the craftsman - 1903 - 10 - october

7/27/2019 The Craftsman - 1903 - 10 - October

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THE CRAFTSMANPublished Monthly by THE UNITE I) CH~FTS, 207 South State St., Sraacl-sr:, KEW Yoa~

Contents for October 1903dLfbtTOUVeaLl - Illustrated S. BIXGTranslated from the French by IRESE S~ WENT

A Mark of Honor - Illustrated CARYL COLEMANThe Use of Wood in Switzerland - I llustrated WENDELL G. COKTHI XLI,The Racial Art of the Russians - Illustrated

Adapted from the French and with a preface by IRlXSE SARGENT

Japanese Color Prints and Some of Their Makers - IllustratedM. LOUISE STOWELI,

Rkcent Examples of English Jewelry - IllustratedAn Art Industry of the Rayous - Illustrated IRRNE SARGESTA (:ovefnment Lace School - I llustratedA Simple Dining Room - IllustratedNursery Wall-Hangings - I llustratedChips from The Craftsman \Vorkshop

Book Reviews25 (:ESIs SI?rGI,E (:011 : : 131 THE \rEAH-, $3.00(lopyripht. 1902,I)s Gr-war Sm(xr,m. Entered Norrml~rr 18,1902,t Syracuse, S.T., as second-rlasu mattrr


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HANDICRAFTCONTAI NSANARTI CLEON' CGLASS"By MRS. HENRY WHITMAN, WH ICHW LL 23E OFSPECI ALI NTEREST TOREADERSof MR. HARRYELf DREDGEGOODHUE' S ARTI CLEon " STAI NEDGLASS" I N THEJULYI SSUE. Mr . J .SAMUELHODGE' SARTI CLEonBOOK-BI NDI NG appear edi zhe UGUSTnumber

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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY OF ARTS 68 CRAFTS14 SOMERSET STREET :: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

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THE CRAFTSMANVol. v OCTOBER 1903 No. 1

L'ART NOUVEAU"S. BING

Translated from the French by IRENESARGENTT E CRAF TSMAN having decid-ed to open its columns to a discus-sion of LArt Nouveau: its Sig-nificance and Value, the initialarticle appeared in December, 1902, overthe signature of Professor A. I). F. Hamlinof Columbia University. This article ac-tuated a reply from M. J ean Schopfer ofParis, which was published in the J uneissue, 1903. And now it would seem fit-ting, before closing the debate, to hear theargument of the one who, eight years since,had the good fortune of aiding the latentaspirations of the period to assume a visibleexistence, and of serving as sponsor to thenew life.

The article of Professor Hamlin is with-out doubt one of the most conscientious andimpartial studies of the question that haveyet appeared. I am, however, far from

*In the year 1895, the writer of these pagesfounded in the rue de Provence, Paris, a centeropen to all the forces of artistic innovation. Inorder to designate the tendencies of this enter-prise, he devised the title of LArt Nouveau, with-out suspecting then that this combination of wordswould gain the doubtful honor of serving as alabel for miscellaneous creations, some of whichwere to reach the limits of license and folly.

sharing all the ideas of the writer, and,although some points have already foundan eloquent opponent in M. Schopfer, Iwillingly again revert to them.

To begin: I fully support ProfessorHamlin, when he opens the discussion withthe following statement:

LArt Nouveau is the name of a move-ment, not of a style; it has come into useto designate a great variety in forms anddevelopment of design, which have in com-mon little, except an underlying characteragainst the commonplace. . . .

I interrupt the quotation at this pointbecause I do not agree with the end of thesentence, which declares that the followersof the movement concur only in their com-mon hatred of the historical style.

Before presenting my objections, I mustsay that it appears to me il logical to applythe same scale of criticism to two sides ofthe question which can not be includedwithin the same field of vision. A separatejudgment must be granted to the initialprinciple of the movement and the infinitemultiplicity of its applications, which areall individual and a forced combination ofthe good, the indifferent and the bad.

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THF, CRAFTSMANI. THE PRINCIPLE 0~ LART ~~~UVEAU could build according to his own desires.

.I it accurate to say that no definite aim Therefore, there was no pre-conceived idea,has been generated by LtAi-t Nouveau,,. no. restraint as to the ,form of expression.and that its disciples are united only But there was, neverthelessi a common idea:by a negation? The truth is this: that no differing from the one ascribed to the fol-definite style was prescribed, since the work lowers of LArt Nouveau by Professorto be done was a work of liberation. The Hamlin. The true bond between the inno-

Necklsce: gold enamel. pearls md diamonds: designed by Colonna

title of LArt, Notiveau designated a field vators resided in the hatred of stagnation.lying outside the narrow boundaries within I f, therefore, Professor Hamlin is right inwhich, beneath the pressure of a time- speaking of a negation as the point of de-honored slavery, a class of degenerate parture of the new movement, this negationproducts was approaching extinction. I t consisted. solely in an energetic protestdesignated a free soil upon which any one against the hiatus which, for an entire2



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THE CRAFTSMANof an object ; to avoid, as one would tleefrom leprosy, the falsehood of a fictitiousluxury consisting in falsifying every ma-terial and in carrying ornament to ex-tremes.

Such, in essence, are the principles whichformed the basis of agreement for the ini-tiators of the movement, whose effects, dur-ing its active period, we are now to observe.

THE PRODUCTIONS OF LART NOUVEAU

I has seemed to me judicious not toconfuse the doctrines which gave birthto L A r t Nouveau with the applica-tions which have been made of it. I shall

Eleetrlo Lamp: Poreelaine L eucono~;designed by Colonna

protest much more strenuously against thecustom of subjecting all these productionsindiscriminately to a sole and summaryjudgment. I do not direct my protestagainst Professor Hamlin, nor solelyagainst the very limited number of otherwri ters who have treated the question: Iaccuse the whole body of art critics of hav-ing, in this instance, seriously failed inprofessional duty. In the presence of asudden and disconcerting growth, in theface of the daily mounting flood of produc-tions contrasting not only by reason oftheir novelty with familiar forms, but oftenalso differing among themselves, the criticshave left the public absolutely withoutguidance. The special publications de-voted to applied art, which arose in greatnumber, had no object other than to makepass in review before the eyes of the reader(it were better to say the spectator), afterthe manner of a kaleidoscope, in a chanceorder of appearance, the assemblage of allnew efforts, whether more or less SUCCCSS-ful. But among those who assumed thesomewhat grave responsibili ty of instruct-ing the public regarding the artistic phe-nomena of each day, among those even whodeclared with emphasis that there should nolonger ,be an aristocratic art, and that allartistic manifestations : painting, sculptureor the products of the industrial arts, hadequal rank, no one assumed the duty ofmaking a serious study of this subject,-that is, no one in position to speak withauthority. L A r t Nouveau , it is true, if itbe considered as a whole, has no cohesiveprinciple.* It could not have such, when

*Professor Hamlin rightfull y says: Its ten-dencies are for the present divergent and separa-tive.



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EART NOUVEAUemploying its activity upon a virgin soil ,in a field where every one was bound todisplay his individual temperament. Butin the midst of the myriad attempts whosetangled skein can not be straightened bythe layman, we, the critics, point out cer-tain efforts, each one of which in the re-spect that concerns it, converges toward adefinite ideal, an aim clearly perceived.We say: Reject the mass of worthlessefforts, eliminate all abortive work, imita-tions, and commercial products, but savefrom irreparable destruction anything thatcan contribute, though it were only as avery germ, to future ferti li ty, if you donot intend to pronounce death sentenceupon all those of our faculties whose exer-cise beautifies our dwellings !

I t is not to be expected that I shouldproduce in these pages an extended criticalwork. Not only would my militant atti-tude in the question prevent me from suchaudacity, but such an endeavor would con-siderably exceed the limits of the presentplan. I shall content myself with makinghere a rapid examination of the path fol-lowed by LArt Nouveau: beginning withits first general manifestation, which, as Ihave previously stated, occurred in 1895,in the galleries of the Rue de Provence,Paris.

It would be dif%cult to say which, for themoment, triumphed in this fateful struggle-the chorus of approval, or the cries ofindignation. The fact remains that theimpression then made was powerfulenough to create a large following of re-cruits, impatient to enroll themselves be-neath the banner displayed by the van-guard. Unhappily, it is much easier tosubmit a new order of productions to public

examination than to make the public un-derstand the reasons which governed thecreation of such objects and prescribed tothem their forms. The adepts of the sec-

Hand-mirror: silver bronze; designed by Marcel Ringond hour were divided into different classes.There were artists, sculptors or painterswhose somewhat vagabond imagination wasmore familiar with dreams and poetry thanwith practical ideas. They designed tablessupported by nymphs with soft, sinuousbodies, or by strange figures savage in theirsymbolism, with muscles swollen and writh-ing under efforts which had no sign of



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LART NOUVEAUment, preferably to a wardrobe full of sym-metrical grace ; explaining meanwhile thatthe character of the latter piece was notsufficiently accentuated to deserve the nameof LArt Nouveau.

