. Alps and sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (Op. 6.) . mself. The drawing is justsuch as we try to get our own young people to do,and few English elementary schools in a small countytown would succeed in turning out so good a have nothing, therefore, but praise both for thepupil and the teacher ; but about the system whichmakes such teachers and such pupils commendable,I am more sceptical. That system trains boys tostudy other peoples works rather than nature, and,as Leonardo da Vinci so well says, it makes themnatures grandchildren and not her children. Theboy who did the d
. Alps and sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (Op. 6.) . mself. The drawing is justsuch as we try to get our own young people to do,and few English elementary schools in a small countytown would succeed in turning out so good a have nothing, therefore, but praise both for thepupil and the teacher ; but about the system whichmakes such teachers and such pupils commendable,I am more sceptical. That system trains boys tostudy other peoples works rather than nature, and,as Leonardo da Vinci so well says, it makes themnatures grandchildren and not her children. Theboy who did the drawing given above is not likely to DECLINE OF ITALIAN ART. 191 produce good work in later life. He has been taughtto see nature with an old mans eyes at once, withoutgoing, through the embryonic stages. He has neversaid his mans is all alike, and by twenty will bepainting like my old friends long academic his individuality has been crushed out of him. I will now give a reproduction of the frontispieceto Avogadros work on the sanctuary of S. Michele,. AVOGADRO S VIEW OF S. MICHELE. from which I have already quoted ; it is a very prettyand effective piece of work, but those who are goodenough to turn back to page 101, and to believe thatI have drawn carefully, will see how disappointingAvogadros frontispiece must be to those who hold,as most of us will, that a draughtsmans first business 192 ALPS AND SANCTUARIES. is to put down what he sees, and to let prettiness takecare of itself. The main features, indeed, can still betraced, but they have become as transformed andlifeless as rudimentary organs. Such a frontispiece,however, is the almost inevitable consequence of thesystem of training that will make boys of twelve dodrawings like the one given on page 189. If half a dozen young Italians could be got togetherwith a taste for drawing like that shown by the authorsof the sketches on pp. 174, 175, 176 ; if they had powerto add to their number; if they were allowed to
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