figs THE BASES OF DESIGN CHISWICK PRESS : — CHARLES W HITTING HAM AND CO. LOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. ^» TO CHARLES ROWLEY, J. P. CHAIRMAN OF THE MANCHESTER MUNICIPAL SCHOOL OF ART, TO WHOSE ENERGY, SYMPATHY, AND ENTHUSIASM THE SCHOOL, IN ITS NEWER DEVELOPMENT, OWES SO MUCH, AND TO MY FORMER COL- LEAGUES OF THE TEACHING STAFF, AS WELL AS TO ALL STUDENTS, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK fr* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/basesofdesignOOcran_0 PREFACE HE substance of the Following chapters addressed to the students of the Manchester Municipal School of Art during my tenure of the directorship of Design at that institution. The field covered is an extensive one, and I am conscious that many branches of my subject are only touched, whilst others are treated in a very elementary manner. Every chapter, in- deed, might be expanded into a volume, under such far-reaching headings, to give to each sec- tion anything like adequate treatment. My main object, however, has been to trace the vital veins and nerves of relationship in the arts of design, which, like the sap from the cen- tral stem, springing from connected and collect- ive roots, out of a common ground, sustain and unite in one organic whole the living tree. In an age when, owing to the action of certain economic causes — the chiefest being commercial competition — the tendency is to specialize each branch of design, which thus becomes isolated from the rest, I feel it is most important to keep in mind the real fundamental connection and essential unity of art : and though we may, as students and artists, in practice be intent upon gathering the fruit from the particular branch we desire to make our own, we should never be insensible to its relation to other branches, its dependence upon the main stem and the source of its life at the root. formed a series of lectures vn Preface Otherwise we are, I think, in danger of be- coming mechanical in our work, or too narrowly technical, while, as a collective result of such narrowness of view, the art of the age, to which each individual contributes, shows a want of both imaginative harmony and technical relation with itself, when unity of effect and purpose is particularly essential, as in the design and decoration of both public and private buildings, not to speak of the larger significance of art as the most permanent record of the life and ideals of a people. My illustrations are drawn from many sources, and consist of a large proportion of those origin- ally used for the lectures, only that instead of the rough charcoal sketches done at the time, careful pen drawings have been made of many of the subjects in addition to the photographs and other authorities. It may be noted that I have freely used both line and tone blocks in the text and throughout the book, although I advocate the use of line drawings only with type in books wherein com- pleteness of organic ornamental character is the object. Such a book as this, however, being rather in the nature of a tool or auxiliary to a designer's workshop, can hardly be regarded from that point of view. The scheme of the work, which necessitates the gathering together of so many and varied illustrations as diverse in scale, subject, and treatment as the historic periods which they represent, would itself pre- clude a consistent decorative treatment, and it has been found necessary to reproduce many of the illustrations from their original form in large scale drawings on brown paper touched with viii white, as well as from photographs which necessarily print as tone-blocks. I have to thank Mr. Gleeson White for his valuable help in many ways, as well as in obtaining permission from various owners of copyright to use photographs and other illus- trations, and also the publishers, who have allowed me the use of blocks in some instances — Mr. George Allen for a page from " The Faerie Queen " ; Messrs. Bradbury, Agnew and Co. for the use of the " Punch " drawings ; and Messrs. J. S. Virtue and Co. for the use of photographs of carpet weaving and glass blow- ing, which were specially taken for " The Art Journal." My thanks are also due to Mr. Metford Warner (Messrs. Jeffrey and Co.) for the use of his photo-lithographs of my wall- paper designs issued by his firm ; Mr. R. Phene Spiers for the use of his sketch of the iron balustrade from Rothenburg ; Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson for photographs of two of his recent bookbindings ; the executors of the late Rev. W. H. Creeny for permission to reproduce two of the illustrations from his " Monumental Brasses on the Continent of Europe" (now published by Mr. B. T. Bats- ford) ; also Mr. Harold Rathbone, who kindly allows me to reproduce the cartoons by Ford Madox Brown in his possession; Mr. J. Syl- vester Sparrow for the practical notes on paint- ing glass; and Mr. Emery Walker and Mr. G. R. Dennis for help in several ways in the preparation of the book. A T f ^ r r Walter Crane. Kensington, November, 1897. ix CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I OF THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS . r II OF THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLU- ENCE 47 III OF THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD 89 IV OF THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS IN DESIGN 119 V OF THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE IN DESIGN-CHIEFLY IN REGARD TO COLOUR AND PATTERN 155 VI OF THE RACIAL INFLUENCE IN DESIGN 185 VII OF THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE, OR EMBLEMATIC ELEMENT IN DESIGN 215 VIII OF THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE, OR NATURALISM IN DESIGN 250 IX OF THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE IN DESIGN 291 X OF THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE IN DESIGN 335 XI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Three typical Constructive Forms in Architecture — Lintel, Round Arch, Pointed Arch 5 Gate of Mycenae 6 Imitation of Wooden Construction in Stone Tomb in Lycia 7 Ornamental lines in the Frieze of the Parthenon . . 8 Metope of the Parthenon, showing relation and pro- portions of the masses in relief to the ground . . 9 The Parthenon 11 The Parthenon — Eastern Pediment, sketches showing relation of lines of sculpture to angle of Pediment 12 The Parthenon — Elevation showing portion of Pedi- ment, Frieze and Columns 13 Architectural influence in design of small accessories (Greek) 15 Section of the Colosseum 17 Hanging the Festal Garland — Visit of Bacchus tolcarius 18 Arch of Constantine 19 Mosaic, St. Apollinare in Clause, Ravenna .... 21 Part of Interior of Dome of St. Mark's, Venice . 22 Mosaic of the Empress Theodora, St. Vitale, Ravenna 23 Anselm s Tower, Canterbury 25 Transitional Arcade, South Transept, Canterbury . 27 Typical Forms of Arches .... 28 Typical Forms of Gothic Geometric Foliation ... 28 Westminster Abbey, the Nave, looking east .... 29 Wells Cathedral, West Front 31 Westminster Abbey, Fan Tracery in Henry VII. 'sChapel 33 The Five Sisters of York 35 Details of Tomb, Winchelsea Church (1303) ... 37 xiii PAGE List of Fourteenth Century Canopied Tomb, Winchelsea Illustrations Church 38 Wrought-iron Railing, Wells Cathedral 39 Canopied Seat and Sideboard, French Fifteenth Century 40 Carved Bench-ends, Dennington Church, Suffolk . 41 Brocade Hanging, from the Annunciation, by Memling 42 St. David's Cathedral 43 Structural lines of different periods in harmonious combination, Canterbury Cathedral 45 Matting 48 Primitive Rush Mat 49 Assyrian incised Border 49 Assyrian enamelled Tile 50 Greek Anthemion Ornament 51 Wattled Fence 51 Ancient Volute Ornament 52 Types of Decoration derived from Thonging ... 53 Frieze of the Temple of the Sybil at Tivoli .... 54 Yoke of Oxen, Carrara 54 Barge-board, Ightham Mote House 56 Types of Gables 56 Hazelford Hall, Derbyshire 57 The Principle of the Dripstone 59 Towers of San Gimignano 60 Tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence 61 Tower with corner Turret, Axmouth Church, Devon . 62 Cut Brick Chimneys, Leigh's Priory, Essex .... 63 Brick Chimney, Framlingham Castle 64 Cast-iron Fire-dog, St. Nicholas's Hospital, Canter- bury 65 Cast-iron Grate Back, Bruges 66 Fireplace with wrought-iron Crane, Church Farm, Hempstead, Essex . 67 Candlesticks 69 Brass Chandelier, German Seventeenth Century . . 72 1 )etails of above 73 Lamps, Candlestick, and Snuffers 75 Drinking Vessels, etc 79 German Beer Mugs 80 Italian Flasks and Bottle 81 Pitcher from Rothenburg 85 Plate and Dish Decoration 85 Typical Border Systems 87 xiv l'AGE Persistent Pattern Plans, Rectangular Basis .... 87 List of Corbel, Seventeenth Century, Dennington Church, Illustrations Suffolk 90 Misereres, St. David's Cathedral 91,92 Scandinavian Clay Vessel 93 Modern Egyptian Clay Vessel 95 Bronze Statue of Louis XV. by Bouchardon, showing internal Iron-work and Core 97 The same, showing distribution of Ducts and Vents . 98 Wrought-iron Gates, St. Lawrence, Nuremberg . . 99 Wrought-iron Fender, Tongs, Fire-dog and Shovel, Bruges 99 Wrought-iron Altar Screen, St. Thomas's, Salisbury . 102 Wrought-iron Balustrade, Rothenburg, from a sketch by R. Phene Spiers 103 Lady at a Hand Loom, from Erasmus's " Praise of Folly" (1676) 105 Diagrams showing the principle of the Loom . . . 105 Persian Carpet (South Kensington Museum) . . . 107 PImbroidery 112 Facsimile of a page from the "Buch von den Sieben Todsiinden " (Augsburg, 1474) 114 Hans Baldung Griin, facsimile of a page from " Hor- tulus Animas " (Strassburg, 1511) 115 William Blake, "A Cradle Song" 117 Ceiling Motive, Wall-paper designed by Walter Crane 120 Repeating Pattern Wall-paper, designed by Walter Crane 121 Ceiling Papers, designed by Walter Crane .... 123 Pattern Plans and Motives controlled by conditions of Position and Purpose 125 Floor Motive, sketch design for inlaid wood, by Walter Crane 126 Drop Repeat Wall-papers, designed by Walter Crane 128, 129 Page Plans, showing various arrangements of Text and Decorations 131 Page from "The Glittering Plain" (Kelmscott Press) 133 Page from Spenser's " Faerie Queene " (Walter Crane) 135 Thirteenth Century Glass from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris (South Kensington Museum). . 138, 139, 141 Sixteenth Century Glass from Winchester College Chapel (South Kensington Museum) .... 143 Thirteenth Century Glass Grisaille, Salisbury Cathedral 147 XV PAGE List of Cartoons for Glass, showing lead design, by Ford Illustrations Madox Brown 149 Modern Glass, designed and executed by J. S. Sparrow 1 5 1 Porch of Cathedral of S. Jacopo, Pistoia 159 Primitive Egyptian House, after Viollet le Due . . 163 Column from Temple of Luxor 164 Persian Capital, influenced by Primitive Timber Con- struction 165 Lotus Capital, Philse 166 Frieze in coloured and glazed Bricks, Palace of Susa (from the Reproduction in the South Kensing- ton Museum), drawn by W. Cleobury . . . . 167 Holy Carpet of the Mosque at Ardebil (South Ken- sington Museum) 171 Arab Casement from Cairo (South Kensington Mu- seum), drawn by W. Cleobury 175 Carved stone lattice Window from the Mosque of the Palace of Ahmedabad 177 Portion of the Alhambra, drawn by Gustave Dore" . 181 Old House in Turnov, dated 1816 182 Street in Eger 183 Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Tomb of Beni Hasan (XlXth Dynasty) 189 Altar with Offerings Egyptian Mural Painting, Thebes 190 Egyptian Wall-painting (British Museum) . . . . 19c Assyrian Tree of Life 192 Assyrian Bas-reliefs (British Museum). . . 193, 194, 195 Assur Beni Pal, Assyrian Lions from the British Museum 196 Lion modelled by Alfred Stevens and cast in iron . . 197 Greek Stele or Head-stone j 99 Indian Flame Halo or Nimbus 200 Persian Pomegranate forms, from a goat-hair Carpet (South Kensington Museum) 201 Celtic desi n, from a Cross at Campbelltown, Argyllshire 202 Typical ornamental Forms in Persian, Indian, and Chinese designs 203 Arabian Fourteenth Century carved and inlaid Pulpit, Cairo (South Kensington Museum), drawn by W. Cleobury 205, 207 Panel in carved and inlaid Wood, from the Mosque of Tooloon in Cairo, Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century Saracenic 209 xvi PACE The Fylfot or Sauvastika, and its incorporation in List of ornament 217 Illustrations Primitive Symbols, Sun, Fire, Water 217 Polynesian Carved Ornament, from Hervey Island Paddle 218 Polynesian Ornament — Evolution of the Zigzag . . 219 Hindu Symbol of the Universe 221 Examples of Egyptian Symbolism 223 II Nilo (Rome, Vatican) 227 Venus and Paris — the Apples of the Hesperides (from a relief at Wilton House) 229 Christian Emblem : Stags Drinking (Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, Ravenna) 232 Christian Emblem : Peacocks and Vine (Sarcophagus, St. i\pollinare in Classe, Ravenna) 233 Fra Angelico, Angel (Uffizi, Florence) . . . 234, 235 Orcagna, Fiends from "The Triumph of Death," Fresco (Campo Santo, Pisa) 237 Combat of King with Griffin (Ancient Persian Sculpture, Persepolis) 239 Typical Forms of Shields and of Heraldic Treatment 241 Sicilian Silk Tissue, Twelfth century (South Ken- sington Museum) 243 Alciati's Emblems, designed by Solomon Bernard, Ex Bello Pax, Fortune, Ambition, Avarice . . 246, 247 Prehistoric Graphic Art of the Cave Men . . . 251, 252 Egyptian Treatment of Birds (from painted Mummy Cases, British Museum) 254 A Fowler, Wall-painting, XlXth Dynasty (British Museum) 255 Japanese Graphic Art (from "The Hundred Birds of Bari") 256, 257 Egyptian Scribe, Portrait Statuette, Vth or Vlth Dynasty (Louvre) 259 Sculptured Frieze discovered in the Forum, 1872 . . 261 Auxerre Cathedral, Fourteenth Century Sculpture. . 262 Amiens Cathedral, Thirteenth Century Sculpture . . 263 Statue of St. Martha (St. Urbain, Troyes) .... 265 Memling, "Deliveranceof St. Peter "(Grimani Breviary) 266 Memling, " David placing the Ark in the Tabernacle " (Grimani Breviary) 267 Albert Diirer, " The Apocalypse " 269 Albert Diirer, Portrait of Erasmus (1526) .... 270 Albert Diirer, "The Cannon" (151 3) 271 xvii b List of Albert Diirer, The taking down from the Cross (" Little Illustrations Passion") 272 Hans Burgmair, Group of Knights from "The Triumphs of Maximilian " 274 Horned Poppy, from Fuchsius' "De Historia Stirpium " ( r 542) . . 277 Japanese Plant Drawing 278, 279 Brass of Joris de Munter and Wife (Bruges, 1439) . 281 Brass of King Eric Menved and Queen Ingeborg of Denmark (Ringstead, 1319) 283 Charles Keene, Drawing from "Punch" 285 Linley Sambourne, Drawing from " Punch " . . . 287 Phil May, Drawing from "Punch" 289 Simone Memmi, Fresco containing portrait of Cimabue and Contemporaries (S. M. Novella, Florence) . 295 Giotto, Portrait of Dante (Pretorian Palace, Florence) 297 Giotto, Frescoes (Arena Chapel, Padua) . . . 298, 299 Giotto, Frescoes (Assisi) 300, 301 Niccolo Pisano, Pulpit (Baptistery, Pisa) .... 303 Orcagna, "Triumph of Death," Fresco (Campo Santo, Pisa) 3°4 Benozzo Gozzoli, Frescoes (Riccardi Chapel, Florence) 305, 307, 308, 309 Botticelli, Detail from " The Adoration of the Magi " (Uffizi, Florence) 310 Botticelli, "La Prima Vera" (Academy, Florence) . 311 Mantegna, Bronze Monument (S. Andrea, Mantua) . 313 Mantegna, "The Triumph of Julius Csesar," from Andrea Andreani's woodcut 317 Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper" (Milan) . . 321 Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Head of Christ . . 323 Bust of Michael Angelo (S. Croce, Florence) . . . 325 Michael Angelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel ("The Creation of Man ") 327 Michael Angelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . . . 329 Michael Angelo, The Delphic Sibyl (Sistine Chapel) . 331 Michael Angelo, Tomb of Giuliano de Medici (Florence) 332 Michael Angelo, Tomb of Lorenzo de Medici (Florence) 333 Natural variation in Repetition of Ornamental Forms — Primary School Children drawing on the black- board, Philadelphia 340, 341 Axminster Carpet Weaving 345 xviii PAGE Tapestry Carpet Weaving 346 List of Interior of the Atelier of Etienne Delaune, Paris, 1576 348 Illustrations Glass Blowing 350 Interior of a Printing Office, Sixteenth Century, from Jost Amman 351 Gold-Tooled Bindings, by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson 354, 355 Note. — The whole of the illustrations have been reproduced by Messrs. Walker and Boutall. ERRATA Page 2\,for Apollinaris read Apollinare. „ 51, line 5, omit the words see patterns from Mycenre. ,, 60, ,, 19, for Pourbus read Pourbos. „ 71, „ 30, insert and after restrained. „ 74, ,, 2, for surrounded read surmounted. „ 123, for Ceiling Wall-paper read Ceiling Paper. „ 234 and 235, for Ufizzi read Uffizi. „ 284, line 3,/tfr Edmund Calvert read Edward Calvert. xix OF THE BASES OF DESIGN I.— OF THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS WHEN we approach the study of Design, chap. i. from whatever point of view, and what- Scuma"*"" soever our ultimate aim and purpose, we can Basis hardly fail to be impressed with the vast variety and endless complexity of the forms which the term (Design) covers, understanding it in its widest and fullest sense. From the simplest linear pattern, or bone scratchings of primitive man, to the most splen- did achievements in mural decoration of the Italian Renascence — or, shall we say, from the grass mat of the first plaiter to the finest Persian carpet : or from Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathedral — the range is enormous, and were we to attempt to trace, step by step, the true relation between the diverse and multitudinous characteristics which such contrasts suggest, we should be tracing the course of the development of human thought and history themselves. When we stand amazed in this labyrinth — this enchanted and beautiful wood of human invention which the history of art displays, we might be content to gaze at the loveliness of particular forms there, and simply enjoy, like I B Chap. i. children, the beauty of the trees and flowers ; t^ctSraf r ° hl gathering here and there at random, and casting Basis them aside again when we were tired, without a thought as to their true significance. If, however, we desire to find some clue to the labyrinth — something which will explain it in part, at least, something which will give us a key to the relation of these manifold forms, and enable us to place them in harmonious order and coherence, we shall presently ask : (1) How and whence they derived their leading characteristics ? (2) Upon what basis have they been built up ? and (3) What have been the chief influences which have determined, and still determine, their varieties ? Let us try and address ourselves to these questions, since, I believe, even if we only end as we begin, by inquiry, that, in the course of that inquiry, by study, by comparison, and care- ful observation, we shall be able greatly to clear our path, and find much to help us as individual students and practical workers in art. (1) The first arts are, of course, those of pure utility, which spring from the primal physical necessities of man : which are concerned in the maintenance of life itself. — The art or craft of the hunter and the fisherman, the tiller of the soil, the hewer of wood and the drawer of water : but seeing that next to securing suf- ficiency of food, the efforts of man are directed towards providing himself with shelter, both of roof and raiment, and since most of the arts of the creative sort must be practised under shelter of some kind, and that all of them contribute in 2 some way towards the building or adornment chap. i. of such shelter, I think we shall find the true J^raf 1 basis and controlling influences, which have Basis been paramount in the development of decora- tive design, in the form and character of the dwellings of man and their accessories ; from the temples he has raised to enshrine his highest ideals — these temples themselves being but larger and more monumental dwellings, to the tomb, his last dwelling-place. We shall find, in short, the original and controlling bases of design in architecture, the queen and mother of all the arts. In asserting this one does not lose sight of the view that all art is, primarily, the projection or precipitation in material form of mans emo- tional and intellectual nature ; but, being pro- jected and taking definite shape, it becomes subject to certain controlling forces of nature, of material, of condition, which re-act upon the mind ; and it is with these controlling forces and conditions, and the distinctions which arise out of them, that we are now concerned. Such distinctions as exist, for instance, in the feeling, the plan and construction of those pat- terns intended to be laid upon the floors (as in carpets or tiles), and such as are intended to cover ceilings and walls (as in plaster-work, textile hangings or wall papers), obviously arise from the relative positions of floor, walls, and ceilings, and the differences between horizontal and vertical positions ; and these conditions are necessarily part and parcel of the constructional conditions of the dwelling itself. The first shelter may be said to have been the shelter of nature without art — the Tree 3 Chap. i. and the Cave, the first homes of man ; although t^cturaf rChl be was probably n °t by any means the first Basis animal to hide among the woods and the rocks, since he had many and formidable foes to dispute with or disturb him in possession. It is noticeable that such art as is associated with this strange and remote chapter of man's existence on the earth — the art-instinct which impelled the primitive hunter to incise the bone and stone implements he used with the images of the animals he hunted — is purely graphic, and does not show any feeling of that adaptive ornamental quality characteristic of what we call decorative design, which would seem to belong to a more highly organized condition of society. "Among the primitive Greeks," remarks Messrs. Guhl and Koner in their Life of the Greeks and Romans, " fountains and trees, caves and mountains, were considered as seats of the gods, and revered accordingly, even without being changed into divine habitations by the art of man." But, as proving literally that art springs out of nature, the cave itself led to a development of architecture, as in some early Greek tombs where the cave, or cleft in the rocks, is utilized and added to by masonry ; or where the rock itself was carved and hollowed, as in the rock-cut temples of Egypt and India. To which some trace the origin of columnar architecture. The Tent of the Asiatic wandering tribes, and the wattled and wooden Hut of the western and northern, come next in the order of human dwellings, and not only may we trace certain types of pattern design to both sources, but it would seem as if both the tent and the hut, and perhaps the wagon of the Aryans, had had 4 their influence upon the more substantial stone structures which succeeded them. When tribes became communities, townships were founded, and more fixed and settled habits of life pre- vailed. Now we may broadly group the principal types of architectural form and construction in three principal divisions, following Professor Ruskin, namely : DIAGRAM TO SHOW THE.- THREE TYPICAL FORMS OF ARCHITECTURE ]|j 1 H POINTED ARCH 1 ROUND ARCH LINTEL Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis 1. The architecture of the Lintel (or column and pediment). 2. The architecture of the Round Arch (or vault and dome). 3. The architecture of the Pointed Arch 1 (or vault, gable, and buttress). Of the first we may find the simplest type in Stonehenge ; we may find it in equally massive, 1 Although such a classification may not be quite satis- factory from the point of view of the constructive and historical architect, it sufficiently serves the present purpose as regards the influence of these main types in determining the form and character and controlling spaces and lines of the decoration, both surface and sculptural design, which ac- companies them in ancient, classical, and mediaeval work which it is my object to trace. 5 Three typical con- structive forms in architecture and almost as primitive form at Mycenae, at the famous Gate of the Lions, remarkable as being the earliest known example of Greek sculpture : we may find it more developed in the Greek temples of ancient Egypt, at Karnac, Thebes and Philae, and we may see it in its purest form in the Parthenon at Athens. The derivation and development of the Greek Doric temple from its prototype of wooden con- struction has fre- quently been de- monstrated, and the tombs in Lycia furnish striking illustra- tions of this close imitation and perpetuation in stone of a system and details be- longing to wood ; and it is instruc- tive to compare its features with corresponding parts in the Par- thenon, and to observe how closely they agree. It is a curious instance of that love for and clinging to ancient and traditional forms, that with the art and all the resources of Athenian civilization, the form and construction of its temples remained much the. same, and may be considered as only glorified enlargements in marble of their wooden predecessors, retaining all the characteristic details of those primitive structures. 6 By these means, however, qualities of grandeur, chap. i. joined with extreme simplicity, subtle propor- °cturat r ° hl tions, and sparing, severe, but delicately chiselled Basis ornament were gained ; which, when heightened with colour in the broad and strong sunshine of Greece, seemed all sufficient, especially so when they formed the framework, or setting, of the most beautiful and noble sculpture the world has ever seen, as in the Parthenon. IMITATION OP WOODEN CONSTRUCTlONINSTOME •TOM&IMLYKIA Imitation of wooden construction in stone tomb in Lycia CUHL4 KONER.) To this sculpture, indeed, all the lines and Sculpture, proportions of the building seem to lead the eye, while it remains, whether in pediment, metope, or frieze, an essential part of the archi- tectural effect, and is strictly slab sculpture, or what may be considered as architectural orna- ment, for, as I have elsewhere said, we may fairly consider figure-sculpture to have been the ornament of the Greeks : just as one might say that picture writing and hieroglyphic were the mural decorations of the Egyptians. 7 Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis Ornamental lines in the Frieze of the Parthenon These sculptures were evidently designed under the influence of the strongest architectural and decorative feeling, and were constructed upon a basis of ornamental lines. There is a certain rhythm and recurrence of mass, and line, and form in them throughout, and they have all been carefully considered in relation to the places they occupy. iWAVe ^OVeHtTST 2k' SPIRAL • CuRV£^ni^THC^R|iE2^ It is to be noted, too, that the sculptures are placed in the interstices of the construction ; that is to say, not on the actual bearing parts. On this point it is interesting to compare with the earlier forms of pure stone construction at Mycenae. The lions over the Mycenae Gate are carved upon a slab of stone placed in the triangular hollow left above the lintel to prevent it breaking under the great pressure of the heavy stones used. The triangular hollow may 8 be seen ivithout the slab in the doorway of chap. i. Clytemnestra's house at Mycenae. Here we ^turai' have an early instance of the interstice left by Basis • MGTOP6' OF • THE.' PARTH£NON' •SHOWING* RCL^TION' &• PROPORTIONS- OF-TH6 • |v\ASS€5 IN- &fcU€F a TO THt* Q(\OUND • the necessities of the construction being utilized as a decorative feature, significant in its design, showing the protecting image of the Castle of Mycenae, much in the same w r ay as we see the Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis The Parthenon Elevation of part of Parthenon family arms sculptured over the gateways of our English mediaeval castles. Returning to the Parthenon, we see that the same principle is observable in the pediment and metope sculptures, the frieze of the cella being really a mural decoration consisting of facing slabs of marble. The building would doubtless stand without any of them, as a timber- framed house would stand without its boarding, or filling of brick or plaster ; but it would be like a skeleton, or a head without its eyes — much, indeed, as time, bombardment, ravage, and the British Museum have left it now. Before we leave the Parthenon, let me call attention to one prevailing principle, charac- teristic of its design in every part ; for though following throughout the principles or traditions of wooden construction, no doubt its proportions and lines were consciously and carefully con- sidered by the architect with a view to aesthetic effect. It is the principle of recurring or re- echoing lines, a leading principle, indeed, through- out the whole province of Design, and one on the importance and value of which it is impos- sible to lay too much stress. To begin with the pediment. The main out- line is delicately emphasized by the mouldings of the edge, which also serve as a dripstone — the practical origin, probably, of all mouldings. The groups of sculptured figures within the recess (which further serve to express the pitch of the roof) re-echo, informally, in the lines controlling their composition, as well as in the lines of limbs and draperies, variations of the angle of the pediment. Thus, the groups of figures, full of action and variety as they are, are united and 10 chap, i, harmonized with the whole building ; while, to °ctu?at rChl " avoid undue appearance of heaviness on the Basis crest of the pediment and on the angles were placed anthemion bronze ornaments. The cornice, again, is emphasized by mould- ings marking the important horizontal lines of the building, re-echoed by the lines of the frieze, and counteracted and braced by the emphatic Relation of vertical lines of the triglyphs, and enriched by the lines in the i itt i e dentils below. the sculp- tures to the 1 hen we come to the cap of the Doric column. pedime°nt the It: ls simplicity itself. A thin square block of marble forms the abacus. The capital is a flattened circular cushion of marble, rounded at the sides in a diminishing curve to the head of 12 PARTHENON' ELEVATION "SHOWING PORTION oF PEDIMENT • FRIEZE .AND coLvrtnsx chap. i. the column, which terminates in a horizontal Scturaf rChl reeding. The column itself is delicately chan- Basis nelled with a series of lines which follow its outline, and give vertical expression to the idea of the support of the horizontal mass above, the column gradually diminishing from base to cap, entasized or slightly swelled in the middle to avoid the visual effect of running out of the perpendicular. The Doric columns spring boldly from the steps without base mouldings, the steps repeating the horizontal lines of the building again, and giving it height and dignity. The other variants of the Greek style will illustrate much the same principles in different degrees, and we may trace the value of proportions, and recurring lines, and different degrees of enrich- ment through the other four orders. As designers, then, we can at least learn some very important lessons from lintel architecture generally, and from the Parthenon in particular, and chiefest amongst these are : 1 . The value of simplicity of line. 2. The value of recurring and re-echoing lines. 3. The value of ornamental design and treat- ment of figures in low or high relief as parts of architectural expression. 