THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED.
ART.
HE Department of Fine Arts in the Exhibitionwill do us the great service of showing us ourposition in relation to that of the rest of theworld. Genius, history proves, is not hereditary.The children of a king are not necessarily kings:nor the heirs of a painter, artists. ISTor has Art■any preference for particular times or countries,being a universal fact of human development.But the aspects and forms of Art are as different as the spirit ofdifferent ages and climates. It need be no shame to us that wehave not originated a style of architecture, nor a school of paint-ing. For Art is strictly related to the circumstances of life thatsurround it. It is the application of beauty to use. The per-ception of beauty, indeed, is quite independent of use. But, sincethere is nothing superfluous in, nature, use will always be foundbeneath beauty.
That Art, therefore, will have its proper place in our de-velopment, is not a matter of speculation, but of science. It is not provedy the erection of Greek temples for banking-houses, or of ameliorated Gothiccathedrals for Protestant churches, but it is to be found in the thousand newaspects that belong to our new life. The Greek temple arose naturally fromthe study and combination of the architecture of an earlier people. It bear’s thesame relation to the Egyptian, that the Greek character bore to that of its elderNeighbor. It is, perhaps, the best, as it is the most permanent material monument°f that character. The inexperienced mind would instantly infer the poetic har-toony of the religion and of the intellectual development, which presided in theconstruction of those temples. It would be sure that no barbarous fetish rites, but^ *gh poetic worship, had place there.
It is this strict relation of Greek Art to the Greek character that makes thatr t so eminent and complete. The same thing is true of Gothic Art in Germany,'vhich is equally the elaborate and appropriate expression of a peculiar sentimenta nd form of life.
The essential point seems to be, the existence of some characteristic and nationalUe. The national Art will be the expression of that life in the various moulds into^vhich it casts itself. A maritime nation, the soul of whose prosperity and interest18 00mm erce, will build line ships. • An inland people, who depend upon safe andPrompt intercourse with others, will show magnificent roads, bridges, and aque-ticts. Each country and century will work in its own way. In the degree thathe composition of the people is eclectic, so will be the spirit of their career, andnecessarily must be their Art. The Art of France, for instance, is bijouterie.reach pictures, French statues, French architecture, are merely copies and echoes°f others. They are infected by what we call “Frenchiness,” by which we meantat they are works indigenous to another feeling and development than thetench, which the French has merely touched, without essentially changing—cer-tainly without improving. But the case is very different with the matter ofl Jouterie. How this department is peculiarly French, and therefore it is Francethat gives the name to it.
The American character partakes of the same eclecticism, and we must lookfor it in American Art. It will show works of every spirit and age; but its dis-tinctive works of Art will belong rather to the department of the useful than of thefrno. Scarcely in Greek sculpture are there finer works than some of Poweks’ bustsan d statues; yet, just in proportion as his work is excellent, it is not American butfreek. We may erect bronze figures in memory of our great men; but neitherfhe idea nor the execution are peculiarly our own. But a yacht that outsails allother yachts, a caloric engine, and a magnetic telegraph, are achievements notPossible in Borne, or Greece, or mediaeval Europe. We do not mean to decry everything but the spinning jenny and the locomotive. On the contrary, it is in ane °Iecticism, or the union of various excellencies that distinguishes our nationaloharacter, that we find the best reason for believing that we shall in time exhibitn °t on ]y w }, a t j g p ecu ]j ar £ 0 ourg elves, but what is best in many developments;
a t as a rich mind borrows from all times and countries, the graces of theirgenius, and yet does not sacrifice to them the integrity of its own, so we shalluioorporate what is characteristic of others with what is essentially our own.ecause we build ships well, it is a pity we should have no pictures; and becausee Gothic architecture is not indigenous with us, there is no reason why we8 wuld have unhandsome houses.
l°°k to this Exhibition, therefore, to indicate the quality of our genius for6 ^ ne Arts, as distinguished from the useful—terms which are more convenient^nn accurate, especially in a country where, as we apprehend, the useful will bee fine. As civilisation advances, the sphere of Art enlarges. It regards not only{ 18 ex terior form of the house, but the details of the interior. It is to be sought Jj 11 , \ e ^. armon i ous blending of the whole. The forms of the furniture, of the name-e -s r evices of comfort and luxury are all considered by it, and all in reference to
a general effect. The quality of the influence thus exercised, is much too subtleto be exactly appreciated. It is not possible to determine just how much it benefitsa man to see an exquisite vase, or to hear a fine strain of music. But it is veryeasy to perceive that he who is subject to the constant influence of beautiful forms,is in a fair way to have beautiful feelings.
