IRISH ART.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXX, Issue 47828, 18 January 1884, Page 4

IRISH ART.

A most able article is contributed to Longmans Magazine by Charles G. Leland on "An Opening for the Unemployed in Ireland." He speaks with authority on the subje t of the art -capacity of the Irish, having well studied the question both in the past and in the present. As director of the industrial art-schools of Philadelphia he has. had many opportunities of proving the artistic powers of children of Irish parents. "When Roman art had died and was not yet fully revived in the Romanesque, there sprang up in an obscure corner of Europe that which eventually gave tone to and determined more than any other cause whatever, the decorative art of the Middle Ages. It compared to the Classic or the Greek as a forest of every kind of tree, bound with a million vines and coloured with millions of flowers, compares with a group of columns or a single grove of palms. Now, the soul of all this fanciful tracery and wild ornament was derived from che illuminations of the manuscripts. This art preceded the wonderfully florid architecture in which it reappeared. And this art was Irish. It was purely and entirely Irish. Irish monks carried to the Court of Charlemagne the new style of illuminating manuscripts. There it combined with the heavy Romanesque, which was as yet almost Roman. From this union sprang the Gothic, but all that was most original and remarkable in it was Irish. Those who would verify what I have said, and see examples of it may consult the ' Palaeographia Pietra' of Westwood, who was, I believe, one of the first to make known the wonderful influence which Ireland exerted in Art. I have endeavoured to study the subject very impartially, and my opinion is that the peculiar ornamental art of Northern Europe had its origin in Ireland, and that it was based on a very early cultus which is as yet enveloped in mystery. We can trace it back to the sei^.Uircd stones of prehistoric times. We see the peculiar ornaments of a really savage era gradually developing into beauty until we find them in church doors, crosses, illuminated manuscripts, and finally in the so-called Later Celtic bronzework, which also exists in silver and gold ornaments. " The Irishman of the present day is the same in all respects as the Englishman. He distinguishes himself in the army, on the Bench, in medicine, or as a merchant. There have been Irish artists of great force. I do not propose to exalt Ireland through these. What I would examine is the capacity of the peasant for industrial art. If he possesses it, and if it can be developed, there exists an important element for the regeneration of Ireland.'