NOTES ON ART.
Lectukes and Demonstrations at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition. — The illustration of theory by practice is shown in the course of lectures, accompanied by demonstrations, which, at the mouths and by the hands of practical professors, have been given weekly during November at the New Gallery. ' What should be done ' is a matter of primary public importance ; * how to do,' though generally interesting, is of special value only to the tew whose work lies in the subjects chosen for treatment. But such of that knowledge of both theory and practice as should be common property of both producer and consumer is given in the following short /;'t't7> of these lectures. On Thursday night (Nov. i), Mr. William Morris delivered the first of the course of lectures arranged for each Thursday evening during November, his subject being carpet and tapestry weaving. A brilliant gathering crowded the large hall at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, and many lights — artistic, cesthetic, and socialistic — were present. Mr. Walter Crane presided, and opened the meeting by a very few words. Indeed it was clear from the hearty reception Mr. Morris had that little introduction was needed. The lecturer got right to his subject at once, by explaining the actual work and process of weaving, and giving practical demonstrations by the aid of model carpet and tapestry looms. These looked simple enough in their clean white wood, and to show the antiquity of the tapestry loom it was mentioned that it might be found represented on Egyptian tombs. As Mr. Morris confessed, it was difficult to make weavers of a popular audience, although, as he casually stated, he was a weaver himself, and had done the work of tapestiy-making. A very fine piece of Persian carpet some 250 years old was used by the lecturer to show what a carpet should be ; firm in design, yet soft and delicately gradated in colour. In all work of decorative art there should be nothing vague. Absolute skill is to combine precision with softness and delicacy of effect ; as for the border there should be a considerable contrast between it and the filling. It should never be plain, the work being carried to the edge of the carpet. In the design as little repetition as possible. Mr. Morris pointed out how necessary it was that the art should be based upon a true appreciation of nature. Suggestion of natural form, he said, from one who really loves the living thing, is far beyond the work of one who could think only of the artificial form. The subject from an historical point of view was next dealt with. It had been suggested that carpets were first made by the Nomad tribes. He thought this likely enough, as they were really tent furniture. He mentioned that in mediKval pictures the carpet designs are always purely mosaic-geometrical, and traced the course of carpets in pictures from Van Eyck to Holbein, remarking pathetically that the old designs had been supplanted, caught by the throat, by com- mercialism. As carpets are an Eastern, so tapestries are essen- tially a European art. Tapestries are in existence — garments for the dead — dating probably from the second century after Christ. Until the second half of the fourteenth century there are no examples of the great tapestries, the greater part of existing remains dating from 1450 to 1520. Illustrating the fact that tapestry-weaving was not an art of the East, Mr. Morris told the story of the French knights who about 1307 were taken prisoners by the Turks, their captors demanding pictured tapestries as ransom. A few tapestries were produced during the first half of the seventeenth century, since then the art has degenerated to merely decorative upholstery. Describing a visit he had paid to a French factory, he spoke of the work as ' muzzy ' in outline, and devoid of detail. Nothing, he said, but strong Gothic art will do for tapestry. In conclusion the lecturer said we had artists who could design and workers who could execute if we would allow them, but we could not have both riches and wealth. Mr. Morris's style is plain and unaffecled, without attempts at oratorical display. He speaks in an easy conversational manner, but .there is a charm about his earnest simplicity which, on Thursday night, kept a hold on the sympathies of his audience to the end. Miss Harrison's Lectures. — Miss Harrison's candidature for the Chair of Archeology at University College has not been without its influence on the composition of her admirable lectures at South Kensington. In a lecture opening the new series she told her hearers that she had deserted for a time the subject of the development of myths in vase-paintings. The two previous courses at the South Kensington Museum had been on this sub- ject, but she had become conscious of a danger both to herself and her hearers of ever culling the flowers of art, and never arriving at the root and habitat of the plant. Such a defect, she hoped, might be obviated by a more severe course on the buildings and temples of Athens, showing the different cults in their stricter relation to topography and architecture. Besides, as she humorously remarked, she had lately been to Athens, and perhaps her greatest wish just now was, like the Athenians of old, to 'tell of some new thing.' The lectures would be exclusively devoted to the recent excavations. The remains of a prehistoric palace had been discovered near the Erechtheum, none other pre- sumably than the 'good house of Erechtbeus,' mentioned by Homer {Odyss. vii. Si). Close by had been laid bare the foundations of a large temple with an interior cella, a colonnade. The foundations of the latter pass right under the porch of the Erechtheum. This temple is maintained by Dr. Dorchfeld to be the ancient temple of the goddess Athene before the Persian wars, and burnt down by the Persians. The thirteen archaic statues, the find of which had created such excitement in 1SS5, north of the Erechtheum, Miss Harrison held to be those of the priestesses of Athene. One of the heads was of marvellous beauty in the style of the illustrious Kalamise. We think as we look at her of Lucian's 'portrait of a lady.' She must have the forehead, head, hair, the perfect eyebrows, and her soft mixture of the Aphrodite of Praxiteles ; her wrist and delicate fingers she would borrow from Alkamenes, neck and mouth and nose from Phideas ; but when all was put together, she yet lacked something — that only Kalamis could give, ' modesty, and a sweet, grave, uncon- scious smile,' and certain quaintness of vesture. The second portion of the lecture, as the first, was illustrated by means of the oxy-hydrogen light, and dealt with the excavations south of the Parthenon. Miss Harrison showed a curious archaic head in pons stone, and described its brilliant colouring — beard and hair, bright blue — eyes, emerald green. She also showed the lately discovered beautiful slab of the ' Sad Athene.' The notion of the goddess being sad Miss Harrison repudiated, as inconsis- tent with the feeling of the archaic period to which the tablet belongs. The goddess probably was looking down in earnest meditation on a state, symbolic doubtless of some important treaty between Athens and another city. Erratum. — Towards the close of the article on 'Bastien Lepage and Modern Realism,' on page 115, October number of this Jievie-v, there occurred the phrase ' martyrdom harder than bullets.' This is a harder saying than there was any intention of making it. The phrase should have read ' martyrdom harder than Millet's.'
The Winter Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery, opening on January 1st, 1SS9, will contain a second series of examples of British Art for the century from 1737 to 1837. It promises to be interesting, and there is some hope of seeing a celebrated Lawrence which has not been exhibited for some twenty years. The promised collection of English Pastels of this period should excite attention, coming so soon after the Pastel Exhibition which has just closed. There will be examples in this material by Cootes and Wilson.