There are few spots more pleasantly remembered than the gallery of vases inthe Vatican. It is a region of purity, and grace, and exquisite thought; an air ofcool repose pervades it. But the visitor, as lie hurries toward the cartoons ofRaphael beyond, pauses amid these lyrics of grace, and finds that they are onlythe forms of useful objects. The form feasts his sense of beauty ns the vases them-selves served other and more material uses. And when he has left them, andconfronts the cartoons, he finds that they, also, are but curtain-designs drawn byRaphael. So, in what we are accustomed to call the highest and most rigorousArt, is the plainest use hidden in beauty. IIow then can we doubt of our ownproficiency, if we see that Art itself is, really, not a whim or a caprice, but anecessity ?
It will be our duty in recording the Department of the Fine Arts in the Exhi-bition, to insist rigorously (whore wo do more than describe) upon the obviousprinciples of simplicity and truthfulness. Irrelevance in a work of Art, as in allother modes of expression, is deformity. It destroys the force of the effect bydistracting the mind. Simplicity may be as rich as imagination can make it. Asuperb queen in diamonds, who is so beautiful and queenly, that the diamonds onlyemulate afar off the lustre of her eyes and the splendor of her presence, is as simpleas naked Eve in Eden. The effect is deepened by the ornament. Beauty, whenunadorned, is certainly not 1 adorned the most: for beautiful effects belong natu-rally to beautiful persons only, as the most majestic of temples were erected inhonor of the gods. Simplicity and propriety are the canons of correct judgmentin Art. We shall endeavor to conform our criticisms to them.
GLASS PAINTING.
rUIIE visitor to the Exhibition will see in the windows of the galleries numerousJ- specimens of painted glass, the work of both foreign and native artists. On afuture occasion, we shall present copies of some of these designs among our illus-trations. As the principles and history of this beautiful art are little known inthe United States, we take occasion to invite attention to the following sketch ofits history and practice.
The art of glass painting or staining is one of the earliest of those deco-rations which are still retained in modern architecture. Its early history isconfused and often contradictory, but as for as we are acquainted with it,the first example of this decoration belongs to the sixth century, when it wasused to enrich the Basilica of St. Sophia, the famous church of Justinian, inwhich his successors long after were invested with the sovereignty of the East.An instance which can be stated with greater confidence is that of Pope LeoIII. (A. D. 796—810), who is said to have used colored glass in adorning thewindows of the Lateran. During the tenth century it was much admired andpractised in Western Europe, and its processes are minutely described in the“Artium Schedula” of Theopliilus, which is supposed to have been written in thefollowing century. • It was not, however, until the twelfth century that it exhibit-ed imaginative power, and rose to the dignity of a fine art. It shared in the pow-erful impulse which the Crusades had then given to ail the thoughts and worksof* Christendom, and became thoroughly imbued with the religious enthusiasm,which was the ruling spirit of that and succeeding ages. Its subjects were chosenfrom the Scriptures and the saintly legends of the church, and the artists whowrought them, were influenced more by a fervid love of God than by any hope ofearthly fame. Under the influence of such sympathy and alliance with religiousworship, the art of glass painting attained an unexampled sway over the affectionsof the people, and became an essential feature as well as ornament of ecclesiasticalarchitecture. Its use therefore was coextensive with the sovereignty of thechurch, and its progress justified the patronage so lavishly bestowed upon it,until at the end of the first Half of the sixteentli century, it. reached its greatestperfection and the summit of its power. From tins time onward it declined; itsproductions became more elaborate and historical, at the expense of the richnessand brilliancy which had been their peculiar merit; in the eighteenth century theart ceased to be practised, though it was not absolutely forgotten; and in our
own times, it shares in the reawakened taste for the mediasval arts, and in theirrevival.
Tho transitions in the styles of glass painting are not less remarkable than thevicissitudes of its history. In its elementary condition, it was limited to the sym-metrical arrangement of pieces of glass of various sizes and colors. The combi-nation of colors was the only charm to which this inode of decoration could layclaim, until by the study of classic models, the beauty of correct form was again
recognized. This fact may explain why it was that the earliest feeline for art
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