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 Learning and Memory From Brain to Behahior 2nd
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CHAPTER 12

Development and Aging: Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Gestational age refers to:

A) time since birth.
B) time since conception.
C) mental age.
D) the age at which learning is particularly effective.
Ans: B Difficulty: Easy Page: 460 Section: Learning before Birth

2. A fetus is sufficiently developed to start perceiving and learning about sounds by about
___ gestational age.
A) 1 week B) 2 weeks C) 10 weeks D) 25 weeks
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 460 Section: Learning before Birth

3. Research has demonstrated that humans:

A) begin showing habituation to sounds at about two months of age.
B) show evidence of working memory abilities before they are born.
C) can demonstrate learning of basic sounds and language before they are born.
D) do not demonstrate operant conditioning until they are about a year old.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 460 Section: Learning before Birth

4. Studies in which infants were conditioned to kick at a mobile to make it move showed
that infants:
A) as young as 2 months could learn this response.
B) needed reminders in order to remember the response the next day.
C) maintained the response despite changes in context.
D) could remember the response for several weeks without any reminders.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 462
Section: Conditioning and Skill Learning in Young Children

T-187
T-188 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

5. Eyeblink conditioning:
A) can be learned by infants when delay conditioning is used.
B) cannot be learned by infants when delay conditioning is used.
C) can be learned by infants when trace conditioning is used.
D) is learned more slowly by infants when trace conditioning is used.
Ans: A Difficulty: Difficult Page: 463
Section: Conditioning and Skill Learning in Young Children

6. The technique in which infants are shown an action and tested for their ability to mimic
this action later is known as:
A) imprinting. B) mutation. C) neurogenesis. D) elicited imitation.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 463
Section: Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory

7. The technique of elicited imitation is used for assessing memories in infants because
infants:
A) cannot use language to respond in standard recall and recognition tests.
B) do not respond to classical conditioning situations.
C) cannot perceive sounds well enough to learn them.
D) learn more rapidly than older children do.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 463
Section: Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory

8. The research on the development of episodic and semantic memory discussed in your
textbook showed that:
A) 4-year-olds remembered episodic information better than semantic information.
B) 8-year-olds made more extra-experimental errors than intra-experimental errors.
C) 4-year-olds were especially prone to extra-experimental errors.
D) 6-year-olds could remember semantic information but not episodic information.
Ans: C Difficulty: Difficult Page: 464
Section: Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory

9. The research on the development of episodic and semantic memory discussed in your
textbook showed that:
A) semantic memory, but not episodic memory, is present in young children.
B) episodic memory, but not semantic memory, is present in young children.
C) semantic memory seems to develop more slowly than episodic memory.
D) episodic memory seems to develop more slowly than semantic memory.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 464
Section: Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-189

10. Which of the following is a possible reason for the slow maturation of episodic
memories in children?
A) The hippocampus is immature at birth and takes time to develop.
B) Very young children do not have a sense of self.
C) Very young children cannot express their memories verbally.
D) All of the answers are correct.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 465
Section: Development of Episodic and Semantic Memory

11. The time period in which learning is MOST effective is known as:
A) a critical period. C) an imprinting period.
B) a sensitive period. D) the gestational age.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 466 Section: Sensitive Periods for Early
Learning

12. The formation of an attachment to the first individual an organism sees after birth is
known as:
A) neurogenesis. B) synaptogenesis. C) imprinting. D) elicited imitation.
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 466 Section: Imprinting

13. Which of the following is true regarding imprinting?

A) The time window for imprinting cannot be extended.
B) Imprinting can be reversed.
C) It is an example of a critical period.
D) It does not seem to affect the animal’s behavior as an adult.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 466 Section: Imprinting

14. Sparrows raised in isolation still learn to sing, but their songs are abnormal. This is an
example of:
A) a critical period. C) an imprinting period.
B) a sensitive period. D) the gestational age.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 466 Section: Sensitive Periods for Learning

15. “Genie,” the little girl who was tragically isolated until age 13:
A) learned to speak, but only at the level of a three-four year old.
B) could not learn to speak at all.
C) learned language slowly, but eventually could speak normally.
D) could only make very basic speech sounds.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 467 Section: Language Learning

16. Regarding learning a second language:

A) you will learn more slowly if you learn as an adult than as a child.
B) you will be able to approximate native accents more closely if you learn as a child
T-190 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

than as an adult.
C) it doesn’t matter when you start.
D) you will learn equally quickly at any age, but will not learn the correct accent if you
learn as an adult.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Pages: 467-468 Section: Language Learning

17. Kanako, who is 5 years old, and her parents have just moved from Japan to the United
States Since the Japanese language does not make a distinction between the /l/ and /r/
sounds, what will happen to Kanako's and her parents' abilities to distinguish between
these sounds in the United States?
A) Kanako will be able to learn to make the distinction, but her parents will not.
B) Kanako's parents will be able to learn to make the distinction, but Kanako will
not.
C) Both Kanako and her parents will be able to learn to make the distinction.
D) Neither Kanako nor her parents will be able to learn to make the distinction.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 468 Section: Language Learning

18. If children are to learn to differentiate particular sounds used in their language, they
must be exposed to these sounds before they are:
A) 6 to 8 months old. C) 4 years old.
B) 2 years old. D) 10 years old.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 468 Section: Language Learning

19. In children, the dominant process in language learning is _____, while in adults it is
_____.
A) semantic memory; social imitation
B) semantic memory; episodic memory
C) social imitation; semantic memory
D) social imitation; episodic memory
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 468 Section: Language Learning

20. Research has shown that the use of gestures:

A) emerges before children have mastered spoken language.
B) is negatively correlated with the development of verbal language.
C) usually causes parents to reduce the amount of verbal communication with their
children.
D) may interfere with the development of verbal language.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 469
Section: Teaching Babies Signs before Speech
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-191

21. The process of physical change during which the body transitions to sexual maturity is
known as:
A) the sensitive period.
B) neurogenesis.
C) puberty.
D) adolescence.
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 469 Section: Adolescence: Crossing from
Childhood into Adulthood

22. Puberty ____, while adolescence _____.

A) is a physical process; has a defined endpoint
B) is a physical process; involves psychological and social change
C) does not have precisely defined boundaries; involves psychological and social
change
D) involves psychological and social change; is a physical process
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 470 Section: Adolescence: Crossing from
Childhood into Adulthood

23. During adolescence, a person's digit span:

A) declines from a higher-than-adult capacity.
B) has already reached typical adult capacity.
C) is still only 3 or 4 digits.
D) increases until it reaches typical adult capacity.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 470 Section: Adolescence: Crossing from
Childhood into Adulthood

24. Which of the following supports the idea that age-related improvement in working
memory capacity at least partially reflects exposure to and familiarity with the material
to be remembered?
A) Ten-year-old chess experts can remember more pieces than adults who do not
play chess, even though the children’s digit spans were lower.
B) Young children can remember only 3-4 digits, whereas teenagers can remember 7
-8 digits.
C) Performance on working-memory tasks increases throughout adolescence before
leveling off.
D) All of the answers are correct.
Ans: A Difficulty: Difficult Page: 470 Section: Adolescence: Crossing from
Childhood into Adulthood
T-192 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

25. Performance on working-memory tasks:

A) is relatively stable throughout adolescence, and improves very rapidly at the very
end of adolescence.
B) increases throughout adolescence before leveling off at adult levels.
C) improves very rapidly at the very start of adolescence, and then is relatively
stable.
D) decreases throughout adolescence before leveling off at adult levels.
Ans: B Difficulty: Easy Page: 471 Section: Adolescence: Crossing from
Childhood into Adulthood

26. Men generally perform better than women on tasks involving:

A) verbal abilities. C) spatial learning.
B) remembering locations of objects. D) working memory.
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 471
Section: Sex Differences in Learning and Memory

27. Which of the following is true regarding gender differences in learning and memory?
A) Young adult women outperform young adult men in learning the way around a
maze.
B) Most gender differences emerge before adolescence.
C) At all ages, males are quicker to learn a route on a fictitious map.
D) Females are better than males at remembering the positions of landmarks on a
map, but this advantage does not emerge until puberty.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 471 Section: Sex Differences in Learning
and Memory

28. Which of the following is true regarding gender differences in learning and memory?
A) They are almost entirely due to gender stereotypes.
B) Adult rats show the same kinds of differences as adult humans do.
C) Infant rats show the same kinds of differences as adult humans do.
D) Differences emerge much later than the time when sex hormones begin
increasing.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 471 Section: Sex Differences in Learning
and Memory

29. As people age from their twenties to their fifties, most types of memory:
A) gradually decline.
B) increase into the thirties and then gradually decline.
C) remain relatively stable.
D) gradually increase.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 472 Section: The Aging Memory:
Adulthood through Old Age
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-193

30. Which type of memory seems to be MOST vulnerable to decline as adults age?
A) working memory C) semantic memory
B) episodic memory D) skill memory
Ans: A Difficulty: Easy Page: 472 Section: Working Memory

31. A person's digit span:

A) remains stable throughout life. C) drops slightly in elderly adults.
B) improves slightly in elderly adults. D) drops drastically in elderly adults.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 472 Section: Working Memory

32. It has been suggested that older adults might be:

A) more susceptible to proactive interference.
B) less susceptible to proactive interference.
C) more susceptible to retroactive interference.
D) less susceptible to retroactive interference.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 472 Section: Working Memory

33. At what age does eyeblink conditioning start to decline?

A) 25 B) 35 C) 40 D) 65
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 472 Section: Conditioning and Skill
Learning

34. Which of the following is true regarding skill learning?

A) Elderly individuals are impaired in learning of basic but not in real-world skills.
B) People who are experts continue to improve their skill even into old age.
C) Middle-aged and older adults both show a decline in skill learning.
D) Older adults make more errors in learning skills, but learn them as quickly as
younger adults do.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 473 Section: Conditioning and Skill Learning

35. In which of the following situations would learning be the MOST difficult?
A) a 40-year-old trying to learn to type
B) a 75-year-old expert chess player trying to improve his game
C) a 70-year-old trying to learn to use an iPad
D) a 25-year-old trying to learn to play tennis
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 473 Section: Conditioning and Skill Learning
T-194 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

36. Which of the following people's skill will be the MOST resistant to decline in older
adulthood
A) Brandon, who plays golf once a year
B) Danielle, who learned to play the guitar in her 40s
C) Isaiah, who shampoos his carpets about every 5 years
D) Courtney, who is a professional chef
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 473 Section: Conditioning and Skill
Learning

