The New York herald., 1877-11-16
LECTURES.


DIscoURsEs YESTERDAY AFTERNOON AND EVEN
ING. LEONARD CORNING ON ''ANcrENT ART
IN THE ORIENT"
Association Hall we'll filed yesterday by an
audience composed principally OF ladies' assembled TO
hear the second lecture on "Art" by Professor J.
Leonard Corning .Ancient Art in the ORIENT was
the subject chosen. and the lecturer commenced by
drawing attention tho fact that In gathering the
widely scattered relics upon which anything like an
historical record could be constructed OF TINS primary
period or ars would be obliged to omit all chrono-
logical order or sequence. Chronologcaily speak
Ing, he said, some Of the grandest art srumphs are
found IN the remotcst antiquity The original arr
forms In every department disappeared rom tne
face OF the earth ages prior to the date OF the Oldest
extant monuments. Barbarism Is The same In It's es-
sentia elements IN all ages and countries, and what
the rudimcntal art forms and have been In any re-
gon OF the eartn that, essentially, they must have
been in those tar Oh epochs OF which neither history
tradition have any records The art instinct being
inherent IN the nature Of man ii must naturally DO
inferred that forms date back TO period nearly
coeval with the origin OF the race Man being IN the
beginning pure utllitarian, without Hsthetlc maui
f.station, his material wants preceded the ac-
velopmeEt Of taste. He first builder, and
cal climes-th supposed birthplace Of prmeval man-
shelter from the elements was necessary The theory
OF Sharpe is that when the workmen OF the egyptian
quarries found The cave growing larger and unsafe
they lett column to support tho superincumDent
mass The Increasing SIZE, as they worked, neces
STATED other columns and these are the nrst archec
tural forms Whcn these caves we're used for toinbs
and set IN rows, the external columns formed the
p0rlico making the second architectural element, tho
rudimcnl OF the Greek prondds When limestone
ROOT danger oil crumbhng, beam waslaid across
the columns making rudimcntary architrave or the
Greek episyle
Mans shelter provided tor, bis instinct Tor wor-
Ch ntNtn ham nd sans a
found expressed in the relics ot all natious ana
Countries their art forms being universal anu essen
Islands, on The shores OF the Mississippi among
Celtic or Scandinavian tribes, ancient Greece and
Etruria among the FIJI savagcs or extinct races OF
Mexico or Peru That the worshpping instinct and
sense Of immortality are primary endowments Of man
material form. Like every other human sentiment
these need the guidance OF reason. This phase Of
human nature has IN It's outward expression covered
The earth with monuments and nine. .teh'hs oI the
whole history Of art expression OF mans reiie
ious nature. The dim suggestions show mans
mortality of his spiritual life, and aiAo show
that IL has never been lost until the rennemen;s
OF philosophy parayzed the moral nature. Greece
had it lost II, Egypt gave back with other
elements OF culture and civilization. The hrst art
monuments were memorials ot the deau the rudi-
mental orns being the tumuus a mound OF earth or
stone OF no definite shape. Many OF these arc found
Northern and eserp Europe, in the ancient settle
mcnts oil Celtic aud North German tribes. No definite
data be OF them, Kugler attributtng them TO
a period some centuries before the Christian era.
u
races o Southern Europe. One OF these, the Ssbury
tumul, OF Wiltshire, England bell shaped and 200
itel high. The single spatt next in oruer, that OF
Locmaraker, III Brelagne, oeng sixty feet high. The
union OF stones In various forms come next, AS seen
in the Solmen Of Tours and Carnac and the stone
henge ruins near Salisbury, England The material
expression OF the worshipplng instinct must have
been almost coeval with the commcmoration OF the
dead
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
Painting ev6enty antedatad sculpture, the bas-rc-
efs OF Egypt appearing TO nave been cut iron
n0s "A
carved Beginning with Egypt. the cradle OF art
and literature, from the Della OF the Nile "
Nubla civilization found Its way 10 other coun
tries Napoleon |. did the world immense service IN
having number Of scientific men with the armies
during his African campaign the Rosetta stone found
Eear the mouth OF the Nile In 1899, by NJ Bouchard,
written in three languages, the herogyphics, or
Egyptian people, aud The Greek. which was the Ian
guage OF the conquerors OF the nation This furnished
the key to the Egyptian monumental inscriptions
The pyramids OF Ahuser and Dashur are OF the Pc
riod 3 33S years before the Christian era, IRON when
time to the Christian the art culture OF Egypt was
several times LIST and resusctated by the incursous
OF the HyKos, their expulsion aud their subj busation,
1000 years later by the Persans, and aerward few
years before the Christian era by the Romans, when
thor Individuality was lost The pyramids built
tombs Tor the Egyptian rulers are Too well known TO
need dcscr pton. This nation gave their all
the most sublime expression they capable OF.
1he interiors were decorated with paintings o scenes
OF daily HE ana animals heads with human
bodies attached, individual porrature being pronO-
itcd. One distinguishing feature between Egyp yptian
und Assyran that in Egyptian art the mead OF
animal or bird Ia placed ON = human body, while
the the IN Assyrian art, and The
head Is placed the body OF su ANIMAL The uary
OF EgyLt Is coeva with lis architecture The SPHINX
OF Memphis. dating according TO some writer's be-
fore the Pyramids, tho co,ossa Mcmn0ns vi Thebes,
and the vocal Memnons OF Strabo examples. The
cities OF Nineveh and Babylon hourished at the time
best period OF Egyptian art, may be by
the Temple OF Baa aud hanging gardens OF Semiramis
In the 6rst epochs Assyria had independent arr,
but IL lost at later period by contact with tho
Egyptians Tner sculp ture aud architecture lacked IT'S
colossal proportions. PhGncia commercial
n
was mcagre account OF the Jews prohibiting tho
making OF images on the ground OF idoIatry Indian
art was idcutined with Buddhism Brahmanism,
and influenced by The mode OF lfe of those leaders