Part 7 (2/2)

You rave, like Goodall, the tip of an ear, or the curl of a lock of hair, than by photographing the entire population of the United States of America,--black, white, and neutral-tint

And one word, by the way, touching the co set you to so fine work that it hurts your eyes You have noticed that all great sculptors--and oldsoldsmith's apprenticeshi+p is so fruitful? Primarily, because it forces the boy to do small work, and elo learned his business by dashi+ng or hitting at it? He laid the foundation of all his after power by doing precisely what I as in facsiht till you haven't got any eyes worth speaking of Go to bed at half-past nine, and get up at four, and you'll see so out of them, in time

124 Nevertheless, whatever adht to feel, and with justice, for this lovely workmanshi+p,--the more distinctly you comprehend its merits, the more distinctly also will the question rise in your mind, How is it that a performance so marvelous has yet taken no rank in the records of art of any pernettes from Stothard and Turner,[AA] like the woodcuts froraver known; and that they never are found side by side with this older and apparently ruder art, in the cabinets of ment? The reason is precisely the saraving is alloyed gold Rich in capacity, astonishi+ng in attainment, it nevertheless adht first to have attained It is therefore, to a certain measure, vile in its perfection; while the older work is noble even in its failure, and classic no less in what it deliberately refuses, than in what it rationally and rightly prefers and perfored the head of one of Durer's Madonnas for you out of one of his ly Well, so it is Don't be afraid to think so, nor to say so

Frightfully ugly; vulgar also It is the head, siirl, with all the pleasantness left out There is not the least doubt about that Don't let anybody force Albert Durer down your throats; nor irl in the swing, or Sir Joshua's Age of Innocence, is in quite angelic sphere of another world, compared to this black do of feraving And the merit, the classical, indefeasible, iirl with all the beauty left out, is in the fact that every line of it, as engraving, is as good as can be;--good, not with the mechanical dexterity of a watch-maker, but with the intellectual effort and sensitiveness of an artist who knows precisely what can be done, and ought to be attened materials He works easily, fearlessly, flexibly; the dots are not all measured in distance; the lines not all ent He has even missed his mark at the mouth in one place, and leaves the mistake, frankly But there are no petrified mistakes; nor is the eye so accustomed to the look of the mechanical furrow as to accept it for final excellence The engraving is full of the painter's higher power and wider perception; it is classically perfect, because duly subordinate, and presenting for your applause only the virtues proper to its own sphere A these, I must now reiterate, the first of all is the _decorative_ arrange a daht out by threads running one way in one space, and across in another So, in lace, a certain delightfulness is given by the texture of meshed lines

Siraver is, or ought to be, to cover it with lovely _lines_, for a variety of spaces, delicious to the eye

And this is his business, priht of, his work must be ornamental You know I told you a sculptor's business is first to cover a surface with pleasant _bosses_, whether they raver's is to cover it with pleasant _lines_, whether they ood deal of so, is indeed desirable afterwards; but first we must be ornamental

127 Now if you will co of this lecture, which is a characteristic exa, and represents the Planet and power of Aphrodite, with the Aphrodite of Bewick in the upper division of Plate I, you will at once understand the difference between a primarily ornamental, and a primarily realistic, style The first requirement in the Florentine work, is that it shall be a lovely arrangee

Bewick _has_ a secondary notion of e But he is overpowered by his vigorous veracity, and bent first on giving you his idea of Venus Quite right, he would have been,a statue of her on Mount Eryx; but not when he was engraving a vignette to aesop's fables To engrave well is to ornament a surface well, not to create a realistic i your pardon for my repetitions; but the point at issue is the root of the whole business, and I _et it well asserted, and variously

Let me pass to a o, in the rough first arrangement of the copies in the Educational Series, I put an outline of the top of Apollo's scepter, which, in the catalogue, was said to be probably by Baccio Bandini of Florence, for your first real exercise; it reical rank

The series of engravings to which the plate fros, are part of a nuns of Sandro Botticelli, and soreat part by his hand

He and his assistant, Baccio, worked together; and in such harmony, that Bandini probably often does what Sandro wants, better than Sandro could have done it hin of Bandini's over which Sandro does not see now to show you three examples of the finest work of the old, the renaissance, and the modern schools,--of the old, I will take Baccio Bandini's Astrologia, Plate III, opposite Of the renaissance, Durer's Adahter of Herodias, engraved frorand, which is as affectionately and sincerely wrought, though in the modern manner, as any plate of the old schools

[Illustration: III

”At ev'ning froress of the feeling for light and shade in the three examples

The first is nearly all white paper; you think of the outline as the constructive eleorous piece of _white_ and _black_--not of _light_ and _shade_,--for all the high lights are equally white, whether of flesh, or leaves, or goat's hair

The third is co can be

Now the dignity and virtue of the plates is in the exactly inverse ratio of their fullness in chiaroscuro

Bandini's is excellent work, and of the very highest school Durer's entirely accorand's, excellent work, but of a vulgar and non-classical school

And these relations of the schools are to be determined by the quality in the _lines_; we shall find that in proportion as the light and shade is neglected, the lines are studied; that those of Bandini are perfect; of Durer perfect, only with a lower perfection; but of Beaugrand, entirely faultful

130 I have just explained to you that inthe lines are cut in clean furroidened, it may be, by successive cuts; but, whether it be fine or thick, retaining always, when printed, the aspect of a continuous line draith the pen, and entirely black throughout its whole course

Noe may increase the delicacy of this line to any extent by siray color instead of black I obtained some very beautiful results of this kind in the later volu subdued purple tints; but, in any case, the line thus engraved must be monotonous in its character, and cannot be expressive of the finest qualities of forly, the old Florentine workmen constructed the line _itself_, in important places, of successive minute touches, so that it became a chain of delicate links which could be opened or closed at pleasure[AC] If you will exay, you will find it is traced with an exquisite series of e absolutely at the engraver's pleasure; and, in result, corresponding to the finest conditions of a pencil line drawing by a consummate master In the fine plates of this period, you have thus the united powers of the pen and pencil, and both absolutely secure andindependently discovered, and had the patience to carry out, this Florentine method of execution for -iven me some copies calculated to teach orous,--s, far beyond any capacity of mine to imitate in the bold way in which they were done