414 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Dkoember, 



their meaning ; make lliem both men of science, if you like, and let the me- 

 chanic begin to branch off— but begin with making both skilful in hand, eye, 

 aiiJ brain, by imitating the same object, for according to our author at 

 Somerset House, ''a saving of time would then be engendered, if the chief labour 

 at first teere drawing by the hand." 



If the power of imitation be the first power to be acquired, as I have 

 proved, both from what I have said and what our opponent saj s, why sepa- 

 rate the education of artist and mechanic? Bat what will you say, or he 

 say, when he acknowledges that in the most important of all qualilies of 

 design, viz., beaut;/, the artist and mechanic stand on the savu- ground, and 

 yet he would separate their education? And though he admits, page 1, 

 they stand on the same ground, yet, he again says, they proceed to exhibit 

 beauty by a method totalli/ the rererse to each other .' 



" Beauty,"' says he, " with the ornamcntist, is a quality separable from na- 

 tural objects." I reply it cannot be. Beauty, with the ornamentist, from 

 whatever form taken and applied, excites the emotion in the work of the 

 ornamentist. not because it is separated from the object to which it naluraUy 

 belongs, but because to whatever object applied, it has the power of again 

 exciting the emotion, as it did when a component part of its natural object 

 at first. 



If a sculptor, says he, makes a lily, he models a lily. '• Not so the orna- 

 ment st — the lily appears in his hands with a new individuality." Of course, 

 but it is still a lily — the ornamentist makes it a cup, a vase, but I reply it is 

 still a lily turned into a'vase and cup— and if it be not like a lily, w hat would 

 a sensible master say to a mechanic who showed him a cup made of a lily. 

 "A lily ! it is not a bit like a lily. Pray did you model a lily, or draw a hly ?" 

 " No Sir, I did not, because we ornamentists treats lilies with a new individua- 

 ality." Very true, my pupil, but to be able to give a new individuality to a 

 lily, you must first be able to form a lily in clay, or by drawing; to model 

 or draw a lily, you must get a lily and study it ; 'after studying it, you must 

 imitate it by modelling or drawing. Imitation is the foundation of all arts 

 or design, whether for the artist or ornamentiit, and though the ornamentist 

 turns a lily into a new office, if he cannot imitate a lily or a human figure, 

 somebody else must be employed to do them lor him, and this must prove 

 to you, my pupil, the necessity of the ornamentist and .the artist beginning 

 alike. Because what applies to the lily will apply to the figure, and the ar- 

 guments are as good in one case as the other, and both prove the same truth. 



The author proceeds to say " that the ornamentist and the artist are imi- 

 tators of nature, but in different senses — in the one, the resemblance is ficti- 

 tious, in the other a^reality."' I reply the resemblance in both is fictitious, 

 and in both a reality, though the application is different. 



The basis of all this sophistry is simply this; the London leading artists 

 had been so accustomed to be by their rank, their payment, their honour, 

 and their privilege, o dislincl clas.'i, that they were shocked by any attempt 

 to revive the old connexion between artist and artizan. It v»as a sculptor, 

 though liiing from, humble but respectable parents, who first intimated the 

 insult of giving the artizan an education, which would rank him more as an 

 artist than, for 300 years, he had hitherto been_ in England, and, of course, 

 without any imputation on the honourable molives of any one now; we all 

 know there is a degree of sensibility as to duty, in defending the views of 

 our superiors, if to them we owe our station and our existence in life — it is 

 tight it should be so, perhaps I do not know if one is not inclined to respect 

 gratitude, if even it lead a man into the most egregious folly. 



It is a question, if the education of the mechanic be not of more importance 

 than the great artist's. See how he worms himself into all the ramifications 

 of domestic decoration, and consider, if he had, like the German and the 

 Frenchman, the power of conveying his thoughts by drawing the figure, 

 how prettily, at a little cost, the drawing-room of the middle classes, or their 

 parlour, or their bed-room, might be made vehicles of history, and poetry, 

 and design. The more the poiver of design is diffused, the greater, and not 

 the less will be the employment of the great painters. The wealthy and the 

 noble will always have the best of everything, and they who love the hand- 

 somest women, drink the best wines, 'ride the best horses, and claim the high- 

 est stations, will not be very apt to desert the best artists, when they want 

 their efforts. I am decidedly of Burke's opinion, " whatever turns attcniion 

 to art, even the purchase of old pictures," said he " reflects again on modern 

 painters." 



Never, I assure you, was British art in greater danger than now . This 

 London school, by separating the artist and the meclianic, and promulgating 

 the doctrine, that sound art and decorative art are distinct, will, in all proba- 

 bility, do more mischief than a century will remedy — because the facility of 

 admission is great, young artists go to it, and all the horrors of gaudincss, 

 glare, hardness, and false taste, wiirspread like wildfire amongst the rising 

 generation. 



