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Appreciation of Art 
 
 By 
 BLANCHE G. LOVERIDGE 
 
 Dean of Women in Denison University 
 
 ^ 
 
 GRANVILLE. OHIO 
 1912 
 

 L6 
 
 Copyright 1912 
 
 by 
 
 Blanche G, Loveridge 
 
 THC CHAMPLIN FRCSS 
 COLUMBUS, OHIO 
 
To My Pupils 
 
 \ 
 
 228659 
 
Courtesy of Walter L. Lillie & Company, Columbus, Ohio. 
 
Keep pure thy soul! 
 
 Then shah thou take the whole 
 
 Of delight; 
 Then, without a pang, 
 Thine shall be all beauty whereof the poet 
 
 sang — 
 The perfume, and the pageant, the melody, 
 
 the mirth 
 Of the golden day, and the starry night; 
 Of heaven, and of earth. 
 
 Oh, keep pure thy soul! 
 — Richard Watson Gilder: Five Books of Song. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chapter I. Explanation of the Term 11 
 
 Chapter II. Architecture - - 51 
 
 Chapter III. Italian Painting - - 99 
 
 Chapter IV. Painting, Other Schools 145 
 
 Chapter V. Sculpture - - - 187 
 
 Chapter VI. Music - - - - 219 
 
 Chapter VII. Unity of Art - - 251 
 
Introduction 
 
 This publication, compiled during spare moments, 
 is offered as a textbo ok f or a one-hour course in 
 A ppreciation o f Art. As the discussion of each 
 subject is confined to one, or at the most, to twa 
 chapters, it is necessarily limited. However, the 
 book aims to present very simply a few of the essen- 
 tials in a consideration of the Fine Arts and thereby 
 to suggest and to encourage further study. Many 
 students do pot elect the History of Art in College, 
 and this brief course is their one introduction to the 
 artists' v/orld. For this reason, at the end of each 
 subject is presented a purely arbitrary, but suggest- 
 ive list of masterpieces to enable the reader to carry 
 away certain definite information about four of the 
 Fine Arts. Literature has been omitted for lack of 
 time and space. If the book in any way serves to 
 stimulate thought and to enrich the memory of the 
 students, thereby making life for them fuller and' 
 more joyous, the writer will be amply repaid. 
 
Chapter I 
 
 "If you accept art, it must be a part of your daily lives. 
 You will have it with you in your sorrow as in your joy. It 
 shall be shared by gentle and simple, learned and unlearned, 
 and be as a language all can understand." — William Morris. 
 
 An EbCPLANATION OF THE APPRECIATION OF 
 
 Art. 
 
 There are many ways of defining art. Van Dyke 
 says: "Art is the minghng of Nature and of human 
 nature;** Ruskin, that "Art is the whole spirit of 
 man.** Another writer claims that it is the "concrete 
 embodiment of an ideal** and Carleton Noyes 
 interprets art as "the medium by which the artist 
 communicates himself to his fellows." These defi- 
 nitions have one character in common, namely : they 
 agree thai art is related to the best in man; that it 
 is an experience of the spirit which finds an avenue 
 of expression called art. TTierefore if art is con- 
 cerned with the best in man it must minister to his 
 development, because growth is the fundamental 
 principle in life which makes man's best possible. 
 
 11 
 
12 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Also, if art is primarily an experience of the spirit, 
 it must be broad enough to cover all branches of 
 knowledge and all phases of skill. This breadth 
 of art brings us to its universality. 
 I The art-impulse in man is a very generous and 
 jwise provision for his happiness, for his usefulness, 
 land for his welfare. It would seem also that our 
 ^kind Creator is no respecter of persons in that he 
 I has given to each of us regardless of color, locality, 
 age, or station, certain tendencies toward the appreci- 
 ation and cultivation of the beautiful. Again, art 
 is in itself a great leveler for it makes the rich debt- 
 or to the poor, the peasant a peer of kings, and 
 the idle the beneficiary of the industrious. This 
 common possession of an art-impulse naturally 
 ^ brings to pass the universality of art. 
 
 Even now as I write a brass tray inlaid with cop- 
 per and with silver and made by hand in Egypt 
 reminds me that the modern Egyptians rejoice in 
 an art heritage which antedates history. Also a 
 silver stamp-box made in the craft-shops of India, 
 its exterior curiously wrought with figures in relief, 
 ministers to my convenience and pleasure and recalls 
 to me the beliefs and craftsmanship of the Burmans. 
 Here are also a penholder from China and a pen- 
 knife from the Philippines. In short I have but to 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 13 
 
 look about me to perceive the universality of art 
 from the East to the West and from Canada to 
 the islands of the sea. These pictures and antiques 
 are some of them old with a history of several hun- 
 dreds of years. But their value as art treasures 
 rises superior to time. In fact it is enhanced by time. 
 Nor is this collection of articles unusual. Many 
 studies possess pictures, curios, and bric-a-brac 
 which testify to the universal possession of an art- 
 impulse which finds expression in the workmanship 
 of man. 
 
 • No two of us like the same thing in exactly the'| 
 same degree. Our temperament, our training, andj 
 our environment enter into our likes and our dis-J[, 
 likes. Thus we find ourselves saying, "My taste 
 lies in such and such direction." This universal quali- 
 ty of taste may not be educated, but it always 
 carries with it the tendency to growth and to modifi- 
 cation. It is with this inherent quality of taste that! 
 a work of art deals. 
 
 Moreover a work of art always takes for granted 
 two people, the artist and the spectator. The function 
 of art must therefore be defined in these two terms. 
 We have already said that art is the concrete embodi- 
 ment of an ideal and of the medium through which 
 an artist communicates himself to his fellows. This 
 
1 4 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 being true, the office of art to the artist is mainly 
 an avenue of expression through which he may 
 make known the best that he has. But art to the 
 artist is more than a means of conveyance, it is at 
 the same time an embodiment of an ideal, a glimpse 
 of God, as it were, clothed in the Good, in the True, 
 and in the Beautiful; a message, if you will, which 
 burning within the soul of the artist finds its way 
 out through his conception and through his execution. 
 The function of art to the artist then is first to lift 
 him above his companions into the pure air of vision 
 and of aspiration, and second, to act as an outlet, 
 or as a means of expression, for the truth which he 
 has acquired. 
 
 What then is the function of art to the onlooker, 
 or to the world about the artist? We have found 
 that inherent in each of us is the quality of taste. 
 The first office of art to the beholder would seem 
 to be a mere gratification of taste. However there 
 resides in the onlooker a power of appreciation, of 
 interpretation, and of assimilation which greatly over- 
 flows the small measure of gratification of taste in 
 the individual. Rather it would seem that the office 
 of art to the spectator is to introduce him by means 
 of his taste to the soul of the artist. From him 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 15 
 
 one learns not only to appreciate and to interpret 
 his work, but also to make it one's own through 
 keen enjoyment in and understanding of the work 
 of art. This ability in the onlooker to become one 
 with the artist, to interpret his meaning, to feel the 
 keen joy of possession and achievement, is one of 
 the most potential tendencies in man, and one which 
 raises him "but little lower than the angels." 
 
 Summarizing the function of art to the artist and 
 to his audience, we find that to the former it is not 
 only a means of expression, but also a stimulus to 
 aspiration and to inspiration, while to the latter it 
 is a revelation not only of the meaning of the picture, 
 but also a revelation of the very soul of the creator. 
 
 The discussion of the function of art has brought 
 to light two elements, namely, the artist and the 
 onlooker. The third element is the work of art 
 which is the connecting link between the other two. 
 If we look first at the artist, we find again three dis- 
 tinct attributes, namely, his nature, his method of 
 expression, and his rank. 
 
 The artist by nature is different from other men. 
 This difference is so marked that we call it by com- 
 mon consent the "artistic temperament." This term 
 implies special characteristics, namely, that the artist 
 
1 6 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 is very sensitive to harmony and to inharmony as 
 well. He is more alert to sights and to sounds 
 detecting values in the everyday world which make 
 little or no appeal to those with whom he touches 
 elbows. Generally speaking, he considers Nature 
 as a vast storehouse in which he finds the material 
 with which to construct a world of his own, in which 
 light and sound, rhythm and harmony, and space 
 and form make a lasting appeal. Again artists are 
 born not made. Biography teems with examples 
 of very young artists, precocious at the piano, with 
 the pencil, with the brush and with clay. Also an 
 artist to be anything more than a promise must have 
 the faculty for hard work. Perfection in any degree 
 in the art world never comes without effort. Hard 
 work, close work, and constant work are all made 
 possible by his love for his subject, a love so great 
 that it makes the work feature disappear until only 
 the joy of application and accomplishment remains. 
 Another quality of the artist is his ability to stamp 
 himself upon his work. We have in the history of 
 painting what is known as "schools of art." A 
 school of art may mean one of three things. It 
 may be a geographical division, as the Italian School. 
 To this school belong all the men who painted dur- 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 17 
 
 ing the Middle Ages in Italy or during the period 
 when Italian standards in composition, technique, 
 form, and color prevailed. Again a school of art 
 may mean a group of artists with a definite aim 
 and character, as the Pre-Raphaelite School in Eng- 
 land during the last part of the nineteenth century. 
 Lastly a school of art may mean the personal influ- 
 ence of one artist, as the School of Rubens, the 
 School of Murillo, the School of Corot. It is this 
 last definition which proves the characteristic of the 
 artist, the ability to stamp himself upon his work. 
 For instance. Van Dyck was the gentleman painter 
 of England. Himself a courtier he painted the life of 
 the court. Van Dyck himself is a part of every por- 
 trait. This is equally true in the realm of music. 
 Bach, Medelssohn, and Chopin have their char- 
 acteristic peculiarities in a style which, like Van 
 Dyck, is the subtle expression of themselves. 
 
 Another characteristic of the artist is his ability 
 to express himself. It is this very confidence in his 
 subject that makes the artist so potential. Biography 
 gives us many incidents of the ultimate triumph of 
 the genius of the individual. French art illustrates 
 this point to perfection. Jean Louis Meissonier, 
 William Adolphe Bonguereau, and Puvis de Cha- 
 
rS APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 vannes, three painters of the nineteenth century, 
 braved ridicule, poverty, and physical hardship in 
 order to be true to the faith that was in them. In 
 our own country Edgar Allen Poe died neglected, 
 despised, and alone, to the end confident of his 
 transcendent genius which the literary world to-day 
 is so proud to honor. This is true in sculpture. As 
 we stand before the statue of Nathan Hale in the 
 City Hall Park, New York City, we recognize 
 the genius of Frederick Mac Monnies. In All 
 Souls' Church, New York City, we look reverently 
 upon a wall-relief by Augustus St. Gaudens, the 
 teacher of Mac Monnies. And yet both of these 
 men defied the best judgment and personal prefer- 
 ences of family and friends in order to be true to 
 the promptings of their genius. 
 
 Such is the nature of the artist. Unusually sen- 
 sitive to his environment, equipped with a native 
 alertness to sights and sounds, confident of his genius, 
 able to impress himself upon his work, and endowed 
 with a rare power to detect values, he lives in a 
 dream world, where, using nature as a storehouse 
 and hard work as a tool, he finally builds for him- 
 self a temple of joy and of accomplishment. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 19 
 
 History tells us that the Fine Arts are five: 
 painting, architecture, sculpture, music, and litera- 
 ture. With these are allied many lesser arts, sub- 
 jects which bridge the chasm between art and artisan- 
 ship. The artist then must speak through one of 
 these five media, as a painter, as an architect, as a 
 sculptor, as a musician, or as a writer. Among the 
 lesser arts are such subjects as rugs and tapestries, 
 and crockery and porcelain. However public opin- 
 ion would hardly classify without qualification a 
 master in the lesser arts as an artist. This term is 
 reserved by critics principally for those who excel 
 in the fine arts. Method of expression as a quality 
 in the artist refers not only to the medium through 
 which he speaks, but also to the artist's interpreta- 
 tion of this medium. If he is a painter he may be 
 interested primarily in color as were Titian and 
 Turner ; or he may be interested in thought and feel- 
 ing as were Leonardo and Andrea; or in form like 
 the tempest-tossed Michael Angelo. Again, if he 
 is a sculptor, does he work in intaglio or in relief cut 
 from a background? Are his statues seated, stand- 
 ing, recumbent, or equestrian? If he is an architect, 
 does he plan dwellings, churches, schools, or sky- . 
 scrapers? In other words after the medium is de- 
 
20 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 fined what is the method of expression. This of 
 course depends upon the special aptitude of the 
 artist. Time, training, and experience frequently 
 effect a change in his medium, and the artist may 
 express himself in one or in many media. However 
 we see that the artist's method of expression is first 
 the fine art of his choice, and second, the special fea- 
 tures of his subject in which he excels. 
 
 Art is the embodiment of some great truth and an 
 artist is one to whom this truth appeals albeit un- 
 consciously. Nevertheless the very sensitiveness of 
 his nature to harmony and to a lack of harmony, 
 his susceptibility, his irritability, if you will, is but 
 the call to a quest for Truth. These facts about 
 the artist prove that he is very dependent upon his 
 environment, or better that stimulating and congenial 
 surroundings help him to good work. History shows 
 us moreover that few artists have been either under- 
 stood or appreciated by their contemporaries; that 
 with a very few exceptions time was needed before 
 the artist or his work received a fair and just esti- 
 mate. For instance the monks in the monastery 
 of San Marco in Florence saw in Fra Angelico, 
 "the Blessed," only a devout brother with a deeply 
 Teligious sentiment who painted his own tender ex- 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 21 
 
 pression into the angels on his canvas. The artist 
 died, but the part of himself which he wrought into 
 his pictures still lives to be genuinely appreciated 
 and loudly acclaimed. 
 
 The rank of the artist then is determined firstly by 
 his grip upon Truth, secondly by his response to 
 his environment, thirdly by his ability to stand the 
 test of time, and lastly, and most fittingly, by the 
 quality of effort which reveals his technical skill, 
 his personal worth, and his vision as an artist. 
 
 In Romans 8:5 the writer says, "For they that 
 are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; 
 but they that are after the spirit the things of the 
 spirit." We live in a world of unseen realities, the 
 world of thoughts and feelings. But "thoughts are 
 things," and frequently they weigh more and obtain 
 far more in the making of a man than do all the 
 tangible realities which surround him. Thoughts 
 and feelings are the stuff of which life is made. 
 They are the language of the soul. By means of 
 them we follow the development of character, the 
 shaping of the soul which is the one great purpose 
 of life. The artist's work deals primarily with 
 thoughts and feelings. Note the architect. That 
 building stretching to the skies existed first in the 
 
22 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 thought of the artist; each successive story with its 
 ocean of detail was builded first in the mind of the 
 master. The Greeks beHeved that each block of 
 marble imprisoned an Apollo or a Venus. Phidias 
 and Praxiteles were rarely disappointed in their 
 quest. But the beautiful form which their chisel 
 liberated lurked not in the stone but in the thought 
 and in the feeling of the sculptor. This is equally 
 true in painting, in music, and in literature. There- 
 fore the essence of the work of art is spiritual, and 
 the artist to become such must "mind the things of 
 the spirit." 
 
 Now this "thought-stuff" from which a work of 
 art is evolved, finds expression in the five different 
 media, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and 
 literature. These five subjects termed the fine arts 
 are media, subjects, or servants through which the 
 artist expresses the "things of the spirit." 
 
 Of these five subjects the first self-expression or 
 revelation of the spirit was made through architec- 
 ture. Architecture is as old as the Egpytian whom 
 we recognize as far back as 4000 B. C. Egypt 
 taught Greece, who in turn taught Rome. Greece 
 and Rome were the world's great school-masters. 
 Now the mission of the teacher is to teach more than 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 23 
 
 that which he himself knows, in other words, to in- 
 spire his pupils to cHmb greater heights than he him- 
 self has achieved. So these great tutors of history 
 found themselves distanced by children of a larger 
 and a later growth. We have said that the archi- 
 tect speaks through building and that he began his 
 work in the morning of history. He was a mighty 
 man of mystery as well as of achievement. To him 
 the world, past and present, bows in homage and in 
 reverence for he builded the sphinx and the pyra- 
 mids and the tombs of ancient Egypt. Also he piled 
 high the mighty temples of Luxor and of Karnak 
 as a monument to his knowledge and to his respect 
 for size. The architect of the olden time could 
 keep a secret, for his brother of the present day, 
 with you and me, stands mute, unable to solve the 
 riddle of the sphinx. 
 
 The Egyptian architect gave his Grecian brother 
 an interest in temples and tombs. But his brother 
 was different. Egypt was a respecter of size, Greece 
 was a respecter of beauty. Born with an exquisite 
 sense of fitness and proportion, the Greek builded 
 his Parthenon, his Erechtheum, and his Propylea. 
 Also, because he respected the body as well as the 
 mind, he built his stadia together with his odeon. 
 
24 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Then Rome made Greece a captive. Rome cared 
 less for the mind of man than she did for his body, 
 hence the thermae or pubHc baths in Rome. In 
 order to feed and to house the body sumptuously, 
 she built her palaces, among them the Palace of 
 the Caesars on the Palatine. Next, because the 
 physical man needed entertainment, she built the 
 Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. As the phys- 
 ical man is contentious and disputatious, she reared 
 the basilicas or law-courts. Rome was fond of 
 display even in every day business so she made the 
 Trajan and the Roman Forum. And in order to 
 honor the deeds of the body, she shaped and carved 
 the triumphal arches of Titus and of Constantine. 
 
 You will remember that the Roman body had a 
 heart of stone until the world's Christ gave it a 
 heart of flesh. Then the process began of making 
 a Roman citizen into a Christian gentleman. The 
 architect was a part of this process and a faithful 
 recorder. He fashioned the basilica into a temple 
 of the living God. It was at this time that the bar- 
 barians were rushing down upon Rome, coming to 
 destroy, but remaining to worship. Back to their 
 homes they went with this wonderful dynamic, — the 
 knowledge of Salvation. The architect went with 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 25 
 
 them. He was the progenitor of the Cathedral 
 builders, who built divine temples on earth in order 
 to lure the Divine Spirit down from heaven. 
 
 The Cathedral builders like the rest of the world 
 learned through their mistaken conclusions. The 
 new-thought men, their brothers of the Renaissance, 
 in time ceased to attempt to woo the Divine Spirit 
 down, instead, they sought to send the human spirit 
 up. This latter spirit continues to prevail and is 
 felt through the palaces and public buildings of 
 modern times. 
 
 The subject through which the painter speaks is 
 painting. He too began his work in Egypt and in 
 the morning of history. His work was carried by 
 the Chaldeans to Greece where we have the quaint 
 story of Zeuxis and Parrhasius in their effort to 
 outdo each other in skill. To the many friends as- 
 sembled Zeuxis brought a painting of fruit which 
 he placed in a conspicuous position. So accurately 
 was the fruit represented that the birds flew down 
 and tried to eat it. Then Zeuxis, sure that his su- 
 premacy was established, pleased and proud, asked 
 Parrhasius to remove the veil from his picture. To 
 his chagrin he found that for his picture Parrhasius 
 had painted the veil. The latter was then given 
 
26 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 precedence as the greater artist because he had de- 
 ceived not the birds — ^but the great painter Zeuxis. 
 This tells us that while the Greeks excelled in tech- 
 nical skill there was no high motive in their painting. 
 From Greece we pass to Italy where in the thir- 
 teenth century, in Florence, the history of painting 
 probably begins. The subject now divides itself 
 into the following geographical divisions: the Italian 
 School, of which the Florentines and Venetians are 
 the most famous; the French School; the Spanish, 
 the Flemish, the Dutch, the German, the English, 
 and the American Schools of Art. The motive 
 of all the Italian School was primarily religion, for 
 at this time painting was the handmaiden of the 
 Church. Later the religious motive was superseded 
 by classicism, namely an interest in mythology and 
 in the history of Greece and Rome. In turn classi- 
 cism was supplanted by Nature-study, for Nature 
 became not only the model for a convenient and at- 
 tractive background, as in the Mona Lisa,* but a 
 veritable storehouse for the inspiration and instruc- 
 tion of all artists in all branches of painting. These 
 branches are eight in number: mythological paint- 
 ing, or the representation of subjects in mythology; 
 
 *Leonardo da Vinci's great portrait about which so much 
 has been written since it disappeared from the Louvre. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 27 
 
 historical painting, which represents the events of 
 history according to the time, the place, and the 
 setting; portraiture, wherein the spirit of the artist 
 speaks to the spirit of the onlooker through the me- 
 dium of the portrait ; ideal painting, wherein the spirit 
 of the artist makes itself known through his imagi- 
 nation; landscape painting, which interprets the 
 mood of the artist through the moods of nature; 
 marine painting, which paints the ocean in part; 
 still-life .painting, which represents lifeless things, as 
 dead game, or subjects which do not possess animal 
 life as fruits, flowers, and inanimate objects. 
 
 Sculpture is the next medium in the Fine Arts. 
 The sculptor appeals to the soul of the onlooker not 
 only through the eye but also through the sense of 
 touch. He too lived in early history in Egypt and 
 expressed himself by carving in outline upon the 
 temples and tombs. Also he worked in the round, 
 for one thousand years before Christ he carved in the 
 Ramesseum, the colossal prostrate statue of Rameses 
 II. This statue, the largest sculptured figure in the 
 world, is at Thebes in Upper Egypt. It weighs 
 nine hundred tons. 
 
 There are many different classes of sculpture. The 
 first division is according to form. This includes 
 
28 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the outline work where the pattern is cut in the stone ; 
 it includes sculpture in the round entirely detached 
 from a background Hke the Apollo Belvedere ;* and 
 all forms of relief: (a) bas-relief or low-relief cut 
 from a background like the cameos; (b) high-relief, 
 namely, statues cut very nearly in the round but at- 
 tached to a background; and (c) sunken-relief, 
 namely intaglios. Another classification of sculp- 
 ture is according to position : standing statues, seated 
 statues, recumbent figures, and equestrian subjects. 
 Lastly sculpture is classified according to material, 
 namely, marble, bronze, baked clay or terra cotta, 
 plaster of Paris, wood, alabaster, limestone and sand- 
 stone. 
 
 From sculpture we turn to the medium of music 
 some form of which is always found with man. 
 Indeed no group of men is too limited or too distant 
 to indulge in some kind of music, either in song, or 
 on a musical instrument, or in a song with a dance. 
 In primitive conditions it is always part of a social 
 diversion and is a twin activity with dancing. More- 
 over because mimicry and pantomine are inherent 
 in man, music early took on a dramatic character 
 involving personification, plot, and action. Primi- 
 
 *A famous statute in the Vatican. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 29 
 
 tive music is differentiated into Chinese, Hindu, 
 Greek, Roman, Mohammedan music and others. 
 Then comes the rise of Christian music covering 
 something Hke ten centuries. During the next three 
 hundred years vocal music arises for which the world 
 owes a debt to the Netherlanders. Instrumental 
 music grew apace with vocal music and developed 
 early the madrigal and part-song. By the seven- 
 teenth century, the early musical drama had taken 
 form in Italy, in Germany, in France and in Eng- 
 land with interesting results. The craving for dra- 
 matic expression which found vent in the mediaeval 
 plays, also produced the first operas and oratorios. 
 The French expanded dramatic expression into the 
 French ballet and emphasized the dancing. The 
 Germans used this tendency toward dramatic expres- 
 sion in the Singspiel where songs are introduced into 
 the spoken dialogue. In England at this time, the 
 court society in disguise acted some fanciful story 
 with much dancing, singing, and playing on musical 
 instruments. This was called the Masque. 
 
 After this the pendulum of popular interest swung 
 back naturally to church music and the great church 
 cantatas and Passions were developed. Lastly came 
 the culmination of the drama into the opera as we 
 
30 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 know it to-day. Also in the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries are found the lutist, the organist, the 
 vioHnist, and the celHst respectively. In the eight- 
 eenth century we have the pianists with whose work 
 we are all famiHar. Sacred music and the opera 
 comique grew apace until the later nineteenth cen- 
 tury when the "Wagnerian Triumph** made the last 
 great epoch in musical art. 
 
 This in brief is the story of the development of 
 music. It has of course many related subjects, the 
 majority of them being divisions of the music as a 
 whole. The formal part of music is largely mechan- 
 ical but the highest part has its origin in the soul. 
 It is this inner thought which finding expression 
 through outward form gives meaning and breadth to 
 music. 
 
 Lastly we come to literature,* the fine art with 
 which people are most familiar. Literature is an 
 expression of the best thought in all ages. The form 
 of expression is of two kinds, poetry and prose. The 
 first divides again into lyric and epic poetry. Lyr- 
 ics are a chronicle of feelings and epics are a treat- 
 ment of facts. Prose has four sub-heads, the drama. 
 
 *A discussion of literature is omitted owing to lack of time 
 and space. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 31 
 
 the essay, the novel, and history. All literature can 
 be classified in at least one of these divisions. The 
 difference between these groups is not always so 
 apparent that they can be recognized, and there are 
 many compositions which seem to occupy middle 
 ground as blank verse or a newspaper article. How- 
 ever literature is as broad as the experience of man. 
 No epoch, no place, nor condition has failed to find 
 a place on its pages. It is large enough and varied 
 enough to concern every phase of human existence. 
 
 Such is the nature of the work of art. Primarily 
 it is a thing of the spirit. This impulse finds ex- 
 pression through architecture, painting, sculpture, 
 music or literature. But whatever the medium, the 
 "thought-stuff" from which it is made is the language 
 of the artist soul. 
 
 From the nature of the work of art we turn to 
 the quality. We can determine this by asking four 
 questions. First is the work of art representative. 
 A work of art is representative when it reflects truth- 
 fully the standards of the times in which it is made. 
 For example if it is a picture painted by Andrea del 
 Sarto,* we expect the drawing, the composition and 
 
 *A Florentine painter of the High Renaissance who was 
 called by his contemporaries "the faultless," because he was a 
 master of the art of painting. 
 
32 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the color, in short the "handling** of the picture, to 
 tell us that he was one of the greatest technicians 
 of his day. On the other hand in the work of Giot- 
 to, the greatest name in the Gothic School, we ex- 
 pect to find flaws in the proportion and in the per- 
 spective of his pictures. Thus to be representative 
 an artist need not be cognizant of all that there is 
 to be known about his subject, he must merely be 
 up with the times, skilled in the knowledge acquired 
 thus far. 
 
 The second question which determines the qual- 
 ity of a work of art is this, is the production ade- 
 quate. Just here we meet the principle of selection 
 which runs through all art. In other words does 
 the subject which the artist has produced represent 
 not all that he knows, but the best that he knows.- 
 Are the accessories of the picture, of the building, 
 of the sculpture, truthful, fitting, and harmonious. 
 Has he put the emphasis on his work in the place 
 where is it most important. Has he so completely 
 expressed himself that the onlooker cannot fail to 
 find his meaning. 
 
 After the work of art is proved to be representa- 
 tive and adequate, the next question is naturally is it 
 excellent. Excellence is a comparative quality. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 33 
 
 That is, the excellent work of one artist may be far 
 below the poorest standards of another. Excellence 
 as here used is not a personal quality, it is determined 
 by the standards of the time in which the artist lives 
 and is generally established by the favorable criti- 
 cism of his peers. Speaking from the standpoint 
 of the onlooker, to be excellent, the artist must pro- 
 duce such a high standard of work that it will be 
 given precedence by others less gifted. The last 
 question which determines the quality of a work of 
 art concerns the time element, is it lasting. In other 
 words will it endure, will it outlast the moment. Has 
 it the stability to insure its permanence. Often a 
 later generation renounces what a former one has 
 embraced. Again a later generation will exploit 
 what a previous one has condemned. But this one 
 principle prevails, namely, that true merit is a perma- 
 nent quantity and when it once enters any subject 
 or activity it endures till the end. These four tests 
 then determine the quality of a work of art. Let us 
 now turn to its appeal. 
 
 The appeal of the work of art is determined by 
 its effect upon the onlooker. It depends primarily 
 upon the degree to which the artist has stamped him- 
 self upon his work; upon the nature and upon the 
 
34 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 power of the message which the work of art reveals. 
 The appeal in a true sense is independent of the 
 spectator or of the listener. That is to say that the 
 meaning is there, the appeal, namely the message, 
 resides in the production apparently independent of 
 the artist. The nature and extent of the response, 
 as we shall see later, rests mainly with the people 
 upon whom the impression is made. 
 
 From the appeal of the work of art, our attention 
 naturally shifts to the onlooker, to his nature, to his 
 attitude toward productions of art, to his response 
 to such productions, and to his agency or the use 
 which he makes of the appeal of art. 
 
 First, then, as to the nature of the onlooker; if 
 he is an artist, we already know something of his 
 temperament. The nature of the artist very fre- 
 quently makes itself felt. No less a genius than 
 Michael Angelo, whom the world calls a greater 
 painter than sculptor, although his personal prefer- 
 ence was for the latter, claims that he imbibed his 
 love for sculpture with his milk. This is interesting 
 because his foster-mother was the wife of a stone- 
 mason. Mozart was a paragon in music at a very 
 early age, and the architect Hoban, who designed 
 the White House at Washington, very early showed 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 35 
 
 special aptitude for architecture. With this precoc- 
 ity of the artist in the fine art which appeals to him, 
 goes a higher quality of attention to and enjoyment 
 of art products of that nature, while in other branches 
 he may be below the ordinary spectator in a capacity 
 for understanding and appreciation. The great paint- 
 ers like Leonardo and Michael Angelo* are an ex- 
 ception to this for they were marvels of versatility; 
 but the tendency of this age is toward specialization 
 and the geniuses at the piano are not likely to be 
 kings with the pallette. This is true however that 
 training in one art is excellent preparation for the 
 study of a related art, so perhaps the artist at all 
 times has an interest and an attention above that of 
 the ordinary onlooker. 
 
 However the great majority of people are not art- 
 ists. They merely take pictures for granted, walk- 
 ing through the galleries with a matter-of-fact air, 
 pausing before a canvas unusual in color, drawing, 
 or subject, moved merely by curiosity and passing 
 it by with no thought of its meaning or skill, smiling 
 slightly or shrugging their shoulders. If they enjoy 
 any picture, it is mainly through the associations 
 which the canvas brings to their mind. Seldom 
 
 *The two greatest Florentine painters of the High Renaissance. 
 
36 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 does the true meaning of a picture, the message of 
 the artist, speak to the casual onlooker in the galler- 
 ies, not because it has no message for him, but be- 
 cause his nature is such that he has not felt the need 
 of such an expression. The time may come when 
 these pictures will appeal to him, but not until his 
 nature has changed and he recognizes their mission. 
 Such an experience is not confined to pictures. The 
 nature of the onlooker manifests itself with books, 
 with statuary, with music, and with great buildings. 
 The large majority of persons at times and fre- 
 quently during a great part of their lives, is abso- 
 lutely indifferent to the mighty treasures of art. 
 
 Fortunately for art and for the onlooker, a per- 
 son's nature changes. Experience brings depth and 
 insight and appreciation. The nature therefore be- 
 comes refined and strengthened, and looks upon the 
 art world with new eyes. This difference in the 
 individual at different times we call his attitude. 
 
 A great many elements combine to produce an 
 attitude. Heredity, environment, education, and 
 experience all leave their stamp upon the man and 
 determine his degree of receptivity to the fine arts. 
 Here again we mark the difference between the art- 
 ist and the rank and file of men of coarser mould. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 37 
 
 We have said that his nature determines the quaHty 
 of his attention and his interest. So in turn his at- 
 tention and interest determine his attitude. The 
 artist is more critical or more appreciative as the re- 
 sult of his interest and his attention. Moreover his 
 attitude changes in character as he advances in knowl- 
 edge of and in experience in his art. We have at 
 home an oil painting which is dear to us. TTie art- 
 ist finds no pleasure in it because her attitude has 
 changed. An audience applauds a singer because 
 they have enjoyed his songs but a vocal teacher near 
 by has found no pleasure in the rendition because 
 his attitude was entirely different. Again the atti- 
 tude of the onlooker changes. When the concerts 
 were first given in Central Park, New York City, 
 the popular music was ragtime. Now, the people 
 demand not only the best music but the best of the 
 best. TTieir attitude has changed. The differences 
 in attitude quoted thus far are the result of education. 
 There are other causes. In a recent novel, the her- 
 oine receives a book written by a man toward whom 
 she is wholly indifferent. The volume bores her. 
 Presently she falls in love with the author, then the 
 book becomes intensely interesting. Her feeling has 
 changed her attitude. A rich man in a great city 
 
38 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 found an old chum. The chum was poor but he 
 could play the violin. The rich man was restless 
 and dissatisfied. His friend played to him on the. 
 violin. The rich man became peaceful and at rest. 
 We might call this a happy accident which changed 
 the rich man's attitude. 
 
 From the attitude of the onlooker we turn to his 
 response, a term which is frequently confused with 
 the former, although they are not identical. A great 
 many people never go beyond a certain attitude. 
 Thy are not moved sufficiently to make a response. 
 Perhaps an incident will make the difference clear. 
 The Venus de Milo is in the Louvre in Paris. It is 
 separated from the other statuary in the gallery of 
 sculpture. One day when it was time to close the 
 Louvre the janitor made his rounds and came to the 
 Venus de Milo. Several people rushed up for a 
 hurried glance at the far-famed statue. Some pass- 
 ed by without discovering her, others hurried fran- 
 tically around her, still others stood in front reading 
 Baedeker with now and then a glance at the goddess. 
 Presently they were all gone — except the janitor. 
 Alone he looked long and earnestly at the Venus. 
 Then he raised his cap reverently and went out. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 39 
 
 During the World's Fair at Chicago, many fa- 
 mous pictures were exhibited and the newspapers 
 carried on a voting contest to determine the most 
 popular one. The majority vote was for "Break- 
 ing Homes Ties". Doubtless you know the pic- 
 ture. The scene is the interior of a country kitchen. 
 A farmer lad stands before his mother, — a mother 
 who carries marks of sacrifice and hard work. Her 
 toil-worn hands are on his shoulders, and her mother 
 heart shows in her eyes as she speaks the last words 
 of caution and affection. The father stands near by 
 ready to take his boy to the station, and he too feels 
 the agony of the parting. That picture called forth 
 a response. Until recently the United States has 
 been a land of farmers. Nearly all the city-bred 
 people have been intimately connected with farm life, 
 either through their own experience or through the 
 experience of their ancestors. That picture stirred 
 the hearts of the onlookers because it called up a 
 heart-knowledge of which most of them were justly 
 proud. 
 
 At Melrose in Scotland for years the keeper of 
 the Abbey was a kindly old gentleman who took 
 personal interest in all the tourists. He spent the 
 greater part of his time at the ruins pointing out beau- 
 
40 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 tiful bits of tracery, interpreting the fallen panels 
 of the choir screen and repeating Scott's **Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel." Guests who came there indif- 
 ferent departed impressed. The thoughtless remain- 
 ed to admire and to worship. This was his life, his 
 mission. The response of the tourists was not due 
 primarily to Melrose Abbey, by far the most beauti- 
 ful in Scotland, but to fellowship with this old gen- 
 tleman whose heart was in the ruin and whom to 
 know was to respect and to admire. 
 