But slowly, vision having grown moreexperienced and critical, begins to distin-guish de & -I& .:fr& the false.. In .themidst of the obscuring chaos, there are dis-cernible clear ideals of art tending towarda definite purpose. The work of elimina-tion being complete, each one will choosethe species of production that shall bestadapt itself to his taste, while waiting forfuture, generations-the Supreme judgesof men and things-to make final classifica-tion, accbrding to degrees of merit. F;-ture judges will all acknowledge the itibeli-ble mtirk._qf, .our epoch, without it. bkingnece&%y, as : l?@fessor Hamlin woulb.d&sire+ for all OUEartists to concur in an abSo-lute identity of style, as once they did.Such freedom wil l leave a wider field opento the imagination of those who create, andwill permit each individual to impress hispersonali ty upon the places in which hepasses his life. Far from regretting thisvariety- in the forms of expression, let usenjoy the proffered riches, and let us nowseek to acquaint ourselves with the originand the nature of these divergences as wellas to compare their meri t.

Two principal and parallel currents canbe discerned in the direction of the move-ment : the system of purely ornamentallines -already indicated by Professor Ham-lin, and the system of floral elements; eachof the two systems having fervent cham-pions and active detractors. In every newcause it is well that uncompromising ele-ments arise, exaggerating partial virtues,

which later, wisely proportioned, unite ina definitive, well-balanced whole. The diver-gence in the first phases of L A r t Nouveauare attributable less to questions of individ-ual temperament than to questions of race.In these first phases, the principal part wasnot played by the country which had longoccupied the first place in European deco-rative art. France remained attached with

. _,., I1 ;:I___I

Pendant: gold enamel and pearl, by Marcel Bing .what might almost be termed patriotio ten-derness to traditions whose roots &-&k intothe lotvest depthsof the soil of the fa&ek-land.

The initial movement, as Professor Ham-lin himself observes, began in England,under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelitesand the ideas of Ruskin, and was carriedinto practical affairs by the admirable



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THE CRAFTSMANgenius of Will iam Morris. But if insur-rection arose then against the frightfulugliness of contemporary productions, itdid not declare the imperative need of arenewal of youth conformable to the mod-ern spirit. Highly aristocratic natures,who would will ingly have witnessed thedestruction of railways guilty of kill ingthe beauty of the landscape-such as thesenecessarily produced works echoing the artof primitive times dominated by the poetryof an abstract dream. They projectedover the world a soft light, fltl l of charmindeed, but which, as a distant reflection ofextinct suns, could not have a prolongedexistence, nor even a warmth sufficient tolight new centers. This episode will rc-main in the history of art as an attractivechapter too rapidly closed. Latterly, Eng-

land has taken a new direction under theguidance of numerous artists, the mostnoted of whom are mentioned by ProfessorHamlin. Among them only a fraction arefaithful to the Morris traditions.8

To Belgium belongs in all justice thehonor of having first devised truly modernformulas for the interior decoration ofEuropean dwell ings. *

In the year 1894 there was founded atBrussels, under the guidance of M. Octave

Maus, a society of artists designated asLa libre Esthttique, having as its object toassemble in an annual exhibition all worksof essentially modern character. This wasthe first occasion when the aristocratic artsof painting and sculpture admitted withoutblushing to their companionship the com-monalty of industrial productions. Al-ready there appeared manifestations of areal value, the outcome of reflective mindssteadily pursuing individual aims. I havealways retained a most favorable memoryof certain model tenements exhibited at*In order not to extend unduly the length ofthis article, I must set aside architecture, which,it must be said, has not sufficiently acknowledgedthe progress of other branches of art which itshould have assisted, since it had not, as leaderand chief, been able to guide them by a bold initi-ative.



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LART NOUVEAULa l i b r e Est he t i q u e by Serrurier-Bovy ofLi&ge, who had succeeded in uniting witha low net cost all desirable requisites ofbeauty, hygiene and comfort. But theman sufficiently gifted to engender reallybold ideas and to realize them in all theperfection permitted by their species, wasHenri van de Velde, professor of aestheticsat one of the free institutions at Brussels.He executed in 1895 for the establishmentof L A r t Nouveau , Paris, a series of inte-riors, which he followed by other works ex-hibited at Dresden in 1897, and which notonly constituted in Europe the first impor-tant examples (ensembles) of modern dec-orative art, but have since remained themost perfect types of the species. Thisspecies was the development of the line-the decorative line shown in its full andsingle power.

The cradle of this species of art was,therefore, Belgium, the country belongingto the Flemish race, whose tranquil andpositive mind demanded an art of austerecharacter adapted to patriarchal customs :hostile to the principles of the light fancywhich willingly takes inspiration from theslender grace of the flower. If, throughan apparent failure in logic, F rance servedas the stage for the first appearance of anart so little French in its essence, it wasbecause at that time, only eight years since,there was as yet nothing beside it; no con-ception sufficiently mature to serve theprojected uprisal which had as its firstaim to sound the awakening call , whilewaiting to give later an impetus and aimmore conformable to the national spirit.

In Germany, the situation, for severalreasons, was altogether different. First, aclose relationship unites the German with

the Flemish character. Further, it mustbe recognized that Germany, long wantingin intuition, has always shown a great re-ceptivity toward all external influences.Now, the novelty shown in the exhibits ofL A r t Nouveau , Paris, at the Dresden Ex-position of 1897, produced an impressionstrong enough to be echoed throughoutGermany: this was the real point of de-

Pendant: gold enamel,by Mamel Bingparture for the German A r t Nouveau , tothe development of which, van de Velde,afterward called into the country, himselfcontributed. Austria, who, in previousyears, had madly abandoned herself to a



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LART NOUVEAUsort of art for exportation devised byEngland for the use of the unthink-ing masses of the continent, followed,in her turn, the same path. By a kind offatal law all imitators seem condemned toan impulse of exaggeration, which changesinto shocking defects all doubtful portionsand details of the model. I t was thus thatin Germany and especially in Austria theinsistent scourge of tortured, swollen andtentacular lines grew more and more ag-gravated, thus causing an abuse most

these qualities, if they are formulated intointangible and exclusive rules, gives rise toa monotony which does not delay its ap-pearance. Quickly the artist reaches thelimits of his possibilities, inspiration ceases,and astonishment arises at the fact that allpower was expended in the initial effort.

At such a moment it is evident that areturn to Divine Nature, always fresh andnew in her counsels, can solely and inces-santly restore failing inspiration. In re-viewing the history of the decorative arts in

harmful to the reputation of LArt Nou-veau. Artists of solid worth have, never-theless, arisen in the Teutonic countries,but they have need of casting off the for-eign impedimenta which weights their in-spiration and occasions the cruel errors bywhich the taste of P rofessor Hamlin isso justly offended in presence of the worksof the Darmstadt colony: a body now dis-persed.

To sum up, we may say that combina-tions purely linear permit the designer toobtain, particularly in cabinet-making,broad and robust effects, a clear and logicalstructural arrangement. The reverse of

France, one will remark that always theartists of this country, with the exceptionof those of the sixteenth and a part of theseventeenth century, have had an acutesense of this truth. By receiving inspira-tion from these lovers of nature, the artistsof our own time wil l accomplish each daymore happily a difficult task which theyalone, perhaps, are capable of fulfilling.The work before them consists in fusinginto a harmonious whole the two apparentlyhostile principles of robustness and grace:the solid and crude art asserted by theNorthern countries, and the delicate refine-ment peculiar to the. Latin races ; it con-



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LART NOUVEAUartists show a mysterious and singular dis- patronage of the highest personalities ofdain for cosmopolitan reputation. There the Empire. Artists of reputation-suchis now in Holland a large constellation of as Monsieur S. Malioutine and Mademoi-talents which deserves the honor of a mon- selle Davydoff-indicate the paths andograph. But let it suffice here to cite as the models to be followed. The enter-especial ly worthy of mention the names of prise is directed with unflinching activityDysselhof, Toorup, Thorn-Prikker and by ladies of the high aristocracy, amongHuytema. whom it is impossible not to mention

Mounting higher toward the North, we the Princess Marie T&rich&, the gen-find Denmark, who, beside her celebrated erous founder of the remarkable peo-porcelains, has developed inall branches of her art, underthe wise direction of PietroKrohn, the affable curator ofthe Museum of DecorativeArts, (openhagen, a nationalgrowth: a style extremelypure in its robustness. Stillfarther Northward, Swedenand Norway have partici-pated no less ardently in theuniversal impulse toward arenewal of the ancient Scandi-navian art, revived withoutessential weakening of itsoriginal character.

