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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19164-0.txt b/19164-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76eeeb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/19164-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5152 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lectures on Art, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Lectures on Art + Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: September 3, 2006 [eBook #19164] +[Most recently updated: May 28, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Transliteration of Greek words appears between + signs.] + + + + + Library Edition + +THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN + + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE + + TIME AND TIDE + + QUEEN OF THE AIR + + LECTURES ON ART AND LANDSCAPE + + ARATRA PENTELICI + + + NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION + NEW YORK CHICAGO + + *** + + LECTURES ON ART. + + DELIVERED + + BEFORE THE + + UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + + IN HILARY TERM, 1870. + + *** + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + LECTURE I. + +INAUGURAL 1 + + LECTURE II. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION 24 + + LECTURE III. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS 46 + + LECTURE IV. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE 66 + + LECTURE V. + +LINE 86 + + LECTURE VI. + +LIGHT 102 + + LECTURE VII. + +COLOUR 123 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1887. + + +The following lectures were the most important piece of my literary work +done with unabated power, best motive, and happiest concurrence of +circumstance. They were written and delivered while my mother yet lived, +and had vividest sympathy in all I was attempting;--while also my +friends put unbroken trust in me, and the course of study I had followed +seemed to fit me for the acceptance of noble tasks and graver +responsibilities than those only of a curious traveler, or casual +teacher. + +Men of the present world may smile at the sanguine utterances of the +first four lectures: but it has not been wholly my own fault that they +have remained unfulfilled; nor do I retract one word of hope for the +success of other masters, nor a single promise made to the sincerity of +the student's labor, on the lines here indicated. It would have been +necessary to my success, that I should have accepted permanent residence +in Oxford, and scattered none of my energy in other tasks. But I chose +to spend half my time at Coniston Waterhead; and to use half my force in +attempts to form a new social organization,--the St. George's +Guild,--which made all my Oxford colleagues distrustful of me, and many +of my Oxford hearers contemptuous. My mother's death in 1871, and that +of a dear friend in 1875, took away the personal joy I had in anything I +wrote or designed: and in 1876, feeling unable for Oxford duty, I +obtained a year's leave of rest, and, by the kind and wise counsel of +Prince Leopold, went to Venice, to reconsider the form into which I had +cast her history in the abstract of it given in the "Stones of Venice." + +The more true and close view of that history, begun in "St. Mark's +Rest," and the fresh architectural drawings made under the stimulus of +it, led me forward into new fields of thought, inconsistent with the +daily attendance needed by my Oxford classes; and in my discontent with +the state I saw them in, and my inability to return to their guidance +without abandonment of all my designs of Venetian and Italian history, +began the series of vexations which ended in the very nearly mortal +illness of 1878. + +Since, therefore, the period of my effective action in Oxford was only +from 1870 to 1875, it can scarcely be matter of surprise or reproof that +I could not in that time obtain general trust in a system of teaching +which, though founded on that of Da Vinci and Reynolds, was at variance +with the practice of all recent European academy schools; nor +establish--on the unassisted resources of the Slade Professorship--the +schools of Sculpture, Architecture, Metal-work, and manuscript +Illumination, of which the design is confidently traced in the four +inaugural lectures. + +In revising the book, I have indicated as in the last edition of the +"Seven Lamps," passages which the student will find generally +applicable, and in all their bearings useful, as distinguished from +those regarding only their immediate subject. The relative importance of +these broader statements, I again indicate by the use of capitals or +italics; and if the reader will index the sentences he finds useful for +his own work, in the blank pages left for that purpose at the close of +the volume, he will certainly get more good of them than if they had +been grouped for him according to the author's notion of their contents. + +SANDGATE, _10th January, 1888_. + + + + +LECTURES ON ART + + + + +LECTURE I + +INAUGURAL + + +1. The duty which is to-day laid on me, of introducing, among the +elements of education appointed in this great University, one not only +new, but such as to involve in its possible results some modification of +the rest, is, as you well feel, so grave, that no man could undertake it +without laying himself open to the imputation of a kind of insolence; +and no man could undertake it rightly, without being in danger of having +his hands shortened by dread of his task, and mistrust of himself. + +And it has chanced to me, of late, to be so little acquainted either +with pride or hope, that I can scarcely recover so much as I now need, +of the one for strength, and of the other for foresight, except by +remembering that noble persons, and friends of the high temper that +judges most clearly where it loves best, have desired that this trust +should be given me: and by resting also in the conviction that the +goodly tree whose roots, by God's help, we set in earth to-day, will not +fail of its height because the planting of it is under poor auspices, or +the first shoots of it enfeebled by ill gardening. + + +2. The munificence of the English gentleman to whom we owe the founding +of this Professorship at once in our three great Universities, has +accomplished the first great group of a series of changes now taking +gradual effect in our system of public education, which, as you well +know, are the sign of a vital change in the national mind, respecting +both the principles on which that education should be conducted, and the +ranks of society to which it should extend. For, whereas it was formerly +thought that the discipline necessary to form the character of youth was +best given in the study of abstract branches of literature and +philosophy, it is now thought that the same, or a better, discipline may +be given by informing men in early years of the things it will be of +chief practical advantage to them afterwards to know; and by permitting +to them the choice of any field of study which they may feel to be best +adapted to their personal dispositions. I have always used what poor +influence I possessed in advancing this change; nor can any one rejoice +more than I in its practical results. But the completion--I will not +venture to say, correction--of a system established by the highest +wisdom of noble ancestors, cannot be too reverently undertaken: and it +is necessary for the English people, who are sometimes violent in change +in proportion to the reluctance with which they admit its necessity, to +be now, oftener than at other times, reminded that the object of +instruction here is not primarily attainment, but discipline; and that a +youth is sent to our Universities, not (hitherto at least) to be +apprenticed to a trade, nor even always to be advanced in a profession; +but, always, to be made a gentleman and a scholar. + + +3. To be made these,--if there is in him the making of either. The +populaces of civilised countries have lately been under a feverish +impression that it is possible for all men to be both; and that having +once become, by passing through certain mechanical processes of +instruction, gentle and learned, they are sure to attain in the sequel +the consummate beatitude of being rich. + +Rich, in the way and measure in which it is well for them to be so, they +may, without doubt, _all_ become. There is indeed a land of Havilah open +to them, of which the wonderful sentence is literally true--"The gold of +_that_ land is good." But they must first understand, that education, in +its deepest sense, is not the equaliser, but the discerner, of men;[1] +and that, so far from being instruments for the collection of riches, +the first lesson of wisdom is to disdain them, and of gentleness, to +diffuse. + +[Footnote 1: The full meaning of this sentence, and of that which closes +the paragraph, can only be understood by reference to my more developed +statements on the subject of Education in "Modern Painters" and in "Time +and Tide." The following fourth paragraph is the most pregnant summary +of my political and social principles I have ever been able to give.] + +It is not therefore, as far as we can judge, yet possible for all men to +be gentlemen and scholars. Even under the best training some will remain +too selfish to refuse wealth, and some too dull to desire leisure. But +many more might be so than are now; nay, perhaps all men in England +might one day be so, if England truly desired her supremacy among the +nations to be in kindness and in learning. To which good end, it will +indeed contribute that we add some practice of the lower arts to our +scheme of University education; but the thing which is vitally necessary +is, that we should extend the spirit of University education to the +practice of the lower arts. + + +4. And, above all, it is needful that we do this by redeeming them from +their present pain of self-contempt, and by giving them _rest_. It has +been too long boasted as the pride of England, that out of a vast +multitude of men, confessed to be in evil case, it was possible for +individuals, by strenuous effort, and rare good fortune, occasionally to +emerge into the light, and look back with self-gratulatory scorn upon +the occupations of their parents, and the circumstances of their +infancy. Ought we not rather to aim at an ideal of national life, when, +of the employments of Englishmen, though each shall be distinct, none +shall be unhappy or ignoble; when mechanical operations, acknowledged to +be debasing in their tendency,[2] shall be deputed to less fortunate and +more covetous races; when advance from rank to rank, though possible to +all men, may be rather shunned than desired by the best; and the chief +object in the mind of every citizen may not be extrication from a +condition admitted to be disgraceful, but fulfilment of a duty which +shall be also a birthright? + +[Footnote 2: "+technai epirrêtoi+," compare page 81.] + + +5. And then, the training of all these distinct classes will not be by +Universities of general knowledge, but by distinct schools of such +knowledge as shall be most useful for every class: in which, first the +principles of their special business may be perfectly taught, and +whatever higher learning, and cultivation of the faculties for receiving +and giving pleasure, may be properly joined with that labour, taught in +connection with it. Thus, I do not despair of seeing a School of +Agriculture, with its fully-endowed institutes of zoology, botany, and +chemistry; and a School of Mercantile Seamanship, with its institutes of +astronomy, meteorology, and natural history of the sea: and, to name +only one of the finer, I do not say higher, arts, we shall, I hope, in a +little time, have a perfect school of Metal-work, at the head of which +will be, not the ironmasters, but the goldsmiths: and therein, I +believe, that artists, being taught how to deal wisely with the most +precious of metals, will take into due government the uses of all +others. + +But I must not permit myself to fail in the estimate of my immediate +duty, while I debate what that duty may hereafter become in the hands of +others; and I will therefore now, so far as I am able, lay before you a +brief general view of the existing state of the arts in England, and of +the influence which her Universities, through these newly-founded +lectureships, may, I hope, bring to bear upon it for good. + + +6. We have first to consider the impulse which has been given to the +practice of all the arts by the extension of our commerce, and enlarged +means of intercourse with foreign nations, by which we now become more +familiarly acquainted with their works in past and in present times. The +immediate result of these new opportunities, I regret to say, has been +to make us more jealous of the genius of others, than conscious of the +limitations of our own; and to make us rather desire to enlarge our +wealth by the sale of art, than to elevate our enjoyments by its +acquisition. + +Now, whatever efforts we make, with a true desire to produce, and +possess, things that are intrinsically beautiful, have in them at least +one of the essential elements of success. But efforts having origin only +in the hope of enriching ourselves by the sale of our productions, are +_assuredly_ condemned to dishonourable failure; not because, ultimately, +a well-trained nation is forbidden to profit by the exercise of its +peculiar art-skill; but because that peculiar art-skill can never be +developed _with a view_ to profit. The right fulfilment of national +power in art depends always on THE DIRECTION OF ITS AIM BY THE +EXPERIENCE OF AGES. Self-knowledge is not less difficult, nor less +necessary for the direction of its genius, to a people than to an +individual; and it is neither to be acquired by the eagerness of +unpractised pride, nor during the anxieties of improvident distress. No +nation ever had, or will have, the power of suddenly developing, under +the pressure of necessity, faculties it had neglected when it was at +ease; nor of teaching itself in poverty, the skill to produce, what it +has never, in opulence, had the sense to admire. + + +7. Connected also with some of the worst parts of our social system, but +capable of being directed to better result than this commercial +endeavour, we see lately a most powerful impulse given to the production +of costly works of art, by the various causes which promote the sudden +accumulation of wealth in the hands of private persons. We have thus a +vast and new patronage, which, in its present agency, is injurious to +our schools; but which is nevertheless in a great degree earnest and +conscientious, and far from being influenced chiefly by motives of +ostentation. Most of our rich men would be glad to promote the true +interests of art in this country: and even those who buy for vanity, +found their vanity on the possession of what they suppose to be best. + +It is therefore in a great measure the fault of artists themselves if +they suffer from this partly unintelligent, but thoroughly +well-intended, patronage. If they seek to attract it by eccentricity, to +deceive it by superficial qualities, or take advantage of it by +thoughtless and facile production, they necessarily degrade themselves +and it together, and have no right to complain afterwards that it will +not acknowledge better-grounded claims. But if every painter of real +power would do only what he knew to be worthy of himself, and refuse to +be involved in the contention for undeserved or accidental success, +there is indeed, whatever may have been thought or said to the contrary, +true instinct enough in the public mind to follow such firm guidance. It +is one of the facts which the experience of thirty years enables me to +assert without qualification, that a really good picture is ultimately +always approved and bought, unless it is wilfully rendered offensive to +the public by faults which the artist has been either too proud to +abandon or too weak to correct. + + +8. The development of whatever is healthful and serviceable in the two +modes of impulse which we have been considering, depends however, +ultimately, on the direction taken by the true interest in art which has +lately been aroused by the great and active genius of many of our +living, or but lately lost, painters, sculptors, and architects. It may +perhaps surprise, but I think it will please you to hear me, or (if you +will forgive me, in my own Oxford, the presumption of fancying that some +may recognise me by an old name) to hear the author of "Modern Painters" +say, that his chief error in earlier days was not in over estimating, +but in too slightly acknowledging the merit of living men. The great +painter whose power, while he was yet among us, I was able to perceive, +was the first to reprove me for my disregard of the skill of his +fellow-artists; and, with this inauguration of the study of the art of +all time,--a study which can only by true modesty end in wise +admiration,--it is surely well that I connect the record of these words +of his, spoken then too truly to myself, and true always more or less +for all who are untrained in that toil,--"You don't know how difficult +it is." + +You will not expect me, within the compass of this lecture, to give you +any analysis of the many kinds of excellent art (in all the three great +divisions) which the complex demands of modern life, and yet more varied +instincts of modern genius, have developed for pleasure or service. It +must be my endeavour, in conjunction with my colleagues in the other +Universities, hereafter to enable you to appreciate these worthily; in +the hope that also the members of the Royal Academy, and those of the +Institute of British Architects, may be induced to assist, and guide, +the efforts of the Universities, by organising such a system of +art-education for their own students, as shall in future prevent the +waste of genius in any mistaken endeavours; especially removing doubt as +to the proper substance and use of materials; and requiring compliance +with certain elementary principles of right, in every picture and design +exhibited with their sanction. It is not indeed possible for talent so +varied as that of English artists to be compelled into the formalities +of a determined school; but it must certainly be the function of every +academical body to see that their younger students are guarded from what +must in every school be error; and that they are practised in the best +methods of work hitherto known, before their ingenuity is directed to +the invention of others. + + +9. I need scarcely refer, except for the sake of completeness in my +statement, to one form of demand for art which is wholly unenlightened, +and powerful only for evil;--namely, the demand of the classes occupied +solely in the pursuit of pleasure, for objects and modes of art that can +amuse indolence or excite passion. There is no need for any discussion +of these requirements, or of their forms of influence, though they are +very deadly at present in their operation on sculpture, and on +jewellers' work. They cannot be checked by blame, nor guided by +instruction; they are merely the necessary result of whatever defects +exist in the temper and principles of a luxurious society; and it is +only by moral changes, not by art-criticism, that their action can be +modified. + + +10. Lastly, there is a continually increasing demand for popular art, +multipliable by the printing-press, illustrative of daily events, of +general literature, and of natural science. Admirable skill, and some of +the best talent of modern times, are occupied in supplying this want; +and there is no limit to the good which may be effected by rightly +taking advantage of the powers we now possess of placing good and lovely +art within the reach of the poorest classes. Much has been already +accomplished; but great harm has been done also,--first, by forms of art +definitely addressed to depraved tastes; and, secondly, in a more subtle +way, by really beautiful and useful engravings which are yet not good +enough to retain their influence on the public mind;--which weary it by +redundant quantity of monotonous average excellence, and diminish or +destroy its power of accurate attention to work of a higher order. + +Especially this is to be regretted in the effect produced on the schools +of line engraving, which had reached in England an executive skill of a +kind before unexampled, and which of late have lost much of their more +sterling and legitimate methods. Still, I have seen plates produced +quite recently, more beautiful, I think, in some qualities than anything +ever before attained by the burin: and I have not the slightest fear +that photography, or any other adverse or competitive operation, will in +the least ultimately diminish,--I believe they will, on the contrary, +stimulate and exalt--the grand old powers of the wood and the steel. + + +11. Such are, I think, briefly the present conditions of art with which +we have to deal; and I conceive it to be the function of this +Professorship, with respect to them, to establish both a practical and +critical school of fine art for English gentlemen: practical, so that if +they draw at all, they may draw rightly; and critical, so that being +first directed to such works of existing art as will best reward their +study, they may afterwards make their patronage of living artists +delightful to themselves in their consciousness of its justice, and, to +the utmost, beneficial to their country, by being given to the men who +deserve it; in the early period of their lives, when they both need it +most, and can be influenced by it to the best advantage. + + +12. And especially with reference to this function of patronage, I +believe myself justified in taking into account future probabilities as +to the character and range of art in England: and I shall endeavour at +once to organise with you a system of study calculated to develop +chiefly the knowledge of those branches in which the English schools +have shown, and are likely to show, peculiar excellence. + +Now, in asking your sanction both for the nature of the general plans I +wish to adopt, and for what I conceive to be necessary limitations of +them, I wish you to be fully aware of my reasons for both: and I will +therefore risk the burdening of your patience while I state the +directions of effort in which I think English artists are liable to +failure, and those also in which past experience has shown they are +secure of success. + + +13. I referred, but now, to the effort we are making to improve the +designs of our manufactures. Within certain limits I believe this +improvement may indeed take effect: so that we may no more humour +momentary fashions by ugly results of chance instead of design; and may +produce both good tissues, of harmonious colours, and good forms and +substance of pottery and glass. But we shall never excel in decorative +design. Such design is usually produced by people of great natural +powers of mind, who have no variety of subjects to employ themselves on, +no oppressive anxieties, and are in circumstances either of natural +scenery or of daily life, which cause pleasurable excitement. _We_ +cannot design, because we have too much to think of, and we think of it +too anxiously. It has long been observed how little real anxiety exists +in the minds of the partly savage races which excel in decorative art; +and we must not suppose that the temper of the Middle Ages was a +troubled one, because every day brought its danger or its change. The +very eventfulness of the life rendered it careless, as generally is +still the case with soldiers and sailors. Now, when there are great +powers of thought, and little to think of, all the waste energy and +fancy are thrown into the manual work, and you have so much intellect as +would direct the affairs of a large mercantile concern for a day, spent +all at once, quite unconsciously, in drawing an ingenious spiral. + +Also, powers of doing fine ornamental work are only to be reached by a +perpetual discipline of the hand as well as of the fancy; discipline as +attentive and painful as that which a juggler has to put himself +through, to overcome the more palpable difficulties of his profession. +The execution of the best artists is always a splendid tour-de-force; +and much that in painting is supposed to be dependent on material is +indeed only a lovely and quite inimitable legerdemain. Now, when powers +of fancy, stimulated by this triumphant precision of manual dexterity, +descend uninterruptedly from generation to generation, you have at last, +what is not so much a trained artist, as a new species of animal, with +whose instinctive gifts you have no chance of contending. And thus all +our imitations of other people's work are futile. We must learn first to +make honest English wares, and afterwards to decorate them as may please +the then approving Graces. + + +14. Secondly--and this is an incapacity of a graver kind, yet having its +own good in it also--we shall never be successful in the highest fields +of ideal or theological art. + +For there is one strange, but quite essential, character in us: ever +since the Conquest, if not earlier:--a delight in the forms of burlesque +which are connected in some degree with the foulness of evil. I think +the most perfect type of a true English mind in its best possible +temper, is that of Chaucer; and you will find that, while it is for the +most part full of thoughts of beauty, pure and wild like that of an +April morning, there are even in the midst of this, sometimes +momentarily jesting passages which stoop to play with evil--while the +power of listening to and enjoying the jesting of entirely gross +persons, whatever the feeling may be which permits it, afterwards +degenerates into forms of humour which render some of quite the +greatest, wisest, and most moral of English writers now almost useless +for our youth. And yet you will find that whenever Englishmen are wholly +without this instinct, their genius is comparatively weak and +restricted. + + +15. Now, the first necessity for the doing of any great work in ideal +art, is the looking upon all foulness with horror, as a contemptible +though dreadful enemy. You may easily understand what I mean, by +comparing the feelings with which Dante regards any form of obscenity or +of base jest, with the temper in which the same things are regarded by +Shakespeare. And this strange earthly instinct of ours, coupled as it +is, in our good men, with great simplicity and common sense, renders +them shrewd and perfect observers and delineators of actual nature, low +or high; but precludes them from that specialty of art which is properly +called sublime. If ever we try anything in the manner of Michael Angelo +or of Dante, we catch a fall, even in literature, as Milton in the +battle of the angels, spoiled from Hesiod; while in art, every attempt +in this style has hitherto been the sign either of the presumptuous +egotism of persons who had never really learned to be workmen, or it has +been connected with very tragic forms of the contemplation of death,--it +has always been partly insane, and never once wholly successful. + +But we need not feel any discomfort in these limitations of our +capacity. We can do much that others cannot, and more than we have ever +yet ourselves completely done. Our first great gift is in the +portraiture of living people--a power already so accomplished in both +Reynolds and Gainsborough that nothing is left for future masters but to +add the calm of perfect workmanship to their vigour and felicity of +perception. And of what value a true school of portraiture may become in +the future, when worthy men will desire only to be known, and others +will not fear to know them, for what they truly were, we cannot from +any past records of art influence yet conceive. But in my next address +it will be partly my endeavour to show you how much more useful, because +more humble, the labour of great masters might have been, had they been +content to bear record of the souls that were dwelling with them on +earth, instead of striving to give a deceptive glory to those they +dreamed of in heaven. + + +16. Secondly, we have an intense power of invention and expression in +domestic drama; (King Lear and Hamlet being essentially domestic in +their strongest motives of interest). There is a tendency at this moment +towards a noble development of our art in this direction, checked by +many adverse conditions, which may be summed in one,--the insufficiency +of generous civic or patriotic passion in the heart of the English +people; a fault which makes its domestic affection selfish, contracted, +and, therefore, frivolous. + + +17. Thirdly, in connection with our simplicity and good-humour, and +partly with that very love of the grotesque which debases our ideal, we +have a sympathy with the lower animals which is peculiarly our own; and +which, though it has already found some exquisite expression in the +works of Bewick and Landseer, is yet quite undeveloped. This sympathy, +with the aid of our now authoritative science of physiology, and in +association with our British love of adventure, will, I hope, enable us +to give to the future inhabitants of the globe an almost perfect record +of the present forms of animal life upon it, of which many are on the +point of being extinguished. + +Lastly, but not as the least important of our special powers, I have to +note our skill in landscape, of which I will presently speak more +particularly. + + +18. Such I conceive to be the directions in which, principally, we have +the power to excel; and you must at once see how the consideration of +them must modify the advisable methods of our art study. For if our +professional painters were likely to produce pieces of art loftily ideal +in their character, it would be desirable to form the taste of the +students here by setting before them only the purest examples of Greek, +and the mightiest of Italian, art. But I do not think you will yet find +a single instance of a school directed exclusively to these higher +branches of study in England, which has strongly, or even definitely, +made impression on its younger scholars. While, therefore, I shall +endeavour to point out clearly the characters to be looked for and +admired in the great masters of imaginative design, I shall make no +special effort to stimulate the imitation of them; and above all things, +I shall try to probe in you, and to prevent, the affectation into which +it is easy to fall, even through modesty,--of either endeavouring to +admire a grandeur with which we have no natural sympathy, or losing the +pleasure we might take in the study of familiar things, by considering +it a sign of refinement to look for what is of higher class, or rarer +occurrence. + + +19. Again, if our artisans were likely to attain any distinguished skill +in ornamental design, it would be incumbent upon me to make my class +here accurately acquainted with the principles of earth and metal work, +and to accustom them to take pleasure in conventional arrangements of +colour and form. I hope, indeed, to do this, so far as to enable them to +discern the real merit of many styles of art which are at present +neglected; and, above all, to read the minds of semi-barbaric nations in +the only language by which their feelings were capable of expression; +and those members of my class whose temper inclines them to take +pleasure in the interpretation of mythic symbols, will not probably be +induced to quit the profound fields of investigation which early art, +examined carefully, will open to them, and which belong to it alone: for +this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the +same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by +it; and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention. Nevertheless, +when I have once sufficiently pointed out the nature and value of this +conventional work, and vindicated it from the contempt with which it is +too generally regarded, I shall leave the student to his own pleasure in +its pursuit; and even, so far as I may, discourage all admiration +founded on quaintness or peculiarity of style; and repress any other +modes of feeling which are likely to lead rather to fastidious +collection of curiosities, than to the intelligent appreciation of work +which, being executed in compliance with constant laws of right, cannot +be singular, and must be distinguished only by excellence in what is +always desirable. + + +20. While, therefore, in these and such other directions, I shall +endeavour to put every adequate means of advance within reach of the +members of my class, I shall use my own best energy to show them what is +consummately beautiful and well done, by men who have passed through the +symbolic or suggestive stage of design, and have enabled themselves to +comply, by truth of representation, with the strictest or most eager +demands of accurate science, and of disciplined passion. I shall +therefore direct your observation, during the greater part of the time +you may spare to me, to what is indisputably best, both in painting and +sculpture; trusting that you will afterwards recognise the nascent and +partial skill of former days both with greater interest and greater +respect, when you know the full difficulty of what it attempted, and the +complete range of what it foretold. + + +21. And with this view, I shall at once endeavour to do what has for +many years been in my thoughts, and now, with the advice and assistance +of the curators of the University Galleries, I do not doubt may be +accomplished here in Oxford, just where it will be preëminently +useful--namely, to arrange an educational series of examples of +excellent art, standards to which you may at once refer on any +questionable point, and by the study of which you may gradually attain +an instinctive sense of right, which will afterwards be liable to no +serious error. Such a collection may be formed, both more perfectly, and +more easily, than would commonly be supposed. For the real utility of +the series will depend on its restricted extent,--on the severe +exclusion of all second-rate, superfluous, or even attractively varied +examples,--and On the confining the students' attention to a few types +of what is insuperably good. More progress in power of judgment may be +made in a limited time by the examination of one work, than by the +review of many; and a certain degree of vitality is given to the +impressiveness of every characteristic, by its being exhibited in clear +contrast, and without repetition. + +The greater number of the examples I shall choose will be only +engravings or photographs: they shall be arranged so as to be easily +accessible, and I will prepare a catalogue, pointing out my purpose in +the selection of each. But in process of time, I have good hope that +assistance will be given me by the English public in making the series +here no less splendid than serviceable; and in placing minor +collections, arranged on a similar principle, at the command also of the +students in our public schools. + + +22. In the second place, I shall endeavour to prevail upon all the +younger members of the University who wish to attend the art lectures, +to give at least so much time to manual practice as may enable them to +understand the nature and difficulty of executive skill. The time so +spent will not be lost, even as regards their other studies at the +University, for I will prepare the practical exercises in a double +series, one illustrative of history, the other of natural science. And +whether you are drawing a piece of Greek armour, or a hawk's beak, or a +lion's paw, you will find that the mere necessity of using the hand +compels attention to circumstances which would otherwise have escaped +notice, and fastens them in the memory without farther effort. But were +it even otherwise, and this practical training did really involve some +sacrifice of your time, I do not fear but that it will be justified to +you by its felt results: and I think that general public feeling is also +tending to the admission that accomplished education must include, not +only full command of expression by language, but command of true musical +sound by the voice, and of true form by the hand. + + +23. While I myself hold this professorship, I shall direct you in these +exercises very definitely to natural history, and to landscape; not only +because in these two branches I am probably able to show you truths +which might be despised by my successors: but because I think the vital +and joyful study of natural history quite the principal element +requiring introduction, not only into University, but into national, +education, from highest to lowest; and I even will risk incurring your +ridicule by confessing one of my fondest dreams, that I may succeed in +making some of you English youths like better to look at a bird than to +shoot it; and even desire to make wild creatures tame, instead of tame +creatures wild. And for the study of landscape, it is, I think, now +calculated to be of use in deeper, if not more important modes, than +that of natural science, for reasons which I will ask you to let me +state at some length. + + +24. Observe first;--no race of men which is entirely bred in wild +country, far from cities, ever enjoys landscape. They may enjoy the +beauty of animals, but scarcely even that: a true peasant cannot see the +beauty of cattle; but only qualities expressive of their +serviceableness. I waive discussion of this to-day; permit my assertion +of it, under my confident guarantee of future proof. Landscape can only +be enjoyed by cultivated persons; and it is only by music, literature, +and painting, that cultivation can be given. Also, the faculties which +are thus received are hereditary; so that the child of an educated race +has an innate instinct for beauty, derived from arts practised hundreds +of years before its birth. Now farther note this, one of the loveliest +things in human nature. In the children of noble races, trained by +surrounding art, and at the same time in the practice of great deeds, +there is an intense delight in the landscape of their country as +_memorial_; a sense not taught to them, nor teachable to any others; +but, in them, innate; and the seal and reward of persistence in great +national life;--the obedience and the peace of ages having extended +gradually the glory of the revered ancestors also to the ancestral +land; until the Motherhood of the dust, the mystery of the Demeter from +whose bosom we came, and to whose bosom we return, surrounds and +inspires, everywhere, the local awe of field and fountain; the +sacredness of landmark that none may remove, and of wave that none may +pollute; while records of proud days, and of dear persons, make every +rock monumental with ghostly inscription, and every path lovely with +noble desolateness. + + +25. Now, however checked by lightness of temperament, the instinctive +love of landscape in us has this deep root, which, in your minds, I will +pray you to disencumber from whatever may oppress or mortify it, and to +strive to feel with all the strength of your youth that a nation is only +worthy of the soil and the scenes that it has inherited, when, by all +its acts and arts, it is making them more lovely for its children. + +And now, I trust, you will feel that it is not in mere yielding to my +own fancies that I have chosen, for the first three subjects in your +educational series, landscape scenes;--two in England, and one in +France,--the association of these being not without purpose:--and for +the fourth Albert Dürer's dream of the Spirit of Labour. And of the +landscape subjects, I must tell you this much. The first is an engraving +only; the original drawing by Turner was destroyed by fire twenty years +ago. For which loss I wish you to be sorry, and to remember, in +connection with this first example, that whatever remains to us of +possession in the arts is, compared to what we might have had if we had +cared for them, just what that engraving is to the lost drawing. You +will find also that its subject has meaning in it which will not be +harmful to you. The second example is a real drawing by Turner, in the +same series, and very nearly of the same place; the two scenes are +within a quarter of a mile of each other. It will show you the character +of the work that was destroyed. It will show you, in process of time, +much more; but chiefly, and this is my main reason for choosing both, it +will be a permanent expression to you of what English landscape was +once;--and must, if we are to remain a nation, be again. + +I think it farther right to tell you, for otherwise you might hardly pay +regard enough to work apparently so simple, that by a chance which is +not altogether displeasing to me, this drawing, which it has become, for +these reasons, necessary for me to give you, is--not indeed the best I +have, (I have several as good, though none better)--but, of all I have, +the one I had least mind to part with. + +The third example is also a Turner drawing--a scene on the Loire--never +engraved. It is an introduction to the series of the Loire, which you +have already; it has in its present place a due concurrence with the +expressional purpose of its companions; and though small, it is very +precious, being a faultless, and, I believe, unsurpassable example of +water-colour painting. + +Chiefly, however, remember the object of these three first examples is +to give you an index to your truest feelings about European, and +especially about your native landscape, as it is pensive and historical; +and so far as you yourselves make any effort at its representation, to +give you a motive for fidelity in handwork more animating than any +connected with mere success in the art itself. + + +26. With respect to actual methods of practice, I will not incur the +responsibility of determining them for you. We will take Lionardo's +treatise on painting for our first text-book; and I think you need not +fear being misled by me if I ask you to do only what Lionardo bids, or +what will be necessary to enable you to do his bidding. But you need not +possess the book, nor read it through. I will translate the pieces to +the authority of which I shall appeal; and, in process of time, by +analysis of this fragmentary treatise, show you some characters not +usually understood of the simplicity as well as subtlety common to most +great workmen of that age. Afterwards we will collect the instructions +of other undisputed masters, till we have obtained a code of laws +clearly resting on the consent of antiquity. + +While, however, I thus in some measure limit for the present the methods +of your practice, I shall endeavour to make the courses of my University +lectures as wide in their range as my knowledge will permit. The range +so conceded will be narrow enough; but I believe that my proper function +is not to acquaint you with the general history, but with the essential +principles of art; and with its history only when it has been both great +and good, or where some special excellence of it requires examination of +the causes to which it must be ascribed. + + +27. But if either our work, or our enquiries, are to be indeed +successful in their own field, they must be connected with others of a +sterner character. Now listen to me, if I have in these past details +lost or burdened your attention; for this is what I have chiefly to say +to you. The art of any country is _the exponent of its social and +political virtues_. I will show you that it is so in some detail, in the +second of my subsequent course of lectures; meantime accept this as one +of the things, and the most important of all things, I can positively +declare to you. The art, or general productive and formative energy, of +any country, is an exact exponent of its ethical life. You can have +noble art only from noble persons, associated under laws fitted to their +time and circumstances. And the best skill that any teacher of art could +spend here in your help, would not end in enabling you even so much as +rightly to draw the water-lilies in the Cherwell (and though it did, the +work when done would not be worth the lilies themselves) unless both he +and you were seeking, as I trust we shall together seek, in the laws +which regulate the finest industries, the clue to the laws which +regulate _all_ industries, and in better obedience to which we shall +actually have henceforward to live: not merely in compliance with our +own sense of what is right, but under the weight of quite literal +necessity. For the trades by which the British people has believed it to +be the highest of destinies to maintain itself, cannot now long remain +undisputed in its hands; its unemployed poor are daily becoming more +violently criminal; and a certain distress in the middle classes, +arising, _partly from their vanity in living always up to their incomes, +and partly from their folly in imagining that they can subsist in +idleness upon usury_, will at last compel the sons and daughters of +English families to acquaint themselves with the principles of +providential economy; and to learn that food can only be got out of the +ground, and competence only secured by frugality; and that although it +is not possible for all to be occupied in the highest arts, nor for any, +guiltlessly, to pass their days in a succession of pleasures, the most +perfect mental culture possible to men is founded on their useful +energies, and their best arts and brightest happiness are consistent, +and consistent only, with their virtue. + + +28. This, I repeat, gentlemen, will soon become manifest to those among +us, and there are yet many, who are honest-hearted. And the future fate +of England depends upon the position they then take, and on their +courage in maintaining it. + +There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race; a +race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. We +have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an +inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years of +noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice, so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years we +have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity which +has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be +no king in it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his +own eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon +and Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of +light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions;--faithful servant of time-tried principles, under +temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and amidst the +cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange +valour of goodwill towards men? + + +29. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." Yes, but of which king? There are the two +oriflammes; which shall we plant on the farthest islands,--the one that +floats in heavenly fire, or that hangs heavy with foul tissue of +terrestrial gold? There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to +us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But +it must be--it _is_ with us, now, "Reign or Die." And if it shall be +said of this country, "Fece per viltate, il gran rifiuto;" that refusal +of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest +and most untimely. + +And this is what she must either do, or perish: she must found colonies +as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and +worthiest men;--seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set +her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief +virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is +to be to advance the power of England by land and sea: and that, though +they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more to consider +themselves therefore disfranchised from their native land, than the +sailors of her fleets do, because they float on distant waves. So that +literally, these colonies must be fastened fleets; and every man of them +must be under authority of captains and officers, whose better command +is to be over fields and streets instead of ships of the line; and +England, in these her motionless navies (or, in the true and mightiest +sense, motionless _churches_, ruled by pilots on the Galilean lake of +all the world), is to "expect every man to do his duty;" recognising +that duty is indeed possible no less in peace than war; and that if we +can get men, for little pay, to cast themselves against cannon-mouths +for love of England, we may find men also who will plough and sow for +her, who will behave kindly and righteously for her, who will bring up +their children to love her, and who will gladden themselves in the +brightness of her glory, more than in all the light of tropic skies. + +But that they may be able to do this, she must make her own majesty +stainless; she must give them thoughts of their home of which they can +be proud. The England who is to be mistress of half the earth, cannot +remain herself a heap of cinders, trampled by contending and miserable +crowds; she must yet again become the England she was once, and in all +beautiful ways,--more: so happy, so secluded, and so pure, that in her +sky--polluted by no unholy clouds--she may be able to spell rightly of +every star that heaven doth show; and in her fields, ordered and wide +and fair, of every herb that sips the dew; and under the green avenues +of her enchanted garden, a sacred Circe, true Daughter of the Sun, she +must guide the human arts, and gather the divine knowledge, of distant +nations, transformed from savageness to manhood, and redeemed from +despairing into peace. + + +30. You think that an impossible ideal. Be it so; refuse to accept it if +you will; but see that you form your own in its stead. All that I ask of +you is to have a fixed purpose of some kind for your country and +yourselves; no matter how restricted, so that it be fixed and unselfish. +I know what stout hearts are in you, to answer acknowledged need: but it +is the fatallest form of error in English youths to hide their hardihood +till it fades for lack of sunshine, and to act in disdain of purpose, +till all purpose is vain. It is not by deliberate, but by careless +selfishness; not by compromise with evil, but by dull following of good, +that the weight of national evil increases upon us daily. Break through +at least this pretence of existence; determine what you will be, and +what you would win. You will not decide wrongly if you will resolve to +decide at all. Were even the choice between lawless pleasure and loyal +suffering, you would not, I believe, choose basely. But your trial is +not so sharp. It is between drifting in confused wreck among the +castaways of Fortune, who condemns to assured ruin those who know not +either how to resist her, or obey; between this, I say, and the taking +of your appointed part in the heroism of Rest; the resolving to share in +the victory which is to the weak rather than the strong; and the binding +yourselves by that law, which, thought on through lingering night and +labouring day, makes a man's life to be as a tree planted by the +water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;-- + + "ET FOLIUM EJUS NON DEFLUET, + ET OMNIA, QUÆCUNQUE FACIET, PROSPERABUNTUR." + + + + +LECTURE II + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION + + +31. It was stated, and I trust partly with your acceptance, in my +opening lecture, that the study on which we are about to enter cannot be +rightly undertaken except in furtherance of the grave purposes of life +with respect to which the rest of the scheme of your education here is +designed. But you can scarcely have at once felt all that I intended in +saying so;--you cannot but be still partly under the impression that the +so-called fine arts are merely modes of graceful recreation, and a new +resource for your times of rest. Let me ask you, forthwith, so far as +you can trust me, to change your thoughts in this matter. All the great +arts have for their object either the support or exaltation of human +life,--usually both; and their dignity, and ultimately their very +existence, depend on their being "μετὰ λόγου ἀληθοῦς," that is +to say, apprehending, with right reason, the nature of the materials +they work with, of the things they relate or represent, and of the +faculties to which they are addressed. And farther, they form one united +system from which it is impossible to remove any part without harm to +the rest. They are founded first in mastery, by strength of _arm_, of +the earth and sea, in agriculture and seamanship; then their inventive +power begins, with the clay in the hand of the potter, whose art is the +humblest but truest type of the forming of the human body and spirit; +and in the carpenter's work, which probably was the early employment of +the Founder of our religion. And until men have perfectly learned the +laws of art in clay and wood, they can consummately know no others. Nor +is it without the strange significance which you will find in what at +first seems chance, in all noble histories, as soon as you can read +them rightly,--that the statue of Athena Polias was of olive-wood, and +that the Greek temple and Gothic spire are both merely the permanent +representations of useful wooden structures. On these two first arts +follow building in stone,--sculpture,--metal work,--and painting; every +art being properly called "fine" which demands the exercise of the full +faculties of heart and intellect. For though the fine arts are not +necessarily imitative or representative, for their essence is in being ++peri genesin+--occupied in the actual _production_ of beautiful +form or colour,--still, the highest of them are appointed also to relate +to us the utmost ascertainable truth respecting visible things and moral +feelings: and this pursuit of _fact_ is the vital _element_ of the art +power;--that in which alone it can develop itself to its utmost. And I +will anticipate by an assertion which you will at present think too +bold, but which I am willing that you should think so, in order that you +may well remember it,--THE HIGHEST THING THAT ART CAN DO IS TO SET +BEFORE YOU THE TRUE IMAGE OF THE PRESENCE OF A NOBLE HUMAN BEING. IT HAS +NEVER DONE MORE THAN THIS, AND IT OUGHT NOT TO DO LESS. + + +32. The great arts--forming thus one perfect scheme of human skill, of +which it is not right to call one division more honourable, though it +may be more subtle, than another--have had, and can have, but three +principal directions of purpose:--first, that of enforcing the religion +of men; secondly, that of perfecting their ethical state; thirdly, that +of doing them material service. + + +33. I do not doubt but that you are surprised at my saying the arts can +in their second function only be directed to the perfecting of ethical +state, it being our usual impression that they are often destructive of +morality. But it is impossible to direct fine art to an immoral end, +except by giving it characters unconnected with its fineness, or by +addressing it to persons who cannot perceive it to be fine. Whosoever +recognises it is exalted by it. On the other hand, it has been commonly +thought that art was a most fitting means for the enforcement of +religious doctrines and emotions; whereas there is, as I must presently +try to show you, room for grave doubt whether it has not in this +function hitherto done evil rather than good. + + +34. In this and the two next following lectures, I shall endeavour +therefore to show you the grave relations of human art, in these three +functions, to human life. I can do this but roughly, as you may well +suppose--since each of these subjects would require for its right +treatment years instead of hours. Only, remember, _I_ have already given +years, not a few, to each of them; and what I try to tell _you_ now will +be only so much as is absolutely necessary to set our work on a clear +foundation. You may not, at present, see the necessity for _any_ +foundation, and may think that I ought to put pencil and paper in your +hands at once. On that point I must simply answer, "Trust me a little +while," asking you however also to remember, that--irrespectively of any +consideration of last or first--my true function here is not that of +your master in painting, or sculpture, or pottery; but to show you what +it is that makes any of these arts _fine_, or the contrary of _fine_: +essentially _good_, or essentially _base_. You need not fear my not +being practical enough for you; all the industry you choose to give me, +I will take; but far the better part of what you may gain by such +industry would be lost, if I did not first lead you to see what every +form of art-industry intends, and why some of it is justly called right, +and some wrong. + + +35. It would be well if you were to look over, with respect to this +matter, the end of the second, and what interests you of the third, book +of Plato's Republic; noting therein these two principal things, of which +I have to speak in this and my next lecture: first, the power which +Plato so frankly, and quite justly, attributes to art, of _falsifying_ +our conceptions of Deity: which power he by fatal error partly implies +may be used wisely for good, and that the feigning is only wrong when it +is of evil, "+ean tis mê kalôs pseudêtai+;" and you may trace +through all that follows the beginning of the change of Greek ideal art +into a beautiful expediency, instead of what it was in the days of +Pindar, the statement of what "could not be otherwise than so." But, in +the second place, you will find in those books of the Polity, stated +with far greater accuracy of expression than our English language +admits, the essential relations of art to morality; the sum of these +being given in one lovely sentence, which, considering that we have +to-day grace done us by fair companionship,[3] you will pardon me for +translating. "_Must it be then only with our poets that we insist they +shall either create for us the image of a noble morality, or among us +create none? or shall we not also keep guard over all other workers for +the people, and forbid them to make what is ill-customed, and +unrestrained, and ungentle, and without order or shape, either in +likeness of living things, or in buildings, or in any other thing +whatsoever that is made for the people? and shall we not rather seek for +workers who_ CAN TRACK THE INNER NATURE OF ALL THAT MAY BE SWEETLY +SCHEMED; _so that the young men, as living in a wholesome place, may be +profited by everything that, in work fairly wrought, may touch them +through hearing or sight--as if it were a breeze bringing health to them +from places strong for life?_" + +[Footnote 3: There were, in fact, a great many more girls than +University men at the lectures.] + + +36. And now--but one word, before we enter on our task, as to the way +you must understand what I may endeavour to tell you. + +Let me beg you--now and always--not to think that I mean more than I +say. In all probability, I mean just what I say, and only that. At all +events I do fully mean _that_; and if there is anything reserved in my +mind, it will be probably different from what you would guess. You are +perfectly welcome to know all that I think, as soon as I have put before +you all my grounds for thinking it; but by the time I have done so, you +will be able to form an opinion of your own; and mine will then be of no +consequence to you. + + +37. I use then to-day, as I shall in future use, the word "Religion" as +signifying the feelings of love, reverence, or dread with which the +human mind is affected by its conceptions of spiritual being; and you +know well how necessary it is, both to the rightness of our own life, +and to the understanding the lives of others, that we should always keep +clearly distinguished our ideas of Religion, as thus defined, and of +Morality, as the law of rightness in human conduct. For there are many +religions, but there is only one morality. There are moral and immoral +religions, which differ as much in precept as in emotion; but there is +only one morality, WHICH HAS BEEN, IS, AND MUST BE FOR EVER, AN INSTINCT +IN THE HEARTS OF ALL CIVILISED MEN, AS CERTAIN AND UNALTERABLE AS THEIR +OUTWARD BODILY FORM, AND WHICH RECEIVES FROM RELIGION NEITHER LAW, NOR +PLACE; BUT ONLY HOPE, AND FELICITY. + + +38. The pure forms or states of religion hitherto known, are those in +which a healthy humanity, finding in itself many foibles and sins, has +imagined, or been made conscious of, the existence of higher spiritual +personality, liable to no such fault or stain; and has been assisted in +effort, and consoled in pain, by reference to the will or sympathy of +such purer spirits, whether imagined or real. I am compelled to use +these painful latitudes of expression, because no analysis has hitherto +sufficed to distinguish accurately, in historical narrative, the +difference between impressions resulting from the imagination of the +worshipper, and those made, if any, by the actually local and temporary +presence of another spirit. For instance, take the vision, which of all +others has been since made most frequently the subject of physical +representation--the appearance to Ezekiel and St. John of the four +living creatures, which throughout Christendom have been used to +symbolise the Evangelists.[4] Supposing such interpretation just, one of +those figures was either the mere symbol to St. John of himself, or it +was the power which inspired him, manifesting itself in an independent +form. Which of these it was, or whether neither of these, but a vision +of other powers, or a dream, of which neither the prophet himself knew, +nor can any other person yet know, the interpretation,--I suppose no +modestly-minded and accurate thinker would now take upon himself to +decide. Nor is it therefore anywise necessary for you to decide on that, +or any other such question; but it is necessary that you should be bold +enough to look every opposing question steadily in its face; and modest +enough, having done so, to know when it is too hard for you. But above +all things, see that you be modest in your thoughts, for of this one +thing we may be absolutely sure, that all our thoughts are but degrees +of darkness. And in these days you have to guard against the fatallest +darkness of the two opposite Prides;--the Pride of Faith, which imagines +that the nature of the Deity can be defined by its convictions; and the +Pride of Science, which imagines that the energy of Deity can be +explained by its analysis. + +[Footnote 4: Only the Gospels, "IV Evangelia," according to St. Jerome.] + + +39. Of these, the first, the Pride of Faith, is now, as it has been +always, the most deadly, because the most complacent and +subtle;--because it invests every evil passion of our nature with the +aspect of an angel of light, and enables the self-love, which might +otherwise have been put to wholesome shame, and the cruel carelessness +of the ruin of our fellow-men, which might otherwise have been warmed +into human love, or at least checked by human intelligence, to congeal +themselves into the mortal intellectual disease of imagining that +myriads of the inhabitants of the world for four thousand years have +been left to wander and perish, many of them everlastingly, in order +that, in fulness of time, divine truth might be preached sufficiently to +ourselves: with this farther ineffable mischief for direct result, that +multitudes of kindly-disposed, gentle, and submissive persons, who might +else by their true patience have alloyed the hardness of the common +crowd, and by their activity for good balanced its misdoing, are +withdrawn from all such true services of man, that they may pass the +best part of their lives in what they are told is the service of God; +_namely, desiring what_ _they cannot obtain, lamenting what they cannot +avoid, and reflecting on what they cannot understand_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: This concentrated definition of monastic life is of course +to be understood only of its more enthusiastic forms.] + + +40. This, I repeat, is the deadliest, but for you, under existing +circumstances, it is becoming daily, almost hourly, the least probable +form of Pride. That which you have chiefly to guard against consists in +the overvaluing of minute though correct discovery; the groundless +denial of all that seems to you to have been groundlessly affirmed; and +the interesting yourselves too curiously in the progress of some +scientific minds, which in their judgment of the universe can be +compared to nothing so accurately as to the woodworms in the panel of a +picture by some great painter, if we may conceive them as tasting with +discrimination of the wood, and with repugnance of the colour, and +declaring that even this unlooked-for and undesirable combination is a +normal result of the action of molecular Forces. + + +41. Now, I must very earnestly warn you, in the beginning of my work +with you here, against allowing either of these forms of egotism to +interfere with your judgment or practice of art. On the one hand, you +must not allow the expression of your own favourite religious feelings +by any particular form of art to modify your judgment of its absolute +merit; nor allow the art itself to become an illegitimate means of +deepening and confirming your convictions, by realising to your eyes +what you dimly conceive with the brain; as if the greater clearness of +the image were a stronger proof of its truth. On the other hand, you +must not allow your scientific habit of trusting nothing but what you +have ascertained, to prevent you from appreciating, or at least +endeavouring to qualify yourselves to appreciate, the work of the +highest faculty of the human mind,--its imagination,--when it is toiling +in the presence of things that cannot be dealt with by any other power. + + +42. These are both vital conditions of your healthy progress. On the one +hand, observe that you do not wilfully use the realistic power of art +to convince yourselves of historical or theological statements which you +cannot otherwise prove; and which you wish to prove:--on the other hand, +that you do not check your imagination and conscience while seizing the +truths of which they alone are cognizant, because you value too highly +the scientific interest which attaches to the investigation of second +causes. + +For instance, it may be quite possible to show the conditions in water +and electricity which necessarily produce the craggy outline, the +apparently self-contained silvery light, and the sulphurous blue shadow +of a thunder-cloud, and which separate these from the depth of the +golden peace in the dawn of a summer morning. Similarly, it may be +possible to show the necessities of structure which groove the fangs and +depress the brow of the asp, and which distinguish the character of its +head from that of the face of a young girl. But it is the function of +the rightly-trained imagination to recognise, in these, and such other +relative aspects, the unity of teaching which impresses, alike on our +senses and our conscience, the eternal difference between good and evil: +and the rule, over the clouds of heaven and over the creatures in the +earth, of the same Spirit which teaches to our own hearts the bitterness +of death, and strength of love. + + +43. Now, therefore, approaching our subject in this balanced temper, +which will neither resolve to see only what it would desire, nor expect +to see only what it can explain, we shall find our enquiry into the +relation of Art to Religion is distinctly threefold: first, we have to +ask how far art may have been literally directed by spiritual powers; +secondly, how far, if not inspired, it may have been exalted by them; +lastly, how far, in any of its agencies, it has advanced the cause of +the creeds it has been used to recommend. + + +44. First: What ground have we for thinking that art has ever been +inspired as a message or revelation? What internal evidence is there in +the work of great artists of their having been under the authoritative +guidance of supernatural powers? + +It is true that the answer to so mysterious a question cannot rest alone +upon internal evidence; but it is well that you should know what might, +from that evidence alone, be concluded. And the more impartially you +examine the phenomena of imagination, the more firmly you will be led to +conclude that they are the result of the influence of the common and +vital, but not, therefore, less Divine, spirit, of which some portion is +given to all living creatures in such manner as may be adapted to their +rank in creation; and that everything which men rightly accomplish is +indeed done by Divine help, but under a consistent law which is never +departed from. + +The strength of this spiritual life within us may be increased or +lessened by our own conduct; it varies from time to time, as physical +strength varies; it is summoned on different occasions by our will, and +dejected by our distress, or our sin; but it is always _equally human_, +and _equally Divine_. We are men, and not mere animals, because a +special form of it is with us always; we are nobler and baser men, as it +is with us more or less; but it is never given to us in any degree which +can make us more than men. + + +45. Observe:--I give you this general statement doubtfully, and only as +that towards which an impartial reasoner will, I think, be inclined by +existing data. But I shall be able to show you, without any doubt, in +the course of our studies, that the achievements of art which have been +usually looked upon as the results of peculiar inspiration have been +arrived at only through long courses of wisely directed labour, and +under the influence of feelings which are common to all humanity. + +But of these feelings and powers which in different degrees are common +to humanity, you are to note that there are three principal divisions: +first, the instincts of construction or melody, which we share with +lower animals, and which are in us as native as the instinct of the bee +or nightingale; secondly, the faculty of vision, or of dreaming, whether +in sleep or in conscious trance, or by voluntarily exerted fancy; and +lastly, the power of rational inference and collection, of both the laws +and forms of beauty. + + +46. Now the faculty of vision, being closely associated with the +innermost spiritual nature, is the one which has by most reasoners been +held for the peculiar channel of Divine teaching: and it is a fact that +great part of purely didactic art has been the record, whether in +language, or by linear representation, of actual vision involuntarily +received at the moment, though cast on a mental retina blanched +by the past course of faithful life. But it is also true that +these visions, where most distinctly received, are always--I speak +deliberately--_always_, the _sign of some mental limitation or +derangement_; and that the persons who most clearly recognise their +value, exaggeratedly estimate it, choosing what they find to be useful, +and calling that "inspired," and disregarding what they perceive to be +useless, though presented to the visionary by an equal authority. + + +47. Thus it is probable that no work of art has been more widely +didactic than Albert Dürer's engraving, known as the "Knight and +Death."[6] But that is only one of a series of works representing +similarly vivid dreams, of which some are uninteresting, except for the +manner of their representation, as the "St. Hubert," and others are +unintelligible; some, frightful, and wholly unprofitable; so that we +find the visionary faculty in that great painter, when accurately +examined, to be a morbid influence, abasing his skill more frequently +than encouraging it, and sacrificing the greater part of his energies +upon vain subjects, two only being produced, in the course of a long +life, which are of high didactic value, and both of these capable only +of giving sad courage.[7] Whatever the value of these two, it bears more +the aspect of a treasure obtained at great cost of suffering, than of a +directly granted gift from heaven. + +[Footnote 6: Standard Series, No. 9.] + +[Footnote 7: The meaning of the "Knight and Death," even in this +respect, has lately been questioned on good grounds.] + + +48. On the contrary, not only the highest, but the most consistent +results have been attained in art by men in whom the faculty of vision, +however strong, was subordinate to that of deliberative design, and +tranquillised by a measured, continual, not feverish, but affectionate, +observance of the quite unvisionary facts of the surrounding world. + +And so far as we can trace the connection of their powers with the moral +character of their lives, we shall find that the best art is the work of +good, but of not distinctively religious men, who, at least, are +conscious of no inspiration, and often so unconscious of their +superiority to others, that one of the greatest of them, Reynolds, +deceived by his modesty, has asserted that "all things are possible to +well-directed labour." + + +49. The second question, namely, how far art, if not inspired, has yet +been ennobled by religion, I shall not touch upon to-day; for it both +requires technical criticism, and would divert you too long from the +main question of all,--How far religion has been helped by art? + +You will find that the operation of formative art--(I will not speak +to-day of music)--the operation of formative art on religious creed is +essentially twofold; the realisation, to the eyes, of imagined spiritual +persons; and the limitation of their imagined presence to certain +places. We will examine these two functions of it successively. + + +50. And first, consider accurately what the agency of art is, in +realising, to the sight, our conceptions of spiritual persons. + +For instance. Assume that we believe that the Madonna is always present +to hear and answer our prayers. Assume also that this is true. I think +that persons in a perfectly honest, faithful, and humble temper, would +in that case desire only to feel so much of the Divine presence as the +spiritual Power herself chose to make felt; and, above all things, not +to think they saw, or knew, anything except what might be truly +perceived or known. + +But a mind imperfectly faithful, and impatient in its distress, or +craving in its dulness for a more distinct and convincing sense of the +Divinity, would endeavour to complete, or perhaps we should rather say +to contract, its conception, into the definite figure of a woman wearing +a blue or crimson dress, and having fair features, dark eyes, and +gracefully arranged hair. + +Suppose, after forming such a conception, that we have the power to +realise and preserve it, this image of a beautiful figure with a +pleasant expression cannot but have the tendency of afterwards leading +us to think of the Virgin as present, when she is not actually present; +or as pleased with us, when she is not actually pleased; or if we +resolutely prevent ourselves from such imagination, nevertheless the +existence of the image beside us will often turn our thoughts towards +subjects of religion, when otherwise they would have been differently +occupied; and, in the midst of other occupations, will familiarise more +or less, and even mechanically associate with common or faultful states +of mind, the appearance of the supposed Divine person. + + +51. There are thus two distinct operations upon our mind: first, the art +makes us believe what we would not otherwise have believed; and +secondly, it makes us think of subjects we should not otherwise have +thought of, intruding them amidst our ordinary thoughts in a confusing +and familiar manner. We cannot with any certainty affirm the advantage +or the harm of such accidental pieties, for their effect will be very +different on different characters: but, without any question, the art, +which makes us believe what we would not have otherwise believed, is +misapplied, and in most instances very dangerously so. Our duty is to +believe in the existence of Divine, or any other, persons, only upon +rational proofs of their existence; and not because we have seen +pictures of them.[8] + +[Footnote 8: I have expunged a sentence insisting farther on this point, +having come to reverence more, as I grew older, every simple means of +stimulating all religious belief and affection. It is the lower and +realistic world which is fullest of false beliefs and vain loves.] + + +52. But now observe, it is here necessary to draw a distinction, so +subtle that in dealing with facts it is continually impossible to mark +it with precision, yet so vital, that not only your understanding of the +power of art, but the working of your minds in matters of primal moment +to you, depends on the effort you make to affirm this distinction +strongly. The art which realises a creature of the imagination is only +mischievous when that realisation is conceived to imply, or does +practically induce a belief in, the real existence of the imagined +personage, contrary to, or unjustified by the other evidence of its +existence. But if the art only represents the personage on the +understanding that its form is imaginary, then the effort at realisation +is healthful and beneficial. + +For instance, the Greek design of Apollo crossing the sea to Delphi, +which is one of the most interesting of Le Normant's series, so far as +it is only an expression, under the symbol of a human form, of what may +be rightly imagined respecting the solar power, is right and ennobling; +but so far as it conveyed to the Greek the idea of there being a real +Apollo, it was mischievous, whether there be, or be not, a real Apollo. +If there is no real Apollo, then the art was mischievous because it +deceived; but if there is a real Apollo, then it was still more +mischievous,[9] for it not only began the degradation of the image of +that true god into a decoration for niches, and a device for seals; but +prevented any true witness being borne to his existence. For if the +Greeks, instead of multiplying representations of what they imagined to +be the figure of the god, had given us accurate drawings of the heroes +and battles of Marathon and Salamis, and had simply told us in plain +Greek what evidence they had of the power of Apollo, either through his +oracles, his help or chastisement, or by immediate vision, they would +have served their religion more truly than by all the vase-paintings and +fine statues that ever were buried or adored. + + +53. Now in this particular instance, and in many other examples of fine +Greek art, the two conditions of thought, symbolic and realistic, are +mingled; and the art is helpful, as I will hereafter show you, in one +function, and in the other so deadly, that I think no degradation of +conception of Deity has ever been quite so base as that implied by the +designs of Greek vases in the period of decline, say about 250 B. C. + +[Footnote 9: I am again doubtful, here. The most important part of the +chapter is from § 60 to end.] + +But though among the Greeks it is thus nearly always difficult to say +what is symbolic and what realistic, in the range of Christian art the +distinction is clear. In that, a vast division of imaginative work is +occupied in the symbolism of virtues, vices, or natural powers or +passions; and in the representation of personages who, though nominally +real, become in conception symbolic. In the greater part of this work +there is no intention of implying the existence of the represented +creature; Dürer's Melencolia and Giotto's Justice are accurately +characteristic examples. Now all such art is wholly good and useful when +it is the work of good men. + + +54. Again, there is another division of Christian work in which the +persons represented, though nominally real, are treated as +dramatis-personæ of a poem, and so presented confessedly as subjects of +imagination. All this poetic art is also good when it is the work of +good men. + + +55. There remains only therefore to be considered, as truly religious, +the work which definitely implies and modifies the conception of the +existence of a real person. There is hardly any great art which entirely +belongs to this class; but Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola is as +accurate a type of it as I can give you; Holbein's Madonna at Dresden, +the Madonna di San Sisto, and the Madonna of Titian's Assumption, all +belong mainly to this class, but are removed somewhat from it (as, I +repeat, nearly all great art is) into the poetical one. It is only the +bloody crucifixes and gilded virgins and other such lower forms of +imagery (by which, to the honour of the English Church, it has been +truly claimed for her, that "she has never appealed to the madness or +dulness of her people,") which belong to the realistic class in strict +limitation, and which properly constitute the type of it. + +There is indeed an important school of sculpture in Spain, directed to +the same objects, but not demanding at present any special attention. +And finally, there is the vigorous and most interesting realistic school +of our own, in modern times, mainly known to the public by Holman Hunt's +picture of the Light of the World, though, I believe, deriving its first +origin from the genius of the painter to whom you owe also the revival +of interest, first here in Oxford, and then universally, in the cycle of +early English legend,--Dante Rossetti. + + +56. The effect of this realistic art on the religious mind of Europe +varies in scope more than any other art power; for in its higher +branches it touches the most sincere religious minds, affecting an +earnest class of persons who cannot be reached by merely poetical +design; while, in its lowest, it addresses itself not only to the most +vulgar desires for religious excitement, but to the mere thirst for +sensation of horror which characterises the uneducated orders of +partially civilised countries; nor merely to the thirst for horror, but +to the strange love of death, as such, which has sometimes in Catholic +countries showed itself peculiarly by the endeavour to paint the images +in the chapels of the Sepulchre so as to look deceptively like corpses. +The same morbid instinct has also affected the minds of many among the +more imaginative and powerful artists with a feverish gloom which +distorts their finest work; and lastly--and this is the worst of all its +effects--it has occupied the sensibility of Christian women, +universally, in lamenting the sufferings of Christ, instead of +preventing those of His people. + + +57. When any of you next go abroad, observe, and consider the meaning +of, the sculptures and paintings, which of every rank in art, and in +every chapel and cathedral, and by every mountain path, recall the +hours, and represent the agonies, of the Passion of Christ: and try to +form some estimate of the efforts that have been made by the four arts +of eloquence, music, painting, and sculpture, since the twelfth century, +to wring out of the hearts of women the last drops of pity that could be +excited for this merely physical agony: for the art nearly always dwells +on the physical wounds or exhaustion chiefly, and degrades, far more +than it animates, the conception of pain. + +Then try to conceive the quantity of time, and of excited and thrilling +emotion, which have been wasted by the tender and delicate women of +Christendom during these last six hundred years, in thus picturing to +themselves, under the influence of such imagery, the bodily pain, long +since passed, of One Person:--which, so far as they indeed conceived it +to be sustained by a Divine Nature, could not for that reason have been +less endurable than the agonies of any simple human death by torture: +and then try to estimate what might have been the better result, for the +righteousness and felicity of mankind, if these same women had been +taught the deep meaning of the last words that were ever spoken by their +Master to those who had ministered to Him of their substance: "Daughters +of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your +children." If they had but been taught to measure with their pitiful +thoughts the tortures of battle-fields--the slowly consuming plagues of +death in the starving children, and wasted age, of the innumerable +desolate those battles left;--nay, in our own life of peace, the agony +of unnurtured, untaught, unhelped creatures, awaking at the grave's edge +to know how they should have lived; and the worse pain of those whose +existence, not the ceasing of it, is death; those to whom the cradle was +a curse, and for whom the words they cannot hear, "ashes to ashes," are +all that they have ever received of benediction. These,--you who would +fain have wept at His feet, or stood by His cross,--these you have +always with you! Him, you have not always. + + +58. The wretched in death you have always with you. Yes, and the brave +and good in life you have always;--these also needing help, though you +supposed they had only to help others; these also claiming to be thought +for, and remembered. And you will find, if you look into history with +this clue, that one of quite the chief reasons for the continual misery +of mankind is that they are always divided in their worship between +angels or saints, who are out of their sight, and need no help, and +proud and evil-minded men, who are too definitely in their sight, and +ought not to have their help. And consider how the arts have thus +followed the worship of the crowd. You have paintings of saints and +angels, innumerable;--of petty courtiers, and contemptible or cruel +kings, innumerable. Few, how few you have, (but these, observe, almost +always by great painters) of the best men, or of their actions. But +think for yourselves,--I have no time now to enter upon the mighty +field, nor imagination enough to guide me beyond the threshold of +it,--think, what history might have been to us now;--nay, what a +different history that of all Europe might have become, if it had but +been the object both of the people to discern, and of their arts to +honour and bear record of, the great deeds of their worthiest men. And +if, instead of living, as they have always hitherto done, in a hellish +cloud of contention and revenge, lighted by fantastic dreams of cloudy +sanctities, they had sought to reward and punish justly, wherever reward +and punishment were due, but chiefly to reward; and at least rather to +bear testimony to the human acts which deserved God's anger or His +blessing, than only, in presumptuous imagination, to display the secrets +of Judgment, or the beatitudes of Eternity. + + +59. Such I conceive generally, though indeed with good arising out of +it, for every great evil brings some good in its backward eddies--such I +conceive to have been the deadly function of art in its ministry to +what, whether in heathen or Christian lands, and whether in the +pageantry of words, or colours, or fair forms, is truly, and in the deep +sense, to be called (idolatry)--the serving with the best of our hearts +and minds, some dear or sad fantasy which we have made for ourselves, +while we disobey the present call of the Master, who is not dead, and +who is not now fainting under His cross, but requiring us to take up +ours. + + +60. I pass to the second great function of religious art, the limitation +of the idea of Divine presence to particular localities. It is of course +impossible within my present limits to touch upon this power of art, as +employed on the temples of the gods of various religions; we will +examine that on future occasions. To-day, I want only to map out main +ideas, and I can do this best by speaking exclusively of this localising +influence as it affects our own faith. + +Observe first, that the localisation is almost entirely dependent upon +human art. You must at least take a stone and set it up for a pillar, if +you are to mark the place, so as to know it again, where a vision +appeared. A persecuted people, needing to conceal their places of +worship, may perform every religious ceremony first under one crag of +the hill-side, and then under another, without invalidating the +sacredness of the rites or sacraments thus administered. It is, +therefore, we all acknowledge, inessential, that a particular spot +should be surrounded with a ring of stones, or enclosed within walls of +a certain style of architecture, and so set apart as the only place +where such ceremonies may be properly performed; and it is thus less by +any direct appeal to experience or to reason, but in consequence of the +effect upon our senses produced by the architecture, that we receive the +first strong impressions of what we afterwards contend for as absolute +truth. I particularly wish you to notice how it is always by help of +human art that such a result is attained, because, remember always, I am +neither disputing nor asserting the truth of any theological +doctrine;--that is not my province;--I am only questioning the +expediency of enforcing that doctrine by the help of architecture. Put a +rough stone for an altar under the hawthorn on a village +green;--separate a portion of the green itself with an ordinary paling +from the rest;--then consecrate, with whatever form you choose, the +space of grass you have enclosed, and meet within the wooden fence as +often as you desire to pray or preach; yet you will not easily fasten an +impression in the minds of the villagers, that God inhabits the space of +grass inside the fence, and does not extend His presence to the common +beyond it: and that the daisies and violets on one side of the railing +are holy,--on the other, profane. But, instead of a wooden fence, build +a wall, pave the interior space; roof it over, so as to make it +comparatively dark;--and you may persuade the villagers with ease that +you have built a house which Deity inhabits, or that you have become, in +the old French phrase, a "logeur du Bon Dieu." + + +61. And farther, though I have no desire to introduce any question as to +the truth of what we thus architecturally teach, I would desire you most +strictly to determine what is intended to be taught. + +Do not think I underrate--I am among the last men living who would +underrate,--the importance of the sentiments connected with their church +to the population of a pastoral village. I admit, in its fullest extent, +the moral value of the scene, which is almost always one of perfect +purity and peace; and of the sense of supernatural love and protection, +which fills and surrounds the low aisles and homely porch. But the +question I desire earnestly to leave with you is, whether all the earth +ought not to be peaceful and pure, and the acknowledgment of the Divine +protection, as universal as its reality? That in a mysterious way the +presence of Deity is vouchsafed where it is sought, and withdrawn where +it is forgotten, must of course be granted as the first postulate in the +enquiry: but the point for our decision is just this, whether it ought +always to be sought in one place only, and forgotten in every other. + +It may be replied, that since it is impossible to consecrate the entire +space of the earth, it is better thus to secure a portion of it than +none: but surely, if so, we ought to make some effort to enlarge the +favoured ground, and even look forward to a time when in English +villages there may be a God's acre tenanted by the living, not the +dead; and when we shall rather look with aversion and fear to the +remnant of ground that is set apart as profane, than with reverence to a +narrow portion of it enclosed as holy. + + +62. But now, farther. Suppose it be admitted that by enclosing ground +with walls, and performing certain ceremonies there habitually, some +kind of sanctity is indeed secured within that space,--still the +question remains open whether it be advisable for religious purposes to +decorate the enclosure. For separation the mere walls would be enough. +What is the purpose of your decoration? + +Let us take an instance--the most noble with which I am acquainted, the +Cathedral of Chartres. You have there the most splendid coloured glass, +and the richest sculpture, and the grandest proportions of building, +united to produce a sensation of pleasure and awe. We profess that this +is to honour the Deity; or, in other words, that it is pleasing to Him +that we should delight our eyes with blue and golden colours, and +solemnise our spirits by the sight of large stones laid one on another, +and ingeniously carved. + + +63. I do not think it can be doubted that it _is_ pleasing to Him when +we do this; for He has Himself prepared for us, nearly every morning and +evening, windows painted with Divine art, in blue and gold and +vermilion: windows lighted from within by the lustre of that heaven +which we may assume, at least with more certainty than any consecrated +ground, to be one of His dwelling-places. Again, in every mountain side, +and cliff of rude sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of +greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and sculptured them +with floral ornament,--surely not less sacred because living? + + +64. Must it not then be only because we love our own work better than +His, that we respect the lucent glass, but not the lucent clouds; that +we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the +gilded vaults we have beautifully ordained--while yet we have not +considered the heavens, the work of His fingers, nor the stars of the +strange vault which He has ordained? And do we dream that by carving +fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way of the rivers +among the rocks, and at whose reproof the pillars of the earth are +astonished, we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the hills +and streams by which He has appointed our dwelling-place;--for the +infection of their sweet air with poison;--for the burning up of their +tender grass and flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of +mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we laboured only +that, at least here in England, we might be able to give the lie to the +song, whether of the Cherubim above, or Church beneath--"Holy, holy, +Lord God of all creatures; Heaven--_and Earth_--are full of Thy glory"? + + +65. And how much more there is that I long to say to you; and how much, +I hope, that you would like to answer to me, or to question me of! But I +can say no more to-day. We are not, I trust, at the end of our talks or +thoughts together; but, if it were so, and I never spoke to you more, +this that I have said to you I should have been glad to have been +permitted to say; and this, farther, which is the sum of it,--That we +may have splendour of art again, and with that, we may truly praise and +honour our Maker, and with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all +that He has made: but only after we have striven with our whole hearts +first to sanctify the temple of the body and spirit of every child that +has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no walls to guard its +soul from corruption, in this our English land. + +One word more. + +What I have suggested hitherto, respecting the relations of Art to +Religion, you must receive throughout as merely motive of thought; +though you must have well seen that my own convictions were established +finally on some of the points in question. But I must, in conclusion, +tell you something that I _know_;--which, if you truly labour, you will +one day know also; and which I trust some of you will believe, now. + +During the minutes in which you have been listening to me, I suppose +that almost at every other sentence those whose habit of mind has been +one of veneration for established forms and faiths, must have been in +dread that I was about to say, or in pang of regret at my having said, +what seemed to them an irreverent or reckless word touching vitally +important things. + +So far from this being the fact, it is just because the feelings that I +most desire to cultivate in your minds are those of reverence and +admiration, that I am so earnest to prevent you from being moved to +either by trivial or false semblances. _This_ is the thing which I +KNOW--and which, if you labour faithfully, you shall know also,--that in +Reverence is the chief joy and power of life;--Reverence, for what is +pure and bright in your own youth; for what is true and tried in the age +of others; for all that is gracious among the living,--great among the +dead,--and marvellous, in the Powers that cannot die. + + + + +LECTURE III + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS + + +66. You probably recollect that, in the beginning of my last lecture, it +was stated that fine art had, and could have, but three functions: the +enforcing of the religious sentiments of men, the perfecting their +ethical state, and the doing them material service. We have to-day to +examine, the mode of its action in the second power--that of perfecting +the morality, or ethical state, of men. + +Perfecting, observe--not producing. + +You must have the right moral state first, or you cannot have the art. +But when the art is once obtained, its reflected action enhances and +completes the moral state out of which it arose, and, above all, +communicates the exultation to other minds which are already morally +capable of the like. + + +67. For instance, take the art of singing, and the simplest perfect +master of it (up to the limits of his nature) whom you can find;--a +skylark. From him you may learn what it is to "sing for joy." You must +get the moral state first, the pure gladness, then give it finished +expression; and it is perfected in itself, and made communicable to +other creatures capable of such joy. But it is incommunicable to those +who are not prepared to receive it. + +Now, all right human song is, similarly, the finished expression, by +art, of the joy or grief of noble persons, for right causes. And +accurately in proportion to the rightness of the cause, and purity of +the emotion, is the possibility of the fine art. A maiden may sing of +her lost love, but a miser cannot sing of his lost money. And with +absolute precision, from highest to lowest, _the fineness of the +possible art is an index of the moral purity and majesty of the emotion +it expresses_. You may test it practically at any instant. Question with +yourselves respecting any feeling that has taken strong possession of +your mind, "Could this be sung by a master, and sung nobly, with a true +melody and art?" Then it is a right feeling. Could it not be sung at +all, or only sung ludicrously? It is a base one. And that is so in all +the arts; so that with mathematical precision, subject to no error or +exception, the art of a nation, so far as it exists, is an exponent of +its ethical state. + + +68. An exponent, observe, and exalting influence; but not the root or +cause. You cannot paint or sing yourselves into being good men; you must +be good men before you can either paint or sing, and then the colour and +sound will complete in you all that is best. + +And this it was that I called upon you to hear, saying, "listen to me at +least now," in the first lecture, namely, that no art-teaching could be +of use to you, but would rather be harmful, unless it was grafted on +something deeper than all art. For indeed not only with this, of which +it is my function to show you the laws, but much more with the art of +all men, which you came here chiefly to learn, that of language, the +chief vices of education have arisen from the one great fallacy of +supposing that noble language is a communicable trick of grammar and +accent, instead of simply the careful expression of right thought. All +the virtues of language are, in their roots, moral; it becomes accurate +if the speaker desires to be true; clear, if he speaks with sympathy and +a desire to be intelligible; powerful, if he has earnestness; pleasant, +if he has sense of rhythm and order. There are no other virtues of +language producible by art than these: but let me mark more deeply for +an instant the significance of one of them. Language, I said, is only +clear when it is sympathetic. You can, in truth, understand a man's word +only by understanding his temper. Your own word is also as of an unknown +tongue to him unless he understands yours. And it is this which makes +the art of language, if any one is to be chosen separately from the +rest, that which is fittest for the instrument of a gentleman's +education. To teach the meaning of a word thoroughly, is to teach the +nature of the spirit that coined it; the secret of language is the +secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle. +And thus the principles of beautiful speech have all been fixed by +sincere and kindly speech. On the laws which have been determined by +sincerity, false speech, apparently beautiful, may afterwards be +constructed; but all such utterance, whether in oration or poetry, is +not only without permanent power, but it is destructive of the +principles it has usurped. So long as no words are uttered but in +faithfulness, so long the art of language goes on exalting itself; but +the moment it is shaped and chiselled on external principles, it falls +into frivolity, and perishes. And this truth would have been long ago +manifest, had it not been that in periods of advanced academical science +there is always a tendency to deny the sincerity of the first masters of +language. Once learn to write gracefully in the manner of an ancient +author, and we are apt to think that he also wrote in the manner of some +one else. But no noble nor right style was ever yet founded but out of a +sincere heart. + +No man is worth reading to form your style, who does not mean what he +says; nor was any great style ever invented but by some man who meant +what he said. Find out the beginner of a great manner of writing, and +you have also found the declarer of some true facts or sincere passions: +and your whole method of reading will thus be quickened, for, being sure +that your author really meant what he said, you will be much more +careful to ascertain what it is that he means. + + +69. And of yet greater importance is it deeply to know that every beauty +possessed by the language of a nation is significant of the innermost +laws of its being. Keep the temper of the people stern and manly; make +their associations grave, courteous, and for worthy objects; occupy them +in just deeds; and their tongue must needs be a grand one. Nor is it +possible, therefore--observe the necessary reflected action--that any +tongue should be a noble one, of which the words are not so many +trumpet-calls to action. All great languages invariably utter great +things, and command them; they cannot be mimicked but by obedience; the +breath of them is inspiration because it is not only vocal, but vital; +and you can only learn to speak as these men spoke, by becoming what +these men were. + + +70. Now for direct confirmation of this, I want you to think over the +relation of expression to character in two great masters of the absolute +art of language, Virgil and Pope. You are perhaps surprised at the last +name; and indeed you have in English much higher grasp and melody of +language from more passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its +range, so perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are +the two most accomplished _Artists_, merely as such, whom I know in +literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in +investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, and the +severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, +arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds:--out of the deep +tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of Nisus and +Lausus; and the serene and just benevolence which placed Pope, in his +theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and enabled him to sum +the law of noble life in two lines which, so far as I know, are the most +complete, the most concise, and the most lofty expression of moral +temper existing in English words:-- + + _"Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;_ + _Never dejected, while another's bless'd."_ + +I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make yourselves +entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, putting Shakespeare +aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold Pope to be the most +perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, of the true English mind; +and I think the Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental +work "exacted" in our country. You will find, as you study Pope, that +he has expressed for you, in the strictest language and within the +briefest limits, every law of art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, +and, finally, of a benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, +contented with its allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of +its salvation to Him in whose hand lies that of the universe. + + +71. And now I pass to the arts with which I have special concern, in +which, though the facts are exactly the same, I shall have more +difficulty in proving my assertion, because very few of us are as +cognizant of the merit of painting as we are of that of language; and I +can only show you whence that merit springs, after having thoroughly +shown you in what it consists. But, in the meantime, I have simply to +tell you, that the manual arts are as accurate exponents of ethical +state, as other modes of expression; first, with absolute precision, of +that of the workman; and then with precision, disguised by many +distorting influences, of that of the nation to which it belongs. + +And, first, they are a perfect exponent of the mind of the workman: but, +being so, remember, if the mind be great or complex, the art is not an +easy book to read; for we must ourselves possess all the mental +characters of which we are to read the signs. No man can read the +evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know +what the work cost: nor can he read the evidence of true passion if he +is not passionate; nor of gentleness if he is not gentle: and the most +subtle signs of fault and weakness of character he can only judge by +having had the same faults to fight with. I myself, for instance, know +impatient work, and tired work, better than most critics, because I am +myself always impatient, and often tired:--so also, the patient and +indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than +to others. Yet, wonderful in no mean measure it will be to you all, when +I make it manifest,--and as soon as we begin our real work, and you have +learned what it is to draw a true line, I shall be able to make manifest +to you,--and indisputably so,--that the day's work of a man like +Mantegna or Paul Veronese consists of an unfaltering, uninterrupted +succession of movements of the hand more precise than those of the +finest fencer: the pencil leaving one point and arriving at another, not +only with unerring precision at the extremity of the line, but with an +unerring and yet varied course--sometimes over spaces a foot or more in +extent--yet a course so determined everywhere, that either of these men +could, and Veronese often does, draw a finished profile, or any other +portion of the contour of the face, with one line, not afterwards +changed. Try, first, to realise to yourselves the muscular precision of +that action, and the intellectual strain of it; for the movement of a +fencer is perfect in practised monotony; but the movement of the hand of +a great painter is at every instant governed by a direct and new +intention. Then imagine that muscular firmness and subtlety, and the +instantaneously selective and ordinant energy of the brain, sustained +all day long, not only without fatigue, but with a visible joy in the +exertion, like that which an eagle seems to take in the wave of his +wings; and this all life long, and through long life, not only without +failure of power, but with visible increase of it, until the actually +organic changes of old age. And then consider, so far as you know +anything of physiology, what sort of an ethical state of body and mind +that means! ethic through ages past! what fineness of race there must be +to get it, what exquisite balance and symmetry of the vital powers! And +then, finally, determine for yourselves whether a manhood like that is +consistent with any viciousness of soul, with any mean anxiety, any +gnawing lust, any wretchedness of spite or remorse, any consciousness of +rebellion against law of God or man, or any actual, though unconscious +violation of even the least law to which obedience is essential for the +glory of life and the pleasing of its Giver. + + +72. It is, of course, true that many of the strong masters had deep +faults of character, but their faults always show in their work. It is +true that some could not govern their passions; if so, they died young, +or they painted ill when old. But the greater part of our +misapprehension in the whole matter is from our not having well known +who the great painters were, and taking delight in the petty skill that +was bred in the fumes of the taverns of the North, instead of theirs who +breathed empyreal air, sons of the morning, under the woods of Assisi +and the crags of Cadore. + + +73. It is true however also, as I have pointed out long ago, that the +strong masters fall into two great divisions, one leading simple and +natural lives, the other restrained in a Puritanism of the worship of +beauty; and these two manners of life you may recognise in a moment by +their work. Generally the naturalists are the strongest; but there are +two of the Puritans, whose work if I can succeed in making clearly +understandable to you during my three years here, it is all I need care +to do. But of these two Puritans one I cannot name to you, and the other +I at present will not. One I cannot, for no one knows his name, except +the baptismal one, Bernard, or "dear little Bernard"--Bernardino, called +from his birthplace, (Luino, on the Lago Maggiore,) Bernard of Luino. +The other is a Venetian, of whom many of you probably have never heard, +and of whom, through me, you shall not hear, until I have tried to get +some picture by him over to England. + + +74. Observe then, this Puritanism in the worship of beauty, though +sometimes weak, is always honourable and amiable, and the exact reverse +of the false Puritanism, which consists in the dread or disdain of +beauty. And in order to treat my subject rightly, I ought to proceed +from the skill of art to the choice of its subject, and show you how the +moral temper of the workman is shown by his seeking lovely forms and +thoughts to express, as well as by the force of his hand in expression. +But I need not now urge this part of the proof on you, because you are +already, I believe, sufficiently conscious of the truth in this matter, +and also I have already said enough of it in my writings; whereas I have +not at all said enough of the infallibleness of fine technical work as a +proof of every other good power. And indeed it was long before I myself +understood the true meaning of the pride of the greatest men in their +mere execution, shown for a permanent lesson to us, in the stories +which, whether true or not, indicate with absolute accuracy the general +conviction of great artists;--the stories of the contest of Apelles and +Protogenes in a line only, (of which I can promise you, you shall know +the meaning to some purpose in a little while),--the story of the circle +of Giotto, and especially, which you may perhaps not have observed, the +expression of Dürer in his inscription on the drawings sent him by +Raphael. These figures, he says, "Raphael drew and sent to Albert Dürer +in Nürnberg, to show him"--What? Not his invention, nor his beauty of +expression, but "sein Hand zu weisen," "To show him his _hand_." And you +will find, as you examine farther, that all inferior artists are +continually trying to escape from the necessity of sound work, and +either indulging themselves in their delights in subject, or pluming +themselves on their noble motives for attempting what they cannot +perform; (and observe, by the way, that a great deal of what is mistaken +for conscientious motive is nothing but a very pestilent, because very +subtle, condition of vanity); whereas the great men always understand at +once that the first morality of a painter, as of everybody else, is to +know his business; and so earnest are they in this, that many, whose +lives you would think, by the results of their work, had been passed in +strong emotion, have in reality subdued themselves, though capable of +the very strongest passions, into a calm as absolute as that of a deeply +sheltered mountain lake, which reflects every agitation of the clouds in +the sky, and every change of the shadows on the hills, but is itself +motionless. + + +75. Finally, you must remember that great obscurity has been brought +upon the truth in this matter by the want of integrity and simplicity in +our modern life. I mean integrity in the Latin sense, wholeness. +Everything is broken up, and mingled in confusion, both in our habits +and thoughts; besides being in great part imitative: so that you not +only cannot tell what a man is, but sometimes you cannot tell whether +he is, at all!--whether you have indeed to do with a spirit, or only +with an echo. And thus the same inconsistencies appear now, between the +work of artists of merit and their personal characters, as those which +you find continually disappointing expectation in the lives of men of +modern literary power; the same conditions of society having obscured or +misdirected the best qualities of the imagination, both in our +literature and art. Thus there is no serious question with any of us as +to the personal character of Dante and Giotto, of Shakespeare and +Holbein; but we pause timidly in the attempt to analyse the moral laws +of the art skill in recent poets, novelists, and painters. + + +76. Let me assure you once for all, that as you grow older, if you +enable yourselves to distinguish, by the truth of your own lives, what +is true in those of other men, you will gradually perceive that all good +has its origin in good, never in evil; that the fact of either +literature or painting being truly fine of their kind, whatever their +mistaken aim, or partial error, is proof of their noble origin: and +that, if there is indeed sterling value in the thing done, it has come +of a sterling worth in the soul that did it, however alloyed or defiled +by conditions of sin which are sometimes more appalling or more strange +than those which all may detect in their own hearts, because they are +part of a personality altogether larger than ours, and as far beyond our +judgment in its darkness as beyond our following in its light. And it is +sufficient warning against what some might dread as the probable effect +of such a conviction on your own minds, namely, that you might permit +yourselves in the weaknesses which you imagined to be allied to genius, +when they took the form of personal temptations;--it is surely, I say, +sufficient warning against so mean a folly, to discern, as you may with +little pains, that, of all human existences, the lives of men of that +distorted and tainted nobility of intellect are probably the most +miserable. + + +77. I pass to the second, and for us the more practically important +question, What is the effect of noble art upon other men; what has it +done for national morality in time past: and what effect is the extended +knowledge or possession of it likely to have upon us now? And here we +are at once met by the facts, which are as gloomy as indisputable, that, +while many peasant populations, among whom scarcely the rudest practice +of art has ever been attempted, have lived in comparative innocence, +honour and happiness, the worst foulness and cruelty of savage tribes +have been frequently associated with fine ingenuities of decorative +design; also, that no people has ever attained the higher stages of art +skill, except at a period of its civilisation which was sullied by +frequent, violent and even monstrous crime; and, lastly, that the +attaining of perfection in art power has been hitherto, in every nation, +the accurate signal of the beginning of its ruin. + + +78. Respecting which phenomena, observe first, that although good never +springs out of evil, it is developed to its highest by contention with +evil. There are some groups of peasantry, in far-away nooks of Christian +countries, who are nearly as innocent as lambs; but the morality which +gives power to art is the morality of men, not of cattle. + +Secondly, the virtues of the inhabitants of many country districts are +apparent, not real; their lives are indeed artless, but not innocent; +and it is only the monotony of circumstances, and the absence of +temptation, which prevent the exhibition of evil passions not less real +because often dormant, nor less foul because shown only in petty faults, +or inactive malignities. + + +79. But you will observe also that _absolute_ artlessness, to men in any +kind of moral health, is impossible; they have always, at least, the art +by which they live--agriculture or seamanship; and in these industries, +skilfully practised, you will find the law of their moral training; +while, whatever the adversity of circumstances, every rightly-minded +peasantry, such as that of Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, or Switzerland, has +associated with its needful industry a quite studied school of +pleasurable art in dress; and generally also in song, and simple +domestic architecture. + + +80. Again, I need not repeat to you here what I endeavoured to explain +in the first lecture in the book I called "The Two Paths," respecting +the arts of savage races: but I may now note briefly that such arts are +the result of an intellectual activity which has found no room to +expand, and which the tyranny of nature or of man has condemned to +disease through arrested growth. And where neither Christianity, nor any +other religion conveying some moral help, has reached, the animal energy +of such races necessarily flames into ghastly conditions of evil, and +the grotesque or frightful forms assumed by their art are precisely +indicative of their distorted moral nature. + + +81. But the truly great nations nearly always begin from a race +possessing this imaginative power; and for some time their progress is +very slow, and their state not one of innocence, but of feverish and +faultful animal energy. This is gradually subdued and exalted into +bright human life; the art instinct purifying itself with the rest of +the nature, until social perfectness is nearly reached; and then comes +the period when conscience and intellect are so highly developed, that +new forms of error begin in the inability to fulfil the demands of the +one, or to answer the doubts of the other. Then the wholeness of the +people is lost; all kinds of hypocrisies and oppositions of science +develop themselves; their faith is questioned on one side, and +compromised with on the other; wealth commonly increases at the same +period to a destructive extent; luxury follows; and the ruin of the +nation is then certain: while the arts, all this time, are simply, as I +said at first, the exponents of each phase of its moral state, and no +more control it in its political career than the gleam of the firefly +guides its oscillation. It is true that their most splendid results are +usually obtained in the swiftness of the power which is hurrying to the +precipice; but to lay the charge of the catastrophe to the art by which +it is illumined, is to find a cause for the cataract in the hues of its +iris. It is true that the colossal vices belonging to periods of great +national wealth (for wealth, you will find, is the real root of all +evil) can turn every good gift and skill of nature or of man to evil +purpose. If, in such times, fair pictures have been misused, how much +more fair realities? And if Miranda is immoral to Caliban, is that +Miranda's fault? + + +82. And I could easily go on to trace for you what at the moment I +speak, is signified, in our own national character, by the forms of art, +and unhappily also by the forms of what is not art, but [Greek: +atechnia], that exist among us. But the more important question is, What +_will_ be signified by them; what is there in us now of worth and +strength, which under our new and partly accidental impulse towards +formative labour, may be by that expressed, and by that fortified? + +Would it not be well to know this? Nay, irrespective of all future work, +is it not the first thing we should want to know, what stuff we are made +of--how far we are +agathoi+ or +kakoi+--good, or good for +nothing? We may all know that, each of ourselves, easily enough, if we +like to put one grave question well home. + + +83. Supposing it were told any of you by a physician whose word you +could not but trust, that you had not more than seven days to live. And +suppose also that, by the manner of your education it had happened to +you, as it has happened to many, never to have heard of any future +state, or not to have credited what you heard; and therefore that you +had to face this fact of the approach of death in its simplicity: +fearing no punishment for any sin that you might have before committed, +or in the coming days might determine to commit; and having similarly no +hope of reward for past, or yet possible, virtue; nor even of any +consciousness whatever to be left to you, after the seventh day had +ended, either of the results of your acts to those whom you loved, or of +the feelings of any survivors towards you. Then the manner in which you +would spend the seven days is an exact measure of the morality of your +nature. + + +84. I know that some of you, and I believe the greater number of you, +would, in such a case, spend the granted days entirely as you ought. +Neither in numbering the errors, or deploring the pleasures of the +past; nor in grasping at vile good in the present, nor vainly lamenting +the darkness of the future; but in an instant and earnest execution of +whatever it might be possible for you to accomplish in the time, in +setting your affairs in order, and in providing for the future comfort, +and--so far as you might by any message or record of yourself,--for the +consolation, of those whom you loved, and by whom you desired to be +remembered, not for your good, but for theirs. How far you might fail +through human weakness, in shame for the past, despair at the little +that could in the remnant of life be accomplished, or the intolerable +pain of broken affection, would depend wholly on the degree in which +your nature had been depressed or fortified by the manner of your past +life. But I think there are few of you who would not spend those last +days better than all that had preceded them. + + +85. If you look accurately through the records of the lives that have +been most useful to humanity, you will find that all that has been done +best, has been done so;--that to the clearest intellects and highest +souls,--to the true children of the Father, with whom a thousand years +are as one day, their poor seventy years are but as seven days. The +removal of the shadow of death from them to an uncertain, but always +narrow, distance, never takes away from them their intuition of its +approach; the extending to them of a few hours more or less of light +abates not their acknowledgment of the infinitude that must remain to be +known beyond their knowledge,--done beyond their deeds: the +unprofitableness of their momentary service is wrought in a magnificent +despair, and their very honour is bequeathed by them for the joy of +others, as they lie down to their rest, regarding for themselves the +voice of men no more. + + +86. The best things, I repeat to you, have been done thus, and +therefore, sorrowfully. But the greatest part of the good work of the +world is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, "I have +stubbed Thornaby waste," or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful +doing of what the hand finds to do, in surety that at evening time, +whatsoever is right the Master will give. And that it be worthily done, +depends wholly on that ultimate quantity of worth which you can measure, +each in himself, by the test I have just given you. For that test, +observe, will mark to you the precise force, first of your absolute +courage, and then of the energy in you for the right ordering of things, +and the kindly dealing with persons. You have cut away from these two +instincts every selfish or common motive, and left nothing but the +energies of Order and of Love. + + +87. Now, where those two roots are set, all the other powers and desires +find right nourishment, and become to their own utmost, helpful to +others and pleasurable to ourselves. And so far as those two springs of +action are not in us, all other powers become corrupt or dead; even the +love of truth, apart from these, hardens into an insolent and cold +avarice of knowledge, which unused, is more vain than unused gold. + + +88. These, then, are the two essential instincts of humanity: the love +of Order and the love of Kindness. By the love of order the moral energy +is to deal with the earth, and to dress it, and keep it; and with all +rebellious and dissolute forces in lower creatures, or in ourselves. By +the love of doing kindness it is to deal rightly with all surrounding +life. And then, grafted on these, we are to make every other passion +perfect; so that they may every one have full strength and yet be +absolutely under control. + + +89. Every one must be strong, every one perfect, every one obedient as a +war horse. And it is among the most beautiful pieces of mysticism to +which eternal truth is attached, that the chariot race, which Plato uses +as an image of moral government, and which is indeed the most perfect +type of it in any visible skill of men, should have been made by the +Greeks the continual subject of their best poetry and best art. +Nevertheless Plato's use of it is not altogether true. There is no black +horse in the chariot of the soul. One of the driver's worst faults is in +starving his horses; another, in not breaking them early enough; but +they are all good. Take, for example, one usually thought of as wholly +evil--that of Anger, leading to vengeance. I believe it to be quite one +of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and +chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to +punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, +that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine +that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may +give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten +other people from committing the same fault. The beautiful theory of +this non-vindictive justice is, that having convicted a man of a crime +worthy of death, we entirely pardon the criminal, restore him to his +place in our affection and esteem, and then hang him, not as a +malefactor, but as a scarecrow. That is the theory. And the practice is, +that we send a child to prison for a month for stealing a handful of +walnuts, for fear that other children should come to steal more of our +walnuts. And we do not punish a swindler for ruining a thousand +families, because we think swindling is a wholesome excitement to trade. + + +90. But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to +virtue. Only--and herein it is distinguished from personal revenge--it +is vindictive of the wrong done;--not of the wrong done _to us_. It is +the national expression of deliberate anger, as of deliberate gratitude; +it is not exemplary, or even corrective, but essentially retributive; it +is the absolute art of measured recompense, giving honour where honour +is due, and shame where shame is due, and joy where joy is due, and pain +where pain is due. It is neither educational, for men are to be educated +by wholesome habit, not by rewards and punishments; nor is it +preventive, for it is to be executed without regard to any consequences; +but only for righteousness' sake, a righteous nation does judgment and +justice. But in this, as in all other instances, the rightness of the +secondary passion depends on its being grafted on those two primary +instincts, the love of order and of kindness, so that indignation +itself is against the wounding of love. Do you think the +mênis +Achilêos+ came of a hard heart in Achilles, or the "Pallas te hoc +vulnere, Pallas," of a hard heart in Anchises' son? + + +91. And now, if with this clue through the labyrinth of them, you +remember the course of the arts of great nations, you will perceive that +whatever has prospered, and become lovely, had its beginning--for no +other was possible--in the love of order in material things associated +with true +dikaiosunê+: and the desire of beauty in material +things, which is associated with true affection, _charitas_, and with +the innumerable conditions of gentleness expressed by the different uses +of the words +charis+ and _gratia_. You will find that this love +of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature, and though +it can long co-exist with states of life in many other respects +unvirtuous, it is itself wholly good;--the direct adversary of envy, +avarice, mean worldly care, and especially of cruelty. It entirely +perishes when these are wilfully indulged; and the men in whom it has +been most strong have always been compassionate, and lovers of justice, +and the earliest discerners and declarers of things conducive to the +happiness of mankind. + + +92. Nearly every important truth respecting the love of beauty in its +familiar relations to human life was mythically expressed by the Greeks +in their various accounts of the parentage and offices of the Graces. +But one fact, the most vital of all, they could not in its fulness +perceive, namely, that the intensity of other perceptions of beauty is +exactly commensurate with the imaginative purity of the passion of love, +and with the singleness of its devotion. They were not fully conscious +of, and could not therefore either mythically or philosophically +express, the deep relation within themselves between their power of +perceiving beauty, and the honour of domestic affection which found +their sternest themes of tragedy in the infringement of its laws;--which +made the rape of Helen the chief subject of their epic poetry, and which +fastened their clearest symbolism of resurrection on the story of +Alcestis. Unhappily, the subordinate position of their most revered +women, and the partial corruption of feeling towards them by the +presence of certain other singular states of inferior passion which it +is as difficult as grievous to analyse, arrested the ethical as well as +the formative progress of the Greek mind; and it was not until after an +interval of nearly two thousand years of various error and pain, that, +partly as the true reward of Christian warfare nobly sustained through +centuries of trial, and partly as the visionary culmination of the faith +which saw in a maiden's purity the link between God and her race, the +highest and holiest strength of mortal love was reached; and, together +with it, in the song of Dante, and the painting of Bernard of Luino and +his fellows, the perception, and embodiment for ever of whatsoever +things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of +good report;--that, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, +men might think on those things. + + +93. You probably observed the expression I used a moment ago, the +_imaginative_ purity of the passion of love. I have not yet spoken, nor +is it possible for me to-day, to speak adequately, of the moral power of +the imagination: but you may for yourselves enough discern its nature +merely by comparing the dignity of the relations between the sexes, from +their lowest level in moths or mollusca, through the higher creatures in +whom they become a domestic influence and law, up to the love of pure +men and women; and, finally, to the ideal love which animated chivalry. +Throughout this vast ascent it is the gradual increase of the +imaginative faculty which exalts and enlarges the authority of the +passion, until, at its height, it is the bulwark of patience, the tutor +of honour, and the perfectness of praise. + + +94. You will find farther, that as of love, so of all the other +passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the +Imagination, which is lord over them. For to _subdue_ the passions, +which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is +possible enough to a proud dulness; but to _excite_ them rightly, and +make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination. It +is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. +Human nature is kind and generous; but it is narrow and blind; and can +only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and +feels. People would instantly care for others as well as themselves if +only they could _imagine_ others as well as themselves. Let a child fall +into the river before the roughest man's eyes;--he will usually do what +he can to get it out, even at some risk to himself; and all the town +will triumph in the saving of one little life. Let the same man be shown +that hundreds of children are dying of fever for want of some sanitary +measure which it will cost him trouble to urge, and he will make no +effort; and probably all the town would resist him if he did. So, also, +the lives of many deserving women are passed in a succession of petty +anxieties about themselves, and gleaning of minute interests and mean +pleasures in their immediate circle, because they are never taught to +make any effort to look beyond it; or to know anything about the mighty +world in which their lives are fading, like blades of bitter grass in +fruitless fields. + + +95. I had intended to enlarge on this--and yet more on the kingdom which +every man holds in his conceptive faculty, to be peopled with active +thoughts and lovely presences, or left waste for the springing up of +those dark desires and dreams of which it is written that "every +imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is evil continually." True, +and a thousand times true it is, that, here at least, "greater is he +that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." But this you can +partly follow out for yourselves without help, partly we must leave it +for future enquiry. I press to the conclusion which I wish to leave with +you, that all you can rightly do, or honourably become, depends on the +government of these two instincts of order and kindness, by this great +Imaginative faculty, which gives you inheritance of the past, grasp of +the present, authority over the future. Map out the spaces of your +possible lives by its help; measure the range of their possible agency! +On the walls and towers of this your fair city, there is not an ornament +of which the first origin may not be traced back to the thoughts of men +who died two thousand years ago. Whom will _you_ be governing by your +thoughts, two thousand years hence? Think of it, and you will find that +so far from art being immoral, little else except art is moral; that +life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality: +and for the words "good" and "wicked," used of men, you may almost +substitute the words "Makers" and "Destroyers." Far the greater part of +the seeming prosperity of the world is, so far as our present knowledge +extends, vain: wholly useless for any kind of good, but having assigned +to it a certain inevitable sequence of destruction and of sorrow. Its +stress is only the stress of wandering storm; its beauty the hectic of +plague: and what is called the history of mankind is too often the +record of the whirlwind, and the map of the spreading of the leprosy. +But underneath all that, or in narrow spaces of dominion in the midst of +it, the work of every man, "qui non accepit in vanitatem animam suam," +endures and prospers; a small remnant or green bud of it prevailing at +last over evil. And though faint with sickness, and encumbered in ruin, +the true workers redeem inch by inch the wilderness into garden ground; +by the help of their joined hands the order of all things is surely +sustained and vitally expanded, and although with strange vacillation, +in the eyes of the watcher, the morning cometh, and also the night, +there is no hour of human existence that does not draw on towards the +perfect day. + + +96. And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that +the beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay! +_more_, if it may be, in labour; in our strength, rather than in our +weakness; and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six +days, and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice +of what we pray for on the seventh, of reward or repose. With the +multitude that keep holiday, we may perhaps sometimes vainly have gone +up to the house of the Lord, and vainly there asked for what we fancied +would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their Lord would have +them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing. +Surely goodness and mercy shall _follow_ them, _all_ the days of their +life; and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord--FOR EVER. + + + + +LECTURE IV + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE + + +97. Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in +which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical +requirements of human life. + +Its offices in this respect are mainly twofold: it gives Form to +knowledge, and Grace to utility; that is to say, it makes permanently +visible to us things which otherwise could neither be described by our +science, nor retained by our memory; and it gives delightfulness and +worth to the implements of daily use, and materials of dress, furniture +and lodging. In the first of these offices it gives precision and charm +to truth; in the second it gives precision and charm to service. For, +the moment we make anything useful thoroughly, it is a law of nature +that we shall be pleased with ourselves, and with the thing we have +made; and become desirous therefore to adorn or complete it, in some +dainty way, with finer art expressive of our pleasure. + +And the point I wish chiefly to bring before you to-day is this close +and healthy connection of the fine arts with material use; but I must +first try briefly to put in clear light the function of art in giving +Form to truth. + + +98. Much that I have hitherto tried to teach has been disputed on the +ground that I have attached too much importance to art as representing +natural facts, and too little to it as a source of pleasure. And I wish, +in the close of these four prefatory lectures, strongly to assert to +you, and, so far as I can in the time, convince you, that the entire +vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of +use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful or impressive it may be in +itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper +inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects,--either +_to state a true thing_, or to _adorn a serviceable one_. It must never +exist alone--never for itself; it exists rightly only when it is the +means of knowledge, or the grace of agency for life. + + +99. Now, I pray you to observe--for though I have said this often +before, I have never yet said it clearly enough--every good piece of +art, to whichever of these ends it may be directed, involves first +essentially the evidence of human skill and the formation of an actually +beautiful thing by it. + +Skill, and beauty, always then; and, beyond these, the formative arts +have always one or other of the two objects which I have just defined to +you--truth, or serviceableness; and without these aims neither the skill +nor their beauty will avail; only by these can either legitimately +reign. All the graphic arts begin in keeping the outline of shadow that +we have loved, and they end in giving to it the aspect of life; and all +the architectural arts begin in the shaping of the cup and the platter, +and they end in a glorified roof. + +Therefore, you see, in the graphic arts you have Skill, Beauty, and +Likeness; and in the architectural arts, Skill, Beauty, and Use; and you +_must_ have the three in each group, balanced and co-ordinate; and all +the chief errors of art consist in losing or exaggerating one of these +elements. + + +100. For instance, almost the whole system and hope of modern life are +founded on the notion that you may substitute mechanism for skill, +photograph for picture, cast-iron for sculpture. That is your main +nineteenth-century faith, or infidelity. You think you can get +everything by grinding--music, literature, and painting. You will find +it grievously not so; you can get nothing but dust by mere grinding. +Even to have the barley-meal out of it, you must have the barley first; +and that comes by growth, not grinding. But essentially, we have lost +our delight in Skill; in that majesty of it which I was trying to make +clear to you in my last address, and which long ago I tried to express, +under the head of ideas of power. The entire sense of that, we have +lost, because we ourselves do not take pains enough to do right, and +have no conception of what the right costs; so that all the joy and +reverence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man's work have ceased +in us. We keep them yet a little in looking at a honeycomb or a +bird's-nest; we understand that these differ, by divinity of skill, from +a lump of wax or a cluster of sticks. But a picture, which is a much +more wonderful thing than a honeycomb or a bird's-nest,--have we not +known people, and sensible people too, who expected to be taught to +produce that, in six lessons? + + +101. Well, you must have the skill, you must have the beauty, which is +the highest moral element; and then, lastly, you must have the verity or +utility, which is not the moral, but the vital element; and this desire +for verity and use is the one aim of the three that always leads in +great schools, and in the minds of great masters, without any exception. +They will permit themselves in awkwardness, they will permit themselves +in ugliness; but they will never permit themselves in uselessness or in +unveracity. + + +102. And farther, as their skill increases, and as their grace, so much +more, their desire for truth. It is impossible to find the three motives +in fairer balance and harmony than in our own Reynolds. He rejoices in +showing you his skill; and those of you who succeed in learning what +painter's work really is, will one day rejoice also, even to +laughter--that highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in +watching the fortitude and the fire of a hand which strikes forth its +will upon the canvas as easily as the wind strikes it on the sea. He +rejoices in all abstract beauty and rhythm and melody of design; he will +never give you a colour that is not lovely, nor a shade that is +unnecessary, nor a line that is ungraceful. But all his power and all +his invention are held by him subordinate,--and the more obediently +because of their nobleness,--to his true leading purpose of setting +before you such likeness of the living presence of an English gentleman +or an English lady, as shall be worthy of being looked upon for ever. + + +103. But farther, you remember, I hope--for I said it in a way that I +thought would shock you a little, that you might remember it--my +statement, that art had never done more than this, never more than given +the likeness of a noble human being. Not only so, but it very seldom +does so much as this; and the best pictures that exist of the great +schools are all portraits, or groups of portraits, often of very simple +and no wise noble persons. You may have much more brilliant and +impressive qualities in imaginative pictures; you may have figures +scattered like clouds, or garlanded like flowers; you may have light and +shade, as of a tempest, and colour, as of the rainbow; but all that is +child's play to the great men, though it is astonishment to us. Their +real strength is tried to the utmost, and as far as I know, it is never +elsewhere brought out so thoroughly, as in painting one man or woman, +and the soul that was in them; nor that always the highest soul, but +often only a thwarted one that was capable of height; or perhaps not +even that, but faultful and poor, yet seen through, to the poor best of +it, by the masterful sight. So that in order to put before you in your +Standard series, the best art possible, I am obliged, even from the very +strongest men, to take portraits, before I take the idealism. Nay, +whatever is best in the great compositions themselves has depended on +portraiture; and the study necessary to enable you to understand +invention will also convince you that the mind of man never invented a +greater thing than the form of man, animated by faithful life. Every +attempt to refine or exalt such healthy humanity has weakened or +caricatured it; or else consists only in giving it, to please our fancy, +the wings of birds, or the eyes of antelopes. Whatever is truly great in +either Greek or Christian art, is also restrictedly human; and even the +raptures of the redeemed souls who enter, "celestemente ballando," the +gate of Angelico's Paradise, were seen first in the terrestrial, yet +most pure, mirth of Florentine maidens. + + +104. I am aware that this cannot but at present appear gravely +questionable to those of my audience who are strictly cognisant of the +phases of Greek art; for they know that the moment of its decline is +accurately marked, by its turning from abstract form to portraiture. But +the reason of this is simple. The progressive course of Greek art was in +subduing monstrous conceptions to natural ones; it did this by general +laws; it reached absolute truth of generic human form, and if this +ethical force had remained, would have advanced into healthy +portraiture. But at the moment of change the national life ended in +Greece; and portraiture, there, meant insult to her religion, and +flattery to her tyrants. And her skill perished, not because she became +true in sight, but because she became vile at heart. + + +105. And now let us think of our own work, and ask how that may become, +in its own poor measure, active in some verity of representation. We +certainly cannot begin by drawing kings or queens; but we must try, even +in our earliest work, if it is to prosper, to draw something that will +convey true knowledge both to ourselves and others. And I think you will +find greatest advantage in the endeavour to give more life and +educational power to the simpler branches of natural science: for the +great scientific men are all so eager in advance that they have no time +to popularise their discoveries, and if we can glean after them a +little, and make pictures of the things which science describes, we +shall find the service a worthy one. Not only so, but we may even be +helpful to science herself; for she has suffered by her proud severance +from the arts; and having made too little effort to realise her +discoveries to vulgar eyes, has herself lost true measure of what was +chiefly precious in them. + + +106. Take Botany, for instance. Our scientific botanists are, I think, +chiefly at present occupied in distinguishing species, which perfect +methods of distinction will probably in the future show to be +indistinct;--in inventing descriptive names of which a more advanced +science and more fastidious scholarship will show some to be +unnecessary, and others inadmissible;--and in microscopic investigations +of structure, which through many alternate links of triumphant +discovery that tissue is composed of vessels, and that vessels are +composed of tissue, have not hitherto completely explained to us either +the origin, the energy, or the course of the sap; and which however +subtle or successful, bear to the real natural history of plants only +the relation that anatomy and organic chemistry bear to the history of +men. In the meantime, our artists are so generally convinced of the +truth of the Darwinian theory that they do not always think it necessary +to show any difference between the foliage of an elm and an oak; and the +gift-books of Christmas have every page surrounded with laboriously +engraved garlands of rose, shamrock, thistle, and forget-me-not, without +its being thought proper by the draughtsman, or desirable by the public, +even in the case of those uncommon flowers, to observe the real shape of +the petals of any one of them. + + +107. Now what we especially need at present for educational purposes is +to know, not the anatomy of plants, but their biography--how and where +they live and die, their tempers, benevolences, malignities, distresses, +and virtues. We want them drawn from their youth to their age, from bud +to fruit. We ought to see the various forms of their diminished but +hardy growth in cold climates, or poor soils; and their rank or wild +luxuriance, when full-fed, and warmly nursed. And all this we ought to +have drawn so accurately, that we might at once compare any given part +of a plant with the same part of any other, drawn on the like +conditions. Now, is not this a work which we may set about here in +Oxford, with good hope and much pleasure? I think it is so important, +that the first exercise in drawing I shall put before you will be an +outline of a laurel leaf. You will find in the opening sentence of +Lionardo's treatise, our present text-book, that you must not at first +draw from nature, but from a good master's work, "per assuefarsi a buone +membra," to accustom yourselves, that is, to entirely good +representative organic forms. So your first exercise shall be the top of +the laurel sceptre of Apollo, drawn by an Italian engraver of Lionardo's +own time; then we will draw a laurel leaf itself; and little by little, +I think we may both learn ourselves, and teach to many besides, somewhat +more than we know yet, of the wild olives of Greece, and the wild roses +of England. + + +108. Next, in Geology, which I will take leave to consider as an +entirely separate science from the zoology of the past, which has lately +usurped its name and interest. In geology itself we find the strength of +many able men occupied in debating questions of which there are yet no +data even for the clear statement; and in seizing advanced theoretical +positions on the mere contingency of their being afterwards tenable; +while, in the meantime, no simple person, taking a holiday in +Cumberland, can get an intelligible section of Skiddaw, or a clear +account of the origin of the Skiddaw slates; and while, though half the +educated society of London travel every summer over the great plain of +Switzerland, none know, or care to know, why that is a plain, and the +Alps to the south of it are Alps; and whether or not the gravel of the +one has anything to do with the rocks of the other. And though every +palace in Europe owes part of its decoration to variegated marbles, and +nearly every woman in Europe part of her decoration to pieces of jasper +or chalcedony, I do not think any geologist could at this moment with +authority tell us either how a piece of marble is stained, or what +causes the streaks in a Scotch pebble. + + +109. Now, as soon as you have obtained the power of drawing, I do not +say a mountain, but even a stone, accurately, every question of this +kind will become to you at once attractive and definite; you will find +that in the grain, the lustre, and the cleavage-lines of the smallest +fragment of rock, there are recorded forces of every order and +magnitude, from those which raise a continent by one volcanic effort, to +those which at every instant are polishing the apparently complete +crystal in its nest, and conducting the apparently motionless metal in +its vein; and that only by the art of your own hand, and fidelity of +sight which it develops, you can obtain true perception of these +invincible and inimitable arts of the earth herself; while the +comparatively slight effort necessary to obtain so much skill as may +serviceably draw mountains in distant effect will be instantly rewarded +by what is almost equivalent to a new sense of the conditions of their +structure. + + +110. And, because it is well at once to know some direction in which our +work may be definite, let me suggest to those of you who may intend +passing their vacation in Switzerland, and who care about mountains, +that if they will first qualify themselves to take angles of position +and elevation with correctness, and to draw outlines with approximate +fidelity, there are a series of problems of the highest interest to be +worked out on the southern edge of the Swiss plain, in the study of the +relations of its molasse beds to the rocks which are characteristically +developed in the chain of the Stockhorn, Beatenberg, Pilate, Mythen +above Schwytz, and High Sentis of Appenzell, the pursuit of which may +lead them into many pleasant, as well as creditably dangerous, walks, +and curious discoveries; and will be good for the discipline of their +fingers in the pencilling of crag form. + + +111. I wish I could ask you to draw, instead of the Alps, the crests of +Parnassus and Olympus, and the ravines of Delphi and of Tempe. I have +not loved the arts of Greece as others have; yet I love them, and her, +so much, that it is to me simply a standing marvel how scholars can +endure for all these centuries, during which their chief education has +been in the language and policy of Greece, to have only the names of her +hills and rivers upon their lips, and never one line of conception of +them in their mind's sight. Which of us knows what the valley of Sparta +is like, or the great mountain vase of Arcadia? which of us, except in +mere airy syllabling of names, knows aught of "sandy Ladon's lilied +banks, or old Lycæus, or Cyllene hoar"? "You cannot travel in +Greece?"--I know it; nor in Magna Græcia. But, gentlemen of England, you +had better find out why you cannot, and put an end to that horror of +European shame, before you hope to learn Greek art. + + +112. I scarcely know whether to place among the things useful to art, +or to science, the systematic record, by drawing, of phenomena of the +sky. But I am quite sure that your work cannot in any direction be more +useful to yourselves, than in enabling you to perceive the quite +unparalleled subtilties of colour and inorganic form, which occur on any +ordinarily fine morning or evening horizon; and I will even confess to +you another of my perhaps too sanguine expectations, that in some far +distant time it may come to pass, that young Englishmen and Englishwomen +may think the breath of the morning sky pleasanter than that of +midnight, and its light prettier than that of candles. + + +113. Lastly, in Zoology. What the Greeks did for the horse, and what, as +far as regards domestic and expressional character, Landseer has done +for the dog and the deer, remains to be done by art for nearly all other +animals of high organisation. There are few birds or beasts that have +not a range of character which, if not equal to that of the horse or +dog, is yet as interesting within narrower limits, and often in +grotesqueness, intensity, or wild and timid pathos, more singular and +mysterious. Whatever love of humour you have,--whatever sympathy with +imperfect, but most subtle, feeling,--whatever perception of sublimity +in conditions of fatal power, may here find fullest occupation: all +these being joined, in the strong animal races, to a variable and +fantastic beauty far beyond anything that merely formative art has yet +conceived. I have placed in your Educational series a wing by Albert +Dürer, which goes as far as art yet has reached in delineation of +plumage; while for the simple action of the pinion it is impossible to +go beyond what has been done already by Titian and Tintoret; but you +cannot so much as once look at the rufflings of the plumes of a pelican +pluming itself after it has been in the water, or carefully draw the +contours of the wing either of a vulture or a common swift, or paint the +rose and vermilion on that of a flamingo, without receiving almost a new +conception of the meaning of form and colour in creation. + + +114. Lastly. Your work, in all directions I have hitherto indicated, +may be as deliberate as you choose; there is no immediate fear of the +extinction of many species of flowers or animals; and the Alps, and +valley of Sparta, will wait your leisure, I fear too long. But the +feudal and monastic buildings of Europe, and still more the streets of +her ancient cities, are vanishing like dreams: and it is difficult to +imagine the mingled envy and contempt with which future generations will +look back to us, who still possessed such things, yet made no effort to +preserve, and scarcely any to delineate them: for when used as material +of landscape by the modern artist, they are nearly always superficially +or flatteringly represented, without zeal enough to penetrate their +character, or patience enough to render it in modest harmony. As for +places of traditional interest, I do not know an entirely faithful +drawing of any historical site, except one or two studies made by +enthusiastic young painters in Palestine and Egypt: for which, thanks to +them always: but we want work nearer home. + + +115. Now it is quite probable that some of you, who will not care to go +through the labour necessary to draw flowers or animals, may yet have +pleasure in attaining some moderately accurate skill of sketching +architecture, and greater pleasure still in directing it usefully. +Suppose, for instance, we were to take up the historical scenery in +Carlyle's "Frederick." Too justly the historian accuses the genius of +past art, in that, types of too many such elsewhere, the galleries of +Berlin--"are made up, like other galleries, of goat-footed Pan, Europa's +Bull, Romulus's She-Wolf, and the Correggiosity of Correggio, and +contain, for instance, no portrait of Friedrich the Great,--no likeness +at all, or next to none at all, of the noble series of Human Realities, +or any part of them, who have sprung, not from the idle brains of +dreaming _dilettanti_, but from the head of God Almighty, to make this +poor authentic earth a little memorable for us, and to do a little work +that may be eternal there." So Carlyle tells us--too truly! We cannot +now draw Friedrich for him, but we can draw some of the old castles and +cities that were the cradles of German life--Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, +Marburg, and such others;--we may keep some authentic likeness of these +for the future. Suppose we were to take up that first volume of +"Friedrich," and put outlines to it: shall we begin by looking for Henry +the Fowler's tomb--Carlyle himself asks if he has any--at Quedlinburgh, +and so downwards, rescuing what we can? That would certainly be making +our work of some true use. + + +116. But I have told you enough, it seems to me, at least to-day, of +this function of art in recording fact; let me now finally, and with all +distinctness possible to me, state to you its main business of all;--its +service in the actual uses of daily life. + +You are surprised, perhaps, to hear me call this its main business. That +is indeed so, however. The giving brightness to picture is much, but the +giving brightness to life more. And remember, were it as patterns only, +you cannot, without the realities, have the pictures. _You cannot have a +landscape by Turner, without a country for him to paint; you cannot have +a portrait by Titian, without a man to be portrayed._ I need not prove +that to you, I suppose, in these short terms; but in the outcome I can +get no soul to believe that the beginning of art _is in getting our +country clean, and our people beautiful_. I have been ten years trying +to get this very plain certainty--I do not say believed--but even +thought of, as anything but a monstrous proposition. To get your country +clean, and your people lovely;--I assure you that is a necessary work of +art to begin with! There has indeed been art in countries where people +lived in dirt to serve God, but never in countries where they lived in +dirt to serve the devil. There has indeed been art where the people were +not all lovely--where even their lips were thick--and their skins black, +because the sun had looked upon them; but never in a country where the +people were pale with miserable toil and deadly shade, and where the +lips of youth, instead of being full with blood, were pinched by famine, +or warped with poison. And now, therefore, note this well, the gist of +all these long prefatory talks. I said that the two great moral +instincts were those of Order and Kindness. Now, all the arts are +founded on agriculture by the hand, and on the graces, and kindness of +feeding, and dressing, and lodging your people. Greek art begins in the +gardens of Alcinous--perfect order, leeks in beds, and fountains in +pipes. And Christian art, as it arose out of chivalry, was only possible +so far as chivalry compelled both kings and knights to care for the +right personal training of their people; it perished utterly when those +kings and knights became +dêmoboroi+, devourers of the people. +And it will become possible again only, when, literally, the sword is +beaten into the ploughshare, when your St. George of England shall +justify his name, and Christian art shall be known as its Master was, in +breaking of bread. + + +117. Now look at the working out of this broad principle in minor +detail; observe how, from highest to lowest, health of art has first +depended on reference to industrial use. There is first the need of cup +and platter, especially of cup; for you can put your meat on the +Harpies',[10] or on any other, tables; but you must have your cup to +drink from. And to hold it conveniently, you must put a handle to it; +and to fill it when it is empty you must have a large pitcher of some +sort; and to carry the pitcher you may most advisably have two handles. +Modify the forms of these needful possessions according to the various +requirements of drinking largely and drinking delicately; of pouring +easily out, or of keeping for years the perfume in; of storing in +cellars, or bearing from fountains; of sacrificial libation, of +Panathenaic treasure of oil, and sepulchral treasure of ashes,--and you +have a resultant series of beautiful form and decoration, from the rude +amphora of red earth up to Cellini's vases of gems and crystal, in which +series, but especially in the more simple conditions of it, are +developed the most beautiful lines and most perfect types of severe +composition which have yet been attained by art. + +[Footnote 10: Virg., _Æn._, iii. 209 _seqq._] + + +118. But again, that you may fill your cup with pure water, you must go +to the well or spring; you need a fence round the well; you need some +tube or trough, or other means of confining the stream at the spring. +For the conveyance of the current to any distance you must build either +enclosed or open aqueduct; and in the hot square of the city where you +set it free, you find it good for health and pleasantness to let it leap +into a fountain. On these several needs you have a school of sculpture +founded; in the decoration of the walls of wells in level countries, and +of the sources of springs in mountainous ones, and chiefly of all, where +the women of household or market meet at the city fountain. + +There is, however, a farther reason for the use of art here than in any +other material service, so far as we may, by art, express our reverence +or thankfulness. Whenever a nation is in its right mind, it always has a +deep sense of divinity in the gift of rain from heaven, filling its +heart with food and gladness; and all the more when that gift becomes +gentle and perennial in the flowing of springs. It literally is not +possible that any fruitful power of the Muses should be put forth upon a +people which disdains their Helicon; still less is it possible that any +Christian nation should grow up "tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus +decursus aquarum," which cannot recognise the lesson meant in their +being told of the places where Rebekah was met;--where Rachel,--where +Zipporah,--and she who was asked for water under Mount Grerizim by a +Stranger, weary, who had nothing to draw with. + + +119. And truly, when our mountain springs are set apart in vale or +craggy glen, or glade of wood green through the drought of summer, far +from cities, then it is best to let them stay in their own happy peace; +but if near towns, and liable therefore to be defiled by common usage, +we could not use the loveliest art more worthily than by sheltering the +spring and its first pools with precious marbles: nor ought anything to +be esteemed more important, as a means of healthy education, than the +care to keep the streams of it afterwards, to as great a distance as +possible, pure, full of fish, and easily accessible to children. There +used to be, thirty years ago, a little rivulet of the Wandel, about an +inch deep, which ran over the carriage-road and under a foot-bridge just +under the last chalk hill near Croydon. Alas! men came and went; and it +did _not_ go on for ever. It has long since been bricked over by the +parish authorities; but there was more education in that stream with its +minnows than you could get out of a thousand pounds spent yearly in the +parish schools, even though you were to spend every farthing of it in +teaching the nature of oxygen and hydrogen, and the names, and rate per +minute, of all the rivers in Asia and America. + + +120. Well, the gist of this matter lies here then. Suppose we want a +school of pottery again in England, all we poor artists are ready to do +the best we can, to show you how pretty a line may be that is twisted +first to one side, and then to the other; and how a plain household-blue +will make a pattern on white; and how ideal art may be got out of the +spaniel's colours of black and tan. But I tell you beforehand, all that +we can do will be utterly useless, unless you teach your peasant to say +grace, not only before meat, but before drink; and having provided him +with Greek cups and platters, provide him also with something that is +not poisoned to put into them. + + +121. There cannot be any need that I should trace for you the conditions +of art that are directly founded on serviceableness of dress, and of +armour; but it is my duty to affirm to you, in the most positive manner, +that after recovering, for the poor, wholesomeness of food, your next +step towards founding schools of art in England must be in recovering, +for the poor, decency and wholesomeness of dress; thoroughly good in +substance, fitted for their daily work, becoming to their rank in life, +and worn with order and dignity. And this order and dignity must be +taught them by the women of the upper and middle classes, whose minds +can be in nothing right, as long as they are so wrong in this matter as +to endure the squalor of the poor, while they themselves dress gaily. +And on the proper pride and comfort of both poor and rich in dress, must +be founded the true arts of dress; carried on by masters of manufacture +no less careful of the perfectness and beauty of their tissues, and of +all that in substance and design can be bestowed upon them, than ever +the armourers of Milan and Damascus were careful of their steel. + + +122. Then, in the third place, having recovered some wholesome habits of +life as to food and dress, we must recover them as to lodging. I said +just now that the best architecture was but a glorified roof. Think of +it. The dome of the Vatican, the porches of Rheims or Chartres, the +vaults and arches of their aisles, the canopy of the tomb, and the spire +of the belfry, are all forms resulting from the mere requirement that a +certain space shall be strongly covered from heat and rain. More than +that--as I have tried all through "The Stories of Venice" to show,--the +lovely forms of these were every one of them developed in civil and +domestic building, and only after their invention, employed +ecclesiastically on the grandest scale. I think you cannot but have +noticed here in Oxford, as elsewhere, that our modern architects never +seem to know what to do with their roofs. Be assured, until the roofs +are right, nothing else will be; and there are just two ways of keeping +them right. Never build them of iron, but only of wood or stone; and +secondly, take care that in every town the little roofs are built before +the large ones, and that everybody who wants one has got one. And we +must try also to make everybody want one. That is to say, at some not +very advanced period of life, men should desire to have a home, which +they do not wish to quit any more, suited to their habits of life, and +likely to be more and more suitable to them until their death. And men +must desire to have these their dwelling-places built as strongly as +possible, and furnished and decorated daintily, and set in pleasant +places, in bright light, and good air, being able to choose for +themselves that at least as well as swallows. And when the houses are +grouped together in cities, men must have so much civic fellowship as to +subject their architecture to a common law, and so much civic pride as +to desire that the whole gathered group of human dwellings should be a +lovely thing, not a frightful one, on the face of the earth. Not many +weeks ago an English clergyman,[11] a master of this University, a man +not given to sentiment, but of middle age, and great practical sense, +told me, by accident, and wholly without reference to the subject now +before us, that he never could enter London from his country parsonage +but with closed eyes, lest the sight of the blocks of houses which the +railroad intersected in the suburbs should unfit him, by the horror of +it, for his day's work. + +[Footnote 11: Osborne Gordon.] + + +123. Now, it is not possible--and I repeat to you, only in more +deliberate assertion, what I wrote just twenty-two years ago in the last +chapter of the "Seven Lamps of Architecture"--it is not possible to have +any right morality, happiness, or art, in any country where the cities +are thus built, or thus, let me rather say, clotted and coagulated; +spots of a dreadful mildew, spreading by patches and blotches over the +country they consume. You must have lovely cities, crystallised, not +coagulated, into form; limited in size, and not casting out the scum and +scurf of them into an encircling eruption of shame, but girded each with +its sacred pomoerium, and with garlands of gardens full of blossoming +trees and softly guided streams. + +That is impossible, you say! it may be so. I have nothing to do with its +possibility, but only with its indispensability. More than that must be +possible, however, before you can have a school of art; namely, that you +find places elsewhere than in England, or at least in otherwise +unserviceable parts of England, for the establishment of manufactories +needing the help of fire, that is to say, of all the +technai +banausikai+ and +epirrêtoi+, of which it was long ago known to be +the constant nature that "+ascholias malista echousi kai philôn +kai poleôs sunepimeleisthai+," and to reduce such manufactures to their +lowest limit, so that nothing may ever be made of iron that can as +effectually be made of wood or stone; and nothing moved by steam that +can be as effectually moved by natural forces. And observe, that for all +mechanical effort required in social life and in cities, water power is +infinitely more than enough; for anchored mills on the large rivers, and +mills moved by sluices from reservoirs filled by the tide, will give you +command of any quantity of constant motive power you need. + +Agriculture by the hand, then, and absolute refusal or banishment of +unnecessary igneous force, are the first conditions of a school of art +in any country. And until you do this, be it soon or late, things will +continue in that triumphant state to which, for want of finer art, your +mechanism has brought them;--that, though England is deafened with +spinning wheels, her people have not clothes--though she is black with +digging of fuel, they die of cold--and though she has sold her soul for +gain, they die of hunger. Stay in that triumph, if you choose; but be +assured of this, it is not one which the fine arts will ever share with +you. + + +124. Now, I have given you my message, containing, as I know, offence +enough, and itself, it may seem to many, unnecessary enough. But just in +proportion to its apparent non-necessity, and to its certain offence, +was its real need, and my real duty to speak it. The study of the fine +arts could not be rightly associated with the grave work of English +Universities, without due and clear protest against the misdirection of +national energy, which for the present renders all good results of such +study on a great scale, impossible. I can easily teach you, as any other +moderately good draughtsman could, how to hold your pencils, and how to +lay your colours; but it is little use my doing that, while the nation +is spending millions of money in the destruction of all that pencil or +colour has to represent, and in the promotion of false forms of art, +which are only the costliest and the least enjoyable of follies. And +therefore these are the things that I have first and last to tell you in +this place;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by Locomotion, but +by making the homes we live in lovely, and by staying in them;--that +the fine arts are not to be learned by Competition, but by doing our +quiet best in our own way;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by +Exhibition, but by doing what is right, and making what is honest, +whether it be exhibited or not;--and, for the sum of all, that men must +paint and build neither for pride nor for money, but for love; for love +of their art, for love of their neighbour, and whatever better love may +be than these, founded on these. I know that I gave some pain, which I +was most unwilling to give, in speaking of the possible abuses of +religious art; but there can be no danger of any, so long as we remember +that God inhabits cottages as well as churches, and ought to be well +lodged there also. Begin with wooden floors; the tessellated ones will +take care of themselves; begin with thatching roofs, and you shall end +by splendidly vaulting them; begin by taking care that no old eyes fail +over their Bibles, nor young ones over their needles, for want of +rushlight, and then you may have whatever true good is to be got out of +coloured glass or wax candles. And in thus putting the arts to universal +use, you will find also their universal inspiration, their universal +benediction. I told you there was no evidence of a _special_ Divineness +in any application of them; that they were always equally human and +equally Divine; and in closing this inaugural series of lectures, into +which I have endeavoured to compress the principles that are to be the +foundations of your future work, it is my last duty to say some positive +words as to the Divinity of all art, when it is truly fair, or truly +serviceable. + + +125. Every seventh day, if not oftener, the greater number of +well-meaning persons in England thankfully receive from their teachers a +benediction, couched in those terms:--"The grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be +with you." Now I do not know precisely what sense is attached in the +English public mind to those expressions. But what I have to tell you +positively is that the three things do actually exist, and can be known +if you care to know them, and possessed if you care to possess them; +and that another thing exists, besides these, of which we already know +too much. + +First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your religion, all +grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be given +to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The Grace of Christ +exists, and can be had if you will. Secondly, as you know more and more +of the created world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is +that its creatures should be happy;--that He has made everything +beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is chiefly by the fault +of men, when they are allowed the liberty of thwarting His laws, that +Creation groans or travails in pain. The Love of God exists, and you may +see it, and live in it if you will. Lastly, a Spirit does actually exist +which teaches the ant her path, the bird her building, and men, in an +instinctive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble deeds are +possible to them. Without it you can do no good thing. To the grief of +it you can do many bad ones. In the possession of it is your peace and +your power. + +And there is a fourth thing, of which we already know too much. There is +an evil spirit whose dominion is in blindness and in cowardice, as the +dominion of the Spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage. + +And this blind and cowardly spirit is for ever telling you that evil +things are pardonable, and you shall not die for them, and that good +things are impossible, and you need not live for them; and that gospel +of his is now the loudest that is preached in your Saxon tongue. You +will find some day, to your cost, if you believe the first part of it, +that it is not true; but you may never, if you believe the second part +of it, find, to your gain, that also, untrue; and therefore I pray you +with all earnestness to prove, and know within your hearts, that all +things lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe in their +possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will make +every day's work contribute to them. Let every dawn of morning be to you +as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its +close:--then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of +some kindly thing done for others--some goodly strength or knowledge +gained for yourselves; so, from day to day, and strength to strength, +you shall build up indeed, by Art, by Thought, and by Just Will, an +Ecclesia of England, of which it shall not be said, "See what manner of +stones are here," but, "See what manner of men." + + + + +LECTURE V + +LINE + + +126. You will, I doubt not, willingly permit me to begin your lessons in +real practice of art in the words of the greatest of English painters: +one also, than whom there is indeed no greater, among those of any +nation, or any time,--our own gentle Reynolds. + +He says in his first discourse:--"The Directors" (of the Academy) "ought +more particularly to watch over the genius of those students, who being +more advanced, are arrived at that critical period of study, on the nice +management of which their future turn of taste depends. At that age it +is natural for them to be more captivated with what is brilliant, than +with what is solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and +humiliating exactness." + +"A facility in composing, a lively and, what is called, a 'masterly' +handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must be confessed, captivating +qualities to young minds, and become of course the objects of their +ambition. They endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellences, which +they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in +these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will +then be too late; and there is scarce an instance of return to +scrupulous labour, after the mind has been debauched and deceived by +this fallacious mastery." + + +127. I read you these words, chiefly that Sir Joshua, who founded, as +first President, the Academical schools of English painting, in these +well-known discourses, may also begin, as he has truest right to do, our +system of instruction in this University. But secondly, I read them that +I may press on your attention these singular words, "painful and +humiliating exactness." Singular, as expressing the first conditions of +the study required from his pupils by the master, who, of all men except +Velasquez, seems to have painted with the greatest ease. It is true that +he asks this pain, this humiliation, only from youths who intend to +follow the profession of artists. But if you wish yourselves to know +anything of the practice of art, you must not suppose that because your +study will be more desultory than that of Academy students, it may +therefore be less accurate. The shorter the time you have to give, the +more careful you should be to spend it profitably; and I would not wish +you to devote one hour to the practice of drawing, unless you are +resolved to be informed in it of all that in an hour can be taught. + + +128. I speak of the practice of _drawing_ only; though elementary study +of modelling may perhaps some day be advisably connected with it; but I +do not wish to disturb, or amuse, you with a formal statement of the +manifold expectations I have formed respecting your future work. You +will not, I am sure, imagine that I have begun without a plan, nor blame +my reticence as to the parts of it which cannot yet be put into +execution, and which there may occur reason afterwards to modify. My +first task must unquestionably be to lay before you right and simple +methods of drawing and colouring. + +I use the word "colouring" without reference to any particular vehicle +of colour, for the laws of good painting are the same, whatever liquid +is employed to dissolve the pigments. But the technical management of +oil is more difficult than that of water-colour, and the impossibility +of using it with safety among books or prints, and its unavailableness +for note-book sketches and memoranda, are sufficient reasons for not +introducing it in a course of practice intended chiefly for students of +literature. On the contrary, in the exercises of artists, oil should be +the vehicle of colour employed from the first. The extended practice of +water-colour painting, as a separate skill, is in every way harmful to +the arts: its pleasant slightness and plausible dexterity divert the +genius of the painter from its proper aims, and withdraw the attention +of the public from excellence of higher claim; nor ought any man, who +has the consciousness of ability for good work, to be ignorant of, or +indolent in employing, the methods of making its results permanent as +long as the laws of Nature allow. It is surely a severe lesson to us in +this matter, that the best works of Turner could not be shown to the +public for six months without being destroyed,--and that his most +ambitious ones for the most part perished, even before they could be +shown. I will break through my law of reticence, however, so far as to +tell you that I have hope of one day interesting you greatly (with the +help of the Florentine masters), in the study of the arts of moulding +and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you to use your future +power of patronage in encouraging the various branches of this art, and +turning the attention of the workmen of Italy from the vulgar tricks of +minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite subtilties of form and +colour possible in the perfectly ductile, afterwards unalterable clay. +And one of the ultimate results of such craftsmanship might be the +production of pictures as brilliant as painted glass,--as delicate as +the most subtle water-colours, and more permanent than the Pyramids. + + +129. And now to begin our own work. In order that we may know how +rightly to learn to draw and to paint, it will be necessary, will it +not, that we know first what we are to aim at doing;--what kind of +representation of nature is best? + +I will tell you in the words of Lionardo. "That is the most praiseworthy +painting which has most conformity with the thing represented," "quella +pittura e piu laudabile, la quale ha piu conformita con la cosa mitata," +(ch. 276). In plain terms, "the painting which is likest nature is the +best." And you will find by referring to the preceding chapter, "come lo +specchio e maestro de' pittori," how absolutely Lionardo means what he +says. Let the living thing, (he tells us,) be reflected in a mirror, +then put your picture beside the reflection, and match the one with the +other. And indeed, the very best painting is unquestionably so like the +mirrored truth, that all the world admits its excellence. Entirely +first-rate work is so quiet and natural that there can be no dispute +over it; you may not particularly admire it, but you will find no fault +with it. Second-rate painting pleases one person much, and displeases +another; but first-rate painting pleases all a little, and intensely +pleases those who can recognise its unostentatious skill. + + +130. This, then, is what we have first got to do--to make our drawing +look as like the thing we have to draw as we can. + +Now, all objects are seen by the eye as patches of colour of a certain +shape, with gradations of colour within them. And, unless their colours +be actually luminous, as those of the sun, or of fire, these patches of +different hues are sufficiently imitable, except so far as they are seen +stereoscopically. You will find Lionardo again and again insisting on +the stereoscopic power of the double sight: but do not let that trouble +you; you can only paint what you can see from one point of sight, but +that is quite enough. So seen, then, all objects appear to the human eye +simply as masses of colour of variable depth, texture, and outline. The +outline of any object is the limit of its mass, as relieved against +another mass. Take a crocus, and lay it on a green cloth. You will see +it detach itself as a mere space of yellow from the green behind it, as +it does from the grass. Hold it up against the window--you will see it +detach itself as a dark space against the white or blue behind it. In +either case its outline is the limit of the space of light or dark +colour by which it expresses itself to your sight. That outline is +therefore infinitely subtle--not even a line, but the place of a line, +and that, also, made soft by texture. In the finest painting it is +therefore slightly softened; but it is necessary to be able to draw it +with absolute sharpness and precision. The art of doing this is to be +obtained by drawing it as an actual line, which art is to be the subject +of our immediate enquiry; but I must first lay the divisions of the +entire subject completely before you. + + +131. I have said that all objects detach themselves as masses of +colour. Usually, light and shade are thought of as separate from colour; +but the fact is that all nature is seen as a mosaic composed of gradated +portions of different colours, dark or light. There is no difference in +the quality of these colours, except as affected by texture. You will +constantly hear lights and shades spoken of as if these were different +in their nature, and to be painted in different ways. But every light is +a shadow compared to higher lights, till we reach the brightness of the +sun; and every shadow is a light compared to lower shadows, till we +reach the darkness of night. + +Every colour used in painting, except pure white and black, is therefore +a light and shade at the same time. It is a light with reference to all +below it, and a shade with reference to all above it. + + +132. The solid forms of an object, that is to say, the projections or +recessions of its surface within the outline, are, for the most part, +rendered visible by variations in the intensity or quantity of light +falling on them. The study of the relations between the quantities of +this light, irrespectively of its colour, is the second division of the +regulated science of painting. + + +133. Finally, the qualities and relations of natural colours, the means +of imitating them, and the laws by which they become separately +beautiful, and in association harmonious, are the subjects of the third +and final division of the painter's study. I shall endeavour at once to +state to you what is most immediately desirable for you to know on each +of these topics, in this and the two following lectures. + + +134. What we have to do, then, from beginning to end, is, I repeat once +more, simply to draw spaces of their true shape, and to fill them with +colours which shall match their colours; quite a simple thing in the +definition of it, not quite so easy in the doing of it. + +But it is something to get this simple definition; and I wish you to +notice that the terms of it are complete, though I do not introduce the +term "light," or "shadow." Painters who have no eye for colour have +greatly confused and falsified the practice of art by the theory that +shadow is an absence of colour. Shadow is, on the contrary, necessary to +the full presence of colour; for every colour is a diminished quantity +or energy of light; and, practically, it follows from what I have just +told you--(that every light in painting is a shadow to higher lights, +and every shadow a light to lower shadows)--that also every _colour_ in +painting must be a shadow to some brighter colour, and a light to some +darker one--all the while being a positive colour itself. And the great +splendour of the Venetian school arises from their having seen and held +from the beginning this great fact--that shadow is as much colour as +light, often much more. In Titian's fullest red the lights are pale +rose-colour, passing into white--the shadows warm deep crimson. In +Veronese's most splendid orange, the lights are pale, the shadows crocus +colour; and so on. In nature, dark sides if seen by reflected lights, +are almost always fuller or warmer in colour than the lights; and the +practice of the Bolognese and Roman schools, in drawing their shadows +always dark and cold, is false from the beginning, and renders perfect +painting for ever impossible in those schools, and to all who follow +them. + + +135. Every visible space, then, be it dark or light, is a space of +colour of some kind, or of black or white. And you have to enclose it +with a true outline, and to paint it with its true colour. + +But before considering how we are to draw this enclosing line, I must +state to you something about the use of lines in general, by different +schools. + +I said just now that there was no difference between the masses of +colour of which all visible nature is composed, except in _texture_. Now +textures are principally of three kinds:-- + + (1) Lustrous, as of water and glass. + (2) Bloomy, or velvety, as of a rose-leaf or peach. + (3) Linear, produced by filaments or threads as in feathers, fur, + hair, and woven or reticulated tissues. + +All these three sources of pleasure to the eye in texture are united in +the best ornamental work. A fine picture by Fra Angelico, or a fine +illuminated page of missal, has large spaces of gold, partly burnished +and lustrous, partly dead;--some of it chased and enriched with linear +texture, and mingled with imposed or inlaid colours, soft in bloom like +that of the rose-leaf. But many schools of art affect for the most part +one kind of texture only, and a vast quantity of the art of all ages +depends for great part of its power on texture produced by multitudinous +lines. Thus, wood engraving, line engraving properly so called, and +countless varieties of sculpture, metal work, and textile fabric, depend +for great part of the effect, for the mystery, softness, and clearness +of their colours, or shades, on modification of the surfaces by lines or +threads. Even in advanced oil painting, the work often depends for some +part of its effect on the texture of the canvas. + + +136. Again, the arts of etching and mezzotint engraving depend +principally for their effect on the velvety, or bloomy texture of their +darkness, and the best of all painting is the fresco work of great +colourists, in which the colours are what is usually called dead; but +they are anything but dead, they glow with the luminous bloom of life. +The frescoes of Correggio, when not repainted, are supreme in this +quality. + + +137. While, however, in all periods of art these different textures are +thus used in various styles, and for various purposes, you will find +that there is a broad historical division of schools, which will +materially assist you in understanding them. The earliest art in most +countries is linear, consisting of interwoven, or richly spiral and +otherwise involved arrangements of sculptured or painted lines, on +stone, wood, metal or clay. It is generally characteristic of savage +life, and of feverish energy of imagination. I shall examine these +schools with you hereafter, under the general head of the "Schools of +Line."[12] + +[Footnote 12: See "Ariadne Florentina," § 5.] + +Secondly, even in the earliest periods, among powerful nations, this +linear decoration is more or less filled with chequered or barred shade, +and begins at once to represent animal or floral form, by filling its +outlines with flat shadow, or with flat colour. And here we instantly +find two great divisions of temper and thought. The Greeks look upon all +colour first as light; they are, as compared with other races, +insensitive to hue, exquisitely sensitive to phenomena of light. And +their linear school passes into one of flat masses of light and +darkness, represented in the main by four tints,--white, black, and two +reds, one brick colour, more or less vivid, the other dark purple; these +two standing mentally their favourite +porphyreos+ colour, in its +light and dark powers. On the other hand, many of the Northern nations +are at first entirely insensible to light and shade, but exquisitely +sensitive to colour, and their linear decoration is filled with flat +tints, infinitely varied, but with no expression of light and shade. +Both these schools have a limited but absolute perfection of their own, +and their peculiar successes can in no wise be imitated, except by the +strictest observance of the same limitations. + + +138. You have then, Line for the earliest art, branching into-- + + (1) Greek, Line with Light. + (2) Gothic, Line with Colour. + +Now, as art completes itself, each of these schools retain their +separate characters, but they cease to depend on lines, and learn to +represent masses instead, becoming more refined at the same time in all +modes of perception and execution. + +And thus there arise the two vast mediæval schools; one of flat and +infinitely varied colour, with exquisite character and sentiment added, +in the forms represented; but little perception of shadow. The other, of +light and shade, with exquisite drawing of solid form, and little +perception of colour: sometimes as little of sentiment. Of these, the +school of flat colour is the more vital one; it is always natural and +simple, if not great;--and when it is great, it is very great. + +The school of light and shade associates itself with that of engraving; +it is essentially an academical school, broadly dividing light from +darkness, and begins by assuming that the light side of all objects +shall be represented by white, and the extreme shadow by black. On this +conventional principle it reaches a limited excellence of its own, in +which the best existing types of engraving are executed, and ultimately, +the most regular expressions of organic form in painting. + +Then, lastly,--the schools of colour advance steadily, till they adopt +from those of light and shade whatever is compatible with their own +power,--and then you have perfect art, represented centrally by that of +the great Venetians. + +The schools of light and shade, on the other hand, are partly, in their +academical formulas, too haughty, and partly, in their narrowness of +imagination, too weak, to learn much from the schools of colour; and +pass into a state of decadence, consisting partly in proud endeavours to +give painting the qualities of sculpture, and partly in the pursuit of +effects of light and shade, carried at last to extreme sensational +subtlety by the Dutch school. In their fall, they drag the schools of +colour down with them; and the recent history of art is one of confused +effort to find lost roads, and resume allegiance to violated principles. + + +139. That, briefly, is the map of the great schools, easily remembered +in this hexagonal form:-- + + 1. + LINE + Early schools. + + 2. 3. + LINE AND LIGHT. LINE AND COLOUR. + Greek clay. Gothic glass. + + 4. 5. + MASS AND LIGHT. MASS AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Lionardo, (Represented by Giorgione, + and his schools.) and his schools.) + + 6. + MASS, LIGHT, AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Titian, + and his schools.) + +And I wish you with your own eyes and fingers to trace, and in your own +progress follow, the method of advance exemplified by these great +schools. I wish you to begin by getting command of line, that is to say, +by learning to draw a steady line, limiting with absolute correctness +the form or space you intend it to limit; to proceed by getting command +over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have +enclosed, evenly, either with shade or colour according to the school +you adopt; and finally to obtain the power of adding such fineness of +gradation within the masses, as shall express their roundings, and their +characters of texture. + + +140. Those who are familiar with the methods of existing schools must be +aware that I thus nearly invert their practice of teaching. Students at +present learn to draw details first, and to colour and mass them +afterwards. I shall endeavour to teach you to arrange broad masses and +colours first; and you shall put the details into them afterwards. I +have several reasons for this audacity, of which you may justly require +me to state the principal ones. The first is that, as I have shown you, +this method I wish you to follow, is the natural one. All great artist +nations _have_ actually learned to work in this way, and I believe it +therefore the right, as the hitherto successful one. Secondly, you will +find it less irksome than the reverse method, and more definite. When a +beginner is set at once to draw details, and make finished studies in +light and shade, no master can correct his innumerable errors, or rescue +him out of his endless difficulties. But in the natural method, he can +correct, if he will, his own errors. You will have positive lines to +draw, presenting no more difficulty, except in requiring greater +steadiness of hand, than the outlines of a map. They will be generally +sweeping and simple, instead of being jagged into promontories and bays; +but assuredly, they may be drawn rightly (with patience), and their +rightness tested with mathematical accuracy. You have only to follow +your own line with tracing paper, and apply it to your own copy. If they +do not correspond, you are wrong, and you need no master to show you +where. Again; in washing in a flat tone of colour or shade, you can +always see yourself if it is flat, and kept well within the edges; and +you can set a piece of your colour side by side with that of the copy; +if it does not match, you are wrong; and, again, you need no one to tell +you so, if your eye for colour is true. It happens, indeed, more +frequently than would be supposed, that there is real want of power in +the eye to distinguish colours; and this I even suspect to be a +condition which has been sometimes attendant on high degrees of cerebral +sensitiveness in other directions; but such want of faculty would be +detected in your first two or three exercises by this simple method, +while, otherwise, you might go on for years endeavouring to colour from +nature in vain. Lastly, and this is a very weighty collateral reason, +such a method enables me to show you many things, besides the art of +drawing. Every exercise that I prepare for you will be either a portion +of some important example of ancient art, or of some natural object. +However rudely or unsuccessfully you may draw it, (though I anticipate +from you neither want of care nor success,) you will nevertheless have +learned what no words could have so forcibly or completely taught you, +either respecting early art or organic structure; and I am thus certain +that not a moment you spend attentively will be altogether wasted, and +that, generally, you will be twice gainers by every effort. + + +141. There is, however, yet another point in which I think a change of +existing methods will be advisable. You have here in Oxford one of the +finest collections in Europe of drawings in pen, and chalk, by Michael +Angelo and Raphael. Of the whole number, you cannot but have noticed +that not one is weak or student-like--all are evidently master's work. + +You may look the galleries of Europe through, and so far as I know, or +as it is possible to make with safety any so wide generalization, you +will not find in them a childish or feeble drawing, by these, or by any +other great master. + +And farther:--by the greatest men--by Titian, Velasquez, or +Veronese--you will hardly find an authentic drawing, at all. For the +fact is, that while we moderns have always learned, or tried to learn, +to paint by drawing, the ancients learned to draw by painting--or by +engraving, more difficult still. The brush was put into their hands when +they were children, and they were forced to draw with that, until, if +they used the pen or crayon, they used it either with the lightness of a +brush or the decision of a graver. Michael Angelo uses his pen like a +chisel; but all of them seem to use it only when they are in the height +of their power, and then for rapid notation of thought or for study of +models; but never as a practice helping them to paint. Probably +exercises of the severest kind were gone through in minute drawing by +the apprentices of the goldsmiths, of which we hear and know little, and +which were entirely matters of course. To these, and to the +exquisiteness of care and touch developed in working precious metals, +may probably be attributed the final triumph of Italian sculpture. +Michael Angelo, when a boy, is said to have copied engravings by +Schöngauer and others, with his pen, in facsimile so true that he could +pass his drawings as the originals. But I should only discourage you +from all farther attempts in art, if I asked you to imitate any of these +accomplished drawings of the gem-artificers. You have, fortunately, a +most interesting collection of them already in your galleries, and may +try your hands on them if you will. But I desire rather that you should +attempt nothing except what can by determination be absolutely +accomplished, and be known and felt by you to be accomplished when it is +so. Now, therefore, I am going at once to comply with that popular +instinct which, I hope, so far as you care for drawing at all, you are +still boys enough to feel, the desire to paint. Paint you shall; but +remember, I understand by painting what you will not find easy. Paint +you shall; but daub or blot you shall not: and there will be even more +care required, though care of a pleasanter kind, to follow the lines +traced for you with the point of the brush than if they had been drawn +with that of a crayon. But from the very beginning (though carrying on +at the same time an incidental practice with crayon and lead pencil), +you shall try to draw a line of absolute correctness with the point, not +of pen or crayon, but of the brush, as Apelles did, and as all coloured +lines are drawn on Greek vases. A line of absolute correctness, observe. +I do not care how slowly you do it, or with how many alterations, +junctions, or re-touchings; the one thing I ask of you is, that the line +shall be right, and right by measurement, to the same minuteness which +you would have to give in a Government chart to the map of a dangerous +shoal. + + +142. This question of measurement is, as you are probably aware, one +much vexed in art schools; but it is determined indisputably by the very +first words written by Lionardo: "Il giovane deve prima imparare +prospettiva, _per le misure d'ogni cosa_." + +Without absolute precision of measurement, it is certainly impossible +for you to learn perspective rightly; and, as far as I can judge, +impossible to learn anything else rightly. And in my past experience of +teaching, I have found that such precision is of all things the most +difficult to enforce on the pupils. It is easy to persuade to diligence, +or provoke to enthusiasm; but I have found it hitherto impossible to +humiliate one clever student into perfect accuracy. + +It is, therefore, necessary, in beginning a system of drawing for the +University, that no opening should be left for failure in this essential +matter. I hope you will trust the words of the most accomplished +draughtsman of Italy, and the painter of the great sacred picture which, +perhaps beyond all others, has influenced the mind of Europe, when he +tells you that your first duty is "to learn perspective by the +_measures_ of everything." For perspective, I will undertake that it +shall be made, practically, quite easy to you; if you care to master the +mathematics of it, they are carried as far as is necessary for you in my +treatise written in 1859, of which copies shall be placed at your +disposal in your working room. But the habit and dexterity of +_measurement_ you must acquire at once, and that with engineer's +accuracy. I hope that in our now gradually developing system of +education, elementary architectural or military drawing will be required +at all public schools; so that when youths come to the University, it +may be no more necessary for them to pass through the preliminary +exercises of perspective than of grammar: for the present, I will place +in your series examples simple and severe enough for all necessary +practice. + + +143. And while you are learning to measure, and to draw, and lay flat +tints, with the brush, you must also get easy command of the pen; for +that is not only the great instrument for the first sketching, but its +right use is the foundation of the art of illumination. In nothing is +fine art more directly founded on utility than in the close dependence +of decorative illumination on good writing. Perfect illumination is only +writing made lovely; the moment it passes into picture-making it has +lost its dignity and function. For pictures, small or great, if +beautiful, ought not to be painted on leaves of books, to be worn with +service; and pictures, small or great, not beautiful, should be painted +nowhere. But to make writing _itself_ beautiful,--to make the sweep of +the pen lovely,--is the true art of illumination; and I particularly +wish you to note this, because it happens continually that young girls +who are incapable of tracing a single curve with steadiness, much more +of delineating any ornamental or organic form with correctness, think +that work, which would be intolerable in ordinary drawing, becomes +tolerable when it is employed for the decoration of texts; and thus they +render all healthy progress impossible, by protecting themselves in +inefficiency under the shield of good motive. Whereas the right way of +setting to work is to make themselves first mistresses of the art of +writing beautifully; and then to apply that art in its proper degrees of +development to whatever they desire permanently to write. And it is +indeed a much more truly religious duty for girls to acquire a habit of +deliberate, legible, and lovely penmanship in their daily use of the +pen, than to illuminate any quantity of texts. Having done so, they may +next discipline their hands into the control of lines of any length, +and, finally, add the beauty of colour and form to the flowing of these +perfect lines. But it is only after years of practice that they will be +able to illuminate noble words rightly for the eyes, as it is only after +years of practice that they can make them melodious rightly, with the +voice. + + +144. I shall not attempt, in this lecture, to give you any account of +the use of the pen as a drawing instrument. That use is connected in +many ways with principles both of shading and of engraving, hereafter to +be examined at length. But I may generally state to you that its best +employment is in giving determination to the forms in drawings washed +with neutral tint; and that, in this use of it, Holbein is quite without +a rival. I have therefore placed many examples of his work among your +copies. It is employed for rapid study by Raphael and other masters of +delineation, who, in such cases, give with it also partial indications +of shadow; but it is not a proper instrument for shading, when drawings +are intended to be deliberate and complete, nor do the great masters so +employ it. Its virtue is the power of producing a perfectly delicate, +equal, and decisive line with great rapidity; and the temptation allied +with that virtue is the licentious haste, and chance-swept, instead of +strictly-commanded, curvature. In the hands of very great painters it +obtains, like the etching needle, qualities of exquisite charm in this +free use; but all attempts at imitation of these confused and suggestive +sketches must be absolutely denied to yourselves while students. You may +fancy you have produced something like them with little trouble; but, be +assured, it is in reality as unlike them as nonsense is unlike sense; +and that, if you persist in such work, you will not only prevent your +own executive progress, but you will never understand in all your lives +what good painting means. Whenever you take a pen in your hand, if you +cannot count every line you lay with it, and say why you make it so long +and no longer, and why you drew it in that direction and no other, your +work is bad. The only man who can put his pen to full speed, and yet +retain command over every separate line of it, is Dürer. He has done +this in the illustrations of a missal preserved at Munich, which have +been fairly facsimiled; and of these I have placed several in your +copying series, with some of Turner's landscape etchings, and other +examples of deliberate pen work, such as will advantage you in early +study. The proper use of them you will find explained in the catalogue. + + +145. And, now, but one word more to-day. Do not impute to me the +impertinence of setting before you what is new in this system of +practice as being certainly the best method. No English artists are yet +agreed entirely on early methods; and even Reynolds expresses with some +hesitation his conviction of the expediency of learning to draw with the +brush. But this method that I show you rests in all essential points on +his authority, on Lionardo's, or on the evident as well as recorded +practice of the most splendid Greek and Italian draughtsmen; and you may +be assured it will lead you, however slowly, to great and certain skill. +To what degree of skill, must depend greatly on yourselves; but I know +that in practice of this kind you cannot spend an hour without +definitely gaining, both in true knowledge of art, and in useful power +of hand; and for what may appear in it too difficult, I must shelter or +support myself, as in beginning, so in closing this first lecture on +practice, by the words of Reynolds: "The impetuosity of youth is +disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from +mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They must +therefore be told again and again that labour is the only price of solid +fame; and that, whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy +method of becoming a good painter." + + + + +LECTURE VI + +LIGHT + + +146. The plan of the divisions of art-schools which I gave you in the +last lecture is of course only a first germ of classification, on which +we are to found farther and more defined statement; but for this very +reason it is necessary that every term of it should be very clear in +your minds. + +And especially I must explain, and ask you to note the sense in which I +use the word "mass." Artists usually employ that word to express the +spaces of light and darkness, or of colour, into which a picture is +divided. But this habit of theirs arises partly from their always +speaking of pictures in which the lights represent solid form. If they +had instead been speaking of flat tints, as, for instance, of the gold +and blue in this missal page, they would not have called them "masses," +but "spaces" of colour. Now both for accuracy and convenience' sake, you +will find it well to observe this distinction, and to call a simple flat +tint a space of colour; and only the representation of solid or +projecting form a mass. + +I use, however, the word "line" rather than "space" in the second and +third heads of our general scheme, at p. 94, because you cannot limit a +flat tint but by a line, or the locus of a line: whereas a gradated +tint, expressive of mass, may be lost at its edges in another, without +any fixed limit; and practically is so, in the works of the greatest +masters. + + +147. You have thus, in your hexagonal scheme, the expression of the +universal manner of advance in painting: Line first; then line enclosing +flat spaces coloured or shaded; then the lines vanish, and the solid +forms are seen within the spaces. That is the universal law of +advance:--1, line; 2, flat space; 3, massed or solid space. But as you +see, this advance may be made, and has been made, by two different +roads; one advancing always through colour, the other through light and +shade. And these two roads are taken by two entirely different kinds of +men. The way by colour is taken by men of cheerful, natural, and +entirely sane disposition in body and mind, much resembling, even at its +strongest, the temper of well-brought-up children:--too happy to think +deeply, yet with powers of imagination by which they can live other +lives than their actual ones: make-believe lives, while yet they remain +conscious all the while that they _are_ making believe--therefore +entirely sane. They are also absolutely contented; they ask for no more +light than is immediately around them, and cannot see anything like +darkness, but only green and blue, in the earth and sea. + + +148. The way by light and shade is, on the contrary, taken by men of the +highest powers of thought, and most earnest desire for truth; they long +for light, and for knowledge of all that light can show. But seeking for +light, they perceive also darkness; seeking for truth and substance, +they find vanity. They look for form in the earth,--for dawn in the sky; +and seeking these, they find formlessness in the earth, and night in the +sky. + +Now remember, in these introductory lectures I am putting before you the +roots of things, which are strange, and dark, and often, it may seem, +unconnected with the branches. You may not at present think these +metaphysical statements necessary; but as you go on, you will find that +having hold of the clue to methods of work through their springs in +human character, you may perceive unerringly where they lead, and what +constitutes their wrongness and rightness; and when we have the main +principles laid down, all others will develop themselves in due +succession, and everything will become more clearly intelligible to you +in the end, for having been apparently vague in the beginning. You know +when one is laying the foundation of a house, it does not show directly +where the rooms are to be. + + +149. You have then these two great divisions of human mind: one, content +with the colours of things, whether they are dark or light; the other +seeking light pure, as such, and dreading darkness as such. One, also, +content with the coloured aspects and visionary shapes of things; the +other seeking their form and substance. And, as I said, the school of +knowledge, seeking light, perceives, and has to accept and deal with +obscurity: and seeking form, it has to accept and deal with +formlessness, or death. + +Farther, the school of colour in Europe, using the word Gothic in its +broadest sense, is essentially Gothic _Christian_; and full of comfort +and peace. Again, the school of light is essentially Greek, and full of +sorrow. I cannot tell you which is right, or least wrong. I tell you +only what I know--this vital distinction between them: the Gothic or +colour school is always cheerful, the Greek always oppressed by the +shadow of death; and the stronger its masters are, the closer that body +of death grips them. The strongest whose work I can show you in recent +periods is Holbein; next to him is Lionardo; and then Dürer: but of the +three Holbein is the strongest, and with his help I will put the two +schools in their full character before you in a moment. + + +150. Here is, first, the photograph of an entirely characteristic piece +of the great colour school. It is by Cima of Conegliano, a mountaineer, +like Luini, born under the Alps of Friuli. His Christian name was John +Baptist: he is here painting his name-Saint; the whole picture full of +peace, and intense faith and hope, and deep joy in light of sky, and +fruit and flower and weed of earth. It was painted for the church of Our +Lady of the Garden at Venice, La Madonna dell' Orto (properly Madonna of +the _Kitchen_ Garden), and it is full of simple flowers, and has the +wild strawberry of Cima's native mountains gleaming through the grass. + +Beside it I will put a piece of the strongest work of the school of +light and shade--strongest because Holbein was a colourist also; but he +belongs, nevertheless, essentially to the chiaroscuro school. You know +that his name is connected, in ideal work, chiefly with his "Dance of +Death." I will not show you any of the terror of that; only a photograph +of his well-known "Dead Christ." It will at once show you how completely +the Christian art of this school is oppressed by its veracity, and +forced to see what is fearful, even in what it most trusts. + +You may think I am showing you contrasts merely to fit my theories. But +there is Dürer's "Knight and Death," his greatest plate; and if I had +Lionardo's "Medusa" here, which he painted when only a boy, you would +have seen how he was held by the same chain. And you cannot but wonder +why, this being the melancholy temper of the great Greek or naturalistic +school, I should have called it the school of light. I call it so +because it is through its intense love of light that the darkness +becomes apparent to it, and through its intense love of truth and form +that all mystery becomes attractive to it. And when, having learned +these things, it is joined to the school of colour, you have the +perfect, though always, as I will show you, pensive, art of Titian and +his followers. + + +151. But remember, its first development, and all its final power, +depend on Greek sorrow, and Greek religion. + +The school of light is founded in the Doric worship of Apollo, and the +Ionic worship of Athena, as the spirits of life in the light, and of +life in the air, opposed each to their own contrary deity of +death--Apollo to the Python, Athena to the Gorgon--Apollo as life in +light, to the earth spirit of corruption in darkness;--Athena, as life +by motion, to the Gorgon spirit of death by pause, freezing or turning +to stone: both of the great divinities taking their glory from the evil +they have conquered; both of them, when angry, taking to men the form of +the evil which is their opposite--Apollo slaying by poisoned arrow, by +pestilence; Athena by cold, the black ægis on her breast. + +These are the definite and direct expressions of the Greek thoughts +respecting death and life. But underlying both these, and far more +mysterious, dreadful, and yet beautiful, there is the Greek conception +of _spiritual_ darkness; of the anger of fate, whether foredoomed or +avenging; the root and theme of all Greek tragedy; the anger of the +Erinnyes, and Demeter Erinnys, compared to which the anger either of +Apollo or Athena is temporary and partial:--and also, while Apollo or +Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the Eumenides is over the +whole life; so that in the stories of Bellerophon, of Hippolytus, of +Orestes, of Oedipus, you have an incomparably deeper shadow than any +that was possible to the thought of later ages, when the hope of the +Resurrection had become definite. And if you keep this in mind, you will +find every name and legend of the oldest history become full of meaning +to you. All the mythic accounts of Greek sculpture begin in the legends +of the family of Tantalus. The main one is the making of the ivory +shoulder of Pelops after Demeter has eaten the shoulder of flesh. With +that you have Broteas, the brother of Pelops, carving the first statue +of the mother of the gods; and you have his sister, Niobe, weeping +herself to stone under the anger of the deities of light. Then Pelops +himself, the dark-faced, gives name to the Peloponnesus, which you may +therefore read as the "isle of darkness;" but its central city, Sparta, +the "sown city," is connected with all the ideas of the earth as +life-giving. And from her you have Helen, the representative of light in +beauty, and the Fratres Helenæ--"lucida sidera;" and, on the other side +of the hills, the brightness of Argos, with its correlative darkness +over the Atreidæ, marked to you by Helios turning away his face from the +feast of Thyestes. + + +152. Then join with these the Northern legends connected with the air. +It does not matter whether you take Dorus as the son of Apollo or the +son of Helen; he equally symbolises the power of light: while his +brother, Æolus, through all his descendants, chiefly in Sisyphus, is +confused or associated with the real god of the winds, and represents to +you the power of the air. And then, as this conception enters into art, +you have the myths of Dædalus, the flight of Icarus, and the story of +Phrixus and Helle, giving you continual associations of the physical air +and light, ending in the power of Athena over Corinth as well as over +Athens. + +Now, once having the clue, you can work out the sequels for yourselves +better than I can for you; and you will soon find even the earliest or +slightest grotesques of Greek art become full of interest. For nothing +is more wonderful than the depth of meaning which nations in their first +days of thought, like children, can attach to the rudest symbols; and +what to us is grotesque or ugly, like a little child's doll, can speak +to them the loveliest things. I have brought you to-day a few more +examples of early Greek vase painting, respecting which remember +generally that its finest development is for the most part sepulchral. +You have, in the first period, always energy in the figures, light in +the sky or upon the figures;[13] in the second period, while the +conception of the divine power remains the same, it is thought of as in +repose, and the light is in the god, not in the sky; in the time of +decline, the divine power is gradually disbelieved, and all form and +light are lost together. With that period I wish you to have nothing to +do. You shall not have a single example of it set before you, but shall +rather learn to recognise afterwards what is base by its strangeness. +These, which are to come early in the third group of your Standard +series, will enough represent to you the elements of early and late +conception in the Greek mind of the deities of light. + +[Footnote 13: See Note in the Catalogue on No. 201.] + + +153. First (S. 204), you have Apollo ascending from the sea; thought of +as the physical sunrise: only a circle of light for his head; his +chariot horses, seen foreshortened, black against the day-break, their +feet not yet risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting from +the opposite side of the same vase: Athena as the morning breeze, and +Hermes as the morning cloud, flying across the waves before the sunrise. +At the distance I now hold them from you, it is scarcely possible for +you to see that they are figures at all, so like are they to broken +fragments of flying mist; and when you look close, you will see that as +Apollo's face is invisible in the circle of light, Mercury's is +invisible in the broken form of cloud: but I can tell you that it is +conceived as reverted, looking back to Athena; the grotesque appearance +of feature in the front is the outline of his hair. + +These two paintings are excessively rude, and of the archaic period; the +deities being yet thought of chiefly as physical powers in violent +agency. + +Underneath these two are Athena and Hermes, in the types attained about +the time of Phidias; but, of course, rudely drawn on the vase, and still +more rudely in this print from Le Normant and De Witte. For it is +impossible (as you will soon find if you try for yourself) to give on a +plane surface the grace of figures drawn on one of solid curvature, and +adapted to all its curves: and among other minor differences, Athena's +lance is in the original nearly twice as tall as herself, and has to be +cut short to come into the print at all. Still, there is enough here to +show you what I want you to see--the repose, and entirely realised +personality, of the deities as conceived in the Phidian period. The +relation of the two deities is, I believe, the same as in the painting +above, though probably there is another added of more definite kind. But +the physical meaning still remains--Athena unhelmeted, as the _gentle_ +morning wind, commanding the cloud Hermes to slow flight. His petasus is +slung at his back, meaning that the clouds are not yet opened or +expanded in the sky. + + +154. Next (S. 205), you have Athena, again unhelmeted and crowned with +leaves, walking between two nymphs, who are crowned also with leaves; +and all the three hold flowers in their hands, and there is a fawn +walking at Athena's feet. + +This is still Athena as the morning air, but upon the earth instead of +in the sky, with the nymphs of the dew beside her; the flowers and +leaves opening as they breathe upon them. Note the white gleam of light +on the fawn's breast; and compare it with the next following +examples:--(underneath this one is the contest of Athena and Poseidon, +which does not bear on our present subject). + +Next (S. 206), Artemis as the moon of morning, walking low on the hills, +and singing to her lyre; the fawn beside her, with the gleam of light +and sunrise on its ear and breast. Those of you who are often out in the +dawntime know that there is no moon so glorious as that gleaming +crescent, though in its wane, ascending _before_ the sun. + +Underneath, Artemis, and Apollo, of Phidian time. + +Next (S. 207), Apollo walking on the earth, god of the morning, singing +to his lyre; the fawn beside him, again with the gleam of light on its +breast. And underneath, Apollo, crossing the sea to Delphi, of the +Phidian time. + + +155. Now you cannot but be struck in these three examples with the +similarity of action in Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, drawn as deities of +the morning; and with the association in every case of the fawn with +them. It has been said (I will not interrupt you with authorities) that +the fawn belongs to Apollo and Diana because stags are sensitive to +music; (are they?). But you see the fawn is here with Athena of the dew, +though she has no lyre; and I have myself no doubt that in this +particular relation to the gods of morning it always stands as the +symbol of wavering and glancing motion on the ground, as well as of the +light and shadow through the leaves, chequering the ground as the fawn +is dappled. Similarly the spots on the nebris of Dionysus, thought of +sometimes as stars (+apo tês tôn astrôn poikilias+, Diodorus, I. +11), as well as those of his panthers, and the cloudings of the +tortoise-shell of Hermes, are all significant of this light of the sky +broken by cloud-shadow. + + +156. You observe also that in all the three examples the fawn has light +on its ears, and face, as well as its breast. In the earliest Greek +drawings of animals, bars of white are used as one means of detaching +the figures from the ground; ordinarily on the under side of them, +marking the lighter colour of the hair in wild animals. But the placing +of this bar of white, or the direction of the face in deities of light, +(the faces and flesh of women being always represented as white,) may +become expressive of the direction of the light, when that direction is +important. Thus we are enabled at once to read the intention of this +Greek symbol of the course of a day (in the centre-piece of S. 208, +which gives you the types of Hermes). At the top you have an archaic +representation of Hermes stealing Io from Argus. Argus is here the +Night; his grotesque features monstrous; his hair overshadowing his +shoulders; Hermes on tip-toe, stealing upon him and taking the cord +which is fastened to the horn of Io out of his hand without his feeling +it. Then, underneath, you have the course of an entire day. Apollo +first, on the left, dark, entering his chariot, the sun not yet risen. +In front of him Artemis, as the moon, ascending before him, playing on +her lyre, and looking back to the sun. In the centre, behind the horses, +Hermes, as the cumulus cloud at mid-day, wearing his petasus heightened +to a cone, and holding a flower in his right hand; indicating the +nourishment of the flowers by the rain from the heat cloud. Finally, on +the right, Latona, going down as the evening, lighted from the right by +the sun, now sunk; and with her feet reverted, signifying the reluctance +of the departing day. + +Finally, underneath, you have Hermes of the Phidian period, as the +floating cumulus cloud, almost shapeless (as you see him at this +distance); with the tortoise-shell lyre in his hand, barred with black, +and a fleece of white cloud, not level but _oblique_, under his feet. +(Compare the "+dia tôn koilôn--plagiai+," and the relations of +the "+aigidos êniochos Athana+," with the clouds as the moon's +messengers, in Aristophanes; and note of Hermes generally, that you +never find him flying as a Victory flies, but always, if moving fast at +all, _clambering_ along, as it were, as a cloud gathers and heaps +itself: the Gorgons stretch and stride in their flight, half kneeling, +for the same reason, running or gliding shapelessly along in this +stealthy way.) + + +157. And now take this last illustration, of a very different kind. Here +is an effect of morning light by Turner (S. 301), on the rocks of +Otley-hill, near Leeds, drawn long ago, when Apollo, and Artemis, and +Athena, still sometimes were seen, and felt, even near Leeds. The +original drawing is one of the great Farnley series, and entirely +beautiful. I have shown, in the last volume of "Modern Painters," how +well Turner knew the meaning of Greek legends:--he was not thinking of +them, however, when he made this design; but, unintentionally, has given +us the very effect of morning light we want: the glittering of the +sunshine on dewy grass, half dark; and the narrow gleam of it on the +sides and head of the stag and hind. + + +158. These few instances will be enough to show you how we may read in +the early art of the Greeks their strong impressions of the power of +light. You will find the subject entered into at somewhat greater length +in my "Queen of the Air;" and if you will look at the beginning of the +7th book of Plato's "Polity," and read carefully the passages in the +context respecting the sun and intellectual sight, you will see how +intimately this physical love of light was connected with their +philosophy, in its search, as blind and captive, for better knowledge. I +shall not attempt to define for you to-day the more complex but much +shallower forms which this love of light, and the philosophy that +accompanies it, take in the mediæval mind; only remember that in future, +when I briefly speak of the Greek school of art with reference to +questions of delineation, I mean the entire range of the schools, from +Homer's days to our own, which concern themselves with the +representation of light, and the effects it produces on material +form--beginning practically for us with these Greek vase paintings, and +closing practically for us with Turner's sunset on the Temeraire; being +throughout a school of captivity and sadness, but of intense power; and +which in its technical method of shadow on material form, as well as in +its essential temper, is centrally represented to you by Dürer's two +great engravings of the "Melencolia" and the "Knight and Death." On the +other hand, when I briefly speak to you of the Gothic school, with +reference to delineation, I mean the entire and much more extensive +range of schools extending from the earliest art in Central Asia and +Egypt down to our own day in India and China:--schools which have been +content to obtain beautiful harmonies of colour without any +representation of light; and which have, many of them, rested in such +imperfect expressions of form as could be so obtained; schools usually +in some measure childish, or restricted in intellect, and similarly +childish or restricted in their philosophies or faiths: but contented in +the restriction; and in the more powerful races, capable of advance to +nobler development than the Greek schools, though the consummate art of +Europe has only been accomplished by the union of both. How that union +was effected, I will endeavour to show you in my next lecture; to-day I +shall take note only of the points bearing on our immediate practice. + + +159. A certain number of you, by faculty and natural disposition,--and +all, so far as you are interested in modern art,--will necessarily have +to put yourselves under the discipline of the Greek or chiaroscuro +school, which is directed primarily to the attainment of the power of +representing form by pure contrast of light and shade. I say, the +"discipline" of the Greek school, both because, followed faithfully, it +is indeed a severe one, and because to follow it at all is, for persons +fond of colour, often a course of painful self-denial, from which young +students are eager to escape. And yet, when the laws of both schools are +rightly obeyed, the most perfect discipline is that of the colourists; +for they see and draw _everything_, while the chiaroscurists must leave +much indeterminate in mystery, or invisible in gloom: and there are +therefore many licentious and vulgar forms of art connected with the +chiaroscuro school, both in painting and etching, which have no parallel +among the colourists. But both schools, rightly followed, require first +of all absolute accuracy of delineation. _This_ you need not hope to +escape. Whether you fill your spaces with colours, or with shadows, they +must equally be of the true outline and in true gradations. I have been +thirty years telling modern students of art this in vain. I mean to say +it to you only once, for the statement is too important to be weakened +by repetition. + +WITHOUT PERFECT DELINEATION OF FORM AND PERFECT GRADATION OF SPACE, +NEITHER NOBLE COLOUR IS POSSIBLE, NOR NOBLE LIGHT. + + +160. It may make this more believable to you if I put beside each other +a piece of detail from each school. I gave you the St. John of Cima da +Conegliano for a type of the colour school. Here is my own study of the +sprays of oak which rise against the sky of it in the distance, enlarged +to about its real size (Edu. 12). I hope to draw it better for you at +Venice; but this will show you with what perfect care the colourist has +followed the outline of every leaf in the sky. Beside, I put a +chiaroscurist drawing (at least, a photograph of one), Dürer's from +nature, of the common wild wall-cabbage (Edu. 32). It is the most +perfect piece of delineation by flat tint I have ever seen, in its +mastery of the perspective of every leaf, and its attainment almost of +the bloom of texture, merely by its exquisitely tender and decisive +laying of the colour. These two examples ought, I think, to satisfy you +as to the precision of outline of both schools, and the power of +expression which may be obtained by flat tints laid within such outline. + + +161. Next, here are two examples of the gradated shading expressive of +the forms within the outline, by two masters of the chiaroscuro school. +The first (S. 12) shows you Lionardo's method of work, both with chalk +and the silver point. The second (S. 302), Turner's work in mezzotint; +both masters doing their best. Observe that this plate of Turner's, +which he worked on so long that it was never published, is of a subject +peculiarly depending on effects of mystery and concealment, the fall of +the Reuss under the Devil's Bridge on the St. Gothard; (the _old_ +bridge; you may still see it under the existing one, which was built +since Turner's drawing was made). If ever outline could be dispensed +with, you would think it might be so in this confusion of cloud, foam, +and darkness. But here is Turner's own etching on the plate (Edu. 35 F), +made under the mezzotint; and of all the studies of rock outline made by +his hand, it is the most decisive and quietly complete. + + +162. Again; in the Lionardo sketches, many parts are lost in obscurity, +or are left intentionally uncertain and mysterious, even in the light, +and you might at first imagine some permission of escape had been here +given you from the terrible law of delineation. But the slightest +attempts to copy them will show you that the terminal lines are +inimitably subtle, unaccusably true, and filled by gradations of shade +so determined and measured that the addition of a grain of the lead or +chalk as large as the filament of a moth's wing, would make an +appreciable difference in them. + +This is grievous, you think, and hopeless? No, it is delightful and full +of hope: delightful, to see what marvellous things can be done by men; +and full of hope, if your hope is the right one, of being one day able +to rejoice more in what others have done, than in what you can yourself +do, and more in the strength that is for ever above you, than in that +you can never attain. + + +163. But you can attain much, if you will work reverently and patiently, +and hope for no success through ill-regulated effort. It is, however, +most assuredly at this point of your study that the full strain on your +patience will begin. The exercises in line-drawing and flat laying of +colour are irksome; but they are definite, and within certain limits, +sure to be successful if practised with moderate care. But the +expression of form by shadow requires more subtle patience, and involves +the necessity of frequent and mortifying failure, not to speak of the +self-denial which I said was needful in persons fond of colour, to draw +in mere light and shade. If, indeed, you were going to be artists, or +could give any great length of time to study, it might be possible for +you to learn wholly in the Venetian school, and to reach form through +colour. But without the most intense application this is not possible; +and practically, it will be necessary for you, as soon as you have +gained the power of outlining accurately, and of laying flat colour, to +learn to express solid form as shown by light and shade only. And there +is this great advantage in doing so, that many forms are more or less +disguised by colour, and that we can only represent them completely to +others, or rapidly and easily record them for ourselves, by the use of +shade alone. A single instance will show you what I mean. Perhaps there +are few flowers of which the impression on the eye is more definitely of +flat colour, than the scarlet geranium. But you would find, if you were +to try to paint it,--first, that no pigment could approach the beauty of +its scarlet; and secondly, that the brightness of the hue dazzled the +eye, and prevented its following the real arrangement of the cluster of +flowers. I have drawn for you here (at least this is a mezzotint from my +drawing), a single cluster of the scarlet geranium, in mere light and +shade (Edu. 32 B.), and I think you will feel that its domed form, and +the flat lying of the petals one over the other, in the vaulted roof of +it, can be seen better thus than if they had been painted scarlet. + + +164. Also this study will be useful to you, in showing how entirely +effects of light depend on delineation, and gradation of spaces, and not +on methods of shading. And this is the second great practical matter I +want you to remember to-day. All effects of light and shade depend not +on the method or execution of shadows, but on their rightness of place, +form, and depth. There is indeed a loveliness of execution _added_ to +the rightness, by the great masters, but you cannot obtain that unless +you become one of them. Shadow cannot be laid thoroughly well, any more +than lines can be drawn steadily, but by a long-practised hand, and the +attempts to imitate the shading of fine draughtsmen, by dotting and +hatching, are just as ridiculous as it would be to endeavour to imitate +their instantaneous lines by a series of re-touchings. You will often +indeed see in Lionardo's work, and in Michael Angelo's, shadow wrought +laboriously to an extreme of fineness; but when you look into it, you +will find that they have always been drawing more and more form within +the space, and never finishing for the sake of added texture, but of +added fact. And all those effects of transparency and reflected light, +aimed at in common chalk drawings, are wholly spurious. For since, as I +told you, all lights are shades compared to higher lights, and lights +only as compared to lower ones, it follows that there can be no +difference in their quality as such; but that light is opaque when it +expresses substance, and transparent when it expresses space; and shade +is also opaque when it expresses substance, and transparent when it +expresses space. But it is not, even then, transparent in the common +sense of that word; nor is its appearance to be obtained by dotting or +cross hatching, but by touches so tender as to look like mist. And now +we find the use of having Lionardo for our guide. He is supreme in all +questions of execution, and in his 28th chapter, you will find that +shadows are to be "dolce e sfumose," to be tender, and look as if they +were exhaled, or breathed on the paper. Then, look at any of Michael +Angelo's finished drawings, or of Correggio's sketches, and you will see +that the true nurse of light is in art, as in nature, the cloud; a misty +and tender darkness, made lovely by gradation. + + +165. And how absolutely independent it is of material or method of +production, how absolutely dependent on rightness of place and +depth,--there are now before you instances enough to prove. Here is +Dürer's work in flat colour, represented by the photograph in its smoky +brown; Turner's, in washed sepia, and in mezzotint; Lionardo's, in +pencil and in chalk; on the screen in front of you a large study in +charcoal. In every one of these drawings, the material of shadow is +absolutely opaque. But photograph-stain, chalk, lead, ink, or +charcoal,--every one of them, laid by the master's hand, becomes full of +light by gradation only. Here is a moonlight (Edu. 31 B.), in which you +would think the moon shone through every cloud; yet the clouds are mere +single dashes of sepia, imitated by the brown stain of a photograph; +similarly, in these plates from the Liber Studiorum the white paper +becomes transparent or opaque, exactly as the master chooses. Here, on +the granite rock of the St. Gothard (S. 302), in white paper made +opaque, every light represents solid bosses of rock, or balls of foam. +But in this study of twilight (S. 303), the same white paper (coarse old +stuff it is, too!) is made as transparent as crystal, and every fragment +of it represents clear and far away light in the sky of evening in +Italy. + +From all which the practical conclusion for you is, that you are never +to trouble yourselves with any questions as to the means of shade or +light, but only with the right government of the means at your disposal. +And it is a most grave error in the system of many of our public +drawing-schools, that the students are permitted to spend weeks of +labour in giving attractive appearance, by delicacy of texture, to +chiaroscuro drawings in which every form is false, and every relation of +depth, untrue. A most unhappy form of error; for it not only delays, and +often wholly arrests, their advance in their own art; but it prevents +what ought to take place correlatively with their executive practice, +the formation of their taste by the accurate study of the models from +which they draw. And I must so far anticipate what we shall discover +when we come to the subject of sculpture, as to tell you the two main +principles of good sculpture; first, that its masters think before all +other matters of the right placing of masses; secondly, that they give +life by flexure of surface, not by quantity of detail; for sculpture is +indeed only light and shade drawing in stone. + + +166. Much that I have endeavoured to teach on this subject has been +gravely misunderstood, by both young painters and sculptors, especially +by the latter. Because I am always urging them to imitate organic forms, +they think if they carve quantities of flowers and leaves, and copy them +from the life, they have done all that is needed. But the difficulty is +not to carve quantities of leaves. Anybody can do that. The difficulty +is, never anywhere to have an _unnecessary_ leaf. Over the arch on the +right, you see there is a cluster of seven, with their short stalks +springing from a thick stem. Now, you could not turn one of those leaves +a hair's-breadth out of its place, nor thicken one of their stems, nor +alter the angle at which each slips over the next one, without spoiling +the whole as much as you would a piece of melody by missing a note. That +is disposition of masses. Again, in the group on the left, while the +placing of every leaf is just as skilful, they are made more interesting +yet by the lovely undulation of their surfaces, so that not one of them +is in equal light with another. And that is so in all good sculpture, +without exception. From the Elgin marbles down to the lightest tendril +that curls round a capital in the thirteenth century, every piece of +stone that has been touched by the hand of a master, becomes soft with +under-life, not resembling nature merely in skin-texture, nor in fibres +of leaf, or veins of flesh; but in the broad, tender, unspeakably subtle +undulation of its organic form. + + +167. Returning then to the question of our own practice, I believe that +all difficulties in method will vanish, if only you cultivate with care +enough the habit of accurate observation, and if you think only of +making your light and shade true, whether it be delicate or not. But +there are three divisions or degrees of truth to be sought for, in light +and shade, by three several modes of study, which I must ask you to +distinguish carefully. + +I. When objects are lighted by the direct rays of the sun, or by direct +light entering from a window, one side of them is of course in light, +the other in shade, and the forms in the mass are exhibited +systematically by the force of the rays falling on it; (those having +most power of illumination which strike most vertically;) and note that +there is, therefore, to every solid curvature of surface, a necessarily +proportioned gradation of light, the gradation on a parabolic solid +being different from the gradation on an elliptical or spherical one. +Now, when your purpose is to represent and learn the anatomy, or +otherwise characteristic forms, of any object, it is best to place it in +this kind of direct light, and to draw it as it is seen when we look at +it in a direction at right angles to that of the ray. This is the +ordinary academical way of studying form. Lionardo seldom practises any +other in his real work, though he directs many others in his treatise. + + +168. The great importance of anatomical knowledge to the painters of the +sixteenth century rendered this method of study very frequent with them; +it almost wholly regulated their schools of engraving, and has been the +most frequent system of drawing in art-schools since (to the very +inexpedient exclusion of others). When you study objects in this +way,--and it will indeed be well to do so often, though not +exclusively,--observe always one main principle. Divide the light from +the darkness frankly at first: all over the subject let there be no +doubt which is which. Separate them one from the other as they are +separated in the moon, or on the world itself, in day and night. Then +gradate your lights with the utmost subtilty possible to you; but let +your shadows alone, until near the termination of the drawing: then put +quickly into them what farther energy they need, thus gaining the +reflected lights out of their original flat gloom; but generally not +looking much for reflected lights. Nearly all young students (and too +many advanced masters) exaggerate them. It is good to see a drawing come +out of its ground like a vision of light only; the shadows lost, or +disregarded in the vague of space. In vulgar chiaroscuro the shades are +so full of reflection that they look as if some one had been walking +round the object with a candle, and the student, by that help, peering +into its crannies. + + +169. II. But, in the reality of nature, very few objects are seen in +this accurately lateral manner, or lighted by unconfused direct rays. +Some are all in shadow, some all in light, some near, and vigorously +defined; others dim and faint in aerial distance. The study of these +various effects and forces of light, which we may call aerial +chiaroscuro, is a far more subtle one than that of the rays exhibiting +organic form (which for distinction's sake we may call "formal" +chiaroscuro), since the degrees of light from the sun itself to the +blackness of night, are far beyond any literal imitation. In order to +produce a mental impression of the facts, two distinct methods may be +followed:--the first, to shade downwards from the lights, making +everything darker in due proportion, until the scale of our power being +ended, the mass of the picture is lost in shade. The second, to assume +the points of extreme darkness for a basis, and to light everything +above these in due proportion, till the mass of the picture is lost in +light. + + +170. Thus, in Turner's sepia drawing "Isis" (Edu. 31), he begins with +the extreme light in the sky, and shades down from that till he is +forced to represent the near trees and pool as one mass of blackness. In +his drawing of the Greta (S. 2), he begins with the dark brown shadow of +the bank on the left, and illuminates up from that, till, in his +distance, trees, hills, sky, and clouds, are all lost in broad light, so +that you can hardly see the distinction between hills and sky. The +second of these methods is in general the best for colour, though great +painters unite both in their practice, according to the character of +their subject. The first method is never pursued in colour but by +inferior painters. It is, nevertheless, of great importance to make +studies of chiaroscuro in this first manner for some time, as a +preparation for colouring; and this for many reasons, which it would +take too long to state now. I shall expect you to have confidence in me +when I assure you of the necessity of this study, and ask you to make +good use of the examples from the Liber Studiorum which I have placed in +your Educational series. + + +171. III. Whether in formal or aerial chiaroscuro, it is optional with +the student to make the local colour of objects a part of his shadow, or +to consider the high lights of every colour as white. For instance, a +chiaroscurist of Lionardo's school, drawing a leopard, would take no +notice whatever of the spots, but only give the shadows which expressed +the anatomy. And it is indeed necessary to be able to do this, and to +make drawings of the forms of things as if they were sculptured, and had +no colour. But in general, and more especially in the practice which is +to guide you to colour, it is better to regard the local colour as part +of the general dark and light to be imitated; and, as I told you at +first, to consider all nature merely as a mosaic of different colours, +to be imitated one by one in simplicity. But good artists vary their +methods according to their subject and material. In general, Dürer takes +little account of local colour; but in woodcuts of armorial bearings +(one with peacock's feathers I shall get for you some day) takes great +delight in it; while one of the chief merits of Bewick is the ease and +vigour with which he uses his black and white for the colours of plumes. +Also, every great artist looks for, and expresses, that character of his +subject which is best to be rendered by the instrument in his hand, and +the material he works on. Give Velasquez or Veronese a leopard to paint, +the first thing they think of will be its spots; give it to Dürer to +engrave, and he will set himself at the fur and whiskers; give it a +Greek to carve, and he will only think of its jaws and limbs; each doing +what is absolutely best with the means at his disposal. + + +172. The details of practice in these various methods I will endeavour +to explain to you by distinct examples in your Educational series, as we +proceed in our work; for the present, let me, in closing, recommend to +you once more with great earnestness the patient endeavour to render the +chiaroscuro of landscape in the manner of the Liber Studiorum; and this +the rather, because you might easily suppose that the facility of +obtaining photographs which render such effects, as it seems, with +absolute truth and with unapproachable subtilty, superseded the +necessity of study, and the use of sketching. Let me assure you, once +for all, that photographs supersede no single quality nor use of fine +art, and have so much in common with Nature, that they even share her +temper of parsimony, and will themselves give you nothing valuable that +you do not work for. They supersede no good art, for the definition of +art is "human labour regulated by human design," and this design, or +evidence of active intellect in choice and arrangement, is the +essential part of the work; which so long as you cannot perceive, you +perceive no art whatsoever; which when once you do perceive, you will +perceive also to be replaceable by no mechanism. But, farther, +photographs will give you nothing you do not work for. They are +invaluable for record of some kinds of facts, and for giving transcripts +of drawings by great masters; but neither in the photographed scene, nor +photographed drawing, will you see any true good, more than in the +things themselves, until you have given the appointed price in your own +attention and toil. And when once you have paid this price, you will not +care for photographs of landscape. They are not true, though they seem +so. They are merely spoiled nature. If it is not human design you are +looking for, there is more beauty in the next wayside bank than in all +the sun-blackened paper you could collect in a lifetime. Go and look at +the real landscape, and take care of it; do not think you can get the +good of it in a black stain portable in a folio. But if you care for +human thought and passion, then learn yourselves to watch the course and +fall of the light by whose influence you live, and to share in the joy +of human spirits in the heavenly gifts of sunbeam and shade. For I tell +you truly, that to a quiet heart, and healthy brain, and industrious +hand, there is more delight, and use, in the dappling of one wood-glade +with flowers and sunshine, than to the restless, heartless, and idle +could be brought by a panorama of a belt of the world, photographed +round the equator. + + + + +LECTURE VII + +COLOUR + + +173. To-day I must try to complete our elementary sketch of schools of +art, by tracing the course of those which were distinguished by faculty +of colour, and afterwards to deduce from the entire scheme advisable +methods of immediate practice. + +You remember that, for the type of the early schools of colour, I chose +their work in glass; as for that of the early schools of chiaroscuro, I +chose their work in clay. + +I had two reasons for this. First, that the peculiar skill of colourists +is seen most intelligibly in their work in glass or in enamel; secondly, +that Nature herself produces all her loveliest colours in some kind of +solid or liquid glass or crystal. The rainbow is painted on a shower of +melted glass, and the colours of the opal are produced in vitreous flint +mixed with water; the green and blue, and golden or amber brown of +flowing water is in surface glassy, and in motion "splendidior vitro." +And the loveliest colours ever granted to human sight--those of morning +and evening clouds before or after rain--are produced on minute +particles of finely-divided water, or perhaps sometimes ice. But more +than this. If you examine with a lens some of the richest colours of +flowers, as, for instance, those of the gentian and dianthus, you will +find their texture is produced by a crystalline or sugary frost-work +upon them. In the lychnis of the high Alps, the red and white have a +kind of sugary bloom, as rich as it is delicate. It is indescribable; +but if you can fancy very powdery and crystalline snow mixed with the +softest cream, and then dashed with carmine, it may give you some idea +of the look of it. There are no colours, either in the nacre of shells, +or the plumes of birds and insects, which are so pure as those of +clouds, opal, or flowers; but the _force_ of purple and blue in some +butterflies, and the methods of clouding, and strength of burnished +lustre, in plumage like the peacock's, give them more universal +interest; in some birds, also, as in our own kingfisher, the colour +nearly reaches a floral preciousness. The lustre in most, however, is +metallic rather than vitreous; and the vitreous always gives the purest +hue. Entirely common and vulgar compared with these, yet to be noticed +as completing the crystalline or vitreous system, we have the colours of +gems. The green of the emerald is the best of these; but at its best is +as vulgar as house-painting beside the green of bird's plumage or of +clear water. No diamond shows colour so pure as a dewdrop; the ruby is +like the pink of an ill-dyed and half-washed-out print, compared to the +dianthus; and the carbuncle is usually quite dead unless set with a +foil, and even then is not prettier than the seed of a pomegranate. The +opal is, however, an exception. When pure and uncut in its native rock, +it presents the most lovely colours that can be seen in the world, +except those of clouds. + +We have thus in nature, chiefly obtained by crystalline conditions, a +series of groups of entirely delicious hues; and it is one of the best +signs that the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see these +clearly in their most delicate tints, and enjoy them fully and simply, +with the kind of enjoyment that children have in eating sweet things. + + +174. Now, the course of our main colour schools is briefly this:--First +we have, returning to our hexagonal scheme, line; then _spaces_ filled +with pure colour; and then _masses_ expressed or rounded with pure +colour. And during these two stages the masters of colour delight in the +purest tints, and endeavour as far as possible to rival those of opals +and flowers. In saying "the purest tints," I do not mean the simplest +types of red, blue, and yellow, but the most pure tints obtainable by +their combinations. + + +175. You remember I told you, when the colourists painted masses or +projecting spaces, they, aiming always at colour, perceived from the +first and held to the last the fact that shadows, though of course +darker than the lights with reference to which they _are_ shadows, are +not therefore necessarily less vigorous colours, but perhaps more +vigorous. Some of the most beautiful blues and purples in nature, for +instance, are those of mountains in shadow against amber sky; and the +darkness of the hollow in the centre of a wild rose is one glow of +orange fire, owing to the quantity of its yellow stamens. Well, the +Venetians always saw this, and all great colourists see it, and are thus +separated from the non-colourists or schools of mere chiaroscuro, not by +difference in style merely, but by being right while the others are +wrong. It is an absolute fact that shadows are as much colours as lights +are; and whoever represents them by merely the subdued or darkened tint +of the light, represents them falsely. I particularly want you to +observe that this is no matter of taste, but fact. If you are especially +sober-minded, you may indeed choose sober colours where Venetians would +have chosen gay ones; that is a matter of taste; you may think it proper +for a hero to wear a dress without patterns on it, rather than an +embroidered one; that is similarly a matter of taste: but, though you +may also think it would be dignified for a hero's limbs to be all black, +or brown, on the shaded side of them, yet, if you are using colour at +all, you cannot so have him to your mind, except by falsehood; he never, +under any circumstances, could be entirely black or brown on one side of +him. + + +176. In this, then, the Venetians are separate from other schools by +rightness, and they are so to their last days. Venetian painting is in +this matter always right. But also, in their early days, the colourists +are separated from other schools by their contentment with tranquil +cheerfulness of light: by their never wanting to be dazzled. None of +their lights are flashing or blinding; they are soft, winning, precious; +lights of pearl, not of lime: only, you know, on this condition they +cannot have sunshine: their day is the day of Paradise; they need no +candle, neither light of the sun, in their cities; and everything is +seen clear, as through crystal, far or near. + +This holds to the end of the fifteenth century. Then they begin to see +that this, beautiful as it may be, is still a make-believe light; that +we do not live in the inside of a pearl; but in an atmosphere through +which a burning sun shines thwartedly, and over which a sorrowful night +must far prevail. And then the chiaroscurists succeed in persuading them +of the fact that there is a mystery in the day as in the night, and show +them how constantly to see truly, is to see dimly. And also they teach +them the brilliancy of light, and the degree in which it is raised from +the darkness; and instead of their sweet and pearly peace, tempt them to +look for the strength of flame and coruscation of lightning, and flash +of sunshine on armour and on points of spears. + + +177. The noble painters take the lesson nobly, alike for gloom or flame. +Titian with deliberate strength, Tintoret with stormy passion, read it, +side by side. Titian deepens the hues of his Assumption, as of his +Entombment, into a solemn twilight; Tintoret involves his earth in coils +of volcanic cloud, and withdraws, through circle flaming above circle, +the distant light of Paradise. Both of them, becoming naturalist and +human, add the veracity of Holbein's intense portraiture to the glow and +dignity they had themselves inherited from the Masters of Peace: at the +same moment another, as strong as they, and in pure felicity of +art-faculty, even greater than they, but trained in a lower +school,--Velasquez,--produced the miracles of colour and +shadow-painting, which made Reynolds say of him, "What we all do with +labour, he does with ease;" and one more, Correggio, uniting the sensual +element of the Greek schools with their gloom, and their light with +their beauty, and all these with the Lombardic colour, became, as since +I think it has been admitted without question, the captain of the +painter's art as such. Other men have nobler or more numerous gifts, but +as a painter, master of the art of laying colour so as to be lovely, +Correggio is alone. + + +178. I said the noble men learned their lesson nobly. The base men also, +and necessarily, learn it basely. The great men rise from colour to +sunlight. The base ones fall from colour to candlelight. To-day, "non +ragioniam di lor," but let us see what this great change which perfects +the art of painting mainly consists in, and means. For though we are +only at present speaking of technical matters, every one of them, I can +scarcely too often repeat, is the outcome and sign of a mental +character, and you can only understand the folds of the veil, by those +of the form it veils. + + +179. The complete painters, we find, have brought dimness and mystery +into their method of colouring. That means that the world all round them +has resolved to dream, or to believe, no more; but to know, and to see. +And instantly all knowledge and sight are given, no more as in the +Gothic times, through a window of glass, brightly, but as through a +telescope-glass, darkly. Your cathedral window shut you from the true +sky, and illumined you with a vision; your telescope leads you to the +sky, but darkens its light, and reveals nebula beyond nebula, far and +farther, and to no conceivable farthest--unresolvable. That is what the +mystery means. + + +180. Next, what does that Greek opposition of black and white mean? + +In the sweet crystalline time of colour, the painters, whether on glass +or canvas, employed intricate patterns, in order to mingle hues +beautifully with each other, and make one perfect melody of them all. +But in the great naturalist school, they like their patterns to come in +the Greek way, dashed dark on light,--gleaming light out of dark. That +means also that the world round them has again returned to the Greek +conviction, that all nature, especially human nature, is not entirely +melodious nor luminous; but a barred and broken thing: that saints have +their foibles, sinners their forces; that the most luminous virtue is +often only a flash, and the blackest-looking fault is sometimes only a +stain: and, without confusing in the least black with white, they can +forgive, or even take delight in things that are like the [Greek: +nebris], dappled. + + +181. You have then--first, mystery. Secondly, opposition of dark and +light. Then, lastly, whatever truth of form the dark and light can show. + +That is to say, truth altogether, and resignation to it, and quiet +resolve to make the best of it. And therefore portraiture of living men, +women, and children,--no more of saints, cherubs, or demons. So here I +have brought for your standards of perfect art, a little maiden of the +Strozzi family, with her dog, by Titian; and a little princess of the +house of Savoy, by Vandyke; and Charles the Fifth, by Titian; and a +queen, by Velasquez; and an English girl in a brocaded gown, by +Reynolds; and an English physician in his plain coat, and wig, by +Reynolds: and if you do not like them, I cannot help myself, for I can +find nothing better for you. + + +182. Better?--I must pause at the word. Nothing stronger, certainly, nor +so strong. Nothing so wonderful, so inimitable, so keen in unprejudiced +and unbiassed sight. + +Yet better, perhaps, the sight that was guided by a sacred will; the +power that could be taught to weaker hands; the work that was faultless, +though not inimitable, bright with felicity of heart, and consummate in +a disciplined and companionable skill. You will find, when I can place +in your hands the notes on Verona, which I read at the Royal +Institution, that I have ventured to call the æra of painting +represented by John Bellini, the time "of the Masters." Truly they +deserved the name, who did nothing but what was lovely, and taught only +what was right. These mightier, who succeeded them, crowned, but closed, +the dynasties of art, and since their day, painting has never flourished +more. + + +183. There were many reasons for this, without fault of theirs. They +were exponents, in the first place, of the change in all men's minds +from civil and religious to merely domestic passion; the love of their +gods and their country had contracted itself now into that of their +domestic circle, which was little more than the halo of themselves. You +will see the reflection of this change in painting at once by comparing +the two Madonnas (S. 37, John Bellini's, and Raphael's, called "della +Seggiola"). Bellini's Madonna cares for all creatures through her child; +Raphael's, for her child only. + +Again, the world round these painters had become sad and proud, instead +of happy and humble;--its domestic peace was darkened by irreligion, its +national action fevered by pride. And for sign of its Love, the Hymen, +whose statue this fair English girl, according to Reynolds' thought, has +to decorate (S. 43), is blind, and holds a coronet. + +Again, in the splendid power of realisation, which these greatest of +artists had reached, there was the latent possibility of amusement by +deception, and of excitement by sensualism. And Dutch trickeries of base +resemblance, and French fancies of insidious beauty, soon occupied the +eyes of the populace of Europe, too restless and wretched now to care +for the sweet earth-berries and Madonna's ivy of Cima, and too ignoble +to perceive Titian's colour, or Correggio's shade. + + +184. Enough sources of evil were here, in the temper and power of the +consummate art. In its practical methods there was another, the +fatallest of all. These great artists brought with them mystery, +despondency, domesticity, sensuality: of all these, good came, as well +as evil. One thing more they brought, of which nothing but evil ever +comes, or can come--LIBERTY. + +By the discipline of five hundred years they had learned and inherited +such power, that whereas all former painters could be right only by +effort, they could be right with ease; and whereas all former painters +could be right only under restraint, they could be right, free. +Tintoret's touch, Luini's, Correggio's, Reynolds', and Velasquez's, are +all as free as the air, and yet right. "How very fine!" said everybody. +Unquestionably, very fine. Next, said everybody, "What a grand +discovery! Here is the finest work ever done, and it is quite free. Let +us all be free then, and what fine things shall we not do also!" With +what results we too well know. + +Nevertheless, remember you are to delight in the freedom won by these +mighty men through obedience, though you are not to covet it. Obey, and +you also shall be free in time; but in these minor things, as well as in +great, it is only right service which is perfect freedom. + + +185. This, broadly, is the history of the early and late colour-schools. +The first of these I shall call generally, henceforward, the school of +crystal; the other that of clay: potter's clay, or human, are too +sorrowfully the same, as far as art is concerned. But remember, in +practice, you cannot follow both these schools; you must distinctly +adopt the principles of one or the other. I will put the means of +following either within your reach; and according to your dispositions +you will choose one or the other: all I have to guard you against is the +mistake of thinking you can unite the two. If you want to paint (even in +the most distant and feeble way) in the Greek School, the school of +Lionardo, Correggio, and Turner, you cannot design coloured windows, nor +Angelican paradises. If, on the other hand, you choose to live in the +peace of paradise, you cannot share in the gloomy triumphs of the earth. + + +186. And, incidentally note, as a practical matter of immediate +importance, that painted windows have nothing to do with +chiaroscuro.[14] The virtue of glass is to be transparent everywhere. If +you care to build a palace of jewels, painted glass is richer than all +the treasures of Aladdin's lamp; but if you like pictures better than +jewels, you must come into broad daylight to paint them. A picture in +coloured glass is one of the most vulgar of barbarisms, and only fit to +be ranked with the gauze transparencies and chemical illuminations of +the sensational stage. + +[Footnote 14: There is noble chiaroscuro in the variations of their +colour, but not as representative of solid form.] + +Also, put out of your minds at once all question about difficulty of +getting colour; in glass we have all the colours that are wanted, only +we do not know either how to choose, or how to connect them; and we are +always trying to get them bright, when their real virtues are to be +deep, mysterious, and subdued. We will have a thorough study of painted +glass soon: mean while I merely give you a type of its perfect style, in +two windows from Chalons-sur-Marne (S. 141). + + +187. But for my own part, with what poor gift and skill is in me, I +belong wholly to the chiaroscurist school; and shall teach you therefore +chiefly that which I am best able to teach: and the rather, that it is +only in this school that you can follow out the study either of natural +history or landscape. The form of a wild animal, or the wrath of a +mountain torrent, would both be revolting (or in a certain sense +invisible) to the calm fantasy of a painter in the schools of crystal. +He must lay his lion asleep in St. Jerome's study beside his tame +partridge and easy slippers; lead the appeased river by alternate azure +promontories, and restrain its courtly little streamlets with margins of +marble. But, on the other hand, your studies of mythology and literature +may best be connected with these schools of purest and calmest +imagination; and their discipline will be useful to you in yet another +direction, and that a very important one. It will teach you to take +delight in little things, and develop in you the joy which all men +should feel in purity and order, not only in pictures but in reality. +For, indeed, the best art of this school of fantasy may at last be in +reality, and the chiaroscurists, true in ideal, may be less helpful in +act. We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, but we may turn every +English homestead, if we choose, into a picture by Cima or John Bellini, +which shall be "no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life +indeed." + + +188. For the present, however, and yet for some little time during your +progress, you will not have to choose your school. For both, as we have +seen, begin in delineation, and both proceed by filling flat spaces +with an even tint. And therefore this following will be the course of +work for you, founded on all that we have seen. + +Having learned to measure, and draw a pen line with some steadiness (the +geometrical exercises for this purpose being properly school, not +University work), you shall have a series of studies from the plants +which are of chief importance in the history of art; first from their +real forms, and then from the conventional and heraldic expressions of +them; then we will take examples of the filling of ornamental forms with +flat colour in Egyptian, Greek, and Gothic design; and then we will +advance to animal forms treated in the same severe way, and so to the +patterns and colour designs on animals themselves. And when we are sure +of our firmness of hand and accuracy of eye, we will go on into light +and shade. + + +189. In process of time, this series of exercises will, I hope, be +sufficiently complete and systematic to show its purpose at a glance. +But during the present year, I shall content myself with placing a few +examples of these different kinds of practice in your rooms for work, +explaining in the catalogue the position they will ultimately occupy, +and the technical points of process into which it is useless to enter in +a general lecture. After a little time spent in copying these, your own +predilections must determine your future course of study; only remember, +whatever school you follow, it must be only to learn method, not to +imitate result, and to acquaint yourself with the minds of other men, +but not to adopt them as your own. Be assured that no good can come of +our work but as it arises simply out of our own true natures, and the +necessities of the time around us, though in many respects an evil one. +We live in an age of base conceit and baser servility--an age whose +intellect is chiefly formed by pillage, and occupied in desecration; one +day mimicking, the next destroying, the works of all the noble persons +who made its intellectual or art life possible to it:--an age without +honest confidence enough in itself to carve a cherry-stone with an +original fancy, but with insolence enough to abolish the solar system, +if it were allowed to meddle with it.[15] In the midst of all this, you +have to become lowly and strong; to recognise the powers of others and +to fulfil your own. I shall try to bring before you every form of +ancient art, that you may read and profit by it, not imitate it. You +shall draw Egyptian kings dressed in colours like the rainbow, and Doric +gods, and Runic monsters, and Gothic monks--not that you may draw like +Egyptians or Norsemen, nor yield yourselves passively to be bound by the +devotion, or inspired by the passion of the past, but that you may know +truly what other men have felt during their poor span of life; and open +your own hearts to what the heavens and earth may have to tell you in +yours. + +[Footnote 15: Every day these bitter words become more sorrowfully true +(September, 1887).] + + +190. In closing this first course of lectures, I have one word more to +say respecting the possible consequence of the introduction of art among +the studies of the University. What art may do for scholarship, I have +no right to conjecture; but what scholarship may do for art, I may in +all modesty tell you. Hitherto, great artists, though always gentlemen, +have yet been too exclusively craftsmen. Art has been less thoughtful +than we suppose; it has taught much, but erred much, also. Many of the +greatest pictures are enigmas; others, beautiful toys; others, harmful +and corrupting enchantments. In the loveliest, there is something weak; +in the greatest, there is something guilty. And this, gentlemen, if you +will, is the new thing that may come to pass,--that the scholars of +England may resolve to teach also with the silent power of the arts; and +that some among you may so learn and use them, that pictures may be +painted which shall not be enigmas any more, but open teachings of what +can no otherwise be so well shown;--which shall not be fevered or broken +visions any more, but filled with the indwelling light of self-possessed +imagination;--which shall not be stained or enfeebled any more by evil +passion, but glorious with the strength and chastity of noble human +love;--and which shall no more degrade or disguise the work of God in +heaven, but testify of Him as here dwelling with men, and walking with +them, not angry, in the garden of the earth. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Lectures on Art<br /> +  Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John Ruskin</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 3, 2006 [eBook #19164]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 28, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART ***</div> + +<table summary="frontpage" border="0px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"> +<h3>Library Edition</h3></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><h3>THE COMPLETE WORKS</h3></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><h1>JOHN RUSKIN</h1></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">TIME AND TIDE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">QUEEN OF THE AIR</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LECTURES ON ART AND LANDSCAPE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">ARATRA PENTELICI</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">NEW YORK</td><td align="center">CHICAGO</td></tr> +</table> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>LECTURES ON ART.</h2> +<h4>DELIVERED</h4> +<p class="center">BEFORE THE</p> +<h4>UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD</h4> +<p class="center">IN HILARY TERM, 1870. +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table summary="contents" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: center;"> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_I"><b>LECTURE I.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">INAUGURAL</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_II"><b>LECTURE II.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION</td><td align="right">24</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_III"><b>LECTURE III.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS</td><td align="right">46</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_IV"><b>LECTURE IV.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE RELATION OF ART TO USE </td><td align="right">66</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_V"><b>LECTURE V.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">LINE</td><td align="right">86</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_VI"><b>LECTURE VI.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">LIGHT</td><td align="right">102</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#LECTURE_VII"><b>LECTURE VII.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">COLOUR</td><td align="right">123</td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1887.</h2> + + +<p>The following lectures were the most important piece of my literary work +done with unabated power, best motive, and happiest concurrence of +circumstance. They were written and delivered while my mother yet lived, +and had vividest sympathy in all I was attempting;—while also my +friends put unbroken trust in me, and the course of study I had followed +seemed to fit me for the acceptance of noble tasks and graver +responsibilities than those only of a curious traveler, or casual +teacher.