Part 3 (1/2)

And the answer is, The active art--Lo; the contemplative art--Byzantine,--contemplates the mysteries of the Christian faith

And at first, on such answer, one would be apt at once to conclude--All grossness ain we should be wrong,--and extre did practically produce strong, and often virtuous, men; while the perpetual and inactive contemplation of what it was impossible to understand, did not on the whole render the conteer, wiser, or even more amiable So that, in the twelfth century, while the Northern art was only in need of direction, the Southern was in need of life The North was indeed spending its valour and virtue on ignoble objects; but the South disgracing the noblest objects by its want of valour and virtue

Central stood Etruscan Florence--her root in the earth, bound with iron and brass--ith the dew of heaven Agriculture in occupation, religious in thought, she accepted, like good ground, the good; refused, like the Rock of Fesole, the evil; directed the industry of the Northman into the arts of peace; kindled the dreams of the Byzantine with the fire of charity Child of her peace, and exponent of her passion, her Ci of the Birth of Christ

We hear constantly, and think naturally, of hi suddenly reforifted iht his scholar Giotto to carry on the ied the resources and bettered the achieve continually, up to our own ti been coher is offered to the ae of Manufacture and Science, as Ciination

In this conception of the History of Mental and Physical culture, we h we cannot overrate the power, of the e seems to have been effected We cannot overrate their power,--for the greatest reat e intellects of their day by a distance which is immeasurable in any ordinary terms of wonder

But we far overrate their influence; because the apparently sudden result of their labour or invention is only the ht of many who preceded them, and of whose names we have never heard The skill of Cihly; but no Madonna by his hand could ever have rejoiced the soul of Italy, unless for a thousand years before, many a nameless Greek and nameless Goth had adorned the traditions, and lived in the love, of the Virgin

In like acity, patience, or precision, of the masters in modern mechanical and scientific discovery

But their sudden triu of all the world by their words, may not in any wise be attributed to their oer, or even to that of the facts they have ascertained They owe their habits and methods of industry to the paternal exao prosecuted the truths of nature, through the rage of war, and the adversity of superstition; and the universal and overwhel consequences of the facts which their followers have now proclaimed, indicate only the crisis of a rapture produced by the offering of new objects of curiosity to nations who had nothing to look at; and of the amuse to do

Nothing to look at! That is indeed--you will find, if you consider of it--our sorrowful case The vast extent of the advertising frescos of London, daily refreshed into brighter and larger frescos by its billstickers, cannot soreat Mrs Allen, with her flowing hair, and equally flowing promises, palls upon repetition, and that Madonna of the nineteenth century so unrejoiced; even the excitement of the shop-ith its unattainable splendours, or too easily attainable i mind of the populace, and I findthe children, whom the streets educate only into vicious misery, to entertainic lantern; thus giving the to look at, such as it is;--fleas mostly; and the stomachs of various verain;--still _so_, to look at

The faave the populace of his day so to look at; and satisfied their curiosity with science of so desired to know We have continually iined in our carelessness, that his triumph consisted only in a new pictorial skill; recent critical writers, unable to comprehend how any street populace could take pleasure in painting, have ended by denying his triuave no joy to Florence; and that the ”Joyful quarter” was accidentally so named--or at least fro Charles of Anjou I proved to you, in a forht of the people unquestionable But that delight was not merely in the revelation of an art they had not kno to practise; it was delight in the revelation of a Madonna whoain; as revelation to _them_--we suppose farther and as unwisely, to have been only art in _hi of perspectives--in recovery of principles, of classic composition--he had manufactured, as our Gothic Firms now manufacture to order, a Madonna--in whom he believed no more than they

Not so First of the Florentines, first of European ht, and saith spiritual eyes, exercised to discern good fro wonificat of his heart

He nified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in her Queen But it was left for Giotto to make the queenshi+p better beloved, in its sweet humiliation

You had the Etruscan stock in Florence--Christian, or at least semi-Christian; the statue of Mars still in its streets, but with its central temple built for Baptisriculture; gentle, thoughtful, and exquisitely fine in handiwork The straw bonnet of Tuscany--the Leghorn--is pure Etruscan art, young ladies:--only plaited gold of God's harvest, instead of the plaited gold of His earth

You had then the Nors, and hunters--splendid in war--insatiable of action You had the Greek and Arabian races flowing fro with them the law of the City, and the dreaave, , the life of the Norer action to holy contemplation And what more is left for his favourite shepherd boy Giotto to do, than this, except to paint with ever-increasing skill? We fancy he only surpassed Cihtness

Not so The sudden and new applause of Italy would never have been won by ht Giotto had wholly another work to do Theof the Norman race with the Byzantine is not merely that of action with repose--notof _domestic_ life with _monastic_, and of practical household sense with unpractical Desert insanity

I have no other word to use than this last I use it reverently, ht to say--even a divine thing Decide that for yourselves Compare the Northern far Thornaby waste, with the palination of the wounds of Christ To hts, both are divine; decide that for yourselves; but assuredly, and without possibility of other decision, one is, hu, healthy; the other _un_healthy; one sane, the other--insane

To reconcile Drama with Dream, Cimabue's task was comparatively an easy one But to reconcile Sense with--I still use even this folloord reverently--Nonsense, is not so easy; and he who did it first,--no wonder he has a name in the world

I must lean, however, still more distinctly on the word ”domestic” For it is not Rationalism and commercial competition--Mr Stuart Mill's”

other career for woman than that of wife and mother ”--which are reconcilable, by Giotto, or by anybody else, with divine vision But household wisdo to the law of Heaven--these are reconcilable, in one code of glory, with revelation in cave or island, with the endurance of desolate and loveless days, with the repose of folded hands that wait Heaven's time

Domestic and monastic He was the first of Italians--the first of Christians--who _equally_ knew the virtue of both lives; and as able to show it in the sight of men of all ranks,--from the prince to the shepherd; and of all powers,--from the wisest philosopher to the siift of painting, bequeathed to hithened his hands Before Ci of human form was possible; and the rude or forh they would serve in the tunized symbols of creed, could not represent personal and doht be endured with ready help of iels, saints, or hunters--or for anybody else in scenes of recognized legend, but would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own self--or of the incidents of gentle, actual life And even Cimabue did not venture to leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity He still painted--though beautifully--only the Madonna, and the St Joseph, and the Christ These he ,--Florence asked no more: and ”Credette Cimabue nella pintura tener lo campo”

But Giotto came from the field, and saith his simple eyes a lowlier worth And he painted--the Madonna, and St Joseph, and the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but essentially,--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby And all Italy threw up its cap,--”Ora ha Giotto il grido”

For he defines, explains, and exalts, every sweet incident of huination of natures greater than our own He reconciles, while he intensifies, every virtue of doht He hest religious passions serviceable and just