(W. Cr.)
1Whose members, comprehending as they do the principal living designers, architects, painters and craftsmen of all kinds, have played no inconsiderable part in the English revival.
1Whose members, comprehending as they do the principal living designers, architects, painters and craftsmen of all kinds, have played no inconsiderable part in the English revival.
ART SOCIETIES. In banding themselves into societies and associations artists have always been especially remarkable. The fundamental motive of such leaguing together is apparent, for, by the establishment of societies, it becomes possible for the working members of these to hold exhibitions and thereby to obtain some compensation or reward for their labours. With the growth of artistic practice and public interest, however, art societies have been instituted where this primary object is either absent or is allied to others of more general scope. The furtherance of a cult and the specializing of work have also given rise to many new associations in Great Britain, besides the Royal Academy (seeAcademy, Royal). At the outset, therefore, it will be well to mention the leading art societies thus described. The (now Royal) Society of Painters in Water Colours, founded in 1804, and the (now Royal) Society of British Artists (1823), are typical of those societies which exist merely for purposes of holding exhibitions and conferring diplomas of membership. The British Institution (for the encouragement of British artists) was started in 1806 on a plan formed by Sir Thomas Bernard; and in the gallery, erected by Alderman Boydell to exhibit the paintings executed for his edition of Shakespeare, were from time to time exhibited pictures by the old masters, deceased British artists and others, till 1867, when the lease of the premises expired. A fund of £16,200, then in the hands of trustees, had accumulated to £24,610 in 1884. The Artists’ Society, formed in 1830, has for its object the providing of facilities to enable its members to perfect themselves in their art. To this end there is a good library of works on art, and abundant opportunities are afforded for general study from the life. In the furtherance of a cult the Japan Society, devoted to the encouragement of the study of the arts and industries of Japan, is a typical example; and the Society of Mezzotint Engravers is representative of those bodies formed in the interests of particular groups of workers. One of the remarkable features in the history of art in Great Britain has been the rapid increase of the artistic rank and file. Taking the number of exhibitors at the principal London and provincial exhibitions, it is found that in the period 1885-1900 the ranks were doubled. At the end of the 19th century it was estimated that there were quite 7000 practising artists. Coincident with this astonishing development there has been a corresponding addition of new art societies and the enlargement of older bodies. For instance, the membership of the Royal Society of British Artists advanced in the period mentioned from 80 to 150. Similar extensions can be noted in other societies, or in such a case as that of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, where the membership is limited to 100,it is to be noticed that more space is given to the works of outsiders. But the expansion of older exhibiting societies has not proved sufficient. Portrait painters, pastellists, designers, miniaturists and women artists have felt the necessity of forming separate coteries. Interesting though these movements from within may be, the growth of societies originating in the spirit of altruism associated with such names as Ruskin and Kyrle is equally instructive. Nearly all these are the products of the last quarter of the 19th century, and include the Sunday Society, which in 1896 secured the Sunday opening of the national museums and galleries in the metropolis.
The specializing of study and work has also given rise to much artistic endeavour. For a long time archaeology—British and Egyptian—claimed almost exclusive attention. Latterly the arts of India and Japan have engaged much notice, and societies have been organized to further their study. Finally, bands of workers in particular branches of art have felt the need of clubbing together in order to protect their special interests. A slight suspicion of trade-unionism is attached to some of these; but on the whole the establishment of such bodies as the Society of Illustrators, the Society of Designers, and the Society of Mezzotint Engravers has been with a view to advancing the public knowledge of the merits of these branches of artistic enterprise.
Exhibiting Societies.—(a) Old Established. These in London are: The Royal Academy, the Royal Water Colour Society, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Society of Oil Painters, and the Royal Society of British Artists. In the provinces, the Birmingham Royal Society of Artists has been in existence since 1825, and has a life academy with professors attached. (b) Modern.—In this category are many which reflect the new spirit which came into artistic life in the last quarter of the 19th century. The New English Art Club, founded in 1885 as a protest against academic art, achieves its purpose by exhibition only. The International Society of Painters and Engravers, again, represents the wider ideas of the 20th century. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, consisting of fellows and associates, not exceeding 150 in all, conserves the interests of a numerous body of workers, and, in addition to holding exhibitions, confers diplomas (R.E. and A.R.E.) on the exhibitors of meritorious etchings or engravings. The Society of Women Artists (formerly the Society of Lady Artists) is wholly devoted to the display of works by female artists, and in 1891 the Society of Portrait Painters was formed to carry out the object conveyed in its title. Two associations advance the art of the miniature-painter, and the Pastel Society, formed in 1898, holds displays of members’ work at the Royal Institute Galleries. In Scotland there is the Royal Scottish Academy. The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours (Glasgow) grants the title R.S.W. to its members, and the Society of Scottish Artists (Edinburgh), founded in 1891, has a membership of nearly 500 young artists. Other exhibiting societies which call for mention are: The Yorkshire Union of Artists (Leeds), which consolidates many local societies; the Nottingham Society of Artists, which also encourages drawing from the living model; and the Liverpool Sketching Club, founded in 1870, which holds an annual exhibition.
