'sixties became decisive, illustrations of a transitional character, but
tending to the same end, had been produced by John Tenniel, John
Gilbert, Birket Foster, Harrison Weir, T. Creswick, W. Mulready and
others; but their methods were too vague and diffuse to bear as yet the
mark of a school; no single influence gave a unity to their efforts. On
some of them Adolf von Menzel's illustrations to Kügler's _Frederick the
Great_, published in England in 1844, may have left a mark; Gilbert
certainly shows traces of the influence of Delacroix and Bonington in
the free, loose method of his draughtsmanship, independent of accurate
modelling, and with here and there a paint-like dab of black to relieve
a generally colourless effect; while Tenniel, with cold, precise lines
of wire-drawn hardness, remained the representative of the past academic
style, influencing others by the dignity of his fine technique, but with
his own feeling quite untouched by the Pre-Raphaelite and romantic
movement which was soon to occupy the world of illustration. In greater
or less degree it may be said of the work of all these artists that, as
it antedates, so to the end does it stand somewhat removed in character
from, the school with which for a time it became contemporary. The year
which decisively marked the beginning of new things in illustration was
1857, the year of the Moxon _Tennyson_ and of Wilmott's _Poets of the
Nineteenth Century_, with illustrations by Rossetti, Millais, Holman
Hunt and Ford Madox Brown. In these artists we get the germ of the
movement which afterwards came to have so wide a popularity. At the
beginning, Pre-Raphaelite in name, poetic and literary in its choice of
subjects, the school quickly expanded to an acceptance of those open-air
and everyday subjects which one connects with the names of Frederick
Walker, Arthur B. Houghton, G. F. Pinwell and M. North. The
illustrations of the Pre-Raphaelites were eminently thoughtful, full of
symbolism, and with a certain pressure of interest to which the epithet
of "intense" came to be applied. As an example of their method of
thought-transference from word to form, Madox Brown's drawing for the
Dalziel Bible of "Elijah and the Widow's Son" may be taken. The
restoration of life to a dead body, of a child to its mother, is there
conveyed with many illustrative touches and asides, which become clumsy
when stated in words. The hen bearing her chicken between her wings is a
perfectly direct and appropriate pictorial symbol, but a far more
imaginative stroke is the shadow on the wall of a swallow flying back to
the clay bottle where it has made its nest. Here is illustration full of
literary symbolism, yet wholly pictorial in its means; and in this it is
entirely characteristic of Pre-Raphaelite feeling, with its method of
suggesting, through externals, consideration as opposed to mere outlook.
Of this phase Rossetti must be accounted the leader, but it was Millais
who, by the sheer weight of his personality, carried English
illustration along with him from Pre-Raphaelitism to the freer
romanticism and naturalistic tendencies of the 'sixties. Rossetti, with
his poetic enthusiasm, his strong personal magnetism and dramatic power
of composition, may be said to have brought about the awakening; it was
Millais who, by his rapid development of style, his original and daring
technique, turned it into a movement. When he started, there were many
influences behind him and his fellow-workers--among older foreign
contemporaries, those of Menzel and Rethel; and behind these again
something of the old masters. But through a transitional period,
represented by his twelve drawings of "The Parables," which appeared
first in _Good Words_, Millais emerged in to the perfect independence of
his illustrations to Trollope's novels, _Framley Parsonage_, and _The_
_Small House at Allington_, his own master and the master of a new
school. Depicting the ugly fashions of his day with grave dignity and
distinction, and with a broad power of rendering type in work which had
the aspect of genre, he drew the picture of his age in a summary so
embracing that his illustrations attain the rank almost of historical
art. For art of this sort the symbolism of the Pre-Raphaelites lost its
use: the realization in form of a character conveyed by an author's
words, the happy suggestion of a locality helping to fix the writer's
description, the verisimilitudes of ordinary life, even to trivial
detail, carried out with real pictorial conviction, were the things most
to be aimed at. Pictorial conviction was the great mark of the
illustrative school of the 'sixties. The work of its artists has
absorbed so completely the interest and reality of the letterpress that
the results are a model of what faithful yet imaginative illustration
should be. In the illustrated magazines of this period, _Once a Week_,
_Good Words_, _Cornhill_, _London Society_, _The Argosy_, _The Leisure
Hour_, _Sunday at Home_, _The Quiver_ and _The Churchman's Family
Magazine_, as well as others, is to be found the best work of this new
school of illustrators; and with the greater number of them it cannot be
mistaken that Millais is the prevailing force.
By their side other men were working, more deeply influenced by the old
masters, and by the minuteness and hard, definite treatment of form
which the Pre-Raphaelite school had inculcated. Foremost of these was
Frederick Sandys. His illustrations, scattered through nearly all the
magazines which have been named, show always a decorative power of
design and are full of fine drawing and fine invention, but remain
resolutely cold in handling and lacking in imaginative ardour. The few
illustrations done by Burne-Jones at this period show a whole-hearted
following of Rossetti, but a somewhat struggling technique; and the same
qualities are to be found in the work of Arthur Hughes, whose
illustrations in _Good Words for the Young_ (1869) have a charm of
tender poetic invention showing through the faults and persistent
uncertainty of his draughtsmanship. The illustrations of Frederick
Shields to Defoe's _History of the Plague_ have a certain affinity to
the work of Sandys; but, with less power over form, they show a more
dramatic sense of light and shade, and at their best can claim real and
original beauty. The formality of feeling and composition, and the
strained, stiff quality of line in Lord Leighton's designs to _Romola_
(1863), do a good deal to mar one's enjoyment of their admirable
draughtsmanship. Many fine drawings done at this period by Leighton,
Poynter, Henry Armstead and Burne-Jones did not appear until the year
1880 in the "Dalziel Bible Gallery," when the methods of which they were
the outcome had fallen almost out of use.
