The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-29

jects of great interest to the public now
is that of occupations for women, and
the question, what shall our girls learn
to do that will make them self-support-
ing and comfortably independent is
asked on all sides. Among the call
ings suggested that have been tried or
followed by women, little attention so
far has been paid to the Industry OF
woodcarving which must be classed
under the head of art.
In considering this general topic and
the advantage offered by the various
classes of artistic effort commonly pur-
sued by our students, surprise has often
been expressed that there has not been
established in this country years ago
any properly equipped school or master
teaching woodcarving or wood sculp-
fure as a fine art.
in Europe said one of the workers
in this art the other day, this delicate
handiwork has for centuries been one
of the favored forms of artistic pastime
among the women of the nobility, and
to-day it counts as it's devotees many
of the most exclusive and most highly
cultured women on that continent. Les
sons are as generally taken there in
this fascinating art by the young wom-
en- of the upper classes as are music
and painting by the daughters of fam
lilies of like social rank in this country.
at is indeed strange that this craft,
adaptable in its application to SO wide
a range of use and ornament has
never heretofore been properly present
ed to the cultured classes here. The
work is far more clearly than paint
ing, either in water colors or in oil, and
the implements require less attention
and care. The simple and most exact
principles upon which true art is based
are from their very nature susceptible
of more ready comprehension and mas
terry than those underlying many other
branches commonly taken up.
The .skillful handling of the few tools
required is quickly attained, and in
few lessons the average scholar is able
to execute exquisite work at once a
surprise and a delight
In addition to the rare pleasure re-
sulting from known ability to create
beautiful things, there are greater ben
efits accruing to the sculptor. not to
mention others. There is the fact that
ne has learned the better to appreciate
and value proportion, form and deiicacy
OF outline. and this knowledge, aside
from the personal satisfaction it brings.
enables him to judge with true accuracy
the artistic merits of all things, natural
or manufactured, having form as their
basis This essential sense can be Sc
cured in no other way so readily. In
deed, the artistic faculty, the esthetic
taste itself, can be perfected only by
fair knowledge of the truths which a
course in wood sculpture supplies.
This fact is being recognized in this
country now, as it has long been recog-
nized and observed in the centers of
high art in Europe, and even in the far
East Wise masters of the chisel now
bring their dainty craft to the art low
ers of our nation. and the void that
has been felt in the art education of
this young country will not long con-
tinue. Art in every form is but the
expression of a refined sense Indeed.
nothing more surely marks the spirit of
true refinement than the degree in
which an intelligent love of the beau
tiful is manifest Hence it is that
cultured persons are not only constant
patrons of art but seek themselves to
become proficient in some one or more
of its branches.
Music. sculpture, painting, ceramics
and various other familiar forms of like
endeavor have furnished expression to
mems increased and increasing culture,
and given broad opportunity for the de-
velopment of Individual faculties and
tastes. Great as have been the bene-
fits to mankind from the achievements
of masters in the several lines men
TONED, 1t may be well asserted that the
chiefest good has come from the atten-
ton given thereto by cultivated men
and women, who sought only further
self-improvement, and not the mere
making of fortune or a name.
This chaste love for the refined has
become markedly dominant in recent
times with the better classes, as is evil
denced by large number of such per-
sons who. in every department of es-
thetics, seek such scholarships under
the great masters who have unselfishly
relinquished the broadening advan-
tages of public service for the restric-
ton of studio or instruction room
Under the guidance and in the compan-
ionship of such tutors our favored
youth have grown in technical knowI-
edge and proficiency along selected
lines, until now it is by no means rare
to find among our women and men
those who work with brush, pencil or
pen, or whose ability as vocal or in
struneHtal musicians vies with the best
professionals in the respective direc-
tons. And yet, in every such case,
the only end sought was, as before
stated, the high culture of self and the
increased means thus secured of con-
tributing to the pleasure of others The
perpetuity and the perfecting of our
civilization rest, and safely so, upon
such a citizenship. (.
We are accustomed to the discovery
of lost works of art in Florence, and
generally take such excitements calmly.
But we do not often get an important
discovery, at such a very apropos mo-
ment,. as the finding of Vespucci's por-
trait and Ghirlandojo's lost fresco in
the Church of Ognissanti. just on the
eve of the vespucci centenary fetes.
Firstthe architect, Signor Spighi, found
an ancient shield in the corner of the
church near the tower. 1t was emblaz-
oned with the arms of the Vespucci.
and had a funereal inscription 10
Z "Amerigo Vespucci posterisque suis.
This Amerigo was the explorers grand
father. The architect searched for a
tomb in vain. Then came Roberto
Razzoli, a learned father of the Order
of the Minori Osservanti, who had been
engaged for some years in compiling a
-