Societies of Instruction and Popular Encouragement.—It is under this head that the chief evidence of the modern art revival will be found. First it should be noted that there are very few societies designed for the artistic improvement of artists. The Artists’ Society has already been mentioned; and the Art Workers’ Guild, which meets at Clifford’s Inn Hall, provides meetings, from which the public is excluded, where profitable discussions take place on questions of craft and design. But, as a rule, the art society, of which only artists are members, is organized for exhibition purposes or for the protection of interests. With regard to those societies of popular and educational intention the old Society of Arts in the Adelphi, founded in 1754, enjoys a good record. Numerous lectures on art subjects have from time to time been given, and in 1887 a scheme was devised by which awards are made to student-workers in design. The Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts (Conduit Street) has also laboured since its foundation in 1858 to increase a technical knowledge, its members holding conversazioni at various picture galleries. The Artists’ and Amateurs’ Conversazione, instituted in 1831, which used to meet at the Piccadilly Galleries and is now defunct, carried out a similar plan. Two other societies, now obsolete, should be mentioned whose method were directly educational. The Arundel Society, which for many years promoted the knowledge of art by copying and publishing important works of ancient masters, issued to its members on payment of annual subscriptions, was eventually wound up on the last day of 1897. The Arundel Club, founded in 1904, continues the aim, but with a wider scope, reproducing works of art rendered somewhat inaccessible by being in private collections. The International Chalcographical Society, formed for the study of the early history of engraving, also did useful work. Another association of painters, sculptors, architects and engravers, the Graphic Society, ceased on the 29th of October 1890. This was one of the most interesting of societies, rare works of art being exhibited and discussed at its meetings. A very active educational body, originated in 1888, namely the Royal Drawing Society, has for its definite object the teaching of drawing as a means of education. The methods of instruction are based on the facts that very young children try to draw before they can write, and that they have very keen perception and retentive memory. The society aims, therefore, at using drawing as a means of developing these innate characteristics of the young, and already nearly 300 important schools follow out its system. Lord Leighton, Sir John Millais, and Sir Edward Burne-Jones took an active part in the society’s labours. The Art for Schools Association, founded in 1883, has also done steady work in endeavouring to provide schools with works of art. These are chiefly reproductions of standard works of art or of historical and natural subjects. The wave of enthusiasm aroused by Mr Ruskin’s teachings caused Societies of the Rose to be founded in London, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow; but some of these eventually ceased active work, to be revived again, however, by the Ruskin Union, formed in the year of the great writer’s death (1900). Most of these societies were formed in 1879; but it should not be forgotten that two years earlier the Kyrle Society was started with the object of bringing the refining and cheering influences of natural and artistic beauty to the homes of the people. Under the presidency of Earl Brownlow, the Home Arts and Industries Association continues a work which was started in 1884, and anticipated much of the present system of technical education. Voluntary teachers organize classes for working people, at which a practical knowledge of art handiwork is taught. Training classes for voluntary teachers are held at the studios at the Albert Hall, as well as an annual exhibition. An interesting type of society has been established in Bolton, Lancashire. Under the title of an Arts Guild the members, numbering over 200, devote themselves to the advancement of taste in municipal improvements.
Societies of Special Study, Practice and Protection.—Under this head should be placed those associations which affect a cult, or are composed of particular workers, or which protect public or private interests. Perhaps the chief of the first kind is the Japan Society, which, since its inception in 1892, has been joined by over 1350 members interested in matters relating to Japanese art and industries. The Dürer Society, formed in 1897, has for its main object the reproduction of works by Albrecht Dürer, and his German and Italian contemporaries. The Vasari Society, founded in 1905, works in harmony with the Arundel Club and the Dürer Society, reproducing drawings by the Old Masters. In this category of special study may also be placed the Society for the Encouragement and Preservation of Indian Art, the Egypt Exploration Fund, and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Of the societies of special practice it has already been noticed that some are purely exhibiting associations, such as the Portrait Painters, the Pastel Society, and the two miniature bodies. The formation of the Society of MezzotintEngravers in 1898 is an example of the leaguing together of particular workers to call attention to their interests. Original and translator engravers, together with collectors and connoisseurs, comprise the membership. The decaying art of wood engraving is also fostered by the International Society of Wood Engravers, and the Society of Designers, founded in 1896, safeguards the interests of professional designers for applied art, without holding exhibitions. Special practice and protection are also considered by the Society of Illustrators, composed of artists who work in black and white for the illustrated press. This society was inaugurated in 1894, and fifteen of the members of the committee must be active workers in illustration. As an instance of the tendency of art workers to combine, the Society of Art Masters is a good illustration. This is an association of teachers of art schools, controlled by the art branch of the Board of Education, and has a membership of over 300. Good work of another kind occupies the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. The council of the Trust includes representatives of such bodies as the National Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Universities, Kyrle Society, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Selborne Society.
Foreign Art Societies.—The following are brief particulars of the chief art societies elsewhere than in Great Britain:—
Austria.—Vienna,Vereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs(Society of Austrian Painters) and theWiener Künstlergenossenschaft(Association of Viennese Artists).Belgium.—Brussels,Société des beaux-arts, theLibre Esthétique,Société des aquarellistes et pastellistes,Société royale beige des aquarellistes, and numerous private societies (cercles) in Brussels, Antwerp, Liége, Ghent and other cities.France.—Paris, theSociété des artistes français(The Salon),Société nationale des beaux-arts(The New Salon),Société des aquarellistes. Exhibiting societies are theSociété des artistes indépendants,Société des orientalistes, andSalon des pastellistes.Germany.—The small local societies are affiliated to one large parent body, theDeutsche Künstlergenossenschaft, in Berlin under the presidency of Anton von Werner. TheDeutsche Illustratorenverbandwatches over the interests of illustrators and designers. In Münich there are two bodies—theKünstlergenossenschaft(old society of artists), holding its exhibitions in the Glaspalast, and theVerein bildender Künstler, the Secessionists.Italy.—Four exhibiting societies: Rome,Società in Arte Libertas,Scuola degli Aquarellisti; Milan,Famiglia Artistica,Società degli Artiste; Florence,Circolo Artistico; Naples,Instituti di Belli Arti.Portugal.—Sociedade promotora das Bellas-ArtesandGremio Artistico.Russia.—There is no exclusively art society of importance, but there is at St Petersburg theSociété littéraire et artistique.Spain.—Madrid,L’Association des artistes espagnols.Sweden.—Stockholm,Svenska Konstuareruas Forening.Switzerland.—Berne,La Société des peintres et sculpteurs suisses.United States.—New York, National Academy of Design, American Water Color Society, and National Sculpture Society.
