The fine arts; a manual

Front matter

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Part I Art As The Expression Of Popular Feelings And Ideals

INTRODUCTION SOME RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO PRACTICAL ASTHETICS

§§ 1. Rodin and Modern Sculpture—2. Some Artistic Extravagances of the day—3. Recent Experiments in the Art of Painting—4, Contributions to Artistic Theory from the side of Anthropology—5. The Doctrine of the Freedom of Art in anew light—6. The Relations in Primitive Times of Play, Art, and Work—7. The exalted importance of Art as an element in Human Life. . : ‘ : . Pages 1-22

Chapter I The Beginnings Of Art

§§ 8. Intention and Plan of the Work—g. The Earliest Activities which lead on to Art—1o, Relation of the foregoing to current Theories of the Artistic Impulse—11. Art as Self-Externalization—12. Bearing of this on the Doctrine of the Freedom of Art—13. Form in Art: Importance in all its manifestations of the principle of Order—14. Social Institutions and the stimulus they afford to Art: the Festival—15. The festal origin of graphic and plastic Decoration—16. and of monumental Sculpture—17. And especially of Architecture—18. The ideal viii

CONTENTS character of the earliest permanent monuments—19. Survival of the spirit of the earliest monuments in later Architecture and Sculpture—z2o, The festal character of early Architecture shown in the Egyptian Temple—21. and in the Temple of the Greeks —22. Tabular view of the beginnings of the Arts Pages 23-64

Chapter II The Festival, In Its Relation To The Form And Spirit Of

CLASSICAL ART

§§ 23. The Festival as the nurse of Art—24. The festal Dance among savages—25. and among modern and ancient Greeks— 26. Characteristics of the ancient Dance asa form of Art—27. Influence of the Dance on Sculpture—28. The mimic Dances— 29. Effect of the mimic Dances upon Sculpture and Painting— 30. Evolution of the Drama from the mimic Dance—31. Slight influence of the Drama on Sculpture—32. Early Sculpture in its relation to the Festival—33. Mature Sculpture also in Greece the expression of popular ideals—34. Fundamental characteristics of Hellenic Art—35. The underlying idea of Greek Sculpture—Hellas in opposition to the non-Hellenic—36. ‘ Hellas’ in the celestial, the legendary, the historical spheres —37. Ideal representation in Art of the contests of Hellas against the non-Hellenic—38. Concentration of the interest of these contests in typical Protagonists—39. The Types peopling the Hellenic world—4o. The Olympian Pantheon—41. The characterization in Sculpture of the Types—42. Maintenance of the essential character of the Types through variations—43. Flexibility of the Types in the hands of the Sculptors— 44. Winckelmann on the Classical Ideal—45. True meaning of ‘Ideal’ in connection with Greek Art—46. Supremacy of the Greek sculptors—47. Sculpture the expression of the Greek moral] idea . "lew, ares . 5, Caw Pages 65-99

Chapter III

§§ 48. Survival of the Festival in early Christian times—4g. and of its influence in stimulating Art—so. How Christian Painting began—51. The Florentines as representing medieval Culture

CONTENTS ix and Art—52. The Florentine Pageant and Mystery-play—53. Effect of these on Art—54. Rehearsal of artistic subjects in the Pageants—55. The artist studies from the Pageants—56. Characteristic illustrations of the Florentine pageants—57. Dramatization of the scenes of the Passion of Christ—58. The religious and secular ‘Triumphs’—59. Festal aspect of the artist’s general surroundings at Florence—6o. A fourteenth-century description of the Florentine Festival of San Giovanni —61. The artistic outcome of the brilliant festal life of medieval Italy—62. The difference between the artistic expression of the Greeks and Italians—63. The large Scenic Picture ; how it was conceived and wrought—64. The Frescoists of the fifteenth century; their character, surroundings and work—65. Interior of a Florentine workshop—66. How the Votive Chapel was painted —67. A Cycle of Fresco-paintings—68. Consultation over Cartoons—69. A visit from the Elite of the city—7o. The technical processes of Fresco—71. The Master at work—72. A critical glance at his achievement—73. Summary of the foregoing chapters . . ° : ‘ « Pages 100-148