37. Which of the following would elderly individuals have the MOST difficulty with?
A) a paired-associate test of memory
B) a test of general world knowledge
C) remembering their first kiss
D) recalling the names storybook characters from their childhood
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 473 Section: Episodic and Semantic
Memory: Old Memories Fare Better Than New Learning

38. In a paired-associate test of memory, elderly adults:

A) are better than college students in a directed forgetting test.
B) experience more problems during retrieval than during encoding.
C) perform well if items are presented at a slower pace during study.
D) outperform college students under most conditions.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Pages: 473-474 Section: Episodic and Semantic
Memory: Old Memories Fare Better Than New Learning

39. In an emotional memory test, elderly adults remembered:

A) more negative than positive images.
B) more positive than negative images.
C) more of all kinds of images than young adults did.
D) the same number of all kinds of images as young adults did.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 474 Section: Episodic and Semantic
Memory: Old Memories Fare Better Than New Learning

40. People with _______ perform worse on learning and memory tests than people with
______.
A) One copy of the Val allele; one copy of the Met allele
B) one copy of the Met allele; two copies of the Met allele
C) two copies of the Val allele; two copies of the Met allele
D) two copies of the Met allele; two copies of the Val allele
Ans: D Difficulty: Difficult Page: 475
Section: Genetic Variation and Individual Differences in Learning Abilities
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-195

41. The MOST common version of the BDNF gene is the:

A) Val allele. B) Met allele. C) His allele. D) Tyr allele.
Ans: A Difficulty: Difficult Page: 475
Section: Genetic Variation and Individual Differences in Innate Learning Abilities

42. Which of the following is true regarding the 5-HT2AR gene?

A) It helps modify synaptic plasticity.
B) It is most common version is the Val allele.
C) It encodes instructions for building a receptor for serotonin.
D) It plays a role in enhancing LTP.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 475
Section: Genetic Variation and Individual Differences in Innate Learning Abilities

43. Which gene appears to govern how action potentials propagate down the axon,
determining whether the message gets passed on to the next neuron?
A) BDNF
B) SNC1A
C) WWC1
D) 5-HT2AR
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 476
Section: Genetic Variation and Individual Differences in Innate Learning Abilities

44. Which of the following is true regarding the genetic basis of learning?
A) Researchers have discovered most of the genes that appear to be involved in
learning.
B) Genes must be activated before they affect learning.
C) Most genes act independently of each other.
D) Genes appear to play only a small role in learning.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 476
Section: Genetic Variation and Individual Differences in Innate Learning Abilities

45. When Tryon (1940) bred “maze-bright” rats together, he found that:
A) there was no improvement in maze learning across generations.
B) the first generation made fewer errors, but subsequent generations showed no
improvement in maze learning.
C) with each generation, the rats' offspring made more errors.
D) with each generation, the rats' offspring made fewer errors.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 476
Section: Selective Breeding and Twin Studies
T-196 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

46. What has been suggested by research on fraternal and identical twins?
A) The research has been mostly inconclusive.
B) Nearly all of the variation in memory scores may be accounted for by differences
in the environment and upbringing.
C) More than half of the variation in memory scores may be accounted for by
differences in genetic makeup.
D) Nearly all of the variation in memory scores may be accounted for by differences
in genetic makeup.
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 477
Section: Selective Breeding and Twin Studies

47. Listening to classical music such as works by Mozart:

A) activates the same brain regions that are used in abstract spatial reasoning.
B) has been shown to reliably lead to intellectual improvement.
C) leads to long-lasting changes in abstract reasoning abilities.
D) leads to improvement on a wide variety of intellectual tasks.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 478
Section: Can Exposure to Classical Music Make Babies Smarter?

48. The process of neuronal birth is called:

A) apoptosis. B) neurogenesis. C) mutation. D) synaptogenesis.
Ans: B Difficulty: Easy Page: 478
Section: Early Overproduction of Neurons

49. Which of the following is true regarding neurogenesis?

A) It is increased when BDNF is removed.
B) It is not uniform throughout the brain.
C) It occurs only after apoptosis has been completed.
D) The majority of neurons are in place by 10 weeks after conception.
Ans: B Difficulty: Difficult Pages: 478-479
Section: Early Overproduction of Neurons

50. During apoptosis:

A) neurons die as a result of accidents or disease.
B) neurons with fewer connections to other neurons are more likely to survive.
C) there is an increase in neurotrophic factors such as BDNF.
D) about 1/3 of the neurons die.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 479
Section: Early Overproduction of Neurons
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-197

51. Which of the following is true regarding synaptogenesis?

A) It begins immediately before birth.
B) It continues throughout the lifespan.
C) It occurs at relatively constant rates across different brain regions.
D) All of the answers are correct.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 479 Section: Pruning of Synapses

52. In humans:
A) up to 42% of all synapses in the cortex may be pruned.
B) synapses that are seldom used become strengthened.
C) synaptogenesis begins at birth.
D) the number of synapses is relatively constant from birth until age 8.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 479 Section: Pruning of Synapses

53. Sensitive periods:

A) leave no room for neural reorganization later in life.
B) are detrimental to the developing brain.
C) are beneficial to the developing brain.
D) are beneficial to an older, well-established brain.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 481 Section: Sensitive Periods for Neuronal
Wiring

54. Some of the MOST dramatic changes in the adolescent brain occur in the:
A) hippocampus.
B) basal ganglia.
C) prefrontal cortex.
D) cerebellum.
Ans: C Difficulty: Easy Page: 481 Section: Profound Changes in Prefrontal
Cortex

55. Myelination:
A) occurs before neurogenesis.
B) is completed in the frontal cortex first.
C) does not begin until after birth.
D) slows neural transmission.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 481
Section: Profound Changes in Prefrontal Cortex

56. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic development during adolescence?

A) synaptic pruning.
B) myelination of frontal cortex neurons continues.
C) myelination of sensory and motor neurons continues.
D) dopamine increase.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 481
Section: Profound Changes in Prefrontal Cortex
T-198 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

57. Testosterone:
A) surges at birth for males but not females.
B) surges at birth for females but not males.
C) increases during the first year of life.
D) is converted into estradiol.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 482
Section: Effects of Sex Hormones on Brain Organization

58. Which part the brain is proportionately larger in men than in women?
A) angular gyrus C) lateral frontal cortex
B) hippocampus D) supramarginal gyrus
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 482
Section: Effects of Sex Hormones on Brain Organization

59. In women, the _______ is proportionately larger than in men, and this is reflected in
women's superior performance on ______ tasks.
A) hippocampus; navigation
B) lateral frontal cortex; working memory
C) angular gyrus; learning lists
D) visual cortex; navigation
Ans: B Difficulty: Difficult Page: 482
Section: Effects of Sex Hormones on Brain Organization

60. Studies of the effects of sex hormones in adults have shown that:
A) testosterone improves rats’ ability to find the platform in a water maze.
B) women tested at points in their menstrual cycle when estrogen is high outperform
women tested when their estrogen is low.
C) recall of words is worse in women than in male-to-female transsexuals
undergoing estrogen therapy.
D) testosterone may promote learning on tasks requiring recall of specific verbal
information.
Ans: A Difficulty: Medium Page: 483
Section: Effects of Sex Hormones on Brain Organization

61. In old age:

A) human brains are about the same weight as in adolescence.
B) human brains have increased in weight by 5%.
C) the brain shrinks only in people who have suffered from disease or injury.
D) human brains have lost about 5% of their weight.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Page: 483
Section: The Brain from Adulthood to Old Age
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-199

62. Which of the following does NOT occur in the brain in old age?
A) Neurons in the prefrontal cortex are lost.
B) Neurons in the cerebellum are lost.
C) Neurons in the cerebral cortex show less connectivity.
D) Neurons in the hippocampus are lost.
Ans: D Difficulty: Easy Pages: 484-485
Section: Localized Neuron and Synapse Loss

63. Deficits in working memory in old age may be due to loss of neurons in the:
A) basal ganglia.
B) cerebellum.
C) prefrontal cortex.
D) hippocampus.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 485
Section: Localized Neuron and Synapse Loss

64. In old age:

A) the hippocampus experiences loss of neurons.
B) LTP remains relatively stable.
C) LTP may last longer than in young adulthood.
D) the ability to maintain changes in synapse strength may be reduced.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 485
Section: Loss of Synaptic Stability

65. When young vs. old rats learned locations in a maze, it was found that:
A) young rats’ neurons fired strongly during the first session but not during the
second session.
B) old rats’ neurons did not always fire in the same location during the second
session as they did during the first session.
C) old rats’ neurons fired strongly during the first session but not during the second
session.
D) young rats’ neurons did not always fire in the same location during the second
session as they did during the first session.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 486
Section: Loss of Synaptic Stability
T-200 Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan

66. Which of the following is true regarding neurogenesis?

A) It continues up until young adulthood and then stops.
B) In primates, it has only been unambiguously documented in a few brain regions.
C) Most of the new neurons are relatively permanent.
D) Although new neurons are produced, they usually do not make connections with
existing neurons.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Page: 487
Section: Adult Neurogenesis: New Neurons for Old Brains?