Austria.—Vienna,Vereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs(Society of Austrian Painters) and theWiener Künstlergenossenschaft(Association of Viennese Artists).
Belgium.—Brussels,Société des beaux-arts, theLibre Esthétique,Société des aquarellistes et pastellistes,Société royale beige des aquarellistes, and numerous private societies (cercles) in Brussels, Antwerp, Liége, Ghent and other cities.
France.—Paris, theSociété des artistes français(The Salon),Société nationale des beaux-arts(The New Salon),Société des aquarellistes. Exhibiting societies are theSociété des artistes indépendants,Société des orientalistes, andSalon des pastellistes.
Germany.—The small local societies are affiliated to one large parent body, theDeutsche Künstlergenossenschaft, in Berlin under the presidency of Anton von Werner. TheDeutsche Illustratorenverbandwatches over the interests of illustrators and designers. In Münich there are two bodies—theKünstlergenossenschaft(old society of artists), holding its exhibitions in the Glaspalast, and theVerein bildender Künstler, the Secessionists.
Italy.—Four exhibiting societies: Rome,Società in Arte Libertas,Scuola degli Aquarellisti; Milan,Famiglia Artistica,Società degli Artiste; Florence,Circolo Artistico; Naples,Instituti di Belli Arti.
Portugal.—Sociedade promotora das Bellas-ArtesandGremio Artistico.
Russia.—There is no exclusively art society of importance, but there is at St Petersburg theSociété littéraire et artistique.
Spain.—Madrid,L’Association des artistes espagnols.
Sweden.—Stockholm,Svenska Konstuareruas Forening.
Switzerland.—Berne,La Société des peintres et sculpteurs suisses.
United States.—New York, National Academy of Design, American Water Color Society, and National Sculpture Society.
(A. C. R. C.)
ART TEACHING. It is the tendency of all departments of the human mind to outgrow their original limits. Traditions of teaching are long-lived, especially in art, and new ideas only slowly displace the old, so that art teaching as a whole is seldom abreast of the ideas and practice of the more advanced artists. The old academic system adapted to the methods and aims in art in the 18th century, which has been carried on in the principal art schools of Great Britain with but slight changes of method, consisted chiefly of a course of drawing from casts of antique statues in outline, and in light and shade without backgrounds, of anatomical drawings, perspective, and drawing and painting from the living model. Such a training seems to be more or less a response to Lessing’s definition of painting as “the imitation of solid bodies upon a plane surface.” It seems to have been influenced more by the sculptor’s art than any other. Indeed, the academic teaching from the time of the Italian Renaissance was no doubt principally derived from the study of antique sculpture; the proportions of the figure, the style, pose, and sentiment being all taken from Graeco-Roman and Roman sculptures, discovered so abundantly in Italy from the 16th century onwards. As British ideas of art were principally derived from Italy, British academics endeavoured to follow the methods of teaching in vogue there in later times, and so the art student in Great Britain has had his intention and efforts directed almost exclusively to the representations of the abstract human form in abstract relief. Traditions in art, however, may sometimes prove helpful and beneficial, and preservative of beauty and character, as in the case of certain decorative and constructive arts and handicrafts in common use, such as those of the rural waggon-maker and wheelwright, and horse-harness maker.
Some schools of painting, sculpture and architecture have preserved fine and noble traditions which yet allowed for individuality. Such traditions may be said to have been characteristic of the art of the middle ages. It often happens, too, when many streams of artistic influence meet, there may be a certain domination or ascendancy of the traditions of one art over the others, which is injurious in its effects on those arts and diverts them from their true path. The domination of individualistic painting and sculpture over the arts of design during the last century or two is a case in point.
With the awakening of interest in industrial art—sharply separated by pedantic classification from fine art—which began in England about the middle of the 19th century, schools of design were established which included more varied studies. Even as early as 1836 a government grant was made towards the opening of public galleries and the establishment of a normal school of design with a museum and lectures, and in 1837 the first school of design was opened at Somerset House. In 1840 grants were made to establish schools of the same kind in provincial towns, such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Paisley. The names of G. Wallis in 1847, and Ambrose Poynter in 1850, are associated with schemes of art instruction adopted in the government art schools, and the year 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, was also marked by the first public exhibition of students’ works, and the first institution of prizes and scholarships. In 1852 “the Department of Practical Art” was constituted, and a museum of objects collected at Marlborough House which afterwards formed the nucleus of the future museum at South Kensington. In 1853 “the Department of Science and Art” was established, and in 1857, under the auspices of Henry Cole, the offices of the department and the National Art Training School were removed from Marlborough House to South Kensington. Classes for instruction in various crafts had been carried on both at Somerset House and Marlborough House, and the whole object of the government schools of design was to give an artistic training to the designer and craftsman, so that he could carry back to his trade or craft improved taste and skill. The schools, however, became largely filled by students of another type—leisured amateurs who sought to acquire some artistic accomplishment, and even in the case of genuine designers and craftsmen who developed pictorial skill in their studies, the attraction and superior social distinction and possibility of superior commercial value accruing to the career of a painter of easel pictures diverted the schools from their original purpose.
