilitude to the scene by throwing back the ship into the middle distance1 the new freedom and variety in the movements of the ,apostles in the boat1 by which the monotony of the eleven figures crowded into so limited a space is evaded1 are proofs of ,giotto's rare power of invention1 a power which enabled him to treat even the most difficult abstractions with the same vivid sense of reality as the dramatic incidents of contemporary life4 ,it is not to be wondered at that this should be the work most frequently mentioned by the ,italian writers of the ,renaissance4 ,the storm-gods blowing their ,triton's horns are a striking instance of how much ,giotto assimilated at this time from ,pagan art4 ,but of far greater beauty are the panels for the high altar of ,s4 ,peter's1 also painted for ,cardinal ,stefaneschi1 and now to be seen in the sacristy1 where the more obvious beauties of ,melozzo da ,forli's music-making angels too often lead to their being overlooked4 ,and yet1 unnoticed in the dark corners of the room1 they have escaped the attentions of restorers and glow with all the rare translucency of ,giotto's tempera4 ,these are the first pictures we have examined by ,giotto in which we are able to appreciate at all the beauty and subtlety of his tone contrasts1 for not only have the frescoes of the upper church at ,assisi and the 8,madonna0 of the ,academy suffered severely from restoration1 but it is probable that in his youthful works he had not freed himself altogether from the harsher tonality of earlier art4 ,here1 however1 ,giotto shows that power which is distinctive of the greatest masters of paint1 of developing a form within a strictly limited scale of tone1 drawing out of the slightest contrasts their fullest expressiveness for the rendering of form2 a method which1 though adopted from an intuitive feeling for pure beauty1 gives a result which can only be described as that of an enveloping atmosphere surrounding the forms4#ca ,the kneeling figure1 presumably ,cardinal ,stefaneschi himself1 in the 8,christ enthroned0 is an admirable instance of this quality4 ,with what tender1 scarcely perceptible gradations1 with what a limited range from dark to light is the figure expressed2 and yet it is not flat1 the form is perfectly realised between the two sweeping curves whose simplicity would seem1 but for the masterly modelling1 to prevent the possibility of their containing a human figure4 ,the portrait is as remarkable in sentiment as in execution4 ,the very conception of introducing a donor into such a composition was new4#cb ,it was a sign of the new individualism which marked the whole of the great period of ,italian art1 and finally developed into extravagance4 ,the donor having once found his way into pictures of sacred ceremonial remained1 but he not infrequently found it difficult to comport himself becomingly amid celestial surroundings2 as he became more important1 and heaven itself became less so1 he asserted himself with unseemly self-assurance1 until at last his matter-of-fact countenance1 rendered with prosaic fidelity1 stares out at the spectator in contemptuous indifference to the main action of the composition1 the illusion of which it effectually destroys4 ,but here1 where the idea is new1 it has no such jarring effect2 it is not yet a stereotyped formula1 an excuse for self-advertisement or social display1 but the direct outcome of a poetical and pious thought2 and ,giotto1 with his unique rightness of feeling1 has expressed1 by the hand clinging to the throne and the slightly bent head1 just the appropriate attitude of humble adoration1 which he contrasts with the almost nonchalant ease and confidence of the angels4 ,even in so purely ceremonial a composition as this ,giotto contrives to create a human situation4 ,in the planning of this picture ,giotto has surpassed not only ,duccio's and ,cimabue's versions of the ,enthronement motive but his own earlier work at ,florence4 ,the throne1 similar in construction to that in the ,academy picture1 no longer shows the inconsistencies of two conflicting styles1 but is of pure and exquisitely proportioned ,gothic2 the difficult perspective of the arches at the side is rendered with extraordinary skill though without mathematical accuracy4 ,the relation of the figure of ,christ to the throne is here entirely satisfactory1 with the result that the great size of the figure no longer appears unnatural1 but as an easily accepted symbol of divinity4 ,in the drawing of the face of the ,christ he has retained the hieratic solemnity given by the rigid delineation of ,byzantine art4 ,but if the 8,christ enthroned0 is a triumph of well-calculated proportions1 the 8,crucifixion of ,s4 ,peter0 which formed one side of the triptych1 is even more remarkable for the beauty of its spacing and the ingenuity of its arrangement4 ,in designing such a panel with its narrow cusped arch and gold background1 the artist's first consideration must be its effect as mere pattern when seen on the altar at the end of a church4 ,in his frescoes1 ,giotto's first preoccupation was with the drama to be presented2 here it was with the effect of sumptuous pattern4 ,and the given data out of which the pattern was to be made were by no means tractable4 ,the subject of the ,crucifixion of ,s4 ,peter was naturally not a favourite one with artists1 and scarcely any succeeded in it entirely1 even in the small dimensions of a predella piece1 to which it was generally relegated4 ,for it is almost impossible to do away with the unpleasant effect of a figure seen thus upside down4 ,the outstretched arms1 which in the crucifixion of ,christ give a counterbalancing line to the long horizontal of the spectators1 here only increases the difficulty of the single upright4 ,but ,giotto1 by a brilliant inspiration1#cc found his solution in the other fact given by his subject--namely1 that the martyrdom took place between the goals of the ,circus of ,nero4 ,by making these huge pyramids adapted from two well-known ,roman monuments 7the ,septizonium and the pyramid of ,cestius71 he has obtained from the gold background just that dignified effect of spreading out above and contracting below which is so effective in renderings of the crucifixion of ,christ1 an effect which he still further emphasises by the two angels1 whose spreading wings and floating draperies increase the brocade-like richness of the symmetrical pattern4 ,nor1 the pattern once assured1 has ,giotto failed of vivid dramatic presentation4 ,it is surprising to find crowded into so small a space so many new poses all beautifully expressive of the individual shades of a common feeling3 the woman to the left of the cross leaning her head on her hand as though sorrow had become a physical pain2 the beautiful figure of the youth1 with long waving hair1 who throws back both arms with a despairing gesture2 the woman lifting her robe to wipe her tears2 and1 most exquisite of all1 and most surprising1 in its novelty and truth to life1 the figure of the girl to the left1 drawn towards the terrible scene by a motion of sympathy and yet shrinking back with instinctive shyness and terror4 ,in the child alone ,giotto has1 as was usually the case1 failed of a rhythmical and expressive pose4 ,and what an entirely new study of life is seen here in the variety of the types6 ,in one--the man whose profile cuts the sky to the left--he seems to have been indebted to some ,roman portrait-bust2 another1 on horseback to the left1 is clearly a ,mongolian type1 with slant eyes and pigtail1 a curious proof of the intercourse with the extreme ,east which the ,franciscan missionaries had already established4 ,in the drawing of the nude figure of ,s4 ,peter1 in spite of the unfortunate proportion of the head1 the same direct study of nature has enabled ,giotto to realise the structure of the figure more adequately than any artist since ,roman times4 ,one can well understand the astonishment and delight of ,giotto's contemporaries at this unfolding of the new possibilities of art1 which could now interpret all the variety and richness of human life and could so intensify its appeal to the emotions4 ,one other peculiarity of this picture is interesting and characteristic of ,giotto's attitude4 ,in painting the frame of his panel he did not merely add figures as decorative and symbolic accessories1 he brought them into relation with the central action1 for each of them gazes at ,s4 ,peter with a different expression of pity and grief4 ,giotto had to be dramatic even in his frames4#cd ,that ,giotto remained in ,rome till after the great ,jubilee of #acjj is shown by the fragment of his fresco of the ,papal ,benediction which still remains on a pillar of ,s4 ,john ,lateran4 ,there is every probability that at this time he met ,dante1 who was collecting the materials for the terrible portrait of ,boniface ,,viii4 which he drew in the 8,inferno40 ,the next ascertainable date in ,giotto's life is that of the decoration of the ,arena chapel at ,padua1 begun in #acje4 ,here at last we are on indisputable ground4 ,the decoration of this chapel was conceived by ,giotto as a single whole1 and was entirely carried out by him1 though doubtless with the help of assistants1 and although it has suffered from restoration it remains the completest monument to his genius4 ,the general effect of these ample silhouettes of golden yellow and red on a ground of clear ultramarine is extraordinarily harmonious1 and almost gay4 ,but essentially the design is made up of the sum of a number of separate compositions4 ,the time had not come for co-ordinating these into a single scheme1 as ,michelangelo did in the ceiling of the ,sistine4 ,in the composition of the separate scenes ,giotto here shows for the first time his full powers4 ,nearly every one of these is an entirely original discovery of new possibilities in the relation of forms to one another4 ,the contours of the figures evoke to the utmost the ideal comprehension of volume and mass4 ,the space in which the figures move is treated almost as in a bas-relief1 of which they occupy a preponderant part4 ,as compared with the designs at ,assisi the space is restricted1 and the figures amplified so that the plastic unity of the whole design is more immediately apprehended4 ,i doubt whether in any single building one can see so many astonishing discoveries of formal relations as ,giotto has here made4 ,almost every composition gives one the shock of a discovery at ,illustration3 ,giotto4 ,piet ,arena ,chapel1 ,padua ,plate ,,vi4 once simple1 inevitable1 and instantly apprehended1 and yet utterly unforeseeable4 ,in most compositions one can guess at some of the steps by which the formal relations were established4 ,here one is at a loss to conceive by what flight of imagination the synthesis has been attained4 ,we will consider a few in greater detail4 ,giotto was1 ,i believe1 the first artist to represent the ,resurrection by the ,noli me tangere4 ,the ,byzantines almost invariably introduced the ,descent into ,hades or the ,three ,maries at the ,tomb4 ,in any case it is characteristic of ,giotto to choose a subject where the human situation is so intimate and the emotions expressed are so poignant4 ,here1 as in the 8,navicella10 where he was free to invent a new composition1 he discards the bilateral arrangement1 which was almost invariable in ,byzantine art1 and concentrates all the interest in one corner of the composition4 ,the angels on the tomb are damaged and distorted1 but in the head and hands of the ,magdalene we can realise ,giotto's greatly increased power and delicacy of modelling as compared with the frescoes at ,assisi4 ,it is impossible for art to convey more intensely than this the beauty of such a movement of impetuous yearning4 ,the action of the ,christ is as vividly realised2 almost too obviously1 indeed1 does he seem to be edging out of the composition in order to escape the ,magdalene's outstretched hands4 ,this is a striking instance of that power which ,giotto possessed more than any other ,italian1 more indeed than any other artist except ,rembrandt1 the power of making perceptible the flash of mutual recognition which passes between two souls at a moment of sudden illumination4 ,in the 8,piet0 7,plate7 a more epic conception is realised1 for the impression conveyed is of a universal and cosmic disaster3 the air is rent with the shrieks of desperate angels whose bodies are contorted in a raging frenzy of compassion4 ,and the effect is due in part to the increased command1 which the ,paduan frescoes show1 of simplicity and logical directness of design4 ,these massive boulder-like forms1 these draperies cut by only a few large sweeping folds1 which suffice to give the general movement of the figure with unerring precision1 all show this new tendency in ,giotto's art as compared with the more varied detail1 the more individual characterisation1 of his early works4 ,it is by this consciously acquired and masterly simplicity that ,giotto keeps here1 in spite of the unrestrained extravagance of passion1 the consoling dignity of style4 ,if one compares it1 for example1 with the works of ,flemish painters1 who explored the depths of human emotion with a similar penetrating and sympathetic curiosity1 one realises the importance of what all the great ,italians inherited from ,grco-,roman civilisation--the urbanity of a great style4 ,and nowhere is it felt more than here1 where ,giotto is dealing with emotions which classical art scarcely touched4 ,it is interesting that ,giotto should first have attained to this perfect understanding of style at ,padua1 where he was1 as we know1 in constant intercourse with ,dante4 ,dante must have often watched him1 perhaps helped him by suggestions1 in decorating the chapel built with the ill-gotten wealth of that ,scrovegni whom he afterwards seated amid the usurers on the burning sands of ,hell4 ,it is mainly by means of the composition and the general conception of pose and movement that ,giotto expresses the dramatic idea4 ,and regarded from that point of view1 these frescoes are an astounding proof of ,giotto's infallible intuitions4 ,the characters he has created here are as convincing1 as ineffaceable1 as any that have been created by poets4 ,the sad figure of ,joachim is one never to be forgotten4 ,in every incident of his sojourn in the wilderness1 after the rejection of his offering in the temple1 his appearance indicates exactly his mental condition4 ,when he first comes to the sheepfold1 he gazes with such set melancholy on the ground that the greeting of his dog and his shepherds cannot arouse his attention2 when he makes a sacrifice he crawls on hands and knees in the suspense of expectation1 watching for a sign from heaven2 even in his sleep we guess at his melancholy dreams2 and in the scene where he meets his wife at the ,golden ,gate on his return1 ,giotto has touched a chord of feeling at least as profound as can be reached by the most consummate master of the art of words4 ,it is true that in speaking of these one is led inevitably to talk of elements in the work which modern criticism is apt to regard as lying outside the domain of pictorial art4 ,it is customary to dismiss all that concerns the dramatic presentation of the subject as literature or illustration1 which is to be sharply distinguished from the qualities of design4 ,but can this clear distinction be drawn in fact8 ,the imaginings of a playwright1 a dramatic poet1 and a dramatic painter have much in common1 but they are never at any point identical4 ,let us suppose a story to be treated by all three3 to each1 as he dwells on the legend1 the imagination will present a succession of images1 but those images1 even at their first formation1 will be quite different in each case1 they will be conditioned and coloured by the art which the creator practises1 by his past observation of nature with a view to presentment in that particular art4 ,the painter1 like ,giotto1 therefore1 actually imagines in terms of figures capable of pictorial presentment1 he does not merely translate a poetically dramatic vision into pictorial terms4 ,and to be able to do this implies a constant observation of natural forms with a bias towards the discovery of pictorial beauty4 ,to be able1 then1 to conceive just the appropriate pose of a hand to express the right idea of character and emotion in a picture1 is surely as much a matter of a painter's vision as to appreciate the relative 8values0 of a tree and cloud so as to convey the mood proper to a particular landscape4 ,before leaving the ,paduan frescoes1 ,i must allude to those allegorical figures of the virtues and vices in which ,giotto has1 as it were1 distilled the essence of his understanding of human nature4 ,these personified virtues and vices were the rhetorical commonplaces of the day1 but ,giotto's intuitive understanding of the expression of emotion enabled him to give them a profound significance4 ,he has in some succeeded in giving not merely a person under the influence of a given passion1 but the abstract passion itself1 not merely an angry woman1 but anger4 ,to conceive thus a figure possessed absolutely by a single passion implied1 an excursion beyond the regions of experience2 no merely scientific observation of the effects of emotion would have enabled him to conceive the figure of ,anger4 ,it required an imagination that could range the remotest spaces thus to condense in visible form the bestial madness of the passion1 to depict what ,blake would have called the 8diabolical abstract0 of anger4 ,we come now to the last great series of frescoes by ,giotto which we possess1 those of the ,bardi and ,peruzzi chapels of ,sta4 ,croce1 his maturest and most consummate works4 ,from the very first ,giotto had to the full the power of seizing upon whatever in the forms of nature expressed life and emotion1 but the perfect understanding of the conditions of a suave and gracious style was only slowly acquired4 ,in the ,florentine frescoes it is the geniality1 the persuasiveness of the style which first strikes us4 ,they have1 indeed1 an almost academic perfection of design4 ,the comparison of the 8,death of ,s4 ,francis0 here with the early fresco of the subject at ,assisi shows how far ,giotto has moved from the literal realism of his first works4 ,at ,assisi crowds of people push round the bier1 soldiers and citizens come in to see1 there is all the shifting variety of the actual event4 ,here the composition is sublimated and refined1 reduced to its purest elements4 ,the scene is still vividly1 intensely real1 but it is apprehended in a more pensive and meditative vein4 ,there is in the composition a feeling for space which imposes a new mood of placidity and repose4 ,this composition became the typical formula for such subjects throughout the ,renaissance1 but it was never again equalled4 ,in spite of its apparent ease and simplicity1 it is really by the subtlest art that all these figures are grouped in such readily apprehended masses without any sense of crowding and with such variety of gesture in the figures4 ,the fresco1 which had remained for more than a century under a coat of whitewash1 was discovered in #ahda and immediately disfigured by utter restoration4 ,the artist1#ce with a vague idea that ,giotto was a decorative artist1 and that decoration meant something ugly and unnatural1 surrounded the figures with hard inexpressive lines4 ,we can1 therefore1 only guess1 by our knowledge of ,giotto elsewhere1 and by the general idea of pose1 how perfect was the characterisation of the actors in the scene1 how each responded according to his temperament to the general sorrow1 some in humble prostration1 one with a more intimate and personal affection1 and one1 to whom the vision of the ascending soul is apparent1 wrapt in mystic ecstasy4 ,an interesting characteristic of these late frescoes is the revival which they declare of ,giotto's early love for classical architecture4 ,he may well have recognised the pictorial value of the large untroubled rectangular spaces which it allowed4 ,in the 8,salome0 he has approached even more nearly to purely classic forms than in his earliest frescoes at ,assisi4 ,the building has an almost ,palladian effect with its square parapets surmounted by statues1 some of which are clearly derived from the antique4 ,in the soldier who brings in the ,baptist's head he has reverted to the costume of the ,roman soldier1 whereas1 in the allegory of ,chastity1 the soldiers wear medival winged helmets4 ,the fact that there is a free copy of this fresco by the ,lorenzetti at ,siena made in #acca gives us the period before which this must have been finished4 ,here again the mood is singularly placid1 but the intensity with which ,giotto realised a particularly dramatic moment is shown by a curious detail in which this differs from the usual rendering of the scene4 ,most artists1 wishing to express the essentials of the story1 make ,salome continue her dance while the head is brought in4 ,but ,giotto was too deep a psychologist to make such an error4 ,at the tragic moment she stops dancing and makes sad music on her lyre1 to show that she1 too1 is not wanting in proper sensibility4 ,there is evidence in these frescoes of an artistic quality which we could scarcely have believed possible1 and yet1 as it is most evident in those parts which are least damaged1 it is impossible not to believe that ,giotto possessed it2 and that is the real feeling for chiaroscuro which these paintings show4 ,it is not merely that the light falls in one direction1 though even that was a conception which was scarcely grasped before ,masaccio1 but that ,giotto actually composes by light and shade1 subordinates figures or groups of figures by letting them recede into gloom and brings others into prominent light4 ,this is particularly well seen in the 8,ascension of ,s4 ,john0 where the shadow of the building is made use of to unify the composition and give depth and relief to the imagined space4 ,it is also an example of that beautiful atmospheric tonality of which ,i have already spoken4 ,in the figure of ,s4 ,john himself1 ,giotto seems to have the freedom and ease which we associate with art of a much later date4 ,there is scarcely a hint of archaism in this figure4 ,the head1 with its perfect fusion of tones1 its atmospheric envelopment1 seems already nearly as modern as a head by ,titian4 ,even the colour scheme1 the rich earthy reds1 the intense sweet blues of the figures relieved against a broken green-grey1 is a strange anticipation of ,cinquecento art4 ,it seems as though ,giotto in these works had himself explored the whole of the promised land to which he led ,italian painting4 ,it is true that we are conscious of a certain archaism here in the relations of the figures and the architecture4 ,a certain violence is done to that demand for verisimilitude which1 perhaps wrongly1 we now invariably make4 ,but in the 8,raising of ,drusiana10 even this demand is met4 ,here the figures all have their just proportions to one another1 and to the buildings1 and to the town wall which stretches behind them4 ,the scene is imagined1 not merely according to the conditions of the dramatic idea1 but according to the possibilities and limitations of actual figures moving in a three dimensional space2 even the perspective of the ground is understood4 ,such an imaginative construction of three dimensional space had its disadvantages as well as its advantages for art1 but in any case it is an astonishing indication of ,giotto's genius that he thus foresaw the conditions which in the end would be accepted universally in ,european art4 ,there is scarcely anything here that ,raphael would have had to alter to adapt the composition to one of his tapestry cartoons4 ,of the dramatic power of this ,i need add nothing to what has already been said1 but as this is the last of his works which we shall examine it may afford an example of some of the characteristics of ,giotto's draughtsmanship4 ,for ,giotto was one of the greatest masters of line that the world has seen1 and the fact that his knowledge of the forms of the figure was comparatively elementary in no way interferes with his greatness4 ,it is not how many facts about an object an artist can record1 but how incisive and how harmonious with itself the record is1 that constitutes the essence of draughtsmanship4 ,in considering the qualities of line1 three main elements are to be regarded3 ,first1 the decorative rhythm1 our sense of sight being constructed like our sense of sound1 so that certain relations1 probably those which are capable of mathematical analysis1 are pleasing1 and others discordant4 ,secondly1 the significance of line as enabling us imaginatively to reconstruct a real1 not necessarily an actual1 object from it4 ,the greatest excellence of this quality will be the condensation of the greatest possible suggestion of real form into the simplest1 most easily apprehended line2 the absence of confusing superfluity on the one hand1 and mechanical1 and therefore meaningless simplicity1 on the other4 ,finally1 we may regard line as a gesture1 which impresses us as a direct revelation of the artist's personality in the same way that handwriting does4 ,now1 with ,giotto1 beautiful as his line undoubtedly is1 it is not the first quality1 the decorative rhythm1 that most immediately impresses us4 ,that is not the object of such deliberate and conscious research as with some artists4 ,it is in its significance for the expression of form with the utmost lucidity1 the most logical interrelation of parts that his line is so impressive4 ,here1 for instance1 in the figure of the kneeling woman1 the form is expressed with perfect clearness2 we feel at once the relation of the shoulders to one another1 the relation of the torso to the pelvis1 the main position of the thighs1 and all this is conveyed by a curve of incredible simplicity capable of instant apprehension4 ,to record so much with such economy requires not only a rare imaginative grasp of structure1 but a manual dexterity which makes the story of ,giotto's ,o perfectly credible should one care to believe it4 ,giotto's line1 regarded as an habitual gesture1 is chiefly striking for its breadth and dignity4 ,it has the directness1 the absence of preciosity1 which belongs to a generous and manly nature4 ,the large sweeping curves of his loose and full draperies are in part the direct outcome of this attitude4 ,it is difficult to avoid the temptation to say of ,giotto that he was the greatest artist that ever lived1 a phrase which has been used of too many masters to retain its full emphasis4 ,but at least he was the most prodigious phenomenon in the known history of art4 ,starting with little but the crude realism of ,cimabue1 tempered by the effete accomplishment of the ,byzantines1#cf to have created an art capable of expressing the whole range of human emotions2 to have found1 almost without a guide1 how to treat the raw material of life itself in a style so direct1 so pliant to the idea1 and yet so essentially grandiose and heroic2 to have guessed intuitively almost all the principles of representation which it required nearly two centuries of enthusiastic research to establish scientifically--to have accomplished all this is surely a more astounding performance than any other one artist has ever achieved4 ,but the fascination ,giotto's art exercises is due in part to his position in the development of modern culture4 ,coming at the same time as ,dante1 he shares with him the privilege of seeing life as a single1 self-consistent1 and systematic whole4 ,it was a moment of equilibrium between the conflicting tendencies of human activity1 a moment when such men as ,dante and ,giotto could exercise to the full their critical and analytical powers without destroying the unity of a cosmic theory based on theology4 ,such a moment was in its nature transitory3 the free use of all the faculties which the awakening to a new self-consciousness had aroused1 was bound to bring about antitheses which became more and more irreconcilable as time went on4 ,only one other artist in later times was able again to rise1 by means of the conception of natural law1 to a point whence life could be viewed as a whole4 ,even so1 it was by a more purely intellectual effort1 and ,leonardo da ,vinci could not keep the same genial but shrewd sympathy for common humanity which makes ,giotto's work so eternally refreshing4 ,illustration3 ,castagno4 ,crucifixion ,fresco in ,st4 ,apollonia1 ,florence ,plate ,,vii4 ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,florence#cg ,the 8artistic temperament0--as used in the press and the police court1 these words betray a general misunderstanding of the nature of art1 and of the artist whenever he becomes fully conscious of its purpose4 ,the idea of the artist as the plaything of whim and caprice1 a hypersensitive and incoherent emotionalist1 is1 no doubt1 true of a certain class of men1 many of whom practise the arts2 nothing could be further from a true account of those artists whose work has had the deepest influence on the tradition of art2 nothing could be less true of the great artists of the ,florentine ,school4 ,from the rise of modern art in the thirteenth century till now ,florence and ,france have been