</p> + +<p>Men of the present world may smile at the sanguine utterances of the +first four lectures: but it has not been wholly my own fault that they +have remained unfulfilled; nor do I retract one word of hope for the +success of other masters, nor a single promise made to the sincerity of +the student's labor, on the lines here indicated. It would have been +necessary to my success, that I should have accepted permanent residence +in Oxford, and scattered none of my energy in other tasks. But I chose +to spend half my time at Coniston Waterhead; and to use half my force in +attempts to form a new social organization,—the St. George's +Guild,—which made all my Oxford colleagues distrustful of me, and many +of my Oxford hearers contemptuous. My mother's death in 1871, and that +of a dear friend in 1875, took away the personal joy I had in anything I +wrote or designed: and in 1876, feeling unable for Oxford duty, I +obtained a year's leave of rest, and, by the kind and wise counsel of +Prince Leopold, went to Venice, to reconsider the form into which I had +cast her history in the abstract of it given in the "Stones of Venice."</p> + +<p>The more true and close view of that history, begun in "St. Mark's +Rest," and the fresh architectural drawings made under the stimulus of +it, led me forward into new fields of thought, inconsistent with the +daily attendance needed by my Oxford classes; and in my discontent with +the state I saw them in, and my inability to return to their guidance +without abandonment of all my designs of Venetian and Italian history, +began the series of vexations which ended in the very nearly mortal +illness of 1878.</p> + +<p>Since, therefore, the period of my effective action in Oxford was only +from 1870 to 1875, it can scarcely be matter of surprise or reproof that +I could not in that time obtain general trust in a system of teaching +which, though founded on that of Da Vinci and Reynolds, was at variance +with the practice of all recent European academy schools; nor +establish—on the unassisted resources of the Slade Professorship—the +schools of Sculpture, Architecture, Metal-work, and manuscript +Illumination, of which the design is confidently traced in the four +inaugural lectures.</p> + +<p>In revising the book, I have indicated as in the last edition of the +"Seven Lamps," passages which the student will find generally +applicable, and in all their bearings useful, as distinguished from +those regarding only their immediate subject. The relative importance of +these broader statements, I again indicate by the use of capitals or +italics; and if the reader will index the sentences he finds useful for +his own work, in the blank pages left for that purpose at the close of +the volume, he will certainly get more good of them than if they had +been grouped for him according to the author's notion of their contents.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sandgate</span>, <i>10th January, 1888</i>.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURES ON ART</h2> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="LECTURE_I" id="LECTURE_I"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE I</a></h2> + +<h3>INAUGURAL</h3> + + +<p>1. The duty which is to-day laid on me, of introducing, among the +elements of education appointed in this great University, one not only +new, but such as to involve in its possible results some modification of +the rest, is, as you well feel, so grave, that no man could undertake it +without laying himself open to the imputation of a kind of insolence; +and no man could undertake it rightly, without being in danger of having +his hands shortened by dread of his task, and mistrust of himself.</p> + +<p>And it has chanced to me, of late, to be so little acquainted either +with pride or hope, that I can scarcely recover so much as I now need, +of the one for strength, and of the other for foresight, except by +remembering that noble persons, and friends of the high temper that +judges most clearly where it loves best, have desired that this trust +should be given me: and by resting also in the conviction that the +goodly tree whose roots, by God's help, we set in earth to-day, will not +fail of its height because the planting of it is under poor auspices, or +the first shoots of it enfeebled by ill gardening.</p> + + +<p>2. The munificence of the English gentleman to whom we owe the founding +of this Professorship at once in our three great Universities, has +accomplished the first great group of a series of changes now taking +gradual effect in our system of public education, which, as you well +know, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> the sign of a vital change in the national mind, respecting +both the principles on which that education should be conducted, and the +ranks of society to which it should extend. For, whereas it was formerly +thought that the discipline necessary to form the character of youth was +best given in the study of abstract branches of literature and +philosophy, it is now thought that the same, or a better, discipline may +be given by informing men in early years of the things it will be of +chief practical advantage to them afterwards to know; and by permitting +to them the choice of any field of study which they may feel to be best +adapted to their personal dispositions. I have always used what poor +influence I possessed in advancing this change; nor can any one rejoice +more than I in its practical results. But the completion—I will not +venture to say, correction—of a system established by the highest +wisdom of noble ancestors, cannot be too reverently undertaken: and it +is necessary for the English people, who are sometimes violent in change +in proportion to the reluctance with which they admit its necessity, to +be now, oftener than at other times, reminded that the object of +instruction here is not primarily attainment, but discipline; and that a +youth is sent to our Universities, not (hitherto at least) to be +apprenticed to a trade, nor even always to be advanced in a profession; +but, always, to be made a gentleman and a scholar.</p> + + +<p>3. To be made these,—if there is in him the making of either. The +populaces of civilised countries have lately been under a feverish +impression that it is possible for all men to be both; and that having +once become, by passing through certain mechanical processes of +instruction, gentle and learned, they are sure to attain in the sequel +the consummate beatitude of being rich.</p> + +<p>Rich, in the way and measure in which it is well for them to be so, they +may, without doubt, <i>all</i> become. There is indeed a land of Havilah open +to them, of which the wonderful sentence is literally true—"The gold of +<i>that</i> land is good." But they must first understand, that education, in +its deepest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> sense, is not the equaliser, but the discerner, of men;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +and that, so far from being instruments for the collection of riches, +the first lesson of wisdom is to disdain them, and of gentleness, to +diffuse.</p> + +<p>It is not therefore, as far as we can judge, yet possible for all men to +be gentlemen and scholars. Even under the best training some will remain +too selfish to refuse wealth, and some too dull to desire leisure. But +many more might be so than are now; nay, perhaps all men in England +might one day be so, if England truly desired her supremacy among the +nations to be in kindness and in learning. To which good end, it will +indeed contribute that we add some practice of the lower arts to our +scheme of University education; but the thing which is vitally necessary +is, that we should extend the spirit of University education to the +practice of the lower arts.</p> + + +<p>4. And, above all, it is needful that we do this by redeeming them from +their present pain of self-contempt, and by giving them <i>rest</i>. It has +been too long boasted as the pride of England, that out of a vast +multitude of men, confessed to be in evil case, it was possible for +individuals, by strenuous effort, and rare good fortune, occasionally to +emerge into the light, and look back with self-gratulatory scorn upon +the occupations of their parents, and the circumstances of their +infancy. Ought we not rather to aim at an ideal of national life, when, +of the employments of Englishmen, though each shall be distinct, none +shall be unhappy or ignoble; when mechanical operations, acknowledged to +be debasing in their tendency,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> shall be deputed to less fortunate and +more covetous races; when advance from rank to rank, though possible to +all men, may be rather shunned than desired by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> best; and the chief +object in the mind of every citizen may not be extrication from a +condition admitted to be disgraceful, but fulfilment of a duty which +shall be also a birthright?</p> + + +<p>5. And then, the training of all these distinct classes will not be by +Universities of general knowledge, but by distinct schools of such +knowledge as shall be most useful for every class: in which, first the +principles of their special business may be perfectly taught, and +whatever higher learning, and cultivation of the faculties for receiving +and giving pleasure, may be properly joined with that labour, taught in +connection with it. Thus, I do not despair of seeing a School of +Agriculture, with its fully-endowed institutes of zoology, botany, and +chemistry; and a School of Mercantile Seamanship, with its institutes of +astronomy, meteorology, and natural history of the sea: and, to name +only one of the finer, I do not say higher, arts, we shall, I hope, in a +little time, have a perfect school of Metal-work, at the head of which +will be, not the ironmasters, but the goldsmiths: and therein, I +believe, that artists, being taught how to deal wisely with the most +precious of metals, will take into due government the uses of all +others.</p> + +<p>But I must not permit myself to fail in the estimate of my immediate +duty, while I debate what that duty may hereafter become in the hands of +others; and I will therefore now, so far as I am able, lay before you a +brief general view of the existing state of the arts in England, and of +the influence which her Universities, through these newly-founded +lectureships, may, I hope, bring to bear upon it for good.</p> + + +<p>6. We have first to consider the impulse which has been given to the +practice of all the arts by the extension of our commerce, and enlarged +means of intercourse with foreign nations, by which we now become more +familiarly acquainted with their works in past and in present times. The +immediate result of these new opportunities, I regret to say, has been +to make us more jealous of the genius of others, than conscious of the +limitations of our own; and to make us rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> desire to enlarge our +wealth by the sale of art, than to elevate our enjoyments by its +acquisition.</p> + +<p>Now, whatever efforts we make, with a true desire to produce, and +possess, things that are intrinsically beautiful, have in them at least +one of the essential elements of success. But efforts having origin only +in the hope of enriching ourselves by the sale of our productions, are +<i>assuredly</i> condemned to dishonourable failure; not because, ultimately, +a well-trained nation is forbidden to profit by the exercise of its +peculiar art-skill; but because that peculiar art-skill can never be +developed <i>with a view</i> to profit. The right fulfilment of national +power in art depends always on <span class="smcap">the direction of its aim by the +experience of ages</span>. Self-knowledge is not less difficult, nor less +necessary for the direction of its genius, to a people than to an +individual; and it is neither to be acquired by the eagerness of +unpractised pride, nor during the anxieties of improvident distress. No +nation ever had, or will have, the power of suddenly developing, under +the pressure of necessity, faculties it had neglected when it was at +ease; nor of teaching itself in poverty, the skill to produce, what it +has never, in opulence, had the sense to admire.</p> + + +<p>7. Connected also with some of the worst parts of our social system, but +capable of being directed to better result than this commercial +endeavour, we see lately a most powerful impulse given to the production +of costly works of art, by the various causes which promote the sudden +accumulation of wealth in the hands of private persons. We have thus a +vast and new patronage, which, in its present agency, is injurious to +our schools; but which is nevertheless in a great degree earnest and +conscientious, and far from being influenced chiefly by motives of +ostentation. Most of our rich men would be glad to promote the true +interests of art in this country: and even those who buy for vanity, +found their vanity on the possession of what they suppose to be best.</p> + +<p>It is therefore in a great measure the fault of artists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> themselves if +they suffer from this partly unintelligent, but thoroughly +well-intended, patronage. If they seek to attract it by eccentricity, to +deceive it by superficial qualities, or take advantage of it by +thoughtless and facile production, they necessarily degrade themselves +and it together, and have no right to complain afterwards that it will +not acknowledge better-grounded claims. But if every painter of real +power would do only what he knew to be worthy of himself, and refuse to +be involved in the contention for undeserved or accidental success, +there is indeed, whatever may have been thought or said to the contrary, +true instinct enough in the public mind to follow such firm guidance. It +is one of the facts which the experience of thirty years enables me to +assert without qualification, that a really good picture is ultimately +always approved and bought, unless it is wilfully rendered offensive to +the public by faults which the artist has been either too proud to +abandon or too weak to correct.</p> + + +<p>8. The development of whatever is healthful and serviceable in the two +modes of impulse which we have been considering, depends however, +ultimately, on the direction taken by the true interest in art which has +lately been aroused by the great and active genius of many of our +living, or but lately lost, painters, sculptors, and architects. It may +perhaps surprise, but I think it will please you to hear me, or (if you +will forgive me, in my own Oxford, the presumption of fancying that some +may recognise me by an old name) to hear the author of "Modern Painters" +say, that his chief error in earlier days was not in over estimating, +but in too slightly acknowledging the merit of living men. The great +painter whose power, while he was yet among us, I was able to perceive, +was the first to reprove me for my disregard of the skill of his +fellow-artists; and, with this inauguration of the study of the art of +all time,—a study which can only by true modesty end in wise +admiration,—it is surely well that I connect the record of these words +of his, spoken then too truly to myself, and true always more or less +for all who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> are untrained in that toil,—"You don't know how difficult +it is."</p> + +<p>You will not expect me, within the compass of this lecture, to give you +any analysis of the many kinds of excellent art (in all the three great +divisions) which the complex demands of modern life, and yet more varied +instincts of modern genius, have developed for pleasure or service. It +must be my endeavour, in conjunction with my colleagues in the other +Universities, hereafter to enable you to appreciate these worthily; in +the hope that also the members of the Royal Academy, and those of the +Institute of British Architects, may be induced to assist, and guide, +the efforts of the Universities, by organising such a system of +art-education for their own students, as shall in future prevent the +waste of genius in any mistaken endeavours; especially removing doubt as +to the proper substance and use of materials; and requiring compliance +with certain elementary principles of right, in every picture and design +exhibited with their sanction. It is not indeed possible for talent so +varied as that of English artists to be compelled into the formalities +of a determined school; but it must certainly be the function of every +academical body to see that their younger students are guarded from what +must in every school be error; and that they are practised in the best +methods of work hitherto known, before their ingenuity is directed to +the invention of others.</p> + + +<p>9. I need scarcely refer, except for the sake of completeness in my +statement, to one form of demand for art which is wholly unenlightened, +and powerful only for evil;—namely, the demand of the classes occupied +solely in the pursuit of pleasure, for objects and modes of art that can +amuse indolence or excite passion. There is no need for any discussion +of these requirements, or of their forms of influence, though they are +very deadly at present in their operation on sculpture, and on +jewellers' work. They cannot be checked by blame, nor guided by +instruction; they are merely the necessary result of whatever defects +exist in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> temper and principles of a luxurious society; and it is +only by moral changes, not by art-criticism, that their action can be +modified.</p> + + +<p>10. Lastly, there is a continually increasing demand for popular art, +multipliable by the printing-press, illustrative of daily events, of +general literature, and of natural science. Admirable skill, and some of +the best talent of modern times, are occupied in supplying this want; +and there is no limit to the good which may be effected by rightly +taking advantage of the powers we now possess of placing good and lovely +art within the reach of the poorest classes. Much has been already +accomplished; but great harm has been done also,—first, by forms of art +definitely addressed to depraved tastes; and, secondly, in a more subtle +way, by really beautiful and useful engravings which are yet not good +enough to retain their influence on the public mind;—which weary it by +redundant quantity of monotonous average excellence, and diminish or +destroy its power of accurate attention to work of a higher order.</p> + +<p>Especially this is to be regretted in the effect produced on the schools +of line engraving, which had reached in England an executive skill of a +kind before unexampled, and which of late have lost much of their more +sterling and legitimate methods. Still, I have seen plates produced +quite recently, more beautiful, I think, in some qualities than anything +ever before attained by the burin: and I have not the slightest fear +that photography, or any other adverse or competitive operation, will in +the least ultimately diminish,—I believe they will, on the contrary, +stimulate and exalt—the grand old powers of the wood and the steel.</p> + +<p>11. Such are, I think, briefly the present conditions of art with which +we have to deal; and I conceive it to be the function of this +Professorship, with respect to them, to establish both a practical and +critical school of fine art for English gentlemen: practical, so that if +they draw at all, they may draw rightly; and critical, so that being +first directed to such works of existing art as will best reward their +study,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> they may afterwards make their patronage of living artists +delightful to themselves in their consciousness of its justice, and, to +the utmost, beneficial to their country, by being given to the men who +deserve it; in the early period of their lives, when they both need it +most, and can be influenced by it to the best advantage.</p> + + +<p>12. And especially with reference to this function of patronage, I +believe myself justified in taking into account future probabilities as +to the character and range of art in England: and I shall endeavour at +once to organise with you a system of study calculated to develop +chiefly the knowledge of those branches in which the English schools +have shown, and are likely to show, peculiar excellence.</p> + +<p>Now, in asking your sanction both for the nature of the general plans I +wish to adopt, and for what I conceive to be necessary limitations of +them, I wish you to be fully aware of my reasons for both: and I will +therefore risk the burdening of your patience while I state the +directions of effort in which I think English artists are liable to +failure, and those also in which past experience has shown they are +secure of success.</p> + + +<p>13. I referred, but now, to the effort we are making to improve the +designs of our manufactures. Within certain limits I believe this +improvement may indeed take effect: so that we may no more humour +momentary fashions by ugly results of chance instead of design; and may +produce both good tissues, of harmonious colours, and good forms and +substance of pottery and glass. But we shall never excel in decorative +design. Such design is usually produced by people of great natural +powers of mind, who have no variety of subjects to employ themselves on, +no oppressive anxieties, and are in circumstances either of natural +scenery or of daily life, which cause pleasurable excitement. <i>We</i> +cannot design, because we have too much to think of, and we think of it +too anxiously. It has long been observed how little real anxiety exists +in the minds of the partly savage races which excel in decorative art; +and we must not suppose that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the temper of the Middle Ages was a +troubled one, because every day brought its danger or its change. The +very eventfulness of the life rendered it careless, as generally is +still the case with soldiers and sailors. Now, when there are great +powers of thought, and little to think of, all the waste energy and +fancy are thrown into the manual work, and you have so much intellect as +would direct the affairs of a large mercantile concern for a day, spent +all at once, quite unconsciously, in drawing an ingenious spiral.</p> + +<p>Also, powers of doing fine ornamental work are only to be reached by a +perpetual discipline of the hand as well as of the fancy; discipline as +attentive and painful as that which a juggler has to put himself +through, to overcome the more palpable difficulties of his profession. +The execution of the best artists is always a splendid tour-de-force; +and much that in painting is supposed to be dependent on material is +indeed only a lovely and quite inimitable legerdemain. Now, when powers +of fancy, stimulated by this triumphant precision of manual dexterity, +descend uninterruptedly from generation to generation, you have at last, +what is not so much a trained artist, as a new species of animal, with +whose instinctive gifts you have no chance of contending. And thus all +our imitations of other people's work are futile. We must learn first to +make honest English wares, and afterwards to decorate them as may please +the then approving Graces.</p> + + +<p>14. Secondly—and this is an incapacity of a graver kind, yet having its +own good in it also—we shall never be successful in the highest fields +of ideal or theological art.</p> + +<p>For there is one strange, but quite essential, character in us: ever +since the Conquest, if not earlier:—a delight in the forms of burlesque +which are connected in some degree with the foulness of evil. I think +the most perfect type of a true English mind in its best possible +temper, is that of Chaucer; and you will find that, while it is for the +most part full of thoughts of beauty, pure and wild like that of an +April morning, there are even in the midst of this, sometimes +momentarily jesting passages which stoop to play with evil—while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the +power of listening to and enjoying the jesting of entirely gross +persons, whatever the feeling may be which permits it, afterwards +degenerates into forms of humour which render some of quite the +greatest, wisest, and most moral of English writers now almost useless +for our youth. And yet you will find that whenever Englishmen are wholly +without this instinct, their genius is comparatively weak and +restricted.</p> + + +<p>15. Now, the first necessity for the doing of any great work in ideal +art, is the looking upon all foulness with horror, as a contemptible +though dreadful enemy. You may easily understand what I mean, by +comparing the feelings with which Dante regards any form of obscenity or +of base jest, with the temper in which the same things are regarded by +Shakespeare. And this strange earthly instinct of ours, coupled as it +is, in our good men, with great simplicity and common sense, renders +them shrewd and perfect observers and delineators of actual nature, low +or high; but precludes them from that specialty of art which is properly +called sublime. If ever we try anything in the manner of Michael Angelo +or of Dante, we catch a fall, even in literature, as Milton in the +battle of the angels, spoiled from Hesiod; while in art, every attempt +in this style has hitherto been the sign either of the presumptuous +egotism of persons who had never really learned to be workmen, or it has +been connected with very tragic forms of the contemplation of death,—it +has always been partly insane, and never once wholly successful.</p> + +<p>But we need not feel any discomfort in these limitations of our +capacity. We can do much that others cannot, and more than we have ever +yet ourselves completely done. Our first great gift is in the +portraiture of living people—a power already so accomplished in both +Reynolds and Gainsborough that nothing is left for future masters but to +add the calm of perfect workmanship to their vigour and felicity of +perception. And of what value a true school of portraiture may become in +the future, when worthy men will desire only to be known, and others +will not fear to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> them, for what they truly were, we cannot from +any past records of art influence yet conceive. But in my next address +it will be partly my endeavour to show you how much more useful, because +more humble, the labour of great masters might have been, had they been +content to bear record of the souls that were dwelling with them on +earth, instead of striving to give a deceptive glory to those they +dreamed of in heaven.</p> + + +<p>16. Secondly, we have an intense power of invention and expression in +domestic drama; (King Lear and Hamlet being essentially domestic in +their strongest motives of interest). There is a tendency at this moment +towards a noble development of our art in this direction, checked by +many adverse conditions, which may be summed in one,—the insufficiency +of generous civic or patriotic passion in the heart of the English +people; a fault which makes its domestic affection selfish, contracted, +and, therefore, frivolous.</p> + + +<p>17. Thirdly, in connection with our simplicity and good-humour, and +partly with that very love of the grotesque which debases our ideal, we +have a sympathy with the lower animals which is peculiarly our own; and +which, though it has already found some exquisite expression in the +works of Bewick and Landseer, is yet quite undeveloped. This sympathy, +with the aid of our now authoritative science of physiology, and in +association with our British love of adventure, will, I hope, enable us +to give to the future inhabitants of the globe an almost perfect record +of the present forms of animal life upon it, of which many are on the +point of being extinguished.</p> + +<p>Lastly, but not as the least important of our special powers, I have to +note our skill in landscape, of which I will presently speak more +particularly.</p> + + +<p>18. Such I conceive to be the directions in which, principally, we have +the power to excel; and you must at once see how the consideration of +them must modify the advisable methods of our art study. For if our +professional painters were likely to produce pieces of art loftily ideal +in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> character, it would be desirable to form the taste of the +students here by setting before them only the purest examples of Greek, +and the mightiest of Italian, art. But I do not think you will yet find +a single instance of a school directed exclusively to these higher +branches of study in England, which has strongly, or even definitely, +made impression on its younger scholars. While, therefore, I shall +endeavour to point out clearly the characters to be looked for and +admired in the great masters of imaginative design, I shall make no +special effort to stimulate the imitation of them; and above all things, +I shall try to probe in you, and to prevent, the affectation into which +it is easy to fall, even through modesty,—of either endeavouring to +admire a grandeur with which we have no natural sympathy, or losing the +pleasure we might take in the study of familiar things, by considering +it a sign of refinement to look for what is of higher class, or rarer +occurrence.</p> + + +<p>19. Again, if our artisans were likely to attain any distinguished skill +in ornamental design, it would be incumbent upon me to make my class +here accurately acquainted with the principles of earth and metal work, +and to accustom them to take pleasure in conventional arrangements of +colour and form. I hope, indeed, to do this, so far as to enable them to +discern the real merit of many styles of art which are at present +neglected; and, above all, to read the minds of semi-barbaric nations in +the only language by which their feelings were capable of expression; +and those members of my class whose temper inclines them to take +pleasure in the interpretation of mythic symbols, will not probably be +induced to quit the profound fields of investigation which early art, +examined carefully, will open to them, and which belong to it alone: for +this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the +same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by +it; and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention. Nevertheless, +when I have once sufficiently pointed out the nature and value of this +conventional work, and vindicated it from the contempt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> with which it is +too generally regarded, I shall leave the student to his own pleasure in +its pursuit; and even, so far as I may, discourage all admiration +founded on quaintness or peculiarity of style; and repress any other +modes of feeling which are likely to lead rather to fastidious +collection of curiosities, than to the intelligent appreciation of work +which, being executed in compliance with constant laws of right, cannot +be singular, and must be distinguished only by excellence in what is +always desirable.</p> + + +<p>20. While, therefore, in these and such other directions, I shall +endeavour to put every adequate means of advance within reach of the +members of my class, I shall use my own best energy to show them what is +consummately beautiful and well done, by men who have passed through the +symbolic or suggestive stage of design, and have enabled themselves to +comply, by truth of representation, with the strictest or most eager +demands of accurate science, and of disciplined passion. I shall +therefore direct your observation, during the greater part of the time +you may spare to me, to what is indisputably best, both in painting and +sculpture; trusting that you will afterwards recognise the nascent and +partial skill of former days both with greater interest and greater +respect, when you know the full difficulty of what it attempted, and the +complete range of what it foretold.</p> + + +<p>21. And with this view, I shall at once endeavour to do what has for +many years been in my thoughts, and now, with the advice and assistance +of the curators of the University Galleries, I do not doubt may be +accomplished here in Oxford, just where it will be preëminently +useful—namely, to arrange an educational series of examples of +excellent art, standards to which you may at once refer on any +questionable point, and by the study of which you may gradually attain +an instinctive sense of right, which will afterwards be liable to no +serious error. Such a collection may be formed, both more perfectly, and +more easily, than would commonly be supposed. For the real utility of +the series will depend on its restricted extent,—on the severe +exclusion of all second<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>-rate, superfluous, or even attractively varied +examples,—and On the confining the students' attention to a few types +of what is insuperably good. More progress in power of judgment may be +made in a limited time by the examination of one work, than by the +review of many; and a certain degree of vitality is given to the +impressiveness of every characteristic, by its being exhibited in clear +contrast, and without repetition.</p> + +<p>The greater number of the examples I shall choose will be only +engravings or photographs: they shall be arranged so as to be easily +accessible, and I will prepare a catalogue, pointing out my purpose in +the selection of each. But in process of time, I have good hope that +assistance will be given me by the English public in making the series +here no less splendid than serviceable; and in placing minor +collections, arranged on a similar principle, at the command also of the +students in our public schools.</p> + + +<p>22. In the second place, I shall endeavour to prevail upon all the +younger members of the University who wish to attend the art lectures, +to give at least so much time to manual practice as may enable them to +understand the nature and difficulty of executive skill. The time so +spent will not be lost, even as regards their other studies at the +University, for I will prepare the practical exercises in a double +series, one illustrative of history, the other of natural science. And +whether you are drawing a piece of Greek armour, or a hawk's beak, or a +lion's paw, you will find that the mere necessity of using the hand +compels attention to circumstances which would otherwise have escaped +notice, and fastens them in the memory without farther effort. But were +it even otherwise, and this practical training did really involve some +sacrifice of your time, I do not fear but that it will be justified to +you by its felt results: and I think that general public feeling is also +tending to the admission that accomplished education must include, not +only full command of expression by language, but command of true musical +sound by the voice, and of true form by the hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + + +<p>23. While I myself hold this professorship, I shall direct you in these +exercises very definitely to natural history, and to landscape; not only +because in these two branches I am probably able to show you truths +which might be despised by my successors: but because I think the vital +and joyful study of natural history quite the principal element +requiring introduction, not only into University, but into national, +education, from highest to lowest; and I even will risk incurring your +ridicule by confessing one of my fondest dreams, that I may succeed in +making some of you English youths like better to look at a bird than to +shoot it; and even desire to make wild creatures tame, instead of tame +creatures wild. And for the study of landscape, it is, I think, now +calculated to be of use in deeper, if not more important modes, than +that of natural science, for reasons which I will ask you to let me +state at some length.</p> + + +<p>24. Observe first;—no race of men which is entirely bred in wild +country, far from cities, ever enjoys landscape. They may enjoy the +beauty of animals, but scarcely even that: a true peasant cannot see the +beauty of cattle; but only qualities expressive of their +serviceableness. I waive discussion of this to-day; permit my assertion +of it, under my confident guarantee of future proof. Landscape can only +be enjoyed by cultivated persons; and it is only by music, literature, +and painting, that cultivation can be given. Also, the faculties which +are thus received are hereditary; so that the child of an educated race +has an innate instinct for beauty, derived from arts practised hundreds +of years before its birth. Now farther note this, one of the loveliest +things in human nature. In the children of noble races, trained by +surrounding art, and at the same time in the practice of great deeds, +there is an intense delight in the landscape of their country as +<i>memorial</i>; a sense not taught to them, nor teachable to any others; +but, in them, innate; and the seal and reward of persistence in great +national life;—the obedience and the peace of ages having extended +gradually the glory of the revered ancestors also to the ancestral +land;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> until the Motherhood of the dust, the mystery of the Demeter from +whose bosom we came, and to whose bosom we return, surrounds and +inspires, everywhere, the local awe of field and fountain; the +sacredness of landmark that none may remove, and of wave that none may +pollute; while records of proud days, and of dear persons, make every +rock monumental with ghostly inscription, and every path lovely with +noble desolateness.</p> + + +<p>25. Now, however checked by lightness of temperament, the instinctive +love of landscape in us has this deep root, which, in your minds, I will +pray you to disencumber from whatever may oppress or mortify it, and to +strive to feel with all the strength of your youth that a nation is only +worthy of the soil and the scenes that it has inherited, when, by all +its acts and arts, it is making them more lovely for its children.</p> + +<p>And now, I trust, you will feel that it is not in mere yielding to my +own fancies that I have chosen, for the first three subjects in your +educational series, landscape scenes;—two in England, and one in +France,—the association of these being not without purpose:—and for +the fourth Albert Dürer's dream of the Spirit of Labour. And of the +landscape subjects, I must tell you this much. The first is an engraving +only; the original drawing by Turner was destroyed by fire twenty years +ago. For which loss I wish you to be sorry, and to remember, in +connection with this first example, that whatever remains to us of +possession in the arts is, compared to what we might have had if we had +cared for them, just what that engraving is to the lost drawing. You +will find also that its subject has meaning in it which will not be +harmful to you. The second example is a real drawing by Turner, in the +same series, and very nearly of the same place; the two scenes are +within a quarter of a mile of each other. It will show you the character +of the work that was destroyed. It will show you, in process of time, +much more; but chiefly, and this is my main reason for choosing both, it +will be a permanent expression to you of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> what English landscape was +once;—and must, if we are to remain a nation, be again.</p> + +<p>I think it farther right to tell you, for otherwise you might hardly pay +regard enough to work apparently so simple, that by a chance which is +not altogether displeasing to me, this drawing, which it has become, for +these reasons, necessary for me to give you, is—not indeed the best I +have, (I have several as good, though none better)—but, of all I have, +the one I had least mind to part with.</p> + +<p>The third example is also a Turner drawing—a scene on the Loire—never +engraved. It is an introduction to the series of the Loire, which you +have already; it has in its present place a due concurrence with the +expressional purpose of its companions; and though small, it is very +precious, being a faultless, and, I believe, unsurpassable example of +water-colour painting.</p> + +<p>Chiefly, however, remember the object of these three first examples is +to give you an index to your truest feelings about European, and +especially about your native landscape, as it is pensive and historical; +and so far as you yourselves make any effort at its representation, to +give you a motive for fidelity in handwork more animating than any +connected with mere success in the art itself.</p> + + +<p>26. With respect to actual methods of practice, I will not incur the +responsibility of determining them for you. We will take Lionardo's +treatise on painting for our first text-book; and I think you need not +fear being misled by me if I ask you to do only what Lionardo bids, or +what will be necessary to enable you to do his bidding. But you need not +possess the book, nor read it through. I will translate the pieces to +the authority of which I shall appeal; and, in process of time, by +analysis of this fragmentary treatise, show you some characters not +usually understood of the simplicity as well as subtlety common to most +great workmen of that age. Afterwards we will collect the instructions +of other undisputed masters, till we have obtained a code of laws +clearly resting on the consent of antiquity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>While, however, I thus in some measure limit for the present the methods +of your practice, I shall endeavour to make the courses of my University +lectures as wide in their range as my knowledge will permit. The range +so conceded will be narrow enough; but I believe that my proper function +is not to acquaint you with the general history, but with the essential +principles of art; and with its history only when it has been both great +and good, or where some special excellence of it requires examination of +the causes to which it must be ascribed.</p> + + +<p>27. But if either our work, or our enquiries, are to be indeed +successful in their own field, they must be connected with others of a +sterner character. Now listen to me, if I have in these past details +lost or burdened your attention; for this is what I have chiefly to say +to you. The art of any country is <i>the exponent of its social and +political virtues</i>. I will show you that it is so in some detail, in the +second of my subsequent course of lectures; meantime accept this as one +of the things, and the most important of all things, I can positively +declare to you. The art, or general productive and formative energy, of +any country, is an exact exponent of its ethical life. You can have +noble art only from noble persons, associated under laws fitted to their +time and circumstances. And the best skill that any teacher of art could +spend here in your help, would not end in enabling you even so much as +rightly to draw the water-lilies in the Cherwell (and though it did, the +work when done would not be worth the lilies themselves) unless both he +and you were seeking, as I trust we shall together seek, in the laws +which regulate the finest industries, the clue to the laws which +regulate <i>all</i> industries, and in better obedience to which we shall +actually have henceforward to live: not merely in compliance with our +own sense of what is right, but under the weight of quite literal +necessity. For the trades by which the British people has believed it to +be the highest of destinies to maintain itself, cannot now long remain +undisputed in its hands; its unemployed poor are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> daily becoming more +violently criminal; and a certain distress in the middle classes, +arising, <i>partly from their vanity in living always up to their incomes, +and partly from their folly in imagining that they can subsist in +idleness upon usury</i>, will at last compel the sons and daughters of +English families to acquaint themselves with the principles of +providential economy; and to learn that food can only be got out of the +ground, and competence only secured by frugality; and that although it +is not possible for all to be occupied in the highest arts, nor for any, +guiltlessly, to pass their days in a succession of pleasures, the most +perfect mental culture possible to men is founded on their useful +energies, and their best arts and brightest happiness are consistent, +and consistent only, with their virtue.</p> + + +<p>28. This, I repeat, gentlemen, will soon become manifest to those among +us, and there are yet many, who are honest-hearted. And the future fate +of England depends upon the position they then take, and on their +courage in maintaining it.</p> + +<p>There is a destiny now possible to us—the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race; a +race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. We +have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an +inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years of +noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice, so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years we +have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity which +has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. One kingdom;—but who is to be its king? Is there to be +no king in it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his +own eyes? Or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon +and Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of +light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;—faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions;—faithful servant of time-tried principles, under +temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and amidst the +cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange +valour of goodwill towards men?</p> + + +<p>29. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." Yes, but of which king? There are the two +oriflammes; which shall we plant on the farthest islands,—the one that +floats in heavenly fire, or that hangs heavy with foul tissue of +terrestrial gold? There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to +us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But +it must be—it <i>is</i> with us, now, "Reign or Die." And if it shall be +said of this country, "Fece per viltate, il gran rifiuto;" that refusal +of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest +and most untimely.</p> + +<p>And this is what she must either do, or perish: she must found colonies +as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and +worthiest men;—seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set +her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief +virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is +to be to advance the power of England by land and sea: and that, though +they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more to consider +themselves therefore disfranchised from their native land, than the +sailors of her fleets do, because they float on distant waves. So that +literally, these colonies must be fastened fleets; and every man of them +must be under authority of captains and officers, whose better command +is to be over fields and streets instead of ships of the line; and +England, in these her motionless navies (or, in the true and mightiest +sense, motionless <i>churches</i>, ruled by pilots on the Galilean lake of +all the world), is to "expect every man to do his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> duty;" recognising +that duty is indeed possible no less in peace than war; and that if we +can get men, for little pay, to cast themselves against cannon-mouths +for love of England, we may find men also who will plough and sow for +her, who will behave kindly and righteously for her, who will bring up +their children to love her, and who will gladden themselves in the +brightness of her glory, more than in all the light of tropic skies.</p> + +<p>But that they may be able to do this, she must make her own majesty +stainless; she must give them thoughts of their home of which they can +be proud. The England who is to be mistress of half the earth, cannot +remain herself a heap of cinders, trampled by contending and miserable +crowds; she must yet again become the England she was once, and in all +beautiful ways,—more: so happy, so secluded, and so pure, that in her +sky—polluted by no unholy clouds—she may be able to spell rightly of +every star that heaven doth show; and in her fields, ordered and wide +and fair, of every herb that sips the dew; and under the green avenues +of her enchanted garden, a sacred Circe, true Daughter of the Sun, she +must guide the human arts, and gather the divine knowledge, of distant +nations, transformed from savageness to manhood, and redeemed from +despairing into peace.</p> + + +<p>30. You think that an impossible ideal. Be it so; refuse to accept it if +you will; but see that you form your own in its stead. All that I ask of +you is to have a fixed purpose of some kind for your country and +yourselves; no matter how restricted, so that it be fixed and unselfish. +I know what stout hearts are in you, to answer acknowledged need: but it +is the fatallest form of error in English youths to hide their hardihood +till it fades for lack of sunshine, and to act in disdain of purpose, +till all purpose is vain. It is not by deliberate, but by careless +selfishness; not by compromise with evil, but by dull following of good, +that the weight of national evil increases upon us daily. Break through +at least this pretence of existence; determine what you will be, and +what you would win. You will not decide wrongly if you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> will resolve to +decide at all. Were even the choice between lawless pleasure and loyal +suffering, you would not, I believe, choose basely. But your trial is +not so sharp. It is between drifting in confused wreck among the +castaways of Fortune, who condemns to assured ruin those who know not +either how to resist her, or obey; between this, I say, and the taking +of your appointed part in the heroism of Rest; the resolving to share in +the victory which is to the weak rather than the strong; and the binding +yourselves by that law, which, thought on through lingering night and +labouring day, makes a man's life to be as a tree planted by the +water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"ET FOLIUM EJUS NON DEFLUET,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">ET OMNIA, QUÆCUNQUE FACIET, PROSPERABUNTUR."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_II" id="LECTURE_II"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE II</a></h2> + +<h3>THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION</h3> + + +<p>31. It was stated, and I trust partly with your acceptance, in my +opening lecture, that the study on which we are about to enter cannot be +rightly undertaken except in furtherance of the grave purposes of life +with respect to which the rest of the scheme of your education here is +designed. But you can scarcely have at once felt all that I intended in +saying so;—you cannot but be still partly under the impression that the +so-called fine arts are merely modes of graceful recreation, and a new +resource for your times of rest. Let me ask you, forthwith, so far as +you can trust me, to change your thoughts in this matter. All the great +arts have for their object either the support or exaltation of human +life,—usually both; and their dignity, and ultimately their very +existence, depend on their being +"μετὰ λόγου ἀληθοῦς," +that is to say, apprehending, with right reason, the nature of the materials +they work with, of the things they relate or represent, and of the +faculties to which they are addressed. And farther, they form one united +system from which it is impossible to remove any part without harm to +the rest. They are founded first in mastery, by strength of <i>arm</i>, of +the earth and sea, in agriculture and seamanship; then their inventive +power begins, with the clay in the hand of the potter, whose art is the +humblest but truest type of the forming of the human body and spirit; +and in the carpenter's work, which probably was the early employment of +the Founder of our religion. And until men have perfectly learned the +laws of art in clay and wood, they can consummately know no others. Nor +is it without the strange significance which you will find in what at +first seems chance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> in all noble histories, as soon as you can read +them rightly,—that the statue of Athena Polias was of olive-wood, and +that the Greek temple and Gothic spire are both merely the permanent +representations of useful wooden structures. On these two first arts +follow building in stone,—sculpture,—metal work,—and painting; every +art being properly called "fine" which demands the exercise of the full +faculties of heart and intellect. For though the fine arts are not +necessarily imitative or representative, for their essence is in being +περὶ +περὶ γένεσιν +—occupied in the actual <i>production</i> of beautiful +form or colour,—still, the highest of them are appointed also to relate +to us the utmost ascertainable truth respecting visible things and moral +feelings: and this pursuit of <i>fact</i> is the vital <i>element</i> of the art +power;—that in which alone it can develop itself to its utmost. And I +will anticipate by an assertion which you will at present think too +bold, but which I am willing that you should think so, in order that you +may well remember it,—<span class="smcap">the highest thing that art can do is to set +before you the true image of the presence of a noble human being. it has +never done more than this, and it ought not to do less</span>.</p> + + +<p>32. The great arts—forming thus one perfect scheme of human skill, of +which it is not right to call one division more honourable, though it +may be more subtle, than another—have had, and can have, but three +principal directions of purpose:—first, that of enforcing the religion +of men; secondly, that of perfecting their ethical state; thirdly, that +of doing them material service.</p> + + +<p>33. I do not doubt but that you are surprised at my saying the arts can +in their second function only be directed to the perfecting of ethical +state, it being our usual impression that they are often destructive of +morality. But it is impossible to direct fine art to an immoral end, +except by giving it characters unconnected with its fineness, or by +addressing it to persons who cannot perceive it to be fine. Whosoever +recognises it is exalted by it. On the other hand, it has been commonly +thought that art was a most fitting means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> for the enforcement of +religious doctrines and emotions; whereas there is, as I must presently +try to show you, room for grave doubt whether it has not in this +function hitherto done evil rather than good.</p> + + +<p>34. In this and the two next following lectures, I shall endeavour +therefore to show you the grave relations of human art, in these three +functions, to human life. I can do this but roughly, as you may well +suppose—since each of these subjects would require for its right +treatment years instead of hours. Only, remember, <i>I</i> have already given +years, not a few, to each of them; and what I try to tell <i>you</i> now will +be only so much as is absolutely necessary to set our work on a clear +foundation. You may not, at present, see the necessity for <i>any</i> +foundation, and may think that I ought to put pencil and paper in your +hands at once. On that point I must simply answer, "Trust me a little +while," asking you however also to remember, that—irrespectively of any +consideration of last or first—my true function here is not that of +your master in painting, or sculpture, or pottery; but to show you what +it is that makes any of these arts <i>fine</i>, or the contrary of <i>fine</i>: +essentially <i>good</i>, or essentially <i>base</i>. You need not fear my not +being practical enough for you; all the industry you choose to give me, +I will take; but far the better part of what you may gain by such +industry would be lost, if I did not first lead you to see what every +form of art-industry intends, and why some of it is justly called right, +and some wrong.</p> + + +<p>35. It would be well if you were to look over, with respect to this +matter, the end of the second, and what interests you of the third, book +of Plato's Republic; noting therein these two principal things, of which +I have to speak in this and my next lecture: first, the power which +Plato so frankly, and quite justly, attributes to art, of <i>falsifying</i> +our conceptions of Deity: which power he by fatal error partly implies +may be used wisely for good, and that the feigning is only wrong when it +is of evil, +"ἐάν τις μὴ καλῶς ψεύδηται;" +and you may trace +through all that follows the beginning of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> change of Greek ideal art +into a beautiful expediency, instead of what it was in the days of +Pindar, the statement of what "could not be otherwise than so." But, in +the second place, you will find in those books of the Polity, stated +with far greater accuracy of expression than our English language +admits, the essential relations of art to morality; the sum of these +being given in one lovely sentence, which, considering that we have +to-day grace done us by fair companionship,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> you will pardon me for +translating. "<i>Must it be then only with our poets that we insist they +shall either create for us the image of a noble morality, or among us +create none? or shall we not also keep guard over all other workers for +the people, and forbid them to make what is ill-customed, and +unrestrained, and ungentle, and without order or shape, either in +likeness of living things, or in buildings, or in any other thing +whatsoever that is made for the people? and shall we not rather seek for +workers who</i> <span class="smcap">can track the inner nature of all that may be sweetly +schemed</span>; <i>so that the young men, as living in a wholesome place, may be +profited by everything that, in work fairly wrought, may touch them +through hearing or sight—as if it were a breeze bringing health to them +from places strong for life?</i>"</p> + + +<p>36. And now—but one word, before we enter on our task, as to the way +you must understand what I may endeavour to tell you.</p> + +<p>Let me beg you—now and always—not to think that I mean more than I +say. In all probability, I mean just what I say, and only that. At all +events I do fully mean <i>that</i>; and if there is anything reserved in my +mind, it will be probably different from what you would guess. You are +perfectly welcome to know all that I think, as soon as I have put before +you all my grounds for thinking it; but by the time I have done so, you +will be able to form an opinion of your own; and mine will then be of no +consequence to you.</p> + + +<p>37. I use then to-day, as I shall in future use, the word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> "Religion" as +signifying the feelings of love, reverence, or dread with which the +human mind is affected by its conceptions of spiritual being; and you +know well how necessary it is, both to the rightness of our own life, +and to the understanding the lives of others, that we should always keep +clearly distinguished our ideas of Religion, as thus defined, and of +Morality, as the law of rightness in human conduct. For there are many +religions, but there is only one morality. There are moral and immoral +religions, which differ as much in precept as in emotion; but there is +only one morality, <span class="smcap">which has been, is, and must be for ever, an instinct +in the hearts of all civilised men, as certain and unalterable as their +outward bodily form, and which receives from religion neither law, nor +place; but only hope, and felicity</span>.</p> + + +<p>38. The pure forms or states of religion hitherto known, are those in +which a healthy humanity, finding in itself many foibles and sins, has +imagined, or been made conscious of, the existence of higher spiritual +personality, liable to no such fault or stain; and has been assisted in +effort, and consoled in pain, by reference to the will or sympathy of +such purer spirits, whether imagined or real. I am compelled to use +these painful latitudes of expression, because no analysis has hitherto +sufficed to distinguish accurately, in historical narrative, the +difference between impressions resulting from the imagination of the +worshipper, and those made, if any, by the actually local and temporary +presence of another spirit. For instance, take the vision, which of all +others has been since made most frequently the subject of physical +representation—the appearance to Ezekiel and St. John of the four +living creatures, which throughout Christendom have been used to +symbolise the Evangelists.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Supposing such interpretation just, one of +those figures was either the mere symbol to St. John of himself, or it +was the power which inspired him, manifesting itself in an independent +form. Which of these it was, or whether neither of these, but a vision<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +of other powers, or a dream, of which neither the prophet himself knew, +nor can any other person yet know, the interpretation,—I suppose no +modestly-minded and accurate thinker would now take upon himself to +decide. Nor is it therefore anywise necessary for you to decide on that, +or any other such question; but it is necessary that you should be bold +enough to look every opposing question steadily in its face; and modest +enough, having done so, to know when it is too hard for you. But above +all things, see that you be modest in your thoughts, for of this one +thing we may be absolutely sure, that all our thoughts are but degrees +of darkness. And in these days you have to guard against the fatallest +darkness of the two opposite Prides;—the Pride of Faith, which imagines +that the nature of the Deity can be defined by its convictions; and the +Pride of Science, which imagines that the energy of Deity can be +explained by its analysis.</p> + + +<p>39. Of these, the first, the Pride of Faith, is now, as it has been +always, the most deadly, because the most complacent and +subtle;—because it invests every evil passion of our nature with the +aspect of an angel of light, and enables the self-love, which might +otherwise have been put to wholesome shame, and the cruel carelessness +of the ruin of our fellow-men, which might otherwise have been warmed +into human love, or at least checked by human intelligence, to congeal +themselves into the mortal intellectual disease of imagining that +myriads of the inhabitants of the world for four thousand years have +been left to wander and perish, many of them everlastingly, in order +that, in fulness of time, divine truth might be preached sufficiently to +ourselves: with this farther ineffable mischief for direct result, that +multitudes of kindly-disposed, gentle, and submissive persons, who might +else by their true patience have alloyed the hardness of the common +crowd, and by their activity for good balanced its misdoing, are +withdrawn from all such true services of man, that they may pass the +best part of their lives in what they are told is the service of God; +<i>namely, desiring what</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> <i>they cannot obtain, lamenting what they cannot +avoid, and reflecting on what they cannot understand</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + + +<p>40. This, I repeat, is the deadliest, but for you, under existing +circumstances, it is becoming daily, almost hourly, the least probable +form of Pride. That which you have chiefly to guard against consists in +the overvaluing of minute though correct discovery; the groundless +denial of all that seems to you to have been groundlessly affirmed; and +the interesting yourselves too curiously in the progress of some +scientific minds, which in their judgment of the universe can be +compared to nothing so accurately as to the woodworms in the panel of a +picture by some great painter, if we may conceive them as tasting with +discrimination of the wood, and with repugnance of the colour, and +declaring that even this unlooked-for and undesirable combination is a +normal result of the action of molecular Forces.</p> + + +<p>41. Now, I must very earnestly warn you, in the beginning of my work +with you here, against allowing either of these forms of egotism to +interfere with your judgment or practice of art. On the one hand, you +must not allow the expression of your own favourite religious feelings +by any particular form of art to modify your judgment of its absolute +merit; nor allow the art itself to become an illegitimate means of +deepening and confirming your convictions, by realising to your eyes +what you dimly conceive with the brain; as if the greater clearness of +the image were a stronger proof of its truth. On the other hand, you +must not allow your scientific habit of trusting nothing but what you +have ascertained, to prevent you from appreciating, or at least +endeavouring to qualify yourselves to appreciate, the work of the +highest faculty of the human mind,—its imagination,—when it is toiling +in the presence of things that cannot be dealt with by any other power.</p> + + +<p>42. These are both vital conditions of your healthy progress. On the one +hand, observe that you do not wilfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> use the realistic power of art +to convince yourselves of historical or theological statements which you +cannot otherwise prove; and which you wish to prove:—on the other hand, +that you do not check your imagination and conscience while seizing the +truths of which they alone are cognizant, because you value too highly +the scientific interest which attaches to the investigation of second +causes.</p> + +<p>For instance, it may be quite possible to show the conditions in water +and electricity which necessarily produce the craggy outline, the +apparently self-contained silvery light, and the sulphurous blue shadow +of a thunder-cloud, and which separate these from the depth of the +golden peace in the dawn of a summer morning. Similarly, it may be +possible to show the necessities of structure which groove the fangs and +depress the brow of the asp, and which distinguish the character of its +head from that of the face of a young girl. But it is the function of +the rightly-trained imagination to recognise, in these, and such other +relative aspects, the unity of teaching which impresses, alike on our +senses and our conscience, the eternal difference between good and evil: +and the rule, over the clouds of heaven and over the creatures in the +earth, of the same Spirit which teaches to our own hearts the bitterness +of death, and strength of love.</p> + + +<p>43. Now, therefore, approaching our subject in this balanced temper, +which will neither resolve to see only what it would desire, nor expect +to see only what it can explain, we shall find our enquiry into the +relation of Art to Religion is distinctly threefold: first, we have to +ask how far art may have been literally directed by spiritual powers; +secondly, how far, if not inspired, it may have been exalted by them; +lastly, how far, in any of its agencies, it has advanced the cause of +the creeds it has been used to recommend.</p> + + +<p>44. First: What ground have we for thinking that art has ever been +inspired as a message or revelation? What internal evidence is there in +the work of great artists of their having been under the authoritative +guidance of supernatural powers?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is true that the answer to so mysterious a question cannot rest alone +upon internal evidence; but it is well that you should know what might, +from that evidence alone, be concluded. And the more impartially you +examine the phenomena of imagination, the more firmly you will be led to +conclude that they are the result of the influence of the common and +vital, but not, therefore, less Divine, spirit, of which some portion is +given to all living creatures in such manner as may be adapted to their +rank in creation; and that everything which men rightly accomplish is +indeed done by Divine help, but under a consistent law which is never +departed from.</p> + +<p>The strength of this spiritual life within us may be increased or +lessened by our own conduct; it varies from time to time, as physical +strength varies; it is summoned on different occasions by our will, and +dejected by our distress, or our sin; but it is always <i>equally human</i>, +and <i>equally Divine</i>. We are men, and not mere animals, because a +special form of it is with us always; we are nobler and baser men, as it +is with us more or less; but it is never given to us in any degree which +can make us more than men.</p> + + +<p>45. Observe:—I give you this general statement doubtfully, and only as +that towards which an impartial reasoner will, I think, be inclined by +existing data. But I shall be able to show you, without any doubt, in +the course of our studies, that the achievements of art which have been +usually looked upon as the results of peculiar inspiration have been +arrived at only through long courses of wisely directed labour, and +under the influence of feelings which are common to all humanity.</p> + +<p>But of these feelings and powers which in different degrees are common +to humanity, you are to note that there are three principal divisions: +first, the instincts of construction or melody, which we share with +lower animals, and which are in us as native as the instinct of the bee +or nightingale; secondly, the faculty of vision, or of dreaming, whether +in sleep or in conscious trance, or by voluntarily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> exerted fancy; and +lastly, the power of rational inference and collection, of both the laws +and forms of beauty.</p> + + +<p>46. Now the faculty of vision, being closely associated with the +innermost spiritual nature, is the one which has by most reasoners been +held for the peculiar channel of Divine teaching: and it is a fact that +great part of purely didactic art has been the record, whether in +language, or by linear representation, of actual vision involuntarily +received at the moment, though cast on a mental retina blanched by the +past course of faithful life. But it is also true that these visions, +where most distinctly received, are always—I speak +deliberately—<i>always</i>, the <i>sign of some mental limitation or +derangement</i>; and that the persons who most clearly recognise their +value, exaggeratedly estimate it, choosing what they find to be useful, +and calling that "inspired," and disregarding what they perceive to be +useless, though presented to the visionary by an equal authority.</p> + + +<p>47. Thus it is probable that no work of art has been more widely +didactic than Albert Dürer's engraving, known as the "Knight and +Death."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> But that is only one of a series of works representing +similarly vivid dreams, of which some are uninteresting, except for the +manner of their representation, as the "St. Hubert," and others are +unintelligible; some, frightful, and wholly unprofitable; so that we +find the visionary faculty in that great painter, when accurately +examined, to be a morbid influence, abasing his skill more frequently +than encouraging it, and sacrificing the greater part of his energies +upon vain subjects, two only being produced, in the course of a long +life, which are of high didactic value, and both of these capable only +of giving sad courage.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Whatever the value of these two, it bears more +the aspect of a treasure obtained at great cost of suffering, than of a +directly granted gift from heaven.</p> + + +<p>48. On the contrary, not only the highest, but the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> consistent +results have been attained in art by men in whom the faculty of vision, +however strong, was subordinate to that of deliberative design, and +tranquillised by a measured, continual, not feverish, but affectionate, +observance of the quite unvisionary facts of the surrounding world.</p> + +<p>And so far as we can trace the connection of their powers with the moral +character of their lives, we shall find that the best art is the work of +good, but of not distinctively religious men, who, at least, are +conscious of no inspiration, and often so unconscious of their +superiority to others, that one of the greatest of them, Reynolds, +deceived by his modesty, has asserted that "all things are possible to +well-directed labour."</p> + + +<p>49. The second question, namely, how far art, if not inspired, has yet +been ennobled by religion, I shall not touch upon to-day; for it both +requires technical criticism, and would divert you too long from the +main question of all,—How far religion has been helped by art?</p> + +<p>You will find that the operation of formative art—(I will not speak +to-day of music)—the operation of formative art on religious creed is +essentially twofold; the realisation, to the eyes, of imagined spiritual +persons; and the limitation of their imagined presence to certain +places. We will examine these two functions of it successively.</p> + + +<p>50. And first, consider accurately what the agency of art is, in +realising, to the sight, our conceptions of spiritual persons.</p> + +<p>For instance. Assume that we believe that the Madonna is always present +to hear and answer our prayers. Assume also that this is true. I think +that persons in a perfectly honest, faithful, and humble temper, would +in that case desire only to feel so much of the Divine presence as the +spiritual Power herself chose to make felt; and, above all things, not +to think they saw, or knew, anything except what might be truly +perceived or known.</p> + +<p>But a mind imperfectly faithful, and impatient in its distress, or +craving in its dulness for a more distinct and convincing sense of the +Divinity, would endeavour to complete,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> or perhaps we should rather say +to contract, its conception, into the definite figure of a woman wearing +a blue or crimson dress, and having fair features, dark eyes, and +gracefully arranged hair.</p> + +<p>Suppose, after forming such a conception, that we have the power to +realise and preserve it, this image of a beautiful figure with a +pleasant expression cannot but have the tendency of afterwards leading +us to think of the Virgin as present, when she is not actually present; +or as pleased with us, when she is not actually pleased; or if we +resolutely prevent ourselves from such imagination, nevertheless the +existence of the image beside us will often turn our thoughts towards +subjects of religion, when otherwise they would have been differently +occupied; and, in the midst of other occupations, will familiarise more +or less, and even mechanically associate with common or faultful states +of mind, the appearance of the supposed Divine person.</p> + + +<p>51. There are thus two distinct operations upon our mind: first, the art +makes us believe what we would not otherwise have believed; and +secondly, it makes us think of subjects we should not otherwise have +thought of, intruding them amidst our ordinary thoughts in a confusing +and familiar manner. We cannot with any certainty affirm the advantage +or the harm of such accidental pieties, for their effect will be very +different on different characters: but, without any question, the art, +which makes us believe what we would not have otherwise believed, is +misapplied, and in most instances very dangerously so. Our duty is to +believe in the existence of Divine, or any other, persons, only upon +rational proofs of their existence; and not because we have seen +pictures of them.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + + +<p>52. But now observe, it is here necessary to draw a distinction, so +subtle that in dealing with facts it is continually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> impossible to mark +it with precision, yet so vital, that not only your understanding of the +power of art, but the working of your minds in matters of primal moment +to you, depends on the effort you make to affirm this distinction +strongly. The art which realises a creature of the imagination is only +mischievous when that realisation is conceived to imply, or does +practically induce a belief in, the real existence of the imagined +personage, contrary to, or unjustified by the other evidence of its +existence. But if the art only represents the personage on the +understanding that its form is imaginary, then the effort at realisation +is healthful and beneficial.</p> + +<p>For instance, the Greek design of Apollo crossing the sea to Delphi, +which is one of the most interesting of Le Normant's series, so far as +it is only an expression, under the symbol of a human form, of what may +be rightly imagined respecting the solar power, is right and ennobling; +but so far as it conveyed to the Greek the idea of there being a real +Apollo, it was mischievous, whether there be, or be not, a real Apollo. +If there is no real Apollo, then the art was mischievous because it +deceived; but if there is a real Apollo, then it was still more +mischievous,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> for it not only began the degradation of the image of +that true god into a decoration for niches, and a device for seals; but +prevented any true witness being borne to his existence. For if the +Greeks, instead of multiplying representations of what they imagined to +be the figure of the god, had given us accurate drawings of the heroes +and battles of Marathon and Salamis, and had simply told us in plain +Greek what evidence they had of the power of Apollo, either through his +oracles, his help or chastisement, or by immediate vision, they would +have served their religion more truly than by all the vase-paintings and +fine statues that ever were buried or adored.</p> + + +<p>53. Now in this particular instance, and in many other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> examples of fine +Greek art, the two conditions of thought, symbolic and realistic, are +mingled; and the art is helpful, as I will hereafter show you, in one +function, and in the other so deadly, that I think no degradation of +conception of Deity has ever been quite so base as that implied by the +designs of Greek vases in the period of decline, say about 250 <span class="smcap">b. c.</span></p> + +<p>But though among the Greeks it is thus nearly always difficult to say +what is symbolic and what realistic, in the range of Christian art the +distinction is clear. In that, a vast division of imaginative work is +occupied in the symbolism of virtues, vices, or natural powers or +passions; and in the representation of personages who, though nominally +real, become in conception symbolic. In the greater part of this work +there is no intention of implying the existence of the represented +creature; Dürer's Melencolia and Giotto's Justice are accurately +characteristic examples. Now all such art is wholly good and useful when +it is the work of good men.</p> + + +<p>54. Again, there is another division of Christian work in which the +persons represented, though nominally real, are treated as +dramatis-personæ of a poem, and so presented confessedly as subjects of +imagination. All this poetic art is also good when it is the work of +good men.</p> + + +<p>55. There remains only therefore to be considered, as truly religious, +the work which definitely implies and modifies the conception of the +existence of a real person. There is hardly any great art which entirely +belongs to this class; but Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola is as +accurate a type of it as I can give you; Holbein's Madonna at Dresden, +the Madonna di San Sisto, and the Madonna of Titian's Assumption, all +belong mainly to this class, but are removed somewhat from it (as, I +repeat, nearly all great art is) into the poetical one. It is only the +bloody crucifixes and gilded virgins and other such lower forms of +imagery (by which, to the honour of the English Church, it has been +truly claimed for her, that "she has never appealed to the madness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> or +dulness of her people,") which belong to the realistic class in strict +limitation, and which properly constitute the type of it.</p> + +<p>There is indeed an important school of sculpture in Spain, directed to +the same objects, but not demanding at present any special attention. +And finally, there is the vigorous and most interesting realistic school +of our own, in modern times, mainly known to the public by Holman Hunt's +picture of the Light of the World, though, I believe, deriving its first +origin from the genius of the painter to whom you owe also the revival +of interest, first here in Oxford, and then universally, in the cycle of +early English legend,—Dante Rossetti.</p> + + +<p>56. The effect of this realistic art on the religious mind of Europe +varies in scope more than any other art power; for in its higher +branches it touches the most sincere religious minds, affecting an +earnest class of persons who cannot be reached by merely poetical +design; while, in its lowest, it addresses itself not only to the most +vulgar desires for religious excitement, but to the mere thirst for +sensation of horror which characterises the uneducated orders of +partially civilised countries; nor merely to the thirst for horror, but +to the strange love of death, as such, which has sometimes in Catholic +countries showed itself peculiarly by the endeavour to paint the images +in the chapels of the Sepulchre so as to look deceptively like corpses. +The same morbid instinct has also affected the minds of many among the +more imaginative and powerful artists with a feverish gloom which +distorts their finest work; and lastly—and this is the worst of all its +effects—it has occupied the sensibility of Christian women, +universally, in lamenting the sufferings of Christ, instead of +preventing those of His people.</p> + + +<p>57. When any of you next go abroad, observe, and consider the meaning +of, the sculptures and paintings, which of every rank in art, and in +every chapel and cathedral, and by every mountain path, recall the +hours, and represent the agonies, of the Passion of Christ: and try to +form some esti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>mate of the efforts that have been made by the four arts +of eloquence, music, painting, and sculpture, since the twelfth century, +to wring out of the hearts of women the last drops of pity that could be +excited for this merely physical agony: for the art nearly always dwells +on the physical wounds or exhaustion chiefly, and degrades, far more +than it animates, the conception of pain.</p> + +<p>Then try to conceive the quantity of time, and of excited and thrilling +emotion, which have been wasted by the tender and delicate women of +Christendom during these last six hundred years, in thus picturing to +themselves, under the influence of such imagery, the bodily pain, long +since passed, of One Person:—which, so far as they indeed conceived it +to be sustained by a Divine Nature, could not for that reason have been +less endurable than the agonies of any simple human death by torture: +and then try to estimate what might have been the better result, for the +righteousness and felicity of mankind, if these same women had been +taught the deep meaning of the last words that were ever spoken by their +Master to those who had ministered to Him of their substance: "Daughters +of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your +children." If they had but been taught to measure with their pitiful +thoughts the tortures of battle-fields—the slowly consuming plagues of +death in the starving children, and wasted age, of the innumerable +desolate those battles left;—nay, in our own life of peace, the agony +of unnurtured, untaught, unhelped creatures, awaking at the grave's edge +to know how they should have lived; and the worse pain of those whose +existence, not the ceasing of it, is death; those to whom the cradle was +a curse, and for whom the words they cannot hear, "ashes to ashes," are +all that they have ever received of benediction. These,—you who would +fain have wept at His feet, or stood by His cross,—these you have +always with you! Him, you have not always.</p> + + +<p>58. The wretched in death you have always with you. Yes, and the brave +and good in life you have always;—these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> also needing help, though you +supposed they had only to help others; these also claiming to be thought +for, and remembered. And you will find, if you look into history with +this clue, that one of quite the chief reasons for the continual misery +of mankind is that they are always divided in their worship between +angels or saints, who are out of their sight, and need no help, and +proud and evil-minded men, who are too definitely in their sight, and +ought not to have their help. And consider how the arts have thus +followed the worship of the crowd. You have paintings of saints and +angels, innumerable;—of petty courtiers, and contemptible or cruel +kings, innumerable. Few, how few you have, (but these, observe, almost +always by great painters) of the best men, or of their actions. But +think for yourselves,—I have no time now to enter upon the mighty +field, nor imagination enough to guide me beyond the threshold of +it,—think, what history might have been to us now;—nay, what a +different history that of all Europe might have become, if it had but +been the object both of the people to discern, and of their arts to +honour and bear record of, the great deeds of their worthiest men. And +if, instead of living, as they have always hitherto done, in a hellish +cloud of contention and revenge, lighted by fantastic dreams of cloudy +sanctities, they had sought to reward and punish justly, wherever reward +and punishment were due, but chiefly to reward; and at least rather to +bear testimony to the human acts which deserved God's anger or His +blessing, than only, in presumptuous imagination, to display the secrets +of Judgment, or the beatitudes of Eternity.</p> + + +<p>59. Such I conceive generally, though indeed with good arising out of +it, for every great evil brings some good in its backward eddies—such I +conceive to have been the deadly function of art in its ministry to +what, whether in heathen or Christian lands, and whether in the +pageantry of words, or colours, or fair forms, is truly, and in the deep +sense, to be called (idolatry)—the serving with the best of our hearts +and minds, some dear or sad fantasy which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> we have made for ourselves, +while we disobey the present call of the Master, who is not dead, and +who is not now fainting under His cross, but requiring us to take up +ours.</p> + + +<p>60. I pass to the second great function of religious art, the limitation +of the idea of Divine presence to particular localities. It is of course +impossible within my present limits to touch upon this power of art, as +employed on the temples of the gods of various religions; we will +examine that on future occasions. To-day, I want only to map out main +ideas, and I can do this best by speaking exclusively of this localising +influence as it affects our own faith.</p> + +<p>Observe first, that the localisation is almost entirely dependent upon +human art. You must at least take a stone and set it up for a pillar, if +you are to mark the place, so as to know it again, where a vision +appeared. A persecuted people, needing to conceal their places of +worship, may perform every religious ceremony first under one crag of +the hill-side, and then under another, without invalidating the +sacredness of the rites or sacraments thus administered. It is, +therefore, we all acknowledge, inessential, that a particular spot +should be surrounded with a ring of stones, or enclosed within walls of +a certain style of architecture, and so set apart as the only place +where such ceremonies may be properly performed; and it is thus less by +any direct appeal to experience or to reason, but in consequence of the +effect upon our senses produced by the architecture, that we receive the +first strong impressions of what we afterwards contend for as absolute +truth. I particularly wish you to notice how it is always by help of +human art that such a result is attained, because, remember always, I am +neither disputing nor asserting the truth of any theological +doctrine;—that is not my province;—I am only questioning the +expediency of enforcing that doctrine by the help of architecture. Put a +rough stone for an altar under the hawthorn on a village +green;—separate a portion of the green itself with an ordinary paling +from the rest;—then consecrate, with whatever form you choose, the +space of grass you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> enclosed, and meet within the wooden fence as +often as you desire to pray or preach; yet you will not easily fasten an +impression in the minds of the villagers, that God inhabits the space of +grass inside the fence, and does not extend His presence to the common +beyond it: and that the daisies and violets on one side of the railing +are holy,—on the other, profane. But, instead of a wooden fence, build +a wall, pave the interior space; roof it over, so as to make it +comparatively dark;—and you may persuade the villagers with ease that +you have built a house which Deity inhabits, or that you have become, in +the old French phrase, a "logeur du Bon Dieu."</p> + + +<p>61. And farther, though I have no desire to introduce any question as to +the truth of what we thus architecturally teach, I would desire you most +strictly to determine what is intended to be taught.</p> + +<p>Do not think I underrate—I am among the last men living who would +underrate,—the importance of the sentiments connected with their church +to the population of a pastoral village. I admit, in its fullest extent, +the moral value of the scene, which is almost always one of perfect +purity and peace; and of the sense of supernatural love and protection, +which fills and surrounds the low aisles and homely porch. But the +question I desire earnestly to leave with you is, whether all the earth +ought not to be peaceful and pure, and the acknowledgment of the Divine +protection, as universal as its reality? That in a mysterious way the +presence of Deity is vouchsafed where it is sought, and withdrawn where +it is forgotten, must of course be granted as the first postulate in the +enquiry: but the point for our decision is just this, whether it ought +always to be sought in one place only, and forgotten in every other.</p> + +<p>It may be replied, that since it is impossible to consecrate the entire +space of the earth, it is better thus to secure a portion of it than +none: but surely, if so, we ought to make some effort to enlarge the +favoured ground, and even look forward to a time when in English +villages there may be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> God's acre tenanted by the living, not the +dead; and when we shall rather look with aversion and fear to the +remnant of ground that is set apart as profane, than with reverence to a +narrow portion of it enclosed as holy.</p> + + +<p>62. But now, farther. Suppose it be admitted that by enclosing ground +with walls, and performing certain ceremonies there habitually, some +kind of sanctity is indeed secured within that space,—still the +question remains open whether it be advisable for religious purposes to +decorate the enclosure. For separation the mere walls would be enough. +What is the purpose of your decoration?</p> + +<p>Let us take an instance—the most noble with which I am acquainted, the +Cathedral of Chartres. You have there the most splendid coloured glass, +and the richest sculpture, and the grandest proportions of building, +united to produce a sensation of pleasure and awe. We profess that this +is to honour the Deity; or, in other words, that it is pleasing to Him +that we should delight our eyes with blue and golden colours, and +solemnise our spirits by the sight of large stones laid one on another, +and ingeniously carved.</p> + + +<p>63. I do not think it can be doubted that it <i>is</i> pleasing to Him when +we do this; for He has Himself prepared for us, nearly every morning and +evening, windows painted with Divine art, in blue and gold and +vermilion: windows lighted from within by the lustre of that heaven +which we may assume, at least with more certainty than any consecrated +ground, to be one of His dwelling-places. Again, in every mountain side, +and cliff of rude sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of +greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and sculptured them +with floral ornament,—surely not less sacred because living?</p> + + +<p>64. Must it not then be only because we love our own work better than +His, that we respect the lucent glass, but not the lucent clouds; that +we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the +gilded vaults we have beautifully ordained—while yet we have not +considered the heavens, the work of His fingers, nor the stars of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +strange vault which He has ordained? And do we dream that by carving +fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way of the rivers +among the rocks, and at whose reproof the pillars of the earth are +astonished, we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the hills +and streams by which He has appointed our dwelling-place;—for the +infection of their sweet air with poison;—for the burning up of their +tender grass and flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of +mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we laboured only +that, at least here in England, we might be able to give the lie to the +song, whether of the Cherubim above, or Church beneath—"Holy, holy, +Lord God of all creatures; Heaven—<i>and Earth</i>—are full of Thy glory"?</p> + + +<p>65. And how much more there is that I long to say to you; and how much, +I hope, that you would like to answer to me, or to question me of! But I +can say no more to-day. We are not, I trust, at the end of our talks or +thoughts together; but, if it were so, and I never spoke to you more, +this that I have said to you I should have been glad to have been +permitted to say; and this, farther, which is the sum of it,—That we +may have splendour of art again, and with that, we may truly praise and +honour our Maker, and with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all +that He has made: but only after we have striven with our whole hearts +first to sanctify the temple of the body and spirit of every child that +has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no walls to guard its +soul from corruption, in this our English land.</p> + +<p>One word more.</p> + +<p>What I have suggested hitherto, respecting the relations of Art to +Religion, you must receive throughout as merely motive of thought; +though you must have well seen that my own convictions were established +finally on some of the points in question. But I must, in conclusion, +tell you something that I <i>know</i>;—which, if you truly labour, you will +one day know also; and which I trust some of you will believe, now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the minutes in which you have been listening to me, I suppose +that almost at every other sentence those whose habit of mind has been +one of veneration for established forms and faiths, must have been in +dread that I was about to say, or in pang of regret at my having said, +what seemed to them an irreverent or reckless word touching vitally +important things.</p> + +<p>So far from this being the fact, it is just because the feelings that I +most desire to cultivate in your minds are those of reverence and +admiration, that I am so earnest to prevent you from being moved to +either by trivial or false semblances. <i>This</i> is the thing which I +<span class="smcap">know</span>—and which, if you labour faithfully, you shall know also,—that in +Reverence is the chief joy and power of life;—Reverence, for what is +pure and bright in your own youth; for what is true and tried in the age +of others; for all that is gracious among the living,—great among the +dead,—and marvellous, in the Powers that cannot die.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_III" id="LECTURE_III"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE III</a></h2> + +<h3>THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS</h3> + + +<p>66. You probably recollect that, in the beginning of my last lecture, it +was stated that fine art had, and could have, but three functions: the +enforcing of the religious sentiments of men, the perfecting their +ethical state, and the doing them material service. We have to-day to +examine, the mode of its action in the second power—that of perfecting +the morality, or ethical state, of men.</p> + +<p>Perfecting, observe—not producing.</p> + +<p>You must have the right moral state first, or you cannot have the art. +But when the art is once obtained, its reflected action enhances and +completes the moral state out of which it arose, and, above all, +communicates the exultation to other minds which are already morally +capable of the like.</p> + + +<p>67. For instance, take the art of singing, and the simplest perfect +master of it (up to the limits of his nature) whom you can find;—a +skylark. From him you may learn what it is to "sing for joy." You must +get the moral state first, the pure gladness, then give it finished +expression; and it is perfected in itself, and made communicable to +other creatures capable of such joy. But it is incommunicable to those +who are not prepared to receive it.</p> + +<p>Now, all right human song is, similarly, the finished expression, by +art, of the joy or grief of noble persons, for right causes. And +accurately in proportion to the rightness of the cause, and purity of +the emotion, is the possibility of the fine art. A maiden may sing of +her lost love, but a miser cannot sing of his lost money. And with +absolute precision, from highest to lowest, <i>the fineness of the +possible art is an index of the moral purity and majesty of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> emotion +it expresses</i>. You may test it practically at any instant. Question with +yourselves respecting any feeling that has taken strong possession of +your mind, "Could this be sung by a master, and sung nobly, with a true +melody and art?" Then it is a right feeling. Could it not be sung at +all, or only sung ludicrously? It is a base one. And that is so in all +the arts; so that with mathematical precision, subject to no error or +exception, the art of a nation, so far as it exists, is an exponent of +its ethical state.</p> + + +<p>68. An exponent, observe, and exalting influence; but not the root or +cause. You cannot paint or sing yourselves into being good men; you must +be good men before you can either paint or sing, and then the colour and +sound will complete in you all that is best.</p> + +<p>And this it was that I called upon you to hear, saying, "listen to me at +least now," in the first lecture, namely, that no art-teaching could be +of use to you, but would rather be harmful, unless it was grafted on +something deeper than all art. For indeed not only with this, of which +it is my function to show you the laws, but much more with the art of +all men, which you came here chiefly to learn, that of language, the +chief vices of education have arisen from the one great fallacy of +supposing that noble language is a communicable trick of grammar and +accent, instead of simply the careful expression of right thought. All +the virtues of language are, in their roots, moral; it becomes accurate +if the speaker desires to be true; clear, if he speaks with sympathy and +a desire to be intelligible; powerful, if he has earnestness; pleasant, +if he has sense of rhythm and order. There are no other virtues of +language producible by art than these: but let me mark more deeply for +an instant the significance of one of them. Language, I said, is only +clear when it is sympathetic. You can, in truth, understand a man's word +only by understanding his temper. Your own word is also as of an unknown +tongue to him unless he understands yours. And it is this which makes +the art of language, if any one is to be chosen separately from the +rest, that which is fittest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> for the instrument of a gentleman's +education. To teach the meaning of a word thoroughly, is to teach the +nature of the spirit that coined it; the secret of language is the +secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle. +And thus the principles of beautiful speech have all been fixed by +sincere and kindly speech. On the laws which have been determined by +sincerity, false speech, apparently beautiful, may afterwards be +constructed; but all such utterance, whether in oration or poetry, is +not only without permanent power, but it is destructive of the +principles it has usurped. So long as no words are uttered but in +faithfulness, so long the art of language goes on exalting itself; but +the moment it is shaped and chiselled on external principles, it falls +into frivolity, and perishes. And this truth would have been long ago +manifest, had it not been that in periods of advanced academical science +there is always a tendency to deny the sincerity of the first masters of +language. Once learn to write gracefully in the manner of an ancient +author, and we are apt to think that he also wrote in the manner of some +one else. But no noble nor right style was ever yet founded but out of a +sincere heart.</p> + +<p>No man is worth reading to form your style, who does not mean what he +says; nor was any great style ever invented but by some man who meant +what he said. Find out the beginner of a great manner of writing, and +you have also found the declarer of some true facts or sincere passions: +and your whole method of reading will thus be quickened, for, being sure +that your author really meant what he said, you will be much more +careful to ascertain what it is that he means.</p> + + +<p>69. And of yet greater importance is it deeply to know that every beauty +possessed by the language of a nation is significant of the innermost +laws of its being. Keep the temper of the people stern and manly; make +their associations grave, courteous, and for worthy objects; occupy them +in just deeds; and their tongue must needs be a grand one. Nor is it +possible, therefore—observe the necessary reflected action—that any +tongue should be a noble one, of which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> words are not so many +trumpet-calls to action. All great languages invariably utter great +things, and command them; they cannot be mimicked but by obedience; the +breath of them is inspiration because it is not only vocal, but vital; +and you can only learn to speak as these men spoke, by becoming what +these men were.</p> + + +<p>70. Now for direct confirmation of this, I want you to think over the +relation of expression to character in two great masters of the absolute +art of language, Virgil and Pope. You are perhaps surprised at the last +name; and indeed you have in English much higher grasp and melody of +language from more passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its +range, so perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are +the two most accomplished <i>Artists</i>, merely as such, whom I know in +literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in +investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, and the +severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, +arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds:—out of the deep +tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of Nisus and +Lausus; and the serene and just benevolence which placed Pope, in his +theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and enabled him to sum +the law of noble life in two lines which, so far as I know, are the most +complete, the most concise, and the most lofty expression of moral +temper existing in English words:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Never dejected, while another's bless'd."</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make yourselves +entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, putting Shakespeare +aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold Pope to be the most +perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, of the true English mind; +and I think the Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental +work "exacted" in our country. You will find, as you study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Pope, that +he has expressed for you, in the strictest language and within the +briefest limits, every law of art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, +and, finally, of a benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, +contented with its allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of +its salvation to Him in whose hand lies that of the universe.</p> + + +<p>71. And now I pass to the arts with which I have special concern, in +which, though the facts are exactly the same, I shall have more +difficulty in proving my assertion, because very few of us are as +cognizant of the merit of painting as we are of that of language; and I +can only show you whence that merit springs, after having thoroughly +shown you in what it consists. But, in the meantime, I have simply to +tell you, that the manual arts are as accurate exponents of ethical +state, as other modes of expression; first, with absolute precision, of +that of the workman; and then with precision, disguised by many +distorting influences, of that of the nation to which it belongs.</p> + +<p>And, first, they are a perfect exponent of the mind of the workman: but, +being so, remember, if the mind be great or complex, the art is not an +easy book to read; for we must ourselves possess all the mental +characters of which we are to read the signs. No man can read the +evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know +what the work cost: nor can he read the evidence of true passion if he +is not passionate; nor of gentleness if he is not gentle: and the most +subtle signs of fault and weakness of character he can only judge by +having had the same faults to fight with. I myself, for instance, know +impatient work, and tired work, better than most critics, because I am +myself always impatient, and often tired:—so also, the patient and +indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than +to others. Yet, wonderful in no mean measure it will be to you all, when +I make it manifest,—and as soon as we begin our real work, and you have +learned what it is to draw a true line, I shall be able to make manifest +to you,—and indisputably so,—that the day's work of a man like +Mantegna or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Paul Veronese consists of an unfaltering, uninterrupted +succession of movements of the hand more precise than those of the +finest fencer: the pencil leaving one point and arriving at another, not +only with unerring precision at the extremity of the line, but with an +unerring and yet varied course—sometimes over spaces a foot or more in +extent—yet a course so determined everywhere, that either of these men +could, and Veronese often does, draw a finished profile, or any other +portion of the contour of the face, with one line, not afterwards +changed. Try, first, to realise to yourselves the muscular precision of +that action, and the intellectual strain of it; for the movement of a +fencer is perfect in practised monotony; but the movement of the hand of +a great painter is at every instant governed by a direct and new +intention. Then imagine that muscular firmness and subtlety, and the +instantaneously selective and ordinant energy of the brain, sustained +all day long, not only without fatigue, but with a visible joy in the +exertion, like that which an eagle seems to take in the wave of his +wings; and this all life long, and through long life, not only without +failure of power, but with visible increase of it, until the actually +organic changes of old age. And then consider, so far as you know +anything of physiology, what sort of an ethical state of body and mind +that means! ethic through ages past! what fineness of race there must be +to get it, what exquisite balance and symmetry of the vital powers! And +then, finally, determine for yourselves whether a manhood like that is +consistent with any viciousness of soul, with any mean anxiety, any +gnawing lust, any wretchedness of spite or remorse, any consciousness of +rebellion against law of God or man, or any actual, though unconscious +violation of even the least law to which obedience is essential for the +glory of life and the pleasing of its Giver.</p> + + +<p>72. It is, of course, true that many of the strong masters had deep +faults of character, but their faults always show in their work. It is +true that some could not govern their passions; if so, they died young, +or they painted ill when old. But the greater part of our +misapprehension in the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> matter is from our not having well known +who the great painters were, and taking delight in the petty skill that +was bred in the fumes of the taverns of the North, instead of theirs who +breathed empyreal air, sons of the morning, under the woods of Assisi +and the crags of Cadore.</p> + + +<p>73. It is true however also, as I have pointed out long ago, that the +strong masters fall into two great divisions, one leading simple and +natural lives, the other restrained in a Puritanism of the worship of +beauty; and these two manners of life you may recognise in a moment by +their work. Generally the naturalists are the strongest; but there are +two of the Puritans, whose work if I can succeed in making clearly +understandable to you during my three years here, it is all I need care +to do. But of these two Puritans one I cannot name to you, and the other +I at present will not. One I cannot, for no one knows his name, except +the baptismal one, Bernard, or "dear little Bernard"—Bernardino, called +from his birthplace, (Luino, on the Lago Maggiore,) Bernard of Luino. +The other is a Venetian, of whom many of you probably have never heard, +and of whom, through me, you shall not hear, until I have tried to get +some picture by him over to England.</p> + + +<p>74. Observe then, this Puritanism in the worship of beauty, though +sometimes weak, is always honourable and amiable, and the exact reverse +of the false Puritanism, which consists in the dread or disdain of +beauty. And in order to treat my subject rightly, I ought to proceed +from the skill of art to the choice of its subject, and show you how the +moral temper of the workman is shown by his seeking lovely forms and +thoughts to express, as well as by the force of his hand in expression. +But I need not now urge this part of the proof on you, because you are +already, I believe, sufficiently conscious of the truth in this matter, +and also I have already said enough of it in my writings; whereas I have +not at all said enough of the infallibleness of fine technical work as a +proof of every other good power. And indeed it was long before I myself +understood the true meaning of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> pride of the greatest men in their +mere execution, shown for a permanent lesson to us, in the stories +which, whether true or not, indicate with absolute accuracy the general +conviction of great artists;—the stories of the contest of Apelles and +Protogenes in a line only, (of which I can promise you, you shall know +the meaning to some purpose in a little while),—the story of the circle +of Giotto, and especially, which you may perhaps not have observed, the +expression of Dürer in his inscription on the drawings sent him by +Raphael. These figures, he says, "Raphael drew and sent to Albert Dürer +in Nürnberg, to show him"—What? Not his invention, nor his beauty of +expression, but "sein Hand zu weisen," "To show him his <i>hand</i>." And you +will find, as you examine farther, that all inferior artists are +continually trying to escape from the necessity of sound work, and +either indulging themselves in their delights in subject, or pluming +themselves on their noble motives for attempting what they cannot +perform; (and observe, by the way, that a great deal of what is mistaken +for conscientious motive is nothing but a very pestilent, because very +subtle, condition of vanity); whereas the great men always understand at +once that the first morality of a painter, as of everybody else, is to +know his business; and so earnest are they in this, that many, whose +lives you would think, by the results of their work, had been passed in +strong emotion, have in reality subdued themselves, though capable of +the very strongest passions, into a calm as absolute as that of a deeply +sheltered mountain lake, which reflects every agitation of the clouds in +the sky, and every change of the shadows on the hills, but is itself +motionless.</p> + + +<p>75. Finally, you must remember that great obscurity has been brought +upon the truth in this matter by the want of integrity and simplicity in +our modern life. I mean integrity in the Latin sense, wholeness. +Everything is broken up, and mingled in confusion, both in our habits +and thoughts; besides being in great part imitative: so that you not +only cannot tell what a man is, but sometimes you cannot tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> whether +he is, at all!—whether you have indeed to do with a spirit, or only +with an echo. And thus the same inconsistencies appear now, between the +work of artists of merit and their personal characters, as those which +you find continually disappointing expectation in the lives of men of +modern literary power; the same conditions of society having obscured or +misdirected the best qualities of the imagination, both in our +literature and art. Thus there is no serious question with any of us as +to the personal character of Dante and Giotto, of Shakespeare and +Holbein; but we pause timidly in the attempt to analyse the moral laws +of the art skill in recent poets, novelists, and painters.</p> + + +<p>76. Let me assure you once for all, that as you grow older, if you +enable yourselves to distinguish, by the truth of your own lives, what +is true in those of other men, you will gradually perceive that all good +has its origin in good, never in evil; that the fact of either +literature or painting being truly fine of their kind, whatever their +mistaken aim, or partial error, is proof of their noble origin: and +that, if there is indeed sterling value in the thing done, it has come +of a sterling worth in the soul that did it, however alloyed or defiled +by conditions of sin which are sometimes more appalling or more strange +than those which all may detect in their own hearts, because they are +part of a personality altogether larger than ours, and as far beyond our +judgment in its darkness as beyond our following in its light. And it is +sufficient warning against what some might dread as the probable effect +of such a conviction on your own minds, namely, that you might permit +yourselves in the weaknesses which you imagined to be allied to genius, +when they took the form of personal temptations;—it is surely, I say, +sufficient warning against so mean a folly, to discern, as you may with +little pains, that, of all human existences, the lives of men of that +distorted and tainted nobility of intellect are probably the most +miserable.</p> + + +<p>77. I pass to the second, and for us the more practically important +question, What is the effect of noble art upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> other men; what has it +done for national morality in time past: and what effect is the extended +knowledge or possession of it likely to have upon us now? And here we +are at once met by the facts, which are as gloomy as indisputable, that, +while many peasant populations, among whom scarcely the rudest practice +of art has ever been attempted, have lived in comparative innocence, +honour and happiness, the worst foulness and cruelty of savage tribes +have been frequently associated with fine ingenuities of decorative +design; also, that no people has ever attained the higher stages of art +skill, except at a period of its civilisation which was sullied by +frequent, violent and even monstrous crime; and, lastly, that the +attaining of perfection in art power has been hitherto, in every nation, +the accurate signal of the beginning of its ruin.</p> + + +<p>78. Respecting which phenomena, observe first, that although good never +springs out of evil, it is developed to its highest by contention with +evil. There are some groups of peasantry, in far-away nooks of Christian +countries, who are nearly as innocent as lambs; but the morality which +gives power to art is the morality of men, not of cattle.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the virtues of the inhabitants of many country districts are +apparent, not real; their lives are indeed artless, but not innocent; +and it is only the monotony of circumstances, and the absence of +temptation, which prevent the exhibition of evil passions not less real +because often dormant, nor less foul because shown only in petty faults, +or inactive malignities.</p> + + +<p>79. But you will observe also that <i>absolute</i> artlessness, to men in any +kind of moral health, is impossible; they have always, at least, the art +by which they live—agriculture or seamanship; and in these industries, +skilfully practised, you will find the law of their moral training; +while, whatever the adversity of circumstances, every rightly-minded +peasantry, such as that of Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, or Switzerland, has +associated with its needful industry a quite studied school of +pleasurable art in dress; and generally also in song, and simple +domestic architecture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + + +<p>80. Again, I need not repeat to you here what I endeavoured to explain +in the first lecture in the book I called "The Two Paths," respecting +the arts of savage races: but I may now note briefly that such arts are +the result of an intellectual activity which has found no room to +expand, and which the tyranny of nature or of man has condemned to +disease through arrested growth. And where neither Christianity, nor any +other religion conveying some moral help, has reached, the animal energy +of such races necessarily flames into ghastly conditions of evil, and +the grotesque or frightful forms assumed by their art are precisely +indicative of their distorted moral nature.</p> + + +<p>81. But the truly great nations nearly always begin from a race +possessing this imaginative power; and for some time their progress is +very slow, and their state not one of innocence, but of feverish and +faultful animal energy. This is gradually subdued and exalted into +bright human life; the art instinct purifying itself with the rest of +the nature, until social perfectness is nearly reached; and then comes +the period when conscience and intellect are so highly developed, that +new forms of error begin in the inability to fulfil the demands of the +one, or to answer the doubts of the other. Then the wholeness of the +people is lost; all kinds of hypocrisies and oppositions of science +develop themselves; their faith is questioned on one side, and +compromised with on the other; wealth commonly increases at the same +period to a destructive extent; luxury follows; and the ruin of the +nation is then certain: while the arts, all this time, are simply, as I +said at first, the exponents of each phase of its moral state, and no +more control it in its political career than the gleam of the firefly +guides its oscillation. It is true that their most splendid results are +usually obtained in the swiftness of the power which is hurrying to the +precipice; but to lay the charge of the catastrophe to the art by which +it is illumined, is to find a cause for the cataract in the hues of its +iris. It is true that the colossal vices belonging to periods of great +national wealth (for wealth, you will find, is the real root of all +evil)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> can turn every good gift and skill of nature or of man to evil +purpose. If, in such times, fair pictures have been misused, how much +more fair realities? And if Miranda is immoral to Caliban, is that +Miranda's fault?</p> + + +<p>82. And I could easily go on to trace for you what at the moment I +speak, is signified, in our own national character, by the forms of art, +and unhappily also by the forms of what is not art, but +ἀτεχνία, +that exist among us. But the more important question is, What +<i>will</i> be signified by them; what is there in us now of worth and +strength, which under our new and partly accidental impulse towards +formative labour, may be by that expressed, and by that fortified?</p> + +<p>Would it not be well to know this? Nay, irrespective of all future work, +is it not the first thing we should want to know, what stuff we are made +of—how far we are +ἀγαθοὶ or κακοὶ—good, or good for +nothing? We may all know that, each of ourselves, easily enough, if we +like to put one grave question well home.</p> + + +<p>83. Supposing it were told any of you by a physician whose word you +could not but trust, that you had not more than seven days to live. And +suppose also that, by the manner of your education it had happened to +you, as it has happened to many, never to have heard of any future +state, or not to have credited what you heard; and therefore that you +had to face this fact of the approach of death in its simplicity: +fearing no punishment for any sin that you might have before committed, +or in the coming days might determine to commit; and having similarly no +hope of reward for past, or yet possible, virtue; nor even of any +consciousness whatever to be left to you, after the seventh day had +ended, either of the results of your acts to those whom you loved, or of +the feelings of any survivors towards you. Then the manner in which you +would spend the seven days is an exact measure of the morality of your +nature.</p> + + +<p>84. I know that some of you, and I believe the greater number of you, +would, in such a case, spend the granted days entirely as you ought. +Neither in numbering the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> errors, or deploring the pleasures of the +past; nor in grasping at vile good in the present, nor vainly lamenting +the darkness of the future; but in an instant and earnest execution of +whatever it might be possible for you to accomplish in the time, in +setting your affairs in order, and in providing for the future comfort, +and—so far as you might by any message or record of yourself,—for the +consolation, of those whom you loved, and by whom you desired to be +remembered, not for your good, but for theirs. How far you might fail +through human weakness, in shame for the past, despair at the little +that could in the remnant of life be accomplished, or the intolerable +pain of broken affection, would depend wholly on the degree in which +your nature had been depressed or fortified by the manner of your past +life. But I think there are few of you who would not spend those last +days better than all that had preceded them.</p> + + +<p>85. If you look accurately through the records of the lives that have +been most useful to humanity, you will find that all that has been done +best, has been done so;—that to the clearest intellects and highest +souls,—to the true children of the Father, with whom a thousand years +are as one day, their poor seventy years are but as seven days. The +removal of the shadow of death from them to an uncertain, but always +narrow, distance, never takes away from them their intuition of its +approach; the extending to them of a few hours more or less of light +abates not their acknowledgment of the infinitude that must remain to be +known beyond their knowledge,—done beyond their deeds: the +unprofitableness of their momentary service is wrought in a magnificent +despair, and their very honour is bequeathed by them for the joy of +others, as they lie down to their rest, regarding for themselves the +voice of men no more.</p> + + +<p>86. The best things, I repeat to you, have been done thus, and +therefore, sorrowfully. But the greatest part of the good work of the +world is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, "I have +stubbed Thornaby waste," or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful +doing of what the hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> finds to do, in surety that at evening time, +whatsoever is right the Master will give. And that it be worthily done, +depends wholly on that ultimate quantity of worth which you can measure, +each in himself, by the test I have just given you. For that test, +observe, will mark to you the precise force, first of your absolute +courage, and then of the energy in you for the right ordering of things, +and the kindly dealing with persons. You have cut away from these two +instincts every selfish or common motive, and left nothing but the +energies of Order and of Love.</p> + + +<p>87. Now, where those two roots are set, all the other powers and desires +find right nourishment, and become to their own utmost, helpful to +others and pleasurable to ourselves. And so far as those two springs of +action are not in us, all other powers become corrupt or dead; even the +love of truth, apart from these, hardens into an insolent and cold +avarice of knowledge, which unused, is more vain than unused gold.</p> + + +<p>88. These, then, are the two essential instincts of humanity: the love +of Order and the love of Kindness. By the love of order the moral energy +is to deal with the earth, and to dress it, and keep it; and with all +rebellious and dissolute forces in lower creatures, or in ourselves. By +the love of doing kindness it is to deal rightly with all surrounding +life. And then, grafted on these, we are to make every other passion +perfect; so that they may every one have full strength and yet be +absolutely under control.</p> + + +<p>89. Every one must be strong, every one perfect, every one obedient as a +war horse. And it is among the most beautiful pieces of mysticism to +which eternal truth is attached, that the chariot race, which Plato uses +as an image of moral government, and which is indeed the most perfect +type of it in any visible skill of men, should have been made by the +Greeks the continual subject of their best poetry and best art. +Nevertheless Plato's use of it is not altogether true. There is no black +horse in the chariot of the soul. One of the driver's worst faults is in +starving his horses; an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>other, in not breaking them early enough; but +they are all good. Take, for example, one usually thought of as wholly +evil—that of Anger, leading to vengeance. I believe it to be quite one +of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and +chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to +punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, +that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine +that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may +give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten +other people from committing the same fault. The beautiful theory of +this non-vindictive justice is, that having convicted a man of a crime +worthy of death, we entirely pardon the criminal, restore him to his +place in our affection and esteem, and then hang him, not as a +malefactor, but as a scarecrow. That is the theory. And the practice is, +that we send a child to prison for a month for stealing a handful of +walnuts, for fear that other children should come to steal more of our +walnuts. And we do not punish a swindler for ruining a thousand +families, because we think swindling is a wholesome excitement to trade.</p> + + +<p>90. But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to +virtue. Only—and herein it is distinguished from personal revenge—it +is vindictive of the wrong done;—not of the wrong done <i>to us</i>. It is +the national expression of deliberate anger, as of deliberate gratitude; +it is not exemplary, or even corrective, but essentially retributive; it +is the absolute art of measured recompense, giving honour where honour +is due, and shame where shame is due, and joy where joy is due, and pain +where pain is due. It is neither educational, for men are to be educated +by wholesome habit, not by rewards and punishments; nor is it +preventive, for it is to be executed without regard to any consequences; +but only for righteousness' sake, a righteous nation does judgment and +justice. But in this, as in all other instances, the rightness of the +secondary passion depends on its being grafted on those two primary +instincts, the love of order and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of kindness, so that indignation +itself is against the wounding of love. Do you think the +μῆνις Ἀχιλῆος +came of a hard heart in Achilles, or the "Pallas te hoc +vulnere, Pallas," of a hard heart in Anchises' son?</p> + + +<p>91. And now, if with this clue through the labyrinth of them, you +remember the course of the arts of great nations, you will perceive that +whatever has prospered, and become lovely, had its beginning—for no +other was possible—in the love of order in material things associated +with true +δικαιοσύνη: +and the desire of beauty in material +things, which is associated with true affection, <i>charitas</i>, and with +the innumerable conditions of gentleness expressed by the different uses +of the words +χάρις +and <i>gratia</i>. You will find that this love +of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature, and though +it can long co-exist with states of life in many other respects +unvirtuous, it is itself wholly good;—the direct adversary of envy, +avarice, mean worldly care, and especially of cruelty. It entirely +perishes when these are wilfully indulged; and the men in whom it has +been most strong have always been compassionate, and lovers of justice, +and the earliest discerners and declarers of things conducive to the +happiness of mankind.</p> + + +<p>92. Nearly every important truth respecting the love of beauty in its +familiar relations to human life was mythically expressed by the Greeks +in their various accounts of the parentage and offices of the Graces. +But one fact, the most vital of all, they could not in its fulness +perceive, namely, that the intensity of other perceptions of beauty is +exactly commensurate with the imaginative purity of the passion of love, +and with the singleness of its devotion. They were not fully conscious +of, and could not therefore either mythically or philosophically +express, the deep relation within themselves between their power of +perceiving beauty, and the honour of domestic affection which found +their sternest themes of tragedy in the infringement of its laws;—which +made the rape of Helen the chief subject of their epic poetry, and which +fastened their clearest sym<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>bolism of resurrection on the story of +Alcestis. Unhappily, the subordinate position of their most revered +women, and the partial corruption of feeling towards them by the +presence of certain other singular states of inferior passion which it +is as difficult as grievous to analyse, arrested the ethical as well as +the formative progress of the Greek mind; and it was not until after an +interval of nearly two thousand years of various error and pain, that, +partly as the true reward of Christian warfare nobly sustained through +centuries of trial, and partly as the visionary culmination of the faith +which saw in a maiden's purity the link between God and her race, the +highest and holiest strength of mortal love was reached; and, together +with it, in the song of Dante, and the painting of Bernard of Luino and +his fellows, the perception, and embodiment for ever of whatsoever +things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of +good report;—that, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, +men might think on those things.</p> + + +<p>93. You probably observed the expression I used a moment ago, the +<i>imaginative</i> purity of the passion of love. I have not yet spoken, nor +is it possible for me to-day, to speak adequately, of the moral power of +the imagination: but you may for yourselves enough discern its nature +merely by comparing the dignity of the relations between the sexes, from +their lowest level in moths or mollusca, through the higher creatures in +whom they become a domestic influence and law, up to the love of pure +men and women; and, finally, to the ideal love which animated chivalry. +Throughout this vast ascent it is the gradual increase of the +imaginative faculty which exalts and enlarges the authority of the +passion, until, at its height, it is the bulwark of patience, the tutor +of honour, and the perfectness of praise.</p> + + +<p>94. You will find farther, that as of love, so of all the other +passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the +Imagination, which is lord over them. For to <i>subdue</i> the passions, +which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is +possible enough to a proud dul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>ness; but to <i>excite</i> them rightly, and +make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination. It +is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. +Human nature is kind and generous; but it is narrow and blind; and can +only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and +feels. People would instantly care for others as well as themselves if +only they could <i>imagine</i> others as well as themselves. Let a child fall +into the river before the roughest man's eyes;—he will usually do what +he can to get it out, even at some risk to himself; and all the town +will triumph in the saving of one little life. Let the same man be shown +that hundreds of children are dying of fever for want of some sanitary +measure which it will cost him trouble to urge, and he will make no +effort; and probably all the town would resist him if he did. So, also, +the lives of many deserving women are passed in a succession of petty +anxieties about themselves, and gleaning of minute interests and mean +pleasures in their immediate circle, because they are never taught to +make any effort to look beyond it; or to know anything about the mighty +world in which their lives are fading, like blades of bitter grass in +fruitless fields.</p> + + +<p>95. I had intended to enlarge on this—and yet more on the kingdom which +every man holds in his conceptive faculty, to be peopled with active +thoughts and lovely presences, or left waste for the springing up of +those dark desires and dreams of which it is written that "every +imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is evil continually." True, +and a thousand times true it is, that, here at least, "greater is he +that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." But this you can +partly follow out for yourselves without help, partly we must leave it +for future enquiry. I press to the conclusion which I wish to leave with +you, that all you can rightly do, or honourably become, depends on the +government of these two instincts of order and kindness, by this great +Imaginative faculty, which gives you inheritance of the past, grasp of +the present, authority over the future. Map out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> the spaces of your +possible lives by its help; measure the range of their possible agency! +On the walls and towers of this your fair city, there is not an ornament +of which the first origin may not be traced back to the thoughts of men +who died two thousand years ago. Whom will <i>you</i> be governing by your +thoughts, two thousand years hence? Think of it, and you will find that +so far from art being immoral, little else except art is moral; that +life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality: +and for the words "good" and "wicked," used of men, you may almost +substitute the words "Makers" and "Destroyers." Far the greater part of +the seeming prosperity of the world is, so far as our present knowledge +extends, vain: wholly useless for any kind of good, but having assigned +to it a certain inevitable sequence of destruction and of sorrow. Its +stress is only the stress of wandering storm; its beauty the hectic of +plague: and what is called the history of mankind is too often the +record of the whirlwind, and the map of the spreading of the leprosy. +But underneath all that, or in narrow spaces of dominion in the midst of +it, the work of every man, "qui non accepit in vanitatem animam suam," +endures and prospers; a small remnant or green bud of it prevailing at +last over evil. And though faint with sickness, and encumbered in ruin, +the true workers redeem inch by inch the wilderness into garden ground; +by the help of their joined hands the order of all things is surely +sustained and vitally expanded, and although with strange vacillation, +in the eyes of the watcher, the morning cometh, and also the night, +there is no hour of human existence that does not draw on towards the +perfect day.</p> + + +<p>96. And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that +the beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay! +<i>more</i>, if it may be, in labour; in our strength, rather than in our +weakness; and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six +days, and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice +of what we pray for on the seventh, of reward or repose. With the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +multitude that keep holiday, we may perhaps sometimes vainly have gone +up to the house of the Lord, and vainly there asked for what we fancied +would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their Lord would have +them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing. +Surely goodness and mercy shall <i>follow</i> them, <i>all</i> the days of their +life; and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord—<span class="smcap">for ever</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_IV" id="LECTURE_IV"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE IV</a></h2> + +<h3>THE RELATION OF ART TO USE</h3> + + +<p>97. Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in +which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical +requirements of human life.</p> + +<p>Its offices in this respect are mainly twofold: it gives Form to +knowledge, and Grace to utility; that is to say, it makes permanently +visible to us things which otherwise could neither be described by our +science, nor retained by our memory; and it gives delightfulness and +worth to the implements of daily use, and materials of dress, furniture +and lodging. In the first of these offices it gives precision and charm +to truth; in the second it gives precision and charm to service. For, +the moment we make anything useful thoroughly, it is a law of nature +that we shall be pleased with ourselves, and with the thing we have +made; and become desirous therefore to adorn or complete it, in some +dainty way, with finer art expressive of our pleasure.</p> + +<p>And the point I wish chiefly to bring before you to-day is this close +and healthy connection of the fine arts with material use; but I must +first try briefly to put in clear light the function of art in giving +Form to truth.</p> + + +<p>98. Much that I have hitherto tried to teach has been disputed on the +ground that I have attached too much importance to art as representing +natural facts, and too little to it as a source of pleasure. And I wish, +in the close of these four prefatory lectures, strongly to assert to +you, and, so far as I can in the time, convince you, that the entire +vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of +use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful or impressive it may be in +itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> deeper +inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects,—either +<i>to state a true thing</i>, or to <i>adorn a serviceable one</i>. It must never +exist alone—never for itself; it exists rightly only when it is the +means of knowledge, or the grace of agency for life.