Finally, it would be want-ing in strict duty to pass overin silence a similar movementof the highest interest whichhas been observed for severalyears on the extreme limits ofNorthern Europe: that is tosay, in Russia. There, in themidst of a peasant populationof primitive manners and cus-toms, great colonies of art-workers-weavers, embroider-ers, sculptors, potters, iron-workers and cabinet-makers-have been founded under the



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LART NOUVEAUbloom of a future art which shall be vigor-ous and prolific. When she shall have ac-quired, in the province of ideal aims, a con-*. , ,_.sciousness of her own possibil ities, as pre-cise and clear as the confidence alreadygained in other domains of intellectualforce, she will quickly cast off the tutelageof the Old World, under which she put forthher first steps upon the sunlit path of art.America, as I have already said elsewhere,has a marked advantage over us, in thather brain is not haunted by the phantomsof memory ; her young imagination canallow itself a free career, and, in fashioningobjects, it does not restrict the hand to alimited number of similar and conventionalmovements. America, taken all in all, isindeed only a ramification of our ancientsources, and consequently the heir of ourtraditions. But again, she has a specialdestiny, occasioned by the fact that shedoes not possess, like us, the cult, thereligion of these same traditions. Her rareprivilege is to profit by our old maturityand, mingling therein the impulse of hervigorous youth, to gain advantage. fromall technical secrets, all devices and process-es taught by the experience of centuries,and tomplace all this practical and proven,knowledge at the service of a fresh mindwhich knows no other guide than the intui-tions of taste and the natural laws of logic.

EDITORS Norm.-The editors of THE CRAFTSMANregard themselves as most fortunate to have beenable to present in the pages of their magazine anextended and just appreciation of a great artmovement, concerning which there is so littledefinite information among the people.

In the issue of December, 1909, Professor A. D.F. Hamlin of Columbia University offered a judg-ment of LArt Nouveau, bearing principally uponits manifestations in architecture.

This paper excited the interest of several distin-guished French cri tics, who, while awakened toadmiration by the knowledge and justice displayedby the American writer, found yet occasion todiffer with his opinion that LArt Nouveau wasbased upon a negation and tended toward nodefinite aim.

This opinion was opposed in the issue of J uly,1903, by M. J ean Schopfer, a Parisian authorityknown in the United States by his writings, aswell as by his repeated appearance in the lecture-rooms of the Eastern universities.

M. Schopfers article was a criticism of the Ar tNoavem movement, judged from the historicalpoint of view. I t was calm, broad, logical andmasterly: in every way calculated to remove theprejudice created in America by the vagaries ofthose whose position in regard to the movementmay be compared to that %f the lawless camp-followers of a well-disciplined army marching tothe conquest of liberty. This second article wascomprehensive in its treatment and included in itssurvey the decorative and lesser arts. It was,therefore, of wide general interest, and it obtainedthe appreciation and comment which it deserved.

The third division of the discussion just nowpresented bears the signature of the highly dis-tinguished critic and patron of art, M. S. Bing ofParis. He it was who gave the name to the latestphase of modern art: watching its developmentfrom germ to bloom; seeing abortive growths fallaway from the parent source of l ife, and otherfairer types poisoned by hostile and noxious in-fluences ; but permitted at last to witness thedefinite success of a persistent and healthy organ-ism, whose infancy he had wisely fostered. M.Rings article appeals not alone to artists andthose interested in aesthetic subjects: through itthrobs the pulse of that modern li fe which is su-premely creative, and capable of reducing theideal to the real, the definite and the practical. M.Bing has proven that LArt Nouveau is neitherbased upon a negation, nor destructive in its aims.He gives account of his sponsorship over a youngcause which, a decade since, agitated within thenarrow boundaries of an old Parisian street, hassince spread over the world. He makes also aprophecy for the future of art in which there isno racial exclusiveness. He shows that nothingthat is artistic is foreign to him.



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Suns Disk from Temple of Lnxor, 1562 B. C. The sun of rightcwnsnesx shell rise with healing in his wings. JIal. IV. 2

AMARKOFHONORCARYL COLEMAN

VERY one will remember havingE een in the streets of our principalcities, Italian vendors of plastercasts, and must have observed

among the objects on the peddlers traysfigures of both men and women, whoseheads were encircled with a ring of brassor gilded plaster; but it is a question ifthey have ever reflected that this ring isthe survival of a mark of honor which orig-inated in the remote past, a symbolic signemployed by the ancients and by the peopleof the Middle Ages: the property alike ofPagan and Christian.

It always has been and is stil l a commoncustom, among barbarous, as well as amongcivil ized peoples, when representing a godor an eminent man by means of sculptureor painting, to accompany the portrayal bya distinguishing mark, in order to point outthe sanctity, rank, or degree of honor be-longing to the person depicted ; amongthese marks there is none more universalthan this very ring found upon the plasterimages of the Italian.

It is conjectured by many scholars thatthis was originally the symbolic expressionof the cloud supposed. to encompass thebody or head of a divine being, whenever adivinity became visible to man. Hence theyhave called it a nimbus: a Latin word ofdivers meanings, always relating tosome form of cloud and in truthderived from the same root as nubes.In support of this hypothesis theyquote, together with other citations of equalvalue, the following lines from the TenthBook of the Aeneid: J uno spoke, andforthwith from the lofty sky descendedswift, girt with a tempestuous cloud (nimbosuccincta), driving a storm before herthrough the air. It would seem as if thiswere a mistake, a confounding of twothings, related, yet distinct, viz., the lightabout the head (halo) and the light aboutthe body (nimbus) ; the latter is oftenrepresented in art by luminous clouds ofvarious and varying colors, but the formernever. In the art of the older nations ofantiquity, the light about the head was

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THE CRAFTSMANinvariably used as a pictorial expression ofthe suns light, and always confined, as allexisting examples show, to the head ofHelios or the personification of some emana-tion of the same. Hence, in view of this,as the sign primarily is intended to repre-sent, as will be subsequently demonstrated,the light immediately encircling the sunsdisk, it would seem as though halo were afar more appropriate name than nimbus.

I t is not surprising that the halo, whichin truth belongs to the God of the Sun,should ultimately have been given by theancients to all the gods, goddesses and evento men, as the light of the sun was to themthe source of l ife and of all energizingpower. He hath rejoiced as a giant torun his course: his going out is from theend of heaven, and his circuit even to theend thereof, and there is no one that canhide .himse.lf from his heat. A beliefgraphically described in a hymn of 1365B. C., written by King Akhenaten or someone of his court:Thou art very beautiful, brilliant, and exalted

above the earth,Thy beams encompass all lands which thou hast

made.Thou art the sun, thou settest their bounds,Thou bindest them with thy love.HOW many are the things which thou hast made !Thou didst create the land by thy will, thou alone,With peoples, herds, and flocks,Everything on the face of the earth that walketh

on its feet,Everything in the air that flieth with wings.Thou make& the seasons of the year to create all

thy works;The Winter making them cool, the Summer giving

warmth.Thou madest the far-off heaven, that thou mayest

rise in it,That thou mayest see all that thou madest when

thou wast alone-18

Moreover, the deities of Polytheism werebut the personifications of the various attri-butes of that same central force, or moreaccurately they were emanations from itssubstance and manifestations of its inde-fatigable activity, or, as Lenormant says,in that body the ancients saw the mostimposing manifestation of the Deity andthe clearest exemplification of the laws thatgovern the world ; to it, therefore, theyturned for their personification of the divinepower ; or, in the words of the Egyptians :Ra (the sun) creates his own members,which are themselves gods, viz., the morn-ing sun: the god Horus ; the power of the

Assyrian solar discrising sun : the god Nefer-Atmu ; the lightof the sun: the god Shu ; the beautifyingpower of the sun: the goddess Hathor; thepower of light and heat of the sun: thegoddess Menhit; the heat of the sun, theproducer of vegetation: the goddess Bast ;the violent heat of the sun: the god-dess Sechet; the destroying power of thesun: the god Sebek; the scorching heat ofof the sun : the goddess Serq ; the regulatorof the suns movements : the goddess Maat ;the setting sun : the god Atmu ; the night-sun: the god Seker.

Ra is the being in whom every godexisteth ; the one of one, the creator of thethings which came into being when theearth took form in the beginning, whose



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MARK OF HONORbirths are hidden,whose forms are manifold,and whose growth cannot be known. I twas from him, in his very l ikeness, that menwere deified, as witness the words of the godAmen-Ra, in a song of deification addressedto Tahutmes I I I (B. C. 1503I449), in-scribed on the walls of the great temple atKarnak :I made them regard thy Holinessas the blazing

sun;Thou shinest in sight of them in my form.

