What is Wigh Art?

Ar a meeting of the Decorative-Art Society, held on the 13th ult. (the opening of the present session), the first portion of a paper On Art; its distinctions and purposes relatively considered," by Mr. Dwyer, was read. The leading questions arising from the subject, as set forth in the members' circular, were, What is high art? historical art? fine art? &c. Under what conditions do these become identical? and what is the relative value of each for the purposes of decorative art?

sent demand for variety of style and character had not, he said, existed in any previous period. In painting, sculpture, and architecture, we may learn to discover distinctive features marking a period, and most clearly showing the development of progression. Mr Dwyer sustained this argument, by contending that the sameness of treatment in the works of most artists testifies to the tenacity with which copying or imitation clings to all, and that therefore it is essential to reflect and know how far the different schools of art have relation to each other in respect of imitation,-how much an artist has heen indebted to previous examples,-before we can adjudge to him a Mr. Dwyer introduced the subject by re- qualitative rank. The reader then enumerated marking, that amidst the multifarious writings celebrated works by Greeks, Romans, Italians, extant upon art, the ambitious tendencies of Venetians, French, Flemish and Dutch, which, this or that author in jealously upholding the he maintained, were in harmony with the dignity of a particular class of artists, or in tastes and moral dispositions of the respective vaunting forth the advantages arising from a nations at the time they were produced, and given system of practice, would appear to have also that art is in a great measure localisedbeen the main considerations. For the most dependent on certain rules, as developed by part, however, we should find that the study of existing specimens, and by the position these nature is held to be the starting-point from held in the public estimation,-that it is essenwhich we are to be led away into a complexity tially a thing of time, place, and circumstance. of technicalities and metaphysical reasonings. By judging of works of art upon a particular As in writings, so it would be found in works. consideration of beauty, and by admitting one The architect, sculptor, painter, and poet, each class of production as superior in rank to attempts a mysterious grappling of mind with another, without reference to a comprehensive matter of fact, occasionally developing a high view of art generally, a great injustice had, he degree of intellectuality with much that is maintained, been engrafted on our received either unmeaning or not easily understood. opinions upon art. There was, it was said, a Then, he observed, there is the continually strong resemblance in the results, to the choice varying misapplication of technical terms in of an inexperienced person, between one art, arising from an absence of principle in watch, having inferior mechanism in a gold giving fixed names to definite things, which case, and another containing good works, in a renders it a matter of difficulty to understand silver one-when the gold case was selected. the proper limits and distinctions which exist It was unfortunate for art that its votaries had between even such terms as high art, historical been too frequently influenced by a gold case. art, fine art, &c. He had sought for precise Distinctive ranks in the departments of art, definitions from living artists of good repute the reader contended, were a great evil, and and long standing, but obtained none; he had to equalise them would be a great good heard much of reasoning, in small circles as it achieved. Until the difficulties attendant upon were, which convinced him that a more general the operations of art are understood, and and comprehensive knowledge of art in its unjust prejudices removed-until painters in various phases would be useful, indeed, among oil, water, encaustic, and fresco, cease to disits professors. The ordinary criticisms of the parage each other's work, and to exaggerate day upon art were to him vague and meaning- the importance of their own, until all aristoless, and would generally, if divested of cracy in practice of art shall be dissipated, doubtful technicalities and expressed in plain and art, in humble garb of plaster and clay, English words, expose their flimsy construc- be looked upon as kindly as if in marble, until tion. In tracing the progress of art, the reader some new energy shall have swept away these felt that it had been strangely handled, not prejudices, as unreasonable as unjust, and a alone from the restless ambition of some of its combination of artists in one emulative course votaries and professors, but still more so by the of comprehensive inquiry and dispassionate wanderings of others after the indefinite. reasoning, shall contribute to that one great Princes and popes have at certain periods en- purpose called art-we must not, it was contertained a deference for its works, which at tended, look for a positive and marked proother times is wholly lost to observation; but gressive feature to be developed in our times. he considered that the attention at present It was then explained, that art being essentially directed towards art, throughout Europe, would based upon ideality, with an accurate presentprobably promote an unprecedented Progress. ment of effects in form and colour, after The spirit of popular agitation, which the Corn nature, is constituted and regulated by certain Laws now no longer engross, might attach its principles in harmony with the prevailing epidemic influence and searching powers to taste, education, or fashion, so as to excite the arts in our country, with advantage to all. pleasing emotions; and that it is therefore Nevertheless, he held art in itself to be capable necessary to specially advance education and only of slow progress, simply because that train the mind, before the really beautiful in must arise solely from a succession of improve-art can be properly appreciated, or the genius ments in imitative skill. A parallel to the pre- evinced receive a just and fair criticism.