the decisive factors in the art of ,europe4 ,without them our art might have reflected innumerable pathetic or dramatic moods1 it might have illustrated various curious or moving situations1 it would not have attained to the conception of generalised truth of form4 ,to ,florence of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and to ,france of the seventeenth and succeeding centuries we owe the creation of generalised or what1 for want of a better word1 we may call 8intellectual0 art4 ,in speaking of intellect it is necessary to discriminate between two distinct modes of its operation4 ,the intellect may seek to satisfy curiosity by observation of the distinctions between one object and another by means of analysis2 but it may concern itself with the discovery of fundamental relations between these objects1 by the construction of a synthetic system which satisfies the mind1 both for its truth to facts and its logical coherence4 ,the artist may employ both these modes4 ,his curiosity about the phenomena of nature may lead him to accurate observation and recognition of the variety and distinctness of characters1 but he also seeks to construe these distinct forms into such a coherent whole as will satisfy the sthetic desire for unity4 ,perhaps the processes employed by the artist may not be identical with the intellectual processes of science1 but it is evident that they present a very close analogy to them4 ,it is a curious fact that at the beginning of the fifteenth century in ,italy1 art was deeply affected by both kinds of intellectual activity4 ,curiosity about natural forms in all their variety and complexity--naturalism in the modern sense--first manifested itself in ,european art in ,flanders1 ,france1 and ,north ,italy about the second decade of the fifteenth century4 ,it appears that ,italy actually led the way in this movement1 and that ,lombardy was the point of origin4 ,pisanello and ,jacopo ,bellini are the great exemplars in ,italy of this idea of exploring indefatigably and somewhat recklessly all those detailed aspects of nature which their predecessors1 occupied in the grand ,giottesque style1 had scorned to notice4 ,in ,florence1 too1 this impulse was undoubtedly felt1 but it is the great distinction of the ,florentine artists that1 however much their curiosity about particular forms may have been excited1 their high intellectual passion for abstract ideas impelled them more to the study of some general principles underlying all appearance4 ,they refused to admit the given facts of nature except in so far as they could become amenable to the generalising power of their art4 ,facts had to be digested into form before they were allowed into the system4 ,we can get an idea of what ,florence of the fifteenth century meant for the subsequent tradition of ,european art if we consider that if it had not been for ,florence the art of ,italy might have been not altogether unlike the art of ,flanders and the ,rhine--a little more rhythmical1 a little more gracious1 perhaps1 but fundamentally hardly more significant4 ,although this typically ,florentine attitude defined itself most clearly under the stress of naturalism it was1 of course1 already characteristic of earlier ,florentine art4 ,giotto1 indeed1 had left the tradition of formal completeness so firmly fixed in ,florence that whatever new material had to be introduced it could only be introduced into a clearly recognised system of design4 ,of ,giotto's own work we rarely get a sight in ,england1 the ,national ,gallery having missed the one great chance of getting him represented some twenty years ago4 ,but though ,lady ,jekyll's single figure of ,christ can by its nature give no idea of his amazing and almost unequalled power of discovering unexpected inevitabilities of formal relations1 it gives none the less something of ,giotto's peculiar beauty of drawing1 wherein the completest reality is attained without any attempted verisimilitude4 ,in ,mr4 ,harris's ,bernardo ,daddi we get nearer perhaps to ,giotto as a composer1 and even in his ,giovanni da ,milano1 in spite of some ,lombard grossness and sentimentality1 the great tradition still lives4 ,masaccio1 represented here by ,mr4 ,rickett's single figure1 is one of the most mysterious personalities in art1 and typically ,florentine4 ,his mystery lies partly in our ignorance about him1 partly in the difficulty of grasping the rapidity of action1 the precocity1 of genius such as his4 ,coming at the very beginning of the naturalistic movement he seized with a strange complacency and ease upon the new material it offered1 but 7and this is what astounds one7 he instantly discovered how to assimilate it perfectly to the formal requirements of design4 ,so that not only the discovery of the new material1 but its digestion was with him a simultaneous and almost instantaneous process4 ,he was helped perhaps by the fact that the new naturalism was as yet only a general perception of new aspects of natural form4 ,it was left for his younger contemporaries to map out the new country methodically--to the group of adventurous spirits--,brunelleschi1 ,donatello1 ,castagno1 and ,uccello--who founded modern science1 and gave to the understanding of classic art a methodical basis4 ,it is in this group that the fierce intellectual passion of the ,florentine genius manifests itself most clearly4 ,perspective and anatomy were the two studies which promised to reveal to them the secrets of natural form4 ,the study of anatomy exemplifies mainly the aspect of curiosity1 though even in this the desire to find the underlying principles of appearance is evident--on the other hand perspective1 to its first discoverers1 appeared to promise far more than an aid to verisimilitude1 it may have seemed a visual revelation of the structure of space and through that a key to the construction of pictorial space4 ,to our more penetrating study of sthetic 7for of all sciences1 sthetic has been the greatest laggard7 it is evident that neither perspective nor anatomy have any very immediate bearing upon art--both of them are means of ascertaining facts1 and the question of art begins where the question of fact ends4 ,but artists have always had to excite themselves with some kind of subsidiary intoxicant1 and perspective and anatomy1 while they were still in their infancy1 acted admirably as stimulants4 ,that they have by now become1 for most artists1 the dreariest of sedatives may make it difficult to conceive this4 ,but at all events in that first generation they excited their devotees to an ardent search for abstract unity of design4 ,and this excitement went on to the next generation as exemplified by the works of the ,umbro-,florentines--,piero della ,francesca and ,signorelli--and in ,florence itself of ,pollajuolo4 ,but the scientific spirit once aroused was destined not to remain for long so stimulating and helpful an assistant to the creation of design4 ,it was bound in the end to start trains of thought too complex and too absorbing to occupy a subordinate place4 ,already in the rank and file of ,florentine artists1 the ,ghirlandajos1 ,filippino ,lippis1 and their kindred1 mere curiosity--nave literalism--had undermined the tradition1 so that towards the last quarter of the century hardly any artist knew how to design intelligibly on the scale of a fresco1 whereas the merest duffer of the fourteenth century could be certain of the volumes and quantities of his divisions4 ,but it is with ,leonardo da ,vinci that the higher aspects of the scientific spirit first came into conflict with art4 ,doubtless this conflict is not fundamental nor final1 but only an apparent result of human limitations2 but to one who1 like ,leonardo1 first had a ,pisgah prospect of that immense territory1 to the exploration of which four centuries of the intensest human effort have been devoted without yet getting in sight of its boundaries--to such a man it was almost inevitable that the scientific content of art should assume an undue significance4 ,up till ,leonardo one can say that the process of digesting the new found material into sthetic form had kept pace with observation1 though already in ,verrocchio there is a sign of yielding to the crude phenomenon4 ,but with ,leonardo himself the organising faculty begins to break down under the stress of new matter4 ,leonardo himself shared to the full the ,florentine passion for abstraction1 but it was inevitable that he should be dazzled and fascinated by the vast prospects that opened before his intellectual gaze4 ,it was inevitable that where such vast masses of new particulars revealed themselves to his curiosity their claim for investigation should be the most insistent4 ,not but what ,leonardo did recognise the necessity for his art of some restriction and choice4 ,his keen observation had revealed to him the whole gamut of atmospheric colour which first became a material for design under ,monet and his followers4 ,but having described a picture which would exactly correspond to a ,french painting of #ahgj1 he rejects the whole of this new material as unsuitable for art4 ,but even his rejection was not really a recognition of the claims of form1 but only1 alas6 of another scientific trend with which his mind had become possessed4 ,it was his almost prophetic vision of the possibilities of psychology which determined more than anything else the lines of his work4 ,in the end almost everything was subordinated to the idea of a kind of psychological illustration of dramatic themes--an illustration which was not to be arrived at by an instinctive reconstruction from within1 but by deliberate analytic observation4 ,now in so far as the movements of the soul could be interpreted by movements of the body as a whole1 the new material might lend itself readily to plastic construction1 but the minuter and even more psychologically significant movements of facial expression demanded a treatment which hardly worked for sthetic unity4 ,it involved a new use of light and shade1 which in itself tended to break down the fundamental divisions of design1 though later on ,caravaggio and ,rembrandt managed1 not very successfully1 to pull it round so as to become the material for the basic rhythm4 ,and in any case the analytic trend of ,leonardo's mind became too much accentuated to allow of a successful synthesis4 ,michelangelo1 to some extent1 and ,raphael still more1 did1 of course1 do much to re-establish a system of design on an enlarged basis which would admit of some of ,leonardo's new content1 but one might hazard the speculation that ,european art has hardly yet recovered from the shock which ,leonardo's passion for psychological illustration delivered4 ,certainly literalism and illustration have through all these centuries been pressing dangers to art--dangers which it has been the harder to resist in that they allow of an appeal to that vast public to whom the language of form is meaningless4 ,in ,florentine art1 then1 one may see at happy moments of equilibrium the supreme advantages of intellectual art and at other and less fortunate moments the dangers which beset so difficult an endeavour4 ,it was after all a ,florentine who made the best prophecy of the results of modern sthetic when he said3 8,finally good painting is a music and a melody which intellect only can appreciate and that with difficulty40 ,illustration3 ,paolo ,ucello4 ,st4 ,george and the ,dragon ,collection ,jacquemart-,andr ,plate ,,viii4 ,,the ,,jacquemart-,,andr ,,collection#ch ,the ,jacquemart-,andr collection is not merely one of those accumulations of the art of the past by which it has become the fashion for rich people to impose themselves on the wonder of an ignorant public4 ,it shows that the lady who created it did so partly1 at all events1 because of a quite personal and intimate love of beautiful things1 a love which did not have to seek for its justification and support in the opinion of the world4 ,the three pictures reproduced here are proof of the sincerity and courage of ,mdme4 ,andr's artistic convictions4 ,they offer scarcely any foothold for the sentimental and associative understanding of pictures4 ,the 8,s4 ,george0 of ,paolo ,uccello 7see ,plate7 might1 it is true1 be taken as a 8nave10 8quaint10 or 8primitive0 rendering of an 8old world0 legend--indeed1 whilst ,i was admiring it ,i gathered from the comments of those who lingered before it for a few seconds that this was the general attitude--but to do so would be to misunderstand the picture completely4 ,uccello1 in fact1 lends himself to misunderstanding1 and ,vasari1 with his eye to literary picturesqueness1 has done his best to put us off the scent4 ,he made him an 8original10 a harmless1 ingenious1 slightly ridiculous crank1 gifted1 no doubt1 but one whose gifts were wasted by reason of his crankiness4 ,and the legend created by ,vasari has stuck4 ,uccello has always seemed to be a little aside from the main road of art1 an agreeable1 amusing diversion1 one that we can enjoy with a certain humorous and patronising detachment1 as we enjoy the innocence of some medival chronicler4 ,uccello1 ,i admit1 has lent himself to this misunderstanding because from every other point of view but that of pure design he comes up to the character ,vasari has made current4 ,no artist was ever so helpless as he at the dramatic presentment of his theme4 ,nothing can well be imagined less like a battle than his battle pieces1 nor if we think of the ,deluge would our wildest fancies have ever conceived anything remotely resembling the scene which he painted with such literal precision1 with such a mass of inconclusive and improbable invention1 in the ,chiostro ,verde of ,sta4 ,maria ,novella4 ,the idea of verisimilitude is entirely foreign to him4 ,and here comes in the oddity and irony of his situation4 ,he was the first or almost the first great master of linear perspective4 ,the study of perspective became so engrossing to him that according to ,vasari it wasted his talent as an artist4 ,now perspective is the scientific statement of the nature of visual appearance4 ,to the modern artist it becomes an occasional assistance in giving to his images an air of verisimilitude4 ,wherever a strict adherence to the laws of perspective would give to his objects a strange or unlikely look he frankly neglects it4 ,but to ,uccello perspective seemed1 perhaps wrongly1 to have an altogether different value4 ,to him it appears to have been a method of recreating a visual world4 ,that is to say1 he took certain data of appearance from observation1 and by handling them according to the laws of perspective he created a world1 which1 owing to the simplicity of his data and the rigid application of his laws1 has far less resemblance to what we see than his contemporaries and predecessors had contrived by rule of thumb4 ,had he taken the whole of the data of observed form the application of the laws of perspective would have become impossible1 and he would have been thrown back upon imitative realism and the literal acceptance of appearance4 ,such was indeed what happened to the painters of ,flanders and the north1 and such has become the usual method of modern realistic art4 ,but nothing was more abhorrent to the spirit of fifteenth-century ,florence than such an acceptance of the merely casual1 and nothing is more fundamentally opposed to the empirical realism of a ,van ,eyck or a ,frith than the scientific and abstract realism of ,paolo ,uccello4 ,this passion1 then1 for an abstract and theoretical completeness of rendering led ,uccello to simplify the data of observed form to an extraordinary extent1 and his simplification anticipates in a curious way that of the modern cubists1 as one may see from the treatment of his horses in the ,national ,gallery battle-piece4 ,it is one of the curiosities of the psychology of the artist that he is generally trying very hard to do something which has nothing to ,illustration3 ,baldovinetti4 ,virgin and ,child ,collection ,jacquemart-,andr ,plate ,,ix4 do with what he actually accomplishes2 that the fundamental quality of his work seems to come out unconsciously as a by-product of his conscious activity4 ,and so it was in ,uccello's case4 ,if one had asked him what his perspective was for1 he would probably have said that when once it was completely mastered it would enable the artist to create at will any kind of visual whole1 and that this would have the same completeness1 the same authenticity as an actual scene4 ,as a matter of fact such a conception is unrealisable2 the problem is too complex for solution in this way1 and what happened to ,uccello was that the simplifications and abstractions imposed upon his observation of nature by the desire to construct his whole scene perspectively1 really set free in him his power of a purely sthetic organisation of form4 ,and it is this1 in fact1 that makes his pictures so remarkable4 ,in the ,jacquemart-,andr picture1 for instance1 we see how the complex whole which such a scene as the legend of ,s4 ,george suggests is reduced to terms of astounding simplicity2 saint1 horse1 dragon1 princess are all seen in profile because the problems of representation had to be approached from their simplest aspect4 ,the landscape is reduced to a system of rectilinear forms seen at right angles to the picture plane for the same reason4 ,and out of the play of these almost abstract forms mainly rectangular1 with a few elementary curves repeated again and again1 ,uccello has constructed the most perfect1 the most amazingly subtle harmony4 ,in ,uccello's hands painting becomes almost as abstract1 almost as pure an art as architecture4 ,and as his feeling for the interplay of forms1 the rhythmic disposition of planes1 was of the rarest and finest1 the most removed from anything trivial or merely decorative 7in the vulgar sense71 he passes by means of this power of formal organisation into a region of feeling entirely remote from that which is suggested if we regard his work as mere illustration4 ,judged as illustration the 8,s4 ,george0 is quaint1 innocent and slightly childish2 as design it must rank among the great masterpieces4 ,two other pictures in the ,jacquemart-,andr collection illustrate the same spirit of uncompromising sthetic adventure which distinguishes one branch of the ,florentine school of the fifteenth century1 and lifts it above almost all that was being attempted elsewhere in ,italy even at this period of creative exuberance4 ,baldovinetti was at one time in close contact with ,uccello1 and of all his works the 8,madonna and ,child0 in the ,jacquemart-,andr collection is the most heroically uncompromising 7,plate ,,ix74 ,no doubt he accepted more material directly from nature than ,uccello did4 ,he was beginning to explore the principles of atmospheric perspective which were destined ultimately to break up the unity of pictorial design1 but everything that he takes is used with the same spirit of obedience to the laws of architectonic harmony4 ,the spacing of this design1 the relations of volume of the upright mass of the ,virgin's figure to the spaces of sky and landscape have the unmistakable interdependence of great design4 ,only a great creative artist could have discovered so definite a relationship4 ,the great mass of the rocky hill in the landscape and the horizontal lines of the ,child's figure play into the central idea with splendid effect4 ,only in the somewhat rounded and insensitive modelling of the ,virgin's face does the weakness of ,baldovinetti's genius betray itself4 ,the contours are everywhere magnificently plastic2 only when he tries to create the illusion of plastic relief by modelling1 ,baldovinetti becomes literal and uninspired4 ,in his profile portrait in the ,national ,gallery he relies fortunately almost entirely on the plasticity of the contour--in his late 8,trinit0 at the ,accademia in ,florence the increasing desire for imitative realism has already gone far to destroy this quality4 ,the third picture 7see ,plate7 which ,i have taken as illustrating my theme is not1 it is true1 ,florentine1 but its author1 ,signorelli1 kept so constantly in touch with the scientific realists of ,florence that he may be counted almost as one of them1 nor indeed did any of them surpass him in uncompromising fidelity to the necessities of pure design4 ,certainly there is nothing of the flattering or seductive qualities of the common run of ,umbrian art in this robust and audacious composition1 in which everything is arranged as it were concentrically around the imposing mass of the ,virgin's figure4 ,the gestures interpreted psychologically are not on the same imaginative plane as the design itself4 ,signorelli was ill at ease in interpreting any states but those of great tension1 and here the gestures are meant to be playful and intimate4 ,as in the ,uccello1 the illustrative pretext is at variance with the design which it serves2 and as in the ,uccello1 the design itself1 the scaffolding of the architectonic structure1 is really what counts4 ,illustration3 ,signorelli4 ,holy ,family ,collection ,jacquemart-,andr ,plate ,x4 ,d,,rer ,,and ,,his ,,contemporaries#ci ,it is a habit of the human mind to make to itself symbols in order to abbreviate its admiration for a class4 ,so ,drer has come to stand for ,german art somewhat as ,raphael once stood for ,italian4 ,such symbols attract to themselves much of the adoration which more careful worshippers would distribute over the ,pantheon1 and it becomes difficult to appreciate them justly without incurring the charge of iconoclasm4 ,but this1 in ,drer's case1 is the more difficult because1 whatever one's final estimate of his art1 his personality is at once so imposing and so attractive1 and has been so endeared to us by familiarity1 that something of this personal attachment has transferred itself to our sthetic judgment4 ,the letters from ,venice and the ,diary of his journey in the ,netherlands1 which form the matter of this volume1 are indeed the singularly fortunate means for this pleasant discourse with the man himself4 ,they reveal ,drer as one of the distinctively modern men of the ,renaissance3 intensely1 but not arrogantly1 conscious of his own personality2 accepting with a pleasant ease the universal admiration of his genius--a personal admiration1 too1 of an altogether modern kind2 careful of his fame as one who foresaw its immortality4 ,they show him as having1 though in a far less degree1 something of ,leonardo da ,vinci's scientific interest1 certainly as having a quick1 though nave curiosity about the world and a quite modern freedom from superstition4 ,it is clear that his dominating and yet kindly personality1 no less than his physical beauty and distinction1 made him the centre of interest wherever he went4 ,his easy and humorous good-fellowship1 of which the letters to ,pirkheimer are eloquent1 won for him the admiring friendship of the best men of his time4 ,to all these characteristics we must add a deep and sincere religious feeling1 which led him to side with the leaders of the ,reformation1 a feeling that comes out in his passionate sense of loss when he thinks that ,luther is about to be put to death1 and that prompted him to write a stirring letter to ,erasmus1 in which he urged him to continue the work of reform4 ,for all that1 there is no trace in him of either ,protestantism or ,puritanism4 ,he was perhaps fortunate--certainly as an artist he was fortunate--in living at a time when the line of cleavage between the ,reformers and the ,church was not yet so marked as to compel a decisive choice4 ,the symbolism of the ,church still had for him its old significance1 as yet quickened and not discredited by the reformer's energy4 ,but intense as ,drer's devotion was1 his religious feeling found its way to effective artistic expression only upon one side1 namely1 the brooding sense which accompanied it1 of the imminence and terror of death4 ,how much more definite is the inspiration in the drawing of 8,death on a ,horse0 7in the ,british ,museum71 in the 8,knight1 ,death and the ,devil10 and in the allied 8,melancholia10 than it is in his renderings of the ,virgin or indeed of any of the scenes of ,christian legend6 ,it is this feeling1 too1 which gives to his description of his mother's death its almost terrible literary beauty and power4 ,nor in the estimate of ,drer's character must one leave out the touching affection and piety which the family history written by him in #aebd reveals4 ,so much that is attractive and endearing in the man cannot but react upon our attitude to his work--has done so1 perhaps1 ever since his own day2 and it is difficult to get far enough away from ,drer the man to be perfectly just to ,drer the artist4 ,but if we make the attempt1 it becomes clear1 ,i think1 that ,drer cannot take rank in the highest class of creative geniuses4 ,his position is none the less of great importance and interest for his relation on the one hand to the ,gothic tradition of his country1 and on the other to the newly perceived splendours of the ,italian ,renaissance4 ,much must depend on our estimate of his last work1 the 8,four ,apostles10 at ,munich4 ,in that he summed up all that the patient and enthusiastic labour of a lifetime had taught him4 ,if we regard that as a work of the highest beauty1 if we can conscientiously put it beside the figures of the ,sistine ,chapel1 beside the ,saints of ,mantegna1 or ,signorelli1 or ,piero della ,francesca1 then indeed ,drer's labour was crowned with success2 but if we find in it rather a careful exposition of certain theoretical principles1 if we find that the matter is not entirely transfused with the style1 if we find a conflict between a certain nave crudity of vision and a straining after the grand manner1 then we have to say that ,drer's art was the outcome of a magnificent and heroic but miscalculated endeavour4 ,it is one of the ironies of history that the ,romans1 the only ,philistine people among ,mediterranean races1 should have been the great means of transmitting to the modern world that culture which they themselves despised1 and that the ,germans should have laboured so long and hard to atone for the heroism of their ancestors in resisting that beneficent loss of liberty4 ,nuremberg of the fifteenth century was certainly given over to the practice of fine art with a pathetic enthusiasm1 and it remains as a sad but instructive proof of how little good-will and industry avail by themselves in such matters4 ,the worship of mere professional skill and undirected craftsmanship is there seen pushed to its last conclusions1 and the tourist's wonder is prompted by the sight of stone carved into the shapes of twisted metal1 and wood simulating the intricacies of confectionery1 his admiration is canvassed by every possible perversion of technical dexterity4 ,not 8,what a thing is done60 but1 8,how difficult it must have been to do it60 is the exclamation demanded4 ,of all that perverted technical ingenuity which flaunts itself in the wavering stonework of a ,kraft or the crackling woodwork of a ,storr1 ,drer was inevitably the heir4 ,he grew up in an atmosphere where the acrobatic feats of technique were looked on with admiration rather than contempt4 ,something of this clung to him through life1 and he is always recognised as the prince of craftsmen1 the consummate technician4 ,in all this side of ,drer's art we recognise the last over-blown efflorescence of the medival craftsmanship of ,germany1 of the apprentice system and the 8master0 piece2 but that ,gothic tradition had still left in it much that was sound and sincere4 ,drawing still retained something of the blunt1 almost brutal frankness of statement1 together with the sense of the characteristic which marked its earlier period4 ,and it is perhaps this inheritance of ,gothic directness of statement1 this ,gothic realism1 that accounts for what is ultimately of most value in ,drer's work4 ,there exists in the ,kunsthistorisches ,akademie at ,vienna a painting of a man1 dated #acid1 which shows how much of ,drer's portraiture was already implicit in the ,nuremberg school4 ,in this remarkable work1 executed1 if we may trust the date1 nearly a century before ,drer1 there is almost everything that interests us in ,drer's portraits4 ,indeed1 it has to an even greater extent that half-humorous statement of the characteristic1 that outrageous realism that makes the vivid appeal of the ,oswold ,krell1 and the absence of which in ,drer's last years makes the ,holtschuer such a tiresome piece of brilliant delineation4 ,drer was perhaps the greatest infant prodigy among painters1 and the drawing of himself at the age of twelve shows how early he had mastered that simple and abrupt sincerity of ,gothic draughtsmanship4 ,one is inclined to say that in none of his subsequent work did he ever surpass this in all that really matters1 in all that concerns the essential vision and its adequate presentment4 ,he increased his skill until it became the wonder of the world and entangled him in its seductions2 his intellectual apprehension was indefinitely heightened1 and his knowledge of natural appearances became encyclopdic4 ,what1 then1 lies at the root of ,drer's art is this ,gothic sense of the characteristic1 already menaced by the professional bravura of the late ,gothic