For some time after the removal to South Kensington, during the progress of the new buildings, and under the direction of Godfrey Sykes and F.W. Moody, practical decorative work both in modelling and painting was carried out in the National Art Training School; but on the completion of these works, the school relapsed into a more or less academic school on the ordinary lines, and was regarded chiefly as a school for the training of art teachers and masters who were required to pass through certain stereotyped courses and execute a certain series of drawings in order to obtain their certificates. Thus model-drawing, freehand outline, plant-drawing in outline, outline from the cast, light and shade from the cast, drawing of the antique figure, still life, anatomical drawings, drawing and painting from the life, ornamental design, historic studies of ornament, perspective and geometry, were all taken up in a cut-and-dried way, as isolated studies, and with a view solely to obtaining the certificate or passing an examination. This theoretic kind of training, though still in force, and though itenabled the department to turn out certificated teachers for the schools of the country of a certain standard, and to give to students a general theoretic idea of art, has been found wanting, since, in practice, when the student in design leaves his school and desires to take up practical work as a designer or craftsman, he requiresspecialknowledge, and specialized skill in design for his work to be of use; and though he may be able to impart to others what he himself has laboriously acquired, the theoretic and general character of his training proves of little or no use, face to face with the ever shifting and changing demands of the modern manufacturer and the modern market.
A growing conviction of the inadequacy of the schools of the Science and Art Department (now the Board of Education), considered as training grounds for practical designers and craftsmen, led to the establishment of new technical schools in the principal towns of Great Britain. The circumstance of certain large sums, diverted from their original purpose of compensation to brewers, being available for educational purposes and at the disposal of the county councils and municipal bodies, provided the means for the building and equipment of these new technical schools, which in many cases are under the same roof as the art school in the provincial towns, and, since the Education Act of 1902, are generally rate-supported. The art schools formerly managed by private committees and supported by private donors, assisted by the government grants, are now, in the principal industrial towns of Great Britain, taken over by the municipality. Birmingham is singularly well organized in this respect, and its art school has long held a leading position. The school is well housed in a new building with class-rooms with every appliance, not only for the drawing, designing and modelling side, but also for the practice of artistic handicrafts such as metal repoussé, enamelling, wood-carving, embroidery, &c. The municipality have also established a jewelry school, so as to associate the practical study of art with local industry. Manchester and other cities are also equipped with well-organized art schools.
The important change involved in the incorporation of the Science and Art Department with the Board of Education also led to a reorganization of the Royal College of Art. A special council of advice on art matters was appointed, consisting of representatives of painting, sculpture, architecture and design, who deal with the Royal College of Art, and appoint the professors who control the teaching in the classes for architecture, design and handicraft, decorative painting and sculpture, modelling and carving. The council decide upon the curriculum, and examine and criticize the work of the college from time to time. They also advise the board in regard to the syllabus issued to the art schools of the country, and act as referees in regard to purchases for the museum.
Of other institutions for the teaching of art, the following may be named: The Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain and Ireland, which was formed principally to promote the teaching of drawing in schools as a means of education. The system therein adopted differs from the ordinary drawing courses, and favours the use of the brush. Brushwork has generally been adopted for elementary work, too, by London County Council teachers, drawing being now a compulsory subject. Remarkable results have been obtained by the Alma Road Council schools in the teaching of boys from eight to twelve by giving them spaces to fill with given forms—leaf shapes—from which patterns are constructed to fill the spaces, brush and water-colour being the means employed. At the Royal Female School of Art in Queen Square, London, classes in drawing and painting from life are held, and decorative design is also studied. There are also the Royal School of Art Needlework and the School of Art Wood-carving, all aided by the London County Council. The City and Guilds of London Institute has two departments for what is termed “applied” art, one at the South London School of Technical Art, and the other at the Art Department in the Technical College, Finsbury. The Slade School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, University College, Gower Street, confines itself to drawing and painting from the antique and life, and exercise in pictorial composition. There are also lectures on anatomy and perspective. The Slade professorships at Oxford and Cambridge universities are concerned with the teaching and literature of art, but they do not concern themselves with the practice. There are also, in addition to the schools of art named and those in connexion with the Board of Education and the London County Council in the various districts of London, many and various private clubs and schools, such as the Langham and “Heatherley’s,” chiefly concerned in encouraging drawing and painting from the life, and for the study of art from the pictorial point of view, or for the preparation of candidates for the Royal Academy or other schools. The polytechnics and technical institutes also provide instruction in a great variety of artistic crafts.
A general survey, therefore, of the various institutions which are established for the teaching of art in Great Britain gives the impression that the study of art is not neglected, although, perhaps, further inquiry might show that, compared with the great educational establishments, the proportion is not excessive. Now that the Education Act 1902 has given the county councils control of elementary and secondary education and charged them with the task of promoting the co-ordination of all forms of education in consultation with the Board of Education, it is probable that an elementary scholar who shows artistic ability will be enabled to pass on from the elementary classes in one school to the higher art and technical schools, secondary and advanced, without retracing his steps, thus escaping the depression of going over old ground.
