PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE generality of treatises on the Fine Arts are too costly, too dry and technical, too much confined to one art or the branch of an art, too vague and mystified, to be of any use to the ordinary reader. The discussions on Art in journals and periodical works, how able soever some of them may be, are isolated and disjointed, and being often the production of different writers, are not unfrequently contradictory and discordant with each other. The sister Arts of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, are so intimately related to each other, that it is impossible to give a satisfactory account of one unconnected with the others. The object of the following pages is to present, in a popular form, a brief yet comprehensive sketch, historical and critical, of Ancient and Modern Art, from the earliest up to the present times. Those subjects which could not be discussed without interrupting the course of the narrative, are arranged under separate heads. The author has been at pains to consult the best authorities; but having likewise had an opportunity of visiting most of the galleries and great works of Italian and Continental Art, much is the result of personal observation. Extending as this sketch does over so wide and arduous a field of investigation, the author is aware that it must necessarily be imperfect, and that in spite of all his care many errors and omissions will be detected. His chief object is to inspire a taste for the elevated departments of Art, which unfortunately are little understood and appreciated even by our educated and learned classes. The remarks on the restoration of the Parthenon of Athens, as the National Monument of Scotland, contained in the first edition, have been omitted in the present, the author having already published a separate pamphlet on that subject. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Assyrian-Babylonian-Egyptian-Hebrew-Ancient Persian-Chinese-Indian-Cyclopæan-Etruscan. Grecian Architecture-The Orders-Licenses-Elements Second Architectural Era. Græco-Roman Architecture. Third Era. The Romanesque-Byzantine-Lombard- British Architecture. Anglo-Roman-Ancient British- Anglo-Saxon-Anglo-Norman, Ecclesiastical and Cas- tellated-Ancient Scottish-Gothic- Elizabethan- Tudor-British Italo-Roman-English Gardening, or Modern English Architecture-Anglo-Greek-Anglo- Italian and Roman-Corrupt and Unstable mode of Building-Prevalence of the Utilitarian Principle— Hebrew-Phoenician-Egyptian-Etruscan. Historical Sketch of Grecian Sculpture. Historical Sketch of Greco-Roman Sculpture. General Remarks on Grecian and Roman Sculpture. Advantages enjoyed by the Greeks-Character of Sculpture-The Ideal-Beauty-Expression-Atti- tude - Drapery-Science of Greek Statuary-The Relievo-Perspective-Materials of Greek Sculpture- Statues of Ivory and Gold-Colouring of Statues- Equestrian Statues-Estimate of Ancient Art-Fall of Grecian ArtCharacter of Roman Art. Sculpture and Architecture, National Arts-Intimate Connexion between the Three Sister Arts-Cultivation of Modern Art-The Antique-Study of Nature— Subjects of Composition-Facilities of Study-Value Sepulchral and Monumental Works-Hebrew-Ancient Greek-Asiatic-Roman-Romano-Christian-Campo |