4. The value of largeness of style in the design and treatment of the groups and figures themselves, both as sculpture pure and simple and as architectural ornament. When we come to examine the accessories of Greek life, furniture, pottery, dress, we find them all characterized by the same qualities in design as we have just been noting in the archi- tecture, the fundamental architectural feeling H seems to pervade them. A simplicity of line, balance, and reserve of ornament distinguishes alike their seats and chairs and tables, caskets, vases and vessels, and the expressive line of their dresses and dra- peries falling into the lines of the figure give life and variety, while they contrast with the severity of the archi- tectural lines and planes. Now, so far we have been considering the architecture of the lin- tel, and its bearing Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis Architec- tural in- fluence in design of small accessories MARBLE CHAIRS • THE.ATRE OF DIONYSUS' ATHENS QRttK TABLC WITH OFF*/?' •£ND OF GRCeK COUCH upon design, and the qualities and principles we may learn from it generally. With the use of the round arch — invented, it is said, by the Greeks, but always associated with the Romans, who used it — quite different effects come in, with different motives and ideas !5 in design. The Roman architecture, the round arch, fulfils the functions of both construction and ornament, on the same principle of recur- rence, or repetition, we have noticed before ; as, for instance, in the Colosseum, where the tiers of round arches which support the outer wall of the building, serve both the constructive and decorative functions. With the use of the arch the arcade becomes a constructive feature of great decorative value, and takes the place in Roman and Romanesque buildings, with a lighter and more varied effect, of the columned Greek cella. Sunshine, no doubt, had much to do with its use, since a covered arcaded loggia, or porch in front of a building, so frequent in Italy, gave both shelter and coolness. The use of the arch led to vaulting, and to the use of arch mouldings, enrichments, and to the covering the vaults with mosaic and painting, and the vaulting led to the dome, which, again, offered a splendid field for the mosaicist and the painter. The Romans borrowed all their architectural details from the Greeks, and varied and enriched them, adding many more members to the cornice mouldings, and carving stone garlands upon their friezes, to take the place of the primitive festal ones of leaves which were hung there, as in the relief of the visit of Bacchus to Icarius, a Romano-Greek sculpture in the British Museum. They (the Romans) fully realized the orna- mental value of colonnades and porticoes, and they used the column, varying the orders, and translating them into pilasters freely as decora- tions on the facades and walls of their build- ings, slicing up the peristyles of temples, as it 16 Section of the Colosseum COMSTRVCTIVL Si DECORATIVE USE OF ROVMD ARCH <3c PILASTER • FLAVIAN ArVPtilTHEATRE. tCOLOSSEVM) c Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis Hanging the garland. Visit of Bacchus to Icarius. Graeco- Roman relief, British Museum were, for the sake of their ornamental effect, cutting down the columns into pilasters, and placing them, with intervening friezes, one on the top of the other, masking the construction of the real building, a favourite device with the Renascence architects. Roman architecture may be considered really as a transitional style. While its true con- structive characteristic is the round arch, every detail of the Greek or Lintel architecture is used ■HANGING -THE-- FLSTAL •GftRUAMD- ■ FRor\ -/v QR^ECO'ROHWI I' R-ELItF lN THL BRiTlSH MUv [■ Eiirr both without and with the arch, and in the latter case the column frequently becomes a wall decoration in the shape of a pilaster, as well as the cornice, and is no longer made use of, as in true lintel construction, to support the weight of the roof. In their viaducts and bridges and baths they were great builders with the arch, but, like some modern engineers, when they wanted to beautify they borrowed archi- tectural ornament from the Greeks. Nothing very fresh was gained for design in 18 these adaptations except a certain heavy richness of detail in the sculptured cornices and friezes, and coffered ceilings. The use of the flat pilaster, however, led to the panelled pilaster with its elegant arabesque, which was afterwards revived and developed with such extraordinary grace and variety by the artists of the Renas- cence and carried from Italy westward. Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis Arch of Constantine. Use of decorative sculpture in Roman Ar- chitecture. Spandrel panel medallion frieze. Inscription With the round arch, too, several important decorative spaces were given to the designer, the spandrel, the panel, the medallion, all of which, with the frieze, may be seen utilized for the decorative sculpture on the arch of Constantine. The decorative use of inscriptions is also a feature in Roman architecture, and the dignity of the form of their capital letters were well adapted to ornamental effect in square masses upon their triumphal arches and along the entablature of their temples. 19 Chap. i. The Romans, too, brought the domed roof and tecturat rchl tne m °saic ^oor into use, and were great in the Basis use of coloured marbles ; also stucco and plaster work in interiors. The free and beautiful plaster work found in the tombs on the Latin Way being well known, so that on the whole we owe to them the illustration of the effective use of many beautiful arts, which the Italians have inherited to this day, though it must be said often with more skill than taste. One might say, generally and ultimately, Roman art exemplified that love of show, and the external signs of power, pomp, splendour, and luxury which became dear as well as fatal to them, as they appear to do to every conquering people, until they are finally enervated and overcome as if by the Nemesis of their own supremacy. The art of Greece, one may say, on the other hand, at her zenith represented that love of beauty as distinct from ornament, and clearness and severity of thought which will always cling to the country from whence the modern world derives the germ of nearly all its ideas. But when the seat of the empire was trans- ferred to Constantinople, and Roman art, in- fluenced by Asiatic feeling, and stimulated and elevated by the new faith of Christianity, became transfigured into the solemn splendour of Byzantine art, the architecture of the round arch and the dome and cupola rose to its fullest beauty, and such buildings as St. Sophia at Constantinople, and St. Mark's at Venice, with the churches of Ravenna, mark another great and noble epoch in the arts of design. Byzantine design, whether in building, in 20 carving, in mosaic, or goldsmiths' work, im- presses one with a certain restraint in the midst of its splendour, a certain controlling dignity and reserve appears to be exercised even in the use of the most beautiful materials, as well as in design and the treatment of form. The mosaics of the Ravenna churches alone are sufficient to exemplify this. The artists seemed fully to realize that the curved surfaces Mosaic, St. Apollinaris in Classe, Ravenna of the dome, the half dome of the apse, or the long flat frieze above the arch columns of the nave of the basilicas, like St. Apolli- naris in Classe, afforded splendid fields for a splendid material, the cross light from the deep- set windows enriching the effect, and that every- thing might well be secondary to it. The same principle or feeling is seen in St. Mark's, where the architecture is quite simple, the arches and vaulting without mouldings, nothing to 2 I Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis chap. I. interfere with the quiet splendour of the gold or tecturai re 1 hlue fields of mosaic varied with simple typical tectural Basis Dome of St. Mark's SK6TCH OF PART Of INT6RIOR.OF Dor^E.- s.^ark^. vcnicc figures, bold in silhouette, placed frankly upon them, emblems, boldly curving scroll-work, and inscriptions. The execution, too, is as direct and simple as the design. Such design and QftheArchi decoration as this becomes an essential and tecturai integral part of the architectural structure and effect. Basis Mosaic of the Empress Theodora, St. Vitale, Ravenna, Vlth century Note the way in which the tesserae are laid (in the head of the Empress Theodora from St. Vitale at Ravenna, for instance). The cube is used as much as possible, but the cubes vary 23 chap. i. much in size, and are set often with very open ucturaf rChl " joints, the cement lines of the bedding showing Basis quite clearly, and the surface of the work un- even, the tesserae being worked, of course, from the front and in situ, presenting a varied surface of different greets which, catching the light at different angles, give an extraordinary sparkle and richness to the effect as a whole. In the head of Theodora the effect is enhanced by the discs of mother-of-pearl used for the head- dress. In the laying of the tesserae, too, note that the system is followed of defining the outlines with rows of cubes, and building up the masses (as in the nimbus) with concentric rows, as a rule, making the lines of the filling tesserae follow as far as possible the line of the boundary tesserae. This, of course, would naturally result as the simplest and most convenient, as well as most expressive, method of laying on tesserae, in defining form by means of small cubes, and is one of the conditions of the work, and when, as in these mosaics, so far from being refined away, or concealed, or any attempt being made (as in later times) to imitate painting, these conditions are boldly and frankly acknowledged, we see how its peculiar beauty, character, and the quality of its ornamental effect depends upon these very conditions. This principle will be found to hold good and true throughout all art. Directly, from a false idea of refinement, or with the object of dis- playing mechanical skill, the craftsman is induced to try and conceal the fundamental conditions of his craft, and tries to make it ape the qualities of some totally different sort of work, he ceases 24 to be an artist, at all events. The true artist chap. i. in any material is he who in acknowledging its °cturai rChl conditions and limitations finds in them sources Basis Anselm's Tower and opportunities of new beauty, and in being faithful to those conditions makes them subserve his invention. After the decorative splendour of the Byzan- tine architecture, the Norman work left in our 25 Chap. I. own land seems comparatively simple and plain t^cturat rChl as ti me has left it, but its remains show its Basis Roman descent in the doorway and porch of many a quiet village church, as well as on a greater scale in so many of our cathedrals, which often illustrate, in a remarkable way, the tran- sition or growth of one style out of another, the new evolved from the old. At Canterbury, for instance, one reads the signs which mark the transformation of the Norman building into the Gothic. The first church founded by St. Augustine was Saxon. This was enlarged by Otho (938) as a basilica. This again was ruined by the Danes (1013). The Norman part of the present building was constructed by Bishop Lanfranc (1070), on to which was grafted, as it were, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth century Gothic which distinguish it. There is a tower on the south side of the transept known as Anselm's Tower (from Bishop Anselm, one of the Norman builders), and on the lower part runs an arcading of interlacing round arches, the tower itself being richly arcaded in several stories in round arches. But this lower band of interlaced arcading shows the period of transitional, from the use of the semicircular or round arch, to the pointed — the pointed lancet arches being formed by the interlacing of the round, so that we have here the actual birth of the pointed arch, which leads us to our next typical division and characteristic epoch of architectural style. We need not go out of our own country to find abundant illustrations of typical forms of pointed architecture. Almost any village church .26 I will give us the main features — the characteristic plan of nave and chancel, curiously following 27 chap. I. the plan of the ancient Roman basilica — the °cturat rchl public hall and law court in one, and perpetuat- Basis Typioai -TYPICAL- FORMS' OF- ARCHES forms of arches, etc. Foliation StMlClRCUlAR 1RAN6)T0N- ■ POINTED (GqUllATtRAL) ♦ X X A A X + + •TYPICAL roans • OF GOTHIC oeoncT ' RIC- roLiATion. * * * * ing for us the type of ancient dwelling or hall which may be said to have prevailed from the time of Homer to the end of the Middle 28 Westmins- ter Abbey. The Nave, looking east, chap. i. Ages, varying chiefly in external features and tTturat 1 *'^" architectural detail. Basis The severe lancet arch is characteristic of the first phase of the Gothic, which gradually grew out of the severer Norman. The gable took a higher pitch, and to support the weight and thrust of towers and spires, buttresses were used, and these became, also, a striking and charac- teristic feature of the pointed arch, which com- pleted in the thirteenth century the period of its first development. Lancet arch, high-pitched gable, buttress (plain and pinnacled), spired and pinnacled tower — these are the leading constructive exterior characteristics, the carved work, somewhat re- strained, and chiefly manifested in peculiar foliation of the capitals and corbels, and in the hollows of arch mouldings in rows of sharp cut dog teeth. In the interior clustered shafts took the place of the solid round Norman piers, rising, as we see in our cathedral naves, to support lofty vaulted roofs, the ribs moulded and covered at their intersections by carved bosses. Again we may note the principle of recurring lines which repeat and emphasize the form of the arched openings and the structural lines of the vaulting in the mouldings. This recurrence gives that effect of extraordinary grace and light- ness combined with structural strength which is so striking a characteristic of thirteenth cen- tury Gothic work, and of which there is no finer example than the nave of Westminster Abbey. We noted that the Greeks used the inter- stices of their construction for their chief decora- tion, their figure sculpture, and to some extent 30 the same plan is followed in Gothic architec- ture, where we find the tympanums of doors, the spandrels of arcades (as in the Chapter House at Salisbury or the angel choir at Lincoln), and canopied niches (as at Wells), used for figure sculpture ; but, at the same time, the structural features themselves are em- phasized by ornament to a far greater extent, as in caps, arch mouldings, the junctions of the vaulting, and the like ; and increasingly so in the succeeding Decorated and Perpendicular periods, until we get vaulted roofs of fan tracery like those of King's College Chapel at Cam- bridge, or Henry VI I. 's Chapel at Westminster. But if we may say that the chief decorative glory of Greek architecture was its figure sculp- ture, as mosaic was of the Byzantine churches, so we may say that the traceried window, filled with stained and leaded glass, became the chief decorative glory of Gothic architecture. Unhappily great quantities of glass have dis- appeared from our cathedrals and churches, from one cause or another, but from the relics that remain we may form some idea of the splendour and quality of the old glass. The famous windows of the south transept at York Minster, called " The Five Sisters," are good examples of the severer earlier style of pattern and colour, consisting of fine scroll- work and geometric forms, in which hatched grisaille patterns are heightened by bright points and lines of colour. Thirteenth century glass, where figures are used, is characterized by the smallness of their scale in proportion to the window, and traces of Byzantine tradition in their drawing, intricate Westmin- ster Abbey, Fan Tracery in Henry VII. 's Chapel, XVth century Chap. i. design, and deep and vivid colouring, the work tecturat rChl being composed of small pieces of glass leaded Basis together ; the effect of the jewel-like depth and quality of the colour — deep crimsons, blues, and greens being much used — being increased by the close network of leading. As windows, in the course of the evolution of the Gothic style, were made broader, or rather, the window opening proper from wall to wall being greatly increased in width and height, they were supported and divided into panels or lights by elaborate stone tracery, a tracery which becomes almost as distinct a province of design as the design of the glass itself — distinct from, yet in close relationship to, the architec- ture of the building. The comparative slight divisions of the tracery, however, gave more scope to the stained glass designer, who shows very emphatic architectural influence in the elaborate canopies which surmount the figures occupying the separate lights of the windows from the thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth centuries, as well as in the general vertical arrange- ment of the lines of their composition. He gradually increased the scale of his figures and gave more breadth to his design, and brought it more into relation with the art of the painter and the sculptor, at the same time acknowledging with them, in the disposition of his figures in the space, and the disposition of the draperies and accessories, that architectural influence under which the artist and craftsman of the Middle Ages worked with extraordinary freedom and fertility of invention, and yet in perfect harmony. 1 1 As I recur to the subject of glass design in Chapter IV. illustrations are given there. 34 chap. i. A sign of that fraternal co-operation and the t^cturaf rChl e ff ect of the formation of men into brotherhoods Basis and guilds, which, coming in with the adoption of Christianity and the organization of the Church, remained through all the turbulence and strife of the time the great social force of the Middle Ages. It seems to me if we wish to realize the ideal of a great and harmonious art, which shall be capable of expressing the best that is in us : if we desire again to raise great architectural monuments, religious, municipal, or commemora- tive, we shall have to learn the great lesson of unity through fraternal co-operation and sympathy, the particular work of each, however individual and free in artistic expression, falling naturally into its due place in a harmonious scheme. Let us cultivate our technical skill and knowledge to the utmost, but let us not neglect our imagination, sense of beauty, and sympathy, or else we shall have nothing to express. Through the thirteenth century onwards to the fifteenth Gothic architecture continued to develop, to pass through new phases, to take new forms, a living and growing style moving with the wants and ideals of men. After the Early English comes the Decorated period, in which the mouldings and foliation become fuller, broader, and more ornate. To contrast decorated foliation and ornament with the earlier work, is like comparing the opening flower with the bud. The ogee arch was invented, the crockets of the pinnacles and canopies grew and increased and became finer in form, the finials larger and more varied. The carved canopies and tabernacle work grew richer and .36 Chap. I. more intricate. The foliage followed nature tecturat rChl more closely. The figure subjects of the carver Basis were more freely treated, and dealt oftener with common life, with phantasy, or humour. The XlVth century canopied tomb, Winchelsea Church effigies of knight and lady, or priest, became more and more like portraits in stone or ala- baster, the details of their dresses more rich, delicate, and beautiful. The maker of brasses showed a freer and more masterly hand, and greater sense of ornamental effect in the spac- 38 ing and treatment of his figures. The work of Chap. i. the miniaturist and the scribe grew more and °cturat rChl " more delicate and exquisite in form, colour, and Basis invention. The stained glass worker increased the scale of his figures, and varied the quality and treatment of his colours. The glazier in- vented new lead patterns ; the wood carver revelled in stall work, screens, and misereres. The recessed and canopied tomb enriched the chantries of churches and ca- thedrals. Beauty and in- vention of extra- ordinary fertility and richness cha- racterized every form of art and handicraft asso- ciated with Go- thic architecture. We can trace in each variety the architectural influence in every department of work In some instances reproduction of actual architectural details and characteristics, as, for instance, when the wrought-iron railing of a bishop's tomb (at Wells Cathedral, 1464-5) reproduced the battlement, buttress and pin- nacle as motives, giving them, however, a free and fanciful rendering suited to the material. Abundant instances may be found of the fanciful treatment of architectural forms in furni- ture, textiles, in painting and carving, and metal 39 Wrought iron railing, Wells Cathedral Chap. I. Of the Archi tectural Basis Canopied seat and sideboard work — the canopies over the heads of figures in stained glass, and inclosing figures upon brasses, are instances — shrines and caskets in the form of arcaded, and buttressed and pinnacled build- ings, seats and chairs with canopied or arched backs, carved bench ends with " poppy head" finials and arched and foliated panels, censers in the form of shrines. The large gold brocaded stuffs used as hangings or coverings, and repre- M.ter) sented in miniatures and pictures of the period. Very beautiful specimens are to be seen in the pictures of Van Eyck and Memling for instance. In all these things we find a re-echo, as it were, of the prevailing foliated forms of Gothic architecture, repeated through endless varia- tions, the controlling and harmonizing element throughout the design work of the Gothic periods, the form by which all seem to be har- 40 monized and related, as the branches are related Chap. i. . . i i i r i Of the Ai to the main stem, and as the plan oi the tree tecturai may be found in the veining of the leaf. Basis The fourteenth century saw the development of a new phase of Gothic called Perpendicular. It is found united with the Early English and Carved bench-ends, Dennington Church, Suffolk Decorated, as well as Norman, in nearly all our cathedrals. At St. David's, for instance, there is a re- markable instance of a late Perpendicular timber roof, richly moulded and carved, with pendants, covering a Norman nave of 1180. Yet the effect is fine, and one feels glad that the restoring architect could find no authority for a Norman 4i Chap. I. Of the Archi- tectural Basis Brocade hanging, from the Annuncia- tion, by Memling stone vaulting, otherwise we might have lost the rich timber roof for a modern idea of a supposititious Norman vault. The sketch (from the south side of the choir at Canterbury, p. 45), too, shows how harmoniously structural lines of different periods compose. The chief characteristics of the late period of Gothic (Perpendicular) are a lower pitched arch, an elongated shaft, many clustered ; caps and bases angular; ribs of vaulting richly moulded, or the vault covered with fan-like foliation in late ex- amples, as in Henry VII.'s Chapel. Pin- nacles begin to take the cupular form, de- tails become smaller, windows grow larger and are transversely divided by transoms or horizontal bars of stone, connecting and solidifying the many vertical mullions. A certain refinement of detail and line with a feeling for emphatic horizontals and verticals comes in ; and this feeling may be the indication of a reaction, as if the constructive and imagi- native faculties of man were beginning to pre- pare for the next great change that was soon to sweep over the art of Europe. It might be said that gradually from that time architecture, as the supreme organic and con- 42 trolling influence in the arts of design, gave up Chap. I. her prerogative of leadership, and since has °cturaf r ° hl " rather been on the whole displaced in artistic Basis interest by the other arts ; or rather, with the St. David's Cathedral change of the principle of organic growth out of use and constructive necessity in architecture for those of classical authority, archaeology, or learned eclecticism, the different arts, more especially painting, began an independent exist- 43 chap. I. ence, and, with the other arts of design, may tecturat* Chl ^ e sa ^ to ^ ave ^ een m ° r e individualized and Basis less and less related both to them and to archi- tecture ever since, reaching the extremest points of divergence perhaps in our own days. It seems to me that, on the whole, there can be little doubt that architecture and the arts of design generally have suffered in consequence ; and to bring them back to healthy and harmoni- ous activity we must try to re-unite them all again upon the old basis. I will terminate here my short sketch of architectural style and its influence, not attempt- ing now to follow it in its later changes and adaptations to the increased complexities of human existence. My purpose has been rather to dwell upon the organic and typical forms of architecture, in my endeavour to trace the relationship between it and the art of design generally. That relationship appears to me to consist chiefly in the control of constructive line and form, which all design, surface or otherwise, in association with any form of architecture is bound of necessity to acknowledge as a funda- mental condition of fitness and harmony. Those essential properties of the expression of line, as they now seem, which give meaning and pur- pose to all design, appear to be derived straight from constructive necessities and the inseparable association of ideas with which they are con- nected ; as, for instance, the idea of secure rest and repose conveyed by horizontal lines, or the sense of support and rigidity suggested by vertical ones may be directly traced to associa- tion with the fundamental principles of architec- 44 STRUCTURAL OF DlFF6.R6.NT P6.R10D5 IN HARMONIOUS COMBINATION chap. i. tural structure, to the lintel and its support, to £cturaf rCbl t ^ ie l avm g of stone upon stone, and with this Basis clue we might trace the expression of line through its many variations. 4 6 CHAPTER II.— OF THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE. NEXT to the architectural basis influence chap. n. in design, and, indeed, hardly separable utility from it, being another side of the constructive, Basis and adaptive art, we may fitly take the Utility Basis Influence and influence. This may be considered in two ways : (1) In its effect upon pattern design and architectural ornament through primitive structural necessities. (2) In its effect upon structural form and ornamental treatment arising out of, or suggested by, functional use. (1) It is a curious thing that we should find the primitive ornamental motives bound up with the primitive structures and fabrics of pure utility and necessity, but such would appear to be the case. The plaiting of rushes to make a mat was probably one of the earliest industrial occupa- tions, and the chequer one of the most primitive and universal of patterns. If we look at the sur- face effect of the necessity of the construction, the crossing of one equal set of fibres by another set at right angles, with the interlacement, a series of squares are produced, which alternate 47 Chap. II. Of the Utility Basis and Influence Matting in tint if the colour of one set is darker than the sets which cross it (see illus- tration). Emphasize this contrast and we get our chequer, or chessboard pattern, which, either as a pattern complete in itself, as in plaids and tartans, or as a plan, or effect motive in designing is, as I have said, perhaps the most universal and imperishable of all pat- terns, being found in as- sociation' with the design of all periods, and still surviving in constant use among designers. Let us follow the primitive rush mat a little further, however. As it lay on the primitive tent or hut floor its edges would take the sort of form shown on the opposite page. In ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, and Greek archi- tecture we constantly find carved patterns used as borderings and figures, of the type given in the Assyrian example. Now, comparing this with the primitive matting, the suggestion is very strong of the probability of derivation of motive of patterns of this type from the same constructive source originally. In some in- stances (as on the enamelled tile from Assyria, the border reverses itself, but with the Greeks it finally took the upright direction, as in the Anthemion or honeysuckle border forms ; but, however afterwards varied and enriched 4 8 E chap. ii. by floral form, its structural origin in plaited utility work is always to be traced, and it seems Basis and to gain from it a certain strength and adapt- Influence ^jjj^ Another type of ornament may be traced to the constructive necessities of wattle and wicker work, so much used by primitive man in the structure of his dwellings, and in primitive ob- jects of use and service. Assyrian WS^MS ^^M^U^ I^^Si^^U^^^KB^MMS^^^^^^^M^^I^^ Enamelled | , m/± «*& Tile vJw fK ^ *\ A\ r The various forms of volute, or spiral, and guil- loche ornament, so much used by the ancients — Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek — may be com- pared, in their structure and arrangement of line, with the form taken by the withy, or cord twisted around the upright canes or staves of a wattled fence, as seen in horizontal section. The primitive wattled structure gives the plans of these patterns. It certainly appears to account for their origin in a remarkably com- plete way. 50 It is possible that another source which may chap. n. have contributed to the evolution of the Greek Utility Basis and Influence Greek Anthemion Ornament spiral or volute was metal in the form of the thin beaten plates with which the primitive Greeks covered parts of their interior walls (see patterns WATTUD F£NC€ I from Mycenae) ; but these were later times, and it is also possible that the primitive metal worker took his motive from the wattling too. 5i Wattled Fence Chap. II. Of the Utility Basis and Influence Ancient Volute Ornament Before metal was used, or nails or joinery were known, the method of fastening two things together, such as the blade of a stone axe or hammer and its handle, was by thonging or tying them firmly together by strips of leather or thongs, and to this source again we might trace other types of pattern motives of very wide prevalence. In the first instances the thonging was imitated in metal-work when no longer used 52 in the construction by way of ornament, as in Chap. n. various bronze implements existing ; but later, utility starting from the tying and thonging motive, we Basis and get all sorts of variations, as in the zigzag of Influence Norman arch mouldings, and in the earlier Celtic knotted work, which seemed partly a re-echo of some types of Eastern and classic ornament, unless we regard it as independently derived, like them, from primitive structure. It seems l rON6 Axe OF MONT6lU-^ LAKfroF 3ou(K,tr £Bor*Y Comij . 4«y«.A Scu.w»rur».