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 ECCLESIASTICAL

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ECCLESIASTICAL

England, and to a lesser extent to France, and that Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands took but a very small share in the artistic development of the eighteenth century, instead of, as in preceding periods, being the great centres of development themselves. The triumph of the home, however, in contradistinc- tion to that of the Church, was now complete, and portraiture, whether concerning itself with the great decorative single figures or famOy groups of Reynolds and Gainsborough, or with the productions of the leading miniature painters, Cosway, Engleheart, Plimer, Smart, Hone, Wood, and their numerous fol- lowers, was exclusively applied to the multiplication of portraits of those persons who were able to afford to employ the artist, antl who desired to possess and dis- tribute to others such delightful representations as would adorn the home and the person. Ecclesiastical art, or art for the decoration of the church, had hardly any existence.

In England towards the middle of the nineteenth century a new movement having in it some of the in- stincts of earlier Italian art began to arise. The fore- most artist of this new school was Sir Edward Burne- Jones. In the wonderful succession of poetic visions which he presented, marked by a play of fancy, a fer- tility of inventiveness, tender witchery of inspiration, exquisite colour, and grace and harmony of line and grouping, he was able to develop the spirit of religious emotion to a far fuller extent than he himself had in- tended, and to vivify the old legends of primitive times which had formed part of his inheritance from Celtic ancestors. His appearance on the horizon of art was to a great extent coincident with the blossom- ing forth of what has been termed the Oxford Move- ment in religion, a growing desire for a deeper and fuller devotion, an eager determination to return to earlier and purer lines of thought in religion, to set faith free from the regulations of statecraft, and to rise from the dreary monotony of a Genevan theology to something approaching closer to the fiery enthusi- asm and the sumptuous ceremonial of the passionate faith of earlier days. The progress of this movement nithin the Protestant Church led to a considerable number of accessions to the Catholic Faith, but in the Church of its origin it worked a complete revolution. Once more there arose the determination that the house of God should be beautiful, and once again art, with all the various crafts closely connected therewith, entered into the service of religion, very much in the manner they had done in preceding centuries. Tapes- try-workers, under the influence of William Morris and Burne-Jones, were set to work to prepare panels of glowing colour for the decoration of churches. The stained-glass painters, under the influence of these craftsmen, sought out old designs, originated new schemes of colour, and worked hard to discover old secrets of technic. The earlier schools of embroidery were studied, and all over the country women set to work to make vestments and to execute needlework of rare distinction and great beauty. A revival took place in the art of the metal-worker and in that of the stone-mason. Many fine wrt)Ught-iron grilles were made, and the claim of the artist to prepare the design and to superintend the carrying out of its execution was once more considered and gladly entertained, (^uite apart from the religious aspect of the movement, there was in this O.xford revival the origin of the effort towards greatiT refinement, greater beauty, and more attention to handicraft, which, commencing in the middle of the nineteenth century, has by no means reached its culmination in the early years of the t wentieth.

One of the first and most important of the move- ments which aimed to break away from the artistic traditions of the eighteenth century took place in tlie early part of the nineteenth century in Germany, and was led by Overbeck. The Academy of Vienna, at

the time that he entered it, was under the direction of Fuger, a talented miniature painter, but a follower of the pseudo-classical school of David, and a firm be- liever in the tenets of these opinions, too conservative to vary from them in the least degree. Overbeck felt that he was among commonplace painters, that every noble thought was suppressed within the academy, and that Christian art had been diverted and corrupted until nothing Christian remained in it. The differences between him and his followers and their fellow-stu- dents were so serious that the upholders of Overbeck and their leader were expelled from the academy; leaving Vienna, Overbeck journeyed to Rome, reach- ing it in ISIO, and remaining there for fifty-nine years. Here he was joined by such men as Veit, Cornelius, Schadow, with others of less importance; together they formed a school which was known as the Nazar- ites, or the Church-Romantic painters. They built up a severe revival on simple nature and the serious art of the Umlirian and Bolognese painters, and although for a long time they laboured under great difficulties, yet, after a while, they were able to exert considerable influence, and their success led to memorable revivals throughout Europe. Overbeck was a Catholic, as were several of his friends. He was a man of high purity of motive, of deep insight, and abounding knowledge, a very .saintly person, and a perfect treas- ury of art and poetry, insomuch that his influence helped very largely to purify the art of his time. The secessions from the conservative line adopted by the Royal Academy in England late in the nineteenth century were not marked by the particular element of religious fervour distinguishing Overbeck, but were the result of a similar determination to return to na- ture, and understand the art of painting in the open air, with not only a strict adherence to realism in choice and treatment of subject, but also the subordi- nation of colour to tone gradation. These secessions in England were, however, very much the result of the movement in France which had preceded them, and which was connected with the name of Millet.

In Cathohc countries there are arising some signs that the old practice of enlisting the .services of art for the purposes of religion may be developed, but the sig- nals of an approaching movement are not very strong as yet, and the Church has a good deal to learn with regard to decoration, to design, and to craftsmanship from the earUer periods of its historj'. Foremost among the signs of the new spirit must be placed the erection of the Westminster Cathedral at London, one of the most perfect buildings in England, erected after the truest and most careful study of the past and with every desire to give full play to the spirit of the present and to the original talent of its designer, wliile avoid- ing anything that could be called a slavisli copying of the past. This building afTords an example of the re- vived use of mosaic properly applied, in method fol- lowing the work of Ravenna, anil planned by a great artist, Bentley. It aft'ords the most perfect scheme of interior decoration that could well be conceived. In other countries of Europe tlie signs of progress are not quite so clear, but the Church which lias fostered and encourageil art from its very birth has so many glorious examples in its midst of the great achievements of profound genius that it can only be a matter of time before its ancient use of the fine arts is revived. A close study of the past would enable the Church to once more set about the task of employing the craftsmen of the world to produce their finest work in the domain of ecclesiastical art.

Illustrations explanatory of the different branches of ecclesiastical art will be found under the special articles: Ivories; M.\nu8cripts, lLLL\nN.\TioN of; Metal-Work; Painting; Reliquaries; Sculp- tuhe; Wood-Carving.

Kkaus. Cf.Hchichte tier chrwtlichen Kunsi (Freiburg im Br., 18U5-iyOO); Michel, Ilistoire de VaH depuis /es premiers temps