DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42129#0021
ON THE
ARABESQUES OF THE ANCIENTS
AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OE RAPHAEL AND HIS SCHOOL.
By A. HITTORFF, Architect.
It is a task of some difficulty to institute a comparison between
the Arabesques of the ancients and those of Raphael’s time, because
the paintings of that description, which have come down to us from
antiquity, are neither the productions of a distinguished epoch of the
arts, nor, strictly speaking, of similar application ; at all events, not like
works conceived by the mind of the greatest painter of later times,
and carried out by masters only second to him, or produced by artists
whose position was similar, and whose merit was in many respects
equal.
Were we to consider the relative value of the modern Arabesques,
before the discovery of the baths of Titus had wrought its influence
upon the creative mind of Raphael, and were we then to ask how far
his analogous productions would have been held in estimation, in com-
parison with the antique type, Ave should, no doubt, have to concede a
great preference to the latter. When, however, Ave find most distin-
guished talents appointed to decorate edifices dedicated to the noblest
and grandest purposes, while the ancient decorations of that kind were
done by mere handicraftsmen, and, in the specimens extant, were applied
b
ARABESQUES OF THE ANCIENTS
AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OE RAPHAEL AND HIS SCHOOL.
By A. HITTORFF, Architect.
It is a task of some difficulty to institute a comparison between
the Arabesques of the ancients and those of Raphael’s time, because
the paintings of that description, which have come down to us from
antiquity, are neither the productions of a distinguished epoch of the
arts, nor, strictly speaking, of similar application ; at all events, not like
works conceived by the mind of the greatest painter of later times,
and carried out by masters only second to him, or produced by artists
whose position was similar, and whose merit was in many respects
equal.
Were we to consider the relative value of the modern Arabesques,
before the discovery of the baths of Titus had wrought its influence
upon the creative mind of Raphael, and were we then to ask how far
his analogous productions would have been held in estimation, in com-
parison with the antique type, Ave should, no doubt, have to concede a
great preference to the latter. When, however, Ave find most distin-
guished talents appointed to decorate edifices dedicated to the noblest
and grandest purposes, while the ancient decorations of that kind were
done by mere handicraftsmen, and, in the specimens extant, were applied
b