Then the gratification of the feeling for the beautiful was as needful to men as those things which ministered to their necessities. Then it was that the most accomplished artists did not despise the humblest work which could be embellished by their genius and skill. The sculptors and painters of the golden age of Italian art, as of the golden age of Greek art, made designs for chests, or armour, or goblets, and frequently executed them with their own hands—chests, not to form part of a collection of curiosities, but to hold garments; armour, not to be preserved in museums, but to be worn in battle or in the tilt; goblets, not to be kept under glass, but to be filled with wine at the feast. All that is truly beautiful has its influence upon man, whether that influence be immediate and sensible or remote and imperceptible. This is especially the case when the element of beauty is introduced into that which belongs to everyday life, into that which we are in the habit of constantly using or of seeing about us. That influence should especially consist in the chastening of the imagination and in the softening of the character. With most men art is looked upon as a thing altogether distinct from what belongs to everyday life—to be cared for and enjoyed of itself as a rare and costly luxury. With such men as M. di Triqueti this is not so. He has felt, and rightly felt, that there is nothing so simple or of so little actual value in itself, that the highest principles of art may not be applied to it. He has not considered that ten years of thought and three years of labour have been thrown away upon this vase, if he should have attained excellence in it, and should have produced an object which may contribute to the elevation of public taste, and may extend the application of art.
Like every really great artist, who leaves nothing undone to render his work perfect, he has himself watched over every detail, designed the form, and superintended the casting of the metal, carved the ivory, and moulded the embossments of the bronze. His vase may be open to criticism; opinions on matters of taste must of necessity be infinite in the absence of any recognised standard. Some may think the upper part too bald, others may desire even less ornament and a more simple shape; some may object to the introduction of ornaments too closely imitated from nature, others to the union of two substances so opposite in character as ivory and bronze. But the artist himself has duly weighed all these things, and has made up his own mind. By the massiness of the handles he seeks to indicate that they are intended not simply for show, but for use in lifting the vase. As any apparent weight added to the upper part might be inconsistent with the light and apparently fragile material which forms the centre, he has abstained from introducing into it any more ornament than he deemed absolutely necessary; convinced that, in order to invent new and truly noble forms of decoration, we should turn to the inexhaustible mine of nature, he has sought in natural objects the ornaments which he has embossed on the handles and lip. A work carried out in this spirit and upon these principles, and with a conscientious care seldom equalled, cannot fail to be an object of value and interest deserving of serious study.
The tendency of the artist’s mind is to that chaste and severe treatment which distinguishes Greek or classic art. One simple idea pervades the whole work..png)
Although there are four distinct bas-reliefs, they may be described as four idyls in sculpture illustrating one subject, the hopes and desires of the chief types of human existence—hopes and desires to which a brief and shadowy embodiment is given in our dreams—those of the youth entering upon the great battle of life, burning with its ambitions, thirsting for its pleasures: of the maiden upon whom first dawn the tender joys of love: of the man of labour, expectant of the fruits of what he himself has sown: and of the man of thought, past the hope of youth, looking beyond the grave for the end, and to immortality for the reward. In each composition the dreamer occupies the chief place.