67. Down syndrome:

A) is a form of mental retardation.
B) affects males more than females.
C) occurs when an individual gets an extra copy of chromosome 23.
D) results in a life expectancy of about 18 years.
Ans: A Difficulty: Easy Page: 489 Section: Down Syndrome

68. Down syndrome is:

A) much more likely in children born to younger fathers.
B) much more likely in children born to older mothers.
C) much less likely in children born to older mothers.
D) usually due to a genetic accident occurring in the father.
Ans: B Difficulty: Easy Page: 490 Section: Down Syndrome

69. Individuals with Down syndrome:

A) have visibly smaller brains at birth.
B) show normal episodic memory as children.
C) have a larger-than-normal hippocampus at three months of age.
D) have a smaller-than-normal cerebellum in adolescence.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 490
Section: Brain Abnormalities and Memory Impairments

70. Ts65Dn mice, that are bred as a model of Down syndrome:

A) usually die at birth.
B) show relatively normal development of the hippocampus.
C) show relatively normal development of the cortex.
D) show improved spatial memory in females when housed in an enriched
environment.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 491
Section: Animal Models of Down Syndrome

71. Which type of memory ability is usually the first to show signs of impairment in people
with Alzheimer's disease?
A) episodic memory B) semantic memory C) conditioning D) skill memory
Ans: A Difficulty: Easy Page: 492
Section: Progressive Memory Loss and Cognitive Deterioration
Chapter 12 Learning and Memory across the Lifespan T-201

72. Amyloid plaques:

A) are collapsed proteins that normally hold neurons in place and transport nutrients.
B) first accumulate in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's patients.
C) are present in Alzheimer's patients but not in adults with Down syndrome.
D) may be evidence of the brain’s attempt to isolate and protect against damaging
types of beta-amyloid.
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 492
Section: Plaques and Tangles in the Brain

73. Neurofibrillary tangles are:

A) distributed evenly throughout the cortex.
B) collapsed proteins that normally hold neurons in place and transport nutrients.
C) first accumulated in the cortex of Alzheimer's patients.
D) an abnormal byproduct of a common protein.
Ans: B Difficulty: Medium Pages: 492-493
Section: Plaques and Tangles in the Brain

74. Which of the following is true regarding Alzheimer's disease?

A) It occurs in about 10% of people over age 85.
B) Conditioning is one of the first memory abilities to show signs of impairment.
C) Patients retain the ability to learn new skills.
D) Changes in judgment and personality occur fairly early in the progression of the
disease.
Ans: C Difficulty: Medium Page: 493
Section: Progressive Memory Loss and Cognitive Deterioration

75. In Alzheimer’s disease, the hippocampus is _____, which is the _____ in healthy aging.
A) larger than normal; the same as
B) larger than normal; the opposite of
C) smaller than normal; the same as
D) smaller than normal; the opposite of
Ans: D Difficulty: Medium Page: 493
Section: Plaques and Tangles in the Brain

76. Alzheimer’s disease:

A) cannot be definitively confirmed until after death.
B) can be confirmed with absolute certainty using brain-imaging techniques.
C) is sometimes treated with drugs that enhance glutamate.
D) has been successfully treated with more than 100 drugs.
Ans: A Difficulty: EAsy Page: 494 Section: Diagnosing and Treating
Alzheimer’s Disease
Other documents randomly have
different content
 A compound term applied by some writers to Art-science.
photography, and by others to all crafts founded upon
science. It is an absurd term, and its use should be strongly
discouraged. It is to be found in no good dictionary. It is an
unmeaning expression, because photography is an art founded upon
science, just as is etching, and to call photography an “art-science”
is to show imperfect knowledge of the English language, and
especially of the meaning of the two words of which the compound
is formed—art and science.
A word greatly misused by photographers. When Artistic.
applied to a person, it means one trained in art, and
when applied to a work, it means leaving the impression of an
artist’s handiwork; and this photographers should not forget, neither
should they forget that an artist has been trained in art. This should
especially be borne in mind by those who dub themselves “artist-
photographers,” whatever they may mean by that compound.
Photographers should wait for other people to call them artists, and
when artists call a photographer a brother artist, he will probably
deserve the title, and not before. In the same way they should
refrain from calling things artistic or inartistic, for it must be
remembered that to use these words aright implies that the speaker
possesses a knowledge of art.
Is a term used to describe simple arrangements of Breadth.
light and shade of colour, which produce a sense of
the largeness and space of nature. All great work has breadth, all
petty work is devoid of it; for petty minds cannot see the breadth in
nature, so they are naturally unable to get it into their work.
“This theory of what constitutes fine colour is one Colour.
of the peculiar traits of the old-time painters, and of
the landscape critic who studies nature in the National Gallery. If one
may judge by their remarks or by the examples they worship, a
painting to be fine in colour must first of all be brown, or at least
yellow; the shadows must all be hot and transparent; lakes and
crimsons must be used freely, while a certain amount of very deep
blue should be introduced somewhere, that the rest of the picture
may appear the warmer by the contrast. Above all things it must not
be natural, or it ceases to be fine and sinks to the level of the
commonplace. In fact, these colourists appear to admire a picture
from just the same point of view they would an Indian carpet, a
Persian rug, old tapestry, or any other conventional design, and
seem to judge of it by similar standards; if one suggests that it has
no resemblance to what it claims to represent, they reply, ‘Ah, but it
is a glorious frame, full of colour!’ But colour in painting can only be
really fine so far as it is true to nature. A grey picture may be just as
fine in colour as the most gorgeous. Beauty in colour, as in form,
depends on its fitness and truth.”—T. F. Goodall.
The vulgar view of fine colour is easily explained on evolutionary
grounds, it is but a harking back to the instincts of the frugivorous
apes—our ancestors.
There is much misconception as to the use of the Creative artist.
word “creator” in the arts. Some think only those
gentlemen who paint mythological pictures, or story-telling pictures,
are creators. Of course such distinction is absurd; any artist is a
creator when he produces a picture or writes a poem; he creates the
picture or speech by which he appeals to others. He is the author,
creator, or whatever you like to call him, he is responsible for its
existence.
Versifying, Prose-writing, Music, Sculpture, Painting, Fine art.
Photography, Etching, Engraving, and Acting, are all
arts, but none is in itself a fine art, yet each and all can be raised to
the dignity of a fine art when an artist by any of these methods of
expression so raises his art by his intellect to be a fine art. For this
reason every one who writes verse and prose, who sculpts, paints,
photographs, etches, engraves, is not necessarily an artist at all, for
he does not necessarily have the intellect, or use it in practising his
art. It has long been customary to call all painters and sculptors
artists, as it has long been customary in Edinburgh to call all medical
students doctors. But in both cases the terms are equally loosely
applied. Our definition, then, of an artist is a person who whether by
verse, prose, sculpture, painting, photography, etching, engraving,
or music, raises his art to a fine art by his work, and the works of
such artist alone are works of art.
 In a word, high and low art are absurd terms, no High art.
art is high or low. Art is either good or bad art, not
high or low, except when skied or floored at exhibitions. “High art”
and “higher artistic sense” we shall not use because they are
meaningless terms, for if they are not meaningless then every
picture falls under one or other category, high or low; if so let some
one classify all pictures into these two divisions and he will find
himself famous—as the laughing-stock of the world.
A volume might be written on this word, but it Ideal.
would be a volume of words with little meaning. As
applied to art, the meaning of “ideal” has generally been that of
something existing in fancy or in imagination, something visionary,
an imaginary type of perfection. G. H. Lewes says, “Nothing exists
but what is perceived;” we would say, nothing exists for us but what
is perceived, and this we would make a first principle of all art. A
work of pictorial art is no abstract thing, but a physical fact, and
must be judged by physical laws. If a man draws a monster which
does not exist, what is it? It is but a modified form of some existing
thing or combination of things, and is after all not half so terrible as
many realities. What is more terrible than some of the snakes than
the octopus, than the green slimy crabs of our own waters? Certainly
none of the dragons and monsters drawn from the imagination is
half so horrible. Did the great Greek artist, Æschylus, describe a
dragon as gnawing at the liver of Prometheus? No, he simply drew
the picture of a vulture as being sufficiently emblematic. But let us
assume, for the sake of argument, that the dragon is more dreadful
than any reality, even then the pictorial and glyptic artist cannot use
it, for as he has no model to work from, the technique will
necessarily be bad, there will be no subtleties of tone, of colour, of
drawing, all which make nature so wonderful and beautiful. The
dragon will be a pure caricature, that is all. Again, some people
consider it wonderful that a painter takes a myth and renders it on
canvas, and he is called “learned” and “scholarly” for this work. But
what does he do? Let us say he wishes to paint the Judgment of
Paris. He, if he is a good painter, will paint the background from
physical matter, shaped as nearly like the Greek as possible, and he
will paint the Paris and the ladies from living models. The work may
be perfect technically, but where is the Greek part of it; what, then,
does the painter rely upon? Why, the Greek story, for if not why
does he not call it by a modern name? But no, he relies upon the
well-known story—the Judgment of Paris—in fact he is taking the
greater part of the merit that belongs to another man. The story of
the Judgment of Paris is not his, yet it is that which draws the
public; and these men are called original, and clever, and learned.
Jean François Millet, in one of his scenes of Peasant Life, has more
originality than all of these others put together. Many people, not
conversant with the methods of art, think artists draw and paint and
sculpt things “out of their heads.” Well, some do, but no good artist
ever did. We have in our possession a beautiful low relief in marble,
done from a well-known Italian model in London. The work is as
good as any work the Greeks did, the type is most admirable, and it
was done by one of the sternest naturalistic sculptors of to-day.
A highly educated friend, an old Oxford man, called on us not long
ago, and was greatly taken with the head; after looking at it a long
while, he turned to us and said, “An ideal head, of course!” So it is
the cant of “idealism” runs through the world. But we have heard
some of the most original and naturalistic artists use the word
“ideal,” and on pressing them, they admitted it was misleading to
others for them to use the word; but they meant by it simply
intellectual, that is, the work of art had been done with intelligence
and knowledge, but every suggestion had been taken from nature.
The word ideal, to our mind, is so apt to mislead that we shall not
use it.
Ideal work (q.v.). Imaginative work.
To us Impressionism means the same thing as Impressionism.
naturalism, but since the word allows so much
latitude to the artist, even to the verging on absurdity, we prefer the
term Naturalism, because in the latter the work can always be
referred to a standard—Nature. Whereas if impressionism is used,
the painter can always claim that he sees so much, and only so
much, of Nature; and each individual painter thus becomes a
standard for himself and others, and there is no natural standard for
all. A genius like Manet tried to work out new ways of looking at
nature, and that was legitimate, but when weak followers took up
his “manner” and had not his genius, the result was eccentricity. For
these reasons, therefore, we prefer and have used the term
“naturalism” throughout this work. But, as we have said, we regard
the terms “impressionism” and “naturalism” as fundamentally
synonymous, although we think the work of many of the so-called
modern “impressionists” but a passing craze.
The method of rendering a picture as it appears to Interpreting.
the eye has been called interpreting nature. Perhaps
interpreting is as good an expression as any, for the artist in his
language (for art is only a language) interprets or explains his view
of nature by his picture.
“The local or proper colour of an object (Körper- Local Colour.
farbe) is that which it shows in common white light,
while the illumination colour (Licht-farbe) is that which is produced
by coloured light. Thus the red of some sandstone rocks, seen by
common white light, is their proper local colour, that of a snow
mountain in the rays of the setting sun is an illumination colour.”—E.
Atkinson, Ph.D., F.R.S.
See high art. Low art.
By this term we mean the true and natural Naturalism.
expression of an impression of nature by an art. Now
it will immediately be said that all men see nature differently.
Granted. But the artist sees deeper, penetrates more into the beauty
and mystery of nature than the commonplace man. The beauty is
there in nature. It has been thus from the beginning, so the artist’s
work is no idealizing of nature; but through quicker sympathies and
training the good artist sees the deeper and more fundamental
beauties, and he seizes upon them, “tears them out,” as Durer says,
and renders them on his canvas, or on his Durer.
photographic plate, or on his written page. And
therefore the work is the test of the man—for by the work we see
whether the man’s mind is commonplace or not. It is for this reason,
therefore, that artists are the best judges of pictures, and even a
trained second-rate painter will recognize a good picture far quicker
than a layman, though he may not be able to produce such a one
himself. Of course Naturalism premisses that all the suggestions for
the work are taken from and studied from nature. The subject in
nature must be the thing which strikes the man and moves him to
render it, not the plate he has to fill. Directly he begins thinking how
he can fill a certain canvas or plate, he is no longer naturalistic, he
may even then show he is a good draughtsman or a good colourist,
but he will not show that he is naturalistic. Naturalistic painters know
well enough that very often painting in a tree or some other subject
might improve the picture in the eyes of many, but they will not put
it in because they have not the tree before them to study from.
Again, it has been said that arranging a foreground and then
painting it might improve the picture, but the naturalistic painter
says no, by so doing “all the little subtleties are lost, which give
quality to the picture!” Nature, is so full of surprises that, all things
considered, she is best painted as she is. Aristotle of Aristotle.
old called poetry “an imitative art,” and we do not
think any one has ever given a better definition of poetry, though
the word “imitative” must not in our present state of knowledge be
used rigidly. The poetry is all in nature, all pathos and tragedy is in
nature, and only wants finding and tearing forth. But there’s the rub,
the best work looks so easy to do when it is done. Burns.
Does not Burns' poem “To a mouse” look easy to
write? This, then, is what we understand by naturalism, that all
suggestions should come from nature, and all techniques should be
employed to give as true an impression of nature as possible.
This is a mightily misused word. Only those artists Original.
can be called original who have something new to
say, no matter by what methods they say it. A photograph may be
far more original than a painting.
Some of the best writers and journalists of the day Photographic.
have adopted the use of the word “photographic,” as
applying to written descriptions of scenes which are absolutely
correct in detail and bald fact, though they are lacking in sentiment
and poetry. What a trap these writers have fallen into will be seen in
this work, for what they think so true is often utterly false. And, on
the other hand, photography is capable of producing pictures full of
sentiment and poetry. The word “photographic” should not be
applied to anything except photography. No written descriptions can
be “photographic.” The use of the word, when applied to writing,
leads to a confusion of different phenomena, and therefore to
deceptive inferences. This cannot be too strongly insisted upon, as
some cultured writers have been guilty of the wrong use of the word
“photographic,” and therefore of writing bad English.
Quality is used when speaking of a picture or work Quality.
which has in it artistic properties of a special
character, in a word, artistic properties which are distinctive and
characteristic of the fineness and subtlety of nature.
By Naturalism it will be seen that we mean a very Realism.
different thing from Realism. The realist makes no
analysis, he is satisfied with the motes and leaves out the sunbeam.
He will, in so far as he is able, paint all the veins of the leaves as
they really are, and not as they look as a whole. For example, the
realist, if painting a tree a hundred yards off, would not strive to
render the tree as it appears to him from where he is sitting, but he
would probably gather leaves of the tree and place them before him,
and paint them as they looked within twelve inches of his eyes, and
as the modern Pre-Raphaelites did, he might even imitate the local
colour of things themselves. Whereas the Pre-Raphaelites.
naturalistic painter would care for none of these
things, he would endeavour to render the impression of the tree as it
appeared to him when standing a hundred yards off, the tree taken
as a whole, and as it looked, modified as it would be by various
phenomena and accidental circumstances. The naturalist’s work we
should call true to nature. The realist’s false to nature. The work of
the realist would do well for a botany but not for a picture, there is
no scope for fine art in realism, realism belongs to the province of
science. This we shall still further illustrate in the following pages.
Relative tone or value is the difference in Relative tone and value.
the amount of light received on the different
planes of objects when compared with one another.
 Artists speak of the “sentiment of nature” as a Sentiment.
highly desirable quality in a picture. This means that
naturalism should have been the leading idea which has governed
the general conception and execution of the work. Thus the
sentiment of nature is a healthful and highly desirable quality in a
picture. Thus “true in sentiment” is a term of high praise.
“Sentiment” is really normal sympathetic “feeling.”
As opposed to sentiment, is a highly undesirable Sentimentality.
quality, and a quality to be seen in all bad work. It is
an affectation of sentiment, and relies by artificiality and
mawkishness upon appealing to the morbid and uncultured. It is the
bane of English art. The one is normal, the other morbid.
Soul = Vis medicatrix = Plastic force = Vital force = Soul.
Vital principle = O. The word is, however, used by
some of the most advanced thinkers in art, and when asked to
explain it they say they mean by it “the fundamental.” From what we
can gather, the word “soul” is the formula by which they express the
sum total of qualities which make up the life of the individual. Thus a
man when he has got the “soul” into a statue, has not only rendered
the organic structure of the model, but also all the model’s subtleties
of harmony, of movement and expression, and thought, which are
due to the physical fact of his being a living organism. This “life” is
of course the fundamental thing, and first thing to obtain in any
work of art. In this way, then, we can understand the use of the
word “soul” as synonymous with the “life” of the model. The “soul”
or life is always found in nature, in the model, and the artist seizes
upon it first, and subdues all things to it. “Soul,” then, to us is a term
for the expression of the epitome of the characteristics of a living
thing. The Egyptians expressed the “soul” or life of a lion, Landseer
did not.
By technique is meant, in photography, a Technique.
knowledge of optics and chemistry, and of the
preparation and employment of the photographic materials by the
means of which pictures are secured. It does in no way refer to the
manner of using these materials, that is the “practice.”
 To begin with, as this book is for photographers, we Tone.
must tell them they invariably use the word tone in a
wrong sense. What photographers call “tone” should properly be
colour or tint, thus: a brown tint, a purple tint, or colour.
The correct meaning of tone is the amount of light received upon
the different planes of an object.
“‘A mere transcript of nature’ is one of the Transcript of nature.
stock phrases of the art critic, and of many
artists of a certain school. The precise meaning attached to it
puzzles us; were it not always used as a term of reproach, we
should believe it the highest praise that could be bestowed upon a
picture. What adds to our perplexity is that the phrase is generally
applied by the critic to work which has nothing in common with
nature about it: and is used by artists who themselves have never in
their lives painted a picture with the simplest values correct, as
though transcribing nature to canvas were a stage in the painter’s
development through which they had passed, and which was now
beneath them. The critic must have but a very superficial
acquaintance with nature who applies this term, as is frequently
done, to work in which all the subtleties of nature are wanting. We
have heard of pictures in which no two tones have been in right
relation to one another, in which noisy detail has been mistaken for
finish, and the mingling of decision and indecision in fine opposition
—the mysterious lost and found, the chief charm of nature—has
been utterly unfelt, described as ‘transcripts of nature.’ Those artists
who use the phrase, adopt it as a convenient barricade behind which
they may defend their own incompetence.”—T. F. Goodall.
All photographers would do well to lay these Da Vinci.
remarks to heart. Instead of it being an easy thing to
paint “a mere transcript of nature,” we shall show it to be utterly
impossible. No man can do this either by painting or photography,
he can only give a translation, or impression, as Leonardo da Vinci
said long ago; but he can give this impression truly or falsely.
 CHAPTER II.
NATURALISM IN PICTORIAL AND GLYPTIC ART.