 It is perhaps a waste of time to speak of the re- 
 sponse to music because it is such an universal ex- 
 perience. A band goes with the army to battle 
 because their response to the music will make them 
 better soldiers. Walter Damrosch has won fame 
 through teaching the children in the slums of New 
 York City to sing. He leads them in a large chorus. 
 The response of these children is greater even than 
 his anticipation warranted because the music appeals 
 to them. 
 
 Thus we find that the onlooker will respond to 
 sculpture, painting, architecture, and music, and the 
 fact that he will respond to literature needs no com- 
 ment. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 41 
 
 What then is the use of all this equipment. Why 
 has the onlooker a potential nature, a progressive 
 attitude, and a ready response to the fine arts. Sim- 
 ply for this reason, that he may be an agent in the 
 propagation of these branches of knowledge. There- 
 fore if we are to live up to our highest possibilities 
 of usefulness, we must come into such a relation with 
 the fine arts that our attention will be keen, our sym- 
 pathies ready, our reason alert, and our judgments 
 rational, remembering that the fine arts are primarily 
 a search for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. 
 The pursuit of these three departments of human 
 interest leads into unknown paths the full extent of 
 which has never been explored. The musician will 
 tell you that there is more in music than he can ex- 
 press. Phidias and Praxiteles always believed that 
 there were more beautiful Aphrodites imprisoned in 
 the blocks of marble than those which their chisels 
 had liberated. The great Leonardo was so dis- 
 appointed in even his best pictures that it was his 
 habit to destroy them when completed. This is why 
 there are so few (five) of his paintings extant to-day. 
 No writer is satisfied with his productions. Milton, 
 Tennyson, and Shakespeare all tried again and again 
 hoping to do better. And the Cathedral builders 
 
42 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 after striving for centuries to build a sanctuary fit for 
 the residence of the Holy Sprit, after building Can- 
 terbury, Amiens, and Cologne, gave up in despair. 
 There is no end to the pursuit of art. 
 
 If such is the character of the fine arts, if we are 
 fashioned with possibilities of understanding and ap- 
 preciating the works of art, it is easy to conclude that 
 they have an ethical value in man's experience. 
 Therefore is not an appreciation of art a duty, and 
 as a duty, a fundamental part of education. More- 
 over the onlooker who has this appreciation has not 
 only vastly increased his own ability to enjoy, but 
 also he has achieved possibilities for service in help- 
 ing others to develop their capacities for pleasure 
 and vision. 
 
 Thus ends the discussion of the three elements in 
 art, namely the artist, the work of art, and the on- 
 looker. In the presentation of the artist, we aimed 
 to discuss his nature, his method of expression and 
 his rank. The work of art was treated from three 
 standpoints, namely its nature, its quality, and its 
 appeal. The last topic was the onlooker. The 
 discussion had four sub-heads : they were the nature, 
 the attitude, the response, and the agency of the on- 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 43 
 
 looker. From a discussion of the elements of art 
 we pass to the next large topic in this chapter namely, 
 the development of art. 
 
 The development of art as a topic suggests four 
 interrogatives, namely, when, where, how, and why 
 have the fine arts developed. First, when did the 
 fine arts appear. Among the ruins of old Babylonia, 
 Chaldea, and Assyria are bas-reliefs, which suggest 
 that they knew and credited the story of the Garden 
 of Eden.* Old tablets have also been found veri- 
 fying the account of Noah and the Flood. These 
 records are preserved to us through the art of the 
 people of that early day. The Egyptian is the old- 
 est man whose civilization we can study,** and we 
 find that away back in the morning of history he 
 was an architect, a musician, a sculptor, a painter, 
 and a writer. So art has age to recommend it. 
 Indeed we suspect that art had its beginnings with 
 man and was the best expression of his best skill to 
 meet the needs of existence. 
 
 Man is differentiated from other creatures of a 
 high order as a worshipful animal. Art seems from 
 
 *Many have seen this rehef thrown upon the screen by Dr. 
 Banks, of the University of Chicago, in his lecture, "The Bible 
 and the Spade." 
 
 **ArcheoIoei8ts are fast uncovering a civilization in Palestine 
 which is equally ancient. 
 
44 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the first to have been associated with the worshipful 
 part of him. The Egyptian built temples and tombs 
 and used therein the arts of building, carving, and 
 painting. The first two are especially noteworthy. 
 He taught the Greek. The Greek also builded 
 temples and tombs, but his worship carried him fur- 
 ther along in the arts. For instance the Greek games 
 were a part of their religion, so the sculptor fashioned 
 that great class of statuary of the athletes* to ex- 
 press their worship. The worship of the Romans was 
 closely associated with their heroes. Tlie statue of 
 Augustus Caesar illustrates this. Then the Chris- 
 tian Church mounted the broad foundation laid by 
 the Roman Empire and she made painting her hand- 
 maiden. When she had a new baptism of faith 
 she spoke in terms of music, while Luther led the 
 Reformation by means of Literature. Therefore 
 art knows no bounds in terms of time. There have 
 of course been periods when art has developed more 
 rapidly than at others, for instance in the sixteenth 
 century, the period of the High Renaissance. In 
 this connection it is safe to say that the fine arts 
 develop best in times of peace. They may re- 
 ceive their stimulus, their character and their ideas 
 
 *The Discus Thrower and the Wrestlers are fine examples. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 45 
 
 from troublous times of war like the Crusades, but 
 the artist at all times has done his best work when 
 the world has been at peace. 
 
 Where did art develop? The answer has been 
 suggested, for if art knows no time limits her uni- 
 versality is established. The artistic tendency is 
 inherent in man. Wherever he may be there are 
 found the beginnings of art. Soon standards of 
 taste develop and prevail. The development of 
 taste leads very naturally into the department of art. 
 This artistic expression varies with the habitat and 
 occupation of the people. Men who are far down in 
 the scale of civilization seldom acquire an interest in 
 the fine arts, but their artistic tendencies are potential 
 and easily attain to skill in the lesser arts of weaving, 
 pottery, and basket making. Nor are the fine arts 
 the property alone of the Christian nations. Rath- 
 er they belong to all creeds and races wherever the 
 instinct to worship has found expression in an organ- 
 ized and established religion. 
 
 With the universality of art in terms of time and 
 space established we consider the next interrogative, 
 how. We have said that man expresses himself in 
 an effort to meet his needs and that his needs differ 
 according to his locality. Naturally then the people 
 
46 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 in San Salvador, south of the Equator, will express 
 themselves differently from the people in Greenland, 
 south of the North Pole. Differences in climate 
 are fundamental in the expression of art. In the 
 Temperate Zones the development of art is the most 
 thorough and varied. In these two zones the high- 
 est point has been reached in each of the fine arts. 
 A different spirit characterizes different ages and at 
 various times has made great progress in the five 
 different lines. For instance certain of the Caesars, 
 Trajan and Hadrian, were great builders, and cer- 
 tain of the Popes, like Sixtus IV, and Julius II, were 
 great patrons of art. (It was the former who added 
 the Sistine Chapel to the Vatican in order to accom- 
 modate the works of the greatest painters. And it 
 was Julius II who commissioned Michael Angelo 
 to build a great mausoleum, for which his famous 
 Moses was carved.) Nicholas V established the 
 Vatican Library, intending it to be the greatest col- 
 lection of books ever gathered. Many of the great 
 kings of the North, like Charlemagne, and later 
 the House of Valois, have given an impetus to the 
 arts. Charles I of England who was beheaded 
 spent so much money on the fine arts that he incensed 
 his subjects. This generous patronage by the rul- 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 47 
 
 ing class both in church and state has done much 
 toward bringing about the present high development 
 which prevails throughout the civilized world. An- 
 other agent in their progress has been the artists' 
 schools and guilds. We have already defined a 
 school of painting as a group of men who for one of 
 three reasons had much in common in their manner 
 of painting. The guilds were even broader. The 
 Painters' Guild and the Goldsmiths' Guild and 
 others were open to all men who had attained rank 
 in a certain branch of the fine arts, regardless of their 
 manner of work. This system prevails at the pres- 
 ent time. The Beaux Arts in Paris is open to 
 artists from any country. So we find schools and 
 localities to-day given over to the propagation and 
 the conservation of the fine arts. Summarizing this 
 topic of how art developed we find that it had its 
 beginning in the need of man; that in certain for- 
 tunate localities, namely the Temperate Zones, the 
 expression of man's best was of a progressive nature. 
 Next that certain occasions like Constantine's adopt- 
 ing Christianity and the Crusades gave an impetus 
 to art, which made itself felt when peace had sup- 
 planted war. Then, that great leaders of Church 
 and State have been for centuries patrons of art. 
 
48 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 And lastly that artistic expression has been fostered 
 and trained by schools and guilds even down to the 
 present day. 
 
 The last interrogative under this topic is why ; why 
 has art developed. This question seems more stupid 
 than searching, inasmuch as we know that no tend- 
 ency in man remains stationary, that it either pro- 
 gresses or retrogrades and that retrogression means 
 death. We have found that this tendency has an 
 universal expression and in certain favored localities 
 has reached a high development. We see the results 
 of the art-impulse everywhere and now we are look- 
 ing for causes. In that this tendency to self expres- 
 sion is innate, it must as a part of man*s native equip- 
 ment have a special use. This use we conjecture 
 to be to lead him to discover God*s laws in the realm 
 of aesthetics. The Father of us all whose mentality 
 is such that the incidents and the people in a thousand 
 years are as clear and as near to Him as is man's ex- 
 perience in a day, expresses Himself in terms of 
 beauty. What is more beautiful than Nature, or 
 the world in which we live ! No beauty ever equals 
 the sunrise and the sunset, the dome of the sky and 
 the star-lit heavens in the night time. Nature is 
 always beautiful, even when her mood changes, as 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 49 
 
 in the rain shower, the snow storm, the bare trees 
 in winter, the scarlet foHage in the fall, and the leafy 
 bloom of the spring and summer. Go where you 
 will and when you will, you never catch nature in 
 any other garb than one of beauty. The eye is 
 made to see this beauty just as the ear is intended 
 to hear the music of the world. But eye and ear 
 need training and even at their best affirm that the 
 world of beauty for them has hardly been entered 
 because they see so much beyond. Now the Master 
 speaks in terms of beauty, and man in a measure at 
 least responds to this beauty. So perhaps the rea- 
 son for this artistic impulse is that through his aesthet- 
 ic sense, the soul of man shall grow into an appre- 
 ciation, an understanding, yes into a likeness of God 
 the Father. 
 
 Last of all in this explanatory chapter, we come 
 to the scope of the subject. As has been indicated 
 in the topic, the Nature of the Work of Art, each 
 of the five fine arts has great breadth. For in- 
 stance we have learned that music is a world lan- 
 guage, the one great universal language which is 
 independent of words. Moreover that the formal 
 side of music covers very many related subjects. 
 This is equally true in painting. Since Masaccio's 
 
50 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 time, 1401-1428, all artists have studied anatomy 
 as well as form, color, light, and shade, and the 
 atmosphere. Joseph Mallord William Turner, 
 1775-1851, the great English landscape painter, 
 became deranged from studying the sun. Leonardo 
 was a master of chiaroscuro for "he studied shadows 
 that he might catch their darkness and the sunlight 
 to overtake the sun." Michael Angelo was a mas- 
 ter of form for in it he spoke in terms of passion and 
 strength. Sculpture, architecture, and literature are 
 equally broad. The artists in each spend the best 
 efforts of a life time and feel themselves mere novices 
 at the close. Therefore, considering the great 
 breadth of the fine arts, this short series of lectures 
 cannot hope to be exhaustive or complete. In view 
 of this we have selected a simple method of presen- 
 tation aiming merely to introduce the subjects through 
 a brief historical sketch and to leave with you definite 
 knowledge about the best products in each division 
 of the four fine arts. With a word of encourage- 
 ment to any who are disheartened by the formidable 
 titles of the chapters, we welcome you, into a system- 
 atic study of the Appreciation of Art. 
 
Chapter II 
 
 Architecture. 
 
 Build thee more stately mansions, O, my soul, 
 
 As the swift seasons roll ! 
 
 Leave thy low- vaulted past! 
 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast. 
 
 Till thou at length art free. 
 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! 
 
 —Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
 
 The Theory of Architecture. 
 Architecture is the oldest of the Fine Arts, because 
 it is closely associated with man's needs. To build 
 was an early necessity, and to build beautifully was 
 in accord with the nature of man. Architecture is 
 a record not of man's efforts to build, but of his ef- 
 forts to build beautifully. Therefore, it is not a rec- 
 ord of utility, but of beauty, although beauty in arch- 
 itecture has generally been accompanied by elements 
 of stability and of utility. Architecture touches 
 man's experience at every point. First, he builds 
 because he must. Second, he builds the best that 
 he knows that he need not repeat the process very 
 
 51 
 
52 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 soon. Third, he builds as conveniently as possible, 
 and fourth, and last, he makes it look as well as he 
 can. This last effort allies his work with the Fine 
 Arts and is called Architecture. 
 
 Man's need in building is of various kinds. His 
 first care is to build a home, a place of shelter and 
 protection for his person. Next, he builds a tomb, 
 a shelter for his body after death. Then he builds 
 a temple, a place in which to worship. Later, he 
 has a need for places of amusement and of business 
 and later still, he adorns his cities with memorials like 
 triumphal arches, columns and statues.* Lastly, as 
 his life grows more complex, he builds to meet the 
 varied needs of a new civilization. These many 
 kinds of architecture involve a large expenditure of 
 time and money, and engage the services of more 
 men than any other universal interest and occupation 
 except agriculture. Moreover, many kinds of arch- 
 itecture call for a different style of building, and style 
 is not a constant quantity, for it varies with the years. 
 For instance, men in the fifteenth century before 
 Christ built temples and tombs of an entirely differ- 
 ent nature than did the men in the fifteenth century 
 after Christ. This difference in style obtains in all 
 
 *The latter is the middle ground between sculpture and archi- 
 tecture. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 53 
 
 classes of buildings, in different periods of history, 
 while buildings of the same class, built in the same 
 period of time, have come to have a widely varying 
 style. Again, locality has much to do with the style, 
 for temples in Japan are at all times vastly 
 different from temples in India, not only in plan, but 
 in material. The style of each is the result of the 
 resources of the country in which it is placed, and 
 of the needs of the surrounding civilization. Then, 
 too, the style changes with the growth of the people 
 according to their larger needs. It happens fre- 
 quently that it is entirely outgrown and a very dif- 
 ferent one is produced. Even if a change does not 
 take place, a style which outlives its usefulness is 
 sure to decline. 
 
 Also, the fundamental element in the style of a 
 building is its plan. In other words, style refers to 
 the whole building, characterizing not only its shape 
 and size, but the materials of which it is made and 
 the nature of the decorations of both the interior and 
 the exterior. Now the plan is a diagram showing 
 the nature of the enclosed space and the arrangement 
 of the points of support. Different plans, therefore, 
 may show an entirely different constructive principle. 
 There are only four of these fundamental truths, 
 namely, the lintel, the arch or vault, the truss, and 
 
54 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 cohesion. A building may be erected upon one 
 or more of these principles, but these four fundamen- 
 tals comprise the basis upon which all edifices are 
 constructed. 
 
 The simplest of the four, and therefore the first 
 to be used, is the lintel, in which a single cross-piece 
 rests on two vertical supports. The principle in- 
 volved in it, is resistance to transverse strains. The 
 arch or vault was the next in order, and one with 
 which all are equally familiar. In them, more than 
 one piece is used to span an opening, and all are held 
 in place by the pressure which they exert on one 
 another. This lateral pressure is generally called 
 a thrust. Also this weight must be resisted by equal 
 heaviness or by an opposing thrust from other arches 
 or vaults. History tells us that Rome employed 
 the first principle and built with great massiveness 
 while the Gothic builders of the North achieved far 
 greater beauty and delicacy through the use of the 
 arch. The third principle of the truss grew out of 
 the need to combine size and strength, and is an 
 entirely modern feature. It is primarily a frame- 
 work of wood or of metal in which several pieces are 
 so united that they resist strains of tension or com- 
 pression, and form a compound beam much stronger 
 
ARCHITECTURE 55 
 
 than a single one. The use of the truss is common 
 in bridges or in any wide span. The last principle 
 of cohesion has had a varied and rapid development 
 in the last decade. It has age to recommend it. 
 however, as the Romans used it very successfully 
 in foundations, and in road and bridge building, al- 
 though in a limited manner. It is simply a homo- 
 geneous structural mass secured by the cohesion of 
 materials shaped while plastic. All the work in 
 concrete and cement with bars of metal buried with- 
 in in order to resist transverse pressure, with which 
 the present day is so familiar, illustrates cohesion. 
 Upon these four principles rests the entire science of 
 building. 
 
 The History of Architecture 
 
 The history of architecture is replete with interest 
 as well as with information. In so far as we know, 
 it originated in the Nile Valley. From Egypt as 
 a center, the science of building spread to the Valley 
 of the Tigris and Euphrates. Persia conquered this 
 territory and became the teacher of Greece. In turn 
 Greece taught Rome, Rome taught Europe, and 
 Europe taught the United States. Parallel with 
 this development in the West is another in the Ori- 
 
56 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 ent. It lacks the variety, vigor and extent of the 
 former, but it has much to recommend it in its way. 
 This is the Mohammedan, the Brahman and the 
 Buddhist architecture, and later, the building in 
 China and Japan. In an historical sketch much 
 time could well be given to primitive architecture. 
 This comprises the megalithic structures, in which 
 blocks of stone are arranged in rows or circles ; also 
 the lake dwellings, which were primitive huts built 
 on wooden piles driven into the lakes of Switzerland 
 and of other countries. (In all probability, Venice, 
 the present ocean city, had such an origin.) How- 
 ever, both of these forms of buildings extend far back 
 into history and properly belong in the domain of 
 Archaeology, the science which deals with prehis- 
 toric monuments and relics of the earliest men. 
 
 Beginning with Egypt, therefore, we find the An- 
 cient Empire (4500-3000 B. C.) busy in building 
 the pyramids. There are over one hundred of these 
 structures standing to-day, each one a sepulchre and 
 bidding fair to last indefinitely. The size of many 
 of them is overwhelming, and the majesty of all is 
 a permanent quantity defying the years. The three 
 largest are at Gizeh. TTie giant of all is Cheops, 
 which is 764 feet on a side with a height of 482 
 
ARCHITECTURE 57 
 
 feet. Its foundation is a plateau of solid rock. The 
 pyramid itself is built of limestone, which was origi- 
 nally covered with polished marble. It contains 
 three chambers, one above the other, and a great 
 many inclined passages, and in the upper chamber 
 was placed the sarcophagus. The other pyramids 
 are similar to this only varying in size. At Gizeh also 
 is the colossal sphinx, the last great sculptural and 
 architectural feat of the Egyptians. It is a recum- 
 bent lion body 150 feet long, with fore-paws 50 
 feet long. The human face which surmounts it is 
 30 feet long and 14 feet wide. From the top of 
 the head to the base the distance is 70 feet The 
 Sphinx is cut for the most part out of solid stone 
 with pieces added where necessary. TTie face at 
 one time was colored red, and in all probability the 
 whole head had a limestone covering. As a monu- 
 ment of the Ancient Empire, the sphinx claims at- 
 tention, for it was built as a memorial tomb. The 
 royal tombs built throughout this period were more 
 than one hundred in number, and are arranged in six 
 groups. Of course the pyramids and sphinx are 
 the greatest works of this time. They do not show 
 much architectural beauty, but their size and ma- 
 jesty, and the skill displayed in their building give 
 them first place in the work of this day. 
 
58 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 The Middle Empire dates from 2300 to 1 700 B. 
 C. During this period many tombs of a diderent 
 nature were built on the west bank of the Nile. Some 
 were cut out of the stone cliff facing eastward, with 
 an elaborate facade either hewn from the stone or 
 built upon the cliff. At this time, also, many tem- 
 ples were builded, all of them on the east side of the 
 river. In 2200 B. C. the great Temple of Karnak 
 was begun. It is by far the most majestic ruin in 
 the world and the most imposing temple ever build- 
 ed, for it contains the great Hypostyle Hall, meas- 
 uring 340 by 1 70 feet with 1 34 columns in sixteen 
 rows and supporting a massive stone roof. These 
 columns are 70 feet high and 12 feet in diameter. 
 It was during this period that the clustered columns 
 were used for the first time, because of their strength. 
 Then also the oldest of the Grotto temples were 
 probably builded. Their facades are adorned by 
 seated figures of the great king, the builder. 
 
 The New Empire, from 1 700 B. C. to 324 B. 
 C, was a period of great foreign conquest. It was 
 then that Rameses I, Seti I, and Rameses II drove 
 out the Shepherd Kings, and entered upon a period 
 of architectural achievement. As the Temple of 
 Karnak was more than 500 years in the building. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 59 
 
 it is probable that the best part of it was done at the 
 beginning of this era. Near it, on the site of Thebes, 
 was builded at this time the Temple of Luxor, with 
 two fore courts, which were divided and crowned 
 by double-aisled colonnades. The temple itself 
 was 850 feet long and was perhaps connected 
 with Karnak by an unfinished hypostyle hall. During 
 this period also was constructed the Ramesseum, a 
 temple of the first magnitude, 590 feet long. Like 
 many of the buildings of this class, it was divided 
 into four parts. At the rear was the sanctuary, 
 before this was the hypostyle hall, and in front of the 
 hall was a second court behind an entrance court, 
 which was flanked by huge pylons or gateways. 
 In Nubia beyond the First Cataract, was builded 
 during this period the famous temple of Abou Sim- 
 bel, a rock-hewn temple whose facade has four 
 gigantic portrait statues of Rameses II, which are 
 70 feet in height. This temple is considered the 
 finest achievement of all Egyptian architecture. In 
 addition to the Grotto temples, many of which were 
 builded during this period, are the Peripteral temples. 
 These are of moderate size and consist of a small 
 chamber without a roof, which is generally surround- 
 ed by columns and is usually placed on a terrace of 
 
60 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 vertical wall. Philae and Edfou are the best pre- 
 served of the Peripteral temples. The latter prob- 
 ably belongs to the Ptolemaic period from 323 to 
 30 B. C. 
 
 The temples for the most part were in Upper 
 Egypt between Elephantine and Beni-Hassan. Be- 
 tween Beni-Hassen and Memphis in Lower Egypt^ 
 on the west side of the river and facing the East, 
 were many tombs. Temples and tombs were very 
 much alike. Some of them were built of stone and 
 of brick, and some of them were cut from the rock. 
 The walls of each were decorated by outline sculp- 
 ture in pictorial forms incised and excised and adorn- 
 ed with much color. The plan of the tombs proper 
 is in each case very simple, but the network of cham- 
 bers and tunnels was very complex, often running 
 hundreds of feet into the rock. The columns as well 
 as the walls were elaborately decorated with the 
 deeds of the rulers. The upper part of the columns 
 and the roofs were always colored. The Egyptian 
 put very much more work on his temples and tombs 
 than upon his dwelling. This is because he was 
 more interested in the next world than in this pres- 
 ent one. Life to the Egyptian was merely a prepara- 
 tion for the existence to come. All Egyptian arch- 
 
ARCHITECTURE 61 
 
 itecture is based upon the principle of the Hntel. 
 Neither the arch nor the vault found a way into their 
 use. 
 
 From Egypt we pass through Chaldea and Assy- 
 ria into Persian and Jewish architecture. The plan 
 of their building varied from the Egyptian, but the 
 principle of the lintel continued to prevail. The 
 Temple of Jehovah described in I Kings, chapters 6 
 and 7, and II Chronicles, chapters 3 and 4, is the 
 most elaborate and best example of the temple arch- 
 itecture. Moreover, the archaeologists are bringing 
 to light the castle architecture of that period. The 
 palaces at Babylon, Susa and Ninevah are all thrown 
 on the screen in their lectures. This means that 
 their plans have been discovered, and the general 
 material of the walls and their decorations are so well 
 understood that the pencil can put them together and 
 a picture be drawn. 
 
 Persia took the system of interior columns from 
 Egypt, but the details of her architecture are like 
 those of Assyria. Also her use of columns as inter- 
 mediate supports she borrowed from central Asia. 
 However, the column in the hypostyle hall and in 
 porches was as common in Persia as in Egypt. TTie 
 Egyptians developed the capital decoration of their 
 
62 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 column into the following forms, namely, the lotus 
 bud, the clustered lotus bud, the inverted bell or 
 campaniform, the Hathor headed and the palm cap- 
 ital. In the use of the latter, Persia was like Egypt. 
 Moreover, the doors and windows had banded arch- 
 itraves like those of Egypt. Instead of sphinxes or 
 colossal seated statues, like Assyria, Persia placed 
 winged monsters (lions and bulls) at her entrances. 
 The Lycian architects used wall panels in their 
 tombs, a design which Persia was pleased to utilize. 
 These panels differed from those in use in Egypt. 
 The Chaldeans, on the other hand, used the Egyp- 
 tian style of panel, although they made it of sundried 
 brick enameled on one side. The Jewish architec- 
 ture was formed from that of every people with 
 whom the Jews came in contact, their one great 
 achievement, as has been stated, being the Temple 
 of Jehovah at Jerusalem. 
 
 From Persia we pass to Greece and to Greek arch- 
 itecture. The latter is the synonym of perfect sim- 
 plicity, symmetry and beauty in the science of build- 
 ing. The Greek was a great architect, but he 
 builded only for the Greek. The situation of 
 Greece between the seas, her surface broken by 
 mountains, her mild climate and her people, living an 
 
ARCHITECTURE 63 
 
 out-of-door life, all are characteristically woven into 
 her architecture. First, her work is unique. Per- 
 haps this is because she is separated from other coun- 
 tries only by the sea. Her architecture although 
 based upon the principle of the lintel could not bor- 
 row its style and therefore was original. She quar- 
 ried her stone from the mountains, so she built not 
 in wood, but in marble. Her climate is warm and 
 mild, and very bright. Thus her buildings inside 
 are cool, dark and often without roofs. Her people 
 had a natural sense of fitness and proportion, so she 
 builded beautifully. 
 
 The history of Greece begins in the eighth cen- 
 tury B. C. Before this time facts are mixed with 
 myth and legend. This period from 1181 to 700 
 B. C. is known as the Heroic Age. During this 
 period arose the stories of the Expedition of the 
 Argonauts and the Trojan War. The Greeks de- 
 veloped three architectural styles known as historic 
 orders, namely, the Doric, the Ionic and the Corin- 
 thian. During the Heroic Age the Doric order was 
 used, but it was heavy in its proportions and coarse 
 in its execution. 
 
 The Doric pillar consists of a tapering shaft rising 
 directly from a platform upon which is a capital of 
 great simplicity and beauty. The shape is fluted 
 
64 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 with sixteen or twenty shallow channels, which meet 
 in sharp edges called arrises. The capital is made 
 of a circular cushion (echinus) and a solid square^ 
 or cap. Upon this rests an unadorned architrave 
 with a narrow fillet on its upper edge. The frieze 
 above is divided into square panels called metopes, 
 which are separated by vertical triglyphs. The cor- 
 nice consists of a broadly projecting corona resting 
 on a bed-mould of one or two simple mouldings. 
 Its under surface, called the soffit, is broken by 
 square, flat projections called mutules. The best 
 example of Doric columns is found in the Parthenon, 
 the beautiful ruined temple on the Acropolis in 
 Athens. 
 
 The Ionic order is more slender than the Doric 
 and more elegant in detail. It has essentially the 
 same parts as the Doric and was used for civic and 
 religious buildings frequently in conjunction with 
 the Doric. The column is generally made higher 
 than the Doric, and the shaft stands on a base of two 
 tori (A torus is a convex moulding with a semi- 
 circular profile). These tori are separated by a 
 concave moulding called a scotia, on top of which 
 is often a flat base block or plinth. The tall shaft 
 had 24 flutings separated by narrow fillets. On top 
 
ARCHITECTURE 65 
 
 of the shaft was a narrow bead moulding, or astragal 
 and above that a circular cushion, an echinus. This 
 echinus was surmounted by a horizontal band ending 
 on either side in a volute or scroll. The entablature 
 was made of two or three flat bands crowned by fine 
 mouldings; above this was a frieze often sculptured 
 in relief, and resting on this was a cornice of unusual 
 beauty. The details of this order were treated with 
 great freedom and variety. At Halicarnassus and 
 Miletus in Asia Minor fine examples of the Ionic 
 order are to be found. 
 
 The Corinthian pillar is not new. It was a late 
 outgrowth of the Ionic order. It prevailed very gen- 
 erally after the Roman Conquest. The shaft and 
 base were similar to the Ionic, change being wholly 
 in the capital. This is a high bell-shaped core sur- 
 rounded by one or two rows of acanthus leaves, 
 above which were pairs of branching scrolls meeting 
 at the corners in spiral volutes. These scrolls sup- 
 port the angles of a moulded abacus with concave 
 sides. The Tower of the Winds at Athens has 
 some notable examples of the Corinthian order. 
 
 The Greek temples were generally of moderate 
 size. They were intended to enshrine the deity or 
 a simulacrum, rather than to accommodate throngs 
 
66 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 of worshippers. They were not intended even for 
 the few, the privileged class. In form they were 
 simple, a naos or chamber which enshrined the deity. 
 Its walls without windows were called the cella. 
 This chamber was entered through a columnar porch 
 the pronaos. A smaller chamber was sometimes 
 added in the rear and the whole structure was sur- 
 rounded by a colonnade, the peristyle, which was 
 the most splendid feature of Greek Architecture.* 
 A single gabled roof covered the entire building. 
 Under the gable on each side the triangular space 
 at either end was called the pediment. These pedi- 
 ments together with the frieze about the cella walls 
 were generally executed in elaborate bas-relief. The 
 Greek temple belonged to the people, not to the 
 rulers. No effort was made to make it large and 
 majestic. Beauty of form, line, proportion, execu- 
 tion and detail was the ideal to which the Greek 
 attained. There were many varieties of these tem- 
 ples and they are named acording to their differences. 
 Moreover, the difference is almost always in the 
 addition or loss of a whole or of some part of the 
 peristyle. 
 
 *Herein lies one great difference between Egyptian and 
 Greek building. In the former the colonnade was enclosed. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 67 
 
 The best period of building in Greece as in other 
 nations, came at a certain time; that is, the same 
 standard of excellence was not uniformly main- 
 tained. The Age of Pericles extended from 453 
 to 431 B. C. This period was less than one gen- 
 eration, but during these two decades Athens gave 
 birth to more great men than the whole world has 
 produced in the same length of time. During this 
 age, also, many buildings and statues of unrivaled 
 beauty were made. Then was builded the Parthe- 
 non, the most faultless in design and in execution of 
 all the buildings erected by man. It was the 
 masterpiece of Greek architecture, because of its 
 perfect proportion, its refinement of detail and 
 the beauty of its sculptural ornaments. In the 
 Erechtheum, also built during this age, were shrines 
 to Attic heroes and deities. This temple is on the 
 Acropolis in Athens, that wonderful hill which is 
 surmounted by the Parthenon. Up here also is 
 the Nike Apteros, the temple of the Wingless Vic- 
 tory. The monumental gateway to the Acropolis 
 is the Propylea, in which were first combined the 
 Doric and Ionic orders. Through the Propylea 
 one finds his way to the Erechtheum, or tomb of the 
 Athenians. This age also completed the Theseum, 
 
68 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the greater part of which had been builded during 
 the Transition Period from 700 to 450 B. C. The 
 Theseum is a temple some distance from the base of 
 the AcropoHs in Athens. It is a thing of beauty, 
 hexastyle and peripteral and adorned with Ionic 
 orders, mainly, with no triglyphs on the cella walls. 
 These buildings show in part what the Age of Peri- 
 cles meant to Athens. The city had become a 
 powerful naval state, and this age witnessed an 
 unequaled union of intellectual and material inter- 
 ests, which spoke through literature, sculpture and 
 architecture. 
 
 The Age of Pericles as we have already stated 
 was preceded by the Transition Period (700 to 
 450 B. C). During this time the Temple of Ath- 
 ena at Egina was builded as was also the Temple 
 of Zeus at Olympia. Throughout this time the use 
 of the Ionic order prevailed. Before the Transi- 
 tion Age was the Archaic Period, (1181-700 B. 
 C). During these four centuries five noted exam- 
 ples were achieved, all of them glorious with the 
 Doric order of column. They are, the Temple of 
 Apollo at Corinth, the Temple of Paestum in South- 
 ern Italy, the Temple of Zeus at Agrigentum, the 
 Temple of Zeus at Selinus in Sicily, and the North- 
 ern Temple on the Acropolis of Selinus. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 69 
 
 The ages mentioned thus far in their order are 
 Archaic, Transitional and the Pariclean. After the 
 Age of Pericles, comes the Alexandrian Period 
 (438-321 B. C.) During this time, the Temple 
 of Apollo at Miletus was builded, in which are 
 found beautiful examples of both the Ionic and 
 Corinthian orders; also the Artemisium at Ephesus 
 and the Choragic monument of Lysicrates. The 
 last was built in memory of the famous chorus mas- 
 ter's victory in choral competitions. It is famous 
 for its Corinthian orders. Two periods follow the 
 Alexandrian Age. They are the Decadence, 321 
 to 146 B. C, in which, among others, the Tower 
 of the Winds at Athens with its Corinthian orders 
 was builded, and the Roman Period (146 B. C. 
 to 476 A. D.) in which the Agra Gate was accom- 
 plished, as was also the Olympian Zeus at Athens, 
 which was famous for its Corinthian orders. 
 
 Greek architecture was not wholly confined to 
 the building of temples. There are other notable 
 ruins scattered throughout Greece. Among them 
 are the mammoth stadia and the hippodromes. 
 These are oblong enclosures surrounded by tiers 
 of seats. 
 
70 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 A beautiful new stadium of white marble has 
 been rebuilt in Athens by a Greek of Alexandria, 
 and is famous for the present world-spectacle, the 
 Olympian Games. — ^Also there was the palestra or 
 gymnasium. This was a simple combination of 
 courts, chambers, tanks, and seats for the spectators. 
 Moreover, the Greeks built various tombs, although 
 ruins of these are not numerous. One of the most 
 noted of them was the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. 
 The domestic architecture of the Greeks was insig- 
 nificant in size and decoration. In this they were 
 like the Egyptians. 
 
 We have found that the Egyptian builded tem- 
 ples and tombs because he was interested in the life 
 beyond. The Greek reared temples and other build- 
 ings because he was interested wholly in this world, 
 in to-day. 
 
