Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/468

448 D K A W I N G expression of certain customary ways of seeing things which were transmitted traditionally by art, so that the artists in their turn became the means of imposing the authority of public sentiment upon their successors. The liberty of individual artists, even to draw what may seem such a simple thing as the outline of a human figure, is dependent upon the degree in which the civilization under which they live is or is not traditional. To understand the effect of customary ways of seeing things on the use of pure line in drawing, the reader is recommended to study some specimens of early design as it was practised in China, in Japan, in Egypt, in Assyria, and in Greece. It is easy, in these days, to procure photo graphic reproductions of ancient design when the student does not live near a museum. He will perceive at once in the five countries four entirely different ways of seeing and designing the curvature of lines, although the Chinese and Japanese ways are nearer to each other than they are to the Egyptian or the Greek ; whilst on the other hand, different as the two latter may be, they are nearer to each other than to the art of China or Japan. A certain kind of curvature is dominant in Chinese art, along with the preference for certain easily recognisable forms. In Japanese drawings the curves are wilder, bolder, more unexpected, more audacious ; and when the Japanese designer chose to make use of angles he was, from the same tendency to vivacity and exaggeration, disposed to prefer acute angles. In both Chinese and Japanese work, when at its best, there is often the most exquisite beauty and delicacy of line, especially in the contours of female faces ; and there is frequently a masterly power in the interpretation of natural truth, or certain portions of natural truth, by means of the utmost simplicity. In ancient Egypt the line was quieter and less " tormented " than in China or Japan, the curvature more restrained, and the artistic expression generally rather that of calm dignity than of vigorous action. Egyptian art was kept within the strictest limits by the most powerful con ventionalism that ever existed, but the student of drawing will find much in it that is well worth his attention. The Egyptian draftsmen attained to a most noble use of line, combining a serious and disciplined reserve with much, delicacy of modulation. The true grandeur of Egyptian work has only been apprehended of late years, because it was formerly supposed that its conventionalism was due to simple ignorance of nature and want of skill in art. It is of various degrees of excellence, and there were inferior artists in the early Egyptian schools, as in others ; but we are often startled by magnificent power in conventionalizing natural material, and by a peculiar sense of beauty. There is in Egyptian design a singular combination of tranquil strength with refinement. Assyrian design is very familiar to us through the ancient wall-sculptures, where the line is often rather engraved than carved, so that we can see quite plainly what were the qualities of drawing which the Assyrian artists valued. They, too, conventionalized nature, but sought for those curves and accents of line which express manly beauty rather than feminine. They drew, in their own way, admirably well, with great firmness and self-command, knowing always exactly what equivalents or representatives to give for the lines and markings of nature, in accordance with the spirit of their artistic system. Their art is much more strongly accentuated than the Egyptian, and we might even say that it is more picturesque while it is less tranquil. Assyrian design has more of the spirit of paint ing in it than Egyptian, and less of the spirit of sculpture. The Assyrian line tends to the expression of energy in action, the Egyptian to strength and beauty in re- poso, Notwithstanding the high degree of power and skill attained in linear design by nations which existed before the artistic development of Greece, it must ever remain an Gieece inexplicable marvel that the Greek designers should have attained, apparently without effort and simply by the gift of nature, to a degree of perfection in the use of line which had never been approached before and has never been equalled since. The manly beauty of an Assyrian king at a lion hunt, with his curly beard and his muscular legs, and his arm mighty to bend the bow, is grand indeed, but with a purely barbaric grandeur ; the half -feminine beauty of an Egyptian deity lives chiefly in the serene face the body is often frankly architectural, and has always rather the qualities of a column than those of the living flesh. But in Greece the curves of the line were for the first time made to express the fulness and grace of life, with an ideal perfection coining from the exquisite innate taste and refinement of the artists, and never to be found in any single model, How much knowledge and taste may be expressed by a simple line may be seen in any Greek vase of the best time, especially if there are both draped and naked figures, of both sexes, in the composition. The leading principle of Greek design on vases was the Greek expression of form by pure, firm, and accurate line. Spaces drawm were distinguished by flat tints of red, black, and white, but there was no shading to indicate modelling. When local colour could be easily hinted at by markings of black thicker than a simple outline, it was frequently done, as it was continually in Japanese art, but care was taken that these broader black markings should never be important enough to alter the true character of the design, as essentially a work in simple line. Thus, a woman s hair might be drawn with broad touches to make us see that it was darker than her flesh, and the dark band round the edges of her dress would be given in pure black of its own width. Nor was this the only device by which a certain degree of local colour was suggested to the eye, though it was not really imitated. The red did for ordinary flesh colour, and white for flesh-colour intended to be of more than ordinary fairness. Great spaces of black were reserved for the background, by which a striking relief was given to the figures. This is the regular principle of Greek vase decoration, though the artists did not strictly confine themselves to it, but would also work in simple black and white, as in the Portland vase, or introduce brighter colour sparingly, like the turquoise of the mantle of Thetis and in the wings of Eros in the vase of Camirus. This use of colour, however, did not in the least interfere with the unflinching system of Greek drawing, which was, in the strictest sense of the word, delineation. In this it differs absolutely from many modern kinds of drawing which avoid the line as much as the Greeks delighted in it. This is not intended as an expression either of praise or blame ; it is simply a statement of fact. The truth is that Greek line-drawing is simply the most Cll ( n , r ^ 1 perfect condition of a very early form of art. It is the (le j il )eLt child s idea of drawing, carried out with the knowledge and taste of men who lived in the early youth of the human race and were not disturbed and distracted by the dis coveries and experiments of modern Europeans. Amongst its other peculiarities may be mentioned its beautiful independence of anatomy. No anatomical markings are ever given simply as such. The figures are living men and women with their skins on, not ccorches in a dissecting room. There is less of the anatomical tendency in Greek art than in Assyrian. When the Assyrian artist wishes to make you feel that a man s leg is very strong he maps out every muscle and tendon as far as his knowledge will allow, but the Greek contents himself with showing the vigour

and ease of the strong man s action. It is, however, in