craftsman4 ,the superstructure is what ,drer's industry and intellectual acquisitiveness1 acting in the peculiar conditions of his day1 brought forth4 ,it is in short what distinguishes him as the pioneer of the ,renaissance in ,germany4 ,this new endeavour was in two directions1 one due mainly to the trend of native ideas1 the other to ,italian influence4 ,the former was concerned mainly with a new kind of realism4 ,in place of the older ,gothic realism with its nave and self-confident statement of the salient characteristic of things seen1 this new realism strove at complete representation of appearance by means of perspective1 at a more searching and complete investigation of form1 and a fuller relief in light and shade4 ,to some extent these aims were followed also by the ,italians1 and with even greater scientific ardour3 all the artists of ,europe were indeed striving to master the complete power of representation4 ,but in ,italy this aim was never followed exclusively2 it was constantly modified and controlled by the idea of design1 that is to say1 of expression by means of the pure disposition of contours and masses1 and by the perfection and ordering of linear rhythm4 ,this notion of design as something other than representation was indeed the common inheritance of ,european art from the medival world1 but ,illustration3 ,rembrandt4 ,calumny of ,apelles1 after ,mantegna ,british ,museum ,illustration3 ,mantegna4 ,calumny of ,apelles ,british ,museum ,illustration3 ,drer4 ,calumny of ,apelles ,british ,museum ,plate ,,xi4 in ,italy the principles of design were more profoundly embedded in tradition1 its demands were more clearly felt1 and each succeeding generation was quite as deeply concerned with the perfection of design as with the mastery of representation4 ,in the full ,renaissance1 indeed1 this idea of design became the object of fully conscious and deliberate study1 and the decadence of ,italian art came about1 not through indifference to the claims of artistic expression1 but through a too purely intellectual and conscious study of them4 ,the northern and especially the ,teutonic artists1 who had not inherited so strongly this architectonic sense1 made indeed heroic efforts to acquire it1 sometimes by the futile method of direct imitation of a particular style1 sometimes--and this is the case with ,drer--by a serious effort of sthetic intelligence4 ,but on the whole the attempt must be judged to have failed1 and northern art has drifted gradually towards the merely photographic vision4 ,drer strove strenuously in both these directions4 ,he unquestionably added immensely to the knowledge of actual form and to the power of representation1 but his eagerness led him to regard quantity of form rather than its quality4 ,with him drawing became a means of making manifest the greatest possible amount of form1 the utmost roundness of relief1 and his studies in pure design failed to keep pace with this4 ,in the end he could not use to significant purpose the increased material at his disposal1 and from the point of view of pure design his work actually falls short of that of his predecessor1 ,martin ,schongauer1 who indeed was benefited by lacking ,drer's power of representation4 ,from this point of view it may be worth while to examine in some detail ,drer's relations to ,italian art4 ,the earliest definite example of his study of ,italian art is in #adid1 when he was probably in ,venice for the first time4 ,it is a copy in pen and ink of an engraving of the 8,death of ,orpheus0 by some follower of ,mantegna4 ,the engraving is not the work of a great artist1 and ,drer's copy shows his superior skill in the rendering of form2 but even here he has failed to realise the beauty of spatial arrangement in the original1 and his desire to enrich the design with many skilfully drawn and convincing details results in a distinct weakening of the dramatic effect4 ,again1 in the same year we have two drawings from engravings1 this time by ,mantegna himself4 ,it is easy to understand that of all ,italians1 ,mantegna should have been the most sympathetic to ,drer1 and that he should have regretted more than any other ill-fortune of his life1--more even than the similar fate that prevented his meeting ,schongauer1--,mantegna's death just when he was setting out to ,mantua to learn from the great master4 ,what ,drer saw in ,mantegna was his clear decision of line and his richly patterned effect4 ,in his pen-and-ink copies he tries to surpass the original in both these ways1 and indeed the effect is of greater complexity1 with more fullness and roundness of form4 ,where ,mantegna is content with a firm statement of the generalised contour of a limb1 ,drer will give a curve for each muscle4 ,there is in ,drer's copies a mass of brilliant detail2 each part is in a sense more convincingly real2 but in doing this something of the unity of rhythm and the easy relations of planes has been lost1 and on the whole the balance is against the copyist4 ,it is curious that when in time ,rembrandt came to copy ,mantegna he took the other way1 and actually heightened the dramatic effect by minute readjustments of planning1 and by a wilful simplification of the line4#dj ,drer evidently felt a profound reverence for ,mantegna's designs1 for he has altered them but little1 and one might well imagine that even ,drer could scarcely improve upon such originals4 ,but it is even more instructive to study his work upon the so-called ,tarocchi engravings4 ,here the originals were not executed by an artist of first-rate ability1 though the designs have much of ,cossa's splendid style4 ,drer seems1 therefore1 to have felt no particular constraint about altering them4 ,his alterations 7see ,plate7 show us clearly what it was that he saw in the originals and what he missed4 ,in all these figures ,drer gives increased verisimilitude3 his feet are like actual feet1 not the schematic abstract of a foot that contents the ,italian engraver2 his poses are more casual1 less formal and symmetrical2 and his draperies are more ingeniously disposed2 but none the less1 from the point of view of the expression of imaginative truth1 there is not one of ,drer's figures which equals the original1 not one in which some essential part of the idea is not missed or at least less clearly stated4 ,in general the continuity of the contour is lost sight of and the rhythm frittered away4 ,in the ,pope1 for instance1 ,drer loses all the grave sedateness of the original by breaking the symmetry of the pose1 its ,illustration3 ,tarocchi print4 ,celestial sphere ,illustration3 ,drer3 after same ,plate ,,xii4 squareness and immovable aplomb4 ,and with this goes1 in spite of the increased verisimilitude1 the sense of reality4 ,in the 8,knight and ,page0 not only is the movement of the knight missed by correcting a distortion in the original1 but the balance of the composition is lost by displacing the page4 ,in the 8,primum ,mobile0 7see ,plate7 the ecstatic rush of the figure is lost by slight corrections of the pose and by giving to the floating drapery too complicated a design4 ,it would be tedious to go through these copies in detail1 but enough has been said to show how hard it was for ,drer1 absorbed by his new curiosity in representation1 to grasp those primary and elemental principles of design which were inherent in the ,italian tradition4 ,about the same time we find ,drer studying both ,pollajuolo and ,lorenzo di ,credi4 ,the copy of ,pollajuolo is not a good example of ,drer's art2 it certainly misses the tension and inner life of ,pollajuolo's nudes4 ,the ,lorenzo di ,credi1 as might be expected1 is in many ways more than adequate to the original1 though as compared even with ,credi1 ,drer has not a clear sense of the correlation of linear elements in the design4 ,the next stage in ,drer's connection with ,italian art is his intimacy with ,jacopo de' ,barbari1 who was settled in ,nuremberg4 ,from #aejj to #aeje this influence manifests itself clearly in ,drer's work4 ,unfortunately ,barbari was too second-rate an artist to help him much in the principles of design1 though he doubtless stimulated him to pursue those scientific investigations into the theory of human proportions which held out the delusive hope of reducing art to a branch of mathematics4 ,it was not1 however1 until his second visit to ,venice that ,drer realised the inferiority1 at all events1 of ,barbari1 and it was then that1 through his amiable relations with ,giovanni ,bellini1 he came nearer than at any other moment of his life to penetrating the mysteries of ,italian design4 ,it is in the letters from ,venice1 written at this time1 that his connection with the ,venetian artists is made clear1 and a study of those writings will be found to illuminate in a most interesting way ,drer's artistic consciousness1 and help to answer the question of how he regarded his own work when seen in comparison with the ,venetians1 and in what manner the ,venetians regarded this wonder worker from the north4 ,,el ,,greco#da ,mr4 ,holmes has risked a good deal in acquiring for the nation the new ,el ,greco4 ,the foresight and understanding necessary to bring off such a coup are not the qualities that we look for from a ,director of the ,national ,gallery4 ,patriotic people may even be inclined to think that the whole proceeding smacks too much of the manner in which ,dr4 ,bode in past ages built up the ,kaiser ,friedrich ,museum1 largely at the expense of ,english collections4 ,even before the acquisition of the ,el ,greco there were signs that ,mr4 ,holmes did not fully understand the importance of 8muddling through40 ,and now with the ,el ,greco he has given the ,british public an electric shock4 ,people gather in crowds in front of it1 they argue and discuss and lose their tempers4 ,this might be intelligible enough if the price were known to be fabulous1 but1 so far as ,i am aware1 the price has not been made known1 so that it is really about the picture that people get excited4 ,and what is more1 they talk about it as they might talk about some contemporary picture1 a thing with which they have a right to feel delighted or infuriated as the case may be--it is not like most old pictures1 a thing classified and museumified1 set altogether apart from life1 an object for vague and listless reverence1 but an actual living thing1 expressing something with which one has got either to agree or disagree4 ,even if it should not be the superb masterpiece which most of us think it is1 almost any sum would have been well spent on a picture capable of provoking such fierce sthetic interest in the crowd4 ,that the artists are excited--never more so--is no wonder1 for here is an old master who is not merely modern1 but actually appears a good many steps ahead of us1 turning back to show us the way4 ,immortality if you like6 ,but the public--what is it that makes them 8sit up0 so surprisingly1 one wonders4 ,what makes this ,el ,greco 8count0 with them as surely no ,old ,master ever did within memory8 ,first1 ,i suspect1 the extraordinary completeness of its realisation4 ,even the most casual spectator1 passing among pictures which retire discreetly behind their canvases1 must be struck by the violent attack of these forms1 by a relief so outstanding that by comparison the actual scene1 the gallery and one's neighbours are reduced to the key of a ,whistlerian ,nocturne4 ,partly1 for we must face the fact1 the melodramatic apparatus2 the 8horrid0 rocks1 the veiled moon1 the ecstatic gestures4 ,not even the cinema star can push expression further than this4 ,partly1 no doubt1 the clarity and the balanced rhythm of the design1 the assurance and grace of the handling2 for1 however little people may be conscious of it1 formal qualities do affect their reaction to a picture1 though they may pass from them almost immediately to its other implications4 ,and certainly here1 if anywhere1 formal considerations must obtrude themselves even on the most unobservant4 ,the extraordinary emphasis and amplitude of the rhythm1 which thus gathers up into a few sweeping diagonals the whole complex of the vision1 is directly exciting and stimulating4 ,it affects one like an irresistible melody1 and makes that organisation of all the parts into a single whole1 which is generally so difficult for the uninitiated1 an easy matter for once4 ,el ,greco1 indeed1 puts the problem of form and content in a curious way4 ,the artist1 whose concern is ultimately and1 ,i believe1 exclusively with form1 will no doubt be so carried away by the intensity and completeness of the design1 that he will never even notice the melodramatic and sentimental content which shocks or delights the ordinary man4 ,it is none the less an interesting question1 though it is rather one of artists' psychology than of sthetics1 to inquire in what way these two things1 the melodramatic expression of a high-pitched religiosity and a peculiarly intense feeling for plastic unity and rhythmic amplitude1 were combined in ,el ,greco's work2 even to ask whether there can have been any causal connection between them in the workings of ,el ,greco's spirit4 ,strange and extravagantly individual as ,el ,greco seems1 he was not really an isolated figure1 a miraculous and monstrous apparition thrust into the even current of artistic movement4 ,he really takes his place alongside of ,bernini as the greatest exponent of the ,baroque idea in figurative art4 ,and the ,baroque idea goes back to ,michelangelo4 ,formally1 its essence both in art and architecture was the utmost possible enlargement of the unit of design4 ,one can see this most easily in architecture4 ,to ,bramante the faade of a palace was made up of a series of storeys1 each with its pilasters and windows related proportionally to one another1 but each a co-ordinate unit of design4 ,to the ,baroque architect a faade was a single storey with pilasters going the whole height1 and only divided1 as it were1 by an afterthought into subordinate groups corresponding to the separate storeys4 ,when it came to sculpture and painting the same tendency expressed itself by the discovery of such movements as would make the parts of the body1 the head1 trunk1 limbs1 merely so many subordinate divisions of a single unit4 ,now to do this implied extremely emphatic and marked poses1 though not necessarily violent in the sense of displaying great muscular strain4 ,such poses correspond as expression to marked and excessive mental states1 to conditions of ecstacy1 or agony or intense contemplation4 ,but even more than to any actual poses resulting from such states1 they correspond to a certain accepted and partly conventional language of gesture4 ,they are what we may call rhetorical poses1 in that they are not so much the result of the emotions as of the desire to express these emotions to the onlooker4 ,when the figure is draped the ,baroque idea becomes particularly evident4 ,the artists seek voluminous and massive garments which under the stress of an emphatic pose take heavy folds passing in a single diagonal sweep from top to bottom of the whole figure4 ,in the figure of ,christ in the ,national ,gallery picture ,el ,greco has established such a diagonal1 and has so arranged the light and shade that he gets a statement of the same general direction twice over1 in the sleeve and in the drapery of the thigh4 ,bernini was a consummate master of this method of amplifying the unit1 but having once set up the great wave of rhythm which held the figure in a single sweep1 he gratified his florid taste by allowing elaborate embroidery in the subordinate divisions1 feeling perfectly secure that no amount of exuberance would destroy the firmly established scaffolding of his design4 ,though the psychology of both these great rhetoricians is infinitely remote from us1 we tolerate more easily the gloomy and ,illustration3 ,el ,greco4 ,allegory ,collection ,zuloaga ,plate ,,xiii4 terrible extravagance of ,el ,greco's melodrama than the radiant effusiveness and amiability of ,bernini's operas4 ,but there is another cause which accounts for our profound difference of feeling towards these two artists4 ,bernini undoubtedly had a great sense of design1 but he was also a prodigious artistic acrobat1 capable of feats of dizzying audacity1 and unfortunately he loved popularity and the success which came to him so inevitably4 ,he was not fine enough in grain to distinguish between his great imaginative gifts and the superficial virtuosity which made the crowd1 including his ,popes1 gape with astonishment4 ,consequently he expressed great inventions in a horribly impure technical language4 ,el ,greco1 on the other hand1 had the good fortune to be almost entirely out of touch with the public--one picture painted for the king was sufficient to put him out of court for the rest of his life4 ,and in any case he was a singularly pure artist1 he expressed his idea with perfect sincerity1 with complete indifference to what effect the right expression might have on the public4 ,at no point is there the slightest compromise with the world2 the only issue for him is between him and his idea4 ,nowhere is a violent form softened1 nowhere is the expressive quality of brushwork blurred in order to give verisimilitude of texture2 no harshness of accent is shirked1 no crudity of colour opposition avoided1 wherever ,el ,greco felt such things to be necessary to the realisation of his idea4 ,it is this magnificent courage and purity1 this total indifference to the expectations of the public1 that bring him so near to us to-day1 when more than ever the artist regards himself as working for ends unguessed at by the mass of his contemporaries4 ,it is this also which accounts for the fact that while nearly every one shudders involuntarily at ,bernini's sentimental sugariness1 very few artists of to-day have ever realised for a moment how unsympathetic to them is the literary content of an ,el ,greco4 ,they simply fail to notice what his pictures are about in the illustrative sense4 ,but to return to the nature of ,baroque art4 ,the old question here turns up4 ,did the dog wag his tail because he was pleased1 or was he pleased because his tail wagged8 ,did the ,baroque artists choose ecstatic subjects because they were excited about a certain kind of rhythm1 or did they elaborate the rhythm to express a feeling for extreme emotional states8 ,there is yet another fact which complicates the matter4 ,baroque art corresponds well enough in time with the ,catholic reaction and the rise of ,jesuitism1 with a religious movement which tended to dwell particularly on these extreme emotional states1 and1 in fact1 the ,baroque artists worked in entire harmony with the religious leaders4 ,this would look as though religion had inspired the artists with a passion for certain themes1 and the need to express these had created ,baroque art4 ,i doubt if it was as simple as that4 ,some action and reaction between the religious ideas of the time and the artists' conception there may have been1 but ,i think the artists would have elaborated the ,baroque idea without this external pressure4 ,for one thing1 the idea goes back behind ,michelangelo to ,signorelli1 and in his case1 at least1 one can see no trace of any preoccupation with those psychological states1 but rather a pure passion for a particular kind of rhythmic design4 ,moreover1 the general principle of the continued enlargement of the unit of design was bound to occur the moment artists recovered from the debauch of naturalism of the fifteenth century and became conscious again of the demands of abstract design4 ,in trying thus to place ,el ,greco's art in perspective1 ,i do not in the least disparage his astonishing individual force4 ,that ,el ,greco had to an extreme degree the quality we call genius is obvious1 but he was neither so miraculous nor so isolated as we are often tempted to suppose4 ,the exuberance and abandonment of ,baroque art were natural expressions both of the ,italian and ,spanish natures1 but they were foreign to the intellectual severity of the ,french genius1 and it was from ,france1 and in the person of ,poussin1 that the counterblast came4 ,he1 indeed1 could tolerate no such rapid simplification of design4 ,he imposed on himself endless scruples and compunctions1 making artistic unity the reward of a long process of selection and discovery4 ,his art became difficult and esoteric4 ,people wonder sometimes at the diversity of modern art1 but it is impossible to conceive a sharper opposition than that between ,poussin and the ,baroque4 ,it is curious1 therefore1 that modern artists should be able to look back with almost equal reverence to ,poussin and to ,el ,greco4 ,in part1 this is due to ,czanne's influence1 for1 from one point of view1 his art may be regarded as a synthesis of these two apparently adverse conceptions of design4 ,for ,czanne consciously studied both1 taking from ,poussin his discretion and the subtlety of his rhythm1 and from ,el ,greco his great discovery of the permeation of every part of the design with a uniform and continuous plastic theme4 ,the likeness is indeed sometimes startling4 ,one of the greatest critics of our time1 von ,tschudi--of ,swiss origin1 ,i hasten to add1 and an enemy of the ,kaiser--was showing me ,el ,greco's 8,laocoon10 which he had just bought for ,munich1 when he whispered to me1 as being too dangerous a doctrine to be spoken aloud even in his private room1 8,do you know why we admire ,el ,greco's handling so much8 ,because it reminds us of ,czanne40 ,no wonder1 then1 that for the artist of to-day the new ,el ,greco is of capital importance4 ,for it shows us the master at the height of his powers1 at last perfectly aware of his personal conception and daring to give it the completest1 most uncompromising expression4 ,that the picture is in a marvellous state of preservation and has been admirably cleaned adds greatly to its value4 ,dirty yellow varnish no longer interposes here its hallowing influence between the spectator and the artist's original creation4 ,since the eye can follow every stroke of the brush1 the mind can recover the artist's gesture and almost the movements of his mind4 ,for never was work more perfectly transparent to the idea1 never was an artist's intention more deliberately and precisely recorded4 ,,three ,,pictures ,,in ,,tempera ,,by ,,william ,,blake#db ,blake's finished pictures have never received the same attention nor aroused the same admiration as his wash-drawings1 his wood-cuts1 or his engravings4 ,it is difficult to account for this comparative neglect1 since they not only show command of a technique which admits of the completest realisation of the idea1 but they seem actually to express what was personal to ,blake in a purer form than many of his other works1 with less admixture of those unfortunate caprices which the false romantic taste of his day imposed too often even on so original and independent a genius4 ,the explanation may perhaps lie in the fact that to most people ,blake1 for all his inimitable gifts1 appears as a divinely inspired amateur rather than as a finished master of his art1 and they are willing to tolerate what they regard as his imperfect control of form in media which admit only of hints and suggestions of the artist's vision4 ,there assuredly never was a more singular1 more inexplicable phenomenon than the intrusion1 as though by direct intervention of ,providence1 of this ,assyrian spirit into the vapidly polite circles of eighteenth-century ,london4 ,the fact that1 as far as the middle classes of ,england were concerned1 ,puritanism had for a century and a half blocked every inlet and outlet of poetical feeling and imaginative conviction save one1 may give us a clue to the causes of such a phenomenon4 ,it was the devotion of ,puritan ,england to the ,bible1 to the ,old ,testament especially1 that fed such a spirit as ,blake's directly from the sources of the most primeval1 the vastest and most abstract imagery which we possess4 ,brooding on the vague and tremendous images of ,hebrew and ,chaldan poetry1 he arrived at such indifference to the actual material world1 at such an intimate perception of the elemental forces which sway the spirit with immortal hopes and infinite terrors when it is most withdrawn from its bodily conditions1 that what was given to his internal vision became incomparably more definite1 more precisely and more clearly articulated1 than anything presented to his senses4 ,his forms are the visible counterparts to those words1 like the deep1 many waters1 firmament1 the foundations of the earth1 pit and host1 whose resonant overtones blur and enrich the sense of the ,old ,testament4 ,blake's art moves us1 if at all1 by a similar evocation of vast elemental forces4 ,he deals directly with these spiritual sensations1 bringing in from external nature the least possible content which will enable him to create visible forms at all4 ,but though he pushed them to their furthest limits1 even he could not transcend the bounds which beset pictorial language2 even he was forced to take something of external nature with him into his visionary world1 and his wildest inventions are but recombinations and distorted memories of the actual objects of sense4 ,by the strangest irony1 too1 the forms which came to his hand as the readiest means of expressing his stupendous conceptions were in themselves the least expressive1 the least grandiose1 that ever art has dealt with4 ,it was with the worn-out rags of an effete classical tradition long ago emptied of all meaning1 and given over to turgid rhetorical display1 that ,blake had to piece together the visible garments of his majestic and profound ideas4 ,the complete obsession of his nature by these ideas in itself compelled him to this3 he was entirely without curiosity about such trivial and ephemeral things as the earth contained4 ,his was the most anti-,hellenic temperament2 he had no concern1 either gay or serious1 with phenomena2 they were too transparent to arrest his eye1 and that patient and scientific quarrying from the infinite possibilities of nature of just the appropriate forms to convey his ideas was beyond the powers with which nature and the poor traditions of his day supplied him4 ,tintoretto1 who had in some respects a similar temperament1 who felt a similar need of conveying directly the revelations of his internal vision1 was more happily situated4 ,he was1 by comparison1 a trivial and vulgar seer1 but the richness and expressive power of the forms which lay to his hand in ,titian's and ,michelangelo's art enabled him to attain a more unquestionable achievement4 ,but1 allowing for circumstances1 what ,blake did was surely more considerable and implied a greater sheer lift of imaginative effort4 ,that it was an attempt which remained almost without consequences1 isolated and incomplete--marred1 too1 by a certain incoherence and want of reasonable co-ordination--must be allowed1 and may perhaps explain why ,blake is not universally admitted among our greatest4 ,the ,byzantine style1 he declares1 was directly and divinely revealed to him2 and whether this were so1 or whether he obtained it by the dim indications of ,ottley's prints1 or through illuminated manuscripts1 the marvellous fact remains that he did succeed in recovering for a moment that pristine directness and grandeur of expression which puts him beside the great ,byzantine designers as the only fit interpreter of ,hebrew mythology4 ,his 8,flight into ,egypt0#dc will at once recall ,giotto's treatment of the subject in the ,arena chapel at ,padua2 but the likeness is1 in a sense1 deceptive1 for ,giotto was working away from ,byzantinism as fast as ,blake was working towards it1 and the two pass one another on the road4 ,for there is here but little of ,giotto's tender human feeling1 less still of his robust rationalism2 what they have in common1 what ,blake rediscovered and ,giotto inherited1 is the sentiment of supernatural dignity1 the hieratic solemnity and superhuman purposefulness of the gestures4 ,even more than in ,giotto's version1 the ,virgin here sits on the ass as though enthroned in monumental state1 her limbs fixed in the rigid symmetry which oriental art has used to express complete withdrawal from the world of sense4 ,no less perfect in its expressiveness of the strange and exalted mood is the movement1 repeated with such impressive monotony1 in the figures of ,joseph and the archangel4 ,it is absurd1 we think1 to deny to the man who discovered the lines of these figures the power of draughtsmanship4 ,since ,giotto's day scarcely any one has drawn thus--simplification has been possible only as the last effort of consummate science refining away the superfluous2 but here the simplification of the forms is the result of an instinctive passionate reaching out for the direct symbol of the idea4 ,blake's art indeed is a test case for our theories of sthetics4 ,it boldly makes the plea for art that it is a language for conveying impassioned thought and feeling1 which takes up the objects of sense ,illustration3 ,blake4 ,bathsheba ,tate ,gallery ,plate ,,xiv4 as a means to this end1 owing them no allegiance and accepting from them only the service that they can render for this purpose4 8,poetry10 says ,blake1 8consists in bold1 daring1 