</p> + + +<p>99. Now, I pray you to observe—for though I have said this often +before, I have never yet said it clearly enough—every good piece of +art, to whichever of these ends it may be directed, involves first +essentially the evidence of human skill and the formation of an actually +beautiful thing by it.</p> + +<p>Skill, and beauty, always then; and, beyond these, the formative arts +have always one or other of the two objects which I have just defined to +you—truth, or serviceableness; and without these aims neither the skill +nor their beauty will avail; only by these can either legitimately +reign. All the graphic arts begin in keeping the outline of shadow that +we have loved, and they end in giving to it the aspect of life; and all +the architectural arts begin in the shaping of the cup and the platter, +and they end in a glorified roof.</p> + +<p>Therefore, you see, in the graphic arts you have Skill, Beauty, and +Likeness; and in the architectural arts, Skill, Beauty, and Use; and you +<i>must</i> have the three in each group, balanced and co-ordinate; and all +the chief errors of art consist in losing or exaggerating one of these +elements.</p> + + +<p>100. For instance, almost the whole system and hope of modern life are +founded on the notion that you may substitute mechanism for skill, +photograph for picture, cast-iron for sculpture. That is your main +nineteenth-century faith, or infidelity. You think you can get +everything by grinding—music, literature, and painting. You will find +it grievously not so; you can get nothing but dust by mere grinding. +Even to have the barley-meal out of it, you must have the barley first; +and that comes by growth, not grinding. But essentially, we have lost +our delight in Skill; in that majesty of it which I was trying to make +clear to you in my last address, and which long ago I tried to express, +under the head of ideas of power. The entire sense of that, we have +lost,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> because we ourselves do not take pains enough to do right, and +have no conception of what the right costs; so that all the joy and +reverence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man's work have ceased +in us. We keep them yet a little in looking at a honeycomb or a +bird's-nest; we understand that these differ, by divinity of skill, from +a lump of wax or a cluster of sticks. But a picture, which is a much +more wonderful thing than a honeycomb or a bird's-nest,—have we not +known people, and sensible people too, who expected to be taught to +produce that, in six lessons?</p> + + +<p>101. Well, you must have the skill, you must have the beauty, which is +the highest moral element; and then, lastly, you must have the verity or +utility, which is not the moral, but the vital element; and this desire +for verity and use is the one aim of the three that always leads in +great schools, and in the minds of great masters, without any exception. +They will permit themselves in awkwardness, they will permit themselves +in ugliness; but they will never permit themselves in uselessness or in +unveracity.</p> + + +<p>102. And farther, as their skill increases, and as their grace, so much +more, their desire for truth. It is impossible to find the three motives +in fairer balance and harmony than in our own Reynolds. He rejoices in +showing you his skill; and those of you who succeed in learning what +painter's work really is, will one day rejoice also, even to +laughter—that highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in +watching the fortitude and the fire of a hand which strikes forth its +will upon the canvas as easily as the wind strikes it on the sea. He +rejoices in all abstract beauty and rhythm and melody of design; he will +never give you a colour that is not lovely, nor a shade that is +unnecessary, nor a line that is ungraceful. But all his power and all +his invention are held by him subordinate,—and the more obediently +because of their nobleness,—to his true leading purpose of setting +before you such likeness of the living presence of an English gentleman +or an English lady, as shall be worthy of being looked upon for ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + + +<p>103. But farther, you remember, I hope—for I said it in a way that I +thought would shock you a little, that you might remember it—my +statement, that art had never done more than this, never more than given +the likeness of a noble human being. Not only so, but it very seldom +does so much as this; and the best pictures that exist of the great +schools are all portraits, or groups of portraits, often of very simple +and no wise noble persons. You may have much more brilliant and +impressive qualities in imaginative pictures; you may have figures +scattered like clouds, or garlanded like flowers; you may have light and +shade, as of a tempest, and colour, as of the rainbow; but all that is +child's play to the great men, though it is astonishment to us. Their +real strength is tried to the utmost, and as far as I know, it is never +elsewhere brought out so thoroughly, as in painting one man or woman, +and the soul that was in them; nor that always the highest soul, but +often only a thwarted one that was capable of height; or perhaps not +even that, but faultful and poor, yet seen through, to the poor best of +it, by the masterful sight. So that in order to put before you in your +Standard series, the best art possible, I am obliged, even from the very +strongest men, to take portraits, before I take the idealism. Nay, +whatever is best in the great compositions themselves has depended on +portraiture; and the study necessary to enable you to understand +invention will also convince you that the mind of man never invented a +greater thing than the form of man, animated by faithful life. Every +attempt to refine or exalt such healthy humanity has weakened or +caricatured it; or else consists only in giving it, to please our fancy, +the wings of birds, or the eyes of antelopes. Whatever is truly great in +either Greek or Christian art, is also restrictedly human; and even the +raptures of the redeemed souls who enter, "celestemente ballando," the +gate of Angelico's Paradise, were seen first in the terrestrial, yet +most pure, mirth of Florentine maidens.</p> + + +<p>104. I am aware that this cannot but at present appear gravely +questionable to those of my audience who are strictly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> cognisant of the +phases of Greek art; for they know that the moment of its decline is +accurately marked, by its turning from abstract form to portraiture. But +the reason of this is simple. The progressive course of Greek art was in +subduing monstrous conceptions to natural ones; it did this by general +laws; it reached absolute truth of generic human form, and if this +ethical force had remained, would have advanced into healthy +portraiture. But at the moment of change the national life ended in +Greece; and portraiture, there, meant insult to her religion, and +flattery to her tyrants. And her skill perished, not because she became +true in sight, but because she became vile at heart.</p> + + +<p>105. And now let us think of our own work, and ask how that may become, +in its own poor measure, active in some verity of representation. We +certainly cannot begin by drawing kings or queens; but we must try, even +in our earliest work, if it is to prosper, to draw something that will +convey true knowledge both to ourselves and others. And I think you will +find greatest advantage in the endeavour to give more life and +educational power to the simpler branches of natural science: for the +great scientific men are all so eager in advance that they have no time +to popularise their discoveries, and if we can glean after them a +little, and make pictures of the things which science describes, we +shall find the service a worthy one. Not only so, but we may even be +helpful to science herself; for she has suffered by her proud severance +from the arts; and having made too little effort to realise her +discoveries to vulgar eyes, has herself lost true measure of what was +chiefly precious in them.</p> + + +<p>106. Take Botany, for instance. Our scientific botanists are, I think, +chiefly at present occupied in distinguishing species, which perfect +methods of distinction will probably in the future show to be +indistinct;—in inventing descriptive names of which a more advanced +science and more fastidious scholarship will show some to be +unnecessary, and others inadmissible;—and in microscopic investigations +of structure, which through many alternate links of triumphant +discovery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> that tissue is composed of vessels, and that vessels are +composed of tissue, have not hitherto completely explained to us either +the origin, the energy, or the course of the sap; and which however +subtle or successful, bear to the real natural history of plants only +the relation that anatomy and organic chemistry bear to the history of +men. In the meantime, our artists are so generally convinced of the +truth of the Darwinian theory that they do not always think it necessary +to show any difference between the foliage of an elm and an oak; and the +gift-books of Christmas have every page surrounded with laboriously +engraved garlands of rose, shamrock, thistle, and forget-me-not, without +its being thought proper by the draughtsman, or desirable by the public, +even in the case of those uncommon flowers, to observe the real shape of +the petals of any one of them.</p> + + +<p>107. Now what we especially need at present for educational purposes is +to know, not the anatomy of plants, but their biography—how and where +they live and die, their tempers, benevolences, malignities, distresses, +and virtues. We want them drawn from their youth to their age, from bud +to fruit. We ought to see the various forms of their diminished but +hardy growth in cold climates, or poor soils; and their rank or wild +luxuriance, when full-fed, and warmly nursed. And all this we ought to +have drawn so accurately, that we might at once compare any given part +of a plant with the same part of any other, drawn on the like +conditions. Now, is not this a work which we may set about here in +Oxford, with good hope and much pleasure? I think it is so important, +that the first exercise in drawing I shall put before you will be an +outline of a laurel leaf. You will find in the opening sentence of +Lionardo's treatise, our present text-book, that you must not at first +draw from nature, but from a good master's work, "per assuefarsi a buone +membra," to accustom yourselves, that is, to entirely good +representative organic forms. So your first exercise shall be the top of +the laurel sceptre of Apollo, drawn by an Italian engraver of Lionardo's +own time; then we will draw a laurel leaf itself;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> and little by little, +I think we may both learn ourselves, and teach to many besides, somewhat +more than we know yet, of the wild olives of Greece, and the wild roses +of England.</p> + + +<p>108. Next, in Geology, which I will take leave to consider as an +entirely separate science from the zoology of the past, which has lately +usurped its name and interest. In geology itself we find the strength of +many able men occupied in debating questions of which there are yet no +data even for the clear statement; and in seizing advanced theoretical +positions on the mere contingency of their being afterwards tenable; +while, in the meantime, no simple person, taking a holiday in +Cumberland, can get an intelligible section of Skiddaw, or a clear +account of the origin of the Skiddaw slates; and while, though half the +educated society of London travel every summer over the great plain of +Switzerland, none know, or care to know, why that is a plain, and the +Alps to the south of it are Alps; and whether or not the gravel of the +one has anything to do with the rocks of the other. And though every +palace in Europe owes part of its decoration to variegated marbles, and +nearly every woman in Europe part of her decoration to pieces of jasper +or chalcedony, I do not think any geologist could at this moment with +authority tell us either how a piece of marble is stained, or what +causes the streaks in a Scotch pebble.</p> + + +<p>109. Now, as soon as you have obtained the power of drawing, I do not +say a mountain, but even a stone, accurately, every question of this +kind will become to you at once attractive and definite; you will find +that in the grain, the lustre, and the cleavage-lines of the smallest +fragment of rock, there are recorded forces of every order and +magnitude, from those which raise a continent by one volcanic effort, to +those which at every instant are polishing the apparently complete +crystal in its nest, and conducting the apparently motionless metal in +its vein; and that only by the art of your own hand, and fidelity of +sight which it develops, you can obtain true perception of these +invincible and inimitable arts of the earth herself; while the +comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> slight effort necessary to obtain so much skill as may +serviceably draw mountains in distant effect will be instantly rewarded +by what is almost equivalent to a new sense of the conditions of their +structure.</p> + + +<p>110. And, because it is well at once to know some direction in which our +work may be definite, let me suggest to those of you who may intend +passing their vacation in Switzerland, and who care about mountains, +that if they will first qualify themselves to take angles of position +and elevation with correctness, and to draw outlines with approximate +fidelity, there are a series of problems of the highest interest to be +worked out on the southern edge of the Swiss plain, in the study of the +relations of its molasse beds to the rocks which are characteristically +developed in the chain of the Stockhorn, Beatenberg, Pilate, Mythen +above Schwytz, and High Sentis of Appenzell, the pursuit of which may +lead them into many pleasant, as well as creditably dangerous, walks, +and curious discoveries; and will be good for the discipline of their +fingers in the pencilling of crag form.</p> + + +<p>111. I wish I could ask you to draw, instead of the Alps, the crests of +Parnassus and Olympus, and the ravines of Delphi and of Tempe. I have +not loved the arts of Greece as others have; yet I love them, and her, +so much, that it is to me simply a standing marvel how scholars can +endure for all these centuries, during which their chief education has +been in the language and policy of Greece, to have only the names of her +hills and rivers upon their lips, and never one line of conception of +them in their mind's sight. Which of us knows what the valley of Sparta +is like, or the great mountain vase of Arcadia? which of us, except in +mere airy syllabling of names, knows aught of "sandy Ladon's lilied +banks, or old Lycæus, or Cyllene hoar"? "You cannot travel in +Greece?"—I know it; nor in Magna Græcia. But, gentlemen of England, you +had better find out why you cannot, and put an end to that horror of +European shame, before you hope to learn Greek art.</p> + + +<p>112. I scarcely know whether to place among the things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> useful to art, +or to science, the systematic record, by drawing, of phenomena of the +sky. But I am quite sure that your work cannot in any direction be more +useful to yourselves, than in enabling you to perceive the quite +unparalleled subtilties of colour and inorganic form, which occur on any +ordinarily fine morning or evening horizon; and I will even confess to +you another of my perhaps too sanguine expectations, that in some far +distant time it may come to pass, that young Englishmen and Englishwomen +may think the breath of the morning sky pleasanter than that of +midnight, and its light prettier than that of candles.</p> + + +<p>113. Lastly, in Zoology. What the Greeks did for the horse, and what, as +far as regards domestic and expressional character, Landseer has done +for the dog and the deer, remains to be done by art for nearly all other +animals of high organisation. There are few birds or beasts that have +not a range of character which, if not equal to that of the horse or +dog, is yet as interesting within narrower limits, and often in +grotesqueness, intensity, or wild and timid pathos, more singular and +mysterious. Whatever love of humour you have,—whatever sympathy with +imperfect, but most subtle, feeling,—whatever perception of sublimity +in conditions of fatal power, may here find fullest occupation: all +these being joined, in the strong animal races, to a variable and +fantastic beauty far beyond anything that merely formative art has yet +conceived. I have placed in your Educational series a wing by Albert +Dürer, which goes as far as art yet has reached in delineation of +plumage; while for the simple action of the pinion it is impossible to +go beyond what has been done already by Titian and Tintoret; but you +cannot so much as once look at the rufflings of the plumes of a pelican +pluming itself after it has been in the water, or carefully draw the +contours of the wing either of a vulture or a common swift, or paint the +rose and vermilion on that of a flamingo, without receiving almost a new +conception of the meaning of form and colour in creation.</p> + + +<p>114. Lastly. Your work, in all directions I have hitherto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> indicated, +may be as deliberate as you choose; there is no immediate fear of the +extinction of many species of flowers or animals; and the Alps, and +valley of Sparta, will wait your leisure, I fear too long. But the +feudal and monastic buildings of Europe, and still more the streets of +her ancient cities, are vanishing like dreams: and it is difficult to +imagine the mingled envy and contempt with which future generations will +look back to us, who still possessed such things, yet made no effort to +preserve, and scarcely any to delineate them: for when used as material +of landscape by the modern artist, they are nearly always superficially +or flatteringly represented, without zeal enough to penetrate their +character, or patience enough to render it in modest harmony. As for +places of traditional interest, I do not know an entirely faithful +drawing of any historical site, except one or two studies made by +enthusiastic young painters in Palestine and Egypt: for which, thanks to +them always: but we want work nearer home.</p> + + +<p>115. Now it is quite probable that some of you, who will not care to go +through the labour necessary to draw flowers or animals, may yet have +pleasure in attaining some moderately accurate skill of sketching +architecture, and greater pleasure still in directing it usefully. +Suppose, for instance, we were to take up the historical scenery in +Carlyle's "Frederick." Too justly the historian accuses the genius of +past art, in that, types of too many such elsewhere, the galleries of +Berlin—"are made up, like other galleries, of goat-footed Pan, Europa's +Bull, Romulus's She-Wolf, and the Correggiosity of Correggio, and +contain, for instance, no portrait of Friedrich the Great,—no likeness +at all, or next to none at all, of the noble series of Human Realities, +or any part of them, who have sprung, not from the idle brains of +dreaming <i>dilettanti</i>, but from the head of God Almighty, to make this +poor authentic earth a little memorable for us, and to do a little work +that may be eternal there." So Carlyle tells us—too truly! We cannot +now draw Friedrich for him, but we can draw some of the old castles and +cities that were the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> cradles of German life—Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, +Marburg, and such others;—we may keep some authentic likeness of these +for the future. Suppose we were to take up that first volume of +"Friedrich," and put outlines to it: shall we begin by looking for Henry +the Fowler's tomb—Carlyle himself asks if he has any—at Quedlinburgh, +and so downwards, rescuing what we can? That would certainly be making +our work of some true use.</p> + + +<p>116. But I have told you enough, it seems to me, at least to-day, of +this function of art in recording fact; let me now finally, and with all +distinctness possible to me, state to you its main business of all;—its +service in the actual uses of daily life.</p> + +<p>You are surprised, perhaps, to hear me call this its main business. That +is indeed so, however. The giving brightness to picture is much, but the +giving brightness to life more. And remember, were it as patterns only, +you cannot, without the realities, have the pictures. <i>You cannot have a +landscape by Turner, without a country for him to paint; you cannot have +a portrait by Titian, without a man to be portrayed.</i> I need not prove +that to you, I suppose, in these short terms; but in the outcome I can +get no soul to believe that the beginning of art <i>is in getting our +country clean, and our people beautiful</i>. I have been ten years trying +to get this very plain certainty—I do not say believed—but even +thought of, as anything but a monstrous proposition. To get your country +clean, and your people lovely;—I assure you that is a necessary work of +art to begin with! There has indeed been art in countries where people +lived in dirt to serve God, but never in countries where they lived in +dirt to serve the devil. There has indeed been art where the people were +not all lovely—where even their lips were thick—and their skins black, +because the sun had looked upon them; but never in a country where the +people were pale with miserable toil and deadly shade, and where the +lips of youth, instead of being full with blood, were pinched by famine, +or warped with poison. And now, therefore, note this well, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> gist of +all these long prefatory talks. I said that the two great moral +instincts were those of Order and Kindness. Now, all the arts are +founded on agriculture by the hand, and on the graces, and kindness of +feeding, and dressing, and lodging your people. Greek art begins in the +gardens of Alcinous—perfect order, leeks in beds, and fountains in +pipes. And Christian art, as it arose out of chivalry, was only possible +so far as chivalry compelled both kings and knights to care for the +right personal training of their people; it perished utterly when those +kings and knights became +δημοβόροι, +devourers of the people. +And it will become possible again only, when, literally, the sword is +beaten into the ploughshare, when your St. George of England shall +justify his name, and Christian art shall be known as its Master was, in +breaking of bread.</p> + +<p>117. Now look at the working out of this broad principle in minor +detail; observe how, from highest to lowest, health of art has first +depended on reference to industrial use. There is first the need of cup +and platter, especially of cup; for you can put your meat on the +Harpies',<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> or on any other, tables; but you must have your cup to +drink from. And to hold it conveniently, you must put a handle to it; +and to fill it when it is empty you must have a large pitcher of some +sort; and to carry the pitcher you may most advisably have two handles. +Modify the forms of these needful possessions according to the various +requirements of drinking largely and drinking delicately; of pouring +easily out, or of keeping for years the perfume in; of storing in +cellars, or bearing from fountains; of sacrificial libation, of +Panathenaic treasure of oil, and sepulchral treasure of ashes,—and you +have a resultant series of beautiful form and decoration, from the rude +amphora of red earth up to Cellini's vases of gems and crystal, in which +series, but especially in the more simple conditions of it, are +developed the most beautiful lines and most perfect types of severe +composition which have yet been attained by art.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>118. But again, that you may fill your cup with pure water, you must go +to the well or spring; you need a fence round the well; you need some +tube or trough, or other means of confining the stream at the spring. +For the conveyance of the current to any distance you must build either +enclosed or open aqueduct; and in the hot square of the city where you +set it free, you find it good for health and pleasantness to let it leap +into a fountain. On these several needs you have a school of sculpture +founded; in the decoration of the walls of wells in level countries, and +of the sources of springs in mountainous ones, and chiefly of all, where +the women of household or market meet at the city fountain.</p> + +<p>There is, however, a farther reason for the use of art here than in any +other material service, so far as we may, by art, express our reverence +or thankfulness. Whenever a nation is in its right mind, it always has a +deep sense of divinity in the gift of rain from heaven, filling its +heart with food and gladness; and all the more when that gift becomes +gentle and perennial in the flowing of springs. It literally is not +possible that any fruitful power of the Muses should be put forth upon a +people which disdains their Helicon; still less is it possible that any +Christian nation should grow up "tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus +decursus aquarum," which cannot recognise the lesson meant in their +being told of the places where Rebekah was met;—where Rachel,—where +Zipporah,—and she who was asked for water under Mount Grerizim by a +Stranger, weary, who had nothing to draw with.</p> + + +<p>119. And truly, when our mountain springs are set apart in vale or +craggy glen, or glade of wood green through the drought of summer, far +from cities, then it is best to let them stay in their own happy peace; +but if near towns, and liable therefore to be defiled by common usage, +we could not use the loveliest art more worthily than by sheltering the +spring and its first pools with precious marbles: nor ought anything to +be esteemed more important, as a means of healthy education, than the +care to keep the streams of it afterwards, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> as great a distance as +possible, pure, full of fish, and easily accessible to children. There +used to be, thirty years ago, a little rivulet of the Wandel, about an +inch deep, which ran over the carriage-road and under a foot-bridge just +under the last chalk hill near Croydon. Alas! men came and went; and it +did <i>not</i> go on for ever. It has long since been bricked over by the +parish authorities; but there was more education in that stream with its +minnows than you could get out of a thousand pounds spent yearly in the +parish schools, even though you were to spend every farthing of it in +teaching the nature of oxygen and hydrogen, and the names, and rate per +minute, of all the rivers in Asia and America.</p> + + +<p>120. Well, the gist of this matter lies here then. Suppose we want a +school of pottery again in England, all we poor artists are ready to do +the best we can, to show you how pretty a line may be that is twisted +first to one side, and then to the other; and how a plain household-blue +will make a pattern on white; and how ideal art may be got out of the +spaniel's colours of black and tan. But I tell you beforehand, all that +we can do will be utterly useless, unless you teach your peasant to say +grace, not only before meat, but before drink; and having provided him +with Greek cups and platters, provide him also with something that is +not poisoned to put into them.</p> + + +<p>121. There cannot be any need that I should trace for you the conditions +of art that are directly founded on serviceableness of dress, and of +armour; but it is my duty to affirm to you, in the most positive manner, +that after recovering, for the poor, wholesomeness of food, your next +step towards founding schools of art in England must be in recovering, +for the poor, decency and wholesomeness of dress; thoroughly good in +substance, fitted for their daily work, becoming to their rank in life, +and worn with order and dignity. And this order and dignity must be +taught them by the women of the upper and middle classes, whose minds +can be in nothing right, as long as they are so wrong in this matter as +to endure the squalor of the poor, while they them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>selves dress gaily. +And on the proper pride and comfort of both poor and rich in dress, must +be founded the true arts of dress; carried on by masters of manufacture +no less careful of the perfectness and beauty of their tissues, and of +all that in substance and design can be bestowed upon them, than ever +the armourers of Milan and Damascus were careful of their steel.</p> + + +<p>122. Then, in the third place, having recovered some wholesome habits of +life as to food and dress, we must recover them as to lodging. I said +just now that the best architecture was but a glorified roof. Think of +it. The dome of the Vatican, the porches of Rheims or Chartres, the +vaults and arches of their aisles, the canopy of the tomb, and the spire +of the belfry, are all forms resulting from the mere requirement that a +certain space shall be strongly covered from heat and rain. More than +that—as I have tried all through "The Stories of Venice" to show,—the +lovely forms of these were every one of them developed in civil and +domestic building, and only after their invention, employed +ecclesiastically on the grandest scale. I think you cannot but have +noticed here in Oxford, as elsewhere, that our modern architects never +seem to know what to do with their roofs. Be assured, until the roofs +are right, nothing else will be; and there are just two ways of keeping +them right. Never build them of iron, but only of wood or stone; and +secondly, take care that in every town the little roofs are built before +the large ones, and that everybody who wants one has got one. And we +must try also to make everybody want one. That is to say, at some not +very advanced period of life, men should desire to have a home, which +they do not wish to quit any more, suited to their habits of life, and +likely to be more and more suitable to them until their death. And men +must desire to have these their dwelling-places built as strongly as +possible, and furnished and decorated daintily, and set in pleasant +places, in bright light, and good air, being able to choose for +themselves that at least as well as swallows. And when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> houses are +grouped together in cities, men must have so much civic fellowship as to +subject their architecture to a common law, and so much civic pride as +to desire that the whole gathered group of human dwellings should be a +lovely thing, not a frightful one, on the face of the earth. Not many +weeks ago an English clergyman,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> a master of this University, a man +not given to sentiment, but of middle age, and great practical sense, +told me, by accident, and wholly without reference to the subject now +before us, that he never could enter London from his country parsonage +but with closed eyes, lest the sight of the blocks of houses which the +railroad intersected in the suburbs should unfit him, by the horror of +it, for his day's work.</p> + + +<p>123. Now, it is not possible—and I repeat to you, only in more +deliberate assertion, what I wrote just twenty-two years ago in the last +chapter of the "Seven Lamps of Architecture"—it is not possible to have +any right morality, happiness, or art, in any country where the cities +are thus built, or thus, let me rather say, clotted and coagulated; +spots of a dreadful mildew, spreading by patches and blotches over the +country they consume. You must have lovely cities, crystallised, not +coagulated, into form; limited in size, and not casting out the scum and +scurf of them into an encircling eruption of shame, but girded each with +its sacred pomœrium, and with garlands of gardens full of blossoming +trees and softly guided streams.</p> + +<p>That is impossible, you say! it may be so. I have nothing to do with its +possibility, but only with its indispensability. More than that must be +possible, however, before you can have a school of art; namely, that you +find places elsewhere than in England, or at least in otherwise +unserviceable parts of England, for the establishment of manufactories +needing the help of fire, that is to say, of all the +τἑχναι βαναυσικαἱ +and +ἑπἱρρητοι, of which it was long ago known to be +the constant nature that "ἁσχολἱας μαλιστα +ἑχουσι καἱ πὁλεως συνεπιμε λεἱσθαι," +and to reduce such manufactures to their +lowest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> limit, so that nothing may ever be made of iron that can as +effectually be made of wood or stone; and nothing moved by steam that +can be as effectually moved by natural forces. And observe, that for all +mechanical effort required in social life and in cities, water power is +infinitely more than enough; for anchored mills on the large rivers, and +mills moved by sluices from reservoirs filled by the tide, will give you +command of any quantity of constant motive power you need.</p> + +<p>Agriculture by the hand, then, and absolute refusal or banishment of +unnecessary igneous force, are the first conditions of a school of art +in any country. And until you do this, be it soon or late, things will +continue in that triumphant state to which, for want of finer art, your +mechanism has brought them;—that, though England is deafened with +spinning wheels, her people have not clothes—though she is black with +digging of fuel, they die of cold—and though she has sold her soul for +gain, they die of hunger. Stay in that triumph, if you choose; but be +assured of this, it is not one which the fine arts will ever share with +you.</p> + + +<p>124. Now, I have given you my message, containing, as I know, offence +enough, and itself, it may seem to many, unnecessary enough. But just in +proportion to its apparent non-necessity, and to its certain offence, +was its real need, and my real duty to speak it. The study of the fine +arts could not be rightly associated with the grave work of English +Universities, without due and clear protest against the misdirection of +national energy, which for the present renders all good results of such +study on a great scale, impossible. I can easily teach you, as any other +moderately good draughtsman could, how to hold your pencils, and how to +lay your colours; but it is little use my doing that, while the nation +is spending millions of money in the destruction of all that pencil or +colour has to represent, and in the promotion of false forms of art, +which are only the costliest and the least enjoyable of follies. And +therefore these are the things that I have first and last to tell you in +this place;—that the fine arts are not to be learned by Locomotion, but +by making<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> the homes we live in lovely, and by staying in them;—that +the fine arts are not to be learned by Competition, but by doing our +quiet best in our own way;—that the fine arts are not to be learned by +Exhibition, but by doing what is right, and making what is honest, +whether it be exhibited or not;—and, for the sum of all, that men must +paint and build neither for pride nor for money, but for love; for love +of their art, for love of their neighbour, and whatever better love may +be than these, founded on these. I know that I gave some pain, which I +was most unwilling to give, in speaking of the possible abuses of +religious art; but there can be no danger of any, so long as we remember +that God inhabits cottages as well as churches, and ought to be well +lodged there also. Begin with wooden floors; the tessellated ones will +take care of themselves; begin with thatching roofs, and you shall end +by splendidly vaulting them; begin by taking care that no old eyes fail +over their Bibles, nor young ones over their needles, for want of +rushlight, and then you may have whatever true good is to be got out of +coloured glass or wax candles. And in thus putting the arts to universal +use, you will find also their universal inspiration, their universal +benediction. I told you there was no evidence of a <i>special</i> Divineness +in any application of them; that they were always equally human and +equally Divine; and in closing this inaugural series of lectures, into +which I have endeavoured to compress the principles that are to be the +foundations of your future work, it is my last duty to say some positive +words as to the Divinity of all art, when it is truly fair, or truly +serviceable.</p> + + +<p>125. Every seventh day, if not oftener, the greater number of +well-meaning persons in England thankfully receive from their teachers a +benediction, couched in those terms:—"The grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be +with you." Now I do not know precisely what sense is attached in the +English public mind to those expressions. But what I have to tell you +positively is that the three things do actually exist, and can be known +if you care to know them, and pos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>sessed if you care to possess them; +and that another thing exists, besides these, of which we already know +too much.</p> + +<p>First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your religion, all +grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be given +to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The Grace of Christ +exists, and can be had if you will. Secondly, as you know more and more +of the created world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is +that its creatures should be happy;—that He has made everything +beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is chiefly by the fault +of men, when they are allowed the liberty of thwarting His laws, that +Creation groans or travails in pain. The Love of God exists, and you may +see it, and live in it if you will. Lastly, a Spirit does actually exist +which teaches the ant her path, the bird her building, and men, in an +instinctive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble deeds are +possible to them. Without it you can do no good thing. To the grief of +it you can do many bad ones. In the possession of it is your peace and +your power.</p> + +<p>And there is a fourth thing, of which we already know too much. There is +an evil spirit whose dominion is in blindness and in cowardice, as the +dominion of the Spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage.</p> + +<p>And this blind and cowardly spirit is for ever telling you that evil +things are pardonable, and you shall not die for them, and that good +things are impossible, and you need not live for them; and that gospel +of his is now the loudest that is preached in your Saxon tongue. You +will find some day, to your cost, if you believe the first part of it, +that it is not true; but you may never, if you believe the second part +of it, find, to your gain, that also, untrue; and therefore I pray you +with all earnestness to prove, and know within your hearts, that all +things lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe in their +possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will make +every day's work contribute to them. Let every dawn of morning be to you +as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +close:—then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of +some kindly thing done for others—some goodly strength or knowledge +gained for yourselves; so, from day to day, and strength to strength, +you shall build up indeed, by Art, by Thought, and by Just Will, an +Ecclesia of England, of which it shall not be said, "See what manner of +stones are here," but, "See what manner of men."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_V" id="LECTURE_V"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE V</a></h2> + +<h3>LINE</h3> + + +<p>126. You will, I doubt not, willingly permit me to begin your lessons in +real practice of art in the words of the greatest of English painters: +one also, than whom there is indeed no greater, among those of any +nation, or any time,—our own gentle Reynolds.</p> + +<p>He says in his first discourse:—"The Directors" (of the Academy) "ought +more particularly to watch over the genius of those students, who being +more advanced, are arrived at that critical period of study, on the nice +management of which their future turn of taste depends. At that age it +is natural for them to be more captivated with what is brilliant, than +with what is solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and +humiliating exactness."</p> + +<p>"A facility in composing, a lively and, what is called, a 'masterly' +handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must be confessed, captivating +qualities to young minds, and become of course the objects of their +ambition. They endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellences, which +they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in +these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will +then be too late; and there is scarce an instance of return to +scrupulous labour, after the mind has been debauched and deceived by +this fallacious mastery."</p> + + +<p>127. I read you these words, chiefly that Sir Joshua, who founded, as +first President, the Academical schools of English painting, in these +well-known discourses, may also begin, as he has truest right to do, our +system of instruction in this University. But secondly, I read them that +I may press on your attention these singular words, "painful and +humiliat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>ing exactness." Singular, as expressing the first conditions of +the study required from his pupils by the master, who, of all men except +Velasquez, seems to have painted with the greatest ease. It is true that +he asks this pain, this humiliation, only from youths who intend to +follow the profession of artists. But if you wish yourselves to know +anything of the practice of art, you must not suppose that because your +study will be more desultory than that of Academy students, it may +therefore be less accurate. The shorter the time you have to give, the +more careful you should be to spend it profitably; and I would not wish +you to devote one hour to the practice of drawing, unless you are +resolved to be informed in it of all that in an hour can be taught.</p> + + +<p>128. I speak of the practice of <i>drawing</i> only; though elementary study +of modelling may perhaps some day be advisably connected with it; but I +do not wish to disturb, or amuse, you with a formal statement of the +manifold expectations I have formed respecting your future work. You +will not, I am sure, imagine that I have begun without a plan, nor blame +my reticence as to the parts of it which cannot yet be put into +execution, and which there may occur reason afterwards to modify. My +first task must unquestionably be to lay before you right and simple +methods of drawing and colouring.</p> + +<p>I use the word "colouring" without reference to any particular vehicle +of colour, for the laws of good painting are the same, whatever liquid +is employed to dissolve the pigments. But the technical management of +oil is more difficult than that of water-colour, and the impossibility +of using it with safety among books or prints, and its unavailableness +for note-book sketches and memoranda, are sufficient reasons for not +introducing it in a course of practice intended chiefly for students of +literature. On the contrary, in the exercises of artists, oil should be +the vehicle of colour employed from the first. The extended practice of +water-colour painting, as a separate skill, is in every way harmful to +the arts: its pleasant slightness and plausible dexterity divert the +genius of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> painter from its proper aims, and withdraw the attention +of the public from excellence of higher claim; nor ought any man, who +has the consciousness of ability for good work, to be ignorant of, or +indolent in employing, the methods of making its results permanent as +long as the laws of Nature allow. It is surely a severe lesson to us in +this matter, that the best works of Turner could not be shown to the +public for six months without being destroyed,—and that his most +ambitious ones for the most part perished, even before they could be +shown. I will break through my law of reticence, however, so far as to +tell you that I have hope of one day interesting you greatly (with the +help of the Florentine masters), in the study of the arts of moulding +and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you to use your future +power of patronage in encouraging the various branches of this art, and +turning the attention of the workmen of Italy from the vulgar tricks of +minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite subtilties of form and +colour possible in the perfectly ductile, afterwards unalterable clay. +And one of the ultimate results of such craftsmanship might be the +production of pictures as brilliant as painted glass,—as delicate as +the most subtle water-colours, and more permanent than the Pyramids.</p> + + +<p>129. And now to begin our own work. In order that we may know how +rightly to learn to draw and to paint, it will be necessary, will it +not, that we know first what we are to aim at doing;—what kind of +representation of nature is best?</p> + +<p>I will tell you in the words of Lionardo. "That is the most praiseworthy +painting which has most conformity with the thing represented," "quella +pittura e piu laudabile, la quale ha piu conformita con la cosa mitata," +(ch. 276). In plain terms, "the painting which is likest nature is the +best." And you will find by referring to the preceding chapter, "come lo +specchio e maestro de' pittori," how absolutely Lionardo means what he +says. Let the living thing, (he tells us,) be reflected in a mirror, +then put your picture beside the reflection, and match the one with the +other. And indeed, the very best painting is unquestionably so like the +mirrored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> truth, that all the world admits its excellence. Entirely +first-rate work is so quiet and natural that there can be no dispute +over it; you may not particularly admire it, but you will find no fault +with it. Second-rate painting pleases one person much, and displeases +another; but first-rate painting pleases all a little, and intensely +pleases those who can recognise its unostentatious skill.</p> + + +<p>130. This, then, is what we have first got to do—to make our drawing +look as like the thing we have to draw as we can.</p> + +<p>Now, all objects are seen by the eye as patches of colour of a certain +shape, with gradations of colour within them. And, unless their colours +be actually luminous, as those of the sun, or of fire, these patches of +different hues are sufficiently imitable, except so far as they are seen +stereoscopically. You will find Lionardo again and again insisting on +the stereoscopic power of the double sight: but do not let that trouble +you; you can only paint what you can see from one point of sight, but +that is quite enough. So seen, then, all objects appear to the human eye +simply as masses of colour of variable depth, texture, and outline. The +outline of any object is the limit of its mass, as relieved against +another mass. Take a crocus, and lay it on a green cloth. You will see +it detach itself as a mere space of yellow from the green behind it, as +it does from the grass. Hold it up against the window—you will see it +detach itself as a dark space against the white or blue behind it. In +either case its outline is the limit of the space of light or dark +colour by which it expresses itself to your sight. That outline is +therefore infinitely subtle—not even a line, but the place of a line, +and that, also, made soft by texture. In the finest painting it is +therefore slightly softened; but it is necessary to be able to draw it +with absolute sharpness and precision. The art of doing this is to be +obtained by drawing it as an actual line, which art is to be the subject +of our immediate enquiry; but I must first lay the divisions of the +entire subject completely before you.</p> + + +<p>131. I have said that all objects detach themselves as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> masses of +colour. Usually, light and shade are thought of as separate from colour; +but the fact is that all nature is seen as a mosaic composed of gradated +portions of different colours, dark or light. There is no difference in +the quality of these colours, except as affected by texture. You will +constantly hear lights and shades spoken of as if these were different +in their nature, and to be painted in different ways. But every light is +a shadow compared to higher lights, till we reach the brightness of the +sun; and every shadow is a light compared to lower shadows, till we +reach the darkness of night.</p> + +<p>Every colour used in painting, except pure white and black, is therefore +a light and shade at the same time. It is a light with reference to all +below it, and a shade with reference to all above it.</p> + + +<p>132. The solid forms of an object, that is to say, the projections or +recessions of its surface within the outline, are, for the most part, +rendered visible by variations in the intensity or quantity of light +falling on them. The study of the relations between the quantities of +this light, irrespectively of its colour, is the second division of the +regulated science of painting.</p> + + +<p>133. Finally, the qualities and relations of natural colours, the means +of imitating them, and the laws by which they become separately +beautiful, and in association harmonious, are the subjects of the third +and final division of the painter's study. I shall endeavour at once to +state to you what is most immediately desirable for you to know on each +of these topics, in this and the two following lectures.</p> + + +<p>134. What we have to do, then, from beginning to end, is, I repeat once +more, simply to draw spaces of their true shape, and to fill them with +colours which shall match their colours; quite a simple thing in the +definition of it, not quite so easy in the doing of it.</p> + +<p>But it is something to get this simple definition; and I wish you to +notice that the terms of it are complete, though I do not introduce the +term "light," or "shadow." Painters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> who have no eye for colour have +greatly confused and falsified the practice of art by the theory that +shadow is an absence of colour. Shadow is, on the contrary, necessary to +the full presence of colour; for every colour is a diminished quantity +or energy of light; and, practically, it follows from what I have just +told you—(that every light in painting is a shadow to higher lights, +and every shadow a light to lower shadows)—that also every <i>colour</i> in +painting must be a shadow to some brighter colour, and a light to some +darker one—all the while being a positive colour itself. And the great +splendour of the Venetian school arises from their having seen and held +from the beginning this great fact—that shadow is as much colour as +light, often much more. In Titian's fullest red the lights are pale +rose-colour, passing into white—the shadows warm deep crimson. In +Veronese's most splendid orange, the lights are pale, the shadows crocus +colour; and so on. In nature, dark sides if seen by reflected lights, +are almost always fuller or warmer in colour than the lights; and the +practice of the Bolognese and Roman schools, in drawing their shadows +always dark and cold, is false from the beginning, and renders perfect +painting for ever impossible in those schools, and to all who follow +them.</p> + + +<p>135. Every visible space, then, be it dark or light, is a space of +colour of some kind, or of black or white. And you have to enclose it +with a true outline, and to paint it with its true colour.</p> + +<p>But before considering how we are to draw this enclosing line, I must +state to you something about the use of lines in general, by different +schools.</p> + +<p>I said just now that there was no difference between the masses of +colour of which all visible nature is composed, except in <i>texture</i>. Now +textures are principally of three kinds:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p style="text-indent: 0%;">(1) Lustrous, as of water and glass.<br /> (2) Bloomy, or velvety, as of +a rose-leaf or peach.<br />(3) Linear, produced by filaments or threads, +as in feathers, fur, hair, and woven or reticulated tissues.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>All these three sources of pleasure to the eye in texture are united in +the best ornamental work. A fine picture by Fra Angelico, or a fine +illuminated page of missal, has large spaces of gold, partly burnished +and lustrous, partly dead;—some of it chased and enriched with linear +texture, and mingled with imposed or inlaid colours, soft in bloom like +that of the rose-leaf. But many schools of art affect for the most part +one kind of texture only, and a vast quantity of the art of all ages +depends for great part of its power on texture produced by multitudinous +lines. Thus, wood engraving, line engraving properly so called, and +countless varieties of sculpture, metal work, and textile fabric, depend +for great part of the effect, for the mystery, softness, and clearness +of their colours, or shades, on modification of the surfaces by lines or +threads. Even in advanced oil painting, the work often depends for some +part of its effect on the texture of the canvas.</p> + + +<p>136. Again, the arts of etching and mezzotint engraving depend +principally for their effect on the velvety, or bloomy texture of their +darkness, and the best of all painting is the fresco work of great +colourists, in which the colours are what is usually called dead; but +they are anything but dead, they glow with the luminous bloom of life. +The frescoes of Correggio, when not repainted, are supreme in this +quality.</p> + + +<p>137. While, however, in all periods of art these different textures are +thus used in various styles, and for various purposes, you will find +that there is a broad historical division of schools, which will +materially assist you in understanding them. The earliest art in most +countries is linear, consisting of interwoven, or richly spiral and +otherwise involved arrangements of sculptured or painted lines, on +stone, wood, metal or clay. It is generally characteristic of savage +life, and of feverish energy of imagination. I shall examine these +schools with you hereafter, under the general head of the "Schools of +Line."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Secondly, even in the earliest periods, among powerful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> nations, this +linear decoration is more or less filled with chequered or barred shade, +and begins at once to represent animal or floral form, by filling its +outlines with flat shadow, or with flat colour. And here we instantly +find two great divisions of temper and thought. The Greeks look upon all +colour first as light; they are, as compared with other races, +insensitive to hue, exquisitely sensitive to phenomena of light. And +their linear school passes into one of flat masses of light and +darkness, represented in the main by four tints,—white, black, and two +reds, one brick colour, more or less vivid, the other dark purple; these +two standing mentally their favourite +πορφύρεος +colour, in its +light and dark powers. On the other hand, many of the Northern nations +are at first entirely insensible to light and shade, but exquisitely +sensitive to colour, and their linear decoration is filled with flat +tints, infinitely varied, but with no expression of light and shade. +Both these schools have a limited but absolute perfection of their own, +and their peculiar successes can in no wise be imitated, except by the +strictest observance of the same limitations.</p> + + +<p>138. You have then, Line for the earliest art, branching into—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p style="text-indent: 0%;">(1) Greek, Line with Light.<br /> +(2) Gothic, Line with Colour. +</p></div> + +<p>Now, as art completes itself, each of these schools retain their +separate characters, but they cease to depend on lines, and learn to +represent masses instead, becoming more refined at the same time in all +modes of perception and execution.</p> + +<p>And thus there arise the two vast mediæval schools; one of flat and +infinitely varied colour, with exquisite character and sentiment added, +in the forms represented; but little perception of shadow. The other, of +light and shade, with exquisite drawing of solid form, and little +perception of colour: sometimes as little of sentiment. Of these, the +school of flat colour is the more vital one; it is always natural and +simple, if not great;—and when it is great, it is very great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>The school of light and shade associates itself with that of engraving; +it is essentially an academical school, broadly dividing light from +darkness, and begins by assuming that the light side of all objects +shall be represented by white, and the extreme shadow by black. On this +conventional principle it reaches a limited excellence of its own, in +which the best existing types of engraving are executed, and ultimately, +the most regular expressions of organic form in painting.</p> + +<p>Then, lastly,—the schools of colour advance steadily, till they adopt +from those of light and shade whatever is compatible with their own +power,—and then you have perfect art, represented centrally by that of +the great Venetians.</p> + +<p>The schools of light and shade, on the other hand, are partly, in their +academical formulas, too haughty, and partly, in their narrowness of +imagination, too weak, to learn much from the schools of colour; and +pass into a state of decadence, consisting partly in proud endeavours to +give painting the qualities of sculpture, and partly in the pursuit of +effects of light and shade, carried at last to extreme sensational +subtlety by the Dutch school. In their fall, they drag the schools of +colour down with them; and the recent history of art is one of confused +effort to find lost roads, and resume allegiance to violated principles.</p> + + +<p>139. That, briefly, is the map of the great schools, easily remembered +in this hexagonal form:—</p> +<p> </p> +<table summary="hex" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="text-align:center;"> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>1.</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Line</span></td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>Early schools</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td>2.</td><td> </td><td>3.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Line and Light</span>.</td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Line and Colour</span>.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Greek clay.</td><td> </td><td>Gothic glass.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>4.</td><td> </td><td>5.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td><span class="smcap">Mass and Light</span>.</td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Mass and Colour</span>.</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>(Represented by Lionardo,</td><td> </td><td>(Represented by Giorgione,</td></tr> +<tr> +<td>and his schools.)</td><td> </td><td>and his schools.)</td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>6.</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Mass, Light, and Colour</span>.</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>(Represented by Titian,</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>and his schools.)</td><td> </td></tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>And I wish you with your own eyes and fingers to trace, and in your own +progress follow, the method of advance exemplified by these great +schools. I wish you to begin by getting command of line, that is to say, +by learning to draw a steady line, limiting with absolute correctness +the form or space you intend it to limit; to proceed by getting command +over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have +enclosed, evenly, either with shade or colour according to the school +you adopt; and finally to obtain the power of adding such fineness of +gradation within the masses, as shall express their roundings, and their +characters of texture.</p> + + +<p>140. Those who are familiar with the methods of existing schools must be +aware that I thus nearly invert their practice of teaching. Students at +present learn to draw details first, and to colour and mass them +afterwards. I shall endeavour to teach you to arrange broad masses and +colours first; and you shall put the details into them afterwards. I +have several reasons for this audacity, of which you may justly require +me to state the principal ones. The first is that, as I have shown you, +this method I wish you to follow, is the natural one. All great artist +nations <i>have</i> actually learned to work in this way, and I believe it +therefore the right, as the hitherto successful one. Secondly, you will +find it less irksome than the reverse method, and more definite. When a +beginner is set at once to draw details, and make finished studies in +light and shade, no master can correct his innumerable errors, or rescue +him out of his endless difficulties. But in the natural method, he can +correct, if he will, his own errors. You will have positive lines to +draw, presenting no more difficulty, except in requiring greater +steadiness of hand, than the outlines of a map. They will be generally +sweeping and simple, instead of being jagged into promontories and bays; +but assuredly, they may be drawn rightly (with patience), and their +rightness tested with mathematical accuracy. You have only to follow +your own line with tracing paper, and apply it to your own copy. If they +do not correspond, you are wrong, and you need no master to show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> you +where. Again; in washing in a flat tone of colour or shade, you can +always see yourself if it is flat, and kept well within the edges; and +you can set a piece of your colour side by side with that of the copy; +if it does not match, you are wrong; and, again, you need no one to tell +you so, if your eye for colour is true. It happens, indeed, more +frequently than would be supposed, that there is real want of power in +the eye to distinguish colours; and this I even suspect to be a +condition which has been sometimes attendant on high degrees of cerebral +sensitiveness in other directions; but such want of faculty would be +detected in your first two or three exercises by this simple method, +while, otherwise, you might go on for years endeavouring to colour from +nature in vain. Lastly, and this is a very weighty collateral reason, +such a method enables me to show you many things, besides the art of +drawing. Every exercise that I prepare for you will be either a portion +of some important example of ancient art, or of some natural object. +However rudely or unsuccessfully you may draw it, (though I anticipate +from you neither want of care nor success,) you will nevertheless have +learned what no words could have so forcibly or completely taught you, +either respecting early art or organic structure; and I am thus certain +that not a moment you spend attentively will be altogether wasted, and +that, generally, you will be twice gainers by every effort.</p> + + +<p>141. There is, however, yet another point in which I think a change of +existing methods will be advisable. You have here in Oxford one of the +finest collections in Europe of drawings in pen, and chalk, by Michael +Angelo and Raphael. Of the whole number, you cannot but have noticed +that not one is weak or student-like—all are evidently master's work.</p> + +<p>You may look the galleries of Europe through, and so far as I know, or +as it is possible to make with safety any so wide generalization, you +will not find in them a childish or feeble drawing, by these, or by any +other great master.</p> + +<p>And farther:—by the greatest men—by Titian, Velasquez, or +Veronese—you will hardly find an authentic draw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>ing, at all. For the +fact is, that while we moderns have always learned, or tried to learn, +to paint by drawing, the ancients learned to draw by painting—or by +engraving, more difficult still. The brush was put into their hands when +they were children, and they were forced to draw with that, until, if +they used the pen or crayon, they used it either with the lightness of a +brush or the decision of a graver. Michael Angelo uses his pen like a +chisel; but all of them seem to use it only when they are in the height +of their power, and then for rapid notation of thought or for study of +models; but never as a practice helping them to paint. Probably +exercises of the severest kind were gone through in minute drawing by +the apprentices of the goldsmiths, of which we hear and know little, and +which were entirely matters of course. To these, and to the +exquisiteness of care and touch developed in working precious metals, +may probably be attributed the final triumph of Italian sculpture. +Michael Angelo, when a boy, is said to have copied engravings by +Schöngauer and others, with his pen, in facsimile so true that he could +pass his drawings as the originals. But I should only discourage you +from all farther attempts in art, if I asked you to imitate any of these +accomplished drawings of the gem-artificers. You have, fortunately, a +most interesting collection of them already in your galleries, and may +try your hands on them if you will. But I desire rather that you should +attempt nothing except what can by determination be absolutely +accomplished, and be known and felt by you to be accomplished when it is +so. Now, therefore, I am going at once to comply with that popular +instinct which, I hope, so far as you care for drawing at all, you are +still boys enough to feel, the desire to paint. Paint you shall; but +remember, I understand by painting what you will not find easy. Paint +you shall; but daub or blot you shall not: and there will be even more +care required, though care of a pleasanter kind, to follow the lines +traced for you with the point of the brush than if they had been drawn +with that of a crayon. But from the very beginning (though carrying on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +at the same time an incidental practice with crayon and lead pencil), +you shall try to draw a line of absolute correctness with the point, not +of pen or crayon, but of the brush, as Apelles did, and as all coloured +lines are drawn on Greek vases. A line of absolute correctness, observe. +I do not care how slowly you do it, or with how many alterations, +junctions, or re-touchings; the one thing I ask of you is, that the line +shall be right, and right by measurement, to the same minuteness which +you would have to give in a Government chart to the map of a dangerous +shoal.</p> + + +<p>142. This question of measurement is, as you are probably aware, one +much vexed in art schools; but it is determined indisputably by the very +first words written by Lionardo: "Il giovane deve prima imparare +prospettiva, <i>per le misure d'ogni cosa</i>."</p> + +<p>Without absolute precision of measurement, it is certainly impossible +for you to learn perspective rightly; and, as far as I can judge, +impossible to learn anything else rightly. And in my past experience of +teaching, I have found that such precision is of all things the most +difficult to enforce on the pupils. It is easy to persuade to diligence, +or provoke to enthusiasm; but I have found it hitherto impossible to +humiliate one clever student into perfect accuracy.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, necessary, in beginning a system of drawing for the +University, that no opening should be left for failure in this essential +matter. I hope you will trust the words of the most accomplished +draughtsman of Italy, and the painter of the great sacred picture which, +perhaps beyond all others, has influenced the mind of Europe, when he +tells you that your first duty is "to learn perspective by the +<i>measures</i> of everything." For perspective, I will undertake that it +shall be made, practically, quite easy to you; if you care to master the +mathematics of it, they are carried as far as is necessary for you in my +treatise written in 1859, of which copies shall be placed at your +disposal in your working room. But the habit and dexterity of +<i>measurement</i> you must acquire at once, and that with engineer's +accuracy. I hope that in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> our now gradually developing system of +education, elementary architectural or military drawing will be required +at all public schools; so that when youths come to the University, it +may be no more necessary for them to pass through the preliminary +exercises of perspective than of grammar: for the present, I will place +in your series examples simple and severe enough for all necessary +practice.</p> + + +<p>143. And while you are learning to measure, and to draw, and lay flat +tints, with the brush, you must also get easy command of the pen; for +that is not only the great instrument for the first sketching, but its +right use is the foundation of the art of illumination. In nothing is +fine art more directly founded on utility than in the close dependence +of decorative illumination on good writing. Perfect illumination is only +writing made lovely; the moment it passes into picture-making it has +lost its dignity and function. For pictures, small or great, if +beautiful, ought not to be painted on leaves of books, to be worn with +service; and pictures, small or great, not beautiful, should be painted +nowhere. But to make writing <i>itself</i> beautiful,—to make the sweep of +the pen lovely,—is the true art of illumination; and I particularly +wish you to note this, because it happens continually that young girls +who are incapable of tracing a single curve with steadiness, much more +of delineating any ornamental or organic form with correctness, think +that work, which would be intolerable in ordinary drawing, becomes +tolerable when it is employed for the decoration of texts; and thus they +render all healthy progress impossible, by protecting themselves in +inefficiency under the shield of good motive. Whereas the right way of +setting to work is to make themselves first mistresses of the art of +writing beautifully; and then to apply that art in its proper degrees of +development to whatever they desire permanently to write. And it is +indeed a much more truly religious duty for girls to acquire a habit of +deliberate, legible, and lovely penmanship in their daily use of the +pen, than to illuminate any quantity of texts. Having done so, they may +next discipline their hands into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> control of lines of any length, +and, finally, add the beauty of colour and form to the flowing of these +perfect lines. But it is only after years of practice that they will be +able to illuminate noble words rightly for the eyes, as it is only after +years of practice that they can make them melodious rightly, with the +voice.</p> + + +<p>144. I shall not attempt, in this lecture, to give you any account of +the use of the pen as a drawing instrument. That use is connected in +many ways with principles both of shading and of engraving, hereafter to +be examined at length. But I may generally state to you that its best +employment is in giving determination to the forms in drawings washed +with neutral tint; and that, in this use of it, Holbein is quite without +a rival. I have therefore placed many examples of his work among your +copies. It is employed for rapid study by Raphael and other masters of +delineation, who, in such cases, give with it also partial indications +of shadow; but it is not a proper instrument for shading, when drawings +are intended to be deliberate and complete, nor do the great masters so +employ it. Its virtue is the power of producing a perfectly delicate, +equal, and decisive line with great rapidity; and the temptation allied +with that virtue is the licentious haste, and chance-swept, instead of +strictly-commanded, curvature. In the hands of very great painters it +obtains, like the etching needle, qualities of exquisite charm in this +free use; but all attempts at imitation of these confused and suggestive +sketches must be absolutely denied to yourselves while students. You may +fancy you have produced something like them with little trouble; but, be +assured, it is in reality as unlike them as nonsense is unlike sense; +and that, if you persist in such work, you will not only prevent your +own executive progress, but you will never understand in all your lives +what good painting means. Whenever you take a pen in your hand, if you +cannot count every line you lay with it, and say why you make it so long +and no longer, and why you drew it in that direction and no other, your +work is bad. The only man who can put his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> pen to full speed, and yet +retain command over every separate line of it, is Dürer. He has done +this in the illustrations of a missal preserved at Munich, which have +been fairly facsimiled; and of these I have placed several in your +copying series, with some of Turner's landscape etchings, and other +examples of deliberate pen work, such as will advantage you in early +study. The proper use of them you will find explained in the catalogue.</p> + + +<p>145. And, now, but one word more to-day. Do not impute to me the +impertinence of setting before you what is new in this system of +practice as being certainly the best method. No English artists are yet +agreed entirely on early methods; and even Reynolds expresses with some +hesitation his conviction of the expediency of learning to draw with the +brush. But this method that I show you rests in all essential points on +his authority, on Lionardo's, or on the evident as well as recorded +practice of the most splendid Greek and Italian draughtsmen; and you may +be assured it will lead you, however slowly, to great and certain skill. +To what degree of skill, must depend greatly on yourselves; but I know +that in practice of this kind you cannot spend an hour without +definitely gaining, both in true knowledge of art, and in useful power +of hand; and for what may appear in it too difficult, I must shelter or +support myself, as in beginning, so in closing this first lecture on +practice, by the words of Reynolds: "The impetuosity of youth is +disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from +mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They must +therefore be told again and again that labour is the only price of solid +fame; and that, whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy +method of becoming a good painter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_VI" id="LECTURE_VI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE VI</a></h2> + +<h3>LIGHT</h3> + + +<p>146. The plan of the divisions of art-schools which I gave you in the +last lecture is of course only a first germ of classification, on which +we are to found farther and more defined statement; but for this very +reason it is necessary that every term of it should be very clear in +your minds.</p> + +<p>And especially I must explain, and ask you to note the sense in which I +use the word "mass." Artists usually employ that word to express the +spaces of light and darkness, or of colour, into which a picture is +divided. But this habit of theirs arises partly from their always +speaking of pictures in which the lights represent solid form. If they +had instead been speaking of flat tints, as, for instance, of the gold +and blue in this missal page, they would not have called them "masses," +but "spaces" of colour. Now both for accuracy and convenience' sake, you +will find it well to observe this distinction, and to call a simple flat +tint a space of colour; and only the representation of solid or +projecting form a mass.</p> + +<p>I use, however, the word "line" rather than "space" in the second and +third heads of our general scheme, at p. 94, because you cannot limit a +flat tint but by a line, or the locus of a line: whereas a gradated +tint, expressive of mass, may be lost at its edges in another, without +any fixed limit; and practically is so, in the works of the greatest +masters.</p> + + +<p>147. You have thus, in your hexagonal scheme, the expression of the +universal manner of advance in painting: Line first; then line enclosing +flat spaces coloured or shaded; then the lines vanish, and the solid +forms are seen within the spaces. That is the universal law of +advance:—1, line; 2,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> flat space; 3, massed or solid space. But as you +see, this advance may be made, and has been made, by two different +roads; one advancing always through colour, the other through light and +shade. And these two roads are taken by two entirely different kinds of +men. The way by colour is taken by men of cheerful, natural, and +entirely sane disposition in body and mind, much resembling, even at its +strongest, the temper of well-brought-up children:—too happy to think +deeply, yet with powers of imagination by which they can live other +lives than their actual ones: make-believe lives, while yet they remain +conscious all the while that they <i>are</i> making believe—therefore +entirely sane. They are also absolutely contented; they ask for no more +light than is immediately around them, and cannot see anything like +darkness, but only green and blue, in the earth and sea.</p> + + +<p>148. The way by light and shade is, on the contrary, taken by men of the +highest powers of thought, and most earnest desire for truth; they long +for light, and for knowledge of all that light can show. But seeking for +light, they perceive also darkness; seeking for truth and substance, +they find vanity. They look for form in the earth,—for dawn in the sky; +and seeking these, they find formlessness in the earth, and night in the +sky.</p> + +<p>Now remember, in these introductory lectures I am putting before you the +roots of things, which are strange, and dark, and often, it may seem, +unconnected with the branches. You may not at present think these +metaphysical statements necessary; but as you go on, you will find that +having hold of the clue to methods of work through their springs in +human character, you may perceive unerringly where they lead, and what +constitutes their wrongness and rightness; and when we have the main +principles laid down, all others will develop themselves in due +succession, and everything will become more clearly intelligible to you +in the end, for having been apparently vague in the beginning. You know +when one is laying the foundation of a house, it does not show directly +where the rooms are to be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + + +<p>149. You have then these two great divisions of human mind: one, content +with the colours of things, whether they are dark or light; the other +seeking light pure, as such, and dreading darkness as such. One, also, +content with the coloured aspects and visionary shapes of things; the +other seeking their form and substance. And, as I said, the school of +knowledge, seeking light, perceives, and has to accept and deal with +obscurity: and seeking form, it has to accept and deal with +formlessness, or death.</p> + +<p>Farther, the school of colour in Europe, using the word Gothic in its +broadest sense, is essentially Gothic <i>Christian</i>; and full of comfort +and peace. Again, the school of light is essentially Greek, and full of +sorrow. I cannot tell you which is right, or least wrong. I tell you +only what I know—this vital distinction between them: the Gothic or +colour school is always cheerful, the Greek always oppressed by the +shadow of death; and the stronger its masters are, the closer that body +of death grips them. The strongest whose work I can show you in recent +periods is Holbein; next to him is Lionardo; and then Dürer: but of the +three Holbein is the strongest, and with his help I will put the two +schools in their full character before you in a moment.</p> + + +<p>150. Here is, first, the photograph of an entirely characteristic piece +of the great colour school. It is by Cima of Conegliano, a mountaineer, +like Luini, born under the Alps of Friuli. His Christian name was John +Baptist: he is here painting his name-Saint; the whole picture full of +peace, and intense faith and hope, and deep joy in light of sky, and +fruit and flower and weed of earth. It was painted for the church of Our +Lady of the Garden at Venice, La Madonna dell' Orto (properly Madonna of +the <i>Kitchen</i> Garden), and it is full of simple flowers, and has the +wild strawberry of Cima's native mountains gleaming through the grass.</p> + +<p>Beside it I will put a piece of the strongest work of the school of +light and shade—strongest because Holbein was a colourist also; but he +belongs, nevertheless, essentially to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> chiaroscuro school. You know +that his name is connected, in ideal work, chiefly with his "Dance of +Death." I will not show you any of the terror of that; only a photograph +of his well-known "Dead Christ." It will at once show you how completely +the Christian art of this school is oppressed by its veracity, and +forced to see what is fearful, even in what it most trusts.</p> + +<p>You may think I am showing you contrasts merely to fit my theories. But +there is Dürer's "Knight and Death," his greatest plate; and if I had +Lionardo's "Medusa" here, which he painted when only a boy, you would +have seen how he was held by the same chain. And you cannot but wonder +why, this being the melancholy temper of the great Greek or naturalistic +school, I should have called it the school of light. I call it so +because it is through its intense love of light that the darkness +becomes apparent to it, and through its intense love of truth and form +that all mystery becomes attractive to it. And when, having learned +these things, it is joined to the school of colour, you have the +perfect, though always, as I will show you, pensive, art of Titian and +his followers.</p> + + +<p>151. But remember, its first development, and all its final power, +depend on Greek sorrow, and Greek religion.</p> + +<p>The school of light is founded in the Doric worship of Apollo, and the +Ionic worship of Athena, as the spirits of life in the light, and of +life in the air, opposed each to their own contrary deity of +death—Apollo to the Python, Athena to the Gorgon—Apollo as life in +light, to the earth spirit of corruption in darkness;—Athena, as life +by motion, to the Gorgon spirit of death by pause, freezing or turning +to stone: both of the great divinities taking their glory from the evil +they have conquered; both of them, when angry, taking to men the form of +the evil which is their opposite—Apollo slaying by poisoned arrow, by +pestilence; Athena by cold, the black ægis on her breast.</p> + +<p>These are the definite and direct expressions of the Greek thoughts +respecting death and life. But underlying both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> these, and far more +mysterious, dreadful, and yet beautiful, there is the Greek conception +of <i>spiritual</i> darkness; of the anger of fate, whether foredoomed or +avenging; the root and theme of all Greek tragedy; the anger of the +Erinnyes, and Demeter Erinnys, compared to which the anger either of +Apollo or Athena is temporary and partial:—and also, while Apollo or +Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the Eumenides is over the +whole life; so that in the stories of Bellerophon, of Hippolytus, of +Orestes, of Œdipus, you have an incomparably deeper shadow than any +that was possible to the thought of later ages, when the hope of the +Resurrection had become definite. And if you keep this in mind, you will +find every name and legend of the oldest history become full of meaning +to you. All the mythic accounts of Greek sculpture begin in the legends +of the family of Tantalus. The main one is the making of the ivory +shoulder of Pelops after Demeter has eaten the shoulder of flesh. With +that you have Broteas, the brother of Pelops, carving the first statue +of the mother of the gods; and you have his sister, Niobe, weeping +herself to stone under the anger of the deities of light. Then Pelops +himself, the dark-faced, gives name to the Peloponnesus, which you may +therefore read as the "isle of darkness;" but its central city, Sparta, +the "sown city," is connected with all the ideas of the earth as +life-giving. And from her you have Helen, the representative of light in +beauty, and the Fratres Helenæ—"lucida sidera;" and, on the other side +of the hills, the brightness of Argos, with its correlative darkness +over the Atreidæ, marked to you by Helios turning away his face from the +feast of Thyestes.</p> + + +<p>152. Then join with these the Northern legends connected with the air. +It does not matter whether you take Dorus as the son of Apollo or the +son of Helen; he equally symbolises the power of light: while his +brother, Æolus, through all his descendants, chiefly in Sisyphus, is +confused or associated with the real god of the winds, and represents to +you the power of the air. And then, as this conception enters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> into art, +you have the myths of Dædalus, the flight of Icarus, and the story of +Phrixus and Helle, giving you continual associations of the physical air +and light, ending in the power of Athena over Corinth as well as over +Athens.</p> + +<p>Now, once having the clue, you can work out the sequels for yourselves +better than I can for you; and you will soon find even the earliest or +slightest grotesques of Greek art become full of interest. For nothing +is more wonderful than the depth of meaning which nations in their first +days of thought, like children, can attach to the rudest symbols; and +what to us is grotesque or ugly, like a little child's doll, can speak +to them the loveliest things. I have brought you to-day a few more +examples of early Greek vase painting, respecting which remember +generally that its finest development is for the most part sepulchral. +You have, in the first period, always energy in the figures, light in +the sky or upon the figures;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> in the second period, while the +conception of the divine power remains the same, it is thought of as in +repose, and the light is in the god, not in the sky; in the time of +decline, the divine power is gradually disbelieved, and all form and +light are lost together. With that period I wish you to have nothing to +do. You shall not have a single example of it set before you, but shall +rather learn to recognise afterwards what is base by its strangeness. +These, which are to come early in the third group of your Standard +series, will enough represent to you the elements of early and late +conception in the Greek mind of the deities of light.</p> + + +<p>153. First (S. 204), you have Apollo ascending from the sea; thought of +as the physical sunrise: only a circle of light for his head; his +chariot horses, seen foreshortened, black against the day-break, their +feet not yet risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting from +the opposite side of the same vase: Athena as the morning breeze, and +Hermes as the morning cloud, flying across the waves before the sunrise. +At the distance I now hold them from you, it is scarcely possible for +you to see that they are figures at all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> so like are they to broken +fragments of flying mist; and when you look close, you will see that as +Apollo's face is invisible in the circle of light, Mercury's is +invisible in the broken form of cloud: but I can tell you that it is +conceived as reverted, looking back to Athena; the grotesque appearance +of feature in the front is the outline of his hair.</p> + +<p>These two paintings are excessively rude, and of the archaic period; the +deities being yet thought of chiefly as physical powers in violent +agency.</p> + +<p>Underneath these two are Athena and Hermes, in the types attained about +the time of Phidias; but, of course, rudely drawn on the vase, and still +more rudely in this print from Le Normant and De Witte. For it is +impossible (as you will soon find if you try for yourself) to give on a +plane surface the grace of figures drawn on one of solid curvature, and +adapted to all its curves: and among other minor differences, Athena's +lance is in the original nearly twice as tall as herself, and has to be +cut short to come into the print at all. Still, there is enough here to +show you what I want you to see—the repose, and entirely realised +personality, of the deities as conceived in the Phidian period. The +relation of the two deities is, I believe, the same as in the painting +above, though probably there is another added of more definite kind. But +the physical meaning still remains—Athena unhelmeted, as the <i>gentle</i> +morning wind, commanding the cloud Hermes to slow flight. His petasus is +slung at his back, meaning that the clouds are not yet opened or +expanded in the sky.</p> + + +<p>154. Next (S. 205), you have Athena, again unhelmeted and crowned with +leaves, walking between two nymphs, who are crowned also with leaves; +and all the three hold flowers in their hands, and there is a fawn +walking at Athena's feet.</p> + +<p>This is still Athena as the morning air, but upon the earth instead of +in the sky, with the nymphs of the dew beside her; the flowers and +leaves opening as they breathe upon them. Note the white gleam of light +on the fawn's breast; and compare it with the next following +examples:—(underneath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> this one is the contest of Athena and Poseidon, +which does not bear on our present subject).</p> + +<p>Next (S. 206), Artemis as the moon of morning, walking low on the hills, +and singing to her lyre; the fawn beside her, with the gleam of light +and sunrise on its ear and breast. Those of you who are often out in the +dawntime know that there is no moon so glorious as that gleaming +crescent, though in its wane, ascending <i>before</i> the sun.</p> + +<p>Underneath, Artemis, and Apollo, of Phidian time.</p> + +<p>Next (S. 207), Apollo walking on the earth, god of the morning, singing +to his lyre; the fawn beside him, again with the gleam of light on its +breast. And underneath, Apollo, crossing the sea to Delphi, of the +Phidian time.</p> + + +<p>155. Now you cannot but be struck in these three examples with the +similarity of action in Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, drawn as deities of +the morning; and with the association in every case of the fawn with +them. It has been said (I will not interrupt you with authorities) that +the fawn belongs to Apollo and Diana because stags are sensitive to +music; (are they?). But you see the fawn is here with Athena of the dew, +though she has no lyre; and I have myself no doubt that in this +particular relation to the gods of morning it always stands as the +symbol of wavering and glancing motion on the ground, as well as of the +light and shadow through the leaves, chequering the ground as the fawn +is dappled. Similarly the spots on the nebris of Dionysus, thought of +sometimes as stars +(ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων ποικιλίας, +Diodorus, I. 11), as well as those of his panthers, and the cloudings of the +tortoise-shell of Hermes, are all significant of this light of the sky +broken by cloud-shadow.</p> + + +<p>156. You observe also that in all the three examples the fawn has light +on its ears, and face, as well as its breast. In the earliest Greek +drawings of animals, bars of white are used as one means of detaching +the figures from the ground; ordinarily on the under side of them, +marking the lighter colour of the hair in wild animals. But the placing +of this bar of white, or the direction of the face in deities of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> light, +(the faces and flesh of women being always represented as white,) may +become expressive of the direction of the light, when that direction is +important. Thus we are enabled at once to read the intention of this +Greek symbol of the course of a day (in the centre-piece of S. 208, +which gives you the types of Hermes). At the top you have an archaic +representation of Hermes stealing Io from Argus. Argus is here the +Night; his grotesque features monstrous; his hair overshadowing his +shoulders; Hermes on tip-toe, stealing upon him and taking the cord +which is fastened to the horn of Io out of his hand without his feeling +it. Then, underneath, you have the course of an entire day. Apollo +first, on the left, dark, entering his chariot, the sun not yet risen. +In front of him Artemis, as the moon, ascending before him, playing on +her lyre, and looking back to the sun. In the centre, behind the horses, +Hermes, as the cumulus cloud at mid-day, wearing his petasus heightened +to a cone, and holding a flower in his right hand; indicating the +nourishment of the flowers by the rain from the heat cloud. Finally, on +the right, Latona, going down as the evening, lighted from the right by +the sun, now sunk; and with her feet reverted, signifying the reluctance +of the departing day.</p> + +<p>Finally, underneath, you have Hermes of the Phidian period, as the +floating cumulus cloud, almost shapeless (as you see him at this +distance); with the tortoise-shell lyre in his hand, barred with black, +and a fleece of white cloud, not level but <i>oblique</i>, under his feet. +(Compare the +"διὰ τῶν κοίλων--πλάγιαι," +and the relations of the +"αἰγίδος ἡνίοχος Ἀθάνα," +with the clouds as the moon's messengers, in Aristophanes; and note of Hermes generally, that you +never find him flying as a Victory flies, but always, if moving fast at +all, <i>clambering</i> along, as it were, as a cloud gathers and heaps +itself: the Gorgons stretch and stride in their flight, half kneeling, +for the same reason, running or gliding shapelessly along in this +stealthy way.)</p> + + +<p>157. And now take this last illustration, of a very different kind. Here +is an effect of morning light by Turner (S. 301),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> on the rocks of +Otley-hill, near Leeds, drawn long ago, when Apollo, and Artemis, and +Athena, still sometimes were seen, and felt, even near Leeds. The +original drawing is one of the great Farnley series, and entirely +beautiful. I have shown, in the last volume of "Modern Painters," how +well Turner knew the meaning of Greek legends:—he was not thinking of +them, however, when he made this design; but, unintentionally, has given +us the very effect of morning light we want: the glittering of the +sunshine on dewy grass, half dark; and the narrow gleam of it on the +sides and head of the stag and hind.</p> + + +<p>158. These few instances will be enough to show you how we may read in +the early art of the Greeks their strong impressions of the power of +light. You will find the subject entered into at somewhat greater length +in my "Queen of the Air;" and if you will look at the beginning of the +7th book of Plato's "Polity," and read carefully the passages in the +context respecting the sun and intellectual sight, you will see how +intimately this physical love of light was connected with their +philosophy, in its search, as blind and captive, for better knowledge. I +shall not attempt to define for you to-day the more complex but much +shallower forms which this love of light, and the philosophy that +accompanies it, take in the mediæval mind; only remember that in future, +when I briefly speak of the Greek school of art with reference to +questions of delineation, I mean the entire range of the schools, from +Homer's days to our own, which concern themselves with the +representation of light, and the effects it produces on material +form—beginning practically for us with these Greek vase paintings, and +closing practically for us with Turner's sunset on the Temeraire; being +throughout a school of captivity and sadness, but of intense power; and +which in its technical method of shadow on material form, as well as in +its essential temper, is centrally represented to you by Dürer's two +great engravings of the "Melencolia" and the "Knight and Death." On the +other hand, when I briefly speak to you of the Gothic school, with +reference to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> delineation, I mean the entire and much more extensive +range of schools extending from the earliest art in Central Asia and +Egypt down to our own day in India and China:—schools which have been +content to obtain beautiful harmonies of colour without any +representation of light; and which have, many of them, rested in such +imperfect expressions of form as could be so obtained; schools usually +in some measure childish, or restricted in intellect, and similarly +childish or restricted in their philosophies or faiths: but contented in +the restriction; and in the more powerful races, capable of advance to +nobler development than the Greek schools, though the consummate art of +Europe has only been accomplished by the union of both. How that union +was effected, I will endeavour to show you in my next lecture; to-day I +shall take note only of the points bearing on our immediate practice.</p> + + +<p>159. A certain number of you, by faculty and natural disposition,—and +all, so far as you are interested in modern art,—will necessarily have +to put yourselves under the discipline of the Greek or chiaroscuro +school, which is directed primarily to the attainment of the power of +representing form by pure contrast of light and shade. I say, the +"discipline" of the Greek school, both because, followed faithfully, it +is indeed a severe one, and because to follow it at all is, for persons +fond of colour, often a course of painful self-denial, from which young +students are eager to escape. And yet, when the laws of both schools are +rightly obeyed, the most perfect discipline is that of the colourists; +for they see and draw <i>everything</i>, while the chiaroscurists must leave +much indeterminate in mystery, or invisible in gloom: and there are +therefore many licentious and vulgar forms of art connected with the +chiaroscuro school, both in painting and etching, which have no parallel +among the colourists. But both schools, rightly followed, require first +of all absolute accuracy of delineation. <i>This</i> you need not hope to +escape. Whether you fill your spaces with colours, or with shadows, they +must equally be of the true outline and in true grada<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>tions. I have been +thirty years telling modern students of art this in vain. I mean to say +it to you only once, for the statement is too important to be weakened +by repetition.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Without perfect delineation of form and perfect gradation of space, +neither noble colour is possible, nor noble light</span>.</p> + + +<p>160. It may make this more believable to you if I put beside each other +a piece of detail from each school. I gave you the St. John of Cima da +Conegliano for a type of the colour school. Here is my own study of the +sprays of oak which rise against the sky of it in the distance, enlarged +to about its real size (Edu. 12). I hope to draw it better for you at +Venice; but this will show you with what perfect care the colourist has +followed the outline of every leaf in the sky. Beside, I put a +chiaroscurist drawing (at least, a photograph of one), Dürer's from +nature, of the common wild wall-cabbage (Edu. 32). It is the most +perfect piece of delineation by flat tint I have ever seen, in its +mastery of the perspective of every leaf, and its attainment almost of +the bloom of texture, merely by its exquisitely tender and decisive +laying of the colour. These two examples ought, I think, to satisfy you +as to the precision of outline of both schools, and the power of +expression which may be obtained by flat tints laid within such outline.</p> + + +<p>161. Next, here are two examples of the gradated shading expressive of +the forms within the outline, by two masters of the chiaroscuro school. +The first (S. 12) shows you Lionardo's method of work, both with chalk +and the silver point. The second (S. 302), Turner's work in mezzotint; +both masters doing their best. Observe that this plate of Turner's, +which he worked on so long that it was never published, is of a subject +peculiarly depending on effects of mystery and concealment, the fall of +the Reuss under the Devil's Bridge on the St. Gothard; (the <i>old</i> +bridge; you may still see it under the existing one, which was built +since Turner's drawing was made). If ever outline could be dispensed +with, you would think it might be so in this confusion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> of cloud, foam, +and darkness. But here is Turner's own etching on the plate (Edu. 35 F), +made under the mezzotint; and of all the studies of rock outline made by +his hand, it is the most decisive and quietly complete.</p> + + +<p>162. Again; in the Lionardo sketches, many parts are lost in obscurity, +or are left intentionally uncertain and mysterious, even in the light, +and you might at first imagine some permission of escape had been here +given you from the terrible law of delineation. But the slightest +attempts to copy them will show you that the terminal lines are +inimitably subtle, unaccusably true, and filled by gradations of shade +so determined and measured that the addition of a grain of the lead or +chalk as large as the filament of a moth's wing, would make an +appreciable difference in them.</p> + +<p>This is grievous, you think, and hopeless? No, it is delightful and full +of hope: delightful, to see what marvellous things can be done by men; +and full of hope, if your hope is the right one, of being one day able +to rejoice more in what others have done, than in what you can yourself +do, and more in the strength that is for ever above you, than in that +you can never attain.</p> + + +<p>163. But you can attain much, if you will work reverently and patiently, +and hope for no success through ill-regulated effort. It is, however, +most assuredly at this point of your study that the full strain on your +patience will begin. The exercises in line-drawing and flat laying of +colour are irksome; but they are definite, and within certain limits, +sure to be successful if practised with moderate care. But the +expression of form by shadow requires more subtle patience, and involves +the necessity of frequent and mortifying failure, not to speak of the +self-denial which I said was needful in persons fond of colour, to draw +in mere light and shade. If, indeed, you were going to be artists, or +could give any great length of time to study, it might be possible for +you to learn wholly in the Venetian school, and to reach form through +colour. But without the most intense application this is not possible; +and practically, it will be necessary for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> you, as soon as you have +gained the power of outlining accurately, and of laying flat colour, to +learn to express solid form as shown by light and shade only. And there +is this great advantage in doing so, that many forms are more or less +disguised by colour, and that we can only represent them completely to +others, or rapidly and easily record them for ourselves, by the use of +shade alone. A single instance will show you what I mean. Perhaps there +are few flowers of which the impression on the eye is more definitely of +flat colour, than the scarlet geranium. But you would find, if you were +to try to paint it,—first, that no pigment could approach the beauty of +its scarlet; and secondly, that the brightness of the hue dazzled the +eye, and prevented its following the real arrangement of the cluster of +flowers. I have drawn for you here (at least this is a mezzotint from my +drawing), a single cluster of the scarlet geranium, in mere light and +shade (Edu. 32 B.), and I think you will feel that its domed form, and +the flat lying of the petals one over the other, in the vaulted roof of +it, can be seen better thus than if they had been painted scarlet.</p> + + +<p>164. Also this study will be useful to you, in showing how entirely +effects of light depend on delineation, and gradation of spaces, and not +on methods of shading. And this is the second great practical matter I +want you to remember to-day. All effects of light and shade depend not +on the method or execution of shadows, but on their rightness of place, +form, and depth. There is indeed a loveliness of execution <i>added</i> to +the rightness, by the great masters, but you cannot obtain that unless +you become one of them. Shadow cannot be laid thoroughly well, any more +than lines can be drawn steadily, but by a long-practised hand, and the +attempts to imitate the shading of fine draughtsmen, by dotting and +hatching, are just as ridiculous as it would be to endeavour to imitate +their instantaneous lines by a series of re-touchings. You will often +indeed see in Lionardo's work, and in Michael Angelo's, shadow wrought +laboriously to an extreme of fineness; but when you look into it, you +will find that they have always been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> drawing more and more form within +the space, and never finishing for the sake of added texture, but of +added fact. And all those effects of transparency and reflected light, +aimed at in common chalk drawings, are wholly spurious. For since, as I +told you, all lights are shades compared to higher lights, and lights +only as compared to lower ones, it follows that there can be no +difference in their quality as such; but that light is opaque when it +expresses substance, and transparent when it expresses space; and shade +is also opaque when it expresses substance, and transparent when it +expresses space. But it is not, even then, transparent in the common +sense of that word; nor is its appearance to be obtained by dotting or +cross hatching, but by touches so tender as to look like mist. And now +we find the use of having Lionardo for our guide. He is supreme in all +questions of execution, and in his 28th chapter, you will find that +shadows are to be "dolce e sfumose," to be tender, and look as if they +were exhaled, or breathed on the paper. Then, look at any of Michael +Angelo's finished drawings, or of Correggio's sketches, and you will see +that the true nurse of light is in art, as in nature, the cloud; a misty +and tender darkness, made lovely by gradation.</p> + + +<p>165. And how absolutely independent it is of material or method of +production, how absolutely dependent on rightness of place and +depth,—there are now before you instances enough to prove. Here is +Dürer's work in flat colour, represented by the photograph in its smoky +brown; Turner's, in washed sepia, and in mezzotint; Lionardo's, in +pencil and in chalk; on the screen in front of you a large study in +charcoal. In every one of these drawings, the material of shadow is +absolutely opaque. But photograph-stain, chalk, lead, ink, or +charcoal,—every one of them, laid by the master's hand, becomes full of +light by gradation only. Here is a moonlight (Edu. 31 B.), in which you +would think the moon shone through every cloud; yet the clouds are mere +single dashes of sepia, imitated by the brown stain of a photograph; +similarly, in these plates from the Liber Studiorum the white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> paper +becomes transparent or opaque, exactly as the master chooses. Here, on +the granite rock of the St. Gothard (S. 302), in white paper made +opaque, every light represents solid bosses of rock, or balls of foam. +But in this study of twilight (S. 303), the same white paper (coarse old +stuff it is, too!) is made as transparent as crystal, and every fragment +of it represents clear and far away light in the sky of evening in +Italy.</p> + +<p>From all which the practical conclusion for you is, that you are never +to trouble yourselves with any questions as to the means of shade or +light, but only with the right government of the means at your disposal. +And it is a most grave error in the system of many of our public +drawing-schools, that the students are permitted to spend weeks of +labour in giving attractive appearance, by delicacy of texture, to +chiaroscuro drawings in which every form is false, and every relation of +depth, untrue. A most unhappy form of error; for it not only delays, and +often wholly arrests, their advance in their own art; but it prevents +what ought to take place correlatively with their executive practice, +the formation of their taste by the accurate study of the models from +which they draw. And I must so far anticipate what we shall discover +when we come to the subject of sculpture, as to tell you the two main +principles of good sculpture; first, that its masters think before all +other matters of the right placing of masses; secondly, that they give +life by flexure of surface, not by quantity of detail; for sculpture is +indeed only light and shade drawing in stone.</p> + + +<p>166. Much that I have endeavoured to teach on this subject has been +gravely misunderstood, by both young painters and sculptors, especially +by the latter. Because I am always urging them to imitate organic forms, +they think if they carve quantities of flowers and leaves, and copy them +from the life, they have done all that is needed. But the difficulty is +not to carve quantities of leaves. Anybody can do that. The difficulty +is, never anywhere to have an <i>unnecessary</i> leaf. Over the arch on the +right, you see there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> a cluster of seven, with their short stalks +springing from a thick stem. Now, you could not turn one of those leaves +a hair's-breadth out of its place, nor thicken one of their stems, nor +alter the angle at which each slips over the next one, without spoiling +the whole as much as you would a piece of melody by missing a note. That +is disposition of masses. Again, in the group on the left, while the +placing of every leaf is just as skilful, they are made more interesting +yet by the lovely undulation of their surfaces, so that not one of them +is in equal light with another. And that is so in all good sculpture, +without exception. From the Elgin marbles down to the lightest tendril +that curls round a capital in the thirteenth century, every piece of +stone that has been touched by the hand of a master, becomes soft with +under-life, not resembling nature merely in skin-texture, nor in fibres +of leaf, or veins of flesh; but in the broad, tender, unspeakably subtle +undulation of its organic form.</p> + + +<p>167. Returning then to the question of our own practice, I believe that +all difficulties in method will vanish, if only you cultivate with care +enough the habit of accurate observation, and if you think only of +making your light and shade true, whether it be delicate or not. But +there are three divisions or degrees of truth to be sought for, in light +and shade, by three several modes of study, which I must ask you to +distinguish carefully.</p> + +<p>I. When objects are lighted by the direct rays of the sun, or by direct +light entering from a window, one side of them is of course in light, +the other in shade, and the forms in the mass are exhibited +systematically by the force of the rays falling on it; (those having +most power of illumination which strike most vertically;) and note that +there is, therefore, to every solid curvature of surface, a necessarily +proportioned gradation of light, the gradation on a parabolic solid +being different from the gradation on an elliptical or spherical one. +Now, when your purpose is to represent and learn the anatomy, or +otherwise characteristic forms, of any object, it is best to place it in +this kind of direct light, and to draw it as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> it is seen when we look at +it in a direction at right angles to that of the ray. This is the +ordinary academical way of studying form. Lionardo seldom practises any +other in his real work, though he directs many others in his treatise.</p> + + +<p>168. The great importance of anatomical knowledge to the painters of the +sixteenth century rendered this method of study very frequent with them; +it almost wholly regulated their schools of engraving, and has been the +most frequent system of drawing in art-schools since (to the very +inexpedient exclusion of others). When you study objects in this +way,—and it will indeed be well to do so often, though not +exclusively,—observe always one main principle. Divide the light from +the darkness frankly at first: all over the subject let there be no +doubt which is which. Separate them one from the other as they are +separated in the moon, or on the world itself, in day and night. Then +gradate your lights with the utmost subtilty possible to you; but let +your shadows alone, until near the termination of the drawing: then put +quickly into them what farther energy they need, thus gaining the +reflected lights out of their original flat gloom; but generally not +looking much for reflected lights. Nearly all young students (and too +many advanced masters) exaggerate them. It is good to see a drawing come +out of its ground like a vision of light only; the shadows lost, or +disregarded in the vague of space. In vulgar chiaroscuro the shades are +so full of reflection that they look as if some one had been walking +round the object with a candle, and the student, by that help, peering +into its crannies.</p> + + +<p>169. II. But, in the reality of nature, very few objects are seen in +this accurately lateral manner, or lighted by unconfused direct rays. +Some are all in shadow, some all in light, some near, and vigorously +defined; others dim and faint in aerial distance. The study of these +various effects and forces of light, which we may call aerial +chiaroscuro, is a far more subtle one than that of the rays exhibiting +organic form (which for distinction's sake we may call "formal" +chiaroscuro), since the degrees of light from the sun itself to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +blackness of night, are far beyond any literal imitation. In order to +produce a mental impression of the facts, two distinct methods may be +followed:—the first, to shade downwards from the lights, making +everything darker in due proportion, until the scale of our power being +ended, the mass of the picture is lost in shade. The second, to assume +the points of extreme darkness for a basis, and to light everything +above these in due proportion, till the mass of the picture is lost in +light.</p> + + +<p>170. Thus, in Turner's sepia drawing "Isis" (Edu. 31), he begins with +the extreme light in the sky, and shades down from that till he is +forced to represent the near trees and pool as one mass of blackness. In +his drawing of the Greta (S. 2), he begins with the dark brown shadow of +the bank on the left, and illuminates up from that, till, in his +distance, trees, hills, sky, and clouds, are all lost in broad light, so +that you can hardly see the distinction between hills and sky. The +second of these methods is in general the best for colour, though great +painters unite both in their practice, according to the character of +their subject. The first method is never pursued in colour but by +inferior painters. It is, nevertheless, of great importance to make +studies of chiaroscuro in this first manner for some time, as a +preparation for colouring; and this for many reasons, which it would +take too long to state now. I shall expect you to have confidence in me +when I assure you of the necessity of this study, and ask you to make +good use of the examples from the Liber Studiorum which I have placed in +your Educational series.</p> + + +<p>171. III. Whether in formal or aerial chiaroscuro, it is optional with +the student to make the local colour of objects a part of his shadow, or +to consider the high lights of every colour as white. For instance, a +chiaroscurist of Lionardo's school, drawing a leopard, would take no +notice whatever of the spots, but only give the shadows which expressed +the anatomy. And it is indeed necessary to be able to do this, and to +make drawings of the forms of things as if they were sculptured, and had +no colour. But in general, and more es<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>pecially in the practice which is +to guide you to colour, it is better to regard the local colour as part +of the general dark and light to be imitated; and, as I told you at +first, to consider all nature merely as a mosaic of different colours, +to be imitated one by one in simplicity. But good artists vary their +methods according to their subject and material. In general, Dürer takes +little account of local colour; but in woodcuts of armorial bearings +(one with peacock's feathers I shall get for you some day) takes great +delight in it; while one of the chief merits of Bewick is the ease and +vigour with which he uses his black and white for the colours of plumes. +Also, every great artist looks for, and expresses, that character of his +subject which is best to be rendered by the instrument in his hand, and +the material he works on. Give Velasquez or Veronese a leopard to paint, +the first thing they think of will be its spots; give it to Dürer to +engrave, and he will set himself at the fur and whiskers; give it a +Greek to carve, and he will only think of its jaws and limbs; each doing +what is absolutely best with the means at his disposal.</p> + + +<p>172. The details of practice in these various methods I will endeavour +to explain to you by distinct examples in your Educational series, as we +proceed in our work; for the present, let me, in closing, recommend to +you once more with great earnestness the patient endeavour to render the +chiaroscuro of landscape in the manner of the Liber Studiorum; and this +the rather, because you might easily suppose that the facility of +obtaining photographs which render such effects, as it seems, with +absolute truth and with unapproachable subtilty, superseded the +necessity of study, and the use of sketching. Let me assure you, once +for all, that photographs supersede no single quality nor use of fine +art, and have so much in common with Nature, that they even share her +temper of parsimony, and will themselves give you nothing valuable that +you do not work for. They supersede no good art, for the definition of +art is "human labour regulated by human design," and this design, or +evidence of active intel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>lect in choice and arrangement, is the +essential part of the work; which so long as you cannot perceive, you +perceive no art whatsoever; which when once you do perceive, you will +perceive also to be replaceable by no mechanism. But, farther, +photographs will give you nothing you do not work for. They are +invaluable for record of some kinds of facts, and for giving transcripts +of drawings by great masters; but neither in the photographed scene, nor +photographed drawing, will you see any true good, more than in the +things themselves, until you have given the appointed price in your own +attention and toil. And when once you have paid this price, you will not +care for photographs of landscape. They are not true, though they seem +so. They are merely spoiled nature. If it is not human design you are +looking for, there is more beauty in the next wayside bank than in all +the sun-blackened paper you could collect in a lifetime. Go and look at +the real landscape, and take care of it; do not think you can get the +good of it in a black stain portable in a folio. But if you care for +human thought and passion, then learn yourselves to watch the course and +fall of the light by whose influence you live, and to share in the joy +of human spirits in the heavenly gifts of sunbeam and shade. For I tell +you truly, that to a quiet heart, and healthy brain, and industrious +hand, there is more delight, and use, in the dappling of one wood-glade +with flowers and sunshine, than to the restless, heartless, and idle +could be brought by a panorama of a belt of the world, photographed +round the equator.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LECTURE_VII" id="LECTURE_VII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">LECTURE VII</a></h2> + +<h3>COLOUR</h3> + + +<p>173. To-day I must try to complete our elementary sketch of schools of +art, by tracing the course of those which were distinguished by faculty +of colour, and afterwards to deduce from the entire scheme advisable +methods of immediate practice.</p> + +<p>You remember that, for the type of the early schools of colour, I chose +their work in glass; as for that of the early schools of chiaroscuro, I +chose their work in clay.</p> + +<p>I had two reasons for this. First, that the peculiar skill of colourists +is seen most intelligibly in their work in glass or in enamel; secondly, +that Nature herself produces all her loveliest colours in some kind of +solid or liquid glass or crystal. The rainbow is painted on a shower of +melted glass, and the colours of the opal are produced in vitreous flint +mixed with water; the green and blue, and golden or amber brown of +flowing water is in surface glassy, and in motion "splendidior vitro." +And the loveliest colours ever granted to human sight—those of morning +and evening clouds before or after rain—are produced on minute +particles of finely-divided water, or perhaps sometimes ice. But more +than this. If you examine with a lens some of the richest colours of +flowers, as, for instance, those of the gentian and dianthus, you will +find their texture is produced by a crystalline or sugary frost-work +upon them. In the lychnis of the high Alps, the red and white have a +kind of sugary bloom, as rich as it is delicate. It is indescribable; +but if you can fancy very powdery and crystalline snow mixed with the +softest cream, and then dashed with carmine, it may give you some idea +of the look of it. There are no colours, either in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> nacre of shells, +or the plumes of birds and insects, which are so pure as those of +clouds, opal, or flowers; but the <i>force</i> of purple and blue in some +butterflies, and the methods of clouding, and strength of burnished +lustre, in plumage like the peacock's, give them more universal +interest; in some birds, also, as in our own kingfisher, the colour +nearly reaches a floral preciousness. The lustre in most, however, is +metallic rather than vitreous; and the vitreous always gives the purest +hue. Entirely common and vulgar compared with these, yet to be noticed +as completing the crystalline or vitreous system, we have the colours of +gems. The green of the emerald is the best of these; but at its best is +as vulgar as house-painting beside the green of bird's plumage or of +clear water. No diamond shows colour so pure as a dewdrop; the ruby is +like the pink of an ill-dyed and half-washed-out print, compared to the +dianthus; and the carbuncle is usually quite dead unless set with a +foil, and even then is not prettier than the seed of a pomegranate. The +opal is, however, an exception. When pure and uncut in its native rock, +it presents the most lovely colours that can be seen in the world, +except those of clouds.</p> + +<p>We have thus in nature, chiefly obtained by crystalline conditions, a +series of groups of entirely delicious hues; and it is one of the best +signs that the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see these +clearly in their most delicate tints, and enjoy them fully and simply, +with the kind of enjoyment that children have in eating sweet things.</p> + + +<p>174. Now, the course of our main colour schools is briefly this:—First +we have, returning to our hexagonal scheme, line; then <i>spaces</i> filled +with pure colour; and then <i>masses</i> expressed or rounded with pure +colour. And during these two stages the masters of colour delight in the +purest tints, and endeavour as far as possible to rival those of opals +and flowers. In saying "the purest tints," I do not mean the simplest +types of red, blue, and yellow, but the most pure tints obtainable by +their combinations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + + +<p>175. You remember I told you, when the colourists painted masses or +projecting spaces, they, aiming always at colour, perceived from the +first and held to the last the fact that shadows, though of course +darker than the lights with reference to which they <i>are</i> shadows, are +not therefore necessarily less vigorous colours, but perhaps more +vigorous. Some of the most beautiful blues and purples in nature, for +instance, are those of mountains in shadow against amber sky; and the +darkness of the hollow in the centre of a wild rose is one glow of +orange fire, owing to the quantity of its yellow stamens. Well, the +Venetians always saw this, and all great colourists see it, and are thus +separated from the non-colourists or schools of mere chiaroscuro, not by +difference in style merely, but by being right while the others are +wrong. It is an absolute fact that shadows are as much colours as lights +are; and whoever represents them by merely the subdued or darkened tint +of the light, represents them falsely. I particularly want you to +observe that this is no matter of taste, but fact. If you are especially +sober-minded, you may indeed choose sober colours where Venetians would +have chosen gay ones; that is a matter of taste; you may think it proper +for a hero to wear a dress without patterns on it, rather than an +embroidered one; that is similarly a matter of taste: but, though you +may also think it would be dignified for a hero's limbs to be all black, +or brown, on the shaded side of them, yet, if you are using colour at +all, you cannot so have him to your mind, except by falsehood; he never, +under any circumstances, could be entirely black or brown on one side of +him.</p> + + +<p>176. In this, then, the Venetians are separate from other schools by +rightness, and they are so to their last days. Venetian painting is in +this matter always right. But also, in their early days, the colourists +are separated from other schools by their contentment with tranquil +cheerfulness of light: by their never wanting to be dazzled. None of +their lights are flashing or blinding; they are soft, winning, precious; +lights of pearl, not of lime: only, you know, on this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> condition they +cannot have sunshine: their day is the day of Paradise; they need no +candle, neither light of the sun, in their cities; and everything is +seen clear, as through crystal, far or near.</p> + +<p>This holds to the end of the fifteenth century. Then they begin to see +that this, beautiful as it may be, is still a make-believe light; that +we do not live in the inside of a pearl; but in an atmosphere through +which a burning sun shines thwartedly, and over which a sorrowful night +must far prevail. And then the chiaroscurists succeed in persuading them +of the fact that there is a mystery in the day as in the night, and show +them how constantly to see truly, is to see dimly. And also they teach +them the brilliancy of light, and the degree in which it is raised from +the darkness; and instead of their sweet and pearly peace, tempt them to +look for the strength of flame and coruscation of lightning, and flash +of sunshine on armour and on points of spears.</p> + + +<p>177. The noble painters take the lesson nobly, alike for gloom or flame. +Titian with deliberate strength, Tintoret with stormy passion, read it, +side by side. Titian deepens the hues of his Assumption, as of his +Entombment, into a solemn twilight; Tintoret involves his earth in coils +of volcanic cloud, and withdraws, through circle flaming above circle, +the distant light of Paradise. Both of them, becoming naturalist and +human, add the veracity of Holbein's intense portraiture to the glow and +dignity they had themselves inherited from the Masters of Peace: at the +same moment another, as strong as they, and in pure felicity of +art-faculty, even greater than they, but trained in a lower +school,—Velasquez,—produced the miracles of colour and +shadow-painting, which made Reynolds say of him, "What we all do with +labour, he does with ease;" and one more, Correggio, uniting the sensual +element of the Greek schools with their gloom, and their light with +their beauty, and all these with the Lombardic colour, became, as since +I think it has been admitted without question, the captain of the +painter's art as such. Other men have nobler or more numerous gifts, but +as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> painter, master of the art of laying colour so as to be lovely, +Correggio is alone.</p> + + +<p>178. I said the noble men learned their lesson nobly. The base men also, +and necessarily, learn it basely. The great men rise from colour to +sunlight. The base ones fall from colour to candlelight. To-day, "non +ragioniam di lor," but let us see what this great change which perfects +the art of painting mainly consists in, and means. For though we are +only at present speaking of technical matters, every one of them, I can +scarcely too often repeat, is the outcome and sign of a mental +character, and you can only understand the folds of the veil, by those +of the form it veils.</p> + + +<p>179. The complete painters, we find, have brought dimness and mystery +into their method of colouring. That means that the world all round them +has resolved to dream, or to believe, no more; but to know, and to see. +And instantly all knowledge and sight are given, no more as in the +Gothic times, through a window of glass, brightly, but as through a +telescope-glass, darkly. Your cathedral window shut you from the true +sky, and illumined you with a vision; your telescope leads you to the +sky, but darkens its light, and reveals nebula beyond nebula, far and +farther, and to no conceivable farthest—unresolvable. That is what the +mystery means.</p> + + +<p>180. Next, what does that Greek opposition of black and white mean?</p> + +<p>In the sweet crystalline time of colour, the painters, whether on glass +or canvas, employed intricate patterns, in order to mingle hues +beautifully with each other, and make one perfect melody of them all. +But in the great naturalist school, they like their patterns to come in +the Greek way, dashed dark on light,—gleaming light out of dark. That +means also that the world round them has again returned to the Greek +conviction, that all nature, especially human nature, is not entirely +melodious nor luminous; but a barred and broken thing: that saints have +their foibles, sinners their forces; that the most luminous virtue is +often only a flash,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> and the blackest-looking fault is sometimes only a +stain: and, without confusing in the least black with white, they can +forgive, or even take delight in things that are like the +νεβρίς, dappled.</p> + + +<p>181. You have then—first, mystery. Secondly, opposition of dark and +light. Then, lastly, whatever truth of form the dark and light can show.</p> + +<p>That is to say, truth altogether, and resignation to it, and quiet +resolve to make the best of it. And therefore portraiture of living men, +women, and children,—no more of saints, cherubs, or demons. So here I +have brought for your standards of perfect art, a little maiden of the +Strozzi family, with her dog, by Titian; and a little princess of the +house of Savoy, by Vandyke; and Charles the Fifth, by Titian; and a +queen, by Velasquez; and an English girl in a brocaded gown, by +Reynolds; and an English physician in his plain coat, and wig, by +Reynolds: and if you do not like them, I cannot help myself, for I can +find nothing better for you.</p> + + +<p>182. Better?—I must pause at the word. Nothing stronger, certainly, nor +so strong. Nothing so wonderful, so inimitable, so keen in unprejudiced +and unbiassed sight.</p> + +<p>Yet better, perhaps, the sight that was guided by a sacred will; the +power that could be taught to weaker hands; the work that was faultless, +though not inimitable, bright with felicity of heart, and consummate in +a disciplined and companionable skill. You will find, when I can place +in your hands the notes on Verona, which I read at the Royal +Institution, that I have ventured to call the æra of painting +represented by John Bellini, the time "of the Masters." Truly they +deserved the name, who did nothing but what was lovely, and taught only +what was right. These mightier, who succeeded them, crowned, but closed, +the dynasties of art, and since their day, painting has never flourished +more.</p> + + +<p>183. There were many reasons for this, without fault of theirs. They +were exponents, in the first place, of the change in all men's minds +from civil and religious to merely domestic passion; the love of their +gods and their country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> had contracted itself now into that of their +domestic circle, which was little more than the halo of themselves. You +will see the reflection of this change in painting at once by comparing +the two Madonnas (S. 37, John Bellini's, and Raphael's, called "della +Seggiola"). Bellini's Madonna cares for all creatures through her child; +Raphael's, for her child only.</p> + +<p>Again, the world round these painters had become sad and proud, instead +of happy and humble;—its domestic peace was darkened by irreligion, its +national action fevered by pride. And for sign of its Love, the Hymen, +whose statue this fair English girl, according to Reynolds' thought, has +to decorate (S. 43), is blind, and holds a coronet.</p> + +<p>Again, in the splendid power of realisation, which these greatest of +artists had reached, there was the latent possibility of amusement by +deception, and of excitement by sensualism. And Dutch trickeries of base +resemblance, and French fancies of insidious beauty, soon occupied the +eyes of the populace of Europe, too restless and wretched now to care +for the sweet earth-berries and Madonna's ivy of Cima, and too ignoble +to perceive Titian's colour, or Correggio's shade.</p> + + +<p>184. Enough sources of evil were here, in the temper and power of the +consummate art. In its practical methods there was another, the +fatallest of all. These great artists brought with them mystery, +despondency, domesticity, sensuality: of all these, good came, as well +as evil. One thing more they brought, of which nothing but evil ever +comes, or can come—<span class="smcap">Liberty</span>.</p> + +<p>By the discipline of five hundred years they had learned and inherited +such power, that whereas all former painters could be right only by +effort, they could be right with ease; and whereas all former painters +could be right only under restraint, they could be right, free. +Tintoret's touch, Luini's, Correggio's, Reynolds', and Velasquez's, are +all as free as the air, and yet right. "How very fine!" said everybody. +Unquestionably, very fine. Next, said every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>body, "What a grand +discovery! Here is the finest work ever done, and it is quite free. Let +us all be free then, and what fine things shall we not do also!" With +what results we too well know.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, remember you are to delight in the freedom won by these +mighty men through obedience, though you are not to covet it. Obey, and +you also shall be free in time; but in these minor things, as well as in +great, it is only right service which is perfect freedom.</p> + + +<p>185. This, broadly, is the history of the early and late colour-schools. +The first of these I shall call generally, henceforward, the school of +crystal; the other that of clay: potter's clay, or human, are too +sorrowfully the same, as far as art is concerned. But remember, in +practice, you cannot follow both these schools; you must distinctly +adopt the principles of one or the other. I will put the means of +following either within your reach; and according to your dispositions +you will choose one or the other: all I have to guard you against is the +mistake of thinking you can unite the two. If you want to paint (even in +the most distant and feeble way) in the Greek School, the school of +Lionardo, Correggio, and Turner, you cannot design coloured windows, nor +Angelican paradises. If, on the other hand, you choose to live in the +peace of paradise, you cannot share in the gloomy triumphs of the earth.</p> + + +<p>186. And, incidentally note, as a practical matter of immediate +importance, that painted windows have nothing to do with +chiaroscuro.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The virtue of glass is to be transparent everywhere. If +you care to build a palace of jewels, painted glass is richer than all +the treasures of Aladdin's lamp; but if you like pictures better than +jewels, you must come into broad daylight to paint them. A picture in +coloured glass is one of the most vulgar of barbarisms, and only fit to +be ranked with the gauze transparencies and chemical illuminations of +the sensational stage.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<p>Also, put out of your minds at once all question about difficulty of +getting colour; in glass we have all the colours that are wanted, only +we do not know either how to choose, or how to connect them; and we are +always trying to get them bright, when their real virtues are to be +deep, mysterious, and subdued. We will have a thorough study of painted +glass soon: mean while I merely give you a type of its perfect style, in +two windows from Chalons-sur-Marne (S. 141).</p> + + +<p>187. But for my own part, with what poor gift and skill is in me, I +belong wholly to the chiaroscurist school; and shall teach you therefore +chiefly that which I am best able to teach: and the rather, that it is +only in this school that you can follow out the study either of natural +history or landscape. The form of a wild animal, or the wrath of a +mountain torrent, would both be revolting (or in a certain sense +invisible) to the calm fantasy of a painter in the schools of crystal. +He must lay his lion asleep in St. Jerome's study beside his tame +partridge and easy slippers; lead the appeased river by alternate azure +promontories, and restrain its courtly little streamlets with margins of +marble. But, on the other hand, your studies of mythology and literature +may best be connected with these schools of purest and calmest +imagination; and their discipline will be useful to you in yet another +direction, and that a very important one. It will teach you to take +delight in little things, and develop in you the joy which all men +should feel in purity and order, not only in pictures but in reality. +For, indeed, the best art of this school of fantasy may at last be in +reality, and the chiaroscurists, true in ideal, may be less helpful in +act. We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, but we may turn every +English homestead, if we choose, into a picture by Cima or John Bellini, +which shall be "no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life +indeed."</p> + + +<p>188. For the present, however, and yet for some little time during your +progress, you will not have to choose your school. For both, as we have +seen, begin in delineation, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> both proceed by filling flat spaces +with an even tint. And therefore this following will be the course of +work for you, founded on all that we have seen.