 In due time Rome conquered Greece and appro- 
 priated for herself the skill of the Greek in building. 
 This is the wonderful part of Rome, namely her 
 ability to use the best of the peoples whom she con- 
 quered. In the Roman Empire, artist and artisan 
 worked well together. Through her ability to 
 organize, Rome was able to accomplish a far greater 
 amount of work in a shorter time than had any 
 
ARCHITECTURE 71 
 
 other of the world powers. Throughout her empire 
 she distributed aqueducts, villas, baths and theatres. 
 In these, artisanship did the constructing while art 
 did the planning and decorating. The needs of 
 Rome were entirely different from those of Greece, 
 but she used in her architecture all that she could 
 utilize from the Greek method of building. Nor was 
 Greece her only source of inspiration and know- 
 ledge, although the influence of this country is very 
 noticeable in Roman architecture, yet from the Ori- 
 ent and from the islands of the sea, Rome took for 
 herself all that she felt was either useful or beautiful. 
 The Greek orders were at once superseded by the 
 Roman. The column and the arch together gave rise 
 to a new form as characteristically Roman as the 
 peristyle and colonnade were Grecian. Rome 
 adopted the three orders, but in a modified form. 
 For instance, the Roman Doric column was in a 
 different proportion. The shaft contracted toward 
 the capital and the height of the entablature is about 
 a quarter of the length of the whole column. In the 
 buildings of many stories, these orders were super- 
 imposed. Of the three orders used in Rome, the sec- 
 ond one, the Ionic, underwent the fewest changes. 
 
72 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 but the Corinthian was entirely changed and a com- 
 posite order was developed. While the Greeks fol- 
 lowed the principle of the lintel as did the Egyp- 
 tians, the Roman stories were characterized by the 
 arcade. Thus the principle of the arch or vault found 
 its way into architecture in conjunction with the lin- 
 tel. Vaulting in brick, in concrete, or in masonry 
 was very commonly used for ceilings in both public 
 and private edifices. 
 
 The public business of Rome, both judicial and 
 commercial, was transacted for the most part in 
 basilicas, large buildings wide and lofty, with the 
 central nave flanked by lower side aisles, terminating 
 at one or both ends with a semi-circular apse called 
 the tribune, in which were seats for the magistrates. 
 The most noted ruin of this kind is the basilica of 
 Constantine in Rome. Besides the basilica were 
 public swimming baths, called thermae. There are 
 two noted ruins of them, the baths of Agrippa be- 
 hind the Pantheon, and the thermae of Caracalla 
 in Rome. Also there were theatres, elliptical in 
 plan, built up with continuous encircling tiers of 
 seats and uncovered by a roof except in some in- 
 stances where the stage was sheltered. The Colos- 
 seum, built by Flavian and Vespasian in 82 A. D. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 73 
 
 was the largest of these structures. This ruin, one 
 of the noblest in Italy, is very well preserved. Two 
 stories of the wall still stand, and on one side a 
 portion of the third and fourth stories is complete. 
 The tourist can see in fancy the noble structure, its 
 walls within and without covered with polished 
 marble, alive with Roman crowds and gay with 
 the banners and glitter of the Pagan world, of which 
 the "Eternal City** was the capital. 
 
 Like the theatre were the circus and stadium. 
 In the arena was the large narrow race-course sur- 
 rounded by a semi-circular file of seats. The Circus 
 Maximus between the Palatine and the Aventine 
 Hills in Rome is the oldest of these buildings. How- 
 ever, there was another and a larger one which 
 accommodated over three hundred thousand spec- 
 tators. The last of the architectural feats was the 
 triumphal arch which will be discussed in connection 
 with the History of Sculpture. In the tombs of the 
 Romans we find a great variety of size and form. 
 The palaces and dwellings of the Romans show 
 their love of ostentation and of luxury. The bridges 
 and aqueducts of the Romans are characteristic of 
 their skill and of the type of their building. 
 
74 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 fall of the Western Roman Empire, Constantine 
 embraced Christianity, and made it the State Re- 
 ligion. As a result, the simple working plan of the 
 Christian Church was made over and elaborated 
 into an organization very like the Roman Empire. 
 The early Christians had been satisfied to worship 
 in the catacombs or groves or in an "upper room;" 
 not so the new State Church. Thus, the early 
 Christian architecture, as it is called, developed. A 
 house of worship was demanded and was forth- 
 coming. It was based on the plan of the basilica 
 already mentioned. These buildings, with a broad 
 and lofty nave, separated by rows of columns from 
 the single or double aisles, proved admirably adapted 
 to the needs of the Christian Church. (The aisles 
 were about one half the width of the nave, and were 
 covered with wooden roofs and ceilings.) Above 
 the columns on the sides of the nave rose the lofty 
 clearstory supporting immense trusses which bore 
 the roof. These mechanical devices illustrate the 
 third architectural principle, namely, the truss. You 
 will recall that Egypt and Greece developed the 
 first principle of the lintel, Rome the second princi- 
 ple of the arch, and now the early Christian archi- 
 
ARCHITECTURE 75 
 
 tects used the third, the principle of the truss. In 
 all probability these early builders developed cohe- 
 sion as well. In fact in the rudest work of the 
 Roman world like the aqueducts and in laying foun- 
 dations and in building bridges doubtless this fourth 
 principle was exercised. As to size, the Cathedral 
 of St. Peters, is so large that any other basilica-like 
 building can be easily accommodated within its walls. 
 St. Paul beyond the Walls, and St. John Lateran, 
 all built on this plan, demonstrate the use of the 
 third architectural principle of the truss. 
 
 In the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, 
 this plan of the basilica was slightly modified. The 
 long, slim, Roman cross, with its short head and 
 side arms, which formed the basis of the early church, 
 gave place to the Greek cross with stem, head and 
 arms of equal length. Also the heavily trussed 
 gabled roof used in Rome was replaced by the 
 domical roof of Constantinople, with its bulbous 
 domes and minarets. The dome, the characteristic 
 feature of Byzantine architecture, rested on four 
 circular arches. The spaces between the arches 
 (above the sides where the round of the arch begins) 
 were called the pendentives. These pendentives were 
 richly decorated by mosaics, painting or bas-relief. 
 
76 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 In fact, the whole interior of these cathedrals was 
 rich in decoration and in carved detail. St. Mark's 
 in Venice and St. Sophia in Constantinople are 
 built on the plan of the Greek cross. They have 
 the domical broken roof, which is surmounted by 
 many bulbous domes, and by an army of minarets. 
 These are all excellent examples of Byzantine archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 Just here we should pause to consider Sassanian 
 and Mohammedan architecture. This would cover 
 Arabian, Moresque, Persian, Indian and Turkish 
 building. Each of these classes boasts many struct- 
 ures with more decorative than constructive features. 
 Their work, for the most part, is massive, with ex- 
 terior and interior rich in decorative detail. They 
 too have many towers and pinnacles which seem to 
 express Oriental love of splendor. The name which 
 obtains for these buildings in the East is not cathe- 
 dral, but mosque. It was at this time, also, that 
 the beautiful palaces of the Moors at Granada, 
 known as the Alhambra, and the Alcazars in Seville 
 and Malaga were builded in Spain. In the Alham- 
 bra is the noted Court of the Lions so often pictured 
 with its fountain and the Hall of Ambassadors so 
 rich in decorative design. However, the greatest 
 
ARCHITECTURE 11 
 
 expression of Mohammedan art is the magnificent 
 Taj Mahal at Agra in India. This was built in 
 1 650 by Shah Jehan. While he lived, it was used 
 as a festal hall, but after his death, it was his mau- 
 soleum. The design, materials and execution of 
 this tomb are the best known to the Mohammedan 
 world. The building is 185 feet square, and is 
 made of white marble. It stands in the center of 
 a court 3 1 3 feet square, which is really an elevated 
 platform 18 feet high. At the corners of the court 
 are beautiful minarets. They help to bring out the 
 nobility and symmetry of the perfect white marble 
 dome which covers the center of the tomb. In con- 
 nection with this should be mentioned the Pearl 
 Mosque at Agra, and the Jumma Musjid at Delhi, 
 both achieved by the enterprising builder of the Taj 
 Mahal. 
 
 Another historical fact with which we are all 
 familiar, is the descent of the barbarian hordes from 
 the central and the northern parts of Europe upon 
 the Roman Empire in the last centuries of its exist- 
 ence, and in the first centuries of the Christian 
 Church. Moreover, we know that while these hosts 
 came to conquer, they themselves were conquered 
 by the Christian Church and became Christians, 
 
78 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 not, of course. Christians in the full significance of 
 the word to-day, but Christian as opposed to Pagan 
 in the language of a State religion. These bar- 
 barians emerged later into the French and German 
 nations. They eventually assimilated all that was 
 best in the Fine Arts, besides much learning in 
 state craft, and in other branches of knowledge 
 which was less helpful. Now, whether they re- 
 mained in Italy, as conquerors, and many of them 
 did, or whether they returned to the northland, 
 they developed a need for the Christian 
 Church. Out of this demand of their na- 
 ture grew the mediaeval architecture in France, 
 Germany, England, Spain, and Italy, which 
 was based upon the tradition of the early 
 Christian builders, and was largely ecclesiastical. 
 The priests and the monks of Italy and of Western 
 Europe began to rear churches, many of them im- 
 mense and made of stone, and all of them built upon 
 the general plan of the Roman basilica. These 
 edifices were fire-proof, and vaults of stone were 
 used in their construction. Of course, different con- 
 ditions in different countries brought about manifold 
 differences in the building. Rome, although ruined, 
 never ceased to put her stamp upon the architec- 
 ture in her vicinity. However, in the forests of 
 
ARCHITECTURE 79 
 
 Gaul and Germany, sculpture, mosaic, and bas- 
 relief were not emphasized by the builders. As a 
 result. Western Europe, built fire-proof stone edi- 
 fices, far more massive, but much less elaborate than 
 those in Italy. The plan of the basilica was still 
 in use, but unskilled labor disposed of its parts in a 
 far simpler style than had the builders in the Roman 
 world. This adaptation of the structure of the 
 church to the new conditions in the countries outside 
 of Italy brought about a new style of architecture, 
 which is generally known as the Romanesque. As a 
 result of this modification, Italy soon stood on mid- 
 dle ground. On the east was the architecture of 
 Byzantium, on the west the building of semi-bar- 
 barous Europe, but all of the architecture at this 
 period, from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, re- 
 gardless of native differences, is known in history as 
 the period of the Romanesque. 
 
 The great cathedrals in Lombardy and Tuscany, 
 the cathedral, the baptistery and leaning tower at 
 Pisa, the Duomo at Florence, and the baptistery 
 near by, were built during this period. Also, Dur- 
 ham, Carlisle and Peterboro Cathedrals in England 
 were constructed during this period of the Roman- 
 esque. 
 
80 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 These seven centuries proved to be only a step- 
 ping stone from early Christian architecture to that 
 style which developed in Europe from the twelfth 
 to the sixteenth centuries, and is wrongly called 
 Gothic architecture. The word Gothic means any- 
 thing rude or barbarous, or whatever pertains to 
 the barbarians. It happens that the architects of 
 this period accomplished a grandeur and sublimity 
 never before achieved. True, these builders were 
 descended from the barbarians who pillaged Rome, 
 hence the name, but the first meaning of the word, 
 rude or barbarous, applied to the splendid creations 
 of this period is misleading. In the twelfth cen- 
 tury, there was a great intellectual awakening, which 
 brought with it political and social changes. Out 
 of the strife among the emperor, feudal barons, the 
 pope and the bishops, the supremacy of the papacy 
 began to be recognized side by side with the prerog- 
 atives of the crown. It was then that the splendid 
 cathedrals in England, France, Germany, the Neth- 
 erlands and Spain began to be builded, a feat which 
 lasted several hundreds of years. 
 
 Gothic architecture developed through structural 
 principles. The first was the "concentration of 
 strains'* upon isolated points of support. This was 
 
ARCHITECTURE 81 
 
 accomplished by groined instead of barrel vaulting. 
 (A groin is the projecting solid angle formed by the 
 meeting of two vaults.) The second principle was 
 "transmitted thrusts." Up to this time, the inertia 
 of mass had been the main resistance. Now, thrusts 
 were resisted by counter thrusts, and the final result- 
 ant pressure was transmitted by flying half-arches 
 extended across the intervening portions of the struc- 
 ture to external buttresses placed at convenient dis- 
 tances. It was also found that the pointed arch 
 allowed less warping of the vaulted surface. Next 
 the pointed arch was used where possible in all 
 parts of the structure, especially in the walls and 
 windows. Of course, as the massive walls became 
 unnecessary, the windows grew in size and in num- 
 ber. The result of this was the suppression of the 
 lateral walls. The windows in turn emphasized 
 the stained glass and tracery. As a result, the beau- 
 tiful window designs were forthcoming, the circles, 
 quatrefoils, trefoils, and rose windows, which after 
 six centuries excite the wonder and admiration of the 
 art-loving world. Also the plan of the church is 
 modified. The choir is lengthened. Instead of 
 one or at the most two side-aisles, their number goes 
 to three and four. Moreover, the aisles are carried 
 
82 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 around the choir to form an ambulatory. In the 
 transepts and side aisles are many chapels, while 
 the nave proper, rising above the side aisles into the 
 clearstory, girts the latter with a gallery which is 
 built as an arcaded triforium. The exterior of the 
 cathedrals was radically transformed by the addi- 
 tion of towers and spires on the front and on the 
 transepts. The flying buttresses, terminated in 
 pinnacles, and the triple receding portals were pro- 
 fusely decorated. All the decorative detail was 
 both symbolic and artistic, and increased in meaning 
 and in beauty through the stages of this marvelous 
 period, a time when the builders aimed to. achieve 
 so beautiful a shrine that the Divinity would be 
 tempted to leave his home above and be content to 
 dwell in an earthly temple. 
 
 Gothic architecture was unusually splendid in 
 France. Notre Dame in Paris, and the Cathedrals 
 of Chartres, Amiens, Rheims, and Rouen, are re- 
 markable for beauty of design, richness of decora- 
 tion and symbolic meaning. Notre Dame is espec- 
 ially noted for its stateliness and for its simplicity, 
 while the Cathedral of Rouen surpasses all others 
 in the richness and design of its decorative tracery. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 83 
 
 Sainte Chapelle, the beautiful royal chapel in Paris, 
 and the Cathedral at Chartres, are two of the most 
 perfect examples of Gothic building. 
 
 In England, the cathedrals are as numerous, but 
 they are a little less ornate. The development of 
 architecture was very much slower in England than 
 in France. For this reason it could be more uniform. 
 During the Gothic period in which the architecture 
 was almost wholly eccelesiastical, a few new cath- 
 edrals were reared and almost all of the old ones 
 were rebuilt. The exterior of the English cathe- 
 drals was far less ornate than of those on the con- 
 tinent, but the interior was especially rich in mould- 
 ings and in ribbed vaulting. The churches in Eng- 
 land continued to have a long nave and choir, with 
 double transepts, a square east end, comparatively 
 low vaulting, and narrow grouped windows. Be- 
 sides the features just enumerated, the English vault- 
 ing had great richness and variety in comparison 
 with the French. From the ribbed vaulting, they 
 passed to the fan vaulting, which is characteristically 
 English. The best example of this is in the choir 
 of King's "College Chapel of Cambridge." The 
 cathedral towns in England are York, Durham, Ely, 
 
84 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Lincoln, Chester, Canterbury, Salisbury, Carlisle, 
 Gloucester, Lichfield, and Peterborough, besides 
 several others. 
 
 In Germany, the Gothic architecture developed 
 less systematically and produced fewer works of 
 worth. Moreover, the style was late in being adopt- 
 ed, and consequently its progress was slow. There 
 were some fine examples of Romanesque ecclesiasti- 
 cal architecture, but the Germans were not quick to 
 adopt the vault and the pointed arch. When they 
 finally did adopt them, they added only a short 
 clearstory with no triforium. This gave their work 
 the low, massive character of the preceding Ro- 
 manesque period. Strange to say, when the Ger- 
 mans later became converted to the Gothic form, 
 their work became very ostentatious. Cathedrals 
 at Ulm, Strasburg, and Nuremberg illustrate their 
 exaggerated detail in both exterior and interior fin- 
 ish. One characteristic difference in the construc- 
 tion of the German churches was the raising of the 
 side aisle vaults to the height of the central aisle. 
 This changed entirely the interior effect of their 
 cathedrals. In time, too, they discarded the flying 
 buttresses and clearstory and effected what is 
 known as the hall church, a spacious interior with- 
 
ARCHITECTURE 85 
 
 out aisles. The Cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna 
 is a fine example of this type of building. How- 
 ever, the most magnificent of all the German cathe- 
 drals, and one which rivals in beauty and majesty 
 the best ecclesiastical architecture in any country, 
 is Cologne Cathedral on the Rhine. This is in 
 plan and design entirely like the French Gothic 
 work. It has double aisles in both nave and choir, 
 its transepts have three aisles, and it has twin towers 
 on the west. The ambulatory is single, and there 
 are no lateral chapels. This shows a slight digres- 
 sion from the French style. In Germany during 
 this period some secular buildings of note were reared. 
 One is the palace at Marienburg in Prussia, which 
 contains a great hall for the order of German 
 Knights. Also the Albrechtsburg at Meissen was 
 built at this time. Then, too, were built many fine 
 guild halls and dwelling houses in various cities. 
 Their lofty roofs, open-work balconies and corner 
 turrets are characteristically Gothic as well as Ger- 
 man in their quaint and effective design. Spain, 
 Portugal, and Italy, all have many notable examples 
 of this period of architecture. The Moors were 
 overthrown in Spain in the thirteenth century. After 
 this, building received a great impetus, but was very 
 
86 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 similar to the work done in France. In fact, To- 
 ledo Cathedral was modeled after Notre Dame. 
 It is among the largest churches in Europe, as it 
 covers an area of 75,000 square feet. The next in 
 size is Bourges. It has a west front of German 
 design. Here its twin open-work spires remind one 
 of Cologne. Late Spanish Gothic work overloaded 
 the decorative side and became entirely too ornate. 
 At Leon, Valencia, and Barcelona, cathedrals were 
 builded in the thirteenth century. The largest sin- 
 gle example of ecclesiastical architecture in Spain 
 was built in the fifteenth century. This is the Ca- 
 thedral at Seville, which occupies the site of a Moor- 
 ish mosque. It covers the enormous space of 124,- 
 000 square feet, and is 415 feet long. 
 
 In Italy, the monks introduced the Gothic style 
 of building. They too were taught by France, for 
 the earliest examples of their work show French in- 
 fluence. The cities during this period were proud 
 to erect cathedrals as tokens of their pride and 
 wealth. Among these are Sienna, Florence and 
 Milan, and many others. They are all of noble 
 proportions, but Milan is the largest of this style in 
 Italy, and in Europe, is second only to Seville. In 
 beauty, decorative detail and grandeur of design. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 87 
 
 Milan is one of the most pleasing cathedrals on the 
 continent. The interior treatment of most of the 
 Italian Cathedrals left large unbroken wall surfaces 
 and an unusual expanse of vaults over very wide 
 naves. It was intended to cover these with paint- 
 ings and color frescoes. In many instances this was 
 accomplished, but in others, the naked wall was left. 
 This, of course, detracts from the general effect of 
 finish and grandeur. The plans of the Italian build- 
 ings at this time were widely diverse. Spacious and 
 very broad, the nave often seems out of proportion 
 to the narrow transept. The Campanile or bell- 
 tower, is usually an accompaniment of the Italian 
 Cathedral, as is also the Baptistery. In the churches 
 of the North, these two functions are combined with- 
 in the cathedral. Another difference in the Italian 
 Gothic architecture was their preference for the 
 square tower instead of the spire, as in the Campanile 
 of St. Mark's. Owing to the mild climate in Italy. 
 Gothic architecture had a very pleasing development 
 in its secular and domestic structure. The Doge's 
 Palace adjoining St. Mark's in Venice is one of 
 the best examples of the secular use of the Gothic 
 in Italy. 
 
88 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 History has much to say of the great intellectual 
 movement which stirred Europe in the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. This experience, called the re- 
 birth of learning in Italy, and the Reformation in the 
 North, modified the architecture together with the 
 other arts, and gave rise to the building of the Ren- 
 aissance. The spirit of this new movement was the 
 protest of the individual against the arbitrary author- 
 ity of a few leaders. In other words, it was the 
 cry of the soul for freedom, a sentiment which had 
 long waited for utterance, and which had gathered 
 strength during the centuries of waiting. Modern 
 civilization is the outcome of this expression. 
 
 You will recall that the Humanists were the her- 
 alds of the Renaissance in literature, and that they 
 interested the Italian world in a new study of the old 
 classics. This fondness for the classics in art was 
 not dead, but sleeping, and the enthusiasm of the 
 Renaissance only liberated an old interest. A re- 
 turn to classic Roman architecture now begins among 
 the builders of Italy. In Florence, the most artis- 
 tic community in Italy, this new old thought first 
 found expression in the dome which was built for 
 the Duomo. After this, there were many examples 
 of Roman classic models. These were characterized 
 
ARCHITECTURE 89 
 
 by a grace and freedom of decorative detail. The 
 movement thus started became more and more form- 
 ally classic, until the old Roman orders were revived 
 with all their original freedom and stateliness. But 
 the new can never become the old any more than 
 one style can obtain forever. The classic Roman 
 orders began to be rebuilt upon a colossal scale with 
 engaged columns. This style came to be called the 
 Baroque, which means grotesque or exaggerated. 
 After the building world tired of the Baroque, they 
 went from bad to worse into a Period of Decline, 
 from 1 700 to 1 800. At this time sham and dis- 
 play prevailed and architecture as a Fine Art for a 
 time seemed to have lost her birth-right. 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the Renais- 
 sance architecture is the shifting of the interest from 
 cathedrals to palaces and to public buildings. At 
 this time Brunelleschi (1435) builded the Pitti Pal- 
 ace in Florence and Benedetto da Majano and 
 Cronaca erected the Strozzi in the same city. It 
 was then, also, that the famous altars, tabernacles, 
 pulpits and fountains were built because the new 
 style lent itself easily to works of this character. 
 However, the pinnacle of Renaissance architecture 
 is St. Peters. Several architects are responsible for 
 
90 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 this building. Bramante, Raphaers uncle, made 
 the original design, namely, a Greek cross with apsi- 
 dal arms. Michael Angelo simplified this and add- 
 ed the magnificent dome, which is its most striking 
 feature. Moreover, the style of St. Peter*s was 
 generally followed throughout Italy. Palladio was 
 the great church architect in Venice during this time, 
 and Sansovino, another building genius, built the 
 Library of St. Mark's. 
 
 During this period, the Jesuits built many churches 
 in Italy, and they affected the Baroque style. One 
 of their ablest architects was Lorenzo Bernini. He 
 debased his talents by producing work of the exag- 
 gerated type. It was at this time that the famous 
 fountain of Trevi (1735) in Rome was built by 
 Nicola Salvi. 
 
 France is never behind in any new movement, 
 rather she is one of its leaders. So it was with the 
 architecture of the Renaissance, which prevailed in 
 France, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. 
 During the Valois period, from 1 483 to 1 589, many 
 palaces and castles were built, all of them simple 
 and effective in their exterior design. The cornices 
 at this time projected slightly, and carving was very 
 freely used. Fontainebleau, one of the finest pal- 
 
ARCHITECTURE 91 
 
 aces of the French kings, was reared during this 
 period, but the best example of the time is the 
 Louvre, now the famous art museum, but originally 
 a fortified palace. The architect was Pierre Lescot, 
 and he produced a dignified and classic castle, which 
 has been amplified until it is one of the largest and 
 most beautiful of the royal palaces. The Hotel- 
 de-Ville, or town hall, of Paris was another victory 
 for Renaissance architecture. 
 
 The famous palace of the Tuileries was also un- 
 dertaken at this time. It adjoined the Louvre. The 
 gardens still remain, but the castle was demolished 
 during the Revolution. During the classic period, 
 from 1589-1715, the Luxembourg palace was 
 achieved by the architect, Solomon de Brosse. This 
 is now an art gallery, like the Louvre, only it con- 
 tains the works of famous masters, or artists not long 
 dead. During this time also, the immense royal 
 palace at Versailles was built by Levau and J. H. 
 Mansart. Despite its size, it has a plain exterior, 
 which is relieved only by the marvelous park which 
 surrounds it. This was the undertaking which so 
 drained the resources of France, and taxed her treas- 
 ury. Another monument to the period, is the Hotel 
 des Invalides or soldiers' asylum in Paris, also built 
 
92 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 by J. H. Mansart. He also planned the Place 
 Vendome, for whose formality he is most criticized. 
 During the period of decline which followed, many 
 of the public squares of Paris were made, among 
 them the famous Place de la Concorde, by far the 
 most beautiful production of its kind in Europe. 
 On the whole, the period of the Renaissance, added 
 many beautiful constructions throughout France, all 
 of them marked by good proportions and pleasing 
 detail. 
 
 In England, also, this period of architecture had 
 ceased to be ecclesiastical, and many of the noted 
 large country houses were built during this period. 
 Inigo Jones planned the palace at Whitehall, of 
 which only the Banqueting Hall has been construct- 
 ed. Sir Christopher Wren, the greatest architect 
 after Jones, planned and achieved St. Paul's Ca- 
 thedral at London, one of the most famous houses 
 of worship on the continent. Somerset House in 
 London, and the University of Edinburgh, besides 
 many others make this epoch memorable in the an- 
 nals of English architecture. Belgium, Germany, 
 and Spain and Portugal all added to their wealth 
 of buildings during the age of the Renaissance. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 93 
 
 The period of decline in this style of architecture, 
 which we already named the Baroque was super- 
 seded, in the eighteenth century, by the Classic Re- 
 vivals in Europe. A Greek revival, it might more 
 properly be called, with many suggestions of the 
 classic types of Rome. England took the lead now 
 in the matter of building. She constructed the Man- 
 sion House (Dance was the architect), home of the 
 Lord mayor in London, the famous Bank of Eng- 
 land (Sir John Soane made the plans) and the 
 splendid British Museum (constructed by Robert 
 Smirke.) In Germany, in Berlin, Schmidt executed 
 the beautiful Brandenberg Gate and Schinkel the 
 Old and New Museums. In France, Victor Louis, 
 produced the Grand Theatre at Bordeaux, and Per- 
 cier, the Petit Trianon at Versailles. In Paris, the 
 arches of the Carrousel and of the Etoile were mod- 
 eled after the triumphal arches of Constantine and 
 Titus in Rome. The Madeleine, one of the most 
 beautiful churches of the kind ever conceived, was 
 executed in Paris at this time, also the Bourse, the 
 Palais de Justice and the Library of the Ecole des 
 Beaux Arts. In Munich, the Academy of Art and 
 Science, and the University added to the city wealth 
 of buildings. Even in Russia, the new movement 
 
94 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 had a place, for some buildings of the Kremlin were 
 constructed at Moscow, and the Palace of the Grand 
 Duke Michael and the New Museum were added 
 in St. Petersburg. However, the greatest move- 
 men: in Russia was the Cathedral of St. Isaacs 
 in the Russian Capital, by far the most splendid 
 church of its kind ever constructed in St. Peters- 
 burg. 
 
 From the eighteenth century and classic revivals^ 
 we turn to the nineteenth century and modern times. 
 The new conditions of the new civilization speak 
 most loudly through the building of the period. 
 Churches and palaces, even public squares and li- 
 braries, are overshadowed by the new kinds of 
 buildings constructed. In Paris, we find the -fa- 
 mous New Opera by Gamier and the Sorbonne by 
 Sacconi, serving as examples in the modern builders* 
 world. In Germany, the famous Dresden Theatre 
 by Semper and the Berlin Industrial Museum were 
 used as models. In England, Sir Charles Barry 
 produced the Parliament Houses at Westminster, 
 and Street, the New Law Courts in London, among 
 many other famous and beautiful buildings of their 
 kind, which the needs of the new spirit demanded. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 95 
 
 Certainly this brief discussion of architecture 
 should not close without a sketch of building in the 
 United States. In the early day, wants were few 
 and resources scanty. All public buildings and 
 homes in Philadelphia, Boston, and New England, 
 were constructed of wood, with the occasional use of 
 brick, or stone. However, in Virginia and Mary- 
 land the manor houses were of brick, and the Dutch 
 Colonists in New York used stone. Notwithstand- 
 ing the limitations of the times, the refined tastes of 
 the people found expression in the beautiful colonial 
 architecture with which we are all familiar and of 
 which the White House at Washington is so beau- 
 tiful an example. The churches and town halls 
 like the Old South Church in Boston and Faneuil 
 Hall in Philadelphra are simple in design and pleas- 
 ing in proportion, but the dwellings far better than 
 these public buildings reflect the refinement of the 
 people. In the middle of the century a classic revival 
 took place in our architecture. It was at this time 
 that the Treasury and Patent Office buildings were 
 constructed in Washington and the Old Custom 
 House in New York City. In the war period, St. 
 Patrick's Cathedral* was completed and the Pacific 
 
 *The present St. Patrick's Cathedral was dedicated in 1910. 
 
96 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Railroad (1869) built. During the feverish com- 
 mercial activity which followed, the country had an 
 artistic awakening. It was then that the Fine Arts 
 Museum and the beautiful Trinity Church were 
 constructed at Boston. With them as a stimulus, 
 the United States entered upon a new era of build- 
 ing. As a result, depots, warehouses, department 
 stores, office buildings and factories have come to 
 rival churches, palaces, theatres, universities in their 
 spaciousness and elegance of construction. The do- 
 mestic side of the art has also received an impetus. 
 Houses of wood, stone, brick, concrete, or cement, 
 many of them as sumptuous and magnificent as the 
 palaces of old, are found in all parts of our land. 
 (As was indicated in the opening of the chapter, 
 the architectural principle of cohesion is having a 
 wonderful use in the building of to-day.) The 
 Union Station at Washington, the Pennsylvania 
 Station in New York and the Northwestern Depot 
 in Chicago are marvels of spaciousness, beauty and 
 utility combined. The inventive genius of the 
 American speaks very emphatically through his 
 building. The "sky-scrapers" are a strictly Amer- 
 ican institution which involved great skill in planning 
 and in building. 
 
ARCHITECTURE 97 
 
 Last, but not least, in this discussion of American 
 achievements is the new Public Library building of 
 New York City. It occupies the site of the old 
 Croton Reservoir on Fifth Avenue, and covers an 
 area of 1 15,000 square feet. The building, exclu- 
 sive of the site, cost eight million dollars, and con- 
 tains the largest reading room in the world. There 
 are to be found 3,500,000 volumes. Like all the 
 great modern constructions, it is as fire proof as met- 
 al and stone can make it. Great refinement charac- 
 terizes this building, and the result is brought about 
 here as elsewhere by technical and painstaking skill. 
 One unique and excellent feature of the edifice is 
 that every layer of stone runs level throughout the 
 structure, in the dividing walls, pillars, and piers, 
 both inside and out. The architects are Carrere 
 and Hastings, and they have reared a monument 
 to themselves in which utility is so well blended with 
 the aesthetic that the library is an event in the history 
 of building in the United States. 
 
 Thus ends this brief chronicle of architecture, 
 one of the noblest and most universal of the Fine 
 Arts. 
 
98 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Twelve noted examples of Architecture. 
 
 Egypt, 
 
 The Pyramids, "Cheops'* 1 ^ q- 
 
 
 Sphinx j 
 
 
 Temple at Karnak 
 
 Greece 
 
 Parthenon at Athens 
 
 Italy 
 
 Colosseum, Rome 
 
 
 Hadrian's Tomb, Rome 
 
 
 St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome. 
 
 France 
 
 Notre Dame Paris 
 
 England 
 
 Westminster, London 
 
 
 Durham Cathedral, Durham 
 
 India 
 
 Taj Mehal, Agra 
 
 Spain 
 
 Cathedral of jLeville 
 
Chapter III 
 
 Painting. 
 
 " For don't you°^mark ? we're made so that we love 
 First when we see them painted, things we have 
 
 passed 
 Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see ; 
 And so they^lare better, painted — better to us, 
 Which is the same thing. Art was given for that ; 
 God uses us to help each other so, 
 [Lending our minds out." 
 
 i — Robert Browning. Fra Lippo Lippi. 
 
 Painting is not as universal as architecture. At 
 least it is not so closely associated with every man's 
 need. Nor is it practiced so generally by all classes 
 of people. Nevertheless it has great age to recom- 
 mend it, for we find traces of color decoration in the 
 relics of the cave dwellers among primitive men. 
 Also as in architecture Egypt is the repository of 
 the earliest examples of painting, so we begin a dis- 
 cussion of the subject with the statement that in 
 4000 A. D. paintings were made on walls, on mummy 
 cases, and on papyrus rolls. They used six bright 
 
 99 
 
1 00 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 colors, namely, green, blue, red, yellow, white, and 
 black, and did little if any mixing and blending. 
 In fact, they had a color language, different colors 
 and degrees of colors representing different objects. 
 Birds were green, water was blue, men and women 
 were red, (men were the redder) and prisoners were 
 yellow. Drawing meant very little to the Egyptian 
 painter and he had no knowledge of perspective. 
 Any decorative motive which his work might have 
 had was entirely lost in the utilitarian side of the art. 
 In short, Egyptian painting is both meager and prim- 
 itive up to the third century, B. C, when Greek in- 
 fluence made itself felt in the Nile country. 
 
 In Greece as in. Egypt, the earliest paintings are 
 very crude. Up to the sixth century B. C. the color 
 sense was apparent in a few tinted statues and re- 
 liefs of wood and clay. However in the next two 
 hundred years there was a great development and 
 during this time the masterpieces of the Greek school 
 were produced. The masters of this period worked 
 in tempera and in encaustic. In the former they 
 mixed their paints with the white of an egg, and in 
 encaustic they mixed them with wax. Moreover 
 their work shows that these men had a knowledge of 
 light and shade, of perspective, and of anatomy. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 1 
 
 They represented their heroes, Ulysses and Theseus, 
 their queen and bard, Cassandra and Homer, besides 
 animals, nature study, and all things of interest in 
 ordinary Greek life. Few examples of this period 
 remain however and our knowledge is based for the 
 most part upon the references of the writers. Some 
 of the most important names are Zeuxis and Parrhas- 
 ius. (The story of the contest has already been 
 given.) Apelles is the greatest name among the 
 Greeks. He was born in 350 B. C. and he brought 
 Greek painting to its highest proficiency. Proto- 
 genes was the greatest man after Apelles. They 
 were contemporaneous and their works show much 
 similarity. Around these four names centers the 
 little glory which redounds to Greece from paint- 
 ing. 
 
 Roman painting did not keep up to the standards 
 which her teacher Greece had set. She had many 
 inferior artists, decorators, and portrait painters. At 
 the beginning of the Christian era, Pompeii and Her- 
 culaneum were noted for a certain decorative work 
 in red, blue, and soft yellow. The red had a char- 
 acter all its own and took its name from the city in 
 which it was most successfully used. Thus artists 
 to-day are indebted to Roman painting for the color 
 
1 02 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 they call "Pompeian red." The subjects employed 
 in this decorative work were fantastic animals, danc- 
 ing girls, genre sketches, and scenes from mythology. 
 They are seen to advantage to-day in the ruins of 
 the excavated city. With the Roman painting we 
 leave ancient history behind us and turn to the be- 
 ginnings of modern painting. 
 