Much the same thought is expressed byVirgil in the Aeneid (XI I . 163) when hesays : Ki ng Lat inus, of majest ic frame,is carried in a chariot drawn by foursteeds; t w qel ue golden beams cir cle his daz-zling brows, the ensign of th e Sun, hi sgrandsire.

In Mesopotamian art, possibly Egyptianin its origin, the sun held an importantplace, and there are some remains that

point toward its use asa mark of distinction,but never as a head or-

not even likethe sun-disc that crownsthe Egyptian deities,Ammon-Ra, Isis, Hathor,and others, but it hoversabove the head of theChaldaean and Assyriangods and men under theform of a winged sun-disc, or a half-length

figure of a manr -1 within a winged

Amman-Ra, 1830B. C. circle, and some-times under the form of a circle of raysplaced behind the personage represented.

In Iranian art an almost similar condi-

tion is found. The religion of I ran, asembodied in the Avesta, with its two oppos-ing and irreconcilable principles : Ahura-mazda, the god of light, and Angro-main-

Coin of T rajan, 98 A. D.yus, the god of darkness, did not permit ofa very great amount of material expression.Nevertheless, as Perrot and Chipiez re-mark, here, as in the rest of the world, themind of man needed a tangible form thatshould stand for and reflect the image ofthe deity. According to Iranian belief,the whole circle of the heavens was theCreator, his body was the light, his gar-ment was the firmament, and when he,Ahura-mazda, gave himself a personality,making himself known to mortal eyes, hetook a human form, which in art was por-trayed by the figure of a man rising out ofa winged solar disc or halo, a form evidentlyborrowed, with slight modification, from theplastic art of Babylonia and Nineveh. Andin the administration of the Universe thisomniscient force, Ahura-mazda, employeda number of energies to preside over andguide the forces of Nature and the li fe ofman, and these manifestations of his om-nipotent power were represented in art bypersonifications, both masculine and femi-nine, and were usually crowned with a halo,as for example, the youth Mithra: the god

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THE CRA.FTSMANof the dawn, and the nymph Nana-Anahita :the dispenser of ferti li ty and love.

Among the Greeks the halo was in use,but not so constantly as among the Romans,

Coin of Antoninus Pins. 138-161A. D.who even used it to crown the heads of therepresentations of their emperors, as wit-ness the bas-relief of Trajan, on the archof Constantine at Rome, which is crownedwith a halo, and, also, the head of AntoninusPius on the coins of his reign. The imag-ination of the Roman people was so imbuedwith the idea that the halo of the sun wasa sign of power and god-like quality, thatthey found nothing strange in the follow-ing words of the historian Valleius Pater-culus, and accepted the statement withoutquestion : At the moment when Augustusentered Rome, the arc of the sun, symmetri-cally curved around his head, was seen toform a crown of the colors of the rainbow.Even in their oaths the Romans alluded tothe halo ; an officer of the law, as we learnfrom a work of the fourth century, said toCallistratus the Carthaginian : Sacrifice,0 Callistratus, to the gods-for I swear byArtemis, crorerned with rays (halo)-unlessthou obeyest me, I wil l cut thee into bits.20

The secular use of the halo as a sign ofapotheosis, or perhaps a mere mark ofhonor, was pushed to an extreme by theByzantines, who continued so to employ itlong after the advent of Christianity down o the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, thetwo weakly sons of Thcodosius, and longer,for we find the representations of J ustinianand his wife Theodora, in the wall mosaicsof the Church of San Vitale at Ravenna,are so crowned. Among the new nationsof the West its secular use survived untilthe time of the rebuilding of the Abbey ofS. Germain des Prks at Paris by Morardusin the eleventh century, when the statues ofthe Merovingian kings, which once adornedthe main entrance, were crowned with disc-like halos.

The sun has been worshipped in Indiafor ages, and represented symbolically,

Head of Chr ist: Catacombs, Rome, third centuryfrom the most remote times, by a disc ; henceit is not strange to find that the halo holdsan important place in the sacred inconog-raphy of Hindostan. As many of thesymbols of India are indisputably ofMesopotamian origin, it is possible the halowas derived from that source, but at best its



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MARK OF HONORhistory is involved in the greatest obscurity,and it must be specially studied before it

Assyrian deity: Nineveh

can be spoken of authoritatively, except ,tosay that it stands for light, and points outthe fact that the impersonation it crowns isone of the Deva (the shining ones).Brahminism passed the halo on to Bud-dhism, whose missionaries in turn carried itto the Far East-China and J apan.

Among the North American Indians, thenative Mexicans and the Mayas, the rankof the persons represented in their picturesis indicated by the head ornament worn bythese personages, and often this ornamentis nothing more or less than a halo, as forexample, when the Ojibwa draws a pictureof a medicine man, he crowns the head withradiating lines, similar to those he employsin his hieroglyph of the sun.

Strange as it may seem, the fullest devel-opment, the most artistic treatment, andgreatest application of the halo, under allits various forms, is to be found in Chris-tian Art.This connection between Pagan andChristian Art, the mingling of the old winewith the new, is not to be wondered at, inview of the fact that the early Christians,outlaws in the eyes of the State, or as Sue-tonius says, a class of men Superstition&

novae et malefi cae and charged by Tacituswith the odium humani gene& , were com-pelled for their own safety,-for it must beremembered that from the time of Domi-tian, if not at a still earlier date, the veryname of Christian exposed a person to thepenalty of death,-to hide their religionfrom the governing powers and the aggres-sive paganism of the vulgar herd ; more-over, in practising this policy of conceal-ment they were complying with the admo-nition of their founder: Give not thatw hich is holy unto the dogs, *neit her cast yeyour pearls before swine, let i t they tramplet hem under t heir feet and turn again andrend you. In doing this they Christian-ized, when portraying their belief undervisible representations, many signs, sym-

Helios: Early Greek vasebols, ornaments, and even personages be-longing to pagan art: such as letters, mon-ograms, and ciphers, circles, triangles andsquares, vines, grapes, and palms, anchors,crowns and solar-crosses, doves, phoenixes,and pelicans, Hermes and Orpheus. Inother words, they adopted from Paganismwhatever might aid them in their mission to

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THE CRAFTSMANmankind ; seldom creating independentlyfor themselves the outward signs of theirfaith; their guide apparently in this mat-ter was the imperial motto: lnco~porutein to the State all that anywhere is excel-lent. Hence they did not hesitate to use

Medic god: Hindu Pentheonanything and everything, so long as therewas no evil in the things themselves, toteach the world, or to recall to the remem-brance of the faithful the dogmas of thefaith. Therefore, when the Pagans ac-cused the Christians of celebrating thefestival of the sun, Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 400) replied: We solemnize this day,not, like the heathen, on account of the sun,

but on account of Him who made the sun.Among the symbolic signs they borrowed

from antiquity and made their own wasthe halo; and this they did the more easily,as they believed they saw at times a reful-gence of light encompassing the bodies andheads of their martyrs and saints. Allu-sions to this phenomenon are met with veryoften in the writings of the early Chris-tians. In the Acts of St. Codratius it isstated that the heathen began to see thelight which was around the saints ; againin the Acts of St. Call istratus, the narratorsays: We saw the light which shot forthover the heads of the Saints ; again, Sulpi-cius, in his biography of St. Martin ofTours, says he saw in a dream the HolyMartin, the bishop, clad in a white robe,with his face like a flame, eyes like stars,and glittering hair.

The halo was employed in accordancewith determined and fixed rules : rules madeby the Christians, controlling its form,application and significance. It did not,however, come into general use until afterthe sixth century, although it was occasion-ally employed before that time, as may beseen from monuments dating from thefourth century and possibly earlier.

In Christian art the halo is a symbol oflight (light, in turn, is a mark of sanctity-given and received), crowning the headof a representation of a holy personage,whomay be either living or dead: the halos be-longing to the Persons of the Holy Trinityare emanations, while those about the headsof the saints are a reflex of the light ofcelestial glory : The glory which Thouhas given me, I give to them. WhenMoses had been in the presence of the Lord,on Mount Sinai, for forty days his face



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shone with a great light, And when Aaronand all the children of Israel saw Moses,

Head of Christ: French: twelfth centurybehold the skin of his face shone and theywere afraid to come nigh him.