«o jtom*. C0R.M1C6 J Rack, or IKomE KhX MOUTH -CHURCH D€VOM Gothic times, and they are constantly introduced in tabernacle work, screens, and furniture, where their use is purely decorative. Chimneys, again, afford an instance of a purely useful and serviceable object lending 62 itself to ornamental treatment and becoming £hap. n. important as parts of the design of a building. Uti J it y The first chimney in England is said to be Basis and • . . i a t i ^ • a. Influence the one existing in the Norman house at Christ- church, Hampshire. The common practice was to have the fireplace in the centre of the hall and let the smoke escape by a louvre in the roof, as may still be seen in the hall at Penshurst 63 Chap. II. Of the Utility Basis and Influence Brick Chimney, Framling- ham Castle Place in Kent (fourteenth century) ; but in later times, especially in the Tudor period, the chim- neys of brick are often found full of invention and variety in design, and extremely rich in effect. I give sketches of some characteristic examples at Framling- ham Castle and Leigh's Priory. The fine old brick chimney stacks one finds among the old farm- steads of Essex it is sup- posed were built first and then the half-tim- bered house built around the brick stack. Other useful things connected with the fire- side and the chimney corner, which are re- markable for their adapt- ability in ornamental design, are the iron fire- dogs used to support the burning logs. We find them in great variety of shape and treatment, while their main or ne- cessary lines remain the same. It is the standard or upright front part which affords a field for the inventive craftsman and designer. The fire-irons, too, are again purely useful in their object, but have become 6 4 highly graceful and elegant in some of their forms. The iron grate back (notably those of old Sussex), placed at the back of the fire against the chimney to protect the brick- work and radiate the heat, had again a purely useful function, but it has been the object of a great deal of fine and rich decorative design, chiefly of a heraldic or em- blematic charac- ter, and many old examples exist. Cast iron has in modern times ac- quired a bad name (artistically speaking), but this is owing to its misapplication, as in railings or grills, where it en- deavours to usurp the place of wrought iron. In a flat panel or plain surface, such as a grate back affords, however, cast iron has a singularly good effect, and renders bold designs well. There are some fine heraldic grate backs in cast iron to be seen at Cheetham's Hospital, perhaps the most interesting building in the City of Manchester. I give a sketch of a quaint cast-iron chimney back of Gothic design from Bruges. At the Museum at the old Rath Haus there is a very 65 F Chap. II. Of the Utility Basis and Influence Cast Iron Fire Dog. St. Nicholas Hospital, Canterbury' chap. ii. good collection of examples. Somehow, with utility tne modern, or rather mid- Victorian iron register Basis and fireplace all beauty and interest of design is lost. Though it should be remembered that a really fine artist and designer like Alfred Stevens spent his talents upon such things. Cast Iron Grate Back. The conception of the thing, however, seems joyless and ugly, and in most surviving examples the ornament in endeavouring to be elegant becomes frittered and mean ; and as to sheet- iron stoves they seem to be under a ban of hideousness, which seems sad when one recalls the charming and cheerful earthenware stoves 66 of Germany of Gothic and Renascence times, full chap. n. of colour and invention. The revived use of utility tiled chimney, and recessed and basket grates, Basis and has done much to restore cheerfulness to our Influence hearths. Before we leave the chimney corner I might mention another bit of metal, important before the days of kitchen ranges as the chief cooking apparatus, I mean the iron crane that is some- Fireplace times found still suspended in the wide chimneys of old farmhouses, made of wrought iron, twisted and curled, and with bright bosses of steel upon it, and great in hooks and hinges. Here is a sketch of a typical example in an Essex farm- house. Considerations of use, again, very evidently control design in lamps and candlesticks. A lamp necessitates : (i) a reservoir for the oil, and (2) a neck and mouth to hold the wick, and (3) a 67 Chap. ii. firm and steady stand. All these requisites are utility combined, with addition of handle, in the oldest Basis and and simplest form of lamp — the portable antique lamp to be carried in the hand. The reservoir is there, though small, and needing re-filling from a larger vessel (as was the case in the parable of the ten virgins). These lamps were often placed upon the top of slender fluted tripod stands, to give light in the house, or hung in clusters by chains from a branched stand like a tree. A combination of many of the characteristics of the antique lamp is found in the comparatively modern brass Roman lamp (now called antique, but till within a few years, and I believe still, commonly used by the people) : we have the small reservoir, with four necks for the wicks, closely resembling in form the antique hand lamps. This is pierced by the shaft of the stand, which finishes in a ring handle at the top and terminates in a broad moulded stand, so that the lamp can be used for carrying or standing with equal facility. The little implements for trimming, snuffing, and extinguishing are suspended by small chains from the neck of the standard and add to the ornamental effect. Each part is made separately and screws together. With the modern powerful lamps of mineral oil and circular wicks, much larger reservoirs are required, and modern lamps have tended to take the urn shape owing to this necessity, and they lose in beauty of line generally, as they gain in body (much like people). A satisfactory type has been introduced by Mr. W. A. S. Benson, of copper, with a copper fan-like shade, which is generally a difficulty with a modern 68 Candlesticks Influence lamp ; and the glasses also, while necessary, chap. n. complicate the design and cannot be said to add utility to the beauty, as a rule. Basis and However, a lamp design can never get away from the primitive triple conditions of lamp structure with which we saw in its earliest form reservoir, neck for the wick, and stand — possibly handle — but within these demands of utility there is scope for very great variations, and unlimited taste and invention. The candlestick, with which the hand lamp has something in common, is, however, quite dis- tinct in character, seeing that it is formed to hold the combustible part in a solid, instead of a liquid form. Its requirements, therefore, are a firm stand (like the lamp), a reasonable height, on which to raise the light, another to hold the candle, and something to catch the melting grease. These conditions are satisfied in the form of the antique brass candlestick, but still better in the older Gothic form, or the church candle- stick, which has a spike on which to hold the candle, instead of a hollow. A candlestick, therefore, should be true to its name and remain a stick, or moulded tubular column, though capable of development into the candelabrum, throwing out branches for extra lights from the central stem ; a suggestive form, if sufficiently restrained, designed with taste. The ancient hanging brass candelabra of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, or earlier, are very good in form as well as practical. There is a fine Gothic one in Van Eycks picture in the National Gallery, Jan Arnolfini and his Wife. 7i DE 1 AILS OF CHANDELIER Brass Chandelier chap. ii. I have a good example of the later type — a utility German one. The stem is surrounded by the Basis and double eagle, and there are several tiers of influence mouldings, the larger ones being flat, and cut into notches at the edge to serve as sockets to receive the corresponding part of the branch, which fits on to them and supports the candles. These are arranged in two tiers of six lights each, and between each light occurs a little ornamental branch or finial, the whole being detachable from the hanging stem terminating in a brass sphere which keeps it straight and steady. It is a fine example of good, simple, and practicable design, which should always unite necessity and utility with beauty. For carrying about, a candlestick needs the addition of a broad dish-like stand and handle, while the stick itself is kept low ; hardly so attractive a form as the stationary columnar table candlestick, and yet having decided char- acter and purpose of its own. That old-fashioned and most picturesque companion of candlesticks, the snuffers, are often very beautiful in design, and it seems to me that, however " improved," the wicks of modern candles still require some attention from them. The necessity of protecting light affords in lanterns opportunities for the inventive adapt- ability of the designer in glass and metal. I met with a very pretty and original motive in a German museum (at Lindau) which was hexagonal in form, pieces of glass fitted together by leads forming a globe-like body to hold the light, and terminating above in a neck, from which it hung to a bracket by a ring. It was furnished with a tripod stand in iron, so that it 74 could be taken down and made to stand if chap. it. There is plenty of room for invention in lanterns, and it seems a pity that our street lamp, which is practically a standard lantern, 75 Influence chap. ii. should remain so extremely prosaic, when it utility * s a design so constantly repeated. It is not Basis and so much the plainness, since one needs no extraneous ornament if the purpose is well served by a structure of good lines. The neces- sity of cleaning the glass is probably a hin- drance to much variety of form in the present state of things, and then, too, the electric light is coming into general use, bringing with it an entirely fresh set of conditions, so that before we get our ideal gas-lamp the necessity for it will probably have disappeared altogether, so to speak. The idea of suspension and absence of rigidity or weight associated with electric lighting ought, one would think, to be suggestive to designers, but we don't seem yet to have quite shaken off the conditions of gas tubing on the one hand, or to have got much beyond the somewhat well-worn idea of bell-flowers bursting into in- candescence on the other. One almost prefers the naked simplicity of the little pear-shaped glasses, with their incandescent twist of thread suspended at the end of the covered wires, to the flamboyant excesses in brass and copper electric fittings sometimes seen. One might go on through the whole range of objects of domestic use, and multiply instances of beauty and designing invention applied to the humblest utensil, implement, or accessory, and suggested by the characteristic features stamped upon its form by the necessities and demands of daily use, which must never be lost sight of by the artist. Not a single thing that we touch or use but has had an enormous amount of human thought and ingenuity brought to bear upon it, 76 which has determined its form as we see it, and chap. n. which is constantly modifying form and material utility and character. Basis and The present modifying influences, the direc- Influence tion in which human ingenuity mostly seems to work is in the time-saving, cost-saving, labour- saving direction, or would-be so, and under this influence design of articles or objects of pure utility have a tendency to become very prosaic — or, perhaps, vulgarly assertive. It is the commercial instinct, no doubt, which is satisfied if a knife is 2l knife and will cut, or at any rate will sell, and puts no romance into either blade or handle. The old curved blades have dis- appeared, and only the silver knife receives any ornament, and that generally of a very uninteresting type. This prosaic tendency re- presents the mechanical side of the utility in- fluence, which only reaches beauty, if beauty of line merely, by necessity of use ; though under what I should term the short-act inspiration beauty is generally entirely out of the question. This is to be deplored, since the simplest thing of use may be just as well made pleasing and good in form and line, though that may be the only kind of beauty possible to it. When we come to pottery the utility and adaptation to service influence is very obvious. Look at the form of a water-vessel, a pitcher we will say, as a typical form. It must have a large hollow body to hold as much water as can be conveniently carried by a single person, but not more than its handle or handles will lift. It must have a neck for pouring out. A rounded form is found to be more convenient for carrying than a square, and is easier to balance in the 77 hand or on the head. The soft clay, too, readily takes the circular form on the wheel when the pitcher is formed under the hands of the potter ; and the rounded form may be diminished towards the base, which saves weight, and at the same time gives opportunity for grace of line. Its form at once expresses its purpose of carry- ing and pouring. A nobler form is seen in the Greek hydria — a large three-handed water- vessel, adapted for carrying and pouring. It was carried on the head or the shoulders, the two side horizontal handles enabled it to be lifted up and down, while its vertical handle served the function of pouring. We may note the similarity in contour and proportion of the Greek amphora or wine- vessel, to the lines of a woman's figure. It is, perhaps, the most graceful of the antique forms of vessels, and it seems dimly reflected even in the purely prosaic form of the modern bottle. We might trace through all the various forms of vessels the clue of utility, and note how it determines their typical form as they are adapted, like the hydria or pitcher, for carrying and pouring : the amphora or ancient wine-bottle for keeping wine cool in the earth in portable quan- tities : the bucket type for dipping and carrying : the funnel type for filling. The copper water-vessel of the Roman people seems to combine the functions of bucket and pitcher in a highly picturesque way, and its form enables a quantity to be carried on the head. The drinkmg vessel again shows quite a different type of form, and in all its varieties declares its function. The cup, the glass, the chap. n. tumbler, the mug, and the tankard. utility Basis and Influence ■COMPARlSOM Of THE UNES Of A FEMALE FlQURE THOSE Of AN AMPHORA HYDRIA ANClENT CRE£K WATER VE»a. ~' THS HYPWft PARTHENON AMPHORA APPROACH .- PITCHER ■live, r»lTcH£rt. FORM C,LASS PITCHER BOTTLES Distillers Copper, filler Roman peasant woPaan with copper water vessel. In the bottle we approach again the type of the pitcher, the holding and pouring functions being again emphatic, throughout all its many Chap. II. Of the Utility Basis and Influence German Beer Mugs shapes. The illustration shows a selection of the typical forms I have mentioned. The subject of the typical forms of vessels is very clearly illustrated in Meyer's " Handbook of Ornament," to which I may refer the student who wishes to pursue the subject further. On the subject of bottles, however, I will just 1 l )./ #') m J mm. \ j z f 5; °t 5SL. \ ill (Inl! m refer to a curious correspondence in design mo- tive in two different materials. The ordinary Italian oil or wine flask is one of the most charming of modern useful vessels. It is simply a piece of blown glass of the form first assumed by the molten glass when blown at the end of the glass-worker's tube. To make this primitive but elegant bottle portable and enable it 8o Italian Flasks and Bottle Influence to stand, it is bound around by a twist of rushes, chap. n. or cane leaves twisted into a circular stand, and utility braced by vertical broader bands of the untwisted Basis and leaf at intervals, and a loop of the twist is twined around the neck, and left free to hang up or carry the vessel in. The whole is both highly practical and picturesque. This is a type of Venetian glass bottle or decanter highly ornamented, in which the funda- mental motive or idea of the protecting binding of rushes seems to be followed in glass. The melon-like divisions are defined by strings of raised glass laid on the surface, while the panels between are engraved in arabesques of leaves and birds, and the whole forms a very pretty piece of ornate glass design. (See illustration.) Here we have another instance of decorative motive derived from useful function, and of the adaptation in one material of a suggestion de- rived from another, though applied to the same type of form. I have not mentioned the plate or dish type of vessel, which has on the whole, perhaps, received the most attention from the decorator of surfaces, perhaps on account of the more pic- torial conditions its functional form presents. There is a circular flat or concave surface in the centre of the dish, plate, or placque to hold the food ; and there is a circular space or rim for the hand, a border which will serve both as a frame to the central subject, and also to emphasize the edge. The Greek cylix, though really a shallow drinking cup, presents similar conditions to the designer, though more of the shallow boat or saucer type, and in the filling of these spaces the Greek vase-painter, as far 8 3 Chap. ii. as composition of line, dramatic action of figure, utility simplicity, and the necessary flatness and reserve Basis and sets us the best models in this kind of design. The Italian Renascence majolica and lustre ware give more sumptuous effect and more pictorial treatment, but are not nearly so safe a guide in taste as the Greek. In pure ornament we cannot do better than study oriental models for the treatment of border and centre, and in the blue and white ware of China and Persia we shall find as satisfactory examples of decorative fitness as need be. The Chinese influence is freely and often very: happily rendered in the blue and white ware of Delft, and in some of the works of the old English potteries, as Worcester and Derby for instance. In textile design the functions of border, of field or filling, of wearing apparel, or furniture hangings and materials and their necessary adaptation to vertical or horizontal positions, differentiates the various types and classes of design in woven or printed stuffs. Here use again influences and decides decorative motive. We recognize at once the essential differences of expression in different pattern plans and systems of line in horizontal extension, which mark them off as suitable for borders demand- ing linear, or meandering, or running patterns to fulfil their function of defining the edge, as in a garment or hanging, or in pottery, or forming a setting for the centre, as in a carpet. For these reasons, bearing in mind the con- structive suggestion of their origin, the typical examples given of border systems have held their own from the earliest times as funda- 8 4 mentally adaptable to horizontal extension, while chap. n. they also adapt themselves to endless variation utility in design and treatment. PITCHCR TR.OM- ROTMCNQURO (S« CHIP. Il9 TH6 HANDLC OF THE. PL7\T£ Basis and Influence Plate and Dish Decoration PL7VTe -weet 'dream* form a shade ?y O'er w lovely irrfants nead .£* ' i£vveet reams of pie a5atrt .stream ^Vnappy ,silerrt moony beams rvcecjt sleep with ^att down . I Weave tW brcrvys an Want crown a /3l=. . "JSwcet 'steep Angel milcl, 3 Hover ocr my *Kapbv child Tweet ^miw>a in me night , Lover over my dWigln^*^ 'jSweet .tfrniWtf Mothers ^mil« iAUthe Irvclang night l>eguile£ l^weet J3rtoS\s!3oveltke Chase not /slumber iromj^ eye J jSwect mo ana .sweeter >iftnlfej ' 'All the ciovelilce moa njs Le^tii .Jill creation, slept and/?rniid Sleep S ]ee» W^kef^ vWhne oerxhee thy mother^weei et tate intkvface 3iv imatfel can trace weet taie Cttcelil C D [A"*' ,c B D A B SQUARfc OF REPCAT C D A (2 B 8:A B A B A : < A . ^ Pattern i Plans and A) Motives 1 controlled " by Condi- ' 1 tions of Positionand Purpose* Ale A;' SB PLAN- OF AN ORDINARY WALL" PAPER-PATTERN REPEAT B -B- -B PLAN OF A DROP REPEAT PATTERN PLANS % /MOTIVES CONTROLLED BY CONDITIONS •MURAV MOTIVE- F1ELD S5FR161E TEXTILE -T^OTlVE == Broken B¥- FoLOS POSITION AND PURPOSE CEILING-KOTIVE I 4^ li t 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 ~i r "i 1 1 1 1 -i 1 1 1 II Sii •FLOOR /AOTIVE WITH BORDER Floor Motive. Sketch design for inlaid wood, South London Fine Art Gallery Designed by Walter forms as they recede from the eye, require their chap. iv. own special planning and treatment, square, ^fl^nce o circular, diamond, and fish-scale plans being Conditions generally the safest, as bases, since they pre- in Design serve their form in perspective better than irregular non-geometric or more complex plans. Much the same kind of considerations control ceiling decoration, where, in addition, suggestions may be taken from constructive conditions, as, in flat ceilings, the design following parallel beams and joists and their interstices ; the panelled arrangement of a coffered ceiling ; or radiating spring of lines from constructive centres, as in vaulted ceilings. Where a pattern will be broken by deep folds, as in textiles, in hangings, and curtains, the conditions favour the recurrence of bold masses, richer points, and more strongly defined forms, at intervals, than would be agreeable in a pattern for extension on a plane surface, unless we except carpets, where boldness of form and richness of colour are desirable. Such conditions as these influence every de- partment of decorative design, and in proportion to the completeness with which they are satisfied will depend the success of designs ; and a design which may have less actual beauty, perhaps, than another, but which completely fulfils the con- ditions of its existence, is likely to have a longer life. The persistence of certain well-known types of pattern is probably due to this — such as the continual reappearance of the Greek fret in various forms as a border design in all sorts of work. Questions of scale in design are less absolute, 1 27 Repeating Frieze Field Drop Repeat Wall-paper. Walter Crane perhaps, since, though one may say as a rule that large types of design and detail belong to large rooms and large scale buildings, there may be interesting exceptions, when large patterns 128 Repeating Frieze Field Drop Repeat Wall-pape Walter Crane chap. iv. might suit even in a small room, if a particular influence of artistic effect were sought. Conditions The main condition appears to be in the m Design ma tter of scale that we cannot afford to ignore the average human standard. As we may say that the human frame itself contains the elements and principles of all ornamental design, so its proportions and scale control the proportions and scale of all design. Objects intended for human use and service are bound to be of certain fixed or average sizes — seats and couches about eighteen inches from the ground, for instance ; ordinary domestic doors not much over six feet high, and three feet six inches or four feet wide. The size of casements, again, is strictly related to the power of the hand to open them ; while the sizes of all movable objects of use are in like manner strictly governed by the average size, height, and strength of mankind. Pursuing the influence of such conditions, we find that there are in every direction natural limitations in every department of design : in the first place of scale and position in relation to eye and hand, in the second place of method and material. Take the page of a printed book, for instance. The body of type impressed upon the paper gives the proportions and dimensions of the page. The double page, when the book is opened to show the right and left hand pages (or recto and verso, as they are termed), is the true unit, not the single page. The type should be placed so as to leave the narrowest margin at the top and the inside, the broader on the outside, and the broadest of all at the foot. And this for obvious reasons, 130 Chap. iv. since in holding a book in our hand we naturally influence of wan t the type brought well under the eye, the Conditions pages being set as close together as the neces- m Design sities of joining down the middle will allow conveniently, so that the eye need not have to jump across a large brook of margin in travelling from one to the other, while the deep margin below enables the book to be held in the hand well set up before the eye, without touching the In taking up a book with the intention of decorating or illustrating it, we must accept frankly these conditions, which indeed are, pro- perly considered, a substantial help to the artist, just as the necessities of the ground plan give suggestions for the elevation in architectural design. These conditions, we may take it, are the architectural conditions of book-page con- struction. The size, then, of our page-panel being fixed, as well as the page of type necessary to the book (sizes of books are, of course, determined by folding of the paper — folio, quarto, octavo, duo- decimo, and so on), we are free to deal with it decoratively in a variety of ways, subject only to the acknowledgment of the essential condition that it is a book-page, and not a random sheet of paper to make blots of ink upon — or a stereoscope, or a card-basket, for instance, as some modern treatments of illustration in books suggest. We may use the whole page for the design, surrounding it with a line or border. Or for the sake of richer and more ornate effect, while confining our picture or illustration to the limits of the type-page, we may use our margin for 132 Chapter XL 6vil tidings come to band at Cleve- land^^ CC long bad be worked ere be beard tbe sound of borse/boof s once more, and be looked not up, but said to bimself, "It 19 but tbe lads bringing back tbe teams from tbe acres, and riding fast and driving bard for joy of beart and in wantonness or youtb"jg?8ut tbe sound grew nearer and be look- ed up and saw over tbe turf wall of tbe gartb tbe chap. iv. a decorative framework or border. As also in influence of using ornamental initial letters the side borders Conditions can be utilized for ornaments branching up and m esign c [ own f r0 m the letter to emphasize the chapter or paragraph, in the manner of mediaeval illuminated MSS., and in the way adopted by Mr. William Morris in his Kelmscott Press books. Or, again, limiting our decoration to the actual type-page, w T e may divide the page at the opening of a chapter by a frieze-shaped panel or heading across the top, placing the initial letter below ; or insert a picture in the text, occupying a half- page or quarter-page ; or at the ending of a chapter design a tailpiece to fill the page where the type ends, treating any space within the limits of the type-page, which the type does not occupy, as a field for design, or placing one's pictures and ornaments in the midst or in place of the type. The title-page, again, is capable of an im- mense variety of treatment, and great orna- mental use can always be made of the lettering, whether accompanied by design or not. I think, too, that it is obvious that the con- ditions of surface printing point to line-drawing as the most harmonious in effect for book illustra- tion and- decoration, as well as most practical mechanically, since type and blocks which de- corate a page must be subjected to the same pressure. The form of letters, too, in movable type, being linear, whether Gothic or Roman letters, line-drawing is in direct decorative rela- tion with the type. In proportion to the solidity or heaviness of the letters, too, as a general principle, stronger 134 SACRED hunger of ambitious mindes, And impotent desire of men to raine ! Whom neither dread of God, that devils bindes, Nor lawes of men, that common-weales containe, Nor bands of nature, that wilde beastes restraine, Can keepe from outrage and from doing wrong, Where they may hope a kingdome to obtaine : No faithe so firme, no trust can be so strong, No love so lasting then, that may enduren long. Witnesse may Burbon be ; whom all the bands Which may a Knight assure had surely bound, Untill the love of Lordship and of lands Made him become most faithless and unsound : And witnesse be Gerioneo found, Who for like cause faire Beige did oppresse, And right and wrong most cruelly confound : And so be now Grantorto, who no lesse Then all the rest burst out to all outragiousnesse. Chap. iv. effects of black and white may be ventured on, influence of wm ^ e if the type is light and elegant, finer and Conditions more open-like work would be the most har- m Design m0 nious treatment. With the use of handmade paper, again, upon which a printed book always looks best, openness of line is a necessary con- dition in design work to be reproduced as surface printing blocks with the type, since the quality of the paper requires considerable pres- sure to bring up bright impressions, and under such pressure (with the grain and rough surface of the paper, which gives the richness to the lines and blocks of type or woodcut) fine and broken lines would print up too strong, and not look well. Pen or brush drawing, therefore, in firm and unbroken lines is the most adapted to the conditions in this case because they work and look the best, and lead to a distinct char- acter and style. Nothing looks worse, to my mind, than heavy toned and realistically treated wash drawings used with a thin and light type, such as we con- stantly see in newspapers and magazines. The facility of the photographic processes for reproducing drawings of all kinds (as well as the decline of printing as an art before that, and the decline of good facsimile engraving), have no doubt tended to destroy the sense of style and harmony in combining text and illustration, since the two have come to be considered so entirely apart ; but of late years there have been many indications of a return to sounder taste, which is sure to influence the printers and illus- trator's art more and more widely. From books let us turn for further illustra- tion to another source of illumination, namely, 136 windows ; where, in the design of leaded and chap. iv. stained glass, we shall find examples of another f n n fl ^nce of strictly conditioned and very beautiful province Conditions Of design. in Design In the course of its historical development stained glass seems to show much the same or corresponding general characteristics at different periods as to style, as may be traced in other branches of art. The windows of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were characterized by geometric pattern, and made up of small pieces of glass, the figure subjects small, set in geomet- ric inclosures or quatrefoil panels and showing Byzantine influence in their treatment. 1 It may be, too, that the windows of the early Gothic period were influenced by the rich mosaic work of the Byzantine artists, but in the four- teenthand fifteenth centuries, as windows became larger and more important features in architec- ture, and stone tracery enabled very large open- ings to be filled with coloured and leaded glass, both the figures and the pieces of glass became larger, the general design more pictorial, till in the early sixteenth century we get perspectives and heavily-shaded figures, and large masses of light and dark, until the art perished in eighteenth century transparencies. It perished because the essential fundamental conditions were ignored or not made important decorative use of. Leading, instead of being 1 I give some reproductions from photographs of the beautiful fragments from the Sainte Chapelle, now in the South Kensington Museum, as types of the earlier glass, and from Winchester College for the later, and two cartoons of Mr. Ford Madox Brown's as examples of good modern design, showing leading. XHIth century Glass from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris. South Kensington Museum w!?*v#x.. ***** mt\ demm 111! I'm "V. "^ '111. /» I ; ' XHIth century Glass from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris. South Kensington Museum chap. iv. regarded as the backbone of the design, its influence of fundamental anatomy, and essential decorative Conditions as well as mechanical characteristic, was rather m Design looked upon as an awkward if necessary inter- ruption in the picture, and the glass-painter, in endeavouring to follow the painter on canvas in his effects of relief and chiaroscuro, lost all the peculiar beauty and character of his own art without gaining the distinction of the one he would fain have rivalled. 1 It has only been by artists going back to the fundamental conditions, and in keeping faith with them, that a revival of glass-painting has taken place in our time. Now we might divide design in glass into two parts : 1. Design in lead line. 2. Design in coloured light. Both demand the full light of the sky to do them justice, but especially the colour work, and therefore can only effectively be used for win- dows placed high, or above the level of the eye, in the wall like church windows, for it is only the full strength of light which brings out the full beauty and depth which the best work in glass always possesses ; and in some qualities of 1 Winston, in his well-known work on glass-painting, a very good and particular account both of the characteristic historic periods and the methods and materials of glass- painting, says : " In the eighteenth century glass was painted with enamels, very much as canvas is with oil colours, that is to say, in little patches, and the shadows were not pro- duced merely with enamel brown, but with deeper tints of various local colours. In this way the shadows are almost imperceptibly blended with the lights, scarcely any part of the glass being left perfectly free of colour, or the marks of the brush." 