 History has made us familiar with the persecu- 
 tions of the early Christians. We recall that for 
 centuries the Roman soldiers made a business of 
 searching out their places of worship and torturing 
 the Christians. To escape this torture they sought 
 refuge in the catacombs. On the rough cellar walls 
 of these subterranean passages in Rome, many sym- 
 bolic figures are drawn, namely, a fish, a vine, a loaf, 
 a ship, and the monogram of Christ. TTiey served 
 to direct the worshiper along the passage or were 
 perhaps left as mementos of successful meetings. 
 After these rude efforts from the fourth to the ninth 
 centuries skill in mosaics developed. In Rome, in 
 Constantinople, and in Ravenna are some very good 
 examples of this work done by the monks in the 
 monasteries. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the Christian world in 
 southern Europe began to awake and painting was 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 103 
 
 one of the first activities to receive an impetus. Of 
 course in those days the people could not read. The 
 invention of printing had not come to pass and the 
 only written knowledge extant was in the form of 
 manuscripts which belonged wholly to the royal li- 
 braries and to the monasteries. The monks spent 
 a great part of their time in making copies of these 
 manuscripts and even then it was only the privilege 
 of a few trained minds to read them. In the chap- 
 ter on architecture we learned the immense size of 
 the churches built in this early day. The only way 
 in which the people could gain religious teaching was 
 from the priests and the size of the churches prohib- 
 ited the crowds from hearing with any distinctness. 
 To meet this need of the people, to teach them the 
 stories of the Bible, painting was introduced, first 
 on wooden panels, and later in fresco on the walls. 
 Again we recall from our study of history that 
 Constantine, worn out by the jealousies and petty 
 unpleasantness of the Roman court, built Constanti- 
 nople and made it the kingly seat. From this time 
 on Constantinople was the center of culture, of learn- 
 ing, and of all the glamour which was attached to 
 the old Roman empire. In Rome the Pope held 
 sway but he and his followers were representatives 
 
1 04 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 for the most part of the barbarians from Northern 
 Europe. It was natural therefore for Byzantium 
 to have a great influence in the art Hfe of Italy. Of 
 course Constantinople was typically oriental in all 
 her standards and inclinations. Therefore, when 
 painting became the handmaiden of the church, their 
 religious subjects all had the gilt background, the 
 expressionless faces, the lack of feet and the arrange- 
 ment in rows according to the standards of Byzan- 
 tium. We have said that all Italy felt this influence, 
 but we know that the Italian School must have learn- 
 ed better for in the history of painting, theirs is the 
 most illustrious name. It was in Florence that the 
 painters first found their freedom so we turn with 
 interest to this Italian City Republic so beautifully 
 situated in the valley of the Arno. Florence was 
 the center of the earliest and most prominent school. 
 This was no accident. The skies in Florence arc 
 blue, her clouds are fluffy and white, her foothills 
 are luxuriant with vineyards, and in the distance 
 dream ever the hazy purple Apennines. A gem city 
 in a gem setting, a city rich in money, rich in in- 
 fluence, and rich in the character of its people. Such 
 was Florence, the cradle of Italian painters, a city 
 justly famous for the skill and versatility of its brush- 
 men and for their achievements in the world of art. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 105 
 
 We have said that the artists were employed by 
 the church to teach the story life of Jesus and the 
 apostles to church-going Italy, and that the painters 
 one and all in the beginning followed the standards 
 set for them by Constantinople. It happened in the 
 early part of the thirteenth century that a Florentine 
 nobleman, Cimabue by name, made a study of the 
 paintings of his day. As a result despite the tra- 
 ditions and limitations of Byzantium he was bold 
 enough to paint a Madonna and Christ child, with 
 the head of the Virgin turned a little to one side, a 
 slight modification to be sure from all the standards 
 which prevailed up to that time, but an act which 
 had within it a promise of greatness and one which 
 proved to be the mother of independent and per- 
 sonal initiative in Florentine art. TTiis picture, the 
 oldest painting in Florence, can be seen to-day in 
 the Rucellai Chapel of Santa Maria Novella in 
 Florence. Perhaps just here a word should be said 
 about these famous chapels which are found within 
 and along the sides of the great cathedrals. These 
 chapels were decorated by the influential families 
 whose names they bear. Frequently the vault or 
 crypt below was the family tomb. In the chapel 
 directly above the surviving members prayed for the 
 
1 06 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 souls of the departed. Over the altars in these 
 chapels are some of the most famous paintings of 
 the most famous masters. In this way the cathe- 
 drals became the repository of the best art and the 
 expense fell upon neither priests nor clergy. Three of 
 the very great families in Florence were the Medici, the 
 Strozzi, and the Bardi. (George Eliot has made 
 the last named famous in her "Romola.") The 
 Brancacci chapel however is the most noted in Flor- 
 ence as well as in the whole world of art. This is 
 in the church of the Santa Maria del Carmine. The 
 Brancacci chapel recalls to mind the fact that there 
 are four illustrious art rooms in the world of paint- 
 ing, three besides this Brancacci Chapel in Florence. 
 They are the Arena Chapel in Padua, the Scuolo 
 di San Rocco in Venice, and the beautiful Sistine 
 Chapel in Rome. The Arena Chapel in Padua is 
 an oblong structure adjacent to the Eremitani church 
 which contains the work of Squarcione and of his 
 best pupil Mantegna. The Scuolo di San Rocco 
 in Venice is a school adjacent to the church of San 
 Rocco. It also is a separate building. The Sis- 
 tine Chapel was etablished by Sixtus IV to contain 
 the works of the great masters. It adjoins the Vati- 
 can and will be mentioned later in connection with 
 the artist who made it famous. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 107 
 
 In Florence in the last part of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, Cimabue was called upon to decorate the 
 Rucellai Chapel of the Santa Maria Novella. We 
 have said that Cimabue was a nobleman. The 
 story is that one day while walking among the foot- 
 hills he found a shepherd boy, Giotto, who had a 
 rare talent for drawing. Cimabue took this boy 
 to his home and into his studio. As a result Giotto 
 became not only one of the great painters of his time 
 but also the greatest name in the Gothic School. 
 Giotto loved to draw and with his ability he com- 
 bined keen observation. We have said that the bar- 
 barians came down from the north of Europe and 
 mingled their blood with that of the peoples of Italy. 
 The Italians profited by this union because the Teu- 
 tons contributed three dynamic elements to the old 
 civilization. These were personal worth, love of 
 personal freedom, and respect for woman. These 
 three characteristics gave a new value to the indi- 
 vidual. Perhaps the rare courage and independence 
 of Giotto which now helped him to throw off still 
 farther the influence of the Orient has a Teutonic 
 source. At any rate we find him throwing himself 
 boldly into the changing art life of his time, calling 
 to his canvas scriptural scenes never before repre- 
 sented, and in his pictures treating in an original and 
 
1 08 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 striking way everyday incidents of Florentine life. 
 Giotto spoke to the heart of the people. Up to his 
 time they had known only the dull representations 
 of the monks, he gave painting a new interest. He 
 abandoned the gold background and studied Nature. 
 For the first time open air studies were painted, and 
 not only the artists, but also the people of his time 
 loudly voiced their appreciation. One of the most 
 interesting things about Giotto is the fact that he 
 stood the test of prosperity. It was a mighty change 
 for the shepherd boy to become a protege of the 
 splendid Cimabue. Also later in life when he had 
 the love and confidence of all Florence, Giotto was 
 as earnest and as unassuming as in the early days of 
 his life on the foothills. Someone has said that a 
 history of a life is the history of its friendships. Two 
 people stand out prominently in the life of Giotto, 
 the greatest of the Gothic painters in Florence. One 
 we have already mentioned, Cimabue, his benefac- 
 tor. The other was no less a personage than Dante, 
 one of the three Humanist leaders, and a poet to 
 whom all succeeding centuries do homage. No 
 doubt this friendship strengthened Giotto's knowl- 
 edge of spiritual truths, and deepened his interest in 
 the meaning and in the opportunity of the art of his 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 109 
 
 day. Some of Giotto's works are to be found in 
 the Bardi Chapel of Santa Croce. The Bardi will 
 be remembered as one of the great Florentine fam- 
 ilies already mentioned. In the Peruzzi Chapel of 
 Santa Croce is another series of frescoes by Giotto 
 and still another series is to be found in the cloisters 
 of Santa Maria Novella. These three, the Santa 
 Maria del Carmine, the Santa Croce, and the Santa 
 Maria Novella are three of the noted old churches 
 in Florence. We have already mentioned the fam- 
 ous Arena Chapel in Padua as one of the four noted 
 art buildings in the world. This Chapel is made 
 famous by the works of Giotto which he executed 
 early in the fourteenth century. 
 
 Like Cimabue, Giotto had many pupils. It was 
 the custom in this early day, and it prevailed through- 
 out the Italian Schools, for a master painter to take 
 boys who wished to become artists into his studio. 
 These boys were taught to go into the groves and 
 find a tree of proper wood. The log was taken to 
 the studio and the wood made into panels, and pre- 
 pared to receive the painting of the artist. Later 
 the use of wood was supplanted by walls of plaster 
 or stone, and still later by canvas, but as long as 
 wood was used, the students of a great master learn- 
 
1 1 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 ed how to select and to prepare it. Next they were 
 taught how to mix the colors. We have already 
 mentioned two techniques which were in use at a 
 very early day. They were tempera and encaustic. 
 During the fifteenth century these were supplanted 
 by the oil medium with which we are now familiar. 
 While the pupils in the studios were becoming fa- 
 miliar with the preparations of painting, they were 
 also taught to draw the plan of the picture, techni- 
 cally called the design, from the cartoon made by 
 the artist and from which his work was to be exe- 
 cuted. No doubt this was done for the most part 
 under the supervision of the artist. After the draw- 
 ing was accomplished the boys put in the colors, 
 starting always with the background and with the 
 lowest part of the figures. In this way they grad- 
 ually worked up toward the head. But the face 
 was always put in by the artist. Thus the students 
 in the studio learned to paint. Sometimes as in the 
 case of Verrochio and his famous pupil Leonardo, 
 the boys outstripped their master. Perhaps the 
 teacher became jealous of the boy he taught, as was 
 Annibale Carracci of the skillful Domenichino. But 
 this method had more good in it than ill and pro- 
 duced that galaxy of Italian artists which still holds 
 first place in the history of painting. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 1 1 
 
 Giotto's best pupil was Taddeo Gaddi whose 
 brush proved to be a splendid story-teller of the 
 events in the life of the Virgin Mary. His works 
 call to our mind the splendid service of the Domini- 
 can and Franciscan friars, the gray and brown 
 monks, who during the Dark Ages conserved the lit- 
 erature of the church, unified her politics and pre- 
 served her art. To their wonderful vision of purity 
 and truth and to their loyalty to learning, modern 
 Christianity, Art, and Letters are forever indebted. 
 In this period of the Gothic painters the people were 
 primarily interested in the Virgin mother. To the 
 monasteries the painters turned for detailed knowl- 
 edge of Mary. At this time there were many inter- 
 esting legends of the Virgin covering each period of 
 her life, childhood, youth, and maturity. It was 
 of this interest in the Virgin that Taddeo Gaddi's 
 work is a chronicle. 
 
 A brief mention of this earliest Florentine school 
 would be incomplete without Fra Angelico, the 
 "Blessed." For thirty years he was a monk in 
 the monastery of San Marco. Now it was the habit 
 of the friars to conserve any special talent found in 
 their midst. For this reason they lent their sup- 
 port to Angelico. This was not the painter's real 
 name, but his religious character won for him this 
 
1 1 2 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 title first among his brother monks and later among 
 the painters. It is said that he began all his work 
 with prayer and through his prayerful habits suc- 
 ceeded in giving a deep religious sentiment to his 
 pictures. His execution has a miniature quality 
 which harmonizes with the peaceful expression and 
 the quiet atmosphere of his pictures. In San Marco, 
 on the walls of the cells, are some of his best pic- 
 tures. The "Coronation of the Virgin" in the Uffizi 
 Gallery in Florence is the picture which has on its 
 smooth gold frame the twelve angels with musical 
 instruments, which are so well known and so popu- 
 lar. The Uffizi Gallery reminds us that there are 
 three noted galleries in Florence. They are the 
 one just mentioned, the Pitti, and the Academy. 
 The first two are united by a covered bridge, whose 
 walls are lined with portraits of the noted artists. 
 
 These four names, Cimabue, Giotto, Taddeo 
 Gaddi, and Fra Angelico are representative in the 
 Gothic School of Florence. There were many 
 other painters. Each one contributed some bit of 
 knowledge and original skill to the rapidly improving 
 science of painting. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 1 3 
 
 We have already hinted at the new energy which 
 permeated art, the great medium of expression, dur- 
 ing the fifteenth century. In the Renaissance, 
 painting appealed to men of all phases of life. As 
 the scope of thought broadened the sphere of paint- 
 ing extended. Beginnings long dormant quickened 
 into life and aesthetics received a new impetus be- 
 cause through genuine effort artists won from nature 
 those secrets of beauty which the brush only can 
 reveal. In 1400 we find a new class of painters, 
 treating reverently subjects which emotionally were 
 not theirs. Notwithstanding this, so great were they 
 in their art that even if they did not believe that 
 the Savior's likeness was found in St. Veronica's 
 napkin nor that St. Lucia carried two eyes on a 
 platter, no form of a sneer appeared on their canvas. 
 Thus with secular minds they were enabled to paint 
 religious subjects. Nor can they be called insincere 
 because the people generally were losing faith in the 
 historic accuracy of many of the Bible stories, even 
 while they delighted to see them on canvas. The 
 Gothic School might well be called a fraternity of 
 painters for a beautiful brotherliness existed especial- 
 ly among the early artists. This relation was be- 
 ginning to be modified at the close of the period for 
 
1 1 4 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 tradition tells us that there was a deadly fued be- 
 tween the last two members of the school. In the 
 painters of the Early Renaissance, there was less 
 of this unity for an ambitious spirit characterized 
 each of the men. indeed history names no father 
 to this movement which heralded unmistakably the 
 coming of a new era in the art language of Italy. 
 Just as uniformity in subject and general likeness 
 in treatment begin to disappear from the pictures 
 so the rise of the individual becomes emphatic. 
 Teacher and pupil is the type of intimacy pe- 
 culiar to the artists of the Early Renaissance. 
 So potential is this relation that a steady pro- 
 gressiveness characterizes their works, carrying 
 them slowly but surely into a definite knowl- 
 edge of the rules which govern composition, tech- 
 nique, and that combination of light and shade known 
 as chiaroscuro. 
 
 From the standpoint of society this new endeavor 
 is not without interest. With the decline of absolute 
 power in the church, in inverse ratio, rose the power 
 of the individual. Fortunate was Italy and the art 
 world that as the nobles increased in property and 
 in power their interest in art and their patronage grew 
 apace. Moreover they did not demand uniformity 
 in subject nor in technique. With the wane of the 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 115 
 
 century the demand for originality increased until 
 we find little likeness between the pictures of the last 
 Gothic painter and those of the last artist of the 
 Early Renaissance. 
 
 The first name of rank in this group of painters is 
 Masaccio, "slovenly Tom," who in his short life of 
 less than thirty years looked beyond the draperies 
 of dress and conquered the subject of anatomy. He 
 painted bodies perfect in proportion and adequate 
 in form, with animation and variety of expression 
 in face and in posture. Thus "slovenly Tom" was 
 not a careless painter in his mastery of anatomy. A 
 pioneer in nature study and half a century ahead 
 of his time Masaccio made real life the test of his 
 painting. After him no artist had a desire to return 
 to the wooden bodies and expressionless faces of 
 Cimabue. 
 
 Another notable name in this school of the Early 
 Reniassance is that of Fra Filippo Lippi, whom the 
 master poet Browning has made known to the world 
 as the vandal painter. It has been said that if all 
 of the great poet's works were destroyed except any 
 one of his three great art-poems, "Fra Lippo Lippi". 
 "Andrea del Sarto", and "Abt Vogler", this one 
 production would crown him with the laurel of first 
 
1 1 6 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 rank among the poets of the world. Certainly this 
 painter monk has much of interest for the art world, 
 especially since he was the teacher of the "Great 
 Trio,** Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Filippino Lippi, 
 whose specially excellent work makes this period 
 memorable. What Giotto and Era Angelico were 
 to the Gothic School Masaccio and Botticelli were 
 to the Early Renaissance. Bound as a boy to a 
 goldsmith Botticelli gave little promise during his 
 early twenties of making any great contribution to 
 art. Sensitive, imaginative, and sympathetic, he de- 
 lighted in the creation of fanciful pictures which 
 pleased the eye if they did not delight the soul. So 
 magic was his brush and so dynamic his influence 
 that the man and his pictures early caught the atten- 
 tion of Savonarola, the Zealot. Inured to the feuds 
 of the Goldsmiths' Guild in the fifteenth century, the 
 young Botticelli bowed down before the monk re- 
 former whose faith transcended martyrdom. Botti- 
 celli loved his art but he loved Savonarola better. 
 Thus history tells us that when the noble families of 
 Florence were giving up their jewels and one and 
 all were throwing their worldly treasurers on the fire 
 which Savonarola kindled, this goldsmith painter 
 added to the flames some of his best beloved pictures. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 1 7 
 
 Florence is the epitome of two men, one was Sa- 
 vonarola, and the other was the mighty poet, the 
 seer of the Humanists, Alghieri Dante. Homer and 
 Shakespeare are great, but Dante is infinitely greater 
 because not content with interpreting the times, he 
 sought to teach righteousness and to read for men 
 God's plan for the world. Dante died in 1 32 1 but 
 his spirit still brooded over Florence, the great art 
 center of Italy. To the fusion of these two great 
 influences Dante's imagination and Savonarola's zeal 
 with the artist's own natural buoyancy we are in- 
 debted for the Botticellian genius which speaks 
 through a type of face and figure so easily recog- 
 nized. With this type Botticelli achieved the char- 
 acteristic of motion in art. This element contributed 
 for the first time by any painter makes his name il- 
 lustrious for all time. 
 
 Contemporaneous with Botticelli and closely as- 
 sociated with him in Florence, we find the artist 
 garland-maker Ghirlandajo, teacher of Michael 
 Angelo and the second m.ember of the famous trio 
 already mentioned. The custom of the Florentine 
 artists of painting their own faces somewhere in their 
 pictures instead of signing their names, through the 
 genius of Ghirlandajo became the interesting and 
 
1 1 8 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 excellent portraiture in the Early Renaissance. 
 Ghirlandajo's compositions are never crowded. This 
 habit of his in time won great praise for him, for 
 through it he contributed the element of simplicity 
 to the painter's world. 
 
 The third member of the Great Trio was Filip- 
 pino Lippi, the gifted son of the monk Fra Filippo 
 Lippi. To little Philip with rare good fortune were 
 bequeathed all Filippo's genius with brush together 
 with an unusual skill in rendering strength and beauty 
 in sentiment and conception. This unique power 
 is termed the element of grace and is the basis of 
 Fra Filippino Lippi' s greatness in art. Some one 
 has called the three marked characteristics of the 
 artists of the Great Trio namely Botticelli, Ghir- 
 landajo, and Filippino Lippi a Trinity of Virtues, 
 which are motion, simplicity, and grace. 
 
 Passing over several noted men in this period we 
 note Luca Signorelli, a "gentleman painter", who 
 is called the "herald of Michael Angelo" because 
 he loved best to paint the nude in fresco . 
 
 The last great name of this school which will be 
 mentioned in so brief a chronicle is Andrea Verroc- 
 chio's. This man was a genius. Marked by that 
 rare versatility which characterizes the artists of 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 119 
 
 the following century, he wrought in gold, in wood, 
 in bronze, and in marble. Moreover to these tal- 
 ents he added an interest in music and in science. 
 Sensitive to beauty and with strong mental qualities, 
 Verrocchio was blessed with an unusual amount of 
 plain common sense. When Leonardo surpassed 
 him in painting, Verrocchio abandoned his palette 
 and turned his attention to other realms of art. With 
 him we close the chapter of the Early Renaissance. 
 A galaxy of names, the critics tell us, makes up 
 this group of painters. Out of the struggling reign 
 of ignorance known as the "Dark Ages", the Gothic 
 painters had made their way toward the light. De- 
 spite the political wars commerce had crystalized 
 in a few cities and with the wave of prosperity had 
 come a genuine interest and delight in the feeble 
 efforts of the early painters. It was then that the 
 genius of a Giotto and a Fra Angelico lifted art 
 into partnership with the church. Here also the 
 Italian fondness for form and color began to assert 
 itself. To Italy, especially to Florence, art was 
 not an ornament but a necessity. Printing was un- 
 known and the presenting of abstract ideas through 
 literature was impossible. Thus art became a 
 method of object teaching. In Florence this method 
 
1 20 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 developed a color thought and a form language. 
 Knowing what was good and demanding it in their 
 pictures, it is not strange that the painters manifested 
 a wholesome and steady growth up to the unusual 
 excellence of the High Renaissance. The Early 
 Renaissance was therefore not a result, but a devel- 
 opment, a connecting link between the crudeness of 
 the earliest and the excellence of the latter sixteenth 
 century in art. As the star of the church descended, 
 interest in religion as a subject shifted naturally to 
 nature, mythology, history, and portraiture. The 
 painters of the Early Renaissance were in truth 
 pioneers in nature study. Religion was the main 
 object of three-fourths of the pictures painted during 
 the fifteenth century, but nature became the setting. 
 Color, drawing, and technique took on new life, 
 giving rise to a generation of painters who were 
 giants in ready and adequate expression, the painters 
 of the High Renaissance. 
 
 From fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred is the 
 period of the High Renaissance in which painting 
 achieved a greatness never since surpassed. At this 
 time the two Florentine giants Leonardo da Vinci 
 and Michael Angelo, worked and wrought. Leon- 
 ardo was a boy prodigy who fulfilled all the expecta- 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 121 
 
 tions of his teachers and friends. Indeed so tre- 
 mendous were his successes that the art student is 
 likely to overlook the versatility of the man who 
 was not only a painter, but a sculptor, an architect, 
 an engineer, a philosopher and a man of science. 
 In the last two capacities he heralded Galileo, Ba- 
 con, and Descartes. To this painter-thinker came 
 the conviction that the world is not the center of the 
 heavenly sphere, a discovery which later brought 
 fame and honor to Copernicus, the greatest physicist 
 of the fifteenth century. Thus Leonardo anticipa- 
 ted the revelations of modern science and with his 
 knowledge of mathematics coupled a rare admiration 
 for the secrets of Nature. Beautiful as an Apollo, 
 and so strong that he could bend an iron horse shoe 
 as if it were lead, this universal genius combined a 
 passionate hunger for knowledge with a passionate 
 love for the beautiful. Unfortunately, he under- 
 took far more than he could achieve, and as a result 
 was chronically disappointed with his work. More- 
 over he destroyed almost all of his pictures. The 
 world now recognizes him as a painter of quality, not 
 of quantity, as only five of his pictures remain. The 
 "Mona Lisa", the portrait which has held first rank 
 for four centuries, is perhaps the best known. Until its 
 
1 22 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 recent disappearance, it has hung in the Salon Carre 
 of the Louvre. His greatest picture however is 
 "The Last Supper" which was painted on the walls 
 of the refectory in the Santa Maria delle Grazie 
 in Milan. It is stated that this is the most widely 
 known picture in the world. Critics tell us that 
 Leonardo here painted his vision. Perhaps this is 
 why the picture has pleased men of all nations. 
 There is very little left of the fresco and in a few 
 years "The Last Supper** by Leonardo da Vinci 
 will be but a memory, a tale that is told. 
 
 The next greatest name of the High Renaissance 
 is Michael Angelo*s, the "Vulcan** of painters. 
 Master of the terrible, big in body, big in dreams, 
 big in feeling, and big in handling, this storm-tossed 
 giant in art has a style and a message all his own. 
 Blessed with an inordinate zeal for work, Michael 
 Angelo preferred to express himself through sculp- 
 ture. However painting is a larger field than sculp- 
 ture and the very largeness of the man needed this 
 larger medium that his giant mind might find ex- 
 pression. His smallest ideas, those of narrow scope 
 he portrayed in marble. He never painted easel 
 pictures but confined his brush to wall spaces and 
 has given to the world two of the largest frescoes 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 123 
 
 ever painted, namely the "Scenes from Genesis" 
 on the ceiHng, and "The Last Judgment" on the 
 end wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. 
 
 Michael Angelo was descended from a noble 
 family, a fact of which he was very proud. His 
 father, the ruler of two small cities, was a man with 
 an iron will and he wished his boy to be a scholar. 
 However, his strong-willed son had other plans, and 
 as often happens, he came off victor. At fourteen, 
 the **boy Angelo*' went into the studio of Ghirlan- 
 dajo, intending to remain for three years. Here, in 
 his early teens, he aroused not only the wonder, but 
 the jealousy of his teacher, when he painted the 
 "Temptation of St. Anthony." Of course this re- 
 sulted in his soon leaving the studio. Henceforth 
 he had no teacher but the works of Masaccio. The 
 story is, that at this time he found work in the gar- 
 dens of the Medici. One day, having carved a 
 faun's head, he was surprised to see the great art 
 patron, Lorenzo di Medici, standing at his elbow. 
 "The faun has too many teeth," said Lorenzo. At 
 once, and with rare knack, Michael Angelo knocked 
 out a tooth. The result was such a surprising evi- 
 dence of skill that the young artist became then and 
 there the protege of the wealthy Medici. Thence- 
 
1 24 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 forth he made his home in the famous palace. These 
 beautiful surroundings must have meant much to this 
 passionate youth, whose high spirit, sarcastic tongue 
 and stormy temper, made his life a constant warfare 
 of the feelings. Stern and upright he grew into 
 manhood in conflict with the world. With an art- 
 ist's desire to present the human form, he made a 
 careful study of the body for twelve years. The 
 result of this study was a passion for the nude in art. 
 Michael Angelo was misanthropic and bad-tempered 
 but he was sincere and very deeply attached to his 
 father, despite the lack of sympathy between them. 
 This painter's sense of duty, his great reverence, and 
 his strong integrity, all grew with the years. Pope 
 Julius II called Michael Angelo to Rome to carve 
 a mausoleum. Such work he gladly undertook. 
 Presently, however. Pope Julius changed his mind 
 and ordered him to paint a mammoth fresco on the 
 ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michael Angelo pro- 
 tested, declaring that he could do much better work 
 with the chisel. But Pope Julius was obdurate, and 
 the artist entered upon his task. The result was the 
 nine narratives from Genesis, beginning with the 
 "Drunkenness of Noah" and extending to the "Di- 
 viding the Light from the Darkness." With a few 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 125 
 
 strong strokes, the brush of the artist portrays a 
 grandeur and subhmity never equalled in art. This 
 work is done in tempera. The tone is subdued, but 
 the sensuous grace, the boldness of action, and the 
 magnificence of form have never been surpassed. The 
 ideas he expresses are peculiar to himself. All laws 
 of natural proportion are made over to suit his 
 unique purpose. His situations are impossible, but 
 through them, notwithstanding, he accomplishes a 
 force and a power which the art world still con- 
 templates with reverence. The ceiling has sloping 
 sides, which are adorned with mouldings arched 
 above the windows on either side. Between these 
 arches are prophets and sibyls, seven of the former 
 and five of the latter, flanking the sides and the ends 
 of the room. These heroic figures are among the 
 most wonderful productions in art. More than hu- 
 man in size, in attitudes of meditation, speculation, 
 abstraction, or inquiry, they convey the longing of 
 the ages for Jesus. 
 
 The next great work of this "Vulcan" of painters 
 was "The Last Judgment," executed on the end 
 wall of the Sistine Chapel several years later. In 
 this work he violated all former traditions of art. 
 He depicts the rage of passion through contorted 
 
1 26 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 poses of the human body. In this picture he at- 
 tained to the highest excellence. Comment is in- 
 adequate to give a conception of the marvelous depth 
 and richness of this work. The mighty measure of 
 his mind is beyond the comprehension of ordinary 
 people. Man and painter are one. Someone has 
 said that the secret of a successful life is in friend- 
 ship. In his early years, Michael Angelo seemed to 
 have no human side. Successive popes treated him 
 with deference, and tradition tells us that Pope Cle- 
 ment was afraid of him. It was not until he was 
 sixty that a strong friendship came to Michael An- 
 gelo. This was his love for Vittoria Colonna, the 
 beautiful widow of the Marquis Pescara. The 
 artist's feeling for her has been likened to Dante's 
 devotion to Beatrice. It was she who helped him 
 to rise above his jealousy of Raphael, the great rival 
 of Michael Angelo in Italy. This friendship did 
 not ripen into marriage, and at the end of eighty- 
 nine years, the tempest-tossed giant in art, still alone, 
 met the greatest day of his life, the day of death. 
 Michael Angelo has many imitators of his manner, 
 but the mighty soul of this painter is supreme in its 
 aloneness. In all probability his remarkable force 
 precipitated the decadence in art. Someone has 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 127 
 
 said that Leonardo was a greater genius and Raph- 
 ael a happier man, but that Michael Angelo was 
 nobler than either. His work once achieved became 
 to the world a temple of wonder, to which the artist, 
 through a long life of suffering and of hard work, 
 continued to add in fresco and in marble, those 
 stupendous creations which thus far have defied time 
 and have remained a citadel of creative genius. 
 
 The third great name of the High Renaissance 
 and a lesser light in every way was Andrea del Sar- 
 to, whom his contemporaries were pleased to call 
 "the faultless painter." Andrea sprang from the 
 bourgeoisie, and his models are the simple and sin- 
 cere type from this class of society. As his name 
 implies, Andrea was the son of a tailor. Like many 
 other painters of this period he was apprenticed to a 
 goldsmith, but he was very backward in learning 
 to use the chisel. An artist outside taught the boy 
 to draw, and he soon left the shop of the goldsmith 
 for the studio of a painter. Fame came to him first 
 as a draughtsman, second as a colorist, and third as 
 a master of chiaroscuro. His contemporaries 
 claimed that he knew how to charge his pictures with 
 a shock of pleasure. Perhaps this came firstly from 
 the fact that he never over-painted, and secondly. 
 
1 28 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 because he preferred to produce a certain silvery ef- 
 fect instead of richness of color, at the same time 
 conserving the tone strength on his canvas. This 
 unique power with color made him a harmonist, and 
 his perfect tints are more varied than even those of 
 the greatest masters. Nevertheless, Andrea del Sar- 
 to fell short of perfection. Critics say that he lack- 
 ed spiritual discernment, and his biographer tells us 
 that the reason for this lack was in himself. He 
 was completely in the power of his wife, a selfish and 
 unscrupulous woman. For her sake he misused 
 money given him to buy pictures for the French 
 king, and was false to all those higher relations that 
 make society a safe place in which to live. The 
 face of his wife became a "del Sarto" type, and 
 looks out from all of his paintings. Two of his 
 best known pictures are the "Madonna of the Harp- 
 ies" in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, and "St. John 
 the Baptist" in the Pitti Gallery in the same city. 
 During the latter years of his painting, his work 
 became mechanical and artificial. His pictures 
 ceased to be imposing in boldness, in size or in gran- 
 deur, and they seemed to be without sentiment and 
 conviction. In the end, his pictures came to lack 
 all lofty qualities. When he was forty-five, he 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 129 
 
 was stricken with the plague in Florence. His wife 
 was the first to desert him, and he died miserable and 
 alone. His contemporaries felt that Andrea del 
 Sarto lacked vision. Also that while he had great 
 possibilities, he was held to earth by his own remiss- 
 ness, so that he never claimed that heritage of in- 
 spiration which is a part of the legacy of the painter 
 born. 
 
 The fourth great painter in point of time comes 
 after Leonardo, but in popularity and in fame he 
 follows Andrea. This artist is the gentle monk, 
 Fra Bartolommeo, who had a sympathy and under- 
 standing far in advance of his time. Like Botticelli, 
 he was an enthusiastic follower of Savonarola. When 
 the reformer met his terrible death at the stake, 
 Bartolommeo entered the monastery, having resolved 
 to forego forever the pleasure of painting. But the 
 abbot at the head of the monastery was unwilling to 
 have this artist so dishonor his gift. He sent him 
 back to his brush, a task soon made easy by his 
 friendship with Raphael Sanzio, the third great 
 world painter. It is said that this friendship helped 
 them both, for the monk taught Raphael to draw, 
 and he, in turn, instructed Bartolommeo in the use 
 of color. One of Fra Bartolommeo's characteris- 
 
130 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 tics was to paint little boy angels, generally playing 
 on musical instruments at the feet of the Madonna. 
 This reminds us of the boy cherubs painted by Raph- 
 ael at the base of the Sistine Madonna. 
 
 The last of the five great names of this period is 
 Albertinelli, a friend and business partner of the 
 painter monk. Albertinelli was essentially practi- 
 cal. The zeal of Savonarola did not disturb him. 
 He left all of that burden to Fra Bartolommeo. 
 When his friend entered a monastery, Albertinelli 
 left Florence in disgust and became a vagabond 
 innkeeper. Later, when the monk renewed his in- 
 terest in painting, Albertinelli returned and became 
 Bartolommeo's business partner. They often worked 
 together on the same picture, so it is hard to tell 
 their works apart. However Albertinelli has left 
 several examples of his own skill. His masterpiece 
 is the "Visitation** in the Uffizi gallery in Florence. 
 
 There are other names in the High Renaissance 
 of Florence, but they belong properly in the School 
 of the Mannerists, which we shall consider later. 
 
 Besides the Florentine School of Art, there were 
 eight minor groups. They are, in the order of time, 
 the Siennese, the Roman or Umbrian, the Paduan, 
 the Venetian, the Ferrarese, the Lombard, the Bo- 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 3 1 
 
 lognese and the Naturalistic Schools. Four of these 
 are most important. They are, according to their 
 rank, the Venetian, the Roman or Umbrian, the Pa- 
 duan and the Bolognese Schools. 
 
