A Text-Book of the History of Painting Part 1

A Text-Book of the History of Painting.

by John C. Van d.y.k.e.

PREFACE.

The object of this series of text-books is to provide concise teachable histories of art for cla.s.s-room use in schools and colleges.

The limited time given to the study of art in the average educational inst.i.tution has not only dictated the condensed style of the volumes, but has limited their scope of matter to the general features of art history. Archaeological discussions on special subjects and aesthetic theories have been avoided. The main facts of history as settled by the best authorities are given. If the reader choose to enter into particulars the bibliography cited at the head of each chapter will be found helpful. Ill.u.s.trations have been introduced as sight-help to the text, and, to avoid repet.i.tion, abbreviations have been used wherever practicable. The enumeration of the princ.i.p.al extant works of an artist, school, or period, and where they may be found, which follows each chapter, may be serviceable not only as a summary of individual or school achievement, but for reference by travelling students in Europe.

This volume on painting, the first of the series, omits mention of such work in Arabic, Indian, Chinese, and Persian art as may come properly under the head of Ornament--a subject proposed for separate treatment hereafter. In treating of individual painters it has been thought best to give a short critical estimate of the man and his rank among the painters of his time rather than the detailed facts of his life. Students who wish accounts of the lives of the painters should use Vasari, Larousse, and the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ in connection with this text-book.

Acknowledgments are made to the respective publishers of Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting, and the fine series of art histories by Perrot and Chipiez, for permission to reproduce some few ill.u.s.trations from these publications.

JOHN C. VAN d.y.k.e.

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

(This includes the leading accessible works that treat of painting in general. For works on special periods or schools, see the bibliographical references at the head of each chapter. For bibliography of individual painters consult, under proper names, Champlin and Perkins's _Cyclopedia_, as given below.)

Champlin and Perkins, _Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings_, New York.

Adeline, _Lexique des Termes d'Art_.

_Gazette des Beaux Arts_, Paris.

Larousse, _Grand Dictionnaire Universel_, Paris.

_L'Art, Revue hebdomadaire ill.u.s.tree_, Paris.

Bryan, _Dictionary of Painters_. _New edition_.

Brockhaus, _Conversations-Lexikon_.

Meyer, _Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexikon_, Berlin.

m.u.t.h.e.r, _History of Modern Painting_.

Agincourt, _History of Art by its Monuments_.

Bayet, _Precis d'Histoire de l'Art_.

Blanc, _Histoire des Peintres de toutes les ecoles_.

Eastlake, _Materials for a History of Oil Painting_.

Lubke, _History of Art, trans. by Clarence Cook_.

Reber, _History of Ancient Art_.

Reber, _History of Mediaeval Art_.

Schna.s.se, _Geschichte der Bildenden Kunste_.

Girard, _La Peinture Antique_.

Viardot, _History of the Painters of all Schools_.

Williamson (Ed.), _Handbooks of Great Masters_.

Woltmann and Woermann, _History of Painting_.

HISTORY OF PAINTING.

INTRODUCTION.

The origin of painting is unknown. The first important records of this art are met with in Egypt; but before the Egyptian civilization the men of the early ages probably used color in ornamentation and decoration, and they certainly scratched the outlines of men and animals upon bone and slate. Traces of this rude primitive work still remain to us on the pottery, weapons, and stone implements of the cave-dwellers. But while indicating the awakening of intelligence in early man, they can be reckoned with as art only in a slight archaeological way. They show inclination rather than accomplishment--a wish to ornament or to represent, with only a crude knowledge of how to go about it.

The first aim of this primitive painting was undoubtedly decoration--the using of colored forms for color and form only, as shown in the pottery designs or cross-hatchings on stone knives or spear-heads. The second, and perhaps later aim, was by imitating the shapes and colors of men, animals, and the like, to convey an idea of the proportions and characters of such things. An outline of a cave-bear or a mammoth was perhaps the cave-dweller's way of telling his fellows what monsters he had slain. We may a.s.sume that it was pictorial record, primitive picture-written history. This early method of conveying an idea is, in intent, substantially the same as the later hieroglyphic writing and historical painting of the Egyptians.

The difference between them is merely one of development. Thus there is an indication in the art of Primitive Man of the two great departments of painting existent to-day.

1. DECORATIVE PAINTING.

2. EXPRESSIVE PAINTING.

Pure Decorative Painting is not usually expressive of ideas other than those of rhythmical line and harmonious color. It is not our subject.

This volume treats of Expressive Painting; but in dealing with that it should be borne in mind that Expressive Painting has always a more or less decorative effect accompanying it, and that must be spoken of incidentally. We shall presently see the intermingling of both kinds of painting in the art of ancient Egypt--our first inquiry.

CHAPTER I.