"The 'sixties."
Deeply influenced by the broad later phases of Millais's black-and-white
work were those artists whose tendency lay in the direction of idyllic
naturalism and popular romance, the men to whom more particularly is
given the name of the period and school "the 'sixties," and whose more
immediate leader, as far as popular estimation goes, was Frederick
Walker. With his, one may roughly group the names of Pinwell, Houghton,
North, Charles Keene, Lawless, Matthew J. Mahoney, Morten and, with a
certain reservation, W. Small and G. du Maurier. In no very separate
category stand two other artists whose contributions to illustration
were but incidental, John Pettie and J. M'Neill Whistler. The broad
characteristics of this variously related group were a loose, easy line
suggestive of movement, a general fondness for white spaces and open-air
effects, and in the best of them a thorough sense of the serious beauty
of domestic and rural life. They treated the present with a feeling
rather idyllic than realistic; when they touched the past it was with a
courteous sort of realism, and a wonderful inventiveness of detail which
carried with it a charm of conviction. Walker's method shows a broad and
vivid use of black and white, with a fine sense of balance, but very
little preoccupation for decorative effect. Pinwell had a more delicate
fancy, but less freedom in his technique--less ease, but more
originality of composition. In Houghton's work one sees a swift,
masterful technique, full of audacity, noble in its economy of means,
sometimes rough and careless. His temperament was dramatic, passionate,
satiric and witty. Some of his best work, his "Scenes from American
Life," appeared in the pages of the _Graphic_ as late as the years
1873-1874. There are indications in the work of Lawless that he might
have come close to Millais in his power of infusing distinction into the
barest materials of everyday life, but he died too soon for his work to
reach its full accomplishment. North was essentially a landscape
illustrator. The delicate sense of beauty in du Maurier's early work
became lost in the formal but graceful conventions of his later _Punch_
drawings. It was in the pages of _Punch_ that Keene secured his chief
triumphs. The two last-named artists outstayed the day which saw the
break-up of the school of which these are the leading names. It ran its
course through a period when illustrated magazines formed the staple of
popular consumption, before the illustrated newspapers, with their
hungry rush for the record of latest events, became a weekly feature.
Its waning influence may be plainly traced through the early years of
the _Graphic_, which started in 1869 with some really fine work, done
under transitional conditions before the engraver's rendering of
tone-drawings once more ousted facsimile from its high place in
illustration.
In connexion with this transitional period, drawings for the _Graphic_
by Houghton, Pinwell, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, E. J. Gregory, H. Woods,
Charles Green, H. Paterson (Mrs Allingham) and William Small deserve
honourable mention. Yet it was the last-named who was mainly
instrumental in bringing about the change from line-work to pigment,
which depressed the artistic value of illustration during the 'seventies
and the 'eighties to almost absolute mediocrity. Several artists of
great ability practised illustration during this period: in addition to
those _Graphic_ artists already mentioned there were Luke Fildes, Frank
Holl, S. P. Hall, Paul Renouard and a few others of smaller merit. But
the interest was for the time shifting from black-and-white work and
turning to colour. Kate Greenaway began to produce her charming idyllic
renderings of children in mob-caps and long skirts. Walter Crane on
somewhat similar lines designed his illustrated nursery rhymes; while
Randolph Caldecott took the field with his fresh and breezy scenes of
hunting life and carousal in the times most typical of the English
squirearchy. Working with a broad outline, suggestive of the brush by
its easy freedom, and adding washes of conventional colour for
embellishment, he was one of the first in England to show the beginnings
of Japanese influence. Even more dependent upon colour were his
illustrated books for children; while in black and white, in his
illustrations to _Bracebridge Hall_ (1876), for instance, pen and ink
began to replace the pencil, and to produce a new and more independent
style of draughtsmanship. This style was taken up and followed by many
artists of ability, by Harry Furniss, Hugh Thomson and others, till the
influence of E. A. Abbey's more mobile and more elaborate penmanship
came to produce a still further development in the direction of fineness
and illusion, and that of Phil May, with Linley Sambourne for his
teacher, to simplify and make broad for those who aimed rather at a
journalistic and shorthand method of illustration. (See also CARICATURE
and CARTOON.)
Under the absolutely liberating conditions of "process reproduction"
(see PROCESS) the latest developments in illustration on its lighter
and more popular side are full of French influences, or ready to
follow the wind in any fresh direction, whether to America or Japan;
but on the graver side they show a strong leaning towards the older
traditions of the 'sixties and of Pre-Raphaelitism. The founding by
William Morris of the Kelmscott Press in 1891, through which were
produced a series of decorated and illustrated books, aimed frankly at
a revival of medieval taste. In Morris's books decorative effect and
sense of material claimed mastery over the whole scheme, and subdued
the illustrations to a sort of glorious captivity into which no breath
of modern spirit could be breathed. The illustrations of Burne-Jones
filled with a happy touch of archaism the decorative borders of
William Morris; and only a little less happy, apart from their
imaginative inferiority, were the serious efforts of Walter Crane and
one or two others. Directly under the Morris influence arose the
"Birmingham school," with an entire devotion to decorative methods and
still archaic effects which tended sometimes to rather inane
technical results. Among its leaders may be named Arthur Gaskin, C. M.