140 XHIth century Glass from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris. South Kensington Museum Conditions in Design Leading chap. iv. glass, indeed, only full sunlight will discover influence of tne i r inner heart of jewel-like colour. Very beautiful effects in window glazing are produced by patterns formed of plain leads, and their value has of late been perceived by archi- tects, who largely use them in domestic work. Either seen from within or without the effect is pleasant, and suggests a sense both of comfort and romance which refuse to be associated with large blank squares of plate glass and heavy sash windows, which require a Samson or a Sandow to lift. Inside, the effect of large panes of plate glass is cold. Outside, it forms great holes in the architecture, but, with the use of leads, if the opening is large, there need be scarcely any diminution of light inside, while the network of lead forms a pleasant relief to the window surface and unites it by pattern with the architecture of the building. The pliant grooved strip of lead, then, is the glass designer s outline. With it he weaves his plain pattern, which he can enrich with spots of colour or by jewels of light in escutcheons and roundels ; and when he comes to planning an elaborate figure panel he is bound to contrive a well-constructed basis of leading to hold his colour and form together, and by means of its bold black bounding lines to define the masses of his pattern, each different tint of glass being inclosed by a lead line, and shading, faces, hands, and small details being added with brush draw- ing in brown upon the coloured glass. Apart from good design, well-planned leading and colour scheme, nearly everything depends upon the careful choice of tint in the glass itself, 142 XVIth century Glass. From Winchester College Chapel, South Kensington Museum chap. iv. and immense pains and trouble are well spent influence of m tn i s wa Y> snice beauty of total effect, as well Conditions as particular harmonies, depend upon choice of m Design degree, depth, and quality of the coloured glass. Now glass for colour work, called antique, is made in small sheets about 22 in. x 17 in. The sheets of one maker do not exceed 8 in. x 5 in. They may be classified as tints and whites. These form the palette of the stained glass artist, and furnish him with an immense range of tint and tone from which to select. But these, again, are divisible into two sorts : (1) what is called pot-metal self-colours, or sheets that are of the same metal throughout ; and (2) that known as flashed, that is, when a thin skin of ruby, gold, pink, or blue is flashed upon a sheet of blue, white, pink, or amber. This flash may be lightened or removed at pleasure by fluoric acid. The object of the maker of these small sheets of glass is to get as much variety as possible, not only in light and dark, which in the pot- metals is dice to the varying thickness of the sheet; and in the flashed colours to the varying thick- ness of the flash, but in some cases a mixture of two or more colours in the same sheet, by which it will be seen that no two sheets even out of the same pot of metal are alike. It is the use of this variety and unexpectedness that are amongst the charms of stained glass. We speak of stained glass, but in reality there is only one stain, properly speaking ; other colours used on glass are enamels, the real colour being incorporated in the glass when made (pot-metal or flashed), and not painted on. 144 This stain is a preparation of silver, and is chap. iv. mixed with a vegetable colour, yellow lake, to f n n fl uence of weaken it. It is principally used upon the Conditions whites to stain diapers, hair, etc., and when in Desi & n fixed in the kiln the yellow lake is burnt away, leaving a slight residue which is easily re- moved, and the silver is vitrified into the glass, the depth of yellow being varied according to the strength of the stain and the susceptibility of the glass. In setting to work to design a stained glass window, it is usual first to make a coloured design to scale — i^- inch to the foot is the best. A window may be composed of one light or of many, each separate panel inclosed by the masonry or mullions being termed a light. The question of treatment of subject as a single design extending across several lights, or as separate panels, must depend first upon the particular subject, or subjects, to be treated, then the scale of the window, and the general character of the architectural setting. Supposing it is a subject like the Nativity, with the Adoration of the Magi, it would lend itself to treatment as a single subject extending across several lights, and to great richness and splendour of colour. The colour design in such a case would be the most important, but, as I have before said, it must be perfectly combined with, and built upon, a well-designed network of lead lines, those lines forming themselves essential elements in the design, defining the forms in bold outline, and uniting and giving value to the masses of colour. For while we may separate the problem into two parts, the design of lead H5 L chap. iv. lines and colour design, the window must be Muence of c o nc eived as a whole, not merely as composition Conditions in line to be tinted. Having made our scale sketch, the next step is to work out the full-sized cartoons, which, of course, demand more attention to drawing and detail. Many artists make as many elaborate studies for figures, drapery, and details as they would for a highly-wrought picture in oil, or mural painting. As a matter of fact, however, though any amount of good drawing and in- vention may be put into glass design, it should not be forgotten that beauty of pattern and effect and symbolic suggestion are the objects and not pictorial naturalism. For main definition in the design the essential lead line is all important. It would not do to sketch in a figure in a casual way, and then surmount it with lead lines ; it should be care- fully considered as a piece of bold and massive outline design. In leading we may use a bolder line for bounding and defining the main masses, and a thinner sort for subsidiary fittings ; in this much will depend upon the scale of the work. The lead, which has a double groove, may be said to serve several functions. Its primary office is to hold the pieces of glass together : it forms the linework of the design, surrounding the figures and forms, separating them from each other and the background, as well as defining the secondary forms, as of drapery and other detail. Then, too, the lead joints ease the cutting of awkward shapes in the glass, which however should be avoided in planning the cartoon. Again, it may be used to obtain greater variety 146 into large masses, as a piece of drapery, for chap. iv. instance. ? n n fl ^„ nf . ... Influence of The cartoon being made, the next thing is to conditions in Design XHIth century Glass Grisaille, Salisbury Cathedral make the working drawing. This is done by laying a semi-transparent piece of paper over the cartoon, and tracing merely the lead lines and thus obtaining the skeleton of the window. 147 The glass is cut from this drawing, the cutter cutting the glass just within the lines, thus allowing for the heart of lead. The same draw- ing serves also for the leadworker to glaze the finished work upon. The shape's of the whites and light colours are seen when the sheets are laid on the draw- ing ; but the shapes of the dark colours, through which it is impossible to see the lead lines, must be obtained in another way. The best way is to cut the shape in thin sheet glass, which is then placed on the dark sheet of antique glass held up to the light, and moved about until the most suitable part of the sheet is found. They are then laid on the bench together, and the piece of sheet glass is pounced with a small bag of fine whitening, which, when removed, leaves its shape on the dark sheet to be followed by the cutter's diamond. We now come to the all-important task of selecting the glass. The ordinary trade way of doing this is to number the outline, which indicates to the cutter certain racks correspondingly numbered con- taining the different colours. But if it is to be really careful artistic work the designer ought himself to select each piece for his work. The principle and idea of colour in glass de- sign, dealing as the artist does with pure trans- lucent colour, is necessarily distinct from those obtaining in other kinds of painting, such as mural, when opaque colours and a variety of half-tones are used. The glass designer does not attempt to shade his figures and draperies by the light and dark parts of a sheet of coloured glass. He desires to express the jewel-like 148 Cartoons for Glass, showing lead design. Ford Madox Brown Chap. iv. quality — the quintessence of colour in every influence of pi ece of glass— by the force of contrast. Not in Conditions the juxtaposition of dark and light pieces of one m Design cc Jour merely, but by the bold arrangement of various colours, having the effect of one, but with a richness and sonorousness that the single m o tint does not possess. For example, in a yellow drapery we should take a rich decided yellow as keynote. Ob- viously if the adjoining pieces were of the same colour, the effect would be flat and tame ; but if we take a low toned yellow or neutral colour, the keynote will be screwed up to concert pitch, as it were, and if the neutral colour is followed by a reddish tone of yellow and that by another variation of yellow, that again by a decided green, and so on, we shall achieve that desider- atum in stained glass — variety i7i unity. The general effect will be warmer or colder as reddish or greenish tones predominate in the scheme. Care, of course, must be taken to bring these contrasted — even discordant — component parts into a harmonious whole : indeed every piece should be selected, not only to agree with and help its neighbour, but with reference to the harmony of the whole. Any undue abruptness of contrast may be brought into sufficient rela- tion by the after painting. The white must be treated in the same way, a mixture of warm and cold tints as a rule, the general effect of each mass being made warmer or colder as found necessary. Great care must be taken with the masses of white to prevent them looking like holes in the window : for instance, a white coming next to a dark colour would have to be a tint (or very low in tone, as 150 Modern. Glass, designed and executed by J. S. Sparrow Chap. iv. we should say in painting) to hold its proper influence of pl ace - Only by actual experience, however, can Conditions the artist learn how one colour affects another, m Design an j certa i n combinations will look in their place. We have now reached the painting stage. All the glass has been cut and laid out on the outline. It is now looked over to see if there are any pieces that will not stand the fire — that is, that would change colour or lose brilliance. The gold pinks, brown rubies, and some sorts of pure ruby are liable to do this. Pieces of plain sheet glass may therefore be cut to the same shape to paint on, to be afterwards glazed behind the coloured pieces, so that the full brilliance is preserved. The wings of the angel in the panel by Mr. J. S. Sparrow (to whom I am indebted for this detailed account) have been treated in this way. The outline was made in colours ground in turpentine, fattened and made workable with japanner's gold-size, in order to stand the matte of water-colour to be added afterwards. When the figure is drawn in this way all the pieces are stuck upon an easel glass (a large stout piece of sheet) with a composition of bees- wax and resin. As this is the first time all the pieces have been seen together the panel is carefully looked over, as a whole, to see that each piece is of a right colour and value. Some pieces may have to be cut over again ; others strengthened or modified by the addition of another piece of glass. This last method is called plating, by which rich and beautiful deep toned effects can be produced. A strong flat matte of water-colour is now laid 152 all over the figure. This forms the half-tones, chap. iv. and the lights are taken out (when dry) with ^J^nce of hog-hair brushes, the colour being first loosened Conditions by modelling the broad lights with the finger, in Desi ^ n which indeed is the best implement, and as much of the modelling should be done by it as possible. A quill may be used to take out sharp lights. The work should now be ready for the kiln, but before firing it should be again stuck up, and looked over, and any strengthening or definition added in shadows on details by oil-colour with the addition of fat turpentine to keep it open ; the dry surface of the glass being first treated with a wash of oil of tar to make the colour flow easily. Then the diapers and hair is stained on the back of the glass, and it is ready for the kiln. After being leaded up, the leads soldered together at the junctions, the panel is again placed on the easel, and further alterations or improvements maybe made, as the leaded panel looks very different from the glass by itself. The panel is next cemented, the leads filled up with putty or cement to make it firm and water-tight. The cement is like a very thick paint, a mixture of white lead, whitening, red lead, lamp-black, dryers and raw and boiled oil. The window may require to be supported by horizontal iron bars, if it extends over two feet. They are usually placed about fifteen inches apart, as the leaded glass might bend under the pressure of wind without extra support. From this account we may realize what care and taste are necessary to carry out really artis- tic work in stained glass. The whole subject 153 Chap. IV. On the Influence of Conditions in Design affords us a good illustration of one of the high" est and most beautiful of the arts of design, severely controlled by well-defined conditions — conditions which, if followed faithfully, give it all its peculiar character, strength, and beauty. The necessities of leading and cutting the glass demand a certain severity and simplicity of design — from which a new beauty is evolved, capable in its turn of influencing other forms of art for good, as in easel painting — which harmon- izes with its symbolic and religious intention as well as with the architectural and monumental character of its surroundings in its noblest forms in public and college halls and churches ; while its glow and colour, suggestive symbolism, or heraldic adornment, may cheer and virify domes- tic interiors with a touch of poetry and romance. 154 CHAPTER V.— OF THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE IN DESIGN— CHIEFLY IN REGARD TO COLOUR AND PATTERN. WE have seen how largely Design in its chap. v. manifold forms has been influenced by climatic various physical conditions and necessities, and influence in in pursuing the subject we can hardly fail to note Desi & n that, outside those more strictly defined technical conditions we have been considering, there are certain broad controlling influences which have determined, and still determine, essential dif- ferences of character as between the products of one country and another ; differences which, despite the complex network of international commerce and exchange, tending ever to obscure and confuse those native and natural differences by mixture and fusion, still persist. Indeed, as Manchester manufacturers and merchants well know, in the matter of pattern and colour they have to be taken into serious account, since we have unfortunately taken upon ourselves the responsibility of supplying Eastern markets, substituting our own ideas of pattern and colour in fabrics for the original native ones — or rather, sending back to the native Chinese and Indian second-hand notions of their own colours and patterns. Now to what principal cause may we trace 155 these broad differences in the choice and treat- ment of colour and design in different countries — those variations which enable us to assign each to its native home, north, south, east, or west, upon this parti-coloured globe of ours ? If we were to endeavour to mark upon a chart in some bright colour, say red or yellow, all those countries where, given a certain organ- ized social life of civilization of some kind, bright sunshine was the rule, and indicate pro- portionally its lesser degrees in others, we should get a vivid notion of the general distribution of the colour sense : we should naturally come to the conclusion that it is to the source of all our life, light, and heat — to the sun — that we must also trace our colour sense, which is a part of the sense of sight itself. It is to the influence of sunlight, direct or indirect, and to its pre- valence in a greater or lesser degree in different countries, then, that we may attribute the dif- ferences of taste and feeling for colour and pattern which mark the different quarters of the inhabited earth. We know how we are affected by the absence or presence of sunlight in our own country, and by a heavy or light atmosphere, and are sensi- tive to the changes of the weather, which no doubt have their influence upon our work, and we know how different colours look in different degrees and qualities of light. We have only to follow the pattern book of Nature herself, indeed, and see how distinctly she paints upon the globe the different zones of climate in different coloured flowers, birds, and animals corresponding with those differences ; or follow her system of coloration in the ordinary 156 procession of the seasons, without going out of chap. v. our own country. cftoSte With the return of the sun and lengthening influence in days and the new awakening of life in the Desi s n spring, a delicate bloom overspreads the land- scape, the dark wintry woodlands burst into blossoms and clouds of foliage, taking every tint, from the palest green to delicate amber and red ; while the meadows show the rich moist green of new springing grass, embroidered with flowers, yellow, white, and blue ; while the blue sky seems to repeat itself in the copses where the hyacinths grow. Gradually, as spring turns to summer, the colours deepen, the greens of trees and grass grow fuller, the flowers grow brighter and more varied in hue, crimsons and reds and purples are seen, and gardens become feasts of colour ; and as the cornfields ripen scarlet poppies mingle with the gold, and the leaves of the trees, having reached their darkest tint, as autumn nears, become tinged with yel- low and brown, and, before they fall, turn into wonderful harmonies of russet and gold, in part recalling, though in lower tones, some of the colours of spring. The ripe fruit in the orchards gives a deeper note of richer and brighter colour, when the procession of flowers has reached the threshold of winter, bare and cold, though not colourless — its colours being more metallic — the silver of frost and mists, and the ruddy gold of the winter sun gilding the black trees, whereon mosses and lichens take the place of leaves and flowers, and sombre yews and hollies and firs, instead of the bright greens of spring, until the whole is veiled in ice and snow. 157 Chap. v. This drama of expressive colour is enacted Climatic before our eyes every year — those of us, at least, influence in who are fortunate enough to live in the country, and are observers ; and even to town dwellers the tale of colour to a certain extent is told by the importation of flowers, or even by the textiles in drapers' windows, or costumes in the street, as humanity responds to the approach of the sun by wearing lighter and fairer colours in the spring and summer, and getting darker and more sombre again in the autumn and winter. We have only to glance at the various mani- festations of our home arts to note these changes with the characteristic colours of our varied land- scape reflected, not only in the works of our painters, but in the half-tones of our textiles and wall-papers, and throughout our decorative design, which for form, too, owes so much to the flora of our native land. It does not seem to follow that with the greatest amount of sunlight we get the most colour ; on the contrary, the zenith of light is the absorption of colour, just as darkness repre- sents its extinction. Light and darkness are the black and white on the palette of nature, neces- sary to give value to her colours. The sense of colour, too, is no doubt greatly affected by other climatic influences, such as humidity, haziness, clearness, heat and cold, as well as their accompaniments in varieties of scenery and locality, such as plains or moun- tains, woodland, sea-board, lake, river, agri- cultural land, or wild nature. We associate brilliant colours and bold de- signs with eastern and southern countries, but, apart from the greater stimulus of light which 158 might encourage the use of vivid colour, there chap. v. is, I think, another reason which accounts for the cfimSic Influence in Design of bolder and franker use of colour and ornament in the south and east. Broad and full sunlight has a curiously flattening effect upon colour and pattern, and therefore colours and patterns 159 chap. v. which under a gray sky would look staring, or ci f im h a e tic very strong and striking, under the full sunlight influence in fall into plane, and become subordinated to the Design dominant pitch of light. We may take as an instance the porch of the Cathedral at Pistoia. The bold black and white bands of marble which face the front of this building — as of so many mediaeval Lombardic Italian cathedrals, as at Florence, Genoa, and Siena (an idea borrowed from the Saracens)— look striking enough under a gray sky, but when the sunlight falls upon the build- ing and raises the whole pitch of light the whole mass with its projections falls into planes of broad light and shade. The black bands become gray and flat in the light, and all fall into their places in the architectural scheme, and therefore, though borrowed from the east, are quite appropriate in a climate like Italy, which can count on per- sistent sunshine for the most part, summer and winter. Inside the porch, in the spandril and vault, is faced with Delia Robbia ware, in blue, white, and yellow, and a very beautiful piece of decoration it is. This, again, however, in a dull atmosphere might look cold and strange, but illuminated by the rich reflected light cast up from the sunlit pavement it takes all sorts of accidental lights and falls into its place admir- ably. Otherwise the porch is interesting from the curious blend of Byzantine, Saracenic, and classical motives and influences in decoration. Seen in the cold and dull light of an English museum, away from its proper architectural sur- roundings, panels of Delia Robbia ware are apt to look somewhat strong, bold, or rank in colour, but it only shows they were designed in a sunny 1 60 bright climate, and to be seen in a full external chap. v. or warm reflected light as a rule. The very cnmaUc qualities that make the ware trying in one place influence in make it right in another. Design The various historic types of design in archi- tecture and decoration are, in fact, mostly the result of the blending or uniting of elements de- rived from different sources. While we may in the leading types prevalent in different countries detect the fundamental prevailing influence of life, custom and habit, the result of climatic and racial conditions ; we may also see, owing to social and political changes and the results of conquest or of commercial relations, other elements coming in various details of construc- tion, form, and colour. Our present purpose, however, is rather to seek the fundamental characteristic types and predilections traceable to the fundamental or natural conditions of locality and climate, as far as they can be followed in historic decoration. It seems to have been in the power of certain ancient peoples to impress and to preserve the character of their life and the conditions of their habitat very strongly upon their art, so that, though their political power has long ago been swept away, their records remain practically im- perishable in their monuments of art. Of such the ancient Egyptians must always be typical. If we look at the structure of the primitive Egyptian dwelling we shall find that it illustrates those influences of climate and locality in a very emphatic way. In the first place, as we know, Egypt depends upon her great river, the Nile, which may be 161 M chap. v. said to have made her existence possible, since cumatic * ts waters fertilize the whole country. It is influence in interesting, then, to note that the primitive Egyptian dwelling was essentially suggestive of the riverside and of a country of sunshine. Its materials were those of the waterside, consisting of clay and canes and lotus reeds ; the canes being used for the framing and support of the clay walls, which are built in layers between them. The plans and diagrams of construction (from Viollet le Due) will give a clear idea of the form and character of the primitive Egyptian dwell- ing. In the course of an interesting account of its construction he says : that it is a dwelling for a country where brilliant sunshine is the rule is shown by the smallness of the windows, which are furnished with lattices. The walls were frequently plastered with clay, covered with a composition made of the same clay and fine sand or white stone dust, and this furnished a ground for the painters who decorated the reeds and plastered walls with brilliant colours ; the walls and ceilings of the interior were also decorated in the same way ; rush mats furnished the floor and covered the lower part of the walls. Sometimes, also, we find a portico supported on bundles of reeds, the covering of which is made of wood and byblos, with a terrace of clay before the door, affording shade and coolness in front of the dwelling. Like most dwellings in eastern countries, there is a flat roof or terrace on the top of the house, approached by steps ; and here awnings are spread on poles to give shade, when they can be used for sitting upon or for sleeping or enjoying the cool of the day. When the Egyptians learned the art of build- 162 ing and carving in stone from the rock dwellers chap. v. above the Delta, and built their great temples, cfimatic Influence in they still perpetuated in stone, in the reeded and filleted columns with lotus capitals, the orna- mental traditions of the reed-built primitive dwelling, and the painter still adorned them in 163 Column from Temple of Luxor chap. v. bright primitive colours ; so that we are per- cfimatic petually reminded of the great riverside, from influence in which sprung the flower of that ancient art and civilization. Another effect of climate upon art may be noted in the representation of figures. The Egyptian climate being extremely warm but equable, most out-door occupations precluded the wearing of much apparel, so that the figure nude and lightly clad plays an important part in Egyptian design, as in Greek. At a time like the present, when the world of design suffers rather from what might be called too gener- ous or too mixed a diet ; when the tendency is to over-elaborate, to combine too many elements ; to be lost either in an overdone flamboyance of curvature, or in a straining after a forced and inappropriate naturalism, a study of Egyptian art may be recommended as a wholesome cor- rective. The simplicity, severity, and restraint, abstract and yet vivid characterization of form, frank and primitive coloration, purposeful in- tention, and mural motives and methods are full of suggestiveness and value to the student and de- corative designer. Another instance of the influence of primitive timber construction over stone may be seen in comparing the ancient Persian column with its timber prototype still in use. Persia, indeed, is another eastern country which has preserved 164 almost unbroken traditions in design from a chap. v. very remote past, and may be said to be the cum^tic source of the most beautiful types of ornamental influence in Design Persian Capital influenced by Primitive Timber Con- struction art the world has ever seen, and especially in three leading forms — coloured and glazed tiles and bricks, pottery, and textiles. To judge from the wonderful decoration of glazed bricks discovered a few years ago at Susa, 165 Chap. V. Of the Climatic Influence in Design Lotus Capital Philae forming part of the ancient forum and palace of Darius, destroyed in the reign of Xerxes, b.c. 485-465, excavated by M. and Mme. Dieulafoy, 1 the artistic skill of the Persians in this kind of work, and their sense of its value, and the treatment of colour and orna- ment dates back to a very early period. In the famous frieze of archers, which formed part of the wall decora- tion of this palace, the figures are frankly repeated in design though alternating in the pat- terns and colours of their dress, boldly relieved upon a field of turquoise blue, formed by the glazed bricks by which the frieze is constructed. The figures and ornament must have been moulded or stamped in relief upon the clay while soft, and cut up into bricks, and afterwards fired and glazed in the method of Robbia ware ; the whole scheme is severely simple but very effective in its proper position upon the walls of one of the large courts of the palace, mostly in reflected light under projecting porticoes, or would be very impressive and at the same time truly mural and reposeful in feel- ing and colour. Such a scheme of frank colour and fine detail 1 See "Acropole de Suse," Hatchette et Cie., 79, Boule- vard St. Germaine, Paris. 