Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Oe Decorative Art.
nowhere in that great capital shall we be able to come upon Avhat Ave seek for . Reaching England at last , ancl hunting this land over , Avhat should Ave have met with of the kind but only four or five years ago , even in London , in the so-called British Museum—I say advisedly " so-called , "
for the trustees have , over aud over again , refused to enrich its galleries with art-AVorks wrought by Britons' and Anglo-Saxons' hands—scarcely anything better than the Hamiltonian collection of fictile vases , very fine and very precious of its classit is truebut whichafter allaffords but
, , , , sorry help for training the people's taste and bringing up our Avorkmen to know all the beauties and capabilities of the potter ' s art , Avhich has become , is more and more becoming , so important and so profitable a branch among this country's manufactures .
EveryAvhere museums have been far too exclusive about the objects they collect , ancl thus , while catering for the refined tastes of a certain upper few , they have quite forgotten the requirements of the loAver millions . But , meseems , in storing such national establishments , not only people of classic
education—those initiated into all the niceties of high art , either in ancient sculpture or the various schools of more modern painting—but other members of the community should find that they also had been cared for . Thus the historian , who , besides writing of battles and of politicsAvanted
, to say hoAv individuals dressed abroad and lived at home , and Avhat , too , Avere the ornamental products of the period , as Avellas the person who was seeking the correct costume whereAvith to clothe the
characters of his picture or his play , and IIOAV to paint the scenery , might come at once upon Avhat they needed . But the working classes , too , ought to be able to learn how , not merely Egypt , Greece , and Rome , but their own land and those higher countries nigher home and people nearer the
present times , thought and embodied their thoughts , not only in marble and on canvas , but in clay , in copper , and in Avood ; not only in gold and silver and enamel , but in iron , in glass , in-silk , in linen , and in leather . There livedfor years had livedamong usa
, , , man who had a heart wide and warm with love for the land of his adoption , and a head full of thoughts for its material advancement and interests ; Avishful for the happiness , and various comforts of its people , poor as well as rich , with tastes carefully ripened to a quick and exquisite perception of the
beautiful in nature , of whatever was elevating or instructive in any of the arts . This man Avas the late and much lamented Prince Consort . Gifted with far-sightedness , he not only saAV where lay onr several art-deficiencies , and why they Avould still stubbornly linger among useven amid our
, several social improvements ; but he saAV , too , how best and soonest those artistic shortcomings might be remedied . This great , good man—great , not as some understand the word , on the battle-field ,
in strife and the shedding of blood , but in the far nobler Avorks of peace and civilising progressamong his other meritorious deeds helped for-Avards , Avith an earnestness that never tired , the project for refining the public taste and raising the artistic character of the nation's produceby the
, establishment of a museum that should be able , while it recreated , to afford instruction to every class . As a small , young thing , such a museum began its life at Marlborough House . The bantling soon outgreAV its cradle , and had to seek another and a much Avider sheltering-place . This
it has found here , where the practical good sense of the nation is making for it a lasting home , worthy of its illustrious originator , worthy of its destination , worthy of the British people . No-Avhere is art more splendidly palaced , noAvhere are her many offsprings so advantageously displa 3 'ed
, as in those noble courts , so admirably contrived , aud lighted so ingeniously by night , so magnificently ornamented , that form the South Kensington Museum .
Ofthe multifarious objects brought together , for study ancl comparison , Avithin these Avails , there is a very important class—I mean hardware , in all its several branches . So keenly alive to the importance , for the country , of this article , seems the department to have been that , at every
opportunity , it has increased its specimens as much by their value as their number until they have , I do not hesitate in asserting , become the most magnificent series of hardware under its different forms in the Avorld ; for I can say , that neither in Italy , Germany , nor France is there such a complete
instructive collection as Ave have in this Museum ; and although it be not yet perfect , still it is most gratifying to behold hoAv , year by year , it is growing towards completion . Burned clay , in all its many appliances , is represented—and then but poorlyin a feAv museums ; in mostnot at all .
, , Here , hoAvever , this wide class of art-work is not merely the first in time and finest in sort of the kind in Europe , but so richly full of rare and instructive samples that , Avhile hushing the laments , it would have awakened the admiration ancl won
for its collectors the grateful thanks of Minton had he been given to live and AAritness these our days . To notice , even hurriedly , in a lecture , the whole or any great part of the many interesting objects , exhibited , would be impossible : for one occasion , a single section is enough to claimand shall
re-, ceive attention . When honoured by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education with an invitation to lecture before the students ofthe National Art
Training Scnool upon the objects of the Art-Museum , the invitation was accompanied by a wish that the subject might be so viewed as affording illustrations of the principles of decorative art . Indulged in my choice of discoursing upon the so-called Terra-cotta and Luca Delia Robbia Ware , and agreeing most heartily in the practical wisdom of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Oe Decorative Art.
