DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10813#0015
have done, would endeavour to eradicate the evil by tearing up the plant from the roots,
rather than seek to reduce its excess within the limits of strict moderation by pruning its
undue luxuriance.
The only sure means of averting the calamitous effects of luxury is to purify and
ennoble taste. Simplicity and a strict reference to utility exercise a directly beneficial
influence on morality, whilst, on the other hand, moral degradation is generally preceded
or announced by degeneracy of taste. The overcharged character of the fashions and habits,
for instance, which belonged to the period anterior to the French revolution of 1789, are
a proof of this, and the theatrical finery of the Empire, which immediately followed, also
bears testimony to the universal corruption of that period.
Good taste is by no means, as is generally supposed, attached to a particular style of
art. It even manifests itself under the most different forms. Imitations from the Greek
may be as essentially bad and flat in character as the fantastic combinations of arbitrarily
curved lines belonging to the Louis Quinze style. Yet every kind of art is in itself good.
All depends on its being well understood, and consistently adapted, with reference alike to
time and locality.
A work like the one before us presents immense advantages to those who are desirous
of acquiring a more profound knowledge of the first principles of beauty. The examples it
contains are, perhaps, not so much adapted for being carried literally into application, as
for showing in how masterly a manner difficult problems have been solved by the greatest
artists of different epochs, under the most various circumstances and conditions. It is only
in this sense that such a collection can afford the means of improvement to be derived from
a well-directed study of the works of art already existing. "We must proceed in our analysis
by the method which the practical chemist adopts, to enable him to arrive at a knowledge
not only of useful substances, but even of the very elements of which they are composed.
He who wishes to obtain profound instruction in any branch of art must look back to its
first rude beginnings, and endeavour to ascertain in what manner every work of human
skill has been produced.
Those who are only desirous of obtaining new combinations of form and colour, will do
better to have recourse to the kaleidoscope, which affords at every moment a seemingly
endless variety. Such monotonous repetitions soon, however, become wearisome to the man
of real invention. The truly creative imagination—and it is minds of creative genius alone
which appeal powerfully to the million, obtaining a success which appears at times almost
miraculous—is guided by impulses which elevate it above so mechanical a mode of pro-
ceeding ; it knows how to adapt its inventions to actual wants, and to assimilate every
species of design to the demands of polished life, ruling the public mind with irresistible
force, till the refinements of luxury become matters of actual necessity.
Such an intimate and reciprocal connection between art and common life is distinctly
shown in the examples contained in the work before us. We see how mere dead walls
become endowed with life under the hand of the skilful artist. Here the genuine student of
art may learn how all its ornamental completeness grows up, so to speak, from the joinings
and commissures of the architectonic parts of buildings, which are thus gracefully veiled to
rather than seek to reduce its excess within the limits of strict moderation by pruning its
undue luxuriance.
The only sure means of averting the calamitous effects of luxury is to purify and
ennoble taste. Simplicity and a strict reference to utility exercise a directly beneficial
influence on morality, whilst, on the other hand, moral degradation is generally preceded
or announced by degeneracy of taste. The overcharged character of the fashions and habits,
for instance, which belonged to the period anterior to the French revolution of 1789, are
a proof of this, and the theatrical finery of the Empire, which immediately followed, also
bears testimony to the universal corruption of that period.
Good taste is by no means, as is generally supposed, attached to a particular style of
art. It even manifests itself under the most different forms. Imitations from the Greek
may be as essentially bad and flat in character as the fantastic combinations of arbitrarily
curved lines belonging to the Louis Quinze style. Yet every kind of art is in itself good.
All depends on its being well understood, and consistently adapted, with reference alike to
time and locality.
A work like the one before us presents immense advantages to those who are desirous
of acquiring a more profound knowledge of the first principles of beauty. The examples it
contains are, perhaps, not so much adapted for being carried literally into application, as
for showing in how masterly a manner difficult problems have been solved by the greatest
artists of different epochs, under the most various circumstances and conditions. It is only
in this sense that such a collection can afford the means of improvement to be derived from
a well-directed study of the works of art already existing. "We must proceed in our analysis
by the method which the practical chemist adopts, to enable him to arrive at a knowledge
not only of useful substances, but even of the very elements of which they are composed.
He who wishes to obtain profound instruction in any branch of art must look back to its
first rude beginnings, and endeavour to ascertain in what manner every work of human
skill has been produced.
Those who are only desirous of obtaining new combinations of form and colour, will do
better to have recourse to the kaleidoscope, which affords at every moment a seemingly
endless variety. Such monotonous repetitions soon, however, become wearisome to the man
of real invention. The truly creative imagination—and it is minds of creative genius alone
which appeal powerfully to the million, obtaining a success which appears at times almost
miraculous—is guided by impulses which elevate it above so mechanical a mode of pro-
ceeding ; it knows how to adapt its inventions to actual wants, and to assimilate every
species of design to the demands of polished life, ruling the public mind with irresistible
force, till the refinements of luxury become matters of actual necessity.
Such an intimate and reciprocal connection between art and common life is distinctly
shown in the examples contained in the work before us. We see how mere dead walls
become endowed with life under the hand of the skilful artist. Here the genuine student of
art may learn how all its ornamental completeness grows up, so to speak, from the joinings
and commissures of the architectonic parts of buildings, which are thus gracefully veiled to