166 a i Frieze in coloured and glazed bricks, Palace of Susa. From the reproduc- tion in the South Kensington Museum chap. v. could hardly have been conceived except in a Climatic country of brilliant light. Some doubt exists as influence in to the exact position of the frieze upon the wall. Figures of similar scale in Assyrian work and also at Persepolis were placed not far, if at all, above the eye level. Upon the dress of one set of the archers is figured, it is supposed, the fortress of Susa itself, which was built upon a mount. There is much interesting ornamental detail in the dresses, which afford excellent authorities for the costume of Persian warriors of that period. We see also the palm-leaf border, a primitive form, type and forerunner of a whole tribe of border design. The rosette is said to resemble " the full-blown Star of Bethlehem, conspicuous among all other flowers, among the herbage clothing the stretches of Susiana and the table- lands of Iran (Persia) after the first rains in early spring." (Perrot and Chipiez, p. 137.) We may note, too, what seems obviously the prototype of the Moorish battlement, defined in blue bricks above the figures, suggesting they are guarding the citadel. The Moorish or Arabian form constantly oc- curs as an ornamental cresting in carved wood- work, and also appears to have suggested an ornamental form largely used with variations in eastern carpets, notably Turkistan. The treatment of the design has the severity and simplicity of early Asiatic monumental art, and is allied in treatment to the Assyrian relief work, but is more subtle and refined, and shows a finer decorative and colour sense. In the treatment of blue the Persians always seem to have been particularly successful, and 168 their later tile work in the Mohammedan period chap. v. is well known, and continues down to our own climatic time. Influence in The love of blue and its use in tile work and Design pottery seems to have been general all over the east ; it may be because of the adaptability of the metallic oxide colour to firing, but also it may be due to the pleasant relief and sense of coolness such decoration would afford to the eye in courts and interiors screened from the sun. The old Nankin blue, so famous in Chinese porcelain, in the so-called hawthorn pattern, was described by one of the emperors as the blue of the sky showing through the white clouds after the south rain. In carpets Persia about our sixteenth century reached a pitch of perfection in design, colouring, and material which, it would seem, has never been reached before or since. In these works we, of course, pass to a very different and much later period of Persian history, after the Arabian invasion, in the seventh century, and the con- version of its people to the Mohammedan religion, under which Persian art developed in such delicate, rich, and beautiful forms. There are very magnificent specimens of the finest types of Persian carpets now in the national collection at South Kensington, the Persian collection having been recently re- arranged in the new galleries in Imperial Insti- tute Road to very great advantage as regards lighting and opportunities of study. The famous Holy Carpet of the mosque at Ardebil is perhaps the finest example, though there are others more inventive in pattern, if not more delicate in design or harmonious in 169 chap. v. colour. A curious feature in the pattern of this climatic carpet is a hanging lamp, such a lamp as is used influence in for lighting mosques, with a painted glass body, Design probably suspended by chains from the roof. The lamp is repeated at the end of the main ornament of the field of the carpet, facing opposite ways. The inscription worked in Arabic characters into the carpet at one end is given in trans- lation thus : " I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold. My head has no protection other than this porchway, the work of the slave of this holy place, Maksond of Kashan in the year 946 " (corresponding to our a.d. 1540). We thus see that it is a carpet destined for an entrance, or porchway, of a mosque, and the woven images of the lamps probably indicated the real lamps suspended overhead to light the entrance to the mosque. So that, though they seem strange objects in the pattern of a carpet, they have a certain appropriateness and significance in this parti- cular one. Fire, too, was a sacred emblem of the ancient Persians. Persia might be said to be a country of gardens, of deserts, and of abundant sunshine. It is for the most part a high table-land, and is de- scribed as a climate of extremes. " Nowhere in the habitable world is there so sharp a contrast between the heat of noon and the cold of night, between the brown bare rock and the verdant meadow, between the gorgeous hues of natural plains and the absolute bareness of arid wastes." (Perrot and Chipiez.) Such a description is very suggestive. We seem to see natural reasons for the interest and 170 Chap. V. Of the Climatic Influence in Design beauty of Persian art in the varied physical conditions of their country and climate. The love of the sheltered, walled-in, and natural garden is very evident in their literature ; and the influence of their flora upon their design of all kinds is evident enough. The idea of the eastern paradise is a garden. We have it in the Bible in the Garden of Eden — an inclosed pleasance or park full of choice trees and rare flowers, animals of the chase, and birds. This idea recurs constantly in Per- sian design. The very scheme of the typical carpet seems derived from it — a rich vari- coloured field hedged about with its borders. The field is frequently obviously intended for a field of flowers, and sometimes suggests a wood or an orchard of fruit trees. The idea of the green oasis to the traveller in the desert ; the grateful relief of the colour and shade of green trees and fresh flowers ; the sound of waters; the delight of the horseman and the hunter ; the dark forest full of dangerous animals — are not these* things irresistibly suggested in Persian design ? The same sensitiveness to natural beauty and the influence of climate is shown in their poets. The astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, sings of the awakening spring. It is a period, too, associated with the termination of a religious fast, Ramazan, which is analogous to our Lent, perhaps. Omar invites his reader to come forth, like a true poet, seeking inspiration in the wilderness. " With me along the strip of herbage strown, That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of slave and sultan is forgot, And peace to Mahmud on his golden throne." I 72 Spring in Persia must be a much more sudden chap. v. burst of life and efflorescence than we can realize cunlSic from our own timid and coy climate. Even in influence in Italy the spring generally comes all at once Design with a burst of bloom and a profusion of blossoms and flowers, and in its strength the sun straight- way leads on into summer before one is aware. This eives one an idea what it must be in a country like Persia — the country of the rose and the nightingale as well as of the vine, of which Omar the poet is eloquent. Then, too, it is an agricultural country. " He who guides a plough does a pious deed " is one of the precepts of the early Parsee religion, which also, as its main conception, presents the constant strife of good against evil, light against darkness, personified by the contest of Ormuzd and Ahriman. The sturdy and honest peasant was the back- bone of the country in ancient times, and fur- nished those sturdy warriors who built the power of the ancient kings. And in the political changes or conquests to which Persia has been subject in the course of her history, her people would always appear to have had a recupera- tive power, or a power of absorbing their con- querors, or perhaps a certain tenacity of purpose, or a conservation of the vital part in old beliefs and traditions which have been favourable to art. How far that art was original, in the time of Persia's ancient greatness as a conquering power, in the time of Darius, when the palace at Susa was built — how far it was influenced from other sources, or contributed to by artists of other nations, must always be more or less a 173 chap. v. matter of conjecture ; but in the Susa work we Climatic are rerrnn ded of Assyrian decoration, and even influence in of Greek and Egyptian influence. Design The Persian art, however, which has had the most influence upon the neighbouring Asiatic countries, and upon Europe, has been produced since the Arabian conquest in the seventh cen- tury, and the conversion of the country to the Mohammedan faith. Even then, however, although in Mohammedan art the representa- tion of animals is forbidden, the Persians were neutral and independent ; in Persian design animals have been freely introduced, and with charming decorative effect. It is supposed, indeed, that Persian art is really the source of in- vention of many forms commonly called Arabian and Indian, and these forms have travelled both east and west, and have been modified in the countries of their adoption. The Persians seem to have been in Asia much what the Greeks were in Europe — both great adaptors and great originators in design. One mieht trace elements and influences and types of form and treatment from other countries and races in Persian art, but one traces Persian influence to a far greater extent in the art of other countries. In India, which was also invaded by Islam, and was colonized by Persians, the Arabic type of art also became naturalized in architecture and decoration. Here again we have a country of the sun. Here again we find tile decoration in great beauty, and the use of bright colours and intricate design. Intricacy both of colour and pattern is perhaps the chief characteristic of Indian design. 174 Arab Casement from Cairo. South Kensington Museum. Drawn by W. Cleo- bury chap. v. One feature in Indian, as in Arabic dwellings, CHmatic ma y ^ e n °ticed as a direct result of the persist- influence in ent sunshine turned to decorative account — one common to eastern countries — the pierced screen or lattice window, which tempers the fierce light of the sun and breaks it into small stars of light. The rich carved timber overhanging windows, with its lattice screens so characteristic of old Cairo and Arabian life, is repeated with varia- tions in India, and not only in wood but in stone and faience. We find small ogee-pointed win- dows with perforated lattices cut in sandstone of intricate design and delightful ornamental effect. There are some in the India Museum from Agra. But the loveliest of all are those in the mosque of the Palace at Ahmedabad, consisting of most delicate and intricate designs of trees cut in stone, which fill the arched open- ings. One of these windows is here illustrated. There is nothing more delicate or beautiful in the whole range of architectural ornament. In the tomb of Yusuf Shah Cadez, at Multan, occur large perforated screens in tile work. This tomb, an excellent reproduction of which is to be seen in the India Museum, is a fine example of Mohammedan tile work and decora- tion in two blues — turquoise and ultramarine — on a warm white ground. In the luminous atmosphere of India, beneath the deep blue vault of the sky, such colour on such surface must be very beautiful. Perhaps the love of intricate ornament in Indian carved and pierced work in the doors, window casements, and lattices may be due in part to the certainty of obtaining a bright, crisp, rich, sparkling effect in the broad and strong 176 India. Carved stone lattice window from the Mosque of the Palace of Ahmed- abad N chap. v. sunlight, where every touch would tell, and the Climatic ^ ret or ^ ttlCG work over a pierced opening would influence in have all the richness and delicacy of lace. Design Then in the solemn and dimly-lighted splen- dour of the interior of the mosques, the Mo- hammedan, alike in Arabia, Turkey, Persia, or India, found a grateful contrast and relief to the eye, while his religious imagination and emotion were stimulated. Much the same feeling inten- sified which comes over one who passes from the brilliant Venetian sunlight on the piazza, the glittering quays and dancing light and colour of Venice, into the subdued, cool, and golden shade of St. Mark's. This wonderful contrast of bright and dark, of glitter and solemnity, the splendour of sun- light and the solemnity of shade, can only be fully appreciated in southern or eastern countries. The pitch of light being higher the shade seems deeper, and yet it is a shade full of colour always. When the sun sinks, in the short afterglow everything seems fused in an atmosphere of luminous colour and half-tone, which transfigures and glorifies everything. We get an approach to it on the finest summer evenings in England, but with a different and generally less romantic background. It would appear, though, that climates which are characterized by constant sun- light and heat favour rather traditional than individual forms of art. The sun, the giver of life and light, becomes overpowering, always present, and in its searching beams leaves no hiding-place for the romantic imagination, except in temples and mosques at sunrise or sunset, or under the moon. We may have an equable and warm climate like Egypt, where all is sharply 178 defined in the light of a clear and serene chap. v. atmosphere, with a regulated, ordered life, as in climatic her ancient days, under a long succession of influence in dynasties, and we see the outcome in art — De sign measured, calculated according to strict method and authority and convention, with but little room for individual feeling. In Persia we find a climate of sharp contrasts, hot sun by day and sharp cold at night, verdure and desert, bare rock and flowery meadow side by side, and we get a wonderfully varied art, rich in colour and fantasy. In India the invention, though kindred, perhaps even largely borrowed, seems tamer, the intricacy more calculated, the richness more mechanical ; and we find this with a dependent people in a land of fiercer and more permanent sunshine, pursuing mostly an agricultural life, like the ancient Egyptians, under conditions practically unchanged for centuries. In Greece, which fused and absorbed Asiatic elements in her art, we see another country of the sun, yet subject to winds and variations and marked transition of the seasons — a mountainous, rocky country, beautiful in form and embracing the sea. In art she has given us the perfection of figure sculpture. In Italy, with hardly less sun, yet by no means beyond the reach of wintry cold, severe winds, great rains and sometimes snow, yet with a burning summer for the most part, which has decidedly fixed the types in her architecture, we find a union of many elements, a halfway house between east and west, where Asiatic feeling unites with Greek and Roman, Saracen and Nor- man, Gothic with Renascence, in an unexampled 179 chap. v. wealth and profusion of inventive design in cYimatic architecture, sculpture, painting, and all the family influence in of artistic handicrafts, which makes her a happy Design hunting ground for the artist, an inexhaustible treasure-house of beauty and suggestion. We might follow the chariot of the sun, from the land of its rising, Japan, a climate more near to our own, and note her wonderful display of manipulation and imitative skill, in all ways of handicrafts dominating by a certain grotesqueness as well as naturalistic impressionism ; or, passing to her great foe China, see something of the same tendencies and stages in the rising of her art, breaking off, as it were, at a stage of re- strained conventionalism — or westward, along the southern shores of the blue Mediterranean, following in the footsteps of the Moors, and note the wonderfully ornate but somewhat heartless splendour of their art in Spain : the gilded mag- nificence of the Alhambra, with its glittering pendentive ceilings, borrowed, as some think, in the first place from Persia, and the wonderful jewel-like sparkle and intricate fancy of its ornament with its ever-recurring star-forms and scimitar-like scrolls. And then turning northwards into France, with one hand touching the sunny south and the other dipped in the gray English Channel, we should find some of the same elements, but very differently mixed, with a very distinct character of art. Cold in colour, correct in form, brilliant in workmanship, quick witted, drama- tic ; ever experimenting and inquiring, and desiring, like the ancient Greeks, some new thing. Pursuing our journey northwards, we might 1 80 Chap. v. pause in Flanders and Holland and mark how Climatic closely associated with local conditions of life influence in and climate are their forms of art, more especially as illustrated in the art of their past days — the pictures of rich Flemish burgher life of the Middle Ages, the knights and ladies with Old House in Turnov, dated 1816 a certain sternness and stiffness of demeanour, as of an energetic and yet patient people accus- tomed to contend with difficulties, proud, yet devotional, and fond of comfort, kneeling, well- clad in velvets and rich furs against a northern climate. Germany would tell a similar tale in her arts, though with a more dominant military and 182 religious note, more fantasy and more melan- chap. v. choly, and with a wild grotesque element cor- cumatie responding with her more varied conditions influence in of climate and scenery. The latter quality is Design still more marked among the old towns of Bohemia. The two sketches here give some Street in Eger of the architectural characteristics of both town and country dwellings. After such a journey we should doubtless be glad to get home again to our own varying and changeable climate, and when seated comfortably at the fireside think how much the character- istics of our native art may also owe to the influence of the constant and varied procession 183 chap. v. of sunshine and cloud, storm and calm, heat climatic anc ^ cold, fickle spring, short summer, long un- influence in certain winter, our mist and rain (which gives Design L j s our g reen woodlands and meadows), to our wild and dangerous coasts. Or we may well think whether these influences are not traceable in our art : love of domesticity and indoor com- fort, characterized by warm and blended though subdued colour, small patterns, trimness and neatness ; love of animals and flowers, of natural scenery and the sea. May it not be said these are characteristics which our pictorial art cer- tainly displays ? While our architecture (in spite of foreign importations) is obliged to con- sider the necessities of a varying climate, so that our houses are built as a rule more to live in than to look at ; and the colours of our interiors, while they often re-echo the greens, browns, and russets of our landscape — as our patterns and fabrics recall the flower gardens and meadows — they are chosen perhaps more to live with quietly than to excite controversy, or compel a reference to the grammar of ornament. 184 CHAPTER VI.— OF THE RACIAL IN- FLUENCE IN DESIGN. THOSE personal predilections and idiosyn- chap. vi. crasies which we each possess, those dif- j^*^ ferences of temper and qualities of perception influence in which affect our sense of colour and form, Desi s n which account for those variations of treatment in the rendering, in design or drawing, of the same objects by different persons — what are these and whence do they come ? They belong to the very constitution of our minds and bodies; they are beyond our own control, and beyond almost our own consciousness, oftentimes. They belong to our progenitors and ancestors perhaps as much as to ourselves, and are lost in the broken records of past family histories ; we can only say that certain forms and colours appear so and so to our eyes, that we delight in some more than others — because we are made that way. Such indications of character and prefer- ences are generally traceable, where clues and records exist, to the race, or mixture of races from which we have sprung. We attribute, for instance, certain imaginative faculties to our Celtic origin ; certain calculating and analytical capacities to Teutonic sources ; while as a mixed race we call ourselves An^lo-Saxon, and as 185 chap. vi. such are supposed to be especially distinguished Racial ky practicality, the racial type gradually, in the influence in process of time, being formed by the collective Design action of such small individual characteristics — somewhat as great geological deposits, such as our chalk hills, have been formed by the gradual accumulation and aggregation of the minute shells of minuter marine creatures. These typical racial characteristics in art — these preferences in colour, form, pattern, treatment, sentiment, and idea, have left their marks upon the history of art, which indeed becomes, finally, the only history of races — the only record left of peoples to tell us of their intimate life, their hopes and fears, their struggles and their aspira- tions, so that a scrap of wall-painting, a frag- ment of an incised slab, a piece of broken pottery, a weapon of bronze, or a jewel become in course of time full of significance — eloquent books of the life of peoples and powers long ago covered by the drifting sands of time. The desire to record and to perpetuate seems to have stimulated the primitive artistic instinct in all races ; and, indeed, it may still be said to be a living factor and motive in art production. Each race seeks an image of itself (as every individual desires a portrait), and strives to put in imperishable form the character of its own life, and the ideas or ideals dearest to it. Thus, the prehistoric hunter left images of the animals he hunted, and his hunting reminiscences, scratched upon bones and smooth slates and stones ; much as the Assyrian kings, in a more elaborate way, having the resources of a powerful civilization at command, loved to have recorded on sculptured slabs, lining their palaces, 186 their prowess in arms and the chase ; more chap. vi. especially as hunters and slayers of lions, though Racial in their case the lion hunting was done in a influence in more luxurious modern way, the animals being Desi & n driven into special inclosures, and let loose on purpose to be slain by the king and his men — a system of a piece with the generally tyrannical and cruel methods of despotic persons. Still, no doubt, there was considerably more risk and danger involved than in a modern battue in a pheasant cover — barring the chance of being shot by your neighbour's gun. Certainly the general tenor of the story told in ancient Asiatic art is that of the conquerors triumphs, of the strong overcoming the weak, the glorification of kings and warriors in battle, of beleaguered cities, and the carrying away of captives and spoils. No doubt, if this conquer- ing spirit had been absent, if each branch of the great human family had remained within its primitive borders, their art would have pre- sented sharper and more distinct contrasts, while remaining simple in character. It is the restless, exploring, conquering, acquisitive spirit which mixes and blends elements originally distinct — well, it may be it also acts as the stormy wind that scatters the winged seeds of design and, bearing them to new soils, produces new varieties. It is difficult, of course, to disentangle the strictly racial characteristics in art entirely from those other strong influences which, in fact, may be said to have helped in their formation — the influence of climate, habit, and local materials, which we have previously touched upon. Yet the purely human element appears to come in, and the final form which art takes among a i8 7 Chap. vi. people must bear the stamp of individual choice Racial as we ^ as °f collective sentiment and climatic Influence in influence. Design j n pi.j m i t i ve communities, however, the in- dividual is less apparent than the collective racial influence. The forms of art are typical and symbolical rather than imitative or graphic. The great Asiatic races of antiquity, to judge from the remains of their monuments, the palaces of their kings, and their temples and tombs, adopted certain typical methods of representa- tion which, in the case of the ancient Egyptians, became, in association with a strictly ordered and carefully organized social existence under an elaborate religious system and ritual, actual forms of language and record in the hieroglyphic. These consisted of certain abstract representa- tions of familiar forms and figures inclosed in a kind of cartouche, incised upon stone walls, or stamped upon plaster and filled with colour. The lotus flower served as a symbol of the annual overflow of the Nile (at the summer solstice) so important to the Egyptians ; the ram and the sun symbolized Amru-Ra, the king of all gods ; other animals, with and without wings, the cat, the dog, the sparrow-hawk for the soul, the beetle (scarabceus) for creative energy, generation and perpetuation of life, the snake for continuity of time, etc. ; and even differently arranged lines, the zigzag for water, the circle, square, waved line, spiral, labyrinth, etc., betokened the divine and secretly-working powers of nature. Such forms inclosed in cartouches massed together, sometimes in horizontal lines, some- times in vertical, formed a striking wall decora- 6 tion in themselves. A wonderful pitch of abs- tract yet exact characterization of natural form was reached by very simple means in this picture-writing. The birds especially are re- markable for their truth. Every object had to be clearly defined so as to be recognized at once and easily deciphered. The profile view of an object is always the most characteristic and typical, and lends itself best to a system of repre- sentation where all objects are on the same plane. So the glyphic artist kept strictly to pro- file. Love of typical form, definite out- line and mass, flat and vivid coloration — these are always characteristic of an- cient Egyptian art, even when, as dur- ® Chap. VI. Of the Racial Influence in Design Egyptian Hiero- glyphics. Tomb of Beni Hasan, XlXth Dynasty ing the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, a freer style and greater naturalism is apparent in their portrait sculpture and wall-paintings. The love of clearness of statement and their conception of art, as in the nature of a decorative record, seems to be emphatically expressed in their ways of representation. For instance, in Altar with Offerings. Egyptian Mural Painting, Thebes Influence in Design painting an altar piled with offerings they give chap, vi the altar front in elevation, but the offerings, ^ciai in order that each and all should be seen drawn in profile, are arranged in ground plan. Thus we may say that their statements were pictures, their pictures were statements. There is a wall-painting in the British Museum showing a fish pond or tank in a garden, sur- Egyptian Wall- painting, British Museum rounded by trees. The inclosed water is rendered by a flat tint of pale blue, with hori- zontal zigzag lines in a second tint across it. Lotus flowers and buds spring vertically from it, and on its surface ducks and fish are painted in profile. The trees are painted on the upper side and ends with their stems springing from the edge of the pond ; but the row of trees on the near side grows with the tops towards 191 Assyrian Tree of Life the water ; while the row at each end sprouts chap. vi. outward. The whole forms a very pretty piece Racial of ornament, and would embroider well for a influence in table-cloth centre, or lend itself to a treatment Design for a mosaic floor. Note the way in which the trees alternate (apple trees and date palms), and the grouping of the ducks and the fish alter- nating with the lotus flower. It is freely painted with direct brush touches on the white plaster. In the ornamental treatment of tree forms all 193 o chap. vi. the eastern races seem to have excelled. Trees Racial have always been associated with religious belief, influence in and have had mystical and symbolical signific- Design ance — as the tree of the garden in Genesis, the tree of life, and the fatal tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Trees, too, were man's first shelter and dwelling ; no wonder a race de- scended from arboreal ancestors should revere them and hold them sacred. Assyrian Bas- relief. British Museum It is interesting to compare this Egyptian rendering of the date palm tree with an Assyrian rendering of the same tree, though the latter is sculptured ; or, again, with the Graeco- Roman version at the house of Icarius. The typical and sacred tree with the Assyrians, however, was the tree of life, which became with them a formal piece of ornament. In it we seem to see, too, the original form of a type of ornament constantly recurring in the art of all the Asiatic 194 races, and which was apparently carried by chap. vi. them, or from them, into Europe ; reappearing °* Persian, Greek, Roman, and Renascence influence in in work in all manner of variations, remaining a typical horizontal border motive to our own day. The lotus appears in sculptured Assyrian pavements on the outer border, the open flowers alternating with the buds, as in Egyptian work. Then we have another typical and constantly Design vine. * no TRees F*on ASSY fU Af1 SLABS British hustorv . mz? Assyrian Bas- relief. British Museum recurring border motive in the rosette, which has a rich and sumptuous effect, closely filled in this way. Then comes in the palmette, or tree of life, while the centre filling, a network formed of a six-petalled flower form, again recalls the suggested textile origin of the ornamental motive of the whole, to which I have before alluded. Other interesting and characteristic render- ings of flowers and trees may be found in bas- relief upon the Assyrian alabaster slabs used 195 chap, vi, as wall decorations, such as those showing the Radai vine, the fig, the lily, and the daisy here given, influence in the sculpture of which, in general, is remarkable Assur Beni Pal. Assyrian Lions from British Museum not only for the combination of great power of expression and energy of action with a very dominant formalizing and ornamental and typical treatment of form, but also for great delicacy of Assur Beni Pal chiselling ; in one slab there is a small figure of a king in his chariot, inclosed within larger work, as finely cut almost as a gem or seal. Note, as illustrating the ornamental treatment of animal forms, so characteristic of these Assyrian or Semitic sculptures, the way the lions are 196 Lion, formerly cresting the outer railing of the British Museum. Modelled by Alfred Stevens, and cast in iron chap. vi. carved, the masses of the hair of the manes care- Raciai *" u % mai "ked and ornamentally designed, the influence in muscular lines of the face emphasized in the Design same ornamental manner. The result is a typical lion, stately, monumental, sculptural, and decorative, yet in no way wanting in energy of action, character, and vigour. Nothing could be more different in spirit and style from the ordinary modern European sculptor's treatment. The Assyrian grasped the essential leonine character, but expressed it in typical and ornamental terms. The modern English, French, German, or Italian generally seeks a naturalism which struggles to escape from the conditions of the material ; he seeks accidents rather than essentials, and, in his horror of formalism, tries to treat the masses of hair and mane as if he wielded the painters brush rather than the sculptors chisel — though it is generally modelled in clay first before it is carved. The result is loss of dignity, typical character, and monumental feeling. Alfred Stevens saw the importance of a certain formal- ism, and his little lion on the uprights of the outer railing of the British Museum remains unequalled, so far as I know, in modern work. 1 The Hellenic race, the Greeks, whose art has had, and still possesses, such an influence over that of the modern world, while in their archaic period differing little in method of treatment and in use of ornament from the Asiatic races, the Assyrian and Egyptian and Persian, the elements of each of which they seemed to fuse 1 For some unexplained reason these lions have been re- moved and the London people deprived of perhaps their finest bit of monumental work. 198 and adapt, gradually developed a freer style, Chap. vi. and, while never losing their monumental sense R^kd in sculpture, carried the human figure in sculp- influence in ture to the greatest pitch of perfection. Their Design Greek Stele or Head- stone invention in purely ornamental forms was not conspicuous, nor was it needed, since they treated the human figure as their chief element in de- coration. Their leading ornamental types may be traced to Asiatic prototypes — the palmette 199 chap. vi. and the rosette, for instance. The scroll, per- Raciai haps, they may particularly claim to have de- Influence in Design Indian Flame Halo or Nimbus veloped, and the anthemion, from their primitive types. This latter type of ornament, so generally used by the Greeks as a crest or crown upon 200 their upright obelisk-like tombstones or steles, or to crest the angles of the pediments of their temples, is suggestive in its general form of a flame, or pair of wings. It is noteworthy that a similar form occurs, treated in detail in a variety of ways, as a glory or halo placed behind Buddhist images made in ancient India, Japan, and Burmah, often in carved wood and gilt metal or bronze, pierced and ornamented in a variety of ways — sometimes suggesting leafy trees, but generally radiating in their principal lines from a centre, like the anthemion. The flame was a sacred symbol with many ancient peoples, and it remains with us as the fitting emblem of inspiration. The gilded, almond-shaped glory inclosing the figure of the Virgin and of Christ in Gothic painting and sculpture seems to be another form of the same emblem, and in Persian ornamental design, and one might say in all Mohammedan countries there is a similar form which con- tinually recurs with a great variety of treatment. 