Art (caeteris paribus) is great in exact proportion to the
love of beauty shown by the painter, provided that love of beauty
forfeit no atom of truth."--RUSKIN.
CHAPTER V.
ART.
The most ancient works of Art which we possess are representations of
animals, rude indeed, but often strikingly characteristic, engraved on, or
carved in, stag's-horn or bone; and found in English, French, and German
caves, with stone and other rude implements, and the remains of mammalia,
belonging apparently to the close of the glacial epoch: not only of the
deer, bear, and other animals now inhabiting temperate Europe, but of
some, such as the reindeer, the musk sheep, and the mammoth, which have
either retreated north or become altogether extinct. We may, I think,
venture to hope that other designs may hereafter be found, which will give
us additional information as to the manners and customs of our ancestors
in those remote ages.
Next to these in point of antiquity come the sculptures and paintings on
Assyrian and Egyptian tombs, temples, and palaces.
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