Chapter I Some Elements Of Effect In The Arts Of Form

§§ 74. A new branch of the subject ; the operation in different forms of Art of the principle of ‘ Order’—75. Every work of Art must present itself as a Unity—76. Visual Impressions derived from the Arts of Form—77. The Elements of Effect in Architecture ; Masses—78, Lines in Architecture—79. Light-and-Shade and Texture in Architecture—8o. Colour not an essential element in Architectural Effect—81. The Elementsof Effectin Sculpture: distinction between Sculpture in the Round and Relief—82. The Forms presented in Sculpture—83. Contour, Light-and-Shade, Texture and Colour in Sculpture—84. The Colouring of antique Sculpture—85. The Colouring of Medieval Sculpture—86. The x CONTENTS

Elements of effect in the Graphic Art—87. Relation of Painting to the other Arts of Form—88. The Essence of the Painter’s Art—89. How the Painter is prepared for his Work—go. Imperfect forms of the Graphic Art; Line-drawing—g1. Representation of Solid Form in the Graphic Art—g2. Graphic delineation as aided by Perspective—93. Aerial Perspective and its Study—o4. Colour in the Graphic Art—95. Texture in the Graphic Art—96. Light-and-Shade in the Graphic Art

Chapter II The Work Of Art As Significant

§§ 97. Beauty and Significance in Works of Art—98. Art is Significant as appealing to Natural Symbolism; (A) in Light and Colour—gg9. (B) and in Form—1ioo. Rejection of the Counter- Theory that Formal Beauty is the only true artistic quality— 1o1. The Architectural Monument as a significant Work of Art—1o2. The first essentials of Architectural Effect; Mass— 103. and Stability—104. Architectural Sublimity involves the idea of Power, and of the Supremacy of Intelligence over matter —105. The Significance of Architectural Styles—106. The 4ksthetics of Construction in general not entered upon—1oy7, Other effects produced by the Work of Art as significant ; the Suggestion of Nature in Architectural Forms—108. The Relation to Nature of the Works of Sculpture and Painting— 109. Statues and Pictures have been generally regarded from the point of view of their Truth to Nature—11o. or of the Ethical Character of their Subjects—111. Criticism of these Views— 112. The opposite theory of a Picture as ‘ Decorative’ stated and discussed—113. The Artistic Treatment of Nature in the Art of Painting—114. The Language of Art . Pages 205-238

Chapter III The Work Of Art As Beautiful

§§ 115. The elements of Beauty; the Whole and the Parts—116. Importance of attending first to the Whole—117. in criticizing Architecture—118. Sculpture—119. and Painting—x120. ‘ Breadth’ and its artistic significance—121. The value of ‘ Play of Surface’ as against Decision of Form in the Arts—122. The Conditions of Formal Beauty in the Arts—123. Beauty in

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CONTENTS xi simple Figures—124. Such Beauty is not an absolute quality— 125. Formal Beauty of Composition, in Architecture—126. and Sculpture—127. and. Painting—128. How far is Pictorial Composition amenable to Formal Laws? . Pages 239-266