</p> + +<p>Having learned to measure, and draw a pen line with some steadiness (the +geometrical exercises for this purpose being properly school, not +University work), you shall have a series of studies from the plants +which are of chief importance in the history of art; first from their +real forms, and then from the conventional and heraldic expressions of +them; then we will take examples of the filling of ornamental forms with +flat colour in Egyptian, Greek, and Gothic design; and then we will +advance to animal forms treated in the same severe way, and so to the +patterns and colour designs on animals themselves. And when we are sure +of our firmness of hand and accuracy of eye, we will go on into light +and shade.</p> + + +<p>189. In process of time, this series of exercises will, I hope, be +sufficiently complete and systematic to show its purpose at a glance. +But during the present year, I shall content myself with placing a few +examples of these different kinds of practice in your rooms for work, +explaining in the catalogue the position they will ultimately occupy, +and the technical points of process into which it is useless to enter in +a general lecture. After a little time spent in copying these, your own +predilections must determine your future course of study; only remember, +whatever school you follow, it must be only to learn method, not to +imitate result, and to acquaint yourself with the minds of other men, +but not to adopt them as your own. Be assured that no good can come of +our work but as it arises simply out of our own true natures, and the +necessities of the time around us, though in many respects an evil one. +We live in an age of base conceit and baser servility—an age whose +intellect is chiefly formed by pillage, and occupied in desecration; one +day mimicking, the next destroying, the works of all the noble persons +who made its intellectual or art life possible to it:—an age without +honest confidence enough in itself to carve a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> cherry-stone with an +original fancy, but with insolence enough to abolish the solar system, +if it were allowed to meddle with it.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> In the midst of all this, you +have to become lowly and strong; to recognise the powers of others and +to fulfil your own. I shall try to bring before you every form of +ancient art, that you may read and profit by it, not imitate it. You +shall draw Egyptian kings dressed in colours like the rainbow, and Doric +gods, and Runic monsters, and Gothic monks—not that you may draw like +Egyptians or Norsemen, nor yield yourselves passively to be bound by the +devotion, or inspired by the passion of the past, but that you may know +truly what other men have felt during their poor span of life; and open +your own hearts to what the heavens and earth may have to tell you in +yours.</p> + + +<p>190. In closing this first course of lectures, I have one word more to +say respecting the possible consequence of the introduction of art among +the studies of the University. What art may do for scholarship, I have +no right to conjecture; but what scholarship may do for art, I may in +all modesty tell you. Hitherto, great artists, though always gentlemen, +have yet been too exclusively craftsmen. Art has been less thoughtful +than we suppose; it has taught much, but erred much, also. Many of the +greatest pictures are enigmas; others, beautiful toys; others, harmful +and corrupting enchantments. In the loveliest, there is something weak; +in the greatest, there is something guilty. And this, gentlemen, if you +will, is the new thing that may come to pass,—that the scholars of +England may resolve to teach also with the silent power of the arts; and +that some among you may so learn and use them, that pictures may be +painted which shall not be enigmas any more, but open teachings of what +can no otherwise be so well shown;—which shall not be fevered or broken +visions any more, but filled with the indwelling light of self-possessed +imagination;—which shall not be stained or enfeebled any more by evil +passion, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> glorious with the strength and chastity of noble human +love;—and which shall no more degrade or disguise the work of God in +heaven, but testify of Him as here dwelling with men, and walking with +them, not angry, in the garden of the earth.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The full meaning of this sentence, and of that which closes +the paragraph, can only be understood by reference to my more developed +statements on the subject of Education in "Modern Painters" and in "Time +and Tide." The following fourth paragraph is the most pregnant summary +of my political and social principles I have ever been able to give.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +"τἑχναι ἑπἱρρητοι," compare page 81.</p></div> +"τέχναι ἐπίρρητοι," +**************************************************************** +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> There were, in fact, a great many more girls than +University men at the lectures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Only the Gospels, "IV Evangelia," according to St. Jerome.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This concentrated definition of monastic life is of course +to be understood only of its more enthusiastic forms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Standard Series, No. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The meaning of the "Knight and Death," even in this +respect, has lately been questioned on good grounds.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> I have expunged a sentence insisting farther on this point, +having come to reverence more, as I grew older, every simple means of +stimulating all religious belief and affection. It is the lower and +realistic world which is fullest of false beliefs and vain loves.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> I am again doubtful, here. The most important part of the +chapter is from § 60 to end.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Virg., <i>Æn.</i>, iii. 209 <i>seqq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Osborne Gordon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See "Ariadne Florentina," § 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See Note in the Catalogue on No. 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> There is noble chiaroscuro in the variations of their +colour, but not as representative of solid form.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Every day these bitter words become more sorrowfully true +(September, 1887).</p></div></div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..556a3a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #19164 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19164) diff --git a/old/19164-8.txt b/old/19164-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d02ee53 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/19164-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5170 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Art, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lectures on Art + Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: September 3, 2006 [EBook #19164] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Transliteration of Greek words appears between + signs.] + + + + + Library Edition + +THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN + + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE + + TIME AND TIDE + + QUEEN OF THE AIR + + LECTURES ON ART AND LANDSCAPE + + ARATRA PENTELICI + + + NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION + NEW YORK CHICAGO + + *** + + LECTURES ON ART. + + DELIVERED + + BEFORE THE + + UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + + IN HILARY TERM, 1870. + + *** + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + LECTURE I. + +INAUGURAL 1 + + LECTURE II. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION 24 + + LECTURE III. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS 46 + + LECTURE IV. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE 66 + + LECTURE V. + +LINE 86 + + LECTURE VI. + +LIGHT 102 + + LECTURE VII. + +COLOUR 123 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1887. + + +The following lectures were the most important piece of my literary work +done with unabated power, best motive, and happiest concurrence of +circumstance. They were written and delivered while my mother yet lived, +and had vividest sympathy in all I was attempting;--while also my +friends put unbroken trust in me, and the course of study I had followed +seemed to fit me for the acceptance of noble tasks and graver +responsibilities than those only of a curious traveler, or casual +teacher. + +Men of the present world may smile at the sanguine utterances of the +first four lectures: but it has not been wholly my own fault that they +have remained unfulfilled; nor do I retract one word of hope for the +success of other masters, nor a single promise made to the sincerity of +the student's labor, on the lines here indicated. It would have been +necessary to my success, that I should have accepted permanent residence +in Oxford, and scattered none of my energy in other tasks. But I chose +to spend half my time at Coniston Waterhead; and to use half my force in +attempts to form a new social organization,--the St. George's +Guild,--which made all my Oxford colleagues distrustful of me, and many +of my Oxford hearers contemptuous. My mother's death in 1871, and that +of a dear friend in 1875, took away the personal joy I had in anything I +wrote or designed: and in 1876, feeling unable for Oxford duty, I +obtained a year's leave of rest, and, by the kind and wise counsel of +Prince Leopold, went to Venice, to reconsider the form into which I had +cast her history in the abstract of it given in the "Stones of Venice." + +The more true and close view of that history, begun in "St. Mark's +Rest," and the fresh architectural drawings made under the stimulus of +it, led me forward into new fields of thought, inconsistent with the +daily attendance needed by my Oxford classes; and in my discontent with +the state I saw them in, and my inability to return to their guidance +without abandonment of all my designs of Venetian and Italian history, +began the series of vexations which ended in the very nearly mortal +illness of 1878. + +Since, therefore, the period of my effective action in Oxford was only +from 1870 to 1875, it can scarcely be matter of surprise or reproof that +I could not in that time obtain general trust in a system of teaching +which, though founded on that of Da Vinci and Reynolds, was at variance +with the practice of all recent European academy schools; nor +establish--on the unassisted resources of the Slade Professorship--the +schools of Sculpture, Architecture, Metal-work, and manuscript +Illumination, of which the design is confidently traced in the four +inaugural lectures. + +In revising the book, I have indicated as in the last edition of the +"Seven Lamps," passages which the student will find generally +applicable, and in all their bearings useful, as distinguished from +those regarding only their immediate subject. The relative importance of +these broader statements, I again indicate by the use of capitals or +italics; and if the reader will index the sentences he finds useful for +his own work, in the blank pages left for that purpose at the close of +the volume, he will certainly get more good of them than if they had +been grouped for him according to the author's notion of their contents. + +SANDGATE, _10th January, 1888_. + + + + +LECTURES ON ART + + + + +LECTURE I + +INAUGURAL + + +1. The duty which is to-day laid on me, of introducing, among the +elements of education appointed in this great University, one not only +new, but such as to involve in its possible results some modification of +the rest, is, as you well feel, so grave, that no man could undertake it +without laying himself open to the imputation of a kind of insolence; +and no man could undertake it rightly, without being in danger of having +his hands shortened by dread of his task, and mistrust of himself. + +And it has chanced to me, of late, to be so little acquainted either +with pride or hope, that I can scarcely recover so much as I now need, +of the one for strength, and of the other for foresight, except by +remembering that noble persons, and friends of the high temper that +judges most clearly where it loves best, have desired that this trust +should be given me: and by resting also in the conviction that the +goodly tree whose roots, by God's help, we set in earth to-day, will not +fail of its height because the planting of it is under poor auspices, or +the first shoots of it enfeebled by ill gardening. + + +2. The munificence of the English gentleman to whom we owe the founding +of this Professorship at once in our three great Universities, has +accomplished the first great group of a series of changes now taking +gradual effect in our system of public education, which, as you well +know, are the sign of a vital change in the national mind, respecting +both the principles on which that education should be conducted, and the +ranks of society to which it should extend. For, whereas it was formerly +thought that the discipline necessary to form the character of youth was +best given in the study of abstract branches of literature and +philosophy, it is now thought that the same, or a better, discipline may +be given by informing men in early years of the things it will be of +chief practical advantage to them afterwards to know; and by permitting +to them the choice of any field of study which they may feel to be best +adapted to their personal dispositions. I have always used what poor +influence I possessed in advancing this change; nor can any one rejoice +more than I in its practical results. But the completion--I will not +venture to say, correction--of a system established by the highest +wisdom of noble ancestors, cannot be too reverently undertaken: and it +is necessary for the English people, who are sometimes violent in change +in proportion to the reluctance with which they admit its necessity, to +be now, oftener than at other times, reminded that the object of +instruction here is not primarily attainment, but discipline; and that a +youth is sent to our Universities, not (hitherto at least) to be +apprenticed to a trade, nor even always to be advanced in a profession; +but, always, to be made a gentleman and a scholar. + + +3. To be made these,--if there is in him the making of either. The +populaces of civilised countries have lately been under a feverish +impression that it is possible for all men to be both; and that having +once become, by passing through certain mechanical processes of +instruction, gentle and learned, they are sure to attain in the sequel +the consummate beatitude of being rich. + +Rich, in the way and measure in which it is well for them to be so, they +may, without doubt, _all_ become. There is indeed a land of Havilah open +to them, of which the wonderful sentence is literally true--"The gold of +_that_ land is good." But they must first understand, that education, in +its deepest sense, is not the equaliser, but the discerner, of men;[1] +and that, so far from being instruments for the collection of riches, +the first lesson of wisdom is to disdain them, and of gentleness, to +diffuse. + +[Footnote 1: The full meaning of this sentence, and of that which closes +the paragraph, can only be understood by reference to my more developed +statements on the subject of Education in "Modern Painters" and in "Time +and Tide." The following fourth paragraph is the most pregnant summary +of my political and social principles I have ever been able to give.] + +It is not therefore, as far as we can judge, yet possible for all men to +be gentlemen and scholars. Even under the best training some will remain +too selfish to refuse wealth, and some too dull to desire leisure. But +many more might be so than are now; nay, perhaps all men in England +might one day be so, if England truly desired her supremacy among the +nations to be in kindness and in learning. To which good end, it will +indeed contribute that we add some practice of the lower arts to our +scheme of University education; but the thing which is vitally necessary +is, that we should extend the spirit of University education to the +practice of the lower arts. + + +4. And, above all, it is needful that we do this by redeeming them from +their present pain of self-contempt, and by giving them _rest_. It has +been too long boasted as the pride of England, that out of a vast +multitude of men, confessed to be in evil case, it was possible for +individuals, by strenuous effort, and rare good fortune, occasionally to +emerge into the light, and look back with self-gratulatory scorn upon +the occupations of their parents, and the circumstances of their +infancy. Ought we not rather to aim at an ideal of national life, when, +of the employments of Englishmen, though each shall be distinct, none +shall be unhappy or ignoble; when mechanical operations, acknowledged to +be debasing in their tendency,[2] shall be deputed to less fortunate and +more covetous races; when advance from rank to rank, though possible to +all men, may be rather shunned than desired by the best; and the chief +object in the mind of every citizen may not be extrication from a +condition admitted to be disgraceful, but fulfilment of a duty which +shall be also a birthright? + +[Footnote 2: "+technai epirrêtoi+," compare page 81.] + + +5. And then, the training of all these distinct classes will not be by +Universities of general knowledge, but by distinct schools of such +knowledge as shall be most useful for every class: in which, first the +principles of their special business may be perfectly taught, and +whatever higher learning, and cultivation of the faculties for receiving +and giving pleasure, may be properly joined with that labour, taught in +connection with it. Thus, I do not despair of seeing a School of +Agriculture, with its fully-endowed institutes of zoology, botany, and +chemistry; and a School of Mercantile Seamanship, with its institutes of +astronomy, meteorology, and natural history of the sea: and, to name +only one of the finer, I do not say higher, arts, we shall, I hope, in a +little time, have a perfect school of Metal-work, at the head of which +will be, not the ironmasters, but the goldsmiths: and therein, I +believe, that artists, being taught how to deal wisely with the most +precious of metals, will take into due government the uses of all +others. + +But I must not permit myself to fail in the estimate of my immediate +duty, while I debate what that duty may hereafter become in the hands of +others; and I will therefore now, so far as I am able, lay before you a +brief general view of the existing state of the arts in England, and of +the influence which her Universities, through these newly-founded +lectureships, may, I hope, bring to bear upon it for good. + + +6. We have first to consider the impulse which has been given to the +practice of all the arts by the extension of our commerce, and enlarged +means of intercourse with foreign nations, by which we now become more +familiarly acquainted with their works in past and in present times. The +immediate result of these new opportunities, I regret to say, has been +to make us more jealous of the genius of others, than conscious of the +limitations of our own; and to make us rather desire to enlarge our +wealth by the sale of art, than to elevate our enjoyments by its +acquisition. + +Now, whatever efforts we make, with a true desire to produce, and +possess, things that are intrinsically beautiful, have in them at least +one of the essential elements of success. But efforts having origin only +in the hope of enriching ourselves by the sale of our productions, are +_assuredly_ condemned to dishonourable failure; not because, ultimately, +a well-trained nation is forbidden to profit by the exercise of its +peculiar art-skill; but because that peculiar art-skill can never be +developed _with a view_ to profit. The right fulfilment of national +power in art depends always on THE DIRECTION OF ITS AIM BY THE +EXPERIENCE OF AGES. Self-knowledge is not less difficult, nor less +necessary for the direction of its genius, to a people than to an +individual; and it is neither to be acquired by the eagerness of +unpractised pride, nor during the anxieties of improvident distress. No +nation ever had, or will have, the power of suddenly developing, under +the pressure of necessity, faculties it had neglected when it was at +ease; nor of teaching itself in poverty, the skill to produce, what it +has never, in opulence, had the sense to admire. + + +7. Connected also with some of the worst parts of our social system, but +capable of being directed to better result than this commercial +endeavour, we see lately a most powerful impulse given to the production +of costly works of art, by the various causes which promote the sudden +accumulation of wealth in the hands of private persons. We have thus a +vast and new patronage, which, in its present agency, is injurious to +our schools; but which is nevertheless in a great degree earnest and +conscientious, and far from being influenced chiefly by motives of +ostentation. Most of our rich men would be glad to promote the true +interests of art in this country: and even those who buy for vanity, +found their vanity on the possession of what they suppose to be best. + +It is therefore in a great measure the fault of artists themselves if +they suffer from this partly unintelligent, but thoroughly +well-intended, patronage. If they seek to attract it by eccentricity, to +deceive it by superficial qualities, or take advantage of it by +thoughtless and facile production, they necessarily degrade themselves +and it together, and have no right to complain afterwards that it will +not acknowledge better-grounded claims. But if every painter of real +power would do only what he knew to be worthy of himself, and refuse to +be involved in the contention for undeserved or accidental success, +there is indeed, whatever may have been thought or said to the contrary, +true instinct enough in the public mind to follow such firm guidance. It +is one of the facts which the experience of thirty years enables me to +assert without qualification, that a really good picture is ultimately +always approved and bought, unless it is wilfully rendered offensive to +the public by faults which the artist has been either too proud to +abandon or too weak to correct. + + +8. The development of whatever is healthful and serviceable in the two +modes of impulse which we have been considering, depends however, +ultimately, on the direction taken by the true interest in art which has +lately been aroused by the great and active genius of many of our +living, or but lately lost, painters, sculptors, and architects. It may +perhaps surprise, but I think it will please you to hear me, or (if you +will forgive me, in my own Oxford, the presumption of fancying that some +may recognise me by an old name) to hear the author of "Modern Painters" +say, that his chief error in earlier days was not in over estimating, +but in too slightly acknowledging the merit of living men. The great +painter whose power, while he was yet among us, I was able to perceive, +was the first to reprove me for my disregard of the skill of his +fellow-artists; and, with this inauguration of the study of the art of +all time,--a study which can only by true modesty end in wise +admiration,--it is surely well that I connect the record of these words +of his, spoken then too truly to myself, and true always more or less +for all who are untrained in that toil,--"You don't know how difficult +it is." + +You will not expect me, within the compass of this lecture, to give you +any analysis of the many kinds of excellent art (in all the three great +divisions) which the complex demands of modern life, and yet more varied +instincts of modern genius, have developed for pleasure or service. It +must be my endeavour, in conjunction with my colleagues in the other +Universities, hereafter to enable you to appreciate these worthily; in +the hope that also the members of the Royal Academy, and those of the +Institute of British Architects, may be induced to assist, and guide, +the efforts of the Universities, by organising such a system of +art-education for their own students, as shall in future prevent the +waste of genius in any mistaken endeavours; especially removing doubt as +to the proper substance and use of materials; and requiring compliance +with certain elementary principles of right, in every picture and design +exhibited with their sanction. It is not indeed possible for talent so +varied as that of English artists to be compelled into the formalities +of a determined school; but it must certainly be the function of every +academical body to see that their younger students are guarded from what +must in every school be error; and that they are practised in the best +methods of work hitherto known, before their ingenuity is directed to +the invention of others. + + +9. I need scarcely refer, except for the sake of completeness in my +statement, to one form of demand for art which is wholly unenlightened, +and powerful only for evil;--namely, the demand of the classes occupied +solely in the pursuit of pleasure, for objects and modes of art that can +amuse indolence or excite passion. There is no need for any discussion +of these requirements, or of their forms of influence, though they are +very deadly at present in their operation on sculpture, and on +jewellers' work. They cannot be checked by blame, nor guided by +instruction; they are merely the necessary result of whatever defects +exist in the temper and principles of a luxurious society; and it is +only by moral changes, not by art-criticism, that their action can be +modified. + + +10. Lastly, there is a continually increasing demand for popular art, +multipliable by the printing-press, illustrative of daily events, of +general literature, and of natural science. Admirable skill, and some of +the best talent of modern times, are occupied in supplying this want; +and there is no limit to the good which may be effected by rightly +taking advantage of the powers we now possess of placing good and lovely +art within the reach of the poorest classes. Much has been already +accomplished; but great harm has been done also,--first, by forms of art +definitely addressed to depraved tastes; and, secondly, in a more subtle +way, by really beautiful and useful engravings which are yet not good +enough to retain their influence on the public mind;--which weary it by +redundant quantity of monotonous average excellence, and diminish or +destroy its power of accurate attention to work of a higher order. + +Especially this is to be regretted in the effect produced on the schools +of line engraving, which had reached in England an executive skill of a +kind before unexampled, and which of late have lost much of their more +sterling and legitimate methods. Still, I have seen plates produced +quite recently, more beautiful, I think, in some qualities than anything +ever before attained by the burin: and I have not the slightest fear +that photography, or any other adverse or competitive operation, will in +the least ultimately diminish,--I believe they will, on the contrary, +stimulate and exalt--the grand old powers of the wood and the steel. + + +11. Such are, I think, briefly the present conditions of art with which +we have to deal; and I conceive it to be the function of this +Professorship, with respect to them, to establish both a practical and +critical school of fine art for English gentlemen: practical, so that if +they draw at all, they may draw rightly; and critical, so that being +first directed to such works of existing art as will best reward their +study, they may afterwards make their patronage of living artists +delightful to themselves in their consciousness of its justice, and, to +the utmost, beneficial to their country, by being given to the men who +deserve it; in the early period of their lives, when they both need it +most, and can be influenced by it to the best advantage. + + +12. And especially with reference to this function of patronage, I +believe myself justified in taking into account future probabilities as +to the character and range of art in England: and I shall endeavour at +once to organise with you a system of study calculated to develop +chiefly the knowledge of those branches in which the English schools +have shown, and are likely to show, peculiar excellence. + +Now, in asking your sanction both for the nature of the general plans I +wish to adopt, and for what I conceive to be necessary limitations of +them, I wish you to be fully aware of my reasons for both: and I will +therefore risk the burdening of your patience while I state the +directions of effort in which I think English artists are liable to +failure, and those also in which past experience has shown they are +secure of success. + + +13. I referred, but now, to the effort we are making to improve the +designs of our manufactures. Within certain limits I believe this +improvement may indeed take effect: so that we may no more humour +momentary fashions by ugly results of chance instead of design; and may +produce both good tissues, of harmonious colours, and good forms and +substance of pottery and glass. But we shall never excel in decorative +design. Such design is usually produced by people of great natural +powers of mind, who have no variety of subjects to employ themselves on, +no oppressive anxieties, and are in circumstances either of natural +scenery or of daily life, which cause pleasurable excitement. _We_ +cannot design, because we have too much to think of, and we think of it +too anxiously. It has long been observed how little real anxiety exists +in the minds of the partly savage races which excel in decorative art; +and we must not suppose that the temper of the Middle Ages was a +troubled one, because every day brought its danger or its change. The +very eventfulness of the life rendered it careless, as generally is +still the case with soldiers and sailors. Now, when there are great +powers of thought, and little to think of, all the waste energy and +fancy are thrown into the manual work, and you have so much intellect as +would direct the affairs of a large mercantile concern for a day, spent +all at once, quite unconsciously, in drawing an ingenious spiral. + +Also, powers of doing fine ornamental work are only to be reached by a +perpetual discipline of the hand as well as of the fancy; discipline as +attentive and painful as that which a juggler has to put himself +through, to overcome the more palpable difficulties of his profession. +The execution of the best artists is always a splendid tour-de-force; +and much that in painting is supposed to be dependent on material is +indeed only a lovely and quite inimitable legerdemain. Now, when powers +of fancy, stimulated by this triumphant precision of manual dexterity, +descend uninterruptedly from generation to generation, you have at last, +what is not so much a trained artist, as a new species of animal, with +whose instinctive gifts you have no chance of contending. And thus all +our imitations of other people's work are futile. We must learn first to +make honest English wares, and afterwards to decorate them as may please +the then approving Graces. + + +14. Secondly--and this is an incapacity of a graver kind, yet having its +own good in it also--we shall never be successful in the highest fields +of ideal or theological art. + +For there is one strange, but quite essential, character in us: ever +since the Conquest, if not earlier:--a delight in the forms of burlesque +which are connected in some degree with the foulness of evil. I think +the most perfect type of a true English mind in its best possible +temper, is that of Chaucer; and you will find that, while it is for the +most part full of thoughts of beauty, pure and wild like that of an +April morning, there are even in the midst of this, sometimes +momentarily jesting passages which stoop to play with evil--while the +power of listening to and enjoying the jesting of entirely gross +persons, whatever the feeling may be which permits it, afterwards +degenerates into forms of humour which render some of quite the +greatest, wisest, and most moral of English writers now almost useless +for our youth. And yet you will find that whenever Englishmen are wholly +without this instinct, their genius is comparatively weak and +restricted. + + +15. Now, the first necessity for the doing of any great work in ideal +art, is the looking upon all foulness with horror, as a contemptible +though dreadful enemy. You may easily understand what I mean, by +comparing the feelings with which Dante regards any form of obscenity or +of base jest, with the temper in which the same things are regarded by +Shakespeare. And this strange earthly instinct of ours, coupled as it +is, in our good men, with great simplicity and common sense, renders +them shrewd and perfect observers and delineators of actual nature, low +or high; but precludes them from that specialty of art which is properly +called sublime. If ever we try anything in the manner of Michael Angelo +or of Dante, we catch a fall, even in literature, as Milton in the +battle of the angels, spoiled from Hesiod; while in art, every attempt +in this style has hitherto been the sign either of the presumptuous +egotism of persons who had never really learned to be workmen, or it has +been connected with very tragic forms of the contemplation of death,--it +has always been partly insane, and never once wholly successful. + +But we need not feel any discomfort in these limitations of our +capacity. We can do much that others cannot, and more than we have ever +yet ourselves completely done. Our first great gift is in the +portraiture of living people--a power already so accomplished in both +Reynolds and Gainsborough that nothing is left for future masters but to +add the calm of perfect workmanship to their vigour and felicity of +perception. And of what value a true school of portraiture may become in +the future, when worthy men will desire only to be known, and others +will not fear to know them, for what they truly were, we cannot from +any past records of art influence yet conceive. But in my next address +it will be partly my endeavour to show you how much more useful, because +more humble, the labour of great masters might have been, had they been +content to bear record of the souls that were dwelling with them on +earth, instead of striving to give a deceptive glory to those they +dreamed of in heaven. + + +16. Secondly, we have an intense power of invention and expression in +domestic drama; (King Lear and Hamlet being essentially domestic in +their strongest motives of interest). There is a tendency at this moment +towards a noble development of our art in this direction, checked by +many adverse conditions, which may be summed in one,--the insufficiency +of generous civic or patriotic passion in the heart of the English +people; a fault which makes its domestic affection selfish, contracted, +and, therefore, frivolous. + + +17. Thirdly, in connection with our simplicity and good-humour, and +partly with that very love of the grotesque which debases our ideal, we +have a sympathy with the lower animals which is peculiarly our own; and +which, though it has already found some exquisite expression in the +works of Bewick and Landseer, is yet quite undeveloped. This sympathy, +with the aid of our now authoritative science of physiology, and in +association with our British love of adventure, will, I hope, enable us +to give to the future inhabitants of the globe an almost perfect record +of the present forms of animal life upon it, of which many are on the +point of being extinguished. + +Lastly, but not as the least important of our special powers, I have to +note our skill in landscape, of which I will presently speak more +particularly. + + +18. Such I conceive to be the directions in which, principally, we have +the power to excel; and you must at once see how the consideration of +them must modify the advisable methods of our art study. For if our +professional painters were likely to produce pieces of art loftily ideal +in their character, it would be desirable to form the taste of the +students here by setting before them only the purest examples of Greek, +and the mightiest of Italian, art. But I do not think you will yet find +a single instance of a school directed exclusively to these higher +branches of study in England, which has strongly, or even definitely, +made impression on its younger scholars. While, therefore, I shall +endeavour to point out clearly the characters to be looked for and +admired in the great masters of imaginative design, I shall make no +special effort to stimulate the imitation of them; and above all things, +I shall try to probe in you, and to prevent, the affectation into which +it is easy to fall, even through modesty,--of either endeavouring to +admire a grandeur with which we have no natural sympathy, or losing the +pleasure we might take in the study of familiar things, by considering +it a sign of refinement to look for what is of higher class, or rarer +occurrence. + + +19. Again, if our artisans were likely to attain any distinguished skill +in ornamental design, it would be incumbent upon me to make my class +here accurately acquainted with the principles of earth and metal work, +and to accustom them to take pleasure in conventional arrangements of +colour and form. I hope, indeed, to do this, so far as to enable them to +discern the real merit of many styles of art which are at present +neglected; and, above all, to read the minds of semi-barbaric nations in +the only language by which their feelings were capable of expression; +and those members of my class whose temper inclines them to take +pleasure in the interpretation of mythic symbols, will not probably be +induced to quit the profound fields of investigation which early art, +examined carefully, will open to them, and which belong to it alone: for +this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the +same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by +it; and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention. Nevertheless, +when I have once sufficiently pointed out the nature and value of this +conventional work, and vindicated it from the contempt with which it is +too generally regarded, I shall leave the student to his own pleasure in +its pursuit; and even, so far as I may, discourage all admiration +founded on quaintness or peculiarity of style; and repress any other +modes of feeling which are likely to lead rather to fastidious +collection of curiosities, than to the intelligent appreciation of work +which, being executed in compliance with constant laws of right, cannot +be singular, and must be distinguished only by excellence in what is +always desirable. + + +20. While, therefore, in these and such other directions, I shall +endeavour to put every adequate means of advance within reach of the +members of my class, I shall use my own best energy to show them what is +consummately beautiful and well done, by men who have passed through the +symbolic or suggestive stage of design, and have enabled themselves to +comply, by truth of representation, with the strictest or most eager +demands of accurate science, and of disciplined passion. I shall +therefore direct your observation, during the greater part of the time +you may spare to me, to what is indisputably best, both in painting and +sculpture; trusting that you will afterwards recognise the nascent and +partial skill of former days both with greater interest and greater +respect, when you know the full difficulty of what it attempted, and the +complete range of what it foretold. + + +21. And with this view, I shall at once endeavour to do what has for +many years been in my thoughts, and now, with the advice and assistance +of the curators of the University Galleries, I do not doubt may be +accomplished here in Oxford, just where it will be preëminently +useful--namely, to arrange an educational series of examples of +excellent art, standards to which you may at once refer on any +questionable point, and by the study of which you may gradually attain +an instinctive sense of right, which will afterwards be liable to no +serious error. Such a collection may be formed, both more perfectly, and +more easily, than would commonly be supposed. For the real utility of +the series will depend on its restricted extent,--on the severe +exclusion of all second-rate, superfluous, or even attractively varied +examples,--and On the confining the students' attention to a few types +of what is insuperably good. More progress in power of judgment may be +made in a limited time by the examination of one work, than by the +review of many; and a certain degree of vitality is given to the +impressiveness of every characteristic, by its being exhibited in clear +contrast, and without repetition. + +The greater number of the examples I shall choose will be only +engravings or photographs: they shall be arranged so as to be easily +accessible, and I will prepare a catalogue, pointing out my purpose in +the selection of each. But in process of time, I have good hope that +assistance will be given me by the English public in making the series +here no less splendid than serviceable; and in placing minor +collections, arranged on a similar principle, at the command also of the +students in our public schools. + + +22. In the second place, I shall endeavour to prevail upon all the +younger members of the University who wish to attend the art lectures, +to give at least so much time to manual practice as may enable them to +understand the nature and difficulty of executive skill. The time so +spent will not be lost, even as regards their other studies at the +University, for I will prepare the practical exercises in a double +series, one illustrative of history, the other of natural science. And +whether you are drawing a piece of Greek armour, or a hawk's beak, or a +lion's paw, you will find that the mere necessity of using the hand +compels attention to circumstances which would otherwise have escaped +notice, and fastens them in the memory without farther effort. But were +it even otherwise, and this practical training did really involve some +sacrifice of your time, I do not fear but that it will be justified to +you by its felt results: and I think that general public feeling is also +tending to the admission that accomplished education must include, not +only full command of expression by language, but command of true musical +sound by the voice, and of true form by the hand. + + +23. While I myself hold this professorship, I shall direct you in these +exercises very definitely to natural history, and to landscape; not only +because in these two branches I am probably able to show you truths +which might be despised by my successors: but because I think the vital +and joyful study of natural history quite the principal element +requiring introduction, not only into University, but into national, +education, from highest to lowest; and I even will risk incurring your +ridicule by confessing one of my fondest dreams, that I may succeed in +making some of you English youths like better to look at a bird than to +shoot it; and even desire to make wild creatures tame, instead of tame +creatures wild. And for the study of landscape, it is, I think, now +calculated to be of use in deeper, if not more important modes, than +that of natural science, for reasons which I will ask you to let me +state at some length. + + +24. Observe first;--no race of men which is entirely bred in wild +country, far from cities, ever enjoys landscape. They may enjoy the +beauty of animals, but scarcely even that: a true peasant cannot see the +beauty of cattle; but only qualities expressive of their +serviceableness. I waive discussion of this to-day; permit my assertion +of it, under my confident guarantee of future proof. Landscape can only +be enjoyed by cultivated persons; and it is only by music, literature, +and painting, that cultivation can be given. Also, the faculties which +are thus received are hereditary; so that the child of an educated race +has an innate instinct for beauty, derived from arts practised hundreds +of years before its birth. Now farther note this, one of the loveliest +things in human nature. In the children of noble races, trained by +surrounding art, and at the same time in the practice of great deeds, +there is an intense delight in the landscape of their country as +_memorial_; a sense not taught to them, nor teachable to any others; +but, in them, innate; and the seal and reward of persistence in great +national life;--the obedience and the peace of ages having extended +gradually the glory of the revered ancestors also to the ancestral +land; until the Motherhood of the dust, the mystery of the Demeter from +whose bosom we came, and to whose bosom we return, surrounds and +inspires, everywhere, the local awe of field and fountain; the +sacredness of landmark that none may remove, and of wave that none may +pollute; while records of proud days, and of dear persons, make every +rock monumental with ghostly inscription, and every path lovely with +noble desolateness. + + +25. Now, however checked by lightness of temperament, the instinctive +love of landscape in us has this deep root, which, in your minds, I will +pray you to disencumber from whatever may oppress or mortify it, and to +strive to feel with all the strength of your youth that a nation is only +worthy of the soil and the scenes that it has inherited, when, by all +its acts and arts, it is making them more lovely for its children. + +And now, I trust, you will feel that it is not in mere yielding to my +own fancies that I have chosen, for the first three subjects in your +educational series, landscape scenes;--two in England, and one in +France,--the association of these being not without purpose:--and for +the fourth Albert Dürer's dream of the Spirit of Labour. And of the +landscape subjects, I must tell you this much. The first is an engraving +only; the original drawing by Turner was destroyed by fire twenty years +ago. For which loss I wish you to be sorry, and to remember, in +connection with this first example, that whatever remains to us of +possession in the arts is, compared to what we might have had if we had +cared for them, just what that engraving is to the lost drawing. You +will find also that its subject has meaning in it which will not be +harmful to you. The second example is a real drawing by Turner, in the +same series, and very nearly of the same place; the two scenes are +within a quarter of a mile of each other. It will show you the character +of the work that was destroyed. It will show you, in process of time, +much more; but chiefly, and this is my main reason for choosing both, it +will be a permanent expression to you of what English landscape was +once;--and must, if we are to remain a nation, be again. + +I think it farther right to tell you, for otherwise you might hardly pay +regard enough to work apparently so simple, that by a chance which is +not altogether displeasing to me, this drawing, which it has become, for +these reasons, necessary for me to give you, is--not indeed the best I +have, (I have several as good, though none better)--but, of all I have, +the one I had least mind to part with. + +The third example is also a Turner drawing--a scene on the Loire--never +engraved. It is an introduction to the series of the Loire, which you +have already; it has in its present place a due concurrence with the +expressional purpose of its companions; and though small, it is very +precious, being a faultless, and, I believe, unsurpassable example of +water-colour painting. + +Chiefly, however, remember the object of these three first examples is +to give you an index to your truest feelings about European, and +especially about your native landscape, as it is pensive and historical; +and so far as you yourselves make any effort at its representation, to +give you a motive for fidelity in handwork more animating than any +connected with mere success in the art itself. + + +26. With respect to actual methods of practice, I will not incur the +responsibility of determining them for you. We will take Lionardo's +treatise on painting for our first text-book; and I think you need not +fear being misled by me if I ask you to do only what Lionardo bids, or +what will be necessary to enable you to do his bidding. But you need not +possess the book, nor read it through. I will translate the pieces to +the authority of which I shall appeal; and, in process of time, by +analysis of this fragmentary treatise, show you some characters not +usually understood of the simplicity as well as subtlety common to most +great workmen of that age. Afterwards we will collect the instructions +of other undisputed masters, till we have obtained a code of laws +clearly resting on the consent of antiquity. + +While, however, I thus in some measure limit for the present the methods +of your practice, I shall endeavour to make the courses of my University +lectures as wide in their range as my knowledge will permit. The range +so conceded will be narrow enough; but I believe that my proper function +is not to acquaint you with the general history, but with the essential +principles of art; and with its history only when it has been both great +and good, or where some special excellence of it requires examination of +the causes to which it must be ascribed. + + +27. But if either our work, or our enquiries, are to be indeed +successful in their own field, they must be connected with others of a +sterner character. Now listen to me, if I have in these past details +lost or burdened your attention; for this is what I have chiefly to say +to you. The art of any country is _the exponent of its social and +political virtues_. I will show you that it is so in some detail, in the +second of my subsequent course of lectures; meantime accept this as one +of the things, and the most important of all things, I can positively +declare to you. The art, or general productive and formative energy, of +any country, is an exact exponent of its ethical life. You can have +noble art only from noble persons, associated under laws fitted to their +time and circumstances. And the best skill that any teacher of art could +spend here in your help, would not end in enabling you even so much as +rightly to draw the water-lilies in the Cherwell (and though it did, the +work when done would not be worth the lilies themselves) unless both he +and you were seeking, as I trust we shall together seek, in the laws +which regulate the finest industries, the clue to the laws which +regulate _all_ industries, and in better obedience to which we shall +actually have henceforward to live: not merely in compliance with our +own sense of what is right, but under the weight of quite literal +necessity. For the trades by which the British people has believed it to +be the highest of destinies to maintain itself, cannot now long remain +undisputed in its hands; its unemployed poor are daily becoming more +violently criminal; and a certain distress in the middle classes, +arising, _partly from their vanity in living always up to their incomes, +and partly from their folly in imagining that they can subsist in +idleness upon usury_, will at last compel the sons and daughters of +English families to acquaint themselves with the principles of +providential economy; and to learn that food can only be got out of the +ground, and competence only secured by frugality; and that although it +is not possible for all to be occupied in the highest arts, nor for any, +guiltlessly, to pass their days in a succession of pleasures, the most +perfect mental culture possible to men is founded on their useful +energies, and their best arts and brightest happiness are consistent, +and consistent only, with their virtue. + + +28. This, I repeat, gentlemen, will soon become manifest to those among +us, and there are yet many, who are honest-hearted. And the future fate +of England depends upon the position they then take, and on their +courage in maintaining it. + +There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race; a +race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. We +have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an +inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years of +noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice, so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years we +have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity which +has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be +no king in it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his +own eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon +and Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of +light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions;--faithful servant of time-tried principles, under +temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and amidst the +cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange +valour of goodwill towards men? + + +29. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." Yes, but of which king? There are the two +oriflammes; which shall we plant on the farthest islands,--the one that +floats in heavenly fire, or that hangs heavy with foul tissue of +terrestrial gold? There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to +us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But +it must be--it _is_ with us, now, "Reign or Die." And if it shall be +said of this country, "Fece per viltate, il gran rifiuto;" that refusal +of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest +and most untimely. + +And this is what she must either do, or perish: she must found colonies +as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and +worthiest men;--seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set +her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief +virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is +to be to advance the power of England by land and sea: and that, though +they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more to consider +themselves therefore disfranchised from their native land, than the +sailors of her fleets do, because they float on distant waves. So that +literally, these colonies must be fastened fleets; and every man of them +must be under authority of captains and officers, whose better command +is to be over fields and streets instead of ships of the line; and +England, in these her motionless navies (or, in the true and mightiest +sense, motionless _churches_, ruled by pilots on the Galilean lake of +all the world), is to "expect every man to do his duty;" recognising +that duty is indeed possible no less in peace than war; and that if we +can get men, for little pay, to cast themselves against cannon-mouths +for love of England, we may find men also who will plough and sow for +her, who will behave kindly and righteously for her, who will bring up +their children to love her, and who will gladden themselves in the +brightness of her glory, more than in all the light of tropic skies. + +But that they may be able to do this, she must make her own majesty +stainless; she must give them thoughts of their home of which they can +be proud. The England who is to be mistress of half the earth, cannot +remain herself a heap of cinders, trampled by contending and miserable +crowds; she must yet again become the England she was once, and in all +beautiful ways,--more: so happy, so secluded, and so pure, that in her +sky--polluted by no unholy clouds--she may be able to spell rightly of +every star that heaven doth show; and in her fields, ordered and wide +and fair, of every herb that sips the dew; and under the green avenues +of her enchanted garden, a sacred Circe, true Daughter of the Sun, she +must guide the human arts, and gather the divine knowledge, of distant +nations, transformed from savageness to manhood, and redeemed from +despairing into peace. + + +30. You think that an impossible ideal. Be it so; refuse to accept it if +you will; but see that you form your own in its stead. All that I ask of +you is to have a fixed purpose of some kind for your country and +yourselves; no matter how restricted, so that it be fixed and unselfish. +I know what stout hearts are in you, to answer acknowledged need: but it +is the fatallest form of error in English youths to hide their hardihood +till it fades for lack of sunshine, and to act in disdain of purpose, +till all purpose is vain. It is not by deliberate, but by careless +selfishness; not by compromise with evil, but by dull following of good, +that the weight of national evil increases upon us daily. Break through +at least this pretence of existence; determine what you will be, and +what you would win. You will not decide wrongly if you will resolve to +decide at all. Were even the choice between lawless pleasure and loyal +suffering, you would not, I believe, choose basely. But your trial is +not so sharp. It is between drifting in confused wreck among the +castaways of Fortune, who condemns to assured ruin those who know not +either how to resist her, or obey; between this, I say, and the taking +of your appointed part in the heroism of Rest; the resolving to share in +the victory which is to the weak rather than the strong; and the binding +yourselves by that law, which, thought on through lingering night and +labouring day, makes a man's life to be as a tree planted by the +water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;-- + + "ET FOLIUM EJUS NON DEFLUET, + ET OMNIA, QUÆCUNQUE FACIET, PROSPERABUNTUR." + + + + +LECTURE II + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION + + +31. It was stated, and I trust partly with your acceptance, in my +opening lecture, that the study on which we are about to enter cannot be +rightly undertaken except in furtherance of the grave purposes of life +with respect to which the rest of the scheme of your education here is +designed. But you can scarcely have at once felt all that I intended in +saying so;--you cannot but be still partly under the impression that the +so-called fine arts are merely modes of graceful recreation, and a new +resource for your times of rest. Let me ask you, forthwith, so far as +you can trust me, to change your thoughts in this matter. All the great +arts have for their object either the support or exaltation of human +life,--usually both; and their dignity, and ultimately their very +existence, depend on their being "+meta logou alêthous+," that is +to say, apprehending, with right reason, the nature of the materials +they work with, of the things they relate or represent, and of the +faculties to which they are addressed. And farther, they form one united +system from which it is impossible to remove any part without harm to +the rest. They are founded first in mastery, by strength of _arm_, of +the earth and sea, in agriculture and seamanship; then their inventive +power begins, with the clay in the hand of the potter, whose art is the +humblest but truest type of the forming of the human body and spirit; +and in the carpenter's work, which probably was the early employment of +the Founder of our religion. And until men have perfectly learned the +laws of art in clay and wood, they can consummately know no others. Nor +is it without the strange significance which you will find in what at +first seems chance, in all noble histories, as soon as you can read +them rightly,--that the statue of Athena Polias was of olive-wood, and +that the Greek temple and Gothic spire are both merely the permanent +representations of useful wooden structures. On these two first arts +follow building in stone,--sculpture,--metal work,--and painting; every +art being properly called "fine" which demands the exercise of the full +faculties of heart and intellect. For though the fine arts are not +necessarily imitative or representative, for their essence is in being ++peri genesin+--occupied in the actual _production_ of beautiful +form or colour,--still, the highest of them are appointed also to relate +to us the utmost ascertainable truth respecting visible things and moral +feelings: and this pursuit of _fact_ is the vital _element_ of the art +power;--that in which alone it can develop itself to its utmost. And I +will anticipate by an assertion which you will at present think too +bold, but which I am willing that you should think so, in order that you +may well remember it,--THE HIGHEST THING THAT ART CAN DO IS TO SET +BEFORE YOU THE TRUE IMAGE OF THE PRESENCE OF A NOBLE HUMAN BEING. IT HAS +NEVER DONE MORE THAN THIS, AND IT OUGHT NOT TO DO LESS. + + +32. The great arts--forming thus one perfect scheme of human skill, of +which it is not right to call one division more honourable, though it +may be more subtle, than another--have had, and can have, but three +principal directions of purpose:--first, that of enforcing the religion +of men; secondly, that of perfecting their ethical state; thirdly, that +of doing them material service. + + +33. I do not doubt but that you are surprised at my saying the arts can +in their second function only be directed to the perfecting of ethical +state, it being our usual impression that they are often destructive of +morality. But it is impossible to direct fine art to an immoral end, +except by giving it characters unconnected with its fineness, or by +addressing it to persons who cannot perceive it to be fine. Whosoever +recognises it is exalted by it. On the other hand, it has been commonly +thought that art was a most fitting means for the enforcement of +religious doctrines and emotions; whereas there is, as I must presently +try to show you, room for grave doubt whether it has not in this +function hitherto done evil rather than good. + + +34. In this and the two next following lectures, I shall endeavour +therefore to show you the grave relations of human art, in these three +functions, to human life. I can do this but roughly, as you may well +suppose--since each of these subjects would require for its right +treatment years instead of hours. Only, remember, _I_ have already given +years, not a few, to each of them; and what I try to tell _you_ now will +be only so much as is absolutely necessary to set our work on a clear +foundation. You may not, at present, see the necessity for _any_ +foundation, and may think that I ought to put pencil and paper in your +hands at once. On that point I must simply answer, "Trust me a little +while," asking you however also to remember, that--irrespectively of any +consideration of last or first--my true function here is not that of +your master in painting, or sculpture, or pottery; but to show you what +it is that makes any of these arts _fine_, or the contrary of _fine_: +essentially _good_, or essentially _base_. You need not fear my not +being practical enough for you; all the industry you choose to give me, +I will take; but far the better part of what you may gain by such +industry would be lost, if I did not first lead you to see what every +form of art-industry intends, and why some of it is justly called right, +and some wrong. + + +35. It would be well if you were to look over, with respect to this +matter, the end of the second, and what interests you of the third, book +of Plato's Republic; noting therein these two principal things, of which +I have to speak in this and my next lecture: first, the power which +Plato so frankly, and quite justly, attributes to art, of _falsifying_ +our conceptions of Deity: which power he by fatal error partly implies +may be used wisely for good, and that the feigning is only wrong when it +is of evil, "+ean tis mê kalôs pseudêtai+;" and you may trace +through all that follows the beginning of the change of Greek ideal art +into a beautiful expediency, instead of what it was in the days of +Pindar, the statement of what "could not be otherwise than so." But, in +the second place, you will find in those books of the Polity, stated +with far greater accuracy of expression than our English language +admits, the essential relations of art to morality; the sum of these +being given in one lovely sentence, which, considering that we have +to-day grace done us by fair companionship,[3] you will pardon me for +translating. "_Must it be then only with our poets that we insist they +shall either create for us the image of a noble morality, or among us +create none? or shall we not also keep guard over all other workers for +the people, and forbid them to make what is ill-customed, and +unrestrained, and ungentle, and without order or shape, either in +likeness of living things, or in buildings, or in any other thing +whatsoever that is made for the people? and shall we not rather seek for +workers who_ CAN TRACK THE INNER NATURE OF ALL THAT MAY BE SWEETLY +SCHEMED; _so that the young men, as living in a wholesome place, may be +profited by everything that, in work fairly wrought, may touch them +through hearing or sight--as if it were a breeze bringing health to them +from places strong for life?_" + +[Footnote 3: There were, in fact, a great many more girls than +University men at the lectures.] + + +36. And now--but one word, before we enter on our task, as to the way +you must understand what I may endeavour to tell you. + +Let me beg you--now and always--not to think that I mean more than I +say. In all probability, I mean just what I say, and only that. At all +events I do fully mean _that_; and if there is anything reserved in my +mind, it will be probably different from what you would guess. You are +perfectly welcome to know all that I think, as soon as I have put before +you all my grounds for thinking it; but by the time I have done so, you +will be able to form an opinion of your own; and mine will then be of no +consequence to you. + + +37. I use then to-day, as I shall in future use, the word "Religion" as +signifying the feelings of love, reverence, or dread with which the +human mind is affected by its conceptions of spiritual being; and you +know well how necessary it is, both to the rightness of our own life, +and to the understanding the lives of others, that we should always keep +clearly distinguished our ideas of Religion, as thus defined, and of +Morality, as the law of rightness in human conduct. For there are many +religions, but there is only one morality. There are moral and immoral +religions, which differ as much in precept as in emotion; but there is +only one morality, WHICH HAS BEEN, IS, AND MUST BE FOR EVER, AN INSTINCT +IN THE HEARTS OF ALL CIVILISED MEN, AS CERTAIN AND UNALTERABLE AS THEIR +OUTWARD BODILY FORM, AND WHICH RECEIVES FROM RELIGION NEITHER LAW, NOR +PLACE; BUT ONLY HOPE, AND FELICITY. + + +38. The pure forms or states of religion hitherto known, are those in +which a healthy humanity, finding in itself many foibles and sins, has +imagined, or been made conscious of, the existence of higher spiritual +personality, liable to no such fault or stain; and has been assisted in +effort, and consoled in pain, by reference to the will or sympathy of +such purer spirits, whether imagined or real. I am compelled to use +these painful latitudes of expression, because no analysis has hitherto +sufficed to distinguish accurately, in historical narrative, the +difference between impressions resulting from the imagination of the +worshipper, and those made, if any, by the actually local and temporary +presence of another spirit. For instance, take the vision, which of all +others has been since made most frequently the subject of physical +representation--the appearance to Ezekiel and St. John of the four +living creatures, which throughout Christendom have been used to +symbolise the Evangelists.[4] Supposing such interpretation just, one of +those figures was either the mere symbol to St. John of himself, or it +was the power which inspired him, manifesting itself in an independent +form. Which of these it was, or whether neither of these, but a vision +of other powers, or a dream, of which neither the prophet himself knew, +nor can any other person yet know, the interpretation,--I suppose no +modestly-minded and accurate thinker would now take upon himself to +decide. Nor is it therefore anywise necessary for you to decide on that, +or any other such question; but it is necessary that you should be bold +enough to look every opposing question steadily in its face; and modest +enough, having done so, to know when it is too hard for you. But above +all things, see that you be modest in your thoughts, for of this one +thing we may be absolutely sure, that all our thoughts are but degrees +of darkness. And in these days you have to guard against the fatallest +darkness of the two opposite Prides;--the Pride of Faith, which imagines +that the nature of the Deity can be defined by its convictions; and the +Pride of Science, which imagines that the energy of Deity can be +explained by its analysis. + +[Footnote 4: Only the Gospels, "IV Evangelia," according to St. Jerome.] + + +39. Of these, the first, the Pride of Faith, is now, as it has been +always, the most deadly, because the most complacent and +subtle;--because it invests every evil passion of our nature with the +aspect of an angel of light, and enables the self-love, which might +otherwise have been put to wholesome shame, and the cruel carelessness +of the ruin of our fellow-men, which might otherwise have been warmed +into human love, or at least checked by human intelligence, to congeal +themselves into the mortal intellectual disease of imagining that +myriads of the inhabitants of the world for four thousand years have +been left to wander and perish, many of them everlastingly, in order +that, in fulness of time, divine truth might be preached sufficiently to +ourselves: with this farther ineffable mischief for direct result, that +multitudes of kindly-disposed, gentle, and submissive persons, who might +else by their true patience have alloyed the hardness of the common +crowd, and by their activity for good balanced its misdoing, are +withdrawn from all such true services of man, that they may pass the +best part of their lives in what they are told is the service of God; +_namely, desiring what_ _they cannot obtain, lamenting what they cannot +avoid, and reflecting on what they cannot understand_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: This concentrated definition of monastic life is of course +to be understood only of its more enthusiastic forms.] + + +40. This, I repeat, is the deadliest, but for you, under existing +circumstances, it is becoming daily, almost hourly, the least probable +form of Pride. That which you have chiefly to guard against consists in +the overvaluing of minute though correct discovery; the groundless +denial of all that seems to you to have been groundlessly affirmed; and +the interesting yourselves too curiously in the progress of some +scientific minds, which in their judgment of the universe can be +compared to nothing so accurately as to the woodworms in the panel of a +picture by some great painter, if we may conceive them as tasting with +discrimination of the wood, and with repugnance of the colour, and +declaring that even this unlooked-for and undesirable combination is a +normal result of the action of molecular Forces. + + +41. Now, I must very earnestly warn you, in the beginning of my work +with you here, against allowing either of these forms of egotism to +interfere with your judgment or practice of art. On the one hand, you +must not allow the expression of your own favourite religious feelings +by any particular form of art to modify your judgment of its absolute +merit; nor allow the art itself to become an illegitimate means of +deepening and confirming your convictions, by realising to your eyes +what you dimly conceive with the brain; as if the greater clearness of +the image were a stronger proof of its truth. On the other hand, you +must not allow your scientific habit of trusting nothing but what you +have ascertained, to prevent you from appreciating, or at least +endeavouring to qualify yourselves to appreciate, the work of the +highest faculty of the human mind,--its imagination,--when it is toiling +in the presence of things that cannot be dealt with by any other power. + + +42. These are both vital conditions of your healthy progress. On the one +hand, observe that you do not wilfully use the realistic power of art +to convince yourselves of historical or theological statements which you +cannot otherwise prove; and which you wish to prove:--on the other hand, +that you do not check your imagination and conscience while seizing the +truths of which they alone are cognizant, because you value too highly +the scientific interest which attaches to the investigation of second +causes. + +For instance, it may be quite possible to show the conditions in water +and electricity which necessarily produce the craggy outline, the +apparently self-contained silvery light, and the sulphurous blue shadow +of a thunder-cloud, and which separate these from the depth of the +golden peace in the dawn of a summer morning. Similarly, it may be +possible to show the necessities of structure which groove the fangs and +depress the brow of the asp, and which distinguish the character of its +head from that of the face of a young girl. But it is the function of +the rightly-trained imagination to recognise, in these, and such other +relative aspects, the unity of teaching which impresses, alike on our +senses and our conscience, the eternal difference between good and evil: +and the rule, over the clouds of heaven and over the creatures in the +earth, of the same Spirit which teaches to our own hearts the bitterness +of death, and strength of love. + + +43. Now, therefore, approaching our subject in this balanced temper, +which will neither resolve to see only what it would desire, nor expect +to see only what it can explain, we shall find our enquiry into the +relation of Art to Religion is distinctly threefold: first, we have to +ask how far art may have been literally directed by spiritual powers; +secondly, how far, if not inspired, it may have been exalted by them; +lastly, how far, in any of its agencies, it has advanced the cause of +the creeds it has been used to recommend. + + +44. First: What ground have we for thinking that art has ever been +inspired as a message or revelation? What internal evidence is there in +the work of great artists of their having been under the authoritative +guidance of supernatural powers? + +It is true that the answer to so mysterious a question cannot rest alone +upon internal evidence; but it is well that you should know what might, +from that evidence alone, be concluded. And the more impartially you +examine the phenomena of imagination, the more firmly you will be led to +conclude that they are the result of the influence of the common and +vital, but not, therefore, less Divine, spirit, of which some portion is +given to all living creatures in such manner as may be adapted to their +rank in creation; and that everything which men rightly accomplish is +indeed done by Divine help, but under a consistent law which is never +departed from. + +The strength of this spiritual life within us may be increased or +lessened by our own conduct; it varies from time to time, as physical +strength varies; it is summoned on different occasions by our will, and +dejected by our distress, or our sin; but it is always _equally human_, +and _equally Divine_. We are men, and not mere animals, because a +special form of it is with us always; we are nobler and baser men, as it +is with us more or less; but it is never given to us in any degree which +can make us more than men. + + +45. Observe:--I give you this general statement doubtfully, and only as +that towards which an impartial reasoner will, I think, be inclined by +existing data. But I shall be able to show you, without any doubt, in +the course of our studies, that the achievements of art which have been +usually looked upon as the results of peculiar inspiration have been +arrived at only through long courses of wisely directed labour, and +under the influence of feelings which are common to all humanity. + +But of these feelings and powers which in different degrees are common +to humanity, you are to note that there are three principal divisions: +first, the instincts of construction or melody, which we share with +lower animals, and which are in us as native as the instinct of the bee +or nightingale; secondly, the faculty of vision, or of dreaming, whether +in sleep or in conscious trance, or by voluntarily exerted fancy; and +lastly, the power of rational inference and collection, of both the laws +and forms of beauty. + + +46. Now the faculty of vision, being closely associated with the +innermost spiritual nature, is the one which has by most reasoners been +held for the peculiar channel of Divine teaching: and it is a fact that +great part of purely didactic art has been the record, whether in +language, or by linear representation, of actual vision involuntarily +received at the moment, though cast on a mental retina blanched +by the past course of faithful life. But it is also true that +these visions, where most distinctly received, are always--I speak +deliberately--_always_, the _sign of some mental limitation or +derangement_; and that the persons who most clearly recognise their +value, exaggeratedly estimate it, choosing what they find to be useful, +and calling that "inspired," and disregarding what they perceive to be +useless, though presented to the visionary by an equal authority. + + +47. Thus it is probable that no work of art has been more widely +didactic than Albert Dürer's engraving, known as the "Knight and +Death."[6] But that is only one of a series of works representing +similarly vivid dreams, of which some are uninteresting, except for the +manner of their representation, as the "St. Hubert," and others are +unintelligible; some, frightful, and wholly unprofitable; so that we +find the visionary faculty in that great painter, when accurately +examined, to be a morbid influence, abasing his skill more frequently +than encouraging it, and sacrificing the greater part of his energies +upon vain subjects, two only being produced, in the course of a long +life, which are of high didactic value, and both of these capable only +of giving sad courage.[7] Whatever the value of these two, it bears more +the aspect of a treasure obtained at great cost of suffering, than of a +directly granted gift from heaven. + +[Footnote 6: Standard Series, No. 9.] + +[Footnote 7: The meaning of the "Knight and Death," even in this +respect, has lately been questioned on good grounds.] + + +48. On the contrary, not only the highest, but the most consistent +results have been attained in art by men in whom the faculty of vision, +however strong, was subordinate to that of deliberative design, and +tranquillised by a measured, continual, not feverish, but affectionate, +observance of the quite unvisionary facts of the surrounding world. + +And so far as we can trace the connection of their powers with the moral +character of their lives, we shall find that the best art is the work of +good, but of not distinctively religious men, who, at least, are +conscious of no inspiration, and often so unconscious of their +superiority to others, that one of the greatest of them, Reynolds, +deceived by his modesty, has asserted that "all things are possible to +well-directed labour." + + +49. The second question, namely, how far art, if not inspired, has yet +been ennobled by religion, I shall not touch upon to-day; for it both +requires technical criticism, and would divert you too long from the +main question of all,--How far religion has been helped by art? + +You will find that the operation of formative art--(I will not speak +to-day of music)--the operation of formative art on religious creed is +essentially twofold; the realisation, to the eyes, of imagined spiritual +persons; and the limitation of their imagined presence to certain +places. We will examine these two functions of it successively. + + +50. And first, consider accurately what the agency of art is, in +realising, to the sight, our conceptions of spiritual persons. + +For instance. Assume that we believe that the Madonna is always present +to hear and answer our prayers. Assume also that this is true. I think +that persons in a perfectly honest, faithful, and humble temper, would +in that case desire only to feel so much of the Divine presence as the +spiritual Power herself chose to make felt; and, above all things, not +to think they saw, or knew, anything except what might be truly +perceived or known. + +But a mind imperfectly faithful, and impatient in its distress, or +craving in its dulness for a more distinct and convincing sense of the +Divinity, would endeavour to complete, or perhaps we should rather say +to contract, its conception, into the definite figure of a woman wearing +a blue or crimson dress, and having fair features, dark eyes, and +gracefully arranged hair. + +Suppose, after forming such a conception, that we have the power to +realise and preserve it, this image of a beautiful figure with a +pleasant expression cannot but have the tendency of afterwards leading +us to think of the Virgin as present, when she is not actually present; +or as pleased with us, when she is not actually pleased; or if we +resolutely prevent ourselves from such imagination, nevertheless the +existence of the image beside us will often turn our thoughts towards +subjects of religion, when otherwise they would have been differently +occupied; and, in the midst of other occupations, will familiarise more +or less, and even mechanically associate with common or faultful states +of mind, the appearance of the supposed Divine person. + + +51. There are thus two distinct operations upon our mind: first, the art +makes us believe what we would not otherwise have believed; and +secondly, it makes us think of subjects we should not otherwise have +thought of, intruding them amidst our ordinary thoughts in a confusing +and familiar manner. We cannot with any certainty affirm the advantage +or the harm of such accidental pieties, for their effect will be very +different on different characters: but, without any question, the art, +which makes us believe what we would not have otherwise believed, is +misapplied, and in most instances very dangerously so. Our duty is to +believe in the existence of Divine, or any other, persons, only upon +rational proofs of their existence; and not because we have seen +pictures of them.[8] + +[Footnote 8: I have expunged a sentence insisting farther on this point, +having come to reverence more, as I grew older, every simple means of +stimulating all religious belief and affection. It is the lower and +realistic world which is fullest of false beliefs and vain loves.] + + +52. But now observe, it is here necessary to draw a distinction, so +subtle that in dealing with facts it is continually impossible to mark +it with precision, yet so vital, that not only your understanding of the +power of art, but the working of your minds in matters of primal moment +to you, depends on the effort you make to affirm this distinction +strongly. The art which realises a creature of the imagination is only +mischievous when that realisation is conceived to imply, or does +practically induce a belief in, the real existence of the imagined +personage, contrary to, or unjustified by the other evidence of its +existence. But if the art only represents the personage on the +understanding that its form is imaginary, then the effort at realisation +is healthful and beneficial. + +For instance, the Greek design of Apollo crossing the sea to Delphi, +which is one of the most interesting of Le Normant's series, so far as +it is only an expression, under the symbol of a human form, of what may +be rightly imagined respecting the solar power, is right and ennobling; +but so far as it conveyed to the Greek the idea of there being a real +Apollo, it was mischievous, whether there be, or be not, a real Apollo. +If there is no real Apollo, then the art was mischievous because it +deceived; but if there is a real Apollo, then it was still more +mischievous,[9] for it not only began the degradation of the image of +that true god into a decoration for niches, and a device for seals; but +prevented any true witness being borne to his existence. For if the +Greeks, instead of multiplying representations of what they imagined to +be the figure of the god, had given us accurate drawings of the heroes +and battles of Marathon and Salamis, and had simply told us in plain +Greek what evidence they had of the power of Apollo, either through his +oracles, his help or chastisement, or by immediate vision, they would +have served their religion more truly than by all the vase-paintings and +fine statues that ever were buried or adored. + + +53. Now in this particular instance, and in many other examples of fine +Greek art, the two conditions of thought, symbolic and realistic, are +mingled; and the art is helpful, as I will hereafter show you, in one +function, and in the other so deadly, that I think no degradation of +conception of Deity has ever been quite so base as that implied by the +designs of Greek vases in the period of decline, say about 250 B. C. + +[Footnote 9: I am again doubtful, here. The most important part of the +chapter is from § 60 to end.] + +But though among the Greeks it is thus nearly always difficult to say +what is symbolic and what realistic, in the range of Christian art the +distinction is clear. In that, a vast division of imaginative work is +occupied in the symbolism of virtues, vices, or natural powers or +passions; and in the representation of personages who, though nominally +real, become in conception symbolic. In the greater part of this work +there is no intention of implying the existence of the represented +creature; Dürer's Melencolia and Giotto's Justice are accurately +characteristic examples. Now all such art is wholly good and useful when +it is the work of good men. + + +54. Again, there is another division of Christian work in which the +persons represented, though nominally real, are treated as +dramatis-personæ of a poem, and so presented confessedly as subjects of +imagination. All this poetic art is also good when it is the work of +good men. + + +55. There remains only therefore to be considered, as truly religious, +the work which definitely implies and modifies the conception of the +existence of a real person. There is hardly any great art which entirely +belongs to this class; but Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola is as +accurate a type of it as I can give you; Holbein's Madonna at Dresden, +the Madonna di San Sisto, and the Madonna of Titian's Assumption, all +belong mainly to this class, but are removed somewhat from it (as, I +repeat, nearly all great art is) into the poetical one. It is only the +bloody crucifixes and gilded virgins and other such lower forms of +imagery (by which, to the honour of the English Church, it has been +truly claimed for her, that "she has never appealed to the madness or +dulness of her people,") which belong to the realistic class in strict +limitation, and which properly constitute the type of it. + +There is indeed an important school of sculpture in Spain, directed to +the same objects, but not demanding at present any special attention. +And finally, there is the vigorous and most interesting realistic school +of our own, in modern times, mainly known to the public by Holman Hunt's +picture of the Light of the World, though, I believe, deriving its first +origin from the genius of the painter to whom you owe also the revival +of interest, first here in Oxford, and then universally, in the cycle of +early English legend,--Dante Rossetti. + + +56. The effect of this realistic art on the religious mind of Europe +varies in scope more than any other art power; for in its higher +branches it touches the most sincere religious minds, affecting an +earnest class of persons who cannot be reached by merely poetical +design; while, in its lowest, it addresses itself not only to the most +vulgar desires for religious excitement, but to the mere thirst for +sensation of horror which characterises the uneducated orders of +partially civilised countries; nor merely to the thirst for horror, but +to the strange love of death, as such, which has sometimes in Catholic +countries showed itself peculiarly by the endeavour to paint the images +in the chapels of the Sepulchre so as to look deceptively like corpses. +The same morbid instinct has also affected the minds of many among the +more imaginative and powerful artists with a feverish gloom which +distorts their finest work; and lastly--and this is the worst of all its +effects--it has occupied the sensibility of Christian women, +universally, in lamenting the sufferings of Christ, instead of +preventing those of His people. + + +57. When any of you next go abroad, observe, and consider the meaning +of, the sculptures and paintings, which of every rank in art, and in +every chapel and cathedral, and by every mountain path, recall the +hours, and represent the agonies, of the Passion of Christ: and try to +form some estimate of the efforts that have been made by the four arts +of eloquence, music, painting, and sculpture, since the twelfth century, +to wring out of the hearts of women the last drops of pity that could be +excited for this merely physical agony: for the art nearly always dwells +on the physical wounds or exhaustion chiefly, and degrades, far more +than it animates, the conception of pain. + +Then try to conceive the quantity of time, and of excited and thrilling +emotion, which have been wasted by the tender and delicate women of +Christendom during these last six hundred years, in thus picturing to +themselves, under the influence of such imagery, the bodily pain, long +since passed, of One Person:--which, so far as they indeed conceived it +to be sustained by a Divine Nature, could not for that reason have been +less endurable than the agonies of any simple human death by torture: +and then try to estimate what might have been the better result, for the +righteousness and felicity of mankind, if these same women had been +taught the deep meaning of the last words that were ever spoken by their +Master to those who had ministered to Him of their substance: "Daughters +of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your +children." If they had but been taught to measure with their pitiful +thoughts the tortures of battle-fields--the slowly consuming plagues of +death in the starving children, and wasted age, of the innumerable +desolate those battles left;--nay, in our own life of peace, the agony +of unnurtured, untaught, unhelped creatures, awaking at the grave's edge +to know how they should have lived; and the worse pain of those whose +existence, not the ceasing of it, is death; those to whom the cradle was +a curse, and for whom the words they cannot hear, "ashes to ashes," are +all that they have ever received of benediction. These,--you who would +fain have wept at His feet, or stood by His cross,--these you have +always with you! Him, you have not always. + + +58. The wretched in death you have always with you. Yes, and the brave +and good in life you have always;--these also needing help, though you +supposed they had only to help others; these also claiming to be thought +for, and remembered. And you will find, if you look into history with +this clue, that one of quite the chief reasons for the continual misery +of mankind is that they are always divided in their worship between +angels or saints, who are out of their sight, and need no help, and +proud and evil-minded men, who are too definitely in their sight, and +ought not to have their help. And consider how the arts have thus +followed the worship of the crowd. You have paintings of saints and +angels, innumerable;--of petty courtiers, and contemptible or cruel +kings, innumerable. Few, how few you have, (but these, observe, almost +always by great painters) of the best men, or of their actions. But +think for yourselves,--I have no time now to enter upon the mighty +field, nor imagination enough to guide me beyond the threshold of +it,--think, what history might have been to us now;--nay, what a +different history that of all Europe might have become, if it had but +been the object both of the people to discern, and of their arts to +honour and bear record of, the great deeds of their worthiest men. And +if, instead of living, as they have always hitherto done, in a hellish +cloud of contention and revenge, lighted by fantastic dreams of cloudy +sanctities, they had sought to reward and punish justly, wherever reward +and punishment were due, but chiefly to reward; and at least rather to +bear testimony to the human acts which deserved God's anger or His +blessing, than only, in presumptuous imagination, to display the secrets +of Judgment, or the beatitudes of Eternity. + + +59. Such I conceive generally, though indeed with good arising out of +it, for every great evil brings some good in its backward eddies--such I +conceive to have been the deadly function of art in its ministry to +what, whether in heathen or Christian lands, and whether in the +pageantry of words, or colours, or fair forms, is truly, and in the deep +sense, to be called (idolatry)--the serving with the best of our hearts +and minds, some dear or sad fantasy which we have made for ourselves, +while we disobey the present call of the Master, who is not dead, and +who is not now fainting under His cross, but requiring us to take up +ours. + + +60. I pass to the second great function of religious art, the limitation +of the idea of Divine presence to particular localities. It is of course +impossible within my present limits to touch upon this power of art, as +employed on the temples of the gods of various religions; we will +examine that on future occasions. To-day, I want only to map out main +ideas, and I can do this best by speaking exclusively of this localising +influence as it affects our own faith. + +Observe first, that the localisation is almost entirely dependent upon +human art. You must at least take a stone and set it up for a pillar, if +you are to mark the place, so as to know it again, where a vision +appeared. A persecuted people, needing to conceal their places of +worship, may perform every religious ceremony first under one crag of +the hill-side, and then under another, without invalidating the +sacredness of the rites or sacraments thus administered. It is, +therefore, we all acknowledge, inessential, that a particular spot +should be surrounded with a ring of stones, or enclosed within walls of +a certain style of architecture, and so set apart as the only place +where such ceremonies may be properly performed; and it is thus less by +any direct appeal to experience or to reason, but in consequence of the +effect upon our senses produced by the architecture, that we receive the +first strong impressions of what we afterwards contend for as absolute +truth. I particularly wish you to notice how it is always by help of +human art that such a result is attained, because, remember always, I am +neither disputing nor asserting the truth of any theological +doctrine;--that is not my province;--I am only questioning the +expediency of enforcing that doctrine by the help of architecture. Put a +rough stone for an altar under the hawthorn on a village +green;--separate a portion of the green itself with an ordinary paling +from the rest;--then consecrate, with whatever form you choose, the +space of grass you have enclosed, and meet within the wooden fence as +often as you desire to pray or preach; yet you will not easily fasten an +impression in the minds of the villagers, that God inhabits the space of +grass inside the fence, and does not extend His presence to the common +beyond it: and that the daisies and violets on one side of the railing +are holy,--on the other, profane. But, instead of a wooden fence, build +a wall, pave the interior space; roof it over, so as to make it +comparatively dark;--and you may persuade the villagers with ease that +you have built a house which Deity inhabits, or that you have become, in +the old French phrase, a "logeur du Bon Dieu." + + +61. And farther, though I have no desire to introduce any question as to +the truth of what we thus architecturally teach, I would desire you most +strictly to determine what is intended to be taught. + +Do not think I underrate--I am among the last men living who would +underrate,--the importance of the sentiments connected with their church +to the population of a pastoral village. I admit, in its fullest extent, +the moral value of the scene, which is almost always one of perfect +purity and peace; and of the sense of supernatural love and protection, +which fills and surrounds the low aisles and homely porch. But the +question I desire earnestly to leave with you is, whether all the earth +ought not to be peaceful and pure, and the acknowledgment of the Divine +protection, as universal as its reality? That in a mysterious way the +presence of Deity is vouchsafed where it is sought, and withdrawn where +it is forgotten, must of course be granted as the first postulate in the +enquiry: but the point for our decision is just this, whether it ought +always to be sought in one place only, and forgotten in every other. + +It may be replied, that since it is impossible to consecrate the entire +space of the earth, it is better thus to secure a portion of it than +none: but surely, if so, we ought to make some effort to enlarge the +favoured ground, and even look forward to a time when in English +villages there may be a God's acre tenanted by the living, not the +dead; and when we shall rather look with aversion and fear to the +remnant of ground that is set apart as profane, than with reverence to a +narrow portion of it enclosed as holy. + + +62. But now, farther. Suppose it be admitted that by enclosing ground +with walls, and performing certain ceremonies there habitually, some +kind of sanctity is indeed secured within that space,--still the +question remains open whether it be advisable for religious purposes to +decorate the enclosure. For separation the mere walls would be enough. +What is the purpose of your decoration? + +Let us take an instance--the most noble with which I am acquainted, the +Cathedral of Chartres. You have there the most splendid coloured glass, +and the richest sculpture, and the grandest proportions of building, +united to produce a sensation of pleasure and awe. We profess that this +is to honour the Deity; or, in other words, that it is pleasing to Him +that we should delight our eyes with blue and golden colours, and +solemnise our spirits by the sight of large stones laid one on another, +and ingeniously carved. + + +63. I do not think it can be doubted that it _is_ pleasing to Him when +we do this; for He has Himself prepared for us, nearly every morning and +evening, windows painted with Divine art, in blue and gold and +vermilion: windows lighted from within by the lustre of that heaven +which we may assume, at least with more certainty than any consecrated +ground, to be one of His dwelling-places. Again, in every mountain side, +and cliff of rude sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of +greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and sculptured them +with floral ornament,--surely not less sacred because living? + + +64. Must it not then be only because we love our own work better than +His, that we respect the lucent glass, but not the lucent clouds; that +we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the +gilded vaults we have beautifully ordained--while yet we have not +considered the heavens, the work of His fingers, nor the stars of the +strange vault which He has ordained? And do we dream that by carving +fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way of the rivers +among the rocks, and at whose reproof the pillars of the earth are +astonished, we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the hills +and streams by which He has appointed our dwelling-place;--for the +infection of their sweet air with poison;--for the burning up of their +tender grass and flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of +mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we laboured only +that, at least here in England, we might be able to give the lie to the +song, whether of the Cherubim above, or Church beneath--"Holy, holy, +Lord God of all creatures; Heaven--_and Earth_--are full of Thy glory"? + + +65. And how much more there is that I long to say to you; and how much, +I hope, that you would like to answer to me, or to question me of! But I +can say no more to-day. We are not, I trust, at the end of our talks or +thoughts together; but, if it were so, and I never spoke to you more, +this that I have said to you I should have been glad to have been +permitted to say; and this, farther, which is the sum of it,--That we +may have splendour of art again, and with that, we may truly praise and +honour our Maker, and with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all +that He has made: but only after we have striven with our whole hearts +first to sanctify the temple of the body and spirit of every child that +has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no walls to guard its +soul from corruption, in this our English land. + +One word more. + +What I have suggested hitherto, respecting the relations of Art to +Religion, you must receive throughout as merely motive of thought; +though you must have well seen that my own convictions were established +finally on some of the points in question. But I must, in conclusion, +tell you something that I _know_;--which, if you truly labour, you will +one day know also; and which I trust some of you will believe, now. + +During the minutes in which you have been listening to me, I suppose +that almost at every other sentence those whose habit of mind has been +one of veneration for established forms and faiths, must have been in +dread that I was about to say, or in pang of regret at my having said, +what seemed to them an irreverent or reckless word touching vitally +important things. + +So far from this being the fact, it is just because the feelings that I +most desire to cultivate in your minds are those of reverence and +admiration, that I am so earnest to prevent you from being moved to +either by trivial or false semblances. _This_ is the thing which I +KNOW--and which, if you labour faithfully, you shall know also,--that in +Reverence is the chief joy and power of life;--Reverence, for what is +pure and bright in your own youth; for what is true and tried in the age +of others; for all that is gracious among the living,--great among the +dead,--and marvellous, in the Powers that cannot die. + + + + +LECTURE III + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS + + +66. You probably recollect that, in the beginning of my last lecture, it +was stated that fine art had, and could have, but three functions: the +enforcing of the religious sentiments of men, the perfecting their +ethical state, and the doing them material service. We have to-day to +examine, the mode of its action in the second power--that of perfecting +the morality, or ethical state, of men. + +Perfecting, observe--not producing. + +You must have the right moral state first, or you cannot have the art. +But when the art is once obtained, its reflected action enhances and +completes the moral state out of which it arose, and, above all, +communicates the exultation to other minds which are already morally +capable of the like. + + +67. For instance, take the art of singing, and the simplest perfect +master of it (up to the limits of his nature) whom you can find;--a +skylark. From him you may learn what it is to "sing for joy." You must +get the moral state first, the pure gladness, then give it finished +expression; and it is perfected in itself, and made communicable to +other creatures capable of such joy. But it is incommunicable to those +who are not prepared to receive it. + +Now, all right human song is, similarly, the finished expression, by +art, of the joy or grief of noble persons, for right causes. And +accurately in proportion to the rightness of the cause, and purity of +the emotion, is the possibility of the fine art. A maiden may sing of +her lost love, but a miser cannot sing of his lost money. And with +absolute precision, from highest to lowest, _the fineness of the +possible art is an index of the moral purity and majesty of the emotion +it expresses_. You may test it practically at any instant. Question with +yourselves respecting any feeling that has taken strong possession of +your mind, "Could this be sung by a master, and sung nobly, with a true +melody and art?" Then it is a right feeling. Could it not be sung at +all, or only sung ludicrously? It is a base one. And that is so in all +the arts; so that with mathematical precision, subject to no error or +exception, the art of a nation, so far as it exists, is an exponent of +its ethical state. + + +68. An exponent, observe, and exalting influence; but not the root or +cause. You cannot paint or sing yourselves into being good men; you must +be good men before you can either paint or sing, and then the colour and +sound will complete in you all that is best. + +And this it was that I called upon you to hear, saying, "listen to me at +least now," in the first lecture, namely, that no art-teaching could be +of use to you, but would rather be harmful, unless it was grafted on +something deeper than all art. For indeed not only with this, of which +it is my function to show you the laws, but much more with the art of +all men, which you came here chiefly to learn, that of language, the +chief vices of education have arisen from the one great fallacy of +supposing that noble language is a communicable trick of grammar and +accent, instead of simply the careful expression of right thought. All +the virtues of language are, in their roots, moral; it becomes accurate +if the speaker desires to be true; clear, if he speaks with sympathy and +a desire to be intelligible; powerful, if he has earnestness; pleasant, +if he has sense of rhythm and order. There are no other virtues of +language producible by art than these: but let me mark more deeply for +an instant the significance of one of them. Language, I said, is only +clear when it is sympathetic. You can, in truth, understand a man's word +only by understanding his temper. Your own word is also as of an unknown +tongue to him unless he understands yours. And it is this which makes +the art of language, if any one is to be chosen separately from the +rest, that which is fittest for the instrument of a gentleman's +education. To teach the meaning of a word thoroughly, is to teach the +nature of the spirit that coined it; the secret of language is the +secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle. +And thus the principles of beautiful speech have all been fixed by +sincere and kindly speech. On the laws which have been determined by +sincerity, false speech, apparently beautiful, may afterwards be +constructed; but all such utterance, whether in oration or poetry, is +not only without permanent power, but it is destructive of the +principles it has usurped. So long as no words are uttered but in +faithfulness, so long the art of language goes on exalting itself; but +the moment it is shaped and chiselled on external principles, it falls +into frivolity, and perishes. And this truth would have been long ago +manifest, had it not been that in periods of advanced academical science +there is always a tendency to deny the sincerity of the first masters of +language. Once learn to write gracefully in the manner of an ancient +author, and we are apt to think that he also wrote in the manner of some +one else. But no noble nor right style was ever yet founded but out of a +sincere heart. + +No man is worth reading to form your style, who does not mean what he +says; nor was any great style ever invented but by some man who meant +what he said. Find out the beginner of a great manner of writing, and +you have also found the declarer of some true facts or sincere passions: +and your whole method of reading will thus be quickened, for, being sure +that your author really meant what he said, you will be much more +careful to ascertain what it is that he means. + + +69. And of yet greater importance is it deeply to know that every beauty +possessed by the language of a nation is significant of the innermost +laws of its being. Keep the temper of the people stern and manly; make +their associations grave, courteous, and for worthy objects; occupy them +in just deeds; and their tongue must needs be a grand one. Nor is it +possible, therefore--observe the necessary reflected action--that any +tongue should be a noble one, of which the words are not so many +trumpet-calls to action. All great languages invariably utter great +things, and command them; they cannot be mimicked but by obedience; the +breath of them is inspiration because it is not only vocal, but vital; +and you can only learn to speak as these men spoke, by becoming what +these men were. + + +70. Now for direct confirmation of this, I want you to think over the +relation of expression to character in two great masters of the absolute +art of language, Virgil and Pope. You are perhaps surprised at the last +name; and indeed you have in English much higher grasp and melody of +language from more passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its +range, so perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are +the two most accomplished _Artists_, merely as such, whom I know in +literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in +investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, and the +severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, +arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds:--out of the deep +tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of Nisus and +Lausus; and the serene and just benevolence which placed Pope, in his +theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and enabled him to sum +the law of noble life in two lines which, so far as I know, are the most +complete, the most concise, and the most lofty expression of moral +temper existing in English words:-- + + _"Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;_ + _Never dejected, while another's bless'd."_ + +I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make yourselves +entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, putting Shakespeare +aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold Pope to be the most +perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, of the true English mind; +and I think the Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental +work "exacted" in our country. You will find, as you study Pope, that +he has expressed for you, in the strictest language and within the +briefest limits, every law of art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, +and, finally, of a benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, +contented with its allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of +its salvation to Him in whose hand lies that of the universe. + + +71. And now I pass to the arts with which I have special concern, in +which, though the facts are exactly the same, I shall have more +difficulty in proving my assertion, because very few of us are as +cognizant of the merit of painting as we are of that of language; and I +can only show you whence that merit springs, after having thoroughly +shown you in what it consists. But, in the meantime, I have simply to +tell you, that the manual arts are as accurate exponents of ethical +state, as other modes of expression; first, with absolute precision, of +that of the workman; and then with precision, disguised by many +distorting influences, of that of the nation to which it belongs. + +And, first, they are a perfect exponent of the mind of the workman: but, +being so, remember, if the mind be great or complex, the art is not an +easy book to read; for we must ourselves possess all the mental +characters of which we are to read the signs. No man can read the +evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know +what the work cost: nor can he read the evidence of true passion if he +is not passionate; nor of gentleness if he is not gentle: and the most +subtle signs of fault and weakness of character he can only judge by +having had the same faults to fight with. I myself, for instance, know +impatient work, and tired work, better than most critics, because I am +myself always impatient, and often tired:--so also, the patient and +indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than +to others. Yet, wonderful in no mean measure it will be to you all, when +I make it manifest,--and as soon as we begin our real work, and you have +learned what it is to draw a true line, I shall be able to make manifest +to you,--and indisputably so,--that the day's work of a man like +Mantegna or Paul Veronese consists of an unfaltering, uninterrupted +succession of movements of the hand more precise than those of the +finest fencer: the pencil leaving one point and arriving at another, not +only with unerring precision at the extremity of the line, but with an +unerring and yet varied course--sometimes over spaces a foot or more in +extent--yet a course so determined everywhere, that either of these men +could, and Veronese often does, draw a finished profile, or any other +portion of the contour of the face, with one line, not afterwards +changed. Try, first, to realise to yourselves the muscular precision of +that action, and the intellectual strain of it; for the movement of a +fencer is perfect in practised monotony; but the movement of the hand of +a great painter is at every instant governed by a direct and new +intention. Then imagine that muscular firmness and subtlety, and the +instantaneously selective and ordinant energy of the brain, sustained +all day long, not only without fatigue, but with a visible joy in the +exertion, like that which an eagle seems to take in the wave of his +wings; and this all life long, and through long life, not only without +failure of power, but with visible increase of it, until the actually +organic changes of old age. And then consider, so far as you know +anything of physiology, what sort of an ethical state of body and mind +that means! ethic through ages past! what fineness of race there must be +to get it, what exquisite balance and symmetry of the vital powers! And +then, finally, determine for yourselves whether a manhood like that is +consistent with any viciousness of soul, with any mean anxiety, any +gnawing lust, any wretchedness of spite or remorse, any consciousness of +rebellion against law of God or man, or any actual, though unconscious +violation of even the least law to which obedience is essential for the +glory of life and the pleasing of its Giver. + + +72. It is, of course, true that many of the strong masters had deep +faults of character, but their faults always show in their work. It is +true that some could not govern their passions; if so, they died young, +or they painted ill when old. But the greater part of our +misapprehension in the whole matter is from our not having well known +who the great painters were, and taking delight in the petty skill that +was bred in the fumes of the taverns of the North, instead of theirs who +breathed empyreal air, sons of the morning, under the woods of Assisi +and the crags of Cadore. + + +73. It is true however also, as I have pointed out long ago, that the +strong masters fall into two great divisions, one leading simple and +natural lives, the other restrained in a Puritanism of the worship of +beauty; and these two manners of life you may recognise in a moment by +their work. Generally the naturalists are the strongest; but there are +two of the Puritans, whose work if I can succeed in making clearly +understandable to you during my three years here, it is all I need care +to do. But of these two Puritans one I cannot name to you, and the other +I at present will not. One I cannot, for no one knows his name, except +the baptismal one, Bernard, or "dear little Bernard"--Bernardino, called +from his birthplace, (Luino, on the Lago Maggiore,) Bernard of Luino. +The other is a Venetian, of whom many of you probably have never heard, +and of whom, through me, you shall not hear, until I have tried to get +some picture by him over to England. + + +74. Observe then, this Puritanism in the worship of beauty, though +sometimes weak, is always honourable and amiable, and the exact reverse +of the false Puritanism, which consists in the dread or disdain of +beauty. And in order to treat my subject rightly, I ought to proceed +from the skill of art to the choice of its subject, and show you how the +moral temper of the workman is shown by his seeking lovely forms and +thoughts to express, as well as by the force of his hand in expression. +But I need not now urge this part of the proof on you, because you are +already, I believe, sufficiently conscious of the truth in this matter, +and also I have already said enough of it in my writings; whereas I have +not at all said enough of the infallibleness of fine technical work as a +proof of every other good power. And indeed it was long before I myself +understood the true meaning of the pride of the greatest men in their +mere execution, shown for a permanent lesson to us, in the stories +which, whether true or not, indicate with absolute accuracy the general +conviction of great artists;--the stories of the contest of Apelles and +Protogenes in a line only, (of which I can promise you, you shall know +the meaning to some purpose in a little while),--the story of the circle +of Giotto, and especially, which you may perhaps not have observed, the +expression of Dürer in his inscription on the drawings sent him by +Raphael. These figures, he says, "Raphael drew and sent to Albert Dürer +in Nürnberg, to show him"--What? Not his invention, nor his beauty of +expression, but "sein Hand zu weisen," "To show him his _hand_." And you +will find, as you examine farther, that all inferior artists are +continually trying to escape from the necessity of sound work, and +either indulging themselves in their delights in subject, or pluming +themselves on their noble motives for attempting what they cannot +perform; (and observe, by the way, that a great deal of what is mistaken +for conscientious motive is nothing but a very pestilent, because very +subtle, condition of vanity); whereas the great men always understand at +once that the first morality of a painter, as of everybody else, is to +know his business; and so earnest are they in this, that many, whose +lives you would think, by the results of their work, had been passed in +strong emotion, have in reality subdued themselves, though capable of +the very strongest passions, into a calm as absolute as that of a deeply +sheltered mountain lake, which reflects every agitation of the clouds in +the sky, and every change of the shadows on the hills, but is itself +motionless. + + +75. Finally, you must remember that great obscurity has been brought +upon the truth in this matter by the want of integrity and simplicity in +our modern life. I mean integrity in the Latin sense, wholeness. +Everything is broken up, and mingled in confusion, both in our habits +and thoughts; besides being in great part imitative: so that you not +only cannot tell what a man is, but sometimes you cannot tell whether +he is, at all!--whether you have indeed to do with a spirit, or only +with an echo. And thus the same inconsistencies appear now, between the +work of artists of merit and their personal characters, as those which +you find continually disappointing expectation in the lives of men of +modern literary power; the same conditions of society having obscured or +misdirected the best qualities of the imagination, both in our +literature and art. Thus there is no serious question with any of us as +to the personal character of Dante and Giotto, of Shakespeare and +Holbein; but we pause timidly in the attempt to analyse the moral laws +of the art skill in recent poets, novelists, and painters. + + +76. Let me assure you once for all, that as you grow older, if you +enable yourselves to distinguish, by the truth of your own lives, what +is true in those of other men, you will gradually perceive that all good +has its origin in good, never in evil; that the fact of either +literature or painting being truly fine of their kind, whatever their +mistaken aim, or partial error, is proof of their noble origin: and +that, if there is indeed sterling value in the thing done, it has come +of a sterling worth in the soul that did it, however alloyed or defiled +by conditions of sin which are sometimes more appalling or more strange +than those which all may detect in their own hearts, because they are +part of a personality altogether larger than ours, and as far beyond our +judgment in its darkness as beyond our following in its light. And it is +sufficient warning against what some might dread as the probable effect +of such a conviction on your own minds, namely, that you might permit +yourselves in the weaknesses which you imagined to be allied to genius, +when they took the form of personal temptations;--it is surely, I say, +sufficient warning against so mean a folly, to discern, as you may with +little pains, that, of all human existences, the lives of men of that +distorted and tainted nobility of intellect are probably the most +miserable. + + +77. I pass to the second, and for us the more practically important +question, What is the effect of noble art upon other men; what has it +done for national morality in time past: and what effect is the extended +knowledge or possession of it likely to have upon us now? And here we +are at once met by the facts, which are as gloomy as indisputable, that, +while many peasant populations, among whom scarcely the rudest practice +of art has ever been attempted, have lived in comparative innocence, +honour and happiness, the worst foulness and cruelty of savage tribes +have been frequently associated with fine ingenuities of decorative +design; also, that no people has ever attained the higher stages of art +skill, except at a period of its civilisation which was sullied by +frequent, violent and even monstrous crime; and, lastly, that the +attaining of perfection in art power has been hitherto, in every nation, +the accurate signal of the beginning of its ruin. + + +78. Respecting which phenomena, observe first, that although good never +springs out of evil, it is developed to its highest by contention with +evil. There are some groups of peasantry, in far-away nooks of Christian +countries, who are nearly as innocent as lambs; but the morality which +gives power to art is the morality of men, not of cattle. + +Secondly, the virtues of the inhabitants of many country districts are +apparent, not real; their lives are indeed artless, but not innocent; +and it is only the monotony of circumstances, and the absence of +temptation, which prevent the exhibition of evil passions not less real +because often dormant, nor less foul because shown only in petty faults, +or inactive malignities. + + +79. But you will observe also that _absolute_ artlessness, to men in any +kind of moral health, is impossible; they have always, at least, the art +by which they live--agriculture or seamanship; and in these industries, +skilfully practised, you will find the law of their moral training; +while, whatever the adversity of circumstances, every rightly-minded +peasantry, such as that of Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, or Switzerland, has +associated with its needful industry a quite studied school of +pleasurable art in dress; and generally also in song, and simple +domestic architecture. + + +80. Again, I need not repeat to you here what I endeavoured to explain +in the first lecture in the book I called "The Two Paths," respecting +the arts of savage races: but I may now note briefly that such arts are +the result of an intellectual activity which has found no room to +expand, and which the tyranny of nature or of man has condemned to +disease through arrested growth. And where neither Christianity, nor any +other religion conveying some moral help, has reached, the animal energy +of such races necessarily flames into ghastly conditions of evil, and +the grotesque or frightful forms assumed by their art are precisely +indicative of their distorted moral nature. + + +81. But the truly great nations nearly always begin from a race +possessing this imaginative power; and for some time their progress is +very slow, and their state not one of innocence, but of feverish and +faultful animal energy. This is gradually subdued and exalted into +bright human life; the art instinct purifying itself with the rest of +the nature, until social perfectness is nearly reached; and then comes +the period when conscience and intellect are so highly developed, that +new forms of error begin in the inability to fulfil the demands of the +one, or to answer the doubts of the other. Then the wholeness of the +people is lost; all kinds of hypocrisies and oppositions of science +develop themselves; their faith is questioned on one side, and +compromised with on the other; wealth commonly increases at the same +period to a destructive extent; luxury follows; and the ruin of the +nation is then certain: while the arts, all this time, are simply, as I +said at first, the exponents of each phase of its moral state, and no +more control it in its political career than the gleam of the firefly +guides its oscillation. It is true that their most splendid results are +usually obtained in the swiftness of the power which is hurrying to the +precipice; but to lay the charge of the catastrophe to the art by which +it is illumined, is to find a cause for the cataract in the hues of its +iris. It is true that the colossal vices belonging to periods of great +national wealth (for wealth, you will find, is the real root of all +evil) can turn every good gift and skill of nature or of man to evil +purpose. If, in such times, fair pictures have been misused, how much +more fair realities? And if Miranda is immoral to Caliban, is that +Miranda's fault? + + +82. And I could easily go on to trace for you what at the moment I +speak, is signified, in our own national character, by the forms of art, +and unhappily also by the forms of what is not art, but [Greek: +atechnia], that exist among us. But the more important question is, What +_will_ be signified by them; what is there in us now of worth and +strength, which under our new and partly accidental impulse towards +formative labour, may be by that expressed, and by that fortified? + +Would it not be well to know this? Nay, irrespective of all future work, +is it not the first thing we should want to know, what stuff we are made +of--how far we are +agathoi+ or +kakoi+--good, or good for +nothing? We may all know that, each of ourselves, easily enough, if we +like to put one grave question well home. + + +83. Supposing it were told any of you by a physician whose word you +could not but trust, that you had not more than seven days to live. And +suppose also that, by the manner of your education it had happened to +you, as it has happened to many, never to have heard of any future +state, or not to have credited what you heard; and therefore that you +had to face this fact of the approach of death in its simplicity: +fearing no punishment for any sin that you might have before committed, +or in the coming days might determine to commit; and having similarly no +hope of reward for past, or yet possible, virtue; nor even of any +consciousness whatever to be left to you, after the seventh day had +ended, either of the results of your acts to those whom you loved, or of +the feelings of any survivors towards you. Then the manner in which you +would spend the seven days is an exact measure of the morality of your +nature. + + +84. I know that some of you, and I believe the greater number of you, +would, in such a case, spend the granted days entirely as you ought. +Neither in numbering the errors, or deploring the pleasures of the +past; nor in grasping at vile good in the present, nor vainly lamenting +the darkness of the future; but in an instant and earnest execution of +whatever it might be possible for you to accomplish in the time, in +setting your affairs in order, and in providing for the future comfort, +and--so far as you might by any message or record of yourself,--for the +consolation, of those whom you loved, and by whom you desired to be +remembered, not for your good, but for theirs. How far you might fail +through human weakness, in shame for the past, despair at the little +that could in the remnant of life be accomplished, or the intolerable +pain of broken affection, would depend wholly on the degree in which +your nature had been depressed or fortified by the manner of your past +life. But I think there are few of you who would not spend those last +days better than all that had preceded them. + + +85. If you look accurately through the records of the lives that have +been most useful to humanity, you will find that all that has been done +best, has been done so;--that to the clearest intellects and highest +souls,--to the true children of the Father, with whom a thousand years +are as one day, their poor seventy years are but as seven days. The +removal of the shadow of death from them to an uncertain, but always +narrow, distance, never takes away from them their intuition of its +approach; the extending to them of a few hours more or less of light +abates not their acknowledgment of the infinitude that must remain to be +known beyond their knowledge,--done beyond their deeds: the +unprofitableness of their momentary service is wrought in a magnificent +despair, and their very honour is bequeathed by them for the joy of +others, as they lie down to their rest, regarding for themselves the +voice of men no more. + + +86. The best things, I repeat to you, have been done thus, and +therefore, sorrowfully. But the greatest part of the good work of the +world is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, "I have +stubbed Thornaby waste," or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful +doing of what the hand finds to do, in surety that at evening time, +whatsoever is right the Master will give. And that it be worthily done, +depends wholly on that ultimate quantity of worth which you can measure, +each in himself, by the test I have just given you. For that test, +observe, will mark to you the precise force, first of your absolute +courage, and then of the energy in you for the right ordering of things, +and the kindly dealing with persons. You have cut away from these two +instincts every selfish or common motive, and left nothing but the +energies of Order and of Love. + + +87. Now, where those two roots are set, all the other powers and desires +find right nourishment, and become to their own utmost, helpful to +others and pleasurable to ourselves. And so far as those two springs of +action are not in us, all other powers become corrupt or dead; even the +love of truth, apart from these, hardens into an insolent and cold +avarice of knowledge, which unused, is more vain than unused gold. + + +88. These, then, are the two essential instincts of humanity: the love +of Order and the love of Kindness. By the love of order the moral energy +is to deal with the earth, and to dress it, and keep it; and with all +rebellious and dissolute forces in lower creatures, or in ourselves. By +the love of doing kindness it is to deal rightly with all surrounding +life. And then, grafted on these, we are to make every other passion +perfect; so that they may every one have full strength and yet be +absolutely under control. + + +89. Every one must be strong, every one perfect, every one obedient as a +war horse. And it is among the most beautiful pieces of mysticism to +which eternal truth is attached, that the chariot race, which Plato uses +as an image of moral government, and which is indeed the most perfect +type of it in any visible skill of men, should have been made by the +Greeks the continual subject of their best poetry and best art. +Nevertheless Plato's use of it is not altogether true. There is no black +horse in the chariot of the soul. One of the driver's worst faults is in +starving his horses; another, in not breaking them early enough; but +they are all good. Take, for example, one usually thought of as wholly +evil--that of Anger, leading to vengeance. I believe it to be quite one +of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and +chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to +punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, +that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine +that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may +give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten +other people from committing the same fault. The beautiful theory of +this non-vindictive justice is, that having convicted a man of a crime +worthy of death, we entirely pardon the criminal, restore him to his +place in our affection and esteem, and then hang him, not as a +malefactor, but as a scarecrow. That is the theory. And the practice is, +that we send a child to prison for a month for stealing a handful of +walnuts, for fear that other children should come to steal more of our +walnuts. And we do not punish a swindler for ruining a thousand +families, because we think swindling is a wholesome excitement to trade. + + +90. But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to +virtue. Only--and herein it is distinguished from personal revenge--it +is vindictive of the wrong done;--not of the wrong done _to us_. It is +the national expression of deliberate anger, as of deliberate gratitude; +it is not exemplary, or even corrective, but essentially retributive; it +is the absolute art of measured recompense, giving honour where honour +is due, and shame where shame is due, and joy where joy is due, and pain +where pain is due. It is neither educational, for men are to be educated +by wholesome habit, not by rewards and punishments; nor is it +preventive, for it is to be executed without regard to any consequences; +but only for righteousness' sake, a righteous nation does judgment and +justice. But in this, as in all other instances, the rightness of the +secondary passion depends on its being grafted on those two primary +instincts, the love of order and of kindness, so that indignation +itself is against the wounding of love. Do you think the +mênis +Achilêos+ came of a hard heart in Achilles, or the "Pallas te hoc +vulnere, Pallas," of a hard heart in Anchises' son? + + +91. And now, if with this clue through the labyrinth of them, you +remember the course of the arts of great nations, you will perceive that +whatever has prospered, and become lovely, had its beginning--for no +other was possible--in the love of order in material things associated +with true +dikaiosunê+: and the desire of beauty in material +things, which is associated with true affection, _charitas_, and with +the innumerable conditions of gentleness expressed by the different uses +of the words +charis+ and _gratia_. You will find that this love +of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature, and though +it can long co-exist with states of life in many other respects +unvirtuous, it is itself wholly good;--the direct adversary of envy, +avarice, mean worldly care, and especially of cruelty. It entirely +perishes when these are wilfully indulged; and the men in whom it has +been most strong have always been compassionate, and lovers of justice, +and the earliest discerners and declarers of things conducive to the +happiness of mankind. + + +92. Nearly every important truth respecting the love of beauty in its +familiar relations to human life was mythically expressed by the Greeks +in their various accounts of the parentage and offices of the Graces. +But one fact, the most vital of all, they could not in its fulness +perceive, namely, that the intensity of other perceptions of beauty is +exactly commensurate with the imaginative purity of the passion of love, +and with the singleness of its devotion. They were not fully conscious +of, and could not therefore either mythically or philosophically +express, the deep relation within themselves between their power of +perceiving beauty, and the honour of domestic affection which found +their sternest themes of tragedy in the infringement of its laws;--which +made the rape of Helen the chief subject of their epic poetry, and which +fastened their clearest symbolism of resurrection on the story of +Alcestis. Unhappily, the subordinate position of their most revered +women, and the partial corruption of feeling towards them by the +presence of certain other singular states of inferior passion which it +is as difficult as grievous to analyse, arrested the ethical as well as +the formative progress of the Greek mind; and it was not until after an +interval of nearly two thousand years of various error and pain, that, +partly as the true reward of Christian warfare nobly sustained through +centuries of trial, and partly as the visionary culmination of the faith +which saw in a maiden's purity the link between God and her race, the +highest and holiest strength of mortal love was reached; and, together +with it, in the song of Dante, and the painting of Bernard of Luino and +his fellows, the perception, and embodiment for ever of whatsoever +things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of +good report;--that, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, +men might think on those things. + + +93. You probably observed the expression I used a moment ago, the +_imaginative_ purity of the passion of love. I have not yet spoken, nor +is it possible for me to-day, to speak adequately, of the moral power of +the imagination: but you may for yourselves enough discern its nature +merely by comparing the dignity of the relations between the sexes, from +their lowest level in moths or mollusca, through the higher creatures in +whom they become a domestic influence and law, up to the love of pure +men and women; and, finally, to the ideal love which animated chivalry. +Throughout this vast ascent it is the gradual increase of the +imaginative faculty which exalts and enlarges the authority of the +passion, until, at its height, it is the bulwark of patience, the tutor +of honour, and the perfectness of praise. + + +94. You will find farther, that as of love, so of all the other +passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the +Imagination, which is lord over them. For to _subdue_ the passions, +which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is +possible enough to a proud dulness; but to _excite_ them rightly, and +make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination. It +is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. +Human nature is kind and generous; but it is narrow and blind; and can +only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and +feels. People would instantly care for others as well as themselves if +only they could _imagine_ others as well as themselves. Let a child fall +into the river before the roughest man's eyes;--he will usually do what +he can to get it out, even at some risk to himself; and all the town +will triumph in the saving of one little life. Let the same man be shown +that hundreds of children are dying of fever for want of some sanitary +measure which it will cost him trouble to urge, and he will make no +effort; and probably all the town would resist him if he did. So, also, +the lives of many deserving women are passed in a succession of petty +anxieties about themselves, and gleaning of minute interests and mean +pleasures in their immediate circle, because they are never taught to +make any effort to look beyond it; or to know anything about the mighty +world in which their lives are fading, like blades of bitter grass in +fruitless fields. + + +95. I had intended to enlarge on this--and yet more on the kingdom which +every man holds in his conceptive faculty, to be peopled with active +thoughts and lovely presences, or left waste for the springing up of +those dark desires and dreams of which it is written that "every +imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is evil continually." True, +and a thousand times true it is, that, here at least, "greater is he +that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." But this you can +partly follow out for yourselves without help, partly we must leave it +for future enquiry. I press to the conclusion which I wish to leave with +you, that all you can rightly do, or honourably become, depends on the +government of these two instincts of order and kindness, by this great +Imaginative faculty, which gives you inheritance of the past, grasp of +the present, authority over the future. Map out the spaces of your +possible lives by its help; measure the range of their possible agency! +On the walls and towers of this your fair city, there is not an ornament +of which the first origin may not be traced back to the thoughts of men +who died two thousand years ago. Whom will _you_ be governing by your +thoughts, two thousand years hence? Think of it, and you will find that +so far from art being immoral, little else except art is moral; that +life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality: +and for the words "good" and "wicked," used of men, you may almost +substitute the words "Makers" and "Destroyers." Far the greater part of +the seeming prosperity of the world is, so far as our present knowledge +extends, vain: wholly useless for any kind of good, but having assigned +to it a certain inevitable sequence of destruction and of sorrow. Its +stress is only the stress of wandering storm; its beauty the hectic of +plague: and what is called the history of mankind is too often the +record of the whirlwind, and the map of the spreading of the leprosy. +But underneath all that, or in narrow spaces of dominion in the midst of +it, the work of every man, "qui non accepit in vanitatem animam suam," +endures and prospers; a small remnant or green bud of it prevailing at +last over evil. And though faint with sickness, and encumbered in ruin, +the true workers redeem inch by inch the wilderness into garden ground; +by the help of their joined hands the order of all things is surely +sustained and vitally expanded, and although with strange vacillation, +in the eyes of the watcher, the morning cometh, and also the night, +there is no hour of human existence that does not draw on towards the +perfect day. + + +96. And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that +the beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay! +_more_, if it may be, in labour; in our strength, rather than in our +weakness; and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six +days, and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice +of what we pray for on the seventh, of reward or repose. With the +multitude that keep holiday, we may perhaps sometimes vainly have gone +up to the house of the Lord, and vainly there asked for what we fancied +would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their Lord would have +them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing. +Surely goodness and mercy shall _follow_ them, _all_ the days of their +life; and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord--FOR EVER. + + + + +LECTURE IV + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE + + +97. Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in +which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical +requirements of human life. + +Its offices in this respect are mainly twofold: it gives Form to +knowledge, and Grace to utility; that is to say, it makes permanently +visible to us things which otherwise could neither be described by our +science, nor retained by our memory; and it gives delightfulness and +worth to the implements of daily use, and materials of dress, furniture +and lodging. In the first of these offices it gives precision and charm +to truth; in the second it gives precision and charm to service. For, +the moment we make anything useful thoroughly, it is a law of nature +that we shall be pleased with ourselves, and with the thing we have +made; and become desirous therefore to adorn or complete it, in some +dainty way, with finer art expressive of our pleasure. + +And the point I wish chiefly to bring before you to-day is this close +and healthy connection of the fine arts with material use; but I must +first try briefly to put in clear light the function of art in giving +Form to truth. + + +98. Much that I have hitherto tried to teach has been disputed on the +ground that I have attached too much importance to art as representing +natural facts, and too little to it as a source of pleasure. And I wish, +in the close of these four prefatory lectures, strongly to assert to +you, and, so far as I can in the time, convince you, that the entire +vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of +use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful or impressive it may be in +itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper +inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects,--either +_to state a true thing_, or to _adorn a serviceable one_. It must never +exist alone--never for itself; it exists rightly only when it is the +means of knowledge, or the grace of agency for life. + + +99. Now, I pray you to observe--for though I have said this often +before, I have never yet said it clearly enough--every good piece of +art, to whichever of these ends it may be directed, involves first +essentially the evidence of human skill and the formation of an actually +beautiful thing by it. + +Skill, and beauty, always then; and, beyond these, the formative arts +have always one or other of the two objects which I have just defined to +you--truth, or serviceableness; and without these aims neither the skill +nor their beauty will avail; only by these can either legitimately +reign. All the graphic arts begin in keeping the outline of shadow that +we have loved, and they end in giving to it the aspect of life; and all +the architectural arts begin in the shaping of the cup and the platter, +and they end in a glorified roof. + +Therefore, you see, in the graphic arts you have Skill, Beauty, and +Likeness; and in the architectural arts, Skill, Beauty, and Use; and you +_must_ have the three in each group, balanced and co-ordinate; and all +the chief errors of art consist in losing or exaggerating one of these +elements. + + +100. For instance, almost the whole system and hope of modern life are +founded on the notion that you may substitute mechanism for skill, +photograph for picture, cast-iron for sculpture. That is your main +nineteenth-century faith, or infidelity. You think you can get +everything by grinding--music, literature, and painting. You will find +it grievously not so; you can get nothing but dust by mere grinding. +Even to have the barley-meal out of it, you must have the barley first; +and that comes by growth, not grinding. But essentially, we have lost +our delight in Skill; in that majesty of it which I was trying to make +clear to you in my last address, and which long ago I tried to express, +under the head of ideas of power. The entire sense of that, we have +lost, because we ourselves do not take pains enough to do right, and +have no conception of what the right costs; so that all the joy and +reverence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man's work have ceased +in us. We keep them yet a little in looking at a honeycomb or a +bird's-nest; we understand that these differ, by divinity of skill, from +a lump of wax or a cluster of sticks. But a picture, which is a much +more wonderful thing than a honeycomb or a bird's-nest,--have we not +known people, and sensible people too, who expected to be taught to +produce that, in six lessons? + + +101. Well, you must have the skill, you must have the beauty, which is +the highest moral element; and then, lastly, you must have the verity or +utility, which is not the moral, but the vital element; and this desire +for verity and use is the one aim of the three that always leads in +great schools, and in the minds of great masters, without any exception. +They will permit themselves in awkwardness, they will permit themselves +in ugliness; but they will never permit themselves in uselessness or in +unveracity. + + +102. And farther, as their skill increases, and as their grace, so much +more, their desire for truth. It is impossible to find the three motives +in fairer balance and harmony than in our own Reynolds. He rejoices in +showing you his skill; and those of you who succeed in learning what +painter's work really is, will one day rejoice also, even to +laughter--that highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in +watching the fortitude and the fire of a hand which strikes forth its +will upon the canvas as easily as the wind strikes it on the sea. He +rejoices in all abstract beauty and rhythm and melody of design; he will +never give you a colour that is not lovely, nor a shade that is +unnecessary, nor a line that is ungraceful. But all his power and all +his invention are held by him subordinate,--and the more obediently +because of their nobleness,--to his true leading purpose of setting +before you such likeness of the living presence of an English gentleman +or an English lady, as shall be worthy of being looked upon for ever. + + +103. But farther, you remember, I hope--for I said it in a way that I +thought would shock you a little, that you might remember it--my +statement, that art had never done more than this, never more than given +the likeness of a noble human being. Not only so, but it very seldom +does so much as this; and the best pictures that exist of the great +schools are all portraits, or groups of portraits, often of very simple +and no wise noble persons. You may have much more brilliant and +impressive qualities in imaginative pictures; you may have figures +scattered like clouds, or garlanded like flowers; you may have light and +shade, as of a tempest, and colour, as of the rainbow; but all that is +child's play to the great men, though it is astonishment to us. Their +real strength is tried to the utmost, and as far as I know, it is never +elsewhere brought out so thoroughly, as in painting one man or woman, +and the soul that was in them; nor that always the highest soul, but +often only a thwarted one that was capable of height; or perhaps not +even that, but faultful and poor, yet seen through, to the poor best of +it, by the masterful sight. So that in order to put before you in your +Standard series, the best art possible, I am obliged, even from the very +strongest men, to take portraits, before I take the idealism. Nay, +whatever is best in the great compositions themselves has depended on +portraiture; and the study necessary to enable you to understand +invention will also convince you that the mind of man never invented a +greater thing than the form of man, animated by faithful life. Every +attempt to refine or exalt such healthy humanity has weakened or +caricatured it; or else consists only in giving it, to please our fancy, +the wings of birds, or the eyes of antelopes. Whatever is truly great in +either Greek or Christian art, is also restrictedly human; and even the +raptures of the redeemed souls who enter, "celestemente ballando," the +gate of Angelico's Paradise, were seen first in the terrestrial, yet +most pure, mirth of Florentine maidens. + + +104. I am aware that this cannot but at present appear gravely +questionable to those of my audience who are strictly cognisant of the +phases of Greek art; for they know that the moment of its decline is +accurately marked, by its turning from abstract form to portraiture. But +the reason of this is simple. The progressive course of Greek art was in +subduing monstrous conceptions to natural ones; it did this by general +laws; it reached absolute truth of generic human form, and if this +ethical force had remained, would have advanced into healthy +portraiture. But at the moment of change the national life ended in +Greece; and portraiture, there, meant insult to her religion, and +flattery to her tyrants. And her skill perished, not because she became +true in sight, but because she became vile at heart. + + +105. And now let us think of our own work, and ask how that may become, +in its own poor measure, active in some verity of representation. We +certainly cannot begin by drawing kings or queens; but we must try, even +in our earliest work, if it is to prosper, to draw something that will +convey true knowledge both to ourselves and others. And I think you will +find greatest advantage in the endeavour to give more life and +educational power to the simpler branches of natural science: for the +great scientific men are all so eager in advance that they have no time +to popularise their discoveries, and if we can glean after them a +little, and make pictures of the things which science describes, we +shall find the service a worthy one. Not only so, but we may even be +helpful to science herself; for she has suffered by her proud severance +from the arts; and having made too little effort to realise her +discoveries to vulgar eyes, has herself lost true measure of what was +chiefly precious in them. + + +106. Take Botany, for instance. Our scientific botanists are, I think, +chiefly at present occupied in distinguishing species, which perfect +methods of distinction will probably in the future show to be +indistinct;--in inventing descriptive names of which a more advanced +science and more fastidious scholarship will show some to be +unnecessary, and others inadmissible;--and in microscopic investigations +of structure, which through many alternate links of triumphant +discovery that tissue is composed of vessels, and that vessels are +composed of tissue, have not hitherto completely explained to us either +the origin, the energy, or the course of the sap; and which however +subtle or successful, bear to the real natural history of plants only +the relation that anatomy and organic chemistry bear to the history of +men. In the meantime, our artists are so generally convinced of the +truth of the Darwinian theory that they do not always think it necessary +to show any difference between the foliage of an elm and an oak; and the +gift-books of Christmas have every page surrounded with laboriously +engraved garlands of rose, shamrock, thistle, and forget-me-not, without +its being thought proper by the draughtsman, or desirable by the public, +even in the case of those uncommon flowers, to observe the real shape of +the petals of any one of them. + + +107. Now what we especially need at present for educational purposes is +to know, not the anatomy of plants, but their biography--how and where +they live and die, their tempers, benevolences, malignities, distresses, +and virtues. We want them drawn from their youth to their age, from bud +to fruit. We ought to see the various forms of their diminished but +hardy growth in cold climates, or poor soils; and their rank or wild +luxuriance, when full-fed, and warmly nursed. And all this we ought to +have drawn so accurately, that we might at once compare any given part +of a plant with the same part of any other, drawn on the like +conditions. Now, is not this a work which we may set about here in +Oxford, with good hope and much pleasure? I think it is so important, +that the first exercise in drawing I shall put before you will be an +outline of a laurel leaf. You will find in the opening sentence of +Lionardo's treatise, our present text-book, that you must not at first +draw from nature, but from a good master's work, "per assuefarsi a buone +membra," to accustom yourselves, that is, to entirely good +representative organic forms. So your first exercise shall be the top of +the laurel sceptre of Apollo, drawn by an Italian engraver of Lionardo's +own time; then we will draw a laurel leaf itself; and little by little, +I think we may both learn ourselves, and teach to many besides, somewhat +more than we know yet, of the wild olives of Greece, and the wild roses +of England. + + +108. Next, in Geology, which I will take leave to consider as an +entirely separate science from the zoology of the past, which has lately +usurped its name and interest. In geology itself we find the strength of +many able men occupied in debating questions of which there are yet no +data even for the clear statement; and in seizing advanced theoretical +positions on the mere contingency of their being afterwards tenable; +while, in the meantime, no simple person, taking a holiday in +Cumberland, can get an intelligible section of Skiddaw, or a clear +account of the origin of the Skiddaw slates; and while, though half the +educated society of London travel every summer over the great plain of +Switzerland, none know, or care to know, why that is a plain, and the +Alps to the south of it are Alps; and whether or not the gravel of the +one has anything to do with the rocks of the other. And though every +palace in Europe owes part of its decoration to variegated marbles, and +nearly every woman in Europe part of her decoration to pieces of jasper +or chalcedony, I do not think any geologist could at this moment with +authority tell us either how a piece of marble is stained, or what +causes the streaks in a Scotch pebble. + + +109. Now, as soon as you have obtained the power of drawing, I do not +say a mountain, but even a stone, accurately, every question of this +kind will become to you at once attractive and definite; you will find +that in the grain, the lustre, and the cleavage-lines of the smallest +fragment of rock, there are recorded forces of every order and +magnitude, from those which raise a continent by one volcanic effort, to +those which at every instant are polishing the apparently complete +crystal in its nest, and conducting the apparently motionless metal in +its vein; and that only by the art of your own hand, and fidelity of +sight which it develops, you can obtain true perception of these +invincible and inimitable arts of the earth herself; while the +comparatively slight effort necessary to obtain so much skill as may +serviceably draw mountains in distant effect will be instantly rewarded +by what is almost equivalent to a new sense of the conditions of their +structure. + + +110. And, because it is well at once to know some direction in which our +work may be definite, let me suggest to those of you who may intend +passing their vacation in Switzerland, and who care about mountains, +that if they will first qualify themselves to take angles of position +and elevation with correctness, and to draw outlines with approximate +fidelity, there are a series of problems of the highest interest to be +worked out on the southern edge of the Swiss plain, in the study of the +relations of its molasse beds to the rocks which are characteristically +developed in the chain of the Stockhorn, Beatenberg, Pilate, Mythen +above Schwytz, and High Sentis of Appenzell, the pursuit of which may +lead them into many pleasant, as well as creditably dangerous, walks, +and curious discoveries; and will be good for the discipline of their +fingers in the pencilling of crag form. + + +111. I wish I could ask you to draw, instead of the Alps, the crests of +Parnassus and Olympus, and the ravines of Delphi and of Tempe. I have +not loved the arts of Greece as others have; yet I love them, and her, +so much, that it is to me simply a standing marvel how scholars can +endure for all these centuries, during which their chief education has +been in the language and policy of Greece, to have only the names of her +hills and rivers upon their lips, and never one line of conception of +them in their mind's sight. Which of us knows what the valley of Sparta +is like, or the great mountain vase of Arcadia? which of us, except in +mere airy syllabling of names, knows aught of "sandy Ladon's lilied +banks, or old Lycæus, or Cyllene hoar"? "You cannot travel in +Greece?"--I know it; nor in Magna Græcia. But, gentlemen of England, you +had better find out why you cannot, and put an end to that horror of +European shame, before you hope to learn Greek art. + + +112. I scarcely know whether to place among the things useful to art, +or to science, the systematic record, by drawing, of phenomena of the +sky. But I am quite sure that your work cannot in any direction be more +useful to yourselves, than in enabling you to perceive the quite +unparalleled subtilties of colour and inorganic form, which occur on any +ordinarily fine morning or evening horizon; and I will even confess to +you another of my perhaps too sanguine expectations, that in some far +distant time it may come to pass, that young Englishmen and Englishwomen +may think the breath of the morning sky pleasanter than that of +midnight, and its light prettier than that of candles. + + +113. Lastly, in Zoology. What the Greeks did for the horse, and what, as +far as regards domestic and expressional character, Landseer has done +for the dog and the deer, remains to be done by art for nearly all other +animals of high organisation. There are few birds or beasts that have +not a range of character which, if not equal to that of the horse or +dog, is yet as interesting within narrower limits, and often in +grotesqueness, intensity, or wild and timid pathos, more singular and +mysterious. Whatever love of humour you have,--whatever sympathy with +imperfect, but most subtle, feeling,--whatever perception of sublimity +in conditions of fatal power, may here find fullest occupation: all +these being joined, in the strong animal races, to a variable and +fantastic beauty far beyond anything that merely formative art has yet +conceived. I have placed in your Educational series a wing by Albert +Dürer, which goes as far as art yet has reached in delineation of +plumage; while for the simple action of the pinion it is impossible to +go beyond what has been done already by Titian and Tintoret; but you +cannot so much as once look at the rufflings of the plumes of a pelican +pluming itself after it has been in the water, or carefully draw the +contours of the wing either of a vulture or a common swift, or paint the +rose and vermilion on that of a flamingo, without receiving almost a new +conception of the meaning of form and colour in creation. + + +114. Lastly. Your work, in all directions I have hitherto indicated, +may be as deliberate as you choose; there is no immediate fear of the +extinction of many species of flowers or animals; and the Alps, and +valley of Sparta, will wait your leisure, I fear too long. But the +feudal and monastic buildings of Europe, and still more the streets of +her ancient cities, are vanishing like dreams: and it is difficult to +imagine the mingled envy and contempt with which future generations will +look back to us, who still possessed such things, yet made no effort to +preserve, and scarcely any to delineate them: for when used as material +of landscape by the modern artist, they are nearly always superficially +or flatteringly represented, without zeal enough to penetrate their +character, or patience enough to render it in modest harmony. As for +places of traditional interest, I do not know an entirely faithful +drawing of any historical site, except one or two studies made by +enthusiastic young painters in Palestine and Egypt: for which, thanks to +them always: but we want work nearer home. + + +115. Now it is quite probable that some of you, who will not care to go +through the labour necessary to draw flowers or animals, may yet have +pleasure in attaining some moderately accurate skill of sketching +architecture, and greater pleasure still in directing it usefully. +Suppose, for instance, we were to take up the historical scenery in +Carlyle's "Frederick." Too justly the historian accuses the genius of +past art, in that, types of too many such elsewhere, the galleries of +Berlin--"are made up, like other galleries, of goat-footed Pan, Europa's +Bull, Romulus's She-Wolf, and the Correggiosity of Correggio, and +contain, for instance, no portrait of Friedrich the Great,--no likeness +at all, or next to none at all, of the noble series of Human Realities, +or any part of them, who have sprung, not from the idle brains of +dreaming _dilettanti_, but from the head of God Almighty, to make this +poor authentic earth a little memorable for us, and to do a little work +that may be eternal there." So Carlyle tells us--too truly! We cannot +now draw Friedrich for him, but we can draw some of the old castles and +cities that were the cradles of German life--Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, +Marburg, and such others;--we may keep some authentic likeness of these +for the future. Suppose we were to take up that first volume of +"Friedrich," and put outlines to it: shall we begin by looking for Henry +the Fowler's tomb--Carlyle himself asks if he has any--at Quedlinburgh, +and so downwards, rescuing what we can? That would certainly be making +our work of some true use. + + +116. But I have told you enough, it seems to me, at least to-day, of +this function of art in recording fact; let me now finally, and with all +distinctness possible to me, state to you its main business of all;--its +service in the actual uses of daily life. + +You are surprised, perhaps, to hear me call this its main business. That +is indeed so, however. The giving brightness to picture is much, but the +giving brightness to life more. And remember, were it as patterns only, +you cannot, without the realities, have the pictures. _You cannot have a +landscape by Turner, without a country for him to paint; you cannot have +a portrait by Titian, without a man to be portrayed._ I need not prove +that to you, I suppose, in these short terms; but in the outcome I can +get no soul to believe that the beginning of art _is in getting our +country clean, and our people beautiful_. I have been ten years trying +to get this very plain certainty--I do not say believed--but even +thought of, as anything but a monstrous proposition. To get your country +clean, and your people lovely;--I assure you that is a necessary work of +art to begin with! There has indeed been art in countries where people +lived in dirt to serve God, but never in countries where they lived in +dirt to serve the devil. There has indeed been art where the people were +not all lovely--where even their lips were thick--and their skins black, +because the sun had looked upon them; but never in a country where the +people were pale with miserable toil and deadly shade, and where the +lips of youth, instead of being full with blood, were pinched by famine, +or warped with poison. And now, therefore, note this well, the gist of +all these long prefatory talks. I said that the two great moral +instincts were those of Order and Kindness. Now, all the arts are +founded on agriculture by the hand, and on the graces, and kindness of +feeding, and dressing, and lodging your people. Greek art begins in the +gardens of Alcinous--perfect order, leeks in beds, and fountains in +pipes. And Christian art, as it arose out of chivalry, was only possible +so far as chivalry compelled both kings and knights to care for the +right personal training of their people; it perished utterly when those +kings and knights became +dêmoboroi+, devourers of the people. +And it will become possible again only, when, literally, the sword is +beaten into the ploughshare, when your St. George of England shall +justify his name, and Christian art shall be known as its Master was, in +breaking of bread. + + +117. Now look at the working out of this broad principle in minor +detail; observe how, from highest to lowest, health of art has first +depended on reference to industrial use. There is first the need of cup +and platter, especially of cup; for you can put your meat on the +Harpies',[10] or on any other, tables; but you must have your cup to +drink from. And to hold it conveniently, you must put a handle to it; +and to fill it when it is empty you must have a large pitcher of some +sort; and to carry the pitcher you may most advisably have two handles. +Modify the forms of these needful possessions according to the various +requirements of drinking largely and drinking delicately; of pouring +easily out, or of keeping for years the perfume in; of storing in +cellars, or bearing from fountains; of sacrificial libation, of +Panathenaic treasure of oil, and sepulchral treasure of ashes,--and you +have a resultant series of beautiful form and decoration, from the rude +amphora of red earth up to Cellini's vases of gems and crystal, in which +series, but especially in the more simple conditions of it, are +developed the most beautiful lines and most perfect types of severe +composition which have yet been attained by art. + +[Footnote 10: Virg., _Æn._, iii. 209 _seqq._] + + +118. But again, that you may fill your cup with pure water, you must go +to the well or spring; you need a fence round the well; you need some +tube or trough, or other means of confining the stream at the spring. +For the conveyance of the current to any distance you must build either +enclosed or open aqueduct; and in the hot square of the city where you +set it free, you find it good for health and pleasantness to let it leap +into a fountain. On these several needs you have a school of sculpture +founded; in the decoration of the walls of wells in level countries, and +of the sources of springs in mountainous ones, and chiefly of all, where +the women of household or market meet at the city fountain. + +There is, however, a farther reason for the use of art here than in any +other material service, so far as we may, by art, express our reverence +or thankfulness. Whenever a nation is in its right mind, it always has a +deep sense of divinity in the gift of rain from heaven, filling its +heart with food and gladness; and all the more when that gift becomes +gentle and perennial in the flowing of springs. It literally is not +possible that any fruitful power of the Muses should be put forth upon a +people which disdains their Helicon; still less is it possible that any +Christian nation should grow up "tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus +decursus aquarum," which cannot recognise the lesson meant in their +being told of the places where Rebekah was met;--where Rachel,--where +Zipporah,--and she who was asked for water under Mount Grerizim by a +Stranger, weary, who had nothing to draw with. + + +119. And truly, when our mountain springs are set apart in vale or +craggy glen, or glade of wood green through the drought of summer, far +from cities, then it is best to let them stay in their own happy peace; +but if near towns, and liable therefore to be defiled by common usage, +we could not use the loveliest art more worthily than by sheltering the +spring and its first pools with precious marbles: nor ought anything to +be esteemed more important, as a means of healthy education, than the +care to keep the streams of it afterwards, to as great a distance as +possible, pure, full of fish, and easily accessible to children. There +used to be, thirty years ago, a little rivulet of the Wandel, about an +inch deep, which ran over the carriage-road and under a foot-bridge just +under the last chalk hill near Croydon. Alas! men came and went; and it +did _not_ go on for ever. It has long since been bricked over by the +parish authorities; but there was more education in that stream with its +minnows than you could get out of a thousand pounds spent yearly in the +parish schools, even though you were to spend every farthing of it in +teaching the nature of oxygen and hydrogen, and the names, and rate per +minute, of all the rivers in Asia and America. + + +120. Well, the gist of this matter lies here then. Suppose we want a +school of pottery again in England, all we poor artists are ready to do +the best we can, to show you how pretty a line may be that is twisted +first to one side, and then to the other; and how a plain household-blue +will make a pattern on white; and how ideal art may be got out of the +spaniel's colours of black and tan. But I tell you beforehand, all that +we can do will be utterly useless, unless you teach your peasant to say +grace, not only before meat, but before drink; and having provided him +with Greek cups and platters, provide him also with something that is +not poisoned to put into them. + + +121. There cannot be any need that I should trace for you the conditions +of art that are directly founded on serviceableness of dress, and of +armour; but it is my duty to affirm to you, in the most positive manner, +that after recovering, for the poor, wholesomeness of food, your next +step towards founding schools of art in England must be in recovering, +for the poor, decency and wholesomeness of dress; thoroughly good in +substance, fitted for their daily work, becoming to their rank in life, +and worn with order and dignity. And this order and dignity must be +taught them by the women of the upper and middle classes, whose minds +can be in nothing right, as long as they are so wrong in this matter as +to endure the squalor of the poor, while they themselves dress gaily. +And on the proper pride and comfort of both poor and rich in dress, must +be founded the true arts of dress; carried on by masters of manufacture +no less careful of the perfectness and beauty of their tissues, and of +all that in substance and design can be bestowed upon them, than ever +the armourers of Milan and Damascus were careful of their steel. + + +122. Then, in the third place, having recovered some wholesome habits of +life as to food and dress, we must recover them as to lodging. I said +just now that the best architecture was but a glorified roof. Think of +it. The dome of the Vatican, the porches of Rheims or Chartres, the +vaults and arches of their aisles, the canopy of the tomb, and the spire +of the belfry, are all forms resulting from the mere requirement that a +certain space shall be strongly covered from heat and rain. More than +that--as I have tried all through "The Stories of Venice" to show,--the +lovely forms of these were every one of them developed in civil and +domestic building, and only after their invention, employed +ecclesiastically on the grandest scale. I think you cannot but have +noticed here in Oxford, as elsewhere, that our modern architects never +seem to know what to do with their roofs. Be assured, until the roofs +are right, nothing else will be; and there are just two ways of keeping +them right. Never build them of iron, but only of wood or stone; and +secondly, take care that in every town the little roofs are built before +the large ones, and that everybody who wants one has got one. And we +must try also to make everybody want one. That is to say, at some not +very advanced period of life, men should desire to have a home, which +they do not wish to quit any more, suited to their habits of life, and +likely to be more and more suitable to them until their death. And men +must desire to have these their dwelling-places built as strongly as +possible, and furnished and decorated daintily, and set in pleasant +places, in bright light, and good air, being able to choose for +themselves that at least as well as swallows. And when the houses are +grouped together in cities, men must have so much civic fellowship as to +subject their architecture to a common law, and so much civic pride as +to desire that the whole gathered group of human dwellings should be a +lovely thing, not a frightful one, on the face of the earth. Not many +weeks ago an English clergyman,[11] a master of this University, a man +not given to sentiment, but of middle age, and great practical sense, +told me, by accident, and wholly without reference to the subject now +before us, that he never could enter London from his country parsonage +but with closed eyes, lest the sight of the blocks of houses which the +railroad intersected in the suburbs should unfit him, by the horror of +it, for his day's work. + +[Footnote 11: Osborne Gordon.] + + +123. Now, it is not possible--and I repeat to you, only in more +deliberate assertion, what I wrote just twenty-two years ago in the last +chapter of the "Seven Lamps of Architecture"--it is not possible to have +any right morality, happiness, or art, in any country where the cities +are thus built, or thus, let me rather say, clotted and coagulated; +spots of a dreadful mildew, spreading by patches and blotches over the +country they consume. You must have lovely cities, crystallised, not +coagulated, into form; limited in size, and not casting out the scum and +scurf of them into an encircling eruption of shame, but girded each with +its sacred pomoerium, and with garlands of gardens full of blossoming +trees and softly guided streams. + +That is impossible, you say! it may be so. I have nothing to do with its +possibility, but only with its indispensability. More than that must be +possible, however, before you can have a school of art; namely, that you +find places elsewhere than in England, or at least in otherwise +unserviceable parts of England, for the establishment of manufactories +needing the help of fire, that is to say, of all the +technai +banausikai+ and +epirrêtoi+, of which it was long ago known to be +the constant nature that "+ascholias malista echousi kai philôn +kai poleôs sunepimeleisthai+," and to reduce such manufactures to their +lowest limit, so that nothing may ever be made of iron that can as +effectually be made of wood or stone; and nothing moved by steam that +can be as effectually moved by natural forces. And observe, that for all +mechanical effort required in social life and in cities, water power is +infinitely more than enough; for anchored mills on the large rivers, and +mills moved by sluices from reservoirs filled by the tide, will give you +command of any quantity of constant motive power you need. + +Agriculture by the hand, then, and absolute refusal or banishment of +unnecessary igneous force, are the first conditions of a school of art +in any country. And until you do this, be it soon or late, things will +continue in that triumphant state to which, for want of finer art, your +mechanism has brought them;--that, though England is deafened with +spinning wheels, her people have not clothes--though she is black with +digging of fuel, they die of cold--and though she has sold her soul for +gain, they die of hunger. Stay in that triumph, if you choose; but be +assured of this, it is not one which the fine arts will ever share with +you. + + +124. Now, I have given you my message, containing, as I know, offence +enough, and itself, it may seem to many, unnecessary enough. But just in +proportion to its apparent non-necessity, and to its certain offence, +was its real need, and my real duty to speak it. The study of the fine +arts could not be rightly associated with the grave work of English +Universities, without due and clear protest against the misdirection of +national energy, which for the present renders all good results of such +study on a great scale, impossible. I can easily teach you, as any other +moderately good draughtsman could, how to hold your pencils, and how to +lay your colours; but it is little use my doing that, while the nation +is spending millions of money in the destruction of all that pencil or +colour has to represent, and in the promotion of false forms of art, +which are only the costliest and the least enjoyable of follies. And +therefore these are the things that I have first and last to tell you in +this place;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by Locomotion, but +by making the homes we live in lovely, and by staying in them;--that +the fine arts are not to be learned by Competition, but by doing our +quiet best in our own way;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by +Exhibition, but by doing what is right, and making what is honest, +whether it be exhibited or not;--and, for the sum of all, that men must +paint and build neither for pride nor for money, but for love; for love +of their art, for love of their neighbour, and whatever better love may +be than these, founded on these. I know that I gave some pain, which I +was most unwilling to give, in speaking of the possible abuses of +religious art; but there can be no danger of any, so long as we remember +that God inhabits cottages as well as churches, and ought to be well +lodged there also. Begin with wooden floors; the tessellated ones will +take care of themselves; begin with thatching roofs, and you shall end +by splendidly vaulting them; begin by taking care that no old eyes fail +over their Bibles, nor young ones over their needles, for want of +rushlight, and then you may have whatever true good is to be got out of +coloured glass or wax candles. And in thus putting the arts to universal +use, you will find also their universal inspiration, their universal +benediction. I told you there was no evidence of a _special_ Divineness +in any application of them; that they were always equally human and +equally Divine; and in closing this inaugural series of lectures, into +which I have endeavoured to compress the principles that are to be the +foundations of your future work, it is my last duty to say some positive +words as to the Divinity of all art, when it is truly fair, or truly +serviceable. + + +125. Every seventh day, if not oftener, the greater number of +well-meaning persons in England thankfully receive from their teachers a +benediction, couched in those terms:--"The grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be +with you." Now I do not know precisely what sense is attached in the +English public mind to those expressions. But what I have to tell you +positively is that the three things do actually exist, and can be known +if you care to know them, and possessed if you care to possess them; +and that another thing exists, besides these, of which we already know +too much. + +First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your religion, all +grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be given +to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The Grace of Christ +exists, and can be had if you will. Secondly, as you know more and more +of the created world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is +that its creatures should be happy;--that He has made everything +beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is chiefly by the fault +of men, when they are allowed the liberty of thwarting His laws, that +Creation groans or travails in pain. The Love of God exists, and you may +see it, and live in it if you will. Lastly, a Spirit does actually exist +which teaches the ant her path, the bird her building, and men, in an +instinctive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble deeds are +possible to them. Without it you can do no good thing. To the grief of +it you can do many bad ones. In the possession of it is your peace and +your power. + +And there is a fourth thing, of which we already know too much. There is +an evil spirit whose dominion is in blindness and in cowardice, as the +dominion of the Spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage. + +And this blind and cowardly spirit is for ever telling you that evil +things are pardonable, and you shall not die for them, and that good +things are impossible, and you need not live for them; and that gospel +of his is now the loudest that is preached in your Saxon tongue. You +will find some day, to your cost, if you believe the first part of it, +that it is not true; but you may never, if you believe the second part +of it, find, to your gain, that also, untrue; and therefore I pray you +with all earnestness to prove, and know within your hearts, that all +things lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe in their +possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will make +every day's work contribute to them. Let every dawn of morning be to you +as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its +close:--then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of +some kindly thing done for others--some goodly strength or knowledge +gained for yourselves; so, from day to day, and strength to strength, +you shall build up indeed, by Art, by Thought, and by Just Will, an +Ecclesia of England, of which it shall not be said, "See what manner of +stones are here," but, "See what manner of men." + + + + +LECTURE V + +LINE + + +126. You will, I doubt not, willingly permit me to begin your lessons in +real practice of art in the words of the greatest of English painters: +one also, than whom there is indeed no greater, among those of any +nation, or any time,--our own gentle Reynolds. + +He says in his first discourse:--"The Directors" (of the Academy) "ought +more particularly to watch over the genius of those students, who being +more advanced, are arrived at that critical period of study, on the nice +management of which their future turn of taste depends. At that age it +is natural for them to be more captivated with what is brilliant, than +with what is solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and +humiliating exactness." + +"A facility in composing, a lively and, what is called, a 'masterly' +handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must be confessed, captivating +qualities to young minds, and become of course the objects of their +ambition. They endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellences, which +they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in +these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will +then be too late; and there is scarce an instance of return to +scrupulous labour, after the mind has been debauched and deceived by +this fallacious mastery." + + +127. I read you these words, chiefly that Sir Joshua, who founded, as +first President, the Academical schools of English painting, in these +well-known discourses, may also begin, as he has truest right to do, our +system of instruction in this University. But secondly, I read them that +I may press on your attention these singular words, "painful and +humiliating exactness." Singular, as expressing the first conditions of +the study required from his pupils by the master, who, of all men except +Velasquez, seems to have painted with the greatest ease. It is true that +he asks this pain, this humiliation, only from youths who intend to +follow the profession of artists. But if you wish yourselves to know +anything of the practice of art, you must not suppose that because your +study will be more desultory than that of Academy students, it may +therefore be less accurate. The shorter the time you have to give, the +more careful you should be to spend it profitably; and I would not wish +you to devote one hour to the practice of drawing, unless you are +resolved to be informed in it of all that in an hour can be taught. + + +128. I speak of the practice of _drawing_ only; though elementary study +of modelling may perhaps some day be advisably connected with it; but I +do not wish to disturb, or amuse, you with a formal statement of the +manifold expectations I have formed respecting your future work. You +will not, I am sure, imagine that I have begun without a plan, nor blame +my reticence as to the parts of it which cannot yet be put into +execution, and which there may occur reason afterwards to modify. My +first task must unquestionably be to lay before you right and simple +methods of drawing and colouring. + +I use the word "colouring" without reference to any particular vehicle +of colour, for the laws of good painting are the same, whatever liquid +is employed to dissolve the pigments. But the technical management of +oil is more difficult than that of water-colour, and the impossibility +of using it with safety among books or prints, and its unavailableness +for note-book sketches and memoranda, are sufficient reasons for not +introducing it in a course of practice intended chiefly for students of +literature. On the contrary, in the exercises of artists, oil should be +the vehicle of colour employed from the first. The extended practice of +water-colour painting, as a separate skill, is in every way harmful to +the arts: its pleasant slightness and plausible dexterity divert the +genius of the painter from its proper aims, and withdraw the attention +of the public from excellence of higher claim; nor ought any man, who +has the consciousness of ability for good work, to be ignorant of, or +indolent in employing, the methods of making its results permanent as +long as the laws of Nature allow. It is surely a severe lesson to us in +this matter, that the best works of Turner could not be shown to the +public for six months without being destroyed,--and that his most +ambitious ones for the most part perished, even before they could be +shown. I will break through my law of reticence, however, so far as to +tell you that I have hope of one day interesting you greatly (with the +help of the Florentine masters), in the study of the arts of moulding +and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you to use your future +power of patronage in encouraging the various branches of this art, and +turning the attention of the workmen of Italy from the vulgar tricks of +minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite subtilties of form and +colour possible in the perfectly ductile, afterwards unalterable clay. +And one of the ultimate results of such craftsmanship might be the +production of pictures as brilliant as painted glass,--as delicate as +the most subtle water-colours, and more permanent than the Pyramids. + + +129. And now to begin our own work. In order that we may know how +rightly to learn to draw and to paint, it will be necessary, will it +not, that we know first what we are to aim at doing;--what kind of +representation of nature is best? + +I will tell you in the words of Lionardo. "That is the most praiseworthy +painting which has most conformity with the thing represented," "quella +pittura e piu laudabile, la quale ha piu conformita con la cosa mitata," +(ch. 276). In plain terms, "the painting which is likest nature is the +best." And you will find by referring to the preceding chapter, "come lo +specchio e maestro de' pittori," how absolutely Lionardo means what he +says. Let the living thing, (he tells us,) be reflected in a mirror, +then put your picture beside the reflection, and match the one with the +other. And indeed, the very best painting is unquestionably so like the +mirrored truth, that all the world admits its excellence. Entirely +first-rate work is so quiet and natural that there can be no dispute +over it; you may not particularly admire it, but you will find no fault +with it. Second-rate painting pleases one person much, and displeases +another; but first-rate painting pleases all a little, and intensely +pleases those who can recognise its unostentatious skill. + + +130. This, then, is what we have first got to do--to make our drawing +look as like the thing we have to draw as we can. + +Now, all objects are seen by the eye as patches of colour of a certain +shape, with gradations of colour within them. And, unless their colours +be actually luminous, as those of the sun, or of fire, these patches of +different hues are sufficiently imitable, except so far as they are seen +stereoscopically. You will find Lionardo again and again insisting on +the stereoscopic power of the double sight: but do not let that trouble +you; you can only paint what you can see from one point of sight, but +that is quite enough. So seen, then, all objects appear to the human eye +simply as masses of colour of variable depth, texture, and outline. The +outline of any object is the limit of its mass, as relieved against +another mass. Take a crocus, and lay it on a green cloth. You will see +it detach itself as a mere space of yellow from the green behind it, as +it does from the grass. Hold it up against the window--you will see it +detach itself as a dark space against the white or blue behind it. In +either case its outline is the limit of the space of light or dark +colour by which it expresses itself to your sight. That outline is +therefore infinitely subtle--not even a line, but the place of a line, +and that, also, made soft by texture. In the finest painting it is +therefore slightly softened; but it is necessary to be able to draw it +with absolute sharpness and precision. The art of doing this is to be +obtained by drawing it as an actual line, which art is to be the subject +of our immediate enquiry; but I must first lay the divisions of the +entire subject completely before you. + + +131. I have said that all objects detach themselves as masses of +colour. Usually, light and shade are thought of as separate from colour; +but the fact is that all nature is seen as a mosaic composed of gradated +portions of different colours, dark or light. There is no difference in +the quality of these colours, except as affected by texture. You will +constantly hear lights and shades spoken of as if these were different +in their nature, and to be painted in different ways. But every light is +a shadow compared to higher lights, till we reach the brightness of the +sun; and every shadow is a light compared to lower shadows, till we +reach the darkness of night. + +Every colour used in painting, except pure white and black, is therefore +a light and shade at the same time. It is a light with reference to all +below it, and a shade with reference to all above it. + + +132. The solid forms of an object, that is to say, the projections or +recessions of its surface within the outline, are, for the most part, +rendered visible by variations in the intensity or quantity of light +falling on them. The study of the relations between the quantities of +this light, irrespectively of its colour, is the second division of the +regulated science of painting. + + +133. Finally, the qualities and relations of natural colours, the means +of imitating them, and the laws by which they become separately +beautiful, and in association harmonious, are the subjects of the third +and final division of the painter's study. I shall endeavour at once to +state to you what is most immediately desirable for you to know on each +of these topics, in this and the two following lectures. + + +134. What we have to do, then, from beginning to end, is, I repeat once +more, simply to draw spaces of their true shape, and to fill them with +colours which shall match their colours; quite a simple thing in the +definition of it, not quite so easy in the doing of it. + +But it is something to get this simple definition; and I wish you to +notice that the terms of it are complete, though I do not introduce the +term "light," or "shadow." Painters who have no eye for colour have +greatly confused and falsified the practice of art by the theory that +shadow is an absence of colour. Shadow is, on the contrary, necessary to +the full presence of colour; for every colour is a diminished quantity +or energy of light; and, practically, it follows from what I have just +told you--(that every light in painting is a shadow to higher lights, +and every shadow a light to lower shadows)--that also every _colour_ in +painting must be a shadow to some brighter colour, and a light to some +darker one--all the while being a positive colour itself. And the great +splendour of the Venetian school arises from their having seen and held +from the beginning this great fact--that shadow is as much colour as +light, often much more. In Titian's fullest red the lights are pale +rose-colour, passing into white--the shadows warm deep crimson. In +Veronese's most splendid orange, the lights are pale, the shadows crocus +colour; and so on. In nature, dark sides if seen by reflected lights, +are almost always fuller or warmer in colour than the lights; and the +practice of the Bolognese and Roman schools, in drawing their shadows +always dark and cold, is false from the beginning, and renders perfect +painting for ever impossible in those schools, and to all who follow +them. + + +135. Every visible space, then, be it dark or light, is a space of +colour of some kind, or of black or white. And you have to enclose it +with a true outline, and to paint it with its true colour. + +But before considering how we are to draw this enclosing line, I must +state to you something about the use of lines in general, by different +schools. + +I said just now that there was no difference between the masses of +colour of which all visible nature is composed, except in _texture_. Now +textures are principally of three kinds:-- + + (1) Lustrous, as of water and glass. + (2) Bloomy, or velvety, as of a rose-leaf or peach. + (3) Linear, produced by filaments or threads as in feathers, fur, + hair, and woven or reticulated tissues. + +All these three sources of pleasure to the eye in texture are united in +the best ornamental work. A fine picture by Fra Angelico, or a fine +illuminated page of missal, has large spaces of gold, partly burnished +and lustrous, partly dead;--some of it chased and enriched with linear +texture, and mingled with imposed or inlaid colours, soft in bloom like +that of the rose-leaf. But many schools of art affect for the most part +one kind of texture only, and a vast quantity of the art of all ages +depends for great part of its power on texture produced by multitudinous +lines. Thus, wood engraving, line engraving properly so called, and +countless varieties of sculpture, metal work, and textile fabric, depend +for great part of the effect, for the mystery, softness, and clearness +of their colours, or shades, on modification of the surfaces by lines or +threads. Even in advanced oil painting, the work often depends for some +part of its effect on the texture of the canvas. + + +136. Again, the arts of etching and mezzotint engraving depend +principally for their effect on the velvety, or bloomy texture of their +darkness, and the best of all painting is the fresco work of great +colourists, in which the colours are what is usually called dead; but +they are anything but dead, they glow with the luminous bloom of life. +The frescoes of Correggio, when not repainted, are supreme in this +quality. + + +137. While, however, in all periods of art these different textures are +thus used in various styles, and for various purposes, you will find +that there is a broad historical division of schools, which will +materially assist you in understanding them. The earliest art in most +countries is linear, consisting of interwoven, or richly spiral and +otherwise involved arrangements of sculptured or painted lines, on +stone, wood, metal or clay. It is generally characteristic of savage +life, and of feverish energy of imagination. I shall examine these +schools with you hereafter, under the general head of the "Schools of +Line."[12] + +[Footnote 12: See "Ariadne Florentina," § 5.] + +Secondly, even in the earliest periods, among powerful nations, this +linear decoration is more or less filled with chequered or barred shade, +and begins at once to represent animal or floral form, by filling its +outlines with flat shadow, or with flat colour. And here we instantly +find two great divisions of temper and thought. The Greeks look upon all +colour first as light; they are, as compared with other races, +insensitive to hue, exquisitely sensitive to phenomena of light. And +their linear school passes into one of flat masses of light and +darkness, represented in the main by four tints,--white, black, and two +reds, one brick colour, more or less vivid, the other dark purple; these +two standing mentally their favourite +porphyreos+ colour, in its +light and dark powers. On the other hand, many of the Northern nations +are at first entirely insensible to light and shade, but exquisitely +sensitive to colour, and their linear decoration is filled with flat +tints, infinitely varied, but with no expression of light and shade. +Both these schools have a limited but absolute perfection of their own, +and their peculiar successes can in no wise be imitated, except by the +strictest observance of the same limitations. + + +138. You have then, Line for the earliest art, branching into-- + + (1) Greek, Line with Light. + (2) Gothic, Line with Colour. + +Now, as art completes itself, each of these schools retain their +separate characters, but they cease to depend on lines, and learn to +represent masses instead, becoming more refined at the same time in all +modes of perception and execution. + +And thus there arise the two vast mediæval schools; one of flat and +infinitely varied colour, with exquisite character and sentiment added, +in the forms represented; but little perception of shadow. The other, of +light and shade, with exquisite drawing of solid form, and little +perception of colour: sometimes as little of sentiment. Of these, the +school of flat colour is the more vital one; it is always natural and +simple, if not great;--and when it is great, it is very great. + +The school of light and shade associates itself with that of engraving; +it is essentially an academical school, broadly dividing light from +darkness, and begins by assuming that the light side of all objects +shall be represented by white, and the extreme shadow by black. On this +conventional principle it reaches a limited excellence of its own, in +which the best existing types of engraving are executed, and ultimately, +the most regular expressions of organic form in painting. + +Then, lastly,--the schools of colour advance steadily, till they adopt +from those of light and shade whatever is compatible with their own +power,--and then you have perfect art, represented centrally by that of +the great Venetians. + +The schools of light and shade, on the other hand, are partly, in their +academical formulas, too haughty, and partly, in their narrowness of +imagination, too weak, to learn much from the schools of colour; and +pass into a state of decadence, consisting partly in proud endeavours to +give painting the qualities of sculpture, and partly in the pursuit of +effects of light and shade, carried at last to extreme sensational +subtlety by the Dutch school. In their fall, they drag the schools of +colour down with them; and the recent history of art is one of confused +effort to find lost roads, and resume allegiance to violated principles. + + +139. That, briefly, is the map of the great schools, easily remembered +in this hexagonal form:-- + + 1. + LINE + Early schools. + + 2. 3. + LINE AND LIGHT. LINE AND COLOUR. + Greek clay. Gothic glass. + + 4. 5. + MASS AND LIGHT. MASS AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Lionardo, (Represented by Giorgione, + and his schools.) and his schools.) + + 6. + MASS, LIGHT, AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Titian, + and his schools.) + +And I wish you with your own eyes and fingers to trace, and in your own +progress follow, the method of advance exemplified by these great +schools. I wish you to begin by getting command of line, that is to say, +by learning to draw a steady line, limiting with absolute correctness +the form or space you intend it to limit; to proceed by getting command +over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have +enclosed, evenly, either with shade or colour according to the school +you adopt; and finally to obtain the power of adding such fineness of +gradation within the masses, as shall express their roundings, and their +characters of texture. + + +140. Those who are familiar with the methods of existing schools must be +aware that I thus nearly invert their practice of teaching. Students at +present learn to draw details first, and to colour and mass them +afterwards. I shall endeavour to teach you to arrange broad masses and +colours first; and you shall put the details into them afterwards. I +have several reasons for this audacity, of which you may justly require +me to state the principal ones. The first is that, as I have shown you, +this method I wish you to follow, is the natural one. All great artist +nations _have_ actually learned to work in this way, and I believe it +therefore the right, as the hitherto successful one. Secondly, you will +find it less irksome than the reverse method, and more definite. When a +beginner is set at once to draw details, and make finished studies in +light and shade, no master can correct his innumerable errors, or rescue +him out of his endless difficulties. But in the natural method, he can +correct, if he will, his own errors. You will have positive lines to +draw, presenting no more difficulty, except in requiring greater +steadiness of hand, than the outlines of a map. They will be generally +sweeping and simple, instead of being jagged into promontories and bays; +but assuredly, they may be drawn rightly (with patience), and their +rightness tested with mathematical accuracy. You have only to follow +your own line with tracing paper, and apply it to your own copy. If they +do not correspond, you are wrong, and you need no master to show you +where. Again; in washing in a flat tone of colour or shade, you can +always see yourself if it is flat, and kept well within the edges; and +you can set a piece of your colour side by side with that of the copy; +if it does not match, you are wrong; and, again, you need no one to tell +you so, if your eye for colour is true. It happens, indeed, more +frequently than would be supposed, that there is real want of power in +the eye to distinguish colours; and this I even suspect to be a +condition which has been sometimes attendant on high degrees of cerebral +sensitiveness in other directions; but such want of faculty would be +detected in your first two or three exercises by this simple method, +while, otherwise, you might go on for years endeavouring to colour from +nature in vain. Lastly, and this is a very weighty collateral reason, +such a method enables me to show you many things, besides the art of +drawing. Every exercise that I prepare for you will be either a portion +of some important example of ancient art, or of some natural object. +However rudely or unsuccessfully you may draw it, (though I anticipate +from you neither want of care nor success,) you will nevertheless have +learned what no words could have so forcibly or completely taught you, +either respecting early art or organic structure; and I am thus certain +that not a moment you spend attentively will be altogether wasted, and +that, generally, you will be twice gainers by every effort. + + +141. There is, however, yet another point in which I think a change of +existing methods will be advisable. You have here in Oxford one of the +finest collections in Europe of drawings in pen, and chalk, by Michael +Angelo and Raphael. Of the whole number, you cannot but have noticed +that not one is weak or student-like--all are evidently master's work. + +You may look the galleries of Europe through, and so far as I know, or +as it is possible to make with safety any so wide generalization, you +will not find in them a childish or feeble drawing, by these, or by any +other great master. + +And farther:--by the greatest men--by Titian, Velasquez, or +Veronese--you will hardly find an authentic drawing, at all. For the +fact is, that while we moderns have always learned, or tried to learn, +to paint by drawing, the ancients learned to draw by painting--or by +engraving, more difficult still. The brush was put into their hands when +they were children, and they were forced to draw with that, until, if +they used the pen or crayon, they used it either with the lightness of a +brush or the decision of a graver. Michael Angelo uses his pen like a +chisel; but all of them seem to use it only when they are in the height +of their power, and then for rapid notation of thought or for study of +models; but never as a practice helping them to paint. Probably +exercises of the severest kind were gone through in minute drawing by +the apprentices of the goldsmiths, of which we hear and know little, and +which were entirely matters of course. To these, and to the +exquisiteness of care and touch developed in working precious metals, +may probably be attributed the final triumph of Italian sculpture. +Michael Angelo, when a boy, is said to have copied engravings by +Schöngauer and others, with his pen, in facsimile so true that he could +pass his drawings as the originals. But I should only discourage you +from all farther attempts in art, if I asked you to imitate any of these +accomplished drawings of the gem-artificers. You have, fortunately, a +most interesting collection of them already in your galleries, and may +try your hands on them if you will. But I desire rather that you should +attempt nothing except what can by determination be absolutely +accomplished, and be known and felt by you to be accomplished when it is +so. Now, therefore, I am going at once to comply with that popular +instinct which, I hope, so far as you care for drawing at all, you are +still boys enough to feel, the desire to paint. Paint you shall; but +remember, I understand by painting what you will not find easy. Paint +you shall; but daub or blot you shall not: and there will be even more +care required, though care of a pleasanter kind, to follow the lines +traced for you with the point of the brush than if they had been drawn +with that of a crayon. But from the very beginning (though carrying on +at the same time an incidental practice with crayon and lead pencil), +you shall try to draw a line of absolute correctness with the point, not +of pen or crayon, but of the brush, as Apelles did, and as all coloured +lines are drawn on Greek vases. A line of absolute correctness, observe. +I do not care how slowly you do it, or with how many alterations, +junctions, or re-touchings; the one thing I ask of you is, that the line +shall be right, and right by measurement, to the same minuteness which +you would have to give in a Government chart to the map of a dangerous +shoal. + + +142. This question of measurement is, as you are probably aware, one +much vexed in art schools; but it is determined indisputably by the very +first words written by Lionardo: "Il giovane deve prima imparare +prospettiva, _per le misure d'ogni cosa_." + +Without absolute precision of measurement, it is certainly impossible +for you to learn perspective rightly; and, as far as I can judge, +impossible to learn anything else rightly. And in my past experience of +teaching, I have found that such precision is of all things the most +difficult to enforce on the pupils. It is easy to persuade to diligence, +or provoke to enthusiasm; but I have found it hitherto impossible to +humiliate one clever student into perfect accuracy. + +It is, therefore, necessary, in beginning a system of drawing for the +University, that no opening should be left for failure in this essential +matter. I hope you will trust the words of the most accomplished +draughtsman of Italy, and the painter of the great sacred picture which, +perhaps beyond all others, has influenced the mind of Europe, when he +tells you that your first duty is "to learn perspective by the +_measures_ of everything." For perspective, I will undertake that it +shall be made, practically, quite easy to you; if you care to master the +mathematics of it, they are carried as far as is necessary for you in my +treatise written in 1859, of which copies shall be placed at your +disposal in your working room. But the habit and dexterity of +_measurement_ you must acquire at once, and that with engineer's +accuracy. I hope that in our now gradually developing system of +education, elementary architectural or military drawing will be required +at all public schools; so that when youths come to the University, it +may be no more necessary for them to pass through the preliminary +exercises of perspective than of grammar: for the present, I will place +in your series examples simple and severe enough for all necessary +practice. + + +143. And while you are learning to measure, and to draw, and lay flat +tints, with the brush, you must also get easy command of the pen; for +that is not only the great instrument for the first sketching, but its +right use is the foundation of the art of illumination. In nothing is +fine art more directly founded on utility than in the close dependence +of decorative illumination on good writing. Perfect illumination is only +writing made lovely; the moment it passes into picture-making it has +lost its dignity and function. For pictures, small or great, if +beautiful, ought not to be painted on leaves of books, to be worn with +service; and pictures, small or great, not beautiful, should be painted +nowhere. But to make writing _itself_ beautiful,--to make the sweep of +the pen lovely,--is the true art of illumination; and I particularly +wish you to note this, because it happens continually that young girls +who are incapable of tracing a single curve with steadiness, much more +of delineating any ornamental or organic form with correctness, think +that work, which would be intolerable in ordinary drawing, becomes +tolerable when it is employed for the decoration of texts; and thus they +render all healthy progress impossible, by protecting themselves in +inefficiency under the shield of good motive. Whereas the right way of +setting to work is to make themselves first mistresses of the art of +writing beautifully; and then to apply that art in its proper degrees of +development to whatever they desire permanently to write. And it is +indeed a much more truly religious duty for girls to acquire a habit of +deliberate, legible, and lovely penmanship in their daily use of the +pen, than to illuminate any quantity of texts. Having done so, they may +next discipline their hands into the control of lines of any length, +and, finally, add the beauty of colour and form to the flowing of these +perfect lines. But it is only after years of practice that they will be +able to illuminate noble words rightly for the eyes, as it is only after +years of practice that they can make them melodious rightly, with the +voice. + + +144. I shall not attempt, in this lecture, to give you any account of +the use of the pen as a drawing instrument. That use is connected in +many ways with principles both of shading and of engraving, hereafter to +be examined at length. But I may generally state to you that its best +employment is in giving determination to the forms in drawings washed +with neutral tint; and that, in this use of it, Holbein is quite without +a rival. I have therefore placed many examples of his work among your +copies. It is employed for rapid study by Raphael and other masters of +delineation, who, in such cases, give with it also partial indications +of shadow; but it is not a proper instrument for shading, when drawings +are intended to be deliberate and complete, nor do the great masters so +employ it. Its virtue is the power of producing a perfectly delicate, +equal, and decisive line with great rapidity; and the temptation allied +with that virtue is the licentious haste, and chance-swept, instead of +strictly-commanded, curvature. In the hands of very great painters it +obtains, like the etching needle, qualities of exquisite charm in this +free use; but all attempts at imitation of these confused and suggestive +sketches must be absolutely denied to yourselves while students. You may +fancy you have produced something like them with little trouble; but, be +assured, it is in reality as unlike them as nonsense is unlike sense; +and that, if you persist in such work, you will not only prevent your +own executive progress, but you will never understand in all your lives +what good painting means. Whenever you take a pen in your hand, if you +cannot count every line you lay with it, and say why you make it so long +and no longer, and why you drew it in that direction and no other, your +work is bad. The only man who can put his pen to full speed, and yet +retain command over every separate line of it, is Dürer. He has done +this in the illustrations of a missal preserved at Munich, which have +been fairly facsimiled; and of these I have placed several in your +copying series, with some of Turner's landscape etchings, and other +examples of deliberate pen work, such as will advantage you in early +study. The proper use of them you will find explained in the catalogue. + + +145. And, now, but one word more to-day. Do not impute to me the +impertinence of setting before you what is new in this system of +practice as being certainly the best method. No English artists are yet +agreed entirely on early methods; and even Reynolds expresses with some +hesitation his conviction of the expediency of learning to draw with the +brush. But this method that I show you rests in all essential points on +his authority, on Lionardo's, or on the evident as well as recorded +practice of the most splendid Greek and Italian draughtsmen; and you may +be assured it will lead you, however slowly, to great and certain skill. +To what degree of skill, must depend greatly on yourselves; but I know +that in practice of this kind you cannot spend an hour without +definitely gaining, both in true knowledge of art, and in useful power +of hand; and for what may appear in it too difficult, I must shelter or +support myself, as in beginning, so in closing this first lecture on +practice, by the words of Reynolds: "The impetuosity of youth is +disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from +mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They must +therefore be told again and again that labour is the only price of solid +fame; and that, whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy +method of becoming a good painter." + + + + +LECTURE VI + +LIGHT + + +146. The plan of the divisions of art-schools which I gave you in the +last lecture is of course only a first germ of classification, on which +we are to found farther and more defined statement; but for this very +reason it is necessary that every term of it should be very clear in +your minds. + +And especially I must explain, and ask you to note the sense in which I +use the word "mass." Artists usually employ that word to express the +spaces of light and darkness, or of colour, into which a picture is +divided. But this habit of theirs arises partly from their always +speaking of pictures in which the lights represent solid form. If they +had instead been speaking of flat tints, as, for instance, of the gold +and blue in this missal page, they would not have called them "masses," +but "spaces" of colour. Now both for accuracy and convenience' sake, you +will find it well to observe this distinction, and to call a simple flat +tint a space of colour; and only the representation of solid or +projecting form a mass. + +I use, however, the word "line" rather than "space" in the second and +third heads of our general scheme, at p. 94, because you cannot limit a +flat tint but by a line, or the locus of a line: whereas a gradated +tint, expressive of mass, may be lost at its edges in another, without +any fixed limit; and practically is so, in the works of the greatest +masters. + + +147. You have thus, in your hexagonal scheme, the expression of the +universal manner of advance in painting: Line first; then line enclosing +flat spaces coloured or shaded; then the lines vanish, and the solid +forms are seen within the spaces. That is the universal law of +advance:--1, line; 2, flat space; 3, massed or solid space. But as you +see, this advance may be made, and has been made, by two different +roads; one advancing always through colour, the other through light and +shade. And these two roads are taken by two entirely different kinds of +men. The way by colour is taken by men of cheerful, natural, and +entirely sane disposition in body and mind, much resembling, even at its +strongest, the temper of well-brought-up children:--too happy to think +deeply, yet with powers of imagination by which they can live other +lives than their actual ones: make-believe lives, while yet they remain +conscious all the while that they _are_ making believe--therefore +entirely sane. They are also absolutely contented; they ask for no more +light than is immediately around them, and cannot see anything like +darkness, but only green and blue, in the earth and sea. + + +148. The way by light and shade is, on the contrary, taken by men of the +highest powers of thought, and most earnest desire for truth; they long +for light, and for knowledge of all that light can show. But seeking for +light, they perceive also darkness; seeking for truth and substance, +they find vanity. They look for form in the earth,--for dawn in the sky; +and seeking these, they find formlessness in the earth, and night in the +sky. + +Now remember, in these introductory lectures I am putting before you the +roots of things, which are strange, and dark, and often, it may seem, +unconnected with the branches. You may not at present think these +metaphysical statements necessary; but as you go on, you will find that +having hold of the clue to methods of work through their springs in +human character, you may perceive unerringly where they lead, and what +constitutes their wrongness and rightness; and when we have the main +principles laid down, all others will develop themselves in due +succession, and everything will become more clearly intelligible to you +in the end, for having been apparently vague in the beginning. You know +when one is laying the foundation of a house, it does not show directly +where the rooms are to be. + + +149. You have then these two great divisions of human mind: one, content +with the colours of things, whether they are dark or light; the other +seeking light pure, as such, and dreading darkness as such. One, also, +content with the coloured aspects and visionary shapes of things; the +other seeking their form and substance. And, as I said, the school of +knowledge, seeking light, perceives, and has to accept and deal with +obscurity: and seeking form, it has to accept and deal with +formlessness, or death. + +Farther, the school of colour in Europe, using the word Gothic in its +broadest sense, is essentially Gothic _Christian_; and full of comfort +and peace. Again, the school of light is essentially Greek, and full of +sorrow. I cannot tell you which is right, or least wrong. I tell you +only what I know--this vital distinction between them: the Gothic or +colour school is always cheerful, the Greek always oppressed by the +shadow of death; and the stronger its masters are, the closer that body +of death grips them. The strongest whose work I can show you in recent +periods is Holbein; next to him is Lionardo; and then Dürer: but of the +three Holbein is the strongest, and with his help I will put the two +schools in their full character before you in a moment. + + +150. Here is, first, the photograph of an entirely characteristic piece +of the great colour school. It is by Cima of Conegliano, a mountaineer, +like Luini, born under the Alps of Friuli. His Christian name was John +Baptist: he is here painting his name-Saint; the whole picture full of +peace, and intense faith and hope, and deep joy in light of sky, and +fruit and flower and weed of earth. It was painted for the church of Our +Lady of the Garden at Venice, La Madonna dell' Orto (properly Madonna of +the _Kitchen_ Garden), and it is full of simple flowers, and has the +wild strawberry of Cima's native mountains gleaming through the grass. + +Beside it I will put a piece of the strongest work of the school of +light and shade--strongest because Holbein was a colourist also; but he +belongs, nevertheless, essentially to the chiaroscuro school. You know +that his name is connected, in ideal work, chiefly with his "Dance of +Death." I will not show you any of the terror of that; only a photograph +of his well-known "Dead Christ." It will at once show you how completely +the Christian art of this school is oppressed by its veracity, and +forced to see what is fearful, even in what it most trusts. + +You may think I am showing you contrasts merely to fit my theories. But +there is Dürer's "Knight and Death," his greatest plate; and if I had +Lionardo's "Medusa" here, which he painted when only a boy, you would +have seen how he was held by the same chain. And you cannot but wonder +why, this being the melancholy temper of the great Greek or naturalistic +school, I should have called it the school of light. I call it so +because it is through its intense love of light that the darkness +becomes apparent to it, and through its intense love of truth and form +that all mystery becomes attractive to it. And when, having learned +these things, it is joined to the school of colour, you have the +perfect, though always, as I will show you, pensive, art of Titian and +his followers. + + +151. But remember, its first development, and all its final power, +depend on Greek sorrow, and Greek religion. + +The school of light is founded in the Doric worship of Apollo, and the +Ionic worship of Athena, as the spirits of life in the light, and of +life in the air, opposed each to their own contrary deity of +death--Apollo to the Python, Athena to the Gorgon--Apollo as life in +light, to the earth spirit of corruption in darkness;--Athena, as life +by motion, to the Gorgon spirit of death by pause, freezing or turning +to stone: both of the great divinities taking their glory from the evil +they have conquered; both of them, when angry, taking to men the form of +the evil which is their opposite--Apollo slaying by poisoned arrow, by +pestilence; Athena by cold, the black ægis on her breast. + +These are the definite and direct expressions of the Greek thoughts +respecting death and life. But underlying both these, and far more +mysterious, dreadful, and yet beautiful, there is the Greek conception +of _spiritual_ darkness; of the anger of fate, whether foredoomed or +avenging; the root and theme of all Greek tragedy; the anger of the +Erinnyes, and Demeter Erinnys, compared to which the anger either of +Apollo or Athena is temporary and partial:--and also, while Apollo or +Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the Eumenides is over the +whole life; so that in the stories of Bellerophon, of Hippolytus, of +Orestes, of Oedipus, you have an incomparably deeper shadow than any +that was possible to the thought of later ages, when the hope of the +Resurrection had become definite. And if you keep this in mind, you will +find every name and legend of the oldest history become full of meaning +to you. All the mythic accounts of Greek sculpture begin in the legends +of the family of Tantalus. The main one is the making of the ivory +shoulder of Pelops after Demeter has eaten the shoulder of flesh. With +that you have Broteas, the brother of Pelops, carving the first statue +of the mother of the gods; and you have his sister, Niobe, weeping +herself to stone under the anger of the deities of light. Then Pelops +himself, the dark-faced, gives name to the Peloponnesus, which you may +therefore read as the "isle of darkness;" but its central city, Sparta, +the "sown city," is connected with all the ideas of the earth as +life-giving. And from her you have Helen, the representative of light in +beauty, and the Fratres Helenæ--"lucida sidera;" and, on the other side +of the hills, the brightness of Argos, with its correlative darkness +over the Atreidæ, marked to you by Helios turning away his face from the +feast of Thyestes. + + +152. Then join with these the Northern legends connected with the air. +It does not matter whether you take Dorus as the son of Apollo or the +son of Helen; he equally symbolises the power of light: while his +brother, Æolus, through all his descendants, chiefly in Sisyphus, is +confused or associated with the real god of the winds, and represents to +you the power of the air. And then, as this conception enters into art, +you have the myths of Dædalus, the flight of Icarus, and the story of +Phrixus and Helle, giving you continual associations of the physical air +and light, ending in the power of Athena over Corinth as well as over +Athens. + +Now, once having the clue, you can work out the sequels for yourselves +better than I can for you; and you will soon find even the earliest or +slightest grotesques of Greek art become full of interest. For nothing +is more wonderful than the depth of meaning which nations in their first +days of thought, like children, can attach to the rudest symbols; and +what to us is grotesque or ugly, like a little child's doll, can speak +to them the loveliest things. I have brought you to-day a few more +examples of early Greek vase painting, respecting which remember +generally that its finest development is for the most part sepulchral. +You have, in the first period, always energy in the figures, light in +the sky or upon the figures;[13] in the second period, while the +conception of the divine power remains the same, it is thought of as in +repose, and the light is in the god, not in the sky; in the time of +decline, the divine power is gradually disbelieved, and all form and +light are lost together. With that period I wish you to have nothing to +do. You shall not have a single example of it set before you, but shall +rather learn to recognise afterwards what is base by its strangeness. +These, which are to come early in the third group of your Standard +series, will enough represent to you the elements of early and late +conception in the Greek mind of the deities of light. + +[Footnote 13: See Note in the Catalogue on No. 201.] + + +153. First (S. 204), you have Apollo ascending from the sea; thought of +as the physical sunrise: only a circle of light for his head; his +chariot horses, seen foreshortened, black against the day-break, their +feet not yet risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting from +the opposite side of the same vase: Athena as the morning breeze, and +Hermes as the morning cloud, flying across the waves before the sunrise. +At the distance I now hold them from you, it is scarcely possible for +you to see that they are figures at all, so like are they to broken +fragments of flying mist; and when you look close, you will see that as +Apollo's face is invisible in the circle of light, Mercury's is +invisible in the broken form of cloud: but I can tell you that it is +conceived as reverted, looking back to Athena; the grotesque appearance +of feature in the front is the outline of his hair. + +These two paintings are excessively rude, and of the archaic period; the +deities being yet thought of chiefly as physical powers in violent +agency. + +Underneath these two are Athena and Hermes, in the types attained about +the time of Phidias; but, of course, rudely drawn on the vase, and still +more rudely in this print from Le Normant and De Witte. For it is +impossible (as you will soon find if you try for yourself) to give on a +plane surface the grace of figures drawn on one of solid curvature, and +adapted to all its curves: and among other minor differences, Athena's +lance is in the original nearly twice as tall as herself, and has to be +cut short to come into the print at all. Still, there is enough here to +show you what I want you to see--the repose, and entirely realised +personality, of the deities as conceived in the Phidian period. The +relation of the two deities is, I believe, the same as in the painting +above, though probably there is another added of more definite kind. But +the physical meaning still remains--Athena unhelmeted, as the _gentle_ +morning wind, commanding the cloud Hermes to slow flight. His petasus is +slung at his back, meaning that the clouds are not yet opened or +expanded in the sky. + + +154. Next (S. 205), you have Athena, again unhelmeted and crowned with +leaves, walking between two nymphs, who are crowned also with leaves; +and all the three hold flowers in their hands, and there is a fawn +walking at Athena's feet. + +This is still Athena as the morning air, but upon the earth instead of +in the sky, with the nymphs of the dew beside her; the flowers and +leaves opening as they breathe upon them. Note the white gleam of light +on the fawn's breast; and compare it with the next following +examples:--(underneath this one is the contest of Athena and Poseidon, +which does not bear on our present subject). + +Next (S. 206), Artemis as the moon of morning, walking low on the hills, +and singing to her lyre; the fawn beside her, with the gleam of light +and sunrise on its ear and breast. Those of you who are often out in the +dawntime know that there is no moon so glorious as that gleaming +crescent, though in its wane, ascending _before_ the sun. + +Underneath, Artemis, and Apollo, of Phidian time. + +Next (S. 207), Apollo walking on the earth, god of the morning, singing +to his lyre; the fawn beside him, again with the gleam of light on its +breast. And underneath, Apollo, crossing the sea to Delphi, of the +Phidian time. + + +155. Now you cannot but be struck in these three examples with the +similarity of action in Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, drawn as deities of +the morning; and with the association in every case of the fawn with +them. It has been said (I will not interrupt you with authorities) that +the fawn belongs to Apollo and Diana because stags are sensitive to +music; (are they?). But you see the fawn is here with Athena of the dew, +though she has no lyre; and I have myself no doubt that in this +particular relation to the gods of morning it always stands as the +symbol of wavering and glancing motion on the ground, as well as of the +light and shadow through the leaves, chequering the ground as the fawn +is dappled. Similarly the spots on the nebris of Dionysus, thought of +sometimes as stars (+apo tês tôn astrôn poikilias+, Diodorus, I. +11), as well as those of his panthers, and the cloudings of the +tortoise-shell of Hermes, are all significant of this light of the sky +broken by cloud-shadow. + + +156. You observe also that in all the three examples the fawn has light +on its ears, and face, as well as its breast. In the earliest Greek +drawings of animals, bars of white are used as one means of detaching +the figures from the ground; ordinarily on the under side of them, +marking the lighter colour of the hair in wild animals. But the placing +of this bar of white, or the direction of the face in deities of light, +(the faces and flesh of women being always represented as white,) may +become expressive of the direction of the light, when that direction is +important. Thus we are enabled at once to read the intention of this +Greek symbol of the course of a day (in the centre-piece of S. 208, +which gives you the types of Hermes). At the top you have an archaic +representation of Hermes stealing Io from Argus. Argus is here the +Night; his grotesque features monstrous; his hair overshadowing his +shoulders; Hermes on tip-toe, stealing upon him and taking the cord +which is fastened to the horn of Io out of his hand without his feeling +it. Then, underneath, you have the course of an entire day. Apollo +first, on the left, dark, entering his chariot, the sun not yet risen. +In front of him Artemis, as the moon, ascending before him, playing on +her lyre, and looking back to the sun. In the centre, behind the horses, +Hermes, as the cumulus cloud at mid-day, wearing his petasus heightened +to a cone, and holding a flower in his right hand; indicating the +nourishment of the flowers by the rain from the heat cloud. Finally, on +the right, Latona, going down as the evening, lighted from the right by +the sun, now sunk; and with her feet reverted, signifying the reluctance +of the departing day. + +Finally, underneath, you have Hermes of the Phidian period, as the +floating cumulus cloud, almost shapeless (as you see him at this +distance); with the tortoise-shell lyre in his hand, barred with black, +and a fleece of white cloud, not level but _oblique_, under his feet. +(Compare the "+dia tôn koilôn--plagiai+," and the relations of +the "+aigidos êniochos Athana+," with the clouds as the moon's +messengers, in Aristophanes; and note of Hermes generally, that you +never find him flying as a Victory flies, but always, if moving fast at +all, _clambering_ along, as it were, as a cloud gathers and heaps +itself: the Gorgons stretch and stride in their flight, half kneeling, +for the same reason, running or gliding shapelessly along in this +stealthy way.) + + +157. And now take this last illustration, of a very different kind. Here +is an effect of morning light by Turner (S. 301), on the rocks of +Otley-hill, near Leeds, drawn long ago, when Apollo, and Artemis, and +Athena, still sometimes were seen, and felt, even near Leeds. The +original drawing is one of the great Farnley series, and entirely +beautiful. I have shown, in the last volume of "Modern Painters," how +well Turner knew the meaning of Greek legends:--he was not thinking of +them, however, when he made this design; but, unintentionally, has given +us the very effect of morning light we want: the glittering of the +sunshine on dewy grass, half dark; and the narrow gleam of it on the +sides and head of the stag and hind. + + +158. These few instances will be enough to show you how we may read in +the early art of the Greeks their strong impressions of the power of +light. You will find the subject entered into at somewhat greater length +in my "Queen of the Air;" and if you will look at the beginning of the +7th book of Plato's "Polity," and read carefully the passages in the +context respecting the sun and intellectual sight, you will see how +intimately this physical love of light was connected with their +philosophy, in its search, as blind and captive, for better knowledge. I +shall not attempt to define for you to-day the more complex but much +shallower forms which this love of light, and the philosophy that +accompanies it, take in the mediæval mind; only remember that in future, +when I briefly speak of the Greek school of art with reference to +questions of delineation, I mean the entire range of the schools, from +Homer's days to our own, which concern themselves with the +representation of light, and the effects it produces on material +form--beginning practically for us with these Greek vase paintings, and +closing practically for us with Turner's sunset on the Temeraire; being +throughout a school of captivity and sadness, but of intense power; and +which in its technical method of shadow on material form, as well as in +its essential temper, is centrally represented to you by Dürer's two +great engravings of the "Melencolia" and the "Knight and Death." On the +other hand, when I briefly speak to you of the Gothic school, with +reference to delineation, I mean the entire and much more extensive +range of schools extending from the earliest art in Central Asia and +Egypt down to our own day in India and China:--schools which have been +content to obtain beautiful harmonies of colour without any +representation of light; and which have, many of them, rested in such +imperfect expressions of form as could be so obtained; schools usually +in some measure childish, or restricted in intellect, and similarly +childish or restricted in their philosophies or faiths: but contented in +the restriction; and in the more powerful races, capable of advance to +nobler development than the Greek schools, though the consummate art of +Europe has only been accomplished by the union of both. How that union +was effected, I will endeavour to show you in my next lecture; to-day I +shall take note only of the points bearing on our immediate practice. + + +159. A certain number of you, by faculty and natural disposition,--and +all, so far as you are interested in modern art,--will necessarily have +to put yourselves under the discipline of the Greek or chiaroscuro +school, which is directed primarily to the attainment of the power of +representing form by pure contrast of light and shade. I say, the +"discipline" of the Greek school, both because, followed faithfully, it +is indeed a severe one, and because to follow it at all is, for persons +fond of colour, often a course of painful self-denial, from which young +students are eager to escape. And yet, when the laws of both schools are +rightly obeyed, the most perfect discipline is that of the colourists; +for they see and draw _everything_, while the chiaroscurists must leave +much indeterminate in mystery, or invisible in gloom: and there are +therefore many licentious and vulgar forms of art connected with the +chiaroscuro school, both in painting and etching, which have no parallel +among the colourists. But both schools, rightly followed, require first +of all absolute accuracy of delineation. _This_ you need not hope to +escape. Whether you fill your spaces with colours, or with shadows, they +must equally be of the true outline and in true gradations. I have been +thirty years telling modern students of art this in vain. I mean to say +it to you only once, for the statement is too important to be weakened +by repetition. + +WITHOUT PERFECT DELINEATION OF FORM AND PERFECT GRADATION OF SPACE, +NEITHER NOBLE COLOUR IS POSSIBLE, NOR NOBLE LIGHT. + + +160. It may make this more believable to you if I put beside each other +a piece of detail from each school. I gave you the St. John of Cima da +Conegliano for a type of the colour school. Here is my own study of the +sprays of oak which rise against the sky of it in the distance, enlarged +to about its real size (Edu. 12). I hope to draw it better for you at +Venice; but this will show you with what perfect care the colourist has +followed the outline of every leaf in the sky. Beside, I put a +chiaroscurist drawing (at least, a photograph of one), Dürer's from +nature, of the common wild wall-cabbage (Edu. 32). It is the most +perfect piece of delineation by flat tint I have ever seen, in its +mastery of the perspective of every leaf, and its attainment almost of +the bloom of texture, merely by its exquisitely tender and decisive +laying of the colour. These two examples ought, I think, to satisfy you +as to the precision of outline of both schools, and the power of +expression which may be obtained by flat tints laid within such outline. + + +161. Next, here are two examples of the gradated shading expressive of +the forms within the outline, by two masters of the chiaroscuro school. +The first (S. 12) shows you Lionardo's method of work, both with chalk +and the silver point. The second (S. 302), Turner's work in mezzotint; +both masters doing their best. Observe that this plate of Turner's, +which he worked on so long that it was never published, is of a subject +peculiarly depending on effects of mystery and concealment, the fall of +the Reuss under the Devil's Bridge on the St. Gothard; (the _old_ +bridge; you may still see it under the existing one, which was built +since Turner's drawing was made). If ever outline could be dispensed +with, you would think it might be so in this confusion of cloud, foam, +and darkness. But here is Turner's own etching on the plate (Edu. 35 F), +made under the mezzotint; and of all the studies of rock outline made by +his hand, it is the most decisive and quietly complete. + + +162. Again; in the Lionardo sketches, many parts are lost in obscurity, +or are left intentionally uncertain and mysterious, even in the light, +and you might at first imagine some permission of escape had been here +given you from the terrible law of delineation. But the slightest +attempts to copy them will show you that the terminal lines are +inimitably subtle, unaccusably true, and filled by gradations of shade +so determined and measured that the addition of a grain of the lead or +chalk as large as the filament of a moth's wing, would make an +appreciable difference in them. + +This is grievous, you think, and hopeless? No, it is delightful and full +of hope: delightful, to see what marvellous things can be done by men; +and full of hope, if your hope is the right one, of being one day able +to rejoice more in what others have done, than in what you can yourself +do, and more in the strength that is for ever above you, than in that +you can never attain. + + +163. But you can attain much, if you will work reverently and patiently, +and hope for no success through ill-regulated effort. It is, however, +most assuredly at this point of your study that the full strain on your +patience will begin. The exercises in line-drawing and flat laying of +colour are irksome; but they are definite, and within certain limits, +sure to be successful if practised with moderate care. But the +expression of form by shadow requires more subtle patience, and involves +the necessity of frequent and mortifying failure, not to speak of the +self-denial which I said was needful in persons fond of colour, to draw +in mere light and shade. If, indeed, you were going to be artists, or +could give any great length of time to study, it might be possible for +you to learn wholly in the Venetian school, and to reach form through +colour. But without the most intense application this is not possible; +and practically, it will be necessary for you, as soon as you have +gained the power of outlining accurately, and of laying flat colour, to +learn to express solid form as shown by light and shade only. And there +is this great advantage in doing so, that many forms are more or less +disguised by colour, and that we can only represent them completely to +others, or rapidly and easily record them for ourselves, by the use of +shade alone. A single instance will show you what I mean. Perhaps there +are few flowers of which the impression on the eye is more definitely of +flat colour, than the scarlet geranium. But you would find, if you were +to try to paint it,--first, that no pigment could approach the beauty of +its scarlet; and secondly, that the brightness of the hue dazzled the +eye, and prevented its following the real arrangement of the cluster of +flowers. I have drawn for you here (at least this is a mezzotint from my +drawing), a single cluster of the scarlet geranium, in mere light and +shade (Edu. 32 B.), and I think you will feel that its domed form, and +the flat lying of the petals one over the other, in the vaulted roof of +it, can be seen better thus than if they had been painted scarlet. + + +164. Also this study will be useful to you, in showing how entirely +effects of light depend on delineation, and gradation of spaces, and not +on methods of shading. And this is the second great practical matter I +want you to remember to-day. All effects of light and shade depend not +on the method or execution of shadows, but on their rightness of place, +form, and depth. There is indeed a loveliness of execution _added_ to +the rightness, by the great masters, but you cannot obtain that unless +you become one of them. Shadow cannot be laid thoroughly well, any more +than lines can be drawn steadily, but by a long-practised hand, and the +attempts to imitate the shading of fine draughtsmen, by dotting and +hatching, are just as ridiculous as it would be to endeavour to imitate +their instantaneous lines by a series of re-touchings. You will often +indeed see in Lionardo's work, and in Michael Angelo's, shadow wrought +laboriously to an extreme of fineness; but when you look into it, you +will find that they have always been drawing more and more form within +the space, and never finishing for the sake of added texture, but of +added fact. And all those effects of transparency and reflected light, +aimed at in common chalk drawings, are wholly spurious. For since, as I +told you, all lights are shades compared to higher lights, and lights +only as compared to lower ones, it follows that there can be no +difference in their quality as such; but that light is opaque when it +expresses substance, and transparent when it expresses space; and shade +is also opaque when it expresses substance, and transparent when it +expresses space. But it is not, even then, transparent in the common +sense of that word; nor is its appearance to be obtained by dotting or +cross hatching, but by touches so tender as to look like mist. And now +we find the use of having Lionardo for our guide. He is supreme in all +questions of execution, and in his 28th chapter, you will find that +shadows are to be "dolce e sfumose," to be tender, and look as if they +were exhaled, or breathed on the paper. Then, look at any of Michael +Angelo's finished drawings, or of Correggio's sketches, and you will see +that the true nurse of light is in art, as in nature, the cloud; a misty +and tender darkness, made lovely by gradation. + + +165. And how absolutely independent it is of material or method of +production, how absolutely dependent on rightness of place and +depth,--there are now before you instances enough to prove. Here is +Dürer's work in flat colour, represented by the photograph in its smoky +brown; Turner's, in washed sepia, and in mezzotint; Lionardo's, in +pencil and in chalk; on the screen in front of you a large study in +charcoal. In every one of these drawings, the material of shadow is +absolutely opaque. But photograph-stain, chalk, lead, ink, or +charcoal,--every one of them, laid by the master's hand, becomes full of +light by gradation only. Here is a moonlight (Edu. 31 B.), in which you +would think the moon shone through every cloud; yet the clouds are mere +single dashes of sepia, imitated by the brown stain of a photograph; +similarly, in these plates from the Liber Studiorum the white paper +becomes transparent or opaque, exactly as the master chooses. Here, on +the granite rock of the St. Gothard (S. 302), in white paper made +opaque, every light represents solid bosses of rock, or balls of foam. +But in this study of twilight (S. 303), the same white paper (coarse old +stuff it is, too!) is made as transparent as crystal, and every fragment +of it represents clear and far away light in the sky of evening in +Italy. + +From all which the practical conclusion for you is, that you are never +to trouble yourselves with any questions as to the means of shade or +light, but only with the right government of the means at your disposal. +And it is a most grave error in the system of many of our public +drawing-schools, that the students are permitted to spend weeks of +labour in giving attractive appearance, by delicacy of texture, to +chiaroscuro drawings in which every form is false, and every relation of +depth, untrue. A most unhappy form of error; for it not only delays, and +often wholly arrests, their advance in their own art; but it prevents +what ought to take place correlatively with their executive practice, +the formation of their taste by the accurate study of the models from +which they draw. And I must so far anticipate what we shall discover +when we come to the subject of sculpture, as to tell you the two main +principles of good sculpture; first, that its masters think before all +other matters of the right placing of masses; secondly, that they give +life by flexure of surface, not by quantity of detail; for sculpture is +indeed only light and shade drawing in stone. + + +166. Much that I have endeavoured to teach on this subject has been +gravely misunderstood, by both young painters and sculptors, especially +by the latter. Because I am always urging them to imitate organic forms, +they think if they carve quantities of flowers and leaves, and copy them +from the life, they have done all that is needed. But the difficulty is +not to carve quantities of leaves. Anybody can do that. The difficulty +is, never anywhere to have an _unnecessary_ leaf. Over the arch on the +right, you see there is a cluster of seven, with their short stalks +springing from a thick stem. Now, you could not turn one of those leaves +a hair's-breadth out of its place, nor thicken one of their stems, nor +alter the angle at which each slips over the next one, without spoiling +the whole as much as you would a piece of melody by missing a note. That +is disposition of masses. Again, in the group on the left, while the +placing of every leaf is just as skilful, they are made more interesting +yet by the lovely undulation of their surfaces, so that not one of them +is in equal light with another. And that is so in all good sculpture, +without exception. From the Elgin marbles down to the lightest tendril +that curls round a capital in the thirteenth century, every piece of +stone that has been touched by the hand of a master, becomes soft with +under-life, not resembling nature merely in skin-texture, nor in fibres +of leaf, or veins of flesh; but in the broad, tender, unspeakably subtle +undulation of its organic form. + + +167. Returning then to the question of our own practice, I believe that +all difficulties in method will vanish, if only you cultivate with care +enough the habit of accurate observation, and if you think only of +making your light and shade true, whether it be delicate or not. But +there are three divisions or degrees of truth to be sought for, in light +and shade, by three several modes of study, which I must ask you to +distinguish carefully. + +I. When objects are lighted by the direct rays of the sun, or by direct +light entering from a window, one side of them is of course in light, +the other in shade, and the forms in the mass are exhibited +systematically by the force of the rays falling on it; (those having +most power of illumination which strike most vertically;) and note that +there is, therefore, to every solid curvature of surface, a necessarily +proportioned gradation of light, the gradation on a parabolic solid +being different from the gradation on an elliptical or spherical one. +Now, when your purpose is to represent and learn the anatomy, or +otherwise characteristic forms, of any object, it is best to place it in +this kind of direct light, and to draw it as it is seen when we look at +it in a direction at right angles to that of the ray. This is the +ordinary academical way of studying form. Lionardo seldom practises any +other in his real work, though he directs many others in his treatise. + + +168. The great importance of anatomical knowledge to the painters of the +sixteenth century rendered this method of study very frequent with them; +it almost wholly regulated their schools of engraving, and has been the +most frequent system of drawing in art-schools since (to the very +inexpedient exclusion of others). When you study objects in this +way,--and it will indeed be well to do so often, though not +exclusively,--observe always one main principle. Divide the light from +the darkness frankly at first: all over the subject let there be no +doubt which is which. Separate them one from the other as they are +separated in the moon, or on the world itself, in day and night. Then +gradate your lights with the utmost subtilty possible to you; but let +your shadows alone, until near the termination of the drawing: then put +quickly into them what farther energy they need, thus gaining the +reflected lights out of their original flat gloom; but generally not +looking much for reflected lights. Nearly all young students (and too +many advanced masters) exaggerate them. It is good to see a drawing come +out of its ground like a vision of light only; the shadows lost, or +disregarded in the vague of space. In vulgar chiaroscuro the shades are +so full of reflection that they look as if some one had been walking +round the object with a candle, and the student, by that help, peering +into its crannies. + + +169. II. But, in the reality of nature, very few objects are seen in +this accurately lateral manner, or lighted by unconfused direct rays. +Some are all in shadow, some all in light, some near, and vigorously +defined; others dim and faint in aerial distance. The study of these +various effects and forces of light, which we may call aerial +chiaroscuro, is a far more subtle one than that of the rays exhibiting +organic form (which for distinction's sake we may call "formal" +chiaroscuro), since the degrees of light from the sun itself to the +blackness of night, are far beyond any literal imitation. In order to +produce a mental impression of the facts, two distinct methods may be +followed:--the first, to shade downwards from the lights, making +everything darker in due proportion, until the scale of our power being +ended, the mass of the picture is lost in shade. The second, to assume +the points of extreme darkness for a basis, and to light everything +above these in due proportion, till the mass of the picture is lost in +light. + + +170. Thus, in Turner's sepia drawing "Isis" (Edu. 31), he begins with +the extreme light in the sky, and shades down from that till he is +forced to represent the near trees and pool as one mass of blackness. In +his drawing of the Greta (S. 2), he begins with the dark brown shadow of +the bank on the left, and illuminates up from that, till, in his +distance, trees, hills, sky, and clouds, are all lost in broad light, so +that you can hardly see the distinction between hills and sky. The +second of these methods is in general the best for colour, though great +painters unite both in their practice, according to the character of +their subject. The first method is never pursued in colour but by +inferior painters. It is, nevertheless, of great importance to make +studies of chiaroscuro in this first manner for some time, as a +preparation for colouring; and this for many reasons, which it would +take too long to state now. I shall expect you to have confidence in me +when I assure you of the necessity of this study, and ask you to make +good use of the examples from the Liber Studiorum which I have placed in +your Educational series. + + +171. III. Whether in formal or aerial chiaroscuro, it is optional with +the student to make the local colour of objects a part of his shadow, or +to consider the high lights of every colour as white. For instance, a +chiaroscurist of Lionardo's school, drawing a leopard, would take no +notice whatever of the spots, but only give the shadows which expressed +the anatomy. And it is indeed necessary to be able to do this, and to +make drawings of the forms of things as if they were sculptured, and had +no colour. But in general, and more especially in the practice which is +to guide you to colour, it is better to regard the local colour as part +of the general dark and light to be imitated; and, as I told you at +first, to consider all nature merely as a mosaic of different colours, +to be imitated one by one in simplicity. But good artists vary their +methods according to their subject and material. In general, Dürer takes +little account of local colour; but in woodcuts of armorial bearings +(one with peacock's feathers I shall get for you some day) takes great +delight in it; while one of the chief merits of Bewick is the ease and +vigour with which he uses his black and white for the colours of plumes. +Also, every great artist looks for, and expresses, that character of his +subject which is best to be rendered by the instrument in his hand, and +the material he works on. Give Velasquez or Veronese a leopard to paint, +the first thing they think of will be its spots; give it to Dürer to +engrave, and he will set himself at the fur and whiskers; give it a +Greek to carve, and he will only think of its jaws and limbs; each doing +what is absolutely best with the means at his disposal. + + +172. The details of practice in these various methods I will endeavour +to explain to you by distinct examples in your Educational series, as we +proceed in our work; for the present, let me, in closing, recommend to +you once more with great earnestness the patient endeavour to render the +chiaroscuro of landscape in the manner of the Liber Studiorum; and this +the rather, because you might easily suppose that the facility of +obtaining photographs which render such effects, as it seems, with +absolute truth and with unapproachable subtilty, superseded the +necessity of study, and the use of sketching. Let me assure you, once +for all, that photographs supersede no single quality nor use of fine +art, and have so much in common with Nature, that they even share her +temper of parsimony, and will themselves give you nothing valuable that +you do not work for. They supersede no good art, for the definition of +art is "human labour regulated by human design," and this design, or +evidence of active intellect in choice and arrangement, is the +essential part of the work; which so long as you cannot perceive, you +perceive no art whatsoever; which when once you do perceive, you will +perceive also to be replaceable by no mechanism. But, farther, +photographs will give you nothing you do not work for. They are +invaluable for record of some kinds of facts, and for giving transcripts +of drawings by great masters; but neither in the photographed scene, nor +photographed drawing, will you see any true good, more than in the +things themselves, until you have given the appointed price in your own +attention and toil. And when once you have paid this price, you will not +care for photographs of landscape. They are not true, though they seem +so. They are merely spoiled nature. If it is not human design you are +looking for, there is more beauty in the next wayside bank than in all +the sun-blackened paper you could collect in a lifetime. Go and look at +the real landscape, and take care of it; do not think you can get the +good of it in a black stain portable in a folio. But if you care for +human thought and passion, then learn yourselves to watch the course and +fall of the light by whose influence you live, and to share in the joy +of human spirits in the heavenly gifts of sunbeam and shade. For I tell +you truly, that to a quiet heart, and healthy brain, and industrious +hand, there is more delight, and use, in the dappling of one wood-glade +with flowers and sunshine, than to the restless, heartless, and idle +could be brought by a panorama of a belt of the world, photographed +round the equator. + + + + +LECTURE VII + +COLOUR + + +173. To-day I must try to complete our elementary sketch of schools of +art, by tracing the course of those which were distinguished by faculty +of colour, and afterwards to deduce from the entire scheme advisable +methods of immediate practice. + +You remember that, for the type of the early schools of colour, I chose +their work in glass; as for that of the early schools of chiaroscuro, I +chose their work in clay. + +I had two reasons for this. First, that the peculiar skill of colourists +is seen most intelligibly in their work in glass or in enamel; secondly, +that Nature herself produces all her loveliest colours in some kind of +solid or liquid glass or crystal. The rainbow is painted on a shower of +melted glass, and the colours of the opal are produced in vitreous flint +mixed with water; the green and blue, and golden or amber brown of +flowing water is in surface glassy, and in motion "splendidior vitro." +And the loveliest colours ever granted to human sight--those of morning +and evening clouds before or after rain--are produced on minute +particles of finely-divided water, or perhaps sometimes ice. But more +than this. If you examine with a lens some of the richest colours of +flowers, as, for instance, those of the gentian and dianthus, you will +find their texture is produced by a crystalline or sugary frost-work +upon them. In the lychnis of the high Alps, the red and white have a +kind of sugary bloom, as rich as it is delicate. It is indescribable; +but if you can fancy very powdery and crystalline snow mixed with the +softest cream, and then dashed with carmine, it may give you some idea +of the look of it. There are no colours, either in the nacre of shells, +or the plumes of birds and insects, which are so pure as those of +clouds, opal, or flowers; but the _force_ of purple and blue in some +butterflies, and the methods of clouding, and strength of burnished +lustre, in plumage like the peacock's, give them more universal +interest; in some birds, also, as in our own kingfisher, the colour +nearly reaches a floral preciousness. The lustre in most, however, is +metallic rather than vitreous; and the vitreous always gives the purest +hue. Entirely common and vulgar compared with these, yet to be noticed +as completing the crystalline or vitreous system, we have the colours of +gems. The green of the emerald is the best of these; but at its best is +as vulgar as house-painting beside the green of bird's plumage or of +clear water. No diamond shows colour so pure as a dewdrop; the ruby is +like the pink of an ill-dyed and half-washed-out print, compared to the +dianthus; and the carbuncle is usually quite dead unless set with a +foil, and even then is not prettier than the seed of a pomegranate. The +opal is, however, an exception. When pure and uncut in its native rock, +it presents the most lovely colours that can be seen in the world, +except those of clouds. + +We have thus in nature, chiefly obtained by crystalline conditions, a +series of groups of entirely delicious hues; and it is one of the best +signs that the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see these +clearly in their most delicate tints, and enjoy them fully and simply, +with the kind of enjoyment that children have in eating sweet things. + + +174. Now, the course of our main colour schools is briefly this:--First +we have, returning to our hexagonal scheme, line; then _spaces_ filled +with pure colour; and then _masses_ expressed or rounded with pure +colour. And during these two stages the masters of colour delight in the +purest tints, and endeavour as far as possible to rival those of opals +and flowers. In saying "the purest tints," I do not mean the simplest +types of red, blue, and yellow, but the most pure tints obtainable by +their combinations. + + +175. You remember I told you, when the colourists painted masses or +projecting spaces, they, aiming always at colour, perceived from the +first and held to the last the fact that shadows, though of course +darker than the lights with reference to which they _are_ shadows, are +not therefore necessarily less vigorous colours, but perhaps more +vigorous. Some of the most beautiful blues and purples in nature, for +instance, are those of mountains in shadow against amber sky; and the +darkness of the hollow in the centre of a wild rose is one glow of +orange fire, owing to the quantity of its yellow stamens. Well, the +Venetians always saw this, and all great colourists see it, and are thus +separated from the non-colourists or schools of mere chiaroscuro, not by +difference in style merely, but by being right while the others are +wrong. It is an absolute fact that shadows are as much colours as lights +are; and whoever represents them by merely the subdued or darkened tint +of the light, represents them falsely. I particularly want you to +observe that this is no matter of taste, but fact. If you are especially +sober-minded, you may indeed choose sober colours where Venetians would +have chosen gay ones; that is a matter of taste; you may think it proper +for a hero to wear a dress without patterns on it, rather than an +embroidered one; that is similarly a matter of taste: but, though you +may also think it would be dignified for a hero's limbs to be all black, +or brown, on the shaded side of them, yet, if you are using colour at +all, you cannot so have him to your mind, except by falsehood; he never, +under any circumstances, could be entirely black or brown on one side of +him. + + +176. In this, then, the Venetians are separate from other schools by +rightness, and they are so to their last days. Venetian painting is in +this matter always right. But also, in their early days, the colourists +are separated from other schools by their contentment with tranquil +cheerfulness of light: by their never wanting to be dazzled. None of +their lights are flashing or blinding; they are soft, winning, precious; +lights of pearl, not of lime: only, you know, on this condition they +cannot have sunshine: their day is the day of Paradise; they need no +candle, neither light of the sun, in their cities; and everything is +seen clear, as through crystal, far or near. + +This holds to the end of the fifteenth century. Then they begin to see +that this, beautiful as it may be, is still a make-believe light; that +we do not live in the inside of a pearl; but in an atmosphere through +which a burning sun shines thwartedly, and over which a sorrowful night +must far prevail. And then the chiaroscurists succeed in persuading them +of the fact that there is a mystery in the day as in the night, and show +them how constantly to see truly, is to see dimly. And also they teach +them the brilliancy of light, and the degree in which it is raised from +the darkness; and instead of their sweet and pearly peace, tempt them to +look for the strength of flame and coruscation of lightning, and flash +of sunshine on armour and on points of spears. + + +177. The noble painters take the lesson nobly, alike for gloom or flame. +Titian with deliberate strength, Tintoret with stormy passion, read it, +side by side. Titian deepens the hues of his Assumption, as of his +Entombment, into a solemn twilight; Tintoret involves his earth in coils +of volcanic cloud, and withdraws, through circle flaming above circle, +the distant light of Paradise. Both of them, becoming naturalist and +human, add the veracity of Holbein's intense portraiture to the glow and +dignity they had themselves inherited from the Masters of Peace: at the +same moment another, as strong as they, and in pure felicity of +art-faculty, even greater than they, but trained in a lower +school,--Velasquez,--produced the miracles of colour and +shadow-painting, which made Reynolds say of him, "What we all do with +labour, he does with ease;" and one more, Correggio, uniting the sensual +element of the Greek schools with their gloom, and their light with +their beauty, and all these with the Lombardic colour, became, as since +I think it has been admitted without question, the captain of the +painter's art as such. Other men have nobler or more numerous gifts, but +as a painter, master of the art of laying colour so as to be lovely, +Correggio is alone. + + +178. I said the noble men learned their lesson nobly. The base men also, +and necessarily, learn it basely. The great men rise from colour to +sunlight. The base ones fall from colour to candlelight. To-day, "non +ragioniam di lor," but let us see what this great change which perfects +the art of painting mainly consists in, and means. For though we are +only at present speaking of technical matters, every one of them, I can +scarcely too often repeat, is the outcome and sign of a mental +character, and you can only understand the folds of the veil, by those +of the form it veils. + + +179. The complete painters, we find, have brought dimness and mystery +into their method of colouring. That means that the world all round them +has resolved to dream, or to believe, no more; but to know, and to see. +And instantly all knowledge and sight are given, no more as in the +Gothic times, through a window of glass, brightly, but as through a +telescope-glass, darkly. Your cathedral window shut you from the true +sky, and illumined you with a vision; your telescope leads you to the +sky, but darkens its light, and reveals nebula beyond nebula, far and +farther, and to no conceivable farthest--unresolvable. That is what the +mystery means. + + +180. Next, what does that Greek opposition of black and white mean? + +In the sweet crystalline time of colour, the painters, whether on glass +or canvas, employed intricate patterns, in order to mingle hues +beautifully with each other, and make one perfect melody of them all. +But in the great naturalist school, they like their patterns to come in +the Greek way, dashed dark on light,--gleaming light out of dark. That +means also that the world round them has again returned to the Greek +conviction, that all nature, especially human nature, is not entirely +melodious nor luminous; but a barred and broken thing: that saints have +their foibles, sinners their forces; that the most luminous virtue is +often only a flash, and the blackest-looking fault is sometimes only a +stain: and, without confusing in the least black with white, they can +forgive, or even take delight in things that are like the [Greek: +nebris], dappled. + + +181. You have then--first, mystery. Secondly, opposition of dark and +light. Then, lastly, whatever truth of form the dark and light can show. + +That is to say, truth altogether, and resignation to it, and quiet +resolve to make the best of it. And therefore portraiture of living men, +women, and children,--no more of saints, cherubs, or demons. So here I +have brought for your standards of perfect art, a little maiden of the +Strozzi family, with her dog, by Titian; and a little princess of the +house of Savoy, by Vandyke; and Charles the Fifth, by Titian; and a +queen, by Velasquez; and an English girl in a brocaded gown, by +Reynolds; and an English physician in his plain coat, and wig, by +Reynolds: and if you do not like them, I cannot help myself, for I can +find nothing better for you. + + +182. Better?--I must pause at the word. Nothing stronger, certainly, nor +so strong. Nothing so wonderful, so inimitable, so keen in unprejudiced +and unbiassed sight. + +Yet better, perhaps, the sight that was guided by a sacred will; the +power that could be taught to weaker hands; the work that was faultless, +though not inimitable, bright with felicity of heart, and consummate in +a disciplined and companionable skill. You will find, when I can place +in your hands the notes on Verona, which I read at the Royal +Institution, that I have ventured to call the æra of painting +represented by John Bellini, the time "of the Masters." Truly they +deserved the name, who did nothing but what was lovely, and taught only +what was right. These mightier, who succeeded them, crowned, but closed, +the dynasties of art, and since their day, painting has never flourished +more. + + +183. There were many reasons for this, without fault of theirs. They +were exponents, in the first place, of the change in all men's minds +from civil and religious to merely domestic passion; the love of their +gods and their country had contracted itself now into that of their +domestic circle, which was little more than the halo of themselves. You +will see the reflection of this change in painting at once by comparing +the two Madonnas (S. 37, John Bellini's, and Raphael's, called "della +Seggiola"). Bellini's Madonna cares for all creatures through her child; +Raphael's, for her child only. + +Again, the world round these painters had become sad and proud, instead +of happy and humble;--its domestic peace was darkened by irreligion, its +national action fevered by pride. And for sign of its Love, the Hymen, +whose statue this fair English girl, according to Reynolds' thought, has +to decorate (S. 43), is blind, and holds a coronet. + +Again, in the splendid power of realisation, which these greatest of +artists had reached, there was the latent possibility of amusement by +deception, and of excitement by sensualism. And Dutch trickeries of base +resemblance, and French fancies of insidious beauty, soon occupied the +eyes of the populace of Europe, too restless and wretched now to care +for the sweet earth-berries and Madonna's ivy of Cima, and too ignoble +to perceive Titian's colour, or Correggio's shade. + + +184. Enough sources of evil were here, in the temper and power of the +consummate art. In its practical methods there was another, the +fatallest of all. These great artists brought with them mystery, +despondency, domesticity, sensuality: of all these, good came, as well +as evil. One thing more they brought, of which nothing but evil ever +comes, or can come--LIBERTY. + +By the discipline of five hundred years they had learned and inherited +such power, that whereas all former painters could be right only by +effort, they could be right with ease; and whereas all former painters +could be right only under restraint, they could be right, free. +Tintoret's touch, Luini's, Correggio's, Reynolds', and Velasquez's, are +all as free as the air, and yet right. "How very fine!" said everybody. +Unquestionably, very fine. Next, said everybody, "What a grand +discovery! Here is the finest work ever done, and it is quite free. Let +us all be free then, and what fine things shall we not do also!" With +what results we too well know. + +Nevertheless, remember you are to delight in the freedom won by these +mighty men through obedience, though you are not to covet it. Obey, and +you also shall be free in time; but in these minor things, as well as in +great, it is only right service which is perfect freedom. + + +185. This, broadly, is the history of the early and late colour-schools. +The first of these I shall call generally, henceforward, the school of +crystal; the other that of clay: potter's clay, or human, are too +sorrowfully the same, as far as art is concerned. But remember, in +practice, you cannot follow both these schools; you must distinctly +adopt the principles of one or the other. I will put the means of +following either within your reach; and according to your dispositions +you will choose one or the other: all I have to guard you against is the +mistake of thinking you can unite the two. If you want to paint (even in +the most distant and feeble way) in the Greek School, the school of +Lionardo, Correggio, and Turner, you cannot design coloured windows, nor +Angelican paradises. If, on the other hand, you choose to live in the +peace of paradise, you cannot share in the gloomy triumphs of the earth. + + +186. And, incidentally note, as a practical matter of immediate +importance, that painted windows have nothing to do with +chiaroscuro.[14] The virtue of glass is to be transparent everywhere. If +you care to build a palace of jewels, painted glass is richer than all +the treasures of Aladdin's lamp; but if you like pictures better than +jewels, you must come into broad daylight to paint them. A picture in +coloured glass is one of the most vulgar of barbarisms, and only fit to +be ranked with the gauze transparencies and chemical illuminations of +the sensational stage. + +[Footnote 14: There is noble chiaroscuro in the variations of their +colour, but not as representative of solid form.] + +Also, put out of your minds at once all question about difficulty of +getting colour; in glass we have all the colours that are wanted, only +we do not know either how to choose, or how to connect them; and we are +always trying to get them bright, when their real virtues are to be +deep, mysterious, and subdued. We will have a thorough study of painted +glass soon: mean while I merely give you a type of its perfect style, in +two windows from Chalons-sur-Marne (S. 141). + + +187. But for my own part, with what poor gift and skill is in me, I +belong wholly to the chiaroscurist school; and shall teach you therefore +chiefly that which I am best able to teach: and the rather, that it is +only in this school that you can follow out the study either of natural +history or landscape. The form of a wild animal, or the wrath of a +mountain torrent, would both be revolting (or in a certain sense +invisible) to the calm fantasy of a painter in the schools of crystal. +He must lay his lion asleep in St. Jerome's study beside his tame +partridge and easy slippers; lead the appeased river by alternate azure +promontories, and restrain its courtly little streamlets with margins of +marble. But, on the other hand, your studies of mythology and literature +may best be connected with these schools of purest and calmest +imagination; and their discipline will be useful to you in yet another +direction, and that a very important one. It will teach you to take +delight in little things, and develop in you the joy which all men +should feel in purity and order, not only in pictures but in reality. +For, indeed, the best art of this school of fantasy may at last be in +reality, and the chiaroscurists, true in ideal, may be less helpful in +act. We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, but we may turn every +English homestead, if we choose, into a picture by Cima or John Bellini, +which shall be "no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life +indeed." + + +188. For the present, however, and yet for some little time during your +progress, you will not have to choose your school. For both, as we have +seen, begin in delineation, and both proceed by filling flat spaces +with an even tint. And therefore this following will be the course of +work for you, founded on all that we have seen. + +Having learned to measure, and draw a pen line with some steadiness (the +geometrical exercises for this purpose being properly school, not +University work), you shall have a series of studies from the plants +which are of chief importance in the history of art; first from their +real forms, and then from the conventional and heraldic expressions of +them; then we will take examples of the filling of ornamental forms with +flat colour in Egyptian, Greek, and Gothic design; and then we will +advance to animal forms treated in the same severe way, and so to the +patterns and colour designs on animals themselves. And when we are sure +of our firmness of hand and accuracy of eye, we will go on into light +and shade. + + +189. In process of time, this series of exercises will, I hope, be +sufficiently complete and systematic to show its purpose at a glance. +But during the present year, I shall content myself with placing a few +examples of these different kinds of practice in your rooms for work, +explaining in the catalogue the position they will ultimately occupy, +and the technical points of process into which it is useless to enter in +a general lecture. After a little time spent in copying these, your own +predilections must determine your future course of study; only remember, +whatever school you follow, it must be only to learn method, not to +imitate result, and to acquaint yourself with the minds of other men, +but not to adopt them as your own. Be assured that no good can come of +our work but as it arises simply out of our own true natures, and the +necessities of the time around us, though in many respects an evil one. +We live in an age of base conceit and baser servility--an age whose +intellect is chiefly formed by pillage, and occupied in desecration; one +day mimicking, the next destroying, the works of all the noble persons +who made its intellectual or art life possible to it:--an age without +honest confidence enough in itself to carve a cherry-stone with an +original fancy, but with insolence enough to abolish the solar system, +if it were allowed to meddle with it.