In form a halo may be triangular,square, polygonal, or circular. The trian-gular halo is confined in its application tothe Godhead, because it is composed ofthree equal parts which stand for the threePersons of the Trinitarian Divinity. Thesquare is given to representations of livingpersons who are believed to be saintly, asfor example: the portrait of Pope PaschalI . (817-824), in the mosaic he caused to be,erected in the Church of Sta. Maria in Do-

Hand of the Creator: Assyrianminica at Rome, is crowned with a squarehalo ; and there is also a bust of his mother,in the church of Sta. Prassede at Rome,

placed there during her li fe-time, similarlyadorned. The square form is employedbecause it symbolizes terrestrial life, or theearth-a four-sided-world :

A tower of strength that stoodFour square to all the winds that blow,a thought common to all people fromEgypt to Yucatan: the Egyptians heldthat the Universe was a rectangular box,that the earth was the bottom and the skythe cover, which rested on four columns orthe horns of the earth-Bakhu (East),Manu (West), Apet-to (South), Naz-oritt

Hand of God the Father: tenth century(North) ; a thought also familiar to Chris-tians from the following words of J ohn:I saw four Angels standing on the fourcor ners of th e ear th , holding the four windsof the earth. The polygonal halo is pure-ly an ornament, having no esoteric mean-ing, seldom used out of Italy, aid appliedonly to personifications.

The circular form is given to the haloof Christ and the saints, as a circle symbol-ically stands for heaven, eternity, and celes-tial li fe, and is obviously the most common,and is usually a disc or a ring, which varies

MARK OF HONOR



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THE CRAFTSMANcircle or semi-circle, usually representing arainbow, more particularly when Christ isenthroned within the aureola, as if in allu-sion to the vision of S. J ohn: Behold a

The Christ in Najedy: French: twelfth renturythrone was set in heaven, one sat on thethrone--and there was a rainbow roundabout the throne, in sight like unto anemerald. In use it is exclusively restrictedto the Divine Persons of the Trinity, to theVirgin Mother, to the souls of the redeemedascending into heaven, to the members ofthe celestial hierarchy, and the apotheosisof a saint. The Virgin Mother is thus de-picted only when she is represented with theHoly Child in her arms, at her Assumption,and when she is portrayed as the woman ofthe Apocalypse.

The aureola of an ascending soul is com-26

posed of yellow, green and red clouds orrays of light; the colors of faith, hope andlove, the three virtues with which a soulmust be clothed in order to gain the BeatificVision. It will be remembered that whenBeatrice asked to have Dante admitted tothe heavenly banquet, St. Peter examinedhim as to his faith:

- the costly jewel, on whichis founded every virtue -

Questa cara gioia,Sopra la quale ogni virtti si fonda.

(Par. XXV.)S. J ames next interrogated him as to his

hope :- the joy to come a sure expectance,The effect of grace divine and meri t preceding.Speme, diss io, ed uno attender certoDella gloria futura, i! qua1 produceGrazia divina e precedente merto.

(Par. XXV.)Lastly, S. J ohn questions him as to his

love :All grappling bonds, that knit the heart to God,Confederate to make fast our charity.- Tutti quei morsiChe posson far lo cuor volgere a DioAlla mia caritate sou concorsi.

(Par. XXVI.)

Head of Aneel: Benoezo cfozzoli (14%1198)To surround the body with an aureola

and to crown the head with a halo must



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St. Thomas Aquinas in Glory:Francesco Traini; Piss, Church of St. Catherine



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THE CRAFTSMAXhave always been a familiar thought toChristians, made so by the words of St.J ohn in the nook of Kerelation, where hesays : There appeared a great wonder in

heaven; a woman clothed z& h the sun, andthe moon under her feet, and upon her heada crown of twelve stars ; and in anotherplace : I saw a mighty angel come downfrom heaven, clothed with a cloud: and arainbow was upon his 7iead, and his facewas as it were the sun.

Cherubim and seraphim, when symboliz-ing an attribute of the Deity, are enclosedin red ovoidal aureolas,-because light(divine truth) is made manifest throughfire (love) and the color of fire is red.

When the head-halo and the aureola areemployed together, their union i s called aglory.

I t must be conceded by all that this in-quiry has partiallyi if not completely, dem-onstrated the universality of the halo andaureola in the religious art of all peoples, atall times ; and that what is now needed, inorder to understand the matter aright, is athorough archaeological investigation ofexisting monuments, together with a judi-cious sifting of documentary evidence: aresearch which would be of great value inthe elucidation of the history of religionand art, and to which this article is a mereintroduction.

It is true that one side of the subject,that is, its relationship to Christian theologyand mysticism, has long ago been seriouslyand exhaustively considered. St. ThomasAquinas, the master mind of mediaevallearning, in the supplement to his SummaTheologica has carefully examined, withhis usual lucidity, the subject of halos andthe reasons for their being, symbolism,varieties, fruits, and applications. Hisexposition is not only wonderfully logical,


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__-- .-..___

The Ascension :Benvenuto di Giovanni (School of Siena)



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THE CRAFTSMANthoughts, thoughts provocative of pro-found reflection ; moreover, he shows thatit is not, as DAlviella tersely says, thevessel that is important, but the wine whichwe pour into it; not the form, but the ideawhich animates and transcends that form.

It would seem as if the following is thelogical conclusion to be deduced from the

foregoing facts and illustrations, viz., thatthe halo of to-day is a survival from theremote past, by the road of conflicting re-ligious systems, of a mark of honor ofvarying potentiality, and inherently sug-gestive of glory, from its having been in itsorigin the highest symbolic expression ofsolar worship.

Suns Disc: Guatemala

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THE USE OF WOOD IN SWITZERLANDWENDELL G. CORTHELL

TE tourist in the Bernese Oberlandfinding on every hand an abun-dance of wood carving concludesthat this is now the chief use of

wood in that little country. He also judgesfrom the many wooden chalets that woodmust be very plentiful in the land. Inboth he is mistaken. Wood carving is,indeed, a growing industry, but the chiefuse of wood is still in the construction ofhomes. Though forests are seen on manya mountain side, yet four-fifths of all thewood used is imported. When centuriesago the forests were far more plentiful, thetaste for the use of wood was formed, andnow when wood is scarce, the taste remainsand the demand must be met by other lands.

Here we will speak of the forests ofSwitzerland, the industry of wood carvingand the construction of chalets.

In our own country, forests are mostlyowned by individuals who can do with themas they please, but in Switzerland they arenow held by the Communes, the Cantons,or the State, and are all conserved for thepublic good. Forests, on the banks ofrivers affected by the melting snows, mustbe preserved to prevent floods in the towns;those on the mountain sides must guardfrom the destructive avalanches; and allmust be maintained with skill and not al-lowed to disappear.

The Commune in Switzerland is an ag-gregation of villages, and each member isentitled to his share of that part of the

forest which is allowed to be cut down.Wood for building and for fuel may behad, but new trees must take the place ofthose destroyed, the forest must be kept upto its standard. Schools of forestry grad-uate men whose business it is to decidehow and to what extent the forests are tobe maintained. The surplus growth isapportioned among the people ; not amongall the people, but only among the membersof the Commune. Every member must beborn of a member, or become a member bypurchase or election. In a Commune likeBerne, for instance, composed of a city,there is no wood to divide. The foreststhere are really wooded parks and no sur-plus wood is given away.

In the mountains, however, and in manyfarming localities, there is wood enough forthe villagers.

Let us remember that the li fe in Switzer-land is distinctively that of the village.Here is the only true republic in Europe, arepublic of far more freedom, dignity andreal democracy than that of France, or eventhan that of our own. A land is here with-out a Boss, where every member is freeto cast his ballot and have his full share inthe general corporation. The forests areamong his assets and all are interested tohave them kept at their full value.

As extensive as are the wooded heightsin this model land, there is only one-fifthenough wood to go round. This conditionbecomes all the more serious in a land which

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WOOD IN SWITZERLANDproduces no coal. Fire wood is precious.The cold of winter is severe, and every stickof that which gives warmth and life is madeto yield its full value.

There is that in the character of the Swisswhich makes of him the true craftsman.Shoddy goods do not come from Switzerland.For centuries the people have been knownfor their honesty. They have been doinghonest work for themselves in the construc-tion of roads which vie with the famousRoman roads of old, in terraced vineyardsthat serve for many generations, in watchesand machinery of wonderful accuracy andsolidity, in mountain engineering, whichfor daring and safety is the admiration ofthe world, and in wooden homes that needno paint to hide the deficiencies of work-manship.

Of late years, wood carving has taken anew impetus and grown extensively. Inthe Oberland the peasants have for cent-uries, during the long evenings of winter,devoted themselves to the production ofarticles in wood. The Swiss pine grew athand and lent itself to the ingenious andskillful use of the knife.

The center of the industry has long beenabout Interlaken, and near by, at Brienz,a wood carving school has become a greatsuccess. It has not only turned out manyscholars who can make good things and agood living, but the influence on the peoplehas been elevating and beneficial. Draw-ing inspiration from this school, more than800 persons are at work, and the numberis constantly increasing.

The work is, however, almost entirelydone in the homes. Factories do not flour-ish in Switzerland. Tiffany tried this inwatchmaking and failed.