The general movement of revival of interest in the arts of decorative design and the allied handicrafts, with the desire to re-establish their influence in art-teaching, has been due to many causes, among which the work of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society may count as important. From the leading members of this body the London County Council Technical Educational Board, when it was face to face with the problem of organizing its new schools and its technical classes, sought advice and aid. Success has attended their schools, especially the Central School of Arts and Crafts at Morley Hall, Regent Street. The object of the school is to provide the craftsman in the various branches of decorative design with such means of improving his taste and skill as the workshop does not afford. It does not concern itself with the amateur or with theoretic drawing. The main difference in principle adopted in this school in the teaching of design is the absence of teaching designapart from handicraft.It is considered that a craftsman thoroughly acquainted with the natural capacities of his material and strictly understanding the conditions of his work, would be able, if he had any feeling or invention, to design appropriately in that material, and no designing can be good apart from a knowledge of the material in which it is intended to be carried out. It should be remembered, too, that graphic skill in representing the appearances of natural objects is one sort of skill, and the executive skill of the craftsman in working out his design, say in wood or metal, is quite another. It follows that the works of drawing or design made by the craftsman would be of quite a different character from a pictorial drawing, and might be quite simple and abstract, while clear and accurate. The training for the pictorial artist and for the craftsman would, therefore, naturally be different.
The character of the art-teaching adopted in any country must of course depend upon the dominant conception of art and its function and purpose. If we regard it as an idle accomplishment for the leisured few, its methods will be amateurish and superficial. If we regard art as an important factor in education, as a language of the intelligence, as an indispensable companion to literature, we shall favour systematic study and a training in the power of direct expression by means of line. We shall value the symbolic drawing of early civilizations like the Egyptian, and symbolic art generally, and in the history of decorative art we shall find the true accompaniment and illustration of human history itself. From this point of view we shall value the acquisition of the power of drawing for the purpose of presenting and explaining the facts and forms of nature. Drawing will be themost direct means at the command of the teacher to explain, to expound, to demonstrate where mere words are not sufficiently definite or explicit. Drawing in this sense is taking a more important place in education, especially in primary education, though there is no need for it to stop there, and one feels it may be destined to take a more important position both as a training for the eye and hand and an aid to the teacher. Then, again, we may regard art more from its social aspect as an essential accompaniment of human life, not only for its illustrative and depicting powers, but also and no less for its pleasure-giving properties, its power of awakening and stimulating the observation and sympathy with the moods of nature, its power of touching the emotions, and above all of appealing to our sense of beauty. We shall regard the study of art from this point of view as the greatest civilizer, the most permeating of social and human forces. Such ideas as these, shared no doubt by all who take pleasure and interest in art, or feel it to be an important element in their lives, are crossed and often obscured by a multitude of mundane considerations, and it is probably out of the struggle for ascendancy between these that our systems of art teaching are evolved. There is the demand of the right to live on the part of the artist and the teacher of art. There is the demand on the part of the manufacturer and salesman for such art as will help him to dispose of his goods. In the present commercial rivalry between nations this latter demand is brought into prominent relief, and art is apt to be made a minister, or perhaps a slave to the market. These are but accidental relationships with art. All who care for art value it as a means of expression, and for the pleasure and beauty it infuses into all it touches, or as essential and inseparable from life itself. Seeing then the importance of art from any point of view, individual, social, commercial, intellectual, emotional, economic, it should be important to us in our systems of art-teaching not to lose sight of the end in arranging the means—not to allow our teaching to be dominated by either dilettantism or commercialism, neither to be feeble for want of technical skill, nor to sacrifice everything to technique. The true object of art-teaching is very much like that of all education—to inform the mind, while you give skill to the hand—not to impose certain rigid rules, or fixed recipes and methods of work, but while giving instruction in definite methods and the use of materials, to allow for the individual development of the student and enable him to acquire the power to express himself through different media without forgetting the grammar and alphabet of design. Practice may vary, but principles remain, and there is a certain logic in art, as well as in reasoning. All art is conditioned in the mode of its expression by its material, and even the most individual kind of art has a convention of its own by the very necessities and means of its existence. Methods of expression, conventions alter as each artist, each age seeks some new interpretation of nature and the imagination—the well-springs of artistic life, and from these reviving streams continually flow new harmonies, new inventions and recombinations, taking form and colour according to the temperaments which give them birth.
(W. Cr.)
ARTUSI, GIOVANNI MARIA,Italian composer and musical theorist, was born in Bologna, and died on the 18th of August 1613. He wascanonico regulareat the church of San Salvatore in his native city. He is chiefly famous in the history of music for his attacks upon Monteverde (q.v.) embodied in hisL’Artusi overo d. imp.(1600). For an exhaustive explanation and a translation of excerpts from these the studies of Dr G. Vogel and O. Riemann should be consulted. These will be found in theVierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft, Leipzig, vol. 3, pp. 326, 380 and 426.
ARU ISLANDS(DutchAroe), a group in the residency of Amboyna, Dutch East Indies; between 5° 18′ and 7° 5′ S., and 134° and 135° E.; the member nearest to the south-west coast of New Guinea lying about 70 m. from it. The larger islands (Wokan, Kobrur, Maikor and Trangan), and certain of the lesser ones, are regarded by the Malays as one land mass which they calltana besar(“great land”). This is justified inasmuch as its parts are only isolated by narrow creeks of curious form, having the character of rivers. The smaller islands number some eighty; the total land area is 3244 sq. m.; and the population about 22,000. The islands are low, but it is only on the coast that the ground is swampy. The principal formation is coralline limestone; the eastern coast is defended by coral reefs, and the neighbouring sea (extending as far as New Guinea, and thus demonstrating a physical connexion with that land) is shallow, and abounds in coral in full growth. A large part of the surface is covered with virgin forest, consisting of screw-pines, palm trees, tree ferns, canariums, &c. The fauna is altogether Papuan. The natives are also Papuans, but of mixed blood. They are divided into two confederations, the Uli-luna and the Uli-sawa, which are hostile to each other. The houses are remarkable as being built on piles sunk in the solid rock and having two rooms, the one surrounding the other. The people are in manners complete savages. The natives are governed by rajas (orang kajas), the Dutch government being represented by aposthouder.In the interior is said to exist a tribe—the Korongoeis—with white skins and fair hair, but it has never been seen by travellers. A few villages are nominally Christian, and the Malays have introduced Mahommedanism, but most of the natives have no religion. Dobbo, on a small western island, is the chief place; its resident population is reinforced annually, at the time of the west monsoon, by traders from that quarter, who deal in the tripang, pearl shell, tortoise-shell, and other produce of the islands.