What reason can be given, that a flower should look in decoration like 

 botanical preparations, pasted flat on lime? Distinctness is necessary, of 

 course, but why cannot imitations of nature be distinct, without being incon- 

 sistent with the eternal principles of the great masters, established by the 

 grealest geniuses the world ever saw. 



Titian. Velasquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Reynolds, made their imitations 

 of nature on the basis of the philosophy of human sensations. 



E'lualities of effect distract! variety is necessary, but if carried too far, 

 pains. Il is the same with every quality of imitation in the great works of 

 the great masters, no individual requisite of imitating life is ever obtruded, 

 whereas, by the separation of the education of the artist and the mechanic, 

 the imitations of the mechanic at present are all obtrusion and totally incon- 

 sistent with sound art. If a race of this offensive description issue out, as 

 designers for glass paintings for rooms, for halls, what will the art be like 

 in a few years? The combination of sound art can be seen to perfection in 

 a glass window at Liverpool, where a fine picture has been copied, with all 

 the principles of imitation ; it is a fine work of art in manufacture, and that 

 is what should be the object in all Schools of Design. 



Not long since, returning from Windsor, I went into the coffee-room of 

 the Royal Hotel, at Slough, and found the paper on the walls full of pretty 

 designs, from Kaust (I believe). " Is this English," said I. " English." said 

 the waiter, with an air quite insufferable, "French, sir, of course!" Here 

 is another case in point. Had the same principles of educating the mechanic 

 been acted on at Lyons as in London, would this French artizan have been 

 able so to please us in the middle class by such a display, and is not every 

 visitor excited and improved by such a simple way of recalling the scenes of 

 some beautiful poems ? 



I apologize for this long intrusion ; my engagements preclude the possibility 

 of continuing this important question, but I promise it shall not rest whilst 

 I live, for I know its vast national importance and that we have only to add 

 mastery to design to our indisputable quality of material, to take the lead in 

 the world. 



In conclusion, I deny in toto, that the mechanic has no right to mingle 

 history, poetry, and moral expression, in his manufacturing design; what 

 right has any man, or any body of men, to fix a limit to the exercise of 

 human ingenuity ? The Almighty sometimes gifts a Byron, and sometimes a 

 Burns, and reflects on the principles of our own noble aristocracy. Who, 

 more tenacious of their rights, but who more useful as a check on the Crown 

 and the people ? and who is refused admission into their class, even from the 

 humblest amongst us, if genius, guided by conduct and decorum, prove any 

 individual worthy to be a great lawyer, toldier, sailor, or statesman ? If it 

 were not for this wise decision, what would have become of the Aristocracy 

 long ago ? — and with such an aristocracy in Government, are we to establish 

 one in art, where no genius, no decorum, and no conduct, will procure ele- 

 vation and reward for the humble mechanic ? Ridiculous — the bare thought 

 and promulgation will make us the laughter of Europe, if this preface has 

 not done so long since. 



The artists must become more workmen, and the workmen more artists, 

 before the great revolution, beginning will begin aright ; but it will not be 

 by putting forth theories which will separate them more and more than ever, 

 but by being convinced, as the great Continental schools have long been. 

 that as imitation is the basis of both arts, the students in each should begin 

 alike. 



At the revival of art in Tuscany artists were artificers, and artificers were 

 artists, in the strictest sense of the words. " It was not in the academy, but 

 in the workshop, their genius was nurtured — the arte degli orejici." " The 

 goldsmith's craft was the chiefest school ; hence came the best artists of all 

 the three arts of architecture, painting, sculpture — Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, 

 Orcagna, Luca della Robbia, Massolino, Ghirlandaijo, Pollajuolo, Botticelli, 

 Verrochio, Francia, Finiguerra, Andrea del Sarto, Baccio Bandinelli, Cellini, 

 .Salviati, Lioni, Vasari, and a host of inferior names, all were brought up to 

 this good trade.' Painters were chiefly employed as decorators of houses 

 and furniture, &c." In all the associations of artists, trunkmakers, varnish- 

 ers, saddlers, cutlers, and all workmen in wood or metal, w hose crafts had 

 any connexion with design, were admitted ; and yet in England they are to 

 be separated in education ! 



I think, therefore, tliut tliere is nothing " veryierroneous in saying that the 

 power of imitating natural objects artistically, ought to be the first requisite 

 in the education of the ornamentist, or that the artistic imitation ought to 

 begin by the human figure, since the mastery of this would render every 

 other attainment compar.-itively easy." - 



To conclude, the error of the First Council of the London Schoul of Design 



» Murray's Hand Book to N. of Italy. 

 - Drawing Book, page 2. 



