 | The philosophy of art |  |
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
| Two groups of people in European civilization—The Italians among the Latins.—The Flemish and the Dutch among the Germans.—National characteristics of Flemish and Dutch art |
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| § I. Race.—Contrast between the Latin and Germanic races.— The Body.—Animal instincts and faculties.—Defects of the Germanic races.—Advantages of the Germanic races. —Aptitude for labor and free association.—Love of Truth. |
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| § II. The Nation.—Influence of climate and soil.—Physical character of the Netherlands.—Formation of the positive spirit and calmness of character.—Limitations of the philosophic and literary spirit.—Precocious perfection of the useful arts.—Practical inventions.—Outward life, taste and customs |
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| § III. Art.—Inferiority of painting among other Germanic peoples.—Causes of its incompleteness in Germany and England.—Excellence of painting in the Netherlands.— Causes of its superiority.—Its characteristics.—In what respect it is Germanic.—In what respect it is national.— Predominance of color.—Reason of this predominance.— Resemblance of the climate of Venice to that of the Netherlands.— Differences.— Corresponding resemblances and differences between painters.—Rubens and Rembrandt |
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| § I. The Primitive Epoch.—Flanders in the fourteenth century.—Energy of character.—Prosperity of the cities.— Decline of the ascetic and monastic spirit.—Splendor and sensuality.—The Burgundian Court and the Festivities of Lille.—Love of the Picturesque.—Resemblances and differences between Flanders and Italy.—Maintenance of the religious and mystic sentiment in Flanders.—Harmony of character, of art and of society.—Exaltation of this life and of Christian belief.—Types, relief, landscape, costumes, subjects, expressions, and sentiment from Hubert Van Eyck to Quintin Matsys |
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| § II. The Second Epoch.—The sixteenth century.—Emancipation of the intellect and Polemics against the clergy.— Picturesque and sensual customs.—Entries and festivities of the belle-lettre academies.—Gradual transformation of painting.—Predominance of laic and human subjects.— Promise of the new art.—Italian models prevalent.—Incongruity of Italian art with the Flemish mind.—The ambiguous and unsatisfactory style of the new school.— Growing influence of the Italian masters from John de Mabuse to Otto Venius.—Persistency of the indigenous style and spirit in genre, landscape and portrait art.—The Revolution of 1572.—Concentration of the nation and of art |
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| § III. The Third Epoch.—Formation of Belgium.—How it became Catholic and was conquered.—Rule of the archdukes and restoration of the country.—Revival of the imagination and sensuous conception of life.—The school of the seventeenth century.—Rubens.—Analogies and differences between that and Italian art.—Its works Catholic in name, but pagan at bottom.—In what respect national. —Idea of the living body.—Crayer, Jordaens and Van Dyck.—Change in the political and moral state.—Decline of painting.—End of the picturesque age |
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| § IV. The Fourth Epoch.—Formation of Holland.—How it became republican and Protestant.—Development of Primitive Instincts.—Heroism, triumphs and prosperity of the nation.—The revival and freedom of original invention.—Characteristics of Dutch art in opposition to Italian and classic art.—Portrait pictures.—Representation of actual life.—Rembrandt.—His conception of Light, Man and Divinity.—Commencement of decline towards 1667.— The war of 1672.—Prolongation of art down to the eighteenth century.—Weakness and degeneracy of Holland.— Diminution of active energies.—Decline of national art.— Temporary survival of the lesser styles.—General correspondence between art and milieu |
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| The philosophy of art | |