In this chapter we shall endeavour to An inquiry into the

trace the influence of the study of nature influence of the study of
on all the best art up to the present day. nature on art.
In order to do this it will be necessary to follow in Woltmann and
chronological order the development of art, and we Woermann.
propose taking as our guide in this matter Messrs. Woltmann and
Woermann, who seem the most trustworthy and are the most recent
of art historians. We feel, however, that we must state our attitude
towards them as historians of art. For the main historical facts, we
willingly accept as authorities these writers, since they have studied
the matter, but when these historians try to trace the causes and
effects of different phases of art on contemporary life then we
entirely part company from them, for there are so many wheels
within wheels in this complex comedy of life that we cannot with
patience listen to searchers of manuscripts and students of
autographs, who trace the fall of an empire to an oil painting, or the
decadence of painting to the cheapness of wheat: such dreams may
still serve, as they have always served, as a peg whereon to hang
rhetorical rhapsodies, but they can have no attraction for rational
minds. What we propose, then, is briefly to compile a short outline,
consisting of the salient facts in the history of art, in so far as they
bear on our subject, that is, how far the best artists have been
naturalistic, and how true in impression their interpretation of
nature. When we agree with any of the critical remarks of these
gentlemen, we shall quote them in full, acknowledging them in the
usual way, but we reserve to ourselves the right to differ entirely
from them on artistic points. We ourselves feel much diffidence in
advancing any critical remarks of our own upon these arts, for we
are convinced, after a long and practical study of the subject, that
no one can criticize any branch of art and the criticism be
authoritative, unless he be a practical master artist in the branch of
art which he is criticizing; but as our opinions have been put to the
touchstone of some first-rate practical artists in other branches than
our own, we offer them, standing always ready to be corrected by
any good practical artist on any point. As to who are good artists is
again another wide question. Certainly their name is not legion.
Our object in traversing all this ground, then, is one Criticism.
of inquiry, to really see how far “naturalism” is the
only wear for all good art, and we have done it in an impartial spirit,
arriving at the conclusion that in all the glyptic and pictorial arts the
touchstone answers. How far this is the case with the arts of Fiction,
Poetry, &c., is a more complex matter, and one we cannot now deal
with, but we feel that in the literary arts the matter is very different,
for in these arts we are not confined, as we are in the pictorial and
glyptic arts, to physical facts and their representation; for there is no
such thing as abstract beauty of form or colour. Art has served as a
peg on which to hang all sorts of fads—fine writing, very admirable
in its place—morality, not to be despised—classical knowledge and
literature generally, both of the highest æsthetic value, but in no
way connected with the glyptic and pictorial arts. Naturalistic art has
been found and lost, and lost and found time after time, and it is
because the Dutch, French, English and American artists of to-day
are finding it again that we feel hopeful for the art of the future.
Our object is, by these notes, to lead our readers to Our aim.
the works of art themselves, hoping that by this
means they will, to some extent, educate themselves and finally
form independent judgments on art matters. Much of the lamentable
ignorance existing on these subjects is due to the acceptance of the
dicta of writers on pictures, without the readers seeing the pictures
themselves. We earnestly beg, therefore, of any one who may be
sufficiently interested in the subject as to read this book, that he will
go and see the original pictures and sculptures cited; all of which are
within easy reach. It was our original intention to introduce
photographic reproductions of the best pieces of sculpture, and the
best pictures into this work, but we have decided against so doing,
fearing that the reader might be tempted to look at the
reproductions and neglect the originals, and a translation, however
good it may be, is but a small part of the truth. In thus expressing
our conclusions on naturalism in art, we do not set up as the
preacher of any new gospel. Such opinions as ours are as old as the
art of ancient Greece, nay older, for from the early days of Egypt
downwards these ideas have been held, we shall find, by great
artists in all ages. It is only in the application of these ideas to
photography, and in attempting to reduce them to scientific first
principles that we presume to claim any originality.