66

Several instances were referred to, showing the it a correlative in the sciences, such as high power of art in expressing clearly and intel- chemistry or high astronomy? He would be ligibly to all whatever sentiment it is intended glad to learn the proprieties of art from its to impart,- -as the Laughing Faun" and the phraseology, and would continue his attempt Dying Gladiator," in sculpture; or the in disentangling the subject at the next "Creation of Adam," by Michael Angelo; the meeting. "Transfiguration,' by Raffaelle; and the "Last Supper," by Leonarda da Vinci, in pictures. These examples, it was said, testify to a mental or reasoning ideality, combined with a skill in depicting the essence of things material, and should therefore rank far above imitative skill in the abstract. Ideality is yet more severely tasked in connecting the several ideal embodiments into a grand whole, or complete picture, as in the "Last Judgment," by Michael Angelo. Art such as this, he said, might be called high art; but the qualification ought not to be attached to the works of an ordinary artist, whose vanity leads him to lay a surreptitious claim to take rank under such a banner.

IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING CYLINDRICAL PIPES.-Mr. Stewart, of Montrose, has taken out a patent for a new mode of casting iron water or gas pipes, by which a superior material is produced, at a less cost than by the usual method. The mould consists of a perpendicular cylindrical iron box, of the required size, with a shaft in the centre, longer than the mould, and communicating with machinery above, by which it is kept revolving, and, as it revolves, it gradually rises. At the bottom of this shaft is an instrument, which may be termed a "presser," or "rammer," consisting of an iron block having inclined tubular faces, of The characteristics of Greek art, it was such smaller diameter than the box, as to leave stated, are quite distinct from the examples the sand of the required thickness for the last mentioned, although both have received mould. On feeding the sand at the top of the great and well-deserved admiration. The box, it is distributed towards the sides, and the Greeks, however, approached only to a perfect shaft and rammer gradually revolving and risembodiment of physical beauty, without evolving, press it with great force against the sides ing the attributes of the higher powers of men- of the box, leaving the mould finished and pertal reasoning: this would arise simply from fectly cylindrical on its arriving at the top, The their progressive refinements being based ready for the insertion of the core. chiefly on skilful imitation. Art had un-amount of pressure against the sand is regudoubtedly been extensively encouraged by the lated by means of a counterpoise weight. Greeks, from the great number of their works; The following are the advantages claimed by and if, instead of pursuing the heroic vein, the patentee:-"1. A perfectly straight cylinthey had sought to impart a moral purpose drical pipe, of uniform thickness.-2. No (expressions to be taken in their broadest parting or joint of any kind.-3. Dressed at sense), then, indeed, would their productions one half the ordinary cost.-4. Less sand used have attained to a truly glorious eminence. It than in any other way, and, of course, easier was the reader's opinion that their wonderful dried, if required.-5. The castings and sand skill, when receiving additional purpose and easier removed from the boxes than in the ordimeaning, would have created mucn nobler nary way.-6. The flasks, or boxes, better calworks through their embodiment of mental culated to resist the pressure of the metal than attributes. The frieze of the Parthenon, he any now in use.-7. This method is the best contended, while he had the fullest apprecia- for casting pipes perpendicularly that has tion of its beauties, ought not to be viewed in hitherto been employed.-8. The greatest reany other light than as a production in imita- commendation of all is, the simplicity of the tive art. Nature, he said, had been so faith-apparatus, which requires the attendance of a fully studied and delineated, that very few boy only, who with my machine, as at present inaccuracies could be discovered; but he de-working, turns out easily six pipes, six inches duced from this and the pervading similarity bore, per hour." of features and vacant expression, not only that the models must have been of a superior class, but also that the Greek artists had relied upon their powers of imitating objects as they were seen by them.

NUMBER OF PICTURES IN ENGLISH AND FOREIGN GALLERIES.-National Gallery, London, 214 pictures; Vatican, Rome, 32; in the Gallery of the Capital, ditto, 225; each of the Academies of Bologna and Venice, about 280; The reader remarked that there are two Städel Institution, Frankfort, 380; Naples, distinct kinds of ideality in art,-one addresses 700, exclusive of the ancient paintings of the imagination only, and the other goes fur- Pompeii and Herculaneum; Berlin Gallery, ther, by appealing to the reflective and reason-1,200; in the new Pinacothek at Munich, about ing faculties. Several examples were then described to show that embellishment had formed the noblest intent and purpose of art in its best periods, and that, while the first artists of the middle ages painted to embellish, we paint to produce pictures.

After some remarks upon Haydon's writings, he submitted the inquiry: What is high art? Is it a term to signify something superior in merit? Is it a matter of theory or practice? Can it teach morality or put down vice? Had

1,270 (these latter have been collected together from the various royal palaces and establishments of Bavaria; the Belvidere, Vienna, upwards of 1,300; in the Gallery of the Uffizi, at Florence, 1,200; Pallazzo Pitti, ditto, about 500; at Amsterdam, 386; in the Museum at the Hague, 304, and 173 in the King's Collection; at Antwerp, between 300 and 400; in the Louvre, 1,406, exclusive of the_Spanish pictures; in the Museo of the Prade of Madrid, 1,833; and at Dresden, 1,850.

