Art

DR. LODGE has so far made good his word, given more than twenty years ago, that we have now three volumes of his translation of Winckelmann’s “ History of Ancient Art,”¹ with the promise of the fourth and final volume next year. The second volume, which was published as long ago as 1849, will probably remain with general readers the favorite of the series, owing to its dealing exclusively with the comparatively familiar works of Greek art ; but we imagine that few who are conversant with its pages will deny themselves the teaching of the entire work, which involves a fair education in the plastic art of at least three great nations, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, (Winckelmann does not, however, divide the art of the two latter,) and a partial acquaintance with the Etruscan and Persian, though more recent discoveries have added greatly to our knowledge of these, particularly the first.

The Life of Winckelmann, by the German editor, which is included in the first volume, not only gives a history of the work before us, his masterpiece, but is in itself an interesting piece of reading. It seems to be a real labor of love, — though set down in a very matter-of-fact way, — by one who could fully appreciate Winckelmann’s genius, and who has added greatly to the value of the History by his own researches, given in the form of explanatory notes. The biography does not read at all like a fairy tale, bu it is nevertheless the record of a great tansformation. Winckelmann’s father was a cobbler (the author insists that he was not even a shoemaker) in an obscure German town, and had no thought that cobbling was not good enough trade for his son ; but in this case the bending of the twig had little effect on the growth of the tree. The life is a picture of extraordinary devotion to an ideal. The desire of comprehending the spirit of ancient art and literature was early fixed in Winckelmann’s mind, and never left him after he was fairly launched in the world. In whatever situation he was placed, as student, teacher, or librarian, his work was made preparatory to this grand design. Even his country and his religious liberty he held second to this. Such devotion produced its adequate result. It lifted the poor cobbler’s son to the level of the world’s highest learning ; it gave him princes and cardinals for friends ; it made him, as his biographer says, “ the greatest connoisseur and teacher of the beautiful in plastic art.” The biography is brief, and gives little detail, excepting such as refers to Winckelmann’s dominant purpose ; but we cannot help being deeply interested in the struggle ending in his formal adoption of the Papal religion, and it is curious to see how bigoted a Romanist he finally became through his love of art, insomuch that he seems to regard Rome as the only abiding - place of liberty in modern times, “ where the people under priestly rule enjoy unrestrained freedom,” and where he thinks it would be easy to collect a band of “ most intrepid and valiant warriors, who would face death like their forefathers.” Once established in Rome, among the monuments which are the object of his life’s effort, he can never be weaned from the city; and once only does he return to Germany, — his final journey, — on which occasion, though he receives marked attention from rank and learning, and the ties of friendship press him to remain a reasonable time, he is wretched until his face is set Romeward again. He is so homesick that he is down with fever. Even the magnificent mountains of his native land disgust him, and he cannot abide the steep roofs of the houses. There is something childlike and extremely touching in his eagerness to go back, unconscious of the terrible fate awaiting him on the journey which is never to be finished. The particulars of his tragic end at Trieste — where he was murdered for a few dollars’ worth of medallions, which he had incautiously exposed — are given with simplicity and feeling ; and the whole work of the Life is done, it seems to us, with good taste and directness ; it is neither too much nor too little.

Winckelmann’s labors in the museum of Baron Stosch at Florence undoubtedly gave him an excellent foundation of knowledge whereon to base his great work, and to the facts acquired there he makes constant reference in the “ Ancient Art.” In this extraordinary collection there were no less than twenty-eight thousand impressions from engraved gems, chiefly antique, and of these he made a critical catalogue. Some of the results of his investigations here are quite curious: as that all engraved gems representing Roman incidents are modern ; that the ancient lapidaries wrought with wheels in the modern manner; and that the ancient artists never designed any merely ideal pictures, excepting those of Bacchanalia, dances, or the like, “ but that all are referable to the mythology of the gods or of the heroes.”

A brief dissertation on the origin of art opens the work, and in this the author describes carefully the earliest forms of sculpture, or rather formative art, concerning which there is any reliable evidence. Very nearly all that is known regarding work in clay, in wood, in ivory, and in bronze, the curious combinations of materials, the customs of painting and gilding statues, and even of clothing them with real cloth, etc., is here given, with such dates as can be verified. The remarks upon ancient glass will be surprising to those who have not studied the subject: it is Winckelmann’s opinion that glass manufacture was much more widely applied by the ancients than the moderns. From this overture, if it may be so called, he passes to the art of the Egyptians ; and here, being surrounded by abundant examples, he is entirely at home, and his facts and reflections are of the highest importance to the antiquarian and the artist. The observations upon the inflexibility of Egyptian art, — tracing it to the political and religious institutions of the country, — are, without doubt, just; but those who have been fully impressed by the noble conventionality of this art, its grand architectonic character, never in the least swerving towards triviality or prettiness, will hardly be satisfied with what he has to say on this point. We cannot here avoid the suspicion that he is so permeated with the love of the Greek, that what appears to him in that system as a noble severity takes form in the Egpytian as the result of ignorance or of tyranny. He is, however, not above expressing his admiration of their beautiful treatment, in sculpture, of animals, and refers with enthusiasm to the grand Egyptian lions, still to be seen at Rome, at the Campidoglio and the Fontana Felice. When in conclusion he comes to speak of dress, of materials, and of mechanical execution, in Egyptian art, it is impossible to admire too highly the patient research he has here expended, and the careful detail with which it is presented ; and though it is certain that modern discovery has revealed new facts concerning these matters, we imagine that they controvert Winckelmann’s judgment in very few essential points, while on questions incapable of settlement by such discoveries his opinions remain of the highest value.

