The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15
YOUR NEXT SUMMERS TOUR.
Course Of Reading to BE Followed If
You Plan to Go Abroad.

You Plan to Go Abroad.
Philadelphia Ledger.
Many Americans cross the big pond"
each summer, not as sightseers, but merely
for recreation and rest. The large majority
of tourists. however. travel for the pleasant
sort of instruction that comes from the
observation OF beautiful things, and for the
added enlightenment that is found amid
buildings whose very stones are part of the
history of the world.
A careful preparation Of the MIND before
starting for Europe will be richly repaid
by the additional enjoyment resulting from
such study after reaching there. Nothing
is more true than the saying that a man
can only carry away from Rome what he
takes there. The greatest masterpiece is OF
no value to the unframed eye, which can
see only its form and not it's meaning.
Sufficient technical knowledge to enable
a woman to form an appreciative opinion
upon the beauties of Old World art and
architecture must be acquired in advance
There Is no time to educate the judgment
prolonged stay can afford time for such
delightful schooling. The average tourist
is fortunate ii he or she can carefully read
a guide book.
The long evenings of the coming winter
may be usefully spent in gaining this
advance Information IL a trip to Europe next
summer is contemplated. Such reading
statistics that will be found set down in the
pages Of Baedeker. Such knowledge as this
would be forgotten before the need for Ii
arises. But 1t will not be either lost or
wasted effort to read carefully on such
subjects as the different styles Of archi-
lecture, the schools of painting and their
meanings, the events land their causes)
&Lo< go ~rnDrtnlf,nI thu hnSfnrfN MIA res
of Europe.
No one will be able to appreciate the beau
ties of a building unless they know some
thing of the development of architecture
as an art-unless they understand where
one minister differs from another In glory.
The tourist should also know the underly-
ing reasons for such divergence. 10 meet
this need he should learn what Ruskin has
to impart in his Seven Lamps OF Archf-
lecture and to share In the eiucidation OF
the Poetry Of Architecture" by thai IA,
nous critic Architecture for General
Readers by III. Heathcote Statham, and
"A Short History of Architecture" by Ar
thur Lyman Tuckerman, may also be rec
commended as being not too dry a medium
of rma on this somewhat abstruse
subject.
A tourist could spend hours in the famous
galleries of Europe without any knowledge
of painting resulting from the time thus
employed. Tourists are often heard 10 say:
II never could see any beauty in the pic
lures by the old masters. What Is the
pleasure III NdihihS QoSb hiNS 0AN III
of painted Madonnas? 1 like a picture L
can understand" Those Who utter such
opinions do not appreciate that the value
of canvases which are the treasures OF a
mighty nation perhaps rests in that very
something which they cannot understand.
IL Is better 10 strive for a knowledge or
the undying value of such pictures than to
contentedly rejoice in the shallow pretti-
ness of those that need no explaining. An
understanding of the elements of painting
will go far toward helping the tourist to
enjoy the art galleries OF Europe; without
il. even the riches of the Louvre are apt
TO be fiat, stale and Improbable" and
more wearying TO the flesh than wedding a
garden. The history OF art. its different
schools. the great opponents OF the latter,
the beauties OF hue, of form, OF conception.
of color-all these must be understood, IL
pictures are 10 differ from each other. save
in the subject treated
All the Van Dyke books can be recon-
mended for such study: Art for Arts
sake" Text Book of the History OF Paint
ing" and his lectures on the Italian, En-
glish and Dutch masters How TO Judge