ARUNDEL, EARLDOM OF.This historic dignity, the premier earldom of England, is popularly but erroneously supposed to be annexed to the possession of Arundel Castle. Norman earls were earls of counties, though sometimes styled from their chief residence or from the county town, and Mr J.H. Round has shown that the earldom of “Arundel” was really that of Sussex. Its origin was the grant by Henry I. to his second wife, in dower, of the forfeited “honour” of Arundel, of which the castle was the head, and which comprised a large portion of Sussex. After his death she married William “de Albini” (i.e.d’Aubigny), who from about the year 1141 is variously styled earl of Sussex, of Chichester, or of Arundel, or even Earl William “de Albini.” His first known appearance as earl is at Christmas 1141, and it has been ascertained that, after acquiring the castle by marriage, he had not thereby become an earl. Henry II., on his accession, “gave” him the castle and honour of Arundel, in fee, together with “the third penny of the pleas of Sussex, of which he is earl.” His male line of heirs became extinct on the death of Hugh “de Albini,” earl of Arundel, in 1243, who had four sisters and co-heirs. In the partition of his estates, the castle and honour of Arundel were assigned to his second sister’s son, John Fitzalan of a Breton house, from which sprang also the royal house of Stuart. It is proved, however, by record evidence, that neither John nor his son and successor were ever earls; but from about the end of 1289, when his grandson Richard came of age, he is styled earl of Arundel. Richard’s son Edmund was forfeited and beheaded in 1326, and Arundel was out of possession of the family till 1331, when his son was restored, and regained the castle and also the earldom by separate grants. Both were again lost in 1397 on his son being beheaded and attainted. But the latter’s son was restored to both the earldom and the estates by Henry IV. in 1400. He died without issue in 1415.
The castle and estates now passed to the late earl’s cousin and heir-male under a family entail, but the representation in blood of the late earl passed to his sisters and co-heirs, of whom the eldest had married Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk. The descent of the earldom remained in doubt, till the heir-male’s son and heir successfully claimed it in 1433, in virtue of his tenure of the castle, alleging that it was “a dignity or name united and annexed to the castle and lordship of Arundel for time whereof memory of man was not to the contrary.” His claim was opposed on behalf of the Mowbrays, and the allegation on which it was based is discussed and refuted at great length in theLords’ Reports on the Dignity of a Peer(i. 404-429). In the descendants of his brother the earldom remained vestedtill 1580, when the last Fitzalan earl died, leaving as his sole heir his daughter’s son Philip Howard, whose father Thomas, duke of Norfolk, had been beheaded and attainted in 1572.
Philip, who was through his father senior representative of the earls of Arundel down to 1415, and through his mother sole representative of the subsequent earls, was summoned to parliament as earl in January 1581, but was attainted in 1589. His son Thomas was restored to the earldom and certain other honours in 1604, and, in 1627, obtained an act of parliament “concerning the title, name and dignity of Earl of Arundel, and for the annexing of the Castle, Honour, Manor and Lordship of Arundel ... with the titles and dignities of the Baronies of Fitzalan, Clun and Oswaldestre, and Maltravers, ... to the same title, name and dignity of Earl of Arundel.” This act, which was based on the earl’s allegation that the title had been “invariably used and enjoyed” by the owners of the castle, “and by reason of the said inheritance and seisin,” has been much discussed, especially in theLords’ Reports(i. 430-434). There is no doubt that the earl’s object was to entail the earldom and the castle strictly on a certain line of heirs, and this was effected by elaborate remainders (passing over the Howards, earls of Suffolk). It is under this act of parliament that the earldom has been held ever since, and that it passed with the castle in 1777 to the heir-male of the Howards, although the representation in blood then passed to heirs general. Thus the castle and the earldom cannot be alienated from the line of heirs on whom it is entailed by the act of 1627; while the heirship in blood of the earlier earls (to 1415) is vested in Lords Mowbray and Petre and the Baroness Berkeley, and that of the later earls (to 1777) in Lords Mowbray and Petre.
The precedence of the earldom was challenged in 1446 by Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, owing to the question as to its descent spoken of above, but the king in council confirmed to the earl the precedence of his ancestors “by reason of the Castle, Honour and Lordship of Arundel.” In the act of 1627 the “places” and “pre-eminences” belonging to the earldom were secured to it. It would appear, however, that the decision of the dispute with the earl of Devon in 1446 restricts that precedency to such as the earl’s ancestors had enjoyed, if indeed it goes farther than to guarantee his precedence over the earl of Devon. But as there is no other existing earldom older than that of Shrewsbury (1442), the present position of Arundel as the premier earldom is beyond dispute.
SeeLords’ Reports on the Dignity of a Peer; Dugdale’sBaronage; Tierney’sHistory of Arundel; G.E. C[okayne]’sComplete Peerage; Round’sGeoffrey de Mandeville; Pike’sConstitutional History of the House of Lords.