The chapters on Etruscan art which follow the few remarks on that of Phœnicia and Persia, and conclude the first volume, will be found of less interest probably than those preceding, inasmuch as the author treats all Etruscan art as infused and modified with the Greek spirit Thus whatever the achievement of this wonderful people, the glory, as in Roman art, must be given to the Greeks ; therefore all that is said on the subject, however learned, lacks that enthusiastic reverence and confidence which is so delightful in other portions of the work. Modern discovery has in this case somewhat abated the weight of our author’s observations ; not indeed that they were incorrect, but that in Winckelmann’s time little was known of Etruscan art in comparison with what has since been discovered. And it is not incredible that even so great a connoisseur should fail to appreciate at that time an art which was largely of a decorative character. It is probable that the finest specimen of Japanese work might have been quite abhorrent to him. Though any system of art may be profitably considered from the decorative standpoint, Winckelmann would have been the last man to do it. He judged all systems by the loftiest isolated works of a single people, and he derived his standard almost exclusively from their sculpture. It seems impossible that under such circumstances full justice can be done to any art developed under totally different conditions, He is, however, willing to admit that the art of Etruria takes precedence, in point of antiquity, to that of Greece ; but he is much inclined to pass over all that part of it not referable to Greek influence. Herein we think it will be found that many good critics are unable to sympathize with him, as, however little doubt there may be of community between the two nations, there is certainly much that is beautiful and original in native Etruscan art.

Of the second volume, it is almost unnecessary to speak distinctively, it has been so long familiar to the American public. It is devoted wholly to Greek art, principally to the drawing of the nude figure ; and it is in the chapters given to the consideration of the “ Essential of Art ” that Winckelmann’s genius rises to its highest flight. Though few will be able to agree with all his notions concerning beauty, no one can read these chapters without wishing that our own art were already guided, so far as is possible under such different conditions, by the principles here elucidated. The teaching of this volume should be familiar to every artist who strives for the highest, and to every individual who would embelish life with good taste. What he says of decorum, and of repose or stillness (Book V. Chap. III.), is to our thinking worthy of the very first consideration by the artists, especially our sculptors, whose productions, we humbly suggest, savor too much of the instantaneous photograph. The figures of modern statuaries are often given such unnecessary and trivial action, that it seems the study of an art dealing so constantly wilh the immutable gods, must act as a happy antidote. An undignified sculpture is detestable. Wherever the least action is exhibited in marble or bronze, there must also be shown a worthy and sufficient cause. In this matter ot decorum or the fitness of things, the best Greek artists were never at fault, and Winckelmann does not fail to enforce this point strongly. It has become so common to see trivial ideas represented in marble and bronze, that the dignity of materials is almost forgotten ; and unity in modern work of respectable and even beautiful details is among things hoped for but rarely seen. Under this head it is worth while to note also what Winckelmann says of accessories at the close of the volume. One might wish that he had more fully elaborated this point, as also a certain naïveté or boldness which the Greeks showed during the best period of art, in relation to the support of detached portions of figures and groups, not hesitating to introduce an undisguised prop of marble between the trunk and the arm, or wherever else it was necessary, — an aid of which modern art in its pride and feebleness is ashamed. But this second volume remains to this day almost a complete guide to Greek plastic art, and its masterly analysis of principles is yet the quarry of modern commentators. The reader will find here minute description of many of the best known figures and heads : he cannot fail to be delighted with what is said of the Ludovisan Juno, and the Capitoline Ariadne (now in Paris), albeit the author insists that this is a head of Bacchus. (See the very able discussion of the matter by the German editor in the notes.) His comments upon the Pallas of the Albani villa, in the grand style, are enthusiastic and inspiring, and lead us to connect it with the glorious Minerva Medica of the Vatican. Reading these noble criticisms upon the noblest statuary, we can hardly help regretting that Winckelmann lived too soon to see some of the very finest relics of Greek art, as, for instance, the Venus of Melos, and the wonderful Athlete (with the strigil) in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. But he has established his claim to them all, and they fall at once into the classification which he invented. Apart from the value of this classification as an indispensable aid to the study of remaining antique work, there is equally important good to be obtained by the students of plastic art from this volume ; the teaching of unremitting study of nature, and the formation of a style which, by the unity of various beauties in a single figure or countenance, shall be superior to simple imitation, or in other words the passage from mere natural beauty to a grand conventionality.

