Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.

  • Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 1794-1860.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In those times, to use the expression of one of the old Fathers of the Church, “Pictures were the books of the people;” in fact, they had no other; and even now, when books are plen- tiful and cheap, the use of pictures to convey instruction more rapidly and more accurately than by any words, is well known both to those who train the young and those who teach science. But it is another thing when we have to consider pictures as Art, and painting as on^ of the divinest of the Fine Arts properly so called. Now a man may collect books merely as articles of curiosity and rarity, as specimens of printing and binding, like that col- lector whom Pope describes — “In books, not authors, curious was my lord ! ” or he may like them as furniture to fill his shelves with gay binding and accredited names; and even so may a man collect pictures for their beauty, or their rarity, or their antiquity, or hang them upon his walls as mere ornamental furniture. No doubt such collections are a great, an allowable source of pleasure to the possessor and to the observer; but considered as productions of mind addressed to mind, this is not the high- est advantage to be derived from pictures. As I have said, we should be able to read a picture as we read a book. A gallery of pictures may be compared with a well-furnished library; and I have sometimes thought that it would be a good thing if we could arrange a collection of pictures as we arrange a collection of books. In the ordering of a library with a view to convenience and use, we do not mix all subjects together. We have different compartments for theology, his- tory, biography, poetry, travels, science, romances, and so forth ; and we might consider pictures in a similar order. Theology in that case would comprise all sacred subjects, whether taken from the Holy Scriptures, or having any religious significance; they may be the representation of an event, such as the Eleva-