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of Perugia; each had its own school of art; each different and all

beautiful。



So do not mind what art Philadelphia or New York is having; but

make by the hands of your own citizens beautiful art for the joy of

your own citizens; for you have here the primary elements of a

great artistic movement。



For; believe me; the conditions of art are much simpler than people

imagine。  For the noblest art one requires a clear healthy

atmosphere; not polluted as the air of our English cities is by the

smoke and grime and horridness which comes from open furnace and

from factory chimney。  You must have strong; sane; healthy physique

among your men and women。  Sickly or idle or melancholy people do

not do much in art。  And lastly; you require a sense of

individualism about each man and woman; for this is the essence of

art … a desire on the part of man to express himself in the noblest

way possible。  And this is the reason that the grandest art of the

world always came from a republic:  Athens; Venice; and Florence …

there were no kings there and so their art was as noble and simple

as sincere。  But if you want to know what kind of art the folly of

kings will impose on a country look at the decorative art of France

under the GRAND MONARQUE; under Louis the Fourteenth; the gaudy

gilt furniture writhing under a sense of its own horror and

ugliness; with a nymph smirking at every angle and a dragon

mouthing on every claw。  Unreal and monstrous art this; and fit

only for such periwigged pomposities as the nobility of France at

that time; but not at all fit for you or me。  We do not want the

rich to possess more beautiful things but the poor to create more

beautiful things; for ever man is poor who cannot create。  Nor

shall the art which you and I need be merely a purple robe woven by

a slave and thrown over the whitened body of some leprous king to

adorn or to conceal the sin of his luxury; but rather shall it be

the noble and beautiful expression of a people's noble and

beautiful life。  Art shall be again the most glorious of all the

chords through which the spirit of a great nation finds its noblest

utterance。



All around you; I said; lie the conditions for a great artistic

movement for every great art。  Let us think of one of them; a

sculptor; for instance。



If a modern sculptor were to come and say; 'Very well; but where

can one find subjects for sculpture out of men who wear frock…coats

and chimney…pot hats?' I would tell him to go to the docks of a

great city and watch the men loading or unloading the stately

ships; working at wheel or windlass; hauling at rope or gangway。  I

have never watched a man do anything useful who has not been

graceful at some moment of his labour:  it is only the loafer and

the idle saunterer who is as useless and uninteresting to the

artist as he is to himself。  I would ask the sculptor to go with me

to any of your schools or universities; to the running ground and

gymnasium; to watch the young men start for a race; hurling quoit

or club; kneeling to tie their shoes before leaping; stepping from

the boat or bending to the oar; and to carve them; and when he was

weary of cities I would ask him to come to your fields and meadows

to watch the reaper with his sickle and the cattle…driver with

lifted lasso。  For if a man cannot find the noblest motives for his

art in such simple daily things as a woman drawing water from the

well or a man leaning with his scythe; he will not find them

anywhere at all。  Gods and goddesses the Greek carved because he

loved them; saint and king the Goth because he believed in them。

But you; you do not care much for Greek gods and goddesses; and you

are perfectly and entirely right; and you do not think much of

kings either; and you are quite right。  But what you do love are

your own men and women; your own flowers and fields; your own hills

and mountains; and these are what your art should represent to you。



Ours has been the first movement which has brought the

handicraftsman and the artist together; for remember that by

separating the one from the other you do ruin to both; you rob the

one of all spiritual motive and all imaginative joy; you isolate

the other from all real technical perfection。  The two greatest

schools of art in the world; the sculptor at Athens and the school

of painting at Venice; had their origin entirely in a long

succession of simple and earnest handicraftsmen。  It was the Greek

potter who taught the sculptor that restraining influence of design

which was the glory of the Parthenon; it was the Italian decorator

of chests and household goods who kept Venetian painting always

true to its primary pictorial condition of noble colour。  For we

should remember that all the arts are fine arts and all the arts

decorative arts。  The greatest triumph of Italian painting was the

decoration of a pope's chapel in Rome and the wall of a room in

Venice。  Michael Angelo wrought the one; and Tintoret; the dyer's

son; the other。  And the little 'Dutch landscape; which you put

over your sideboard to…day; and between the windows to…morrow; is'

no less a glorious 'piece of work than the extents of field and

forest with which Benozzo has made green and beautiful the once

melancholy arcade of the Campo Santo at Pisa;' as Ruskin says。



Do not imitate the works of a nation; Greek or Japanese; Italian or

English; but their artistic spirit of design and their artistic

attitude to…day; their own world; you should absorb but imitate

never; copy never。  Unless you can make as beautiful a design in

painted china or embroidered screen or beaten brass out of your

American turkey as the Japanese does out of his grey silver…winged

stork; you will never do anything。  Let the Greek carve his lions

and the Goth his dragons:  buffalo and wild deer are the animals

for you。



Golden rod and aster and rose and all the flowers that cover your

valleys in the spring and your hills in the autumn:  let them be

the flowers for your art。  Not merely has Nature given you the

noblest motives for a new school of decoration; but to you above

all other countries has she given the utensils to work in。



You have quarries of marble richer than Pentelicus; more varied

than Paros; but do not build a great white square house of marble

and think that it is beautiful; or that you are using marble nobly。

If you build in marble you must either carve it into joyous

decoration; like the lives of dancing children that adorn the

marble castles of the Loire; or fill it with beautiful sculpture;

frieze and pediment; as the Greeks did; or inlay it with other

coloured marbles as they did in Venice。  Otherwise you had better

build in simple red brick as your Puritan fathers; with no pretence

and with some beauty。  Do not treat your marble as if it was

ordinary stone and build a house of mere blocks of it。  For it is

indeed a precious stone; this marble of yours; and only workmen of

nobility of invention and delicacy of hand should be allowed to

touch it at all; carving it into noble statues or into beautiful

decoration; or inlaying it with other coloured marbles:  for 'the

true colours of architecture are those of natural stone; and I

would fain see them taken advantage of to the full。  Every variety

is here; from pale yellow to purple passing through orange; red;

and brown; entirely at your command; nearly every kind of green and

grey also is attainable; and with these and with pure white what

harmony might you not achieve。  Of stained and variegated stone the

quantity is unlimited; the kinds innumerable。  Were brighter

colours required; let glass; and gold protected by glass; be used

in mosaic; a kind of work as durable as the solid stone and

incapable of losing its lustre by time。  And let the painter's work

be reserved for the shadowed loggia and inner chamber。



'This is the true and faithful way of building。  Where this cannot

be; the device of external colouring may indeed be employed without

dishonour … but it must be with the warning reflection that a time

will come when such aids will pass away and when the building will

be judged in its lifelessness; dying the death of the dolphin。

Better the less bright; more enduring fabric。  The transparent

alabasters of San Miniato and the mosaics of Saint Mark's are more

warmly filled and more brightly touched by every return of morning

and evening; while the hues of the Gothic cathedrals have died like

the iris out of the cloud; and the temples; whose azure and purple

once flamed above the Grecian promontory; stand in their faded

whiteness like snows which the sunset has left cold。' … Ruskin;

SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE; II。



I do not know anything so perfectly commonplace in design as most

modern jewellery。  How easy for you to change that and to produce

goldsmiths' work that would be a joy to all of us。  The gold is

ready for you in unexhausted treasur

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