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Show 178 TITE ART OF ROME. the celebrated "Baycux tapestry," 192 which is contemporaneous with this king, and attributed .by tradition Fig. 72. to tho needle of Mathilda, queen of the WILLELM. conqueror. We are sorry that, together with the Norman type, we arc unable to give a standard Anglo-Saxon effigy; but queen Mathilda does not seem to have remarked any peculiar difl:erence between these two different nationalities; which, indeed, were of the same Scandinavo-Tcutonic stock, -deduction made of the crowd of continental ":fiibustiers"whofl.ockcd to tho colors of William, and who were Normans only by courtesy. Accordingly, king llarold, on the Bayeux tapestry, resembles his cousin William, with the slight exception, that he and his Anglo-Saxons wore mustachios, whereas the Normans arc closely shaved. We continue. If it should now be asked what representations of the diftcrent nationalities of old have to prove about the original "unity" or "diversity" of the human race, we point to the unmista1~able consta,ncy of the types of the Egyptians, Assyrians, W allachs, N egroes, J ows,-which are at the present day exactly such as were represented on ancient monumcnts,-and quote Dr. Prichard's words as to the importance of this fact: "If it should be found that within tho period of time to which historical testimony extends, tho distinguishing characters of human races have been constant and undeviating, it would become a matter of great difficulty to reconcile this conclusion with the inferences obtained from other considerations." 193 To return to Roman art. Its importance stands in no relation to its real merits; it had a marked influence not only over early Christian sculpture, but even on medireval and modern art. The works of Egypt, Assyria, and Etruria, belong altogether to the domain of archroo~ogy: modern artists disdain to be instructed by them, although they m1ght learn fi·om them that no style of art ever maintained itself on any other basis than nationality ;-but they cannot emancipate themselves from Greek and principally from Roman influences. It be~ongs to tho peculiarities of our ago, that, whilst the purity of the pla ttcal forms of the Greek statues could not fail to maintain their importance as models for statuaries, the Roman bas-relief continues to m Vetu8ta Monumenta, Soc. of Antiquaries, 1822, vi. pl. 17. 1113 Researches, vol. iii. p. 2, edition of 1837. ART OF AMERICAN NATIONS. 179 be imitated by our sculptors. They prefer its cr~wded, mel.o~dramatic groups, and the slight attempt at perspective (by ra1stng tho :figures of the :first plan and gradually depres ing th.osc of .the .second and third), to the graceful and simple Greek bas-rchef, w~n~h 1s regulated by the artistic feeling of the sculptor, not by unartlstiCal rules, -for instance, on tho friezes of the Parthenon and of tho Mausoleum. Bnt, we ought not to forget that the sculptors of our clay ~e~ong mostly to the neo-Latin nations: and being imbued wiLh.the.spl~lt of Roman literature in preference to that of Greek, they feelmstmctiVcly a greater attraction towards the works of imperial R?me, t?an of republican Greece. So, too, does the bulk of the pubhc; wlneh appreciates much more the elegance of the statues of the Belviderc,-all of them works of the Roman period,- than tho sublime beauty of the Elgin marbles, and the chaste drawing on some vases of Etruria and Grccia magna. . We have now in the course of our ethnologwal survey of the history of art, ar;ived at the decay of the nations of cla.ssical a~tiquity, and reached the dawn of Chdstian art. We m1ght ea~tly pursue our researches down to the present day, through. the Byzantme period, into the exclusively-national art of Italy, of German~, .of Spain of France, of Belgium, and of llolland; but the charactenshcs of all ~hose "schools," or rather nationalities, of paintir!O', are so well known that it is not necessary to point out their diver~ity. . The history of Christian art has often been written, and lead~ mvana~ly to the result that art never developed itself but on a natzonal baszs ; that close imi/ation of foreign forms never could impart life to art; and that eclecticism invariably leads to destruction. Accordingl~, . the Academies of painting and sculpture, founded upon eclectlCism, and rejecting art's national development, became always and every· where the tombstones of art. VIII.-ART OF AMERICAN NATIONS. TrrE time has not yet arrived for writing the history of the indi?enous art of the Red-race. The monuments of tho ante-Columb1an civilization of America but little regarded in their co.untry.' are excessively rare in Europe. There arc but few persons, ~1t~er m, the United States or the Spanish republics, who care for ant1qmty. The English race is too much occupied with the interests of the present, the Spanish too much disturbed with fears about Lhe futur , and therefore, both too unsettled and too uncomfortable, to ~lcvote much attention to the relics of an antiquity, which, however 1mpor- |