Egyptian Art.

On examining specimens of Egyptian art, whether it Egyptian art.

be their paintings, architecture, sculpture or book
illustrations (the papyri), one is struck by the wonderful simplicity,
decision and force with which they expressed themselves. The
history of Egypt has been so little studied, save by students of
history, and the old popular stories concerning the nations of the
past are so inaccurate and misleading, that one is at first surprised
to find such power in the works of those whom we were taught, not
so long ago, to look upon as Philistines; so that we might gaze on
the Pyramids of Gizeh, the statues of Rameses, and the granite lions,
with the wonderment of incomprehension. But now, of course, every
one knows that the Egyptians were masters in certain directions,
where we are but in our infancy. Even in their cavi relievi and wall
paintings, though these latter are but tinted outlines, they are not
the outlines of childish draughtsmen, weak and unmeaning, but they
show the force of a powerful skill that in one bold outline can give all
the essentials of a man, bird or beast, so that the picture looks living
and doing. All through their work there is a bigness of conception, a
solid grip of nature which makes their work surpass many of the
elaborately finished and richly detailed pictures of our modern art
galleries.
Let us call the reader’s attention to such Works to be studied.
examples as are easily to be seen, namely, the
granite lions, the cavi relievi and the papyri in the The lions.
British Museum. The lions, which are remarkable for
strength of character and truthfulness of impression, may be taken
as representative of the greatest period of Egyptian art, a period
which ended about the time of Rameses II.; for after that time the
artist began to neglect the study of nature, and gradual decadence
set in.
We strongly advise all our readers to go to the Landseer’s lions.
British Museum and look well at these lions. They
are hewn from granite, or porphyry, the hardest of stones, they have
conventional moustaches, and are lying in conventional positions,
yet withal, there is a wonderful expression of life and reserved
strength about them which makes you respect them, stone though
they be; and they convey to you, as you look on their long lithe
flanks so broadly and simply treated, the truthful impression of
strong and merciless animals. Your thoughts involuntarily turn from
them to Landseer’s bronze lions guarding Trafalgar Square. In them
you remember all the tufts of hair correctly rendered, even to the
wool in the ears, the mane, the moustaches. Even the claws are
there, and yet you feel instinctively you would rather meet those[2]
tame cats of Trafalgar Square, with all their claws, than the Egyptian
lions in the British Museum. The reason of this is that the Egyptians
knew how to epitomize, so as to express the fundamental
characteristics of the lion, they cared not to say how many hairs
went to make up the tufted tail, nor yet how many claws each paw
should have, but what they tried to do, and succeeded in doing, was
to convey a sense of his power and animalism, or to convey, in
short, an impression of his nature.

2. Since this was written Mr. Frith has published that Landseer
modelled these lions from a tame cat.

These lions were the outcome of the best period of Egyptian

sculpture. The Egyptian artists who carved those lions had been
striving to interpret Nature, and hence their great success; but as
soon as their successors began to neglect nature, and took to
drawing up rules, they went wrong, and produced caricatures. We
read that after the time of Rameses II. Rameses II. and
“every figure is now mathematically decadence.
designed according to a prescribed canon of numerical proportions
between the parts.”
All this we can trace for ourselves in the Wilkinson’s “Ancient
plates supplied with Wilkinson’s learned Egyptians.”
work, entitled, “The Ancient Egyptians.” We see in those plates that
something has happened to the people and objects represented,
something that makes them no longer tell their own story, they no
longer look alive, but are meaningless; the reason of this falling off
was that the artist no longer used his eyes to any purpose, but did
what was then supposed to be the right thing to do, namely,
followed the laws laid down by some men of narrow intellect—laws
called as now the “canons of art.” The very life of the Egyptian
artists of that period was against good work, for they were
incorporated into guilds, and the laws of caste worked as harmfully
as they now do in the Orient. There is, then, distinct Artists'
evidence that on the one hand the Egyptian artists of status.
the best period, when untrammelled by conventionality, created
works which, though lacking the innumerable qualities of later Greek
art, yet possessed, so far as they went, the first essential of all art—
truth of impression. Again, on the other hand, directly anything like
“rules of art” appeared, and the study of nature was neglected, their
art degenerated into meaningless conventionality, and as this
conventionality and neglect of nature were never cast aside, the art
of Egypt never developed beyond the work done by the artists who
carved the stone lions.

Monarchies of Western Asia.

Assyrian art differed from that of Egypt in that the Assyrian art.
outline of the figures was much stronger, and that
they painted their bas-reliefs; but the “imitation of nature was the
watchword” in Assyria, as it was in Babylon.
In studying the Assyrian bas-reliefs, those Assyrian bas-reliefs.
interested in the subject should go to the
Assyrian rooms in the basement of the British Museum, and look at
the reliefs of Bani-Pal—the famous lion-hunting scenes. There is, of
course, much conventionality in the work, as there The lion-hunt.
was in that of the Egyptians; but no observer can fail
to detect that the Assyrians were naturalistic to a degree that strikes
us as marvellous when we consider the subjects they were treating.
Note the lioness, wounded in the spine, dragging her hindquarters
painfully along. Does this not give a powerful impression of the
wounded animal? and does it not occur to you how wonderful was
the power of the man who in so little expressed and conveys to you
so much. Consider when those Assyrian sculptors lived. Look, too, at
the bas-reliefs numbered 47 and 49; and in 50 note the marvellous
truthfulness of impression of the horseman, who is riding at a gallop.
There is life and movement in the work, though there is much scope
for improvement in the truth of the movements. Look, too, at the
laden mules in bas-reliefs numbers 70 and 72. Such works as these
were done by great men in art, and though crudeness of methods
prevented them from rivalling some of the later work, their work is
at least honest, and, as far as it goes, naturalistic. The work does
not say all that there is to say about the subject; but it does say
much of what is most essential, and by doing that is artistically
greater than work done by scores of modern men. In addition to
their artistic value, how interesting are Historical value of the bas-
these works as records of history. reliefs.
Indisputable, as written history can never be, they are to us a
valuable record of the life and times. They constitute historical art in
its only good sense.

Ancient Greek and Italian Art.

Greek and Italian art. Ancient

 In discussing Greek painting we shall rely entirely upon the erudite
historical work of Messrs. Woltmann and Woermann, giving a short
résumé of their remarks on the subject. No Greek paintings
This is absolutely necessary, as not one extant.
specimen of Greek painting has come down to us.[3] But on the
other, hand, in dealing with Greek and Græco-Roman sculpture we
shall base our remarks on the Greek and Græco-Roman sculpture in
the British Museum.

3. Some paintings quite recently discovered in Egypt are

apparently the work of Greek artists, and tend to confirm this written
testimony.

Beginning then with Greek painting, let us History of Greek painting.

