The question is, how has the falling-off in Italian painting been caused?
And by doing what may we again get Bellinis and Andrea Mantegnas as in
old time? The fault does not lie in any want of raw material: nor yet
does it lie in want of taking pains. The modern Italian painter frets
himself to the full as much as his predecessor did--if the truth were
known, probably a great deal more. I am sure Titian did not take much
pains after he was more than about twenty years old. It does not lie in
want of schooling or art education. For the last three hundred years,
ever since the Caraccis opened their academy at Bologna, there has been
no lack of art education in Italy. Curiously enough, the date of the
opening of the Bolognese Academy coincides as nearly as may be with the
complete decadence of Italian painting. The academic system trains boys
to study other people's works rather than nature, and, as Leonardo da
Vinci so well says, it makes them nature's grandchildren and not her
children. This I believe is at any rate half the secret of the whole
matter.
If half-a-dozen young Italians could be got together with a taste for
drawing; if they had power to add to their number; if they were allowed
to see paintings and drawings done up to the year A.D. 1510, and votive
pictures and the comic papers; if they were left with no other assistance
than this, absolutely free to please themselves, and could be persuaded
not to try and please any one else, I believe that in fifty years we
should have all that was ever done repeated with fresh naivete, and as
much more delightfully than even by the best old masters, as these are
more delightful than anything we know of in classic painting.
Pages:
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336