STATE AGRIGVLTVRAL SOCIETY. 121 



FINE ART 



FIRST ANNUAL ART EXHIBITION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 



[Record- Union.] 



In considering the character, purposes, and effects of the art exhi- 

 bition at the recent State Fair, it would be interesting to revievv^ the 

 history of art, and trace it, even briefly, from its inception up to its 

 present status. But it will bring the mind to a better appreciation 

 of modern artwork in this State, ;i,nd to the recent exhibition, which 

 is a historic event in interior California, to even barely call to recol- 

 lection the fact that while the history of painting is coeval with the 

 Pyramids, and in the curious drawings on the mummy cloths and 

 the outline figures found upon the ruins along the Nile, we find the 

 records of the "alphabet of the art;" that Egyptian art had neither 

 depth nor progress; that it was left for the Grecians to employ color 

 with effect, and to bring decorative landscape and portrait painting 

 to earliest maturity; that in time there arose a Gri:eco-Roman art, the 

 remains of which are to-day the most valued relics; that following it 

 came Christian art, and that from the tombs of the primitive Chris- 

 tians arose its highest forms, to which, and through the growth of 

 which, we are indebted to-day for all that is best in modern art. It 

 will bring the mind to a clearer comprehension of the true art to 

 recall the fact that the delineation of the mysteries of the Church, 

 and the desire, By external signs, to symbolize religious sentiment, 

 gave birth to the softened and gentle forms of art, which toned what 

 remained of mythological conventionality, and out of which grew 

 the schools which have given to the world the greatest masters. It 

 will be well to remember that for ages the rigid conventionalities of 

 art were formulated by ecclesiastical decrees, and that it was only 

 when great cities began to encourage schools of painting that the 

 world witnessed the advent of such as Cimabue, and thereafter (Tiotto, 

 under whom the effort to imitate nature became an art theory, and 

 finally a reality, and which marked the beginning of the era that 

 proved the turning point in the direction of perfection in painting, 

 and convinced men that the teachings of nature are the safest in art. 

 Up to that time oil painting, as we know it now, was unknown, and 

 not until the fifteenth century began the Renaissance period, under 

 which natural objects were studied, and the ideas obtained thereby 

 conveyed by the picture to the mind of the beholder, and which 

 practice extended to architecture and sculpture, and culminated in 

 the sixteenth centuiy with Michael Angelo and Raphael. 



If the recent exhibition shall lead more people to study art history, 

 and trace out the growth which led to what is termed "the golden 

 epoch of art " that was opened through the genius of Perguino, 

 Raphael, Michael Angelo, Da A^inci, and Correggio, and, step by step, 

 to come to our own day and to an understanding of the schools of 

 modern art and the merits of our own painters, then the exhibition 

 will not have failed in its intent; nor will it have done so even if it 

 16 