Gere and E. H. New; while work not dissimilar but more independent in
spirit had already been done by Selwyn Image and H. P. Horne in the
_Century Guild Hobby-Horse_. But far greater originality and force
belonged to the work of a group, known for a time as the
neo-Pre-Raphaelites, which joined to an earnest study of the past a
scrupulously open mind towards more modern influences. Its earliest
expression of existence was the publication of an occasional
periodical, the _Dial_ (1889-1897), but before long its influence
became felt outside its first narrow limits. The technical influence
of Abbey, but still more the emotional and intellectual teaching of
Rossetti and Millais, together with side-influences from the few great
French symbolists, were, apart from their own originality, the forces
which gave distinction to the work of C. S. Ricketts, C. H. Shannon,
R. Savage and their immediate following. Beauty of line, languorous
passion, symbolism full of literary allusions, and a fondness for the
life of any age but the present, are the characteristics of the
school. Their influence fell very much in the same quarters where
Morris found a welcome; but an affinity for the Italian rather than
the German masters (shown especially in the "Vale Press"
publications), and a studied note of world-weariness, kept them
somewhat apart from the sturdy medievalism of Morris, and linked them
intellectually with the decadent school initiated by the wayward
genius of Aubrey Beardsley. But though broadly men may be classed in
groups, no grouping will supply a formula for all the noteworthy work
produced when men are drawn this way and that by current influences.
Among artists resolutely independent of contemporary coteries may be
named W. Strang, whose grave, rugged work shows him a pupil, through
Legros, of Dürer and others of the old masters; T. Sturge Moore, an
original engraver of designs which have an equal affinity for Blake,
Calvert and Hokusai; W. Nicholson, whose style shows a dignified
return to the best part of the Rowlandson tradition; and E. J.
Sullivan. In the closing years of the 19th century Aubrey Beardsley
became the creator of an entirely novel style of decorative
illustration. Drawing inspiration from all sources of European and
Japanese art, he produced, by the force of a vivid personality and
extraordinary technical skill, a result which was highly original and
impressive. To a genuine liking for analysis of repulsive and vicious
types of humanity he added an exquisite sense of line, balance and
mass; and partly by _succès de scandale_, partly by genuine artistic
brilliance, he gathered round him a host of imitators, to whom, for
the most part, he was able to impart only his more mediocre qualities.
United States.
In America, until a comparatively recent date, illustration bowed the
knee to the superior excellence of the engraver over the artist. Not
until the brilliant pen-drawing of E. A. Abbey carried the day with
the black-and-white artists of England did any work of real moment
emanate from the United States, unless that of Elihu Vedder be
regarded as an exception. Howard Pyle is a brilliant imitator of
Dürer; he has also the ability to adapt himself to draughtsmanship of
a more modern tendency. C. S. Reinhart was an artist of directness and
force, in a style based upon modern French and German examples; while
of greater originality as a whole, though derivative in detail, is the
fanciful penmanship of Alfred Brennan. Other artists who stand in the
front rank of American illustrators, and whose works appear chiefly in
the pages of _Scribner's_, _Harper's_ and the _Century Magazine_, are
W. T. Smedley, F. S. Church, R. Blum, Wenzell, A. B. Frost, and in
particular C. Dana Gibson, the last of whom gained a reputation in
England as an American du Maurier.
France.
The record of modern French illustration goes back to the day when
political caricature and the Napoleonic legend divided between them
the triumphs of early lithography. The illustrators of France at that
period were also her greatest artists. Of the historical and romantic
school were D. Raffet, Nicholas J. Charlet, Géricault, Delacroix, J.
B. Isabey and Achille Devéria, many of whose works appeared in
_L'Artiste_, a paper founded in 1831 as the official organ of the
romanticists; while the realists were led in the direction of
caricature by two artists of such enormous force as Gavarni and Honoré
Daumier, whose works, appearing in _La Lithographie Mensuelle_, _Le
Charivari_ and _La Caricature_, ran the gauntlet of political
interference and suppression during a troubled period of French
politics--which was the very cause of their prosperity. Behind these
men lay the influence of the great Spanish realist Goya. Following
upon the harsh satire and venomous realism of this famous school of
pictorial invective, the influence of the Barbizon school came as a
milder force; but the power of its artists did not show in the
direction of original lithography, and far more value attaches to the
few woodcuts of J. F. Millet's studies of peasant life. In these we
see clearly the tendency of French illustrative art to keep as far as
possible the authentic and sketch-like touch of the artist; and it was
no doubt from this tendency that so many of the great French
illustrators retained lithography rather than commit themselves to the
middleman engraver. Nevertheless, from about the year 1830 many French
artists produced illustrations which were interpreted upon the wood
for the most part by English engravers. Cunier's editions of _Paul et
Virginie_ and _La Chaumière Indienne_, illustrated by Huet, Jacque,
Isabey, Johannot and Meissonier, were followed by Meissonier's more
famous illustrations to _Contes rémois_. After Meissonier came J. B.
E. Detaille and Alphonse M. de Neuville and, with a voluminous style
of his own, L. A. G. Doré. By the majority of these artists the
drawing for the engraver seems to have been done with the pen; and the
tendency to penmanship was still more accentuated when from Spain came
the influence of M. J. Fortuny's brilliant technique; while after him,
again, came Daniel Vierge, to make, as it were, the point of the pen
still more pointed. During the middle period of the 19th century the
best French illustration was serious in character; but among the later
men, when we have recognized the grave beauty of Grasset's _Les Quatre
Fils d'Aymon_ (in spite of his vicious treatment of the page by
flooding washes of colour through the type itself), and the delicate
grace of Boutet de Monvel's _Jeanne d'Arc_, also in colours, it is to
the illustrators of the comic papers that we have to go for the most
typical and most audacious specimens of French art. In the pages of
_Gil Blas_, _Le Pierrot_, _L'Écho de Paris_, _Le Figaro Illustré_, _Le
Courrier Français_, and similar publications, are to be found,
reproduced with a dexterity of process unsurpassed in England, the
designs of J. L. Forain, C. L. Léandre, L. A, Willette and T. A.
