Studio: international art (20.1900)

A Decorative Painting by Sir J. D. Linton

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STUDY FOR " BOCCACCIO ; THE OPENING SCENE IN THE DECAMERONE." BY SIR JAMES D. LINTON

disciples, a new school of decorative painting
began to form and to make its influence felt upon
public taste. Down to about ten years ago this
school had kept its creed fairly simple, and had
retained much of its original purity of practice; but
since then certain changes have been brought
about that are not altogether for the better. In a
good many unfortunate instances pure eccentricity
has been given a free rein, and allowed more or
less to dominate the works of certain painters,
whose undoubted talent, if kept under a whole-
some restraint, would probably have led them to
achievements of a more lasting and admirable
quality. Mere eccentricity is to be deprecated in
every form of decorative art. The search after
novelty or individuality must be essentially natural
and healthy in character, and entirely free from the
taint of a self-conscious straining after effect, or it

will fail completely to reach the true distinction to
which it aspires.

It is especially in pictorial design that the
consequences of an extravagant attitude are
most unpleasantly apparent. In present-day
pictures the cult of what is morbid or eccentric
has gone to serious lengths, and men who
have undoubtedly great capacity for better
work are too ready to misdirect their energies
merely for the sake of gaining the temporary
approval of the unthinking. What is necessary
by way of corrective is a definite assertion
of the value of simplicity, a proof that fine
decoration is independent of curious tricks, and that
the devices of the showman are entirely out of
place in art.

On this ground, such a picture as Sir J. D.
Linton's Boccaccio; the opening scene in the

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