 Mediocrity is the prevailing note of Sienna*s art- 
 ists. II Sodoma, a friend of Raphael, is the most 
 famous of their men. The Roman or Umbrian 
 school is characterized by devoutness. Three men 
 greet us from this group, Perugino, noted chiefly 
 as the instructor of Raphael, another great teacher 
 whose best lives through the works of his pupil ; 
 Pinturicchio, the deaf dwarf, perhaps the most lov- 
 ing and lovable in all the galaxy of artists; and last 
 and greatest, the third great world painter, Raphael 
 Sanzio, called the "Apostle of Harmony.*' 
 
 Raphael Sanzio, born in 1483, was the son of a 
 painter. His mother died in his early years, but 
 he had a step-mother who cared for him with the 
 tenderness and skill of an own parent. Shortly his 
 father died. Then a much loved uncle took his 
 place in the life of the gifted painter. The lad 
 was of such a sunny disposition, so beau- 
 tiful and so able with his pencil, that uncle 
 and step-mother combined to develop his tal- 
 ent. Raphael made wonderful progress. In no 
 
1 32 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 time almost he took and discharged orders for pic- 
 tures on his own account. In these days his work 
 had original touches, but he was too modest to 
 achieve any striking originality. When he finally 
 went to Florence and entered the famous art circles 
 of the "City of Flowers'*, he learned a great deal 
 from the works of Masaccio, Leonardo, and Michael 
 Angelo. He grew in power here so rapidly that 
 when he was only twenty-five. Pope Julius II, a 
 great art patron, called him to Rome and commis- 
 sioned him to decorate a suite of rooms, which at 
 once became famous as "Raphael's stanzas." When 
 he completed these, he had but one rival in Italy, 
 namely, Michael Angelo. Commissions for pictures 
 now poured in. He met them by employing his 
 pupils, of whom he now had great numbers. Raph- 
 ael made the plan, his assistants did all of the work 
 except the finishing touches, which Raphael always 
 laboriously added. In this way he met the enor- 
 mous demands upon him. He lived luxuriously in 
 his Roman villa, and enjoyed his home and friends 
 and prosperity. His pupils adored him and attend- 
 ed him as if he were a prince. Raphael never mar- 
 ried. He had a fiancee of noble birth, who was 
 in such ill health that the wedding was indefinitely 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 133 
 
 postponed. Notwithstanding Raphael was a source 
 of dehght to his friends and so kind to his enemies 
 that they could not find grounds for a quarrel. 
 Michael Angelo disdained him, but Raphael, obliv- 
 ious to his slights, with serene composure, painted 
 on side by side with the "Titan in art*' in the Vati- 
 can. Raphael was profoundly industrious. In a 
 Very short time, he achieved a knowledge of anatomy 
 and technique which most artists spent years in at- 
 taining. He was a genius in composition, and could 
 draw study after study quickly and accurately with- 
 out finding the end of his originality. Moreover he 
 was a prodigy in assimilating. He could absorb the 
 best unconsciously. This was a mighty factor in 
 his quick development. It has been said of him 
 that "he could sense space and convey it to his can- 
 vas.'* He knew how to group. Another commen- 
 tator says: "Other painters balanced their figures, 
 Raphael's situations balance themselves. In the art 
 of composition he has no peer." Physically and 
 spiritually his pictures are ideal. He always paint- 
 ed the right person in the right place, at the right 
 time. Critics say that his best work in composition 
 was executed in the stanzas of the Vatican. His 
 "School of Athens" in the Stanza della Signatura, 
 
1 34 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 is one of the best known of these frescoes. In this 
 picture, Raphael knew how to paint the Greek as a 
 Greek. In the "Disputa," on the opposite wall* 
 he becomes a theologian, but whether his motive is 
 philosophy, poetry, or religion, it has in it a rare 
 vitality and charm. It has been said that Raphael 
 loved to paint the Madonna more than did any 
 other artist. In his early years his model was al- 
 ways fair with blue eyes. The Gran' Duca Madon- 
 na in the Pitti Palace at Florence is the most suc- 
 cessful picture of this type. In later years his Ma- 
 donnas all had dark hair and eyes. One of the 
 most popular and widely known of Raphael's pic- 
 tures is the "Madonna of the Chair" also in the Pitti. 
 This belongs to the later class and is especially suc- 
 cessful in its color. 
 
 Without doubt his two greatest easel pictures are 
 the "Sistine Madonna" in Dresden, and the "Trans- 
 figuration", left unfinished and borne in triumph at 
 his funeral. This picture now hangs in the Vatican. 
 On the first canvas is the best expression of his last 
 and mature conception of the Virgin. She stands 
 erect upon a throne of clouds with the Christ child 
 in her arms. Her eyes shine with the light of 
 heaven, and the delight of a mother is in her embrace. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 35 
 
 The baby in her arms is unusually beautiful physical- 
 ly, and at the same time has a mystical and spiritual 
 beauty. It is without doubt the most perfect con- 
 ception of the Madonna and child ever conceived 
 and painted on canvas. It takes its name from the 
 monastery of San Sisto, for which it was painted, 
 but is often erroneously related to the Sistine Chapel 
 of the Vatican, which as we have already seen, was 
 built by Sixtus IV in order to accommodate the great 
 works of the great artists. (Perhaps if the original 
 spelling, namely Sixtine, were retained, this confusion 
 would not be so general.) 
 
 While painting the "Transfiguration," Raphael 
 took a severe cold and died after a short illness. 
 All Italy mourned for him, and all Rome came to 
 his funeral. Julio Romano, his best pupil, and the 
 only artist of Roman birth, essayed to complete his 
 work. Such is the "Transfiguration," as we see it 
 to-day. 
 
 The Paduan School is generally placed after the 
 Umbrian. The prevailing note of its work is sculp- 
 turesque. Squarcione is the great teacher of this 
 group of painters, and his influence was felt through- 
 out Italy. The great pictures of Squarcione and of 
 Mantegna, his best pupil, and the most noted name 
 
1 36 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 in the school, are found in the Arena Chapel at 
 Padua, one of the four great art rooms in the world. 
 
 The Venetian School is our next consideration. 
 If Florence reflected the intellect in Italian paint- 
 ing, Venice reflected the feelings. The Florentine 
 love for form and drawing was paralleled in Venice 
 by a love for mass and color. Florentine love of 
 truth, in Venice, became love of sensation. The 
 quiet ideals of the peasants and tradesmen and nobles 
 in Florence traveled steadily on and up into the 
 realm of inspiration. The spirit of adventure in 
 the sailor-merchants and bankers of Venice entered 
 only into the realm of the imagination. Merry, 
 brave, and happy-go-lucky, the Venetian painters 
 painted their way quickly into versatility and excel- 
 lence. 
 
 Venetian art seemed to know no Gothic period. 
 In the Early Renaissance we find their painters 
 breaking away from the dominion of Constantinople, 
 just as the Florentine School had done in the days 
 of the Gothic Brotherhood ( 1 250-1 400) . At this 
 time and long after, Venice was still tolerating the 
 gold backgrounds and stiff classic composition of 
 Byzantium. 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 137 
 
 The first great name among many others in the 
 Early Renaissance is the BelHni. There were three 
 of them, a father and two sons. The last-named, 
 Giovanni Bellini, history tells us, is the greatest name 
 of the family. Another painter of note in these 
 early times was Antonello da Messina, a Sicilian, 
 to whom is given the credit of introducing the oil 
 technique into Venice. These two names are per- 
 haps the greatest in the earliest period of Venetian 
 painting, and we pass on to the High Renaissance 
 (1500-1600) during which time Venice produced 
 five of the big men in the world of art. 
 
 The first name is Giorgione, "big George". He 
 lived to be only thirty-four years of age, but during 
 his short life, he produced much good work, and is 
 said to have rivaled Titian in his power with color. 
 
 Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, 1477-1576) is the sec- 
 ond of the five, not only the greatest of the Venetian 
 School, but the last of the four greatest world paint- 
 ers, who were, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, 
 Raphael, and Titian. Titian early won first place 
 in Venice, and he lived a long life of triumphal suc- 
 cess. He was the fashion of the day, and nearly 
 all the crowned heads of his time sat before him for 
 a portrait. During his ninety years, classicism, por- 
 
1 38 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 traiture, and pure fancy engaged his efforts. When 
 he became an old man he dehghted in helping the 
 young painters, of whom Paulo Veronese was one. 
 The Emperor, Charles V favored Titian with many 
 orders, so that some of his best work is in Spain. 
 Titian had a very happy family life. One of his 
 daughters whom he loved devotedly appears as his 
 model in many pictures. After her death, he grew 
 old rapidly, but he kept his vigor and his love for 
 hard work to the very end. His "Assumption of 
 the Virgin" in the Academy at Venice is considered 
 his greatest picture. Another, the "Presentation 
 of the Virgin," also in the Academy, is very well 
 known. Perhaps his "Flora" in the Uffizi Gallery 
 in Florence ranks second to the "Assumption" in 
 skill. These are but three out of many, the results 
 of a life-time of hard work. During the four cen- 
 turies since his death, no artist has been able to 
 take from him the honor of being the world's great- 
 est colorist. 
 
 Palma Vecchio, Palma the elder, is the third 
 famous name. He was a great man in a very limited 
 sphere, namely, he could paint a woman, large, 
 strong, and beautiful in face and figure, with much 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 1 39 
 
 amplitude of drapery, so skillfully that it became a 
 type. The Santa Barbara in the Santa Maria For- 
 mosa in Venice is his masterpiece. 
 
 Tintoretto, "little dyer," is the next great name. 
 He is the painter with the largest sweep known to 
 art. His contemporaries called him *T1 Furioso," 
 because he was such a giant in achievement. He 
 never paused with a drawing, but completed his pic- 
 ture before he stopped. He painted "Paradise," 
 the largest picture in the world. It is done in oil, 
 and covers 2200 square feet. In it are some five 
 hundred figures, many of them portraits of the best 
 people of his day. This colossal fresco is in the 
 Ducal Palace at Venice. However it is not his 
 masterpiece. His "Miracle of St. Mark's" in the 
 Academy at Venice has this honor. 
 
 The last of the five notables among the painters 
 of the High Renaissance in Venice is Paul Veronese, 
 one of the beneficiaries of Titian. He was a painter 
 of pomp and of splendor. Crowds of people look 
 out from his canvas, many of them portraits of his 
 friends or of his family. He had a habit too of 
 painting domestic animals, pets, into his work, and 
 even into his religious subjects. Paul Veronese is 
 
1 40 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 a fitting ending to the Venetian School, one of the 
 most dramatic and the most interesting chapters in 
 Itahan Painting. 
 
 The next group of men centers around Ferrara. 
 They were influenced by Raphael and by some of 
 the Venetian painters, but, notwithstanding this they 
 individualized all their pictures. Dosso Dossi, the 
 portraitist, and Garofalo, the Ferrarese Raphael, 
 who is noted for the skillful use of a certain beam 
 of yellow light in all his pictures, are the two first 
 great names in the period of the High Renaissance. 
 The last artist, however is the one who makes the 
 Ferrarese School most notable. His name is An- 
 tonio Correggio (1494-1334). Correggio had 
 great natural talents, for when only twenty he paint- 
 ed the famous Madonna of St. Francis, now in Dres- 
 den. Critics say that Raphael, to whom he is so 
 often compared, had made no such record as this. 
 This Ferrarese painter knew how to blend color, 
 light, and shade into perfect harmony. He loved 
 to portray beautiful women and children and knew 
 how to give them a rare charm. The light in his 
 pictures is always remarkable and he is known first 
 as a master of chiaroscuro. His greatest picture 
 is "The Holy Night'* in Dresden. This is con- 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 141 
 
 sidered one of the great world pictures. His "Mar- 
 riage of St. Catherine" in the Louvre, Paris, and the 
 "Adoration'* in Dresden are aFso widely known and 
 favored. 
 
 The Lombard School is the next classification. 
 They are, however, made up of painters from so 
 many different localities that the term has a very 
 vague designation. Bernardo Luini is their great- 
 est brush man. He painted sweet and strong sub- 
 jects in a manner very much like Leonardo da Vinci. 
 His "Madonna of the Rose-Trellis" in the Brera 
 Gallery at Milan is justly famous. 
 
 The Bolognese School centered around Bologna 
 and collected the excellencies of all the other groups 
 of painters. Francia and Timoteo Viti, in the Early 
 and High Renaissance, respectively, are their two 
 best painters. In 1600 they lost themselves in the 
 School of Eclectics which produced several noted 
 artists. 
 
 You will recall that we have mentioned only five 
 painters of the High Renaissance in Florence. TTie 
 other artists of the time are known as the Mannerists. 
 These men, of whom Daniel da Volterra was the 
 first, made a study of the qualities of the greatest art- 
 ists, and so exaggerated their excellencies that they 
 
1 42 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 were termed "mannered." The Eclectics centered 
 in Bologna, and led by the Carracci, of whom Anni- 
 bale was the greatest, also studied the great masters, 
 but they sought mainly to correct the faults of the 
 Mannerists. Their noted men were Domenichino, 
 made famous by his great picture the "Communion 
 of St. Jerome** now in the Vatican, and Guido Reni, 
 the artist who claimed to be able to paint the up- 
 turned face in one hundred different poses. He was 
 a man of power, who debased his gift until he lost 
 it. Biography tells us that he gambled away all 
 his money and influence until he was little more than 
 an outcast among the painters. His two greatest 
 pictures are the beautiful "Aurora,** a ceiling fresco 
 in the Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, and the "Bea- 
 trice Cenci** in the Barberini Palace of the "Eternal 
 City.** 
 
 Guercino and Carlo Dolci are the last two noted 
 names in this school. The former is a realist, and 
 the latter a sentimentalist. Carlo Dolci*s St. Cece- 
 lia in the Dresden Gallery is one of the most unique 
 treatments of the "patron saint of Music** found in 
 all painting. 
 
 The last group of men to paint in Italy were the 
 Naturalists. Their leader Caravaggio, was a wild 
 passionate man whom the other schools felt was de- 
 
ITALIAN PAINTING 143 
 
 termined to ruin painting. He and his followers 
 settled in Naples, and decided upon the expul- 
 sion of all of the other painters in the city. Domen- 
 ichino is said to have been poisoned by them. These 
 men made nature their basis and painted her as they 
 saw her. Unfortunately, their vision was perverted, 
 and abnormality became the keynote of their work. 
 The greatest of the school was Ribera, the Spaniard, 
 but Salvator Rosa was the most human of the three. 
 He was a poor lad who supported his mother and 
 sisters with his brush work. 
 
 With Salvator Rosa and the other Naturalists 
 the art muse closes the book of fame, the Chronicle 
 of five centuries of the art world in Italy. 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 Painting. 
 
 " I know of no more encouraging fact than the 
 unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by 
 a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able 
 to paint a particular picture or to carve a statue, 
 and so to make a few objects beautiful ; but it is 
 far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmos- 
 phere and medium through which we look, which 
 morsJly w^e can do." 
 
 —Henry D. Thoreau: Where I Lived, 
 
 The French School holds second place in the an- 
 nals of painting, so we turn now to France, the land 
 of Napoleon, and the cradle, if not the birthplace, 
 of chivalry. This country, beautiful in its plains, 
 rivers, and highlands, is the home of a people both 
 hardy and thrifty. Indifferent alike to the hatred 
 of the Germans on the east, and to the arrogance 
 of the English on the west, this empire-republic 
 tills her fields, prunes her vineyards and fills the banks 
 of her cities with the hard-earned francs of her 
 frugal farmers and merchants. Many busy cities 
 
 145 
 
1 46 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 break the monotony of the peasant landscape. They 
 are, for the most part, beautiful in design, pleasing 
 in architecture, and solid in resources. Many of 
 them boast a cathedral, massive and splendid, whose 
 bell-tower spires suggest an uplook toward God. 
 
 To the north is Paris, a "beauty-land* * of parks, 
 palaces, shops and theatres. Paris gathers to her 
 bosom people of all nations and of all fortunes. She 
 favors the artist with her "salons'*, the savant with 
 her Sorbonne and the bon-vivant with her cafes, her 
 Bois, and her Champs-Elysees. A conglomerate 
 city is Paris, French in name and French in structure, 
 but world-wide in her interest, and notorious for her 
 vice. Paris is the great money center, the great 
 fashion center, the rendezvous of the scholar, and the 
 fairy-land of art. But Paris is not France. Two 
 races mingle their blood in the heart of the French- 
 man, the fair-skinned, light-haired Norman and the 
 brown-eyed Latin from the shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean. The poetic fancy and passion of the Le- 
 vant, which in years past have spoken through the 
 civilizations of Greece and Rome, here among the 
 hills and valleys of France, met the Celtic civiliza- 
 tion of Scandinavia. It was then that the beauty 
 of the Greek and the justice of the Roman, married 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 147 
 
 the personal worth and the love of freedom of the 
 Tueton, and produced after many centuries the con- 
 fident and resourceful modern Frenchman. Bril- 
 liant in mind and ardent in spirit, he borrows the in- 
 ventions upon which to build his ventures, and busy, 
 changeable and warm-hearted, he provides for the 
 poor, the unfortunate, and the insane.* But France 
 and the Frenchmen live apart from the great me- 
 tropolis for Paris is not the heart of France. It is a 
 city, grown we hardly know how, a cosmopolitan 
 city of all kinds of people, from all kinds of places 
 and bent on all kinds of pursuits. Also, it is a 
 city in which is gathered rare treasures from the 
 world of art. 
 
 France begins properly with the Capetian Kings 
 in the tenth century. The houses of Valois and of 
 Orleans followed. Years came and went, bring- 
 ing with them the Bourbons and their experiment of 
 absolute monarchy. Louis XIV is the epitome of 
 their demonstration, and after him, liberty, equality, 
 and fraternity, the cry of the individual, which was 
 lifted in protest was silenced in the maelstrom of the 
 French Revolution. Then Napoleon, the man of 
 destiny and the maker of kings, played his part upon 
 
 ♦France was among the first to build hospitals, insane-asylums 
 and savings banks. 
 
1 48 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the stage of history. After him rose modern France, 
 the cradle of Hberty, but an aristrocratic democracy 
 with it all, and here is the art about which we are 
 to study, an art rich in the variety of subject, rich 
 in technical excellence, and rich in its ability to 
 teach. 
 
 Beginning with the thirteenth century, the artists* 
 endeavor, guided by Italian influences in the Riviera 
 made its way through tapestries, furniture and glass, 
 and finally spoke in painting through such men as 
 Rene of Anjou, the painter-king of Naples, and 
 through the three Johns, Jean Fouquet, Jean Pereal 
 and Jean Bourdichon. These four men are the 
 earliest of the court-painters. Thus painting really 
 began in France in the early part of the fifteenth 
 century with portraiture. However the portrait 
 painters were soon joined by the historical artists, 
 men who painted their heroes in the midst of their 
 deeds. Jean Cousin, 1501-1589, is the earliest 
 memorable name of this class. It is hard for the 
 historian to hold to the truth, so naturally the fanci- 
 ful painters made the next class. These men left 
 history for mythology, and in turn as history and 
 mythology need nature for a setting, the landscape 
 artists follow. Thus, at the close of the seven- 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 149 
 
 teenth century, the French School had developed 
 four distinct lines of work, namely, portraiture, his- 
 torical painting, mythological painting, and land- 
 scape work. 
 
 Perhaps it should be said right here that, while 
 the art motive of the Italian School was primarily 
 religious, among the French from first to last the 
 motive has been purely decorative. Byzantium was 
 her school-mistress from the ninth to the thirteenth 
 centuries, and altogether with her oriental symbolism, 
 gave France a love of color for color's sake. In 
 the fifteenth century the four court-painters mention- 
 ed above rose superior to the teachings of the Orient, 
 Jind turned to nature for their lessons. This of 
 course created a new movement which represented 
 a new ideal in art. This revival can be easily seen 
 in the earliest portraitists, the court-painters of Fran- 
 cis I in the sixteenth century. It was then that Jean 
 Cousin, the Michael Angelo of France, became fa- 
 mous as the first great historic painter. He was fol- 
 lowed in the seventeenth century by Nicholas Pous- 
 fin, 1593-1665, a painter not only of history but 
 also of mythology and of landscape. This painter 
 had a great influence upon the men of his school es- 
 pecially through his work in mythology, the depart- 
 
1 50 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 ment in which he was most famous. This being so 
 we look for the greatest name in landscape and find 
 the painter was Claude Lorraine, 1600-1682. Like 
 his contemporary, Nicholas Poussin, he spent a great 
 part of his life in Rome. It was here that he made 
 a study of light. Through the mists on the broad 
 Campagna surrounding the world's capital, this rus- 
 tic genius who never despised hard work, studied 
 the sunrise and the sunset until he found new truths 
 not yet acquired. John Ruskin, England's great 
 art critic, calls his discovery the "pleasant air be- 
 tween earth and sky," and certainly this element is 
 constant in Claude Larraine's pictures. Neverthe- 
 less, although this master was a close student of na- 
 ture, yet the artificiality of his day left its mark upon 
 all of his many, many pictures. His followers cop- 
 ied his weakness as well as his strength, but even 
 then his effects in light and atmosphere are lasting 
 and dynamic in the world of painting. 
 
 Eustache la Seur, the French Raphael, was a con- 
 temporary of Claude Lorraine. He is perhaps the 
 only distinctively religious painter among the French 
 School of this period. Another noted man of this 
 day was Charles Le Brun, the first master of the 
 French Academy under the Grand Louis XIV. His 
 works are in much evidence at Versailles, but they 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 151 
 
 all stamp him as a second rate painter because royal- 
 ty not art held first place in his attention. However 
 after Claude Lorraine the first successful painter of 
 the sun, the next great name is Antoine Watteau's, 
 1 684-1 72 1 . He is the Frenchiest of all the French 
 artists, for his passion was to paint his humble friends 
 among the bourgeoisie and the peasants in and near 
 Paris as lords and ladies in small idyllic scenes. In 
 this way he caught the fancy of the French world. 
 His pictures were so small and so popular that cop- 
 ies of them on cups and saucers became the fashion. 
 At this time also genre painting, namely scenes from 
 domestic life, developed among the French. Jean 
 Baptiste Chardin was a favorite artist of this type. 
 So also was Jean Baptiste Greuze, called the Carlo 
 Dolci of France, whose habit was to paint a pensive 
 young girl in various attitudes of despondency or 
 regret. This subject was unique in art, and he has 
 become justly famous through the "Broken Pitcher'* 
 and pictures of this kind. Like Watteau, Greuze 
 became the fashion in Paris, but his work did not 
 improve with his years. 
 
 The French Revolution revolutionized art along 
 v^ith all other activities. The leader in the new 
 movement, Jacques Louis David 1748-1825, is the 
 **great high-priest of classicism.'* This man like 
 
1 52 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 many others of his school went early to Italy. Here 
 he was slow in maturing but in time he made the 
 discovery that form meant far more than color. Bas- 
 ing his work upon this, the pictures he produced were 
 so unusual that he soon won notice. In these early 
 days he laments what he called his "coarse Gallic 
 taste.** Soon with his reputation established he re- 
 turned to France and became the leading painter of 
 the day. It is said that the fashions of France even 
 followed his bidding and that ruffled robes gave way 
 to the loose-fitting, simple garb of the Greeks. Also 
 powdered hair was discarded and simplicity became 
 the order of the day. History tells us that David 
 was a friend of Robespierre, a member of the Jacob- 
 in Club and of the National Assembly. We know 
 too that he cast his vote to behead the king and later 
 won immediate fame by painting Marat in the bath 
 meeting death at the hands of Charlotte Corday. 
 At this time David seemed to hold French art with 
 its face toward the past in an iron grip. But Na- 
 poleon's star arose and a friendship with the great 
 leader altered David and with him French art. At 
 once he lost his loyalty to the new movement. Af- 
 fairs of state rather than affairs of art absorbed him 
 and we find him giving up his leadership, leaving 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 153 
 
 Paris and settling down quietly at Brussels. Here 
 he again took up his brush and devoted himself to 
 his art. His critics tell us that during his last years 
 more and more he exemplified the statuesque. In 
 the history of painting David was an organizer with 
 a wonderful conception of values. He made the 
 artists of France measure themselves by past stand- 
 ards and his pupil, Jean Dominique Auguste Ingres, 
 followed in his footsteps. However Ingres at the 
 same time saw the other side of Italian art. The 
 coldness of the statuesque did not appeal to him nor 
 did the warmth of color. He veiled his school in 
 gray and in so doing had a vision of actual truth in 
 art. After him, no artist painted from memory or 
 without consulting nature. In short Ingres reformed 
 the reformer and found middle ground between 
 Classicism and Romanticism. 
 
 We cannot leave the eighteenth century without 
 a word about Madame Vigee-Le Brun, an interest- 
 ing and skillful portrait painter. This class of paint- 
 ing in the French School is identified by three names. 
 Nattier is the first and Gerard is the last but Madame 
 Vigee-Le Brun holds the middle ground. Daughter 
 of a painter, she early showed rare talent with the 
 brush, and by the time she became a woman the 
 
1 54 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 character and the quality of her work were well es- 
 tablished. She was the first woman to be admitted 
 to the French Academy and her work stands the test 
 of time. Her best known pictures are of herself 
 and her little daughter. Her biographer tells us 
 that this charming little girl became a most ungrate- 
 ful and unworthy woman, but that the mother's 
 affection survived all disgrace and shame. Bio- 
 graphy tells us many interesting anecdotes of Mad- 
 ame Le Brun with Marie Antionette, as well as with 
 Queen Louise of Prussia and with Catherine II of 
 Russia, who among many other noted people sat 
 to her for a picture. 
 
 After Ingres the most noted name among the 
 painters is Delaroche, an historical painter. Then 
 comes Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, who 
 has been called the "soul of his age" because he re- 
 flected so exactly the spirit of the times. He was 
 neither classicist nor romanticist but painting the life 
 of the soldier, he deepened the general interest of 
 the French in the art of the people. Also the two 
 painters. Decamps and Fromentin, called Oriental- 
 ists, strengthened the conviction that the art of France 
 was not the province of the few, but was the heritage 
 of the many. Perhaps the knowledge of her free- 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 155 
 
 dom sobered France. At any rate her new belief 
 in the universality of art soon spoke through the 
 Fontainebleau-Barbizon School notable not for its 
 emphasis upon meaning, but upon light and color. 
 It was in 1 83 1 that this group of men exhibited their 
 nature studies of plain and forest. 
 
 Corot, 1796-1875 is the first name of this school 
 and his pictures are general favorites. Fie knew 
 how to make other people see light and air as he saw 
 it. His power with the brush and delicate handling 
 of color were the result of persistent effort through- 
 out a long and uneventful life. Corot was an early 
 riser, a simple liver, and a systematic worker. He 
 dwelt quietly with his mother and found his greatest 
 pleasure in his work and in quiet evenings at home. 
 When his pictures became of value he found little 
 joy in saving money and gave generously to any 
 need which came to his notice. He lived to a good 
 old age, and his power to portray cool and lovely 
 landscape with people therein, airy and light, never 
 forsook him. 
 
 Rousseau, the friend and contemporary of Corot, 
 was another landscape painter who is constantly 
 growing in favor. He was by far the broadest of 
 his school in his treatment of nature. He never 
 
156 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 learned the secret of Corot*s daintiness in color and 
 in composition, but his conception was more sublime 
 and his handling more vigorous. 
 
 Contemporaneous with the Fontainebleau-Barbi- 
 zon School were the animal painters of whom Rosa 
 Bonheur is the greatest. Her chief work is the 
 "Horse Fair,'* a large canvas purchased by the late 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt for the Metropolitan Museum 
 in New York City. Rosa Bonheur sprang from the 
 bourgeoisie and endured much hardship before she 
 became a great painter. The story is told of her 
 that she put on man's attire and visited the slaughter 
 houses in order to study the anatomy of the animals. 
 After painting the "Horse Fair", sometimes called 
 the "County Fair," she became a member of the 
 French Academy, and was entitled to the cross of 
 the Legion of Honor. However the emperor re- 
 fused to decorate her because she was a woman. 
 
 After the "Landscape Painters" it was a natural 
 step for the "Peasant Painters" to put in the people, 
 sowing, reaping, or praying. The first great name 
 of this group is Jean Francois Millet, known also as 
 a rustic genre painter. He painted the peasantry 
 in the district from which he came in such pictures as 
 the "Angelus," the "Sower," and the "Gleaners." 
 
PAINTING, OTHER SCHOOLS 157 
 
 Jules Breton is another painter of this class. His 
 **Song of the Lark", in the Art Institute at Chicago, 
 is one of his most popular works. 
 
 After the "Peasant Painters", the "Genre** art- 
 ists came to the front. The first name among them 
 is Jean Louis Meissonier. He painted into his pic- 
 tures all the passion of French idealism with the 
 skill and precision of a realist. His pictures of Na- 
 poleon, especially **1814,'* are justly famous. In 
 the Art Institute at Chicago, is his "Vidette,** a 
 small easel picture which shows to advantage most 
 of Meissonier's characteristics as an artist. 
 
 Another great name of the French School is Wil- 
 liam Adolphe Bouguereau, whose work is remark- 
 able for its taste and refinement. His flesh tints are 
 unique and very pleasing. Some of his pictures 
 can be seen in the galleries of our American cities. 
 Unlike Bouguereau is Puvis de Chavannes, the 
 greatest modern mural French painter. He discov- 
 ered anew the principles of decorative art, and his 
 drawing became more and more simple and his 
 color less and less violent. On the walls of the 
 Pantheon at Paris he has placed a series of frescoes 
 representing the life of St. Genevieve. This work 
 is more characteristic than are his decorations on the 
 walls of the Public Library in Boston. 
 
1 58 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Lastly French art has developed a School of Im- 
 pressionists. To this group belongs Bastien Le- 
 page whose mantel picture of Joan d' Arc in the 
 Metropolitan Museum, New York City, is so gen- 
 erally known and liked. The last name of this 
 School to win recognition is Claude Monet. He 
 worked on the principle that color is light in a decom- 
 posed form, and became a storm painter and master 
 of the violet shadow. 
 
 This ends the chronicle of French Art, in aim, 
 motive, and theme, a fit sucessor to the Italian 
 School. Its devotion to art, its diligence and its 
 methods of self-expression are equally truthful and 
 suggestive. To the Salons, to the French Acadamy 
 and to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, modern art turns 
 to-day for leadership. 
 
 We leave Italy and France, the sunshiny lands of 
 painting, and turn to the melancholy Spaniards, 
 whose pictures like themselves show the heavy dom- 
 ination of the church and an excessive superstition. 
 Their technique came from Italy and their subjects 
 from Flanders. In spirit only are they peculiarly 
 Spanish, to which fact their sombre coloring and 
 total lack of poetic imagination testify. Their early 
 art is marked by no clear and gradual dawn. Up 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 159 
 
 to the fourteenth century there were very small be- 
 ginnings, and it was not until 1 516, when Charles 
 V ascended the throne, that art in Spain received a 
 decided impetus. And even then her artists did not 
 develop a natural manner until the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. This manner, in its brutal emphasis upon the 
 agony of Christ, suggests that her painting is but the 
 "drudge" of the church and perhaps a servant of the 
 Spanish inquisition. Up to the seventeenth cen- 
 tury all portrayal of the nude was prohibited and 
 from first to last the school lacked originality. There 
 are only three schools in Spanish painting, the "Cas- 
 tilian" or School of Madrid, the School of Valencia, 
 and the "Andalusian'* or School of Seville. Under 
 the Castilian School we find the first artist born and 
 bred in Spain, Luis de Morales. He was a hard 
 worker who overcame great difficulties, but he had 
 many limitations which his pupils copied. 
 
 The great name in the School of Madrid and the 
 greatest in Spanish art is Diego de Silva Velasquez, 
 1599-1660. He alone reflected to advantage the 
 nationalism of Spain. Velasquez was of noble 
 birth and early went to school to the painters. When 
 only nineteen he married the daughter of an artist. 
 At twenty-three through the help of his father-in- 
 
1 60 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 law he was a privileged member of the Spanish 
 Court with congenial work, luxurious surroundings, 
 and many appreciative friends. He lived sixty 
 years, respected, unspoiled, industrious, and beloved. 
 He fulfilled many important trusts, was beloved by 
 Rubens who made him a nine months* visit, and by 
 several Italian painters whom he came to know dur- 
 ing his two trips to Italy, in which he bought most 
 of the foreign pictures which are found in Spain to- 
 day. To the end of his long life he was showered 
 with commissions, but remained sober, industrious, 
 and high-minded. One of his greatest pictures is 
 the "Infanta Marguerite** in the Salon Carre of the 
 Louvre. 
 
 Passing over the School of Valencia, we turn to 
 the "Andalusian** or School of Madrid, and find 
 Bartolome Esteban Murillo. He had a less fortu- 
 nate start than Velasquez. His people were poor 
 and he had little training. He earned his first 
 money by painting pictures of the street gamin and 
 selling them from the steps of the Cathedral on fete 
 days. Later when he had learned how to paint, 
 he produced his very attractive pictures of boy life 
 in the city and in the country. His "Children of the 
 Shell" is a popular study of this class. In time he 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 161 
 
 made his way to Madrid, and there received help 
 from Velasquez. After many years, when Murillo 
 had learned how to paint under Velasquez's teach- 
 ing the latter urged him to go to Rome. Instead 
 Murillo returned to Seville and established the Acad- 
 emy there which is still a center of instruction and of 
 inspiration in art. Murillo was able so to portray 
 the Saints and Virgin that not only Spain, but the 
 whole modern world loves his "Holy Family** and 
 "Immaculate Conception." 
 
 The last famous painter of this school and of 
 Spain is Francisco Goya, called the Spanish Ho- 
 garth*' or satirist with the pencil. His realm was the 
 cartoon for he was a master of the grotesque who 
 excelled in caricature. His best work is his 
 "Whims", a collection of eighty illustrations of 
 Spanish life. With him the account of Spanish art 
 closes, a school of many promises, but one in which 
 custom and imposed standards have robbed the 
 painters, for the most part, of their individuality. 
 
 From Spain we turn to the painters in the Nether- 
 lands, a school in which fact seldom garbed herself 
 in fancy. A quaint, hardpressed land is the Nether- 
 lands, with the sea assailing her on the north, east, 
 and west, her very soil a miracle of effort and of 
 
1 62 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 achievement. Her people are busy with the duties 
 of home and of business. They are thoughtful, 
 hardy, and energetic, simple indeed, plain in dress 
 and quaint in their customs. It was the habit of 
 their painters to paint the people in the everyday 
 garb of their everyday duties. To them genre 
 painting was a method of expression in which back- 
 ground and figures became a balanced part in an har- 
 monious whole. However through many centuries 
 painting here as elsewhere was the servant of the 
 church, so their earliest masters painted the saints, 
 the Virgin, and the Christ with the faces of their 
 friends, and in the costumes of their people. The, 
 painters of the Netherlands are grouped in two 
 schools, the Flemish and the Dutch. They are 
 alike in technique, in subject, in composition, and in 
 aim. TTiey sought no ideal, no historical, no land- 
 scape theme. Especially to the Dutchman, home 
 was a paradise, so he painted the home and its ac- 
 cessories, and its environs. High and low, rich and 
 poor, shared this interest. Portraiture, history, and 
 animal painting had their place, but only as second- 
 -ary to genre studies. Large canvasses were used 
 somewhat in these three classes of work, but the 
 "Little Masters" the genre painters, painted only on 
 
PAINTING, OTHER SCHOOLS 163 
 
 small canvasses the trivial incidents of everyday life. 
 These men with a few exceptions were the art lead- 
 ers in Holland. 
 
