FINE ARTS.
THE FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF DECORATIVE ART.
IT,will be seen shortly what our decorative artists are able to do in the way of architectural embellishment ; and if report speak true, the dis- play will be of a very gratifying description. The specimens of taste in design and executive skill by artificers in stained glass, arabesque and heraldic painting, wood-carving and ornamental pavement, that have been sent in for theinspection of the Commissioners of Fine Arts, are almost arranged for exhibition in. the large building formerly the St. James's Bazaar, where they will be opened (we hope freely) to public view.- It would not be easy to exaggerate the interest which at- taches to this demonstration—the first that has been made in England on a comprehensive scale—of the capabilities of a class of operative artists combining some qualities of the inventive designer with the mechanical dexterity of the handicraftsman. The decoration of the new Houses of Parliament has become an object of more than ordinary importance; since this edifice is destined to be the focus in which will be concentrated the highest talent this country pos- sesses in the arts of design. But the forthcoming exhibition has stronger claims to attention ; inasmuch as it will exemplify the progress of a- numerous, active, and intelligent portion of the community in various branches of industry requiring the exercise of taste as well as mechanical skill ; and it will also test the power of artisans to second the exertions of manufacturers towards raising this country to an emi- nence in the arts of peace commensurate with our greatness in war. To overlook these considerations, and regard the collection of specimens as an. ordinary assemblage of products of ingenuity, would be a mistake that the most thoughtless of sight-seers only could commit. In forming a judgment of the merits of the various productions, moreover, allow- ance should be made for the rare opportunities that this country has hitherto afforded for interior decoration of an artistic character, and for the imperfect education and small encouragement that artists in this branch have received: to compare their efforts with the elaborate and sumptuous examples of architectural embellishment on the Continent, would be unjust to our countrymen. The School of Design has been too recently established for it to have had much share in the matter. The training of the decorator is no short or easy- work : the inventive faculty in ornament requires expe- rimental knowledge and dexterity of hand for its development. Archi- tectural enrichment is not merely a process of reproduction any more than pattern-drawing or shape-designing : an acquaintance with those endless sources of new combinations that are to be found in nature, and with the principles of art that govern each style, are no less essential than facility of execution. To the attainment of this knowledge it is the office of the teachers in Schools of Design to direct their pupils. Flom what we know of the views and experience of Mr. WILSON, the Direc- tor of.the Government School at Somerset House, he is both able and willing to do this. But the present plan of teaching elementary draw- ing there is, we think, inefficient to this end. The boys on entering are set to copy outlines first and then shaded drawings: this practice tends to make slavish copyists, not original designers. The pupils work me- chanically ;--the hand and eye being engaged, but not the mind: more- over, they move in fetters—the fetters of manner. Instead of compre- hending the scope and character of the whole that is before them, which they must do when drawing from an actual ornament or natural object, they copy bit • by bit—line for line and touch for touch—with the servile and timid exactness of ignorant imitators. The first thing a designer Must learn is the language of form in which be has tcrenpress his 41W11. ideas : projection as well as outline is necessary to. be understood;, and a knowledge of light and shade and per- spective is essential to express projection accurately. The drawing of lines -neatly may. he Acquired simultaneously with the rudiments of the art, while copying rectilinear and curvilinear solids of simple form ; as the objects become more complicated the power of de- lineation is increased. When the pupil can draw with exactness and facility any ordinary form, the characteristics of which are obviously intelligible, then should begin the study of those principles of orna- mental design the observance of which is necessary to invention. A few plants and other natural productions placed beside ornaments of different character in which these objects are introduced, would enable him to trace the influence of style or of material in the various uses made of natural forms. Thus, for example, be will see how differently the honeysuckle is represented in Greek and Gothic architecture—in the designs of the arabesque painter and the glass-stainer—in the pattern of hangings, of mosaic pavement, and of porcelain; and so with other flowers. In this way, he would become familiar with the several dialects of the language of form, so to speak ; and, having studied the characteristics of each, be in a condition to avail himself of the boundless wealth of nature to fertilize his invention, instead of being content to reproduce the fancies of preceding inventors.
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