Art

THE final volume of Winckelmann’s History of Ancient Art ¹ will be read, we imagine, with more satisfaction than any other portion of the work, excepting that section of the second volume relating to the “ essential ” of Greek art. As we have intimated in a previous notice, it is in this particular branch of his subject that Winckelmann is excellent. His details and conjectures regarding the remote work of other nations are sometimes tedious to the general reader, and have been to a certain extent superseded by the investigations of more recent authors. No greater mistake may be made than to consider Winckelmann merely as an archæologist, in the limited sense of the term. Great as is his merit in this respect, he was apparently too much moulded by local influences and too lacking in scientific method to achieve what we now rate the highest success in this department. As an antiquarian his great erudition is often squandered in the discussion of minor matters. Twelve years’ work, however, of such a man in Rome at that time, and under the protection of a Cardinal Albani, is no indifferent matter in archælogy henceforth. But the moment he touches Greek art, or, properly, Greek sculpture, in its flower, he attains a complete mastery of the subject : the gods and heroes are of his own household and all about him ; he knows them equally in marble, in bronze, cut in agate, or stamped in the precious metals. Given a fragment, a leg or an arm or a bit of drapery, he invokes the complete figure, and assigns its school and period. He strips off the shreds and patches of the restorers, and shows us what is genuine beneath them. He has little respect for names ; the relics of the great time have been too freely “ baptized ” ; but he gives us to know what this fragment or that figure could have been and what it could not have been. No one is more familiar with details and measurements, no one more conversant with symbols. No one discriminates more closely in technical matters, or recognizes more fully relative value in execution. He follows the chisel and the graver, he complains of the drill on the under cuttings, he will not have the eyebrows too much rounded off, he insists upon the recognition of the material in the design, he analyzes and exalts the archaic, the architectonic, and the natural styles, He is an enthusiast, with a foot-rule in his hand. This he drops only in the presence of the loftiest work. Then indeed he subjects himself, or rather exalts himself, in his admiration and reverence for the sublime soul of antiquity. His patient study of the exterior of the temple has fitted him to enter and commune with the deities themselves. It is his thorough training, his accumulated knowledge, which have made him capable of such ecstasy. We feel that we may safely share his enthusiasm ; it is the harvest from a wide sowing of facts. One may see through his description of the Apollo the ardor of his spirit, and how inadequate language appears to him in rendering an idea of its beauty. With him we gain a new perception of the wonderful massing and modelling of the Torso. In the presence of these perfect works he is no longer objective ; his foot-rule is forgotten. For him, as for us, the best products of Greek art belong to the infinite ; one can no longer define, he must worship.

The chief attraction of this closing volume to the general reader lies in its detailed comments upon well-known antique statues and groups, among which are the Laocoön, the Torso of Hercules, the Antinoüs and the Cleopatra, in the Belvedere; the Discobuli, the famous Pompey in the Spada Palace, the Borghese Gladiator, the Dying Herald (see frontispiece), and others, forming, with the works cited in the second volume, a nearly complete record of notable Greek sculpture existing at Rome in Winckelmann’s time. Many beautiful statues have been since exhumed, some of which take rank in merit and fame with those mentioned ; but they do not illustrate any period or style not described in the History. Certainly much that is valuable concerning these discoveries has been published, and much has been added to Winckelmann’s labor ; but his judgment has been reversed in no essential matters, and with all the handbooks and dictionaries and essays in various languages, the Ancient Art is still indispensable to the connoisseur in Rome, and wherever a relic of Greek art appears.

