DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0549
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CHINESE ARCHITECTURE.
Book IX.
However admirable and ingenious the modern Chinese
may be, it is in the minor arts—such as carving in wood and
ivory, the manufacture of vessels of porcelain and bronze,
and all that relates to silk and cotton manufactures. In these
they certainly excel, and reached a high degree of perfec-
tion while Europe was still barbarous, but in all the higher
branches of art they take a very low position, and seem utterly
unprogressive.
Their sculpture is more carving than anything we know by
the higher name, and although in their painting they would
seem, at one time, to have been far in advance of that found
in Europe, both in the complete maturity of the art and in
the mastery of the brush, within the last 300 years there has
been a serious decline, so that it now scarcely rises above the
level of decoration. Their architecture also stands on the same
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE.
Book IX.
However admirable and ingenious the modern Chinese
may be, it is in the minor arts—such as carving in wood and
ivory, the manufacture of vessels of porcelain and bronze,
and all that relates to silk and cotton manufactures. In these
they certainly excel, and reached a high degree of perfec-
tion while Europe was still barbarous, but in all the higher
branches of art they take a very low position, and seem utterly
unprogressive.
Their sculpture is more carving than anything we know by
the higher name, and although in their painting they would
seem, at one time, to have been far in advance of that found
in Europe, both in the complete maturity of the art and in
the mastery of the brush, within the last 300 years there has
been a serious decline, so that it now scarcely rises above the
level of decoration. Their architecture also stands on the same