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THE ART-CULTURE OF ITALY.
THERE nas been, of late years, a natural, and not an unjust, revul- sion of feeling on the subject of Italian art. In the earlier part of the present century, in the days of Byron, and Shelley, and Goethe, Italy was even spoken of, and sung of, as the classic land of art. We were taught to believe that there only was art really worshipped, that there only could art be studied, and that there, and there alone, was the home of all true artists. Exaggerated sentiment, as usual, pro- duced a reaction. We were asked so often whether we knew the land, that we got to know it only too well. The cypress, in our eyes, lost its grace; the odour of the myrtle faded; the marble palaces looked tumble-down ; and the mule-tracks, we thought, would have been improved, as roads, by mending. So, in like manner, a feeling grew up that the art-claims of modern Italy had been much over-estimated. The poets of our own land were undoubtedly superior to those of Italy ; in music, Germany had an undisputed pre-eminence ; the sculptors of the North surpassed those of Southern Europe ; while the French school of painters, with all their faults, produced works of far higher merit than their Italian rivals. The consequence of these discoveries was necessarily to throw doubts on the whole assumption that Italy had any special claim to be called the artist-land.
. Now, without entering on any minute art criticisms, we think that the justice of these assumptions is worth examining from a popular point of view. We admit freely that, within the last half-century, Italy has not been the fruitful parent of great artists. In,literature, Alfieri, Manzoni, and Nicolini can hardly claim more than an average
place in the second class of authors. Farini's unfinished History of Italy, the most remarkable, to our minds, of modern Italian writings, belongs rather to the domain of politics than of art. Of the chief Italian composers, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Pacini, and Verdi, the first is the only one who stands at all on a level with the great German masters; and even this would, probably, be disputed by professed musical connoisseurs. As vocalists, the Italians have more than held their own against other nations ; but the mere gift of voice, unaccompanied by musical science, can scarcely be called an art of high order. On the stage, there has been no Italian dramatist of more than local reputation. As individual actors, probably Ristori, Salvini, and Sadowsky could not easily be matched in Europe ; but the stage of Italy, taken as a whole, is immeasurably inferior to that of France or Germany. In architecture there is no modern Italian building of first-class merit, while in sculpture Canova is not equal to Thorwaldsen ; and of living artists Benzoni and Tenevani are, at the most, of not superior calibre to either Gibson or Power. Amongst Italian painters we cannot mention a name at the present day which is widely known out of Italy; and, indeed, in no branch of art, with, perhaps, the single exception of the drama, can we fix on any artist who is entitled to the repute of genius.
There are reasons, undoubtedly, which, more or less, account for this dearth of genius. The vexed question whether art flourishes most under a despotism or a free Government, is never likely to be settled conclusively, but we think few persons will deny that art requires, as a necessity of existence, .patronage of some kind or other, either of princes or of the public. In art as well as other matters, the old political economical rule holds good, that where there is no demand there is no supply. Now, in Italy, of late years, there has been no demand for high art. Not one of the petty Italian potentates was a liberal, still less an enlightened, patron of art. The wealthy noble families are not many in number, and, as a rule, the Italian aristocracy were the least educated class, relatively to their position, in the country. Great commercial fortunes were almost unheard of and the educated middle class was too impoverished to supply the place of an art public. The Church was about the best patron of the artist, but her patronage was eminently undiscriminat- ing; and, moreover, the rapid decrease in the extent and value of Church property ever since the French revolution has crippled the means of the few religious establishments which really provided a field for the artist.. Add to these causes the fact that during the last forty years of agitation and insurrection all the powers and energies of the Italian mind have been devoted to political action, and there is little cause to wonder that the great artists of modern Italy have been but few. Unknown Raphaels, and Dantes, and Michael Angelos may have worn out their large brains and larger hearts in the prisons of Spielberg, the hulks of Naples, or the bagnios of Civita Vecchia. The land which in one generation has produced in the world of politics Marvin and Mazzim, Gioberti and D'Azeglio, Garibaldi and Cavour, may well be excused if in other fields she has remained barren.
