DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41193#0030
Lecture IL N ow, upon all these points you may be as severe
Art and the with yourselves as you will, and are not likely to
Beauty of be too severe*
the Earth* Furthermore, those of you especially who are de/
signing for goods, try to get the most out of your
material, but always in such a way as honours it
most* Not only should it be obvious what your
material is, but something should be done with
it which is specially natural to it, something that
could not be done with any other. This is the very
raison d'etre of decorative art: to make stone look
like ironwork, or wood like silk, or pottery like
stone is the last resource of the decrepitude of art.
Set yourselves as much as possible against all
machine work (this to all men)* But if you have
to design for machine work, at least let your de/
sign show clearly what it is* Make it mechanical
with a vengeance, at the same time as simple as
possible* Don't try, for instance, to make a printed
plate look like a hand/painted one: make it some/
thing which no one would try to do if he were
painting by hand, if your market drives you into
printed plates: I don't see the use of them myself*
To sum up, don't let yourselves be made ma/
chines, or it is all up with you as artists* Though
I don't much love the iron and brass machines,
the flesh & blood ones are more terrible & hope/
less to me; no man is so clumsy or base a work/
man that he is not fit for something better than
that*
22
Art and the with yourselves as you will, and are not likely to
Beauty of be too severe*
the Earth* Furthermore, those of you especially who are de/
signing for goods, try to get the most out of your
material, but always in such a way as honours it
most* Not only should it be obvious what your
material is, but something should be done with
it which is specially natural to it, something that
could not be done with any other. This is the very
raison d'etre of decorative art: to make stone look
like ironwork, or wood like silk, or pottery like
stone is the last resource of the decrepitude of art.
Set yourselves as much as possible against all
machine work (this to all men)* But if you have
to design for machine work, at least let your de/
sign show clearly what it is* Make it mechanical
with a vengeance, at the same time as simple as
possible* Don't try, for instance, to make a printed
plate look like a hand/painted one: make it some/
thing which no one would try to do if he were
painting by hand, if your market drives you into
printed plates: I don't see the use of them myself*
To sum up, don't let yourselves be made ma/
chines, or it is all up with you as artists* Though
I don't much love the iron and brass machines,
the flesh & blood ones are more terrible & hope/
less to me; no man is so clumsy or base a work/
man that he is not fit for something better than
that*
22