PART Ill THE ARTS OF FORM

Chapter I Architectural Beauty In Relation To Construction

§§ 129. The Elements of Architectural Effect: Summary of Earlier Sections—130. The Relation of Utility and Art in Architecture —131. The theory of ‘respect absolu pour le vrai’ tested by the Doric Fagade—132. The Architect need not be ashamed of Beauty, even when Independent of Construction—133. The Principles of Architectural Design—134. Characteristics of building materials: Stone, and its Natural Symbolism—135. Brick, and the Constructive Forms evolved from its use— 136. The Arch, as derived from Construction in small materials : its esthetic value—137. Evolution of an Arched Style: the Arch at Rome—138. The Arch in the hands of Medieval Builders: The Gothic Style—139. Construction and Beauty in the Gothic Edifice—14o0. Free expression and Beauty in Gothic, independent of Construction—-141. Summary of the foregoing—142. Monolithic Stone Construction in relation to architectural Beauty—143. Transference of Timber forms to Stone, the secret of ancient Architecture—144. An illustration from Ancient Egypt—145. The Columned Style originates in Wood-Construction—146. Characteristics of Construction in Wood— 147. These characteristics appear in the forms of the Greek Temple—148. Significance of the foregoing facts—149. Use of the forms thus established, as Conventions, in later Architecture, as in Roman and Neo-classic work—150. and even in the Gothic Style—151. The Gothic Moulding as, in part, a conventional form—152. Comparison of the Early Christian Basilica with the later Medieval Church . Pages 269-323 xii CONTENTS

Chapter II The Conventions Of Sculpture

§§ 153. Sculpture in the Round begins with Realism: examples from Egypt—154. The Greeks established Conventions of the Art—155. The value of Greek Standards for modern practice— 156. The primary Convention of monumental Sculpture—157. Treatment in monumental work as influenced by Material and Scale—158. Conventions of Treatment in works designed for a nearer view: the handling of Bronze and Marble—159. The Rendering of Natural Forms—16o0. and their artistic handling, as illustrated in the Parthenon Fragments—161. The general artistic result of these Conventions of Treatment—162. Sculpturesque Treatment as modified in later times—163. Sculpture in Relief, its different kinds—164. The Conventions of Sculpture in Relief, as established by the Greeks—165. Relief Treatment as influenced by Materials and Processes: Greek and Italian Technique—166. The innovations of Ghiberti examined: their influence on modern Sculpture . : « Pages 324-371

Chapter III Painting Old And New

§§ 167. The Limitations of Fresco Practice—168. The first stages of the advance: Linear Perspective—169. and Foreshortening 170. Aerial Perspective and Light-and-Shade, necessary for further advance, were not fully mastered by the Italians—171. Light-and-Shade as used by the Italian Painters—172. and as developed by Rembrandt and the Northerns—173. Influence of the new treatment in extending the field of Painting—174. especially in regard to Landscape—175. Summary of the foregoing—176. The introduction of Oil-Painting and the Tempera Style—177. Importance of the change for the character of

- Modern Painting—178. Attitude of the Florentines towards the new Medium—179. The Technique of Oil-Painting—180. The practice of Correggio and the Venetians—181. and of Rubens amd the Flemish School—182. The place of Technique in Modern Painting . ° ° . e ° ° 372-409

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE ‘Theseus,’ from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, ~- Frontispiece

Specimens of the Art of Pre-historic Cave-dwellers in Western

France, - - - - - - - - “ - 28 Plan of Egyptian Temple (Edfou), - - : - - : 56 Early Egyptian Shrines, from hieroglyphic inscriptions, —- : 57 Portal and Court of Temple at Edfou, Egypt, - - . ’ 58 Doric Temple at Pzestum, Italy, . : . : - : 60 Female Dancer, from Greek Vase, - - - : : : 70 Dance of Armed Youth, from a Greek Vase, - : . - 72

Adoration of the Magi, by Gentile da Fabriano, in the Academy at Florence, - - - - : - : - - 106

Discobolus of Myron, British Museum, - : - 2 #2802

Palazzo Riccardi, Florence, - - - : . » = 286 Battlements crowning an Assyrian wall of bricks, = - - ieee 7s Roman Aqueduct, known as the Pont du Gard, near Nimes in Southern France, - . - - - - - - 288 Group of domed houses from an Assyrian relief, - - - 290 Analysis of Gothic Construction, Rheims Cathedral. From -Gailhabaud, - - . - - - - - - 206 So-called Temple of the Sphinx, - - - - : - 301