201 Chap. VI. Of the Racial Influence in Design Persian Pome- granate forms. From a goat-hair carpet. South Kensington Museum Chap. VI. Of the Racial Influence in Design Celtic. From a Cross at Campbell- town, Argyllshire It generally appears as a kind of fruit or many- petaled flower, or flower and fruit combined, and is common in all Persian and Eastern orna- ment design. I am inclined to think that it may have originally had a religious significance associated with fire or life, while its beauty of con- tour and adapt- ability in decora- tion of all kinds were sufficient to perpetuate it even if the original meaning were lost. If the Per- sians invented it, it might have had some reference to their own primi- tive fire-worship, while with the Arabs, and wher- ever the faith of Mohammed spread, it would still be significant of the prophetic fire, and it is cer- tainly universally found in the ornament of Mohammedan coun- tries. We might trace it back to its primitive form in the Assyrian tree of life, and this on the face of it seems its most likely source ; and we find it in Persian work definitely taking the pomegranate form within the rayed leaves. 202 chap. vi. The rayed flower or leaf form curiously reap- Raciai pears in a late Celtic cross in Argyllshire, in influence in association with the characteristic knotted work, Design a ki n( j Q £ tree f orni) anc j filling of pattern carved in the stone and culminating in the cross. Whatever race may really claim its invention or first effective use, it appeals now universally to the ornamental sense, and has become the common property of designers, who do not usually disturb themselves with the question whether they have stolen a fruit from the tree of life, or sacred fire from an unknown hearth, so long as they can fill a space effectively or make an attractive and adaptable design. Another form, now no less universal, is prob- ably Persian in origin, although it has found a settled home in India — I mean what is known as the Indian palmette, so familiar to designers for Manchester calico prints. I am told by Mr. Purdon Clarke that this palm shape denotes benison or blessing, or a message of goodwill of some kind. This answers to the symbolical meaning of the palm in the Bible, as carried by benign and holy persons and angels. Here would be a symbolical reason for its longevity in ornament, as it would naturally commend itself to an eastern race in a sun-burnt land, to whom the suggestion of shady palms would always be grateful. But here, again, the beauty of its contour appeals to the ornamentist on independent grounds. He values it for its graceful mass in a pattern, for its bold and sweeping curves, for its value as an inclosing form for small floral fittings. To the Persian and Hindu designers, with their exquisite and subtle sense of ornament, 204 Arabian XlVth century carved and inlaid Pulpit, Cairo. South Kensington Museum. Drawn by W.Cleobury chap. vi. with their passion for elaborate intricacy, such Racial a f° rm as tms is utilized to its utmost capacity, influence in both in counterbalancing and superimposed Design masses upon flowery fields, and as inclosures for smaller fields of pattern ; while the abundant flora of their spring-time blossoms in a new and translated existence in their richly patterned printed and woven textiles, and in the carved ornament of their buildings. The influence in Arabic ornament of the Mohammedan faith, too, in forbidding the representation of living forms, turned the in- genuity and invention of the Arabic and Eastern designer in a purely ornamental direction, and as a result we get extremely elaborate patterns, either purely geometric, or filling the interstices of a geometric framework in inlays and carved and pierced work. These patterns from the pulpit of a mosque at Cairo, now in the Ken- sington Museum, work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, show how fine and delicate Arabic ornament became. We may note the star-shape formed by the intersection of the lines. The star is an emblem of the Deity (Allah). The plateaus and slopes of the Himalayas, which are the northern mountainous boundary of India, were supposed to be the cradle of that great wandering, colonizing, adaptive, specula- tive, and organizing race, the Aryans, from which we Western people, according to one theory, have sprung, dispersing over the world, and settling in different countries and climates. The race has greatly differentiated in speech, customs, and forms of art ; and yet through them all it is rather differences in similarities, or similarities in differences, that we trace. 206 Arabian XlVth century carved and inlaid Pulpit, Cairo. South Kensington Museum. Drawn by W. Cleobury chap. vi. Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, suggest great di- Raciai vergences both in spirit and form, yet perhaps influence in the correspondences are more frequent than the divergences. When we see how greatly mem- bers of the same family differ from one another in tastes and habits, can we wonder that mem- bers of the greater human family should be so different in tastes and habits, under different skies and conditions of life ? When we turn further east the difference seems greater, the gaps larger. The Mon- golian race seems further apart and suggests a remoter antiquity. Their geographical re- moteness and their persistent adhesion to their ancient customs seem to have fixed more or less of a gulf between them and the western peoples, and there is a corresponding contrast in the forms of their art. It is familiar, and yet remains strange ; it has been constantly imported amongst us, and has more than once influenced European fashions in decorative design, as in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the Dutch, and in the last century in England in Chippendale furniture and porcelain, while China has given its name to the finer ware of the modern potter, of which it taught him the secret. To this day the willow pattern in blue upon plates and dishes, with its Chinese legend, scenery, and personages, remains a popular pattern, wonderfully little changed by its English translator. All the typical characteristics are found in its details, the typical Chinese house raised upon its first story of stone — with its bamboo trellises and quaintly curved tiled roof. The Chinese dragon remains a distinct breed, influencing here and there the form of the 208 mythical beasts in design of other races, such as the Persian and Indian, but remaining as characteristically Chinese itself as the Pagoda. The love of trellis-like backgrounds and diagonal diapers for marked feature with floral designs is a very the Chinese designer, and Chap. VI. Of the Racial Influence in Design Panel in carved and inlaid Wood from the Mosque of Tooloon in Cairo. XlVth or XVth century Saracenic it suggests the native fantastic and ingenious bamboo constructions used in the framing and panelling of their dwellings and temples, domi- nated by that distinct love of quaintness and queerness which seems a part of the artistic sense in the yellow race, and is as marked as their love of bright colour and emphatic pattern. 209 p Chap. vi. Their formidable neighbours, relations, and ?nflue?ce C in rivals, the Japanese, exhibit in the art up to a Design certain stage much the same qualities and in- fluences, their art indicating a gradual trans- formation in style from the primitive mythical and religious and symbolical towards the more domestic, familiar, and naturalistic. But before coming into contact with European forms of art they began to develop a naturalistic feeling in their art which in the present century has be- come the dominant note, and, joined with a certain inventive quaintness and ornamental reserve, has had so tremendous an influence upon the art of Europe, more especially modern French art. Only about forty or fifty years ago Japan was practically in a mediaeval condition, its arts and handicrafts in a most fertile and flourishing condi- tion of living traditions ; but that very quickness and alertness, that receptivity and artistic im- pressionableness which has enabled them to produce such a mass of wonderful work in so many branches of cunning craftsmanship, have exposed them to the modern European in- fluences, which, however they may have, in the process of rapid assimilation, contributed to their material power as a nation in the modern capitalistic and industrial sense, have had most disastrous commercializing and deteriorating effects upon Japanese art and handicraft, lead- ing to hasty work and cheap and gaudy pro- duction — merely to catch the demand. Artistic and racial traditions, however, die hard. Even in Western Europe, in constant intercourse and intercommunication as we now are, and while international influence tends to 2 10 soften and blend racial differences, and social chap. vi. relations to mix them, elements which differ- 2SSenc"S entiate the Teuton from the Latin, the Celt from Design the Saxon, still survive. In the process of the adoption of even the same ideas each race, each nation, gives a different interpretation to them, just as different individuals will give a different interpretation in drawing from the same model. The character is not changed by the new dress, and the dress becomes influenced by the wearer. Thus, in adopting ideas and forms of art, a new direction or character is developed owing to the racial instincts of the people adopting them. German Renascence work, for instance, may be full of details, the forms of which come from Italy or Greece, but the combination and treat- ment, the application of them, become charac- teristically German — characteristically full of detail, and fantastic, with a tendency to be overloaded and restless, like their Gothic work. Such variations of the same type among different peoples may be likened to the variations of lan- guage in the same country, where the same language is spoken, but with a different accent. It is this difference of accent now, under our complex modern life, which makes the chief difference in forms of art, and which betrays racial influence. The actual systems of building pattern, of pattern forms, methods of drawing and modelling figures, and the various handi- crafts have all been discovered long ago, but it is in their re-combination and adaptation — our in- terpretation and use of them, and in the power of variation and expression, that modern inven- tion and predilection tell. It would be interesting to endeavour to sym- 21 I Chap. vi. bolize the fundamental racial characteristics and influence 0 ^ 1 preferences by certain typical forms and colours Design in procession. The races inhabiting the warm countries, southern and eastern, would be distinguished by emphatic contrasting colours and patterns. Just as the tiger owes his barred coat to his habit of hiding in coverts and jungles, where the bright sunlight falls through the tall grasses and palms in stripes ; so where the contrast of light and shade is so sharp as in Africa, there appears to be a deeply-rooted preference for barred colours and striped patterns among the dark race, which they have carried with them to America, and which curiously reappears as a necessary part of the equipment of the sham Ethiopian serenader in our streets. The black and white or red and white barred courses characteristic of Arabian and Moorish architecture have been alluded to before, and, though they have been used in other countries, they always suggest the country which seems to have given them birth. Supposing, then, we wanted to express in a typical symbolical way the racial preferences and characteristics in ornamental art, ablackandwhite barred shield and a palm might be appropriate pattern emblems for the African or the Moor ; while the Egyptian would naturally bear a lotus and a scarabaeus, with a winged globe for a standard ; the Assyrian a tree of life ; the Persian would bear the flame-shaped flower, and the de- vice of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes contending for the mastery ; the I ndian would carry the palmette and a peacock, and would share with the Arab the geometric star-form and richly floriated 212 robes ; the Chinese would show the dragon chap. vi. blazon, and carry the peony ; the Japanese the influence 0 red disk of the rising sun, and a bough of plum Design blossom ; the Turanian the crescent and the star; the Greek the anthemion, and the figure of Pallas Athene ; the Roman an eagle standard, and an image of Mars ; the Scandinavian a raven, and a runic knot. These might represent the ancient world of art. The modern and western races it would be more difficult to symbolize in so primitive and typical a manner, since all of them have borrowed so largely from the ancient sources, and are themselves com- posed of such mixed and complex elements. Italian art could only be represented by a fusionof most of the foregoing elements and types, and would require a crowd of distinguished re- tainers in architecture, sculpture, painting, and all the arts of design ; but perhaps she might bear a typical classical scroll for a standard, as the typical designer of that form of ornament in so many varieties, from Roman times down- wards, that Italy may be said to have made the scroll form essentially her own. Germany might follow, great in bold and brave heraldry, or with a Gothic accent in richly- scrolled mantling, and a redundant display of Renascence ornament. France, as a more volatile Pallas Athene, might, perhaps, bear the wavering lamp of executive and imitative skill, and dramatic in- stinct in design. Spain would look coquettishly under a fan, wrapped in faded embroidery, bearing the Al- hambra, like a pendent jewel: while for England, what artistic emblems are left ? Well, we have 213 chap. vi. been described as inveterate colonists, even in in f fluen^e C1 in art - ^ e can on ^Y ma ke up in a fancy costume Design of historic patchwork, beginning with fragments of Roman mosaic pavement, by way of sandals, Saxon and Norman hose, Gothic surcoat and body armour, a classical cloak, and a Victorian Queen Anne gable by way of headgear, and perhaps a banner of eclectic wall-paper or printed cotton. For all that, and perhaps because of it in some measure — did we take art seriously as a nation, and make it really a natural and essential part of our life, as it is its final expression — should we determine to set our house in order, and make England again "merrie," strong in her own borders, self-supporting, and self-reliant, not suffering the natural beauty of our land or our historic monuments to be ruthlessly defaced, in the supposed interests of trade ; putting our trust in the capacity of the people, rather than in the multiplication of machines ; uniting hand and brain in our work, thinking more of the ends of life and less of the means, when the means of an ample, simple life shall be within the reach of every citizen, then, well — then we might fairly expect to win the palm of life, as of art, without despoiling the African. 214 CHAPTER VII. — OF THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE, OR EMBLEMATIC ELE- MENT IN DESIGN. T HE desire to express and to communicate ideas seems to have impelled man from the earliest, and lies at the root of all art. While much early ornament, as we have seen, is traceable to a constructive origin, another kind, or another branch of the tree of design is traceable to a symbolic origin, and springs from the endeavour to express thought — to find a succinct language in which to express some sense of the great powers of nature, and their influence upon the daily life of man — to embody even in a pictorial emblem, symbol, or allegory his primitive conceptions of the order of the universe itself. The mystery and wonders of nature absorbed the thoughts and touched the imagination of early as of later man, and primitive symbolic forms, or signs, constantly bear upon such ideas. There is a symbolic sign (known to archaeo- logists as the fylfot or sauvastika) of very simple form, which is found very widely scattered among the relics of many different races and early peoples. " It is found," says Dr. March 215 Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design The Fylfot or Sauvas- tika chap. vii. (of the Lancashire and Cheshire Archaeological Symbolic Society, who has written very suggestively and influence, or learnedly on the subject), "on archaic Greek Emblematic J - 11 r o • 1 1 Element in pottery, on the stamped clay of Swiss lake Design dwellings, adorning Latin inscriptions on Roman altars"; is common in India and Asia; is met with in Scandinavia, Iceland, Shetland, and Scotland ; in Celtic Ireland, in Saxon England, as well as in Germany. The sign was adopted by Christians, is found in the catacombs of Rome, in the cathedrals of Winchester and Exeter, on a shield in the Bayeux tapestry, and on English mediaeval brasses. It also occurs on a bell at Hathersage Church in Derbyshire, dated 1617. This sign appears to have originally signified the supreme god of the Aryans, and became the emblem of the divinity from whom emanates the one movement of the universe ; later, it may have merely indicated the axial rotation of the heavens round the Pole Star, and still later it was used simply as a benedictory sign or mark of good luck. When the feet were turned to the left the nocturnal movement of the stars was suggested, and when the feet turned to the right the diurnal movement of the sun was supposed to be indicated. The sign is frequently placed in a circle. A very few of its stages will suffice to show its transformation into ornament. W e may thus see how a sign purely symbolical, used as we should use writing, becomes in course of time a decorative unit, and is incor- porated into ornament. A kindred form is composed of three crescents, which has its heraldic descendant in three armoured legs of the bearings of the Isle of Man. Here we seem to see the idea of rotation very emphatic- chap. vn. ally conveyed. °^tiic The primitive symbols for fire and water influence, or 1. SYMBOLIC OB.IOIN OF ORNAMENT Fyl Fot OS. JAUWSTlKA . A M>>Ti ures ar- ranged formally, the legs and arms bent. The angles thus formed, in the course of re- petition and abbreviation, be- come simple lines of zigzag pattern. The circle, a universal and important element in ornamental design of all times and kinds, appears early as a symbol for the sun. We might trace it from its primitive cross and disk and rayed ornament common to all primitive art to the splendid Greek conception of Phoebus Apollo in his chariot drawn by fiery horses, 219 chap. vii. which figures so constantly in Greek design, Symbolic *-he circu ^ flaming disk being represented in influence, or the wheel, though in an early relief discovered itemeSfn 0 h Y Dr - Schliemann the head of Apollo is sur- Design rounded by rays, which gives the type gener- ally used by Gothic and modern designers in symbolic representations of the sun — simply a face in the circle surrounded by rays. Another means of symbolical expression by the use of the circle is to be found in a type of Scandinavian ornament composed of three circles, one within the other, which with the rayed sun frequently occurs either singly, as in the form of a metal shield boss or a fibula, or as the unit of a repeating textile pattern, or as a border. An Anglo-Saxon lady in a Benedictional exe- cuted for St. Ethelwold at Winchester in the tenth century (963-984) wears a dress so de- corated. The original symbolic meaning of this ornament is supposed to bear upon the Norse- men's conception of the universe, the inner circle, representing the midgard, or the earth ; the second, the osgai'd, or asgard, the abode of the gods ; and the utgard, the world beyond, inhabited by giants and spirits of evil. Beyond the outer circle is a circle of dots signifying stars. (See fig. on p. 217.) The old Norse sagas and the songs of Edda give the whole Norse scheme of the universe. " Igdrasil, the great ash tree of the universe of time and of life. The boughs stretched out into heaven, its highest point, and overshadowed Walhalla, the hall of the heroes. Its three roots reached down to dark Hel, to Jotunheim, the land of the Hrimthurses, and to Midgard, the dwelling-place of the children of men. The 220 Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design world-tree was ever green, for the fateful Norns chap. vn. sprinkled it daily with the water of life from the symbolic fountain of Urd, which flowed in Midgard. But the goat Heidrun, from whom was obtained the mead that nourished the heroes, and the stag Eikthynir browsed upon the leaf-buds, and upon the bark of the tree, while the roots down below are gnawed by the dragon Nidhogg and innumerable worms : still the ash could not Hindu Symbol of the Universe wither until the last battle should be fought, where life, time and the w r orld were all to pass away. So the eagle sang its song of creation and destruction on the highest branch of the tree." 1 It is interesting to compare such a conception with the ancient Hindu idea of the world, which indeed may have been its original form as the earlier Aryan conception. There is no tree, but the great snake of time compasses all ; the ser- "Asgard and the Gods/' — Dr. Wagner. 22 1 chap. vii. pent with its tail in its mouth, an emblem of Symbolic continuous time which still survives. Upon this influence, or rests the tortoise, which seems to correspond EkmenUn 0 Wlt ^ tne Norsemen's dragon, though here it Design may serve as the solid basis of the world. The world appears as a sort of dome in three tiers, reminding us of the Norsemen's three circles. This is supported upon the backs of three elephants, which seem here to fill the position of the Norns or the Fates. The ash tree Igdrasil, the sustainer of the Norse universe, reminds one of the eastern tree of life — the tree of life of the garden of Eden, and the fountain of the rivers of the Asiatic paradise which, with the figures of Adam and Eve, the typical father and mother of the whole human race, have so constantly figured in art of all kinds, both eastern and western, and continue to stand in the midst of the garden in endless designs and pictures, surrounded by the birds and beasts, as the type and emblem of the origin of the world in the Christian cosmos. The ancient Egyptians, whose art was almost entirely in the nature of a symbolic language, when they wished to express the divine creative power which sustains the universe, designed a winged globe encircled or upborne by two ser- pents — here we get, perhaps, the snake of time again. Sometimes the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle, emblem of transformation and immor- tality, is represented covering an egg and sup- porting the sun, and they are the wings of the scarabaeus which are given to the globe. This emblem is frequently carved over the gateways to their temples. Then the Egyptians had an elaborate sym- bolism connected with death and the passage of chap. vn. the soul. The coffins and mummy cases are symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design Examples of Egyptian Symbolism painted all over with symbolic devices, figures, birds, and animals having a sacred significance. chap. vii. The soul is commonly represented as being" Symbolic borne in a boat, or barge, with curved stem and influence, or stern, terminating in lotus flowers. (The lotus EkmemVn 0 symbolized new birth and resurrection.) The Design f 00 d for the journey is shown in the urns placed underneath the couch. Two mourners or watchers accompany it. There is a copy of a large painting from Thebes in the British Museum showing the judgment of the soul ; the Devourer, a monster part crocodile part hippopotamus, standing ready to devour the soul if the verdict is un- favourable. Further on the accepted soul ap- pears before Osiris. The goddess Nut (the heavens) is frequently painted upon the sarcophagi and mummy cases in the form of a seated or kneeling figure of a woman with very large wings outspread and curving upwards ; she holds in her hands the feather — the symbol of power or domination. (We still speak of the feather in the cap.) She bears the disk of the sun upon her head. To the Egyptians, indeed, we owe the very embodi- ment of the mystery of existence itself — the sphinx who continues to propound her riddle afresh to every age. Greek mythology again, as exemplified in Greek art, expresses itself symbolically, and shows a gradual development from the primitive, ruder, and often savage personification of the powers of nature, more allied to the conceptions of the Northmen, to the idealized, refined, poetic and beautiful personifications of their later vase painting and Phidian sculpture. The symbolic intention and the personifying method was carried on and embodied in free and natural 224 Influence, or Emblematic Element in forms, though always governed by the ornamental chap, vn feeling and necessities of harmonious relation to gy^Iboi architectural and decorative conditions. The first observers of the heavens, the primi tive herdsman, hunter, the fisherman and the Design shepherd, have left their symbolic heraldry in the very stars above our heads ; and Charles's or ceorls' wain and the signs of the zodiac still remind us of the primitive life of a pastoral and agricultural people. The pediments of the Parthenon, for instance, are great pieces of symbolical art, and at the same time most beautiful as figure design and sculpture. It is distressing to think that so late as 1687 the Parthenon was practically com- plete as far as its sculpture and architecture. It was first used as a Greek Christian Church during the Middle Ages, and then, falling into the hands of the Turks, became a mosque ; when the Venetians bombarded Athens in 1687 a shell dropped into the Parthenon, where the Turks had stored their powder, and blew out the whole centre of the building. Even in the broken and imperfect state in which we are now only able to see them, from the more or less complete figures and groups which compose its parts, we can gather an idea of the harmony and unity of the whole, and the complete union of the symbolism with the artistic treatment. The whole conception strongly appealed to the senti- ment of the Athenian citizen, since the two pediments represented the contest of Athene and Poseidon for the patronage of Athens, arts and laws, or the rule of the sea. We all know- that the arts and laws won, and that Athens is immortal by reason of her art and poetry and 225 Q Chap, vir philosophy, not by her command of the sea. Symbolic ^ e m °dern English, perhaps, might do well to influence, or apply the lesson, and consider that after all it is EiemenHn 0 not m mere appropriation of riches, extension Design G f empire, material prosperity, or in our volume of trade, that the true greatness of a country consists, but in the capacity and heroism of her people. In the eastern pediment the centre group ex- pressed the birth of Athene herself, or rather her first appearance amongst the Olympians — the divine virgin deity and protectress of the city which bore her name, and whose colossal statue in ivory and gold stood on the Acropolis in front of the Parthenon. The other deities are grouped around, and on one side we have the Parcae, the three fates controlling the life of man (which the Northmen embodied in the Norns) ; then, reclining at one side where the pediment narrows, the figure of the great Athenian hero, Theseus ; and in the extreme angle the sun-god, Helios, with outstretched arms is seen guiding his horses, which emerge from the sea — being balanced at the correspond- ing angle by Selene, the moon, descending with her horses into the sea. Thus we have a series of ideas expressed symbolically in heroic figures of deep import to the Athenians, and having also in the suggestion of the fateful control of human life, and the continuous order of nature in the rising sun and setting moon, a wide and lasting significance apart from the beautiful form and consummate art by which they are embodied. The Parthenon stands high upon a rocky eminence, and from its western door you can see 226 chap. vii. the blue ^Egean Sea, the island of Salamis, and Symbolic ^ e harbour of Athens, the Piraeus. Accord- influence, or ingly the sea-god Poseidon is sculptured upon Eiementln 0 tne western pediment, with Cecrops, the first Design king and founder of Athens, with the queen. Another conspicuous figure there is the reclin- ing figure of Ilissus, who represents the stream that flows around the western side of the Acropolis. The Greeks, and the Romans who borrowed from them, always symbolized a stream or a fountain by a reclining figure, half turned upon its side, and very frequently leaning upon an urn placed horizontally, from the mouth of which flows the wavy lines of water. There is in the Vatican a Roman representa- tion of the River Nile as a colossal reclining figure with long flowing hair and beard, like Zeus or Poseidon, holding a paddle. His tributaries being represented by a number of small Cupid-like boys, who clamber and play about him, or nestle at his side. The land of Egypt is typified by the sphinx upon which the figure leans. Father Thames has often figured in " Punch" depicted by John Tenniel as an old man with long hair and beard, not unlike his prototype, but somewhat degraded and worse for wear. The Greek gods, too, and their Roman representatives were each distinguished by their proper and appropriate emblems, as well as by marked differences of character and physical type. Chronos, or Time, afterwards Saturn, is al- ways known by his scythe; Zeus or Jupiter, the Thunderer, by his thunderbolt ; Poseidon or Neptune by his trident ; Helios by his horses, and 228 Apollo by his bow ; Aphrodite or Venus by the golden apple won by the most beautiful ; Pallas Athene, or the Roman Minerva, as goddess of the arts, by her serpent, her lamp, and her owl of wisdom ; Artemis or Diana by the crescent moon ; Hermes or Mercury by his caduceus — the Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design Venus and Paris. The Apples of the Hesperides. From a relief at Wilton House serpent- twined staff, which has in modern times become an emblem of commerce — since Mercury was the messenger, the fetcher, and carrier of the ancients, quick-witted and keen, and, accord- ing to some legends, not over scrupulous. His rod and serpents have reference to the story of his parting two snakes in combat, in which might be read a modern meaning of the in- 229 chap. vii. dividual gaining fortune through commercial Symbolic competition, though that is not its usual signi- influence, or fication. I only offer it as an example of reading Element a new mean i n g into an ancient symbol. Then, Design of course, Heracles or Hercules bears the apples of the Hesperides, or the Nemean lion's skin and his club. In the Hesperides story of the dragon- guarded tree of golden apples, and its three guardian sisters, we seem to have another form of the tree of life and the fates. An interesting Greek relievo in marble, enriched with mosaic in parts, at Wilton House, shows the Hesperi- dean tree with the apples, and twined with the guardian serpent, with Paris seated and Aphro- dite approaching as if asking for the apple — the prize of the most fair. In the ancient Greek story of Pandora and her box — so suggestive a subject to artists, and fruitful in art — we have the classical version of the fall of man and origin of evil. In the no less picturesque and poetical story of Persephone (or Proserpina), the daughter of Ceres, carried away by Pluto, the king of the underworld, darkness, and death, we have a beautiful allegory of the spring and the winter, since Persephone was allowed to return every year to the earth for a season, after she had eaten of the fatal pomegranate tree which grew in Pluto's garden. One might multiply instances of the symbolic character of classical story and its symbolic embodiment in Greek and Roman art, but we must pass on to touch upon other sources and aspects of symbolism and emblem in art. We know that many of our old fairy tales have a symbolical origin in ancient mythology, 230 and have taken new and varied forms and chap. vn. local colours as they have travelled from their symbolic southern and eastern homes, and become natu- influence, or ralized in the art and literatures of different SSSlSSto 6 Countries. Design In such tales as "Jack and the Beanstalk" and " The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the climbing hero ascending the heavens to destroy the giant of darkness, in the first, the hero penetrating the darkness and awakening his destined bride from her enchanted sleep, in the second, for instance, the old solar mythology has been traced, and if we could trace the old folk tales back to their sources we might find them all related to primitive mythology or hero and ancestor worship. Thus do the spirits of the remote past sit at our firesides still, and kindle the imagination of our little folks : and in the rich tapestry of story and picture which each age weaves around it, elements from many different sources are continually and almost inextricably interwoven, as if the warp of human wonder and imagination was crossed with many coloured threads of mythological lore, history and allegory, symbolism and ro- mance. The early Christians, no less than the pagans, felt the necessity for symbols of their faith ; and while at first borrowing considerably, and in- corporating in their art forms belonging to the other faith they were supplanting, gradually, with the rise of power and influence, emblems more peculiarly belonging to an expression of the Christian ideal were adopted, or underwent considerable transformation. The design met with in the mosaics of the sixth century at 231 chap. vii. Ravenna, the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, of Symbolic t ^ le two sta g s drinking from a fountain, embody- influence. or ing the Psalmists' verse beginning, " As the hart Emblematic Element in Design Christian Emblem. Stags Drinking. Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, Ravenna From a Photograph by Alinari panteth for the water brooks," although from the imagery of the older Scriptures, became an emblem of Christianity. The peacock appears, too, in Byzantine art, carved upon stone sarco- 232 phagi as an emblem of immortal life, either from chap. vn. the many eyes its feathers always open, or more symbolic probably because the eve feathers are shed and influence, or J J Emblematic Element in Design Christian Emblem. Peacocks and Vine. Sarco- phagus. St. Apol- linare in Classe, Ravenna. From Photograph by Alinari renew themselves every year. The vine, too, appears constantly as a Christian emblem, although with the Greeks it was sacred to 233 Fra Angelico. Angel. Ufizzi, Florence From a Photograph by G. Brogi Fra Angelico. Angel. Ufizzi, Florence From a Photograph by G. Brogi Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design Dionysos, and represented to them the divine, life-giving earth-spirit continually renewing it- self, and bringing joy to men. Although the symbolic use no less than the decorative beauty of winged figures had long ago been recognized, as Asiatic, Egyptian, and Greek art show, yet the Christian angel, both in its refined, half-classical form, as developed by the early Italian painters and sculptors from the thirteenth century onwards, and in northern Gothic work, became a distinct and beautiful type in art. In the work of Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli the angel figures are especially lovely. No less distinct in its grotesqueness was the mediaeval devil, although its origin was very probably the satyr of ancient classical art. The Roman satyr, with goat-legs and hoofs, bearded head, horns, and tail, furnishes, in fact, a very close prototype ; and, being banned long ago as pagan when Christianity was in hand-to-hand conflict with paganism, would be sufficient to associate such a form with evil. There are some fiends represented in Orcagna's fresco, il The Triumph of Death," which are quite satyr-like, despite talons and bats' wings. Al- though with the Greeks the great god Pan is a mild and gentle deity enough, and though of the earth earthy, in a sense, yet as symbolical of spontaneous nature, and simple animal exist- ence, piping on his reeds by the riverside, he always remains a favourite with the poet and the artist. Signorelli, for instance, in a beautiful picture (which our National Gallery somehow missed the opportunity of acquiring), gives a fine presentment of him. 236 It is interesting to compare the mediaeval embodiments of evil with the ancient Persian symbolical representation of a combat of a king with a griffin, which may represent the con- flict of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes as the typical 237 Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design Orcagna. Fiends from "The Triumph of Death." Fresco. Campo Santo, Pisa From a Photograph by Alinari Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design principles or embodied powers of good and of evil. The creature (representing evil) is winged, and has birds' claws for its hind feet (like Orcagna's fiends), and lions' paws for its fore feet, the body of an ox or horse, the beak of an eagle or griffin, in some instances, in others it appears with a bull's head, and is certainly sug- gestive of power and terror. The favourite Greek conception of the cen- taur, too, is an expressive symbolic embodiment of animal force, and the mythical sculptural com- bat in the metopes of the Parthenon is again suggestive of the conflict between the higher and the lower elements of human nature. Returning again to Christian art, we find the image of the lamb, with the banner of the cross, was the badge of the Templar ; and we find abundant symbolism in the various emblems and attributes of the apostles, saints, and mar- tyrs, distinguished by the various emblems of their evangel, conversion, or martyrdom. The mystic symbols of the four evangelists are well known to every ecclesiastical designer — the bull of St. Matthew, the lion of St. Mark, the angel of St. Luke, the eagle of St. John. The winged lion of St. Mark has become the distinguishing badge of the city of Venice, since the evangelist was supposed to be buried in the great church dedicated to his name. Its image in bronze upon the column in the Piazza im- presses itself upon the eye and imagination of every visitor, while its companion, St. George and the Dragon, we generally claim as the patron saint of England, and the red cross forms the basis of our national flag. 238 COMBAT- OF-KlNO WlTH ORlFPtH* ^ncieNT-PeRsiANscuLTaRe- Pgrscpous. Prom Perrot & Cbipie$ Hist:, of .7\n.CLcnJh Chap. vii. Now national heraldry is often derived from Symbolic tne bearings of families or chiefs. Of such is influence, or our royal standard with its Plantagenet leopards EiemenTin 0 ano ^ re d non °f tne Scottish kings. Though in Design the Irish harp we seem to get a purely national emblem, strictly speaking it is the heraldic bearing of one of the four provinces — Leinster. These heraldic bearings and badges had their origin in very remote times, and we must go back to earliest forms of human society, to the gens, and the tribe, who named themselves after some animal or plant, and adopted it as the distinguishing mark and ensign of the family to which they belonged, or to such primitive times as we read of in Mr. William Morris's " Roots of the Mountains '' and " House of the Wolfings," where he speaks of " The House of the Steer" and "The House of the Raven." The distinguishing badges would be carved or painted over the porch, and borne upon the shield of the chief and the banner in battle. In feudal times the practice was continued until family heraldry, owing to intermarriage, became very complicated, and family shields much quartered. Distinctness and definite characterization of form were highly necessary, since in battle it was important to distinguish your enemies from your friends, and the banner of the chieftain, the knight, or king, would be the rallying point for their followers and retainers. Heraldry became regulated by strict rules, and is now called a science, though its vitality and meaning have departed, except in an anti- quarian and archaeological sense. It has, how- ever, a certain decorative value to the designer, 240 Chap. VII. Of the Symbolic Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design as illustrating the principle of counterchange of colours, and from the heraldry of the mediaeval period much may be learned in point of decorat- ive treatment. The shield itself varies considerably in form, following the development of weapons, and the changes in armour and mode of fighting in different periods. There is the round shield of the ancients used both by Greeks and Norsemen. This with the Greeks had pieces cut out at the sides some- times. There was also a moon-shaped shield, similar in form to the shield used by our old invaders the Danes. Then we get the paral- lelogram, kite-shaped and oval shields of the Romans ; the kite-shaped shield of the Nor- mans ; the lancet pointed shield, cut square at the top, of the first crusades. The Gothic shield becomes more variously hollowed and shaped with the development of plate armour, and in the fifteenth century frequently has a space cut out on the outer edge to allow of the tilting lance of the knight passing through with- out interfering with the guard. In Renascence times there was a revival of classical and fanciful forms in shields, but with the use of fire-arms shields declined, until the small steel buckler for the short-sword became its last working repre- sentative. The character and the art of heraldic devices varies very much according to these changes in methods of warfare, and was also affected by the state of the arts generally. We have only to compare the bold and frank heraldry of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with the coach-painter's heraldry of the present 242 chap. vii. to realize the great change in feeling. Compare a Symbolic Plantagenet lion with a Victorian one, a mediaeval influence, or griffin with a nineteenth century specimen. Eiementln 0 The Gothic heraldic designer felt he must be Design simple and bold for the sake both of distinctness and ornamental effect. He emphasized certain features of his animals : he insisted very much, for instance, upon the claws of the lion, its mane and tail, its open mouth and tongue ; in short, he felt it was his first business to make a bold and striking pattern, and whatever the forms of his heraldry, they were controlled by this feeling. Heraldic devices formed a large part of the ornamental design of the Middle Ages in all kinds of materials. They were abundantly used in dress patterns and in hangings and textiles of all kinds. In the beautiful Sicilian silk stuffs, for instance, a leading feature of the repeat often consists of an emblematic or heraldic device of animals or birds, which give character and agree- able massiveness to the pattern. Mediaeval brasses afford many beautiful ex- amples of heraldic treatment. Indeed, for orna- mental feeling, expressed by very simple means and under very limited conditions, those of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries afford beautiful instances, which may be most profitably studied by designers of all kinds. Mr. Creeny's book on the Continental brasses may be recommended as containing many very beautiful examples from his own rubbings, notably from Belgium. Two specimens are given in Chapter VIII. But the love of symbol and emblem did not expire with the vigour of heraldic design. In- deed, a certain impetus was given to it by the 244 invention of printing, which, diverting it into chap. vil. another channel, seemed to give it fresh life in symbolic association with literature. The sixteenth cen- influence, or tury was remarkable for its love of allegory and iiemenUn 0 emblem, which was no doubt stimulated by the Design opening up of the stores of classical lore at the Renascence, and by the general stir and activity of thought of a time of transition, when new and old ideas were in conflict or in process of fusion. Life was full of variety, contrast, hope, fear, strife, love, art, romance and poetry, learn- ing and the beginnings of scientific discovery. Out of the seethings of such elements, joined with the relics of mediaeval naivete and quaint- ness,came into existence the emblem book, which offered compact pictorial epigrams, by means of the woodcut and the printing press, to fit every phase of human life, thought, and vicissitude. Holbein's " Dance of Death" was really a book of emblems, and the subject was a favourite one with the German sixteenth cen- tury designers. Very ancient ideas reappeared in these books, unearthed by scholars from all sorts of sources, from the ancient Egyptians onwards. Such designs as those of the pelican feeding its young from its own breast, and the stork carrying its parent on its back, constantly reappear ; and also the bees making their hive in a helmet, with the motto Ex bello pax, which reminds one of Samson's riddle of sweetness and strength. The device of the crab, too, with a butterfly between its claws, and the motto Festina lente — hasten slowly — is a favourite. The phoenix, also, borrowed from ancient Egypt, but nowa- days generally associated with life insurance. 2 45 chap. vii. Fortune, with the sail of a ship standing on a Symbolic globe, and sometimes a wheel, floating in a tem- Influence, or Emblematic Element in Design Emblems. Alciati. Ex Bello Pax. Designed by Solomon Bernard, 1522 Fortune pestuous sea, to express her fickleness and un- certainty, often appears. The fate of Ambition, in the fable of Phaeton falling from Apollo's car; the snake in the grass — Latet anguis in herba ; labour in vain, a man pouring water into a sieve, the sieve held by blindfold Love, also figures ; the ass loaded with dainties and rich 246 food, but stooping to eat the thistle by the way- Chap. vil. side, appears as a symbol of Avarice, ^sop's symbolic Influence, or fables were utilized, and classical mythology, in fact all was fish to the moral net of the emblem designer, and the multiplication of such collec- m Emblematic Element in Design Emblems. Alciati. Ambition. Designed by Solomon Bernard, 1522 Avarice Chap. vii. tions in printed books is evidence of the moral- Symboiic izing", philosophizing tendency of the times, and influence, or the love of personifying; and imaging ideas. Emblematic r, , . i • * s /Y> j Element in Elaborate designs, such as one of Komeyn de Design Hooghe (1670) — following the tablet of Cebes, B.C. 390, or the Latin version of 1507 — alle- gorizing human life as a whole, from birth to death, under the device of a labyrinth or maze, with figures wandering about in its walks, under different influences, down to simple devices like the moth and the candle, are comprehended in these emblem books ; but it is only reducing to small compass and to compact, portable, and popular form the same spirit of quaint invention which covered the walls and ceilings of great houses and public halls and tapestries with per- sonifications, like the splendid series of the " Triumphs " of Petrarch, Love, Time, Death, and Chastity in our National Museum at South Kensington, as well as endless embodiments of the seasons, the senses, the virtues, and the vices. Emblematic art, however, like heraldry, became overlaid with pedantry, and its artistic interest died when its form became prescribed, and precedent and rule took the place of original invention. The chief scope for symbol and emblem in our time lies in the province of decorative design, which in its highest forms may be regarded as the metre or poetry of art. The designer, like the poet, rejoices in certain limita- tions, which, while they fix and control his form and treatment, leave him extraordinary freedom in dealing suggestively with themes difficult or impossible to be approached in purely natural- istic form. 248 It is true we find emblematic art in very stiff chap. vn. and degraded forms, and applied to quite hum- symbolic drum purposes. It is largely used in commerce, influence, or for instance, and one may find classical fable and EiemenUn 0 symbolism reduced to a trade mark or a poster. Design Still trade marks, after all, fill the place, in our modern commercial war, of the old knightly heraldry — shorn of its splendour and romance, certainly — and given trade marks and posters they might as well be designed, and would serve their purpose more effectively if they were treated more according to the principles of mediaeval heraldry, since they would gain at once character, distinctness,and decorative effect. Allegorical art has, too, a modern popular form in the region of political satire and carica- ture, often potent to stir or to concentrate poli- tical feeling. This is almost a distinct province, to which many able and vigorous artists devote their lives and show their invention in the effect- ive way in which the political situation is put into some piece of familiar symbolism which all can recognize and remember. In the region of poetic design symbolism must always hold its place. When the artist desires to soar a little above the passing moment to suggest the past, to peer into the future ; when he looks at human life as a complete whole, and the life of the race as an unbroken chain ; when he would deal with thoughts of man's origin and destiny, of the powers and passions that sway him, of love, of hope and fear, of the mystery of life and nature, the drama of the seasons, he must use figurative language, and seek the beautiful and permanent images of emblematic design. 249 CHAPTER VIII.— OF THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE, OR NATURALISM IN DESIGN. Of the VHI r I HE graphic influence!" my readers may Graphic X exclaim, " what existence has design apart influence, or f rom t hj s smce tne depicting power with what- Naturahsm ' F b F in Design ever pencil, brush, modelling tool, chisel, pen is by its very nature bound up with it ?" That is quite true, yet for all that there is discernible a very distinct line of cleavage in art, a distinction of spirit and aim which seems to have divided or characterized artists and epochs from the very earliest. I have often alluded to the drawings of the prehistoric cave men. These graphic outlines of animals, although generally incised upon the handles of weapons, always appear to me to indicate the purely naturalistic aim as distinct from the ornamental sense, as if the first object of the primitive artist bad been to get as exact a profile as possible of the animals he knew ; just as a modern artist, with superior facilities of pencil and paper, might make sketches at the Zoological Gardens without any idea of making them parts of a decorative design. The main difference seems to be that in purely graphic or naturalistic drawing individual characteristics or differences are sought for, while in ornamental 250 Prehistoric Graphic Art of the Cave Men Chap. VIII. Of the Graphic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Prehistoric Graphic Art of the Cave Men or decorative drawing typical forms or corre- spondences are sought for. In the course of the development of historic art in different countries and among different peoples, under different social and political systems, we may yet discern a kind of strife for ascendency between these two principles, which still divide the world of art ; and though in the most perfect art the two are found reconciled and harmonized, as being really two sides of the same question, the general feeling for art seems to swing from one side to the other, like the tides in ebb and flow. At one time human feeling in art seeks to perpetuate types, symbols, and emblems of the wonder of life and the mysteries of the universe, as in the art of ancient Egypt. At another its interest is absorbed in the representation of individual characteristics and varieties, striving to follow nature through chap. vin. her endless subtleties and transformations, as in ^phic our own day ; when the different aims inspiring influence, or our artists might be set down as— ^Design" 1 (1) The desire to realize, or to represent things as they are. (2) The desire to realize, or to represent things as they appear to be. Under whatever differences of method or ma- terial, I believe it will be found that this real difference of mental attitude behind them ac- counts for the varieties we see, that is to say, in any genuine and thoughtful work. Every sincere artist naturally desires to realize his conception to the best of his ability, in the most harmonious and forceful way ; but in the course of the development of a work of art of any kind there are problems to be solved at every turn. Is it a piece of repeating surface ornament we are designing ? We feel we must subordinate parts to the whole, we must see that our leading structural lines are harmonious, we cannot emphasize a bit of detail without reference to the total effect. We may find the design wants simplifying, and have to strike out even some element of beauty. Such sacrifices are frequently necessary. Our love of naturalism may induce us to work up our details, our leaves and flowers, to vie with natural appearance in full light and relief, until we find we are losing the repose and sense of quiet planes essential to pattern work, and getting beyond the capacities of our material, so that we may realize that even skill and graphic power may be inartistic if wrongly ap- plied or wasted in inappropriate places. 253 Chap. viii. Is it a landscape we desire to transcribe or Graphic express upon paper or canvas ? Sun and shadow influence, or flit across it, changing every moment dark to S a Des a igS m Hg ht and n g ht to dark > so that the general emphasis and expression of the scene constantly vary, like the expression of a human face, as we watch it. Which shall we choose ? Which seems the most expressive, the most beautiful ? Again, shall we content ourselves with a general superficial impression, leaving details vague ? Egyptian Treatment of Birds r$K\ u/m a\^s eurw , Shall we aim at truth of tone, or truth of local colour ? Shall we dwell on the lines of the com- position ? Shall we spend all our care upon getting the planes right, or rely for our main interest upon light and shade and delicate de- finition of detail ? All these different problems belong to graphic representation of nature, to graphic methods of drawing and design, and the work of different artists is distinguished usually by the way in which they seem to feel — the particular aspect or truth on which they mostly dwell in their work. 254 Even the most abstract symbolic or orna- chap.vni. mental drawing in pure outline must have some Graphic graphic quality, though intentionally limited to influence, or the expression of few facts. ^D^ign™ The method by which an ancient Egyptian painter or hieroglyphic carver blocked out a vulture or a hawk, relying either solely on truth A Fowler. Wall Painting. XlXth Dynasty. British Museum of mass or silhouette, or on outline and emphatic marking of the masses of the plumage, or the salient characteristics, such as claws and beak, although extremely abstract, was full of natural truth and fact as far as it went, and left no doubt as to the birds depicted. Something of the same kind of quality is found in Japanese drawings of birds, with less severity and monumental feeling. The graphic 255 Chap. VIII. Of the Graphic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Japanese Graphic Art. From " The Hundred Birds of Bari" or naturalistic feeling is strongest and the in- dividual accidents are dwelt upon. In modern European natural history drawings of birds and animals, we often lose this bold graphic sense of character in the general aspect, while small 256 superficial details of plumage and textures are Chap. vin. carefully attended to. There is often less life o^phic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Japanese Graphic Art. From " The Hundred Birds of Bari" though actually more likeness. The general tendency in the development of the art of a people seems to have been from the formal, 257 s Chap. viii. monumental, and symbolic type of representation Graphic an< ^ design in strict relation to architectural ^fluence, or structure and decoration, towards freer natural- inVeTign" 1 i sm > individual portraiture, and a looser graphic style. We may trace this tendency even in the strictly monumental and stereotyped art of ancient Egypt, which notably in the portrait sculpture even of the ancient empire is remark- able for extraordinary realism ; and in the wall painting of the later period of the Theban empire (as in the tomb of Beni Hasan), which show considerable freedom and vitality. A most notable example of realism is the famous " Scribe " in the Louvre, a coloured statuette, believed to date from the fifth or sixth dynasty, of extraordinary vitality. The eyes consist of an iris of rock crystal, surmounting a metal pupil, and set in an eyeball of opaque white quartz. Greek sculpture, again, shows a gradual de- velopment from the archaic period, in which it resembles early Asiatic art, up to the refinement, freedom, and beauty of design of the Phidian period, when the balance between naturalistic feeling and monumental feeling appears to have been perfect. Then later, as the result of a desire for more obvious naturalism and dramatic expression, we get quite a different feeling in the sculptures of the frieze of the great altar at Pergamos, which represents the strife of the gods and the Titans — a tremendous subject, worked out with extraordinary power, skill, and learn- ing in alto relievo ; but despite the energy and dramatic movement, after the delicacy and re- poseful beauty of the Parthenon sculptures, we 258 Egyptian Scribe. Portrait Statuette. Vth or Vlth Dynasty. Louvre chap. viii. feel that these qualities have been gained at a Graphic considerable cost and loss ; but it is interesting influence, or as representing the more realistic and dramatic ^Design 1 " side of Greek art. 1 But the grace and charm of Greek art never seemed really to die out. All the best Roman art was inspired by it, if not actually carried out by Greek artists ; and, owing to Greek colonies, Greek traditions had long been natural- ized in Italy, where they found a congenial soil. Fine portrait sculpture was done in the imperial period — as the Augustus and the head of Julius Csesar and many other well-known busts testify. Also the truth and beauty of some of their animal sculpture we may see in the fine style of the frieze of sacrificial animals discovered in 1872 in the Forum. We seem to see the Greek spirit in the decorative splendour of the Byzantine period, and again, in Italian dress, inspiring the painters and sculptors of the early Renascence, in the work of Giotto, Ghiberti, and Donatello for instance. With the development of Gothic architecture in the thirteenth century a new and distinct feeling for naturalism arose, which influenced through architecture all the arts of design. In fact, all through the Gothic period design seems to have had more the character of a vital organic growth, controlled by a certain tradition and the influence of architectural style, yet within these limits and those of the material of its expression developing an extraordinary freedom both of invention and graphic power, which culminated at the end of the fifteenth cen- tury, or was perhaps absorbed by the classicism 1 The original slabs are in the Berlin Museum, but casts- of some may be seen at South Kensington. 260 Sculptured Frieze discovered in the Forum, 1872] Auxerre Cathedral. Xlllth century of the Renascence. Thirteenth century Gothic chap.viu. sculpture at its best, as we find it in France, Graphic has almost the simplicity, grace, and natural influence, or feeling of Greek work. This may be seen in Amiens Cathedral. XlVth century the figures from the west front of Auxerre Cathedral, and also in the porch of Amiens ; and in the portrait effigies of this period and onwards through the three centuries in those of our own cathedrals and churches we find abundant evid- 263 Chap. viii. ence of graphic power in careful and character- Graphic lstlc portraiture, united with beauty of design in influence, or detail and decorative effect, in Design What we should call realism comes out won- derfully in the treatment of the statue of St. Martha at St. Urbain, Troyes, a work of the fifteenth century. Gothic art, too, was a familiar art, intimate and sympathetic with human life in all its varieties. In the beautiful illuminated Psalters, Missals, Books of Hours, and chronicles of the Middle Ages, the life of those days is presented in bright and vivid colours. We see the labourers at work in the fields, ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, treading the wine-press. We see the huntsman, the fisherman, and the shepherd ; the scribe at his work, the saint at his prayers, the knight at arms. The splendour and pomp of jousts and tournaments, with all their bright colour and quaint heraldry ; we see the king in his ermine, and the beggar in his rags, the monk in his cell, the gallant with his lute — delicate miniatures often set in burnished gold, and adorned with open fret-work or borders of flowers and leaves. These borders in course of time from a purely fanciful ornamental character become real leaves, flowers or fruit, as in the Grimani Breviary, attri- buted to Memling, the famous Flemish painter, where the borders are in some pages naturalistic paintings of leaves and berries, birds and butter- flies, on gold grounds with cast shadows. Here we get the naturalistic feeling dominating again and the pictorial skill of the miniaturist triumph- ing, but the effect is still rich and ornamental. 264 St. Martha. St. Urbain, Troyes Chap. VIII. Of the Graphic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Memling. "Deliver- ance of St. Peter." Grimani Breviary When the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century began to rival the scribe with his manuscript, it offered in the woodcut a new method to the artist, which led to a new develop- ment of graphic power and design by means of line and black and white, though at first intended merely as a method of furnishing the illuminator 266 with outlined designs as book illustrations and Chap.vm. ornaments to be filled in with colour and gold. Graphic The black and white effect, however, grew to influence, or Naturalism in Design Memling. " David placing the Ark in the Tabernacle." Grimani Breviary be liked for its own sake : not only was it found to afford a considerable range of decorative effect by different treatment of line and solid black, but the graphic designer found in the rich 267 Chap. viii. vigorous woodcut line a suggestive and em- Graphic phatic means of expression. The best artists influence, or of the time gave themselves to the work, and in a DcSgn m notably in Germany, the home of the invention of printing itself. Cologne, Mainz, Augsburg, Ulm, Nuremberg were all famous centres of activity in the printer's art, as well as Venice and Florence, Basle and Paris. Up to the end of the fifteenth century the Gothic and ornamental feeling is still dominant in the treatment of the design of woodcuts in books, and most instructive and suggestive they are in simplicity of method and line, and direct- ness of expression. Characteristic German work of Gothic feeling and considerable graphic force is seen in the woodcuts of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) designed by Michael Wolgemuth, the master of Albert Diirer. In these vigorous cuts we may plainly see the tradition of that Gothic feeling and style of graphic design afterwards developed in the work of the great German designer. The splendid woodcuts of Diirer's " Apoca- lypse," and of the " Little Passion," and the design called " The Cannon" (1 5 18), give us fur- ther insight into his method of drawing and his graphic power ; and one can hardly go to stronger or better examples for the study of expression by means of bold line work, a command of which is most valuable to designers in all materials, though, of course, especially so to those who desire to make black and white drawing their principal pursuit. For Diirer's finer line treat- ment on copper there is no better example than the portrait of Erasmus. The style of drawing shown in these wood- 268 cuts was no doubt to a great extent determined Chap. vin. by the nature of the method of cutting the block. Graphic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Albert Diirer. " Apoca- lypse " The drawing on the smooth plank — not on the cross section of the tree, as in modern wood- engraving — was actually cut with a knife, not a 269 Chap. VIII. Of the Graphic Influence, or Naturalism in Design Albert Durer. Erasmus, 1526 graver. Each line had to be excavated, as it were, from the surface, the ground or white part sunk each side, so as to make it take the ink and print the impression of its surface sharply upon the paper in the press. These conditions would necessarily lead to a certain economy of line both as to quantity and direction, and would favour the use of bold outline and lines expres- 270 Chap. viii. sive of relief surfaces or shadow arranged in a Graphic comparatively simple way, and often running Influence, or Naturalism in Design Albert Diirer. " Little Passion." The Taking down from the Cross into solid black, as in small folds of drapery and details. The drawing was probably done with a reed or quill pen, which latter still remains 272 perhaps the best tool for emphatic, graphic Chap, vin drawing on the scale of book designs, since it Graphic offers the maximum possibility of effect with influence, or the minimum of simplicity and economy of ^Design™ means. Its only rival (though it may also be regarded as a useful auxiliary to the pen) is the narrow flexible brush point, and this has the advantage of spreading more easily into solid blacks, though more likely to lead one into looseness of style owing to its very facility. Fine and firm graphic draughtsmanship and rich design, with a fine sense of the decorative value of armorial bearings and processional grouping, may be seen in the famous series of woodcuts called " The Triumphs of Maximilian,'* in which Albert Dlirer and Hans Burgmair co-operated. That is to say each did a large proportion of the designs. It was a very vast work for wood-engraving. The scheme was in two parts, one consisting of a design of a triumphal arch, in general idea in emulation of the old Roman imperial triumphal arches. This part of the work consisted of ninety-two blocks which, when put together, form one woodcut ioj feet high by 9 feet wide. This part was all designed and drawn upon the blocks by Albert Dtirer, and engraved by Hieronymus Andreae. The second part consisted of the triumphal procession and the triumphal car of Maximilian and his Queens, designed by Diirer, as well as other allegorical and heraldic cars and warlike machines, and cars with officers of the court, groups of knights in armour, men-at-arms of all kinds, country people, and even groups of African savages. Sixty-six of the designs of the procession are due to Hans Burgmair. 