SeeLords’ Reports on the Dignity of a Peer; Dugdale’sBaronage; Tierney’sHistory of Arundel; G.E. C[okayne]’sComplete Peerage; Round’sGeoffrey de Mandeville; Pike’sConstitutional History of the House of Lords.
(J. H. R.)
ARUNDEL, EARLS OF. According to Cokayne (Complete Peerage, i. p. 138, notea) there is an old Sussex tradition to the effect that
“Since William rose and Harold fellThere have been earls of Arundel.”
“Since William rose and Harold fell
There have been earls of Arundel.”
This, he adds, “is the case if for ‘of’ we read ‘at.’” The questions involved in this distinction are discussed in the preceding article on the earldom of Arundel, now held by the duke of Norfolk. The present article is confined to a biographical sketch of the more conspicuous earls of Arundel, first in the Fitzalan line, and then in the Howard line.
Richard Fitzalan(1267-1302), earl of Arundel, was a son of John, lord of Arundel (1246-1272), and a grandson of another John, lord of Arundel, Clun and Oswaldestre (Oswestry), who took a prominent, if somewhat wavering, part in the troubles during the reign of Henry III., and who died in November 1267. Richard, who was called earl of Arundel about 1289, fought for Edward I. in France and in Scotland, and died on the 9th of March 1302.
He was succeeded by his son,Edmund(1285-1326), who married Alice, sister of John, earl de Warenne. A bitter enemy of Piers Gaveston, Arundel was one of the ordainers appointed in 1310; he declined to march with Edward II. to Bannockburn, and after the king’s humiliation he was closely associated with Thomas, earl of Lancaster, until about 1321, when he became connected with the Despensers and sided with the king. He was faithful to Edward to the last, and was executed at Hereford by the partisans of Queen Isabella on the 17th of November 1326.
His son,Richard(c.1307-1376), who obtained his father’s earldom and lands in 1331, was a soldier of renown and a faithful servant of Edward III. He was present at the battle of Sluys and at the siege of Tournai in 1340; he led one of the divisions of the English army at Creçy and took part in the siege of Calais; and he fought in the naval battle with the Spaniards off Winchelsea in August 1350. Moreover, he was often employed by Edward on diplomatic business. Soon after 1347 Arundel inherited the estates of his uncle John, earl de Warenne, and in 1361 he assumed the title of earl de Warenne or earl of Surrey. He was regent of England in 1355, and died on the 24th of January 1376, leaving three sons, the youngest of whom, Thomas, became archbishop of Canterbury.
Richard’s eldest son,Richard, earl of Arundel and Surrey (c.1346-1397), was a member of the royal council during the minority of Richard II., and about 1381 was made one of the young king’s governors. As admiral of the west and south he saw a good deal of service on the sea, but without earning any marked distinction except in 1387 when he gained a victory over the French and their allies off Margate. About 1385 the earl joined the baronial party led by the king’s uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, and in 1386 was a member of the commission appointed to regulate the kingdom and the royal household. Then came Richard’s rash but futile attempt to arrest Arundel, which was the signal for the outbreak of hostilities. The Gloucester faction quickly gained the upper hand, and the earl was one, and perhaps the most bitter, of the lords appellant. He was again a member of the royal council, and was involved in a quarrel with John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, whom he accused in the parliament of 1394. After a personal altercation with the king at Westminster in the same year Arundel underwent a short imprisonment, and in 1397 came the final episode of his life. Suspicious of Richard he refused the royal invitation to a banquet, but his party had broken up, and he was persuaded by his brother, Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, to surrender himself and to trust to the king’s clemency. At once he was tried, was attainted and sentenced to death, and, bearing himself with great intrepidity, was beheaded on the 21st of September 1397. He was twice married and had three sons and four daughters. The earl founded a hospital at Arundel, and his tomb in the church of the Augustinian Friars, Broad Street, London, was long a place of pilgrimage.
His only surviving son,Thomas(1381-1415), was a ward of John Holand, duke of Exeter, from whose keeping he escaped about 1398 and joined his uncle, Archbishop Thomas Arundel, at Utrecht, returning to England with Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry IV., in 1399. After Henry’s coronation he was restored to his father’s titles and estates, and was employed in fighting against various rebels in Wales and in the north of England. Having left the side of his uncle, the archbishop, Arundel joined the party of the Beauforts, and was one of the leaders of the English army which went to France in 1411; then after a period of retirement he became lord treasurer on the accession of Henry V. From the siege of Harfleur he returned ill to England and died on the 13th of October 1415. His wife was Beatrix (d. 1439), a natural daughter of John I., king of Portugal, but he left no children, and the lordship of Arundel passed to a kinsman,John Fitzalan, Lord Maltravers (1385-1421), who was summoned as earl of Arundel in 1416.
John’s son,John(1408-1435), did not secure the earldom until 1433, when as the “English Achilles” he had already won great distinction in the French wars. He was created duke of Touraine, and continued to serve Henry VI. in the field until his death at Beauvais from the effects of a wound on the 12th of June 1435. The earl’s only son, Humphrey, died in April 1438, when the earldom passed to John’s brother,William(1417-1488).
