Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-05
GLADSTONE on ART INDUSTRY
Greeks Combined Beauty With Utility.

cultural Hall at ISlington:-I should
not like to mention any country in the
world which has been distinguished
by ugliness in its industrial produc-
tiOus. 1t would be a very inyidious Of
fice to undertake. Bat undoubtedly
there are countries which are less dis
tinguished for uniting beauty with con-
venience than other countries, both in
present and in former times. But who
are the great teachers in this respect.
If you want to define them you must
go back long way. You may learn
much from the countries on the west
ern Mediterranean of the period of the
later middle age.
If you want to go to the fountain
head you must go to that small PENN
sula which was inhabited by the
Greeks; you must so to a small part
of that peninSIlla-to the small city of
Athens. 1t is from her artists that in
the year 1898, and in the coming years
you will have to learn all the most pro-
found, all the most important. lessons
which are to be learned by those who
desire to elevate industry into the re-
giOns of art by uniting together beauty
and convenience. 1t may sound to be
a strange thing, an obsolete idea. But
if you choose to leave it obsolete and
But what l mean is that for those who
desire to see useful things made beauti-
full the means of reviving that old
discipline are still at hand, and if YOU
want to see what it did in former
I times, you have nothing to do but to 90
, into institutions or exhibitions contain
ing utensils which have been recovered,
perhaps from the bowels of the earth.
Then, not accidentally. not in particular
cases, but rs general rule. in order to
make thing useful the Greeks never
found it necessary it make it Ugly. To
Il great extent III modern times we sup
pose ourselves to be very free from
superstition, and often on occasions
, when We are not a bit more free from
SuperStitiOns than those who have gone
before us we should find that we have
only changed the form of it.
But there are many who believe that
/ in the case of industrial productions
it is a loss of time and pains to think
about giving to them a character of
beauty. 1t is this falsehOod which we
ought if we can to tear UP by the roots.
Let us reply to those who tell us so
that, Oh the contrary. the whole history
of Greek art is a demonstration of the
al
principle. Now what is very curious
is thiS-that in Greece the effect, or at
all events a contemporary phenomenon
of that sacred wedding-if [ may so call
it-betWeen industry and beauty is
that the idea is more fruitful and more
abundant than in any other country in
the world. A most remarkable in
stance of this has occurred quite recent
ly. In the streets of Athens there were
sold by some casual street boys figures
about 10 inches or Il foot in height,
of the human frame made of burnt
clay which attracted the attention Of
some men of practiced eye, who recOg-
nized that they were of exquisite beau
ty. They began to purchase them.
More figures appeared, more buyers ap-
peared, and at last the collectors in
France, in England, and in other places
began to- be anxious to range these
figures among their art objects. The
figures We're found i'll the tonbs Of Tan
agra, Il second-rate city in a SecOnd-rate
province of Greece, in BOetia, which
was known as the most stupid, l
would rather say the least clever and
tinguiSlci, of all the provinces Of
Greece. Think what must have been
the abundance Of the sense Of beauty
and the power Of producing beauty in
visible form among 4 people which
could afford to throw into the tOmbS
of i second-ratc people, OF 4 second
rate city, in 4 seco2d-ratc state, those
objects which people are now glad to
abstract from them and exhibit in the
choice cases of the Louvre or the
British museum. l have referred to the
model OF a glass coffin. But if ever, in
the course of the future, it should be
extracted from the bowels of the earth,
and opened 10 see what it contains, /
am afraid it will not be found to con-
tain images in terra-cotta or in burnt
clay similar to those which were found
in Greece.