Yet, though Italy is no longer the land of great artists, she is still, in our belief, the land par excellence of art. The popular appre- ciation of art is more general there than elsewhere ; the raw mate- rial out of which artists are made still remains there undiminished. Let us endeavour to point out the obvious evidence which exists m support of our theory. The first thing which strikes the most care- less traveller is the artistic beauty of all Italian cities. Of course the splendour of the climate has a good deal to do with our perception of the merits of Italian architecture. Beneath that glorious sunlight, against that deep blue sky, and amidst that rich revelry of colour, the most ordinary of buildings possesses a clearness of outline and a brightness of aspect, which, to a Northern eye, supplies the place of beauty. It is true, too, that in every town almost the buildings of architectural merit are of old date and standing. However, the mo- dern Italians, if they have added little to the works of their fore- fathers, have destroyed nothing, The new buildings (if we except
those like the Pitti palace, of German origin) harmonize with the old. What works there are, are good. The new Lung' Arno at Florence is one of the finest streets in Europe, while the town of Turin has been converted, in a few years, from a barrack-like collection of half- finished streets into a city of palaces. The temporary structures, run up in haste during the last few months in different parts of Italy, evince high architectural talent. It is impossible to believe that the architects who constructed the Chamber of Deputies at Turin, the Exhibition building at Florence, and the decorations for Victor Ema- nuel's entry at Naples and Palermo, are not capable of producing works of enduring merit. The development of literature in Italy the moment that a free Government makes its existence possible, is something wonderful. The periodical press takes root in Italian soil with almost unparal- leled facility. At Turin, Naples, Milan, and Florence the number of daily papers varies from ten to twenty in each town, and the circu- lation of several of them is counted by many thousands. The con- viction that a newspaper ought to contain news as well as essays is only slowly dawning on the Italian mind; but some of the daily papers, such as the Nazione of Florence, the Nazionale of Naples, and the Perseveranza of Milan, have considerable literary merit. The tone of the whole Italian press is in general refined and courteous, and very free from personal invective. Of popular native romances there are as yet but few; but the sale of French novels translated into Italian is very large. The current literature of the day is almost exclusively political. In the amusements, too, of the people, as well as in their literature, we fancy we can trace a natural refinement of nature. Drutal amusements of any kind, if you except the horse- races in the Papal States, are almost unknown. In every good-sized town there are one or more theatres always well filled. Though the merit of the individual actors is, as we have said, rarely great, and though the pieces acted are very generally of French extraction, the Italian theatre ought to rank high. Little attention is paid to scenery, and the whole interest of the piece centres on the style of the author and the acting of the players. In consequence, the subor- dinate actors play with a vigour and originality we have never seen equalled elsewhere, and the star system is almost unknown. On an Italian stage, such a company as Madame Ristori chose to surround herself with abroad would not long be tolerated. Italy is the only civilized country where the impromptu improvized drama still sur- vives. At the people's theatres, like the San Carlin° at Naples, the invention of the favourite actor is only surpassed in rapidity by the comprehension of the audience. For the time, the audience and actor seem to become one, every listener being in some sort himself an actor. As an Italian improvisatore is reputed to have said, "Abroad. I find plenty of hearers, but in Italy alone I find ears." In consider- ing the art-development of the Italian people, the gorgeous cere- monial of the Catholic Church ought not to be forgotten. It is evident that the churches and the services must be arranged to suit the taste of the congregations, and a people which can take such delight in pictures and ornaments and vestments and anthems, may possibly be childish in disposition, but has certainly a keen sense of art-beauty. It must also be a love of art which brings the common people in such crowds on " festa" days to the public galleries of picture and sculpture.
Of all art-workmen the Italians are the best. It is this fact, more than any other, which causes so many foreign sculptors to reside in Italy. At Rome, or Florence, or Carrara, workmen are to be found in numbers who are artists as well as workmen, and to whom their work is a labour ot love. In the same way, every trade which verges upon art flourishes in Italy above other countries. Mosaic work, cameo engraving, and gold-ornament making, are all handi- crafts for which Italy is conspicuous. Pictures, also, can be copied there, and antiquities reproduced, with an artistic skill unintelligible to other nations.
To us, however, the most remarkable evidence of the art-culture of the Italians lies in the refinement of the common people. You cannot talk with an Italian, hardly, of any station without finding that he has some opinion of his own on art and music. It is this same power of appreciation which makes the lower Italians so much pleasanter to our minds as companions than the same class in other countries. Every Italian is, in his own eyes, an artist, and with some of the faults of an artist has many of his merits also. How far this art-cul- ture is of national value to Italy compared with what we call higher qualities, may be questioned, but that this culture does exist will not be disputed by any one who has lived long in Italy.
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