MODERN CONTINENTAL At the end of the 29th century the movement in the domain of the applied arts, with which the names of Ruskin, William Morris, Walter Crane and their fellow-artists are connected, wrought a great change. At first this tendency scrupulously supported the preservation of the methods of handicraft, and strongly opposed manufactured articles. But the same principles with which it originated, and which were indeed identical with those out of which the applied arts had developed in all previous periods, gained ground in the meantime, and the possibility of having artistic articles for practical use came once more within the pur view of increasingly larger groups. Gradually also there came into being a desire to bring them within the reach of the many by changing the expensive handmade articles for manufactured goods, but such production was to be led by artists. But in proportion as these ideas became more general, a reaction set in against their excessive rationalistic elements. Consequently, after the beginning
of the loth century taste inclined towards the ornamental, the lively, the richly coloured, though the basic principle that the shape and appearance of the object should be determined by the requirements of material, technique and purpose was not neglected.
Artists, sensitive to shape and colour, could be satisfied with the ceramic production, for working the soft clay on a potter's wheel allows scope for the most individual expression. So far as the continent of Europe was concerned, there were two centres whence the above described development sprang: France and Den mark, or, more strictly speaking Copenhagen. An important development in Holland has exerted little influence outside its own boundaries, and similarly in Germany, while both have un doubtedly profited 'from French and Danish artists.