and masterly conceptions2 and shall painting be confined to the sordid drudgery of facsimile representations of merely mortal and perishing substances1 and not be1 as poetry and music are1 elevated into its own proper sphere of invention and visionary conception80 ,the theory that art appeals solely by the associated ideas of the natural objects it imitates is easily refuted when we consider music and architecture2 in those at least the appeal to the spirit is made directly in a language which has no other use than that of conveying its own proper ideas and feelings4 ,but in pictorial art the fallacy that nature is the mistress instead of the servant seems almost ineradicable1 and it is difficult to convince people that increased scientific investigation of phenomena1 increased knowledge of how things present themselves to our sight1 changes the mode1 but does not necessarily increase the power1 of pictorial expression4 ,the ,byzantine artists1 with a knowledge of appearances infinitely less than that of the average art student of to-day1 could compass the expression of imaginative truths which our most accomplished realists dare not attempt4 ,the essential power of pictorial as of all other arts lies in its use of a fundamental and universal symbolism1 and whoever has the instinct for this can convey his ideas1 though possessed of only the most rudimentary knowledge of the actual forms of nature2 while he who has it not can by no accumulation of observed facts add anything to the spiritual treasure of mankind4 ,of this language of symbolic form in which the spirit communicates its most secret and indefinable impulses ,blake was an eloquent and persuasive master4 ,he could use it1 too1 to the most diverse ends2 and though the sublimity which is based upon dread came most readily to his mind1 he could express1 as we have seen in the 8,flight into ,egypt10 the sublimity of divine introspection4 ,in the 8,david and ,bathsheba0 7see ,plate7 he touches a different note1 and he shows his true power of symbolic expression in this1 that it is not by the treatment of the figure itself1 not by any ordinary sensual enticements1 that he gives the atmosphere of voluptuous abandonment4 ,it is rather in the extravagant tropical flowers1 in the architecture which itself blossoms with oriental exuberance1 in the fiery orange of the clouds seen behind trees preternaturally virid1 that the spirit is bewildered with anticipations of extravagant bliss4 ,the picture might be described in ,blake's own terminology as the mental abstract of voluptuousness4 ,all art gives us an experience freed from the disturbing conditions of actual life4 ,blake's art1 more concentrated than most1 gives us an experience which is removed more entirely from bodily and physiological accompaniments1 and our experience has the purity1 the intensity1 and the abstraction of a dream4 ,,claude#dd ,in spite of all the attacks of critics1 in spite of the development of emphasis and high flavour in modern romantic landscape1 which might well have spoilt us for his cool simplicity1 ,claude still lives1 not1 indeed1 as one of the gods of the sale-room1 but in the hearts of contemplative and undemonstrative people4 ,this is surely an interesting and encouraging fact4 ,it means that a very purely artistic and poetical appeal still finds its response in the absence of all subsidiary interests and attractions4 ,the appeal is1 indeed1 a very limited one1 touching only certain highly self-conscious and sophisticated moods1 but it is1 within its limits1 so sincere and so poignant that ,claude's very failings become1 as it were1 an essential part of its expression4 ,these failings are1 indeed1 so many and so obvious that it is not to be wondered at if1 now and again1 they blind even a sensitive nature like ,ruskin's to the fundamental beauty and grandeur of ,claude's revelation4 ,but we must be careful not to count as failings qualities which are essential to the particular kind of beauty that ,claude envisages1 though1 to be quite frank1 it is sometimes hard to make up one's mind whether a particular characteristic is a lucky defect or a calculated negation4 ,take1 for instance1 the peculiar gaucherie of his articulations4 ,claude knows less1 perhaps1 than any considerable landscape painter--less than the most mediocre of modern landscapists--how to lead from one object to another4 ,his foregrounds are covered with clumsily arranged leaves which have no organic growth1 and which1 as often as not1 lie on the ground instead of springing from it4 ,his trees frequently isolate themselves helplessly from their parent soil4 ,in particular1 when he wants a repoussoir in the foreground at either end of his composition he has recourse to a clumsily constructed old bare trunk1 which has little more meaning than a stage property4 ,even in his composition there are navets which may or may not be intentional3 sometimes they have the happiest effect1 at others they seem not childlike but childish4 ,such1 for instance1 is his frequent habit of dividing spaces equally1 both vertically and horizontally1 either placing his horizontal line half-way up the picture1 or a principal building on the central vertical line4 ,at times this seems the last word of a highly subtilised simplicity1 of an artifice which conceals itself2 at others one cannot be sure that it is not due to incapacity4 ,there is1 in fact1 a real excuse for ,ruskin's exaggerated paradox that ,claude's drawings look like the work of a child of ten4 ,there is a whole world of beauty which one must not look for at all in ,claude4 ,all that beauty of the sudden and unexpected revelation of an unsuspected truth which the ,gothic and ,early ,renaissance art provides is absent from ,claude4 ,as the eye follows his line it is nowhere arrested by a sense of surprise at its representative power1 nor by that peculiar thrill which comes from the communication of some vital creative force in the artist4 ,compare1 for instance1 ,claude's drawing of mountains1 which he knew and studied constantly1 with ,rembrandt's4 ,rembrandt had probably never seen mountains1 but he obtained a more intimate understanding by the light of his inner vision than ,claude could ever attain to by familiarity and study4 ,we need not go to ,claude's figures1 where he is notoriously feeble and superficially ,raphaelesque1 in order to find how weak was his hold upon character1 whatever the object he set himself to interpret4 ,in the ,british ,museum there is a most careful and elaborate study of the rocky shores of a stream4 ,claude has even attempted here to render the contorted stratification of the river-bed1 but without any of that intimate imaginative grasp of the tension and stress which underlie the appearance which ,turner could give in a few hurried scratches4 ,no one1 we may surmise1 ever loved trees more deeply than ,claude1 and we know that he prided himself on his careful observation of the difference of their specific characters2 and yet he will articulate their branches in the most haphazard1 perfunctory manner4 ,there is nothing in all ,claude's innumerable drawings which reveals the inner life of the tree itself1 its aspirations towards air and light1 its struggle with gravitation and wind1 as one little drawing by ,leonardo da ,vinci does4 ,all these defects might pass more easily in a turbulent romanticist1 hurrying pell mell to get expressed some moving and dramatic scene1 careless of details so long as the main movement were ascertained1 but there is none of this fire in ,claude4 ,it is with slow ponderation and deliberate care that he places before us his perfunctory and generalised statements1 finishing and polishing them with relentless assiduity1 and not infrequently giving us details that we do not desire and which add nothing but platitude to the too prolix statement4 ,all this and much more the admirer of ,claude will be wise to concede to the adversary1 and if the latter ask wherein the beauty of a ,claude lies he may with more justice than in any other case fall back on the reply of one of ,du ,maurier's sthetes1 8in the picture40 ,for there is assuredly a kind of beauty which is not only compatible with these defects but perhaps in some degree depends on them4 ,we know and recognise it well enough in literature4 ,to take a random instance4 ,racine makes ,titus say in 8,brnice03 8,de mon aimable erreur je suis dsabus40 ,this may be a dull1 weak1 and colourless mode of expression1 but if he had said with ,shakespeare1 8,now old desire doth in his death-bed lie1 and young affection gapes to be his heir10 we should feel that it would destroy the particular kind of even and unaccented harmony at which ,racine aimed4 ,robert ,bridges1 in his essay on ,keats1 very aptly describes for literature the kind of beauty which we find in ,shakespeare3 8the power of concentrating all the far-reaching resources of language on one point1 so that a single and apparently effortless expression rejoices the sthetic imagination at the moment when it is most expectant and exacting40 ,that1 ceteris paribus1 applies admirably to certain kinds of design4 ,it corresponds to the nervous touch of a ,pollajuolo or a ,rembrandt4 ,but ,claude's line is almost nerveless and dull4 ,even when it is most rapid and free it never surprises us by any intimate revelation of character1 any summary indications of the central truth4 ,but it has a certain inexpressive beauty of its own4 ,it is never elegant1 never florid1 and1 above all1 never has any ostentation of cleverness4 ,the beauty of ,claude's work is not to be sought primarily in his drawing3 it is not a beauty of expressive parts but the beauty of a whole4 ,it corresponds in fact to the poetry of his century--to ,milton or ,racine4 ,it is in the cumulative effect of the perfect co-ordination of parts none of which is by itself capable of absorbing our attention or fascinating our imagination that the power of a picture by ,claude lies4 ,it is the unity and not the content that affects us4 ,there is1 of course1 content1 but the content is only adequate to its purpose and never claims our attention on its own account4 ,the objects he presents to us have no claim on him but as parts of a scheme4 ,they have no life and purpose of their own1 and for that very reason it is right that they should be stated in vague and general terms4 ,he wishes a tree to convey to the eye only what the word 8tree0 might suggest at once to the inner vision4 ,we think first of the mass of waving shade held up against the brilliance of the sky1 and this1 even with all his detailed elaboration1 is about where ,claude1 whether by good fortune or design1 leaves us4 ,it is the same with his rocks1 his water1 his animals4 ,they are all made for the mental imagery of the contemplative wanderer1 not of the acute and ardent observer4 ,but where ,claude is supreme is in the marvellous invention with which he combines and recombines these abstract symbols so as to arouse in us more purely than nature herself can the mood of pastoral delight4 ,that ,claude was deeply influenced by ,virgil one would naturally suppose from his antiquarian classicism1 and a drawing in the ,british ,museum shows that he had the idea of illustrating the neid4 ,in any case his pictures translate into the language of painting much of the sentiment of ,virgil's ,eclogues1 and that with a purity and grace that rival his original4 ,in his landscapes ,melibus always leaves his goats to repose with ,daphnis under the murmuring shade1 waiting till his herds come of themselves to drink at the ford1 or in sadder moods of passionless regret one hears the last murmurs of the lament for ,gallus as the well-pastured goats turn homewards beneath the evening star4 ,claude is the most ardent worshipper that ever was of the genius loci4 ,of his landscapes one always feels that 8some god is in this place40 ,never1 it is true1 one of the greater gods3 no mysterious and fearful ,pan1 no soul-stirring ,bacchus or all-embracing ,demeter2 scarcely1 though he tried more than once deliberately to invoke them1 ,apollo and the ,muses1 but some mild local deity1 the inhabitant of a rustic shrine whose presence only heightens the glamour of the scene4 ,illustration3 ,claude4 ,landscape ,prado1 ,madrid ,plate ,,xv4 ,it is the sincerity of this worship1 and the purity and directness of its expression1 which makes the lover of landscape turn with such constant affection to ,claude1 and the chief means by which he communicates it is the unity and perfection of his general design2 it is not by form considered in itself1 but by the planning of his tone divisions1 that he appeals1 and here1 at least1 he is a past master4 ,this splendid architecture of the tone masses is1 indeed1 the really great quality in his pictures2 its perfection and solidity are what enables them to bear the weight of so meticulous and1 to our minds1 tiresome an elaboration of detail without loss of unity1 and enables us even to accept the enamelled hardness and tightness of his surface4 ,but many people of to-day1 accustomed to our more elliptical and quick-witted modes of expression1 are so impatient of these qualities that they can only appreciate ,claude's greatness through the medium of his drawings1 where the general skeleton of the design is seen without its adornments1 and in a medium which he used with perfect ease and undeniable beauty4 ,thus to reject the pictures is1 ,i think1 an error1 because it was only when a design had been exposed to constant correction and purification that ,claude got out of it its utmost expressiveness1 and his improvisations steadily grow under his critical revision to their full perfection4 ,but in the drawings1 at all events1 ,claude's great powers of design are readily seen1 and the study of the drawings has this advantage also1 that through them we come to know of a ,claude whose existence we could never have suspected by examining only his finished pictures4 ,in speaking of the drawings it is well to recognise that they fall into different classes with different purposes and aims4 ,we need not1 for instance1 here consider the records of finished compositions in the 8,liber ,veritatis40 ,there remain designs for paintings in all stages of completeness1 from the first suggestive idea to the finished cartoon and the drawings from nature4 ,it is1 perhaps1 scarcely necessary to remark that it would have been quite foreign to ,claude's conception of his art to have painted a picture from nature4 ,he1 himself1 clearly distinguished sharply between his studies and his compositions4 ,his studies1 therefore1 were not incipient pictures1 but exercises done for his own pleasure or for the fertility they gave to his subsequent invention1 and they have the unchecked spontaneity and freedom of hand that one would expect in such unreflecting work4 ,these studies again fall into two groups3 first1 studies of detail1 generally of foliage or of tree forms1 and occasionally of rocks and flowers2 and secondly1 studies of general effects4 ,of the studies of detail ,i have already said something4 ,they have the charm of an easy and distinguished calligraphy1 and of a refined selection of the decorative possibilities of the things seen1 but without any of that penetrating investigation of their vital nature which gives its chief beauty to the best work of this kind4 ,it is1 indeed1 in the second group of studies from nature that we come from time to time upon motives that startle and surprise us4 ,we find in these a susceptibility to natural charms which1 in its width of range and freedom from the traditional limitations of the art of landscape1 is most remarkable4 ,here we find not only ,claude the prim seventeenth-century classic1 but ,claude the romanticist1 anticipating the chief ideas of ,corot's later development1#de and ,claude the impressionist1 anticipating ,whistler and the discovery of ,chinese landscape1 as1 for instance1 in the marvellous aperu of a mist effect1 in the ,british ,museum4#df ,or1 again1 in a view which is quite different from any of these1 but quite as remote from the ,claude of the oil-paintings1 in the great view of the ,tiber1 a masterpiece of hurried1 almost unconscious planning of bold contrasts of transparent gloom and dazzling light on water and plain4 ,the impression one gets from looking through a collection of ,claude's drawings like that at the ,british ,museum is of a man without any keen feeling for objects in themselves1 but singularly open to impressions of general effects in nature1 watching always for the shifting patterns of foliage and sky to arrange themselves in some beautifully significant pattern and choosing it with fine and critical taste4 ,but at the same time he was a man with vigorous ideas of the laws of design and the necessity of perfectly realised unity1 and to this ,i suppose one must ascribe the curious contrast between the narrow limits of his work in oil as compared with the wide range1 the freedom ,illustration3 ,claude4 ,water-colour ,british ,museum ,plate ,,xvi4 and the profound originality of his work as a draughtsman4 ,among all these innumerable effects which his ready susceptibility led him to record he found but a few which were capable of being reduced to that logical and mathematical formula which he demanded before complete realisation could be tolerated4 ,in his drawings he composes sometimes with strong diagonal lines1 sometimes with free and unstable balance4 ,in his pictures he has recourse to a regular system of polarity1 balancing his masses carefully on either side of the centre1 sometimes even framing it in like a theatrical scene with two repoussoirs pushed in on either side4 ,one must suppose1 then1 that he approached the composition of his pictures with a certain timidity1 that he felt that safety when working on a large scale could only be secured by a certain recognised type of structure1 so that out of all the various moods of nature to which his sensitive spirit answered only one lent itself to complete expression4 ,one wishes at times that he had tried more4 ,there is in the ,british ,museum a half-effaced drawing on blue paper1 an idea for treating the ,noli me tangere which1 had he worked it out1 would have added to his complete mastery of bucolic landscape a masterpiece of what one may call tragic landscape4 ,it is true that here1 as elsewhere1 the figures are in themselves totally inadequate1 but they suggested an unusual and intense key to the landscape4 ,on the outskirts of a dimly suggested wood1 the figures meet and hold converse2 to the right the mound of ,calvary glimmers pale and ghost-like against the night sky1 while over the distant city the first pink flush of dawn begins4 ,it is an intensely poetical conception4 ,claude has here created a landscape in harmony with deeper1 more mystical aspirations than elsewhere1 and1 had he given free rein to his sensibilities1 we should look to him even more than we do now as the greatest inventor of the motives of pure landscape4 ,as it is1 the only ideas to which he gave complete though constantly varied expression are those of pastoral repose4 ,claude's view of landscape is false to nature in that it is entirely anthropocentric4 ,his trees exist for pleasant shade2 his peasants to give us the illusion of pastoral life1 not to toil for a living4 ,his world is not to be lived in1 only to be looked at in a mood of pleasing melancholy or suave reverie4 ,it is1 therefore1 as true to one aspect of human desire as it is false to the facts of life4 ,it may be admitted that this is not the finest kind of art--it is the art of a self-centred and refined luxury which looks on nature as a garden to its own pleasure-house--but few will deny its genial and moderating charm1 and few of us live so strenuously as never to feel a sense of nostalgia for that ,saturnian reign to which ,virgil and ,claude can waft us4 ,,aubrey ,,beardsley',s ,,drawings#dg ,messrs4 ,carfax have on view the most complete collection of ,beardsley's drawings that has hitherto been shown4 ,the development of his precocious and eccentric genius can here be studied in typical examples4 ,we have the drawings of his childhood--drawings inspired by ,dicky ,doyle and ,robida1 but in which is already apparent his proclivity to the expression of moral depravity4 ,we pass at a leap from these crude and artistically feeble works to the astonishing 8,siegfried10 in which he is already a complete and assured master of an entirely personal style4 ,from this time onwards1 for the remaining six years of his life1 ,beardsley kept on producing with the fertility of those artists whom the presage of an early death stimulates to a desperate activity4 ,his style was constantly changing in accidentals1 but always the same in essentials4 ,he was a confirmed eclectic1 borrowing from all ages and all countries4 ,and true eclectic and genuine artist as he was1 he converted all his borrowings to his own purposes4 ,it mattered nothing what he fed on2 the strange and perverse economy of his nature converted the food into a poison4 ,his line is based upon that of ,antonio ,pollajuolo4 ,again and again in his drawings of the nude we see how carefully he must have copied that master of structural and nervous line4 ,but he uses it for something quite other than its original purpose2 he converts it from a line expressive of muscular tension and virile force into one expressive of corruption and decay4 ,mantegna1 too1 was a favourite with ,beardsley1 who seems to have had a kind of craving for the opposites to his own predominant qualities2 and from ,mantegna1 the most austere of ,italians1 he derived again and again motives for his illustrations of depravity4 ,the eighteenth century1 ,china1 ,japan1 even the purest ,greek art1 were all pressed into his service2 the only thing he could do nothing with was nature itself4 ,here he was entirely at a loss1 and whenever he yielded to the pressure of contemporary fashions and attempted to record impressions of things seen1 as in the topical illustrations of plays which he contributed to the ,pall ,mall ,magazine1 he failed to be even mediocre4 ,everything that was to be in the least expressive had to come entirely from within1 from the nightmares of his own imagination4 ,his amazing gift of hand is perhaps the quality which most obviously attracts attention1 the quality which endeared him most to publishers and process-block makers4 ,it was the one indisputable quality he possessed1 not to be denied by the most adverse critic1 and yet in itself it is no more than thousands of journeymen artists--engravers1 die-cutters1 and such like--have always possessed4 ,nor1 to be perfectly frank1 is the quality of his line of a very high order2 its precision is not unfrequently mechanical4 ,whistler called him the last of the writing-masters1 and there was a truth in this1 if we may add that the style of writing which he favoured was degenerate4 ,his long1 meandering flourishes ending in sharp spikes and dots1 however firm and precise the line1 are often mean in intention and poor in quality4 ,what is deserving of real admiration is the fertility of his invention1 the skill with which he finds the formula which corresponds1 in his peculiar language1 with what he wants to describe4 ,as an instance1 one may take the garden background to the 8,platonic ,lament0 in the ,salome series1 where the rose trellis and cut yew-tree behind are brilliant examples of this kind of epitomised description4 ,still more important artistically1 and closely connected with this power of invention1 is the real beauty of his spacing1 the admirable planning of masses of black and white4 ,at times1 as in the 8,dancer's ,reward10 he rises almost to the height of the great ,greek vase-painters in this respect1 though1 if we look even at this in detail1 the line has an intricacy1 a mesquinerie1 which is the very opposite of the ,greek ideal of draughtsmanship4 ,no less remarkable is his success in the decorative planning of three tones1 of black1 white1 and grey1 and he divides these with such subtle skill that for once it is not a mere false analogy to talk of the colour effect of designs in black and white2 for he so disposes the three tones1 getting the grey by an evenly distributed network of fine black lines1 that each tone produces the sensation of something as distinct from the others as do flat washes of different tints4 ,the 8,frontispiece to ,salome0 is an excellent example of this4 ,beardsley had1 then1 in an extraordinary degree the decorative impulse1 the motive which made the medival scribe flourish his pen all over the margins of his vellum page2 and1 spurred by this impulse1 he had the patience of an ,indian craftsman1 covering whole sheets with minute dots and scarcely perceptible lines4 ,this instinct in its purest form rarely makes for the finest art2 it is only when controlled by a larger1 more genial sentiment for architectural mass that it becomes ennobled1 and with ,beardsley1 in spite of the bold oppositions of his blacks and whites1 in spite of his occasional wilful simplification1 this rarely occurred4 ,one might even argue that to some extent ,beardsley's moral perversity actually prevented him1 in spite of his extraordinary specific talent for design1 from ever becoming a great designer4 ,it is just that mesquinerie of line1 that littleness and intricacy of the mere decorator1 that love of elegance rather than beauty1 which on purely artistic grounds one finds to be his great failing1 that he cherished as a means of expressing his diabolism4 ,but if ,beardsley was corrupt1 he was certainly sincere in his corruption4 ,there is no suggestion in his work1 as in that of some modern artists1 like ,seor ,zuloaga1 that corruption is an affectation taken up in order to astonish the bourgeoisie4 ,beardsley is never funny or amusing or witty2 his attempts in this direction are contemptible2 still less is he voluptuous or seductive2 he is very serious1 very much in earnest4 ,there is even a touch of hieratic austerity and pomp in his style1 as becomes the arch-priest of a ,satanic cultus4 ,he has1 indeed1 all the stigmata of the religious artist--the love of pure decoration1 the patient elaboration and enrichment of surface1 the predilection for flat tones and precision of contour1 the want of the sense of mass and relief1 the extravagant richness of invention4 ,it is as the ,fra ,angelico of ,satanism that his work will always have an interest for those who are curious about this recurrent phase of complex civilisations4 ,but if we are right in our analysis of his work1 the finest qualities of design can never be appropriated to the expression of such morbid and perverted ideals2 nobility and geniality of design are attained only by those who1 whatever their actual temperament1 cherish these qualities in their imagination4 ,,the ,,french ,,post-,,impressionists#dh ,when the first ,post-,impressionist ,exhibition was held in these ,galleries two years ago the ,english public became for the first time fully aware of the existence of a new movement in art1 a movement which was the more disconcerting in that it was no mere variation upon accepted themes but implied a reconsideration of the very purpose and aim as well as the methods of pictorial and plastic art4 ,it was not surprising1 therefore1 that a public which had come to admire above everything in a picture the skill with which the artist produced illusion should have resented an art in which such skill was completely subordinated to the direct expression of feeling4 ,accusations of clumsiness and incapacity were freely made1 even against so singularly accomplished an artist as ,czanne4 ,such darts1 however1 fall wide of the mark1 since it is not the object of these artists to exhibit their skill or proclaim their knowledge1 but only to attempt to express by pictorial and plastic form certain spiritual experiences2 and in conveying these1 ostentation of skill is likely to be even more fatal than downright incapacity4 ,indeed1 one may fairly admit that the accusation of want of skill and knowledge1 while ridiculous in the case of ,czanne is perfectly justified as regards one artist represented 7for the first time in ,england7 in the present ,exhibition1 namely1 ,rousseau4 ,rousseau was a customhouse officer who painted without any training in the art4 ,his pretensions to paint made him the butt of a great deal of ironic wit1 but scarcely any one now would deny the authentic quality of his inspiration or the certainty of his imaginative conviction4 ,here then is one case where want of skill and knowledge do not completely obscure1 though they may mar1 expression4 ,and this is true of all perfectly nave and primitive art4 ,but most of the art here seen is neither nave nor primitive4 ,it is the work of highly civilised and modern men trying to find a pictorial language appropriate to the sensibilities of the modern outlook4 ,illustration3 ,henri-,matisse4 ,the ,tea ,party ,plate ,,xvii4 ,illustration3 ,pablo ,picasso4 ,still ,life ,miss ,stein ,plate ,,xviii4 ,another charge that is frequently made against these artists is that they allow what is merely capricious1 or even what is extravagant and eccentric1 in their work--that it is not serious1 but an attempt to impose on the good-natured tolerance of the public4 ,this charge of