 The first great painters in the Flemish school were 
 the Van Eycks,* Hubert and John. Roger Van 
 Weyden, the realist, and Hans Memling, his pupil. 
 Next is Quentin Matsys, the blacksmith painter, and 
 Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640, whose "Descent 
 from the Cross" in Antwerp is one of the great 
 World Pictures. The last of these older painters 
 is Anthony Van Dyck, Rubens' greatest pupil and 
 the "gentleman" portrait painter of Europe. It is 
 said that Van Dyck, 1599-1641, could make the 
 plainest looking people beautiful, and the most ple- 
 beian, aristocratic. These men are by far the great- 
 est of the Flemish school. All of them except Van 
 Dyck won fame with religious subjects according to 
 the custom of the day. However, when Jacob Jor- 
 daens, Ruben's second greatest pupil, and David 
 Teniers the Younger, won favor through mytholog- 
 ical and genre subjects, Flemish art had found the 
 
 *The Van Eycks are responsible for the oil varnish in use 
 in these northern schools. It has preserved not only their treas- 
 ures, but also the pictures of all countries to the art world. 
 
1 64 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 final trend. The last great man of this school is 
 Alma-Tadema, whose "Reading from Homer" is 
 justly famous. 
 
 We now turn to the Dutch School. Here we find 
 s jll in workmanship and charm in color. Added to 
 tlie trained hand is an abundance of sentiment and 
 of feeling. The Dutch painters are pre-eminently ar- 
 tistic, and this artistic feeling is recorded in their 
 pictures. They were genre men from the first. Franz 
 Hals was a portraitist who invariably added a touch 
 of humor to his likenesses. He was followed by Rem- 
 brandt van Ryn, 1607-1669, the great painter of 
 feeling, and by far the greatest name of this School. 
 Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lecture" and the "Coat 
 Makers" in the Hague, and the "Night Guard" in 
 Amsterdam are among the most famous pictures in 
 the world. After Rembrandt, come the Dutch 
 "J ittle Masters" proper. The first man was Gerard 
 Terburg, the high class society painter, and next 
 came Gabriel Metsu, who painted market scenes as 
 we^^ as sumptuous homes. Contemporaneous with 
 Terburg and Metsu was Gerard Dow, whose 
 friends claimed that he could paint a home as a 
 "beaven on earth." His most noted picture is the 
 "Dropsical Woman" in the Salon Carre of the 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 165 
 
 Louvre. At this time also Van Ostade painted his 
 scenes of humble Hfe, and Jan Steen, the inebriate, 
 painted debauchery. The Hnk between the genre 
 and the landscape painting was the work of Pieter 
 de Hooch, which represented outdoor effects seen 
 through an interior, and van der Meer of Delft, 
 who combined genre work with landscape painting. 
 The first of the Dutch landscape men is Jan van 
 Goyen. He painted successfully canal and ocean 
 scenes. Another name is Ruisdael's, the storm 
 painter, and still another is Hobbema, whose quiet 
 village scenes now command fabulous prices. The 
 middle ground between landscape and animal paint- 
 ing was taken by Philip Wouverman, who painted 
 cavalry skirmishes and landscapes with horses done 
 in rich transparent colors. He had a habit of plac- 
 ing a white horse near the center of each of his 
 pictures. The last great name of the school is 
 Paul Potter's. He is famous for his large canvas 
 of the "Young Bull" now in the museum at the 
 Hague. His work was so excellent that copies of 
 his pictures are to be found in books on Natural 
 History, and scientists delight to use his pictures as 
 illustrations. In so brief a resume of the school, 
 we pass the skillful "still life" painters, but other- 
 wise the famous names have all been mentioned. 
 
1 66 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 From the Netherlands we pass to Germany and 
 the Germans, the mecca of musicians, the labora- 
 tory of the scientists and the paradise of the scholar. 
 Germany is to Music what Italy is to painting. 
 None who has felt the spell of the Fatherland can 
 approach any of her activities with indifference. 
 
 It matters little that Germany was slow to learn 
 and slow to produce art treasures. Italian art had 
 reached middle life before German art had left her 
 cradle of crude tapestries and of awkward architec- 
 tural ornaments on a blue ground. But from the 
 first, German art was sturdy with an eye for meaning 
 rather than for beauty. Moreover the growth in 
 realism and in the representation of character soon 
 distanced even Flemish art. Some grace and re- 
 finement of representation in carefully noted and 
 expressed detail made German art distinctively Ger- 
 man from the fifteenth century on. 
 
 Perhaps the slow development of German art 
 through the medium of architecture and sculpture 
 into painting is due to the very nature of the people. 
 Back in the barbaric stage they were hard to ^civilize 
 and to Christianize. Perhaps this made them less 
 sensitive to the beautiful. At any rate, in the early 
 days, artists found Germany a very uncongenial 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 167 
 
 home. Their point of view differed radically from 
 that of Italy, and throughout all the early stages of 
 their art, there is a certain coarseness and awkard- 
 ness which are characteristically Teuton. The ear- 
 liest painting is found in the ninth century in the 
 form of illustrations, and some poor wall-paintings. 
 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, French 
 influence made itself felt in Germany. Panel paint- 
 ing came into fashion in connection with the first 
 painter, Meister Wilhelm who established a school 
 at Cologne. Shortly after this another school was 
 established at Prague and midway between them 
 was the Nuremburg School of which Albrecht 
 Dtirer is the great representative. The name of 
 this school which centers around Nuremburg, the 
 city made famous by Durer, the painter, and Wag- 
 ner, the musician, is the "Franconian." 
 
 Albrecht Durer's is by far the greatest name of 
 all the German Schools. He was a realist like the 
 Dutch painters, and took infinite care with every 
 detail of his picture, nevertheless his pictures were 
 forceil^^d technically expressive. They have a 
 certai^Hfcnetic force which indicates that the artist 
 was inspired. His subjects were mostly religious, 
 and he worked only in oil and in tempera. With 
 
1 68 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the exception of a trip to Italy, he lived and died 
 in Nuremburg. Longfellow writes of him as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Here when art was still religion, with a simple 
 
 reverent heart, 
 Lived and laboured Albrecht Durer, the evangelist 
 
 of art; 
 Hence in silence and in sorrow, toiling still with 
 
 busy hand. 
 Like an emigrant he w^andered, seeking for the 
 
 better land." 
 
 The German "Little Masters,** painters and en- 
 gravers, are always coupled with Durer. The best 
 of them, Altdorfer, was a rival of Durer's. 
 
 The Saxon is the least important of the Germaa 
 Schools. Lucas Cranach, the elder, is the most 
 noted name among them. 
 
 The third school among the Germans is the Swab- 
 ian, and it boasts the two Holbeins. Hans Holbein 
 the Younger is the greatest painter after Durer. 
 His contemporaries called him the painter with the 
 "inimitable bloom." He was a portrait painter who 
 like Van Dyck spent a great part of his life in Eng- 
 land. He was so industrious that nearly all the 
 Galleries of the world are enriched by his pic- 
 tures. 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 169 
 
 Early in the seventeenth century, a period of 
 Decadence overtook German art. Among the 
 painters of this group are Raphael Mengs, a classi- 
 cist, and his gifted pupil, Angelica Kauffman. In 
 the nineteenth century, the Prae-Raphaelites had a 
 following in Germany. Friedrich Overbeck and 
 Wilhelm von Schadow are two of this school. How- 
 ever the three modern schools which are best known 
 are at Munich, where Defregger and Bodenhausen 
 among many others have made a name for them- 
 selves, at Dusseldorf, where Heinrich Hofmann 
 has won fame through his pictures of the Christ,* 
 and the Berlin School, where Gustav Richter, Hans 
 Makart and Michael Munkacsy have made their 
 fame.** 
 
 This is a brief glimpse ot German art, but we 
 would say in closing that, despite her late develop- 
 ment, Germany is now a director as well as a con- 
 servator of the interests of the world of art. 
 
 We turn now to England, which like Germany 
 was late in developing a national art. One histor- 
 ian claims that the English are not of a pictorial 
 cast of mind. Various theories have been advanced 
 for their late development, but this much is true, 
 
 *Hofmann's " Christ Among the Doctors" is perhaps as well 
 Itnown as any picture in the country. 
 
 ** Makart and Munkacsy belong to the Austrian School. 
 
1 70 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 that poetry and literature at all times made an earlier 
 and a stronger impression than painting or sculpture. 
 As early as the seventh century, there was a decora- 
 tive art in Ireland, and in the ninth century mass 
 books were illumined there with great care. This 
 missal art lasted until the fifteenth century. In 
 these early years England borrowed her ideals from 
 France and Flanders. With the House of Guelph, 
 foreign artists entered Britain and mixed the simpli- 
 city of the Dutch painters into the foundation of art 
 in England. The Tudors and Stuarts were art pa- 
 trons and encouraged the work of foreign artists up 
 to the seventeenth century. The last House es- 
 pecially made England a store house for art treas- 
 ures. Charles I spent $400,000 in buying the Duke 
 of Mantua's famous collection. This won for him 
 the disapproval of the English, but obtained for 
 England some originals of Titian, Veronese, and 
 Correggio. Real sentiment for art was not appar- 
 ent among the English people until the eighteenth 
 century, but nevertheless the national art of England 
 is characteristic and able. 
 
 The first name of importance is the English Ho- 
 garth, the satirist whose brush taught more lessons 
 than pens of many moralists. He was a painter of 
 
PAINTING, OTHER SCHOOLS 171 
 
 life, whose "Gin Lane'* and "Idle and Industrious 
 Apprentices" point a warning against evil. While 
 he painted his own humor into his pictures, his 
 method of painting was as painstaking as the old 
 Dutch masters. 
 
 After Hogarth, we find the most eminent English 
 portraitist. Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723-1792. He 
 was particularly successful in portraits of women 
 and children. One of his most noted portraits is of 
 the actress Sarah Siddons, and is entitled "The 
 Tragic Muse." She found his name upon the bor- 
 der of her dress and made inquiry about it. Said 
 Sir Joshua: "I could not forego the chance of send- 
 ing my name down to posterity on the hem of your 
 garment." Like Van Dyck, Reynolds always 
 painted his sitters at their best, and justly earned a 
 reputation which outlasts the centuries. His 
 "Heads of Angels" is perhaps his best known pic- 
 ture in America, but England knows and loves his 
 "Little Mob-Cap," "Pickaback" and "Snake in the 
 Grass." 
 
 In the latter part of his life. Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 had a rival in the person of Thomas Gainsborough, 
 1727-1789. He first won fame as a portraitist, 
 but posterity knew him best as a landscape painter. 
 
1 72 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Sir Joshua had a prejudice against the use of blue 
 in a picture. To prove him wrong, Thomas Gains- 
 borough painted his famous "Blue Boy." Later 
 he painted Mrs. Siddons in a large and very becom- 
 ing hat, which gave rise to the expression "a Gains- 
 borough hat." He studied nature and added a na- 
 tive decorative sense to an unusual feeling for form 
 and color. 
 
 The third great portraitist was George Romney, 
 1 734-1802, a genre-painter originally, from the mid- 
 dle class. He had a charm with color and a grace 
 in line which is seldom surpassed. One of his 
 best known pictures is "Milton dictating to his 
 Daughters." 
 
 The next noted English painter was Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence. After Reynolds, Gainsborough, and 
 Romney, he holds first place as a portraitist. He 
 was an impressionable artist and some of his work 
 is very affected. 
 
 After several less important names in the English 
 School comes Benjamin West's, an American cous- 
 in, at one time president of the London Academy, 
 whose constructive genius as a painter won for him 
 marked appreciation. In the annals of art, he is 
 called an iconoclast, because he knew how to de- 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 1 73 
 
 stroy the classical idols of his day. After him all 
 artists discarded the Greek robes and Roman tunics. 
 At first this artist brought down upon himself the 
 clamour of conservatism, but even Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds came to acknowledge that it was more fitting 
 on canvas to dress a general as a general than in the 
 robes of a Sophocles or a Justinian. 
 
 After West, art's favor tarries with John Con- 
 stable. His is the first name among the English 
 landscape painters. His father intended him for 
 the ministry, but at an early age he showed great 
 talent in drawing. Later he made a careful study 
 of the clouds and of wind and of water mills, a 
 knowledge which served him well in due time. After 
 a great deal of hard work, John Constable made a 
 name and fame for himself. To-day his canvasses 
 are almost priceless. 
 
 The second name in the list of landscape painters 
 and the first name in English art is that of Joseph 
 Mallord William Turner. He is the sunshine art- 
 ist for all time and the navy painter of England. A 
 critic of his day said that artistically Turner was a 
 lion, but that socially he was a bear. The great 
 art critic, Ruskin, says that Turner effected nobler 
 skies, mountains, and trees than any other painter. 
 
1 74 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 But beyond his skill with these there was his ability 
 to paint the sea. Turner was the son of a wig- 
 maker in London, and he was brought up in poor 
 surroundings. Before he was very old his mother 
 lost her mind and he had little in his life to encour- 
 age him to find the beautiful. Moreover successive 
 masters with whom he studied pronounced him a 
 failure and advised him to give up trying to paint. 
 Notwithstanding this his ability to learn made him 
 England's greatest painter. He died, unmarried, 
 leaving a collection of his pictures to the English 
 Government. Two of his best pictures are the 
 "Fighting Temeraire'* and the "Ulysses' Ship." 
 When he became famous, he refused large sums for 
 his pictures, which are now in the Tate Gallery at 
 London. He is without doubt the most original of 
 the artists and one whose richness of invention and 
 boldness of handling, added to an unprecedented 
 treatment, make him the wonder painter of his time. 
 The English School has a few genre painters. 
 Among them the cautious Scotchman, David Wilk- 
 ie, is the best known. He has been called "the 
 plain man's friend" and the "Goldsmith among 
 painters." All critics say that his genre work deep- 
 ens our love for mankind. 
 
PAINTING, OTHER SCHOOLS 1 75 
 
 From the genre artists, we turn to the English ani- 
 mal painters among whom Sir Edwin Landseer is 
 king. He was **a gentleman** painter whose love 
 for animals and sympathy for their distresses live 
 in his paintings and add to the general culture of the 
 world. Dogs were his favorites and next to them 
 he enjoyed painting deer. His "Monarch of the 
 Glen** and "Taking a Buck** are general favorites 
 in America. There were other great animal art- 
 ists, among them John F. Herring, the painter of 
 horses, and Edwin Douglas, unwisely called the 
 "cattle king** in art. 
 
 The last and by far the most unique group in 
 English art is the Prae-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 
 This movement started in 1 847 and has three great 
 names, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and 
 Sir John Millais. These three men, together with sev- 
 eral sculptors' and poets, made a study of the art 
 which produced Raphael, believing that if they could 
 reproduce the conditions, that they could reproduce 
 the art. They tried to imitate the simple devotional 
 lives of the painters of the fourteenth century, and 
 thereby to gain their realism and their ability to 
 draw. Holman Hunt, 1827-1910, the first man, 
 lost his sense of light and color in his care for details. 
 
1 76 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Rossetti, 1828-1882, a poet as well as painter, had 
 odd mannerisms in his pictures of women and chil- 
 dren. Millias, 1829-1896, had a feeling for the 
 higher genre work, and produced some deservedly 
 popular pictures. Among them are the "Hugenot 
 Lovers,'* "Yes or No" and the "Boy Blowing 
 Bubbles." 
 
 The movement of Prae-Raphealitism also influ- 
 enced Ford Madox Brown, the historical painter, 
 and Burne-Jones, 1833-1898, the pupil of Rossetti. 
 Burne-Jones* "Vestal Virgin,'* his "Aurora** and 
 many others are good examples to-day of modern 
 high art. 
 
 George Watts, 1818-1911, a Welshman and a 
 portrait painter, also embraced the teaching of this 
 Brotherhood. His "Sir Galahad** is one of the 
 best examples of his work. In this picture an ideal 
 youth stands by a snow white horse of noble pro- 
 portions. A matted and tangled underbrush make 
 up the background and give horse and youth a cer- 
 tain heroic aspect and appeal. 
 
 W. Q. Orchardson was a painter of the higher 
 genre and had a style akin to Hogarth's. After 
 him there are two notable names, Boughton's, whose 
 Puritans and Pilgrims are very acceptable, and 
 Hubert Herkomer, a portrait painter. 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 177 
 
 This closes the discussion of the English School. 
 Whether masters of method or masters of mean- 
 ing, no group nor groups of men, have won in so 
 short a time such skill in technique, variety in com- 
 position and breadth in subject. Nor is the book 
 of English art ended. The present looks toward a 
 future of larger effort, greater realization, and more 
 perfect art. 
 
 As a mother is known best through her children, 
 so we turn to America, England's child of larger 
 growth, and gain through her efforts in art a truer 
 interpretation of England's artistic expression. In 
 America as in England, the art faculty was late in 
 developing. Up to 1 776, America was without 
 painters and sculptors. Men and women were so 
 busy wresting a living from the new conditions that 
 conmiercial values alone appealed to them. More- 
 over the Quakers, an influential and sturdy religious 
 sect, encouraged the lack of art by declaring that 
 it was unnecessary and harmful. But money brought 
 leisure and readiness to learn, and with characteris- 
 tic initiative, alertness, and vigor, American artists 
 soon excelled in method, in composition, and in sub- 
 ject. In the early day men from England came over 
 to paint the portraits of the colonists; thus art made 
 
1 78 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 its first claim upon the people. Next, young men 
 in America, dared the ocean and settled in England 
 to study painting,* and Germany and France soon 
 attracted American students as well. 
 
 The second eminent painter of American birth 
 is John Singleton Copley, 1737-1815. He did 
 some excellent work in portrait and in figure paint- 
 ing. In color and in composition his work has much 
 that is admirable. No doubt his skill with color 
 resulted from his careful study in Italy of Titian and 
 of Correggio. Copley like West scorned the classi- 
 cism of the day and brought upon himself a storm 
 of criticism. 
 
 Copley was followed by three eminent portrait 
 painters, his noted pupil, Charles Gilbert Stuart, 
 1755-1828, and Charles and Rembrandt Peale. 
 These men were masters of characterization, and 
 painted portraits of the leading men of the Revolu- 
 tion. Charles Peale was particularly successful in 
 painting Washington. After the war, in the peace 
 which prevailed, the need of art and of artists was 
 felt in America. 
 
 To meet this emergency came men like Jarvis. 
 Sully, Charles Loring Elliott, Harding, Fuller and 
 Healy. At this time, also Henry Inman, the genre 
 
 ♦Benjamin West. 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 1 79 
 
 painter, and Edward Malbone, the miniaturist, be- 
 came known. A little later, John Trumball embel- 
 lished the Capitol at Washington with mural paint- 
 ings of the War of Independence.* At this time 
 too Emanuel Leutze, an artist of German birth and 
 training, painted "Washington Crossing the Dela- 
 ware," the best known military picture in the annals 
 of American art. 
 
 A great favorite in his early day was Washing- 
 ton Allston, a painter of high ideals and of noble 
 aspirations. He studied in London under West, 
 and spent several years in Italy. He was the rep- 
 resentative of the Roman movement in America and 
 in some measure modified American art as Ingres had 
 influenced art in Europe. Allston's sphere was 
 broad. He painted religious subjects, history, por- 
 traits, genre pictures and landscape. Some critics 
 call him the "American Titian," because he was 
 such a master of color. His most noted pictures 
 are perhaps, "TTie Two Sisters," and "Jeremiah 
 the Scribe." 
 
 If there is a "Middle Period" in American art, 
 it takes in the first six decades of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. The landscapists developed a certain char- 
 
 *He painted the well-known " Battle of Bunker Hill" and the 
 ** Declaration of Independence." 
 
1 80 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 acter which was called distinctly American. Thomas 
 Cole, 1 801 -1 848, was the pioneer in American land- 
 scape. Many of his works, like those of his contem- 
 poraries in England, were engraved. Just as the por- 
 traitists had added a "wonder-touch" of idealism, 
 heroism, and brawn to the American statesman, now 
 Cole and his followers, the White Mountain School, 
 produced a marvel of color and of composition iu 
 their autumnal scenes along the Hudson. 
 
 The names one reads in art annals at this time 
 are John F. Kensett, the poetic dreamer in land- 
 scape, Frederic Church, a giant with mountain 
 scenery, and Hubbard Hill, with whom his work is 
 associated. Frederic Church brought to the old world 
 the tropical moonlight of Mexico and the Falls of 
 Niagara. Other names are Bierstadt and Moran, 
 who made the Rocky Mountains famous. 
 
 Albert Bierstadt went with a military expedition 
 in 1 858 to the Rocky Mountains. This experience 
 taught him to portray their wild masses of shattered 
 cliflF, their deep lakes and silent forests. He pre- 
 served on canvas the herds of buffalo and the vast 
 prairies, as well as the mountain cliffs and valleys 
 of California. George Iniiess, Samuel Coleman, 
 and R. Swain Gifford, with others are great names 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 1 8 1 
 
 who have deepened America's interest in landscape 
 painting. George Inness was the great landscapist, 
 whose canvasses, after his death, commanded such 
 immense prices. His pictures are called "tone 
 symphonies," and in his "light triumphs'* he rivals 
 Turner. Associated with this group are William 
 T. Bradford, the ice-berg artist, and W. T. Rich- 
 ards, and Mauritz Hass, the marine men. Por- 
 traiture grew apace. Chester Harding, 1792-1866 
 was so unique, that his following was called "the 
 Harding Craze." Elliott and Inman were portrait- 
 ists and Inman was a genre painter as well. 
 
 William Morris Hunt, 1 824-1 897, brought the 
 methods of the Fontainebleau-Barbizon School to 
 America. He was called the "American Millet." 
 
 Then comes what critics are pleased to call the 
 "Third Period" in American Art.* It begins with 
 the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia which 
 seemed to unify, to organize, and to universalize 
 painting in America. It gave a great impetus to 
 art and to artists in educating the American people 
 in the qualities of taste and of appreciation. Socie- 
 ties and painters came into prominence all over the 
 
 *An outburst of art is sure to follow a period of prosperity, 
 lor, with increasing riches, comes a demand for beauty in all its 
 forms. 
 
1 82 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 country. Young men studying in Munich and in 
 Paris returned to America. At first, the efforts 
 here seemed to be but an echo of th<* French School 
 and ideals. At this time the adornment of public 
 buildings made a marked advance. WiUiam Mor- 
 ris Hunt's noble pictures of "Flight of Night'* and 
 * 'Discoveries" on the walls of the old Albany State 
 House, which soon crumbled away, was a begin- 
 ning. John La Farge however was the artist, who 
 elevated mural decoration to the dignity of art by 
 his pictures in Trinity Church, Boston. 
 
 Three great modern names Elihu Vedder, John 
 Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler follow 
 Hunt. Whistler's art seems to attain to perfection 
 of delicacy in both line and color. He is claimed 
 by the English, but he has had a marvelous influence 
 on recent American art. Critics say that his influ- 
 ence is due to his having gathered to his work all 
 that is finest in art. It reflects the spiritual and 
 thoughtful element of the Prae-Raphaelites plus 
 the French feeling for atmosphere. The Japanese 
 have given him their bright harmony of tone and 
 Velasquez his dark gray backgrounds. His por- 
 traits are mysterious, as they seem to lack substance. 
 His pictures consist of a combination of two or more 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 183 
 
 dominant colors arranged in a system. He calls 
 one of these colors a note and the system a melody. 
 He is a master of technical effects in light, in air, 
 and in space. His two best known pictures are 
 portraits of his mother and of Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 After 1 860, American artists very generally went 
 to Europe to discover art's secrets in the Old world. 
 Paris, especially, became an art center. Mosler 
 is a noted genre painter who shows French influence, 
 and Bridgeman, another such painter, is the "Amer- 
 ican Gerome." John Singer Sargent has become 
 America's greatest portrait painter.* 
 
 The Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1903, 
 gave a great stimulus to the growth of art in this 
 country. Here was a collection of objects of art 
 from the world over. More important than the 
 collection was the artistic form of the White City 
 itself. Her sculpture was under the direction of 
 Saint Gaudens, and her mural decorations were de- 
 signed by the pupils of John La Farge. Art has 
 been defined as a record of beauty. The "White 
 City" then was art. It had in it the element of per- 
 sonality which is the mark of higher art. This ex- 
 
 *Among portrait painters mention should be made of Louis 
 Betts, whose beautiful picture of Ella Flagg Young is justly famous. 
 
184 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 hibition demonstrated the value of loan collections, 
 but it did more than that, for it gave birth to the 
 present tendencies in American Art. Thirty years 
 before there were two equally well-balanced schools 
 of American Art, portraiture and landscape. To- 
 day, fully two-thirds of our artists are in the land- 
 scape school. Even the genre artists can be classed 
 in this group. The main interest of all artists of 
 the landscape group is the great outdoors. 
 
 Visitors in the Public Library in Boston enjoy 
 Edwin A. Abbey's frescoes of Sir Galahad. At 
 this time also appear the names of Childe Hassam, 
 the impressionist, and of Kenyon Cox, the portrait- 
 ist, landscapist, sculptor and mural painter.* Elihu 
 Vedder, Abbott H. Thayer, and William Chase 
 are three of the best well known modern artists in 
 the American School. One of the last great names, 
 and called by some the greatest, is Winslow Hom- 
 er. His pictures are American, both in spirit and 
 in subject. It is said that Winslow Homer's best 
 works caught the waves gnawing at the rocks and 
 dragging the sea weed into the crevices. 
 
 *Kenyon Cox*» work may be seen in the Congressional Li- 
 brary at Washington. 
 
PAINTING. OTHER SCHOOLS 185 
 
 Thus ends the chronicle of American painting, 
 an art great in the present, but one that promises a 
 greater future, because American art has still to 
 achieve that assurance of skill and confidence of 
 power which shall make this country abound in 
 such high accomplishments that her artists in turn 
 shall become the teachers of the world. 
 
1 86 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 The Twelve World Pictures.* 
 
 The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, Santa 
 Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 
 
 Descent from the Cross, Daniel da Volterra, 
 Trinita de Monti, Rome. 
 
 Last Judgment, Michael Angelo, Vatican. 
 
 Sistine Madonna, Raphael, Dresden. 
 
 Transfiguration, Raphael, Vatican. 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin, Titian, Academy, 
 Venice. 
 
 La Notte, Correggio, Dresden. 
 
 Immaculate Conception, Murillo, Prado, Ma- 
 drid. 
 
 Aurora, Guido Reni, Rospigliosi Palace, Rome. 
 
 Communion of St. Jerome, Domenichino, Vati- 
 can. 
 
 Descent from the Cross, Rubens, Cathedral, 
 Antwerp. 
 
 Night Guard, Rembrandt, Gallery, Amsterdam. 
 or 
 
 Beatrice Cenci, Guido Reni, Barberini Gallery, 
 Rome. (An alternate of Rembrandt's Night 
 Guard.) 
 
 *A list of pictures borrowed from common usage. 
 
Chapter V 
 
 Sculpture. 
 
 " The strongest impulse in his nature was to be a 
 giver of entertainment, a source of joy in others, a 
 recognized element of delight in the little world 
 where he moved." 
 
 —Henry Van Dyke: The Ruling Passion. 
 
 Sculpture is the artistic expression of the plastic 
 sense. Like architecture and painting, it begins in 
 the valley of the Nile, in Egypt, that country about 
 750 miles long and only 10 miles wide, but with 
 an antiquity of 5000 years before Christ. The 
 country has three divisions: Lower Egypt, from the 
 sea to modern Cairo; Middle Egypt, from Cairo 
 through old and new Memphis, to the beginnings 
 of the Libyan Desert; and Upper Egypt, from the 
 last division, through Karnak, Luxor, Thebes, Phi- 
 lae, and the modern Aswan to the Second Cataract. 
 The history of Egypt groups itself naturally about 
 these three divisions. First we learn of the Ancient 
 Empire, which boasts an antiquity of five thousand 
 
 187 
 
1 88 APF RECIATION OF ART 
 
 before Christ. This lasted two thousand 
 years, from 5000 to 3000 B. C, during which time 
 occurred the first ten dynasties. The capital was at 
 Memphis. The Middle Empire lasted from 3000 
 to 2100 B. C, and covered the eleventh, twelfth, 
 and thirteenth dynasties. 
 
 The capital was at Thebes. TTie third period 
 of Egyptian history is known as "The Hyksos In- 
 vasions** from 2 1 00 to 1 700 B. C. These invaders 
 were from Syria, and they came to take possession 
 of the inviting pasture lands of the Delta. They 
 became known as the "Shepherd Kings.'* Despite 
 their violence and barbarous destruction of monu- 
 ments, these people became a refuge for the fam- 
 ilies in Egypt, who in turn transformed these intrud- 
 ers into civilized and cultured Egyptians. Possessed 
 of a strong political nature through four dynasties 
 of kings, they gave Egypt a strongly centralized gov- 
 ernment. From 1700 to 1000 B. C, is the period 
 of the New Empire and of the eighteenth, nineteenth 
 and twentieth dynasties. It was during the next 
 to the last dynasty that the names of the great Seti 
 I and Rameses II occur. The latter was the 
 "new king which knew not Joseph.** The eight- 
 eenth and nineteenth dynasties covered the reigns 
 
SCULPTURE 189 
 
 of the well known conquerers and builders. Dur- 
 ing the last one, the famous "Hall of Columns*' in 
 the Temple of Karnak at Thebes was builded, and 
 also the most beautiful sepulchre in the Valley of 
 the Tombs of the Kings. The last two divisions 
 of Egyptian History are the Decadence Period 
 from 1000 to 332 B. C, and the Greek and Roman 
 Period from 322 B. C. to 358 A. D. Egypt was a 
 respecter of knowledge and in the earliest days built 
 her aristocracy upon skill in special branches of 
 learning. In ancient Egypt, the king, an absolute 
 monarch, was at the head of all ecclesiastical, civil, 
 and social life. The architect, the sculptor, the 
 musician, the merchant, the soldier, and the priest 
 were the first owners and tillers of the soil. To 
 them belonged all legal rights. The religion of 
 the Egyptians was a very prominent part of their 
 national life, and with it they gained a comprehen- 
 sion of size and space, which after-nations were late 
 in attaining. Later, in the days of conquest, the 
 slaves formed a great part of the industrial class and 
 were the tillers of the soil. The population in those 
 days was large, but to-day there are nine millions 
 of people distributed among twenty thousand cities. 
 The old divisions of society are gone, and the people 
 
190 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 for the most part are divided into three classes, the 
 Arab, the Beduoin and the "fallaheen." The first 
 two are the guides and merchants. The last name 
 is given to the peasants or farmers. 
 
 For six thousand years, the world has looked up- 
 on the great pyramids, the mammoth Sphinx, and 
 the Temples of Karnak and Luxor, appalled at their 
 size and unable to fathom the mystery of their 
 building. Mighty blocks are piled upon one another, 
 the evidence of great architectural skill, but with 
 no hint of the method. These mighty temples and 
 tombs are a monument to the Egyptian interest in 
 the journey of the soul after death through the Val- 
 ley of the Shadows. Polytheism, or groups of di- 
 vinities at the head of which was one supreme God, 
 made up their religion. Nature worship, or devo- 
 tion to the sun, moon and stars, played a great part 
 in it. Fetichism, or worship of the bull, the ibis 
 and the crocodile, was the third factor in religion 
 which supplied almost all of the interest and of the 
 activity in the life of the Egyptian. Also the soul 
 of man received a great deal of attention. It is 
 easy to see from his mythology that the fancy of the 
 Egyptian regarded beauty as of little importance, 
 but the elements of time, place, and meaning are em- 
 bodied in his sculpture. 
 
SCULPTURE 191 
 
 The sculpture of the Egyptian is almost entirely 
 a record of his religion. In this he placed great em- 
 phasis upon the future life, so his deeds, generally, 
 were influenced by his interest in to-morrow. Thus, 
 even his historical records cut in outline frequently 
 testify to his religion. There is outline sculpture 
 on the wall of his tombs, of his temples and of his 
 gateways. For instance, on the pylon of the Ram- 
 csseum at Thebes is cut the scene of Rameses II, 
 deserted by his army and fighting his way through 
 fire. Color was an integral part of all their sculp- 
 ture used no doubt to temper the glare of sunlight 
 as well as to make the art more ornate. From a 
 record of deeds in bare outline, sculpture soon took 
 the place of modern photography in sculpture in the 
 round.* In their temples and tombs were often 
 halls of statues, in which rows of likenesses in stone 
 served to cheer the soul on its way through the Val- 
 ley of Shades.** One of the most noted ex- 
 amples of work in the round is the colossal statue 
 of Rameses II at Thebes. This was 60 feet high, 
 but is now thrown down, face upward, and is badly 
 
 ♦Sculpture in the round has no background. To this class 
 belongs the statuary of today with which all are familiar. 
 
 **The Valley of Shades conforms in part to the present idea 
 of Purgatory. 
 
1 92 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 mutilated. It weighs 700 tons. Near Thebes also 
 are the colossi of Memnon. They are hewn out of 
 a hard grit-stone, and also stand about 60 feet above 
 the ground. One of them is known as the Vocal 
 Memnon. 
 
 If we were to start at modern Cairo for a trip up 
 the Nile, at the outset we should recognize the 
 wealth of material for sculpture and the quantity of 
 production to be found in Egypt. Here is coarse 
 limestone and basalt and diorite from the mountains 
 of Arabia. The "Sphinx" and obelisks are made 
 of red granite from the region of the First Cataract. 
 Red porphyry, prized by the Greek and Roman, 
 bronze, alabaster, and ebony are to be had here in 
 abundance. 
 
 The Egyptian, carving for eternity, of course 
 favored the hardest material, basalt, diorite, and 
 granite. With his point or chisel, his saw with jew- 
 eled teeth and his instrument of flint for fine details, 
 the sculptor recorded his high purpose. He worked 
 in outline and in "bas" and in high relief. He also 
 worked in statuary in the round. His erect figures 
 stand face front, with arms glued rigidly to the sides. 
 His seated figures and kneeling or squatting sub- 
 jects are generally conventionalized, stiff, square. 
 
SCULPTURE 193 
 
 and flat, and noticeably lacking in curved lines and 
 surfaces. Tliese statues were polished with crushed 
 sandstone and emery, then were covered with stucco 
 and lastly were painted. As the standard sculp- 
 ture now is uncolored, the modern world has no con- 
 ception of the effect of the polychromatic statuary 
 and relief of early times. 
 
 The Egyptian had little regard for grouping, 
 which was stiff and ineffective. Two figures are 
 standing, two are sitting, or one is sitting and one is 
 standing. Sometimes a child is added. The bod- 
 ies are as a rule thickset, and the chief subjects are 
 generally the largest. Very soon childhood and 
 age both disappear and the colossal takes their place. 
 In all their sculpture there is little regard for unity 
 of effect, and their one thought seems to be to avoid 
 a vacuum. 
 
