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Leader (1850-1860), 27th December 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1239, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Critics are not thelegislatora , but the judges an . a police of literature . They do not makS lawa-they interpret and try to QrifoTce them . —Edinburgh JtJvilw .

      ¦ ¦ . - ... - . ¦ ?—— . ¦ ¦ .- . ¦ . The Lecture delivered by Owen Joses before the ' - Royal Institute of British Architects on the 15 th inst . is now before us , and we : can welL understand the admiration its masterly exposition of the principles of . ornamentation excited . The Lecture is an abstract from the magnificent work just completed by him on The Grammar of Ornament ,- and its ' object is to point out those principles which have lit all ages guided the artists to success ; and not to propose any model for imitation . As he well says : — - Ornament , with every people , precedes the development of every other form of Art . Architecture , one of the earliest , adopts ornament , does not create it . As we find that to ornament is , with every people , one . " of the first natural instincts ; so we shall find , that in the exercise of this instinct they could not do otherwise than follow natural laws .

      The ornament of a savage , being the result of a natural instinct , is necessarily always true to its purpose ; whilst in much of the ornament of civilized nations , the first impulse which generated certain received forms being enfeebled by constant repetition , the ornament is oftentimes misapplied . And instead of first making the most convenient form , and adding beauty , all beauty is destroyed , because all fitness , by ' superaddiug ornament to ill-contrived form . If we would return to a more healthy condition , we must even be as little children , or as savages : wxj must get rid of the acquired and artificial , . and return to and develop our natural instincts . It has been his object to bring into immediate juxtaposition many'formsof beauty which every style presents , and , by so doing , Aid iii ' arresting that unfortunate tendency of our time to be content with copying , whilst tlie fashion lasts , the forms peculiar to any bygone age , without an endeavour to ascertain , generally completely . ignoring , the peculiar circumstances which rendered an ornament beautiful , because it was appropriate , and which , as expressive of other ¦ wants , when thus transplanted , as entirely fails .

      Certain general canons are laid down and illustrated , e . g ., the canon of Beauty , which he defines as resulting " from that repose which the mind feels when the eye , the intellect , and the affections are ; satisfied from the absence of any want ; " or that of Decoration , " . ¦ When an ornament is constructed ftilsely , appearing to give support which it does not , it fails to engender the feeling of repose by neglecting to satisfy the intellect , however much its beauty and other charms may appeal to the eye and the affections . " And he adds : — If we examine the leaf of a plant or a tree , we shall find that , independently of the beauty of the general form , there is another beauty which arises from the exquisite way in which all the lines on the surface are distributed over its area .

      However varied the general outline of the leaf , it will be found to be arranged in masse ? , the areas of which always diminish , in regular proportion . Up the centre of each mass is a ¦ main sap-feeder ; and as the object clearly is to distribute the sap to the extremities of the leaf in the readiest way , however varied the form , the main sap-feeders will divide the masses into pi-opor ' tionatc areas . Every portion of these spaces is again subdivided in the same way ; . with , such perfection ,-that the skeleton of a disricctcd leaf presents the appearance of a series of graduated tints in which there is no break . Now wo shall find in all decorative ornament of the best period that this natural law has been instinctively obeyed , not only in the distribution of form on the individual ornament , but also in the general arrangement of a group , and we therefore venture to lay down as nn axiom that , in the composition of ornament , —

      The general forms should be first cared for ; these should be subdivided and . ornamented by general lines ; the interstices may then bo filled in with ornament , which may again be subdivided and enriched for closer inspection . Wo can only squeeze in one more passage : — All junctions of curved lines with curved , or of curved lines with straight , should be tangential to each other . Nature is said to abhor a vacuum . ; it may equally be said she abhors nn angle ; In the whole ranpeo of her vegetable productions it will be impossible to find a line butting on another line , every branch of a tree , every stem of a leaf , every vein upon the leaf , is always softened at the point of junction with another by a re-entering curve . This also is a natural law universally obeyed in the best periods of art , equally violated when art declines . It is always present in Greek ornament , often absent in the ornament of Pompeii .

      Another universal law which may be recugnized in every work of nature , and whicli should be observed in every assemblage of forms , as Avell as in each simple ornament , is , that whenever wo recognize perfect harmony in any composition , it will bo found that the straight , the inclined , and the curved , are properly balanced and contrasted . AVhcn any of these forms are wanting , the eye is as much disturbed by an unsatisfied want as when , looking on any composition of colours , any one of the three primaries is absent . In all the geometrical patterns of the Egyptians and nil the Mohammedan races this i * especially fared for , as well as by the Greek and by the Gothic architects in all their structures . It is daily and hourly neglected in modern times . It is one of the most serious faults in the decorations of the interiors of houses , and absolutely fatal in articles of costume , where lines are constantly running in one direction uncorreeted , and as constantly tending to destroy the repose of tlic forma which they arc designed to decorate and develop .