Primitive Hut, from Asia Minor, ~~ . . : . - 304

Egyptian Cornice, - A pian . : . . tha 6g xIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Section of part of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, wis. bud and flower Capitals, - - - - e Fagade of rock-cut Lycian tomb, - nS ti Diagram of Timber-construction, - : . - The Lion-Tomb, Cnidus, - - . : . Roman combination of arched and trabeate forms, - Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, . . - - -

Seated Scribe, an Egyptian Statue of the Old Empire, Louvre, - - - - . . 3 ‘

Equestrian Statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni at Venice, Head of Horse of Selene, from the Parthenon, - - Apoxyomenos (Athlete using the Strigil) in the Vatican, Metope from the Parthenon, showing traces of archaism, Metope from the Parthenon, free style, - . ~

Philip IV., by Velasquez, in the National Gallery, - in the

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ART AS THE EXPRESSION OF POPULAR FEELINGS AND IDEALS

Introduction

SOME RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO PRACTICAL AESTHETICS

§1. Rodin and Modern Sculpture.

AUGUSTE RODIN is reported to have said, ‘ Non, jamais nul artiste ne surpassera Phidias, Car le progres existe dans le monde, mais non dans l'art.’ The phrase may be taken as a justification from the point of view of an avowed modern of the conservative treatment of questions of artistic aims and practice adopted in this Manual.

It is no doubt true that in monumental sculpture, sculpture into which enters the quality of the sublime, sculpture wherein great ethical ideas become incorporate and where each statue or group presents itself as an ordered whole in which varied elements are held in perfect harmony— there is no doubt that in sculpture of this kind the Greeks achieved results which the world will never see surpassed. At the same time the great modern artist just quoted might have qualified his dictum by pointing out that there are certain modes of sculpturesque expression wherein effects are now produced for which models are not to be sought i in the art of the Greeks.

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INTRODUCTION

The secret of these is the invocation of the aid of suggestion to supplement the definite presentation of form characteristic of the plastic art. This may be partly explained by the influence of the sister art of painting and partly by the natural susceptibility of the northern mind to the charm of the indefinite and the mysterious. Hegel has dubbed this the romantic spirit, and he has contrasted it with the classicism of southern peoples, who demand the distinct and sharply defined presentation of whatever is intended to give zesthetic pleasure to the eye. The fact that painting and music rather than sculpture are the characteristic arts of the North, while in architecture, as opposed to the severe precision of the classical ‘orders, the Gothic of France and of England aims at effects of illusion and at the impression of the infinite, should prepare us for works so suggestive, so subtly varied in their quality of modelling, as Rodin’s ‘Fallen Angel,’ or even for the conceit in which a head or figure is shown coming gradually out of the mass of marble, large parts of which are left wholly uncarved or in the rough.

§2. Some Artistic Extravagances of the day.

Apart from these well-considered and perfectly legitimate artistic statements, there is not a little work alike in sculpture and in painting that has caught the public eye through its extravagance and even eccentricity. Sundry productions have issued in recent years from the studio of Rodin himself that were really unfitted for public display.

Certain ¢bauches, which, embodying the first suggestion of a plastic idea, have their own value for the artist as a stage in the evolution of his theme, have been presented for exhibition side by side with finished masterpieces such as ‘The Age of Bronze. The massive and noble art of the Serbian sculptor Mestrovic is in some of its manifestations marked by an obvious crudity, as when he offers for finished works panels studied from unfinished Greek reliefs, which the classical artist had only blocked out and never meant to leave as they have accidentally come down to us. All these eccentric works are taken too seriously and critics even pretend to see more in them than in the masters’ finished achievement. The underlying significance of this curious phenomenon is worth a moment’s attention, especially for the reason that the same thing occurs in a more pronounced form in the domain of painting.