Leverage.

which was resting on the other end, to the amount of one inch. Now it is estimated that a man pulling with a force of 30 pounds, and moving the object which he pulls at the rate of 10,000 feet an hour, can work continually for eight or ten hours a day; this is the extreme of the power which a single man can apply. Each day, then, Archimedes could, at the utmost, move his end of the lever 100,000 feet, or 1,200,000 inches; and hence it may thus be readily calculated, that to move it through 384,344,762,638,287,052,800,000 inches, or to move the other end-that is the earth-one inch, would require the continued labour of Archimedes for 8,774,994, 580,737 centuries.Dr. Carpenter.

must move 384,344,762,638,287,052,800,000 inches; or, on the other hand, when Archimedes had made the end of the lever to which he had applied his arm move this number of THE process of raising a ladder is a good illus-inches he would only have raised up the earth, tration of the variation produced in the character of a lever, by an alteration in the position of the power. When it is first lifted from the ground, by a force applied at one end, it is a lever of the second order, since its order of gravity, in which its whole length may be regarded as acting, is in the middle of its length; so that a power applied to its end will have an advantage of two to one. But when the ladder has been partly elevated the hands of the person raising it are made gradually to approach its foot, when they are moved in the position of the centre of gravity, they are acting neither at an advantage nor disadvantage; for though the top of the ladder will then be moving twice as fast as the hands, the bottom will not move at all, so that the average movement of the whole will be just the same as that of the hands: and when, in order to raise the ladder nearly to the upright position, the hands are made to act upon it still nearer its bottom, it becomes a lever of the third to me for my approval, patented by a Mr. order-the weight being now more distant from the fulcrum than the power.

NEW STEAM GAUGE.-The following letter A most important invention has been submitted has been addressed to a morning paper:-Sir,

Smith of Nottingham, and is intended to indicate the strength of steam in steam-engine It is evident that, in levers of the first and boilers; it is particularly adapted for steamsecond orders, we may gain any amount of boats, and can be placed in the cabin, on deck, power we please, by simply making the dis- or any other part of the vessel, where it may tance between the power and the fulcrum just also be fixed in the office of every manufactory be seen by every passenger on board. It may so many times greater than the distance between the fulcrum and the weight. It was by distance from the boiler. where a steam-engine is used, at a considerable Archimedes that this truth was first perceived; pleased with it that I have put one up at one of I am so much and he expressed it by saying, "Give me but a place where I may stand and I will move the my own collieries; it is some distance from the world." The principle on which the assertion boiler, and in another house, and works most is made is perfectly correct, but he seems to steam in the most delicate manner. The indibeautifully, showing the rise and fall of the have omitted one element-the time necessary to produce the effect. It has been already cator is like the face of a clock, with a pointer, shown that the relative amounts of movement, to 1001b. upon the square-inch of the pressure making one revolution in measuring from 1lb. of the power, and the weight will be propor- of steam; it is quite from under the control of tional to their respective distances from the the engineer, or any other person, so that its fulcrum; and if the arm, to which the power indications may be relied upon, and the conis applied, be increased to such an enormous struction is so simple that it is scarcely poslength as would be necessary to gain the me-sible for it to get out of order. I might give a chanical advantage required for such a purpose, full explanation of the machine, but I think it the time that would be occupied in moving, best to leave that to the inventor himself. The even to the amount of an inch, and with the whole force of a man, a body of the weight of numerous and appalling accidents which have the globe would be quite inconceivable. This occurred from the bursting of steamboat boilers may be readily shown by a simple calculation. have induced me to give you these observaTaking the diameter of the earth at 7,930 tons, which I think desirable to be laid before miles, the number of cubic feet in it may be the public. I may state that I have no pecucalculated to be 37,434,476,263,828,705,280,000; niary interest in the scheme; but being the and, assuming each cubic foot to weigh 300 first person to whom it has been shown, and pounds, we shall have for the weight of the the first to make use of it, I feel it a duty that earth in pounds the number 11,530,342,879,148, make it as universally known as possible. The I owe to the inventor, as well as the public, to 611,584,000,000. Now supposing Archimedes to act at the end of his lever with a force of 30 Chesterfield; and may be seen any day by any indicator is put up at Topton Colliery, near pounds, one arm of it must be 384,344,762,638, 287,052,800,000 times longer than the other, respectable person by inquiring either for Mr. that he may move his mass with it: and one Mr. Langlands.- GEORGE arm of the lever being this number of times STEPHENSON, Tapton-house, Chesterfield. longer than the other, the end of that longer arm must move exactly that number of times faster or farther than the end of the other; so that while the end of the shorter arm was moving one inch the end of the longer arm

Hindmarsh or

WHITE COPPER-BRITANNIA METAL.-Copper from 40 to 50lb., white arsenic 10lb., oil a sufficient quantity to make the latter into a paste, melted together. Used as an imitation of silver.