Steinlen, the leaders of a school enterprising in technique, and with
a mixture of subtlety and grossness in its humour. Caran d'Ache also
became celebrated as a draughtsman of comic drama in outline.
Germany.
Among illustrators of Teutonic race the one artist who seems worthy of
comparison with the great Menzel is Hans Tegner, if, indeed, he be not
in some respects his technical superior; but apart from these two, the
illustrators respectively of Kügler's _Frederick the Great_ and
Holberg's _Comedies_, there is no German, Danish or Dutch illustrator
who can lay claim to first rank. Max Klinger, A. Böcklin, W. Trübner,
Franz Stück and Hans Thoma are all symbolists who combine in a
singular degree force with brutality; the imaginative quality in their
work is for the most part ruined by the hard, braggart way in which it
is driven home. The achievements and tendency of the later school of
illustration in Germany are best seen in the weekly illustrated
journal, _Jugend_, of Munich. Typical of an older German school is the
work of Adolf Oberländer, a solid, scientific sort of caricaturist,
whose illustrations are at times so monumental that the humour in them
seems crushed out of life. Others who command high qualities of
technique are W. Dietz, L. von Nagel, Hermann Vogel, H. Lüders and
Robert Haug. Behind all these men in greater or less degree lies the
influence of Menzel's coldly balanced and dry-lighted realism; but
wherever the influence of Menzel ceases, the merit of German
illustration for the most part tends to disappear or become mediocre.
AUTHORITIES.--W. J. Linton, _The Masters of Wood Engraving_ (London,
1889); C. G. Harper, _English Pen Artists of To-day_ (London, 1892);
Joseph Pennell, _Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen_ (London, 1894),
_Modern Illustration_ (London, 1895); Walter Crane, _The Decorative
Illustration of Books_ (London, 1896); Gleeson White, _English
Illustration: "The 'Sixties": 1855-1870_ (Westminster, 1897); W. A.
Chatto, _A Treatise on Wood Engraving_ (London, n.d.); Bar-le-Duc,
_Les Illustrations du XIX^e siècle_ (Paris, 1882); T. Kutschmann,
_Geschichte der deutschen Illustration vom ersten Auftreten des
Formschnittes bis auf die Gegenwart_ (Berlin, 1899). (L. Ho.)
_Technical Developments._
The history of illustration, apart from the merits of individual
artists, during the period since the year 1875, is mainly that of the
development of what is called Process (q.v.), the term applied to
methods of reproducing a drawing or photograph which depend on the use
of some mechanical agency in the making of the block, as distinguished
from such products of manual skill as steel or wood-engraving,
lithography and the like. There is good reason to believe that the art
of stereotyping--the multiplication of an already existing block by
means of moulds and casts--is as old as the 15th century; and the early
processes were, in a measure, a refinement upon this: with the
difference that they aimed at the making of a metal block by means of a
cast of the lines of the drawing itself, the background of which had
been cut away so as to leave the design in a definite relief.
Experiments of this nature may be said to have assumed practical shape
from the time of the invention of Palmer's process called at first
_Glyphography_, about the year 1844; this was afterwards perfected and
used to a considerable extent under the name of _Dawson's Typographic
Etching_, and its results were in many cases quite admirable, and often
appear in books and periodicals of the first part of the period with
which we are now concerned. The _Graphic_, for instance, published its
first process block in 1876, and the _Illustrated London News_ also made
similar experiments at about the same time.
From this time begins the gradual application of photography to the
uses of illustration, the first successful line blocks made by its
help being probably those of Gillot, at Paris, in the early 'eighties.
The next stage was to be the invention of some means of reproducing
wash drawings. To do this it was necessary for the surface of the
block to be so broken up that every tone of the drawing should be
represented thereon by a grain holding ink enough to reproduce it.
This was finally accomplished by the insertion of a screen, in the
camera, between the lens and the plate--the effect of which was to
break up the whole surface of the negative into dots, and so secure,
when printed on a zinc plate and etched, an approximation to the
desired result. Half-tone blocks (as they were called) of this nature
(see PROCESS) were used in the _Graphic_ from 1884 and the
_Illustrated London News_ from 1885 onwards, the methods at first in
favour being those of Meisenbach and Boussod Valadon and Co.'s
phototype. Lemercier and Petit of Paris, Angerer and Göschl of Vienna,
and F. Ives of Philadelphia also perfected processes giving a similar
result, a block by the latter appearing in the _Century_ magazine as
early as 1882. Processes of this description had, however, been used
for some years before by Henry Blackburn in his _Academy Notes_.
During the decade 1875-1885, however, the main body of illustration
was accomplished by wood-engraving, which a few years earlier had
achieved such splendid results. Its artistic qualities were now at a
rather low ebb, although good facsimile engravings of pen-drawings
were not infrequent. The two great illustrated periodicals already
referred to during that period relied more upon pictorial than
journalistic work. An increasing tendency towards the illustration of
the events of the day was certainly shown, but the whole purpose of
the journal was not, as at present, subordinated thereto. The chief
illustrated magazines of the time, _Harper's_, the _Century_, the
_English Illustrated_, were also content with the older methods, and
are filled with wood-engravings, in which, if the value of the simple
line forming the chief quality of the earlier work has disappeared, a
most astonishing delicacy and success were obtained in the
reproduction of tone.