Artistic operations are now carried on under the limelight, or at any rate the glare can easily be turned upon any piece that leaves the workshop. The natural attractiveness for the public of anything original or bizarre is exploited in order to secure notoriety for some out-of-the-way production that may at the best be only an experiment or even, at the worst, a deliberate artistic imposition. To do justice to the artists themselves, whose names are blazoned in connection with these misbirths, they are as a rule sincerely in earnest in their general intent, and are affichés in spite of themselves by the alert and enterprising agents who are out for a commercial success in art dealing. No great harm would result from this form of exploitation were it not for the seriousminded critic. He has been duly-impressed by the notorious fact that some of the best artistic and literary movements which history records were in their initiatory stages condemned by the zesthetic authorities of the time as well as by the public, and had to fight their way through a storm of obloquy to ultimate recognition. Mindful of such woeful misjudgments of the past, and apprehensive lest in these strange new appearances he should be entertaining angels unawares, the conscientious critic persuades himself into the expression of an admiration that in his secret heart he cannot really feel, and will give the impression that the more strange the performance the profounder is the artistic meaning he discerns in it. There is something here of pusillanimity, and it is desirable to protest in the name of common sense, as well as of consistency of judgment, against the tendency here noticed. Things are not good in art, are not even of interest, merely because they are original, and in these days it wants more courage to condemn or ignore extravagances than to pay them lip-service. The Rodin studies just mentioned, the experiments of Mestrovic, together with a vast amount of the so-called Post-Impressionist, Futurist, Cubist, Vorticist, etc,, paintings of recent Grafton Gallery exhibitions have no claim to serious attention on the part of responsible critics. They may possess incidentally a personal and a historical value of their own, and may, as will presently be seen, represent a blind groping after principles of value, but they are not to be taken in earnest as complete artistic statements.

§3. Recent Experiments in the Art of Painting.

In connection with painting it may be asked, What is the underlying idea in the extraordinary démarches in the practice of this art which for a decade past have puzzled Europe?

The first of the many fanciful appellations that have been so much on people’s lips is ‘ Post- Impressionism.’ This indicates some advance beyond the point, or some aberration outside the limits, reached or recognized by Impressionism proper. Now Impressionism of the normal kind, the Impressionism of Manet or Whistler, had its origin long ago in the seventeenth century and is conspicuous in much of the later work of Velasquez. It is fully justifiable on any broad view of the aims and methods of the painter’s art, and has a scientific basis in the phenomena_of_ vision. There is a way of looking analytically at a group of objects in nature when attention is focussed on each in turn and each is explored in detail before the attention is transferred to the next object of the group. Asopposed to this analytic inspection there is an act of vision that may be called synthetic, when the gaze is directed to the whole group of objects at once, no special focal point being selected and no movement of the eye over the field permitted while the general truth of the whole is being absorbed and registered. The style of painting under notice corresponds to this synthetic vision. In a good Impressionist piece the various objects in the field are not presented one by one in all their details, but in a summary rendering in which the individuality of the single things is merged in a generalized statement of their relations as patches of tone and colour. Such painting is almost always harmonious and is often of great decorative beauty and convincing in its truthfulness. It may be noted that a subsequent section of this Manual,! which was written at a ~ time when Impressionism, though known and recognized was not notorious, contains a statement of the pictorial idea that closely corresponds with what we now call by this name.

It stands of course to reason that pictures based on vision of the analytical kind are more attractive to the public at large than those which give only the general impression of a group. People like to find as many interesting things in a picture as they can and pass admiringly from one clearly delineated object to another, whereas the more subtle beauties of relation appeal only to the educated eye. This explains at once the intrinsic excellence of good Impressionist painting, and the fact that it is not, and never can be, universally popular.

Not a little painting dubbed by its admirers -Post-Impressionist is on the whole similar in aim and character to that just described. The work of Cézanne, of Gauguin, and to a lesser extent of Van Gogh, when it is good, owes its merit to the same qualities as those of the older Impressionist

1§88, The Essence of the Painter’s Art.

school. This does not however apply to the mass of the painting that represents the newest and still newer ‘movements’ of the last decade. This is startlingly unlike the older Impressionism, and indeed the relation of this newest painting to nature and to all older art appears to be one of defiance. Now if this work, though intrinsically of negligible quality, really spring from a sincere though perhaps scarcely comprehended motive, it may be useful as suggesting the inquiry, What after all is the true relation of the arts of painting and sculpture to nature ?