insincerity and extravagance is invariably made against any new manifestation of creative art4 ,it does not of course follow that it is always wrong4 ,the desire to impose by such means certainly occurs1 and is sometimes temporarily successful4 ,but the feeling on the part of the public may1 and ,i think in this case does1 arise from a simple misunderstanding of what these artists set out to do4 ,the difficulty springs from a deep-rooted conviction1 due to long-established custom1 that the aim of painting is the descriptive imitation of natural forms4 ,now1 these artists do not seek to give what can1 after all1 be but a pale reflex of actual appearance1 but to arouse the conviction of a new and definite reality4 ,they do not seek to imitate form1 but to create form2 not to imitate life1 but to find an equivalent for life4 ,by that ,i mean that they wish to make images which by the clearness of their logical structure1 and by their closely-knit unity of texture1 shall appeal to our disinterested and contemplative imagination with something of the same vividness as the things of actual life appeal to our practical activities4 ,in fact1 they aim not at illusion but at reality4 ,the logical extreme of such a method would undoubtedly be the attempt to give up all resemblance to natural form1 and to create a purely abstract language of form--a visual music2 and the later works of ,picasso show this clearly enough4 ,they may or may not be successful in their attempt4 ,it is too early to be dogmatic on the point1 which can only be decided when our sensibilities to such abstract forms have been more practised than they are at present4 ,but ,i would suggest that there is nothing ridiculous in the attempt to do this4 ,such a picture as ,picasso's 8,head of a ,man0 would undoubtedly be ridiculous if1 having set out to make a direct imitation of the actual model1 he had been incapable of getting a better likeness4 ,but ,picasso did nothing of the sort4 ,he has shown in his 8,portrait of ,mlle4 ,l4 ,b40 that he could do so at least as well as any one if he wished1 but he is here attempting to do something quite different4 ,no such extreme abstraction marks the work of ,matisse4 ,the actual objects which stimulated his creative invention are recognisable enough4 ,but here1 too1 it is an equivalence1 not a likeness1 of nature that is sought4 ,in opposition to ,picasso1 who is pre-eminently plastic1 ,matisse aims at convincing us of the reality of his forms by the continuity and flow of his rhythmic line1 by the logic of his space relations1 and1 above all1 by an entirely new use of colour4 ,in this1 as in his markedly rhythmic design1 he approaches more than any other ,european to the ideals of ,chinese art4 ,his work has to an extraordinary degree that decorative unity of design which distinguishes all the artists of this school4 ,between these two extremes we may find ranged almost all the remaining artists4 ,on the whole the influence of ,picasso on the younger men is more evident than that of ,matisse4 ,with the exception of ,braque none of them push their attempts at abstraction of form so far as ,picasso1 but simplification along these lines is apparent in the work of ,derain1 ,herbin1 ,marchand1 and ,l',hote4 ,other artists1 such as ,doucet and ,asselin1 are content with the ideas of simplification of form as existing in the general tradition of the ,post-,impressionist movement1 and instead of feeling for new methods of expression devote themselves to expressing what is most poignant and moving in contemporary life4 ,but however various the directions in which different groups are exploring the newly-found regions of expressive form they all alike derive in some measure from the great originator of the whole idea1 ,czanne4 ,and since one must always refer to him to understand the origin of these ideas1 it has been thought well to include a few examples of his work in the present ,exhibition1 although this year it is mainly the moderns1 and not the old masters1 that are represented4 ,to some extent1 also1 the absence of the earlier masters in the exhibition itself is made up for by the retrospective exhibition of ,monsieur ,druet's admirable photographs4 ,here ,czanne1 ,gauguin1 and ,van ,gogh can be studied at least in the main phases of their development4 ,finally1 ,i should like to call attention to a distinguishing characteristic of the ,french artists seen here1 namely1 the markedly ,classic spirit of their work4 ,this will be noted as distinguishing them to some extent from the ,english1 even more perhaps from the ,russians1 and most of all from the great mass of modern painting in every country4 ,i do not mean by ,classic1 dull1 pedantic1 traditional1 ,illustration3 ,georges ,rouault4 ,profile ,author's ,collection ,plate ,,xix4 reserved1 or any of those similar things which the word is often made to imply4 ,still less do ,i mean by calling them ,classic that they paint 8,visits to sculapius0 or 8,nero at the ,colosseum40 ,i mean that they do not rely for their effect upon associated ideas1 as ,i believe ,romantic and ,realistic artists invariably do4 ,all art depends upon cutting off the practical responses to sensations of ordinary life1 thereby setting free a pure and as it were disembodied functioning of the spirit2 but in so far as the artist relies on the associated ideas of the objects which he represents1 his work is not completely free and pure1 since romantic associations imply at least an imagined practical activity4 ,the disadvantage of such an art of associated ideas is that its effect really depends on what we bring with us3 it adds no entirely new factor to our experience4 ,consequently1 when the first shock of wonder or delight is exhausted the work produces an ever lessening reaction4 ,classic art1 on the other hand1 records a positive and disinterestedly passionate state of mind4 ,it communicates a new and otherwise unattainable experience4 ,its effect1 therefore1 is likely to increase with familiarity4 ,such a classic spirit is common to the best ,french work of all periods from the twelfth century onwards1 and though no one could find direct reminiscences of a ,nicholas ,poussin here1 his spirit seems to revive in the work of artists like ,derain4 ,it is natural enough that the intensity and singleness of aim with which these artists yield themselves to certain experiences in the face of nature may make their work appear odd to those who have not the habit of contemplative vision1 but it would be rash for us1 who as a nation are in the habit of treating our emotions1 especially our sthetic emotions1 with a certain levity1 to accuse them of caprice or insincerity4 ,it is because of this classic concentration of feeling 7which by no means implies abandonment7 that the ,french merit our serious attention4 ,it is this that makes their art so difficult on a first approach but gives it its lasting hold on the imagination4 ,,note4--,at least one ,french artist of great merit was un-represented at the ,post-,impressionist ,exhibitions--,georges ,rouault1 a fellow pupil with ,matisse of ,gustave ,moreau4 ,he stands alone in the movement as being a visionary1 though1 unlike most visionaries1 his expression is based on a profound knowledge of natural appearances4 ,the profile here reproduced 7see ,plate7 will give an idea of his strangely individual and powerful style4 7#aibj47 ,,drawings ,,at ,,the ,,burlington ,,fine ,,arts ,,club#di ,the ,burlington ,fine ,arts ,club have arranged a most interesting collection of drawings by dead masters4 ,abandoning the club's usual method of taking a particular period or country1 the committee have this time allowed their choice to range over many periods and countries1 excluding only living artists1 and admitting one so recently dead as ,degas4 ,this variety of material naturally stimulates one to hazard some general speculations on the nature of drawing as an art4 8,h4 ,t410 who writes the preface to the catalogue1 already points the way in this direction by some obiter dicta4 ,he points out that the essence of drawing is not the line1 but its content4 ,he says3 ,a single line may mean nothing beyond a line2 add another alongside and both disappear1 and we are aware only of the contents1 and a form is expressed4 ,the beauty of a line is in its result in the form which it helps to bring into being4 ,here the author has undoubtedly pointed out the most essential quality of good drawing4 ,i should dispute1 rather by way of excessive caution1 his first statement1 8,a single line may mean nothing beyond a line10 since a line is always at its least the record of a gesture1 indicating a good deal about its maker's personality1 his tastes and even probably the period when he lived2 but ,i entirely agree that the main point is always the effect of two lines to evoke the idea of a certain volume having a certain form4 ,when 8,h4 ,t40 adds that 8,draughtsmen know this1 but writers on art do not seem to10 he seems to be too sweeping4 ,even so bad a writer on art as ,pliny had picked up the idea from a ,greek art critic1 for in describing the drawing of ,parrhasios he says3#ej ,by the admission of artists he was supreme in contour4 ,this is the last subtlety of painting2 for to paint the main body and centres of objects is indeed something of an achievement1 but one in which many have been famous1 but to paint the edges of bodies and express the disappearing planes is rare in the history of art4 ,for the contour must go round itself and so end that it promises other things behind and shows that which it hides4 ,this is an admirable account1 since it gives the clue to the distinction between descriptive drawing and drawing in which the contour does not arrest the form1 but creates plastic relief of the whole enclosed volume4 ,now1 this plastic drawing can never be attained by a mere description of the edges of objects4 ,such a description1 however exact1 can at the utmost do no more than recall vividly the original object2 it cannot enable the spectator to realise its plastic volume more clearly than the original object would4 ,now1 when we look at a really good drawing we do get a much more vivid sense of a plastic volume than we get from actual objects4 ,unfortunately this is a very severe test to apply1 and would1 ,i think1 relegate to an inferior class the vast majority of drawings1 even of those in the present exhibition4 ,the vast majority of drawings even by the celebrated masters do appeal mainly by other more subsidiary qualities1 by the brightness of their descriptive power1 and by the elegance and facility of their execution4 ,there is an undoubted pleasure in the contemplation of mere skill1 and there are few ways of demonstrating sheer skill of hand more convincingly than the drawing of a complex series of curves with perfect exactitude and great rapidity4 ,and when the curves thus brilliantly drawn describe vividly some object in life towards which we have pleasing associations we get a complex pleasure which is only too likely to be regarded as an sthetic experience when in fact it is nothing of the kind4 ,the author of the preface has quite clearly seen that this element of brilliance in the execution of the line does frequently come into play1 and he considers this calligraphic quality to be always a sign of a lowered sthetic purpose1 citing ,tiepolo quite rightly as a great master of such qualities4 ,and he quite rightly points out that with the deliberate pursuit of calligraphy there is always a tendency to substitute type forms for individual forms4 ,on the other hand1 all good drawing also tends to create types1 since a type results from the synthetic unity of the design4 ,the real question here would seem to be the fulness or emptiness of the type created1 and it would be fair to say that the calligraphic draughtsman accepted most readily an empty type4 ,for instance1 one would have to admit that ,ingres created a type1 and repeated it as much as ,tiepolo1 only ,ingres continually generated his type of form upon actual material1 whereas ,tiepolo tended merely to repeat his without enriching it with fresh material4 ,the exhibition has been to some extent arranged around ,ingres1 and as many of his drawings as possible have been collected4 ,ingres has long been accepted in the schools as par excellence the great modern master of drawing4 ,his great saying1 8,le dessin c'est la probit de l'art10 has indeed become a watchword of the schools and an excuse for indulgence in a great deal of gratuitous and misplaced moral feeling4 ,it has led to the display of all kinds of pedagogic folly4 ,art is a passion or it is nothing4 ,it is certainly a very bad moral gymnasium4 ,it is useless to try to make a kind of moral parallel bars out of the art of drawing4 ,you will certainly spoil the drawing1 and it is doubtful if you will get the morals4 ,drawing is a passion to the draughtsman just as much as colour is to the colourist1 and the draughtsman has no reason to feel moral superiority because of the nature of his passion4 ,he is fortunate to have it1 and there is an end of the matter4 ,ingres himself had the passion for draughtsmanship very intensely1 though perhaps one would scarcely guess it from the specimens shown in this exhibition4 ,these unfortunately are1 with few exceptions1 taken from that large class of drawings which he did as a young man in ,rome4 ,he was already married1 and was poor4 ,he was engaged on some of his biggest and most important compositions1 on which he was determined to spare no pains or labour2 consequently he found himself forced to earn his living by doing these brilliant and minutely accurate portraits of the aristocratic tourists and their families1 who happened to pass through ,rome4 ,these drawings bear the unmistakable mark of their origins4 ,they are commissions1 and they are done to satisfy the sitter4 ,anything like serious research for form is out of the question2 there is little here but ,ingres's extreme facility and a certain negative good taste4 ,probably the only drawing ,illustration3 ,ingres4 ,apotheosis of ,napoleon ,le ,vicomte d',arcy ,plate ,,xx4 here which shows ,ingres's more serious powers is the tight1 elaborate and rather repellent study for the 8,apotheosis of ,napoleon10 which is a splendid discovery of composition within a round 7see ,plate74 ,but the real fact is1 ,i believe1 that ,ingres's power as a draughtsman hardly ever comes out fully in his drawings2 one must turn to his paintings to see how great and sincere a researcher he was4 ,in his drawings he was too much pre-occupied with the perfect description of facts2 when he came to the painting he began that endless process of readjustment and balance of contours which make him so great and original a designer4 ,if one places his drawings and studies from the nude for1 say1 his 8,venus ,anadyomene0 beside the photograph of the picture one gets some idea of the tireless and passionate research for the exact correspondence of the contours on either side of the figure which ,ingres undertook4 ,he throws over one by one all the brilliant notations of natural form in the studies1 and arrives bit by bit at an intensely abstract and simplified statement of the general relations4 ,but though the new statement is emptied of its factual content1 it has now become far more compact1 far more intense in its plasticity4 ,here and there among ,ingres's innumerable drawings one may find a nude study in which already this process of elimination and balance has taken place1 but the examples are rare1 and if one would understand why ,ingres is one of the great masters of design1 one must face the slightly repellent quality of his oil paintings rather than allow oneself to be seduced by the elegance and ease of his drawings4 ,it would1 ,i think1 be possible to show that very few great designers have attained to full expression in line4 ,i suspect1 indeed1 that the whole tradition of art in ,europe1 since about the end of the fifteenth century1 has been against such complete expression4 ,if we compare the great masterpieces of pure drawing such as the drawings of figures on ,persian pots of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries1 and the few remaining examples of drawings by the ,italian primitives of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries1 with the vast mass of ,european drawings subsequent to that date1 we see1 ,i think1 the contrast of aims and purpose of the two groups4 ,somewhere about the time of ,filippino ,lippi there was formulated an idea of drawing which has more or less held the field ever since in art schools4 ,as most drawing has centred in the human figure we may describe it in relation to that1 the more so that this view of drawing undoubtedly came in with the study of anatomy4 ,the general principle is that there are certain cardinal facts about the figure1 or points of cardinal importance in the rendering of structure--the artist is trained to observe these with special care1 since they become the points de repre for his drawing4 ,and since they are thus specially observed they are noted with a special accent4 ,when once the artist has learned to grasp the relations of these points de repre firmly he learns also to pass from one to the other with great ease and rapidity1 not to say with a certain indifference as to what happens in the passage4 ,by this method the essentials of structure and movement of a figure are accurately given and the whole statement can be made with that easy facility and rapidity of line which gives a peculiar pleasure4 ,such drawing has the merit of being at once structurally accurate and more or less calligraphically pleasing4 ,the most admired masters1 such as ,vandyke1 ,watteau1 even to some extent ,rubens1 all exhibit the characteristics of such a conception4 ,now in the earlier kind of drawing there were no recognised points de repre1 no particular moments of emphasis2 the line was so drawn that at every point its relation to the opposed contour was equally close1 the tension so to speak was always across the line and not along its direction4 ,the essential thing was the position of the line1 not its quality1 so that there was the less inclination to aim at that easy rapidity which marks the later draughtsmanship4 ,essentially1 then1 this earlier drawing was less descriptive and more purely evocative of form4 ,it may well be that the demands made upon the artist by the closer study of nature brought in by the ,renaissance became an almost insuperable barrier to artists in the attempt to find any such completely synthetic vision of form as lay to hand for their predecessors4 ,we see1 for instance1 in ,albert ,drer's 8,beetle0 an example of purely descriptive and analytic drawing with no attempt at inner coherence of form4 ,on the other hand1 of course1 all the great formalists made deliberate efforts to come through the complex of phenomena to some abstract synthesis4 ,fra ,bartolomeo and ,raphael clearly made such abstraction a matter of deliberate study1#ea but as ,i have pointed out in the case of ,ingres1 the ,illustration3 ,corot4 ,pencil drawing ,j4 ,p4 ,heseltine1 ,esq4 ,plate ,,xxi4 obsession of fact has generally forced the artist to such a long series of experiments towards the final synthetic form that it is only in the finished picture that it emerges fully4 ,on the other hand1 some modern masters have also found their way through1 more or less completely1 and from this point of view few drawings in the exhibition are as remarkable as the drawing of a seated woman by ,corot 7see ,plate74 ,here one supposes it may be a kind of navet of vision rather than the exhaustive process of an ,ingres1 that has led ,corot to this vividly realised plasticity of form4 ,i find the essentials of good drawing more completely realised here than in almost any other drawing in the exhibition1 and yet how little of a professional draughtsman ,corot was4 ,it is hard to speak here of ,degas's works as drawings4 ,with one exception they are pastels and essentially paintings1 but they are of great beauty and show him victorious over his own formidable cleverness1 his unrivalled but dangerous power of witty notation4 ,at the opposite pole to ,corot's drawing with its splendid revelation of plastic significance we must put ,menzel with his fussy preoccupation with undigested fact4 ,it is hard indeed to see quite how ,menzel's drawings found their way into this good company1 except perhaps as drunken helots1 for they are conspicuously devoid of any sthetic quality whatever4 ,they are without any rhythmic unity1 without any glimmering of a sense of style1 and style though it be as cheap as ,rowlandson's is still victorious over sheer misinformed literalness4 ,somewhere between ,menzel and ,corot we must place ,charles ,keane1 and ,i fear1 in spite of the rather exaggerated claims made for him in the preface1 he is nearer to ,menzel1 though even so1 how much better6 ,the early ,millais drawing is of course an astounding attempt by a man of prodigious gift and no sensibility to pretend that he had the latter4 ,it is a pity there are no ,rossettis here to show the authentic inspiration of which this is the echo4 ,i come now to the ,rembrandts1 of which there are several good examples4 ,rembrandt always intrigues one by the multiplicity and diversity of his gifts and the struggle between his profound imaginative insight and his excessive talents4 ,the fact is1 ,i believe that ,rembrandt was never a linealist1 that he never had the conception of contour clearly present to him4 ,he was too intensely and too inveterately a painter and a chiaroscurist4 ,the last thing he saw was a contour1 and more than anything else it eluded his vision4 ,his vision was in fact so intensely fixed on the interplay of planes1 their modulation into one another1 and on the balance of directions1 that with him the drawn line has a quite peculiar and personal meaning4 ,it is used first to indicate directions of stress and movement1 as1 for instance1 a straight line will be dashed down to indicate1 not the contour of a limb1 but its direction1 the line along which stress of action takes place4 ,he seems almost to dread the contour1 to prefer to make strokes either inside or outside of it1 and to trust to the imagination to discover its whereabouts1 anything rather than a final definite statement which would arrest the interplay of planes4 ,the line is also used to suggest very vaguely and tentatively the division of planes2 but almost always when he comes to use wash on top of the line his washes go across the lines1 so that here too one can hardly say the line indicates the division so much as the approximate position of a plane4 ,in conclusion ,i would suggest that1 the art of pure contour is comparatively rare in modern art4 ,for what ,i should cite as great and convincing examples of that art ,i would ask the reader to turn to the 8,morgan ,byzantine ,enamels0 7,burlington ,magazine1 vol4 xxi4 pp4 #c1 #fe1 #abg1 #bai1 #bij71 the 8,manafi-i-,heiwan0 7,burlington ,magazine1 vol4 xxiii4 pp4 #bbd1 #bfa71 and to ,vignier1 8,persian ,pottery0 7,burlington ,magazine1 vol4 xxv4 p4 #baa71 while other examples might be found among ,byzantine and ,carolingian miniaturists4 ,now1 this art depends upon a peculiarly synthetic vision and a peculiar system of distortion1 without which the outline would arrest the movement of planes too definitely4 ,there indeed is the whole crux of the art of line drawing2 the line generates a volume1 but it also arrests the planes too definitely3 that is why in some great modern artists1 as we saw in the case of ,rembrandt1 there is a peculiar kind of dread of the actual contour4 ,it is felt by those who are sensitive to the interplay and movement of planes that the line must in some way1 by its quality or its position1 or by breaks or repetitions1 avoid arresting the imagination by too positive a statement4 ,it was almost a peculiarity of the early art that ,i have cited that it was able to express a form in a quite complete1 evenly drawn contour without this terrible negative effect of the line4 ,i say almost a peculiarity1 because ,i think ,illustration3 ,henri-,matisse4 ,pen drawing ,plate ,,xxii4 a few quite modern artists1 such as ,matisse 7see ,plate7 and perhaps ,modigliani1 have recovered such a power1 but in the great mass of post ,renaissance drawing the art of the pure contour in line has broken down1 and the essential qualities even of the great linealists are only to be seen fully in their paintings2 the drawn line itself has had to take on other functions4 ,,paul ,c,,zanne#eb ,in a society which is as indifferent to works of art as our modern industrialism it seems paradoxical that artists of all kinds should loom so large in the general consciousness of mankind--that they should be remembered with reverence and boasted of as national assets when statesmen1 lawyers1 and soldiers are forgotten4 ,the great mass of modern men could rub along happily enough without works of art or at least without new ones1 but society would be sensibly more bored if the artist died out altogether4 ,the fact is that every honest bourgeois1 however sedate and correct his life1 keeps a hidden and scarce-admitted yearning for that other life of complete individualism which hard necessity or the desire for success has denied him4 ,in contemplating the artist he tastes vicariously these forbidden joys4 ,he regards the artist as a strange species1 half idiot1 half divine1 but above all irresponsibly and irredeemably himself4 ,he seems equally strange in his outrageous egoism and his superb devotion to an idea4 ,also in a world where the individual is squeezed and moulded and polished by the pressure of his fellow-men the artist remains irreclaimably individual--in a world where every one else is being perpetually educated the artist remains ineducable--where others are shaped he grows4 ,czanne realised the type of the artist in its purest most unmitigated form1 and ,m4 ,vollard has had the wit to write a book about ,czanne and not about ,czanne's pictures4 ,the time may come when we shall require a complete study of ,czanne's work1 a measured judgment of his achievement and position--it would probably be rash to attempt it as yet4 ,meanwhile we have ,m4 ,vollard's portrait1 at once documented and captivating4 ,should the book ever become as well known as it deserves there would be1 one guesses1 ,illustration3 ,czanne4 ,portrait of the ,artist ,collection ,pellerin ,plate ,,xxiii4 ten people fascinated by ,czanne for one who would walk down the street to see his pictures4 ,the art historian may sometimes regret that ,vasari did not give us more of the sthetics of his time2 but ,vasari knew his business1 knew1 perhaps1 that the sthetics of an age are quickly superseded but that the human document remains of perennial interest to mankind4 ,m4 ,vollard has played ,vasari to ,czanne and done so with the same directness and simplicity1 the same narrative ease1 the same insatiable delight in the oddities and idiosyncrasies of his subject4 ,and what a model he had to paint6 ,every word and every gesture he records stick out with the rugged relief of a character in which everything is due to the compulsion of inner forces1 in which nothing has been planed down or smoothed away by external pressure--not that external pressure was absent but that the inner compulsion--the inevitable bent of ,czanne's temperament1 was irresistible4 ,in one very important detail ,czanne was spared by life--he always had enough to live on4 ,the thought of a ,czanne having to earn his living is altogether too tragic4 ,but if life spared him in this respect his temperament spared him nothing--for this rough ,provenal countryman had so exasperated a sensibility that the smallest detail of daily life1 the barking of a dog1 the noise of a lift in a neighbouring house1 the dread of being touched even by his own son might produce at any moment a nervous explosion4 ,at such times his first relief was in cursing and swearing1 but if this failed the chances were that his anger vented itself on his pictures--he would cut one to pieces with his palette knife1 or failing that roll it up and throw it into the stove4 ,m4 ,vollard describes with delightful humour the tortures he endured in the innumerable sittings which he gave ,czanne for his portrait--with what care he avoided any subject of conversation which might lead to misunderstanding4 ,but with all his adroitness there were one or two crises in which the portrait was threatened with the dreaded knife--fortunately ,czanne always found some other work on which to vent his indignation1 and the portrait survived1 though after a hundred and fifteen sittings1 in which ,czanne exacted the immobility of an apple1 the portrait was left incomplete4 8,i am not displeased with the shirt front10 was ,czanne's characteristic appreciation4 ,two phrases continually recur in ,czanne's conversation which show his curious idiosyncrasies4 ,one the often-quoted one of his dread that any one might 8lui jeter le grappin dessus0 and the other 8moi qui suis faible dans la vie40 ,they express his constant attitude of distrust of his kind--for him all women were 8des veaux et des calculatrices0--his dread of any possible invasion of his personality1 and his sense of impotence in face of