ART.
POPULAR ART.—III. POTTERY AND PORCELAIN Ix my last article on " Popular Art," I gave some few leading prin- ciples by which the choice of furniture and its arrangement should be guided ; in this number I propose to try to estimate the place and value which ceramic manufactures should hold in the general decoration of a house, and also to say a few words as to the kinds of design which are best fitted for the ornamentation of such manufactures.
First, then, as to the special character of the design. Here, at the very outset of our subject, we are met by a difficulty, for if we think back over the various kinds of celebrated pottery and porcelain, from the vases of Greece to the match-pots of Minton, we find that nearly every possible subject and method of treat- ment has been employed in the embellishment of the clay. Thus we have, amongst many others, heroic subjects, contests of gladiator and athlete on the amphoras of Greece ; scenes and portraits, religious or social, on the majolica of Italy ; realiatirt landscape and satin-waistcoated figures on the works of Sevres and Dresden ; and lastly, imitation of animal life produced with painstaking minuteness at Messrs. Minton's manufactory, so that now-a-days we can actually hang up a china parrot, the size of life, in our drawing-room, and enjoy its presence without hearing- its voice. Now it will be easily seen by any one who thinks over the matter carefully that some of these latter forms of decora- tion are false and bad, either from misconception of the nature of the material, or because they attempt to reproduce- exactly what is impossible of reproduction. For instance, take the parrot we have just mentioned. Say, the workman has succeeded, as, to do him justice, the modern workman does sue. ceed, in reproducing exactly the colours and shape of the bird, and has hang it on a gilt hoop, and you have it in your drawing-roosu all complete. What more can you want? You want the impels-. Bible. You want the constant ruffling and preening of the feathers, you want the knowing tarn of the head to right and left, you want even the shrill, inharmonious cry. And the more perfect the ;rail. tation of the outward form and colour are, the more you require: the circumstances which you are accustomed to associate with , them. It is out of all your range of experience, out of everyone'?-i. range of experience, that a parrot should sit for ever mute an41„ motionless ; and this being so, the reason resents the misspent
labour which has given with so much toil a deceptive reproduction of a bird which directly it ceases to be deceptive becomes in- congruous.
Walking through one of the largest potterygalleries in London yesterday, I saw gigantic peacocks perched upon tree-trunks, with growth of ivy and grass about the trees, a marvel of skilled labour and successful work in the furnace, and yet the work was really wasted. The birds were not like peacocks when you came to look at them,—could not be, by the very nature of the case. The sheeny feathery mass of azure and burnished gold which forms the peacock's tail is absolutely impossible to reproduce in pottery, and that being so, the deceptiveness of other parts only heightened the incongruity. For similar reasons, all painting .of natural landscape upon porcelain is really wasted skill. In working upon clay which has to be submitted to the furnace, the artist labours under disabilities which must for ever prevent his approaching the effect obtained upon canvas or paper, where the results are dependent only on the colour used, and not upon the colour -plus • the result of the fire. Then the nearer a representation of a scene upon a plate or a vase approaches to an imitation of what the same scene would be . in an oil-painting, the more we perceive the inevitable short- coming, and the less pleasure we receive from the work. I have not space enough to show how similar reasoning applies to the satin- waistcoated Sevres figures, but it is hardly necessary, as they scarcely profess to be more than ornaments, and by their size are exempt from any deceitfulness in the strict sense of the word. But what I want to get. at is this,—that whenever you find pottery or china deceptively imitating natural substances, the nature of which is dissimilar to the material in which the imitation is made, then you are to consider such imitation as bad art, because it is art which is attempting the impossible, and not working under the condi- tions by which it should be governed. It follows from the above that -whenever we represent natural objects or scenes upon pottery, we should represent them conventionally, that is to say, we should not attempt to trespass upon the province of painting by showing the whole mass of facts connected with the natural object, but only seize such main points as may be effectively-reproduced-in our work; and if in such selection we choose them so well as to get the spirit of the thing represented, we have good conventionalism. Look, for an example of this, at Greek designs on pottery, and - mark how strong in action and graceful in gesture are the figures, no matter how rudely they are drawn, and also how freely, and yet truly, the main points of the anatomy of the figure are shown. Thus we see that what is called "conventionalism" is not dependent upon treating anysubject ac- cording to a fixed set of rules, not making its curves,- angles, or its spheres squares, but getting at its essence, and sticking to that at any cost ; and that, therefore, as we said in our first notice, true conventionalism is not the lowest form of art, but one 'of the highest forms, and can only be done by true artists. But Were is another kind of conventional ornament, that which is dependent -upon -the function which the ornamented object will have to fulfil, and the material of which it is made. Of this we • can only say here that the true rule is to admit as much beauty as is consistent with the conditions. For instance, if the place is to be subordinate, the simplicity of the ornament should be in proportion ; and so if the office is lowly, should the ornament. be . plain and serviceable (i.e., not easily damaged by use). For instance, it would not be advisable to pat an elaborate design. on the mouldings of a cornice or the border of a housemaid's pail. This comparative degradation of orna- ment is best accomplished, according to Mr. .Ruskin, " refusing more or less the introduction of natural form. The less of nature it contains, the more degraded is the ornament, and
• fitter for a humble place ; but however far a great workman may go in refusing the higher organisms of nature, he always takes -care to retain the magnificence of natural lines,—that is to say, of the infinite curves."
