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LECTURES BY MR. RUSKIN.
The author of the " Seven Lamps of Architecture " seems determined to do his best to carry his principles into the midst of those who should be concerned in putting them into practice. In the interest of art, all ought to be sincerely grateful to him for popularizing his views ; as no one else is so thoroughgoing an advocate of the highest principles, and no one else could urge them so well. The first personal appearance of Mr. Ruskin before a public audience was when he delivered in Edinburgh the lectures printed within the year. Recently he has undertaken the draw- ing-class at the Workmen's College in London ; and still more lately he has begun, at the Architectural Museum in Cannon Row, Westminster, a series of three addresses, of which the first was delivered on Saturday. The subject was Illumination; the class more especially appealed to are " workmen engaged in dcorative art, as lettering on walls, shop- fronts, &c." To induce their attendance, the admission is by free tickets; but the hour selected, two o'clock, is a very unfortunate one for this ob- ject, and the audience seemed to include comparatively few of those for whose peculiar use it was intended.
Mr. Ruskin professed that he was not going to give a lecture, but to hold a little friendly talk with his hearers on the subject of decorative art. There were a dignity and a beauty about the writing of our ancestors at a period no less remote than the seventh century, vastly different from and superior to anything of the kind in the present age. The first example produced was an initial letter of the year 660, consisting of a simple scroll of yellow and black colour, broad and strong for all its intricacy. It begins in a bird and ends in a dragon. Unlike the flourishing of a mere writingmaster, it never encounters itself in a common turn—that is, never doubles upon itself with- out meeting itself again. This plain yellow and black stage of the art con- tinued till the great masters of Charlemagne's time came, and more colour was introduced. An illuminated page which was here exhibited showed the blending of rich colouring with gold letters. The people of that day paid immense respect to great writers ; and he wanted to see the same respect paid to great writers of the present day. There goes a legend of an English monk of the monastery of Aremberg, " who had with his own hand copied many books, hoping to receive his reward in heaven,"—that his tomb was opened twenty years after his death, and his right hand was found in per- fect preservation. As a general thing, all good writing came from France. The stepmother of Alfred the Great was French ; and she induced him to learn reading by proposing as a prize te the first of the children who should learn it a manuscript, the initial letter of which won the eye of the boy, then twelve years of age ; an initial probably of the same kind as the Charle- magne example. Possibly it might be the better if our children were not taught to read till they are twelve years of age, and then by some such means—at all events, by other means than that "A is an apple- pie." The idea of that age was that a book was a noble thing, and that a kind of sanctity attached to it. The writers went on systematizing their co- lour from time to time until they had advanced their art to a high pitch of beauty and perfection. In the thirteenth century, especially, many more colours were introduced than had ever been used before; the principal tints being blue, purple, and scarlet. A Bible of 1220 afforded an illustration of this ; and the clerkly way of forming the letters was to be observed, and the intense delicacy of the writing generally. The whole spirit of the middle ages is to be sought in Dante : lie was the prophet of the middle ages. His book even contains passages which must have given a material direction to the art of illuminated writing, and especially in the effective use of colour. A page from another book again showed the prevailing colours, blue, purple, and scarlet; but here black and white also, in smaller quantities, were in- troduced. That is, in fact, the law of all living art ; where there is no change there is no life. A person could not live without change ; not a tree nor a leaf could live without growth. There is nothing symmetrical iu na- ture. The audience might fancy an animal is symmetrical, but it is not. Whenever they wanted to throw a statue into a graceful attitude, they threw it on one side or the other : a man could not comb his hair without combing it to one side or the other. [But a woman can, Mr. Ruskin ; and you have no in- tention yourself of exemplifying the Lamp of Life by shaving off your left whis- ker.] That, too, is one of the laws of capital-illumination. Before this time, nature had not been treated in that manner at all. In the capitals of a Bible of 1230, also produced, they again had the colours purple and scarlet, and points of white telling like pearls. The introduction of nature was the culminating point of the art. Thenceforward manuscripts became richer and richer. lie held in his hand one of the thirteenth century, one page of which represented Solomon passing before David, and another the _burial of David, with Solomon watching at the bier ; and lie never saw another ma- nuscript of that century equal to it ; it was as perfect ne it could possibly be. The introduction of nature was what rendered the art so thoroughly perfection. The thing went on, and they wanted more and more ornament. With such luxury came carelessness, and, still worse, oblivion of the prin- ciples of the art. In this age, men do not reverence our painters enough. It is a desperately difficult thing to paint at all. There never were more than three or four men deserving the name of good painters in an age; and the fault of the present age is that we do not know between good and bad painting. It is just as wonderful a thing to be a thorough painter as to be, for instance, a Duke of Wellington ; and it is a perfectly miserable thing to see a number of men passing their time in futile painting. Hundreds of persons possess the gift of fine colour. Dressmakers can arrange flowers on a dress ; children can sort a bouquet. But this faculty is usually quenched for the purposes of art by persons who insist on the necessity of learn- ing drawing. Those present who had this gift of colour ought not to throw away that which is their only chance of becoming useful or distinguished. It is an immense loss to painting that there should not be a certain number of persons set free to pursue the harmony of colours. If a person made up his mind to be an illuminator—if he found in himself that gift of arranging colours, and if it so happened that the circumstances of his life did not admit of his making a good painter—let him take up this principle at once, that every form he draws is to be drawn in pure colour, and that the first step is to be a master of outline. Far better thus than to be spu- rious imitators of great painters. Then as to the introduction of nature : as soon as he can paint in outline, let him watch closely every living object around him,—nurses with children in the streets, leaves and trees, and the birds and animals at the Zoological Gardens. What are now the fields for an occupation of this kind? Unless the change take place for which the lec- turer was striving, he is wedged between two difficulties. He frequently received letters from persons who said to him, "Build us a house, or paint us a room, iu a certain way." His reply was, that he had not got the work- men who could do it ; and then they said lie was a humbug. Now there was the painting of the Commandments in churches, and so forth ; and in that they could perpetually vary their patterns, taking care to introduce as much nature as possible. Then there were the interiors of rooms,—though he confessed he was much at sea as to the decoration of them, for he liked people to buy good pictures and prints. Shop-fronts are apt to get despe- rately dingy ; but, whenever a workman has a letter to write on a shop- front, he would recommend him to ask the shop-keeper to let him try the art of coloured decoration. Great good might be done in our age if we had one book well illuminated. Ile did not know at what cost illuminators might now be able to produce a finely illuminated page ; but, if they could give him some data on the subject, he would try to bring it before the public. For his part, he would infinitely rather have a finely illuminated book than a picture : there every page is a picture. If the thing once became fashion- able, it would go on as a matter of course. He could not imagine a happier life than that of a person devoting himself to this art with something of the disposition of a monk of old. If people would cultivate it, a totally new im- pulse would be given to art in every direction, and probably to literature : a writer might take more care with his book if he knew that it was to be beautifully illuminated afterwards. A passage from Longfellow on missal- writing concluded the lecture. The second of the series is to be on Outline, and the third on Colour ; and they are fixed for the 25th November and 9th December respectively.
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