The popular assumption in regard to these arts is that they are essentially imitative, acquiring merit through the resemblance of their productions to the objective facts of nature. This idea was first formulated by the Greeks, whose term piunows, aS applied to the operations of the arts in general, has seriously hindered a right understanding of artistic theory; but it was the Italians of the Early Renaissance who forced the doctrine deep into the public mind. Leonardo da Vinci is in no small degree responsible, for his intellect was completely obsessed by the presumption that nature, as he calls her ‘the mistress of all masters, is supreme, and that the be-all and end-all of artistic activity is to follow nature as closely as possible in graphic and plastic representations. The Pre-Raffaelites of our own time, with their high priest John Ruskin, have prostrated themselves before the same fetish, and ‘in the popular apprehension of to-day the Baus admits of no denial or modification.

As a theory of sculpture and painting this is plausible, but not as a theory of the arts of form. These include architecture, which holds indeed among these arts the place of chief dignity. Any theory of formative art that ignores architecture at once gives us pause, and suggests that our principles may need reconsideration. As a fact architecture was in this way ignored by the Greeks, and Aristotle in the Poetics discourses at large about poetry, music, and the dance, as well as about sculpture and painting, while he says no word about the ‘mistress art’ in which his countrymen had been winning one of their chief titles to honour. This was simply because architecture was obviously not an imitative art,! and could not be brought under the mimetic theory. A moment’s consideration will however show that the three arts of form are more ona level than has generally been supposed.

All three arts produce their impression by the presentation of actual or simulated solid objects possessed of (a) beauty and (0) significance.? The architectural monument appeals to the esthetic sense first through its mass, its proportions, and the relations of its parts in shape, light-and-shade, and colour, and next through the human interest attaching to it as constituted and arranged to serve the needs of the social and religious life of man. Sculpture and painting in the same manner present objects that possess in themselves and in

1The imitative element that undoubtedly exists in architecture is discussed in the text, § 107. 2 See fostea, Part II, chapter IT.

their relations intrinsic beauty and at the same time appeal to our feelings through their character and associations. As these objects are in great part human beings, the higher animals, and natural scenes and products connected with human life, they are more varied in their significance and exhibit far more subtle and complex qualities than the simpler shapes of architecture, but this is only a question of degree. The practical difference is that the architect builds up his masses in accordance with the static laws on which the world itself is founded, but without any direct reference to nature in the process, whereas the sculptor and painter cannot as a rule so build up their multiform and illusive shapes, for the static and kinetic laws which underlie these outward appearances are far too elaborate and obscure. Hence they have to refer constantly to actual objects in nature similar to those they desire to constitute, and this reference to nature has given rise to the mistaken idea that the zsztation of nature is the primary aim of the representative arts, It is not this, but the imitation, or rather the reference, is an intermediate process assisting the creation of beautiful and significant forms. The practice of the Greek sculptors discussed later on in sections 39 to 47 may be adduced as really corresponding to this idea, The types they created were fashioned after the most careful and prolonged study of nature, but they were born of the intellect and the imagination and not really imitated from anything to be seen in the visible world.

It is not pretended for a moment that these fe) INTRODUCTION somewhat abstruse considerations are actually present in the minds of Post-Impressionist, etc., painters, but they incline us to look favourably on any practical revolt against the orthodox doctrine. We can cordially sympathize with the votaries of the various ‘movements’ under discussion in their contempt for a cheap realism that in these days of photography has become all too easy. Those known as ‘Cubists,’ for example, will generalize the human figure by building it up on a conventional scheme out of a few simple masses, instead of following all the profuse accidental details in which the realistic painter delights, and it is worthy of note that the same idea presented itself long ago to the mind of Albrecht Diirer, who has left among his drawings a series in which the human fisure is made up wholly of cubes.

