INTRODUCTION 1✦

Definitions of "Art" and "Beauty"--Aesthetic systems--The earliest Art--Art periods--The Grecian and Italian developments--National and individual "Inspiration"-- Powers of imagination and execution--Nature of "Genius"-- The Impressionist Movement--Sprezzatura--The broad manner-- Position in art of Rembrandt and Velasquez--Position of Landscape in art.

BOOK I

CHAPTER✦

I.--CLASSIFICATION OF THE FINE ARTS 52

The Arts imitative of Nature--Classified according to the character of their signs--Relative value of form in Poetry--Scope of the Arts in the production of beauty.

II.--LAW OF RECOGNITION IN THE ASSOCIATED ARTS 59

Explanation of the Law--Its application to Poetry--To Sculpture--To Painting--To Fiction.

III.--LAW OF GENERAL ASSENT 72

General opinion the test of beauty in the Associated Arts.

IV.--LIMITATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATED ARTS 78

Production of beauty in the respective Arts--Their limitations.

V.--DEGREES OF BEAUTY IN THE PAINTER'S ART 83

VI.--EXPRESSION. PART 1.--THE IDEAL 86

VII.--EXPRESSION. PART 2.--CHRISTIAN IDEALS 91

The Deity--Christ--The Madonna--Madonna and Child.

VIII.--EXPRESSION. PART 3.--CLASSICAL IDEALS 106

Ideals of the Greeks--Use of the ancient divinities by the Painter.

IX.--EXPRESSION. PART 4.--GENERAL IDEALS 135

X.--EXPRESSION. PART 5.--PORTRAITURE 141

Limitations of the Portrait Painter--Emphasis and addition of qualities in portrait painting--Practice of the ancient Greeks--Dignity--Importance of Simplicity--Some of the great masters--Portraiture of women--The English masters--The quality of Grace--The necessity for Repose.

XI.--EXPRESSION. PART 6.--MISCELLANEOUS 167

Grief--The Smile--The Open Mouth--Contrasts-- Representation of Death.

XII.--LANDSCAPE 192

Limitations of the Landscape Painter--Illusion of opening distance--Illusion of motion in Landscape-- Moonlight scenes--Transient conditions.

XIII.--STILL-LIFE 214

XIV.--SECONDARY ART 219

Paintings of record--Scenes from the Novel--From the written drama--From the acted drama--Humorous subjects--Allegorical paintings.

XV.--COLOUR 228

BOOK II

INTRODUCTORY.--ILLUSION IN THE PAINTER'S ART 236

CHAPTER I.--ILLUSION OF RELIEF 239 II.--ILLUSION OF MOTION WITH MEN AND ANIMALS 249 III.--ILLUSION OF SUSPENSION AND MOTION IN THE AIR 259

NOTES 273

INDEX OF ARTISTS AND WORKS OF ART MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK 357

GENERAL INDEX 369

LIST OF PLATES

PAGE FRONTISPIECE.--DETAIL FROM FRAGONARD'S THE PURSUIT (FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK).

This work, which is one of the celebrated Grasse series of panels, offers a very fine example of the use of an ideal head in a romantic subject. (See Page 139.)

PLATE 1.--THE EARLIEST GREAT SCULPTURES 6

(a). Head from a statue of Chefren, a king of the 4th Egyptian Dynasty, about 3000 B.C. (Cairo Museum.)

(b). Head from a fragmentary statuette of Babylonia, dating about 2600 B.C. (Louvre: from Spearing's "Childhood of Art.")

The first head is generally regarded as the finest example of Egyptian art extant, and certainly there was nothing executed in Egypt to equal it during the thirty centuries following the 5th Dynasty. The Babylonian head is the best work of Chaldean art known to us, though there are some fine fragments remaining from the period of about a thousand years later. It will be observed that the tendency of the art in both examples is towards the aims achieved by the Greeks. (See Page 7.)

PLATE 2.--"LE BON DIEU D'AMIENS", IN THE NORTH PORCH, AMIENS CATHEDRAL 18

This figure by a French sculptor of the thirteenth century, was considered by Ruskin to be the finest ideal of Christ in existence. It is another example of the universality of ideals, for the head from the front view might well have been modelled from a Grecian work of the late fourth or early third century B.C. (See Page 319.)

