IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARTISAN AND ARTIST. 305 



of art; and, in reality, these were all the fruits of the arts of produc- 

 tion. 



Now, what are we to say to this ! We are to say that there was a period 

 in Borne, and there were similar periods in other countries at different times, 

 when there was no distinction between the arts of i^roduction and the 

 art of design ; but those very things, which to us now are objects of ad- 

 miration as artistic work, were then merely things made and fashioned 

 as we see them for the ordinary uses to which we adapt other things of 

 perhaps similar substances, but of a very different form. For, in fact, 

 if you had these vessels, you would not know what to do with them. 

 We could not cook a dinner in them. We certainly could not adapt 

 them to our common wants. But to the Eomans they were the very 

 objects which were used for those i^urposes ; and although now, in read- 

 ing the old writers, and trying to make out the dreadfully hard names 

 by which all these different pieces of pottery are called, yet, learned and 

 classical as all that may be, when we come to translate these high- 

 sounding Greeks names into English, we get very modest results — pip- 

 kins and basins and ewers and flagons, and such homely names as these. 

 Now, where is the art there"? Is it that these were designed, do you 

 think, by some man of great reputation; and then that they were all care- 

 fully copied, exactly imitated, from his design ? Oh, certainly' nothing of 

 the sort. The art that is in these beautiful things is a part of themselves ; 

 is bestowed ui^on them in their fabrication. You may take the Etruscan 

 vase, and you may scratch away from it, if you please, every line which 

 had been traced by the pencil of the embellisher upon it; and, after that, 

 the seal of beautiful design, grace, and the elegance of true art are 

 so stamped upon it, that, if you wish to remove them, you must smash 

 the vase. It is inherent in it; it was created with it. 



Then what I fancy is desired is, that we should bring art back to that 

 same state in which the arts of design are so interwoven with the arts 

 of production that the one cannot be separated from the other, but 

 everything which is made is by a certain necessity made beautiful. And 

 this can only be when we are able to fill the minds of our artisans with 

 true i)rinciples, until really these have pervaded their souls, and until 

 the true feeling of art is at their ftngers^-ends. You will see, I think, from 

 the example which I have given you, what is the principle at which I 

 am aiming; which I wish to establish. It is this: That at any period in 

 which there has been a really close union between the arts of production 

 and the arts of design, this has resulted from the union in one person of the 

 artist and the artisan. 



Such now is the principle that I am going to develop; and in doing 

 so I will distinguish between arts of production belonging to two dis- 

 tinct classes. There are those in which necessarily there is manipula- 

 tion — the use of the hand, or of such implements as the hand directly 

 employs ; and there are those in which mechanical ingenuity is employed 

 in the art of production. It is clear that these two must be treated 

 distinctly ; and I will begin with the first, which affords the greatest 

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