654 MODERN PAINTING 



the only truth. Every artistic movement which has ever existed 

 is justified within the bounds of the time of its existence, and, like 

 other organisms, when its time has come, it will die a natural death. 

 The historian should not battle for a cause, either as accuser or 

 defender; his proper position is rather that of a mere recorder. 



In this spirit Cornelius Gurlitt approached the great theme in his 

 work, Die deutsche Kunst des 19 Jahrhunderts (1890). He never 

 blames or condemns, but, effacing the personal element, he enters into 

 the spirit of the past, not in order to glorify our present achievements, 

 but to mete out justice to every sincere and inspired effort. For 

 objectivity and impersonal appreciation, Gurlitt's history cannot be 

 surpassed. If, notwithstanding, the reader, after the perusal of the 

 book, has the feeling that the artistic development of the present 

 is to-day less clear than that of the past, this must be ascribed to 

 another reason. The author takes his phenomena as he finds them; 

 and although he analyzes and weighs them, he never inquires after 

 the causes. He neglects to examine the soil from which the art of 

 every age springs, which after all is the first and most important 

 thing in historical writing. For history is not a storehouse of acci- 

 dental occurrences, but the result of inevitable laws which affect 

 each other in all directions. The problem is to find the point of view 

 which commands the whole stream of tendency, and from which its 

 component parts may be arranged into comprehensive groups. As 

 we rightly explain the works of Giotto, Botticelli, and Raphael from 

 the time and circumstances under which they arose, we must also 

 treat modern art as a natural problem, by deducing the character of 

 its works and the changes of style from the historical changes in 

 culture during the nineteenth century. 



It will first be necessary to cast a glance at the eighteenth. For 

 this love-crazed and blood-shedding, this trifling and fighting century 

 is the mighty period in which the old world passed away, and the 

 foundation was laid upon which we are to-day building. With what 

 seven-league boots did the spirit of the age then sweep over the 

 nations, and with what dreadful harshness did the opposing forces 

 crash into each other! "Vive la joie!" Such was the device at the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. With what feverish joy the old 

 aristocratic families of the ancien regime celebrated their rococo! The 

 whole world seemed to have become an Isle of Cythera, where nothing 

 of the sorrow of life could enter. But while the distinguished gentle- 

 men and ladies, disguised as Pierrots and Columbines, celebrated 

 their gallant shepherd masquerades, rough voices suddenly sounded 

 in the midst of their cooing and whispering. Threatening symptoms 

 announced that the long and beautiful day of the aristocratic order 

 must end, and that the plebeian also demanded a seat at the table 

 of pleasure. The great writers of all countries were the bold heralds 



