TREES IN PAINTING 201 



treatment of landscape, and also in tree-draw- 

 ing. We find trees that seem to have lost 

 their symmetry and uprightness under the 

 pressure of many a gale. There is an approach 

 to the feeling of leafiness and the suggestion of 

 a multitude of branches, and a still greater 

 multitude of leaves, which are features of the 

 tree that no modern artist would ignore. But 

 we are still far from that full recognition of the 

 visible beauty of nature which, alone, makes 

 possible the fully sympathetic representation 

 of trees. The Roman, indeed, having beliefs 

 only different in degree from those of the 

 Greeks, who believed that Zeus dwelt in the 

 oaks of Dodona, or the Mycenseans, who be- 

 lieved that the tutelary spirit dwelt in the 

 sculptured column over the entrance to the 

 city, was only less indifferent than they to the 

 exact representation of natural objects. A 

 rudely pictured tree or a mere tree-pillar or 

 stone-pillar sufficed for the all-important pur- 

 pose of a dwelling for the spirit ; just as even 

 now it remains true that miracle-working 

 pictures and statues are but poor art. Gener- 

 ally, then, though the Graeco- Roman artists did 

 show some advance in the rendering of land- 



