FINE ARTS.
HUMPHREYS'S TEN CENTURIES OF ART.* "Ten Centuries of Art "—architecture, sculpture, painting, metal work, ivory and wood carving, glass and pottery, textile fabrics, and mosaic— compressed into 118 pages, will necessarily be treated of in a somewhat summary fashion ; and the more so when, as it turns out, Mr. Hum- phreys does not start from even the first of his ten centuries, but leads up to it with a sketch of the progress of each form of art from its earliest re- cord. But his practice is in accordance with his profession—that of furnish- ing " a concise panoramic view." The book contains a good deal of information, readably put ; and is enriched with several nicely-executed lithographs, printed in colours and illuminated. It possesses also the great merit of independence. The author has an opinion of his own, and is not afraid to express it. To the meanest of all hypocrisies, hypocrisy in taste, he is a stranger. The ge- neral voice—whether its authority be of the eminence of its chief organs, or merely of aggregate volume—is not of necessity his voice ; nor is ho trammelled by onesided preconceptions of his own, but comes prepared to recognize, according to his judgment, merit of whatever order, and to pro- nounce an unbiased opinion. We heartily side with him in thinking "the expression of individual sentiment more generally desirable than the cleverest exposition of accepted canons." While doing honour to Mr. Humphreys's independence, there are many
of his opinions to which we can by no means subscribe. He appears sometimes not only impartially open to impressions, but too willing to be pleased, till his sympathies become all but conflicting. Ardent ad- mirer as he is of Gothic architecture, the Cinquecento style seems equally to satisfy his taste, and in various more decorative branches of art even to engage his predilection. We certainly cannot understand his implied approval of the example given of Palissy ware, which, deficient in beauty of form, appears to us both ugly and unmeaning in ornamenta- tion ; nor his express admiration of the early Renaissance window at Brou, where everything that is distinctive of the period is clumsy fiip- pery There must be some want also, or perversion of guiding principle, in the judgment which can hold such a pictorial composition as Bertini's of Dante (in the Great Exhibition) to be the right kind of thing for the sun to shine through, rather than the painted glasses of the twelfth cen- tury to the fourteenth.
In sculpture, Mr. Humphreys observes that the career of Flazman "marked an epoch in the arts of Europe." But surely, to call his chief invention(' " attempts at the revival of classic simplicity and purity of
• 'Pea•Cenlatries °tart; its Progress in Europe, frown the Ninth to the Nineteenth Centel,. kleozrtreei,liumphre}s. Published by Grant ansl.Grittith.
design," is a very inadequate characterization, however true so far as it goes, of the works of him who beyond all others has given to sculpture a modern and living soul ; only more excusable, indeed, than associating the influence- of Canova with "the severe simplicity of Greek art." A considerable share of the author's space and attention is devoted, in speaking of painting, to " Pre-Raphaelitism " : we are about to quote a portion of his observations, but first we wish to say a word or two in the interest of the consistency of Raphaelism. Mr. Humphreys remarks, that "the works of Raphael retain a much stronger tincture of the archaic rigidity of the preceding period than those of any of his contemporaries." The early works of Raphael—which confessedly belong in great measure to the school thatpreeeded that inaugurated by himself—not being here in question, we conceive that this judgment is based on a confusion be- tween severity of style, connectedwith antique study, and archaic rigidity. From archaic rigidity—in whatever form he may have found it existing— Raphael certainly emancipated himself. From this he was as free as Correggio, with whom Mr. Humphreys proceeds to contrast him ; though the comparison, and the conclusion too, may hold good as between-the unmixed softness of the one and the commanding forms of the other, the "Pity mixed With the fulfilment of decree."
And, while recording dissent from Mr. Humphreys's views, we must also refuse to class, as he does, Caravaggio with Domenichino and Guido as of the Caracci schooL To return to the Pre-Raphaelites.