see what the historians tell us. They begin
by saying, in painting “the Greeks effected nothing short of a
revolution ... by right of which they deserve the glory of having first
made painting a truthful mirror of realities.” This fact, that their
pictorial art reached such perfection, is not generally known, for the
reason that the assertion rests on written testimony,—but it is
reliable testimony. The historians “insist on the fact that no single
work of any one of the famous painters recognized in the history of
Greek art has survived to our time.” Let us then briefly trace the rise
of Greek painting till it culminated in Apelles. Polygnotos.
Polygnotos (B.C. 475-55) is the first name we hear of,
and of his works we are told, “they were just as far from being really
complete pictorial representations as the wall-pictures of the
Assyrians and Egyptians themselves,” although in some particulars
there must have been a distinct advancement on the work of the
orientals. For example, we are told Polygnotos painted the “fishes of
Acheron shadowy grey, and the pebbles of the river-bed so that they
could be seen through the water.” Polygnotos fell, however, into a
pitfall which has entrapped many painters since, he painted
imaginative pictures. We are told he “was a painter of heroes,” some
of his school attempted portraiture, “but painting though in this age
was still a mere system of tinted outline design.” Agatharchos.
Then followed Agatharchos, “the leader of a real
revolution, a revolution by which art was enabled to achieve great
and decisive progress towards a system of representation
corresponding with the laws of optics and the full truth of nature.”
Agatharchos was a scene-painter, and was no doubt led by striving
for naturalism in his scenery to study naturalism in painting
generally. As the historians remark, “In scene- Scene-painting.
painting as thus practised, we find the origins not
only of all representations of determinate backgrounds, but also, and
more especially, of landscape painting. It is impossible to over-
estimate the importance of the invention of scene-painting as the
most decisive turning-point in the entire history of the art, and
Agatharchos is named as the master who, at the inspiration of
Æschylus, first devoted himself to practising the invention.” This
painter, it is said, also paid great attention to Perspective.
perspective, and left a treatise which was afterwards
used in drawing up the laws of perspective. It is said his manner of
treatment was “comparatively broad and picturesque.” Apollodoros.
Next came Apollodoros, a figure-painter, who also
combined landscape and figure subjects, and of whom Pliny says
“that he was the first to give the appearance of reality to his
pictures, the first to bring the brush into just repute, Easel-pictures.
and even that before him no easel-picture (tabula)
had existed by any master fit to charm the eye of the spectator.”
Apollodoros was the first to give his pictures a Chiaro-oscuro.
natural and definite background in true perspective;
he was the first, it is emphatically stated, “who rightly managed
chiaro-oscuro and the fusion of colours.... He will have also been the
first to soften off the outlines of his figures.... For this Brunn.
reason we may, with Brunn, in a certain sense call
Apollodoros “the first true painter.” We are told, however, that his
“painting was, in comparison with his successors, hard and
imperfect,” and that the innovations made by him in the relation of
foreground and background cannot be compared to the
improvements effected by the brothers Van Eyck in modern times.
We now read of Zeuxis, Parrhasios, and Zeuxis, Parrhasios, and
Timanthes, who, we are told, “perfected a Timanthes.
system of pictorial representation, adequately rendering on the flat
surface the relief and variety of nature, in other particulars if not in
colour.” The endeavour of Zeuxis was “by the brilliant use of the
brush to rival nature herself,” and from anecdotes related of him and
of Parrhasios, we gather that they “laid the greatest stress on
carrying out to the point of actual illusion the deceptive likeness to
nature.” Many of Zeuxis' subjects were taken from everyday life—
another step in the right direction. We now come to Eupompos.
the Dorian school, with Eupompos as its founder; and
here we find a determination to study painting scientifically, and to
conscientiously observe nature, for we are told Eupompos expressed
the opinion “that the artist who wished to succeed must go first of
all to nature as his teacher.” Pamphilos, a pupil of Pamphilos.
Eupompos, brought this school to maturity, and
insisted on the “necessity of scientific study for the painter.” He was
followed by Melanthios, who pursued the same lines Melanthios.
of scientific investigation; and was in his turn
succeeded by Pausias, of whom we hear, “It is quoted Pausias.
as a novel and striking effect, that in one of his
pictures the face of Methê (or personified Intoxication) was visible
through the transparent substance of the glass out of which she
drank.” His work was considered to have great technical excellence,
his subjects were taken from everyday life, and his pictures were all
on a small scale. Pliny says “his favourite themes were ‘boys,’ that is,
no doubt, scenes of child-life.... He developed, it seems, a more
natural method of representing the modelling of objects by the
gradations of a single colour.” We read, too, that his paintings drawn
fresh from life “were much appreciated by the Romans.” Such is the
case with all good naturalistic works, they always interest posterity,
whereas the so-called imaginative works only interest the age for
which they are painted. We should to-day prefer and treasure as
beyond price one of Pausias' studies of familiar Greek life, whereas
the heroes of Polygnotos would lack interest for us, and excite but
little enthusiasm. There was a third school The Theban-Attic school.
of Greek painting, that called the Theban-
Attic, and of this we read that there was “a great ease and
versatility, and an invention more intent upon the expression of
human emotion,” but no painter of this school made any very great
advance. At length we come to Apelles, the most Apelles.
famous of all Greek painters. He, although already
well known and highly thought of, went to the Sikyonian school, to
study under Pamphilos, and we afterwards hear of him as court
painter to Alexander the Great. We are told that at court his “mission
was to celebrate the person and the deeds of the king, as well as
those of his captains and chief men.” This was at any rate legitimate
historical painting. Woltmann and Woermann say, “In faithful
imitation of nature he was second to none; he was first of all in
refinement of light and shade, and consequent fulness of relief and
completeness of modelling.” And again we read, “Astonishing
technical perfection in the illusory imitation of nature” distinguished
Apelles. Thus we see that the great aim of the greatest of Greek
painters was to paint nature exactly as she is, or as glib critics would
say, to paint “mere transcripts of nature.” Protogenes.
Contemporary with Apelles was Protogenes, whose
aim was to reach the “highest degree of illusion in detail.” The cycle
of development seemed now to have reached its highest point, and
as the naturalistic teachings fell into the hands of inferior men, they
were abused, and Woltmann and Woermann tell us the imitative
principle was not kept subservient to artistic ends, and in the hands
of Theon of Samos the principle of illusion became an end in itself,
and art degenerated into legerdemain. This same tendency is now
showing its hydra head, and in London, Brussels, and other places
are to be seen inferior works hidden in dark rooms, or to be viewed
through peep-holes. We only want the trumpets of Theon.
Theon or the music of the opera bouffe to complete
the degradation.Following Theon, and probably disgusted with his
phantasies, came painters of small subjects; the The rhyparographi.
rhyparographi of Pliny, or the rag-and-tatter
painters, “who painted barbers' shops, asses, eatables, and such-
like.” “We see, therefore, that about B.C. 300 ... Greek painting had
already extended its achievements to almost all conceivable themes,
with the single exception of landscape. Within the space of a
hundred and fifty years the art had passed through every technical
stage, from the tinted profile system of Polygnotos to the properly
pictorial system of natural scenes, enclosed in natural backgrounds,
and thence to the system of trick and artifice, which aimed at the
realism of actual illusion by means beyond the legitimate scope of
art.”
“The creative power of Greek painting was as good as exhausted
by this series of efforts. In the following centuries the art survived
indeed as a pleasant after-growth, in some of its old seats, but few
artists stand out with strong individuality from among their
contemporaries. Only a master here and there makes a name for
himself. The one of these whom we have here Timomachos.
especially to notice is Timomachos, of Byzantium, an
exception of undeniable importance, since even at this late period of
Greek culture he won for himself a world-wide celebrity.”
Decadence, however, had already set in, and we find that
Timomachos neglected the study of familiar subjects, and returned
to the so-called imaginative style, producing such works as “Ajax and
Medea,” and “Iphigenia in Taurus.” Greek landscape painting.
Curiously enough, it was during this period
that the only branch of painting not yet tried by the Greeks, namely,
landscape painting, was attempted. Woltmann and Woermann
suggest a reason for this new departure when they say, “We can
gather with certainty from poetry and literature that it was in the
age of the Diadochi (the kings who divided amongst them the
kingdom of Alexander) that the innate Greek instinct of
anthropomorphism, of personifying nature in human forms, from a
combination of causes was gradually modified in the direction of an
appreciation of natural scenes for their own sake, and as they really
are.” Landscape painting, however, did not reach any great
perfection, for we are told it “scarcely got beyond the superficial
character of decorative work.” With this period ends Decadence.
the true history of Greek painting, though it still
lingers on, and becomes so far merged into that of Roman art that
between the two it is not possible to draw a line of distinction.
Roman art had a character of its own, and even Fabius and Ludius.
two painters, whose names, Fabius and Ludius,
and in the case of the latter whose works, have been handed down
to us; but the works of Ludius do not appear to have been more
than decorative work.
Besides the written testimony referred to, Vases, mosaics, &c., &c.
the state of art can be gathered from the
vases, bronzes, mosaics, paintings on stone, and mural decorations
which have come down to us. These were chiefly the work of Greek
journeymen, and though there is much that is excellent in these
productions, their period of decadence very soon set in. It is a gauge
of the art knowledge of to-day to watch the Antiques for tourists.
gullible English and Americans purchasing
third-rate copies of the works of Greek journeymen house-
decorators, and taking them home and hoarding them as works of
art,—works which were only valuable in their own time, in
connection with the life and architecture then existing, but which at
the present day are interesting merely from an historical point of
view, for no really artistic mind can possibly find satisfaction in such
work for its own sake. Did these uncultured buyers but reflect and
study for a while the natural beauties around them, they would soon
see the error of their ways.
In their conclusion on Græco-Roman art Woltmann and Woermann
say that they “have no doubt that Greek painting had at last fully
acquired the power to produce adequate semblances of living fact
and nature,” which could not be said of any painting up to that time.
Here then we have traced a quick development of Greek painting,
and an almost equally quick decline, and all through we find the
never-failing truth,—that so long as nature was the standard, and all
efforts were directed towards interpreting her faithfully, so long did
the national art grow and improve till it culminated in the statues of
Pheidias and the paintings of Apelles; but that directly nature was
neglected, as it was in the time of Theon, art degenerated, till at last
it fell, as we shall see, into the meaningless work of the early
Christian artists. We find even thus early that the Art criticism.
pedantic writer who knows nothing of practical art
had begun to fill the world with his mysterious nonsense. Such were
the rhetoricians of the empire who describe works Rhetoricians.
“purely anonymous, indeed in many cases it is clear
that the picture has been invented by the man of letters, as a peg
whereon to hang his eloquence.”
It cannot be too often repeated that technical criticism is not
authoritative unless made by masters of the several arts.
Let us now proceed to the British Greek and Græco-Roman
Museum, and look at the best specimens sculpture.
of Greek and Græco-Roman sculpture as exhibited there.
Taking for examination the specimens The British Museum
nearest at hand; we refer to those to be collection.
seen in the gallery leading out of the entrance-hall of the British
Museum. The busts which strike us most forcibly are Nero’s bust.
those of Nero, Trajan, Publius Hevius Pertinax,
Cordianus Africanus, Caracalla, Commodus, and Julius Cæsar. The
bust of Nero (No. 11) strikes one by the simplicity and breadth of its
treatment, combined as these qualities are with the expression of
great strength and energy. The sculptor has evidently gone at his
work with a thorough knowledge of the technique, and hewn the
statue straight from the marble, a custom, by the way, followed by
only one modern sculptor, namely, J. Havard Thomas. Look at the
broad treatment of the chin and neck of this bust of Nero. Nowadays
one rarely meets with even living awe-inspiring men, but that marble
carries with it such force, that, all cold and stony as it is, it creates in
you a feeling of respect and awe. It should be studied from various
distances and coigns of vantage, and if well studied it can surely
never be forgotten. It gives the head of a domineering, cruel,
sensual, yet strong man. In the bust of Trajan (No. Trajan’s bust.
15), we have the same powerful technique employed
this time in rendering the animal strength of a powerful man. With
his low forehead, small head, and splendid neck, the embodiment of
strength, Trajan looks down on us somewhat scornfully. Then, too,
No. 35, the bust of Publius Hevius Pertinax, is no mask, but a face
with a brain behind it. You feel this man Bust of Publius Pertinax.
might speak, and if he did, what he had to
say would be worth listening to. Perhaps for grip of the impression
of life this is the best of all these busts. Compare it with the mask (it
can be called nothing else) on the shelf above it, and you will see
the difference. The portrait busts of Busts of Cordianus and
Cordianus Africanus (No. 39) and Caracalla Caracalla.
are also marvellous for life-like expression. Look well at the cropped
head and beard of Cordianus from a little distance, and see how true
and life-like the impression is; then go up close and see how the hair
of the beard is rendered. It is done by chipping out little wedges of
the marble. Here is a very good example of the distinction between
what is called realism and naturalism or impressionism, for the two
last we hold to be synonymous, though for lucidity we have defined
them differently. If all the detail of that beard had been rendered,
every hair or curl correctly cut to represent a hair or curl, and this is
what the modern Italian sculptor would have done, we should have
had realism and bad work. This should be borne in mind in portrait
photography, that the essence, the true impression, is what is
required; the fundamental is all that counts; the rest is small,
niggling, contemptible.
Let us turn to No. 33,—the sensual face of Bust of Commodus.
Commodus,—he re-lives in the marble. Another
very notable bust is that of Homer (No. 117), in the Bust of Homer.
corner of the gallery at right angles to that we are
leaving. Look how truly the impression is rendered of the withered
old literary man; how the story of his long life is stamped on his
face, the unmistakable look of the studious, contemplative man.
Pass we now to the next gallery, and stop at the wonderfully fine
torso, No. 172. Look well at this beautiful Torso, and boy and thorn.
work, so feelingly, sympathetically, and
simply treated by the sculptor. You can almost see the light glance
as the muscles glide beneath the skin. This is a marvellous natural
work, as is also the boy pulling out a thorn from his foot. The young
satyr (No. 184) is also a wonderfully fine piece of Young satyr.
sculpture, and well worth close study. The student will
have ample opportunity for studying, side by side, in this gallery, bad
stone cutting and fine sculpture, for many of the fine marbles have
been barbarously restored. As an example, we cite the lifeless, stony
arms of No. 188, which compare with the rest of the figure, look at
the india-rubber finger of the right hand, and you will understand
what bad work is, if you did not know it already. Before leaving this
gallery let the reader look at No. 159, the Apotheosis of Homer.
Apotheosis of Homer. Now, as can be
imagined, this is the delight of the pedantic critic, and more ignorant
rhapsodies have been written on this work than perhaps on any
other piece of sculpture. Of course, as any candid and competent
observer will see, this is, as a work of art, very poor, and hardly
worth talking about, except as a warning. In passing into the gallery
where are the remains of the Parthenon frieze, notice an archaic
nude torso which stands on the left, and see how the artist was
feeling his way to nature. All portions of the Parthenon frieze.
Parthenon frieze should be most carefully studied.
The animals in 60 and 61 are fairly true, as in fact is the whole work.
It was on seeing one of Muybridge’s Muybridge and his
photographs of a man cantering on a bare- cantering horse.
backed horse, that a sculptor remarked to us, “I wonder if the
Greeks knew of photography.” And yet critics and feeble artists call
this work ideal, and declare they discover imaginary groupings
according to geometrical laws, and heaven knows what; all of which
the best sculptors deny. The student must now Horse of Selene.
look at the “Horse of Selene,” one of the most
marvellous pieces of work ever done by man. It was a long time
before we could see the full beauty and truthfulness of impression of
this great work, and the reason was due to a simple physical fact.
We stood too near to it. To see it well you should stand about twenty
or thirty feet off, and out of the grey background you will see the
marble horse tossing its living head, and you will be spell-bound.
Having observed the truthfulness of impression, go to it close up,
and note the wonderful truth with which the bony structure of the
skull is suggested beneath the skin. We can say no more than that it
is a true impression taken direct from nature, for in no other way
could it have been obtained. Nothing ideal about it at all, simply
naturalism.
Much nonsense has been written, too, about “idealism” in Greek
coins. To us they seem simply impressions taken from Greek coins.
busts or other works; but to make assurance doubly
sure, we have taken the opinion of two of the very best modern
sculptors, who are, we venture to prophesy, going to show us as
good work as any done by the Greeks, and in many ways even
better work.[4] Well, their opinion as to “idealism” in Greek sculpture
is emphatically that it existed not. They say that the Greeks were
naturalistic, the study of nature was the mainspring of their art, and
the truthful expression of the poetry of nature their sole end and
aim. That they attained this end in many ways we know, and in
certain ways they will never be surpassed, but in other directions
their work will one day appear childish.