Perhaps the most notable and most characteristic production of the
time in England was colour-printing. The _Graphic_ and the
_Illustrated London News_ published full-page supplements of high
technical merit printed from wood-blocks in conjunction with metal
plates, the latter sometimes having a relief aquatint surface which
produced an effect of stipple upon the shading; metal was also used in
preference to wood for the printing of certain colours. The children's
books illustrated by Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane and Kate
Greenaway at this time are among the finest specimens of
colour-printing yet seen outside of Japan; in them the use of flat
masses of pleasant colour in connexion with a bold and simple outline
was carried to a very high pitch of excellence. These plates were
generally printed by Edmund Evans. In 1887 the use of process was
becoming still more general; but its future was by no means adequately
foreseen, and the blocks of this and the next few years are anything
but satisfactory. This, it soon appeared, was due to inefficient
printing on the one hand, and, on the other, to a want of recognition
by artists of the special qualities of drawing most suitable for
photographic reproduction. The publication of Quevedo's _Pablo de
Segovia_ with illustrations by Daniel Vierge in 1882, although hardly
noticed at the time, was to be a revelation of the possibilities of
the new development; and a serious study of pen-drawing from this
point of view was soon inaugurated by the issue of Joseph Pennell's
_Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen_ in 1889, followed in by C. G.
Harper's _English Pen Artists of To-day_ and in 1896 by Walter Crane's
_Decorative Illustration of Books_. At this time also the influence of
Aubrey Beardsley made itself strongly felt, not merely as a matter of
style, but, by the use of simple line or mass of solid black, as an
almost perfect type of the work most suitable to the needs of process.
Wider experience of printing requirements, and finer workmanship in
the actual making of the blocks, in Paris, Vienna, New York and
London, soon brought the half-tone process into great vogue. The
spread of education has enormously increased the demand for ephemeral
literature, more especially that which lends itself to pictorial
illustration; and the photograph or drawing in wash reproduced in
half-tone has of late to a great extent ousted line work from the
better class of both books and periodicals.
Improvements in machinery have made it possible to print illustrations
at a very high speed; and the facility with which photographs can now
be taken of scenes such as the public delight to see reproduced in
pictures has brought about an almost complete change in pictorial
journalism. In addition, reference must be made to an extraordinary
increase in the numbers and circulation of cheap periodical
publications depending to a very large extent for popularity on their
illustrations. Several of these, printed on the coarsest paper, from
rotary machines, sell to the extent of hundreds of thousands of copies
per week. It was inevitable that this cheapening process should not be
permitted to develop without opposition, and the _Dial_ (1889-1897)
must be looked on as a protest by the band of artists who promoted it
against the unintelligent book-making now becoming prevalent. Much
more effective and far-reaching in the same direction was the
influence of William Morris, as shown in the publications of the
Kelmscott Press (dating from 1891). In these volumes the aim was to
produce illustrations and ornaments which were of their own nature
akin to, and thus able to harmonize with the type, and to do this by
pure handicraft work. As a result, a distinct improvement is to be
found in the mere book-making of Great Britain; and although the main
force of the movement soon spent itself in somewhat uninspired
imitations, there can be no doubt of the survival of a taste for
well-produced volumes, in which the relationship of type, paper,
illustration and binding has been a matter of careful and artistic
consideration. Under this influence, a notable feature has been the
re-issue, in an excellent form, of illustrated editions of the works
of most of the famous writers.
In France the general movement has proceeded upon lines on the whole
very similar. Process--especially what was called "Gillotage"--was
adopted earlier, and used at first with greater liberality than in
England, although wood-engraving has persisted effectively even up to
our own time. In the various types of periodicals of which the _Revue
Illustrée_, _Figaro Illustré_ and _Gil Blas Illustré_ may be taken as
examples, the most noticeable feature is a use of colour-printing,
which is far in advance of anything generally attempted in Great
Britain. A favourite and effective process is that employed for the
reproduction of chalk drawings (as by Steinlen), which consists of the
application of a surface-tint of colour from a metal plate to a print
from an ordinary process block.
In Germany, _Jugend_, _Simplicissimus_, and other publications devoted
to humour and caricature, employ colour-printing to a great extent
with success. The organ of the artists of the younger German schools,
Pan (1895), makes use of every means of illustration, and has
especially cultivated lithography and wood-cuts, using these arts
effectively but with some eccentricity. Holland has also employed
coloured lithography for a remarkable series of children's books
illustrated by van Hoytema and others. The Viennese _Kunst und
Kunsthandwerk_ is an art publication which is exceptionally well
produced and printed.
Illustration in the United States has some few characteristics which
differentiate it from that of other countries. The later school of
fine wood-engraving is even yet in existence. American artists also
introduced an effective use of the process block, namely, the
engraving or working over of the whole or certain portions of it by
hand. This is generally done by an engraver, but in certain cases it
has been the work of the original draughtsman, and its possibilities
have been foreseen by him in making his drawing. The only other
variant of note is the use of half-tone blocks superimposed for
various colours. (E. F. S.)
ILLUSTRES, the Latin name given to the highest magistrates of the later
Roman Empire. The designation was at first informal, and not strictly
differentiated from other marks of honour. From the time of Valentinian
I. it became an official title of the consuls, the chief praefecti or
ministers, and of the commanders-in-chief of the army. Its usage was
eventually extended to lower grades of the imperial service, and to
pensionaries from the order of the _spectabiles_. The Illustres were
privileged to be tried in criminal cases by none but the emperor or his
deputy, and to delegate procuratores to represent them in the courts.
See O. Hirschfeld in _Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie_ (1901),
p. 594 sqq.; and T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (Oxford, 1892),
i. 603-617.