The school itself is well managed andhas the confidence of the people. I t isequipped with a faculty of able teachers,workrooms and proper apparatus. TheCanton and Parish contribute liberally toits support. The course is either three orfour years. There is a small entrance fee,but otherwise instruction and material arefree. From the second year pupils receiveone-half the proceeds of sales of their work,and also premiums for meritorious work.

Brienz has, in connection with the school,an Industrial Arts, which holds a sampleexhibition during the summer, when thetourists visit the town.

One of the teachers says: Without thewood carving industry, the people wouldhave to emigrate wholesale. Not only dowe keep our population, but other peoplecome from different parts of the country,learn the industry at our school, and settlehere for good. I myself am an outsider.Wherever tourists resort, there is on salethe product of the carvers knife. Whilefar behind the exquisite work of J apan oreven of I taly, the work is yet good enoughin i ts way to find ready sale to the travellersfrom many lands. Every piece is justwhat it pretends to be. There is no pre-tense to fine art. The articles are mostlyfor household use, such as salad forks,plates, chairs, clocks, canes, book-racks,shelves, frames, etc. Most of the work isdone in the village homes. Father and sonwork together in the front room of thechalet, while the product of their tools isspread out to catch the attention of thepassing traveller. Often the little benchand its worker are moved out on the side-walk to gain more light and advertise thework more fully.



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WOOD IN SWITZERLANDThe industrial schools of Switzerland

are many. There are schools for decorat-ing watches, for the making of toys, forbasket making, for joinery, wood engrav-ing, art cabinet making, and, in Geneva, alarge and flourishing school of industrialart, housed in a building costing $160,000,and ranking with the one at Munich as thebest in Europe.

The Swiss village home, or chalet, isunique. Cross the Alps into the Cantonof Ticino on the Italian side and the chaletdisappears ! There stones take its place.The vil lage is there, but the wood has givenplace to what in I taly has always been thebuilding material. The writer has stoodon Monte Salvatore near Lugano in Ticinoand counted one hundred and twenty-sevenstone villages. That could not be done inany part of I taly. In every other cantonwood is the favorite material for the villagehome. Owing to the original abundance oftimber, it was used almost exclusively forthe building of houses, and the famouschalets have, for centuries, been the homesof the people.In every Swiss village there are two ex-ceptions to the public use of the wood. Thechurch and school house are of stone. Re-ligion and learning are too precious to beat the risk of fire.. Not that fire is at allcommon, even in the wooden houses, butthere is a feeling of security in a stonebuilding. The writer has spent nearly ayear in Switzerland and has seen but onefire, and that was in a hotel.

In 1896 there was held at Geneva aNational Exposition, at which was anaccurate reproduction of a Swiss village.The chalets were copied from the best tobe found all over the country, from the

richest and most artistic dwellings, withtheir carved and partially painted faqadesdown to the little and rude mountain shel-ters built for the use of the cowherds insummer. The result of the Swiss villagehas been educational and stimulating to arenewal of the older forms of chalets.Architects are now building after the styleof one hundred, fifty years ago, andmany admirable examples are to be found,and a better art is manifested than in theprevious twenty-five years. The art ofbuilding in wood has flourished four hun-dred years, and the best examples belong tothe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

We lack space for describing technicallythe construction of the chalet. A few gen-eral features may, however, not be over-looked.

A true chalet does not cover its exteriorwith paint, or hide its interior wood bypaper and hangings, which can never beso beautiful as the natural grain of thewood.

Here in the States, we often spoil ourhouses with paint on the outside. Many avillage vies with the rainbow in colors.Some of the houses are bright, some faded,and all out of harmony. How much betterthe Swiss custom of having the naturalwood merely treated with refined linseed oil,and then leaving time, the true artist, touse its sunshine and its rain to mellow thecolors of the wood into real harmony andbeauty !

Instead of hiding the materials employedand the methods of their employment, everyeffort. is made to show the joints and theirfittings, the boards and timber, so that whatis there by necessity becomes an object ofdecoration and harmony.



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WOOD IN SWITZERLANDSwiss pine in age takes on charming

colors. An oriental rug is not more sus-ceptible to the gentle hand of time than isa Swiss chalet. The brush of the yearspaints in charming shades of tan, sepia,gray and black. Certainly the Americanvillage paint pot may well retire in shame.

As may be seen by the illustrations thereare certain distinctive features in thechalets. The foundations are of stone andoften go half way up the first story. Theseare generally kept whitewashed, setting offas in a frame all the woodwork above.Stones again are often found on the roof.The reason of this is chiefly to hold thesnow.

In the plains, where there is much rain,the roofs are steep, to throw off the water,while in the mountains, where there is muchsnow, they are made flat and dotted withstones to hold the snow, which aids to keepthe house warm.

The wide, overhanging eaves, from threeto nine feet, which are universal, are to pro-tect the occupants from the summer sun andwinter snows. In summer the sun runshigh and is kept out, while in winter itruns low and can come in.

Balconies are also ever present. A chaletwithout a balcony would hardly be achalet at all. Here the entire family isaccommodated. I t is the den, the salon,the sitting-room, the dining-room, the out-look, the place of gossip, the place forflowers and brill iant color, the family rest-ing place.

In many of the chalets the chimney iscovered with a board which can be raisedone side or the other, according to the direc-tion of the wind.

The outside staircase is very common.

The entrance is usually at the side, some-times by stone steps to the first floor andwood stairs to the second floor.

As a rule, the windows are in groups, two,three and even four in close row, and thena wide space of wood. The interiors arefinished entirely in natural wood. In theMuseum at Bale are various rooms finishedand furnished with the work of previouscenturies. Here the natural wood, mel-lowed by age, and often carved, is the onlydecoration. A Swiss would find it difficultto breathe in the stuffy rooms of some ofour modern apartment houses.

He is accustomed in his chalet to floors,uncarpeted, of creamy, unpainted pinewood, and very clean, to low raftered ceil-ings and walls, decorated with the naturalgrain of the wood. About are carvings ofmaple, beech, or walnut. His furniture isalso of wood, solid and rich in plainness.

Of course there are chalets and chalets.There are many costing from ten to twentythousand dollars, while there are more, likethe mountain chalets, for instance, occupiedby the herdsmen, without ornament, whichmay be built for three hundred dollars.

Considering that Switzerland is theplayground of Europe, and that the richand prosperous from all lands are constant-ly pouring out their money among theSwiss people, it is remarkable that the latterhave retained their habits of thrift, econ-omy, and simplicity of life. The cost ofthe government is only three dollars percapita per annum. In England it is twelvedollars, and in France fifteen dollars.

The Swiss are a nation of workers. I fthere is a leisure class, the tourist never seesit. No one is ashamed to work, no onelooks down on the craftsman.



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WOOD IN SWIIZXRIANI~Switzerland has no castles, no walled

towns. She has been governed for five hun-dred years by her own people and withoutthe help of kings. She is a land of villages,of homes. Of six hundred thousand house-holders, five hundred thousand own a bit ofland. The Swiss are the freest people in

EDITOR'S NOTE.--An editorial which appeared inthe Boston Transcript, Some time during the monthof August last, completely justifies the statementsmade by Mr. Corthell regarding the prosperi ty ofSwitzerlaud and the causes for the same.

The editorial opens with a quotation from Mr.Peek, a former United States minister to themouutain republic, who lately said: There is nocountry, no nation on the globe, which can comparein quality and number of educational insti tutionswith those of Switzerland, according to the numberof inhabitauts. The writer of the article thendevelops a comparison between Switzerland andMassachusetts, in both of which commonwealthsit has been discovered that the intelligence of thepeople is a prime cause of all other prosperi ty,material as well as moral.

In the course of his observations the writer statesthat, long ago, emigration from Switzerland ceased,and immigration into that country began; sinceGermans, F rench, Italians and Slavs were and arestill attracted by the excellent economic conditionsthere prevailing.The democracy, of the European state, the writermaintains, is much more essential and powerfulthan that of Massachusetts: popular control beingnow almost absolute, and preventing the use of the

the world, the Athenians of modern times.They are the most universally educated ofany country, it being their boast that everyone who is not mentally incapacitated, isable to read and write. They have all thevrrtues and none of the vices of our ownpolitical life.public resources for the selfish advantage of thefew. These conditions are maintained by meansof an article of the constitution, the Rsferendum,which provides that all measures of vital import,in order to become laws, must be referred to thewhole body of the citizens.

The editorial closes with a second quotation fromMr. Peek, who says that the three mill ions ofSwiss consume more commodities to-day than thefifteen millions of I talians, although the naturalproductiveness of the two countr ies can not becompared.