273 T Chap. viii. It is noteworthy that the general scheme for Graphic tn ^ s triumph was first painted on large sheets of influence, or parchment, which still exist in the Imperial S a De£gn m Library at Vienna ; and the woodcuts followed this more or less in design, Diirer's drawings being a freer rendering, while Burgmair's are Hans Burgmair. Group of Knights from "The Triumphs of Maxi- milian " supposed to keep more closely to the painted scheme of the miniaturists, though it is quite possible they may both have furnished sketches for the miniaturists' version also. This great undertaking, however, was never finished, and its progress came to an end with the death of the emperor in January, 15 19. The work 274 was supposed to have been commenced in chap. vin. - ofthe 5 rr Graphic For more purely ornamental effect in black influence, or and white the rich, bold, yet sensitive outline j^DesIgn" 1 of the Venetian and Florentine woodcuts should be studied, and their use of solid black. The amount of graphic expression and even of statement of natural fact which can be put into pure outline alone is, of course, enormous. The value of the graphic illustrative capacity of the woodcut was soon discovered and utilized by the writers of natural histories and compilers of Herbals of the early days of printing onwards. There is a beautiful Herbal written by Dr. Fuschius (whose name we seem to have per- petuated in the Fuschia). It was printed at Basle in 1542, and the drawings are fine ex- amples of what outline can do, and remarkable for a combination of beautiful style united with natural truth and decorative feeling. One of the horned poppy is here given. The book is also interesting in the portraits of the draughts- men and wood-engraver, or formschneider, given at the end. The woodcuts of the plants given in the Herbal of Matthiolus, where more lines of surface and shadow are introduced, are vigor- ous and good, full of style and character, and expressive of the salient facts of growth. The same may be said of those in our own Gerard's Herbal, though the impressions are not gener- ally so bright or good ; but then it was pro- duced during the decline of the printers art, in the later years of the sixteenth century. Though used for purely illustrative purposes, 275 Chap. viii. much as the cuts put into modern dictionaries G^phic to ma ke certain facts clear to the mind, these influence, or woodcuts have always, over and above fidelity ^Design" to tne main facts of growth and character, a sense of design. They are not merely drawings of plants, but they are well put together as panels or spaces of design, and effectively though un- obtrusively ornament the page. For expressive and sensitive line and touch in the rendering of flowers, the Japanese artists are remarkable, and their books, printed from wood-blocks cut on the plank in the old Euro- pean way, are full of spirit and suggestiveness. Drawn on the wood with a pointed brush, which is occasionally spread to yield solid black, or turned sideways, or dragged, to vary the quality of the line, they show that extreme ease and facility in the expression of form by simple means which only long practice, direct work, and intimate knowledge and close observation of nature could produce. The added flat and delicate tints of colour enhance the effect and give them a decorative beauty entirely their own, though planned in the spaces they occupy in a totally different spirit from the old Herbal woodcuts we have been considering. They belong in the main rather to the second point of view or artistic impulse in art, which I characterized at the beginning as the desire to represent without prepossession the appear- ances of things ; which delights in accidents, in unexpectedness, and sometimes, it must be con- fessed, in downright ugliness and awkwardness, it seems to me — what in short is sometimes called " impressionism," which has been largely influenced by Japanese art. 276 chap. viii. Mediaeval brasses are often very fine in the Graphic quality and use of outline, and show a wonderful Influence, or in Design Japanese Plant Drawing. Woodcut Printed in Colour amount of exact characterization in portraiture, as well as beauty of ornamental effect in the use of plain surfaces relieved upon rich pattern work, 278 Japanese Plant Drawing. Woodcut from a Botanical Work Chap. viii. and good disposition of draperies. Those of Graphic tne fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more influence, or especially the Belgian examples, are very useful inVesIgn" 1 to study for these things, as well as for the fine taste, the simplicity, and the broad artistic feeling shown under the strict limitation of the material, while they are remarkable for extra- ordinary delineation of character by very simple means — the lines and sunk parts being incised in the smooth brass plate and filled in with black encaustic substance, while the colours of the heraldry are frequently enamelled. Note the beautiful lines of the drapery in the example given from Bruges, and the fine relief of the figures upon the rich diapered ground. In England the figures and borders were cut out in the brass and inserted in the stone slab, which formed the background ; but the Flemish brasses show a different treatment, the figures being relieved upon a rich diapered ground, also incised upon the brass, which takes the form of a complete panel or plate covering the stone slab. One may trace in the later brasses the efforts of the designer to gain more relief and graphic emphasis in his figures by introducing lines of shading and cross lines and greater complexity generally, as well as a tendency to escape the limits of the panel, no doubt under the influence of the rising power of pictorial art, which from the Renascence onwards seems to have domi- nated by its influence all the other arts. But in the case of brasses the beauty of design, the charm and simplicity of the earlier treatment, as well as the rich decorative effect, disappear with the attempt to render complexities of effect and 280 Chap. vill. qualities of drawing for which the material and Graphic purpose were unsuited. influence, or The same change of feeling left its mark upon inVeTign" 1 tne sculptor's work in sepulchral monuments and effigies, which, in the Gothic period up to the end of the fifteenth century, are frequently refined and beautiful pieces of delicate portraiture, wrought with extreme care and elaboration, with a strong yet restrained sense of the ornamental value of the detail ; but which, under the pic- torial influence and the search for more obvious and superficial naturalism, became more or less forced in effect and vulgarized in sentiment as well as execution, and finally lost in classical artificiality and theatric pomp. In simple draughtsmanship and purely graphic design, too, it is noticeable that, with the intro- duction of the copper-plate and the attempt to get in book illustrations something like pictorial values and chiaroscuro, how, by degrees, vigour of design and feeling for good line work was lost. The revival of the woodcut even under Bewick did little to help line design — its former close companion. Bewick and his school de- veloped the woodcut from the pictorial point of view, and with the object of demonstrating the capacity of the wood for rendering certain fine textures and tones as against steel and copper. Their great principle was the use of white line, not unheard of even in the early printing days, as a frontispiece to a German book (" Pomerium de Tempore," Augsburg, 1502) of the early sixteenth century testifies. Bewick's birds, which are remarkable for the delicate, truthful way in which the plumage is rendered, are as much the work of a naturalist 282 King Eric Menved and Queen Ingeborg of Denmark. Ringstead, 1319 Chap. viii. as of an artist, and they show but little design Graphic or feeling apart from this. Natural"' ° r Although William Blake and Edmund Cal- in\>Vslgn m vert m ade notable use of the woodcut, it was not really until about the middle of the century that any serious attempt was made in the direction of the revival of line and pen drawing for the sake of its expressive vigour, ornamental possibilities, and autographic value. Probably it really began with German artists like Schnorr (who did a series of Bible pictures more or less after the manner of Holbein), Alfred Rethel, and Moritz Schwind. Rethel's two large woodcuts, " Death the Friend " and " Death the Enemy," are tolerably well known and show strong draughtsmanship and tragic force, recalling in their intensity and vigour the work of Diirer and the old German masters. In England the revival of line design arose out of the Pre-Raphaelite movement (a move- ment certainly influenced by the study of early Italian as well as German and Flemish art), and was illustrated by the work of some of the leaders of that movement themselves. The drawings (engraved on wood by the brothers Dalziel) by D. G. Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, which illustrate the edition of Tennyson's poems published in 1857, show perhaps the first definite experiments in this direction. The pages of the journal " Once a Week," started in 1859, were the means of the introduc- tion of new and powerful designers in line, such as Frederick Sandys, Charles Keene, E. J. Poynter, and Frederick Walker. The first three showed unmistakable evidence 284 Chap. viii. of a study of the manner of German Renascence Graphic woodcuts, but it was allied to the matter of influence, or modern thought and naturalism. With a freer S a Des a ign m graphic naturalism of a different order, Walker united a certain grace and sentiment derived from classic sculpture, curiously mixed with a Dutch-like domestic feeling. In his black and white drawing he shows, too, I think, to some degree the influences of the photograph, which since those days has had so obvious an effect upon art and artists. " Once a Week," which introduced these with other artists to the public, was started by the proprietors of " Punch," which had long main- tained and still maintains an effective and legitimate field for graphic drawing in line rendered by the facsimile wood-block. The work of John Leech and Richard Doyle is well known, the former, with a light and some- what loose touch registering the fashions and foibles of English life from week to week, with extraordinary spirit, humour, and character, often conveyed by very slight means. John Tenniel, with his more serious and heavier style, still continues to give his familiar allegories of the political situation ; this style again has, I think, been influenced by German work. Then Charles Keene brought in a kind of impressionistic naturalism, expressed by a method of his own, having a look of great freshness and directness, like crisp sketches from nature. Du Maurier developed a different style, less vigorous but more graceful in drawing, and with certain leanings at one time to the romantic Pre-Raphaelitism he used his pencil occasionally to caricature. 286 In Mr. Linley Sambourne we see a designer chap. vm. and draughtsman of considerable power. His Graphic pen-line is vigorous and his drawing solid and influence, or r & ° Naturalism in Design Linley Sambourne. Reduced from a full-page design in " Punch" graphic, with considerable feeling for style, but showing, I think, the influence of the photograph in the rendering of light and shade. In quality of line there is a certain kinship with the work of Mr. Phil May, the latest ad- 287 chap. viii. dition to the staff, though his treatment is very Graphic different. He represents, indeed, rather the influence, or modern impressionist feeling in line drawing S a Des a ign m influenced by the Japanese ; his outlines are often extraordinarily graphic, and convey a great amount of character with very slight variation, and very little detail ; but there is rather a noticeable tendency towards awkward composi- tion and ugly or repulsive types. As a work giving some of the more serious and carefully studied designs in line and black and white of modern artists, engraved on wood, might be mentioned the Bible projected by the brothers Dalziel, a portion only of which was completed, consisting of a series of fine drawings by Holman Hunt, Madox Brown, E. J. Poynter, Frederic Leighton, and others. They are more perhaps in the nature of isolated pictures than book illustrations, but they are full of good and careful work. The earlier etchings of Mr. Whistler are full of delicate drawing of the picturesque detail of old waterside houses, as in the famous " Wap- ping," which even survived translation into a process block in the " Daily Chronicle." We have now a vast public apparently in- terested in, and accustomed to, graphic repre- sentation in black and white, through the continual multiplication of cheap illustrated newspapers, magazines, and books, and the con- tinual invention and adaptation to the press of cheap photographic and automatic means of reproduction, which have almost entirely dis- placed the woodcut as a popular medium for the interpretation of graphic art. In these cheap forms of pictorial art the 288 Chap. viii. photograph continues to gain ascendency not Graphic on ty as a medium for reproduction, but as a influence, or substitute for original artistic invention and ^Design" design. Now while in the former province it is of enormous practical value, in the latter, I think, it bids fair to be extremely seductive and in- jurious to the growth of healthy artistic taste and capacity. Modern painting and draughtsmanship have for a long time shown the influence of the photo- graph (which for certain illusory qualities of lighting and relief cannot be approached), and so, no doubt, artists themselves have prepared the way for its popularity, and perhaps even usurpation of the dominion of popular art. So far, however, as photographic effect is pre- ferred, and the mechanical tone-block is preferred to the pen-drawing and woodcut, it means the loss of character, of the personal element, of distinctive artistic style. It means, in short, the substitution of scientific invention and mechanical method for artistic imagination, observation, and variety — surely this would be a most unfortunate ex- change. 290 CHAPTER IX.— OF THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE IN DESIGN. w E commonly speak of ancient ai't, but of chap. ix. modern artists. Straws indicate which ^^^1 way the wind blows, and superficial habits may in- influence in dicate changes of thought and feeling which lie far Desi & n deeper. Interest has now become centred in the development of individual varieties rather than typical forms, whereas, as we have seen, it is the latter character that distinguishes the art of the ancients. In the great monumental works of the Asiatic nations of antiquity names of individual artists are lost, and in the art of Egypt and Assyria and Persia they are of little consequence, since certain prevailing types and methods were adhered to ; and most of their work, as in their mural sculptures, while distinct in racial character, might almost have been executed by the same hand — Egyptian, Assyrian, or Persian, as the case may be. Tennyson's lines regarding nature might be here applied to art : " So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life." With the intellectual activity of Greece and the development of her power as a state, the archaic and purely typical period in her arts, while possessing wonderful harmony and unity, led to individual development of artists, and, 291 Chap. ix. assisted no doubt by the increase of writing individual an( ^ record, famous names are handed down: influence in such as Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon, and Phidias, its sculptor, whose name charac- terizes the finest period of Greek art. The ancient myth of Daedalus seems to show that art was always a power among the ancient Greeks, and Daedalus, who seems to occupy an analogous position in southern mythology to that of Wayland Smith in the north, may have represented, or his name and fame covered, whole generations of artists and cunning craftsmen ; following the tendency, still noticeable, by which great reputations absorb smaller ones, and in the course of time have attributed to them works not really belonging to them at all. The name becomes a convenient symbol for a whole period, school, or group of workmen. One can understand in primitive times how important the artist-craftsmen must have been. The fashioner of weapons, the one learned in the mysteries of smelting metal, of working iron, bronze, brass and copper, gold and silver, and having the power of making things of beauty out of these, which became the revered or coveted treasures of temples and kings' houses. The old stories of the early Greek painters Apelles and Protogenes show, too, at once the tendency towards myth-making, and the old love of talk about art, as well as the old and dearly- clung to popular theory that the beauty of paint- ing is measured by its illusive power; so that the realistic grapes of Apelles, which only de- ceived the birds, were supposed to be outdone by the naturalistic curtain of Protogenes, which took in the critics. This tradition seems still to 292 linger in the minds of our scene-painters when chap. ix. they present us with those wonderful (and some- dividual times fearful) drop curtains of satin, festooned influence in with tassels and cords of undreamed of sumptu- Desi ^ n ousness and mysterious mechanism. The names and works of Praxiteles and of Myron are well known to students of antique sculpture, and these are but stars of greater magnitude among a host of others less dis- tinguished, or less centralized in universal fame. Yet we only know the Venus of Melos from the island where she was discovered. We know that the Greek vase painters fre- quently signed their designs, and this has con- siderably helped the historic criticism and classi- fication of that interesting and beautiful province of Greek design, such as has been so ably done in the works of Miss Jane E. Harrison. In the Byzantine and early mediaeval period we again see a great development of typical symbolical and profoundly impressive art in architecture and decoration, but again names and individual artists are largely lost. We do not know, for instance, who were the designers of the splendid mosaics at Ravenna. With the dawn of painting in Italy, however, in the thirteenth century arose a personal and individualized type of art in which names be- came of immense interest. This was no doubt fostered by the rivalry of the cities, each in- dependent, under its own government ; each municipality proud and anxious to vie in the splendour and beauty of art with its neighbouring municipality. This led to a wholesome emulation among artists and very fine results, since there were abundant opportunities in the great public 293 Chap. IX. Of the Individual Influence in Design Cimabue. 1240-1302 monuments, council chambers, and churches for the highest exercise of the architect, the painter, and craftsman's art. The ancient system of the master craftsman working with his pupils in his shop or studio prevailed. A man might learn the craft of painting from the beginning, the grinding of colours, the laying of grounds, the mixing of tints, drawing out cartoons, enlarging designs for wall-painting, the painting of ornamental framework, and decorative detail, and gesso work enrichment, and gilding, miniature paint- ing and the decoration of books, altar-pieces, signs and shrines ; perhaps embroidery and textile patterns, banners, the furniture of shows and pageants — all these might be carried on, perhaps under one master. The term painter was not then specialized to mean either house- painter or easel-picture painter. An apprentice might thoroughly and practically learn his trade in the ordinary sense of the word, but it would depend upon his personal capacity and quality whether he would become a master, whether his name would be inscribed on the scroll of fame to be a landmark for future historians of art. The romantic tales and episodes in the lives of painters which have come down to us are always interesting, and in Italy, being the centreof artistic life from the fourteenth to the end of the sixteenth centuries, we find abundant lore of this sort. That picturesque legend of Cimabue of Flor- ence, first told by Lorenzo Ghiberti (who was born in 1378), for instance, finding the youthful Giotto as a shepherd boy, while riding in the valley of Vespignano, about fourteen miles from Florence, sketching the image of one of his flock 294 upon a smooth fragment of slate with a pointed chap. ix. stone, and taking him to Florence as his pupil, ^a^uai Cimabue is commonly supposed to have been influence in the first to show a new departure in the direction of greater freedom and naturalness of treatment, the first whose work shows much individuality, 295 Design Simone Memmi. Fresco con- taining Portraits of Cimabue, Giotto, and Contem- poraries. Florence. Cloisters of S. M. Novella From a Photograph by Alinari Chap. ix. and emerges from the somewhat set and pre- inctividuai scl *ibed traditions of the Byzantine school which influence in characterizes the earliest Italian painting of the Design Christian period really influenced by the Greek church mosaic design, which may be considered almost as the swathing clothes of mediaeval painting in Italy. His altar-piece for the church of Sta. Maria Novella was carried in procession through Florence to the church — a subject which has furnished a theme for Lord Leighton's well- known and fine decorative early work, too seldom seen. His (Cimabue's) portrait, in the white em- broidered costume with a hood, appears in a group with Giotto and other famous contempo- raries, including Petrarch and Laura, in a fresco by Simone Memmi, a contemporary painter, on the wall of the chapel of the Cappella degli Spagnoli at Sta. Maria Novella. Giotto, But Giotto marks the real point of departure. 1276-1336 Coming straight from outdoor life, from the simple country pursuits of a shepherd boy, it was significant that he should be the first to introduce a new spirit into art. Natural simplicity and directness, power of dramatic narrative painting, dignity and simplicity of style, and decorative beauty — these were some of the qualities with which Giotto enriched the field of early Italian art. He became the friend of Dante, who pays him a tribute in the well-known lines in his poem "II Purgatorio," " Cimabue thought To lord it over painting's field ; and now The cry is Giotto, and his name's eclips'd." Gary's Danie. 296 And Giotto has left us an interesting portrait of chap. ix. the poet, on the wall of the Podesta, or council ^dividual Influence in Design From a Photograph by Alinari chamber of Florence, his first recorded work. Giotto was, in fact, a fellow pupil with Dante under the same master, Brunetto Latini, since Cimabue gave him all the cultivation of his time 297 Chap. ix. in books as well as art. The fame of Giotto as individual a P amter spread all over Italy, and his services influence in were required by the Church, and by rich and Design «. 5 great persons. Giotto. Fresco. Arena Chapel, Padua From a Photo- graph by C. Naya There is a well-known story, which throws light upon his skill and certainty of hand, that once, when an emissary from Pope Boniface VIII. came to him for a specimen of his handi- work to show to his master, Giotto took a piece 298 of paper and drew a circle in one stroke, with- chap. ix. / 1 Of the OUt COmpaSSeS. Individual The pope's emissary was disappointed at not influence in getting a prettier picture, but it proved convinc- ing, and the legend passed into a proverb which runs : Rounder than the O of Giotto — J 34, 35 2 - Lamb, symbolic use of the, 238. Lamps, design of, 67, 68, 71, 75- Lantern, German, 74, 75. Leech, John, 286. Leigh's Priory, chimneys at, 63. . Leighton, Lord, 288, 296. Lincoln, angel choir at, 32. Lintel, architecture of the, 5. Lion, Scottish, 240 ; in heraldry, 242. Lions (sculptured), Assyrian, 196; modern, 197, 198. Loom, the, 103, et seq. Lotus, Egyptian, 191, 224; Assyrian, 193, 195. Louis XV., statue of, by Bouchardon, 97, 98. Luxor, column at, 164. Lycia, tombs in, 6, 7. [ Majolica ware, 84. 1 Manchester, Cheetham's Hospital, 65. Mantegna, Andrea, 312-319. Manuscripts, illuminated, 264, 266, 267. March, Dr., 215, , Mat, the primitive, 47, 48, 49. Matthiolus, Herbal of, 275. ! May, Phil, 287, 289. Medici, Giuliano de, 332, 333. < Medici, Lorenzo de, 324, 3 2 5> 333- Memling, 40, 42, 266, 267. Memmi, Simone, 295, 296. j Meyer's " Handbook of Orna- | ment," 80. 62 Michael Angelo, 322, 324- 333. Millais, Sir J. E., 284. Modelling in clay, 91 ; in wax, 94. Morris, William, 117, 133, 134, 240, 352. Mosaics at Ravenna, 21-24, 23 I " 2 33- Mouldings, in architecture, origin of, 58. Multan, tomb at, 176. Mycenae, gate of the lions at, 6, 8. Myron, 293. Nile, the (sculptured group), 227, 228. Norman architecture, 25-26. Norse sagas, 220. Nuremberg, iron-work at, 99, 101. Nuremberg Chronicle, the, 268. Nut, the Goddess, 224. Omar Khayyam, 172. "Once a Week," 284. Orcagna, Andrea, 236, 237, 302-305. Oxen, heads of, 53, 54. Oxford, Magdalen Tower, 62. Palmette, the, 203, 204. Pan, 236. Pandora, story of, 230. Paper, advantage of hand- made, 136. Paper making, 352. Paris, Sainte Chapelle, glass from, 138, 139, 141. Parthenon, the, 7-13, 258; symbolism of the, 225, 226, 228, 238. Peacock, the, in Byzantine I art, 232. Pen drawing, revival of, 284. Penshurst Place, 63. Pergamos, altar of, 258. Perrot andChipiez, "History of Persian Art," 168-170, 239- Persephone, story of, 330. Persepolis, 168, 239. I Persian pottery, 84 ; types of design, 165, 203, 212; glazed bricks, 165-169 ; carpets, 106, 107, 169-171, 201 ; embroidery, 112, 203 ; pomegranates, 201, 202 ; griffin, 238, 239. Petrarch, 306. Phidias, 292. Philae, lotus capital at, 166. Photography, influence of, on design, 116, 136, 288, 290, Pisano, Niccolo, 302, 303. Pistoia, Cathedral at, 159, 160. Pitcher, design of a, 77, 79. Plate decoration, 83, 85. Polynesian ornament, 218, 219. Pomegranates, Persian, 201, 202. " Pomerium de Tempore " (Augsburg, 1502), 283. Pot-metal, 144. Potter's wheel, the, 92. Pottery, 77, 92-94. Pourbos, 60. Poynter, Sir E. J., 284, 288. Praxiteles, 293. Pre-Raphaelite movement, the, 284. Printing, the art of, 351-354. Printed fabrics, designing for, 108-1 10. >3 Index Printed page, proportions of the, 130, 131 ; decoration of the, 132-136, 353. Protogenes, 292. "Punch," 285-289. Raphael, 323. Ravenna, mosaics at, 21-24, Recurring lines, principle of, 10, 30. Rethel, Alfred, 284. Ringstead, brass at, 283. Roman architecture, 78; 15-20; gods, water-vessel, 228. Roof, pitch of the, 55. Rossetti, D. G., 284. Rothenburg, pitcher from, 85, 94 ; iron balustrade from, 1 01, 103. Rubens, Peter Paul, 318. Ruskin, John, 5. Salisbury, St. Thomas's screen at, 101, 102. Salisbury Cathedral, Chapter House in, 32 : glass grisaille in, 147. Sambourne, Linley, 287. Sandys, Frederick, 284. San Gimignano, towers of, 60. Sauvastika, the, 215, 217. Scale in design, 127, 128, 130. Scandinavian clay vessel, 93 ; ornament, 220. Scarabaeus, the, 222. Schnorr, 284. Schwind, Moritz, 284. Shields, typical forms of, 241, 242. Sicilian silk tissue, 243, 244. Siena, towers of, 60. Signorelli, 236. Simonds, George, 91. Sistine Chapel, ceiling of the, 327- "Sleeping Beauty," 231. Snake of time, the, 221, 222. Snuffers, 74, 75. Soul, Egyptian symbolism of the, 223, 224. Sparrow, J. S., modern glass by, 151, 152. Sphinx, the, 224. Stags drinking, a Christian emblem, 232. St David's Cathedral, timber roof, 41, 43; misereres in, 91, 92. St. Ethelwold, Benedictional of, 220. Stevens, Alfred, 66, 197. St. Mark, winged lion of, 238. St. Martha, at Troyes, 264, 265. Stone-carving, 89-91. Stonehenge, 5. Sunlight, influence of, on art, 16, 156, i59, l6o > l62 > 176, 178. Susa, glazed bricks at, 165- 168. Tenniel, Sir John, 228, 286. Tennyson's poems (1857), 284. Textiles, designing for, 84, 101-113, 127. Thames, Father, 228. Thebes, mural painting from, 190. Theodora, the Empress (mo- saic), 23. Thonging, 52 ; decoration j derived from, 53. Title-page, the, 134. 64 Tivoli, Temple of the Sybil at, 53> 54- Tooloon, Mosque of, 209. Torregiano, 326. Towers, origin and import- ance of, 59-62. Tradition in design, 342, 343- Tree of Life, Assyrian, 192, 194 ; Persian, 203 ; Norse, 220, 222. Trees, Egyptian and Assyrian treatment of, 1 91-195. "Triumph of Julius Caesar, The," 315-318. " Triumphs of Maximilian, The," 273-274. Troyes. St. Urbain, sculpture at, 264, 265. Turnov, old houses at, 182. Type, arrangement of, 130 ; founding, 352. Van Eyck, 40, 71. Venice, St. Mark's, 20, 22 ; badge of the city, 238. Venus and Paris, relief, 229. Venus of Melos, the, 293. Vine, the, as a Christian emblem, 233. Volute ornament, origin of, 50 : ancient specimens, 52. Walker, Frederick, 284, 286. Wall-paper designs, 120, et seq. Water-vessels, 77-79. Wattled fence, 50, 51. Wax, modelling in, 94. Wells Cathedral, west front of, 31 ; canopied niches in, 32 ; wrought-iron railing in, 39. Westminster Abbey, nave of, 29, 30 ; Henry VII. 's Chapel, 32, 33, 42. Whistler, J. McNeill, 288. Wicker work, 50. Wilton House, relief from, 229. Winchelsea Church, tomb in, 37, 38. Winchester College Chapel, glass from, 143. Windows, traceried, 32, 34, 137 ; and see Glass, stained. ! Winston, on glass painting, 140. Wolgemuth, Michael, 268. Wood-carving, 89-91. 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