The first two parts of the fourth volume (Books IX. and X.), are given in consideration of “ art in its relation to the external circumstances of the times among the Greeks.” This elaborate title goes for very little, so far as the times are concerned. The author gives the dates of certain schools and artists, and says, at such a time the Greeks were free and art consequently flourished ; at another time they were enslaved and art languished. The description of the work is the main thing. He is very emphatic in joining all good art with liberty, but he develops his “external circumstances " no further, He is no Taine. We see the majesty of the work, but we do not see what the artist had for his dinner, nor how, having eaten such a dinner in such a climate, with the wind in such a quarter, he must have modelled the hair or the cheek just in this way. But one may see too much : the primary object of art is to please. The concluding division of the volume and of the History (Books XI. and XII. “ Greek Art among the Romans”) is more completely within Winckelmann’s scope. Here he traces art (with him sculpture), from its highest point off external glory, under the Republic and the earlier Cæsars, through its decline to its utter extinction, as he believes, in the times of Constantine. The number of works cited and described is very great, and includes very nearly all of those belonging to the period in which the reader can take an interest, excepting, of course, those of recent discovery. The detail of the great renaissance under Hadrian is particularly interesting and valuable ; and, in our opinion, this concluding division is one of the finest portions of the whole History.

The reader must not omit the “notes” because they are placed at the close of the volume and bothersome to get at : those of the German editor are full of erudition. The engravings of the last volume are numerous and as good as those of the first and third, and perhaps answer the purpose ; but the frontispiece, the so-called Dying Gladiator, seems hardly worthy of its place. The outline is tolerably correct, but the modelling is enfeebled and falsified, the face and hair ruined. The work of translation, so far as we can see, is well and carefully done, and the thanks of American art-lovers are certainly due for so considerable an undertaking. The division of the Ancient History is obscure, and Dr. Lodge would render an additional service to art by a thorough index to a work which ought to be commonly used for reference.

To Winckelmann, more than any other writer, is due the reaction toward simplicity and purity in modern ideal sculpture. The influence which his work has already exerted in Europe can hardly be overestimated ; it seems to us desirable that it should be extended in this country, where, we believe, there is a better soil for its development. There is here, in sculpture, so far, no determination toward any “ school,” and consequent degeneration. We are yet uncontaminated by the elaborate barbarity ot the French style, and the puerility of Roman manufacture is more dangerous to our pockets than our æsthetics. Naturally so young a nation has produced but few sculptors ; but there are indicated, in the effort of those few, possibilities of the highest achievement. Prominent among the indications are a certain restraint and dignity, showing that the intent is toward essentials, not surfaces. (We are not now thinking of sculpture at the capital !) Perhaps we cannot yet claim any exceptional success, but the tendency now is everything. It is not so much what has been done as what is likely to be done that concerns us. There is a broad, handsome manner of treating forms in Ward’s statues that approaches more nearly the Greek, without copying it, than anything we have hitherto seen. Several American sculptors have accomplished portraiture in marble which loses nothing by comparison with the best work of antiquity. Calverly’s medallions are noted for an extraordinary refinement of form and surface finish. No work of any time excels them in these characteristics. Story and other of our countrymen residing in Italy have produced work of a high character, though it can hardly be called American. Rome, being our greatest friend, is also our worst enemy. Artists are denationalized there; and, scanning the product, we soon find traces of the shop. The transition should be from Rome hither, and not hence to Rome. There is, perhaps, some danger of too much copying Greek forms. It is the spirit of a noble art that is wanted, not its methods. Towards this lofty intent Winckelmann is one of the surest guides. To those of our modellers and carvers who do not go to Rome he is a compensation ; and we are not sure but he may be even more. If, as we believe, the conditions in America are favorable to the development of a great formative art, our sculptors will build up their art-life here rather than yonder among the ghosts and ruins. Whether here or there, the artist will find the History of Ancient Art a lamp to his feet. Like its immortal themes, it is unique. We close the volume with a strong impression of Winckelmann’s personality. The words of Schelling are strikingly appropriate : “ Winckelmann during his entire life stood in lofty solitude, like a mountain. No answering sound, no emotion, no throb in the entire wide domain of knowledge, kindly encouraged his exertions. At the very moment when trusty companions were gathering around this excellent man, he was hurried away. And yet how much he accomplished ! ”