EVOLUTION OF ART

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 39, 9 November 1932, Page 4

EVOLUTION OF ART

Address to University Women

MEETING AT WELLINGTON

The Wellington Federation of University Women held the last general meeting of the year at the Pioneer Club on Monday evening, when the speaker was Mr. Nelson Isaac, whose subject was "Some Aspects of the Development of Art Through the Ages.” Miss.Batbiim (president) first asked Miss Jackson (secretary) to read extracts from an interesting letter from Dr. Elizabeth Bryson, who represented the New Zealand federation at. the recent world conference in Edinburgh. Air. Isaac emphasised the necessity for art continually to reassert, a sense of the past in order to preserve a sense of proportion.- He proceeded to trace the development of art through those early periods in the advance of civilisation. i Age of Cave-dwellers. : The first age in man’s path of civilisation, said the speaker,- was the age of the cave-dwellers, when the artist began first to contribute to the pleasantness of life. The pre-dynastic period in Egypt saw the first fabrics, implements, ornaments, shrines and the first architecture, while the Greeks developed later the familiar three classical orders of architecture. This age saw the beginning of fine craftsmanship in gold and stone with decorations in colour. Through Syria and Babylon, where sculpture was the great contribution, the trend of civilisation passed to Persia, where wonderful craftsmen worked with patience, skill and vision in the making of carpets. metals and pottery. After Persia, Greece took up the torch, continued Mr. Isaac, and then came Rome, a nation of conquerors and lawmakers, rather than creative geniuses. They borrowed Greek craftsmen and acquired in dubious ways Greek works of art. Mentioning as an exceptional man the Emperor Trajan, who encouraged art, Air. Isaac recalled that the finest example of Roman lettering, the model for every age, including the present, was found on the column to Trajan’s memory in the Forum, and that actually his memory was honoured in every newspaper and finely-printed book. The distinctive feature of Byzantine art, continued the speaker, which was evolved when Constantine moved the seat of government to Constantinople, was its wonderful use of colour and mosaic. The last great self-contained period in art was the Italian Renaissance, which saw the birth of painting in its highly technical form, culminating in the marriage of science and art when Leonardo da Vinci created the illusion of the third dimension. At the same time in Germany and Holland artists were pursuing their more homely and personal forms, but very shortly the Nuremburg craftsmen were able to know what Benevenuto Cellini was doing in Italy, and the . age of pure influence bad passed away. Industry and Art. The past 200 years, said Air. Isaac, bad seen themes borrowed and developed and artists had become more personal, developing according to their own thoughts rather than acting as part of a community. The last century, indeed, had witnessed the marriage of industry and art. The people were dominated, by science, and the artist and craftsman had been ousted by mass production. Yet, as in past ages, the more advanced art of our time exactly reflected the present somewhat riotous state of the world; and as for the future he believed that greater leisure, wisely used, might mean a gradual return to the bumbler arts and crafts. A vote of thanks to Air. Isaac was proposed by Aliss Greig. Some discussion followed, and supper was served* at the end of the meeting.