4. All old work is to be surpassed, and that in the fundamental

matter of movement. This advance is entirely due to Photography.

We do not attempt to give a detailed technical Technical criticism.

criticism of sculpture as executed by the Greeks,
for, as we have said before, none but a first-rate sculptor can do
that; and as there are not half a dozen such in England, and as they
have quite enough work to do at present, we fear the public will
have to wait some time for such criticism. In the meantime those
interested in the subject cannot do better than study the works
mentioned, and let them leave all others alone; let them spend days
in studying those pointed out, and they will soon find themselves
able to distinguish good work from bad. Then, if Gibson gallery.
they want a good shock, let them walk into the
Gibson Gallery at Burlington House, for there they will see nothing
but bad work.
There is one point to be borne in mind when we look at the
surpassing beauty of the Greek statues, and that is the natural
beauty of the Greek race, and the number of excellent models the
Greek sculptors had before them to choose from. Taine.
Taine, in his charming but atechnical volume on “La
Philosophie de l’art Grec,” goes as thoroughly into this question as a
historian and philosopher can enter into the life of the past, and into
art questions, which in our opinion is to a very limited extent.
Nevertheless, his book is full of suggestions, and if our sculptors do
not to-day equal in beauty the antiques, the cause, in our opinion,
lies in the lack of perfect models, for the best technical work of to-
day we think is superior to that of the Greeks. We have seen
impressionistic renderings of nature by some modern sculptors
which we think more natural in all points than anything of the kind
to be found in Greek sculpture.
Like the Greeks have the leading men of the Modern French school.
modern French school adhered to nature,—a
school in our mind more akin to the Greek school at its best than
any other, and for the simple reason that it is more loyal to nature
than any art has been since the time of Apelles. As an Horizon-line.
example of the kinship between the two schools we
quote Woltmann and Woermann, who tell us the Greeks “placed
their horizon abnormally high according to our ideas; and distributed
the various objects over an ample space in clear and equable light.”
Now modern painters have happily discarded all laws for the position
of the horizon-line, and common sense shows that the height of the
horizon naturally depends on how much foreground is included in
the picture. The angle included by the eye vertically as well as
horizontally varies with the distance of the object from us, and the
only law therefore is to include in the picture as much as is included
by the eye; and this of course varies with the position of the motif or
chief point of interest. Millet has a good many high Millet.
horizons, and we feel they are normal not abnormal.
On this point therefore we think the Greeks were very advanced.

Early Christian Art.

Early Christian art.

 Leaving Greek art, we now come to the art of the early Christians.
Woltmann and Woermann tell us that “Early Christian art does not
differ in its beginnings from the art of antiquity.... The only
perceptible differences are those differences of subject which
betoken the fact that art has now to embody a changed order of
religious ideas, and even from this point of view the classical
connection is but gradually, and at first imperfectly, severed.... At the
outset Christianity, as was inevitable from its Jewish origin, had no
need for art. In many quarters the aversion to works of material
imagery ...—the antagonism to the idolatries of antiquity—remained
long unabated. Yet when Christianity, far outstepping the narrow
circle of Judaism, had been taken up by classically educated Greeks
and Romans, the prejudice against works of art could not continue
to be general, nor could Christendom escape the craving for art
which is common to civilized mankind. The dislike of images used as
objects of worship did not include mere chamber decorations, and
while independent sculpture found no footing in the Christian world,
or at least was applied only to secular and not to religious uses,
painting, on the other hand, found encouragement for purely
decorative purposes, in the execution of which a characteristically
Christian element began to assert itself by degrees.”
The pure Christian element began to assert itself The catacombs.
silently in decorative work in the catacombs, and
“these cemeteries are the only places in which we find remains of
Christian paintings of earlier date than the close of the fourth
century.” These works, however, “constituted no more than a kind of
picture writing,” as any one who has seen them can certify. But this
symbolism got very mixed with pagan stories, and we get Orpheus
in a Phrygian cap, and Hermes carrying a ram, both representing the
Good Shepherd. At other times the artists seem to have set
themselves to represent a Christ constructed on their knowledge of
the attributes ascribed to him, and we get a beardless youth
approaching “closely to the kindred types of the classical gods and
heroes.” “Mary appears as a Roman matron, generally praying with
uplifted hands.” Peter and Paul “appear as St. Peter’s statue at
ancient philosophers,” and the well-known Rome.
bronze statue of St. Peter, in the cathedral dedicated to him at
Rome, is no less than a bonâ fide antique statue of a Roman consul.
Here we have the same neglect of nature, and the bad work always
to be expected from this neglect and from enslaved minds.
The mosaics of Christian art were also handed Mosaics.
down from classical antiquity. Though rarely found in
the catacombs, this art was being much used above ground for
architectural decoration. This art, as Woltmann and Woermann
rightly say, was “only a laborious industry, which by fitting together
minute coloured blocks produces a copy of a design, which design
the workers are bound by. They may proceed mechanically, but not
so flimsily and carelessly as the decorative painters.” From about A.D.
450 we are told that church pictures become no longer only
decorative, but also instructive. Here then was a wrong use of
pictorial art—it is not meant to be symbolic and allegorical, or to
teach, but to interpret the poetry of nature.
A new conception of Christ it seems now appeared in the mosaics,
—a bearded type,—and this time we get the features of Zeus
represented. By means of the mosaics a new The emperors' school.
impulse was given to art, and in A.D. 375 a
school was founded by the Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and
Gratian, of which we read, “The schools of art now once more
encourage the observance of traditions; strictness of discipline and
academical training were the objects kept in view; and the student
was taught to work, not independently by study from nature, but
according to the precedent of the best classical models.”
At this time art, though lying under the influence of Byzantine art.
antique traditions, held its own for a longer time in
Byzantium, where the decorative style of the early Christians lived on
after the iconoclastic schism in the eighth century, and where we
read that this ornamental style began to be commonly employed.
After the age of Justinian (which itself has left no Justinian.
creation of art at Rome), many poor and conventional
works were executed at Ravenna. We read that for “lack of inner life
and significance, amends are attempted to be made by material
splendour, brilliancy of costume, and a gold groundwork, which had
now become the rule here as well as in Byzantium.” Thus we see the
artists became completely lost in confusion since they had left
nature, and they knew not what to do, but, like many weak painters
of the present day, tried to make their work attractive by
meretricious ornaments, and true art there was none. This is carried
out to-day to its fullest development by many men of medium talent,
who make pictures in far countries, or of popular resorts, or religious
subjects, and strive to appeal, and do appeal to an uneducated
class, through the subject of their work, which in itself may be a
work of the poorest description.
We read that in the year 640, “the superficial and Mosaics.
unequal character of mosaic workmanship increased
quickly.” The miniatures of the early Christians, Miniatures.
however, we are told, showed considerable power, but
the iconoclastic schism brought all this to an end. Mohammedans.
“The gibes of the Mohammedans” were the cause
of Leo the Third’s edict against image worship in A.D. 726. All the
pictures in the East were destroyed by armed bands, and the
painters thrown into prison, and so ended Byzantine art. This
movement did not affect Italian art.

