Lectures on Art | Page 7

earth, instead of striving to give a deceptive glory to those they
dreamed of in heaven.
16. Secondly, we have an intense power of invention and expression in
domestic drama; (King Lear and Hamlet being essentially domestic in
their strongest motives of interest). There is a tendency at this moment
towards a noble development of our art in this direction, checked by
many adverse conditions, which may be summed in one,--the
insufficiency of generous civic or patriotic passion in the heart of the
English people; a fault which makes its domestic affection selfish,
contracted, and, therefore, frivolous.
17. Thirdly, in connection with our simplicity and good-humour, and
partly with that very love of the grotesque which debases our ideal, we
have a sympathy with the lower animals which is peculiarly our own;
and which, though it has already found some exquisite expression in
the works of Bewick and Landseer, is yet quite undeveloped. This
sympathy, with the aid of our now authoritative science of physiology,
and in association with our British love of adventure, will, I hope,
enable us to give to the future inhabitants of the globe an almost perfect
record of the present forms of animal life upon it, of which many are on
the point of being extinguished.
Lastly, but not as the least important of our special powers, I have to
note our skill in landscape, of which I will presently speak more
particularly.
18. Such I conceive to be the directions in which, principally, we have
the power to excel; and you must at once see how the consideration of
them must modify the advisable methods of our art study. For if our

professional painters were likely to produce pieces of art loftily ideal in
their character, it would be desirable to form the taste of the students
here by setting before them only the purest examples of Greek, and the
mightiest of Italian, art. But I do not think you will yet find a single
instance of a school directed exclusively to these higher branches of
study in England, which has strongly, or even definitely, made
impression on its younger scholars. While, therefore, I shall endeavour
to point out clearly the characters to be looked for and admired in the
great masters of imaginative design, I shall make no special effort to
stimulate the imitation of them; and above all things, I shall try to probe
in you, and to prevent, the affectation into which it is easy to fall, even
through modesty,--of either endeavouring to admire a grandeur with
which we have no natural sympathy, or losing the pleasure we might
take in the study of familiar things, by considering it a sign of
refinement to look for what is of higher class, or rarer occurrence.
19. Again, if our artisans were likely to attain any distinguished skill in
ornamental design, it would be incumbent upon me to make my class
here accurately acquainted with the principles of earth and metal work,
and to accustom them to take pleasure in conventional arrangements of
colour and form. I hope, indeed, to do this, so far as to enable them to
discern the real merit of many styles of art which are at present
neglected; and, above all, to read the minds of semi-barbaric nations in
the only language by which their feelings were capable of expression;
and those members of my class whose temper inclines them to take
pleasure in the interpretation of mythic symbols, will not probably be
induced to quit the profound fields of investigation which early art,
examined carefully, will open to them, and which belong to it alone: for
this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the
same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by it;
and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention. Nevertheless,
when I have once sufficiently pointed out the nature and value of this
conventional work, and vindicated it from the contempt with which it is
too generally regarded, I shall leave the student to his own pleasure in
its pursuit; and even, so far as I may, discourage all admiration founded
on quaintness or peculiarity of style; and repress any other modes of
feeling which are likely to lead rather to fastidious collection of

curiosities, than to the intelligent appreciation of work which, being
executed in compliance with constant laws of right, cannot be singular,
and must be distinguished only by excellence in what is always
desirable.
20. While, therefore, in these and such other directions, I shall
endeavour to put every adequate means of advance within reach of the
members of my class, I shall use my own best energy to show them
what is consummately beautiful and well done, by men who have