DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0060
40 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
Such a result may accrue if we canuot separate old elements from old sentiments; we
must, however, go very much, out of our way to verify any such disaster, and certainly
only by, in the first instance, adopting an old sentiment, as in the so-called Medieeval
Court in the Exhibition. But there are, as I shall show as we proceed, very many
works in the Exhibition eminently suited to the wants and sentiments of the present
age, though composed as ornamental designs, entirely of old elements. The fact of
ornamental elements being established favourites of remote ages, does not make them
old in a bygone sense, unless they have sprung from a sentiment that is bygone. Many
ancient and middle-age forms, if reproduced now in their genuine original character,
would be at best but whimsical revivals; but beauty can never really be antiquated or
old-fashioned, whatever the conventionalities of the day may be. What is inherently
beautiful is for all time; and the repeated attempts at the revival of classical forms, with
a steadily increasing interest on the part of the public, in spite of fashions or conven-
tionalisms the most opposite, is at least one sure test of the inherent beauty of these
forms. It is a morbid state to hunt after variety purely for variety's sake; and it is „
perfectly legitimate to preserve all that is beautiful, however we may continue to prosecute
the search of the beautiful in other provinces; and there are still unexplored regions of
nature left for us. It must he evident that efforts at variety, unless founded on the
sincerest study of what has been already done, not by our own immediate rivals in
our own time, but by all people at all times, are at most but assumed novelties; but
if such really, the cbances are that it is their only recommendation, as was the case
with the Rococo, the novelty of which represents the exclusion of all the beauty of the
past. " "What is recommended by use never grows old : it is only what is fostered by
fashion that will be superseded as a new fashion arises. So it is with the duration of
the styles: some are characterised by mere local peculiarities or special objects, others
by abstract principles. Local peculiarities, and all specialities, when their causes cease,
must die out, and cannot be revived except by a revival of the cause; and so, if their
causes cannot be recalled, it will be impossible to revive several of the historic styles;
but where the causes of styles still exist, the styles themselves are as much of this age
as of the past. The Classical and Renaissance styles are founded on abstract principles,
and therefore may and must be revived as soon as their motives are thoroughly under-
stood ; and such a restoration is not a copy of an old idea, but a genuine revival of a
taste—a very different thing from merely copying designs. " Then to apply our test to
the Exhibition itself: it is generally admitted that in spite of much that is bad and
indifferent, it offers, on the whole, an unprecedented display of art-manufacture. Of
course, in the general review I now propose to take of this wGnderful collection of the
world's industry, I must limit my remarks, if I am to be at all practical, to the most
prominent specimens only, or even to the mere treatment of classes of manufacture;
and at present my object goes scarcely beyond an attempt to show you that all the most
remarkable works there displayed owe their effect to a skilful management of the
results of the labours of generations that have gone before us; from the study and
mastery of past efforts, and not from any sudden impulse of genius or any intuitive
adaptation of nature. All that is good is the result of the study of ornament, more
or less universal or singular, according to the method of that study. The Exhibition
contains nothing new—not one new element, not one new combination; and yet it repre-
sents, vast as it is, only a small proportion of the great national expressions of orna-
ment, of past ages of the world. And in many cases we have very much more the
simple reproduction of an old idea, than the veritable revival of the genuine artistic
feeling of the past."
The lecturer then proceeded to illustrate his remarks by reference to portions of
Such a result may accrue if we canuot separate old elements from old sentiments; we
must, however, go very much, out of our way to verify any such disaster, and certainly
only by, in the first instance, adopting an old sentiment, as in the so-called Medieeval
Court in the Exhibition. But there are, as I shall show as we proceed, very many
works in the Exhibition eminently suited to the wants and sentiments of the present
age, though composed as ornamental designs, entirely of old elements. The fact of
ornamental elements being established favourites of remote ages, does not make them
old in a bygone sense, unless they have sprung from a sentiment that is bygone. Many
ancient and middle-age forms, if reproduced now in their genuine original character,
would be at best but whimsical revivals; but beauty can never really be antiquated or
old-fashioned, whatever the conventionalities of the day may be. What is inherently
beautiful is for all time; and the repeated attempts at the revival of classical forms, with
a steadily increasing interest on the part of the public, in spite of fashions or conven-
tionalisms the most opposite, is at least one sure test of the inherent beauty of these
forms. It is a morbid state to hunt after variety purely for variety's sake; and it is „
perfectly legitimate to preserve all that is beautiful, however we may continue to prosecute
the search of the beautiful in other provinces; and there are still unexplored regions of
nature left for us. It must he evident that efforts at variety, unless founded on the
sincerest study of what has been already done, not by our own immediate rivals in
our own time, but by all people at all times, are at most but assumed novelties; but
if such really, the cbances are that it is their only recommendation, as was the case
with the Rococo, the novelty of which represents the exclusion of all the beauty of the
past. " "What is recommended by use never grows old : it is only what is fostered by
fashion that will be superseded as a new fashion arises. So it is with the duration of
the styles: some are characterised by mere local peculiarities or special objects, others
by abstract principles. Local peculiarities, and all specialities, when their causes cease,
must die out, and cannot be revived except by a revival of the cause; and so, if their
causes cannot be recalled, it will be impossible to revive several of the historic styles;
but where the causes of styles still exist, the styles themselves are as much of this age
as of the past. The Classical and Renaissance styles are founded on abstract principles,
and therefore may and must be revived as soon as their motives are thoroughly under-
stood ; and such a restoration is not a copy of an old idea, but a genuine revival of a
taste—a very different thing from merely copying designs. " Then to apply our test to
the Exhibition itself: it is generally admitted that in spite of much that is bad and
indifferent, it offers, on the whole, an unprecedented display of art-manufacture. Of
course, in the general review I now propose to take of this wGnderful collection of the
world's industry, I must limit my remarks, if I am to be at all practical, to the most
prominent specimens only, or even to the mere treatment of classes of manufacture;
and at present my object goes scarcely beyond an attempt to show you that all the most
remarkable works there displayed owe their effect to a skilful management of the
results of the labours of generations that have gone before us; from the study and
mastery of past efforts, and not from any sudden impulse of genius or any intuitive
adaptation of nature. All that is good is the result of the study of ornament, more
or less universal or singular, according to the method of that study. The Exhibition
contains nothing new—not one new element, not one new combination; and yet it repre-
sents, vast as it is, only a small proportion of the great national expressions of orna-
ment, of past ages of the world. And in many cases we have very much more the
simple reproduction of an old idea, than the veritable revival of the genuine artistic
feeling of the past."
The lecturer then proceeded to illustrate his remarks by reference to portions of