ILLYRIA, a name applied to part of the Balkan Peninsula extending along
the eastern shore of the Adriatic from Fiume to Durazzo, and inland as
far as the Danube and the Servian Morava. This region comprises the
modern provinces or states of Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
Montenegro, with the southern half of Croatia-Slavonia, part of western
Servia, the sanjak of Novibazar, and the extreme north of Albania. As
the inhabitants of Illyria never attained complete political unity its
landward boundaries were never clearly defined. Indeed, the very name
seems originally to have been an ethnological rather than a geographical
term; the older Greek historians usually wrote of "the Illyrians"
([Greek: hoi Illyrioi]), while the names Illyris ([Greek: Illyris]) or
less commonly Illyria ([Greek: Illyria]) came subsequently to be used of
the indeterminate area inhabited by the Illyrian tribes, i.e. a region
extending eastward from the Adriatic between Liburnia on the N. and
Epirus on the S., and gradually shading off into the territories of
kindred peoples towards Thrace. The Latin name Illyricum was not, unless
at a very early period, synonymous with Illyria; it also may originally
have signified the land inhabited by the Illyrians, but it became a
political expression, and was applied to various divisions of the Roman
Empire, the boundaries of which were frequently changed and often
included an area far larger than Illyria properly so called. Vienna and
Athens at different times formed part of Illyricum, but no geographer
would ever have included these cities in Illyria.
_Ethnology._--Little can be learned from written sources of the origin
and character of the Illyrians. The Greek legend that Cadmus and
Harmonia settled in Illyria and became the parents of Illyrius, the
eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people, has been interpreted as
an indication that the Greeks recognized some affinity between
themselves and the Illyrians; but this inference is based on
insufficient data. Herodotus and other Greek historians represent the
Illyrians as a barbarous people, who resembled the ruder tribes of
Thrace. Both are described as tattooing their persons and offering human
sacrifices to their gods. The women of Illyria seem to have occupied a
high position socially and even to have exercised political power.
Queens are mentioned among their rulers. Fuller and more trustworthy
information can be obtained from archaeological evidence. In Bosnia the
lake-dwellings at Butmir, the cemeteries of Jezerine and Glasinac and
other sites have yielded numerous stone and horn implements, iron and
bronze ornaments, weapons, &c., and objects of more recent date
fashioned in silver, tin, amber and even glass. These illustrate various
stages in the development of primitive Illyrian civilization, from the
neolithic age onward. The Hallstatt and La Tène cultures are especially
well represented. (See W. Ridgeway, _The Early Age of Greece_, 1901; R.
Munro, _Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia_, Edinburgh, 1900; and W.
Radimský, _Die neolithische Station von Butmir_, Vienna, 1895-1898.)
Similar discoveries have been made in Dalmatia, as among the tumuli on
the Sabbioncello promontory, and in Croatia-Slavonia. H. Kiepert ("Über
den Volkstamm der Leleges," in _Monatsber. Berl. Akad._, 1861, p. 114)
sought to prove that the Illyrians were akin to the Leleges; his theory
was supported by E. Schrader, but is not generally accepted. In Dalmatia
there appears to have been a large Celtic element, and Celtic
place-names are common. The ancient Illyrian languages fall into two
groups, the northern, closely connected with Venetic, and the southern,
perhaps allied to Messapian and now probably represented by Albanian.
See K. Brugmann, _Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der Indogermanischen
Sprachen_ (Strassburg, 1904); and his larger _Grundriss der
vergleichenden Grammatik_ (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1897), with the
authorities there quoted, especially P. Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die
Geschichte der Griechischen Sprachen_ (Göttingen, 1896): see also
ALBANIA.
_History._--Greek colonization on the Illyrian seaboard probably began
late in the 7th century B.C. or early in the 6th century. The most
important settlements appear to have been at Epidamnus (Durazzo),
Tragurium (Traù), Rhizon (near Cattaro), Salona (near Spalato),
Epidaurum (Ragusavecchia), Zara and on the islands of Curzola, Lesina
and Lissa. There is a collection of Greek coins from Illyria in the
museum at Agram, and the researches of Professor F. Bulié and others at
Salona (see Spalato) have brought to light Greek inscriptions, Greek
pottery, &c. dating from 600 B.C. But Greek influence seems never to
have penetrated far into the interior, and even on the coast it was
rapidly superseded by Latin civilization after the 3rd century B.C.
Until then the Illyrian tribes appear to have lived in a state of
intermittent warfare with their neighbours and one another. They are
said by Herodotus (ix. 43) to have attacked the temple of Delphi.
Brasidas with his small army of Spartans was assaulted by them on his
march (424 B.C.) across Thessaly and Macedonia to attack the Athenian
colonies in Thrace. The earlier history of the Macedonian kings is one
constant struggle against the Illyrian tribes. The migrations of the
Celts at the beginning of the 4th century disturbed the country between
the Danube and the Adriatic. The Scordisci and other Celtic tribes
settled there, and forced the Illyrians towards the south. The
necessities of defence seem to have united the Illyrians under a chief
Bardylis (about 383 B.C.) and his son Clitus. Bardylis nearly succeeded
in destroying the rising kingdom of Macedonia; King Amyntas II was
defeated, and a few years later Perdiccas was defeated and slain (359).
But the great Philip crushed the Illyrians completely, and annexed part
of their country. During the next century we hear of them as pirates.
Issuing from the secluded harbours of the coast, they ravaged the shores
of Italy and Greece, and preyed on the commerce of the Adriatic. The
Greeks applied to Rome for help. Teuta, the Illyrian queen, rejected the
Roman demands for redress, and murdered the ambassadors; but the two
Illyrian Wars (229 and 219 B.C.) ended in the submission of the
Illyrians, a considerable part of their territory being annexed by the
conquerors. Illyria, however, remained a powerful kingdom with its
capital at Scodra (Scutari in Albania), until 180 B.C., when the
Dalmatians declared themselves independent of Gentius or Genthius, the
king of Illyria, and founded a republic with its capital at Delminium
(see DALMATIA: _History_, on the site of Delminium). In 168 Gentius came
into conflict with the Romans, who conquered and annexed his country.
