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Modern Painters, Volume 5 (of 5)

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About This Book

The volume gathers extended essays that examine how natural forms and phenomena—mountains, leaves, clouds—and the artist's formal and spiritual invention produce visual truth and emotional meaning. Close empirical observation of vegetation and cloudforms is used to argue principles of representation, technique, and the relations between form and feeling; discussions of artistic invention distinguish structural design from imaginative spirit. Practical reflections on sketching, reproduction, and the handling of drawings illustrate methodological concerns. Overall it balances descriptive natural history, aesthetic theory, and art criticism, aiming to show how accurate perception and moral attention underlie successful pictorial art.

Trees, pine, v. 8-30, 79, 92; Shakspere’s feeling respecting, iv. 371, v. 83; error of painters in representing, iv. 346 (note); perfection of, v. 80-83; influence on Swiss and northern nations, v. 84.

Truth, in art, i. 21, 46, 47, 74, iii. 35; Greek idea of, v. 267; blindness to beauty of, in vulgar minds, v. 268; half, the worst falsehood, v. 268; standard of all excellence, i. 417; not easily discerned, i. 50, 51, 53; first quality of execution, i. 37; many-sided, the author’s seeming contradiction of himself, v. 271 (note); essential to real imagination, ii. 161, 188; essential to invention, v. 191; highest difficulty of illustrating the, i. 410; laws of, in painting, iii. vii. (preface); ideas of, i. 23, 24; infinity essential to, i. 239; sometimes spoken through evil men, ii. 137; imaginative preciousness of, iv. 30; individual, in mountain drawing, i. 305; wisely conveyed by grotesque idealism, iii. 96; no vulgarity in, iii. 82; dominion of, universal, iii. 167; error of confounding beauty with, ii. 30, iii. 32 (note); pictures should present the greatest possible amount of, iii. 139; sacrifice of, to decision and velocity, i. 39; difference between imitation and, i. 21, 22; absolute, generally attained by “colorists,” never by “chiaroscurists,” iv. 42, 48; instance of imaginative (the Two Griffins), iii. 100.

Truths, two classes of, of deception and of inner resemblance, iii. 126; most precious, how attained, iv. 38; importance of characteristic, i. 59, 62; of specific form most important, i. 72; relative importance of, i. 58; nature’s always varying, i. 55; value of rare, i. 64; particular, more important than general, i. 58; historical, the most valuable, i. 71; the finer, importance of rendering, i. 316; accurate, not necessary to imitation, i. 21, 22; geological, use of considering, i. 303; simplest, generally last believed, iii. 300; certain sacred, how conveyed, iii. 289, 300; choice of, by artists, the essence of “style,” iii. 33, iv. 46; as given by old masters, i. 75; selected by modern artists, i. 76.

Types—light, ii. 75; purity, ii. 75-79, v. 156; impurity, v. 156; clouds, v. 110, 114; sky, ii. 40-42; mountain decay, iv. 315; crags and ravines, iv. 215; rocks, ii. 79, iv. 102, 117; mountains, iv. 343; sunlight, v. 332; color, v. 331 (note), 332; mica flake, iv. 239; rainbow, v. 332; stones, weeds, logs, thorns, and spines, v. 161; Dante’s vision of Rachel and Leah, iii. 216; mythological, v. 140, 300, 301; beauty, ii. 30, 86, v. 145; symmetry, Divine justice, ii. 72, 74; moderation, ii. 81-85; infinity, ii. 41, iv. 79; grass, humility and cheerfulness, iii. 226, 228; rush, humility, iii. 228; buds, iii. 206, v. 20, 53, 74; laws of leaf growth, v. 31, 32, 33, 53, 74; leaf death, v. 74, 95; trees, v. 52, 78, 80; crystallization, v. 33.

Ugliness, sometimes permitted in nature, i. 64; is a positive thing, iii. 24; delight in, Martin Schöngauer, iv. 329, 333; of modern costume, v. 273 (note), iii. 254, 255; of modern architecture, iii. 253, v. 347.

Unbelief, characteristic of all our most powerful men, iii. 253; modern English, “God is, but cannot rule,” v. 347.

Unity, type of Divine comprehensiveness, ii. 50, 52, 56, 152, 153; in nature, i. 398; apparent proportion, a cause of, ii. 57, 64; instinct of, a faculty of the associative imagination, ii. 151.

Utility, definition of, ii. 4; of art, ii. 3; of details in poetry, iii. 8; of pictures, iii. 125, 142; of mountains, iv. 91.

Valleys, Alpine beauty of, iv. 311, 316; gloom in, iv. 326; English, iv. 297; French, i. 129, iv. 297.

Variety, necessity of, arises out of that of unity, ii. 53-55; love of, ii. 55; when most conspicuous, i. 213; in nature, i. 55, 65, 169, 198, 219, 224, 291.

Vapor, v. 109, 120, 127, 129.

Vegetables, ideal form in, ii. 107.

Vegetation, truth of, i. 384, 408; process of form in, v. 78; in forest-lands, v. 133; appointed service of, v. 2; in sculpture, v. 35.

Velocity in execution, i. 37, ii. 187 (note); sacrifice of truth to, i. 38.

Venetian art (“The Wings of the Lion”), v. 209, 214; conquest of evil, v. 214, seq., 217, 229; scenery, v. 214, 217; idea of beauty, v. 294; faith, v. 219; religious liberty, v. 214; mind, perfection of, v. 227; contempt of poverty, v. 289; unworthy purposes of, v. 227; reverence, the Madonna in the house, v. 223-228.

Virtue, effect of, on features, ii. 117; set forth by plants, iii. 228; of the Swiss, v. 84, 85.

Vulgarity of mind, v. 261-276; consists in insensibility, v. 274-275; examples of, v. 269, 270; seen in love of mere physical beauty, iii. 67; in concealment of truth and affectation, iii. 82, 83; inconceivable by the greatest minds, iii. 82; of Renaissance builders, v. 176; “deathful selfishness,” v. 277; among Dutch painters, v. 277-285; how produced by vicious habits, v. 262. See Gentlemen.

War, a consequence of injustice, iii. 328; lessons to be gathered from the Crimean, iii. 329; at the present day of what productive, iii. 326; modern fear of, iii. 256.

Water, influence of, on soil, i. 273; faithful representation of, impossible, i. 325-326; effect produced by mountains on, iv. 93; functions of, i. 325; laws of reflection in, i. 329, 336; clear, takes no shadow, i. 331; most wonderful of inorganic substances, i. 325; difference in the action of continuous and interrupted, i. 369; in shade most reflective, i. 330; painting of, optical laws necessary to, i. 336; smooth, difficulty of giving service to, i. 355, 356; distant, effect of ripple on, i. 335; swift execution necessary to drawing of, i. 350; reflections in, i. 326; motion in, elongates reflections, i. 335-336; execrable painting of, by elder landscape masters, i. 328; as painted by the modern, i. 348-354; as painted by Turner, i. 355-383; as represented by mediæval art, iii. 209; truth of, i. 325-383. See Sea, Torrents, Foam.

Waves, as described by Homer and Keats, iii. 168; exaggeration of size in, ii. 209; grander than any torrent, iv. 347; breakers in, i. 377; curves of, i. 375.

Wordsworth, his insight into nature (illustration of Turner), i. 177; love of plants, ii. 91; good foreground described by, i. 83-84; skies of, i, 207; description of a cloud by, ii 67; on effect of custom, iii 293; fancy and imagination of, ii. 196-200; description of the rays of the sun, i. 220.

Work, the noblest done only for love, v. 346.