"Amidst all this progress, all this new life infused into art since the com- mencement of the present century—by what latent causes, it would take too long to discuss—a feeling has developed itself in nearly all the artistic pro ductions of our epoch, which betrays, as just hinted at, in the German school a disposition to revive and retain the manner, the principles of practice, and even the manipulation of the great schools of Italy ; a conventional system which even our greatest men do not appear to have the courage to break through. But a band of devoted young artists have tried back, as it were, and found that, in modern art, convention began to take the place of simple appeal to nature even in the works of the great Raphael. And they have therefore determined to take up art as it is found previous to that epoch, and from that starting-point make what advances they may, trusting to Nature alone as their guide to lead them on in the path of beauty and of progress. * * * * It is certain they have gone conscientiously to work ; that their productions have been the result not only of deep and careful study, but of equally careful reproduction by means of the most highly-wrought manipu- lation. They have not painted the clothing of the meadows and the vege- table denizens of the stream as a matter of background, to be dashed off in a few conventional touches in the studio, from rough sketches, the true cha- racter of which might be misinterpreted at every touch : they have not taken nature at second-hand ; they have at once, beneath the open sky, transferred nature as they saw it to their canvass; they abjured close studios, with lights only to the North, and sought the broad, all-pervading sunshine. * * * *
" The reproduction of these and the like phamomena [details of out-door nature] has been grappled with by the Pre-Raphaelites, and to a certain ex- tent successfully ; but so minutely conscientious has been the manipulation, that much of its excellence has escaped the attention of the ordinary critic. Accustomed to see similar effects produced by a few conventional dashes,he has not perceived how fully and exquisitely they were wrought out in these works.
" The careful study of the folds and texture of drapery, too, has, in one picture exhibited this season, been carried to a pitch of excellence not at- tained by any other pencil of the English school. But what seems ;wanting now is a keener perception of the beautiful in the human figure, especially in the female heads, and a higher and broader perception of general effect, at present to some extent impaired by excessive attention to detail. In avoiding all taint of conventionalism, they have of necessity abandoned many important principles. * * * * Let them not be precipitated by unfair criti- cism, or unfeeling ridicule ; let them advance over the long course they have so courageously undertaken, at their own pace, and with every encourage- ment in their gigantic undertaking. "In dismissing the subject of Pre-Raphaelite art, I must add, that even should its followers succeed in establishing a school founded upon the re-
alization of the most minute and exquisite treatment of every detail, even in a much higher and more artistic and more energetic feeling than is found in the laborious miniatures of Gerard Dow, or Mieris, or Metzu, or others of that class ; yet I conceive that a school founded upon an almost opposite principle, producing details by a few broad and telling touches, and upon general effect produced by means of well studied masses, of form, colour, and light and shade, may be coequally and coevally successful, as a distinct style of art; for there is a certain faseination about a dashing facility of pencil, when wielded by a genius capable also of the higher requirements, which will, on a different pedestal, hold as high a rank as minute finish, however exquisite, and however free from any smallness of character."
" Coequally successful," Mr. Humphreys says. Supposing the "ge- nius capable of the higher requirements " to be also coequal in the Pre- Raphaelite and his rival, the question will reduce itself to this : which of the two " produces details and general effect " so as the best to impress the sentiment of the scene on the loving student of nature, and to realize the fact to his eye ? Whatever may be the decision, the " certain fasci- nation " will not carry it. A somewhat similar parallel has been drawn by Mr. Ruskin in his pamphlet.
Mr. Humphreys suggests, for the encouragement of art, the establish- ment of associations of the nature of our large clubs, and on a similar imposing scale ; the subscriptions, however, to be devoted to the purchase of works of fine art : and he estimates that " the members would, for a small subscription of six guineas annually, enjoy the luxury of a gallery of art, increasing every year at the rate of 40001. worth." Indeed, he expresses his conviction that the idea will be carried largely into practice.
As we arrive at the conclusion, we become aware of the fact, which, for that matter, previous hints against Court patronage and pageant had warned us to expect—that Mr. Humphreys is a man with a grievance, whether of his own, or adopted in championship. The Great Exhibition —to which the whole book has a special reference—was the scene of of- fence ; and nearly all connected with its management were, in a variety of ways, the offenders ; some of the opinions expressed seeming to derive pungency partly from political sentiments entertained by the author. A treatise on the general question in its bearings past and future is an- nounced.
conclusion, we must remark on the extreme carelessness with which proper names are printed ; even one so well known as Stothard figuring as " Stoddart," Mistakes of a similar kind occur also in other respects ; a point not unimportant in such a book, as frequent incorrectness in these points raises naturally enough a certain want of confidence in the general accuracy of tke writer. in matters of date, person, and particular.
Previous page