nowhere in that great capital shall we be able to come upon Avhat Ave seek for . Reaching England at last , ancl hunting this land over , Avhat should Ave have met with of the kind but only four or five years ago , even in London , in the so-called British Museum—I say advisedly " so-called , "
for the trustees have , over aud over again , refused to enrich its galleries with art-AVorks wrought by Britons' and Anglo-Saxons' hands—scarcely anything better than the Hamiltonian collection of fictile vases , very fine and very precious of its classit is truebut whichafter allaffords but
, , , , sorry help for training the people's taste and bringing up our Avorkmen to know all the beauties and capabilities of the potter ' s art , Avhich has become , is more and more becoming , so important and so profitable a branch among this country's manufactures .
EveryAvhere museums have been far too exclusive about the objects they collect , ancl thus , while catering for the refined tastes of a certain upper few , they have quite forgotten the requirements of the loAver millions . But , meseems , in storing such national establishments , not only people of classic
education—those initiated into all the niceties of high art , either in ancient sculpture or the various schools of more modern painting—but other members of the community should find that they also had been cared for . Thus the historian , who , besides writing of battles and of politicsAvanted
, to say hoAv individuals dressed abroad and lived at home , and Avhat , too , Avere the ornamental products of the period , as Avellas the person who was seeking the correct costume whereAvith to clothe the
characters of his picture or his play , and IIOAV to paint the scenery , might come at once upon Avhat they needed . But the working classes , too , ought to be able to learn how , not merely Egypt , Greece , and Rome , but their own land and those higher countries nigher home and people nearer the
present times , thought and embodied their thoughts , not only in marble and on canvas , but in clay , in copper , and in Avood ; not only in gold and silver and enamel , but in iron , in glass , in-silk , in linen , and in leather . There livedfor years had livedamong usa
, , , man who had a heart wide and warm with love for the land of his adoption , and a head full of thoughts for its material advancement and interests ; Avishful for the happiness , and various comforts of its people , poor as well as rich , with tastes carefully ripened to a quick and exquisite perception of the
beautiful in nature , of whatever was elevating or instructive in any of the arts . This man Avas the late and much lamented Prince Consort . Gifted with far-sightedness , he not only saAV where lay onr several art-deficiencies , and why they Avould still stubbornly linger among useven amid our
, several social improvements ; but he saAV , too , how best and soonest those artistic shortcomings might be remedied . This great , good man—great , not as some understand the word , on the battle-field ,
in strife and the shedding of blood , but in the far nobler Avorks of peace and civilising progressamong his other meritorious deeds helped for-Avards , Avith an earnestness that never tired , the project for refining the public taste and raising the artistic character of the nation's produceby the
, establishment of a museum that should be able , while it recreated , to afford instruction to every class . As a small , young thing , such a museum began its life at Marlborough House . The bantling soon outgreAV its cradle , and had to seek another and a much Avider sheltering-place . This
it has found here , where the practical good sense of the nation is making for it a lasting home , worthy of its illustrious originator , worthy of its destination , worthy of the British people . No-Avhere is art more splendidly palaced , noAvhere are her many offsprings so advantageously displa 3 'ed
, as in those noble courts , so admirably contrived , aud lighted so ingeniously by night , so magnificently ornamented , that form the South Kensington Museum .
Ofthe multifarious objects brought together , for study ancl comparison , Avithin these Avails , there is a very important class—I mean hardware , in all its several branches . So keenly alive to the importance , for the country , of this article , seems the department to have been that , at every
opportunity , it has increased its specimens as much by their value as their number until they have , I do not hesitate in asserting , become the most magnificent series of hardware under its different forms in the Avorld ; for I can say , that neither in Italy , Germany , nor France is there such a complete
instructive collection as Ave have in this Museum ; and although it be not yet perfect , still it is most gratifying to behold hoAv , year by year , it is growing towards completion . Burned clay , in all its many appliances , is represented—and then but poorlyin a feAv museums ; in mostnot at all .
, , Here , hoAvever , this wide class of art-work is not merely the first in time and finest in sort of the kind in Europe , but so richly full of rare and instructive samples that , Avhile hushing the laments , it would have awakened the admiration ancl won
for its collectors the grateful thanks of Minton had he been given to live and AAritness these our days . To notice , even hurriedly , in a lecture , the whole or any great part of the many interesting objects , exhibited , would be impossible : for one occasion , a single section is enough to claimand shall
re-, ceive attention . When honoured by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education with an invitation to lecture before the students ofthe National Art
Training Scnool upon the objects of the Art-Museum , the invitation was accompanied by a wish that the subject might be so viewed as affording illustrations of the principles of decorative art . Indulged in my choice of discoursing upon the so-called Terra-cotta and Luca Delia Robbia Ware , and agreeing most heartily in the practical wisdom of