Dalmatia was invaded by a Roman army under Gaius Marcius Figulus in 156,
but Figulus was driven back to the Roman frontier, and in Dalmatia the
Illyrians were not finally subdued until 165 years afterwards. Publius
Scipio Nasica, who succeeded Figulus, captured Delminium, and in 119 L.
Caecilius Metellus overran the country and received a triumph and the
surname _Dalmaticus_. But in 51 a Dalmatian raid on Liburnia led to a
renewal of hostilities; the Roman armies were often worsted, and
although in 39 Asinius Pollio gained some successes (see Horace, _Odes_
ii. 1. 15) these appear to have been exaggerated, and it was not until
Octavian took the field in person that the Dalmatians submitted in 33.
(For an account of the war see Appian, _Illyrica_, 24-28; Dio Cassius
xlix. 38; Livy, _Epit._ 131, 132). They again revolted in 16 and 11, and
in A.D. 6-9 joined the rebel Pannonians. Suetonius (_Tiberius_, 16)
declares that they were the most formidable enemies with whom the Romans
had had to contend since the Punic Wars. In A.D. 9, however, Tiberius
entirely subjugated them, for which he was awarded a triumph in 12 (Dio
Cass. lv. 23-29, lvi. 11-17; Vell. Pat. ii. 110-115). Thenceforward
Dalmatia, Iapydia and Liburnia were united as the province of Illyricum.
Latin civilization spread rapidly, the cultivation of the vine was
introduced, gold-mining was carried on in Bosnia, and flourishing
commercial cities arose along the coast. Illyria became one of the best
recruiting grounds for the Roman legions; and in troubled times many
Illyrian soldiers fought their way up from the ranks to the imperial
purple. Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and Maximian were all
sons of Illyrian peasants. It is probable, however, that most of the
highland tribes now represented by the Albanians remained almost
unaffected by Roman influence. The importance of Illyricum caused its
name to be extended to many neighbouring districts; in the 2nd century
A.D. the _Illyricus Limes_ included Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia and
Thrace. In the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian (285) the
diocese of Illyricum was created; it comprised Pannonia, Noricum and
Dalmatia, while Dacia and Macedonia, together called Eastern Illyricum,
were added later. Either Diocletian or after him Constantine made
Illyricum one of the four prefectures, each governed by a _praefectus
praetorio_, into which the empire was divided. This prefecture included
Pannonia, Noricum, Crete and the entire Balkan peninsula except Thrace,
which was attached by Constantine to the prefecture of the East. From
the partition of the empire in 285 until 379 Illyricum was included in
the Western Empire, but thenceforward Eastern Illyricum was annexed to
the Eastern Empire; its frontier was almost identical with the line of
demarcation between Latin-speaking and Greek-speaking peoples, and
roughly corresponded to the boundary which now severs Latin from Greek
Christianity in the Balkan peninsula. The whole peninsula except Thrace
was still known as Illyricum, but was subdivided into Illyris Barbara or
Romana and Illyris Graeca (Eastern Illyricum with Greece and Crete). The
Via Egnatia, the great line of road which connected Rome with
Constantinople and the East, led across Illyricum from Dyrrachium to
Thessalonica.
In the 5th century began a series of invasions which profoundly modified
the ethnical character and the civilization of the Illyrians. In 441 and
447 their country was ravaged by the Huns. In 481 Dalmatia was added to
the Ostrogothic kingdom, which already included the more northerly parts
of Illyricum, i.e. Pannonia and Noricum. Dalmatia was partially
reconquered by Justinian in 536, but after 565 it was devastated by the
Avars, and throughout the century bands of Slavonic invaders had been
gradually establishing themselves in Illyria, where, unlike the earlier
barbarian conquerors, they formed permanent settlements. Between 600 and
650 the main body of the immigrants occupied Illyria (see SERVIA:
_History_; and SLAVS). It consisted of Croats and Serbs, two groups of
tribes who spoke a single language and were so closely related that the
origin of the distinction between them is obscure. The Croats settled in
the western half of Illyria, the Serbs in the eastern; thus the former
came gradually under the influence of Italy and Roman Catholicism, the
latter under the influence of Byzantium and the Greek Church. Hence the
distinction between them became a marked difference of civilization and
creed, which has always tended to keep the Illyrian Slavs politically
disunited.
The Croats and Serbs rapidly absorbed most of the Latinized Illyrians.
But the wealthy and powerful city-states on the coast were strong enough
to maintain their independence and their distinctively Italian
character. Other Roman provincials took refuge in the mountains of the
interior; these Mavrovlachi, as they were called (see DALMATIA:
_Population_; and VLACHS), preserved their language and nationality for
many centuries. The Illyrian tribes which had withstood the attraction
of Roman civilization remained unconquered among the mountains of
Albania and were never Slavonized. With these exceptions Illyria became
entirely Serbo-Croatian in population, language and culture.
The name of Illyria had by this time disappeared from history. In
literature it was preserved, and the scene of Shakespeare's comedy,
_Twelfth Night_, is laid in Illyria. Politically the name was revived in
1809, when the name Illyrian Provinces was given to Carniola, Dalmatia,
Istria, Fiume, Görz and Gradisca, and Trieste, with parts of Carinthia
and Croatia; these territories were ceded by Austria to Italy at the
peace of Schönnbrun (14th Oct. 1809). The Illyrian Provinces were
occupied by French troops and governed in the interest of Napoleon; the
republic of Ragusa was annexed to them in 1811, but about the end of
1813 the French occupation ceased to be effective and the provinces
reverted to Austria. The kingdom of Illyria, which was constituted in
1816 out of the crown-lands of Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, Görz and
Gradisca, and Trieste, formed until 1849 a kingdom of the Austrian
crown. For the political propaganda known as Illyrism, see
CROATIA-SLAVONIA: _History_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--In addition to the authorities quoted above, see G.