This “ grand style ” is more elaborately discussed in Book VIII., which forms the conclusion of Vol. III., and is given to the exposition of the “ Rise and Fall of Greek Art.” Winckelmann places it relatively to the growth of the nation “ at the time when Greece attained its highest degree of refinement and freedom.” The principal artists mentioned are Phidias, Polycletus, Scopas, Alcamanes, Myron. This style is followed by and merges in that which he calls the “ Beautiful,” of which Praxiteles was the first great apostle. The knowledge and union of the two, it seems to us, has produced the most glorious work which remains of antique plastic art. For, to cite familiar examples, it cannot be denied that the element of grace enters largely into the sculptures of the Parthenon, heroic as they are ; and it is obvious that the simple and somewhat formal treatment observed in the celebrated half-figure Cupid in the Vatican belongs to an earlier period than that which Praxiteles, to whom the work is attributed, is supposed to represent. The wonderful beauty and nobleness of these works, partaking of both styles, and showing that conventionality which follows the most intimate knowledge of nature, instead of being the result of ignorance, is beyond representation in words ; but, so far as possible, Winckelmann analyzes and illustrates it. It is to be regretted that so many of our artists have not sufficiently studied this grandest phase of Greek art to learn that temperance in finishing which knows just when to stop the chisel, as well as how to guide it. The brows and nose of the lovely “ Genius of the Vatican ” are left with firm, sharp edges ; a modern artist could not have held his hand here, — he would rather have polished off the nose finely, and very likely would have modelled the hair of the brows. We can hardly imagine a greater disfigurement of this head, or that of the inimitable Ariadne before mentioned. This simple, or, if one chooses to call it so, “severe” style of treatment introduced into our plastic art, might detract something from its prettiness, but would add infinitely to its purity and dignity. It is founded upon a most just principle, — that of the recognition of materials in all good art; a simple acknowledgment of the fact that marble is not flesh, and cannot with impunity be treated as if it were.

The remainder of the third volume is given to a learned and exhaustive description of Greek drapery (as shown in the relics of sculpture and painting), and a treatise on the mechanical part of Greek art. The latter will be exceedingly interesting to both artist and connoisseur. Nearly all the modes of working marble and bronze now known appear to have been in use among the ancients ; and indeed it is not unlikely that they possessed means of cutting the harder stones, such as basalt and porphyry, with which we are unacquainted. The manner of finishing marble does not seem to have greatly changed, unless it be in the use of files, now so common ; and no artists in these days venture to give the finishing touches with chisels, as, according to our author, did a few of the ancients. In Winckelmann’s time the ancient practice of rubbing the surface with wax was universal ; that barbarism, at least, has now disappeared. The remarks on various kinds of stone are interesting, and show how indefinite a term “ Parian ” had become even in Winckelmann’s time. We think our modern sculptors will hardly agree with him that the finest quarried and whitest marble is the best for statuary purposes. A certain degree of visible crystallic organization, and a slight tinge of warmth in the color, adds much, in our opinion, to the beauty of any fine work in marble. This crystallic lustre of a coarser grain more than compensates for the possible finer finish, which is in itself of a doubtful advantage. The author mentions the expediency of finishing the hair and mane of the lion with the chisel solely : we think the experiment maybe successful with all hair in marble, and we have already seen it treated beautifully in this way in several modem statues.

With many of Winckelmann’s notions on aside topics the modern reader will be unable to agree ; it is only in Greek art that the great connoisseur is infallible. Nobody in these days will think of subscribing to the dictum, that we are to thank the Romans for all we possess of Greek art, or that three is the magic number in the proportions of the human figure, or that an excess of attention to portraiture indicates the decline of art, or that Raphael Mengs was the greatest artist of all time, or that the heads of Madonnas should be copied from the Amazons of the Greeks, or that the Carracci are specially to be lauded for representing Christ as a beardless youthful hero of the Greek type. Unacceptable statements of this sort are alien to the form and purpose of the History, and are easilyexplained by circumstances belonging to the author’s time and location. Such defects, in a work which is, and will probably ever remain, the most admirable guide to Greek art and exponent of its laws, are hardly worth mentioning.

With regard to the form in which the book is presented by the publishers, it should be said that it is in accordance with the character of the work. The letter-press is elegant ; and the engravings of the second volume, including an exquisite frontispiece, the Capitoline Ariadne, are very carefully and admirably done. We fancy — perhaps it is only a fancy — that the illustrations of the third volume are hardly so satisfactory, the lines representing the shaded parts being “ strengthened ” in that way which so surely weakens pure outline drawing. And we think our fancy may be confirmed by observing the delicate double line which Andrews uses in the engraving of the head of Zeus, or the firm, temperate outline of the beautiful head of Mercury, both in the second volume.