the forces of life4 ,none the less1 though he pathetically exaggerated his weakness he never seems to have had the least doubt about his supreme greatness as an artist2 what troubled and irritated him was his incapacity to express his 8sensation0 in such terms as would make its meaning evident to the world4 ,it was for this reason that he struggled so obstinately and hopelessly to get into the 8,salon de ,m4 ,bougereau40 ,his attitude to conventional art was a strange mixture of admiration at its skill and of an overwhelming horror of its emptiness--of its so 8horrible resemblance40 ,the fact is that ,czanne had accepted uncritically all the conventions in the pathetic belief that it was the only way of safety for one 8so feeble in life40 ,so he continued to believe in the ,catholic ,church not from any religious conviction but because 8,rome was so strong0--so1 too1 he believed in the power and importance of the 8,salon de ,bougereau0 which he hated as much as he feared4 ,so1 too1 with what seems a paradoxical humility he let it be known1 when his fame had already been established among the intelligent1 that he would be glad to have the ,legion of ,honour4 ,but here1 too1 he was destined to fail4 ,the weighty influence and distinguished position of his friends could avail nothing against the undisguised horror with which any official heard the dreaded name of ,czanne4 ,and it appeared that ,czanne was the only artist in ,france for whom this distinction was inaccessible1 even through 8influence40 ,nothing is stranger in his life than the contrast between the idea the public formed of ,czanne and the reality4 ,he was one of those men destined to give rise to a legend which completely obscured the reality4 ,he was spoken of as the most violent of revolutionaries--,communard and ,anarchist were the favourite epithets--and all the time he was a timid little country gentleman of immaculate respectability who subscribed whole-heartedly to any reactionary opinion which could establish his 8soundness40 ,he was a timid man who really believed ,illustration3 ,czanne4 ,gardanne ,plate ,,xxiv4 in only one thing1 8his little sensation02 who laboured incessantly to express this peculiar quality and who had not the faintest notion of doing anything that could shock the feelings of any mortal man or woman4 ,no wonder then that when he looked up from his work and surveyed the world with his troubled and imperfect intellectual vision he was amazed and perturbed at the violent antagonism which he had all unconsciously provoked4 ,no wonder that he became a shy1 distrustful misanthrope1 almost incapable of any association with his kind4 ,i have suggested that ,czanne was the perfect realisation of the type of the artist--,i doubt whether in the whole of ,vasari's great picture gallery there is a more complete type of 8original40 ,but in order to accept this we must banish from our mind the conventional idea of the artist as a man of flamboyant habits and calculated pose4 ,nothing is less possible to the real artist than pose--he is less capable of it than the ordinary man of business because more than any one else his external activities are determined from within by needs and instincts which he himself barely recognises4 ,on the other hand the imitation artist is a past master of pose1 he poses as the sport of natural inclinations whilst he is really deliberately exploiting his caprices2 and as he has a natural instinct for the limelight this variety of the 8,cabotin0 generally manages to sit for the portrait of the artist4 ,czanne1 then1 though his external life was that of the most irreproachable of country gentlemen1 though he went to mass every ,sunday and never willingly left the intimacy of family life1 was none the less the purest and most unadulterated of artists1 the most narrowly confined to his single activity1 the most purely disinterested and the most frankly egoistic of men4 ,czanne had no intellectual independence4 ,i doubt if he had the faintest conception of intellectual truth1 but this is not to deny that he had a powerful mind4 ,on the contrary he had a profound intelligence of whatever came within his narrow outlook on life1 and above all he had the gift of expression1 so that however fantastic1 absurd1 or nave his opinions may have been1 they were always expressed in such racy and picturesque language that they become interesting as revelations of a very human and genuine personality4 ,one of the tragi-comedies of ,czanne's life was the story of his early friendship with ,zola1 followed in middle life by a gradual estrangement1 and at last a total separation4 ,it is perhaps the only blot in ,m4 ,vollard's book that he has taken too absolutely ,czanne's point of view1 and has hardly done justice to ,zola's goodness of heart4 ,the cause of friction1 apart from ,czanne's habitual testiness and ill-humour1 was that ,zola's feeling for art1 which had led him in his youth to a heroic championship of the younger men1 faded away in middle life4 ,his own practice of literature led him further and further away from any concern with pure art1 and he failed to recognise that his own early prophecy of ,czanne's greatness had come true1 simply because he himself had become a popular author1 and ,czanne had failed of any kind of success4 ,unfortunately ,zola1 who had evidently lost all real sthetic feeling1 continued to talk about art1 and worse than that he had made the hero of 8,l'uvre0 a more or less recognisable portrait of his old friend4 ,czanne could not tolerate ,zola's gradual acquiescence in worldly ideals and ways of life1 and when the ,dreyfusard question came up not only did his natural reactionary bias make him a vehement anti-,dreyfusard but he had no comprehension whatever of the heroism of ,zola's actions2 he found him merely ridiculous1 and believed him to be engaged in an ill-conceived scheme of self-advertisement4 ,but for all his contempt of ,zola his affection remained deeper than he knew1 and when he heard the news of ,zola's death ,czanne shut himself alone up in his studio1 and was heard sobbing and groaning throughout the day4 ,czanne's is not the only portrait in ,m4 ,vollard's entertaining book--there are sketches of many characters1 among them the few strange and sympathetic men who appreciated and encouraged ,czanne in his early days4 ,of ,cabaner the musician ,m4 ,vollard has collected some charming notes4 ,cabaner was a 8philosopher10 and singularly indifferent to the chances of life4 ,during the siege of ,paris he met ,coppe1 and noticing the shells which were falling he became curious4 8,where do all these bullets come from80 ,coppe3 8,it would seem that it is the besiegers who send them40 ,cabaner1 after a silence3 8,is it always the ,prussians80 ,coppe1 impatiently3 8,who on earth could it be80 ,cabaner3 8,i don't know 444 other nations60 ,but the book is so full of good stories that ,i must resist the temptation to quote4 ,illustration3 ,czanne4 ,the ,artist's ,wife ,plate ,,xxv4 ,fortunately ,m4 ,vollard has collected also a large number of ,czanne's obiter dicta on art4 ,these have all ,czanne's pregnant wisdom and racy style4 ,they often contain a whole system of sthetics in a single phrase1 as1 for instance3 8,what's wanted is to do ,poussin over again from ,nature40 ,they show1 moreover1 the natural bias of ,czanne's feelings and their gradual modification as his understanding became more profound4 ,what comes out clearly1 and it must never be forgotten in considering his art1 is that his point of departure was from ,romanticism4 ,delacroix was his god and ,ingres1 in his early days1 his devil--a devil he learned increasingly to respect1 but never one imagines really to love1 8ce ,dominique est trs fort mais il m'emm----40 ,that ,czanne became a supreme master of formal design every one would nowadays admit1 but there is some excuse for those contemporaries who complained of his want of drawing4 ,he was not a master of line in the sense in which ,ingres was4 8,the contour escapes me10 as he said4 ,that is to say he arrived at the contour by a study of the interior planes2 he was always plastic before he was linear4 ,in his early works1 such1 for instance1 as the 8,scne de plein air0 7see ,plate71 he is evidently inspired by ,delacroix2 he is almost a romanticist himself in such work1 and his design is built upon the contrasts of large and rather loosely drawn silhouettes of dark and light4 ,in fact it is the method of ,tintoretto1 ,rubens1 and ,delacroix4 ,in the 8,bathers resting10 painted in #ahgg1 there is already a great change4 ,it is rather by the exact placing of plastic units than by continuous flowing silhouettes that the design holds4 ,giorgione1 perhaps1 is behind this1 but no longer ,tintoretto1 and1 above all1 ,poussin has intervened4 ,in later works1 such as the portrait of 8,mme4 ,czanne in a greenhouse10 the plasticity has become all-important1 there is no longer any suggestion of a romantic decor2 all is reduced to the purest terms of structural design4 ,these notes on ,czanne's development are prompted by the illustrations in ,m4 ,vollard's book4 ,these are numerous and excellent1 and afford a better opportunity for a general study of ,czanne's uvre than any other book4 ,in fact1 when the time comes for the complete appreciation of ,czanne ,m4 ,vollard's book will be the most important document existing4 ,it should1 however1 have a far wider appeal than that4 ,i hope that after the war ,m4 ,vollard will bring out a small cheap edition#ec--;it should become a classic biography4 ,to say1 as ,i would1 that ,m4 ,vollard's book is a monument worthy of ,czanne himself is to give it the highest praise4 ,illustration3 ,czanne4 ,le ruisseau ,plate ,,xxvi4 ,,renoir ,what a lover of the commonplace ,renoir was6 ,it is a rare quality among artists4 ,a theoretically pure artist exists no more than a ,euclidean point1 but if such a being could exist1 every possible actual sight would be equally suitable as a point of departure for his artistic vision4 ,everything would stir in him the impulse to creation4 ,he would have no predilections1 no tastes for this or that kind of thing4 ,in practice every artist is set going by some particular kind of scene in nature1 and for the most part artists have to search out some unusual or unexplored aspect of things4 ,gauguin1 for instance1 had to go as far as ,tahiti4 ,when ,renoir heard of this1 he said1 in a phrase which revealed his own character3 8,pourquoi8 ,on peint si bien a ,batignolles40 ,but there are plenty of artists who paint more or less well at ,batignolles or ,bloomsbury and yet are not lovers of the commonplace4 ,like ,walter ,sickert1 for instance1 they find their ,tahiti in ,mornington ,crescent4 ,though they paint in commonplace surroundings1 they generally contrive to catch them at an unexpected angle4 ,something odd or exotic in their taste for life seems to be normal to artists4 ,the few artists or writers who have shared the tastes of the average man have1 as a rule1 been like ,dickens--to take an obvious case--very imperfect and very impure artists1 however great their genius4 ,among great artists one thinks at once of ,rubens as the most remarkable example of a man of common tastes1 a lover of all that was rich1 exuberant and even florid4 ,titian1 too1 comes nearly up to the same standard1 except that in youth his whole trend of feeling was distorted by the overpowering influence of ,giorgione1 whose tastes were recondite and strange4 ,renoir1 in the frankness of his colour harmonies1 in his feeling for design and even in the quality of his pigment1 constantly reminds us of these two4 ,now it is easier to see how an artist of the sixteenth or seventeenth century could develop commonplace tastes than one of our own times4 ,for with the nineteenth century came in a gradual process of differentiation of the artist from the average man4 ,the modern artist finds himself so little understood by the crowd1 in his aims and methods1 that he tends to become distinct in his whole attitude to life4 ,what1 then1 is so peculiar about ,renoir is that he has this perfectly ordinary taste in things and yet remains so intensely1 so purely1 an artist4 ,the fact is perhaps that he was so much an artist that he never had to go round the corner to get his inspiration2 the immediate1 obvious1 front view of everything was more than sufficient to start the creative impulse4 ,he enjoyed instinctively1 almost animally1 all the common good things of life1 and yet he always kept just enough detachment to feel his delight sthetically--he kept1 as it were1 just out of reach of appetite4 ,more than any other great modern artist ,renoir trusted implicitly to his own sensibility2 he imposed no barrier between his own delight in certain things and the delight which he communicates4 ,he liked passionately the obviously good things of life1 the young human animal1 sunshine1 sky1 trees1 water1 fruit2 the things that every one likes2 only he liked them at just the right distance with just enough detachment to replace appetite by emotion4 ,he could rely on this detachment so thoroughly that he could dare1 what hardly any other genuine modern has dared to say how much he liked even a pretty sight4 ,but what gives his art so immediate1 so universal an appeal is that his detachment went no further than was just necessary4 ,his sensibility is kept at the exact point where it is transmuted into emotion4 ,and the emotion1 though it has of course the generalised sthetic feeling1 keeps something of the fulness and immediacy of the simpler attitude4 ,not that ,renoir was either nave or stupid4 ,when he chose he showed that he was capable of logical construction and vigorous design4 ,but for his own pleasure he would1 as he himself said1 have been satisfied to make little isolated records of his delight in the detail of a flower or a lock of hair4 ,with the exception of 8,les ,parapluies0 at the ,national ,gallery we have rarely seen his more deliberate compositions in ,england4 ,but in all his work alike ,renoir remains the man who could trust recklessly his instinctive reaction to life4 ,let me confess that these characteristics--this way of keeping1 ,illustration3 ,renoir4 ,judgement of ,paris4 ,collection ,halvossen ,plate ,,xxvii4 as it were1 just out of reach of appetite--makes ,renoir to me1 personally1 a peculiarly difficult artist4 ,my taste for exotic artists such as ,cosima ,tura and his kin amounts at times to a vice4 ,consequently1 ,i am sometimes in danger of not doing ,renoir justice1 because at the first approach to one of his pictures ,i miss the purely accessory delight of an unexpected attitude4 ,the first approach to one of his pictures may indeed remind one of pictures that would be the delight of the servants' hall1 so unaffectedly simple is his acceptance of the charm of rosy-cheeked girls1 of pretty posies and dappled sunlight4 ,and yet one knows well enough that ,renoir was as 8artful0 as one could wish4 ,though he had not the biting wit of a ,degas1 he had a peculiar love of mischievous humour2 he was anything but a harmless or innocent character4 ,all his simplicity is on the surface only4 ,the longer one looks1 the deeper does ,renoir retire behind veil after veil of subtlety4 ,and yet1 compared with some modern artists1 he was1 after all1 easy and instinctively simple4 ,even his plastic unity was arrived at by what seems a more natural method than1 say1 ,czanne's4 ,whereas ,czanne undertook his indefatigable research for the perspective of the receding planes1 ,renoir seems to have accepted a very simple general plastic formula4 ,whatever ,czanne may have meant by his celebrated saying about cones and cylinders1 ,renoir seems to have thought the sphere and cylinder sufficient for his purpose4 ,the figure presents itself to his eye as an arrangement of more or less hemispherical bosses and cylinders1 and he appears generally to arrange the light so that the most prominent part of each boss receives the highest light4 ,from this the planes recede by insensible gradations towards the contour1 which generally remains the vaguest1 least ascertained part of the modelling4 ,whatever lies immediately behind the contour tends to become drawn into its sphere of influence1 to form an undefined recession enveloping and receiving the receding planes4 ,as the eye passes away from the contour1 new but less marked bosses form themselves and fill the background with repetitions of the general theme4 ,the picture tends thus to take the form of a bas-relief in which the recessions are not into the profound distances of pictorial space1 but only back1 as it were1 to the block out of which the bossed reliefs emerge1 though1 of course1 by means of atmospheric colour the eye may interpret these recessions as distance4 ,this is clearly in marked contrast to ,czanne's method of suggesting endless recessions of planes with the most complicated interwoven texture4 ,renoir's drawing takes on the same fundamental simplicity4 ,an ,ingres arrived at the simplified statement necessary for great design by a process of gradual elimination of all the superfluous sinuosities which his hand had recorded in the first drawing from nature4 ,renoir seems never to have allowed his eye to accept more than the larger elements of mass and direction4 ,his full1 rounded curves embrace the form in its most general aspect4 ,with advancing years and continually growing science he was able1 at last1 to state this essential synthesis with amazing breadth and ease4 ,he continually increased the amplitude of his forms until1 in his latest nudes1 the whole design is filled with a few perfectly related bosses4 ,like ,titian's1 ,renoir's power of design increased visibly up to the very end of his life4 ,true1 he was capable at all periods of conceiving large and finely co-ordinated compositions1 such as 8,les ,parapluies0 and the 8,charpentier family02 but at the end even the smallest studies have structural completeness4 ,a ,,possible ,,domestic ,,architecture#ed ,houses are either builders' houses or architects' houses4 ,not that speculative builders do not employ architects1 but they generally employ architects who efface themselves behind the deadly conventionality and bewildering fantasy of their faades4 ,architects' houses are generally built to the order of a gentleman who wishes his house to have some distinctive character1 to stand out from the common herd of houses1 either by its greater splendour or its greater discretion4 ,the builder's house1 like the dresses of the lower middle class1 is generally an imitation of the gentleman's1 only of a fashion that has just gone out of date and imitated badly in cheaper materials4 ,no one defends it4 ,it is made so because you must make a house somehow1 and bought because it is the usual and therefore inevitable thing4 ,no one enjoys it1 no one admires it1 it is accepted as part of the use and wont of ordinary life4 ,the gentleman's and architect's house is different4 ,here time and thought1 and perhaps great ingenuity and taste are employed in giving to the house an individual character4 ,unfortunately this individual character is generally terribly conscious of its social aspect1 of how the house will look1 not to those who live in it so much as to those who come to visit4 ,we have no doubt outlived the more vulgar forms of this social consciousness1 those which led to the gross display of merely expensive massiveness and profusion4 ,few modern houses would satisfy ,mr4 ,podsnap4 ,but its subtler forms are still apparent4 ,they generally make themselves felt in the desire to be romantic4 ,as it requires much too much imagination to find romance in the present1 one looks for it in the past1 and so a dive is made into some period of history1 and its monuments studied and copied1 and finally 8adapted0 to the more elaborate exigencies of modern life4 ,but1 alas1 these divers into the past seem never to have been able to find the pearl of romance1 for1 ever since the craze began in the eighteenth century1 they have been diving now here1 now there1 now into ,romanesque1 now into ,gothic1 now into ,jacobean1 now into ,queen ,anne4 ,they have brought up innumerable architectural 8features0 which have been duly copied by modern machinery1 and carefully glued on to the houses1 and still the owners and the architects1 to do them justice1 feel restless1 and are in search of some new old style to try4 ,the search has flagged of late1 people know it is useless1 and here and there architects have set to work merely to build so well and with such a fine sense of the material employed that the result should satisfy the desire for comeliness without the use of any style4 ,i am thinking of some of ,mr4 ,blow's earlier works where a peculiar charm resulted from the unstinting care with which every piece of material had been chosen and the whole fitted together almost as though the stones had been precious stones instead of flints or bricks4 ,but on the whole the problem appears to be still unsolved1 and the architects go on using styles of various kinds with greater or less degrees of correctness4 ,this they no longer do with the old zest and hope of discovery1 but rather with a languid indifference and with evident marks of discouragement4 ,now style is an admirable thing1 it is the result of ease and coherence of feeling1 but unfortunately a borrowed style is an even stronger proof of muddled and befogged emotions than the total absence of style4 ,the desire for a style at all costs1 even a borrowed style1 is part of that exaggerated social consciousness which in other respects manifests itself as snobbery4 ,what if people were just to let their houses be the direct outcome of their actual needs1 and of their actual way of life1 and allow other people to think what they like4 ,what if they behaved in the matter of houses as all people wish to behave in society without any undue or fussy self-consciousness4 ,wouldn't such houses have really a great deal more character1 and therefore interest for others1 than those which are deliberately made to look like something or other4 ,instead of looking like something1 they would then be something4 ,the house which ,i planned and built for myself was the result of certain particular needs and habits4 ,i had originally no idea of building a house3 ,i had so often heard the proverb that 8,fools build houses for wise men to live in10 that ,i had come to believe it1 but ,i required a house of a certain size for my family within easy reach of ,london4 ,i looked at a great many houses and found that those which had a sufficient number of rooms were all gentlemen's establishments1 with lodge1 stabling1 and green-houses4 ,now it was characteristic of my purse that ,i could not afford to keep up a gentleman's establishment and of my tastes that ,i could not endure to4 ,i was a town dweller1 and ,i wanted a town house and a little garden in the country4 ,as ,i could not find what ,i wanted1 the idea came into my head that ,i must build it or go without4 ,the means at my disposal were definitely limited2 the question was therefore whether ,i could build a house of the required size with that sum4 ,i made a plan containing the number of rooms of the sizes ,i required1 and got an estimate4 ,it was largely in excess of the sum ,i possessed for the purpose4 ,i feared ,i must give up my scheme when ,i met a friend who had experimented in building cheap cottages on his estate1 and learned from him that the secret of economy was concentration of plan4 ,i also discovered in discussing my first estimate that roofs were cheaper than walls4 ,i thereupon started on a quite different plan1 in which ,i arranged the rooms to form as nearly as possible a solid block1 and placed a number of the rooms in a hipped or ,mansard roof4 ,it will be seen that1 so far1 the planning of the house was merely the discovery of a possible equation between my needs and the sum at my disposal4 ,but in trying to establish this equation ,i had found it necessary to make the rooms rather smaller than ,i should have liked1 and having a great liking for large and particularly high interiors--,i hate ,elizabethan rooms with their low ceilings in spite of their prettiness1 and ,i love the interiors of the baroque palaces of ,italy--,i determined to have one room of generous dimensions and particularly of great height4 ,this large room surrounded by small rooms was naturally made into a general living-place1 with arrangements by means of a lift to enable it to be used as a dining hall if there were more in the house than could be accommodated in the small breakfast room4 ,the estimate for this new concentrated plan1 in spite of the large dimensions of the living place1 came to little more than half the estimate for the former plan1 and made my project feasible1 provided that ,i could calculate all details and did not run into extras4 ,so far then there has been no question of architecture2 it has been merely solving the problem of personal needs and habits1 and of cost1 and if architecture there is to be1 it should1 ,i think1 come directly out of the solution of these problems4 ,the size and disposition of the plan having thus been fixed1 the elevations are given in outline1 and the only question is how the rectangle of each elevation is to be treated4 ,doors and windows are the elements of the design1 and here again something will already be determined by needs or tastes4 ,there is need of a certain amount of light1 and my own taste is to have as much as possible1 so that the windows had to be large rectangles4 ,but when all these things are determined by need there is still a wide margin of choice--the size of the panes in the windows1 the depth of recess of the windows within the wall1 the flatness or relief of each element4 ,all these and many more are still matters of choice1 and it is through the artist's sense of proportion and his feeling for the plastic relief of the whole surface that a work of mere utility may become a work of art4 ,in the case of the main elevation of my house ,i found that when all the windows1 including the long windows of the high living-place1 were duly arranged1 there was a want of unity owing to the nearly equal balance between the horizontal and vertical members4 ,i therefore underlined the slight projection of the central part 7a projection enforced by by-laws7 by varying the material1 replacing at this point the plaster of the walls by two bands of red brick4 ,in this way the vertical effect of the central part was made to dominate the whole faade4 ,the artistic or architectural part of this house was confined1 then1 merely to the careful choice of proportions within certain fixed limits defined by needs1 and neither time1 money1 nor thought were expended on giving the house the appearance of any particular style4 ,i have gone thus at length into the history of my own house merely as an example of the way in which1 ,i think1 a genuine architecture1 and in the end1 no doubt1 an architectural style1 might arise4 ,it requires a certain courage or indifference to public opinion on the part of the owner4 ,my own house is neighboured by houses of the most gentlemanly picturesqueness1 houses from which tiny gables with window slits jut out at any unexpected angle1 and naturally it is regarded as a monstrous eyesore by their inhabitants4 ,indeed1 when ,i first came here it was supposed that the ugliness of my house was so apparent that ,i myself could not be blind to it1 and should not resent its being criticised in my presence4 ,they were quite right1 ,i did not resent it2 ,i was only very much amused4 ,to arrive at such a genuine domestic architecture as ,i conceive1 requires1 then1 this social indifference to surrounding snobbishness on the part of the owner1 and it requires a nice sense of proportion and a feeling for values of plastic relief on the part of the artist who designs the house1 but it does not require genius or even any extraordinary talent to make a genuine and honest piece of domestic architecture which will continue to look distinguished when the last 8style0 but one having just become dmod already stinks in the nostrils of all cultured people4 ,,jean ,,marchand#ee ,there are some thirty pictures by ,m4 ,jean ,marchand now on view at the ,carfax ,gallery in ,bury ,street4 ,this gives one an occasion for reviewing the work of this comparatively young artist4 ,m4 ,marchand belongs1 of course1 to the revolutionary movement of this century in that he derives the general principles of his art from ,czanne1 but he is the most traditional of revolutionaries4 ,not by the wildest stretch of the imagination could one conceive of ,m4 ,marchand deliberately or consciously doing anything to astonish the public4 ,it is quite true that no genuine artist ever did1 but some artists have found an added piquancy in the thought that inventions that occurred to them would in point of fact have this adventitious charm4 ,but with ,m4 ,marchand such possibilities seem more remote than with most of his compeers4 ,an extreme simplicity and directness of outlook and a touching sincerity in all he does are the most prominent characteristics of his work4 ,not that he makes one suppose him to be too nave to play tricks with his art2 on the contrary1 one sees that he is highly self-conscious and