In these and many other favorable facts to benoted in the present condition of Switzerland wemay discern the effects of good government, pureand simple; but before instituting a parallel be-tween that country and Italy in the matter ofcommercial consumption, the geography of the twocountries should be considered. Switzerland isprotected from the greed of the continental powersby a natural barrier. Her children are thus leftfree to cultivate the soil, to develop manufac-tures, and to elevate themselves. On the contrary,Italy is now, of necessity, an armed camp, forcedto nourish its defenders, who are drawn away fromthe peaceful li fe of the fields that they may learnto kill, to devastate and destroy.

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House at Talwhkino: designed by S. Malioutine



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THE RACIAL ART OF THE RUSSIANSWith a preface and adapted from the Prench by IRENE SAR~FXT

T E world, it would seem, is wearyof precedent and tradition. Themost refined among nations andindividuals seek freedom and de-mand a simplicity of life, thought and artverging upon crudeness. Western Europeturns to Russia as to a virgin source ofideas. And the confidence is not misplaced.In the vast empire, Slav, Tartar, Mongoland Greek have mingled their elements toproduce a composite population mostworthy of study and most fascinating tothe man of less complex heredity. Themental superiority of mixed races is ac-knowledged. The receptivity of the Russianhas been discussed by historians and por-trayed by novelists. The latter, especially,once delighted in representing the type ofthe noble or aristocrat: subtle and assum-ing the vices of older civilizations as easilyas he acquired their languages, any one ofwhich he spoke without the accent of a for-eigner. He was vicious, cruel, unbridled inhis passions, false to the core,-such asCherbuliez and other French writers of twodecades since represented him, in stories ofsin and suffering like : The Count Kostia.

At that period, also, the mouj ik or peas-ant was pictured in popular tales as pos-sessed of all the vices generated by a condi-tion of servitude. He passed his li fe intrying to deceive the master whom he servedand the saints to whom he prayed. He wasthe fit companion of the dissolute nobleman.Both were accomplished types of perverts.

But slowly the indigenous art of theempire has revealed a different Russian:the suffering sincere peasant of TolstoisGospel Tales, or the suffering regeneratenobleman of the same great writers Res-urrection. The aristocrat has been puri-fied by going to the people. The peoplehave been found to possess thoughts andideas worthy not only of expression, but ofconsideration ; ideas which, whether con-veyed by forms, colors, music or words,must be popularized and perpetuated asexamples of human genius. Art is themirror of l ife and to one gifted with theseeing eye the history of a people or ofan individual can be traced in the worksfashioned by the human hand, for all ex-periences, all memories, all aspirations arecontained therein. And nowhere are theseevidences plainer than in the racial art ofthe Russians ; in the products of their hand-icrafts, in their humble objects of daily ser-vice, as well as in their churches and icons,brilliant with gold and jewels. Russianart is eloquent. Tartar and Northmanspeak from it as clearly as words can saythat ornament is the first spiritual need ofthe barbarous man. This barbarity wefind in the use made in Russian enamels andembroideries of the primitive colors,as crudein tone and as boldly combined as in thedecorative schemes of the North AmericanIndian. On the contrary, the contact witha dominating and highly civilized influencewe see recorded in the stiff forms and pecu-



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and not a matter of dried parchment and with sweeping gestures,-all have a primi-crabbed letters. For the touch of the By- tive, elemental character which suggests thezantine or the Greek seems yet warm upon wildness and freedom of the steppes, andthe object, though hundreds upon hundreds open vistas into past ages, when the pas-of years have elapsed since the contact oc- sions of men were simpler and stronger, andcurred. life was more sincere and real.

This singular mingling of the refined Movements to preserve in the midst ofwith the barbarian element is certainly the the materializing and levelling influencesgreat source of attraction in the Russian of our times the arts of primitive peopleshimself, and in all the works of his imagi- should be recognized and fostered, whethernation and intellect. I t is apparent in the the arts involved are those of the Old Worldsplendid religious services of the Orthodox or the New, the industries and handicraftsChurch, which offer so strong a contrast of the Russian, or those of the Northwith the Roman ritual, and carry the for- American Indian. For such movementseigner who witnesses them into a world of are purely and simply the expression of thesensuous pleasure quite apart from that instinct of self-preservation native to hu-opened by the organ music of the Latin manity. Art is as necessary to life as foodmass. The impression made by a visit to and shelter, and whenever its abundancesuch a church as the one which rears its fails and its fruits wither, life is robbed of44

THE CRAFTSMANliar motifs of decoration characterizing the golden domes over a commonplace boule-structural efforts of the Russian peasants: vard of Paris is not one easily cancelled bytheir houses, their beds, benches, tables and years of ordinary experiences. The bar-chairs, or other things wrought in wood. baric splendor of the place proves thatAs we examine these, history seems vital, there is a beauty other than the one which

is subdued by rules and refinedaway by civilization. Thesensitive heart bounds in re-sponse to the unfamiliar,crude modulations of the un-accompanied chants; the eye,grown languid by delicatefeasts of soft shades, receivesa vitalizing shock from thealmost blinding gold and theprimary colors of the altarand icons and vestments. Theceremonies conducted by theclergy, the almost constantresponsive movements of theunseated worshippers, as theyprostrate or cross themselves



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RACIAL ARTits strongest and sweetest sustenance. This universities to become the saviors of society ;fact, although carelessly ignored, has per- the new art, smelling of the soil , freshsisted throughout all ages and types of from the hard hands of peasants, or quicksociety. Art, religion and political science with the spirit of artists who worship Na-

. l_. -- - - _r . ._,I _ ,_. -

Amroach to house atTalachkino: designed by S. Malioutinehave concurred to form organic, produc-tive periods. The three are inseparablecompanions and co-laborers. Togetherthey assist men to live and enjoy; togetherthey leave them to decline and suffer.

At the present moment there is felteverywhere the vital influence of the threeforces. The Gospel of the Simple Life,concurrent with the Sermon on the Mount,is now heard from the Parisian boulevards;the science treating the relations of man toman as those of brother to brother is thefavorite study of the young men who are togo out from the Old- and the New-World

ture instead of conventions, is coming tobe acknowledged as the legitimate child ofthe people.

It is, therefore, as a significant sign ofthe inspiring age about to be that we shouldwelcome the revival now in progress of theracial art of the Russians : a record of whichappears in the subjoined article, adaptedfrom the French of M. Gabriel Mourey,and published in the August issue of theFrench publication, Ar t et D& oration.

Among the fatiguing sights and soundsof the incoherent fair held on the heightsof the Trocad&o, Paris, and dignified by



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THE CRAFTSMANthe name of the Exposition of 1900, be-hind the great palace with battlementedfacade, heavy towers, and strange spirescapped with the golden figure of the dou-ble-headed eagle, there was a quiet spot, ascene of charming domesticity. That wasthe Russian village.

They were indeed exquisite, those woodenstructures with their roofs marking them,as it were, with a foreign accent ; with theirexterior staircases, sheltered by carvedhoods; with their small porches and heavybalustrades crudely cut and carved. Nearthe miniature church flaming with the goldand enamels which constitute the Orientalsplendor of the orthodox form of .worship,one found the restoration of a rich interiorof the seventeenth century, a display ofalmost barbarous luxury : sumptuous stuffs,furniture, coffers, jewels, costumes heavy

of a market day in some village of LittleRussia : agricultural implements, householdutensils, shoes, familiar objects in metal-work, wood, leather, and papkr m& chk, har-ness, knives, clothing, fur, earthen-ware, . . .a confusion of primitive forms and crudecolors,-a whole of curious, ingenuous sav-agery.

It was, indeed, the great isba reservedfor Russian decorative art, of which thelamented Mlle. HklGne Polenoff was therestorer, if not the real creator. With arare comprehension of the genius of herrace, this woman understood-and she wasthe first thoroughly to understand it inRussia,-that the decorative art of a coun-try cannot be strong and significant, unlessit express, simply and plainly, the senti-ments, the soul of all ; unless it strike itsroots into the very hearts of the people,

and take its inspiration fromtheir traditions, their mannersand customs, their past, his-toric and moral: otherwise, itwill be nothing save the forcedand temporary domination ofan ordinary fashion ; morethan ordinarily dangerous,however, since it threatens tocorrupt the sources of inspi-ration and the taste of themasses. Mlle. Polenoff, it issaid, had a thoroughquaintance with Russiantory and archeology,methods of decoration,

ac-his-thethethe

Sleigh: designed by S. Yalioutinewith precious stones-a flashing panorama favorite industries of each district,of the aristocratic life of that period, brutal spontaneous and accented characteristics ofand ostentatious. But very near, beneath the work done by these village artisans. Inthe balcony of a bazar, in the most pictur- a word, she understood all that is impliedesque disorder, was amassed the merchandise by peasant art. She was the soul of that46



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RACIAL ARTmovement whose force and charm were re-vealed in the Russian village of the Troca-d&-o.