      Untitled Article

      From the ornamentation of Buildings to that of Books' is but a step . How enormously tho tendency to ornament books has increased of late years , everyone knows ; just , ns tho drama is overdone with scenery and ' getting up , 'literature is overdone with engravings ; >» l ) Otu cases the appeal is made to our lower faculties instead of to our higher faculties ; in both cases a good thing is made injurious to a better . We admit , the charm of scenic splendour smd of illustrated books ., but wo , think both constantly misapplied . A work of high literature sutlers greatly IVom the intrusion of illustrations . Yet there " arc works in which illustrations do really illustrate—in "Which they are u ' uU to tho clearer understanding of the text . Alt scientific , iwcliaaologioul , or descriptive works belong to this class . A portrait ot an Albaninn , a Hottentot , or a Greek , conveys more accurate conceptions than

      any description ; a representation of an animal , an apparatus , or a building , will greatly facilitate the reader ' s conception of what the author means ; but when Bbowu forces his bad drawing on us for Juliet , or Mttggbridge represents Macbeth , when Smith illustrates Miltok , and Tomkdss is bound tip with Tennyson , engravings are eyesores . So much of general protest . Granted , however , that illustrations are valuable , and considering , moreover ., that the present expense of illustrations makes them infrequent in precisely those departments when they

      would be most valuable , we cannot but regard Signor Devtncbnzi ' s discovery of Eleetrography as a great boon . By it these two immense advantages are obtained : —1 st , That the artist ' s own drawing is engraved , his owii touches , his own felicities ; no engraver comes between him and his work , to alter , and often to spoil it ; no stubborn material , like wood , refuses to render the delicate effects he has produced : whatever he can do , be finds reproduced in the engraving . 2 ndly , The astonishing cheapness of production , and the rapidity with which copies can be multiplied . These two cardinal points will , we have no doubt , secure Sijmor Devmtcenzi

      extensive employment , touching , as they do , both Art and Commerce in their tenderest points . The specimens we have seen of this Electrography are of such marvellous delicacy and felicity , that we venture to suggest to all publishers contemplating the issue of illustrated works that they should at least examine this new process , and save themselves some hundreds of pounds .

      Untitled Article

      THE EARLY FLEMISH PAINTERS . The Early Flemisli Painters : Notices of their Lives mid Works . By J . A . Crowe and G . B . Cavalcaselle . JohnMurray . There are few persons familiar with paintings who have not felt their interest aroused in the Van Eycks , Memling , and others of the early Flemish school ; although it is'true .-that no school of art has flourished about which so little is known as that of Bruges . '' Weknow more of the painted , wonders of Assyria and Egypt , " say the authors of the work now under notice , " than we do of the works of the Van Eycks . " Nor is there any means of satisfactorily removing this ignorance . In Italy , palaces and churches tell the history of painting 5 in Germany , we niay , by a little perseverance , follow the course of art from the earliest days ; but the Netherlands contain no such vestigia : the few Flemish works which still exist are scattered far and wide ; nor do public records presei've indications sufficient to satisfy the

      inquirer . To write a history of the Flemish schools , and to give a full account of its great painters , is therefore one of the desiderata in the history of art . Messrs . Crowe and Cavalcaselle have made an attempt to do this in the volume before-us , a volume which displays the erudition and patient carefulness of a German treatise , but which also unhappily displays the lifelessness too often noticed in German treatises . The praise of diligence will be unstintingly awarded them ; and diligence was indispensable in such a-task . But having collected these notes , there was another task awaiting them , namely , the reduction of the notes into a work ; and in this latter task they have fallen very short of even moderate demands . Their work is heavily and ungrammatically written . The biographies' are without spirit ; the criticisms vague and wearisome . The consequence of this imperfect literature is , that their work , although valuable to all persons curious about this chapter of the History of Painting , will be of little interest to the general public .

      Another defect must be noticed . Tho book is liberally illustrated with copies of the most celebrated paintings , and these illustrations form an important element in the attractiveness of such awork ; but grateful as the reader will be for such aids to a correct understanding of the school of nrt in question , he will notice with some disappointment that the faces of the various figures represented are tiot in the least what the painter drew ; they are modernized , and sometimes look as , if they had been copied from a Keepsake , or Christmas Book . This infidelity on the part of the draughtsman throws a certain doubt over the fidelity with which the attitudes and draperies are copied . When will men learn that truth is everywhere preferable to ' idealization ?' To tlie student , however , this book is , as we said , a valuable mass of notes , if not an admirable ' whole . From its livelier details avc will select the following for our reader ' s interest . It gives us the idea Louis XI . had of what " would be a proper portrait of his royal self , and maybe contrasted with Cromwell ' s celebrated injunctions to ' Lely—threatening tho painter with forfeiture ! of hia reward it' he omitted a single wart on the face of his

      sitter : — Thoro ia no improbability in supposing that Louis XI . sent to Belgium for tho painter . Ilia desire for a good production was evidenced on moro than one occasion . In 1-1 Uri , jouriK'yiiifj ; to I ' eronne , ho stopped for an hour at Noyoii to visit tho ealhfidral . Tllero ho , ' saw a very ancient picture of tho crowning of Charlemagne , so old and venerable that ho expressed a desire to have a copy of it , and ho requested that lie mijjflit have " miff pourtniiet , do ce pourtraiot . " Tho canons , Imt too anxious to do Iih pleasure , aecoded to hi ? i wish , rind record the act as follows : " Anno 1 . 4 6 B , capitulo facto , < lk > ultima August ! , doolaretur per operarios convocandos expensa pro imapino Caroli Magni collucaiula in C ' apella Snnctii Kliyii , retro chorum in fronte ccclesuu , ct describatum in pnpyrum pro ostendendo domino regi ( Ludovico undecimo ) ut ipso

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      Untitled Article

      _ jPgcgMgjg _ g ^ J : 856 . ] THE LEADER . 12 S 9

      Untitled Article

      The Rente de Paris , for the 15 th inst ., among other papers , contains one of great interest to many of our readers on - " Slavery among Christian Nations . " The writer undertakes to refute the current assertion that Christianity abolished slavery . Admitting that the spirit of Christian charity 19 opposed to slavery , and , therefore , must have aided in its abolition whenever that has taken place , he refutes the assertion that Christianity condemned slavery in principle , or that it ever abolished slavery . We cannot follow his argument , -which moves through many pages of citation from the Gospels and the Fathers , and reviews the whole course of modern history , but we indicate the existence of the essay to such of our readers as may be interested in the subject .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1856, page 1239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2173/page/15/