intellectual1 but that he knows the utter futility of any deliberate emphasis on the artist's part4 ,he knows that any effect of permanent value must flow directly from the matter in hand2 that it is useless to make anything appear more interesting or impressive than it is2 that1 whatever his vision is1 it must be accepted literally1 and without any attempt to add to its importance or effectiveness4 ,in short1 ,m4 ,marchand is a classic artist--one might almost in these days say a ,french artist1 and count it as synonymous1 but that one remembers that the ,french1 too1 have had their orgies of romantic emphasis1 and have always ready to hand a convention of coldly exaggerated rhetoric4 ,moreover1 if one thinks of a nearly allied painter ,illustration3 ,marchand4 ,still ,life ,author's ,collection ,plate ,,xxviii4 such as ,derain1 whose work is so terribly interesting1 one sees that to a quite peculiar degree ,m4 ,marchand exemplifies the sentimental honesty of the ,french4 ,i leave the question open whether this is a moral trait1 or is not rather the result of a clearer perception than we often attain to of the extreme futility of lying where art is concerned4 ,certainly one can imagine the temptations for a man of ,m4 ,marchand's great technical ability to choose some slightly wilful or fantastic formula of vision and to exploit it for what it might bring out2 for ,m4 ,marchand was handicapped in any competition for notoriety by the very normality and sanity of his vision4 ,compared to the descriptions of sketches in 8,jane ,eyre10 his pictures would be judged to be entirely lacking in imagination4 ,he never tries to invent what he has not actually seen4 ,almost any of the ordinary things of life suffice for his theme--a loaf of bread or a hat left on the table1 a rather vulgar ,french chteau restored by ,viollet-le-,duc with a prim garden and decorous lake1 a pot of aspidistra in a suburban window4 ,these and the like are the subjects of his pictures1 and he paints the objects themselves in all their vulgar everydayness4 ,they do not become excuses for abstract designs2 they retain in his pictures all their bleak commonplaceness4 ,any one unfamiliar with his pictures who read such an account of his work might think ,m4 ,marchand was a dull literalist1 whose mere accomplishment it is to render the similitude of objects4 ,but such a conclusion would be entirely wrong4 ,however frankly ,m4 ,marchand accepts the forms of objects1 however little his normal vision distorts or idealises them1 however consciously and deliberately he chooses the arrangement1 he does build up by sheer method and artistic science a unity which has a singularly impressive quality4 ,i heard some one say1 in front of a still life which represented a white tablecloth1 a glass tumbler1 an earthenware water-bottle and a loaf of bread1 that it was like ,buddha4 ,with such a description as ,i give of the picture the appreciation sounds precious and absurd2 before the picture it seems perfectly just4 ,for ,m4 ,marchand has attained the reward of his inflexible honesty2 his construction is so solid and unfaltering1 he builds up his designs with such massive and direct handling1 that without the slightest suggestion of emphasis1 without any underlining1 the effect comes through2 the material becomes expressive2 he becomes a creator1 and not a mere adapter of form4 ,for the understanding of his personality it is interesting to consider his ,cubist period1 since ,marchand's reaction to ,cubism is typical of his nature4 ,cubism1 like ,s4 ,paul1 has been all things to all men--at least to almost all artists of the present generation4 ,to some it has been a doctrine and a revelation2 to some it has been a convenient form of artistic journalism2 to some it has been a quick road to notoriety1 to some an aid to melodramatic effect4 ,to ,m4 ,marchand it was just a useful method and a gymnastic4 ,he used it for just what it could give him as an exercise in the organisation of form4 ,it was to him like a system of notation to a mathematician1 a means of handling quantities which without it would have been too elusive and too infinite to grasp4 ,by means of ,cubism the infinity of a sphere could be reduced to half a dozen planes1 each of which he could learn to relate to all the other planes in the picture2 and the singular ease and directness of his plastic construction seem to be due to his early practice of ,cubist methods4 ,having once learned by this process of willed and deliberate analysis how to handle complex forms1 he has been able to throw away the scaffolding and to construct palpably related and completely unified designs with something approaching the full complexity of natural forms1 though the lucid statement and the ease of handling which it actuates testify to the effect of his apprenticeship in ,cubism4 ,such a use of a theory--as a method1 not as a doctrine--seems to me typical of ,m4 ,marchand's balanced judgment1 of his alert readiness to use any and every means that could conduce to his slow and methodical development1 and hold out hopes of a continued growth4 ,m4 ,marchand1 so assured1 so settled an artist1 is still young4 ,in the landscapes which he did in the ,south of ,france just before the war he explored a peculiarly persuasive and harmonious scheme of colour1 based on warm ochres1 earth reds1 and dull blues4 ,these pictures have the envelopment and the sonorous harmony of some early ,italian masters in spite of the frank oppositions and the vigorous scaffolding of modern design4 ,in the later work done in the last year he shows a new sense of colour1 a new sharpness and almost an audacity1 if one can imagine so well-balanced a nature capable of audacity4 ,he uses dull neutral colours1 the dirty white of a cloudy sky1 harsh dull greens and blacks1 the obvious and unattractive colours that so frequently occur in nature2 but he uses them in such combinations1 and with such accents of tone and such subtly prepared accordances and oppositions1 that these obvious dull colours strike one as fascinating discoveries4 ,this is the height of artistic science1 so to accept the obvious and commonplace that it gives one the pleasant shock of paradox4 ,it seems hardly rash to foretell for him a solid and continually growing fame4 ,,retrospect#ef ,the work of re-reading and selecting from the mass of my writings as an art critic has inevitably brought me up against the question of its consistency and coherence4 ,although ,i do not think that ,i have republished here anything with which ,i entirely disagree1 ,i cannot but recognise that in many of these essays the emphasis lies in a different place from where ,i should now put it4 ,fortunately ,i have never prided myself upon my unchanging constancy of attitude1 but unless ,i flatter myself ,i think ,i can trace a certain trend of thought underlying very different expressions of opinion4 ,now since that trend seems to me to be symptomatic of modern sthetic1 and since it may perhaps explain much that seems paradoxical in the actual situation of art1 it may be interesting to discuss its nature even at the cost of being autobiographical4 ,in my work as a critic of art ,i have never been a pure ,impressionist1 a mere recording instrument of certain sensations4 ,i have always had some kind of sthetic4 ,a certain scientific curiosity and a desire for comprehension have impelled me at every stage to make generalisations1 to attempt some kind of logical co-ordination of my impressions4 ,but1 on the other hand1 ,i have never worked out for myself a complete system such as the metaphysicians deduce from a priori principles4 ,i have never believed that ,i knew what was the ultimate nature of art4 ,my sthetic has been a purely practical one1 a tentative expedient1 an attempt to reduce to some kind of order my sthetic impressions up to date4 ,it has been held merely until such time as fresh experiences might confirm or modify it4 ,moreover1 ,i have always looked on my system with a certain suspicion4 ,i have recognised that if it ever formed too solid a crust it might stop the inlets of fresh experience1 and ,i can count various occasions when my principles would have led me to condemn1 and when my sensibility has played the part of ,balaam with the effect of making temporary chaos of my system4 ,that has1 of course1 always rearranged itself to take in the new experience1 but with each such cataclysm it has suffered a loss of prestige4 ,so that even in its latest form ,i do not put forward my system as more than a provisional induction from my own sthetic experiences4 ,i have certainly tried to make my judgment as objective as possible1 but the critic must work with the only instrument he possesses--namely1 his own sensibility with all its personal equations4 ,all that he can consciously endeavour is to perfect that tool to its utmost by studying the traditional verdicts of men of sthetic sensibility in the past1 and by constant comparison of his own reactions with those of his contemporaries who are specially gifted in this way4 ,when he has done all that he can in this direction--and ,i would allow him a slight bias in favour of agreement with tradition--he is bound to accept the verdict of his own feelings as honestly as he can4 ,even plain honesty in this matter is more difficult to attain than would be admitted by those who have never tried it4 ,in so delicate a matter as the artistic judgment one is liable to many accidental disturbing influences1 one can scarcely avoid temporary hypnotisms and hallucinations4 ,one can only watch for and try to discount these1 taking every opportunity to catch one's sensibility unawares before it can take cover behind prejudices and theories4 ,when the critic holds the result of his reaction to a work of art clearly in view he has next to translate it into words4 ,here1 too1 distortion is inevitable1 and it is here that ,i have probably failed most of accuracy1 for language in the hands of one who lacks the mastery of a poet has its own tricks1 its perversities and habits4 ,there are things which it shies at and goes round1 there are places where it runs away and1 leaving the reality which it professes to carry tumbled out at the tail of the cart1 arrives in a great pother1 but without the goods4 ,but in spite of all these limitations and the errors they entail it seems to me that the attempt to attain objective judgments has not altogether failed1 and that ,i seem to myself to have been always groping my way towards some kind of a reasoned and practical sthetic4 ,many minds have been engaged alongside of mine in the same pursuit4 ,i think we may claim that partly as a result of our common efforts a rather more intelligent attitude exists in the educated public of to-day than obtained in the last century4 ,art in ,england is sometimes insular1 sometimes provincial4 ,the pre-,raphaelite movement was mainly an indigenous product4 ,the dying echoes of this remarkable explosion reverberated through the years of my nonage1 but when ,i first began to study art seriously the vital movement was a provincial one4 ,after the usual twenty years of delay1 provincial ,england had become aware of the ,impressionist movement in ,france1 and the younger painters of promise were working under the influence of ,monet4 ,some of them even formulated theories of naturalism in its most literal and extreme form4 ,but at the same time ,whistler1 whose ,impressionism was of a very different stamp1 had put forward the purely decorative idea of art1 and had tried in his 8,ten o'clock10 perhaps too cavalierly1 to sweep away the web of ethical questions1 distorted by sthetic prejudices1 which ,ruskin's exuberant and ill-regulated mind had spun for the ,british public4 ,the ,naturalists made no attempt to explain why the exact and literal imitation of nature should satisfy the human spirit1 and the 8,decorators0 failed to distinguish between agreeable sensations and imaginative significance4 ,after a brief period during which ,i was interested in the new possibilities opened up by the more scientific evaluation of colour which the ,impressionists practised1 ,i came to feel more and more the absence in their work of structural design4 ,it was an innate desire for this aspect of art which drove me to the study of the ,old ,masters and1 in particular1 those of the ,italian ,renaissance1 in the hope of discovering from them the secret of that architectonic idea which ,i missed so badly in the work of my contemporaries4 ,i think now that a certain amount of 8cussedness0 led me to exaggerate what was none the less a genuine personal reaction4 ,finding myself out of touch with my generation ,i took a certain pleasure in emphasising my isolation4 ,i always recognised fully that the only vital art of the day was that of the ,impressionists whose theories ,i disbelieved1 and ,i was always able to admit the greatness of ,degas and ,renoir4 ,but many of my judgments of modern art were too much affected by my attitude4 ,i do not think ,i ever praised ,mr4 ,wilson ,steer or ,mr4 ,walter ,sickert as much as they deserved1 and ,i looked with too ,illustration3 ,seurat4 ,la ,baignade ,plate ,,xxix4 great indulgence on some would-be imitators of the ,old ,masters4 ,but my most serious lapse was the failure to discover the genius of ,seurat 7see ,plate71 whose supreme merits as a designer ,i had every reason to acclaim4 ,i cannot even tell now whether ,i ever saw his work in the exhibitions of the early nineties1 but if ,i did his qualities were hidden from me by the now transparent veil of pointillism--a pseudo-scientific system of atmospheric colour notation in which ,i took no interest4 ,i think ,i can claim that my study of the ,old ,masters was never much tainted by archological curiosity4 ,i tried to study them in the same spirit as ,i might study contemporary artists1 and ,i always regretted that there was no modern art capable of satisfying my predilections4 ,i say there was no modern art because none such was known to me1 but all the time there was one who had already worked out the problem which seemed to me insoluble of how to use the modern vision with the constructive design of the older masters4 ,by some extraordinary ill luck ,i managed to miss seeing ,czanne's work till some considerable time after his death4 ,i had heard of him vaguely from time to time as a kind of hidden oracle of ultra-impressionism1 and1 in consequence1 ,i expected to find myself entirely unreceptive to his art4 ,to my intense surprise ,i found myself deeply moved4 ,i have discovered the article in which ,i recorded this encounter1 and though the praise ,i gave would sound grudging and feeble to-day--for ,i was still obsessed by ideas about the content of a work of art--,i am glad to see that ,i was so ready to scrap a long-cherished hypothesis in face of a new experience4 ,in the next few years ,i became increasingly interested in the art of ,czanne and of those like ,gauguin and van ,goch who at that time represented the first effects of his profound influence on modern art1 and ,i gradually recognised that what ,i had hoped for as a possible event of some future century had already occurred1 that art had begun to recover once more the language of design and to explore its so long neglected possibilities4 ,thus it happened that when at the end of #aiaa1 by a curious series of chances1 ,i was in a position to organise an exhibition at the ,grafton ,galleries1 ,i seized the opportunity to bring before the ,english public a selection of works conforming to the new direction4 ,for purposes of convenience it was necessary to give these artists a name1 and ,i chose1 as being the vaguest and most non-committal1 the name of ,post-,impressionist4 ,this merely stated their position in time relatively to the ,impressionist movement4 ,in conformity with my own previous prejudices against ,impressionism1 ,i think ,i underlined too much their divorce from the parent stock4 ,i see now more clearly their affiliation with it1 but ,i was none the less right in recognising their essential difference1 a difference which the subsequent development of ,cubism has rendered more evident4 ,of late the thesis of their fundamental opposition has been again enforced in the writings of ,m4 ,lhote4 ,if ,i may judge by the discussions in the press to which this exhibition gave rise1 the general public failed to see that my position with regard to this movement was capable of a logical explanation1 as the result of a consistent sensibility4 ,i tried in vain to explain what appeared to me so clear1 that the modern movement was essentially a return to the ideas of formal design which had been almost lost sight of in the fervid pursuit of naturalistic representation4 ,i found that the cultured public which had welcomed my expositions of the works of the ,italian ,renaissance now regarded me as either incredibly flippant or1 for the more charitable explanation was usually adopted1 slightly insane4 ,in fact1 ,i found among the cultured who had hitherto been my most eager listeners the most inveterate and exasperated enemies of the new movement4 ,the accusation of anarchism was constantly made4 ,from an sthetic point of view this was1 of course1 the exact opposite of the truth1 and ,i was for long puzzled to find the explanation of so paradoxical an opinion and so violent an enmity4 ,i now see that my crime had been to strike at the vested emotional interests4 ,these people felt instinctively that their special culture was one of their social assets4 ,that to be able to speak glibly of ,tang and ,ming1 of ,amico di ,sandro and ,baldovinetti1 gave them a social standing and a distinctive cachet4 ,this showed me that we had all along been labouring under a mutual misunderstanding1 i4e4 that we had admired the ,italian primitives for quite different reasons4 ,it was felt that one could only appreciate ,amico di ,sandro when one had acquired a certain considerable mass of erudition and given a great deal of time and attention1 but to admire a ,matisse required only a certain sensibility4 ,one could feel fairly sure that one's maid could not rival one in the former case1 but might by a mere haphazard gift of ,providence ,illustration3 ,derain4 ,still ,life ,author's ,collection ,plate ,,xxx4 surpass one in the second4 ,so that the accusation of revolutionary anarchism was due to a social rather than an sthetic prejudice4 ,in any case the cultured public was determined to look upon ,czanne as an incompetent bungler1 and upon the whole movement as madly revolutionary4 ,nothing ,i could say would induce people to look calmly enough at these pictures to see how closely they followed tradition1 or how great a familiarity with the ,italian primitives was displayed in their work4 ,now that ,matisse has become a safe investment for persons of taste1 and that ,picasso and ,derain have delighted the miscellaneous audience of the ,london ,music ,halls with their designs for the ,russian ,ballet1 it will be difficult for people to believe in the vehemence of the indignation which greeted the first sight of their works in ,england4 ,in contrast to its effect on the cultured public the ,post-,impressionist exhibition aroused a keen interest among a few of the younger ,english artists and their friends4 ,with them ,i began to discuss the problems of sthetic that the contemplation of these works forced upon us4 ,but before explaining the effects of these discussions upon my sthetic theory ,i must return to consider the generalisations which ,i had made from my sthetic experiences up to this point4 ,in my youth all speculations on sthetic had revolved with wearisome persistence around the question of the nature of beauty4 ,like our predecessors we sought for the criteria of the beautiful1 whether in art or nature4 ,and always this search led to a tangle of contradictions or else to metaphysical ideas so vague as to be inapplicable to concrete cases4 ,it was ,tolstoy's genius that delivered us from this impasse1 and ,i think that one may date from the appearance of 8,what is ,art80 the beginning of fruitful speculation in sthetic4 ,it was not indeed ,tolstoy's preposterous valuation of works of art that counted for us1 but his luminous criticism of past sthetic systems1 above all1 his suggestions that art had no special or necessary concern with what is beautiful in nature1 that the fact that ,greek sculpture had run prematurely to decay through an extreme and non-sthetic admiration of beauty in the human figure afforded no reason why we should for ever remain victims of their error4 ,it became clear that we had confused two distinct uses of the word beautiful1 that when we used beauty to describe a favourable sthetic judgment on a work of art we meant something quite different from our praise of a woman1 a sunset or a horse as beautiful4 ,tolstoy saw that the essence of art was that it was a means of communication between human beings4 ,he conceived it to be par excellence the language of emotion4 ,it was at this point that his moral bias led him to the strange conclusion that the value of a work of art corresponded to the moral value of the emotion expressed4 ,fortunately he showed by an application of his theory to actual works of art to what absurdities it led4 ,what remained of immense importance was the idea that a work of art was not the record of beauty already existent elsewhere1 but the expression of an emotion felt by the artist and conveyed to the spectator4 ,the next question was1 ,of what kind of emotions is art the expression8 ,is love poetry the expression of the emotion of love1 tragedy the expression of pity and fear1 and so forth8 ,clearly the expression in art has some similarity to the expression of these emotions in actual life1 but it is never identical4 ,it is evident that the artist feels these emotions in a special manner1 that he is not entirely under their influence1 but sufficiently withdrawn to contemplate and comprehend them4 ,my 8,essay in sthetic0 here reprinted1 elaborates this point of view1 and in a course of unpublished lectures ,i endeavoured to divide works of visual art according to the emotional point of view1 adopting the classification already existing in poetry into ,epic1 ,dramatic1 ,lyric1 and ,comedic4 ,i conceived the form of the work of art to be its most essential quality1 but ,i believed this form to be the direct outcome of an apprehension of some emotion of actual life by the artist1 although1 no doubt1 that apprehension was of a special and peculiar kind and implied a certain detachment4 ,i also conceived that the spectator in contemplating the form must inevitably travel in an opposite direction along the same road which the artist had taken1 and himself feel the original emotion4 ,i conceived the form and the emotion which it conveyed as being inextricably bound together in the sthetic whole4 ,about the time ,i had arrived at these conclusions the discussion of sthetic stimulated by the appearance of ,post-,impressionism began4 ,it became evident through these discussions that some artists who were peculiarly sensitive to the formal relations of works of art1 and who were deeply moved by them1 had almost no sense of the emotions which ,i had supposed them to convey4 ,since it was impossible in these cases to doubt the genuineness of the sthetic reaction it became evident that ,i had not pushed the analysis of works of art far enough1 had not disentangled the purely sthetic elements from certain accompanying accessories4 ,it was1 ,i think1 the observation of these cases of reaction to pure form that led ,mr4 ,clive ,bell in his book1 8,art10 to put forward the hypothesis that however much the emotions of life might appear to play a part in the work of art1 the artist was really not concerned with them1 but only with the expression of a special and unique kind of emotion1 the sthetic emotion4 ,a work of art had the peculiar property of conveying the sthetic emotion1 and it did this in virtue of having 8significant form40 ,he also declared that representation of nature was entirely irrelevant to this and that a picture might be completely non-representative4 ,this last view seemed to me always to go too far since any1 even the slightest1 suggestion of the third dimension in a picture must be due to some element of representation4 ,what ,i think has resulted from ,mr4 ,clive ,bell's book1 and the discussions which it has aroused on this point is that the artist is free to choose any degree of representational accuracy which suits the expression of his feeling4 ,that no single fact1 or set of facts1 about nature can be held to be obligatory for artistic form4 ,also one might add as an empirical observation that the greatest art seems to concern itself most with the universal aspects of natural form1 to be the least pre-occupied with particulars4 ,the greatest artists appear to be most sensitive to those qualities of natural objects which are the least obvious in ordinary life precisely because1 being common to all visible objects1 they do not serve as marks of distinction and recognition4 ,with regard to the expression of emotion in works of art ,i think that ,mr4 ,bell's sharp challenge to the usually accepted view of art as expressing the emotions of life has been of great value4 ,it has led to an attempt to isolate the purely sthetic feeling from the whole complex of feelings which may and generally do accompany the sthetic feeling when we regard a work of art4 ,let us take as an example of what ,i mean ,raphael's 8,transfiguration10 which a hundred years ago was perhaps the most admired picture in the world1 and twenty years ago was one of the most neglected4 ,it is at once apparent that this picture makes a very complex appeal to the mind and feelings4 ,to those who are familiar with the ,gospel story of ,christ it brings together in a single composition two different events which occurred simultaneously at different places1 the ,transfiguration of ,christ and the unsuccessful attempt of the ,disciples during ,his absence to heal the lunatic boy4 ,this at once arouses a number of complex ideas about which the intellect and feelings may occupy themselves4 ,goethe's remark on the picture is instructive from this point of view4 8,it is remarkable10 he says1 8that any one has ever ventured to query the essential unity of such a composition4 ,how can the upper part be separated from the lower8 ,the two form one whole4 ,below the suffering and the needy1 above the powerful and helpful--mutually dependent1 mutually illustrative40 ,it will be seen at once what an immense complex of feelings interpenetrating and mutually affecting one another such a work sets up in the mind of a ,christian spectator1 and all this merely by the content of the picture1 its subject1 the dramatic story it tells4 ,now if our ,christian spectator has also a knowledge of human nature he will be struck by the fact that these figures1 especially in the lower group1 are all extremely incongruous with any idea he is likely to have formed of the people who surrounded ,christ in the ,gospel narrative4 ,and according to his prepossessions he is likely to be shocked or pleased to find instead of the poor and unsophisticated peasants and fisherfolk who followed ,christ1 a number of noble1 dignified1 and academic gentlemen in impossible garments and purely theatrical poses4 ,again the representation merely as representation1 will set up a number of feelings and perhaps of critical thoughts dependent upon innumerable associated ideas in the spectator's mind4 ,now all these reactions to the picture are open to any one who has enough understanding of natural form to recognise it when represented adequately4 ,there is no need for him to have any particular sensibility to form as such4 ,let us now take for our spectator a person highly endowed with the special sensibility to form1 who feels the intervals and relations of ,illustration3 ,raphael4 ,the ,transfiguration ,vatican ,plate ,,xxxi4 forms as a musical person feels the intervals and relations of tones1 and let us suppose him either completely ignorant of1 or indifferent to1 the ,gospel story4 ,such a spectator will be likely to be immensely excited by the extraordinary power of co-ordination of many complex masses in a single inevitable whole1 by the delicate equilibrium of many directions of line4 ,he will at once feel that the apparent division into two parts is only apparent1 that they are co-ordinated by a quite peculiar power of grasping the possible correlations4 ,he will almost certainly be immensely excited and moved1 but his emotion will have nothing to do with the emotions which we have discussed since in the former case1 ex-hypothesi1 our spectator has no clue to them4 ,it is evident then that we have the possibility of infinitely diverse reactions to a work of art4 ,we may imagine1 for instance1 that our pagan spectator1 though entirely unaffected by the story1 is yet conscious that the figures represent men1 and that their gestures are indicative of certain states of mind and1 in consequence1 we may suppose that according to an internal bias his emotion is either heightened or hindered by the recognition of their rhetorical insincerity4 ,or we may suppose him to be so absorbed in purely formal relations as to be indifferent even to this aspect of the design