Mediæval Art.

We have followed Messrs. Woltmann and Mediæval.

Woermann closely in their account of the decadence
of art from the greatest days of Greek sculpture and painting to the
end of the Christian period; but as our object is avowedly only to
deal with the best art—that which is good for all time—and to see
how far that is naturalistic or otherwise, we shall speak but briefly of
(the main points connected with) mediæval art, which has but little
interest for us until we come to Niccola Pisano, and Giotto. During
the early years of what are called the Middle Ages, Miniaturists.
miniaturists were evolving monstrosities from their
own inner consciousness, but with Charlemagne, who said, “We
neither destroy pictures nor pray to them,” the Charlemagne.
standard adopted was again classical antiquity. So
art continuously declined until it became a slave Ivan the Terrible.
to the Church, and the worst phase of this slavery
was to be seen in the East, under Ivan the Terrible, for we read that
“artists were under the strictest tutelage to the clergy, who chose
the subjects to be painted, prescribed the manner of the treatment,
watched over the morality of the painters, and had it in their power
to give and refuse commissions. Bishops alone could promote a pupil
to be a master, and it was their duty to see that the work was done
according to ancient models.” Here was indeed a pretty state of
things, a painter to be watched by a priest; to have his subjects
selected for him! One cannot imagine anything more certain to
degrade art. Religion has ever been on the side of mental
retrogression, has ever been the first and most pertinacious foe to
intellectual progress, but perhaps to nothing has she been so
harmful as to art, unless it has been to science.
During the period of this slavery, the Church used art as a tool, as
a disseminator of her tenets, as a means of imparting religious
knowledge. Very clever of her, but very disastrous for poor art.
How conventional art was during the Romanesque Glass paintings.
period can be seen in the glass paintings that
decorate many of the old churches, to admire which crowds go to
Italy and waste their short time in the unhealthy interiors of
churches, instead of spending it at Sorrento or Capri. These go back
to their own country, oppressed with dim recollections of blue and
red dresses, crude green landscapes, and with parrot-like talks of
“subdued lights,” “rich tones mellowed by time,” and such cant.
The Romanesque style of architecture was superseded in the
fourteenth century by the Gothic. A transformation Gothic.
took place in art and France now took the lead. The
painters of this period emancipated themselves from the direction of
the priesthood—a great step indeed. The masters of The guilds.
this age were specialists; the guilds now ruled
supreme in art matters. We read that “now popular sentiment began
to acknowledge that the artist’s own mode of conceiving a subject
had a certain claim, side by side with tradition and sacerdotal
prescription.... They took their impressions direct from nature,” but
their insight into nature was scanty. As Messrs. Woltmann and
Woermann very truly remark, “If for the purpose of depicting human
beings, either separately or in determined groups and scenes, the
artist wishes to develop a language for the expression of emotion,
there is only one means open to him—a closer grasp and
observation of nature. In the age which we are now approaching,
the painter’s knowledge of nature remains but scanty. He does not
succeed in fathoming and mastering her aspects; but his eyes are
open to them so far as is demanded by the expressional phenomena
which it is his great motive to represent; since it is not yet for their
own sakes, but only for the sake of giving expression to a particular
range of sentiments that he seeks to imitate the realities of the
world.”
There was a struggle at this period for the study of nature, and
the tyranny of the Church was being thrown off; there was then
hope that art would at last advance, and advance it did. What was
wanting was a deeper insight into nature, for nature is not a book to
be read at a glance, she requires constant study, and will not reveal
all her beauties without much wooing. And Thirteenth century sketch-
though we read of a sketch-book of this book.
time, the thirteenth century, in which appears a sketch of a lion,
which “looks extremely heraldic,” and to which the artist has
appended the remark, “N.B.—Drawn from life,” this in no way
surprises us, for have we not been seriously told in this nineteenth
century by the painters of catchy, meretricious water-colours, with
reds, blues and greens such as would delight a child, that they had
painted them from nature; pictures in which no two tones were
correct, in which detail, called by the ignorant, finish, had been
painfully elaborated, whilst the broad facts of nature had been
ignored. Such work is generally painted from memory or
photographs. Happily work of this kind will never live, however much
the gullible public may buy it. Next we read that “the germs of
realism already existing in art by degrees unfold themselves further,
and artists venture upon a closer grip of nature.” Niccola Pisano.
Here, then, were the signs of coming success, and
the great effect of these gradual changes was first manifested in the
work of Niccola Pisano, who “made a sudden and powerful return to
the example of the antique.” All honour to this man, who was an
epoch-maker, who based his conception “upon a sudden and
powerful return to the example of the antique, of the Roman relief.”
His work is by no means naturalistic or perfect, but it was enough
for one man to do such a herculean task as to ignore his own times
and rise superior to them. Painting, however, took no Cimabue.
such quick turn, but Cimabue was the first of those
who were to bring it into the right way. The principal works ascribed
to him, however, are not authenticated.
Another epoch-maker, Giotto, now appears. He Giotto.
seems to have been a remarkable man in himself,
which however hardly concerns us. The historian of his works says,
“The bodies still show a want of independent study of nature; the
proportions of the several members (as we know by the handbook of
Cemieno hereafter to be mentioned) were regulated by a fixed
system of measurement;” again, “The drawing is still on the whole
conventional, and the modelling not carried far.” His trees and
animals are like toys. Yet we read that “their naturalism is the very
point which the contemporaries of Giotto extol in his creations,” but,
as Woltmann and Woermann say, this must be accepted according to
the notion entertained of what nature was, and we are by this
means able to see how crude the notions of nature can become in
educated men when they neglect the study of it. But from all this
evidence we gather that Giotto’s intellect was great, and that his
strides towards the truthful suggesting of nature were enormous. His
attempts too at expression are wonderful for his age, see his
“Presentations,” the figures are almost natural notwithstanding their
crude drawing; he got some of the charm and life of the children
around him. We read that in some of his pictures, he took his
models direct from nature, as also did Dante in his poetry, but like
Dante he attempted at times the doctrinal in his pictures, as in the
“Marriage of St. Francis and Poverty,” he tried in fact what many
moderns are still trying to do, and daily fail to do, namely, to teach
by means of their pictures—a fatal error. Doctrinal subjects are
unsuitable for pictorial art, and will never live. Who cares now for
Giotto’s “Marriage of St. Francis and Poverty”? but who would not
care for a landscape or figure subject taken by Giotto from the life
and landscape of his own times?—it would be priceless. Owing to
circumstances, we hear that he had to put “much of his art at the
service of the Franciscans,” and though not a slave to them, yet we
read this disgusted him with the monkish temper. In 1337 Giotto
died, but he had done much. Without Kepler there might have been
no Newton, so without Giotto there might have been no Velasquez.
Artists at this time belonged to one of the seven The guilds.
higher of the twenty-one guilds into which Florentine
craftsmen were divided, namely, that of the surgeons and
apothecaries (medici and speziali). Here art and science were
enrolled in the same guild, and so were connected, as they always
will be, for the study of nature is at the foundation of both, the very
first principle of both. Together they have been enslaved,
persecuted, and their progress hampered; together they have
endured; and now to-day together they stand out glorious in their
achievements, free to study, free to do. The one is lending a hand to
the other, and the other returns the help with graceful affection.
Superstition, priestcraft, tyranny, all their old persecutors are daily
losing power, and will finally perish, as do all falsehoods.
We thus leave the art of the Middle Ages, as we left Summary.
the catacombs, with a wish never to see any more of
it. One feels the deepest sympathy for great intellects like Giotto,
and his greatest followers, whose lots were cast in times of
darkness, and we cannot but respect such as struggled with this
darkness, and fought to gain the road to nature’s fountains of truth
and beauty. But at the same time, though we may in these pictures
see a graceful pose here, a good expression there, or a beautiful and
true bit of colour or quality elsewhere, yet we cannot get away from
the subject-matter of many of the pictures, which, allegorical and
doctrinal as they are, do not lie within the scope of art, and above all
one cannot in any way get rid of the false sentiment and
untruthfulness of the whole work. Such works will always be
interesting to the historian and to the philosopher, but beyond that,
to us they are valueless, and we would far rather possess a drawing
by Millet than a masterpiece by Giotto.
When abroad, and being actually persuaded of their great
littleness, we have been moved with pity for the victims we have
met, victims of the pedant and the guide-book, who are led by the
nose, and stand gaping before middle-age monstrosities, whilst
some incompetent pretender pours into their ears endless cant of
grace, spirituality, lustrous colouring, mellifluous line, idealism, et id
genus omne, until, bewildered and sick at heart, they return home
to retail their lesson diluted, and to swell the number of those who
pay homage at the shrine of pedantry and mysticism. Had these
travellers spent their short and valuable time in the fields of Italy,
they would have “learnt more art,” whatever they may mean by that
term of theirs, than they ever did in the bourgeois Campo Santo or
dark interior of Santa Croce or Santa Maria Novella. Alas! that the
painters of the Middle Ages were unable to paint well. Had they
been able to paint, as can some of the moderns, and had they
painted truthfully the life and landscape around them, there is no
distance some of us would not go to see a gallery of their works:
works showing men and women as they were, and as they lived,
and in their own surroundings. There at once would have been the
pictures, the history, and the idyllic poetry of a bygone age; and
what have we now in their place? Diluted types of repulsive
asceticism, sentimental types of ignorance and credulity, pictures
hideous and untrue and painful to gaze upon, lies and libels on our
beautiful world, and on our own race. And whom have we to thank
for this? Religion—the so-called encourager of truth, charity, and all
that is beautiful and good.

Eastern Art.

Before beginning the renascence we must glance through

Mohammedan, Chinese, and Japanese art. With Mohammedan Art.
Mohammedan art we have little to do, as it was
entirely decorative. It is seen at its best in the Alhambra, and was
not the outcome of any study of nature. The Arabian mind seems to