PLATE 3.--AFTER AN ANCIENT COPY OF THE CNIDIAN VENUS OF PRAXITELES. (VATICAN) 30

It is commonly agreed that this is the finest model in existence after the great work of Praxiteles, which itself has long disappeared. The figure as it now stands at the Vatican, has the right arm restored, and the hand is made to hold up some metallic drapery with which the legs are covered, the beauty of the form being thus seriously weakened. (See Pages 111 et seq.)

PLATE 4.--VENUS ANADYOMENE 42

(a). Ancient Greek sculpture from the design of Venus in the celebrated picture of Apelles. (Formerly Chessa Collection, now in New York.)

The immense superiority of the sculpture over the painting (Plate 5), from the point of view of pure art, is visible at a glance. It is an indication of the far-reaching scope of the sculptor when executing ideals. (See Page 113.)

PLATE 5.--VENUS ANADYOMENE, FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN. (BRIDGEWATER COLLECTION.) Compare with the Sculpture on Plate 4. (See Page 115) 42

PLATE 6.--VENUS REPOSING, BY GIORGIONE. (DRESDEN GALLERY) 54

This is the finest reposing Venus in existence in painting. It was the model for the representation of the goddess in repose used by Titian, and many other artists who came after him. (See Page 116.)

PLATE 7.--DEMETER 66

(a). Head from the Cnidos marble figure of the fourth century B.C., attributed to Scopas. (British Museum.)

(b). Small head in bronze of the third century B.C. (Private Collection.)

In each of these heads the artist has been successful in maintaining the ideal, while indicating a suggestion of the sorrowful resignation with which Grecian legend has enveloped the mind picture of Demeter. Nevertheless, even this slight departure from the established rule tends to lessen the art, though in a very small degree. (See Page 122.)

PLATE 8.--RAPHAEL'S SISTINE MADONNA (DRESDEN GALLERY), WITH THE FACE OF THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN FRAGONARD'S THE PURSUIT SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF THE VIRGIN 80

This and the two following plates show very clearly that in striving for an ideal, artists must necessarily arrive at the same general type. (See Pages 138 et seq.)

PLATE 9.--RAPHAEL'S VIRGIN OF THE ROSE (MADRID), WITH THE FACE OF THE FIGURE REPRESENTING PROFANE LOVE IN TITIAN'S PICTURE SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF THE VIRGIN 92

PLATE 10.--RAPHAEL'S HOLY FAMILY (MADRID), WITH THE FACE OF LUINI'S SALOME SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF THE VIRGIN 102

PLATE 11.--THE PURSUIT, BY FRAGONARD. (FRICK COLLECTION, N. Y.) 114

A detail from this picture forms the Frontispiece. It will be observed that in the complete painting the central figure apparently wears a startled expression, but that this is entirely due to the surroundings and action, is shown by the substitution of the face of the central figure for that of the Virgin in the Sistine Madonna, Plate 8. (See Page 139.)

PLATE 12.--PORTRAIT HEADS OF THE GREEK TYPE, FOURTH CENTURY, B.C. (See Page 145) 130

(a). Head of Plato. (Copenhagen Museum.) (b). Term of Euripides. (Naples Museum.)

PLATE 13.--PORTRAIT HEADS OF THE TIME OF IMPERIAL ROME. (SEE PAGE 145) 146

(a). Vespasian. (Naples Museum.) (b). Hadrian. (Athens Museum.)

PLATE 14.--SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA, FROM A POMPEIAN FRESCO. (ROUX AINE'S HERCULANUM ET POMPEI, VOL. III) 160

This work is presumed to be a copy of the celebrated picture of Timanthes, in which the head of Agamemnon was hidden because the artist could see no other way of expressing extreme grief without distorting the features. (See Pages 168 and 339.)

PLATE 15.--ALL'S WELL, BY WINSLOW HOMER. (BOSTON MUSEUM, U. S. A.) 176

An instance where the permanent beauty of a picture is killed by an open mouth. After a few moments' inspection, it will be observed that the mouth appears to be kept open by a wedge. (See Page 176.)

PLATE 16.--HERCULES CONTEMPLATING DEATH, BY A. POLLAIUOLO. (FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK.) 190

The only known design of this nature which appears to exist in any of the arts. (See Pages 190 and 343.)

PLATE 17.--ARCADIAN LANDSCAPE, BY CLAUDE LORRAINE. (NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON) 198