MODERN PROBLEMS IN PAINTING 669 



of German art we cannot help contemplating the enormous ravages 

 inflicted upon it during the long religious wars of the Reformation. 

 After Diirer there seems to be no painter of that calibre, and the Teu- 

 tonic race has come to be characterized as "ear-minded" by other 

 more fortunate nations. The Flemish, the Dutch, the Italian, the 

 Spanish, all have had their share of the disastrous consequences of 

 national convulsions. The French Revolution, despite its far-reach- 

 ing beneficence, gave a severe blow to traditional excellence. In these 

 we are but alluding to a few instances of the constant persecutions 

 of European art which society has perpetrated on art since the 

 days of the Greeks. 



Eastern art has had also its ample measure of such catastrophes. 

 To give an example, - the conquest of China by the Mongols in the 

 thirteenth century brought about a sudden downfall of Chinese 

 art from which it has never since been able to recover. As you are 

 doubtless aware, the time at which this calamity occurred was the 

 brightest age of Chinese painting. It was in the Sung dynasty, so 

 rich in poetical and philosophical inspirations. It was the age when 

 Confucianism had evolved a new meaning by the synthesis of Taoist 

 and Buddhist ideals. It was the age when China was breaking through 

 the crust of her ancient formalism, when political and economical 

 experiments were tried on a vast scale. You will remember that the 

 wonderful porcelain of China was the special product of this period 

 of universal activity. 



Painting was the art of the Sungs. It is to their masters that the 

 later Chinese, and we, Japanese, owe the higher conception of the 

 quality of the line, or the manipulation of light and atmosphere 

 within the condensed area of ink treatment. Before them Chinese 

 painting was beautiful in its repose, with the stately completeness of 

 style winch we see in the remains of early Indian or Graeco-Roman 

 painting. The Sung artists emancipated Asiatic art from this class- 

 icism to turn its gaze on the poetry of movement and seek new 

 meanings of life in the intimate aspects of nature. 



It is always fatal to generalize on art-epochs, but never more than 

 on this Sung period when each artist is a school by himself. I shall 

 but tire you with the enumeration of illustrious names like Ririomin. 

 Beigensho, Bayen, Riokai, Choshikio, or Mokkei, for they may 

 signify very little to you. I shall only draw your attention to the 

 series of paintings of Buddhist saints owned by the Boston Museum, 

 which, though not by any recognized master, arc fair specimens of the 

 later Sung work. There you will find the expression of an artistic- 

 mind of a high order which can hold its own beside the early Ital- 

 ians. 



Alas! all these brilliant achievements of the Sung "Illumination" 

 were stopped in their full career by the advent of the Mongol 



