In my opinion, the special duties of a professor and lecturer on Art ought to be, first, the general pilotage of the schools through the quicksands and mud-banks with which the deep-water channel leading to excellence is beset on every side; and, secondly, the alimentation of that subtle flame without which the architect degenerates into a builder, the sculptor into a statuary, and the painter into a handicraftsman.

E. A.

February, 1883.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE PAGE
[I.][ ANCIENT COSTUMES][1]
[II.][ BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE ART][37]
[III.][ ON THE PAINTERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY][67]
[IV.][ “DAVID” AND HIS SCHOOL][91]
[V.][ ON THE MODERN SCHOOLS OF EUROPE][119]
[VI.][ ON DRAWING][151]
[VII.][ COLOR][182]
[VIII.][ ON DECORATIVE PAINTING][207]
[IX.][ ON FINISH][233]
[X.][ ON THE CHOICE OF A SUBJECT][260]
[XI.][ ON THE COMPOSITION OF DECORATIVE AND HISTORICAL PICTURES][284]
[XII.][COMPOSITION OF INCIDENT PICTURES][310]

Lectures on Painting.

LECTURE I.
ANCIENT COSTUMES.

I do not purpose in this lecture to enter much into detail. Such a course would indeed be impossible, without having a large collection of costumes at hand to explain and illustrate my meaning as I go on. I may attempt something of this kind in a future year, but my object to-night is to make a few general observations on the dress of the ancients.

I will begin with the ancient Jews, from Noah downward. We have no pictorial record of the dress of the patriarchs; we have therefore no fixed data to guide us. We may, however, safely assume that a straight-cut under-garment was commonly worn; that a long, ample drapery or cloak was thrown over the shoulders; and that the head was protected from the sun by a cloth, or possibly by some kind of skull-cap. Turbans are essentially Mahometan, and the painters of the Flemish and Dutch schools were certainly wrong in representing Abraham with a turban.