as representation4 ,we may suppose him to be moved by the pure contemplation of the spatial relations of plastic volumes4 ,it is when we have got to this point that we seem to have isolated this extremely elusive sthetic quality which is the one constant quality of all works of art1 and which seems to be independent of all the prepossessions and associations which the spectator brings with him from his past life4 ,a person so entirely pre-occupied with the purely formal meaning of a work of art1 so entirely blind to all the overtones and associations of a picture like the ,transfiguration is extremely rare4 ,nearly every one1 even if highly sensitive to purely plastic and spatial appearances1 will inevitably entertain some of those thoughts and feelings which are conveyed by implication and by reference back to life4 ,the difficulty is that we frequently give wrong explanations of our feelings4 ,i suspect1 for instance1 that ,goethe was deeply moved by the marvellous discovery of design1 whereby the upper and lower parts cohere in a single whole1 but the explanation he gave of this feeling took the form of a moral and philosophical reflection4 ,it is evident also that owing to our difficulty in recognising the nature of our own feelings we are liable to have our sthetic reaction interfered with by our reaction to the dramatic overtones and implications4 ,i have chosen this picture of the ,transfiguration precisely because its history is a striking example of this fact4 ,in ,goethe's time rhetorical gesture was no bar to the appreciation of sthetic unity4 ,later on in the nineteenth century1 when the study of the ,primitives had revealed to us the charm of dramatic sincerity and naturalness1 these gesticulating figures appeared so false and unsympathetic that even people of sthetic sensibility were unable to disregard them1 and their dislike of the picture as illustration actually obliterated or prevented the purely sthetic approval which they would probably otherwise have experienced4 ,it seems to me that this attempt to isolate the elusive element of the pure sthetic reaction from the compounds in which it occurs has been the most important advance of modern times in practical sthetic4 ,the question which this simile suggests is full of problems2 are these chemical compounds in the normal sthetically gifted spectator1 or are they merely mixtures due to our confused recognition of what goes on in the complex of our emotions8 ,the picture ,i have chosen is also valuable1 just at the present time1 from this point of view4 ,since it presents in vivid opposition for most of us a very strong positive 7pleasurable7 reaction on the purely sthetic side1 and a violently negative 7painful7 reaction in the realm of dramatic association4 ,but one could easily point to pictures where the two sets of emotions seem to run so parallel that the idea that they reinforce one another is inevitably aroused4 ,we might take1 for instance1 ,giotto's 8,piet40 ,in my description of that 7p4 #aaj71 it will be seen that the two currents of feeling ran so together in my own mind that ,i regarded them as being completely fused4 ,my emotion about the dramatic idea seemed to heighten my emotion about the plastic design4 ,but at present ,i should be inclined to say that this fusion of two sets of emotion was only apparent and was due to my imperfect analysis of my own mental state4 ,probably at this point we must hand over the question to the experimental psychologist4 ,it is for him to discover whether this fusion is possible1 whether1 for example1 such a thing as a song really exists1 that is to say1 a song in which neither the meaning of the words nor the meaning of the music predominates2 in which music and words do not merely set up separate currents of feeling1 which may agree in a general parallelism1 but really fuse and become indivisible4 ,i expect that the answer will be in the negative4 ,if on the other hand such a complete fusion of different kinds of emotion does take place1 this would tend to substantiate the ordinary opinion that the sthetic emotion has greater value in highly complicated compounds than in the pure state4 ,supposing1 then1 that we are able to isolate in a work of art this purely sthetic quality to which ,mr4 ,clive ,bell gives the name of 8significant form40 ,of what nature is it8 ,and what is the value of this elusive and--taking the whole mass of mankind--rather uncommon sthetic emotion which it causes8 ,i put these questions without much hope of answering them1 since it is of the greatest importance to recognise clearly what are the questions which remain to be solved4 ,i think we are all agreed that we mean by significant form something other than agreeable arrangements of form1 harmonious patterns1 and the like4 ,we feel that a work which possesses it is the outcome of an endeavour to express an idea rather than to create a pleasing object4 ,personally1 at least1 ,i always feel that it implies the effort on the part of the artist to bend to our emotional understanding by means of his passionate conviction some intractable material which is alien to our spirit4 ,i seem unable at present to get beyond this vague adumbration of the nature of significant form4 ,flaubert's 8expression of the idea0 seems to me to correspond exactly to what ,i mean1 but1 alas6 he never explained1 and probably could not1 what he meant by the 8idea40 ,as to the value of the sthetic emotion--it is clearly infinitely removed from those ethical values to which ,tolstoy would have confined it4 ,it seems to be as remote from actual life and its practical utilities as the most useless mathematical theorem4 ,one can only say that those who experience it feel it to have a peculiar quality of 8reality0 which makes it a matter of infinite importance in their lives4 ,any attempt ,i might make to explain this would probably land me in the depths of mysticism4 ,on the edge of that gulf ,i stop4 ,,index ,albigensian crusade1 #ii ,american and ,chinese art1 #gd ,architecture1 domestic1 #ahc ----1 styles in1 #ahj ,art and ,christianity1 #hg ---- and the ,franciscan movement1 #hg1 #hh ---- and ,poetry1 #aid ----1 associated ideas in1 #aei ----1 classic1 #aei ----1 emotion and form in1 #aid ----1 public indifference to1 #afh ----1 ,realistic1 #aei ----1 ,romantic1 #aei ,artist and the community1 #afh ----1 pure1 #age ,asselin1 #aeh ,associated ideas in art1 #aei ,assisi1 upper church at1 #ajc ----1 great church at1 #hg ,assyrian art1 #hj 8,athenum10 #eb ,author and ,czanne1 #aia ---- and ,gauguin1 #aia ---- and ,impressionists1 #aij ---- and the public1 #aib ---- and ,old ,masters1 #aij1 #aia ---- and ,seurat1 #aia ---- and van ,goch1 #aia ---- and ,mr4 ,walter ,sickert1 #aij ---- and ,mr4 ,wilson ,steer1 #aij ,author's sthetic1 #ahh1 #ahi ---- house1 #ahj ,aztecs and ,incas1 #gj ,babelon1 ,m41 #gg ,babylon and ,nineveh bas-reliefs1 #gh ,baldovinetti1 #abf ---- and ,ucello1 #abf ,baldovinetti's ,madonna and ,child1 #abf ---- portrait in ,nat4 ,gall41 #abf ---- ,trinity2 ,accademia1 ,florence1 #abf ,balfour1 ,mr41 #fj ,baroque architect1 #acf ---- art and ,catholic reaction1 #ach ---- art and ,poussin1 #ach ---- idea and ,el ,greco1 #ace-aci ---- idea and ,michelangelo1 #acf1 #ach ---- idea and ,signorelli1 #ach ---- in ,spanish and ,italian art1 #ach ,bartolommeo1 ,fra1 #afd ,bastien-,lepage1 #ag ,beardsley and ,antonio ,pollajuolo1 #aec ---- and ,mantegna1 #aec ---- and ,nature1 #aec ,beardsley's art1 influences on1 #aec ,beauty1 nature of1 #aic1 #aid ,beethoven1 #ai ,bell1 ,mr4 ,clive1 book on art1 #aie1 #aii ,bellini1 ,giovanni1 and ,drer1 #acc ,berenson1 ,mr41 #ajj ,bernini and ,el ,greco1 #ace1 #acf1 #acg ,besnard1 ,m41 #if1 #ig ,blake and the ,byzantine style1 #adb ---- and ,giotto1 #aaa1 #adb ---- and the ,old ,testament1 #adj1 #ada ---- and ,michelangelo1 #ada ---- and ,tintoretto1 #ada ---- on poetry1 #adc ,blake's temperament1 #ada ,bleek1 ,miss1 #fd ,blow1 ,mr41 #ahj ,bobrinsky1 ,prince1 #gi1 #hj ,bode1 ,dr41 #acd ,bourgeois attitude to art1 #afh ,bramante1 #acf ,braque1 #aeh ,bridges1 ,robert1 #adg ,british public1 #aij ,browning1 #db ,brunelleschi1 #d ,bumble1 #db ,bushman and ,assyrian art1 #eh ---- and ,palolithic art1 #fa-fc ,byzantine style and ,blake1 #adb ,cabaner1 #agb ,caravaggio1 #e ,czanne1 #db1 #aeh ---- and ,delacroix1 #agc ---- and ,el ,greco1 #aci ---- and ,ingres1 #agc ---- and ,marchand1 #ahd ---- and ,poussin1 #agc ---- and ,renoir1 #agg1 #agh ---- and ,rubens' method1 #agc ---- and ,tintoretto's method1 #agc ---- and ,zola1 #agb ----1 criticism of1 #aef ---- misunderstood by his contemporaries1 #afi ----1 ,poussin and ,el ,greco1 #ach1 #aci ---- the perfect type of artist1 #afh1 #aga ,czanne's character1 #afi1 #agj1 #aga ,chateaubriand1 #f ,charpentier family1 by ,renoir1 #agh ,chelsea ,book ,club1 #fe ,chinese and ,american art1 #gd ---- and ,negro cultures1 #fg ---- art and ,matisse1 #aeh ---- landscape1 ,claude and1 #aej ---- painting1 #ba ,chosroes relief1 #gh1 #gi ,christianity and art1 #hg ,cimabue and ,giotto1 #ajc1 #ajf1 #ajgn ,cinematograph1 #ac ,cinquecento art and ,giotto1 #aad ,classic art1 #aei ,claude and ,chinese landscape1 #aej ---- and ,corot1 #aej ---- and ,turner1 #adf ,claude and ,whistler1 #aej ----1 ,ruskin on1 #ade1 #adf ---- and ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #adf ---- and ,rembrandt1 #adf ---- 8,liber ,veritatis10 #adi ----1 influence of ,virgil on1 #adh1 #aeb ,claude's articulations1 #ade ---- figures1 #adf ---- romanticism1 #aej ,coco style1 #bi ,colour1 ,giotto's1 #aad ,conceptual art1 #fb1 #fc ,contour in painting1 #afj1 #afa ,cope1 #agb ,corot and ,claude1 #aej ---- as a draughtsman1 #afe ,corot's drawing of a seated woman1 #afe ,cosima ,tura1 #agf ,cosmati1 #ii1 #ajj1 #ajd ,cossa1 #acb ,credi1 ,lorenzo di1 and ,drer1 #acc ,critic's function1 #ahi ,cubism1 #aib ---- and ,marchand1 #ahf ---- and ,ucello1 #abd ,daddi1 ,bernardo1 and ,giotto1 #ajhn ,dante1 #b1 #ig1 #ih1 #ajh1 #aaj1 #aaf ,david1 #e 8,decorators10 #aij ,degas1 #bj1 #agf1 #aij ---- as a draughtsman1 #afe ,delacroix and ,czanne1 #agc ,derain1 #aeh1 #aei1 #aic ---- and ,marchand1 #ahe ,dickens1 #age ,dickey ,doyle1 #aec ,doucet1 #aeh ,drama1 ,italian1 beginning of1 #ajan ,drawing of contours1 great examples1 #aff ---- of the figure1 #afd ---- of ,italian ,primitives1 #afc ---- of ,renoir and ,ingres compared1 #agh ----1 ,persian1 #afc ,druet's1 ,m41 photographs1 #aeh ,duccio and ,giotto1 #ajf ,drer and the ,gothic tradition1 #abi ---- and ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #abg ---- and ,lorenzo di ,credi1 #acc ---- and ,giovanni ,bellini1 #acc ,drer and ,jacopo de',barbari1 #acc ---- and ,mantegna1 #aca1 #acb ---- and ,pollajuolo1 #acc ---- and ,raphael1 #abg ---- and ,schongauer1 #acb ,drer's 8,beetle10 #afd ---- letters and diary1 #abg ,el ,greco and ,baroque idea1 #ace-aci ---- and ,bernini1 #ace1 #acf1 #acg ---- and ,british public1 #acd ---- and ,czanne1 #aci ----1 ,poussin and ,czanne1 #ach1 #aci ,emotion and form in art1 #aid1 #aig ,england and ,french ,impressionism1 #aij ,english ,art considered1 #aij ,fatimite textiles1 #gi ,figure drawing1 #afd ,filippino ,lippi1 #afc ,flaubert1 #aii ,flemish and ,florentine art1 #abd ---- painting and ,giotto1 #aaj ,florentine art1 a characteristic of1 #abe ---- and ,flemish art1 #abd ,forli1 ,melozzo da1 #ajd ,form in art1 #ajg ,francesca1 ,piero della1 #d ,franciscan movement and art1 #hg1 #hh ,francis1 ,st41 #b1 #hg1 #hh1 #aab ,french art classic1 #aeh1 #aei1 #ahd ,french1 ,english and ,russian art compared1 #aeh ,gamp1 ,mrs41 #ig ,gauguin1 #aeh1 #age ,germans1 the1 #abi ,ghiberti's commentary1 #hg ,giorgione1 #age ,giotto and ,barnardo ,daddi1 #ajhn ---- and ,blake1 in1 #adb ---- and ,cimabue1 #ajc1 #ajf1 #ajgn ---- and ,cinquecento art1 #aad ---- and classical architecture1 #aac ---- and ,duccio1 #ajf ---- and ,european art1 #aae ---- and ,flemish painting1 #aaj ---- and ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #aaf ---- and ,lorenzetti1 #aac ---- and ,masaccio1 #aac ---- and pre-,raphaelitism1 #ajc ,giotto and ,raphael1 #aae ---- and ,rembrandt1 #aaj ---- as draughtsman1 #aae1 #aaf ,giotto's colour1 #aad ---- figure of ,joachim1 #aaa ---- invention of ,tempera1 #aje ---- ,piet1 #aaj1 #aih ---- place as an artist1 #aaf ,goethe1 #aig1 #aih ,gothic tradition and ,drer1 #abi1 #acj ,grco-,roman art1 #gf1 #gg1 #gh ,grunwedel1 ,dr41 #gf ,guatemala and ,yucatan1 #ga ,head1 ,henry1 ,f4,r4,s41 #fb ,herbin1 #aeh ,hermitage1 #gi ,holmes1 ,mr4 ,c4 ,j41 #acd ,homer1 #ig ,house1 author's1 #ahj ,houses1 architects'1 #agi ----1 builders'1 #agi ----1 dwelling1 #ahj ,huxley1 #h ,jacquemart-,andr collection1 #abc-abf 8,jane ,eyre10 #ahe ,jeremiah of ,michelangelo1 #bc ,johnson1 ,dr41 #fe ,joyce1 ,mr41 #fi1 #gc1 #ge ,kaiser ,friedrich ,museum1 #dg1 #acd ----1 the1 #dg ,karlsruhe ,museum1 #gh ,keats1 #adg ,keene1 ,charles1 as a draughtsman1 #afe ,kingsborough1 ,lord1 #ga ,kraft's stonework1 #abi ,krell1 ,oswald1 #acj ,kunsthistorisches ,akademie1 ,vienna1 #abi ,incas and ,aztecs1 #gj ,ingres1 #afd ---- and ,czanne1 #agc ---- as a designer1 #afc ---- as a draughtsman1 #afb ----1 effect of poverty on his art1 #afb ,ingres' drawing1 ,the ,apotheosis of ,napoleon1 #afc ---- painting and drawing compared1 #afc ,lecoq1 ,dr41 #gf ,leeche's drawings1 #bh ,lehmann1 ,dr41 #gd ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #d1 #bd ---- and ,claude1 #adf ---- and ,drer1 #abg ---- and ,giotto1 #aaf ,l',hote1 #aeh ----1 ,m41 writings of1 #aib 8,liber ,veritatis0 of ,claude1 #adi ,limoges enamels1 #gg ,lincoln ,cathedral1 #gh ,line1 the function of1 in drawing1 #afj ----1 qualities of1 #aae ----1 rarity of great design expressed in1 #afc ,loewy1 ,prof41 #ef1 #eg ,lorenzetti and ,giotto1 #aac ,malatesta1 ,sigismondo1 #hg ,mantegna and ,beardsley1 #aec ---- and ,drer1 #aca1 #acb ---- and ,rembrandt1 #acb ,marchand1 #aeh ----1 a classic artist1 #ahd ---- and ,czanne1 #ahd ---- and ,cubism1 #ahf ---- and ,derain1 #ahe ,masaccio and ,giotto1 #aac ,matisse1 #aeh1 #aic ---- and ,chinese art1 #aeh ---- as a draughtsman1 #afg ,maya art1 #ga1 #gb1 #gc ,melozzo da ,forli1 #aje ,meredith1 #bh ,mesopotamian art1 #gi ,michelangelo1 #ai1 #bc1 #bd1 #aji ---- and ,baroque idea1 #acf1 #ach ---- and ,blake1 #ada ,middle ,ages1 #bi ,millais' drawing1 #afe ,milton1 #adg ,minzel as a draughtsman1 #afe ,modigliani as a draughtsman1 #afg ,monet1 #ag1 #aij ,money1 ,mr41 #dh ,music1 #ae ----1 psychology of1 #aii ,national ,gallery1 #acd ,nature1 #bd1 #be ,naturalists1 #aij ,navicella mosaic1 #ajd ,negro and ,european sculpture1 #ff ,neolithic art1 #fc ,nuremberg school1 #acj ,old ,testament and ,blake1 #adj1 #ada ,ottley's prints1 #adb ,oxford movement1 #f ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 #aed ,parapluies1 ,les1 by ,renoir1 #agf ,patine1 #ch1 #ci ,pelliot1 ,m41 #gf ,perspective1 #abd1 #abe ,picasso1 #aeg1 #aeh1 #aic ,piet1 by ,giotto1 #aaj ,pindar1 #hg ,pliny on painting1 #afj1 #afa ,podsnap1 ,mr41 #agi ,poetry and art1 #aid ----1 ,blake on1 #adc ,pollajuolo1 ,antonio and ,beardsley1 #aec ----1 #adg ---- and ,drer1 #acc ,pompeii1 #cj1 #gi ,post-,impressionism1 #aid ,post-,impressionists at the ,grafton ,gallery1 #aia1 #aic ----1 criticism of1 #aef1 #aeg ,poussin1 #aei ---- and ,baroque art1 #ach ---- and ,czanne1 #agc ----1 ,el ,greco1 and ,czanne1 #ach ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 #aij ,primitives1 study of1 in ,england1 #aih ,primum ,mobile in ,tarocchi prints1 #acc ,psychologists and art1 #ed ,public indifference to art1 #afh ,racine1 #adg ,raphael1 #ai1 #afd ---- and ,drer1 #abg ,raphael's 8,transfiguration10 #aif1 #aih ,realistic art1 #aei ,rembrandt1 #e1 #bj1 #adg ---- and ,claude1 #adf ---- and ,giotto1 #aaj ---- and ,mantegna1 #acb ---- as a draughtsman1 #afe1 #aff ,rembrandt's characteristics1 #afe ,renaissance1 #gf ,renoir and ,czanne1 #agg1 #agh1 #aij ---- and ,titian1 #agh ,renoir compared to ,giorgione and ,titian1 #age ,renoir's 8,charpentier ,family10 #agh ---- 8,les ,parapluies10 #agf1 #agh ,robida1 #aec ,rodin1 #ch ,romans1 the1 #abi ,romantic art1 #aei ,romanticism1 ,claude's1 #aej ,ross1 ,dr4 ,denman1 #ba ,rossetti's relationship to ,millais1 #afe ,rousseau1 #aef ,rowlandson's style in drawing1 #afe ,rubens1 #afd1 #age ,ruskin1 #ad1 #ch ---- on ,claude1 #ade1 #adf ,s4 ,bonaventura1 #hg1 #aja1 #ajb ,s4 ,francis1 #b1 #hg1 #hh1 #aab ,s4 ,peter's ,crucifixion1 by ,giotto1 #ajg ,sassanid art1 #gf1 #gg1 #gh1 #gi1 #hj ,schongauer and ,drer1 #acb ,scrovegni1 #aaj ,sculpture1 ,greek1 #eg ,shakespeare1 #adg ,shaw1 ,mr4 ,bernard1 #da ,shelley1 #db ,sickert1 ,mr4 ,walter1 #age ,sicily1 #gg ,siegfried1 #aec ,sigismondo ,malatesta1 #hg 8,significant ,form10 #aii ,signorelli and ,baroque idea1 #ach ---- and ,florence1 #abf ---- and ,ucello1 #abf ---- and ,umbrian art1 #abf ,signorelli's ,holy ,family1 #abf ,smith1 ,robertson1 #i ,song1 psychology of1 #aii ,spectator of a picture1 psychology of1 #aif1 #aig ,spencer1 ,herbert1 #h1 #i ,stefaneschi1 ,cardinal1 #ajc1 #ajd1 #aje1 #ajhn ,stein1 ,dr41 #gf ,storr's woodwork1 #abi1 #acj ,subject picture1 #ec ,sung1 #cb ,tahiti1 #age ,tarrocchi engravings1 #acb ,tempera1 ,giotto's invention1 #aje ,tennyson1 #bd1 #bf ,tiepolo1 #afa1 #afb ,tintoretto and ,blake1 #ada ,titian1 #ai1 #age ---- and ,renoir compared1 #agh ,tolstoy1 #af1 #ah1 #ai ,tolstoy's 8,what is ,art80 #aic1 #aii ,todi1 ,jacopone di1 #hg ,tondo of ,michelangelo1 #bc ,tongue1 ,miss1 #eg1 #ei ,tura1 ,cosima1 #agg ,turner and ,claude1 #adf ,tussaud1 ,mme41 #e ,ucello1 #d ---- and ,baldovinetti1 #abf ---- and ,cubism1 #abd ,ucello and ,van ,eyck1 #abd ---- and perspective1 #abd1 #abe ---- and ,signorelli1 #abf ,ucello's 8,st4 ,george10 #abc1 #abe ,vandyke1 #afd ,van ,eyck and ,ucello1 #abd ---- ,gogh1 #aeh ,varnish1 #aci ,vasari1 #hg1 #afi ---- and ,ucello1 #abc ,victorians and art1 #fe ,viollet-le-,duc1 #ahe ,virgil's influence on ,claude1 #adh1 #aeb ,von ,tschudi1 #aci ,waldus1 ,petrus1 #ii1 #ajj ,watteau1 #afd ,wells1 ,h4 ,g41 #cf 8,what is ,art80 by ,tolstoy1 #ah ,whistler1 #g ---- and ,beardsley1 #aed ---- and ,claude1 #aej ---- and ,ruskin1 #aij ,whistler's ,impressionism1 #aij ,whittier1 #bf ,young1 ,brigham1 #gd ,yucatan and ,guatemala1 #ga ,zola1 #e ---- and ,czanne1 #agb ,zuloaga1 ,seor1 #aee ,,the ,,end ,,printed ,,in ,,england ,,by ,,william ,,clowes ,,and ,,sons1 ,,limited1 ,,london ,,and ,,beccles4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,from notes of a lecture given to the ,fabian ,society1 #aiag4 #b ,new ,quarterly1 #aiji4 #c ,rodin is reported to have said1 8,a woman1 a mountain1 a horse--they are all the same thing2 they are made on the same principles40 ,that is to say1 their forms1 when viewed with the disinterested vision of the imaginative life1 have similar emotional elements4 #d ,i do not forget that at the death of ,tennyson the writer in the ,daily ,telegraph averred that 8level beams of the setting moon streamed in upon the face of the dying bard02 but then1 after all1 in its way the ,daily ,telegraph is a work of art4 #e ,athenum1 #aiai4 #f ,athenum1 #aiai4 #g ,reprinted with considerable alterations from 8,the ,great ,state40 7,harper4 #aiab47 #h ,athenum1 #aiai4 #i ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiaj4 #aj 8,the ,rendering of ,nature in ,early ,greek ,art40 ,by ,emmanuel ,loewy4 ,translated by ,j4 ,fothergill4 ,duckworth4 #aijg4 #aa 8,bushman ,drawings10 copied by ,m4 ,helen ,tongue1 with a preface by ,henry ,balfour4 ,oxford3 ,clarendon ,press4 #aiji4 #c #cs4 net4 #ab ,this absence of decorative feeling may be due to the irregular and vague outlines of the picture space4 ,it is when the picture must be fitted within determined limits that decoration begins4 ,i have noticed that children's drawings are never decorative when they have the whole surface of a sheet of paper to draw on1 but they will design a frieze with well-marked rhythm when they have only a narrow strip4 #ac ,this is certainly the case with the ,australian ,bushmen4 #ad ,athenum1 #aibj4 #ae ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiah4 #af ,thomas ,a4 ,joyce1 7#a7 8,south ,american ,archology10 ,london 7,macmillan71 #aiab2 7#b7 8,mexican ,archology10 ,london 7,lee ,warner71 #aiad2 7#c7 8,central ,american ,archology10 ,london and ,new ,york 7,putnam71 #aiaf4 #ag ,the ,burlington ,magazine1 vol4 xvii41 p4 #bb 7,april1 #aiaj74 #ah ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiaj4 #ai ,g4 ,migeon1 ,gazette des ,beaux-,arts1 ,june1 #aije1 and 8,manuel d',art ,musulman10 p4 #bbf4 #bj ,i cannot help calling attention1 though without any attempt at explaining it1 to the striking similarity to these ,sassanid and early ,mohammedan water jugs shown by an example of ,sung pottery lent by ,mr4 ,eumorfopoulos to the recent exhibition at the ,burlington ,fine ,arts ,club1 ,case ,a1 ,no4 #dc4 ,here a very similar form of spout is modelled into a phnix's head4 #ba ,the following1 from the ,monthly ,review1 #aija1 is perhaps more than any other article here reprinted1 at variance with the more recent expressions of my sthetic ideas4 ,it will be seen that great emphasis is laid on ,giotto's expression of the dramatic idea in his pictures4 ,i still think this is perfectly true so far as it goes1 nor do ,i doubt that an artist like ,giotto did envisage such an expression4 ,where ,i should be inclined to disagree is that there underlies this article a tacit assumption not only that the dramatic idea may have inspired the artist to the creation of his form1 but that the value of the form for us is bound up without recognition of the dramatic idea4 ,it now seems to me possible by a more searching analysis of our experience in front of a work of art to disentangle our reaction to pure form from our reaction to its implied associated ideas4 #bb ,cf4 ,h4 ,thode3 8,franz von ,assisi40 #bc ,dr4 ,j4 ,p4 ,richter3 8,lectures on the ,national ,gallery40 #bd ,one picture1 however1 ascribed by ,vasari to ,cimabue1 namely1 the ,madonna of the ,national ,gallery1 does not bear the characteristics of this group4 ,dr4 ,richter's argument for giving the ,rucellai painting to ,duccio depends largely on the likeness of this to the ,maesta1 but there is no reason to cling so closely to ,vasari's attributions4 ,if we except the ,national ,gallery ,madonna1 which shows the characteristics of the ,siennese school1 these pictures1 including the ,rucellai ,madonna1 will be found to cohere by many common peculiarities not shared by ,duccio4 ,among these we may notice the following3 ,the eye has the upper eyelid strongly marked2 it has a peculiar languishing expression1 due in part to the large elliptical iris 7,duccio's eyes have a small1 bright1 round iris with a keen expression72 the nose is distinctly articulated into three segments2 the mouth is generally slewed round from the perpendicular2 the hands are curiously curved1 and in all the ,madonnas clutch the supports of the throne2 the hair bows seen upon the halos have a constant and quite peculiar shape2 the drapery is designed in rectilinear triangular folds1 very different from ,duccio's more sinuous and flowing line4 ,the folds of the drapery where they come to the contour of the figure have no effect upon the form of the outline1 an error which ,duccio never makes4 ,finally1 the thrones in all these pictures have a constant form2 they are made of turned wood with a high footstool1 and are seen from the side2 ,duccio's is of stone and seen from the front4 ,that the ,rucellai ,madonna has a morbidezza which is wanting in the earlier works can hardly be considered a sufficient distinction to set against the formal characteristics4 ,it is clearly a later work1 painted probably about the year #acjj1 and ,cimabue1 like all the other artists of the time1 was striving constantly in the direction of greater fusion of tones4 #be ,i should speak now both with greater confidence and much greater enthusiasm of ,cimabue4 ,the attempt of certain scholars to dispose of him as a myth has broken down4 ,the late ,mr4 ,h4 ,p4 ,horne found that the documents cited by ,dr4 ,richter to prove that ,duccio executed the ,rucellai ,madonna referred to another picture4 ,i had also failed in my estimate to consider fully the superb crucifix by ,cimabue in the ,museum of ,sta4 ,croce1 a work of supreme artistic merit4 ,in general my defence of ,cimabue1 though right enough as far as it goes1 appears to me too timid and my estimate of his artistic quality far too low 7#aibj74 #bf ,the important position here assigned to the ,roman school has been confirmed by the subsequent discovery of ,cavallini's frescoes in ,sta4 ,cecilia at ,rome 7#aibj74 #bg 8,drunken with the love of compassion of ,christ1 the blessed ,francis would at times do such-like things as this2 for the passing sweet melody of the spirit within him1 seething over outwardly1 did often find utterance in the ,french tongue1 and the strain of the divine whisper that his ear had caught would break forth into a ,french song of joyous exulting40 ,then pretending with two sticks to play a viol1 8and making befitting gestures1 7he7 would sing in ,french of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ40--8,the ,mirror of ,perfection10 edited by ,p4 ,sabatier1 transl4 by ,s4 ,evans4 #bh 8,florentine ,painters of the ,renaissance and ,central ,italian ,painters of the ,renaissance10 by ,b4 ,berenson4 #bi ,this was the first 8representation0 of the kind in ,italy1 and is of interest as being the beginning of the ,italian ,drama1 and also of that infinite series of allegorical pageants1 sometimes sacred1 sometimes secular1 which for three centuries played such a prominent part in city life and affected ,italian art very intimately4 #cj ,the ,master of the ,cecilia altar-piece has been the object of much research since this article was written1 and a considerable number of important works are now ascribed to him with some confidence4 ,he has been tentatively identified with ,buffalonaceo by ,dr4 ,siren4 ,see ,burl4 ,mag41 ,december1 #aiai2 ,january1 ,october1 #aibj4 #ca ,this quality is to be distinguished from that conscious naturalistic study of atmospheric envelopment which engrossed the attention of some artists of the cinquecento2 it is a decorative quality which may occur at any period in the development of painting if only an artist arises gifted with a sufficiently delicate sensitiveness to the surface-quality of his work4 #cb ,i cannot recall any example in pre-,giottesque art4 #cc ,derived1 no doubt1 but greatly modified1 from ,cimabue's treatment of the subject at ,assisi4 #cd ,the attribution of the ,stefaneschi altar-piece to ,giotto is much disputed and some authorities give it to ,bernardo ,daddi4 ,i still incline to the idea that it is the work of ,giotto and the starting point of ,bernardo ,daddi's style 7#aibj74 #ce ,his name was ,bianchi4 #8,faut il se plaindre1' says ,m4 ,maurice ,denis in his ,thories1 #8qu'un ,bianchi1 plutt que les laisser prir1 ait ajout un peu de la froidure de ,flandrin aux fresques de ,giotto ,santa ,croce4' #cf ,this passage now seems to me to underestimate the work of ,giotto's predecessors with which we are now much better acquainted 7#aibj74 #cg ,burlington ,fine ,arts ,club ,exhibition of ,florentine ,paintings1 #aiai4 #ch ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiad4 #ci ,introduction to ,drer's ,letters and ,diary4 ,merrymount ,press1 ,boston 7#aiji74 #dj ,see ,plate1 where ,i have also added ,drer's version of the subject4 ,this is of course a new design and not a copy of ,mantegna's drawing1 though ,i suspect it is based on a vague memory of it4 ,in any case it shows admirably the distinguishing points of ,drer's methods of conception1 his love of complexity1 and his accumulation of decorative detail4 #da ,athenum1 #aibj4 #db ,burlington ,magazine1 #aijd4 #dc ,now in the possession of ,w4 ,graham ,robertson1 ,esq4 #dd ,burlington ,magazine1 #aijg4 #de ,as1 for instance1 in a wonderful drawing1 8,on the ,banks of the ,tiber10 in ,mr4 ,heseltine's collection4 #df ,it is not impossible that ,claude got the hint for such a treatment as this from the impressionist efforts of ,grco-,roman painters4 ,that he studied such works we know from a copy of one by him in the ,british ,museum4 #dg ,athenum1 #aijd4 #dh ,preface to ,catalogue of second ,post-,impressionist ,exhibition1 ,grafton ,galleries1 #aiab4 #di ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiab4 #ej ,i have had to paraphrase this passage1 but add the original4 ,whether my paraphrase is correct in detail or not1 ,i think there can be little doubt about the general meaning4 ,plin41 ,nat4 ,hist41 xxxv4 #fg3 8,parrhasius 444 confessione artificum in liniis extremis palmam adeptus4 ,hc est pictur summa sublimitas2 corpora enim pingere et media rerum est quidem magni operis1 sed in quo multi gloriam tulerint4 ,extrema corporum facere et desinentis pictur modum includere rarum in successu artis invenitur4 ,ambire enim debet se extremitas ipsa1 et sic desinere ut promittat alia post se ostendatque etiam quae occultat40 #ea ,see ,no4 #fb1 where1 so far as possible1 all the forms are reduced to a common measure by interpreting them all in terms of an elongated ovoid4 #eb ,burlington ,magazine1 #aiag3 8,paul ,czanne10 by ,ambroise ,vollard 7,paris1 #aiae74 #ec ,this has been done4 8,paul ,czanne10 by ,ambroise ,vollard 7,paris74 #ed ,vogue1 #aiah4 #ee ,athenum1 #aiai4 #ef #aibj4