Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/47

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ON THE EXHIBITING OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS
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the tomb of Bishop Kennedy at St. Andrews. Of these maces three remain the property of the St. Andrews University, one being that of the University proper, the second and tiiird being the insignia of the United College and of St. Mary's College respectively. The University mace in particular is one of the most magnificent examples of Gothic metal-work anywhere to be seen. It bears to have been made by a Parisian goldsmith to the order of James Kennedy, in the year 1460. It is about 4 feet in length, having on its stem three highly ornamented knops or bosses, and terminates in a hexagonal head of elaborate Gothic tabernacle work, with window-like openings, buttresses, and projecting turrets. It sliows also the arms of the see of St. Andrews, those of Bishop Kennedy, with other appropriate figurings and ornaments. As examples of Scottish silversmith work and of native engraving, the great series of silver and other medals connected with the various archery competi- tions throughout the country may be examined with interest and instruction. Here again some of the finest medallions come from the University of St. Andrews, where, from the beginning of the seven- teenth century, an annual archery competition was held between the St. Salvador and the St. Leonard's Colleges. These medals were originally attaclied to prize silver arrows by the winner of the prize for the year, but now they are hung and better displayed in two glazed cases. They have an interest beyond that they owe to their artistic merit in the names of St. Andrews students engraved on some of them, which names subsequently became great in Scottish history. Early in the series we find the Marquis of Montrose holder of the silver arrow, and at little distance in time there is a similar memorial of the success of his great rival and adversary, the Earl of Argyle. The archery medals of the Royal Company of Archers and the splendour of their nunierou.s prizes form a gallant show of Scottish silversmith work, and though less imposing, not less interesting are the silver bow and medals of the famous Papingo of Kilwinning, which for full four hundred years was one of the public competitions and recreations of the people of the West of Scotland.

J. S. Paton.

ON THE EXHllilTING OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS.

THE many admirable drawings which cover the walls of the Architectural Gallery in the Glasgow Exhibition have been very fully and fairly noticed in the pages of the professional jour- nals, and we do not intend to go over the same irround now. The collection is acknowledged to be of exceptional excellence, and this very circumstance should lead us to expect it to be exceptionally in- structive, not to architects only, but to a much wider circle — all true lovers of art. It is such we ask to come along with us and consider some of the many lessons which this great series of drawings may be expected to teach. It is a remarkable and suggestive fact that very few even of those who take a real interest in art think the architectural gallery worth visiting. Here, as at Burlington House, it is the one corner of the crowded building where peace and quietness may always be found. The collection is perhaps the best of the kind that has ever been brought together ; but it is perfectly clear that even this superiority has no attractive effect — or at best, so little that we may with strict accuracy speak of the whole as de- spised and neglected. Now, if we are right in saying that this fact is suggestive, it may be profitable to consider what it does suggest. All true art is, and must be, attractive. It appeals to the deepest sym- pathies as well as to the loftiest emotions of the human heart, inspiring love as well as reverence. The cultured mind is therefore drawn to it by an irresistible impulse ; but where there is no indication of this overmastering power — where it is conspicu- ously absent — is it unreasonable to doubt if art in any true sense exists at all .? Is there not rather a strong presumption that it does not — that what professes to be art, destitute of such an essential characteristic, is something false and unreal — a delu- sion, a mockery, and a snare ? We have already seen that the architectural exhibition will not bear this test of attractiveness, and the inference is inevit- able. There is nothing more abhorrent to the artis- tic sense than falsehood. It takes but little of it to break the continuity of the sympathetic current, and dissipate its magnetic influence, and we may almost certainly conclude that where the circuit is incom- plete, it is falsehood that intervenes. Is this, then, the clue to the mystery of the deserted galleries .? Let us follow it up and see where it leads us. It does not require much insight to perceive that this distracting element of falseness does exist in architectural exhibitions in rather an aggravated form. First of all, they profess to be exhibitions of architecture, and they are not ; secondly, the draw- ings exhibited are not, strictly speaking, architec- 3