 At Luxor and Karnak are the most wonderful 
 ruins in Egypt. Here the Hypostyle Halls, stu- 
 pendous in plan and in execution, are covered with 
 outline records. Between these two ancient cities was 
 an avenue 6500 feet long and 80 feet wide, which 
 was adorned on either side by a row of sphinxes. 
 Near by and connected by an avenue of ram-headed 
 sphinxes were two obelisks. One known as "Cleo- 
 
1 94 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 patra's needle" is now in the Place de la Concorde 
 in Paris. The last great sculptural feat of the Egyp- 
 tians to be mentioned is the giant Sphinx near Gizeh. 
 This recumbent body is about 150 feet in length 
 with paws 50 feet long. The human face is 30 
 feet long and 14 feet wide. The top of the 
 head to the base measures about 70 feet. It is cut 
 out of solid stone with occasional pieces added. At 
 one time the face was colored red, and in all prob- 
 ability the whole head had a limestone covering. 
 
 Sym^bolism formed a great part of the sculpture 
 in the tombs and temples. The gods were repre- 
 sented by animal heads upon human bodies. The 
 hawk, the jackal, the ram, the crocodile, the cow, 
 the cat, and the lion are frequently found. Egypt, 
 as we have seen, was rich in stones, but as the Egyp- 
 tian carved for eternity, he selected generally the 
 hardest material, basalt, diorite, or granite. Sculp- 
 ture in Egypt seemed to change very slowly. It 
 was early a well developed art, and sculptors lent 
 the charm of their work to domestic and to daily 
 use. Thus, cut in outline, we find the manners and 
 customs of the people as well as their universal inter- 
 est in politics, the piety of their living and their habit 
 
SCULPTURE 195 
 
 of animal and of nature worship. Nevertheless, all 
 of these records are curiously silent as to the methods 
 of constructing their vast public structures. 
 
 We called the Egyptian a man of mystery because 
 he never revealed the secret of the pyramids and the 
 sphinx. With even greater cause we wonder at 
 the Greek, who long before the "Great Teacher," 
 the living embodiment of Truth, had wrought in the 
 hearts of men, discovered in limestone, in marble, 
 and in bronze, the mystery of the Good, the True, 
 and the Beautiful. The plastic sense is a common 
 heritage, but in harmony with the principle of com- 
 pensation, or the divine economy of Nature, the 
 Maker saw fit to conserve, to develop, and to ex- 
 press the marvelous possibilities of this faculty, the 
 plastic sense, through the Greek. 
 
 Therefore, from the blue sky and sea-green Nile 
 of Egypt, we turn to sunny Greece, passing over 
 Babylonian, Assyrian, and Pheonician sclupture. 
 The work of these three countries is both interesting 
 and worthy, but it is the borderland between the old 
 sculpture of Greece and the very old work of Egypt, 
 and partakes in many ways of the characteristics of 
 both countries. The classic land of Greece is 
 mountainous, rough, and rugged. Long arms of 
 
1 96 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the sea divide this peninsula into three parts : North- 
 ern Greece, or the countries of Thessaly and Epirus, 
 Central Greece, and the Peloponnesus or Southern 
 Greece. A range of mountains runs from east to 
 west in the North, and various ranges at right-angles 
 extend to the southern coast. In the North is 
 Olympus, 6000 feet high, the home of Zeus and of 
 his heavenly companions. In central Greece, in 
 Attica, is Athens, with its suburb Eleusis. In cen- 
 tral Greece, also, is Delphi, with its Springs of Cas- 
 talian clearness. In southern Greece is Argolis, 
 with its capital, Sparta, and the cities of Mycenae 
 and Epidaurus. On the west coast in Elis is Olym- 
 pia. 
 
 Political Greece was divided into Insular, Ori- 
 ental, Occidental and African Greece, into a di- 
 versity of interests with the seas as a bond of union. 
 These geographical and topographical conditions nat- 
 urally resulted in a decentralized government. Lo- 
 cal governments, while not uniformly strong, had in 
 them elements of strength. When united by a com- 
 mon interest, namely war against Persia, the local 
 strength became centralized and unified. 
 
 The Hellenes, called by outsiders "the Greeks,'* 
 drove out the earliest inhabitants. These Greeks 
 were divided into four groups, the lonians, the Dor- 
 
SCULPTURE 197 
 
 ians, the Achaeans and the AeoHans. Each of 
 these four groups made a distinct contribution to the 
 national character. The lonians gave their poetic 
 fancy, which became the polytheism of Greece. The 
 Dorians gave physical beauty and prowess which 
 spoke through the national games, and the Achaeans 
 and Aeolians live in the legends of Greece. 
 
 The Greeks were natural artists. They had an 
 innate sense of the beautiful and an exquisite feeling 
 for fitness, harmony, and proportion. In all prob- 
 ability, the clear cut and rugged contour of the land 
 developed their plastic sense. Then the isolation 
 of communities between the mountain barriers de- 
 veloped their local pride and power. The Greeks 
 combined poetry with their religion, and they avoid- 
 ed all that was dismal or hideous. The religion of 
 the Greeks is an integral part of their art. They 
 believed that the earth was a plane, round like a 
 shield. About it flowed "the ocean-river," beyond 
 which all was Cimmerian darkness. The heavens 
 were a dome which shut down upon the earth. 
 Hades was under the earth and could be reached 
 only by underground passages. Beneath Hades 
 was an awful pit, Tartarus, closed by gates of brass 
 and iron. The extreme East and West, the abode 
 of the sun, were lands of light and of plenty. The 
 
198 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 sun himself was an archer-god who traversed the 
 pathway of the skies in a fiery chariot. On the 
 west of the ocean river were the Elysian Fields, 
 where the souls of heroes and of poets lived after 
 death. We have said that the lonians gave Greece 
 polytheism. This took the form of belief in an 
 Olympian Council, composed of six gods and six 
 goddesses, as follows: god-father, Zeus (Jupiter); 
 god-mother, Hera (Juno); Poseidon (Neptune), 
 ruler of the sea; Athena (Minerva) or Pallas, god- 
 dess of wisdom; Apollo, or Phoebus, god of light, 
 music, and prophecy; Apdrodite or Venus, born of 
 sea-foam, goddess of love and of beauty; Ares or 
 Mars, the god of War; Diana, or Artemis, goddess 
 of the chase ; Hephaestus, or Vulcan, the deformed 
 god of fire and of thunderbolts; Hestia or Vesta, 
 the goddess of the hearth ; Hermes, or Mercury, the 
 wing-footed messenger of the celestials; and Deme- 
 tor or Ceres, the goddess of grains and of the har- 
 vest. Besides these, there were lesser gods, nymphs, 
 fates, and monsters. The personification of deities 
 demostrates the poetic fancy of this most interest- 
 ing people. Their tomb and temple sculpture very 
 early shows their belief in and their longing for 
 the beautiful. 
 
SCULPTURE 199 
 
 We know very little of what the Greek artist had 
 in mind, but we know that the plastic sense in him 
 was very strong. We know that the jagged, clear- 
 cut mountain sides spoke through the clear atmos- 
 phere of Greece to his artistic impulse; also that 
 the wealth of the quarries and mines urged him to 
 express himself in stone and in bronze. And we 
 conjecture that his poetic fancy, strengthened through 
 song and through story, sent him on a quest for an 
 Apollo or for an Aphrodite in each block of marble. 
 It must not be supposed that every Greek was a 
 sculptor, or even an appreciator of sculpture, nor 
 does there remain a large amount of really perfect 
 work, but this must be understood: the sculptors of 
 Greece were many ; they attained to the highest stan- 
 dard of excellence that has yet been achieved ; they 
 had an unusual native appreciation of fitness and 
 proportion; and a plastic sense which made sculp- 
 ture a necessity and a natural expression; their en- 
 vironment, their religion, their traditions, their leg- 
 ends, and their myths gave them ample subjects 
 for expression. 
 
 Students of Greek sculpture have formulated five 
 principles. The first is that the sculptor always 
 aimed for adequacy of expression. It is evident 
 
200 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 that a piece of sculpture can express but one instant 
 of time. This incident must be of sufficient dra- 
 matic importance to warrant its being caught and 
 chiseled into stone. Therefore, adequacy of ex- 
 pression subsumes selection of subject, as well as full 
 portrayal of character and of detail. 
 
 The second principle is simplicity. True sim- 
 plicity is rarely spontaneous. In his effort to achieve, 
 the Greek sculptor found that simplicity is only an 
 other name for perfection in art. 
 
 The third principle was of equal power and im- 
 port, namely, that the highest achievements in art 
 are the result of clear thinking and right feeling. 
 TTie Parthenon is a fine demonstration of this prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 The fourth principle is that a work of art appeals 
 to the higher faculties in man. For instance, the 
 nude in Greek art does not debase, it exalts the on- 
 looker. 
 
 The fifth principle is that the artist borrows 
 shapes from objective nature only in order to appeal 
 to the subjective nature. In other words, each 
 statue was the embodiment of an idea whose dis- 
 tinct purpose was to appeal to the onlooker. 
 
SCULPTURE 201 
 
 Bas-relief was one of the earliest expressions of 
 their plastic sense. What outline was to the Egyp- 
 tian, relief was to the Greek. It was in relief that 
 he first developed this marvelous skill with drapery 
 which is characteristic of his work and ahead of all 
 similar effort in point of time. Perfection in the 
 nude was a much later development. 
 
 Closely related to the Greek religion, to their 
 gods and goddesses and lesser deities, were their 
 athletic games. The Greek believed that departed 
 souls delighted in feats of physical prowess, so each 
 city of any note had its stadium in close proximity 
 to its temples. Gradually these grew into religious 
 festivals at the stadium and in the temple, and were 
 shared not only by the city, but by a whole commun- 
 ity. Four of these festivals became very famous: 
 the Olympian, in honor of Zeus, at Oylmpia in the 
 Peloponnesus; the Pythian, in honor of Apollo, at 
 Delphi ; the Nemaean, in honor of Zeus, at Nemea ; 
 and the Isthmian, held in honor of Poseidon, on the 
 isthmus at Corinth. These games v/ere held every 
 four years, and the interval between them became 
 known as an Olympiad, a unit of time among the 
 Greeks. For ten centuries these games exerted a 
 Vvholesome, stimulating, and unifying influence upon 
 
202 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the literary, social, religious and artistic life of 
 Greece. It was in connection with these games that 
 athletic subjects like the **Discus-thrower*' and the 
 "Wrestlers" entered Greek sculpture. 
 
 The portraiture of the Egyptian also early found 
 its way into Greek sculpture. Thus we have in 
 order bas-relief on temples, tombs and public build- 
 ings ; sculpture in the round, under which comes the 
 temple statuary, namely the Venuses, the Apollos, 
 the Hermes, and so forth ; athletic sculpture like the 
 "Dying Gaul" and the "Runner;" portrait statues, 
 namely those of Sophocles and Euripides*; and 
 group sculpture, like the "Laocoon" and the "Farn- 
 ese Bull." 
 
 Greek sculpture can be divided according to form 
 into statuary in the round detached from the back- 
 ground, high or low relief, incised or excised carv- 
 ing, and outline statuary. It can be divided accord- 
 ing to size into colossal, heroic, life size, and stat- 
 uette. Moreover, statues vary in position. There 
 are standing, seated, recumbent, and equestrian 
 statues. They vary according to material. They 
 are done in marble, bronze, terra-cotta or baked 
 clay, plaster of Paris, limestone, wood, gold, ivory, 
 and in precious stones. 
 
 ♦The Romans surpassed the Greeks in portrait sculpture. 
 
SCULPTURE 203 
 
 Greece had a great deal of marble. Athens alone 
 had two quarries, the Pentelican and the Hymettian. 
 In Laconia, the most southern country in southern 
 Greece, in Boeotia, and in western Asia Minor, 
 there were more extensive quarries.* 
 
 The sculptor worked with saw, punch, drill, 
 square, and curved and claw-edged chisels. He 
 generally built the statue up from several pieces. 
 Then he sand-papered the surface, rubbed it with 
 oil and molten wax, and lastly, he colored, and fre- 
 quently he gilded it. Their roughest statues were 
 often finished with a thin layer of stucco mixed with 
 color. Their crudest and earliest work had much 
 color. 
 
 Greek sculpture may well be classified according 
 to subject into religious, civic, domestic and sepul- 
 chral. The first is by far the largest class. It was 
 found not only inside, but outside the temples as 
 well. At first the gods were represented by shape- 
 less stone. Next they fashioned their Gods in the 
 likeness of men. This gave rise to the colossal 
 type. In religious sculpture was found the whole 
 range of Greek mythology. Sculpture in high re- 
 
 *The Italian Greeks worked in Carrara marble. Besides all 
 of these quarries many of the islands around the mainland of 
 Greece were rich in brilliantly grained marbles. 
 
204 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 lief was used on friezes and pediments as external 
 decorations of the temples. The frieze work gen- 
 erally represented continuous subjects like proces- 
 sions, assemblies, and battle scenes. The Parthenon 
 frieze is a fine example of this. 
 
 In the monuments of a civic character the Greek 
 displayed more or less symbolism. One constant 
 example is the use of Athena to represent Athens, 
 a woman to indicate the senate, and a man to por- 
 tray the people. In later Greek work, official busts 
 on pillars or columns was a favorite form of civic 
 sculpture. 
 
 The sculpture inspired by the "National Games" 
 is both religious and civic and sometimes, though in- 
 congruously, is classed as sepulchral. After the 
 Alexandrian Age, portraiture in sculpture became 
 excellent and of universal interest. Domestic sculp- 
 ture referred to the work which adorned the home, 
 as pottery, wood-carving, bronzes, and gems. The 
 toilet outfit received attention, carved tables, vases, 
 lamps, mirror-cases, and so forth. Personal adorn- 
 ment also had its share in the coronals, necklaces, 
 bracelets, and gems. The terra-cotta figurines are 
 the connecting link between domestic and sepulchral 
 sculpture. As votive offerings, these small clay fig- 
 
SCULPTURE 205 
 
 ures evidence the life and character of the Greeks. 
 Sometimes also they were copies of famous statues. 
 Sepulchral sculpture, or memorials to the dead, is 
 variously expressed in temples, in rock cut chapels, 
 and again in sculptured facades or stelae (slabs), 
 decorated perhaps with an anthemion or inscription. 
 
 In so brief a survey of Greek sculpture it is per- 
 haps best to remember the names of six men. Ar- 
 ranged in pairs they are as follows : Myron and Phi- 
 dias, Polyclitus and Praxiteles, Scopas and Lysip- 
 pus. These are the greatest artists in Greek sculp- 
 ture, and they cover a span of only 200 years from 
 the fifth to the third century B. C. During that 
 brief period, their quest for the "Good, the True and 
 the Beautiful" found that every block of marble 
 was a beautiful possibility. 
 
 The excellence to which these men attained was 
 the result of a long past beginning in the Archaic 
 Period. The best example of Archaic sculpture 
 is the Lion Gate at Mycenae. This was executed 
 somewhere between 1500 and 1000 B. C. Several 
 centuries later we find Greek sculpture grouping itself 
 around three schools, the Archaic, Doric, the Arch- 
 aic Ionic and the Archaic Attican. Finallv, the 
 last two lose themselves in the Attican School, of 
 which Myron and Phidias are both products. 
 
206 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Myron worked on the principle that a statue must 
 always have unity and concentration. He is known 
 through his "Discus-thrower" and Phidias by his 
 frieze on the Parthenon. Phidias was so great in 
 his art that he gave his name to the age. Both of 
 these men excelled in religious sculpture, but My- 
 ron's skill with the statues of the athletes was paral- 
 leled by Phidias' ability to fashion the gods and the 
 goddesses. So beautiful are his achievements that 
 he is said to have snatched the veil from Olympus 
 and looked upon the celestials face to face. 
 
 TTie Attican School also produces the next man, 
 Polyclitus, who investigated the art of Phidias and 
 Myron, and taught the artists who followed the 
 method of their work. He produced the "Canon 
 of Sculpture", an aid to men with an interest equal- 
 ling his, but who had less skill. Polyclitus' name is 
 always associated with the statue of the "Athlete 
 dropping Oil." The Attican School now adds to 
 itself the school of Argos, and becomes the "Atti- 
 can Argos." This compound school now produces 
 the next three men, Praxiteles, Scopas, and Lysip- 
 pus. Praxiteles is known as the sculptor with the 
 song in his heart. He has won undying fame by 
 his "Hermes with the Infant Bacchus on his Arm", 
 
SCULPTURE 207 
 
 considered the most beautiful statue of antiquity; 
 also by the "Lizard-Catcher." Hawthorne's 
 **Marble Faun" has done much to make the faun 
 statue of his famous. His work was mostly in 
 bronze. 
 
 Scopas was a man of feeling, one who reflected 
 the hopeless agony of the times. He was the sculp- 
 tor with the stormy heart. In all probability the 
 famous Niobe group was executed by him. Un- 
 like Praxiteles, Scopas worked wholly in marble. 
 The last-named is Lysippus, the fair-minded, even- 
 tempered sculptor who copied the virtues of his pred- 
 ecessors and forgot their vices. He is famous for 
 his figure cleaning off the dust of the Arena. Lysip- 
 pus worked in both marble and bronze and seemed to 
 combine within himself all the excellencies of his five 
 immediate forerunners. 
 
 All six men found the highest expression of their 
 art in simplicity. They made the discovery which 
 the world has been slow to accept, that simplicity is 
 another name for perfection. 
 
 Three schools developed successively after Argos 
 and Attica. They were, first, the Rhodian School, 
 in which group-work was developed. To this be- 
 long the Laocoon and the Farnese Bull. A note of 
 
208 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 hopeless agony prevails in their work. To the 
 School of Pergamus which followed belongs the 
 Apollo Belvedere, which many claim rivals the Her- 
 mes of Praxiteles in the perfection of the male form. 
 Also the "Wrestlers** belong to this school, of its 
 kind the most noted statue ever chiseled, and the 
 "Boy with the Goose,** a fine example of the later 
 genre work in sculpture. 
 
 Last of all was the Roman School, which came 
 into power when Rome took Greece captive and as- 
 similated her act. Moreover, the Greek colonists 
 in southern Italy had been preparing the country for 
 an art heritage. Rome was a faithful conservator, 
 and, although Italy did not take first place in sculp- 
 ture as she did in painting, nevertheless, her artists 
 had a worthy plastic sense. The Romans looked 
 upon plastic art as fit only for slaves. The utility 
 side of sculpture, namely the decorative feature, 
 alone appealed to them. In Rome's best days she 
 copied only. Creation in the realm of plasticity 
 was denied to her. She came the nearest to it in 
 the worship of her heroes. Her highest expression 
 is found, therefore, on her triumphal arches and col- 
 umns, because she records in marble the exploits of 
 her generals. In this way Rome made two large 
 
SCULPTURE 209 
 
 contributions to sculpture. First, she brought to the 
 highest mark heroic or natural portraiture. The 
 statue of Augustus Caesar in the Vatican is by far 
 the most realistic and perfect work of its kind in 
 existence. This skill in portrait sculpture brought 
 about the fashion of ancestral statuary with which the 
 Roman gentry filled their homes. In the 
 shops, ready-made statues could be secured 
 with heads carved to order. Rome's sec- 
 ond contribution was a remarkable skill in 
 national monumental works, of which the column 
 of Trajan and the arches of Titus and of Constan- 
 tine are examples. The bas-reliefs upon these 
 arches and columns commemorated the deeds of the 
 hero and are the best of the kind ever executed. 
 Even with them for a pattern, modern sculpture 
 has never excelled the artists of Rome in these two 
 particulars. 
 
 All the Caesars except Nero and Caligula were 
 art patrons. Augustus reigned from 31 B. C. to 
 14 A. D. During his reign and some fifty years 
 after, Roman sculpture was at its highest. After 
 98 A. D. plastic art began to decline. Hadrian, 
 the great art collector, stayed the decadence and ac- 
 complished a temporary revival. After Hadrian 
 
2 1 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 up to the time of Constantine, it was the fashion in 
 Roman sculpture to reproduce the masterpieces of 
 the Greeks. It was a time of great wealth and lux- 
 ury, and the Roman gentry filled their palaces with 
 beautiful copies of the Greek Venuses and Apollos. 
 It is to this fashion that we owe the many excellent 
 reproductions of the great statues which now enrich 
 the galleries of Europe and America. 
 
 During the latter days of Roman sculpture, the 
 art was practised by guilds with but little independ- 
 ence. Byzantium, the seat of the Eastern Roman 
 Empire, was a part of the Orient, and sometime be- 
 fore the fall of the Western Roman Empire had 
 thrown off Roman characteristics in her sculpture and 
 had been modified by Greek influence. Moreover 
 the allegory which had appealed to Rome was sup- 
 planted by symbolism in Byzantium. 
 
 Of the fine arts, architecture had the largest 
 growth during the first century of the Christian Era. 
 Next came painting, because sculpture was used 
 neither to produce a place of worship nor as a vehicle 
 for teaching. Therefore from the third to the 
 sixth centuries, it is known as Early Christian Sculp- 
 ture. 
 
SCULPTURE 211 
 
 In the fifth century, the Barbarians of Europe 
 destroyed the Roman State, and in return were con- 
 verted to the Christian rehgion. During the next 
 700 years, the Christian church gathered into her 
 fold all of these people, and, during the process of 
 Christianizing Europe, the present modern states 
 took form. The institutions of the Papacy, of Mon- 
 asticism, of Feudalism, and of Chivalry were excel- 
 lent agents of education and of religion, and led 
 the people out of darkness into moral and social 
 responsibility. 
 
 Finally, moved by a common religious sentiment,* 
 the people united in the first great national move- 
 ment, the Crusades. The Crusades were the her- 
 ald of modern civilization for they introduced the 
 barbarian North to the cultured South. 
 
 Culture is dynamic and very soon found expres- 
 sion in architecture, in painting and in sculpture. 
 
 During the Age of Revival from the eleventh to 
 the fifteenth century, sculpture as an adjunct to arch- 
 itecture was practiced throughout Europe. During 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the period of 
 the Renaissance in Italy and of the Reformation in 
 Northern Europe, sculpture became again an inde- 
 
 *Religion is a great unifier. 
 
in APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 pendent expression of the people, in funerary or in 
 monumental work, and in decorations in the cathe- 
 drals, like altar fronts, choir screens, and pulpits. 
 Lastly, during this period sculpture came to take on 
 an heroic national character. 
 
 Now, again, the history of this subject becomes 
 a chronicle of great men. Donatello, a Florentine, 
 was the first master of equestrian art ; the della Rob- 
 bia family became expert in work with glazed terra 
 cotta ; and Ghiberti was the herald in bronze. Next, 
 Verrocchio rivals Donatello, and John of Bologna 
 and Bernini contest the laurels with Ghiberti. 
 
 Just here the art world past and present bows 
 down before Michael Angelo, 1475-1564, the giant 
 in sculpture. He was a Tuscan by birth, who came 
 from the ranks of the people and one who, through 
 discipline of poverty and of effort, rose to first emi- 
 nence as a sculptor. Michael Angelo was deeply 
 emotioned. With him truth was a passion. The 
 conventional classicism of his contemporaries failed 
 to meet his ideal, so he cast it off and produced a 
 character of work all his own. Someone has said that 
 his works are a monument to the trinity of the artist, 
 his great heart, his great mind, and his great genius. 
 His "David", his "Moses," his "Pieta," and his 
 
SCULPTURE 213 
 
 "Tombs of the Medici" stand for all time as the 
 masterpieces of a master mind. In fact, plastic 
 work has never lost the truth of Michael Angelo, 
 for, because the artists were unable to compete with 
 him in stone, they perfected the technique in bronze. 
 Also the invention of gunpowder had made the 
 feudal castles passe and had changed them into ca- 
 sinos and pleasure gardens. This added an entirely 
 new decorative motive to sculpture. The decora- 
 tion of exteriors and of facades was enlarged into 
 decorative statues in the round. France carried 
 this decorative motive to the extreme, but Germany 
 and the Netherlands were more temperate in their 
 use. Germany at this time contributed the decora- 
 tive fountain-sculpture, and the Netherlands formal- 
 ly kept the Italian simplicity to which she had at first 
 fallen heir. 
 
 Spain and England, the former through the domi- 
 nation of the church and the latter through the Tud- 
 ors, especially Elizabeth, became patrons of sculp- 
 ture. 
 
 Peter Vischer and Schadow in Germany, Thor- 
 waldsen, the Dane, Rauch and Begas in Germany, 
 Claudet and Barye in France, Bernini and Canova 
 in Italy, Nicholas Stone and John Flaxman in Eng- 
 
2 1 4 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 land, bring us down to Gibson and to modern times. 
 
 Of the present day sculpture we must speak very 
 briefly. Rodin is the great European figure. His 
 studio in Paris is the inspiration of all modern sculp- 
 tors. 
 
 With England's entrance into sculpture, America 
 established a claim upon plastic art. From the mid- 
 dle of the eighteenth century to 1 850, we made large 
 beginnings. These were the days of William Rush 
 and of John Frazee, who excelled in making busts 
 in the department of portraiture. To them we are 
 indebted for the likenesses in marble of our early 
 statesmen and soldiers. In the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century, Horatio Greenough built his gigantic 
 statue of Washington, which is now in Washington. 
 He was followed by Hiram Powers, who left he- 
 roic portraiture, in which he attained skill, for ideal 
 historical subjects, for example, his "Greek Slave" 
 in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington. In beauty 
 and in purity, critics say, this statue rivals many of 
 the Greek Venuses. Powers had a noted contem- 
 porary, Thomas Crawford, father of the novelist. 
 He left fact for fancy, as is shown by his "Orpheus" 
 in the Boston museum.* Palmer, Bull, Story, 
 
 *Orpheus witK his lyre is shading his eyes. Beside him is 
 his double-headed dog. 
 
SCULPTURE 215 
 
 Rinehart, and Rogers, together with many others, 
 widened the sphere of subjects and raised the gen- 
 eral standards of sculpture during the last half of 
 the nineteenth century. However, it fell to Miss 
 Harriet Hosmer, 1830 of Massachusetts, friend of 
 Charlotte Cushman and of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
 to bring classicism into American art. Her "Bea- 
 trice Cenci,** now in St. Louis, one of her earliest 
 achievements, and "Zenobia,** one of her latest, now 
 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, show 
 the classic realism found in all her work. She ex- 
 celled in portraiture as well, and her statues of 
 Abraham Lincoln, and of the Queen of Naples, 
 and of Queen Isabella prove this. The Misses 
 Margaret Foley, Emma Stebbins, and Blanche 
 Nevin are three of a group of women who became 
 famous in the nineteenth century. 
 
 After the civil war, John Quincy Adams Ward 
 was a prominent figure among the sculptors. Five 
 of his best known statues are "Henry Ward Beech- 
 er" in Brooklyn, the "Indian Hunter" in Central 
 Park, New York City, the "Warrior" at Washing- 
 ton,*' the "Garfield" in the grounds of the Capitol, 
 and a "General Thomas," in one of the squares of 
 
 ♦This is purely decorative in purpose. 
 
2 1 6 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 the capital city. Contemporaneous with Ward is 
 a group of monument builders. One is Larkin J. 
 Mead, who made the statue of Ethan Allen in the 
 Hall of Fame. Simmons, Bissell, and Martin Mil- 
 more at this time are noted for their portraiture and 
 relief work. One of the new influences in sculpture 
 in the last part of the nineteenth century came from 
 Olin Levi Warner. He is called a sculptor for 
 sculptors, and was remarkable for his relief work. 
 A good example of this is his "Imagination" in 
 Washington. 
 
 We come now to the three greatest names in 
 American sculpture. These are Augustus Saint 
 Gaudens, the genius of the art achievements in the 
 White City at Chicago, 1 903 ; his pupil, Frederick 
 MacMonnies, and Daniel Chester French. The 
 works of Saint Gaudens can be seen in the Luxem- 
 bourg, Paris, and in many American cities.* 
 
 MacMonnies is famous for his fountain at the 
 World*s Fair, Chicago, and for his Nathan Hale 
 in New York City. Daniel Chester French is al- 
 most a genre sculptor. In Washington he has a 
 statue of Gallaudet teaching a deaf mute, and in 
 Concord, Massachusetts, in his "Minute Man." The 
 
 ♦The statue of Admiral Farragut, by Saint Gaudens is in New- 
 York, and the Adams Memorial is in Washington. 
 
SCULPTURE 217 
 
 work of George Gray Barnard, especially the 
 **Hewer/* suggests the athletic statuary of the 
 Greeks. Then there are the sculptors of animals, 
 one of whom, Edwin C. Potter, formed the "Fann 
 Horse" so noted at the Columbian Exposition, and 
 Proctor, the sculptor of Indians and their horses. 
 
 Later day sculptors are Dallin, Brooks, Steward- 
 son and Lorado Taft, besides many others. 
 
 Nine-tenths of the sculptors are gathered in New 
 York. Our secondary cities have one or more of 
 these workers. Sculptors are not unlike other art- 
 ists. They are generally normal, thinking men, alert 
 to their surroundings and to the times in which they 
 live. They no longer work in stone, the hewing 
 is left to artisans who have mastered the science of 
 measurements. The plastic artist now works whol- 
 ly in terra-cotta modeling the soft clay into perfec- 
 tion, and trusting the stone cutting to ordinary work- 
 men who, while skillful, lack the creative genius of 
 the master. 
 
 As an art interest, modeling is not nearly as broad 
 as painting, and it remains for the United States to 
 develop a universal, plastic sense. The "great trio" 
 in the Fine Arts are architecture, painting and sculp- 
 ture. Although sculpture holds third place in the 
 
2 1 8 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 sequence, it is no less vital as a true expression of the 
 artistic impulse which makes all men akin and but 
 **little lower than the angels.** 
 
 Twelve Famous Examples of Sculpture. 
 
 Venus de Milo 
 Myron, Discus-thrower 
 Phidias, Frieze on Parthenon 
 Polyclitus, ^ Athlete Dropping Oil. 
 Praxiteles, Hermes and Infant Bacchus 
 Praxiteles, Marble Faun 
 Scopas (Niobe Group) 
 Lysippus, Athlete cleaning off Dust 
 Rhodian School, Loacoon 
 Pergamon School, Apollo Belvidere 
 Pergamon School, The Wrestlers 
 Roman School, Augustus Caesar 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 Music. 
 
 " Unconquerable 
 Up from beneath his hand in circling flight 
 The gathering music rose — and sweet as Love 
 The penetrating notes did live and move 
 
 "Within the heart of great Apollo. He 
 Listened with all his soul and laughed for pleasure." 
 —Homeric Hymn to Hermes. 
 
 Although a knowledge of the history of music 
 is of comparatively recent origin, music is even more 
 universal than the other Fine Arts. As it is com- 
 mon to all people in every period of time, there is 
 great variety in music and the scope of the subject 
 is a broad one. Historians, therefore, divide it into 
 two great periods, namely. Uncivilized Music, which 
 covers the efforts of primitive and semi-civilized 
 peoples, and Civilized Music, which begins with the 
 Greek and Roman and extends through mediaeval 
 and modern music up to the present time. 
 ^^ 219 
 
220 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 The first group, Uncivilized Music, includes not 
 only the musical expression of ancient peoples like 
 the Egyptians and Hebrews, but also the work of 
 the present Chinese, Hindus, and others whose sys- 
 tem of music bears no relation to our own. The 
 second group. Civilized Music, began with the Greek 
 and Roman, which by 300 A. D. had affected all 
 the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean. The 
 next period was Mediaeval Music. In the begin- 
 ning up to the twelfth century plain song and ritual 
 music developed. After that the Troubadours and 
 Minnesingers composed sacred and secular music. 
 Then, in the fifteenth century, came the Netherland 
 counterpoint, and in the sixteenth century, the trans- 
 ition to modern composition. 
 
 Modern music is divided according to centuries. 
 In the seventeenth century, the opera was composed 
 and also independent instrumental music. In the 
 eighteenth century the composition of the opera was 
 improved and sonatas and symphonies appeared. The 
 nineteenth century is the great period of musical de- 
 velopment. In the first part classical methods pre- 
 vailed, then came a time of romantic enthusiasm, and 
 lastly an expansion of ideas which found expression 
 in many and varied forms. 
 
MUSIC 221 
 
 In entering upon a discussion of music the first 
 question is naturally one of origin. Many sugges- 
 tions are found in nature, in the rushing of the wind, 
 in the roaring of the waves, in the patter of the rain 
 drop, in the songs of birds, in the buzz of the bees, 
 and in the calls of various animals. Again, the im- 
 pulse to make rhythmic sound is a part of bodily 
 vigor and of good feeling. Earliest records show 
 that man has always made rude instruments with 
 which to keep time and to play melodies, a fact 
 which may have led Herbert Spencer to declare that 
 song is primarily a form of speech. The origin of 
 music is, therefore, chiefly a matter of theory, and 
 has little to do with the exact history of the science. 
 
 We have said that civilized music began with 
 Greece and Rome. Greece seized upon all the 
 Fine Arts. As the Greek mind was inquiring and 
 constructive, it developed music into a technical sci- 
 ence. To the Greek, music was closely related to 
 poetry and to general culture. In this broad inter- 
 pretation both mediaeval and modern music had 
 their source. The history of Greek music and of 
 poetry seems to be identical, both were inspired by 
 the muses and the poets were always singers. In 
 other words poetry was always delivered with a 
 
222 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 sort of musical improvisation. The Greek drama 
 also helped the interpretative side of the singer and 
 of the poet. The melodies used were probably 
 minors with an unique tonality and with unusual 
 intervals. The chief advance which the Greeks 
 made in music was the physical analysis of tones, 
 and in the formal definition of scales. They used 
 letters to indicate the diatonic scale of eight tones 
 and the chromatic scale which proceeds by half- 
 steps. 
 
 In the second century, Greek artists were scat- 
 tered all over Italy and they brought with them 
 their knowledge of music. However, as luxury in- 
 creased, oriental singers, players, and dancers were 
 introduced. As these entertainers were slaves, they 
 contributed little to the science of music. However 
 as Rome attracted great numbers of musicians, she 
 disseminated a knowledge of the Greek musical 
 styles. The period of Greek and Roman music 
 closes entirely by the thirteenth century. 
 
 The Mediaeval period opens with the rise of 
 Christian music. It covers the time from the third 
 to the fourteenth century, but little is known of 
 Christian music before 1 200 A. D. No doubt this 
 was because in the Dark Ages the political and so- 
 cial situation was so involved. 
 
MUSIC 223 
 
 The early Christians sang a part of their wor- 
 ship. In the 4th century, a richness and statehness 
 in the whole ritual of music was accomplished. In 
 time, church song was systematized into the Gregor- 
 ian style, but the words were in Latin, so the song 
 meant little to the common people. Unfortunately, 
 the Gregorian style made the difference between the 
 church and the laity more apparent, although in 
 itself it was an example of melodic invention and of 
 beauty. 
 
 Up to the twelfth century little is known of musical 
 instruments, possibly because in the early centuries 
 musical instruments were never used in connection 
 with church music because of their association with 
 pagan sensuality. The Greeks and Romans used 
 various forms of the lyre, but with the exception of 
 the organ, which early became a part of the church 
 equipment, there was little of invention and of im- 
 provement along these lines. 
 