I must now pass to the second part of my subject, and assuming the pottery or porcelain to be decorated on the above principles, examine the question of its proper use :in decoration. The first- noticeable thing here -is the great ' superiority of pottery to china, a superiority which. has existed ever since the two manufactures existed. There are several reasons which might be alleged for this, but -the true one seems to be that the pottery was, as a rule, mere 'broadly and -simply decorated, and therefore better fitted fora subordinate place. Something, also, is no doubt owing to the - fact that the pottery had, as a rule, some actual function to fulfil. -Itis a' curious
fact in art, but it seems to be a nearly universally true one, that works done with no other aim than to be pretty objects generally miss all real artistic feeling. As an instance of this, take the multitude of gentlemen and lady-shepherdesses who have simpered upon Dresden and Sevres china for the last two hundred years. They are generally as pretty as they can possibly be, but not good art in any way. I think, then, the first rule for decorating as regards china is,—to let it alone. Don't have ally china, but stick to pottery ; it will save you much money, and you will, on the whole, gain rather than lose. The one exception to this rule I should make would be in the case of blue Nankin porcelain, which has a combined delicacy of tint and vigour of design which cannot be surpassed. It is worth noticing, however, that good Delft is nearly as fine in colour, fre- quently very rich in design, and always a quarter of the price. Then comes the crucial question whether you should have plates on the walls or not? Now, there is no doubt that a wall is not the proper place for a plate, and that strictly speaking, you have no business to have it there. But practically we have no business to do a great many things which we are almost compelled to do by circumstances, and here, as elsewhere, it is a question of eon- parative,values. Few people can afford such pictures as 'would give the /eyes 'as -much pleasure as the rich hues of pottery, and I think the variety gained by the sparing use of plates and dishes is worthy of a slight sacrifice in consistency. But it should not be overdone, and 'it should be distinctly understood that it Ifs only as a relief and a help to the general effect of the room that it allowable. Above all, the plates should not be scattered about the room, or hung singly as if they were pictures, but should be disposed in rows above a doorway or mantel-shelf, or in vertical lines along the mouldings of a panel, or surround a picture or a looking-glass. It is always much preferable, where the arrangement of the room permits it, for the plates to stand than to be hung, and to this end a long wooden bracket may be placed above the door, made in the shape of a low, open wooden balustrade, behind the pillars of which the plates may be placed, the greater portion of the plate showing above. All combinations of several plates together in velvet frames are objectionable ; there is something absurd in the notion of a plate requiring a frame at all. For this reason, the recent practice of framing single plates in black wood and gold is, we think, unadvisable, and tends to take away from the character of the art,—to try and make the beholder think of it in the same way as he would of an ordinary painting.
Then, of course, one must have tiles everywhere—at least, that's the present fashion—and the consequence is that we have them in the most unsuitable places. For a climate like that of England, a tiled wall is an abomination for eight months in the year, if there were no other reason against it. But there is another very serious reason, and that is, that tiles are utterly de- structive of anything that is hung upon the same wall ; as a matter of fact, they are only fitted to form the sole decoration of the place in which they are found. The one place where tiles are of real service is the hearth and fire-place, though even here it is better to confine them to the space about the fire, and not extend them to the mantel-piece. The reason for this is that the glow of the fire takes off any chilliness of colour there may be in the blue-and-white glaze, and also they are easily kept clean, and reflect the fire-light.
As a general rule, avoid having any vases or china ornaments about on tables, intermixed with the books, writing materials, &c. They always look out of place, and a multiplicity of such things is excessively fatiguing and tedious to the eye ; it should be a maxim with you in decoration that everything which does not help your effect weakens it,—there can be no medium course. The places for your china are the mantel-piece, and generally the tops of any pieces of furniture except tables in common use, the only exception to this rule being when the vase is intended to hold flowers, in which case it should be anywhere where people can see and smell them, and should be as graceful in form• and simple in colour as possible, plain white pottery being, perhaps, the most suitable of any. A horrible fashion has sprung up lately
of placing imitation-animals under side-tables and in various corners, which cannot be too strongly reprobated. They are not beautiful, and they are perfectly useless, and generally in the way. And lastly, make your room your first object, and your china the second, for it is quite subsidiary in interest to pictures, at all events in most people's opinion, and only suffers-from being forced into the foremost place. In my next and last article on the subject of " Popular Art," I shall speak generally of ornamentation and colour.
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