SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.
A new significance has been given to the study of art since the introduction of the historic method of investigation. ThiS method requires that the subject be treated objectively and that the various arts be considered in their historic development. Thus we obtain a connected account of a portion of human progress—a continuation, in fact, of the results of Prehistoric Archaeology. In its widest signification art-history embraces all the handiwork of man; but, as his wants multiply, much that was once the product of direct handiwork is reproduced by mechan ical means.
Thus at the very threshold of our subject we are obliged to distinguish between the mechanical, or indirect, and the direct products of art. It matters little for our present purpose to what stage of perfection the mechanical products may have reached or how humble may have been the results of direct handiwork; the distinction is of importance, and will remain so as long as the human intellect endures and the hand retains its skill.
But the direct products of human art arc so numerous and so varied that we must limit our studies to special classes of objects. Thus the present volume is concerned with SCULPTURE and PAINTING. Under Sculpture we treat of carved objects, whatever be the material in which they are carved, and whether the form be intaglio or in relief or in the round.
So accustomed are we to look in works of sculpture for some appeal to pleasurable sensation, whether of a sensuous or an intellectual character, that we are prone at the outset to cast aside that which does not appeal to us. But in a wider view of the subject such works constitute only a limited class of sculptured objects ; and if we would understand aright the sig nificance of sculpture in the world's history, we must not be hampered by preconceived theories of the beautiful. There is a prose as well as a poetry in every art, and the most unpoetic fragments may prove the most in structive. Nor need we concern ourselves with theories of the origin of the various forms of sculpture or enter into such discussions as whether the bas-relief or sculpture in the round is of greater antiquity. Our aim
is rather to present to the eye a series of illustrations which will convey better than words can express the succession of sculptured forms which constitutes, as it were, the line of ancestors of the works of the present day.
The end to be arrived at in sculpture is representation by means of form. Whether the sculptor seek to carve the simplest geometric figure or a statue expressive of the highest emotion, his art consists in realizing the form which will best satisfy his purpose. From single objects he passes to groups. Here a more complicated problem awaits him—how best to arrange a group of objects to produce the desired effect. In tra cing the history of such struggles we may be able to discover the laws of sculptural composition.
The painter's art, though limited to portrayal on a flat surface, is still more comprehensive in its grasp. Besides the ability to represent com plicated groups of objects, the painter, by means of linear perspective and the use of color, is enabled to give free expression to distance and atmo spheric effect and the numberless harmonies of color. Hence new laws peculiar to the painter's art are to be added to those of sculptural com position.
A general survey of the subject in its historic sequence should teach us how these arts vary in different countries or in the same country at different times. If we can but grasp the conditions under which artists worked at a given time and place, we can recognize with tolerable accuracy the art-products of that period, and even the touch of a special artist's hand. This is the task of the archccologist and the historian of art; and when their work is accomplished, the scientific array of facts which they have accumulated and weighed and arranged will prove an invaluable aid in reflecting the history of human progress.