§ 89—91. NO DISGRACE TO DECORATE. 325 



school (which too holds a high position among those of 

 modern Europe) ; I allude to the general prevalence of the 

 taste for landscape, which, like portrait painting, though 

 good in itself, should not be patronized by preference, nor be 

 the loftiest aim of any school. (See Part I. p. 17, § 13.) 



90. It is superfluous to say that every student in painting 

 ought to appreciate the feelings of the best masters ; and 

 while studying nature, to observe how they studied her, as 

 well as to mark their freedom from that affectation which so 

 often offends us in the compositions of the post-Eaphaelite 

 artists ; where extravagant attitudes, a profusion of intrusive 

 arms and legs, an unnecessary crowd of figures, wind-blown 

 drapery, and false effects, are offered as beauties. But this 

 appreciation and study of good art are not confined to paint- 

 ing ; they are also required of every one who has any pre- 

 tensions to excel in ornamental design ; and it is vain to 

 hope for success in this, unless talent extends beyond the 

 mere copying of patterns, or even of the human figure. 

 Until proper knowledge and taste have been obtained by 

 those who profess to make designs, we shall continue to find 

 in the same piece a mixture of good and bad ; of passable 

 execution, and composition, in one part, and figures totally 

 out of all keeping and proportion in another ; as in some of 

 the carved works exhibited at the Crystal Palace of 1851. 



91. Those who think that their acquirements as artists 

 would be lowered by their condescending to decorative work, 

 or to ornamental design, would do well to remember that 

 neither a Giotto, nor a Raphael, thought himself degraded 

 by a similar employment of his talents ; and that, by im- 

 proving the general taste, they would promote a greater 

 appreciation of the beautiful. For the occasional possession 

 of it by individuals is not sufficient * ; nor is it enough that 



* "To love the beautiful in all things," as Sir E. Bulwer Lytton well ob- 

 serves, " to surround ourselves, as far as our means permit, with all its evidences, 



Y 3 



