DOI Heft:
No. 55 (October, 1897)
DOI Artikel:White, Gleeson: Some Glasgow designers and their work, [3]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0073
Some Glasgow Designers
The above creed is one that touches far more swamped our native design, not as we once feared
important matters than mere needlework, and for ever, but, as the present shows clearly, only for
seems to state not infelicitously the guiding princi- a time.
pies of many a designer to-day. It is curious to If there be good in originality, it is certainly a
find how often a Briton confesses, without con- virtue that the Greeks regarded doubtfully. Mr.
sciously stating the fact, that he regards a cathedral Charles Whibley, writing lately in the New Review
as the highest and most complex effort of design, concerning an ancient critic—to wit, Lucian—dis-
This would seem to show that our present move- cusses the Classic contempt for mere originality so
ment is not far off the real Gothic revival the men lucidly that, in a series of papers upon designers of
of Pugin's time hoped for. For if it be a living the Glasgow School whose novelty is unquestionable,
and lasting effort, it most certainly recalls the earlier it may be fairly quoted, as embodying the view of
efforts of those great builders, who were singularly the opposition. "An over zealous friend had pro-
free from bondage to precedent, and cast aside claimed him [Lucian] the ' Prometheus of literature,'
Romanesque, Early English, Decorated and Per- and he disowns the name in a passage of admirable
pendicular in turn, until the great wave of the dignity. ' Perhaps,' says he, in effect, ' I am called
Italian Renaissance swept over England and Prometheus, because my works are fresh in form and
follow the example of no man. . . .
But in my eyes strangeness without
beauty has no merit . . . and I
should deserve to be torn in pieces by
sixteen vultures if I thought a work of
Art could be distinguished by novelty
alone.' . . . He had left a lecture
room, he tells you, furious with the ill-
considered applause of his audience,
and especially enraged against the
constant compliment heaped upon the
novelty of his discourse. As he went
homeward chagrined that he is admired
only because he has left the road ; that
he receives the praise of a facile con-
jurer ; that the harmony of his Attic
style, the swiftness of his imagination,
his many-coloured fancy count for
nothing, he bethought him of the mis-
hap which befel Zeuxis. Now Zeuxis
painted a family of centaurs, the mare
stretched upon the deep grass, and the
centaur keeping watch in the back-
ground, a long-haired, savage child of
the mountain. But the people passed
by in idle contempt not only the beauty
of the drawing, the exquisite harmony
of the colour, but also the variety of
expression, and the changing charac-
ters of the centaurs. They only ap-
plauded the singular motive, because
they had never seen it treated before.
' Roll up the canvas,' said Zeuxis to
his pupil, ' and take it home. The
men praise only the mud of our art.
---~-r--~~~rl In their eyes the novelty of a sub-
ject eclipses every excellence of execu-
DESIGH FOR an kmBROIDERED PANEL BY jessie R. NEWBERY tion.' "
49
The above creed is one that touches far more swamped our native design, not as we once feared
important matters than mere needlework, and for ever, but, as the present shows clearly, only for
seems to state not infelicitously the guiding princi- a time.
pies of many a designer to-day. It is curious to If there be good in originality, it is certainly a
find how often a Briton confesses, without con- virtue that the Greeks regarded doubtfully. Mr.
sciously stating the fact, that he regards a cathedral Charles Whibley, writing lately in the New Review
as the highest and most complex effort of design, concerning an ancient critic—to wit, Lucian—dis-
This would seem to show that our present move- cusses the Classic contempt for mere originality so
ment is not far off the real Gothic revival the men lucidly that, in a series of papers upon designers of
of Pugin's time hoped for. For if it be a living the Glasgow School whose novelty is unquestionable,
and lasting effort, it most certainly recalls the earlier it may be fairly quoted, as embodying the view of
efforts of those great builders, who were singularly the opposition. "An over zealous friend had pro-
free from bondage to precedent, and cast aside claimed him [Lucian] the ' Prometheus of literature,'
Romanesque, Early English, Decorated and Per- and he disowns the name in a passage of admirable
pendicular in turn, until the great wave of the dignity. ' Perhaps,' says he, in effect, ' I am called
Italian Renaissance swept over England and Prometheus, because my works are fresh in form and
follow the example of no man. . . .
But in my eyes strangeness without
beauty has no merit . . . and I
should deserve to be torn in pieces by
sixteen vultures if I thought a work of
Art could be distinguished by novelty
alone.' . . . He had left a lecture
room, he tells you, furious with the ill-
considered applause of his audience,
and especially enraged against the
constant compliment heaped upon the
novelty of his discourse. As he went
homeward chagrined that he is admired
only because he has left the road ; that
he receives the praise of a facile con-
jurer ; that the harmony of his Attic
style, the swiftness of his imagination,
his many-coloured fancy count for
nothing, he bethought him of the mis-
hap which befel Zeuxis. Now Zeuxis
painted a family of centaurs, the mare
stretched upon the deep grass, and the
centaur keeping watch in the back-
ground, a long-haired, savage child of
the mountain. But the people passed
by in idle contempt not only the beauty
of the drawing, the exquisite harmony
of the colour, but also the variety of
expression, and the changing charac-
ters of the centaurs. They only ap-
plauded the singular motive, because
they had never seen it treated before.
' Roll up the canvas,' said Zeuxis to
his pupil, ' and take it home. The
men praise only the mud of our art.
---~-r--~~~rl In their eyes the novelty of a sub-
ject eclipses every excellence of execu-
DESIGH FOR an kmBROIDERED PANEL BY jessie R. NEWBERY tion.' "
49