New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-31
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
PROFESSOR HOPPIN ON ART.

THE EARLY RENAISSANCE; and Other D Essays or
Art SHe Of b hr Jane yas HGpp svo
3O6. Boston and NewYork; Houghton Mihiln
volume by the author Of "Old England invites
readers. This collection Of essays does not pretend
TO be a systematic treatise art. but art student
will. the less. find II most useful and stimulating
No doubt professional critics Will differ from some
Of Its conclusions but difference IS possible as to
Its singularly pure and fine quality, and It's high ana
generous ideals Seven of the twelve essays have
already appeared in The Forum "The Church Re
vewn and The New glander"; and the first "The
Early Renaissance originally delivered as an
Introductory address before the Yale School OF Fine
Arts.
W. find here what we have right to expect-com-
peent technical knowledge but technical experts are
not always furnished with those gifts which lend a
nocul,ar charm TO this vClume--a sensitive artistic
temperament developed by study and travel. general
and elegant literary culture, and graceful and vGor-
Gus STYLE. Professor Hoppin's technical knowledge :
Illustrated I'm the critque the Venus OF Milo good
specimens Of his descriptive power furnished In
the accounts OF the Cathedral at Bourges, and of the
Zeus-Alar of PergamoN, well as In numerous ch"ce
bits throughout the book. An element OF strong
practical common sense runs through the essay Oh
art in education. and tho same element IS blended
with a deep and chastcned devotional feeling In The
paper on art and religion. The devotional element
here Is more than the reco OF fine and cultivated
taste from Puritanism more than dreamy religious
sentimeptasn. 1t IS healthy. vigorous. Intellectual
recognizing the truth that religion and art have a
common IN the constitution Of the soul; that art
belongs man religious being, and to the mani
fesaton of his religious us well Of his Intellectual
nature. If religion is life dependent on power
out OF Itself and drawn from higher spiritual sources
through faith and love- II IS comprehensive and enters
into all being, and consecraes every power and
sensibity; and It's relations to the artistic faculty
are OF a vital character. impanting them in Its divine
ideals"
Professor Hoppin Is thus squarely at with that
modern school which maintains that the spheres OF
beauty and Of morals are distinct lie holds by the
old and thoroughly sound moral theory Of beauty
claiming that what is morally corrupt can
not be essentially beautiful. "An artist of
genius may pander TO the sensual and base
In human life. but the question remains.
Does not this moral bemiSh constitute an artistic
bemish! on the principle named it certainly does
and thus what is immoral is nartistc, and what is
inartistc must perish This is odfashoned teach
ing, but it is sound TO the core.
In the discussion of the principles OF art the author
II not betrayed into attempt at exhaustive definition
OF art itself. The true conception OF art has suffered
from nsstence too rigid definition. Rigid deini-
ton Of art is impossible. 1t bursts from our for
mulss like uncontrolled spring. II is indcinablc
Aecause 1t is truth rather than term 1t is not |
nature. while it is nothing without nature. 1t Is not
science though IL applies science to its methods but
its end lies beyond the technical process in the per
feet, Joy giving work. Art implies the existence OF
natural material upon which 10 work. but also sub
jective principle of thought which orders nature for It's
conscious ends. Ii is neither purely objective nor
purely subjective exist solely in the mind.
There Is intrinsic beauty natural objects other than
what the mind creates in them. True art consists in
the right adjustment OF these two factors-n the cor
resi- Ondence of the deepest objective reality in nature
with the highest adjective ideal of beauty and per
lection in the mind.
cf ion
lessor HOPKINS holds the via media be-
tween impressionism and realism; between liter
ature and general effect. lie shows, we think
that the opposite theories neither Of them.
that both contain elements OF TRUTH
and that the true conception is reached By combination
True painting docs consist iii Imitation, for nature
Is lnimi,ablo Mere imatio ends in absilrdty. The
artist Is to try and get hold of the underlying law by
which produces her impression and to reproduce
that by any method which will make his picture speak
to the mind nature speaks. The real Is not to be
sacrificed but is to be made subservcnt to the cX
preston of the beautiful The birds pccet at
Zeuxs'S grapes, not because the grapes were close
limitations OF nature but because the artist had caught
the rh Of nature and expressed her real lie. Hence
the healthy tendency OF ART is to become more real
but with deeper reality than mere imitation. To
sink the real is to run into sentimental and schy
subjectvity. To sink the ideal is TO brutalzc. Pre-
Raphaelitism genuine movement in It's principle
of absolute In the truth that is in nature. Its
weakness lay in It's superilciay. in its seeking In
tensity a means Of immediate impression. rather
than deeper truthfuness of expression through tho
discovery Of deeper sucsestiveness The French real
istic school, in It's reaction from the conventional class
icism of Poussin and Claude, has side. the
side which has chiefly asserted Itself in the salons Of
later years into the liccntous and the horrible.
But Professor lioppln also brings ont the other
and better side Of tie realistic reaction IN the French
landscapists Iluci, Rousseau COrOt. Daubcny ard
in Mille Basten lie Page Jules Breton. The
romantic landscape-thc real in nature mingled with
the artists personaty-s represented by I!uct: the
heroic landscape. truthful in tree, rock and atmosphere
yet sacrificing the subtle poetry nature,
found It's Interpreter in Rousseau Corot illustrates the
landscape OF feelng-thc poadcncc vagu" and
pensive states Of the soul with nature: while the
landscape Of pictorial effect. appealing 10 the eye
rather than TO the heart, appears in the canvo,e, OF
Daubgny Mllet represents another phase--tic land
scape of human nfe-whcn into nature
its meaning and end the real object for which 1t IS
made. If t. select any chapter OF the book
as the best specimen of the authors artistic dscTmna
ton skilful expression, 1t would be the chapter
on French landscape painting. lie Is enthusiastic
admirer Of Rousseau. perhaps equally Of Millet
and he gives what is. think, the real solution
of the controversy between detail ard general treat |
ment, by emphasizing Rous>eans principle: What | {
fDshcs the picture is not the quantity Of details; IL
is the truth Of the embe." Every picture La; it,
key object. to which all other objects subordinate
and Complementary. picture which contains pre-
else detail from end end of the VIII b.
regarded with indifference. because all interesting the
spectator equally, nothing will Interest him.
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