 About 1 200 A. D. the art of music is very vitally 
 interwoven with all progress and is a part of the 
 general intellectual awakening in Europe which re- 
 sulted in the Renaissance. During this period large 
 cathedrals were built, and naturally the ritual be- 
 came long and ornate. At this time it was seen 
 that music might have a beauty and meaning apart 
 
224 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 from words, and that it might be a fabric of tones 
 made by interweaving voice parts. This was an 
 advance on the Gregorian style. In time melodies 
 were reduced to regular rythmic forms and were 
 then combined in different ways. The rythmic ar- 
 rangement of melodies gave rise to a theory of time, 
 and the combining of melodies produced a theory 
 of counterpoint. Therefore these two discoveries 
 resulted in Time and Notation. 
 
 While the church was dealing with these larger 
 ideas in polyphony, the popular spirit began to find 
 an outlet in music, and the result was the secular 
 song. In the twelfth century in France, this new 
 impulse found expression in the poet singers called 
 Troubadours.* These singers reflected the spirit 
 of chivalry, for their theme was love and the ideals 
 of knighthood. Their music exalted woman and 
 found a literary expression for intense feeling. As 
 a musical impulse attended their verse-making, they 
 popularized secular music. They also increased the 
 use of the harp, the lute, and the viol. 
 
 The Troubadours of France came for the most 
 part from the high wealthy class. The Minnesing- 
 ers, who paralleled them in Germany, came from 
 
 ♦The word Troubadour means finder or inventor of words. 
 
MUSIC 225 
 
 the middle wealthy class. They expanded the ex- 
 pression of the mediaeval adoration of the Virgin, 
 and in this way differed from the Troubadours. The 
 Minnesingers were followed by the Meistersingers 
 who sprang from the tradesman in Germany. These 
 Meistersingers were musical societies whose work 
 was based upon certain technical knowledge and tra- 
 ditions. Such clubs made music a dignified and 
 worthy pursuit. 
 
 In the fifteenth century a new art center arose in 
 the Netherlands. Here we notice for the first time 
 several composers of music. These men had 
 spanned the interval in secular music between the 
 solo-minstrel song and the polyphonic mass or chorus, 
 and had made it over into sacred or church music. 
 In their compositions is found an entirely new musical 
 quality. During this century these composers are 
 differentiated into three separate groups of masters. 
 These groups worked out several important problems. 
 The first men interwove independent voice-parts 
 about one basic melody. The second company 
 made great progress in composition, and the third 
 group of masters made beauty and sentiment their 
 definite aim. As a result of these three schools, 
 music as an art began to take rank with painting and 
 sculpture. 
 
226 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Side by side with this growth of sacred music in 
 the Netherlands, in melody and in counterpoint, 
 grew the popular or secular folk music, whose pro- 
 duction was simple, unconscious, and unstudied. 
 With the folk music came the itinerant minstrels, an 
 organized band of persons who made their living 
 by singing. This class stimulated the invention and 
 the use of instruments for which they provided nota- 
 tions called tablatures. 
 
 The sixteenth century is the meeting-place of Me- 
 diaeval and Modern history. Early in this century 
 occurs the invention of music-printing, a system of 
 movable types for notes. At this time Italian music 
 is first known. Venice was a musical center in 
 which great progress was made in composition, and 
 at Rome in the Papal Chapel*, sacred polyphony 
 attained to a high degree of perfection. 
 
 Throughout this century also music developed in 
 northern and in western Europe, especially through 
 the agency of the Reformation. This began in 
 Saxony under the leadership of Martin Luther, an 
 educated Augustinian monk. He led a revolution 
 against abuses in the papal system, which swept over 
 Germany and won the support of all classes. To 
 
 *An institution reaching back to the singers* schools of the 
 early popes. 
 
MUSIC 227 
 
 Luther common song was indispensable. As a re- 
 sult hymns were set to the melodies of folk-songs, 
 or to others newly written in a similar style. These 
 melodies were called "chorales** and became the 
 nucleus of Protestant church music. The Reforma- 
 tion spread over Europe and energized music in 
 France, in Spain, in the Netherlands, and in Eng- 
 land. During this century also the Madrigal or 
 Part-Song began. This is a light and gay style 
 of part-writing. There were many other achieve- 
 ments in the musical line, but it is sufficient to state 
 that this century witnessed a sudden expansion in 
 the work of music. 
 
 From 1 700 to 1 800 the musical drama developed. 
 Dramatic expression was early found among the 
 Greeks, but in this century the dramatic impulse first 
 sought expression through music, a science which 
 had achieved a genuine harmonic idea of composi- 
 tion. During the fifteenth century, music had been 
 a dramatic accessory, but in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the musical drama developed, and with it came 
 the opera, a source of musical education as well as 
 of public amusement. With the opera house came 
 of course the directors and performers. 
 
228 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 The earliest opera was given in Venice and it 
 set a fashion for secular musical dramas which pre- 
 vailed for two centuries. In other parts of Italy 
 the sacred musical drama, known as the "Oratorio," 
 developed at the same time. In France the next ex- 
 pansion of musical drama occurred in the production 
 of the "Ballet." The music was of dance pattern 
 with its emphasis upon actual dancing. In Ger- 
 many at this time a taste for both part songs and 
 solos had developed through the growth of folk 
 music. The dramatic impulse there led them to 
 construct a play out of a chain of vocal numbers and 
 dialogues. This form of musical composition, more 
 lyrical than dramatic, became known as the German 
 "Singspiel." Together with the "Singspiel" the 
 "German Opera'* developed. In England dramatic 
 composition took the form of the "Masque." This 
 was a series of private theatricals with dancing, decla- 
 mation, scenic effects, considerable singing, and the 
 playing of many instruments. Passing over the rise 
 of the Neapolitan Opera and the progress in church 
 music at Rome, Venice, Germany, and England, we 
 pause with the Bach family of Thuringia who in the 
 seventeenth century became famous as musicians. 
 No family of artists in any field can equal their in- 
 
MUSIC 229 
 
 fluence upon the musical world. Later, in the eight- 
 eenth century, the artists' world was enriched again 
 by the career of John Sebastian Bach and his talent- 
 ed sons. 
 
 With this remarkable growth in musical culture 
 rose the importance of musical instruments and the 
 perfection of the modern keyboard. The organ we 
 have found was one of the earliest instruments. With 
 its use and improvement came an advance in key- 
 broad technique and a style of composition peculiar 
 to the organ. At the same time violin music de- 
 veloped and popular applications of musical art be- 
 came general. 
 
 A question naturally arises about the origin of 
 the violin and of the piano. In mediaeval days, 
 the "Troubadours'* used an instrument called a 
 "rebec." From this a "vielle" or fiddle was made. 
 At first its body was in the form of a pear, but later 
 it was shaped at the waist. In the fifteenth century 
 different sizes were made out of which grew the big 
 violin for the bass or "bass viol" and the "small 
 large" size, the "violin cello". The standard size, 
 then as now, was for the tenor and kept the name 
 viola.* Later the instrument which plays the first 
 
 *The Steam's collection of instruments at Ann Arbor. 
 
230 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 and second parts came to be called the violin. At 
 this time Northern Italy, Bavaria and the Tyrol won 
 the reputation for violin-making which they enjoy 
 to-day. In the latter half of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, violin music and violin playing became fully 
 established. One hundred years later occurred the 
 emancipation of the orchestra, an event which made 
 the forms of instrumental music receive a great deal 
 of attention. As a result of the development of the 
 orchestra and of instrumental music, the "virtuoso," 
 or skilled player, appeared, and during the last part 
 of the seventeenth century continued to grow in num- 
 bers and in power. 
 
 History tells us that in the eighteenth century 
 Frederick the Great was a flute-player and composer 
 of note who did much to stimulate such playing. 
 From this we learn that the use of other instruments 
 grew with the violin's. The instrument itself has 
 remained the same through the centuries, while the 
 piano has met with great changes. In the early 
 nineteenth century Nicolo Paganini made the violin 
 famous for all time. In the middle of the same cen- 
 tury Moritz Hauptmann's was a great name. Since 
 then the virtuosos on the violin are numerous and 
 noted. 
 
MUSIC 231 
 
 Up to the last part of the eighteenth century the 
 piano was principally a curiosity. In Bavaria and 
 in France, about 1800, better devices made this in- 
 strument adequate. Later England improved the 
 stringing, the hammers, and the sounding board, and 
 Austria made still further improvements. As a re- 
 sult, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the 
 "Vienna pianists" came into prominence. The nine- 
 teenth century witnessed another significant advance 
 in pianos and in pianism. Beethoven, Weber, and 
 Schubert became famous and they have been fol- 
 lowed ever since by artists of world fame. 
 
 As has been stated the early eighteenth century 
 was made notable by John Sebastian Bach. By 
 hard study he came to know the literature of Ger- 
 man music, especially that which is written for the 
 organ and the choir. Next he mastered the musical 
 styles of Italy and France, at the same time training 
 many strong pupils and writing many wonderful 
 compositions. In all, these number about 300 church 
 cantatas, while his oratorios and masses* number 
 fifteen more.** His festival oratorios are cantatas 
 in an expanded form and he has written a Passion 
 for each of the four Gospels. Bach understood 
 
 *Bach*8 masses are allied to his oratorios. 
 **Only certain words can be used in masses. 
 
232 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 how to make formal structure express the soul. Later 
 generations class him with Michael Angelo, Shakes- 
 peare, and Goethe. 
 
 The next great name in music is George Frederick 
 Handel, 1685-1759. His father wished him to be 
 a lawyer, but the son's musical talent made itself 
 felt in very early years and be began the study of 
 music. In Halle, where he was a student in the 
 University, he became organist in the church and 
 second violinist in the Kaiser's orchestra. In con- 
 nection with this he wrote several operas which won 
 immediate success. Later, as joint director of the 
 Royal Academy of Music, he wrote fourteen more 
 operas.* When he was over fifty years old he gave 
 up operas and turned his attention to oratorios. He 
 now produced fifteen works in dramatic form. 
 Among these was the Messiah, which was produced 
 in London. Handel's power as a composer, con- 
 ductor and organist was universally acknowledged. 
 He was buried in Westminster Abbey with great 
 honor. Handel was a tireless worker, very resource- 
 ful and inventive, and his religious works show earn- 
 est conviction and deep feeling. 
 
 *Bach, Handel and Hadyn all conducted Singing Schools. 
 
MUSIC 233 
 
 Both method and form of musical composition 
 attracted attention in the eighteenth century. In all 
 large works, the whole was divided into movements 
 and the general effect was one of orderly variety or 
 contrast. One of the favorite forms of composition 
 was the "Suite." This was a series of dance tunes 
 with an outward character of regularity. Bach 
 wrote twenty-nine books of suites and Handel wrote 
 four books. The fugue developed together with the 
 suite as a separate form of composition. It does 
 not consist of distinct movements, although it gener- 
 ally has a prelude. The fugue has a theme which 
 is developed by several voice parts with much free- 
 dom of key. Then there is a recapitulation of the 
 theme frequently in reverse order by all the voices. 
 All the great composers of the time wrote fugues. 
 With the fugue were developed the "Overture," the 
 "Sonata" and the "Concerto." All three had orig- 
 inally three or more movements. The first, the over- 
 ture, is properly an introduction to a dramatic work. 
 The sonata is characterized by the order of the 
 movements, namely, slow, quick, slow, quick, if 
 there were four movements, or quick, slow, quick, if 
 there were only three. Originally the concerto was 
 
234 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 not so very different from the sonata. In it a solo 
 instrument plays successive contrasts with a concert- 
 ed accompaniment. 
 
 In the last half of the century Joseph Haydn, 
 1732-1809, was a prominent musician. He began 
 the study of music early and became noted as a con- 
 ductor and a composer. When he was sixty-eight, 
 he gave the first rendition of his "Creation** at 
 Vienna.* After this he wrote "The Seasons.** 
 Haydn was manly and religious and looked upon 
 his musical talent as a divine gift. With Haydn 
 the classical sonata and symphony developed and 
 the orchestra was perfected. Wolfgang Mozart, 
 who died in 1711, was a symphonist who exalted 
 melody. He excelled in instrumental effects especi- 
 ally with the wind groups. He wrote a great deal 
 of music for the orchestra, in which are 42 sym- 
 phonies. 
 
 The latter half of the eighteenth century was rich 
 in composers. The greatest of these was Christoph 
 Willibald Gliick, 1714-1 787. Gliick was an orig- 
 inal composer who achieved work of which in his 
 early days he did not dream. Gliick had a good 
 voice and could also play the violin, the cello, the 
 
 *The words of the "Creation" are from the Bible and from 
 Milton. 
 
MUSIC 235 
 
 piano and organ. His two greatest works are the 
 operas "Iphigenie en Aulide" and "Iphigenie en 
 Taurideo," but he wrote a great many others. In 
 the last part of this century sacred music had a large 
 growth and much attention was paid to the piano. 
 
 The nineteenth century is grouped successively 
 about the work of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and 
 Wagner. In the early part, Ludwig von Beethoven 
 lived and wrought. He was one of the three su- 
 preme musical geniuses, the other two being Haydn 
 and Mozart. By many he is called the greatest 
 of the three. From his youth he was progressive 
 and became a leader, an idealist, and a creator. 
 Beethoven was the founder of a new order and his 
 music was the message of his life. As a composer 
 he had a remarkable command of structure and of 
 technique. He kept a note-book in which he record- 
 ed and expanded his musical ideas. Beethoven 
 was of low origin, his manners were uncouth, and he 
 was very moody. At twenty-two years of age he 
 was stone deaf. He never married principally on 
 account of his infirmity. Out of life-long suffering 
 were born his great works. Beehoven's prevailing 
 method was the sonata. He used many key-con- 
 trasts and much modulation. He was free from 
 
236 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 conventionalities of any kind. His melody was 
 very strong, but entirely different from Mozart's. 
 Although he lived at a time when music was chiefly 
 a refined amusement for the privileged class, his pur- 
 pose in music was very serious. He wrote 33 son- 
 atas for the piano and over 1 00 smaller pieces. 
 
 In romantic opera and song, the pianist, Carl 
 Maria von Weber, paralleled the career of Bee- 
 thoven. He became expert on the keyboard and 
 made large contributions to piano literature. As he 
 was of noble birth he raised the standard of musi- 
 cianship. Although Weber was not the founder of 
 the Romantic Opera* he did much to bring it to a 
 full rounded expression. Weber wrote over 100 
 songs, 2 masses, 7 operas, and many detached dra- 
 matic pieces. 
 
 Contemporaneous with Weber was Franz Schu- 
 bert who died when only thirty-one. He came from 
 poor people and lived a very sad life. He had a 
 beautiful voice, played first violin in an orchestra, 
 and was a composer of note. His works are all 
 dominated by the song idea. He wrote about 650 solo 
 songs, 6 masses, 18 dramatic works, 24 piano so- 
 
 *Romantic Opera is a drama of human life. 
 
MUSIC 237 
 
 natas, 20 string quartets, and 1 symphonies, besides 
 a great many others. His songs are a great stimu- 
 lus to other composers. 
 
 The ItaHan Opera with highly-colored and showy 
 melodies developed at this time as did also the 
 French Opera Comique. Connected with this 
 growth are such men as Rossini, the Italian, and 
 Meyerbeer, the wealthy and cultured Jewish com- 
 posers. At this time there was a great deal of in- 
 strumental virtuosity. One of the great violinists 
 was Nicolo Paganini already mentioned who died 
 in 1840. There was also great improvement in 
 instrument making, and the composers of church and 
 organ music were many and excellent. During this 
 first half of the nineteenth century there was also 
 vigorous growth in musical literature. 
 
 The middle of the nineteenth century brings us 
 Robert Schumann. In 1 843 he became one of the 
 original faculty of the Leipsic Conservatory which 
 was organized by Mendelssohn. The following 
 year he moved to Dresden and became an intimate 
 friend of Wagner. As a man Schumann was sin- 
 cere and kindly. As a writer, his works have an 
 element of strenuousness, which his critics call a 
 modern note. Schumann's compositions cover every 
 
238 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 class except church music. Among them were near- 
 ly 250 songs. They are versatile, eager, and full 
 of vitality. Critics say that they materially widen- 
 ed the range of musical utterance. 
 
 Contemporaneous with him was Felix Mendels- 
 sohn Bartholdy to whom we have already referred. 
 He belonged to a Jewish family who became Chris- 
 tians. Mendelssohn was one of four children to 
 each of whom were given liberal advantages. This 
 artist was so industrious that he early became a 
 finished master of technique, of composition, and of 
 performance. Throughout his life he was a teach- 
 er, a conductor, and a composer of note in Berlin 
 and in Leipsic. Mendelssohn was charming per- 
 sonally and many-sided in his interests. His activ- 
 ity was incessant and varied as a pianist, a conductor, 
 and a composer. His work covered nearly every 
 form of composition. 
 
 The next great pianist was Chopin, a tone-poet 
 who threw new light upon pianism. He was a lyric 
 artist, choosing forms that were like songs. He had 
 an unusual appreciation of the capacities of the piano 
 and a rare talent for decoration and color. Frederic 
 Chopin, 1810-1849, was of Polish extraction and 
 his early years were darkened by the troubles of 
 
MUSIC 239 
 
 Poland. He received a fair education but soon 
 concentrated upon music. He was a poor interpret- 
 er of other persons' music but he knew how to play 
 his own compositions to perfection. However he 
 was not strong enough in mind or in body to become 
 a great leader. He died in his thirty-ninth year, 
 having contributed to pianism a large number of del- 
 icate embellishments and refinements. His works 
 are almost wholly for the piano and in dance or in 
 song forms. There are 50 muzurkas, 15 waltzes, 
 4 scherzos, 3 sonatas, 4 ballads and many others. 
 
 Liszt was contemporaneous with Chopin only his 
 life was a long one. Franz Liszt, 181 1-1886, was 
 from Hungary. He early showed marked musical 
 ability. Later his remarkable technique, his excellent 
 interpretations and improvisations, and his rare mag- 
 netism placed him first among a growing circle of 
 pianists. The most of his time was occupied with ex- 
 tended concert tours. He was very generous with 
 his money and subscribed $10,000 to the Beethoven 
 monument at Bonne. Liszt was a great favorite at 
 Weimar. His piano works cover many and varied 
 transcriptions and arrangements from diverse sources. 
 He also wrote rhapsodies on Hungarian themes and 
 many other national works. Many feel, perhaps 
 
240 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 unjustly, that Liszt's gifts were not creative, but 
 were merely a talent for achieving sensational effect. 
 . Rubenstein with Liszt was conspicuous in the field 
 of interpretation. Anton Rubenstein, 1830-1894, 
 was a Russian who was brought up at Moscow. His 
 mother was his first piano teacher, and before he 
 was fourteen he toured as a youthful prodigy. When 
 he was eighteen he began to write operas. He lived 
 at this time in St. Petersburg where he was a great 
 favorite. After this he made many memorable 
 tours in Europe and came to America. His last 
 years were spent mostly in Berlin and in Dresden. 
 Rubenstein*s works for the piano include 5 concertos, 
 4 sonatas, a suite, tone pictures, and many other 
 works. Although he is famous as a pianist, his 
 own preference was to be remembered as a com- 
 poser. 
 
 Verdi is the representative of the Italian opera at 
 this time. Giuseppe Verdi, 1813-1901, was a sturdy 
 young Italian who came to the front in 1 840. He 
 was Italian through and through, a fine melodist and 
 a student who took suggestions from all sources. 
 He was a link between Rossini and Wagner in the 
 historical development of the opera. Verdi was 
 very "resourceful and plastic" but his work always 
 
MUSIC 241 
 
 illustrates extremes. He showed musical tendencies 
 at the age of seven. At ten years of age he was 
 village organist. At twenty, he married and at 
 twenty-five, he produced his first opera. His operas 
 number over 30, and the most of them are very ser- 
 ious. He wrote little besides opera. Verdi was 
 independent, noble, generous, and warm-hearted. 
 He was an idol in Italy and so industrious and bril- 
 liant that he was looked up to by musicians every- 
 where. 
 
 TTie great name in music just after 1 850 is Johan- 
 nes Brahms. He became famous in the field of 
 song, cantata, symphony, and the classical quartet. 
 He was a prolific writer but to each composition 
 he gave earnest and careful attention. Brahms died 
 in 1897. 
 
 At this time waltz music became a standard ob- 
 ject of artistic treatment. The Viennese composers, 
 beginning with Mozart and Beethoven, very gener- 
 ally used the waltz form. Schubert developed it 
 further and Weber made of it an orchestral type. 
 At the same time composers and directors made the 
 form popular. Johann Strauss, "the waltz-king," 
 who died in 1899 won international renown in this 
 field. 
 
242 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 Contemporaneous with Brahms was Hector Ber- 
 lioz, the great French musical critic and composer, 
 whose name is always associated with Liszt's and 
 Wagner's. He was the first leader to conduct more 
 than one orchestra at the same time. Berlioz made 
 a careful study of the technical capacities of orches- 
 tral instruments and as a result produced from them 
 very emotional and pictorial effects. His works 
 had a richness of tone color, which won for him a 
 favorable reception from Liszt and the Weimar cir- 
 cle. His influnce was especially helpful to the tech- 
 nique of orchestration. 
 
 Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner are known in the 
 musical history of the nineteenth century as the great 
 triumvirate. 
 
 The last great name in music is Wagner's. He 
 wanted to create German Opera and as a result re- 
 constructed the opera. Richard Wagner, 1813- 
 1883, was the youngest of nine children. Leipsic 
 was his birthplace. In early years Wagner showed 
 little interest in music. When he was eighteen he 
 came into contact with Beethoven's orchestral com- 
 positions and became musically ambitious. Soon 
 he was an ardent student of music and in his nine- 
 teenth year he wrote some fragmentary compositions. 
 
MUSIC 243 
 
 Twelve months after, was chorus master in a theatre 
 at Wurzburg. Later he became a director at Riga. 
 In 1826 he went to Paris. Three years after, in 
 his thirtieth year, "Rienzi" was successfully present- 
 ed at Dresden. His next production was "Der 
 Fliegende Hollander." "Tannhauser" came out in 
 1845 and "Lohengrin" in 1847. Wagner's rivals 
 now became jealous of him and very bitter. After 
 fifteen years of close literary work, the titanic opera- 
 tic cycle which was to establish his fame began to 
 come forth. In 1 853-4 "Das Rheingold" was writ- 
 ten. In 1 854-6 he drafted "Die Walkiire" and in 
 1867, after his fame was established, he produced 
 "Die Meistersinger."* Two years later he brought 
 forth "Siegfried" and in 1874 he gave to the world 
 "Gotterdammerung." "Parsifal," produced in 
 1 882, the year after his death, was his last opera. 
 
 Wagner died at Bayreuth. The eccentric king 
 of Bavaria, Ludwig II, loved art and gave his pat- 
 ronage to Wagner. For twenty years the critics 
 and the public waged war upon this musician. His 
 uncompromising manner subjected him to the persist- 
 ent persecution of his enemies, but after 1864 the 
 musical world changed its attitude and Wagner's 
 
 *Wagner's operas are historical, legendary and mythological. 
 Die Meistersinger belongs to the first class. 
 
244 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 leadership was very generally recognized. This 
 artist was not a pioneer in his chosen field. Instead, 
 he expanded prevailing ideas and brought them to a 
 large fulfillment. 
 
 In connection with the musicians the rise of the 
 conservatory should be mentioned. In the sixteenth 
 century four of these music schools were establisheB 
 in Naples. Originally they were charity schools 
 for poor children, but during the two centuries which 
 followed they were the recipients of large bequests 
 which supported several great teachers, and as a re- 
 sult nearly all the distinguished musicians of the Nea- 
 politan school were associated with one or more of 
 them either in the capacity of teacher or of pupil. 
 
 In 1 795 the Conservatoire de Musique of France 
 was established. It has had a great influence upon 
 musical art not only in France but also upon all the 
 modern world. It now has a large number of affili- 
 ated schools in the different provinces, all of which 
 are supported by the government. The growth and 
 influence of the French conservatory are due princi- 
 pally to great directors, among whom were Sarette, 
 Cherubini, Ambroise Thomas, Dubois, and the mod- 
 ern Faure. 
 
MUSIC 245 
 
 In 1843 Mendelssohn opened a conservatory in 
 Leipsic. It cost the director a great deal of hard 
 work to put it upon a firm foundation, but it has had 
 and continues to have a wonderful influence in the 
 musical world. It has always been closely associa- 
 ted with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leispic which 
 is a model of its kind. 
 
 Berlin is now an important center of choral music 
 and for the study of theory and of musical history. 
 It has and has had many able teachers, conservative 
 and solid, who draw to the city students from all 
 over the world. 
 
 London is another musical center. Here choral 
 festivals are held which draw the music lovers of 
 the British Isles. Throughout Europe the time has 
 come when cities of size and influnce all have a re- 
 putable conservatory of music. Since Wagner's 
 time, Bayreuth has been one of the most famous 
 festival centers. In 1876 the performance of his 
 opera cycle there scored a triumph which the musical 
 world is slow to forget. This led to the production 
 of the Wagnerian music in other centers and later to 
 the musical festival proper. 
 
 In the later nineteenth century the new element 
 of nationalism is generally recognized. The national 
 
246 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 characteristics of the different composers have al- 
 ways been noticed, but it is the tendency of the pres- 
 ent to emphasize the national differences. As a re- 
 sult musicians are classified in groups. The first is 
 the German group. Bernhard Scholz of Frank- 
 fort and Max Zenger of Munich are two great 
 names among many others. Next is the French 
 group, among whom are Cannile, Saint-Saens, and 
 Jules Massenet. Last is the English group, in which 
 are Arthur Sullivan and Alexander Campbell Mac- 
 kenzie. The musicians of Denmark, Sweden and 
 Norway are called the Scandinavian Group. Emil 
 Hartman is a famous Danish composer. August 
 John Soderman is a Swedish writer, and in Norway 
 the great name is Edward Hagerup Grieg. Grieg 
 is by far the most famous composer of this northern 
 group. The artists of Bohemia and Hungary form 
 what is called the Czech or Magyar group. Antonini 
 Dvorak is the great name among these musicians. 
 After them comes the Russian group, which is made 
 up of the composers from Russia and Poland. 
 Tschaikowski is the great Russian composer to-day, 
 and Paderewski, the well-known virtuoso on the 
 piano, is from Poland. 
 
MUSIC 247 
 
 In the United States music has had a phenomenal 
 growth in rapidity of production and in variety. In 
 the last few years this country has proved her power 
 musically and has claimed her share in the achieve- 
 ments of the music world. Four great orchestras 
 have won fame. Hie Philharmonic of New York, 
 1 842, is the oldest of the three, the Boston Sympho- 
 ny, 1881, is the most famous, and the Thomas 
 Orchestra of Chicago, 1 864, which is named for its 
 great leader, Theodore Thomas,* rivals these. Last- 
 ly the Philadelphia orchestra, 1900, has come into 
 much prominence. Also there are many choral so- 
 cieties. The Handel and Hadyn Society of Boston 
 is the oldest and the Apollo Club of Chicago, is one 
 of the largest. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Paul, 
 and other cities throughout the country support or- 
 chestras and choral societies of considerable size and 
 efficiency. 
 
 Three national societies which stimulate musical 
 progress in the United States are the Music 
 Teachers' National Association, the Manuscript So- 
 
 *Theodore Thomas, the pioneer orchestral leader outside of 
 New York in America, made extensive concert tours and did 
 more than anyone else to spread the knowledge and apprecia- 
 tion of orchestra music. At the Centennial in Philadelphia in 
 1876, he led one of his first orchestras. 
 
248 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 ciety, and the Guild of Organists which was incor- 
 porated in 1 896. Moreover, in many of the pubHc 
 hbraries a good collection of scholarly musical liter- 
 ature is provided to meet the general need. 
 
 Some of the great names in the musical world of 
 this group are John Knowles Paine of Harvard Uni- 
 versity, an organist and composer of note, Dudley 
 Buck, a church organist in Brooklyn and William 
 Mason of New York. William Wallace Gil- 
 christ of Philadelphia and Peter Christian Lutkin 
 of Evanston are two of the many names which could 
 be mentioned. 
 
 This summary of the history of music is very brief. 
 It has been possible merely to indicate the salient 
 points. It is a subject that repays effort and 
 promises a rich reward to all who will find the 
 "high art'* to which the science has attained. 
 
MUSIC 249 
 
 Twelve Great Musical Productions. 
 
 Handel's, The Messiah (oratorio) 
 Gl lick's Iphegenie en Tauride (opera) 
 Mozart's The Magic Flute (opera) 
 Haydn's The Creation (oratorio) 
 Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata (for piano and vio- 
 lin.) 
 
 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 
 Schubert's Overture to Rosamunde. 
 Mendelssohn's Elijah (oratorio) 
 Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies. 
 
 Chopin's Marche Funcbre or Third Movement 
 Sonata. 
 
 Verdi's II Trovatore (opera) 
 Wagner's Niebelungen Ring. 
 
 !Das Rheingold 
 Siegfried 
 Die Valkure 
 Gotterd a mmerung 
 Tschaikowski's The Pathetic Symphony. 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 Unity of Art Expression. 
 
 "Then just within the gate I saw a child — 
 A stranger child, yet to my heart most dear; 
 
 He held his hands to me and softly smiled 
 With eyes that knew no shade of sin or fear; 
 
 * Come in,* he said, and play aw^hile w^ith me ; 
 I am the little child you used to be.* '* 
 
 —Henry Van Dyke. 
 
 After considering the different forms of art, the 
 unity of art expression is very easily established. 
 Architect, painter, sculptor, and musician, while un- 
 like other men, are extraordinarily similar to one 
 another. Each has what an essayist is pleased to 
 call "the artistic temperament.'* This is an endow- 
 ment which makes him first feel, then see, hear, and 
 touch more acutely than do others who are less gift- 
 ed. The artist is always a dreamer, but he is an 
 executor as well. He lives as it were in a world of 
 his own construction, rather than in the world of 
 nature. For him the shadows lose their blackness, 
 the south wind sings a song of the advent of summer, 
 
 251 
 
252 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 and the branches of the trees build cathedral 
 aisles above the streets and through the forests. 
 More than this the artist has four quahties which 
 identify his temperament and spell success. The 
 first is sacrifice. The history of art is replete with 
 incidents of artists who have braved poverty and 
 ridicule for the sake of their art. The second qual- 
 ity is industry. No biography offers more stimulat- 
 ing records of hard work than does that of the artist. 
 Next the artistic temperament is confident. This 
 confidence is dynamic. It charges his eye, his hand, 
 and his heart with power. And last of all the artist 
 has an interpretative quality. The cathedral builders 
 built high spires. To the laity their height spelled 
 beauty, to the architect this dimension spelled 
 God. To the Greeks a woman of noble propor- 
 tions was a pleasure, but to Phidias she became a 
 Venus for the Parthenon. Claude Lorraine and 
 Turner saw the atmosphere and painted it; ordinary 
 persons are unconscious of the medium of the air. 
 All persons sorrow and grieve, but Beethoven 
 turned his suffering into music. Thus the artist 
 dreams and works, feels and executes. 
 
 Another characteristic which shows the unity of 
 art expression is that the artist always reveals his 
 
UNITY OF ART 253 
 
 best. Nothing short of this satisfies him. His aud- 
 ience may look or Hsten "wrapped in wonder, love, 
 and praise,*' but unless it is an adequate expression 
 of his best, the restless spirit of the artist is even then 
 clamoring to do again what he feels that he can do 
 better. There is something sacred about man's best, 
 and it should be approached with reverence. There 
 is a momentum in doing one's best that carries man 
 on and on each time to a better best, a progress 
 which the world calls growth. Growth is a mystic 
 process. It changes the child of yesterday 
 into the man of to-day, and better still 
 it builds a soul into the likeness of God. 
 Now it is this miracle of growth which en- 
 ables the artist to speak through his canvas, and more 
 it empowers the onlooker to read his message. 
 
 This brings us to the function of art which is the 
 most important question in the consideration thus far. 
 We have said that the artist is alert to the beautiful 
 things about him. What are these beauties? Blue 
 sky and brown dead-earth, skeleton trees with feath- 
 ery branches, silhouetted against the sky, "patches 
 of snow and stretches of ice and the clear, cold, 
 bracing air of the morning"; then noon and night 
 and day again, a ceaseless round of miracles in this 
 
254 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 wonderland of nature called the world. A con- 
 stant round of changes in the world inside — 
 
 "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! 
 
 Rose plot, 
 
 Fringed pool, 
 
 Ferned grot — 
 
 The veriest school 
 
 Of peace ; and yet the fool 
 
 Contends that God is not — 
 
 Not God ! in gardens where the eve is cool ! 
 
 Nay, but I have a sign: 
 
 'Tis very sure God walks in mine." 
 
 This wonderful fairy land of nature is peopled 
 with men, of all colors, in all climes, men rich in 
 knowledge, in resources, and in power, and men poor 
 in all that the world counts worthy. Yet in each, 
 God works a ceaseless round of changes, changes 
 in body, changes in heart, and changes in soul. That 
 possession which men call culture is only an out- 
 come of the "art-impulse", which is as common to 
 the black man and to the son of toil as to the artist 
 and to his appreciator. It is this impulse which gives 
 universal insight into the meaning of art-expression. 
 The supposed mysteries of the Appreciation of Art 
 reduce themselves into terms of everyday intelligence 
 
UNITY OF ART 255 
 
 and common sense, although the expression of art 
 may be characterized by symboHsm, impressionism, 
 or naturahsm. 
 
 Moreover this fairyland of nature is a magic 
 world. Just as to-day supplants yesterday and to- 
 morrow eludes to-day, so the child one used to be is 
 supplanted by the person he now is, and this person 
 never overtakes the one he is to be. The child the 
 man used to be is gone and he himself the person of 
 larger growth is come. A subtle change silent, 
 tremendous, inevitable ! Thus this magic world be- 
 comes a land of miracles for the body stretches to 
 meet the soul and it in turn towers up unseen to meet 
 its God. Again, this miracle is called growth, and 
 the name of the growth of the soul which speaks 
 through the artist in his art is revelation. Revela- 
 tion is hard to analyze but one very obvious element 
 in it is feeling. Feeling is that mysterious messenger 
 which acquaints us with beauty and with harmony 
 or on the other hand takes the sun out of the sun- 
 shine and steals happiness from the soul. 
 
 Feeling is a sprite which touches the realism of 
 the artist and turns it into idealism in you and me. 
 As the boy is father to the man, so the feeling of the 
 artist is the father of appreciation in art. Several 
 
256 APPRECIATION OF ART 
 
 times in this book art has been defined as the pur- 
 suit of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. The 
 function of art then is to reveal what the artists have 
 found in these three realms through the medium of 
 expression, and through man*s appreciation of art to 
 publish these truths to the world. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
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