Henry Fitzalan, 12th earl of Arundel (c.1517-1580), son of William, 11th earl, by Anne, daughter of Henry Percy, 4th earlof Northumberland, was born about 1517. He entered King Henry’s household, attending the latter to Calais in 1532. In 1533 he was summoned to parliament in his father’s barony of Maltravers, and in 1540 he was made deputy of Calais, where his vigorous administration was much praised. He returned to England in April 1544 after the death of his father, and was made a knight of the Garter. In July of the same year he commanded with Suffolk the English expedition to France as lord marshal, and besieged and took Boulogne. On his return to England he was made lord chamberlain, an office which he retained after the accession in 1547 of Edward VI., at whose coronation he acted as high constable. He was one of the twelve counsellors nominated in Henry VIII.’s will to assist the executors, but he had little power during the protectorship of Somerset or the ascendancy of Warwick (afterwards duke of Northumberland), and in 1550 by the latter’s device he was accused of embezzlement, removed from the council, confined to his house, and fined £12,000—£8000 of this sum being afterwards remitted and the charges never being proved. Subsequently he allied himself with Somerset, and was implicated in 1551 in the latter’s plot against Northumberland, being imprisoned in the Tower in November. On the 3rd of December 1552, though he had never been brought to trial, he signed a submission and confession before the privy council, and was liberated after having been again heavily fined. As Edward’s reign drew to its close, Arundel’s support was desired by Northumberland to further his designs on the throne for his family, and he was accordingly reinstated in the council and discharged of his fine. In June 1553 he opposed Edward’s “device” for the succession, which passed over his sisters Mary and Elizabeth as illegitimate, and left the crown to the children of the duchess of Suffolk, and alone of the council refused the “engagement” to support it, though he signed the letters patent. On the death of Edward (July 6, 1553) he ostensibly joined in furthering the duke’s plans, but secretly took measures to destroy them, and according to some accounts sent a letter to Mary the same evening informing her of Edward’s death and advising her to retreat to a place of security. Meanwhile he continued to attend the meetings of the council, signed the letter to Mary declaring her illegitimacy and Lady Jane Grey’s right to the throne, accompanied Northumberland to announce to Jane her accession, and urged Northumberland to leave London and place himself at the head of the forces to attack Mary, wishing him God-speed on his departure. In Northumberland’s absence, he gained over his fellow-councillors, and having succeeded with them in getting out of the Tower, called an assembly of the corporation and chief men of the city, denounced Northumberland, and had Mary proclaimed queen, subsequently riding off to join her with the Great Seal at Framlingham. On the 20th of July he secured Northumberland at Cambridge, and returned in triumph with Mary to London on the 3rd of August, riding before her with the sword of state. He was now made a privy councillor and lord steward, and was granted several favours and privileges, acting as high constable at the coronation, and obtaining the right to create sixty knights. He took a prominent part in various public acts of the reign, was a commissioner to treat for the queen’s marriage, presided at the trial of the duke of Suffolk, assisted in suppressing Wyatt’s rebellion in 1554, was despatched on foreign missions, and in September 1555 accompanied Philip to Brussels. The same year he received, together with other persons, a charter under the name of the Merchant Adventurers of England, for the discovery of unknown lands, and was made high steward of Oxford University, being chosen chancellor in 1559, but resigning his office in the same year. In 1557, on the prospect of the war with France, he was appointed lieutenant-general of the forces for the defence of the country, and in 1558 attended the conference at the abbey of Cercamp for the negotiation of a peace. He returned to England on the death of Mary in November 1558, and is described to Philip II. at that time as “going about in high glee, very smart” and with hopes of marrying the queen, but as “flighty” and of “small ability.” He was reinstated in all his offices by Elizabeth, served as high constable at her coronation, and was visited several times by the queen at Nonsuch in Surrey. As a Roman Catholic he violently opposed the arrest of his co-religionists and the war with Scotland, and in 1560 came to blows with Lord Clinton in the queen’s presence on a dispute arising on those questions. He incurred the queen’s displeasure in 1562 by holding a meeting at his house during her illness to consider the question of the succession and promote the claims of Lady Catherine Grey. In 1564, being suspected of intrigues against the government, he was dismissed from the lord-stewardship and confined to his house, but was restored to favour in December. In March 1566 he went to Padua, but being summoned back by the queen he returned to London accompanied by a large cavalcade on the 17th of April 1567. Next year he served on the commission of inquiry into the charges against Mary, queen of Scots. Subsequently he furthered the marriage of Mary with the duke of Norfolk, his son-in-law, together with the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion and government, and deposition of Elizabeth, in collusion with Spain. He made use of the incident in 1568, of the seizure of treasure at Southampton intended for Philip, as a means of effecting Cecil’s overthrow, and urged upon the Spanish government the stoppage of trade. He is described in 1569 to Philip as having “good intentions,” “whilst benefiting himself as he was very needy.” In January he alarmed Elizabeth by communicating to her a supposed Spanish project for aiding Mary and replacing her on her throne, and put before the queen in writing his own objections to the adoption of extreme measures against her. In June he received with Norfolk and Lumley 6000 crowns from Philip. In September, on the discovery of Norfolk’s plot, he was arrested, but not having committed himself sufficiently to incur the charge of treason in the northern rebellion he escaped punishment, was released in March 1570, and was recalled by Leicester to the council with the aim of embarrassing Cecil. He again renewed his treasonable intrigues, which were at length to some extent exposed by the discovery of the Ridolfi plot in September 1571. He was once more arrested, and not liberated till December 1572 after Norfolk’s execution. He died on the 24th of February 1580, and was buried in the chapel at Arundel, where a monument was erected to his memory.
He married (1) Catherine, daughter of Thomas Grey, 2nd marquess of Dorset, by whom he had Henry, who predeceased him, and two daughters, of whom Mary married Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk; and (2) Mary, daughter of Sir John Arundell and dowager countess of Sussex, by whom he had no children. Arundel was the last earl of his family, the title at his death passing through his daughter Mary to the Howards.