In 1884, Mile. Polenoff began the studyof the decorative motifs of the peasants.This study was partially suggested to herby the initiative of a friend, Mme. Mamon-toff, who had just founded in the neighbor-hood of her country house, at Abramtsevo,near Moscow, a school of wood-carving forthe young peasants, to the end that theymight have a regular occupation duringthe winter. As a consequence, the questionarose as to what motifs would best respondto the public taste ; the intention of thefounder being to sell the objects wroughtat the school in the shops of Moscow.Mme. Mamontoff and Mlle. Polenoff de-cided, therefore, to visit the neighboringvillages, in quest of utensils in carved wood:of salt-cellars, spoons, water-jugs and thelike. From these objects Mlle. Polenoffsought her inspiration. So strong andtrue was her instinct for peasant art, thatthe vil lage boys found keen pleasure inexecuting her designs, because her compo-sitions recalled vividly the things familiarto them in their homes since childhood.

Such then was the initial step of thismovement. The enthusiasm of the initia-tors could not do otherwise than awakenresponse. At Abramtsevo, Mlle. Polenofffounded, as we have seen, her studios forwood-carving ; at Smolenka, in the Govern-ment of Tamboff, a studio for embroiderywas opened by Mlle. J akounchikoff; atTalachkino, the princess Marie Tenicheff,who had been one of the first enthusiastsawakened by Mlle. Polenot, soon followedthe example of the latter lady. The prin-cess had already established on her domains

a school of agriculture which numbered twohundred pupils, boys and girls alike, towhom she afforded a complete course ofstudy. To this school she added studiosof peasant art, in which the young menand boys are taught, outside of their hered-itary industry, a means of employmentwhich they may exercise through the longwinters. In this way they become, accord-ing to their tastes, cabinet-makers, smiths,harness-makers, basket-weavers, wood-carv-ers, or decorators; while the girl-pupils re-ceive instruction in sewing, embroidery anddrawing.

In order to execute this scheme, at onceartistic and social, the princess Tknicheffsurrounded herself with certain associateswho were capable of developing the artisticsentiment in these peasant children, grad-ually, normally and according to the nat-ural gifts of each individual. And, as itwas essential from the first to determine thedirection of the instruction, a museum ofarcheology was established at Talachkino,in which architecture, gold and silver work,sculpture, painting, design, the textile artand embroidery are represented by charac-teristic and instructive works; the wholeforming an eloquent history of Russianart. The benevolence of such an institu-tion resting on deep and solid bases, couldnot fail to be appreciated without delay.

The il lustrations accompanying thesenotes give an idea of the results accom-plished. And, although remote from us,from our traditions, from our aesthetic in-stincts, this Russian peasant art, by itsprimitive quality, its religious fervor, itslove of the mystic, deserves to interest us.It is lacking in refinement. I ts utterancesare sometimes inarticulate, but the phrases



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THE CRAFTSMANthat it spells almost painfully have thespontaneity and frankness of those popularpoems and melodies in which the soul of arace perpetuates itself. It has an irresist-ible eloquence for one who is able to absenthimself from a conventional environment,and, laying aside class-prejudice, to enjoysuch strongly-flavored productions. Inthem it is useless to seek the refinementsgiven elsewhere to decorative art by cent-uries of intensive hereditary culture andof forced civilization, by the insatiabledesire of luxury and elegance, or at

museums. One must not exact from thesevillage and peasant craftsmen more thanthey are able to give us. It is to be hopedthat they may remain sincere and simple asthey now are, seeking their inspiration onlyin the familiar sights of their li fe andsurrounding nature, allowing their racialimagination to flow freely through theirwork.

How ingenuously they express them-selves through the design and decoration oftheir embroideries, architectural details, ob-jects of household furniture, utensils, pot-

least of comfort, which is characteristic teries, and musical instruments! All theseof our time. Neither are these examples are extremely simple, absolutely primitive,the productions of trained artists who with the essential or structural idea alwaysbreathe the air of cities and are themselves dominant, and sometimes present alone withthe slowly-grown fruits of schools and nothing to relieve or modify it; with a sys-4A



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RACIAL ARTtern of decoration based upon the earliestmoti fs often without meaning,-that is,representing nothing in nature,-fromwhich, by repetition, they succeed in com-posing very successful designs : flowerscrudely conventionalized placed amongcombinations of branches, volutes awkward-ly posed as units, but excellent in generaleffect ; sometimes fanciful fish, wingedgenii, strange animals, landscapes drawnwith child-like simplicity-all rendered instriking colors, somewhat barbarous, butfused into a harmony, attractive because ofits violent contrasts. The whole forms anart expression, frank and loyal, hesitatingin its utterance like the speech of a child,sometimes also like a childs voice, too in-sistent and noisy, but perfectly sincere andspontaneous, with phrases of incomparablepiquancy. This is truly an art createdby the people for the people, pleasure-giv-ing, because it is healthy and honest. Itis art socialistic in the best sense of theword, and the initiative of those who havedevoted themselves to its production andpropagation must be applauded withoutreserve.

Beside these experiments in industrialand decorative art, the princess TCnicheffhas made efforts to form the taste and exer-cise the talents of the Talachkino peasantsin other directions. For the art-movementcould assume the activity and importancewhich rightfully belong to it, only throughthe development of general culture. Thislady has, therefore, built a small theatre inwhich the peasant-students present nationalworks, comedies and dramas, which instructthem in the heroic legends and the mannersand customs of their great country. Inthe same community popular music receives

much attention. There exists at Talach-kino an orchestra of thirty musicians whoplay upon the balalai l ia (see our illustra-tion page 51) old Russian folk-melodieswhich we of the Western world knowthrough the composers Balakirev and Run-sky-Kortchakoff. This music has a pene-trating charm: it is melancholy, strangelypassionate, and wild almost to savagery:possessing at once the most subtile har-monic refinement, the crudest transitionsand a most characteristic color-sense.

But the masterpiece of this restorationof old Russian art,-a work which owesabsolutely nothing to foreign influence, themost complete embodiment of the racialprinciples which has been attempted up tothe present moment, is the church nowin process of construction at Talachkino.It was begun two years since, and will re-quire an equal period of time to assure itsentire completion.

The style of this religious edifice must,it is said, be regarded as the culmination ofthe results accomplished since 1884 by therestorers of the old racial art which hadlong been in decline. Aided by designersand architects, the princess Tenicheff,sought throughout Russia, in view of herscheme, the purest and most brill iant exam-ples of the old art. Of these she causedelevations to be executed, casts to be made,plans to be drawn, and from these elementscombined and fused together, the idea ofthe church at Talachkino arose.

This movement of intense interest is oneof great fertil ity, for it has its source inthe heart of the people. It is the result ofthe traditions, the sentiments, the customsof an entire race. It is a movement whichthe slowness of its development and the

49



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THE CRAFTSMANpolitical conditions of the country will shel-ter for a long time from external influences,and place beyond the reach of the seduc-tions of cosmopolitan degeneracy.

I t is not surprising that such initiativesbear abundant fruit.

In the region of Talachkino-and theexample of the princess Tknicheff has

been followed quickly by numerous largerural proprietors, without mention of theaction exerted since 1888 by the Ministersof Agriculture and Domains-the beneficialresults are already apparent: the childrenof the agriculturists quickly become pro-50

ducers of industrial objects upon a smallscale, supplying the necessities of currentconsumption formerly furnished by whole-sale industry under more burdensome condi-tions. These small producers of the ruraldistricts, the Koustari, as they are called,work in their own houses with the assistanceof their families, sometimes even employingone or several workmen, who eat at thetable of their employer, share his life andaid in the household tasks. The moralutili ty of such conditions is evident, sincethe effect of manual, personal labor thusunderstood and performed, is to create firmand lasting bonds between the members ofa social class.

Art, thus pursued, exerts its true civiliz-ing, refining influence. I t shares in life,it becomes an integral part of existence,instead of the thing of luxury which wehave made it. I t becomes the recreation atonce serious and joyous which all humanwork should be. Ruskin had no otherdream the day when he sought-alas, with-out success-to set in action. his ideas, hisevangelical conception of manual labor.What he was not able to realize, othershave attempted, in other countries, in morefavorable environment. But if such per-sons have the right, like the princess T&i-cheff, to derive a certain pride and satisfac-tion from their tr iumph, a small, perhaps alarge, share of honor should be paid to theauthor of Mumera Pulveris and of Untothis Last : to the man who, the first inEurope, under the reign of literary phari-saism, demanded equally for all the rightto beauty, to pleasure and to art.

There is an element of pathos in theactivity of these humble village homes intowhich art has brought a ray of its splendid



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RACIAL ARTradiance: instead of idleness and of theunhealthful, depressing effect of the longwinter without employment, now the entirefamily-women, old men, children, aroundthe stove

the craftsman - 1903 - 10 - october

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