[15] In the midst of all this, you +have to become lowly and strong; to recognise the powers of others and +to fulfil your own. I shall try to bring before you every form of +ancient art, that you may read and profit by it, not imitate it. You +shall draw Egyptian kings dressed in colours like the rainbow, and Doric +gods, and Runic monsters, and Gothic monks--not that you may draw like +Egyptians or Norsemen, nor yield yourselves passively to be bound by the +devotion, or inspired by the passion of the past, but that you may know +truly what other men have felt during their poor span of life; and open +your own hearts to what the heavens and earth may have to tell you in +yours. + +[Footnote 15: Every day these bitter words become more sorrowfully true +(September, 1887).] + + +190. In closing this first course of lectures, I have one word more to +say respecting the possible consequence of the introduction of art among +the studies of the University. What art may do for scholarship, I have +no right to conjecture; but what scholarship may do for art, I may in +all modesty tell you. Hitherto, great artists, though always gentlemen, +have yet been too exclusively craftsmen. Art has been less thoughtful +than we suppose; it has taught much, but erred much, also. Many of the +greatest pictures are enigmas; others, beautiful toys; others, harmful +and corrupting enchantments. In the loveliest, there is something weak; +in the greatest, there is something guilty. And this, gentlemen, if you +will, is the new thing that may come to pass,--that the scholars of +England may resolve to teach also with the silent power of the arts; and +that some among you may so learn and use them, that pictures may be +painted which shall not be enigmas any more, but open teachings of what +can no otherwise be so well shown;--which shall not be fevered or broken +visions any more, but filled with the indwelling light of self-possessed +imagination;--which shall not be stained or enfeebled any more by evil +passion, but glorious with the strength and chastity of noble human +love;--and which shall no more degrade or disguise the work of God in +heaven, but testify of Him as here dwelling with men, and walking with +them, not angry, in the garden of the earth. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Art, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + +***** This file should be named 19164-8.txt or 19164-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/6/19164/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lectures on Art + Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: September 3, 2006 [EBook #19164] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Transliteration of Greek words appears between + signs.] + + + + + Library Edition + +THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN + + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE + + TIME AND TIDE + + QUEEN OF THE AIR + + LECTURES ON ART AND LANDSCAPE + + ARATRA PENTELICI + + + NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION + NEW YORK CHICAGO + + *** + + LECTURES ON ART. + + DELIVERED + + BEFORE THE + + UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + + IN HILARY TERM, 1870. + + *** + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + LECTURE I. + +INAUGURAL 1 + + LECTURE II. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION 24 + + LECTURE III. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS 46 + + LECTURE IV. + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE 66 + + LECTURE V. + +LINE 86 + + LECTURE VI. + +LIGHT 102 + + LECTURE VII. + +COLOUR 123 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1887. + + +The following lectures were the most important piece of my literary work +done with unabated power, best motive, and happiest concurrence of +circumstance. They were written and delivered while my mother yet lived, +and had vividest sympathy in all I was attempting;--while also my +friends put unbroken trust in me, and the course of study I had followed +seemed to fit me for the acceptance of noble tasks and graver +responsibilities than those only of a curious traveler, or casual +teacher. + +Men of the present world may smile at the sanguine utterances of the +first four lectures: but it has not been wholly my own fault that they +have remained unfulfilled; nor do I retract one word of hope for the +success of other masters, nor a single promise made to the sincerity of +the student's labor, on the lines here indicated. It would have been +necessary to my success, that I should have accepted permanent residence +in Oxford, and scattered none of my energy in other tasks. But I chose +to spend half my time at Coniston Waterhead; and to use half my force in +attempts to form a new social organization,--the St. George's +Guild,--which made all my Oxford colleagues distrustful of me, and many +of my Oxford hearers contemptuous. My mother's death in 1871, and that +of a dear friend in 1875, took away the personal joy I had in anything I +wrote or designed: and in 1876, feeling unable for Oxford duty, I +obtained a year's leave of rest, and, by the kind and wise counsel of +Prince Leopold, went to Venice, to reconsider the form into which I had +cast her history in the abstract of it given in the "Stones of Venice." + +The more true and close view of that history, begun in "St. Mark's +Rest," and the fresh architectural drawings made under the stimulus of +it, led me forward into new fields of thought, inconsistent with the +daily attendance needed by my Oxford classes; and in my discontent with +the state I saw them in, and my inability to return to their guidance +without abandonment of all my designs of Venetian and Italian history, +began the series of vexations which ended in the very nearly mortal +illness of 1878. + +Since, therefore, the period of my effective action in Oxford was only +from 1870 to 1875, it can scarcely be matter of surprise or reproof that +I could not in that time obtain general trust in a system of teaching +which, though founded on that of Da Vinci and Reynolds, was at variance +with the practice of all recent European academy schools; nor +establish--on the unassisted resources of the Slade Professorship--the +schools of Sculpture, Architecture, Metal-work, and manuscript +Illumination, of which the design is confidently traced in the four +inaugural lectures. + +In revising the book, I have indicated as in the last edition of the +"Seven Lamps," passages which the student will find generally +applicable, and in all their bearings useful, as distinguished from +those regarding only their immediate subject. The relative importance of +these broader statements, I again indicate by the use of capitals or +italics; and if the reader will index the sentences he finds useful for +his own work, in the blank pages left for that purpose at the close of +the volume, he will certainly get more good of them than if they had +been grouped for him according to the author's notion of their contents. + +SANDGATE, _10th January, 1888_. + + + + +LECTURES ON ART + + + + +LECTURE I + +INAUGURAL + + +1. The duty which is to-day laid on me, of introducing, among the +elements of education appointed in this great University, one not only +new, but such as to involve in its possible results some modification of +the rest, is, as you well feel, so grave, that no man could undertake it +without laying himself open to the imputation of a kind of insolence; +and no man could undertake it rightly, without being in danger of having +his hands shortened by dread of his task, and mistrust of himself. + +And it has chanced to me, of late, to be so little acquainted either +with pride or hope, that I can scarcely recover so much as I now need, +of the one for strength, and of the other for foresight, except by +remembering that noble persons, and friends of the high temper that +judges most clearly where it loves best, have desired that this trust +should be given me: and by resting also in the conviction that the +goodly tree whose roots, by God's help, we set in earth to-day, will not +fail of its height because the planting of it is under poor auspices, or +the first shoots of it enfeebled by ill gardening. + + +2. The munificence of the English gentleman to whom we owe the founding +of this Professorship at once in our three great Universities, has +accomplished the first great group of a series of changes now taking +gradual effect in our system of public education, which, as you well +know, are the sign of a vital change in the national mind, respecting +both the principles on which that education should be conducted, and the +ranks of society to which it should extend. For, whereas it was formerly +thought that the discipline necessary to form the character of youth was +best given in the study of abstract branches of literature and +philosophy, it is now thought that the same, or a better, discipline may +be given by informing men in early years of the things it will be of +chief practical advantage to them afterwards to know; and by permitting +to them the choice of any field of study which they may feel to be best +adapted to their personal dispositions. I have always used what poor +influence I possessed in advancing this change; nor can any one rejoice +more than I in its practical results. But the completion--I will not +venture to say, correction--of a system established by the highest +wisdom of noble ancestors, cannot be too reverently undertaken: and it +is necessary for the English people, who are sometimes violent in change +in proportion to the reluctance with which they admit its necessity, to +be now, oftener than at other times, reminded that the object of +instruction here is not primarily attainment, but discipline; and that a +youth is sent to our Universities, not (hitherto at least) to be +apprenticed to a trade, nor even always to be advanced in a profession; +but, always, to be made a gentleman and a scholar. + + +3. To be made these,--if there is in him the making of either. The +populaces of civilised countries have lately been under a feverish +impression that it is possible for all men to be both; and that having +once become, by passing through certain mechanical processes of +instruction, gentle and learned, they are sure to attain in the sequel +the consummate beatitude of being rich. + +Rich, in the way and measure in which it is well for them to be so, they +may, without doubt, _all_ become. There is indeed a land of Havilah open +to them, of which the wonderful sentence is literally true--"The gold of +_that_ land is good." But they must first understand, that education, in +its deepest sense, is not the equaliser, but the discerner, of men;[1] +and that, so far from being instruments for the collection of riches, +the first lesson of wisdom is to disdain them, and of gentleness, to +diffuse. + +[Footnote 1: The full meaning of this sentence, and of that which closes +the paragraph, can only be understood by reference to my more developed +statements on the subject of Education in "Modern Painters" and in "Time +and Tide." The following fourth paragraph is the most pregnant summary +of my political and social principles I have ever been able to give.] + +It is not therefore, as far as we can judge, yet possible for all men to +be gentlemen and scholars. Even under the best training some will remain +too selfish to refuse wealth, and some too dull to desire leisure. But +many more might be so than are now; nay, perhaps all men in England +might one day be so, if England truly desired her supremacy among the +nations to be in kindness and in learning. To which good end, it will +indeed contribute that we add some practice of the lower arts to our +scheme of University education; but the thing which is vitally necessary +is, that we should extend the spirit of University education to the +practice of the lower arts. + + +4. And, above all, it is needful that we do this by redeeming them from +their present pain of self-contempt, and by giving them _rest_. It has +been too long boasted as the pride of England, that out of a vast +multitude of men, confessed to be in evil case, it was possible for +individuals, by strenuous effort, and rare good fortune, occasionally to +emerge into the light, and look back with self-gratulatory scorn upon +the occupations of their parents, and the circumstances of their +infancy. Ought we not rather to aim at an ideal of national life, when, +of the employments of Englishmen, though each shall be distinct, none +shall be unhappy or ignoble; when mechanical operations, acknowledged to +be debasing in their tendency,[2] shall be deputed to less fortunate and +more covetous races; when advance from rank to rank, though possible to +all men, may be rather shunned than desired by the best; and the chief +object in the mind of every citizen may not be extrication from a +condition admitted to be disgraceful, but fulfilment of a duty which +shall be also a birthright? + +[Footnote 2: "+technai epirretoi+," compare page 81.] + + +5. And then, the training of all these distinct classes will not be by +Universities of general knowledge, but by distinct schools of such +knowledge as shall be most useful for every class: in which, first the +principles of their special business may be perfectly taught, and +whatever higher learning, and cultivation of the faculties for receiving +and giving pleasure, may be properly joined with that labour, taught in +connection with it. Thus, I do not despair of seeing a School of +Agriculture, with its fully-endowed institutes of zoology, botany, and +chemistry; and a School of Mercantile Seamanship, with its institutes of +astronomy, meteorology, and natural history of the sea: and, to name +only one of the finer, I do not say higher, arts, we shall, I hope, in a +little time, have a perfect school of Metal-work, at the head of which +will be, not the ironmasters, but the goldsmiths: and therein, I +believe, that artists, being taught how to deal wisely with the most +precious of metals, will take into due government the uses of all +others. + +But I must not permit myself to fail in the estimate of my immediate +duty, while I debate what that duty may hereafter become in the hands of +others; and I will therefore now, so far as I am able, lay before you a +brief general view of the existing state of the arts in England, and of +the influence which her Universities, through these newly-founded +lectureships, may, I hope, bring to bear upon it for good. + + +6. We have first to consider the impulse which has been given to the +practice of all the arts by the extension of our commerce, and enlarged +means of intercourse with foreign nations, by which we now become more +familiarly acquainted with their works in past and in present times. The +immediate result of these new opportunities, I regret to say, has been +to make us more jealous of the genius of others, than conscious of the +limitations of our own; and to make us rather desire to enlarge our +wealth by the sale of art, than to elevate our enjoyments by its +acquisition. + +Now, whatever efforts we make, with a true desire to produce, and +possess, things that are intrinsically beautiful, have in them at least +one of the essential elements of success. But efforts having origin only +in the hope of enriching ourselves by the sale of our productions, are +_assuredly_ condemned to dishonourable failure; not because, ultimately, +a well-trained nation is forbidden to profit by the exercise of its +peculiar art-skill; but because that peculiar art-skill can never be +developed _with a view_ to profit. The right fulfilment of national +power in art depends always on THE DIRECTION OF ITS AIM BY THE +EXPERIENCE OF AGES. Self-knowledge is not less difficult, nor less +necessary for the direction of its genius, to a people than to an +individual; and it is neither to be acquired by the eagerness of +unpractised pride, nor during the anxieties of improvident distress. No +nation ever had, or will have, the power of suddenly developing, under +the pressure of necessity, faculties it had neglected when it was at +ease; nor of teaching itself in poverty, the skill to produce, what it +has never, in opulence, had the sense to admire. + + +7. Connected also with some of the worst parts of our social system, but +capable of being directed to better result than this commercial +endeavour, we see lately a most powerful impulse given to the production +of costly works of art, by the various causes which promote the sudden +accumulation of wealth in the hands of private persons. We have thus a +vast and new patronage, which, in its present agency, is injurious to +our schools; but which is nevertheless in a great degree earnest and +conscientious, and far from being influenced chiefly by motives of +ostentation. Most of our rich men would be glad to promote the true +interests of art in this country: and even those who buy for vanity, +found their vanity on the possession of what they suppose to be best. + +It is therefore in a great measure the fault of artists themselves if +they suffer from this partly unintelligent, but thoroughly +well-intended, patronage. If they seek to attract it by eccentricity, to +deceive it by superficial qualities, or take advantage of it by +thoughtless and facile production, they necessarily degrade themselves +and it together, and have no right to complain afterwards that it will +not acknowledge better-grounded claims. But if every painter of real +power would do only what he knew to be worthy of himself, and refuse to +be involved in the contention for undeserved or accidental success, +there is indeed, whatever may have been thought or said to the contrary, +true instinct enough in the public mind to follow such firm guidance. It +is one of the facts which the experience of thirty years enables me to +assert without qualification, that a really good picture is ultimately +always approved and bought, unless it is wilfully rendered offensive to +the public by faults which the artist has been either too proud to +abandon or too weak to correct. + + +8. The development of whatever is healthful and serviceable in the two +modes of impulse which we have been considering, depends however, +ultimately, on the direction taken by the true interest in art which has +lately been aroused by the great and active genius of many of our +living, or but lately lost, painters, sculptors, and architects. It may +perhaps surprise, but I think it will please you to hear me, or (if you +will forgive me, in my own Oxford, the presumption of fancying that some +may recognise me by an old name) to hear the author of "Modern Painters" +say, that his chief error in earlier days was not in over estimating, +but in too slightly acknowledging the merit of living men. The great +painter whose power, while he was yet among us, I was able to perceive, +was the first to reprove me for my disregard of the skill of his +fellow-artists; and, with this inauguration of the study of the art of +all time,--a study which can only by true modesty end in wise +admiration,--it is surely well that I connect the record of these words +of his, spoken then too truly to myself, and true always more or less +for all who are untrained in that toil,--"You don't know how difficult +it is." + +You will not expect me, within the compass of this lecture, to give you +any analysis of the many kinds of excellent art (in all the three great +divisions) which the complex demands of modern life, and yet more varied +instincts of modern genius, have developed for pleasure or service. It +must be my endeavour, in conjunction with my colleagues in the other +Universities, hereafter to enable you to appreciate these worthily; in +the hope that also the members of the Royal Academy, and those of the +Institute of British Architects, may be induced to assist, and guide, +the efforts of the Universities, by organising such a system of +art-education for their own students, as shall in future prevent the +waste of genius in any mistaken endeavours; especially removing doubt as +to the proper substance and use of materials; and requiring compliance +with certain elementary principles of right, in every picture and design +exhibited with their sanction. It is not indeed possible for talent so +varied as that of English artists to be compelled into the formalities +of a determined school; but it must certainly be the function of every +academical body to see that their younger students are guarded from what +must in every school be error; and that they are practised in the best +methods of work hitherto known, before their ingenuity is directed to +the invention of others. + + +9. I need scarcely refer, except for the sake of completeness in my +statement, to one form of demand for art which is wholly unenlightened, +and powerful only for evil;--namely, the demand of the classes occupied +solely in the pursuit of pleasure, for objects and modes of art that can +amuse indolence or excite passion. There is no need for any discussion +of these requirements, or of their forms of influence, though they are +very deadly at present in their operation on sculpture, and on +jewellers' work. They cannot be checked by blame, nor guided by +instruction; they are merely the necessary result of whatever defects +exist in the temper and principles of a luxurious society; and it is +only by moral changes, not by art-criticism, that their action can be +modified. + + +10. Lastly, there is a continually increasing demand for popular art, +multipliable by the printing-press, illustrative of daily events, of +general literature, and of natural science. Admirable skill, and some of +the best talent of modern times, are occupied in supplying this want; +and there is no limit to the good which may be effected by rightly +taking advantage of the powers we now possess of placing good and lovely +art within the reach of the poorest classes. Much has been already +accomplished; but great harm has been done also,--first, by forms of art +definitely addressed to depraved tastes; and, secondly, in a more subtle +way, by really beautiful and useful engravings which are yet not good +enough to retain their influence on the public mind;--which weary it by +redundant quantity of monotonous average excellence, and diminish or +destroy its power of accurate attention to work of a higher order. + +Especially this is to be regretted in the effect produced on the schools +of line engraving, which had reached in England an executive skill of a +kind before unexampled, and which of late have lost much of their more +sterling and legitimate methods. Still, I have seen plates produced +quite recently, more beautiful, I think, in some qualities than anything +ever before attained by the burin: and I have not the slightest fear +that photography, or any other adverse or competitive operation, will in +the least ultimately diminish,--I believe they will, on the contrary, +stimulate and exalt--the grand old powers of the wood and the steel. + + +11. Such are, I think, briefly the present conditions of art with which +we have to deal; and I conceive it to be the function of this +Professorship, with respect to them, to establish both a practical and +critical school of fine art for English gentlemen: practical, so that if +they draw at all, they may draw rightly; and critical, so that being +first directed to such works of existing art as will best reward their +study, they may afterwards make their patronage of living artists +delightful to themselves in their consciousness of its justice, and, to +the utmost, beneficial to their country, by being given to the men who +deserve it; in the early period of their lives, when they both need it +most, and can be influenced by it to the best advantage. + + +12. And especially with reference to this function of patronage, I +believe myself justified in taking into account future probabilities as +to the character and range of art in England: and I shall endeavour at +once to organise with you a system of study calculated to develop +chiefly the knowledge of those branches in which the English schools +have shown, and are likely to show, peculiar excellence. + +Now, in asking your sanction both for the nature of the general plans I +wish to adopt, and for what I conceive to be necessary limitations of +them, I wish you to be fully aware of my reasons for both: and I will +therefore risk the burdening of your patience while I state the +directions of effort in which I think English artists are liable to +failure, and those also in which past experience has shown they are +secure of success. + + +13. I referred, but now, to the effort we are making to improve the +designs of our manufactures. Within certain limits I believe this +improvement may indeed take effect: so that we may no more humour +momentary fashions by ugly results of chance instead of design; and may +produce both good tissues, of harmonious colours, and good forms and +substance of pottery and glass. But we shall never excel in decorative +design. Such design is usually produced by people of great natural +powers of mind, who have no variety of subjects to employ themselves on, +no oppressive anxieties, and are in circumstances either of natural +scenery or of daily life, which cause pleasurable excitement. _We_ +cannot design, because we have too much to think of, and we think of it +too anxiously. It has long been observed how little real anxiety exists +in the minds of the partly savage races which excel in decorative art; +and we must not suppose that the temper of the Middle Ages was a +troubled one, because every day brought its danger or its change. The +very eventfulness of the life rendered it careless, as generally is +still the case with soldiers and sailors. Now, when there are great +powers of thought, and little to think of, all the waste energy and +fancy are thrown into the manual work, and you have so much intellect as +would direct the affairs of a large mercantile concern for a day, spent +all at once, quite unconsciously, in drawing an ingenious spiral. + +Also, powers of doing fine ornamental work are only to be reached by a +perpetual discipline of the hand as well as of the fancy; discipline as +attentive and painful as that which a juggler has to put himself +through, to overcome the more palpable difficulties of his profession. +The execution of the best artists is always a splendid tour-de-force; +and much that in painting is supposed to be dependent on material is +indeed only a lovely and quite inimitable legerdemain. Now, when powers +of fancy, stimulated by this triumphant precision of manual dexterity, +descend uninterruptedly from generation to generation, you have at last, +what is not so much a trained artist, as a new species of animal, with +whose instinctive gifts you have no chance of contending. And thus all +our imitations of other people's work are futile. We must learn first to +make honest English wares, and afterwards to decorate them as may please +the then approving Graces. + + +14. Secondly--and this is an incapacity of a graver kind, yet having its +own good in it also--we shall never be successful in the highest fields +of ideal or theological art. + +For there is one strange, but quite essential, character in us: ever +since the Conquest, if not earlier:--a delight in the forms of burlesque +which are connected in some degree with the foulness of evil. I think +the most perfect type of a true English mind in its best possible +temper, is that of Chaucer; and you will find that, while it is for the +most part full of thoughts of beauty, pure and wild like that of an +April morning, there are even in the midst of this, sometimes +momentarily jesting passages which stoop to play with evil--while the +power of listening to and enjoying the jesting of entirely gross +persons, whatever the feeling may be which permits it, afterwards +degenerates into forms of humour which render some of quite the +greatest, wisest, and most moral of English writers now almost useless +for our youth. And yet you will find that whenever Englishmen are wholly +without this instinct, their genius is comparatively weak and +restricted. + + +15. Now, the first necessity for the doing of any great work in ideal +art, is the looking upon all foulness with horror, as a contemptible +though dreadful enemy. You may easily understand what I mean, by +comparing the feelings with which Dante regards any form of obscenity or +of base jest, with the temper in which the same things are regarded by +Shakespeare. And this strange earthly instinct of ours, coupled as it +is, in our good men, with great simplicity and common sense, renders +them shrewd and perfect observers and delineators of actual nature, low +or high; but precludes them from that specialty of art which is properly +called sublime. If ever we try anything in the manner of Michael Angelo +or of Dante, we catch a fall, even in literature, as Milton in the +battle of the angels, spoiled from Hesiod; while in art, every attempt +in this style has hitherto been the sign either of the presumptuous +egotism of persons who had never really learned to be workmen, or it has +been connected with very tragic forms of the contemplation of death,--it +has always been partly insane, and never once wholly successful. + +But we need not feel any discomfort in these limitations of our +capacity. We can do much that others cannot, and more than we have ever +yet ourselves completely done. Our first great gift is in the +portraiture of living people--a power already so accomplished in both +Reynolds and Gainsborough that nothing is left for future masters but to +add the calm of perfect workmanship to their vigour and felicity of +perception. And of what value a true school of portraiture may become in +the future, when worthy men will desire only to be known, and others +will not fear to know them, for what they truly were, we cannot from +any past records of art influence yet conceive. But in my next address +it will be partly my endeavour to show you how much more useful, because +more humble, the labour of great masters might have been, had they been +content to bear record of the souls that were dwelling with them on +earth, instead of striving to give a deceptive glory to those they +dreamed of in heaven. + + +16. Secondly, we have an intense power of invention and expression in +domestic drama; (King Lear and Hamlet being essentially domestic in +their strongest motives of interest). There is a tendency at this moment +towards a noble development of our art in this direction, checked by +many adverse conditions, which may be summed in one,--the insufficiency +of generous civic or patriotic passion in the heart of the English +people; a fault which makes its domestic affection selfish, contracted, +and, therefore, frivolous. + + +17. Thirdly, in connection with our simplicity and good-humour, and +partly with that very love of the grotesque which debases our ideal, we +have a sympathy with the lower animals which is peculiarly our own; and +which, though it has already found some exquisite expression in the +works of Bewick and Landseer, is yet quite undeveloped. This sympathy, +with the aid of our now authoritative science of physiology, and in +association with our British love of adventure, will, I hope, enable us +to give to the future inhabitants of the globe an almost perfect record +of the present forms of animal life upon it, of which many are on the +point of being extinguished. + +Lastly, but not as the least important of our special powers, I have to +note our skill in landscape, of which I will presently speak more +particularly. + + +18. Such I conceive to be the directions in which, principally, we have +the power to excel; and you must at once see how the consideration of +them must modify the advisable methods of our art study. For if our +professional painters were likely to produce pieces of art loftily ideal +in their character, it would be desirable to form the taste of the +students here by setting before them only the purest examples of Greek, +and the mightiest of Italian, art. But I do not think you will yet find +a single instance of a school directed exclusively to these higher +branches of study in England, which has strongly, or even definitely, +made impression on its younger scholars. While, therefore, I shall +endeavour to point out clearly the characters to be looked for and +admired in the great masters of imaginative design, I shall make no +special effort to stimulate the imitation of them; and above all things, +I shall try to probe in you, and to prevent, the affectation into which +it is easy to fall, even through modesty,--of either endeavouring to +admire a grandeur with which we have no natural sympathy, or losing the +pleasure we might take in the study of familiar things, by considering +it a sign of refinement to look for what is of higher class, or rarer +occurrence. + + +19. Again, if our artisans were likely to attain any distinguished skill +in ornamental design, it would be incumbent upon me to make my class +here accurately acquainted with the principles of earth and metal work, +and to accustom them to take pleasure in conventional arrangements of +colour and form. I hope, indeed, to do this, so far as to enable them to +discern the real merit of many styles of art which are at present +neglected; and, above all, to read the minds of semi-barbaric nations in +the only language by which their feelings were capable of expression; +and those members of my class whose temper inclines them to take +pleasure in the interpretation of mythic symbols, will not probably be +induced to quit the profound fields of investigation which early art, +examined carefully, will open to them, and which belong to it alone: for +this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the +same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by +it; and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention. Nevertheless, +when I have once sufficiently pointed out the nature and value of this +conventional work, and vindicated it from the contempt with which it is +too generally regarded, I shall leave the student to his own pleasure in +its pursuit; and even, so far as I may, discourage all admiration +founded on quaintness or peculiarity of style; and repress any other +modes of feeling which are likely to lead rather to fastidious +collection of curiosities, than to the intelligent appreciation of work +which, being executed in compliance with constant laws of right, cannot +be singular, and must be distinguished only by excellence in what is +always desirable. + + +20. While, therefore, in these and such other directions, I shall +endeavour to put every adequate means of advance within reach of the +members of my class, I shall use my own best energy to show them what is +consummately beautiful and well done, by men who have passed through the +symbolic or suggestive stage of design, and have enabled themselves to +comply, by truth of representation, with the strictest or most eager +demands of accurate science, and of disciplined passion. I shall +therefore direct your observation, during the greater part of the time +you may spare to me, to what is indisputably best, both in painting and +sculpture; trusting that you will afterwards recognise the nascent and +partial skill of former days both with greater interest and greater +respect, when you know the full difficulty of what it attempted, and the +complete range of what it foretold. + + +21. And with this view, I shall at once endeavour to do what has for +many years been in my thoughts, and now, with the advice and assistance +of the curators of the University Galleries, I do not doubt may be +accomplished here in Oxford, just where it will be preeminently +useful--namely, to arrange an educational series of examples of +excellent art, standards to which you may at once refer on any +questionable point, and by the study of which you may gradually attain +an instinctive sense of right, which will afterwards be liable to no +serious error. Such a collection may be formed, both more perfectly, and +more easily, than would commonly be supposed. For the real utility of +the series will depend on its restricted extent,--on the severe +exclusion of all second-rate, superfluous, or even attractively varied +examples,--and On the confining the students' attention to a few types +of what is insuperably good. More progress in power of judgment may be +made in a limited time by the examination of one work, than by the +review of many; and a certain degree of vitality is given to the +impressiveness of every characteristic, by its being exhibited in clear +contrast, and without repetition. + +The greater number of the examples I shall choose will be only +engravings or photographs: they shall be arranged so as to be easily +accessible, and I will prepare a catalogue, pointing out my purpose in +the selection of each. But in process of time, I have good hope that +assistance will be given me by the English public in making the series +here no less splendid than serviceable; and in placing minor +collections, arranged on a similar principle, at the command also of the +students in our public schools. + + +22. In the second place, I shall endeavour to prevail upon all the +younger members of the University who wish to attend the art lectures, +to give at least so much time to manual practice as may enable them to +understand the nature and difficulty of executive skill. The time so +spent will not be lost, even as regards their other studies at the +University, for I will prepare the practical exercises in a double +series, one illustrative of history, the other of natural science. And +whether you are drawing a piece of Greek armour, or a hawk's beak, or a +lion's paw, you will find that the mere necessity of using the hand +compels attention to circumstances which would otherwise have escaped +notice, and fastens them in the memory without farther effort. But were +it even otherwise, and this practical training did really involve some +sacrifice of your time, I do not fear but that it will be justified to +you by its felt results: and I think that general public feeling is also +tending to the admission that accomplished education must include, not +only full command of expression by language, but command of true musical +sound by the voice, and of true form by the hand. + + +23. While I myself hold this professorship, I shall direct you in these +exercises very definitely to natural history, and to landscape; not only +because in these two branches I am probably able to show you truths +which might be despised by my successors: but because I think the vital +and joyful study of natural history quite the principal element +requiring introduction, not only into University, but into national, +education, from highest to lowest; and I even will risk incurring your +ridicule by confessing one of my fondest dreams, that I may succeed in +making some of you English youths like better to look at a bird than to +shoot it; and even desire to make wild creatures tame, instead of tame +creatures wild. And for the study of landscape, it is, I think, now +calculated to be of use in deeper, if not more important modes, than +that of natural science, for reasons which I will ask you to let me +state at some length. + + +24. Observe first;--no race of men which is entirely bred in wild +country, far from cities, ever enjoys landscape. They may enjoy the +beauty of animals, but scarcely even that: a true peasant cannot see the +beauty of cattle; but only qualities expressive of their +serviceableness. I waive discussion of this to-day; permit my assertion +of it, under my confident guarantee of future proof. Landscape can only +be enjoyed by cultivated persons; and it is only by music, literature, +and painting, that cultivation can be given. Also, the faculties which +are thus received are hereditary; so that the child of an educated race +has an innate instinct for beauty, derived from arts practised hundreds +of years before its birth. Now farther note this, one of the loveliest +things in human nature. In the children of noble races, trained by +surrounding art, and at the same time in the practice of great deeds, +there is an intense delight in the landscape of their country as +_memorial_; a sense not taught to them, nor teachable to any others; +but, in them, innate; and the seal and reward of persistence in great +national life;--the obedience and the peace of ages having extended +gradually the glory of the revered ancestors also to the ancestral +land; until the Motherhood of the dust, the mystery of the Demeter from +whose bosom we came, and to whose bosom we return, surrounds and +inspires, everywhere, the local awe of field and fountain; the +sacredness of landmark that none may remove, and of wave that none may +pollute; while records of proud days, and of dear persons, make every +rock monumental with ghostly inscription, and every path lovely with +noble desolateness. + + +25. Now, however checked by lightness of temperament, the instinctive +love of landscape in us has this deep root, which, in your minds, I will +pray you to disencumber from whatever may oppress or mortify it, and to +strive to feel with all the strength of your youth that a nation is only +worthy of the soil and the scenes that it has inherited, when, by all +its acts and arts, it is making them more lovely for its children. + +And now, I trust, you will feel that it is not in mere yielding to my +own fancies that I have chosen, for the first three subjects in your +educational series, landscape scenes;--two in England, and one in +France,--the association of these being not without purpose:--and for +the fourth Albert Duerer's dream of the Spirit of Labour. And of the +landscape subjects, I must tell you this much. The first is an engraving +only; the original drawing by Turner was destroyed by fire twenty years +ago. For which loss I wish you to be sorry, and to remember, in +connection with this first example, that whatever remains to us of +possession in the arts is, compared to what we might have had if we had +cared for them, just what that engraving is to the lost drawing. You +will find also that its subject has meaning in it which will not be +harmful to you. The second example is a real drawing by Turner, in the +same series, and very nearly of the same place; the two scenes are +within a quarter of a mile of each other. It will show you the character +of the work that was destroyed. It will show you, in process of time, +much more; but chiefly, and this is my main reason for choosing both, it +will be a permanent expression to you of what English landscape was +once;--and must, if we are to remain a nation, be again. + +I think it farther right to tell you, for otherwise you might hardly pay +regard enough to work apparently so simple, that by a chance which is +not altogether displeasing to me, this drawing, which it has become, for +these reasons, necessary for me to give you, is--not indeed the best I +have, (I have several as good, though none better)--but, of all I have, +the one I had least mind to part with. + +The third example is also a Turner drawing--a scene on the Loire--never +engraved. It is an introduction to the series of the Loire, which you +have already; it has in its present place a due concurrence with the +expressional purpose of its companions; and though small, it is very +precious, being a faultless, and, I believe, unsurpassable example of +water-colour painting. + +Chiefly, however, remember the object of these three first examples is +to give you an index to your truest feelings about European, and +especially about your native landscape, as it is pensive and historical; +and so far as you yourselves make any effort at its representation, to +give you a motive for fidelity in handwork more animating than any +connected with mere success in the art itself. + + +26. With respect to actual methods of practice, I will not incur the +responsibility of determining them for you. We will take Lionardo's +treatise on painting for our first text-book; and I think you need not +fear being misled by me if I ask you to do only what Lionardo bids, or +what will be necessary to enable you to do his bidding. But you need not +possess the book, nor read it through. I will translate the pieces to +the authority of which I shall appeal; and, in process of time, by +analysis of this fragmentary treatise, show you some characters not +usually understood of the simplicity as well as subtlety common to most +great workmen of that age. Afterwards we will collect the instructions +of other undisputed masters, till we have obtained a code of laws +clearly resting on the consent of antiquity. + +While, however, I thus in some measure limit for the present the methods +of your practice, I shall endeavour to make the courses of my University +lectures as wide in their range as my knowledge will permit. The range +so conceded will be narrow enough; but I believe that my proper function +is not to acquaint you with the general history, but with the essential +principles of art; and with its history only when it has been both great +and good, or where some special excellence of it requires examination of +the causes to which it must be ascribed. + + +27. But if either our work, or our enquiries, are to be indeed +successful in their own field, they must be connected with others of a +sterner character. Now listen to me, if I have in these past details +lost or burdened your attention; for this is what I have chiefly to say +to you. The art of any country is _the exponent of its social and +political virtues_. I will show you that it is so in some detail, in the +second of my subsequent course of lectures; meantime accept this as one +of the things, and the most important of all things, I can positively +declare to you. The art, or general productive and formative energy, of +any country, is an exact exponent of its ethical life. You can have +noble art only from noble persons, associated under laws fitted to their +time and circumstances. And the best skill that any teacher of art could +spend here in your help, would not end in enabling you even so much as +rightly to draw the water-lilies in the Cherwell (and though it did, the +work when done would not be worth the lilies themselves) unless both he +and you were seeking, as I trust we shall together seek, in the laws +which regulate the finest industries, the clue to the laws which +regulate _all_ industries, and in better obedience to which we shall +actually have henceforward to live: not merely in compliance with our +own sense of what is right, but under the weight of quite literal +necessity. For the trades by which the British people has believed it to +be the highest of destinies to maintain itself, cannot now long remain +undisputed in its hands; its unemployed poor are daily becoming more +violently criminal; and a certain distress in the middle classes, +arising, _partly from their vanity in living always up to their incomes, +and partly from their folly in imagining that they can subsist in +idleness upon usury_, will at last compel the sons and daughters of +English families to acquaint themselves with the principles of +providential economy; and to learn that food can only be got out of the +ground, and competence only secured by frugality; and that although it +is not possible for all to be occupied in the highest arts, nor for any, +guiltlessly, to pass their days in a succession of pleasures, the most +perfect mental culture possible to men is founded on their useful +energies, and their best arts and brightest happiness are consistent, +and consistent only, with their virtue. + + +28. This, I repeat, gentlemen, will soon become manifest to those among +us, and there are yet many, who are honest-hearted. And the future fate +of England depends upon the position they then take, and on their +courage in maintaining it. + +There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race; a +race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. We +have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an +inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years of +noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice, so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years we +have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity which +has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be +no king in it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his +own eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon +and Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of +light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions;--faithful servant of time-tried principles, under +temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and amidst the +cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange +valour of goodwill towards men? + + +29. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." Yes, but of which king? There are the two +oriflammes; which shall we plant on the farthest islands,--the one that +floats in heavenly fire, or that hangs heavy with foul tissue of +terrestrial gold? There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to +us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But +it must be--it _is_ with us, now, "Reign or Die." And if it shall be +said of this country, "Fece per viltate, il gran rifiuto;" that refusal +of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest +and most untimely. + +And this is what she must either do, or perish: she must found colonies +as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and +worthiest men;--seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set +her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief +virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is +to be to advance the power of England by land and sea: and that, though +they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more to consider +themselves therefore disfranchised from their native land, than the +sailors of her fleets do, because they float on distant waves. So that +literally, these colonies must be fastened fleets; and every man of them +must be under authority of captains and officers, whose better command +is to be over fields and streets instead of ships of the line; and +England, in these her motionless navies (or, in the true and mightiest +sense, motionless _churches_, ruled by pilots on the Galilean lake of +all the world), is to "expect every man to do his duty;" recognising +that duty is indeed possible no less in peace than war; and that if we +can get men, for little pay, to cast themselves against cannon-mouths +for love of England, we may find men also who will plough and sow for +her, who will behave kindly and righteously for her, who will bring up +their children to love her, and who will gladden themselves in the +brightness of her glory, more than in all the light of tropic skies. + +But that they may be able to do this, she must make her own majesty +stainless; she must give them thoughts of their home of which they can +be proud. The England who is to be mistress of half the earth, cannot +remain herself a heap of cinders, trampled by contending and miserable +crowds; she must yet again become the England she was once, and in all +beautiful ways,--more: so happy, so secluded, and so pure, that in her +sky--polluted by no unholy clouds--she may be able to spell rightly of +every star that heaven doth show; and in her fields, ordered and wide +and fair, of every herb that sips the dew; and under the green avenues +of her enchanted garden, a sacred Circe, true Daughter of the Sun, she +must guide the human arts, and gather the divine knowledge, of distant +nations, transformed from savageness to manhood, and redeemed from +despairing into peace. + + +30. You think that an impossible ideal. Be it so; refuse to accept it if +you will; but see that you form your own in its stead. All that I ask of +you is to have a fixed purpose of some kind for your country and +yourselves; no matter how restricted, so that it be fixed and unselfish. +I know what stout hearts are in you, to answer acknowledged need: but it +is the fatallest form of error in English youths to hide their hardihood +till it fades for lack of sunshine, and to act in disdain of purpose, +till all purpose is vain. It is not by deliberate, but by careless +selfishness; not by compromise with evil, but by dull following of good, +that the weight of national evil increases upon us daily. Break through +at least this pretence of existence; determine what you will be, and +what you would win. You will not decide wrongly if you will resolve to +decide at all. Were even the choice between lawless pleasure and loyal +suffering, you would not, I believe, choose basely. But your trial is +not so sharp. It is between drifting in confused wreck among the +castaways of Fortune, who condemns to assured ruin those who know not +either how to resist her, or obey; between this, I say, and the taking +of your appointed part in the heroism of Rest; the resolving to share in +the victory which is to the weak rather than the strong; and the binding +yourselves by that law, which, thought on through lingering night and +labouring day, makes a man's life to be as a tree planted by the +water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;-- + + "ET FOLIUM EJUS NON DEFLUET, + ET OMNIA, QUAECUNQUE FACIET, PROSPERABUNTUR." + + + + +LECTURE II + +THE RELATION OF ART TO RELIGION + + +31. It was stated, and I trust partly with your acceptance, in my +opening lecture, that the study on which we are about to enter cannot be +rightly undertaken except in furtherance of the grave purposes of life +with respect to which the rest of the scheme of your education here is +designed. But you can scarcely have at once felt all that I intended in +saying so;--you cannot but be still partly under the impression that the +so-called fine arts are merely modes of graceful recreation, and a new +resource for your times of rest. Let me ask you, forthwith, so far as +you can trust me, to change your thoughts in this matter. All the great +arts have for their object either the support or exaltation of human +life,--usually both; and their dignity, and ultimately their very +existence, depend on their being "+meta logou alethous+," that is +to say, apprehending, with right reason, the nature of the materials +they work with, of the things they relate or represent, and of the +faculties to which they are addressed. And farther, they form one united +system from which it is impossible to remove any part without harm to +the rest. They are founded first in mastery, by strength of _arm_, of +the earth and sea, in agriculture and seamanship; then their inventive +power begins, with the clay in the hand of the potter, whose art is the +humblest but truest type of the forming of the human body and spirit; +and in the carpenter's work, which probably was the early employment of +the Founder of our religion. And until men have perfectly learned the +laws of art in clay and wood, they can consummately know no others. Nor +is it without the strange significance which you will find in what at +first seems chance, in all noble histories, as soon as you can read +them rightly,--that the statue of Athena Polias was of olive-wood, and +that the Greek temple and Gothic spire are both merely the permanent +representations of useful wooden structures. On these two first arts +follow building in stone,--sculpture,--metal work,--and painting; every +art being properly called "fine" which demands the exercise of the full +faculties of heart and intellect. For though the fine arts are not +necessarily imitative or representative, for their essence is in being ++peri genesin+--occupied in the actual _production_ of beautiful +form or colour,--still, the highest of them are appointed also to relate +to us the utmost ascertainable truth respecting visible things and moral +feelings: and this pursuit of _fact_ is the vital _element_ of the art +power;--that in which alone it can develop itself to its utmost. And I +will anticipate by an assertion which you will at present think too +bold, but which I am willing that you should think so, in order that you +may well remember it,--THE HIGHEST THING THAT ART CAN DO IS TO SET +BEFORE YOU THE TRUE IMAGE OF THE PRESENCE OF A NOBLE HUMAN BEING. IT HAS +NEVER DONE MORE THAN THIS, AND IT OUGHT NOT TO DO LESS. + + +32. The great arts--forming thus one perfect scheme of human skill, of +which it is not right to call one division more honourable, though it +may be more subtle, than another--have had, and can have, but three +principal directions of purpose:--first, that of enforcing the religion +of men; secondly, that of perfecting their ethical state; thirdly, that +of doing them material service. + + +33. I do not doubt but that you are surprised at my saying the arts can +in their second function only be directed to the perfecting of ethical +state, it being our usual impression that they are often destructive of +morality. But it is impossible to direct fine art to an immoral end, +except by giving it characters unconnected with its fineness, or by +addressing it to persons who cannot perceive it to be fine. Whosoever +recognises it is exalted by it. On the other hand, it has been commonly +thought that art was a most fitting means for the enforcement of +religious doctrines and emotions; whereas there is, as I must presently +try to show you, room for grave doubt whether it has not in this +function hitherto done evil rather than good. + + +34. In this and the two next following lectures, I shall endeavour +therefore to show you the grave relations of human art, in these three +functions, to human life. I can do this but roughly, as you may well +suppose--since each of these subjects would require for its right +treatment years instead of hours. Only, remember, _I_ have already given +years, not a few, to each of them; and what I try to tell _you_ now will +be only so much as is absolutely necessary to set our work on a clear +foundation. You may not, at present, see the necessity for _any_ +foundation, and may think that I ought to put pencil and paper in your +hands at once. On that point I must simply answer, "Trust me a little +while," asking you however also to remember, that--irrespectively of any +consideration of last or first--my true function here is not that of +your master in painting, or sculpture, or pottery; but to show you what +it is that makes any of these arts _fine_, or the contrary of _fine_: +essentially _good_, or essentially _base_. You need not fear my not +being practical enough for you; all the industry you choose to give me, +I will take; but far the better part of what you may gain by such +industry would be lost, if I did not first lead you to see what every +form of art-industry intends, and why some of it is justly called right, +and some wrong. + + +35. It would be well if you were to look over, with respect to this +matter, the end of the second, and what interests you of the third, book +of Plato's Republic; noting therein these two principal things, of which +I have to speak in this and my next lecture: first, the power which +Plato so frankly, and quite justly, attributes to art, of _falsifying_ +our conceptions of Deity: which power he by fatal error partly implies +may be used wisely for good, and that the feigning is only wrong when it +is of evil, "+ean tis me kalos pseudetai+;" and you may trace +through all that follows the beginning of the change of Greek ideal art +into a beautiful expediency, instead of what it was in the days of +Pindar, the statement of what "could not be otherwise than so." But, in +the second place, you will find in those books of the Polity, stated +with far greater accuracy of expression than our English language +admits, the essential relations of art to morality; the sum of these +being given in one lovely sentence, which, considering that we have +to-day grace done us by fair companionship,[3] you will pardon me for +translating. "_Must it be then only with our poets that we insist they +shall either create for us the image of a noble morality, or among us +create none? or shall we not also keep guard over all other workers for +the people, and forbid them to make what is ill-customed, and +unrestrained, and ungentle, and without order or shape, either in +likeness of living things, or in buildings, or in any other thing +whatsoever that is made for the people? and shall we not rather seek for +workers who_ CAN TRACK THE INNER NATURE OF ALL THAT MAY BE SWEETLY +SCHEMED; _so that the young men, as living in a wholesome place, may be +profited by everything that, in work fairly wrought, may touch them +through hearing or sight--as if it were a breeze bringing health to them +from places strong for life?_" + +[Footnote 3: There were, in fact, a great many more girls than +University men at the lectures.] + + +36. And now--but one word, before we enter on our task, as to the way +you must understand what I may endeavour to tell you. + +Let me beg you--now and always--not to think that I mean more than I +say. In all probability, I mean just what I say, and only that. At all +events I do fully mean _that_; and if there is anything reserved in my +mind, it will be probably different from what you would guess. You are +perfectly welcome to know all that I think, as soon as I have put before +you all my grounds for thinking it; but by the time I have done so, you +will be able to form an opinion of your own; and mine will then be of no +consequence to you. + + +37. I use then to-day, as I shall in future use, the word "Religion" as +signifying the feelings of love, reverence, or dread with which the +human mind is affected by its conceptions of spiritual being; and you +know well how necessary it is, both to the rightness of our own life, +and to the understanding the lives of others, that we should always keep +clearly distinguished our ideas of Religion, as thus defined, and of +Morality, as the law of rightness in human conduct. For there are many +religions, but there is only one morality. There are moral and immoral +religions, which differ as much in precept as in emotion; but there is +only one morality, WHICH HAS BEEN, IS, AND MUST BE FOR EVER, AN INSTINCT +IN THE HEARTS OF ALL CIVILISED MEN, AS CERTAIN AND UNALTERABLE AS THEIR +OUTWARD BODILY FORM, AND WHICH RECEIVES FROM RELIGION NEITHER LAW, NOR +PLACE; BUT ONLY HOPE, AND FELICITY. + + +38. The pure forms or states of religion hitherto known, are those in +which a healthy humanity, finding in itself many foibles and sins, has +imagined, or been made conscious of, the existence of higher spiritual +personality, liable to no such fault or stain; and has been assisted in +effort, and consoled in pain, by reference to the will or sympathy of +such purer spirits, whether imagined or real. I am compelled to use +these painful latitudes of expression, because no analysis has hitherto +sufficed to distinguish accurately, in historical narrative, the +difference between impressions resulting from the imagination of the +worshipper, and those made, if any, by the actually local and temporary +presence of another spirit. For instance, take the vision, which of all +others has been since made most frequently the subject of physical +representation--the appearance to Ezekiel and St. John of the four +living creatures, which throughout Christendom have been used to +symbolise the Evangelists.[4] Supposing such interpretation just, one of +those figures was either the mere symbol to St. John of himself, or it +was the power which inspired him, manifesting itself in an independent +form. Which of these it was, or whether neither of these, but a vision +of other powers, or a dream, of which neither the prophet himself knew, +nor can any other person yet know, the interpretation,--I suppose no +modestly-minded and accurate thinker would now take upon himself to +decide. Nor is it therefore anywise necessary for you to decide on that, +or any other such question; but it is necessary that you should be bold +enough to look every opposing question steadily in its face; and modest +enough, having done so, to know when it is too hard for you. But above +all things, see that you be modest in your thoughts, for of this one +thing we may be absolutely sure, that all our thoughts are but degrees +of darkness. And in these days you have to guard against the fatallest +darkness of the two opposite Prides;--the Pride of Faith, which imagines +that the nature of the Deity can be defined by its convictions; and the +Pride of Science, which imagines that the energy of Deity can be +explained by its analysis. + +[Footnote 4: Only the Gospels, "IV Evangelia," according to St. Jerome.] + + +39. Of these, the first, the Pride of Faith, is now, as it has been +always, the most deadly, because the most complacent and +subtle;--because it invests every evil passion of our nature with the +aspect of an angel of light, and enables the self-love, which might +otherwise have been put to wholesome shame, and the cruel carelessness +of the ruin of our fellow-men, which might otherwise have been warmed +into human love, or at least checked by human intelligence, to congeal +themselves into the mortal intellectual disease of imagining that +myriads of the inhabitants of the world for four thousand years have +been left to wander and perish, many of them everlastingly, in order +that, in fulness of time, divine truth might be preached sufficiently to +ourselves: with this farther ineffable mischief for direct result, that +multitudes of kindly-disposed, gentle, and submissive persons, who might +else by their true patience have alloyed the hardness of the common +crowd, and by their activity for good balanced its misdoing, are +withdrawn from all such true services of man, that they may pass the +best part of their lives in what they are told is the service of God; +_namely, desiring what_ _they cannot obtain, lamenting what they cannot +avoid, and reflecting on what they cannot understand_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: This concentrated definition of monastic life is of course +to be understood only of its more enthusiastic forms.] + + +40. This, I repeat, is the deadliest, but for you, under existing +circumstances, it is becoming daily, almost hourly, the least probable +form of Pride. That which you have chiefly to guard against consists in +the overvaluing of minute though correct discovery; the groundless +denial of all that seems to you to have been groundlessly affirmed; and +the interesting yourselves too curiously in the progress of some +scientific minds, which in their judgment of the universe can be +compared to nothing so accurately as to the woodworms in the panel of a +picture by some great painter, if we may conceive them as tasting with +discrimination of the wood, and with repugnance of the colour, and +declaring that even this unlooked-for and undesirable combination is a +normal result of the action of molecular Forces. + + +41. Now, I must very earnestly warn you, in the beginning of my work +with you here, against allowing either of these forms of egotism to +interfere with your judgment or practice of art. On the one hand, you +must not allow the expression of your own favourite religious feelings +by any particular form of art to modify your judgment of its absolute +merit; nor allow the art itself to become an illegitimate means of +deepening and confirming your convictions, by realising to your eyes +what you dimly conceive with the brain; as if the greater clearness of +the image were a stronger proof of its truth. On the other hand, you +must not allow your scientific habit of trusting nothing but what you +have ascertained, to prevent you from appreciating, or at least +endeavouring to qualify yourselves to appreciate, the work of the +highest faculty of the human mind,--its imagination,--when it is toiling +in the presence of things that cannot be dealt with by any other power. + + +42. These are both vital conditions of your healthy progress. On the one +hand, observe that you do not wilfully use the realistic power of art +to convince yourselves of historical or theological statements which you +cannot otherwise prove; and which you wish to prove:--on the other hand, +that you do not check your imagination and conscience while seizing the +truths of which they alone are cognizant, because you value too highly +the scientific interest which attaches to the investigation of second +causes. + +For instance, it may be quite possible to show the conditions in water +and electricity which necessarily produce the craggy outline, the +apparently self-contained silvery light, and the sulphurous blue shadow +of a thunder-cloud, and which separate these from the depth of the +golden peace in the dawn of a summer morning. Similarly, it may be +possible to show the necessities of structure which groove the fangs and +depress the brow of the asp, and which distinguish the character of its +head from that of the face of a young girl. But it is the function of +the rightly-trained imagination to recognise, in these, and such other +relative aspects, the unity of teaching which impresses, alike on our +senses and our conscience, the eternal difference between good and evil: +and the rule, over the clouds of heaven and over the creatures in the +earth, of the same Spirit which teaches to our own hearts the bitterness +of death, and strength of love. + + +43. Now, therefore, approaching our subject in this balanced temper, +which will neither resolve to see only what it would desire, nor expect +to see only what it can explain, we shall find our enquiry into the +relation of Art to Religion is distinctly threefold: first, we have to +ask how far art may have been literally directed by spiritual powers; +secondly, how far, if not inspired, it may have been exalted by them; +lastly, how far, in any of its agencies, it has advanced the cause of +the creeds it has been used to recommend. + + +44. First: What ground have we for thinking that art has ever been +inspired as a message or revelation? What internal evidence is there in +the work of great artists of their having been under the authoritative +guidance of supernatural powers? + +It is true that the answer to so mysterious a question cannot rest alone +upon internal evidence; but it is well that you should know what might, +from that evidence alone, be concluded. And the more impartially you +examine the phenomena of imagination, the more firmly you will be led to +conclude that they are the result of the influence of the common and +vital, but not, therefore, less Divine, spirit, of which some portion is +given to all living creatures in such manner as may be adapted to their +rank in creation; and that everything which men rightly accomplish is +indeed done by Divine help, but under a consistent law which is never +departed from. + +The strength of this spiritual life within us may be increased or +lessened by our own conduct; it varies from time to time, as physical +strength varies; it is summoned on different occasions by our will, and +dejected by our distress, or our sin; but it is always _equally human_, +and _equally Divine_. We are men, and not mere animals, because a +special form of it is with us always; we are nobler and baser men, as it +is with us more or less; but it is never given to us in any degree which +can make us more than men. + + +45. Observe:--I give you this general statement doubtfully, and only as +that towards which an impartial reasoner will, I think, be inclined by +existing data. But I shall be able to show you, without any doubt, in +the course of our studies, that the achievements of art which have been +usually looked upon as the results of peculiar inspiration have been +arrived at only through long courses of wisely directed labour, and +under the influence of feelings which are common to all humanity. + +But of these feelings and powers which in different degrees are common +to humanity, you are to note that there are three principal divisions: +first, the instincts of construction or melody, which we share with +lower animals, and which are in us as native as the instinct of the bee +or nightingale; secondly, the faculty of vision, or of dreaming, whether +in sleep or in conscious trance, or by voluntarily exerted fancy; and +lastly, the power of rational inference and collection, of both the laws +and forms of beauty. + + +46. Now the faculty of vision, being closely associated with the +innermost spiritual nature, is the one which has by most reasoners been +held for the peculiar channel of Divine teaching: and it is a fact that +great part of purely didactic art has been the record, whether in +language, or by linear representation, of actual vision involuntarily +received at the moment, though cast on a mental retina blanched +by the past course of faithful life. But it is also true that +these visions, where most distinctly received, are always--I speak +deliberately--_always_, the _sign of some mental limitation or +derangement_; and that the persons who most clearly recognise their +value, exaggeratedly estimate it, choosing what they find to be useful, +and calling that "inspired," and disregarding what they perceive to be +useless, though presented to the visionary by an equal authority. + + +47. Thus it is probable that no work of art has been more widely +didactic than Albert Duerer's engraving, known as the "Knight and +Death."[6] But that is only one of a series of works representing +similarly vivid dreams, of which some are uninteresting, except for the +manner of their representation, as the "St. Hubert," and others are +unintelligible; some, frightful, and wholly unprofitable; so that we +find the visionary faculty in that great painter, when accurately +examined, to be a morbid influence, abasing his skill more frequently +than encouraging it, and sacrificing the greater part of his energies +upon vain subjects, two only being produced, in the course of a long +life, which are of high didactic value, and both of these capable only +of giving sad courage.[7] Whatever the value of these two, it bears more +the aspect of a treasure obtained at great cost of suffering, than of a +directly granted gift from heaven. + +[Footnote 6: Standard Series, No. 9.] + +[Footnote 7: The meaning of the "Knight and Death," even in this +respect, has lately been questioned on good grounds.] + + +48. On the contrary, not only the highest, but the most consistent +results have been attained in art by men in whom the faculty of vision, +however strong, was subordinate to that of deliberative design, and +tranquillised by a measured, continual, not feverish, but affectionate, +observance of the quite unvisionary facts of the surrounding world. + +And so far as we can trace the connection of their powers with the moral +character of their lives, we shall find that the best art is the work of +good, but of not distinctively religious men, who, at least, are +conscious of no inspiration, and often so unconscious of their +superiority to others, that one of the greatest of them, Reynolds, +deceived by his modesty, has asserted that "all things are possible to +well-directed labour." + + +49. The second question, namely, how far art, if not inspired, has yet +been ennobled by religion, I shall not touch upon to-day; for it both +requires technical criticism, and would divert you too long from the +main question of all,--How far religion has been helped by art? + +You will find that the operation of formative art--(I will not speak +to-day of music)--the operation of formative art on religious creed is +essentially twofold; the realisation, to the eyes, of imagined spiritual +persons; and the limitation of their imagined presence to certain +places. We will examine these two functions of it successively. + + +50. And first, consider accurately what the agency of art is, in +realising, to the sight, our conceptions of spiritual persons. + +For instance. Assume that we believe that the Madonna is always present +to hear and answer our prayers. Assume also that this is true. I think +that persons in a perfectly honest, faithful, and humble temper, would +in that case desire only to feel so much of the Divine presence as the +spiritual Power herself chose to make felt; and, above all things, not +to think they saw, or knew, anything except what might be truly +perceived or known. + +But a mind imperfectly faithful, and impatient in its distress, or +craving in its dulness for a more distinct and convincing sense of the +Divinity, would endeavour to complete, or perhaps we should rather say +to contract, its conception, into the definite figure of a woman wearing +a blue or crimson dress, and having fair features, dark eyes, and +gracefully arranged hair. + +Suppose, after forming such a conception, that we have the power to +realise and preserve it, this image of a beautiful figure with a +pleasant expression cannot but have the tendency of afterwards leading +us to think of the Virgin as present, when she is not actually present; +or as pleased with us, when she is not actually pleased; or if we +resolutely prevent ourselves from such imagination, nevertheless the +existence of the image beside us will often turn our thoughts towards +subjects of religion, when otherwise they would have been differently +occupied; and, in the midst of other occupations, will familiarise more +or less, and even mechanically associate with common or faultful states +of mind, the appearance of the supposed Divine person. + + +51. There are thus two distinct operations upon our mind: first, the art +makes us believe what we would not otherwise have believed; and +secondly, it makes us think of subjects we should not otherwise have +thought of, intruding them amidst our ordinary thoughts in a confusing +and familiar manner. We cannot with any certainty affirm the advantage +or the harm of such accidental pieties, for their effect will be very +different on different characters: but, without any question, the art, +which makes us believe what we would not have otherwise believed, is +misapplied, and in most instances very dangerously so. Our duty is to +believe in the existence of Divine, or any other, persons, only upon +rational proofs of their existence; and not because we have seen +pictures of them.[8] + +[Footnote 8: I have expunged a sentence insisting farther on this point, +having come to reverence more, as I grew older, every simple means of +stimulating all religious belief and affection. It is the lower and +realistic world which is fullest of false beliefs and vain loves.] + + +52. But now observe, it is here necessary to draw a distinction, so +subtle that in dealing with facts it is continually impossible to mark +it with precision, yet so vital, that not only your understanding of the +power of art, but the working of your minds in matters of primal moment +to you, depends on the effort you make to affirm this distinction +strongly. The art which realises a creature of the imagination is only +mischievous when that realisation is conceived to imply, or does +practically induce a belief in, the real existence of the imagined +personage, contrary to, or unjustified by the other evidence of its +existence. But if the art only represents the personage on the +understanding that its form is imaginary, then the effort at realisation +is healthful and beneficial. + +For instance, the Greek design of Apollo crossing the sea to Delphi, +which is one of the most interesting of Le Normant's series, so far as +it is only an expression, under the symbol of a human form, of what may +be rightly imagined respecting the solar power, is right and ennobling; +but so far as it conveyed to the Greek the idea of there being a real +Apollo, it was mischievous, whether there be, or be not, a real Apollo. +If there is no real Apollo, then the art was mischievous because it +deceived; but if there is a real Apollo, then it was still more +mischievous,[9] for it not only began the degradation of the image of +that true god into a decoration for niches, and a device for seals; but +prevented any true witness being borne to his existence. For if the +Greeks, instead of multiplying representations of what they imagined to +be the figure of the god, had given us accurate drawings of the heroes +and battles of Marathon and Salamis, and had simply told us in plain +Greek what evidence they had of the power of Apollo, either through his +oracles, his help or chastisement, or by immediate vision, they would +have served their religion more truly than by all the vase-paintings and +fine statues that ever were buried or adored. + + +53. Now in this particular instance, and in many other examples of fine +Greek art, the two conditions of thought, symbolic and realistic, are +mingled; and the art is helpful, as I will hereafter show you, in one +function, and in the other so deadly, that I think no degradation of +conception of Deity has ever been quite so base as that implied by the +designs of Greek vases in the period of decline, say about 250 B. C. + +[Footnote 9: I am again doubtful, here. The most important part of the +chapter is from Sec. 60 to end.] + +But though among the Greeks it is thus nearly always difficult to say +what is symbolic and what realistic, in the range of Christian art the +distinction is clear. In that, a vast division of imaginative work is +occupied in the symbolism of virtues, vices, or natural powers or +passions; and in the representation of personages who, though nominally +real, become in conception symbolic. In the greater part of this work +there is no intention of implying the existence of the represented +creature; Duerer's Melencolia and Giotto's Justice are accurately +characteristic examples. Now all such art is wholly good and useful when +it is the work of good men. + + +54. Again, there is another division of Christian work in which the +persons represented, though nominally real, are treated as +dramatis-personae of a poem, and so presented confessedly as subjects of +imagination. All this poetic art is also good when it is the work of +good men. + + +55. There remains only therefore to be considered, as truly religious, +the work which definitely implies and modifies the conception of the +existence of a real person. There is hardly any great art which entirely +belongs to this class; but Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola is as +accurate a type of it as I can give you; Holbein's Madonna at Dresden, +the Madonna di San Sisto, and the Madonna of Titian's Assumption, all +belong mainly to this class, but are removed somewhat from it (as, I +repeat, nearly all great art is) into the poetical one. It is only the +bloody crucifixes and gilded virgins and other such lower forms of +imagery (by which, to the honour of the English Church, it has been +truly claimed for her, that "she has never appealed to the madness or +dulness of her people,") which belong to the realistic class in strict +limitation, and which properly constitute the type of it. + +There is indeed an important school of sculpture in Spain, directed to +the same objects, but not demanding at present any special attention. +And finally, there is the vigorous and most interesting realistic school +of our own, in modern times, mainly known to the public by Holman Hunt's +picture of the Light of the World, though, I believe, deriving its first +origin from the genius of the painter to whom you owe also the revival +of interest, first here in Oxford, and then universally, in the cycle of +early English legend,--Dante Rossetti. + + +56. The effect of this realistic art on the religious mind of Europe +varies in scope more than any other art power; for in its higher +branches it touches the most sincere religious minds, affecting an +earnest class of persons who cannot be reached by merely poetical +design; while, in its lowest, it addresses itself not only to the most +vulgar desires for religious excitement, but to the mere thirst for +sensation of horror which characterises the uneducated orders of +partially civilised countries; nor merely to the thirst for horror, but +to the strange love of death, as such, which has sometimes in Catholic +countries showed itself peculiarly by the endeavour to paint the images +in the chapels of the Sepulchre so as to look deceptively like corpses. +The same morbid instinct has also affected the minds of many among the +more imaginative and powerful artists with a feverish gloom which +distorts their finest work; and lastly--and this is the worst of all its +effects--it has occupied the sensibility of Christian women, +universally, in lamenting the sufferings of Christ, instead of +preventing those of His people. + + +57. When any of you next go abroad, observe, and consider the meaning +of, the sculptures and paintings, which of every rank in art, and in +every chapel and cathedral, and by every mountain path, recall the +hours, and represent the agonies, of the Passion of Christ: and try to +form some estimate of the efforts that have been made by the four arts +of eloquence, music, painting, and sculpture, since the twelfth century, +to wring out of the hearts of women the last drops of pity that could be +excited for this merely physical agony: for the art nearly always dwells +on the physical wounds or exhaustion chiefly, and degrades, far more +than it animates, the conception of pain. + +Then try to conceive the quantity of time, and of excited and thrilling +emotion, which have been wasted by the tender and delicate women of +Christendom during these last six hundred years, in thus picturing to +themselves, under the influence of such imagery, the bodily pain, long +since passed, of One Person:--which, so far as they indeed conceived it +to be sustained by a Divine Nature, could not for that reason have been +less endurable than the agonies of any simple human death by torture: +and then try to estimate what might have been the better result, for the +righteousness and felicity of mankind, if these same women had been +taught the deep meaning of the last words that were ever spoken by their +Master to those who had ministered to Him of their substance: "Daughters +of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your +children." If they had but been taught to measure with their pitiful +thoughts the tortures of battle-fields--the slowly consuming plagues of +death in the starving children, and wasted age, of the innumerable +desolate those battles left;--nay, in our own life of peace, the agony +of unnurtured, untaught, unhelped creatures, awaking at the grave's edge +to know how they should have lived; and the worse pain of those whose +existence, not the ceasing of it, is death; those to whom the cradle was +a curse, and for whom the words they cannot hear, "ashes to ashes," are +all that they have ever received of benediction. These,--you who would +fain have wept at His feet, or stood by His cross,--these you have +always with you! Him, you have not always. + + +58. The wretched in death you have always with you. Yes, and the brave +and good in life you have always;--these also needing help, though you +supposed they had only to help others; these also claiming to be thought +for, and remembered. And you will find, if you look into history with +this clue, that one of quite the chief reasons for the continual misery +of mankind is that they are always divided in their worship between +angels or saints, who are out of their sight, and need no help, and +proud and evil-minded men, who are too definitely in their sight, and +ought not to have their help. And consider how the arts have thus +followed the worship of the crowd. You have paintings of saints and +angels, innumerable;--of petty courtiers, and contemptible or cruel +kings, innumerable. Few, how few you have, (but these, observe, almost +always by great painters) of the best men, or of their actions. But +think for yourselves,--I have no time now to enter upon the mighty +field, nor imagination enough to guide me beyond the threshold of +it,--think, what history might have been to us now;--nay, what a +different history that of all Europe might have become, if it had but +been the object both of the people to discern, and of their arts to +honour and bear record of, the great deeds of their worthiest men. And +if, instead of living, as they have always hitherto done, in a hellish +cloud of contention and revenge, lighted by fantastic dreams of cloudy +sanctities, they had sought to reward and punish justly, wherever reward +and punishment were due, but chiefly to reward; and at least rather to +bear testimony to the human acts which deserved God's anger or His +blessing, than only, in presumptuous imagination, to display the secrets +of Judgment, or the beatitudes of Eternity. + + +59. Such I conceive generally, though indeed with good arising out of +it, for every great evil brings some good in its backward eddies--such I +conceive to have been the deadly function of art in its ministry to +what, whether in heathen or Christian lands, and whether in the +pageantry of words, or colours, or fair forms, is truly, and in the deep +sense, to be called (idolatry)--the serving with the best of our hearts +and minds, some dear or sad fantasy which we have made for ourselves, +while we disobey the present call of the Master, who is not dead, and +who is not now fainting under His cross, but requiring us to take up +ours. + + +60. I pass to the second great function of religious art, the limitation +of the idea of Divine presence to particular localities. It is of course +impossible within my present limits to touch upon this power of art, as +employed on the temples of the gods of various religions; we will +examine that on future occasions. To-day, I want only to map out main +ideas, and I can do this best by speaking exclusively of this localising +influence as it affects our own faith. + +Observe first, that the localisation is almost entirely dependent upon +human art. You must at least take a stone and set it up for a pillar, if +you are to mark the place, so as to know it again, where a vision +appeared. A persecuted people, needing to conceal their places of +worship, may perform every religious ceremony first under one crag of +the hill-side, and then under another, without invalidating the +sacredness of the rites or sacraments thus administered. It is, +therefore, we all acknowledge, inessential, that a particular spot +should be surrounded with a ring of stones, or enclosed within walls of +a certain style of architecture, and so set apart as the only place +where such ceremonies may be properly performed; and it is thus less by +any direct appeal to experience or to reason, but in consequence of the +effect upon our senses produced by the architecture, that we receive the +first strong impressions of what we afterwards contend for as absolute +truth. I particularly wish you to notice how it is always by help of +human art that such a result is attained, because, remember always, I am +neither disputing nor asserting the truth of any theological +doctrine;--that is not my province;--I am only questioning the +expediency of enforcing that doctrine by the help of architecture. Put a +rough stone for an altar under the hawthorn on a village +green;--separate a portion of the green itself with an ordinary paling +from the rest;--then consecrate, with whatever form you choose, the +space of grass you have enclosed, and meet within the wooden fence as +often as you desire to pray or preach; yet you will not easily fasten an +impression in the minds of the villagers, that God inhabits the space of +grass inside the fence, and does not extend His presence to the common +beyond it: and that the daisies and violets on one side of the railing +are holy,--on the other, profane. But, instead of a wooden fence, build +a wall, pave the interior space; roof it over, so as to make it +comparatively dark;--and you may persuade the villagers with ease that +you have built a house which Deity inhabits, or that you have become, in +the old French phrase, a "logeur du Bon Dieu." + + +61. And farther, though I have no desire to introduce any question as to +the truth of what we thus architecturally teach, I would desire you most +strictly to determine what is intended to be taught. + +Do not think I underrate--I am among the last men living who would +underrate,--the importance of the sentiments connected with their church +to the population of a pastoral village. I admit, in its fullest extent, +the moral value of the scene, which is almost always one of perfect +purity and peace; and of the sense of supernatural love and protection, +which fills and surrounds the low aisles and homely porch. But the +question I desire earnestly to leave with you is, whether all the earth +ought not to be peaceful and pure, and the acknowledgment of the Divine +protection, as universal as its reality? That in a mysterious way the +presence of Deity is vouchsafed where it is sought, and withdrawn where +it is forgotten, must of course be granted as the first postulate in the +enquiry: but the point for our decision is just this, whether it ought +always to be sought in one place only, and forgotten in every other. + +It may be replied, that since it is impossible to consecrate the entire +space of the earth, it is better thus to secure a portion of it than +none: but surely, if so, we ought to make some effort to enlarge the +favoured ground, and even look forward to a time when in English +villages there may be a God's acre tenanted by the living, not the +dead; and when we shall rather look with aversion and fear to the +remnant of ground that is set apart as profane, than with reverence to a +narrow portion of it enclosed as holy. + + +62. But now, farther. Suppose it be admitted that by enclosing ground +with walls, and performing certain ceremonies there habitually, some +kind of sanctity is indeed secured within that space,--still the +question remains open whether it be advisable for religious purposes to +decorate the enclosure. For separation the mere walls would be enough. +What is the purpose of your decoration? + +Let us take an instance--the most noble with which I am acquainted, the +Cathedral of Chartres. You have there the most splendid coloured glass, +and the richest sculpture, and the grandest proportions of building, +united to produce a sensation of pleasure and awe. We profess that this +is to honour the Deity; or, in other words, that it is pleasing to Him +that we should delight our eyes with blue and golden colours, and +solemnise our spirits by the sight of large stones laid one on another, +and ingeniously carved. + + +63. I do not think it can be doubted that it _is_ pleasing to Him when +we do this; for He has Himself prepared for us, nearly every morning and +evening, windows painted with Divine art, in blue and gold and +vermilion: windows lighted from within by the lustre of that heaven +which we may assume, at least with more certainty than any consecrated +ground, to be one of His dwelling-places. Again, in every mountain side, +and cliff of rude sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of +greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and sculptured them +with floral ornament,--surely not less sacred because living? + + +64. Must it not then be only because we love our own work better than +His, that we respect the lucent glass, but not the lucent clouds; that +we weave embroidered robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the +gilded vaults we have beautifully ordained--while yet we have not +considered the heavens, the work of His fingers, nor the stars of the +strange vault which He has ordained? And do we dream that by carving +fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way of the rivers +among the rocks, and at whose reproof the pillars of the earth are +astonished, we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the hills +and streams by which He has appointed our dwelling-place;--for the +infection of their sweet air with poison;--for the burning up of their +tender grass and flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of +mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we laboured only +that, at least here in England, we might be able to give the lie to the +song, whether of the Cherubim above, or Church beneath--"Holy, holy, +Lord God of all creatures; Heaven--_and Earth_--are full of Thy glory"? + + +65. And how much more there is that I long to say to you; and how much, +I hope, that you would like to answer to me, or to question me of! But I +can say no more to-day. We are not, I trust, at the end of our talks or +thoughts together; but, if it were so, and I never spoke to you more, +this that I have said to you I should have been glad to have been +permitted to say; and this, farther, which is the sum of it,--That we +may have splendour of art again, and with that, we may truly praise and +honour our Maker, and with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all +that He has made: but only after we have striven with our whole hearts +first to sanctify the temple of the body and spirit of every child that +has no roof to cover its head from the cold, and no walls to guard its +soul from corruption, in this our English land. + +One word more. + +What I have suggested hitherto, respecting the relations of Art to +Religion, you must receive throughout as merely motive of thought; +though you must have well seen that my own convictions were established +finally on some of the points in question. But I must, in conclusion, +tell you something that I _know_;--which, if you truly labour, you will +one day know also; and which I trust some of you will believe, now. + +During the minutes in which you have been listening to me, I suppose +that almost at every other sentence those whose habit of mind has been +one of veneration for established forms and faiths, must have been in +dread that I was about to say, or in pang of regret at my having said, +what seemed to them an irreverent or reckless word touching vitally +important things. + +So far from this being the fact, it is just because the feelings that I +most desire to cultivate in your minds are those of reverence and +admiration, that I am so earnest to prevent you from being moved to +either by trivial or false semblances. _This_ is the thing which I +KNOW--and which, if you labour faithfully, you shall know also,--that in +Reverence is the chief joy and power of life;--Reverence, for what is +pure and bright in your own youth; for what is true and tried in the age +of others; for all that is gracious among the living,--great among the +dead,--and marvellous, in the Powers that cannot die. + + + + +LECTURE III + +THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS + + +66. You probably recollect that, in the beginning of my last lecture, it +was stated that fine art had, and could have, but three functions: the +enforcing of the religious sentiments of men, the perfecting their +ethical state, and the doing them material service. We have to-day to +examine, the mode of its action in the second power--that of perfecting +the morality, or ethical state, of men. + +Perfecting, observe--not producing. + +You must have the right moral state first, or you cannot have the art. +But when the art is once obtained, its reflected action enhances and +completes the moral state out of which it arose, and, above all, +communicates the exultation to other minds which are already morally +capable of the like. + + +67. For instance, take the art of singing, and the simplest perfect +master of it (up to the limits of his nature) whom you can find;--a +skylark. From him you may learn what it is to "sing for joy." You must +get the moral state first, the pure gladness, then give it finished +expression; and it is perfected in itself, and made communicable to +other creatures capable of such joy. But it is incommunicable to those +who are not prepared to receive it. + +Now, all right human song is, similarly, the finished expression, by +art, of the joy or grief of noble persons, for right causes. And +accurately in proportion to the rightness of the cause, and purity of +the emotion, is the possibility of the fine art. A maiden may sing of +her lost love, but a miser cannot sing of his lost money. And with +absolute precision, from highest to lowest, _the fineness of the +possible art is an index of the moral purity and majesty of the emotion +it expresses_. You may test it practically at any instant. Question with +yourselves respecting any feeling that has taken strong possession of +your mind, "Could this be sung by a master, and sung nobly, with a true +melody and art?" Then it is a right feeling. Could it not be sung at +all, or only sung ludicrously? It is a base one. And that is so in all +the arts; so that with mathematical precision, subject to no error or +exception, the art of a nation, so far as it exists, is an exponent of +its ethical state. + + +68. An exponent, observe, and exalting influence; but not the root or +cause. You cannot paint or sing yourselves into being good men; you must +be good men before you can either paint or sing, and then the colour and +sound will complete in you all that is best. + +And this it was that I called upon you to hear, saying, "listen to me at +least now," in the first lecture, namely, that no art-teaching could be +of use to you, but would rather be harmful, unless it was grafted on +something deeper than all art. For indeed not only with this, of which +it is my function to show you the laws, but much more with the art of +all men, which you came here chiefly to learn, that of language, the +chief vices of education have arisen from the one great fallacy of +supposing that noble language is a communicable trick of grammar and +accent, instead of simply the careful expression of right thought. All +the virtues of language are, in their roots, moral; it becomes accurate +if the speaker desires to be true; clear, if he speaks with sympathy and +a desire to be intelligible; powerful, if he has earnestness; pleasant, +if he has sense of rhythm and order. There are no other virtues of +language producible by art than these: but let me mark more deeply for +an instant the significance of one of them. Language, I said, is only +clear when it is sympathetic. You can, in truth, understand a man's word +only by understanding his temper. Your own word is also as of an unknown +tongue to him unless he understands yours. And it is this which makes +the art of language, if any one is to be chosen separately from the +rest, that which is fittest for the instrument of a gentleman's +education. To teach the meaning of a word thoroughly, is to teach the +nature of the spirit that coined it; the secret of language is the +secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle. +And thus the principles of beautiful speech have all been fixed by +sincere and kindly speech. On the laws which have been determined by +sincerity, false speech, apparently beautiful, may afterwards be +constructed; but all such utterance, whether in oration or poetry, is +not only without permanent power, but it is destructive of the +principles it has usurped. So long as no words are uttered but in +faithfulness, so long the art of language goes on exalting itself; but +the moment it is shaped and chiselled on external principles, it falls +into frivolity, and perishes. And this truth would have been long ago +manifest, had it not been that in periods of advanced academical science +there is always a tendency to deny the sincerity of the first masters of +language. Once learn to write gracefully in the manner of an ancient +author, and we are apt to think that he also wrote in the manner of some +one else. But no noble nor right style was ever yet founded but out of a +sincere heart. + +No man is worth reading to form your style, who does not mean what he +says; nor was any great style ever invented but by some man who meant +what he said. Find out the beginner of a great manner of writing, and +you have also found the declarer of some true facts or sincere passions: +and your whole method of reading will thus be quickened, for, being sure +that your author really meant what he said, you will be much more +careful to ascertain what it is that he means. + + +69. And of yet greater importance is it deeply to know that every beauty +possessed by the language of a nation is significant of the innermost +laws of its being. Keep the temper of the people stern and manly; make +their associations grave, courteous, and for worthy objects; occupy them +in just deeds; and their tongue must needs be a grand one. Nor is it +possible, therefore--observe the necessary reflected action--that any +tongue should be a noble one, of which the words are not so many +trumpet-calls to action. All great languages invariably utter great +things, and command them; they cannot be mimicked but by obedience; the +breath of them is inspiration because it is not only vocal, but vital; +and you can only learn to speak as these men spoke, by becoming what +these men were. + + +70. Now for direct confirmation of this, I want you to think over the +relation of expression to character in two great masters of the absolute +art of language, Virgil and Pope. You are perhaps surprised at the last +name; and indeed you have in English much higher grasp and melody of +language from more passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its +range, so perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are +the two most accomplished _Artists_, merely as such, whom I know in +literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in +investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, and the +severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, +arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds:--out of the deep +tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of Nisus and +Lausus; and the serene and just benevolence which placed Pope, in his +theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and enabled him to sum +the law of noble life in two lines which, so far as I know, are the most +complete, the most concise, and the most lofty expression of moral +temper existing in English words:-- + + _"Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;_ + _Never dejected, while another's bless'd."_ + +I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make yourselves +entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, putting Shakespeare +aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold Pope to be the most +perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, of the true English mind; +and I think the Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental +work "exacted" in our country. You will find, as you study Pope, that +he has expressed for you, in the strictest language and within the +briefest limits, every law of art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, +and, finally, of a benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, +contented with its allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of +its salvation to Him in whose hand lies that of the universe. + + +71. And now I pass to the arts with which I have special concern, in +which, though the facts are exactly the same, I shall have more +difficulty in proving my assertion, because very few of us are as +cognizant of the merit of painting as we are of that of language; and I +can only show you whence that merit springs, after having thoroughly +shown you in what it consists. But, in the meantime, I have simply to +tell you, that the manual arts are as accurate exponents of ethical +state, as other modes of expression; first, with absolute precision, of +that of the workman; and then with precision, disguised by many +distorting influences, of that of the nation to which it belongs. + +And, first, they are a perfect exponent of the mind of the workman: but, +being so, remember, if the mind be great or complex, the art is not an +easy book to read; for we must ourselves possess all the mental +characters of which we are to read the signs. No man can read the +evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know +what the work cost: nor can he read the evidence of true passion if he +is not passionate; nor of gentleness if he is not gentle: and the most +subtle signs of fault and weakness of character he can only judge by +having had the same faults to fight with. I myself, for instance, know +impatient work, and tired work, better than most critics, because I am +myself always impatient, and often tired:--so also, the patient and +indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than +to others. Yet, wonderful in no mean measure it will be to you all, when +I make it manifest,--and as soon as we begin our real work, and you have +learned what it is to draw a true line, I shall be able to make manifest +to you,--and indisputably so,--that the day's work of a man like +Mantegna or Paul Veronese consists of an unfaltering, uninterrupted +succession of movements of the hand more precise than those of the +finest fencer: the pencil leaving one point and arriving at another, not +only with unerring precision at the extremity of the line, but with an +unerring and yet varied course--sometimes over spaces a foot or more in +extent--yet a course so determined everywhere, that either of these men +could, and Veronese often does, draw a finished profile, or any other +portion of the contour of the face, with one line, not afterwards +changed. Try, first, to realise to yourselves the muscular precision of +that action, and the intellectual strain of it; for the movement of a +fencer is perfect in practised monotony; but the movement of the hand of +a great painter is at every instant governed by a direct and new +intention. Then imagine that muscular firmness and subtlety, and the +instantaneously selective and ordinant energy of the brain, sustained +all day long, not only without fatigue, but with a visible joy in the +exertion, like that which an eagle seems to take in the wave of his +wings; and this all life long, and through long life, not only without +failure of power, but with visible increase of it, until the actually +organic changes of old age. And then consider, so far as you know +anything of physiology, what sort of an ethical state of body and mind +that means! ethic through ages past! what fineness of race there must be +to get it, what exquisite balance and symmetry of the vital powers! And +then, finally, determine for yourselves whether a manhood like that is +consistent with any viciousness of soul, with any mean anxiety, any +gnawing lust, any wretchedness of spite or remorse, any consciousness of +rebellion against law of God or man, or any actual, though unconscious +violation of even the least law to which obedience is essential for the +glory of life and the pleasing of its Giver. + + +72. It is, of course, true that many of the strong masters had deep +faults of character, but their faults always show in their work. It is +true that some could not govern their passions; if so, they died young, +or they painted ill when old. But the greater part of our +misapprehension in the whole matter is from our not having well known +who the great painters were, and taking delight in the petty skill that +was bred in the fumes of the taverns of the North, instead of theirs who +breathed empyreal air, sons of the morning, under the woods of Assisi +and the crags of Cadore. + + +73. It is true however also, as I have pointed out long ago, that the +strong masters fall into two great divisions, one leading simple and +natural lives, the other restrained in a Puritanism of the worship of +beauty; and these two manners of life you may recognise in a moment by +their work. Generally the naturalists are the strongest; but there are +two of the Puritans, whose work if I can succeed in making clearly +understandable to you during my three years here, it is all I need care +to do. But of these two Puritans one I cannot name to you, and the other +I at present will not. One I cannot, for no one knows his name, except +the baptismal one, Bernard, or "dear little Bernard"--Bernardino, called +from his birthplace, (Luino, on the Lago Maggiore,) Bernard of Luino. +The other is a Venetian, of whom many of you probably have never heard, +and of whom, through me, you shall not hear, until I have tried to get +some picture by him over to England. + + +74. Observe then, this Puritanism in the worship of beauty, though +sometimes weak, is always honourable and amiable, and the exact reverse +of the false Puritanism, which consists in the dread or disdain of +beauty. And in order to treat my subject rightly, I ought to proceed +from the skill of art to the choice of its subject, and show you how the +moral temper of the workman is shown by his seeking lovely forms and +thoughts to express, as well as by the force of his hand in expression. +But I need not now urge this part of the proof on you, because you are +already, I believe, sufficiently conscious of the truth in this matter, +and also I have already said enough of it in my writings; whereas I have +not at all said enough of the infallibleness of fine technical work as a +proof of every other good power. And indeed it was long before I myself +understood the true meaning of the pride of the greatest men in their +mere execution, shown for a permanent lesson to us, in the stories +which, whether true or not, indicate with absolute accuracy the general +conviction of great artists;--the stories of the contest of Apelles and +Protogenes in a line only, (of which I can promise you, you shall know +the meaning to some purpose in a little while),--the story of the circle +of Giotto, and especially, which you may perhaps not have observed, the +expression of Duerer in his inscription on the drawings sent him by +Raphael. These figures, he says, "Raphael drew and sent to Albert Duerer +in Nuernberg, to show him"--What? Not his invention, nor his beauty of +expression, but "sein Hand zu weisen," "To show him his _hand_." And you +will find, as you examine farther, that all inferior artists are +continually trying to escape from the necessity of sound work, and +either indulging themselves in their delights in subject, or pluming +themselves on their noble motives for attempting what they cannot +perform; (and observe, by the way, that a great deal of what is mistaken +for conscientious motive is nothing but a very pestilent, because very +subtle, condition of vanity); whereas the great men always understand at +once that the first morality of a painter, as of everybody else, is to +know his business; and so earnest are they in this, that many, whose +lives you would think, by the results of their work, had been passed in +strong emotion, have in reality subdued themselves, though capable of +the very strongest passions, into a calm as absolute as that of a deeply +sheltered mountain lake, which reflects every agitation of the clouds in +the sky, and every change of the shadows on the hills, but is itself +motionless. + + +75. Finally, you must remember that great obscurity has been brought +upon the truth in this matter by the want of integrity and simplicity in +our modern life. I mean integrity in the Latin sense, wholeness. +Everything is broken up, and mingled in confusion, both in our habits +and thoughts; besides being in great part imitative: so that you not +only cannot tell what a man is, but sometimes you cannot tell whether +he is, at all!--whether you have indeed to do with a spirit, or only +with an echo. And thus the same inconsistencies appear now, between the +work of artists of merit and their personal characters, as those which +you find continually disappointing expectation in the lives of men of +modern literary power; the same conditions of society having obscured or +misdirected the best qualities of the imagination, both in our +literature and art. Thus there is no serious question with any of us as +to the personal character of Dante and Giotto, of Shakespeare and +Holbein; but we pause timidly in the attempt to analyse the moral laws +of the art skill in recent poets, novelists, and painters. + + +76. Let me assure you once for all, that as you grow older, if you +enable yourselves to distinguish, by the truth of your own lives, what +is true in those of other men, you will gradually perceive that all good +has its origin in good, never in evil; that the fact of either +literature or painting being truly fine of their kind, whatever their +mistaken aim, or partial error, is proof of their noble origin: and +that, if there is indeed sterling value in the thing done, it has come +of a sterling worth in the soul that did it, however alloyed or defiled +by conditions of sin which are sometimes more appalling or more strange +than those which all may detect in their own hearts, because they are +part of a personality altogether larger than ours, and as far beyond our +judgment in its darkness as beyond our following in its light. And it is +sufficient warning against what some might dread as the probable effect +of such a conviction on your own minds, namely, that you might permit +yourselves in the weaknesses which you imagined to be allied to genius, +when they took the form of personal temptations;--it is surely, I say, +sufficient warning against so mean a folly, to discern, as you may with +little pains, that, of all human existences, the lives of men of that +distorted and tainted nobility of intellect are probably the most +miserable. + + +77. I pass to the second, and for us the more practically important +question, What is the effect of noble art upon other men; what has it +done for national morality in time past: and what effect is the extended +knowledge or possession of it likely to have upon us now? And here we +are at once met by the facts, which are as gloomy as indisputable, that, +while many peasant populations, among whom scarcely the rudest practice +of art has ever been attempted, have lived in comparative innocence, +honour and happiness, the worst foulness and cruelty of savage tribes +have been frequently associated with fine ingenuities of decorative +design; also, that no people has ever attained the higher stages of art +skill, except at a period of its civilisation which was sullied by +frequent, violent and even monstrous crime; and, lastly, that the +attaining of perfection in art power has been hitherto, in every nation, +the accurate signal of the beginning of its ruin. + + +78. Respecting which phenomena, observe first, that although good never +springs out of evil, it is developed to its highest by contention with +evil. There are some groups of peasantry, in far-away nooks of Christian +countries, who are nearly as innocent as lambs; but the morality which +gives power to art is the morality of men, not of cattle. + +Secondly, the virtues of the inhabitants of many country districts are +apparent, not real; their lives are indeed artless, but not innocent; +and it is only the monotony of circumstances, and the absence of +temptation, which prevent the exhibition of evil passions not less real +because often dormant, nor less foul because shown only in petty faults, +or inactive malignities. + + +79. But you will observe also that _absolute_ artlessness, to men in any +kind of moral health, is impossible; they have always, at least, the art +by which they live--agriculture or seamanship; and in these industries, +skilfully practised, you will find the law of their moral training; +while, whatever the adversity of circumstances, every rightly-minded +peasantry, such as that of Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, or Switzerland, has +associated with its needful industry a quite studied school of +pleasurable art in dress; and generally also in song, and simple +domestic architecture. + + +80. Again, I need not repeat to you here what I endeavoured to explain +in the first lecture in the book I called "The Two Paths," respecting +the arts of savage races: but I may now note briefly that such arts are +the result of an intellectual activity which has found no room to +expand, and which the tyranny of nature or of man has condemned to +disease through arrested growth. And where neither Christianity, nor any +other religion conveying some moral help, has reached, the animal energy +of such races necessarily flames into ghastly conditions of evil, and +the grotesque or frightful forms assumed by their art are precisely +indicative of their distorted moral nature. + + +81. But the truly great nations nearly always begin from a race +possessing this imaginative power; and for some time their progress is +very slow, and their state not one of innocence, but of feverish and +faultful animal energy. This is gradually subdued and exalted into +bright human life; the art instinct purifying itself with the rest of +the nature, until social perfectness is nearly reached; and then comes +the period when conscience and intellect are so highly developed, that +new forms of error begin in the inability to fulfil the demands of the +one, or to answer the doubts of the other. Then the wholeness of the +people is lost; all kinds of hypocrisies and oppositions of science +develop themselves; their faith is questioned on one side, and +compromised with on the other; wealth commonly increases at the same +period to a destructive extent; luxury follows; and the ruin of the +nation is then certain: while the arts, all this time, are simply, as I +said at first, the exponents of each phase of its moral state, and no +more control it in its political career than the gleam of the firefly +guides its oscillation. It is true that their most splendid results are +usually obtained in the swiftness of the power which is hurrying to the +precipice; but to lay the charge of the catastrophe to the art by which +it is illumined, is to find a cause for the cataract in the hues of its +iris. It is true that the colossal vices belonging to periods of great +national wealth (for wealth, you will find, is the real root of all +evil) can turn every good gift and skill of nature or of man to evil +purpose. If, in such times, fair pictures have been misused, how much +more fair realities? And if Miranda is immoral to Caliban, is that +Miranda's fault? + + +82. And I could easily go on to trace for you what at the moment I +speak, is signified, in our own national character, by the forms of art, +and unhappily also by the forms of what is not art, but [Greek: +atechnia], that exist among us. But the more important question is, What +_will_ be signified by them; what is there in us now of worth and +strength, which under our new and partly accidental impulse towards +formative labour, may be by that expressed, and by that fortified? + +Would it not be well to know this? Nay, irrespective of all future work, +is it not the first thing we should want to know, what stuff we are made +of--how far we are +agathoi+ or +kakoi+--good, or good for +nothing? We may all know that, each of ourselves, easily enough, if we +like to put one grave question well home. + + +83. Supposing it were told any of you by a physician whose word you +could not but trust, that you had not more than seven days to live. And +suppose also that, by the manner of your education it had happened to +you, as it has happened to many, never to have heard of any future +state, or not to have credited what you heard; and therefore that you +had to face this fact of the approach of death in its simplicity: +fearing no punishment for any sin that you might have before committed, +or in the coming days might determine to commit; and having similarly no +hope of reward for past, or yet possible, virtue; nor even of any +consciousness whatever to be left to you, after the seventh day had +ended, either of the results of your acts to those whom you loved, or of +the feelings of any survivors towards you. Then the manner in which you +would spend the seven days is an exact measure of the morality of your +nature. + + +84. I know that some of you, and I believe the greater number of you, +would, in such a case, spend the granted days entirely as you ought. +Neither in numbering the errors, or deploring the pleasures of the +past; nor in grasping at vile good in the present, nor vainly lamenting +the darkness of the future; but in an instant and earnest execution of +whatever it might be possible for you to accomplish in the time, in +setting your affairs in order, and in providing for the future comfort, +and--so far as you might by any message or record of yourself,--for the +consolation, of those whom you loved, and by whom you desired to be +remembered, not for your good, but for theirs. How far you might fail +through human weakness, in shame for the past, despair at the little +that could in the remnant of life be accomplished, or the intolerable +pain of broken affection, would depend wholly on the degree in which +your nature had been depressed or fortified by the manner of your past +life. But I think there are few of you who would not spend those last +days better than all that had preceded them. + + +85. If you look accurately through the records of the lives that have +been most useful to humanity, you will find that all that has been done +best, has been done so;--that to the clearest intellects and highest +souls,--to the true children of the Father, with whom a thousand years +are as one day, their poor seventy years are but as seven days. The +removal of the shadow of death from them to an uncertain, but always +narrow, distance, never takes away from them their intuition of its +approach; the extending to them of a few hours more or less of light +abates not their acknowledgment of the infinitude that must remain to be +known beyond their knowledge,--done beyond their deeds: the +unprofitableness of their momentary service is wrought in a magnificent +despair, and their very honour is bequeathed by them for the joy of +others, as they lie down to their rest, regarding for themselves the +voice of men no more. + + +86. The best things, I repeat to you, have been done thus, and +therefore, sorrowfully. But the greatest part of the good work of the +world is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, "I have +stubbed Thornaby waste," or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful +doing of what the hand finds to do, in surety that at evening time, +whatsoever is right the Master will give. And that it be worthily done, +depends wholly on that ultimate quantity of worth which you can measure, +each in himself, by the test I have just given you. For that test, +observe, will mark to you the precise force, first of your absolute +courage, and then of the energy in you for the right ordering of things, +and the kindly dealing with persons. You have cut away from these two +instincts every selfish or common motive, and left nothing but the +energies of Order and of Love. + + +87. Now, where those two roots are set, all the other powers and desires +find right nourishment, and become to their own utmost, helpful to +others and pleasurable to ourselves. And so far as those two springs of +action are not in us, all other powers become corrupt or dead; even the +love of truth, apart from these, hardens into an insolent and cold +avarice of knowledge, which unused, is more vain than unused gold. + + +88. These, then, are the two essential instincts of humanity: the love +of Order and the love of Kindness. By the love of order the moral energy +is to deal with the earth, and to dress it, and keep it; and with all +rebellious and dissolute forces in lower creatures, or in ourselves. By +the love of doing kindness it is to deal rightly with all surrounding +life. And then, grafted on these, we are to make every other passion +perfect; so that they may every one have full strength and yet be +absolutely under control. + + +89. Every one must be strong, every one perfect, every one obedient as a +war horse. And it is among the most beautiful pieces of mysticism to +which eternal truth is attached, that the chariot race, which Plato uses +as an image of moral government, and which is indeed the most perfect +type of it in any visible skill of men, should have been made by the +Greeks the continual subject of their best poetry and best art. +Nevertheless Plato's use of it is not altogether true. There is no black +horse in the chariot of the soul. One of the driver's worst faults is in +starving his horses; another, in not breaking them early enough; but +they are all good. Take, for example, one usually thought of as wholly +evil--that of Anger, leading to vengeance. I believe it to be quite one +of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and +chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to +punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, +that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine +that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may +give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten +other people from committing the same fault. The beautiful theory of +this non-vindictive justice is, that having convicted a man of a crime +worthy of death, we entirely pardon the criminal, restore him to his +place in our affection and esteem, and then hang him, not as a +malefactor, but as a scarecrow. That is the theory. And the practice is, +that we send a child to prison for a month for stealing a handful of +walnuts, for fear that other children should come to steal more of our +walnuts. And we do not punish a swindler for ruining a thousand +families, because we think swindling is a wholesome excitement to trade. + + +90. But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to +virtue. Only--and herein it is distinguished from personal revenge--it +is vindictive of the wrong done;--not of the wrong done _to us_. It is +the national expression of deliberate anger, as of deliberate gratitude; +it is not exemplary, or even corrective, but essentially retributive; it +is the absolute art of measured recompense, giving honour where honour +is due, and shame where shame is due, and joy where joy is due, and pain +where pain is due. It is neither educational, for men are to be educated +by wholesome habit, not by rewards and punishments; nor is it +preventive, for it is to be executed without regard to any consequences; +but only for righteousness' sake, a righteous nation does judgment and +justice. But in this, as in all other instances, the rightness of the +secondary passion depends on its being grafted on those two primary +instincts, the love of order and of kindness, so that indignation +itself is against the wounding of love. Do you think the +menis +Achileos+ came of a hard heart in Achilles, or the "Pallas te hoc +vulnere, Pallas," of a hard heart in Anchises' son? + + +91. And now, if with this clue through the labyrinth of them, you +remember the course of the arts of great nations, you will perceive that +whatever has prospered, and become lovely, had its beginning--for no +other was possible--in the love of order in material things associated +with true +dikaiosune+: and the desire of beauty in material +things, which is associated with true affection, _charitas_, and with +the innumerable conditions of gentleness expressed by the different uses +of the words +charis+ and _gratia_. You will find that this love +of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature, and though +it can long co-exist with states of life in many other respects +unvirtuous, it is itself wholly good;--the direct adversary of envy, +avarice, mean worldly care, and especially of cruelty. It entirely +perishes when these are wilfully indulged; and the men in whom it has +been most strong have always been compassionate, and lovers of justice, +and the earliest discerners and declarers of things conducive to the +happiness of mankind. + + +92. Nearly every important truth respecting the love of beauty in its +familiar relations to human life was mythically expressed by the Greeks +in their various accounts of the parentage and offices of the Graces. +But one fact, the most vital of all, they could not in its fulness +perceive, namely, that the intensity of other perceptions of beauty is +exactly commensurate with the imaginative purity of the passion of love, +and with the singleness of its devotion. They were not fully conscious +of, and could not therefore either mythically or philosophically +express, the deep relation within themselves between their power of +perceiving beauty, and the honour of domestic affection which found +their sternest themes of tragedy in the infringement of its laws;--which +made the rape of Helen the chief subject of their epic poetry, and which +fastened their clearest symbolism of resurrection on the story of +Alcestis. Unhappily, the subordinate position of their most revered +women, and the partial corruption of feeling towards them by the +presence of certain other singular states of inferior passion which it +is as difficult as grievous to analyse, arrested the ethical as well as +the formative progress of the Greek mind; and it was not until after an +interval of nearly two thousand years of various error and pain, that, +partly as the true reward of Christian warfare nobly sustained through +centuries of trial, and partly as the visionary culmination of the faith +which saw in a maiden's purity the link between God and her race, the +highest and holiest strength of mortal love was reached; and, together +with it, in the song of Dante, and the painting of Bernard of Luino and +his fellows, the perception, and embodiment for ever of whatsoever +things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of +good report;--that, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, +men might think on those things. + + +93. You probably observed the expression I used a moment ago, the +_imaginative_ purity of the passion of love. I have not yet spoken, nor +is it possible for me to-day, to speak adequately, of the moral power of +the imagination: but you may for yourselves enough discern its nature +merely by comparing the dignity of the relations between the sexes, from +their lowest level in moths or mollusca, through the higher creatures in +whom they become a domestic influence and law, up to the love of pure +men and women; and, finally, to the ideal love which animated chivalry. +Throughout this vast ascent it is the gradual increase of the +imaginative faculty which exalts and enlarges the authority of the +passion, until, at its height, it is the bulwark of patience, the tutor +of honour, and the perfectness of praise. + + +94. You will find farther, that as of love, so of all the other +passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the +Imagination, which is lord over them. For to _subdue_ the passions, +which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is +possible enough to a proud dulness; but to _excite_ them rightly, and +make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination. It +is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. +Human nature is kind and generous; but it is narrow and blind; and can +only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and +feels. People would instantly care for others as well as themselves if +only they could _imagine_ others as well as themselves. Let a child fall +into the river before the roughest man's eyes;--he will usually do what +he can to get it out, even at some risk to himself; and all the town +will triumph in the saving of one little life. Let the same man be shown +that hundreds of children are dying of fever for want of some sanitary +measure which it will cost him trouble to urge, and he will make no +effort; and probably all the town would resist him if he did. So, also, +the lives of many deserving women are passed in a succession of petty +anxieties about themselves, and gleaning of minute interests and mean +pleasures in their immediate circle, because they are never taught to +make any effort to look beyond it; or to know anything about the mighty +world in which their lives are fading, like blades of bitter grass in +fruitless fields. + + +95. I had intended to enlarge on this--and yet more on the kingdom which +every man holds in his conceptive faculty, to be peopled with active +thoughts and lovely presences, or left waste for the springing up of +those dark desires and dreams of which it is written that "every +imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is evil continually." True, +and a thousand times true it is, that, here at least, "greater is he +that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." But this you can +partly follow out for yourselves without help, partly we must leave it +for future enquiry. I press to the conclusion which I wish to leave with +you, that all you can rightly do, or honourably become, depends on the +government of these two instincts of order and kindness, by this great +Imaginative faculty, which gives you inheritance of the past, grasp of +the present, authority over the future. Map out the spaces of your +possible lives by its help; measure the range of their possible agency! +On the walls and towers of this your fair city, there is not an ornament +of which the first origin may not be traced back to the thoughts of men +who died two thousand years ago. Whom will _you_ be governing by your +thoughts, two thousand years hence? Think of it, and you will find that +so far from art being immoral, little else except art is moral; that +life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality: +and for the words "good" and "wicked," used of men, you may almost +substitute the words "Makers" and "Destroyers." Far the greater part of +the seeming prosperity of the world is, so far as our present knowledge +extends, vain: wholly useless for any kind of good, but having assigned +to it a certain inevitable sequence of destruction and of sorrow. Its +stress is only the stress of wandering storm; its beauty the hectic of +plague: and what is called the history of mankind is too often the +record of the whirlwind, and the map of the spreading of the leprosy. +But underneath all that, or in narrow spaces of dominion in the midst of +it, the work of every man, "qui non accepit in vanitatem animam suam," +endures and prospers; a small remnant or green bud of it prevailing at +last over evil. And though faint with sickness, and encumbered in ruin, +the true workers redeem inch by inch the wilderness into garden ground; +by the help of their joined hands the order of all things is surely +sustained and vitally expanded, and although with strange vacillation, +in the eyes of the watcher, the morning cometh, and also the night, +there is no hour of human existence that does not draw on towards the +perfect day. + + +96. And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that +the beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay! +_more_, if it may be, in labour; in our strength, rather than in our +weakness; and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six +days, and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice +of what we pray for on the seventh, of reward or repose. With the +multitude that keep holiday, we may perhaps sometimes vainly have gone +up to the house of the Lord, and vainly there asked for what we fancied +would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their Lord would have +them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing. +Surely goodness and mercy shall _follow_ them, _all_ the days of their +life; and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord--FOR EVER. + + + + +LECTURE IV + +THE RELATION OF ART TO USE + + +97. Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in +which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical +requirements of human life. + +Its offices in this respect are mainly twofold: it gives Form to +knowledge, and Grace to utility; that is to say, it makes permanently +visible to us things which otherwise could neither be described by our +science, nor retained by our memory; and it gives delightfulness and +worth to the implements of daily use, and materials of dress, furniture +and lodging. In the first of these offices it gives precision and charm +to truth; in the second it gives precision and charm to service. For, +the moment we make anything useful thoroughly, it is a law of nature +that we shall be pleased with ourselves, and with the thing we have +made; and become desirous therefore to adorn or complete it, in some +dainty way, with finer art expressive of our pleasure. + +And the point I wish chiefly to bring before you to-day is this close +and healthy connection of the fine arts with material use; but I must +first try briefly to put in clear light the function of art in giving +Form to truth. + + +98. Much that I have hitherto tried to teach has been disputed on the +ground that I have attached too much importance to art as representing +natural facts, and too little to it as a source of pleasure. And I wish, +in the close of these four prefatory lectures, strongly to assert to +you, and, so far as I can in the time, convince you, that the entire +vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of +use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful or impressive it may be in +itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper +inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects,--either +_to state a true thing_, or to _adorn a serviceable one_. It must never +exist alone--never for itself; it exists rightly only when it is the +means of knowledge, or the grace of agency for life. + + +99. Now, I pray you to observe--for though I have said this often +before, I have never yet said it clearly enough--every good piece of +art, to whichever of these ends it may be directed, involves first +essentially the evidence of human skill and the formation of an actually +beautiful thing by it. + +Skill, and beauty, always then; and, beyond these, the formative arts +have always one or other of the two objects which I have just defined to +you--truth, or serviceableness; and without these aims neither the skill +nor their beauty will avail; only by these can either legitimately +reign. All the graphic arts begin in keeping the outline of shadow that +we have loved, and they end in giving to it the aspect of life; and all +the architectural arts begin in the shaping of the cup and the platter, +and they end in a glorified roof. + +Therefore, you see, in the graphic arts you have Skill, Beauty, and +Likeness; and in the architectural arts, Skill, Beauty, and Use; and you +_must_ have the three in each group, balanced and co-ordinate; and all +the chief errors of art consist in losing or exaggerating one of these +elements. + + +100. For instance, almost the whole system and hope of modern life are +founded on the notion that you may substitute mechanism for skill, +photograph for picture, cast-iron for sculpture. That is your main +nineteenth-century faith, or infidelity. You think you can get +everything by grinding--music, literature, and painting. You will find +it grievously not so; you can get nothing but dust by mere grinding. +Even to have the barley-meal out of it, you must have the barley first; +and that comes by growth, not grinding. But essentially, we have lost +our delight in Skill; in that majesty of it which I was trying to make +clear to you in my last address, and which long ago I tried to express, +under the head of ideas of power. The entire sense of that, we have +lost, because we ourselves do not take pains enough to do right, and +have no conception of what the right costs; so that all the joy and +reverence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man's work have ceased +in us. We keep them yet a little in looking at a honeycomb or a +bird's-nest; we understand that these differ, by divinity of skill, from +a lump of wax or a cluster of sticks. But a picture, which is a much +more wonderful thing than a honeycomb or a bird's-nest,--have we not +known people, and sensible people too, who expected to be taught to +produce that, in six lessons? + + +101. Well, you must have the skill, you must have the beauty, which is +the highest moral element; and then, lastly, you must have the verity or +utility, which is not the moral, but the vital element; and this desire +for verity and use is the one aim of the three that always leads in +great schools, and in the minds of great masters, without any exception. +They will permit themselves in awkwardness, they will permit themselves +in ugliness; but they will never permit themselves in uselessness or in +unveracity. + + +102. And farther, as their skill increases, and as their grace, so much +more, their desire for truth. It is impossible to find the three motives +in fairer balance and harmony than in our own Reynolds. He rejoices in +showing you his skill; and those of you who succeed in learning what +painter's work really is, will one day rejoice also, even to +laughter--that highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in +watching the fortitude and the fire of a hand which strikes forth its +will upon the canvas as easily as the wind strikes it on the sea. He +rejoices in all abstract beauty and rhythm and melody of design; he will +never give you a colour that is not lovely, nor a shade that is +unnecessary, nor a line that is ungraceful. But all his power and all +his invention are held by him subordinate,--and the more obediently +because of their nobleness,--to his true leading purpose of setting +before you such likeness of the living presence of an English gentleman +or an English lady, as shall be worthy of being looked upon for ever. + + +103. But farther, you remember, I hope--for I said it in a way that I +thought would shock you a little, that you might remember it--my +statement, that art had never done more than this, never more than given +the likeness of a noble human being. Not only so, but it very seldom +does so much as this; and the best pictures that exist of the great +schools are all portraits, or groups of portraits, often of very simple +and no wise noble persons. You may have much more brilliant and +impressive qualities in imaginative pictures; you may have figures +scattered like clouds, or garlanded like flowers; you may have light and +shade, as of a tempest, and colour, as of the rainbow; but all that is +child's play to the great men, though it is astonishment to us. Their +real strength is tried to the utmost, and as far as I know, it is never +elsewhere brought out so thoroughly, as in painting one man or woman, +and the soul that was in them; nor that always the highest soul, but +often only a thwarted one that was capable of height; or perhaps not +even that, but faultful and poor, yet seen through, to the poor best of +it, by the masterful sight. So that in order to put before you in your +Standard series, the best art possible, I am obliged, even from the very +strongest men, to take portraits, before I take the idealism. Nay, +whatever is best in the great compositions themselves has depended on +portraiture; and the study necessary to enable you to understand +invention will also convince you that the mind of man never invented a +greater thing than the form of man, animated by faithful life. Every +attempt to refine or exalt such healthy humanity has weakened or +caricatured it; or else consists only in giving it, to please our fancy, +the wings of birds, or the eyes of antelopes. Whatever is truly great in +either Greek or Christian art, is also restrictedly human; and even the +raptures of the redeemed souls who enter, "celestemente ballando," the +gate of Angelico's Paradise, were seen first in the terrestrial, yet +most pure, mirth of Florentine maidens. + + +104. I am aware that this cannot but at present appear gravely +questionable to those of my audience who are strictly cognisant of the +phases of Greek art; for they know that the moment of its decline is +accurately marked, by its turning from abstract form to portraiture. But +the reason of this is simple. The progressive course of Greek art was in +subduing monstrous conceptions to natural ones; it did this by general +laws; it reached absolute truth of generic human form, and if this +ethical force had remained, would have advanced into healthy +portraiture. But at the moment of change the national life ended in +Greece; and portraiture, there, meant insult to her religion, and +flattery to her tyrants. And her skill perished, not because she became +true in sight, but because she became vile at heart. + + +105. And now let us think of our own work, and ask how that may become, +in its own poor measure, active in some verity of representation. We +certainly cannot begin by drawing kings or queens; but we must try, even +in our earliest work, if it is to prosper, to draw something that will +convey true knowledge both to ourselves and others. And I think you will +find greatest advantage in the endeavour to give more life and +educational power to the simpler branches of natural science: for the +great scientific men are all so eager in advance that they have no time +to popularise their discoveries, and if we can glean after them a +little, and make pictures of the things which science describes, we +shall find the service a worthy one. Not only so, but we may even be +helpful to science herself; for she has suffered by her proud severance +from the arts; and having made too little effort to realise her +discoveries to vulgar eyes, has herself lost true measure of what was +chiefly precious in them. + + +106. Take Botany, for instance. Our scientific botanists are, I think, +chiefly at present occupied in distinguishing species, which perfect +methods of distinction will probably in the future show to be +indistinct;--in inventing descriptive names of which a more advanced +science and more fastidious scholarship will show some to be +unnecessary, and others inadmissible;--and in microscopic investigations +of structure, which through many alternate links of triumphant +discovery that tissue is composed of vessels, and that vessels are +composed of tissue, have not hitherto completely explained to us either +the origin, the energy, or the course of the sap; and which however +subtle or successful, bear to the real natural history of plants only +the relation that anatomy and organic chemistry bear to the history of +men. In the meantime, our artists are so generally convinced of the +truth of the Darwinian theory that they do not always think it necessary +to show any difference between the foliage of an elm and an oak; and the +gift-books of Christmas have every page surrounded with laboriously +engraved garlands of rose, shamrock, thistle, and forget-me-not, without +its being thought proper by the draughtsman, or desirable by the public, +even in the case of those uncommon flowers, to observe the real shape of +the petals of any one of them. + + +107. Now what we especially need at present for educational purposes is +to know, not the anatomy of plants, but their biography--how and where +they live and die, their tempers, benevolences, malignities, distresses, +and virtues. We want them drawn from their youth to their age, from bud +to fruit. We ought to see the various forms of their diminished but +hardy growth in cold climates, or poor soils; and their rank or wild +luxuriance, when full-fed, and warmly nursed. And all this we ought to +have drawn so accurately, that we might at once compare any given part +of a plant with the same part of any other, drawn on the like +conditions. Now, is not this a work which we may set about here in +Oxford, with good hope and much pleasure? I think it is so important, +that the first exercise in drawing I shall put before you will be an +outline of a laurel leaf. You will find in the opening sentence of +Lionardo's treatise, our present text-book, that you must not at first +draw from nature, but from a good master's work, "per assuefarsi a buone +membra," to accustom yourselves, that is, to entirely good +representative organic forms. So your first exercise shall be the top of +the laurel sceptre of Apollo, drawn by an Italian engraver of Lionardo's +own time; then we will draw a laurel leaf itself; and little by little, +I think we may both learn ourselves, and teach to many besides, somewhat +more than we know yet, of the wild olives of Greece, and the wild roses +of England. + + +108. Next, in Geology, which I will take leave to consider as an +entirely separate science from the zoology of the past, which has lately +usurped its name and interest. In geology itself we find the strength of +many able men occupied in debating questions of which there are yet no +data even for the clear statement; and in seizing advanced theoretical +positions on the mere contingency of their being afterwards tenable; +while, in the meantime, no simple person, taking a holiday in +Cumberland, can get an intelligible section of Skiddaw, or a clear +account of the origin of the Skiddaw slates; and while, though half the +educated society of London travel every summer over the great plain of +Switzerland, none know, or care to know, why that is a plain, and the +Alps to the south of it are Alps; and whether or not the gravel of the +one has anything to do with the rocks of the other. And though every +palace in Europe owes part of its decoration to variegated marbles, and +nearly every woman in Europe part of her decoration to pieces of jasper +or chalcedony, I do not think any geologist could at this moment with +authority tell us either how a piece of marble is stained, or what +causes the streaks in a Scotch pebble. + + +109. Now, as soon as you have obtained the power of drawing, I do not +say a mountain, but even a stone, accurately, every question of this +kind will become to you at once attractive and definite; you will find +that in the grain, the lustre, and the cleavage-lines of the smallest +fragment of rock, there are recorded forces of every order and +magnitude, from those which raise a continent by one volcanic effort, to +those which at every instant are polishing the apparently complete +crystal in its nest, and conducting the apparently motionless metal in +its vein; and that only by the art of your own hand, and fidelity of +sight which it develops, you can obtain true perception of these +invincible and inimitable arts of the earth herself; while the +comparatively slight effort necessary to obtain so much skill as may +serviceably draw mountains in distant effect will be instantly rewarded +by what is almost equivalent to a new sense of the conditions of their +structure. + + +110. And, because it is well at once to know some direction in which our +work may be definite, let me suggest to those of you who may intend +passing their vacation in Switzerland, and who care about mountains, +that if they will first qualify themselves to take angles of position +and elevation with correctness, and to draw outlines with approximate +fidelity, there are a series of problems of the highest interest to be +worked out on the southern edge of the Swiss plain, in the study of the +relations of its molasse beds to the rocks which are characteristically +developed in the chain of the Stockhorn, Beatenberg, Pilate, Mythen +above Schwytz, and High Sentis of Appenzell, the pursuit of which may +lead them into many pleasant, as well as creditably dangerous, walks, +and curious discoveries; and will be good for the discipline of their +fingers in the pencilling of crag form. + + +111. I wish I could ask you to draw, instead of the Alps, the crests of +Parnassus and Olympus, and the ravines of Delphi and of Tempe. I have +not loved the arts of Greece as others have; yet I love them, and her, +so much, that it is to me simply a standing marvel how scholars can +endure for all these centuries, during which their chief education has +been in the language and policy of Greece, to have only the names of her +hills and rivers upon their lips, and never one line of conception of +them in their mind's sight. Which of us knows what the valley of Sparta +is like, or the great mountain vase of Arcadia? which of us, except in +mere airy syllabling of names, knows aught of "sandy Ladon's lilied +banks, or old Lycaeus, or Cyllene hoar"? "You cannot travel in +Greece?"--I know it; nor in Magna Graecia. But, gentlemen of England, you +had better find out why you cannot, and put an end to that horror of +European shame, before you hope to learn Greek art. + + +112. I scarcely know whether to place among the things useful to art, +or to science, the systematic record, by drawing, of phenomena of the +sky. But I am quite sure that your work cannot in any direction be more +useful to yourselves, than in enabling you to perceive the quite +unparalleled subtilties of colour and inorganic form, which occur on any +ordinarily fine morning or evening horizon; and I will even confess to +you another of my perhaps too sanguine expectations, that in some far +distant time it may come to pass, that young Englishmen and Englishwomen +may think the breath of the morning sky pleasanter than that of +midnight, and its light prettier than that of candles. + + +113. Lastly, in Zoology. What the Greeks did for the horse, and what, as +far as regards domestic and expressional character, Landseer has done +for the dog and the deer, remains to be done by art for nearly all other +animals of high organisation. There are few birds or beasts that have +not a range of character which, if not equal to that of the horse or +dog, is yet as interesting within narrower limits, and often in +grotesqueness, intensity, or wild and timid pathos, more singular and +mysterious. Whatever love of humour you have,--whatever sympathy with +imperfect, but most subtle, feeling,--whatever perception of sublimity +in conditions of fatal power, may here find fullest occupation: all +these being joined, in the strong animal races, to a variable and +fantastic beauty far beyond anything that merely formative art has yet +conceived. I have placed in your Educational series a wing by Albert +Duerer, which goes as far as art yet has reached in delineation of +plumage; while for the simple action of the pinion it is impossible to +go beyond what has been done already by Titian and Tintoret; but you +cannot so much as once look at the rufflings of the plumes of a pelican +pluming itself after it has been in the water, or carefully draw the +contours of the wing either of a vulture or a common swift, or paint the +rose and vermilion on that of a flamingo, without receiving almost a new +conception of the meaning of form and colour in creation. + + +114. Lastly. Your work, in all directions I have hitherto indicated, +may be as deliberate as you choose; there is no immediate fear of the +extinction of many species of flowers or animals; and the Alps, and +valley of Sparta, will wait your leisure, I fear too long. But the +feudal and monastic buildings of Europe, and still more the streets of +her ancient cities, are vanishing like dreams: and it is difficult to +imagine the mingled envy and contempt with which future generations will +look back to us, who still possessed such things, yet made no effort to +preserve, and scarcely any to delineate them: for when used as material +of landscape by the modern artist, they are nearly always superficially +or flatteringly represented, without zeal enough to penetrate their +character, or patience enough to render it in modest harmony. As for +places of traditional interest, I do not know an entirely faithful +drawing of any historical site, except one or two studies made by +enthusiastic young painters in Palestine and Egypt: for which, thanks to +them always: but we want work nearer home. + + +115. Now it is quite probable that some of you, who will not care to go +through the labour necessary to draw flowers or animals, may yet have +pleasure in attaining some moderately accurate skill of sketching +architecture, and greater pleasure still in directing it usefully. +Suppose, for instance, we were to take up the historical scenery in +Carlyle's "Frederick." Too justly the historian accuses the genius of +past art, in that, types of too many such elsewhere, the galleries of +Berlin--"are made up, like other galleries, of goat-footed Pan, Europa's +Bull, Romulus's She-Wolf, and the Correggiosity of Correggio, and +contain, for instance, no portrait of Friedrich the Great,--no likeness +at all, or next to none at all, of the noble series of Human Realities, +or any part of them, who have sprung, not from the idle brains of +dreaming _dilettanti_, but from the head of God Almighty, to make this +poor authentic earth a little memorable for us, and to do a little work +that may be eternal there." So Carlyle tells us--too truly! We cannot +now draw Friedrich for him, but we can draw some of the old castles and +cities that were the cradles of German life--Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, +Marburg, and such others;--we may keep some authentic likeness of these +for the future. Suppose we were to take up that first volume of +"Friedrich," and put outlines to it: shall we begin by looking for Henry +the Fowler's tomb--Carlyle himself asks if he has any--at Quedlinburgh, +and so downwards, rescuing what we can? That would certainly be making +our work of some true use. + + +116. But I have told you enough, it seems to me, at least to-day, of +this function of art in recording fact; let me now finally, and with all +distinctness possible to me, state to you its main business of all;--its +service in the actual uses of daily life. + +You are surprised, perhaps, to hear me call this its main business. That +is indeed so, however. The giving brightness to picture is much, but the +giving brightness to life more. And remember, were it as patterns only, +you cannot, without the realities, have the pictures. _You cannot have a +landscape by Turner, without a country for him to paint; you cannot have +a portrait by Titian, without a man to be portrayed._ I need not prove +that to you, I suppose, in these short terms; but in the outcome I can +get no soul to believe that the beginning of art _is in getting our +country clean, and our people beautiful_. I have been ten years trying +to get this very plain certainty--I do not say believed--but even +thought of, as anything but a monstrous proposition. To get your country +clean, and your people lovely;--I assure you that is a necessary work of +art to begin with! There has indeed been art in countries where people +lived in dirt to serve God, but never in countries where they lived in +dirt to serve the devil. There has indeed been art where the people were +not all lovely--where even their lips were thick--and their skins black, +because the sun had looked upon them; but never in a country where the +people were pale with miserable toil and deadly shade, and where the +lips of youth, instead of being full with blood, were pinched by famine, +or warped with poison. And now, therefore, note this well, the gist of +all these long prefatory talks. I said that the two great moral +instincts were those of Order and Kindness. Now, all the arts are +founded on agriculture by the hand, and on the graces, and kindness of +feeding, and dressing, and lodging your people. Greek art begins in the +gardens of Alcinous--perfect order, leeks in beds, and fountains in +pipes. And Christian art, as it arose out of chivalry, was only possible +so far as chivalry compelled both kings and knights to care for the +right personal training of their people; it perished utterly when those +kings and knights became +demoboroi+, devourers of the people. +And it will become possible again only, when, literally, the sword is +beaten into the ploughshare, when your St. George of England shall +justify his name, and Christian art shall be known as its Master was, in +breaking of bread. + + +117. Now look at the working out of this broad principle in minor +detail; observe how, from highest to lowest, health of art has first +depended on reference to industrial use. There is first the need of cup +and platter, especially of cup; for you can put your meat on the +Harpies',[10] or on any other, tables; but you must have your cup to +drink from. And to hold it conveniently, you must put a handle to it; +and to fill it when it is empty you must have a large pitcher of some +sort; and to carry the pitcher you may most advisably have two handles. +Modify the forms of these needful possessions according to the various +requirements of drinking largely and drinking delicately; of pouring +easily out, or of keeping for years the perfume in; of storing in +cellars, or bearing from fountains; of sacrificial libation, of +Panathenaic treasure of oil, and sepulchral treasure of ashes,--and you +have a resultant series of beautiful form and decoration, from the rude +amphora of red earth up to Cellini's vases of gems and crystal, in which +series, but especially in the more simple conditions of it, are +developed the most beautiful lines and most perfect types of severe +composition which have yet been attained by art. + +[Footnote 10: Virg., _AEn._, iii. 209 _seqq._] + + +118. But again, that you may fill your cup with pure water, you must go +to the well or spring; you need a fence round the well; you need some +tube or trough, or other means of confining the stream at the spring. +For the conveyance of the current to any distance you must build either +enclosed or open aqueduct; and in the hot square of the city where you +set it free, you find it good for health and pleasantness to let it leap +into a fountain. On these several needs you have a school of sculpture +founded; in the decoration of the walls of wells in level countries, and +of the sources of springs in mountainous ones, and chiefly of all, where +the women of household or market meet at the city fountain. + +There is, however, a farther reason for the use of art here than in any +other material service, so far as we may, by art, express our reverence +or thankfulness. Whenever a nation is in its right mind, it always has a +deep sense of divinity in the gift of rain from heaven, filling its +heart with food and gladness; and all the more when that gift becomes +gentle and perennial in the flowing of springs. It literally is not +possible that any fruitful power of the Muses should be put forth upon a +people which disdains their Helicon; still less is it possible that any +Christian nation should grow up "tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus +decursus aquarum," which cannot recognise the lesson meant in their +being told of the places where Rebekah was met;--where Rachel,--where +Zipporah,--and she who was asked for water under Mount Grerizim by a +Stranger, weary, who had nothing to draw with. + + +119. And truly, when our mountain springs are set apart in vale or +craggy glen, or glade of wood green through the drought of summer, far +from cities, then it is best to let them stay in their own happy peace; +but if near towns, and liable therefore to be defiled by common usage, +we could not use the loveliest art more worthily than by sheltering the +spring and its first pools with precious marbles: nor ought anything to +be esteemed more important, as a means of healthy education, than the +care to keep the streams of it afterwards, to as great a distance as +possible, pure, full of fish, and easily accessible to children. There +used to be, thirty years ago, a little rivulet of the Wandel, about an +inch deep, which ran over the carriage-road and under a foot-bridge just +under the last chalk hill near Croydon. Alas! men came and went; and it +did _not_ go on for ever. It has long since been bricked over by the +parish authorities; but there was more education in that stream with its +minnows than you could get out of a thousand pounds spent yearly in the +parish schools, even though you were to spend every farthing of it in +teaching the nature of oxygen and hydrogen, and the names, and rate per +minute, of all the rivers in Asia and America. + + +120. Well, the gist of this matter lies here then. Suppose we want a +school of pottery again in England, all we poor artists are ready to do +the best we can, to show you how pretty a line may be that is twisted +first to one side, and then to the other; and how a plain household-blue +will make a pattern on white; and how ideal art may be got out of the +spaniel's colours of black and tan. But I tell you beforehand, all that +we can do will be utterly useless, unless you teach your peasant to say +grace, not only before meat, but before drink; and having provided him +with Greek cups and platters, provide him also with something that is +not poisoned to put into them. + + +121. There cannot be any need that I should trace for you the conditions +of art that are directly founded on serviceableness of dress, and of +armour; but it is my duty to affirm to you, in the most positive manner, +that after recovering, for the poor, wholesomeness of food, your next +step towards founding schools of art in England must be in recovering, +for the poor, decency and wholesomeness of dress; thoroughly good in +substance, fitted for their daily work, becoming to their rank in life, +and worn with order and dignity. And this order and dignity must be +taught them by the women of the upper and middle classes, whose minds +can be in nothing right, as long as they are so wrong in this matter as +to endure the squalor of the poor, while they themselves dress gaily. +And on the proper pride and comfort of both poor and rich in dress, must +be founded the true arts of dress; carried on by masters of manufacture +no less careful of the perfectness and beauty of their tissues, and of +all that in substance and design can be bestowed upon them, than ever +the armourers of Milan and Damascus were careful of their steel. + + +122. Then, in the third place, having recovered some wholesome habits of +life as to food and dress, we must recover them as to lodging. I said +just now that the best architecture was but a glorified roof. Think of +it. The dome of the Vatican, the porches of Rheims or Chartres, the +vaults and arches of their aisles, the canopy of the tomb, and the spire +of the belfry, are all forms resulting from the mere requirement that a +certain space shall be strongly covered from heat and rain. More than +that--as I have tried all through "The Stories of Venice" to show,--the +lovely forms of these were every one of them developed in civil and +domestic building, and only after their invention, employed +ecclesiastically on the grandest scale. I think you cannot but have +noticed here in Oxford, as elsewhere, that our modern architects never +seem to know what to do with their roofs. Be assured, until the roofs +are right, nothing else will be; and there are just two ways of keeping +them right. Never build them of iron, but only of wood or stone; and +secondly, take care that in every town the little roofs are built before +the large ones, and that everybody who wants one has got one. And we +must try also to make everybody want one. That is to say, at some not +very advanced period of life, men should desire to have a home, which +they do not wish to quit any more, suited to their habits of life, and +likely to be more and more suitable to them until their death. And men +must desire to have these their dwelling-places built as strongly as +possible, and furnished and decorated daintily, and set in pleasant +places, in bright light, and good air, being able to choose for +themselves that at least as well as swallows. And when the houses are +grouped together in cities, men must have so much civic fellowship as to +subject their architecture to a common law, and so much civic pride as +to desire that the whole gathered group of human dwellings should be a +lovely thing, not a frightful one, on the face of the earth. Not many +weeks ago an English clergyman,[11] a master of this University, a man +not given to sentiment, but of middle age, and great practical sense, +told me, by accident, and wholly without reference to the subject now +before us, that he never could enter London from his country parsonage +but with closed eyes, lest the sight of the blocks of houses which the +railroad intersected in the suburbs should unfit him, by the horror of +it, for his day's work. + +[Footnote 11: Osborne Gordon.] + + +123. Now, it is not possible--and I repeat to you, only in more +deliberate assertion, what I wrote just twenty-two years ago in the last +chapter of the "Seven Lamps of Architecture"--it is not possible to have +any right morality, happiness, or art, in any country where the cities +are thus built, or thus, let me rather say, clotted and coagulated; +spots of a dreadful mildew, spreading by patches and blotches over the +country they consume. You must have lovely cities, crystallised, not +coagulated, into form; limited in size, and not casting out the scum and +scurf of them into an encircling eruption of shame, but girded each with +its sacred pomoerium, and with garlands of gardens full of blossoming +trees and softly guided streams. + +That is impossible, you say! it may be so. I have nothing to do with its +possibility, but only with its indispensability. More than that must be +possible, however, before you can have a school of art; namely, that you +find places elsewhere than in England, or at least in otherwise +unserviceable parts of England, for the establishment of manufactories +needing the help of fire, that is to say, of all the +technai +banausikai+ and +epirretoi+, of which it was long ago known to be +the constant nature that "+ascholias malista echousi kai philon +kai poleos sunepimeleisthai+," and to reduce such manufactures to their +lowest limit, so that nothing may ever be made of iron that can as +effectually be made of wood or stone; and nothing moved by steam that +can be as effectually moved by natural forces. And observe, that for all +mechanical effort required in social life and in cities, water power is +infinitely more than enough; for anchored mills on the large rivers, and +mills moved by sluices from reservoirs filled by the tide, will give you +command of any quantity of constant motive power you need. + +Agriculture by the hand, then, and absolute refusal or banishment of +unnecessary igneous force, are the first conditions of a school of art +in any country. And until you do this, be it soon or late, things will +continue in that triumphant state to which, for want of finer art, your +mechanism has brought them;--that, though England is deafened with +spinning wheels, her people have not clothes--though she is black with +digging of fuel, they die of cold--and though she has sold her soul for +gain, they die of hunger. Stay in that triumph, if you choose; but be +assured of this, it is not one which the fine arts will ever share with +you. + + +124. Now, I have given you my message, containing, as I know, offence +enough, and itself, it may seem to many, unnecessary enough. But just in +proportion to its apparent non-necessity, and to its certain offence, +was its real need, and my real duty to speak it. The study of the fine +arts could not be rightly associated with the grave work of English +Universities, without due and clear protest against the misdirection of +national energy, which for the present renders all good results of such +study on a great scale, impossible. I can easily teach you, as any other +moderately good draughtsman could, how to hold your pencils, and how to +lay your colours; but it is little use my doing that, while the nation +is spending millions of money in the destruction of all that pencil or +colour has to represent, and in the promotion of false forms of art, +which are only the costliest and the least enjoyable of follies. And +therefore these are the things that I have first and last to tell you in +this place;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by Locomotion, but +by making the homes we live in lovely, and by staying in them;--that +the fine arts are not to be learned by Competition, but by doing our +quiet best in our own way;--that the fine arts are not to be learned by +Exhibition, but by doing what is right, and making what is honest, +whether it be exhibited or not;--and, for the sum of all, that men must +paint and build neither for pride nor for money, but for love; for love +of their art, for love of their neighbour, and whatever better love may +be than these, founded on these. I know that I gave some pain, which I +was most unwilling to give, in speaking of the possible abuses of +religious art; but there can be no danger of any, so long as we remember +that God inhabits cottages as well as churches, and ought to be well +lodged there also. Begin with wooden floors; the tessellated ones will +take care of themselves; begin with thatching roofs, and you shall end +by splendidly vaulting them; begin by taking care that no old eyes fail +over their Bibles, nor young ones over their needles, for want of +rushlight, and then you may have whatever true good is to be got out of +coloured glass or wax candles. And in thus putting the arts to universal +use, you will find also their universal inspiration, their universal +benediction. I told you there was no evidence of a _special_ Divineness +in any application of them; that they were always equally human and +equally Divine; and in closing this inaugural series of lectures, into +which I have endeavoured to compress the principles that are to be the +foundations of your future work, it is my last duty to say some positive +words as to the Divinity of all art, when it is truly fair, or truly +serviceable. + + +125. Every seventh day, if not oftener, the greater number of +well-meaning persons in England thankfully receive from their teachers a +benediction, couched in those terms:--"The grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be +with you." Now I do not know precisely what sense is attached in the +English public mind to those expressions. But what I have to tell you +positively is that the three things do actually exist, and can be known +if you care to know them, and possessed if you care to possess them; +and that another thing exists, besides these, of which we already know +too much. + +First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your religion, all +grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be given +to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The Grace of Christ +exists, and can be had if you will. Secondly, as you know more and more +of the created world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is +that its creatures should be happy;--that He has made everything +beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is chiefly by the fault +of men, when they are allowed the liberty of thwarting His laws, that +Creation groans or travails in pain. The Love of God exists, and you may +see it, and live in it if you will. Lastly, a Spirit does actually exist +which teaches the ant her path, the bird her building, and men, in an +instinctive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble deeds are +possible to them. Without it you can do no good thing. To the grief of +it you can do many bad ones. In the possession of it is your peace and +your power. + +And there is a fourth thing, of which we already know too much. There is +an evil spirit whose dominion is in blindness and in cowardice, as the +dominion of the Spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage. + +And this blind and cowardly spirit is for ever telling you that evil +things are pardonable, and you shall not die for them, and that good +things are impossible, and you need not live for them; and that gospel +of his is now the loudest that is preached in your Saxon tongue. You +will find some day, to your cost, if you believe the first part of it, +that it is not true; but you may never, if you believe the second part +of it, find, to your gain, that also, untrue; and therefore I pray you +with all earnestness to prove, and know within your hearts, that all +things lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe in their +possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will make +every day's work contribute to them. Let every dawn of morning be to you +as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its +close:--then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of +some kindly thing done for others--some goodly strength or knowledge +gained for yourselves; so, from day to day, and strength to strength, +you shall build up indeed, by Art, by Thought, and by Just Will, an +Ecclesia of England, of which it shall not be said, "See what manner of +stones are here," but, "See what manner of men." + + + + +LECTURE V + +LINE + + +126. You will, I doubt not, willingly permit me to begin your lessons in +real practice of art in the words of the greatest of English painters: +one also, than whom there is indeed no greater, among those of any +nation, or any time,--our own gentle Reynolds. + +He says in his first discourse:--"The Directors" (of the Academy) "ought +more particularly to watch over the genius of those students, who being +more advanced, are arrived at that critical period of study, on the nice +management of which their future turn of taste depends. At that age it +is natural for them to be more captivated with what is brilliant, than +with what is solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and +humiliating exactness." + +"A facility in composing, a lively and, what is called, a 'masterly' +handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must be confessed, captivating +qualities to young minds, and become of course the objects of their +ambition. They endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellences, which +they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in +these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will +then be too late; and there is scarce an instance of return to +scrupulous labour, after the mind has been debauched and deceived by +this fallacious mastery." + + +127. I read you these words, chiefly that Sir Joshua, who founded, as +first President, the Academical schools of English painting, in these +well-known discourses, may also begin, as he has truest right to do, our +system of instruction in this University. But secondly, I read them that +I may press on your attention these singular words, "painful and +humiliating exactness." Singular, as expressing the first conditions of +the study required from his pupils by the master, who, of all men except +Velasquez, seems to have painted with the greatest ease. It is true that +he asks this pain, this humiliation, only from youths who intend to +follow the profession of artists. But if you wish yourselves to know +anything of the practice of art, you must not suppose that because your +study will be more desultory than that of Academy students, it may +therefore be less accurate. The shorter the time you have to give, the +more careful you should be to spend it profitably; and I would not wish +you to devote one hour to the practice of drawing, unless you are +resolved to be informed in it of all that in an hour can be taught. + + +128. I speak of the practice of _drawing_ only; though elementary study +of modelling may perhaps some day be advisably connected with it; but I +do not wish to disturb, or amuse, you with a formal statement of the +manifold expectations I have formed respecting your future work. You +will not, I am sure, imagine that I have begun without a plan, nor blame +my reticence as to the parts of it which cannot yet be put into +execution, and which there may occur reason afterwards to modify. My +first task must unquestionably be to lay before you right and simple +methods of drawing and colouring. + +I use the word "colouring" without reference to any particular vehicle +of colour, for the laws of good painting are the same, whatever liquid +is employed to dissolve the pigments. But the technical management of +oil is more difficult than that of water-colour, and the impossibility +of using it with safety among books or prints, and its unavailableness +for note-book sketches and memoranda, are sufficient reasons for not +introducing it in a course of practice intended chiefly for students of +literature. On the contrary, in the exercises of artists, oil should be +the vehicle of colour employed from the first. The extended practice of +water-colour painting, as a separate skill, is in every way harmful to +the arts: its pleasant slightness and plausible dexterity divert the +genius of the painter from its proper aims, and withdraw the attention +of the public from excellence of higher claim; nor ought any man, who +has the consciousness of ability for good work, to be ignorant of, or +indolent in employing, the methods of making its results permanent as +long as the laws of Nature allow. It is surely a severe lesson to us in +this matter, that the best works of Turner could not be shown to the +public for six months without being destroyed,--and that his most +ambitious ones for the most part perished, even before they could be +shown. I will break through my law of reticence, however, so far as to +tell you that I have hope of one day interesting you greatly (with the +help of the Florentine masters), in the study of the arts of moulding +and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you to use your future +power of patronage in encouraging the various branches of this art, and +turning the attention of the workmen of Italy from the vulgar tricks of +minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite subtilties of form and +colour possible in the perfectly ductile, afterwards unalterable clay. +And one of the ultimate results of such craftsmanship might be the +production of pictures as brilliant as painted glass,--as delicate as +the most subtle water-colours, and more permanent than the Pyramids. + + +129. And now to begin our own work. In order that we may know how +rightly to learn to draw and to paint, it will be necessary, will it +not, that we know first what we are to aim at doing;--what kind of +representation of nature is best? + +I will tell you in the words of Lionardo. "That is the most praiseworthy +painting which has most conformity with the thing represented," "quella +pittura e piu laudabile, la quale ha piu conformita con la cosa mitata," +(ch. 276). In plain terms, "the painting which is likest nature is the +best." And you will find by referring to the preceding chapter, "come lo +specchio e maestro de' pittori," how absolutely Lionardo means what he +says. Let the living thing, (he tells us,) be reflected in a mirror, +then put your picture beside the reflection, and match the one with the +other. And indeed, the very best painting is unquestionably so like the +mirrored truth, that all the world admits its excellence. Entirely +first-rate work is so quiet and natural that there can be no dispute +over it; you may not particularly admire it, but you will find no fault +with it. Second-rate painting pleases one person much, and displeases +another; but first-rate painting pleases all a little, and intensely +pleases those who can recognise its unostentatious skill. + + +130. This, then, is what we have first got to do--to make our drawing +look as like the thing we have to draw as we can. + +Now, all objects are seen by the eye as patches of colour of a certain +shape, with gradations of colour within them. And, unless their colours +be actually luminous, as those of the sun, or of fire, these patches of +different hues are sufficiently imitable, except so far as they are seen +stereoscopically. You will find Lionardo again and again insisting on +the stereoscopic power of the double sight: but do not let that trouble +you; you can only paint what you can see from one point of sight, but +that is quite enough. So seen, then, all objects appear to the human eye +simply as masses of colour of variable depth, texture, and outline. The +outline of any object is the limit of its mass, as relieved against +another mass. Take a crocus, and lay it on a green cloth. You will see +it detach itself as a mere space of yellow from the green behind it, as +it does from the grass. Hold it up against the window--you will see it +detach itself as a dark space against the white or blue behind it. In +either case its outline is the limit of the space of light or dark +colour by which it expresses itself to your sight. That outline is +therefore infinitely subtle--not even a line, but the place of a line, +and that, also, made soft by texture. In the finest painting it is +therefore slightly softened; but it is necessary to be able to draw it +with absolute sharpness and precision. The art of doing this is to be +obtained by drawing it as an actual line, which art is to be the subject +of our immediate enquiry; but I must first lay the divisions of the +entire subject completely before you. + + +131. I have said that all objects detach themselves as masses of +colour. Usually, light and shade are thought of as separate from colour; +but the fact is that all nature is seen as a mosaic composed of gradated +portions of different colours, dark or light. There is no difference in +the quality of these colours, except as affected by texture. You will +constantly hear lights and shades spoken of as if these were different +in their nature, and to be painted in different ways. But every light is +a shadow compared to higher lights, till we reach the brightness of the +sun; and every shadow is a light compared to lower shadows, till we +reach the darkness of night. + +Every colour used in painting, except pure white and black, is therefore +a light and shade at the same time. It is a light with reference to all +below it, and a shade with reference to all above it. + + +132. The solid forms of an object, that is to say, the projections or +recessions of its surface within the outline, are, for the most part, +rendered visible by variations in the intensity or quantity of light +falling on them. The study of the relations between the quantities of +this light, irrespectively of its colour, is the second division of the +regulated science of painting. + + +133. Finally, the qualities and relations of natural colours, the means +of imitating them, and the laws by which they become separately +beautiful, and in association harmonious, are the subjects of the third +and final division of the painter's study. I shall endeavour at once to +state to you what is most immediately desirable for you to know on each +of these topics, in this and the two following lectures. + + +134. What we have to do, then, from beginning to end, is, I repeat once +more, simply to draw spaces of their true shape, and to fill them with +colours which shall match their colours; quite a simple thing in the +definition of it, not quite so easy in the doing of it. + +But it is something to get this simple definition; and I wish you to +notice that the terms of it are complete, though I do not introduce the +term "light," or "shadow." Painters who have no eye for colour have +greatly confused and falsified the practice of art by the theory that +shadow is an absence of colour. Shadow is, on the contrary, necessary to +the full presence of colour; for every colour is a diminished quantity +or energy of light; and, practically, it follows from what I have just +told you--(that every light in painting is a shadow to higher lights, +and every shadow a light to lower shadows)--that also every _colour_ in +painting must be a shadow to some brighter colour, and a light to some +darker one--all the while being a positive colour itself. And the great +splendour of the Venetian school arises from their having seen and held +from the beginning this great fact--that shadow is as much colour as +light, often much more. In Titian's fullest red the lights are pale +rose-colour, passing into white--the shadows warm deep crimson. In +Veronese's most splendid orange, the lights are pale, the shadows crocus +colour; and so on. In nature, dark sides if seen by reflected lights, +are almost always fuller or warmer in colour than the lights; and the +practice of the Bolognese and Roman schools, in drawing their shadows +always dark and cold, is false from the beginning, and renders perfect +painting for ever impossible in those schools, and to all who follow +them. + + +135. Every visible space, then, be it dark or light, is a space of +colour of some kind, or of black or white. And you have to enclose it +with a true outline, and to paint it with its true colour. + +But before considering how we are to draw this enclosing line, I must +state to you something about the use of lines in general, by different +schools. + +I said just now that there was no difference between the masses of +colour of which all visible nature is composed, except in _texture_. Now +textures are principally of three kinds:-- + + (1) Lustrous, as of water and glass. + (2) Bloomy, or velvety, as of a rose-leaf or peach. + (3) Linear, produced by filaments or threads as in feathers, fur, + hair, and woven or reticulated tissues. + +All these three sources of pleasure to the eye in texture are united in +the best ornamental work. A fine picture by Fra Angelico, or a fine +illuminated page of missal, has large spaces of gold, partly burnished +and lustrous, partly dead;--some of it chased and enriched with linear +texture, and mingled with imposed or inlaid colours, soft in bloom like +that of the rose-leaf. But many schools of art affect for the most part +one kind of texture only, and a vast quantity of the art of all ages +depends for great part of its power on texture produced by multitudinous +lines. Thus, wood engraving, line engraving properly so called, and +countless varieties of sculpture, metal work, and textile fabric, depend +for great part of the effect, for the mystery, softness, and clearness +of their colours, or shades, on modification of the surfaces by lines or +threads. Even in advanced oil painting, the work often depends for some +part of its effect on the texture of the canvas. + + +136. Again, the arts of etching and mezzotint engraving depend +principally for their effect on the velvety, or bloomy texture of their +darkness, and the best of all painting is the fresco work of great +colourists, in which the colours are what is usually called dead; but +they are anything but dead, they glow with the luminous bloom of life. +The frescoes of Correggio, when not repainted, are supreme in this +quality. + + +137. While, however, in all periods of art these different textures are +thus used in various styles, and for various purposes, you will find +that there is a broad historical division of schools, which will +materially assist you in understanding them. The earliest art in most +countries is linear, consisting of interwoven, or richly spiral and +otherwise involved arrangements of sculptured or painted lines, on +stone, wood, metal or clay. It is generally characteristic of savage +life, and of feverish energy of imagination. I shall examine these +schools with you hereafter, under the general head of the "Schools of +Line."[12] + +[Footnote 12: See "Ariadne Florentina," Sec. 5.] + +Secondly, even in the earliest periods, among powerful nations, this +linear decoration is more or less filled with chequered or barred shade, +and begins at once to represent animal or floral form, by filling its +outlines with flat shadow, or with flat colour. And here we instantly +find two great divisions of temper and thought. The Greeks look upon all +colour first as light; they are, as compared with other races, +insensitive to hue, exquisitely sensitive to phenomena of light. And +their linear school passes into one of flat masses of light and +darkness, represented in the main by four tints,--white, black, and two +reds, one brick colour, more or less vivid, the other dark purple; these +two standing mentally their favourite +porphyreos+ colour, in its +light and dark powers. On the other hand, many of the Northern nations +are at first entirely insensible to light and shade, but exquisitely +sensitive to colour, and their linear decoration is filled with flat +tints, infinitely varied, but with no expression of light and shade. +Both these schools have a limited but absolute perfection of their own, +and their peculiar successes can in no wise be imitated, except by the +strictest observance of the same limitations. + + +138. You have then, Line for the earliest art, branching into-- + + (1) Greek, Line with Light. + (2) Gothic, Line with Colour. + +Now, as art completes itself, each of these schools retain their +separate characters, but they cease to depend on lines, and learn to +represent masses instead, becoming more refined at the same time in all +modes of perception and execution. + +And thus there arise the two vast mediaeval schools; one of flat and +infinitely varied colour, with exquisite character and sentiment added, +in the forms represented; but little perception of shadow. The other, of +light and shade, with exquisite drawing of solid form, and little +perception of colour: sometimes as little of sentiment. Of these, the +school of flat colour is the more vital one; it is always natural and +simple, if not great;--and when it is great, it is very great. + +The school of light and shade associates itself with that of engraving; +it is essentially an academical school, broadly dividing light from +darkness, and begins by assuming that the light side of all objects +shall be represented by white, and the extreme shadow by black. On this +conventional principle it reaches a limited excellence of its own, in +which the best existing types of engraving are executed, and ultimately, +the most regular expressions of organic form in painting. + +Then, lastly,--the schools of colour advance steadily, till they adopt +from those of light and shade whatever is compatible with their own +power,--and then you have perfect art, represented centrally by that of +the great Venetians. + +The schools of light and shade, on the other hand, are partly, in their +academical formulas, too haughty, and partly, in their narrowness of +imagination, too weak, to learn much from the schools of colour; and +pass into a state of decadence, consisting partly in proud endeavours to +give painting the qualities of sculpture, and partly in the pursuit of +effects of light and shade, carried at last to extreme sensational +subtlety by the Dutch school. In their fall, they drag the schools of +colour down with them; and the recent history of art is one of confused +effort to find lost roads, and resume allegiance to violated principles. + + +139. That, briefly, is the map of the great schools, easily remembered +in this hexagonal form:-- + + 1. + LINE + Early schools. + + 2. 3. + LINE AND LIGHT. LINE AND COLOUR. + Greek clay. Gothic glass. + + 4. 5. + MASS AND LIGHT. MASS AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Lionardo, (Represented by Giorgione, + and his schools.) and his schools.) + + 6. + MASS, LIGHT, AND COLOUR. + (Represented by Titian, + and his schools.) + +And I wish you with your own eyes and fingers to trace, and in your own +progress follow, the method of advance exemplified by these great +schools. I wish you to begin by getting command of line, that is to say, +by learning to draw a steady line, limiting with absolute correctness +the form or space you intend it to limit; to proceed by getting command +over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have +enclosed, evenly, either with shade or colour according to the school +you adopt; and finally to obtain the power of adding such fineness of +gradation within the masses, as shall express their roundings, and their +characters of texture. + + +140. Those who are familiar with the methods of existing schools must be +aware that I thus nearly invert their practice of teaching. Students at +present learn to draw details first, and to colour and mass them +afterwards. I shall endeavour to teach you to arrange broad masses and +colours first; and you shall put the details into them afterwards. I +have several reasons for this audacity, of which you may justly require +me to state the principal ones. The first is that, as I have shown you, +this method I wish you to follow, is the natural one. All great artist +nations _have_ actually learned to work in this way, and I believe it +therefore the right, as the hitherto successful one. Secondly, you will +find it less irksome than the reverse method, and more definite. When a +beginner is set at once to draw details, and make finished studies in +light and shade, no master can correct his innumerable errors, or rescue +him out of his endless difficulties. But in the natural method, he can +correct, if he will, his own errors. You will have positive lines to +draw, presenting no more difficulty, except in requiring greater +steadiness of hand, than the outlines of a map. They will be generally +sweeping and simple, instead of being jagged into promontories and bays; +but assuredly, they may be drawn rightly (with patience), and their +rightness tested with mathematical accuracy. You have only to follow +your own line with tracing paper, and apply it to your own copy. If they +do not correspond, you are wrong, and you need no master to show you +where. Again; in washing in a flat tone of colour or shade, you can +always see yourself if it is flat, and kept well within the edges; and +you can set a piece of your colour side by side with that of the copy; +if it does not match, you are wrong; and, again, you need no one to tell +you so, if your eye for colour is true. It happens, indeed, more +frequently than would be supposed, that there is real want of power in +the eye to distinguish colours; and this I even suspect to be a +condition which has been sometimes attendant on high degrees of cerebral +sensitiveness in other directions; but such want of faculty would be +detected in your first two or three exercises by this simple method, +while, otherwise, you might go on for years endeavouring to colour from +nature in vain. Lastly, and this is a very weighty collateral reason, +such a method enables me to show you many things, besides the art of +drawing. Every exercise that I prepare for you will be either a portion +of some important example of ancient art, or of some natural object. +However rudely or unsuccessfully you may draw it, (though I anticipate +from you neither want of care nor success,) you will nevertheless have +learned what no words could have so forcibly or completely taught you, +either respecting early art or organic structure; and I am thus certain +that not a moment you spend attentively will be altogether wasted, and +that, generally, you will be twice gainers by every effort. + + +141. There is, however, yet another point in which I think a change of +existing methods will be advisable. You have here in Oxford one of the +finest collections in Europe of drawings in pen, and chalk, by Michael +Angelo and Raphael. Of the whole number, you cannot but have noticed +that not one is weak or student-like--all are evidently master's work. + +You may look the galleries of Europe through, and so far as I know, or +as it is possible to make with safety any so wide generalization, you +will not find in them a childish or feeble drawing, by these, or by any +other great master. + +And farther:--by the greatest men--by Titian, Velasquez, or +Veronese--you will hardly find an authentic drawing, at all. For the +fact is, that while we moderns have always learned, or tried to learn, +to paint by drawing, the ancients learned to draw by painting--or by +engraving, more difficult still. The brush was put into their hands when +they were children, and they were forced to draw with that, until, if +they used the pen or crayon, they used it either with the lightness of a +brush or the decision of a graver. Michael Angelo uses his pen like a +chisel; but all of them seem to use it only when they are in the height +of their power, and then for rapid notation of thought or for study of +models; but never as a practice helping them to paint. Probably +exercises of the severest kind were gone through in minute drawing by +the apprentices of the goldsmiths, of which we hear and know little, and +which were entirely matters of course. To these, and to the +exquisiteness of care and touch developed in working precious metals, +may probably be attributed the final triumph of Italian sculpture. +Michael Angelo, when a boy, is said to have copied engravings by +Schoengauer and others, with his pen, in facsimile so true that he could +pass his drawings as the originals. But I should only discourage you +from all farther attempts in art, if I asked you to imitate any of these +accomplished drawings of the gem-artificers. You have, fortunately, a +most interesting collection of them already in your galleries, and may +try your hands on them if you will. But I desire rather that you should +attempt nothing except what can by determination be absolutely +accomplished, and be known and felt by you to be accomplished when it is +so. Now, therefore, I am going at once to comply with that popular +instinct which, I hope, so far as you care for drawing at all, you are +still boys enough to feel, the desire to paint. Paint you shall; but +remember, I understand by painting what you will not find easy. Paint +you shall; but daub or blot you shall not: and there will be even more +care required, though care of a pleasanter kind, to follow the lines +traced for you with the point of the brush than if they had been drawn +with that of a crayon. But from the very beginning (though carrying on +at the same time an incidental practice with crayon and lead pencil), +you shall try to draw a line of absolute correctness with the point, not +of pen or crayon, but of the brush, as Apelles did, and as all coloured +lines are drawn on Greek vases. A line of absolute correctness, observe. +I do not care how slowly you do it, or with how many alterations, +junctions, or re-touchings; the one thing I ask of you is, that the line +shall be right, and right by measurement, to the same minuteness which +you would have to give in a Government chart to the map of a dangerous +shoal. + + +142. This question of measurement is, as you are probably aware, one +much vexed in art schools; but it is determined indisputably by the very +first words written by Lionardo: "Il giovane deve prima imparare +prospettiva, _per le misure d'ogni cosa_." + +Without absolute precision of measurement, it is certainly impossible +for you to learn perspective rightly; and, as far as I can judge, +impossible to learn anything else rightly. And in my past experience of +teaching, I have found that such precision is of all things the most +difficult to enforce on the pupils. It is easy to persuade to diligence, +or provoke to enthusiasm; but I have found it hitherto impossible to +humiliate one clever student into perfect accuracy. + +It is, therefore, necessary, in beginning a system of drawing for the +University, that no opening should be left for failure in this essential +matter. I hope you will trust the words of the most accomplished +draughtsman of Italy, and the painter of the great sacred picture which, +perhaps beyond all others, has influenced the mind of Europe, when he +tells you that your first duty is "to learn perspective by the +_measures_ of everything." For perspective, I will undertake that it +shall be made, practically, quite easy to you; if you care to master the +mathematics of it, they are carried as far as is necessary for you in my +treatise written in 1859, of which copies shall be placed at your +disposal in your working room. But the habit and dexterity of +_measurement_ you must acquire at once, and that with engineer's +accuracy. I hope that in our now gradually developing system of +education, elementary architectural or military drawing will be required +at all public schools; so that when youths come to the University, it +may be no more necessary for them to pass through the preliminary +exercises of perspective than of grammar: for the present, I will place +in your series examples simple and severe enough for all necessary +practice. + + +143. And while you are learning to measure, and to draw, and lay flat +tints, with the brush, you must also get easy command of the pen; for +that is not only the great instrument for the first sketching, but its +right use is the foundation of the art of illumination. In nothing is +fine art more directly founded on utility than in the close dependence +of decorative illumination on good writing. Perfect illumination is only +writing made lovely; the moment it passes into picture-making it has +lost its dignity and function. For pictures, small or great, if +beautiful, ought not to be painted on leaves of books, to be worn with +service; and pictures, small or great, not beautiful, should be painted +nowhere. But to make writing _itself_ beautiful,--to make the sweep of +the pen lovely,--is the true art of illumination; and I particularly +wish you to note this, because it happens continually that young girls +who are incapable of tracing a single curve with steadiness, much more +of delineating any ornamental or organic form with correctness, think +that work, which would be intolerable in ordinary drawing, becomes +tolerable when it is employed for the decoration of texts; and thus they +render all healthy progress impossible, by protecting themselves in +inefficiency under the shield of good motive. Whereas the right way of +setting to work is to make themselves first mistresses of the art of +writing beautifully; and then to apply that art in its proper degrees of +development to whatever they desire permanently to write. And it is +indeed a much more truly religious duty for girls to acquire a habit of +deliberate, legible, and lovely penmanship in their daily use of the +pen, than to illuminate any quantity of texts. Having done so, they may +next discipline their hands into the control of lines of any length, +and, finally, add the beauty of colour and form to the flowing of these +perfect lines. But it is only after years of practice that they will be +able to illuminate noble words rightly for the eyes, as it is only after +years of practice that they can make them melodious rightly, with the +voice. + + +144. I shall not attempt, in this lecture, to give you any account of +the use of the pen as a drawing instrument. That use is connected in +many ways with principles both of shading and of engraving, hereafter to +be examined at length. But I may generally state to you that its best +employment is in giving determination to the forms in drawings washed +with neutral tint; and that, in this use of it, Holbein is quite without +a rival. I have therefore placed many examples of his work among your +copies. It is employed for rapid study by Raphael and other masters of +delineation, who, in such cases, give with it also partial indications +of shadow; but it is not a proper instrument for shading, when drawings +are intended to be deliberate and complete, nor do the great masters so +employ it. Its virtue is the power of producing a perfectly delicate, +equal, and decisive line with great rapidity; and the temptation allied +with that virtue is the licentious haste, and chance-swept, instead of +strictly-commanded, curvature. In the hands of very great painters it +obtains, like the etching needle, qualities of exquisite charm in this +free use; but all attempts at imitation of these confused and suggestive +sketches must be absolutely denied to yourselves while students. You may +fancy you have produced something like them with little trouble; but, be +assured, it is in reality as unlike them as nonsense is unlike sense; +and that, if you persist in such work, you will not only prevent your +own executive progress, but you will never understand in all your lives +what good painting means. Whenever you take a pen in your hand, if you +cannot count every line you lay with it, and say why you make it so long +and no longer, and why you drew it in that direction and no other, your +work is bad. The only man who can put his pen to full speed, and yet +retain command over every separate line of it, is Duerer. He has done +this in the illustrations of a missal preserved at Munich, which have +been fairly facsimiled; and of these I have placed several in your +copying series, with some of Turner's landscape etchings, and other +examples of deliberate pen work, such as will advantage you in early +study. The proper use of them you will find explained in the catalogue. + + +145. And, now, but one word more to-day. Do not impute to me the +impertinence of setting before you what is new in this system of +practice as being certainly the best method. No English artists are yet +agreed entirely on early methods; and even Reynolds expresses with some +hesitation his conviction of the expediency of learning to draw with the +brush. But this method that I show you rests in all essential points on +his authority, on Lionardo's, or on the evident as well as recorded +practice of the most splendid Greek and Italian draughtsmen; and you may +be assured it will lead you, however slowly, to great and certain skill. +To what degree of skill, must depend greatly on yourselves; but I know +that in practice of this kind you cannot spend an hour without +definitely gaining, both in true knowledge of art, and in useful power +of hand; and for what may appear in it too difficult, I must shelter or +support myself, as in beginning, so in closing this first lecture on +practice, by the words of Reynolds: "The impetuosity of youth is +disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from +mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They must +therefore be told again and again that labour is the only price of solid +fame; and that, whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy +method of becoming a good painter." + + + + +LECTURE VI + +LIGHT + + +146. The plan of the divisions of art-schools which I gave you in the +last lecture is of course only a first germ of classification, on which +we are to found farther and more defined statement; but for this very +reason it is necessary that every term of it should be very clear in +your minds. + +And especially I must explain, and ask you to note the sense in which I +use the word "mass." Artists usually employ that word to express the +spaces of light and darkness, or of colour, into which a picture is +divided. But this habit of theirs arises partly from their always +speaking of pictures in which the lights represent solid form. If they +had instead been speaking of flat tints, as, for instance, of the gold +and blue in this missal page, they would not have called them "masses," +but "spaces" of colour. Now both for accuracy and convenience' sake, you +will find it well to observe this distinction, and to call a simple flat +tint a space of colour; and only the representation of solid or +projecting form a mass. + +I use, however, the word "line" rather than "space" in the second and +third heads of our general scheme, at p. 94, because you cannot limit a +flat tint but by a line, or the locus of a line: whereas a gradated +tint, expressive of mass, may be lost at its edges in another, without +any fixed limit; and practically is so, in the works of the greatest +masters. + + +147. You have thus, in your hexagonal scheme, the expression of the +universal manner of advance in painting: Line first; then line enclosing +flat spaces coloured or shaded; then the lines vanish, and the solid +forms are seen within the spaces. That is the universal law of +advance:--1, line; 2, flat space; 3, massed or solid space. But as you +see, this advance may be made, and has been made, by two different +roads; one advancing always through colour, the other through light and +shade. And these two roads are taken by two entirely different kinds of +men. The way by colour is taken by men of cheerful, natural, and +entirely sane disposition in body and mind, much resembling, even at its +strongest, the temper of well-brought-up children:--too happy to think +deeply, yet with powers of imagination by which they can live other +lives than their actual ones: make-believe lives, while yet they remain +conscious all the while that they _are_ making believe--therefore +entirely sane. They are also absolutely contented; they ask for no more +light than is immediately around them, and cannot see anything like +darkness, but only green and blue, in the earth and sea. + + +148. The way by light and shade is, on the contrary, taken by men of the +highest powers of thought, and most earnest desire for truth; they long +for light, and for knowledge of all that light can show. But seeking for +light, they perceive also darkness; seeking for truth and substance, +they find vanity. They look for form in the earth,--for dawn in the sky; +and seeking these, they find formlessness in the earth, and night in the +sky. + +Now remember, in these introductory lectures I am putting before you the +roots of things, which are strange, and dark, and often, it may seem, +unconnected with the branches. You may not at present think these +metaphysical statements necessary; but as you go on, you will find that +having hold of the clue to methods of work through their springs in +human character, you may perceive unerringly where they lead, and what +constitutes their wrongness and rightness; and when we have the main +principles laid down, all others will develop themselves in due +succession, and everything will become more clearly intelligible to you +in the end, for having been apparently vague in the beginning. You know +when one is laying the foundation of a house, it does not show directly +where the rooms are to be. + + +149. You have then these two great divisions of human mind: one, content +with the colours of things, whether they are dark or light; the other +seeking light pure, as such, and dreading darkness as such. One, also, +content with the coloured aspects and visionary shapes of things; the +other seeking their form and substance. And, as I said, the school of +knowledge, seeking light, perceives, and has to accept and deal with +obscurity: and seeking form, it has to accept and deal with +formlessness, or death. + +Farther, the school of colour in Europe, using the word Gothic in its +broadest sense, is essentially Gothic _Christian_; and full of comfort +and peace. Again, the school of light is essentially Greek, and full of +sorrow. I cannot tell you which is right, or least wrong. I tell you +only what I know--this vital distinction between them: the Gothic or +colour school is always cheerful, the Greek always oppressed by the +shadow of death; and the stronger its masters are, the closer that body +of death grips them. The strongest whose work I can show you in recent +periods is Holbein; next to him is Lionardo; and then Duerer: but of the +three Holbein is the strongest, and with his help I will put the two +schools in their full character before you in a moment. + + +150. Here is, first, the photograph of an entirely characteristic piece +of the great colour school. It is by Cima of Conegliano, a mountaineer, +like Luini, born under the Alps of Friuli. His Christian name was John +Baptist: he is here painting his name-Saint; the whole picture full of +peace, and intense faith and hope, and deep joy in light of sky, and +fruit and flower and weed of earth. It was painted for the church of Our +Lady of the Garden at Venice, La Madonna dell' Orto (properly Madonna of +the _Kitchen_ Garden), and it is full of simple flowers, and has the +wild strawberry of Cima's native mountains gleaming through the grass. + +Beside it I will put a piece of the strongest work of the school of +light and shade--strongest because Holbein was a colourist also; but he +belongs, nevertheless, essentially to the chiaroscuro school. You know +that his name is connected, in ideal work, chiefly with his "Dance of +Death." I will not show you any of the terror of that; only a photograph +of his well-known "Dead Christ." It will at once show you how completely +the Christian art of this school is oppressed by its veracity, and +forced to see what is fearful, even in what it most trusts. + +You may think I am showing you contrasts merely to fit my theories. But +there is Duerer's "Knight and Death," his greatest plate; and if I had +Lionardo's "Medusa" here, which he painted when only a boy, you would +have seen how he was held by the same chain. And you cannot but wonder +why, this being the melancholy temper of the great Greek or naturalistic +school, I should have called it the school of light. I call it so +because it is through its intense love of light that the darkness +becomes apparent to it, and through its intense love of truth and form +that all mystery becomes attractive to it. And when, having learned +these things, it is joined to the school of colour, you have the +perfect, though always, as I will show you, pensive, art of Titian and +his followers. + + +151. But remember, its first development, and all its final power, +depend on Greek sorrow, and Greek religion. + +The school of light is founded in the Doric worship of Apollo, and the +Ionic worship of Athena, as the spirits of life in the light, and of +life in the air, opposed each to their own contrary deity of +death--Apollo to the Python, Athena to the Gorgon--Apollo as life in +light, to the earth spirit of corruption in darkness;--Athena, as life +by motion, to the Gorgon spirit of death by pause, freezing or turning +to stone: both of the great divinities taking their glory from the evil +they have conquered; both of them, when angry, taking to men the form of +the evil which is their opposite--Apollo slaying by poisoned arrow, by +pestilence; Athena by cold, the black aegis on her breast. + +These are the definite and direct expressions of the Greek thoughts +respecting death and life. But underlying both these, and far more +mysterious, dreadful, and yet beautiful, there is the Greek conception +of _spiritual_ darkness; of the anger of fate, whether foredoomed or +avenging; the root and theme of all Greek tragedy; the anger of the +Erinnyes, and Demeter Erinnys, compared to which the anger either of +Apollo or Athena is temporary and partial:--and also, while Apollo or +Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the Eumenides is over the +whole life; so that in the stories of Bellerophon, of Hippolytus, of +Orestes, of Oedipus, you have an incomparably deeper shadow than any +that was possible to the thought of later ages, when the hope of the +Resurrection had become definite. And if you keep this in mind, you will +find every name and legend of the oldest history become full of meaning +to you. All the mythic accounts of Greek sculpture begin in the legends +of the family of Tantalus. The main one is the making of the ivory +shoulder of Pelops after Demeter has eaten the shoulder of flesh. With +that you have Broteas, the brother of Pelops, carving the first statue +of the mother of the gods; and you have his sister, Niobe, weeping +herself to stone under the anger of the deities of light. Then Pelops +himself, the dark-faced, gives name to the Peloponnesus, which you may +therefore read as the "isle of darkness;" but its central city, Sparta, +the "sown city," is connected with all the ideas of the earth as +life-giving. And from her you have Helen, the representative of light in +beauty, and the Fratres Helenae--"lucida sidera;" and, on the other side +of the hills, the brightness of Argos, with its correlative darkness +over the Atreidae, marked to you by Helios turning away his face from the +feast of Thyestes. + + +152. Then join with these the Northern legends connected with the air. +It does not matter whether you take Dorus as the son of Apollo or the +son of Helen; he equally symbolises the power of light: while his +brother, AEolus, through all his descendants, chiefly in Sisyphus, is +confused or associated with the real god of the winds, and represents to +you the power of the air. And then, as this conception enters into art, +you have the myths of Daedalus, the flight of Icarus, and the story of +Phrixus and Helle, giving you continual associations of the physical air +and light, ending in the power of Athena over Corinth as well as over +Athens. + +Now, once having the clue, you can work out the sequels for yourselves +better than I can for you; and you will soon find even the earliest or +slightest grotesques of Greek art become full of interest. For nothing +is more wonderful than the depth of meaning which nations in their first +days of thought, like children, can attach to the rudest symbols; and +what to us is grotesque or ugly, like a little child's doll, can speak +to them the loveliest things. I have brought you to-day a few more +examples of early Greek vase painting, respecting which remember +generally that its finest development is for the most part sepulchral. +You have, in the first period, always energy in the figures, light in +the sky or upon the figures;[13] in the second period, while the +conception of the divine power remains the same, it is thought of as in +repose, and the light is in the god, not in the sky; in the time of +decline, the divine power is gradually disbelieved, and all form and +light are lost together. With that period I wish you to have nothing to +do. You shall not have a single example of it set before you, but shall +rather learn to recognise afterwards what is base by its strangeness. +These, which are to come early in the third group of your Standard +series, will enough represent to you the elements of early and late +conception in the Greek mind of the deities of light. + +[Footnote 13: See Note in the Catalogue on No. 201.] + + +153. First (S. 204), you have Apollo ascending from the sea; thought of +as the physical sunrise: only a circle of light for his head; his +chariot horses, seen foreshortened, black against the day-break, their +feet not yet risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting from +the opposite side of the same vase: Athena as the morning breeze, and +Hermes as the morning cloud, flying across the waves before the sunrise. +At the distance I now hold them from you, it is scarcely possible for +you to see that they are figures at all, so like are they to broken +fragments of flying mist; and when you look close, you will see that as +Apollo's face is invisible in the circle of light, Mercury's is +invisible in the broken form of cloud: but I can tell you that it is +conceived as reverted, looking back to Athena; the grotesque appearance +of feature in the front is the outline of his hair. + +These two paintings are excessively rude, and of the archaic period; the +deities being yet thought of chiefly as physical powers in violent +agency. + +Underneath these two are Athena and Hermes, in the types attained about +the time of Phidias; but, of course, rudely drawn on the vase, and still +more rudely in this print from Le Normant and De Witte. For it is +impossible (as you will soon find if you try for yourself) to give on a +plane surface the grace of figures drawn on one of solid curvature, and +adapted to all its curves: and among other minor differences, Athena's +lance is in the original nearly twice as tall as herself, and has to be +cut short to come into the print at all. Still, there is enough here to +show you what I want you to see--the repose, and entirely realised +personality, of the deities as conceived in the Phidian period. The +relation of the two deities is, I believe, the same as in the painting +above, though probably there is another added of more definite kind. But +the physical meaning still remains--Athena unhelmeted, as the _gentle_ +morning wind, commanding the cloud Hermes to slow flight. His petasus is +slung at his back, meaning that the clouds are not yet opened or +expanded in the sky. + + +154. Next (S. 205), you have Athena, again unhelmeted and crowned with +leaves, walking between two nymphs, who are crowned also with leaves; +and all the three hold flowers in their hands, and there is a fawn +walking at Athena's feet. + +This is still Athena as the morning air, but upon the earth instead of +in the sky, with the nymphs of the dew beside her; the flowers and +leaves opening as they breathe upon them. Note the white gleam of light +on the fawn's breast; and compare it with the next following +examples:--(underneath this one is the contest of Athena and Poseidon, +which does not bear on our present subject). + +Next (S. 206), Artemis as the moon of morning, walking low on the hills, +and singing to her lyre; the fawn beside her, with the gleam of light +and sunrise on its ear and breast. Those of you who are often out in the +dawntime know that there is no moon so glorious as that gleaming +crescent, though in its wane, ascending _before_ the sun. + +Underneath, Artemis, and Apollo, of Phidian time. + +Next (S. 207), Apollo walking on the earth, god of the morning, singing +to his lyre; the fawn beside him, again with the gleam of light on its +breast. And underneath, Apollo, crossing the sea to Delphi, of the +Phidian time. + + +155. Now you cannot but be struck in these three examples with the +similarity of action in Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, drawn as deities of +the morning; and with the association in every case of the fawn with +them. It has been said (I will not interrupt you with authorities) that +the fawn belongs to Apollo and Diana because stags are sensitive to +music; (are they?). But you see the fawn is here with Athena of the dew, +though she has no lyre; and I have myself no doubt that in this +particular relation to the gods of morning it always stands as the +symbol of wavering and glancing motion on the ground, as well as of the +light and shadow through the leaves, chequering the ground as the fawn +is dappled. Similarly the spots on the nebris of Dionysus, thought of +sometimes as stars (+apo tes ton astron poikilias+, Diodorus, I. +11), as well as those of his panthers, and the cloudings of the +tortoise-shell of Hermes, are all significant of this light of the sky +broken by cloud-shadow. + + +156. You observe also that in all the three examples the fawn has light +on its ears, and face, as well as its breast. In the earliest Greek +drawings of animals, bars of white are used as one means of detaching +the figures from the ground; ordinarily on the under side of them, +marking the lighter colour of the hair in wild animals. But the placing +of this bar of white, or the direction of the face in deities of light, +(the faces and flesh of women being always represented as white,) may +become expressive of the direction of the light, when that direction is +important. Thus we are enabled at once to read the intention of this +Greek symbol of the course of a day (in the centre-piece of S. 208, +which gives you the types of Hermes). At the top you have an archaic +representation of Hermes stealing Io from Argus. Argus is here the +Night; his grotesque features monstrous; his hair overshadowing his +shoulders; Hermes on tip-toe, stealing upon him and taking the cord +which is fastened to the horn of Io out of his hand without his feeling +it. Then, underneath, you have the course of an entire day. Apollo +first, on the left, dark, entering his chariot, the sun not yet risen. +In front of him Artemis, as the moon, ascending before him, playing on +her lyre, and looking back to the sun. In the centre, behind the horses, +Hermes, as the cumulus cloud at mid-day, wearing his petasus heightened +to a cone, and holding a flower in his right hand; indicating the +nourishment of the flowers by the rain from the heat cloud. Finally, on +the right, Latona, going down as the evening, lighted from the right by +the sun, now sunk; and with her feet reverted, signifying the reluctance +of the departing day. + +Finally, underneath, you have Hermes of the Phidian period, as the +floating cumulus cloud, almost shapeless (as you see him at this +distance); with the tortoise-shell lyre in his hand, barred with black, +and a fleece of white cloud, not level but _oblique_, under his feet. +(Compare the "+dia ton koilon--plagiai+," and the relations of +the "+aigidos eniochos Athana+," with the clouds as the moon's +messengers, in Aristophanes; and note of Hermes generally, that you +never find him flying as a Victory flies, but always, if moving fast at +all, _clambering_ along, as it were, as a cloud gathers and heaps +itself: the Gorgons stretch and stride in their flight, half kneeling, +for the same reason, running or gliding shapelessly along in this +stealthy way.) + + +157. And now take this last illustration, of a very different kind. Here +is an effect of morning light by Turner (S. 301), on the rocks of +Otley-hill, near Leeds, drawn long ago, when Apollo, and Artemis, and +Athena, still sometimes were seen, and felt, even near Leeds. The +original drawing is one of the great Farnley series, and entirely +beautiful. I have shown, in the last volume of "Modern Painters," how +well Turner knew the meaning of Greek legends:--he was not thinking of +them, however, when he made this design; but, unintentionally, has given +us the very effect of morning light we want: the glittering of the +sunshine on dewy grass, half dark; and the narrow gleam of it on the +sides and head of the stag and hind. + + +158. These few instances will be enough to show you how we may read in +the early art of the Greeks their strong impressions of the power of +light. You will find the subject entered into at somewhat greater length +in my "Queen of the Air;" and if you will look at the beginning of the +7th book of Plato's "Polity," and read carefully the passages in the +context respecting the sun and intellectual sight, you will see how +intimately this physical love of light was connected with their +philosophy, in its search, as blind and captive, for better knowledge. I +shall not attempt to define for you to-day the more complex but much +shallower forms which this love of light, and the philosophy that +accompanies it, take in the mediaeval mind; only remember that in future, +when I briefly speak of the Greek school of art with reference to +questions of delineation, I mean the entire range of the schools, from +Homer's days to our own, which concern themselves with the +representation of light, and the effects it produces on material +form--beginning practically for us with these Greek vase paintings, and +closing practically for us with Turner's sunset on the Temeraire; being +throughout a school of captivity and sadness, but of intense power; and +which in its technical method of shadow on material form, as well as in +its essential temper, is centrally represented to you by Duerer's two +great engravings of the "Melencolia" and the "Knight and Death." On the +other hand, when I briefly speak to you of the Gothic school, with +reference to delineation, I mean the entire and much more extensive +range of schools extending from the earliest art in Central Asia and +Egypt down to our own day in India and China:--schools which have been +content to obtain beautiful harmonies of colour without any +representation of light; and which have, many of them, rested in such +imperfect expressions of form as could be so obtained; schools usually +in some measure childish, or restricted in intellect, and similarly +childish or restricted in their philosophies or faiths: but contented in +the restriction; and in the more powerful races, capable of advance to +nobler development than the Greek schools, though the consummate art of +Europe has only been accomplished by the union of both. How that union +was effected, I will endeavour to show you in my next lecture; to-day I +shall take note only of the points bearing on our immediate practice. + + +159. A certain number of you, by faculty and natural disposition,--and +all, so far as you are interested in modern art,--will necessarily have +to put yourselves under the discipline of the Greek or chiaroscuro +school, which is directed primarily to the attainment of the power of +representing form by pure contrast of light and shade. I say, the +"discipline" of the Greek school, both because, followed faithfully, it +is indeed a severe one, and because to follow it at all is, for persons +fond of colour, often a course of painful self-denial, from which young +students are eager to escape. And yet, when the laws of both schools are +rightly obeyed, the most perfect discipline is that of the colourists; +for they see and draw _everything_, while the chiaroscurists must leave +much indeterminate in mystery, or invisible in gloom: and there are +therefore many licentious and vulgar forms of art connected with the +chiaroscuro school, both in painting and etching, which have no parallel +among the colourists. But both schools, rightly followed, require first +of all absolute accuracy of delineation. _This_ you need not hope to +escape. Whether you fill your spaces with colours, or with shadows, they +must equally be of the true outline and in true gradations. I have been +thirty years telling modern students of art this in vain. I mean to say +it to you only once, for the statement is too important to be weakened +by repetition. + +WITHOUT PERFECT DELINEATION OF FORM AND PERFECT GRADATION OF SPACE, +NEITHER NOBLE COLOUR IS POSSIBLE, NOR NOBLE LIGHT. + + +160. It may make this more believable to you if I put beside each other +a piece of detail from each school. I gave you the St. John of Cima da +Conegliano for a type of the colour school. Here is my own study of the +sprays of oak which rise against the sky of it in the distance, enlarged +to about its real size (Edu. 12). I hope to draw it better for you at +Venice; but this will show you with what perfect care the colourist has +followed the outline of every leaf in the sky. Beside, I put a +chiaroscurist drawing (at least, a photograph of one), Duerer's from +nature, of the common wild wall-cabbage (Edu. 32). It is the most +perfect piece of delineation by flat tint I have ever seen, in its +mastery of the perspective of every leaf, and its attainment almost of +the bloom of texture, merely by its exquisitely tender and decisive +laying of the colour. These two examples ought, I think, to satisfy you +as to the precision of outline of both schools, and the power of +expression which may be obtained by flat tints laid within such outline. + + +161. Next, here are two examples of the gradated shading expressive of +the forms within the outline, by two masters of the chiaroscuro school. +The first (S. 12) shows you Lionardo's method of work, both with chalk +and the silver point. The second (S. 302), Turner's work in mezzotint; +both masters doing their best. Observe that this plate of Turner's, +which he worked on so long that it was never published, is of a subject +peculiarly depending on effects of mystery and concealment, the fall of +the Reuss under the Devil's Bridge on the St. Gothard; (the _old_ +bridge; you may still see it under the existing one, which was built +since Turner's drawing was made). If ever outline could be dispensed +with, you would think it might be so in this confusion of cloud, foam, +and darkness. But here is Turner's own etching on the plate (Edu. 35 F), +made under the mezzotint; and of all the studies of rock outline made by +his hand, it is the most decisive and quietly complete. + + +162. Again; in the Lionardo sketches, many parts are lost in obscurity, +or are left intentionally uncertain and mysterious, even in the light, +and you might at first imagine some permission of escape had been here +given you from the terrible law of delineation. But the slightest +attempts to copy them will show you that the terminal lines are +inimitably subtle, unaccusably true, and filled by gradations of shade +so determined and measured that the addition of a grain of the lead or +chalk as large as the filament of a moth's wing, would make an +appreciable difference in them. + +This is grievous, you think, and hopeless? No, it is delightful and full +of hope: delightful, to see what marvellous things can be done by men; +and full of hope, if your hope is the right one, of being one day able +to rejoice more in what others have done, than in what you can yourself +do, and more in the strength that is for ever above you, than in that +you can never attain. + + +163. But you can attain much, if you will work reverently and patiently, +and hope for no success through ill-regulated effort. It is, however, +most assuredly at this point of your study that the full strain on your +patience will begin. The exercises in line-drawing and flat laying of +colour are irksome; but they are definite, and within certain limits, +sure to be successful if practised with moderate care. But the +expression of form by shadow requires more subtle patience, and involves +the necessity of frequent and mortifying failure, not to speak of the +self-denial which I said was needful in persons fond of colour, to draw +in mere light and shade. If, indeed, you were going to be artists, or +could give any great length of time to study, it might be possible for +you to learn wholly in the Venetian school, and to reach form through +colour. But without the most intense application this is not possible; +and practically, it will be necessary for you, as soon as you have +gained the power of outlining accurately, and of laying flat colour, to +learn to express solid form as shown by light and shade only. And there +is this great advantage in doing so, that many forms are more or less +disguised by colour, and that we can only represent them completely to +others, or rapidly and easily record them for ourselves, by the use of +shade alone. A single instance will show you what I mean. Perhaps there +are few flowers of which the impression on the eye is more definitely of +flat colour, than the scarlet geranium. But you would find, if you were +to try to paint it,--first, that no pigment could approach the beauty of +its scarlet; and secondly, that the brightness of the hue dazzled the +eye, and prevented its following the real arrangement of the cluster of +flowers. I have drawn for you here (at least this is a mezzotint from my +drawing), a single cluster of the scarlet geranium, in mere light and +shade (Edu. 32 B.), and I think you will feel that its domed form, and +the flat lying of the petals one over the other, in the vaulted roof of +it, can be seen better thus than if they had been painted scarlet. + + +164. Also this study will be useful to you, in showing how entirely +effects of light depend on delineation, and gradation of spaces, and not +on methods of shading. And this is the second great practical matter I +want you to remember to-day. All effects of light and shade depend not +on the method or execution of shadows, but on their rightness of place, +form, and depth. There is indeed a loveliness of execution _added_ to +the rightness, by the great masters, but you cannot obtain that unless +you become one of them. Shadow cannot be laid thoroughly well, any more +than lines can be drawn steadily, but by a long-practised hand, and the +attempts to imitate the shading of fine draughtsmen, by dotting and +hatching, are just as ridiculous as it would be to endeavour to imitate +their instantaneous lines by a series of re-touchings. You will often +indeed see in Lionardo's work, and in Michael Angelo's, shadow wrought +laboriously to an extreme of fineness; but when you look into it, you +will find that they have always been drawing more and more form within +the space, and never finishing for the sake of added texture, but of +added fact. And all those effects of transparency and reflected light, +aimed at in common chalk drawings, are wholly spurious. For since, as I +told you, all lights are shades compared to higher lights, and lights +only as compared to lower ones, it follows that there can be no +difference in their quality as such; but that light is opaque when it +expresses substance, and transparent when it expresses space; and shade +is also opaque when it expresses substance, and transparent when it +expresses space. But it is not, even then, transparent in the common +sense of that word; nor is its appearance to be obtained by dotting or +cross hatching, but by touches so tender as to look like mist. And now +we find the use of having Lionardo for our guide. He is supreme in all +questions of execution, and in his 28th chapter, you will find that +shadows are to be "dolce e sfumose," to be tender, and look as if they +were exhaled, or breathed on the paper. Then, look at any of Michael +Angelo's finished drawings, or of Correggio's sketches, and you will see +that the true nurse of light is in art, as in nature, the cloud; a misty +and tender darkness, made lovely by gradation. + + +165. And how absolutely independent it is of material or method of +production, how absolutely dependent on rightness of place and +depth,--there are now before you instances enough to prove. Here is +Duerer's work in flat colour, represented by the photograph in its smoky +brown; Turner's, in washed sepia, and in mezzotint; Lionardo's, in +pencil and in chalk; on the screen in front of you a large study in +charcoal. In every one of these drawings, the material of shadow is +absolutely opaque. But photograph-stain, chalk, lead, ink, or +charcoal,--every one of them, laid by the master's hand, becomes full of +light by gradation only. Here is a moonlight (Edu. 31 B.), in which you +would think the moon shone through every cloud; yet the clouds are mere +single dashes of sepia, imitated by the brown stain of a photograph; +similarly, in these plates from the Liber Studiorum the white paper +becomes transparent or opaque, exactly as the master chooses. Here, on +the granite rock of the St. Gothard (S. 302), in white paper made +opaque, every light represents solid bosses of rock, or balls of foam. +But in this study of twilight (S. 303), the same white paper (coarse old +stuff it is, too!) is made as transparent as crystal, and every fragment +of it represents clear and far away light in the sky of evening in +Italy. + +From all which the practical conclusion for you is, that you are never +to trouble yourselves with any questions as to the means of shade or +light, but only with the right government of the means at your disposal. +And it is a most grave error in the system of many of our public +drawing-schools, that the students are permitted to spend weeks of +labour in giving attractive appearance, by delicacy of texture, to +chiaroscuro drawings in which every form is false, and every relation of +depth, untrue. A most unhappy form of error; for it not only delays, and +often wholly arrests, their advance in their own art; but it prevents +what ought to take place correlatively with their executive practice, +the formation of their taste by the accurate study of the models from +which they draw. And I must so far anticipate what we shall discover +when we come to the subject of sculpture, as to tell you the two main +principles of good sculpture; first, that its masters think before all +other matters of the right placing of masses; secondly, that they give +life by flexure of surface, not by quantity of detail; for sculpture is +indeed only light and shade drawing in stone. + + +166. Much that I have endeavoured to teach on this subject has been +gravely misunderstood, by both young painters and sculptors, especially +by the latter. Because I am always urging them to imitate organic forms, +they think if they carve quantities of flowers and leaves, and copy them +from the life, they have done all that is needed. But the difficulty is +not to carve quantities of leaves. Anybody can do that. The difficulty +is, never anywhere to have an _unnecessary_ leaf. Over the arch on the +right, you see there is a cluster of seven, with their short stalks +springing from a thick stem. Now, you could not turn one of those leaves +a hair's-breadth out of its place, nor thicken one of their stems, nor +alter the angle at which each slips over the next one, without spoiling +the whole as much as you would a piece of melody by missing a note. That +is disposition of masses. Again, in the group on the left, while the +placing of every leaf is just as skilful, they are made more interesting +yet by the lovely undulation of their surfaces, so that not one of them +is in equal light with another. And that is so in all good sculpture, +without exception. From the Elgin marbles down to the lightest tendril +that curls round a capital in the thirteenth century, every piece of +stone that has been touched by the hand of a master, becomes soft with +under-life, not resembling nature merely in skin-texture, nor in fibres +of leaf, or veins of flesh; but in the broad, tender, unspeakably subtle +undulation of its organic form. + + +167. Returning then to the question of our own practice, I believe that +all difficulties in method will vanish, if only you cultivate with care +enough the habit of accurate observation, and if you think only of +making your light and shade true, whether it be delicate or not. But +there are three divisions or degrees of truth to be sought for, in light +and shade, by three several modes of study, which I must ask you to +distinguish carefully. + +I. When objects are lighted by the direct rays of the sun, or by direct +light entering from a window, one side of them is of course in light, +the other in shade, and the forms in the mass are exhibited +systematically by the force of the rays falling on it; (those having +most power of illumination which strike most vertically;) and note that +there is, therefore, to every solid curvature of surface, a necessarily +proportioned gradation of light, the gradation on a parabolic solid +being different from the gradation on an elliptical or spherical one. +Now, when your purpose is to represent and learn the anatomy, or +otherwise characteristic forms, of any object, it is best to place it in +this kind of direct light, and to draw it as it is seen when we look at +it in a direction at right angles to that of the ray. This is the +ordinary academical way of studying form. Lionardo seldom practises any +other in his real work, though he directs many others in his treatise. + + +168. The great importance of anatomical knowledge to the painters of the +sixteenth century rendered this method of study very frequent with them; +it almost wholly regulated their schools of engraving, and has been the +most frequent system of drawing in art-schools since (to the very +inexpedient exclusion of others). When you study objects in this +way,--and it will indeed be well to do so often, though not +exclusively,--observe always one main principle. Divide the light from +the darkness frankly at first: all over the subject let there be no +doubt which is which. Separate them one from the other as they are +separated in the moon, or on the world itself, in day and night. Then +gradate your lights with the utmost subtilty possible to you; but let +your shadows alone, until near the termination of the drawing: then put +quickly into them what farther energy they need, thus gaining the +reflected lights out of their original flat gloom; but generally not +looking much for reflected lights. Nearly all young students (and too +many advanced masters) exaggerate them. It is good to see a drawing come +out of its ground like a vision of light only; the shadows lost, or +disregarded in the vague of space. In vulgar chiaroscuro the shades are +so full of reflection that they look as if some one had been walking +round the object with a candle, and the student, by that help, peering +into its crannies. + + +169. II. But, in the reality of nature, very few objects are seen in +this accurately lateral manner, or lighted by unconfused direct rays. +Some are all in shadow, some all in light, some near, and vigorously +defined; others dim and faint in aerial distance. The study of these +various effects and forces of light, which we may call aerial +chiaroscuro, is a far more subtle one than that of the rays exhibiting +organic form (which for distinction's sake we may call "formal" +chiaroscuro), since the degrees of light from the sun itself to the +blackness of night, are far beyond any literal imitation. In order to +produce a mental impression of the facts, two distinct methods may be +followed:--the first, to shade downwards from the lights, making +everything darker in due proportion, until the scale of our power being +ended, the mass of the picture is lost in shade. The second, to assume +the points of extreme darkness for a basis, and to light everything +above these in due proportion, till the mass of the picture is lost in +light. + + +170. Thus, in Turner's sepia drawing "Isis" (Edu. 31), he begins with +the extreme light in the sky, and shades down from that till he is +forced to represent the near trees and pool as one mass of blackness. In +his drawing of the Greta (S. 2), he begins with the dark brown shadow of +the bank on the left, and illuminates up from that, till, in his +distance, trees, hills, sky, and clouds, are all lost in broad light, so +that you can hardly see the distinction between hills and sky. The +second of these methods is in general the best for colour, though great +painters unite both in their practice, according to the character of +their subject. The first method is never pursued in colour but by +inferior painters. It is, nevertheless, of great importance to make +studies of chiaroscuro in this first manner for some time, as a +preparation for colouring; and this for many reasons, which it would +take too long to state now. I shall expect you to have confidence in me +when I assure you of the necessity of this study, and ask you to make +good use of the examples from the Liber Studiorum which I have placed in +your Educational series. + + +171. III. Whether in formal or aerial chiaroscuro, it is optional with +the student to make the local colour of objects a part of his shadow, or +to consider the high lights of every colour as white. For instance, a +chiaroscurist of Lionardo's school, drawing a leopard, would take no +notice whatever of the spots, but only give the shadows which expressed +the anatomy. And it is indeed necessary to be able to do this, and to +make drawings of the forms of things as if they were sculptured, and had +no colour. But in general, and more especially in the practice which is +to guide you to colour, it is better to regard the local colour as part +of the general dark and light to be imitated; and, as I told you at +first, to consider all nature merely as a mosaic of different colours, +to be imitated one by one in simplicity. But good artists vary their +methods according to their subject and material. In general, Duerer takes +little account of local colour; but in woodcuts of armorial bearings +(one with peacock's feathers I shall get for you some day) takes great +delight in it; while one of the chief merits of Bewick is the ease and +vigour with which he uses his black and white for the colours of plumes. +Also, every great artist looks for, and expresses, that character of his +subject which is best to be rendered by the instrument in his hand, and +the material he works on. Give Velasquez or Veronese a leopard to paint, +the first thing they think of will be its spots; give it to Duerer to +engrave, and he will set himself at the fur and whiskers; give it a +Greek to carve, and he will only think of its jaws and limbs; each doing +what is absolutely best with the means at his disposal. + + +172. The details of practice in these various methods I will endeavour +to explain to you by distinct examples in your Educational series, as we +proceed in our work; for the present, let me, in closing, recommend to +you once more with great earnestness the patient endeavour to render the +chiaroscuro of landscape in the manner of the Liber Studiorum; and this +the rather, because you might easily suppose that the facility of +obtaining photographs which render such effects, as it seems, with +absolute truth and with unapproachable subtilty, superseded the +necessity of study, and the use of sketching. Let me assure you, once +for all, that photographs supersede no single quality nor use of fine +art, and have so much in common with Nature, that they even share her +temper of parsimony, and will themselves give you nothing valuable that +you do not work for. They supersede no good art, for the definition of +art is "human labour regulated by human design," and this design, or +evidence of active intellect in choice and arrangement, is the +essential part of the work; which so long as you cannot perceive, you +perceive no art whatsoever; which when once you do perceive, you will +perceive also to be replaceable by no mechanism. But, farther, +photographs will give you nothing you do not work for. They are +invaluable for record of some kinds of facts, and for giving transcripts +of drawings by great masters; but neither in the photographed scene, nor +photographed drawing, will you see any true good, more than in the +things themselves, until you have given the appointed price in your own +attention and toil. And when once you have paid this price, you will not +care for photographs of landscape. They are not true, though they seem +so. They are merely spoiled nature. If it is not human design you are +looking for, there is more beauty in the next wayside bank than in all +the sun-blackened paper you could collect in a lifetime. Go and look at +the real landscape, and take care of it; do not think you can get the +good of it in a black stain portable in a folio. But if you care for +human thought and passion, then learn yourselves to watch the course and +fall of the light by whose influence you live, and to share in the joy +of human spirits in the heavenly gifts of sunbeam and shade. For I tell +you truly, that to a quiet heart, and healthy brain, and industrious +hand, there is more delight, and use, in the dappling of one wood-glade +with flowers and sunshine, than to the restless, heartless, and idle +could be brought by a panorama of a belt of the world, photographed +round the equator. + + + + +LECTURE VII + +COLOUR + + +173. To-day I must try to complete our elementary sketch of schools of +art, by tracing the course of those which were distinguished by faculty +of colour, and afterwards to deduce from the entire scheme advisable +methods of immediate practice. + +You remember that, for the type of the early schools of colour, I chose +their work in glass; as for that of the early schools of chiaroscuro, I +chose their work in clay. + +I had two reasons for this. First, that the peculiar skill of colourists +is seen most intelligibly in their work in glass or in enamel; secondly, +that Nature herself produces all her loveliest colours in some kind of +solid or liquid glass or crystal. The rainbow is painted on a shower of +melted glass, and the colours of the opal are produced in vitreous flint +mixed with water; the green and blue, and golden or amber brown of +flowing water is in surface glassy, and in motion "splendidior vitro." +And the loveliest colours ever granted to human sight--those of morning +and evening clouds before or after rain--are produced on minute +particles of finely-divided water, or perhaps sometimes ice. But more +than this. If you examine with a lens some of the richest colours of +flowers, as, for instance, those of the gentian and dianthus, you will +find their texture is produced by a crystalline or sugary frost-work +upon them. In the lychnis of the high Alps, the red and white have a +kind of sugary bloom, as rich as it is delicate. It is indescribable; +but if you can fancy very powdery and crystalline snow mixed with the +softest cream, and then dashed with carmine, it may give you some idea +of the look of it. There are no colours, either in the nacre of shells, +or the plumes of birds and insects, which are so pure as those of +clouds, opal, or flowers; but the _force_ of purple and blue in some +butterflies, and the methods of clouding, and strength of burnished +lustre, in plumage like the peacock's, give them more universal +interest; in some birds, also, as in our own kingfisher, the colour +nearly reaches a floral preciousness. The lustre in most, however, is +metallic rather than vitreous; and the vitreous always gives the purest +hue. Entirely common and vulgar compared with these, yet to be noticed +as completing the crystalline or vitreous system, we have the colours of +gems. The green of the emerald is the best of these; but at its best is +as vulgar as house-painting beside the green of bird's plumage or of +clear water. No diamond shows colour so pure as a dewdrop; the ruby is +like the pink of an ill-dyed and half-washed-out print, compared to the +dianthus; and the carbuncle is usually quite dead unless set with a +foil, and even then is not prettier than the seed of a pomegranate. The +opal is, however, an exception. When pure and uncut in its native rock, +it presents the most lovely colours that can be seen in the world, +except those of clouds. + +We have thus in nature, chiefly obtained by crystalline conditions, a +series of groups of entirely delicious hues; and it is one of the best +signs that the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see these +clearly in their most delicate tints, and enjoy them fully and simply, +with the kind of enjoyment that children have in eating sweet things. + + +174. Now, the course of our main colour schools is briefly this:--First +we have, returning to our hexagonal scheme, line; then _spaces_ filled +with pure colour; and then _masses_ expressed or rounded with pure +colour. And during these two stages the masters of colour delight in the +purest tints, and endeavour as far as possible to rival those of opals +and flowers. In saying "the purest tints," I do not mean the simplest +types of red, blue, and yellow, but the most pure tints obtainable by +their combinations. + + +175. You remember I told you, when the colourists painted masses or +projecting spaces, they, aiming always at colour, perceived from the +first and held to the last the fact that shadows, though of course +darker than the lights with reference to which they _are_ shadows, are +not therefore necessarily less vigorous colours, but perhaps more +vigorous. Some of the most beautiful blues and purples in nature, for +instance, are those of mountains in shadow against amber sky; and the +darkness of the hollow in the centre of a wild rose is one glow of +orange fire, owing to the quantity of its yellow stamens. Well, the +Venetians always saw this, and all great colourists see it, and are thus +separated from the non-colourists or schools of mere chiaroscuro, not by +difference in style merely, but by being right while the others are +wrong. It is an absolute fact that shadows are as much colours as lights +are; and whoever represents them by merely the subdued or darkened tint +of the light, represents them falsely. I particularly want you to +observe that this is no matter of taste, but fact. If you are especially +sober-minded, you may indeed choose sober colours where Venetians would +have chosen gay ones; that is a matter of taste; you may think it proper +for a hero to wear a dress without patterns on it, rather than an +embroidered one; that is similarly a matter of taste: but, though you +may also think it would be dignified for a hero's limbs to be all black, +or brown, on the shaded side of them, yet, if you are using colour at +all, you cannot so have him to your mind, except by falsehood; he never, +under any circumstances, could be entirely black or brown on one side of +him. + + +176. In this, then, the Venetians are separate from other schools by +rightness, and they are so to their last days. Venetian painting is in +this matter always right. But also, in their early days, the colourists +are separated from other schools by their contentment with tranquil +cheerfulness of light: by their never wanting to be dazzled. None of +their lights are flashing or blinding; they are soft, winning, precious; +lights of pearl, not of lime: only, you know, on this condition they +cannot have sunshine: their day is the day of Paradise; they need no +candle, neither light of the sun, in their cities; and everything is +seen clear, as through crystal, far or near. + +This holds to the end of the fifteenth century. Then they begin to see +that this, beautiful as it may be, is still a make-believe light; that +we do not live in the inside of a pearl; but in an atmosphere through +which a burning sun shines thwartedly, and over which a sorrowful night +must far prevail. And then the chiaroscurists succeed in persuading them +of the fact that there is a mystery in the day as in the night, and show +them how constantly to see truly, is to see dimly. And also they teach +them the brilliancy of light, and the degree in which it is raised from +the darkness; and instead of their sweet and pearly peace, tempt them to +look for the strength of flame and coruscation of lightning, and flash +of sunshine on armour and on points of spears. + + +177. The noble painters take the lesson nobly, alike for gloom or flame. +Titian with deliberate strength, Tintoret with stormy passion, read it, +side by side. Titian deepens the hues of his Assumption, as of his +Entombment, into a solemn twilight; Tintoret involves his earth in coils +of volcanic cloud, and withdraws, through circle flaming above circle, +the distant light of Paradise. Both of them, becoming naturalist and +human, add the veracity of Holbein's intense portraiture to the glow and +dignity they had themselves inherited from the Masters of Peace: at the +same moment another, as strong as they, and in pure felicity of +art-faculty, even greater than they, but trained in a lower +school,--Velasquez,--produced the miracles of colour and +shadow-painting, which made Reynolds say of him, "What we all do with +labour, he does with ease;" and one more, Correggio, uniting the sensual +element of the Greek schools with their gloom, and their light with +their beauty, and all these with the Lombardic colour, became, as since +I think it has been admitted without question, the captain of the +painter's art as such. Other men have nobler or more numerous gifts, but +as a painter, master of the art of laying colour so as to be lovely, +Correggio is alone. + + +178. I said the noble men learned their lesson nobly. The base men also, +and necessarily, learn it basely. The great men rise from colour to +sunlight. The base ones fall from colour to candlelight. To-day, "non +ragioniam di lor," but let us see what this great change which perfects +the art of painting mainly consists in, and means. For though we are +only at present speaking of technical matters, every one of them, I can +scarcely too often repeat, is the outcome and sign of a mental +character, and you can only understand the folds of the veil, by those +of the form it veils. + + +179. The complete painters, we find, have brought dimness and mystery +into their method of colouring. That means that the world all round them +has resolved to dream, or to believe, no more; but to know, and to see. +And instantly all knowledge and sight are given, no more as in the +Gothic times, through a window of glass, brightly, but as through a +telescope-glass, darkly. Your cathedral window shut you from the true +sky, and illumined you with a vision; your telescope leads you to the +sky, but darkens its light, and reveals nebula beyond nebula, far and +farther, and to no conceivable farthest--unresolvable. That is what the +mystery means. + + +180. Next, what does that Greek opposition of black and white mean? + +In the sweet crystalline time of colour, the painters, whether on glass +or canvas, employed intricate patterns, in order to mingle hues +beautifully with each other, and make one perfect melody of them all. +But in the great naturalist school, they like their patterns to come in +the Greek way, dashed dark on light,--gleaming light out of dark. That +means also that the world round them has again returned to the Greek +conviction, that all nature, especially human nature, is not entirely +melodious nor luminous; but a barred and broken thing: that saints have +their foibles, sinners their forces; that the most luminous virtue is +often only a flash, and the blackest-looking fault is sometimes only a +stain: and, without confusing in the least black with white, they can +forgive, or even take delight in things that are like the [Greek: +nebris], dappled. + + +181. You have then--first, mystery. Secondly, opposition of dark and +light. Then, lastly, whatever truth of form the dark and light can show. + +That is to say, truth altogether, and resignation to it, and quiet +resolve to make the best of it. And therefore portraiture of living men, +women, and children,--no more of saints, cherubs, or demons. So here I +have brought for your standards of perfect art, a little maiden of the +Strozzi family, with her dog, by Titian; and a little princess of the +house of Savoy, by Vandyke; and Charles the Fifth, by Titian; and a +queen, by Velasquez; and an English girl in a brocaded gown, by +Reynolds; and an English physician in his plain coat, and wig, by +Reynolds: and if you do not like them, I cannot help myself, for I can +find nothing better for you. + + +182. Better?--I must pause at the word. Nothing stronger, certainly, nor +so strong. Nothing so wonderful, so inimitable, so keen in unprejudiced +and unbiassed sight. + +Yet better, perhaps, the sight that was guided by a sacred will; the +power that could be taught to weaker hands; the work that was faultless, +though not inimitable, bright with felicity of heart, and consummate in +a disciplined and companionable skill. You will find, when I can place +in your hands the notes on Verona, which I read at the Royal +Institution, that I have ventured to call the aera of painting +represented by John Bellini, the time "of the Masters." Truly they +deserved the name, who did nothing but what was lovely, and taught only +what was right. These mightier, who succeeded them, crowned, but closed, +the dynasties of art, and since their day, painting has never flourished +more. + + +183. There were many reasons for this, without fault of theirs. They +were exponents, in the first place, of the change in all men's minds +from civil and religious to merely domestic passion; the love of their +gods and their country had contracted itself now into that of their +domestic circle, which was little more than the halo of themselves. You +will see the reflection of this change in painting at once by comparing +the two Madonnas (S. 37, John Bellini's, and Raphael's, called "della +Seggiola"). Bellini's Madonna cares for all creatures through her child; +Raphael's, for her child only. + +Again, the world round these painters had become sad and proud, instead +of happy and humble;--its domestic peace was darkened by irreligion, its +national action fevered by pride. And for sign of its Love, the Hymen, +whose statue this fair English girl, according to Reynolds' thought, has +to decorate (S. 43), is blind, and holds a coronet. + +Again, in the splendid power of realisation, which these greatest of +artists had reached, there was the latent possibility of amusement by +deception, and of excitement by sensualism. And Dutch trickeries of base +resemblance, and French fancies of insidious beauty, soon occupied the +eyes of the populace of Europe, too restless and wretched now to care +for the sweet earth-berries and Madonna's ivy of Cima, and too ignoble +to perceive Titian's colour, or Correggio's shade. + + +184. Enough sources of evil were here, in the temper and power of the +consummate art. In its practical methods there was another, the +fatallest of all. These great artists brought with them mystery, +despondency, domesticity, sensuality: of all these, good came, as well +as evil. One thing more they brought, of which nothing but evil ever +comes, or can come--LIBERTY. + +By the discipline of five hundred years they had learned and inherited +such power, that whereas all former painters could be right only by +effort, they could be right with ease; and whereas all former painters +could be right only under restraint, they could be right, free. +Tintoret's touch, Luini's, Correggio's, Reynolds', and Velasquez's, are +all as free as the air, and yet right. "How very fine!" said everybody. +Unquestionably, very fine. Next, said everybody, "What a grand +discovery! Here is the finest work ever done, and it is quite free. Let +us all be free then, and what fine things shall we not do also!" With +what results we too well know. + +Nevertheless, remember you are to delight in the freedom won by these +mighty men through obedience, though you are not to covet it. Obey, and +you also shall be free in time; but in these minor things, as well as in +great, it is only right service which is perfect freedom. + + +185. This, broadly, is the history of the early and late colour-schools. +The first of these I shall call generally, henceforward, the school of +crystal; the other that of clay: potter's clay, or human, are too +sorrowfully the same, as far as art is concerned. But remember, in +practice, you cannot follow both these schools; you must distinctly +adopt the principles of one or the other. I will put the means of +following either within your reach; and according to your dispositions +you will choose one or the other: all I have to guard you against is the +mistake of thinking you can unite the two. If you want to paint (even in +the most distant and feeble way) in the Greek School, the school of +Lionardo, Correggio, and Turner, you cannot design coloured windows, nor +Angelican paradises. If, on the other hand, you choose to live in the +peace of paradise, you cannot share in the gloomy triumphs of the earth. + + +186. And, incidentally note, as a practical matter of immediate +importance, that painted windows have nothing to do with +chiaroscuro.[14] The virtue of glass is to be transparent everywhere. If +you care to build a palace of jewels, painted glass is richer than all +the treasures of Aladdin's lamp; but if you like pictures better than +jewels, you must come into broad daylight to paint them. A picture in +coloured glass is one of the most vulgar of barbarisms, and only fit to +be ranked with the gauze transparencies and chemical illuminations of +the sensational stage. + +[Footnote 14: There is noble chiaroscuro in the variations of their +colour, but not as representative of solid form.] + +Also, put out of your minds at once all question about difficulty of +getting colour; in glass we have all the colours that are wanted, only +we do not know either how to choose, or how to connect them; and we are +always trying to get them bright, when their real virtues are to be +deep, mysterious, and subdued. We will have a thorough study of painted +glass soon: mean while I merely give you a type of its perfect style, in +two windows from Chalons-sur-Marne (S. 141). + + +187. But for my own part, with what poor gift and skill is in me, I +belong wholly to the chiaroscurist school; and shall teach you therefore +chiefly that which I am best able to teach: and the rather, that it is +only in this school that you can follow out the study either of natural +history or landscape. The form of a wild animal, or the wrath of a +mountain torrent, would both be revolting (or in a certain sense +invisible) to the calm fantasy of a painter in the schools of crystal. +He must lay his lion asleep in St. Jerome's study beside his tame +partridge and easy slippers; lead the appeased river by alternate azure +promontories, and restrain its courtly little streamlets with margins of +marble. But, on the other hand, your studies of mythology and literature +may best be connected with these schools of purest and calmest +imagination; and their discipline will be useful to you in yet another +direction, and that a very important one. It will teach you to take +delight in little things, and develop in you the joy which all men +should feel in purity and order, not only in pictures but in reality. +For, indeed, the best art of this school of fantasy may at last be in +reality, and the chiaroscurists, true in ideal, may be less helpful in +act. We cannot arrest sunsets nor carve mountains, but we may turn every +English homestead, if we choose, into a picture by Cima or John Bellini, +which shall be "no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life +indeed." + + +188. For the present, however, and yet for some little time during your +progress, you will not have to choose your school. For both, as we have +seen, begin in delineation, and both proceed by filling flat spaces +with an even tint. And therefore this following will be the course of +work for you, founded on all that we have seen. + +Having learned to measure, and draw a pen line with some steadiness (the +geometrical exercises for this purpose being properly school, not +University work), you shall have a series of studies from the plants +which are of chief importance in the history of art; first from their +real forms, and then from the conventional and heraldic expressions of +them; then we will take examples of the filling of ornamental forms with +flat colour in Egyptian, Greek, and Gothic design; and then we will +advance to animal forms treated in the same severe way, and so to the +patterns and colour designs on animals themselves. And when we are sure +of our firmness of hand and accuracy of eye, we will go on into light +and shade. + + +189. In process of time, this series of exercises will, I hope, be +sufficiently complete and systematic to show its purpose at a glance. +But during the present year, I shall content myself with placing a few +examples of these different kinds of practice in your rooms for work, +explaining in the catalogue the position they will ultimately occupy, +and the technical points of process into which it is useless to enter in +a general lecture. After a little time spent in copying these, your own +predilections must determine your future course of study; only remember, +whatever school you follow, it must be only to learn method, not to +imitate result, and to acquaint yourself with the minds of other men, +but not to adopt them as your own. Be assured that no good can come of +our work but as it arises simply out of our own true natures, and the +necessities of the time around us, though in many respects an evil one. +We live in an age of base conceit and baser servility--an age whose +intellect is chiefly formed by pillage, and occupied in desecration; one +day mimicking, the next destroying, the works of all the noble persons +who made its intellectual or art life possible to it:--an age without +honest confidence enough in itself to carve a cherry-stone with an +original fancy, but with insolence enough to abolish the solar system, +if it were allowed to meddle with it.[15] In the midst of all this, you +have to become lowly and strong; to recognise the powers of others and +to fulfil your own. I shall try to bring before you every form of +ancient art, that you may read and profit by it, not imitate it. You +shall draw Egyptian kings dressed in colours like the rainbow, and Doric +gods, and Runic monsters, and Gothic monks--not that you may draw like +Egyptians or Norsemen, nor yield yourselves passively to be bound by the +devotion, or inspired by the passion of the past, but that you may know +truly what other men have felt during their poor span of life; and open +your own hearts to what the heavens and earth may have to tell you in +yours. + +[Footnote 15: Every day these bitter words become more sorrowfully true +(September, 1887).] + + +190. In closing this first course of lectures, I have one word more to +say respecting the possible consequence of the introduction of art among +the studies of the University. What art may do for scholarship, I have +no right to conjecture; but what scholarship may do for art, I may in +all modesty tell you. Hitherto, great artists, though always gentlemen, +have yet been too exclusively craftsmen. Art has been less thoughtful +than we suppose; it has taught much, but erred much, also. Many of the +greatest pictures are enigmas; others, beautiful toys; others, harmful +and corrupting enchantments. In the loveliest, there is something weak; +in the greatest, there is something guilty. And this, gentlemen, if you +will, is the new thing that may come to pass,--that the scholars of +England may resolve to teach also with the silent power of the arts; and +that some among you may so learn and use them, that pictures may be +painted which shall not be enigmas any more, but open teachings of what +can no otherwise be so well shown;--which shall not be fevered or broken +visions any more, but filled with the indwelling light of self-possessed +imagination;--which shall not be stained or enfeebled any more by evil +passion, but glorious with the strength and chastity of noble human +love;--and which shall no more degrade or disguise the work of God in +heaven, but testify of Him as here dwelling with men, and walking with +them, not angry, in the garden of the earth. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Art, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON ART *** + +***** This file should be named 19164.txt or 19164.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/6/19164/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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