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150 ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING
itself, in the vision of Gibeon,* and the lightning of Damascus.
127. The doom of the arts of Europe went forth from that chamber, and it was brought about in great part by the very excellencies of the man who had thus marked the commencement of decline. The perfection of execution and the beauty of feature which were attained in his works, and in those of his great contemporaries, rendered finish of execution and beauty of form the chief objects of all artists; and thenceforward execution was looked for rather than thought, and beauty rather than veracity.
And as I told you, these are the two secondary causes of the decline of art; the first being the loss of moral purpose. Pray note them clearly. In mediæval art, thought is the first thing, execution the second; in modern art execution is the first thing, and thought the second. And again, in mediæval art, truth is first, beauty second; in modern art, beauty is first, truth second. The mediæval principles led up to Raphael, and the modern principles lead down from him.
128. Now, first, let me give you a familiar illustration of the difference with respect to execution. Suppose you have to teach two children drawing, one thoroughly clever and active-minded, the other dull and slow; and you put before them Julien’s chalk studies1 of heads-études à deux crayons-and desire them to be copied. The dull child will slowly do your bidding, blacken his paper and rub it white again, and patiently and painfully, in the course of three or four years, attain to the performance of a chalk head, not much worse than his original, but still of less value than the paper it is drawn upon. But the clever child will
* 1 Kings iii. 5.
1 [The reference is to the following drawing-books by Julien: études d’après l’ Antique. Collection des Modéles gradués, depuis les Premier Éléments jusq’aux Figures Academiques pour l’ Enseignement du Dessin dans les Lycées (Paris, n.d.); Studies of Heads from Paintings of Eminent Artists, or Drawn from Nature (London, n.d.).]
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
