J'AILVES'S ART-HINTS. * Ma. IARVES is an American gentleman—of affluence and
leisure, it may be presumed, for his book indicates an addiction on an ex- tended scale to art-amateurship, without, so far as appears, the in- terruption of any professional or business pursuits. Of the gal- leries and art of America, -England, France, Flanders, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Spain, he seems to be personally cognizant, more or less.
The object of his volume is to combine an exposition of the theory of art with some account of its historic sequence and relations, passing at times into discursive and individual criticism in the way rather of notes than of strictly methodic development. He shows a just theoretic appreciation of the relative value of the spirit and the form of art—the paramount claims of the first, and subordination but necessary devoted culture of the second. The primary truths of nature as applied to art are defined under the heads of Infinity, Power, Repose, Sincerity, Variety, and Unity. A collateral aim, true to American nationality, is to enforce the healthiness of art when resting upon the broad popular sympathy for inspiration and support, and its decline under the upas-shade patronage of oligarchy, priestcraft, or kingcraft ; and to America— as unfettered by artistic precedent or governmental bugbear—the anther looks for art's future highest development. Architecture and sculpture, according to the promise of the title, come in for some notice, and are amenable to the general laws propounded; but the bulk of the book bears more directly upon painting. The style is animated, but not free from flourish and overdoing. Some- times, though rarely, Mr. Jarves appears to write without any very decided conviction as to what he is saying; and inaccuracies in matters of detail are not so infrequent as they should be. Here, for instance, is one of an extreme and even absurd kind. In speaking of the effect of Savonarola's exhorta- tions, he says—" Rio, from whom I mainly derived this nar- rative, states that the spectators were melted into tears. Even many of the tiedes, as the partisans of the opposite party were called, who came to mock and interrupt the spectacle, were carried away by the universal enthusiasm." Mr. Jarves evidently ima- gines that "tiedes" was some curious technical name actually ap- plied to this "opposite party" ; whereas, in fact, it is merely the French word for lukewarm, " tikles."
In spirit, the author belongs thoroughly to the school of modern art-inquirers. Although he professes to have "read but little on the subject," much of his detailed principles and illustrations is to be found in other writers, particularly Ruskin; to whom, indeed, he is ever prompt to render admiring tribute. At the same time, be never shrinks from exercising an active and independent judg-
- Art Hints : Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. By James Jackson Jarves, Author of " History of the Sandwich Islands," &c. Published by Low and Co.
meat of his own; and will pronounce upon Turners, Claude; Tin: torets, Michael Angeles, Murillos, and what not, quite irrespect- ively of what any one else may have to say. This is the only way in which it is worth while to write about art; and Mr. Jarves, founding on high principles, and honest and acute in applying them, will be found, without at all rivalling such a man as Ruskin in depth or originality, well worth the hearing. Ruskin himself is hardly a bitterer-tongued enemy of the Renaissance than our author. Really, one half-begins to feel a condoling sympathy with that art-blight, so many and so hard have been its belabourings of late years. Standing as it does still the recognized creed of academies and patrons, its position recalls that paradox of Browning's rela- tive to Shelley—that he would eventually have ranged himself on the side of Christianity, if merely as the weaker cause. Paraded, pilloried Renaissance, almost deserves to inspire her Quixote by this time—though far from us be the championship!
Previous page
