The Evolution of Painting. 379 



ABSTRACT OF THE DISCUSSION. 



Ma. JOHN H. LITTLEFIELD : 



As an historical sketch of the development of the art of painting, I 

 find little to criticise in the lecture of the evening. As an artist, how- 

 ever, certain facts connected with the evolution of the technique of 

 this art come to my mind, which may be of supplementary interest. 

 Art is, unquestionably, one of the civilizing influences of the world. 

 Its development has been coincident with that of civilization. The 

 spirit of an epoch gives color and character to its art. While the 

 materialistic spirit predominates to-day in America, and antagonizes 

 the highest development of the art spirit, we may hope that it will 

 ultimately react through the development of liberality among the 

 wealthy until this country shall take its place as the home of art in the 

 future. In regard to the evolution of the technique of the painter's 

 art, it may be noted that in its earliest exercise as, for example, in the 

 mural paintings of Egypt its form was the simplest and most homo- 

 geneous ; the color was applied to flat surfaces, without differences in 

 texture or shading. Figures were represented without background or 

 suggestion of perspective. These elements are of comparatively recent 

 development. Then, following nature, the painter learned to repre- 

 sent shaded parts of his picture by thin applications of pigment, and 

 the lighter and more prominent parts by thicker layers of color. 

 Later we find painters differentiated into different schools according 

 to their style or technique their methods of imitating nature. We 

 have the impasto school, where the colors are laid in with solidity in 

 mass, so to speak and the opposite school, where the tracery is more 

 delicate, and greater attention is paid to the minutife of drawing and 

 outline. Other schools have differentiated as the followers of great 

 masters who have impressed their genius and individuality on their 

 art. Their pupils have imitated the work of the master, and perpetu- 

 ated the peculiarities of his style. The knowledge of chiaroscuro, of 

 the laws of light and shade, of which Leonardo was the first great 

 master, led to a further differentiation of this art. We have historical 

 evidence that there were great painters in Greece as early as the time 

 of Alexander the Great, though their work, being less indestructible 

 than that of the sculptor, has not survived to our day. It is doubtless 

 true, however, that this art has reached its highest evolution in our 

 own time. 



