The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-07-15
At the Library
Chinese and Japanese Art

Epoehs Of Chinese and japanese Art, f.
f. Fencllosa.
Ernest Francisco Fenellosa, author Of
Epochs OF Chinese and japanese Art, "
was born at Salem, Massachusetts. His
father, Manuel Fenellosa, was a Spanish
musician who came to this country in
1884, and married Mary Silsbee of salem.
Ernest Fenellosa was educated in the
schools of Salem and at Harvard In 1878
he accepted protessorship at the Unver-
sity of Toxic, Japan, and in 1886 was APP
pointed Commissioner of Fine Arts by the
japanese Government FeneIlosa's oppor-
tunities thus became very remarkable and
the work he accomplished was OF great
value, both to Japan and to the rest of the
world The Emperor in bidding him adieu
used these words; You have taught my
people to know their own art: in going
back to your great country, | charge you,
teach your own people also
This book is.the result of the Emperor's
admonition. Prof. Fenellosa died sud
denly in London in 1905, leaving his book
in what he intended merely for the first
manuscript draft. Had he lived we
should have had a work of greater merit,
but the facts, theories, and opinions
would have been unchanged for he wrote
from great knowledge and experience
Prof. FenelIosas body was transported
to Japan by the Imperial Government.
and rests near the Temple OF Atiidera by
the shore of Lake Biwa The great Fenel-
losa Collection in the Boston Museum Of
Fine Arts viii keep his name alive in his
native country.
To the student of art, Prof Fenelosa'
book is a mine of information; its value
to the general reader is indirect. In the
Western World education adheres so close
" to the European tradition that we are
apt to associate culture exclusively with
that tradition. Fenellosas book tends to
broaden the horizon, to make us perceive
that there are other traditions of equal
Importance. We look upon the literature
and art of China and Japan as something
curious, interesting, amusing" The
names of the great Greeks. of AIichelan-
gelo, Raphael, Titan, of Dante, Shakes
peare, and Goethe, represent for us the
highest possibility of attainment, but in
the long reaches Of Chinese and Japanese
history there are names of equal potency,
strange rs they may be to our ears The
great religions and PHILOSOPHERS are all of
the East, and great art is invariably asso-
ciated either with a great religion or a
great philosophy. Moreover, the highest
level OF refinement and general well-being
that has yet been gained by man was
reached in China in the 18th century and
in Japan in the 18th century. Wealth and
effort We're lavished upon the Buddhist
temples and monasteries Just as they were
upon the cathcdrals of mediacval Europe
From the earliest times the Chinese and
the japanese have had passion for land
scapes, for flowers, birds and trees, and the
landscape artists of the Sung and Ashikaga
periods together with the print designers
of later times are beyond all comparison
superior to the painters of the West. The
japanese color prints furnish the only in
stance in history of the development of
great art entirely for the common people
Any japanese workman of the 18th cen
tury could buy for trifle the prints for
which museums and collectors the world
over are now bidding against each other
All these things happened before we of
the West undertook the civilization" of
the Orient. Now there seems to be grave
danger that the Eastern races will sink
to our level But the ways Of men are
changeful and it may be that humanity
will some day be released from the llu-
sions of patriotism and the tyranny Of
race traditions, and will attain sympa-
'thetic culture that shall gather up into
itself every aspiration, dream, and achieve
ment of man.-Perhaps.