The common sense of the situation is obvious. If sculpture and painting continue to present as artistic statements the human figure and other objects familiar to us in the world of nature, they must make them at once consistent and convincing and sufficiently like their prototypes to convey to us the appropriate zsthetic impressions, If the presentation on the canvas or in the plastic material be glaringly unlike the similar things we have come to know in nature, then the impression _is only one of confusion, and the artist has entirely missed his aim.

INTRODUCTION II

§ 4, Contributions to Artistic Theory from the side of Anthropology.

In the case of previous re-issues of this Manual

subsequent to its first appearance in 1891, the Introductions have afforded opportunity for brief reviews of recent theories and changes of critical attitude as well as of new departures in practice. It must be understood that, as explained in the text, section 115, philosophical discussions on the Beautiful lie outside the scope of the work, which deals with art on the concrete and technical side. By far the most important contributions to artistic theory during the last generation have come from modern anthropological science. Conclusions that are drawn from a consideration and comparison of observed phenomena of an artistic kind possess an interest and a validity that do not attach to metaphysical generalizations or to mere odzter dicta on art, whether embodied in a lecture, an article, or a volume. _ Among these observed phenomena an important place is taken by those which belong to the primitive eras of civilization. It is indeed necessarily the case that the earliest manifestations of art should be particularly instructive, since conditions were then simple and the essential nature of the artistic impulse is under such conditions likely to reveal itself with special clearness.

Two works of value for these earlier manifestations of art may here be referred to, One is the book The Beginnings of Art, by Professor Grosse of Freiburg, in Baden,! and the other Zhe Origins of Art: a Psychological and Soctological Inquzry, by Dr. Yrjo Hirn of Helsingfors.2 On the facts adduced in these and similar anthropological works, and on the conclusions to be drawn from these facts, is based the treatment of the earliest forms of art in the first chapter of this Manual, and the subject is one of so much importance that certain points of outstanding interest may here be summarized.

§5. The Doctrine of the Freedom of Art in a ; new light.

The doctrine of the freedom and independence of artistic activity is one that has been universally accepted. As Dr. Hirn puts it, ‘Metaphysicians as well as Psychologists, Hegelians as well as Darwinians, all agree in declaring that a work, or performance, which can be proved to serve any utilitarian, non-zesthetic object must not be considered as a genuine work of art. True art has its own law in itself, and rejects every extraneous purpose; that is the doctrine which, with more or less explicitness, has been stated by Kant, Schiller, Spencer, Hennequin, Grosse, Grant Allen, and others. And popular opinion agrees in this respect with the conclusions of science.’? Grosse, who - states that ‘the zesthetic faculty is not engaged in for an end lying outside itself but is its own end,’

1 Die Anfinge der Kunst, Freiburg i. B. and Leipzig, 1894 (American translation, 7he Beginnings of Art, New York, 1897).

2 London, 1900, ® The Origins of Art, p. 7.

and ‘is opposed as the exact opposite to practical activity which always serves some end outside itself, + asks nevertheless the pertinent question how it happens that the races lowest in the scale of civilization, among whom the struggle for existence is hardest, are able and willing to consecrate so much energy te this useless pursuit. ‘Even the most primitive and poverty-stricken tribes, he points out, ‘devote a great part of their time and strength to art—to that art which civilized nations are coming more and more to regard from the height of their practical and scientific attainments as an idle pastime.’? If this last were the character of art among savages, it is inconceivable that the tribes who thus waste their time and strength should not disappear before more practical rivals, who cultivated militarism and whose watchword was ‘efficiency. Dr. Grosse solves the problem by an interesting demonstration showing that in all the arts practised by man in the primitive stage of culture there is a secondary practical value over and above the direct zsthetic stimulus and satisfaction.