Part 11 (1/2)

177 I have said that Holbein was conde the the But they both could do no otherwise They lived in truth and steadfastness; and with both, in theirof invention, and love its end

I have but tietfulness protects Holbein from the chief calamity of the German temper, vanity, which is at the root of all Durer's weakness

Here is a photograph of Holbein's portrait of Erasmus, and a fine proof of Durer's In Holbein's, the face leads everything; and the most lovely qualities of the face lead in that The cloak and cap are perfectly painted, just because you look at them neither more nor less than you would have looked at the cloak in reality You don't say, 'How brilliantly they are touched,' as you would with Relected,' as you would with Gainsborough; nor 'How exquisitely they are shaded,' as you would with Lionardo; nor 'How grandly they are composed,' as you would with titian You say only, 'Erasht!' You don't think of Holbein at all He has not even put in the minutest letter H, that I can see, to reh

'My hand should be enough for you; what mattersyou see, and at any distance, is this great square tablet with

”The ie of Erasreat straddling AD besides Then you see a cloak, and a table, and a pot, with flowers in it, and a heap of books with all their leaves and all their clasps, and all the little bits of leather gummed in to mark the places; and last of all you see Erasmus's face; and when you do see it, the otisentlemen Hard words to use; but not too hard to define the faults which rendered so enius abortive, and to this day paralyze, a the details of a lifeless and ambitious precision, the student, no less than the artist, of Ger them, the world is all cloak and clasp, instead of face or book; and the first object of their lives is to engrave their initials

178 For us, in England, not even so h, it is more our modesty, unwisely sublish school of engraving

At the bottos which used to represent, characteristically, our English skill, one saays _two_ inscriptions At the left-hand corner, ”Drawn by--so-and-so;” at the right-hand corner, ”Engraved by--so-and-so” Only under the worst and cheapest plates--for the Stationers' Alraved by--so-and-so,” which o to the expense of an artist, and that the engraver haggled through as he could (One fortunate exception, gentles for your Oxford Alh the publishers, I have no doubt, even in that case, eeneral, no engraver thought hiht it his business to engrave

179 But the fact that this and the following lecture are on the subject of design in engraving, implies of course that in the e have to exaned, and as often the artist who engraved

And you will observe that the only engravings which bear imperishable value are, indeed, in this kind It is true that, in wood-cutting, both Durer and Holbein, as in our own days Leech and Tenniel, have work it is not so

For, as I have told you, in , ultimate perfection of Line has to be reached; and it can be reached by none but a master's hand; nor by his, unless in the veryNever, unless under the vivid first force of iination and intellect, can the Line have its full value And for this high reason, gentle, is nevertheless deeply and finally true, that while a woodcuton metal hout, with the full fire of te its lines, as the wind does the fibers of cloud

180 The value hitherto attached to Re them, depends on a true instinct in the publicis an indolent and blundering method at the best; and I do not doubt that you will one day be grateful for the severe disciplines of drawing required in these schools, in that they will have enabled you to knohat a line may be, driven by aas it follows, the instantaneous strength of his deterht

FOOTNOTES:

[AG] If you paint a bottle only to a may be to a bottle, you cannot be considered, in art-philosophy, as a designer But if you paint the cork flying out of the bottle, and the contents arriving in an arch at the ner or signer; probably , say, the hospitable disposition of the landlord of the house; but at all events representing the bottle and glass in a designed, and not merely natural, manner Not merely natural--nay, in soreat artists show both this fantastic condition of mind in their work, and show that it has arisen out of a conpainters of God

I have added this note to the lecture in copyingabout to begin work in the Tavern, or Tabernaculureat 'signs'

[AH] Plate X, Lecture VI

[AI] I do not reatest protestant against faith unrefor modern mathematicians, chemists, and apothecaries, to call theians, poets, and artists They know their sphere to be a separate one; but their ridiculous notion of its being a peculiarly scientific one ought not to be allowed in our Universities There is a science of Morals, a science of History, a science of Gra; and all these are quite beyond coher fields for human intellect, and require accuracies of intenser observation, than either chey

[AK] The cumaean Sibyl, Plate VII, Lecture VI

[AL] Lecture III, - 101

[AM] I read soenious theory about the attitude of the Apollo Belvedere, proving, to the author's satisfaction, that the received notion about watching the arroas all a --namely, the statement in the text For an attitude which has been always hitherto taken to , and is plausibly asserted now to ible

[AN] It s to Ceres, who is equally one of the great Gods

[AO] ”Aratra Pentelici,” - 181

[AP] Or inventive! See Woltmann, p 267 ”The shi+nbone, or the lower part of the arh are often allowed the luxury of two!”

[AQ] See ante, - 141 The ”preface” is that to ”The Eagle's Nest”

[AR] The drawings werethe chief treasures of the Oxford Galleries I ought to add soarth to this lecture in the Appendix; but fear I shall have no tiarth, as, in literature, I have for Fielding, I can't criticise the of their subjects