Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... lines, his flat surfaces, and his hopeless pursuit of the antique ideal. The Hellenic world, as most men have accepted it since the Renaissance, may be likened to a white, well-swept sanctuary, in which many a gracious, docile, measured mind has found a refuge from the chaotic melee of actual life; the greater souls of men, the true creators, have never tarried long within its precincts. I have no reason whatever to suppose that these were the characteristics of Berlin aine, the Emperor of the Ddbats. I am speaking merely of what is suggested by this 'truly historical portrait.' At the end of the fifteenth century the world becomes once more the scene of heroic actions, or of idylls from which all rustic elements are carefully banished; it is no longer to be looked upon as an abode for simple folk, and the humble things of nature are more and more despised by the artist. We may meet with the most striking examples of this conception in the works of Titian and his Venetian contemporaries and followers. The Virgin, the saints, and the martyrs are clad in gorgeous and opulent draperies, and they live in a glorified land of blue mountains, stately streams, fair meads, and heavy, umbrageous groves, whence all humble folk save the shepherd and the fisherman are banished. These visions are so strongly felt and rendered that we forget for the moment that these magnificent people are there to represent the actors in the great drama of humility, and we think of them but as of wealthy patricians enjoying life amid congruous surroundings. It is a sumptuous and dignified art, delightful to the eye, and somewhat cloying, but quite pagan and hardly productive of heartfelt emotion. With the decadence of the Italian schools, the sceptre of classic art...