Zippel, _Die römische Herrschaft in Illyrien bis auf Augustus_
(Leipzig, 1877); P. O. Bahn, _Der Ursprung der römischen Provinz
Illyrien_ (Grimma, 1876); J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_,
i. (1881), p. 295; E. A. Freeman, "The Illyrian Emperors and their
Land" (_Historical Essays_, series 3, 1879); C. Patsch in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyklopädie_, iv. pt. 2 (1901); Th. Mommsen,
_The Provinces of the Roman Empire_ (ed. F. Haverfield, 1909).
ILMENAU, a town and summer resort of Germany, in the grand-duchy of
Saxe-Weimar, at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, on the river
Ilm, 30 m. by rail south of Erfurt. Pop. (1905) 11,222. The town, which
stands picturesquely among wooded hills, is much frequented by visitors
in the summer. It was a favourite resort of Goethe, who wrote here his
_Iphigenie_, and often stayed at Gabelbach in the neighbourhood. It has
a grand-ducal palace, a Roman Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a
sanatorium for nervous disorders, and several educational
establishments. Its chief manufactures are glass and porcelain, toys,
gloves and chemicals, and the town has tanneries and saw-mills. Formerly
a part of the county of Henneberg, Ilmenau came in 1631 into the
possession of electoral Saxony, afterwards passing to Saxe-Weimar.
See R. Springer, _Die klassischen Stätten von Jena und Ilmenau_
(Berlin, 1869); Pasig, _Goethe und Ilmenau_ (2nd ed., Weimar, 1902);
and Fils, _Bad Ilmenau und seine Umgebung_ (Hildburghausen, 1886).
ILMENITE, a mineral known also as titanic iron, formerly regarded as an
iron and titanium sesquioxide (Fe, Ti)2O3 isomorphous with haematite
(Fe2O3), but now generally considered to be an iron titanate FeTiO3
isomorphous with pyrophanite (MnTiO3) and geikielite (MgTiO3). It
crystallizes in the parallel-faced hemihedral class of the rhombohedral
system, thus having the same degree of symmetry as phenacite and
pyrophanite, but differing from that of haematite. The angles between
the faces are very nearly the same as between the corresponding faces of
haematite; but it is to be noted that the rhombohedral angle (94° 29´)
of ilmenite is not intermediate between that of haematite (94° 0´) and
of the artificially prepared crystals of titanium sesquioxide (92° 40´),
which should be the case if the three substances were isomorphous.
Analyses show wide variations in chemical composition, and there is a
gradation from normal ilmenite FeTiO3 (with titanium dioxide 52.7, and
ferrous oxide 47.3%) to titaniferous haematite and titaniferous
magnetite. Frequently also, magnesia and manganous oxide are present in
small amounts, the former reaching 16%. The formula (Fe, Mg)TiO3 is then
analogous to those of geikielite and pyrophanite. Many analyses show the
presence of TiO2 and (Fe, Mg)O in this ratio of 1:1, yet there is often
an excess of ferric oxide to be accounted for; this may perhaps be
explained by the regular intergrowth on a minute scale of ilmenite with
haematite, like the intergrowth of such substances as calcite and sodium
nitrate, which are similar crystallographically but not chemically.
[Illustration]
In many of its external characters ilmenite is very similar to
haematite; the crystals often have the same tabular or lamellar habit;
the twin-laws are the same, giving rise to twin-lamellae and planes of
parting parallel to the basal plane and the primitive rhombohedron; the
colour is iron-black with a submetallic lustre; finally, the conchoidal
fracture is the same in both minerals. Ilmenite has a black streak; it
is opaque, but in very thin scales sometimes transparent with a
clove-brown colour. It is slightly magnetic, but without polarity. The
hardness is 5½, and the specific gravity varies with the chemical
composition from 4.3 to 5.0.
Owing to the wide variations in composition, which even yet are not
properly understood, several varieties of the mineral have been
distinguished by special names. Crichtonite occurs as small and
brilliant crystals of acute rhombohedral habit on quartz at Le Bourg
d'Oisans in Dauphiné; it agrees closely in composition with the formula
FeTiO3 and has a specific gravity of 4.7. Manaccanite (or Menaccanite)
is a black sandy material, first found in 1791 in a stream at Manaccan
near Helston in Cornwall. Iserite, from Iserwiese in the Iser Mountains,
Bohemia, is a similar sand, but containing some octahedral crystals,
possibly of titaniferous magnetite. Washingtonite is found as large
tabular crystals at Washington, Connecticut. Uddevallite is from
Uddevalla in Sweden. Picrotitanite or picroilmenite (Gr. [Greek: pikros],
"bitter") is the name given to varieties containing a considerable
amount of magnesia. Other varieties are kibdelophane, hystatite, &c. The
name ilmenite, proposed by A. T. Kupffer in 1827, is after the Ilmen
Mountains in the southern Urals, whence come the best crystals of the
mineral. The largest crystals, sometimes as much as 16 lb. in weight,
are from Kragerö and Arendal in Norway.
Ilmenite occurs, often in association with magnetite, in gneisses and
schists, sometimes forming beds of considerable extent, but of little or
no economic value. It is a common accessory constituent of igneous rocks
of all kinds, more especially basic rocks such as gabbro, diabase and
basalt. In these rocks it occurs as platy crystals, and is frequently
represented by a white, opaque alteration product known as leucoxene.
(L. J. S.)
ILOILO, a town, port of entry and the capital of the province of Iloilo,
Panay, Philippine Islands, at the mouth of Iloilo river, on the S.E.
coast. Pop. (1903) 19,054. In 1903, after the census had been taken, the
population of the town was more than doubled by the addition of the
municipalities of La Paz (pop. 5724), Mandurriao (pop. 4482), Molo (pop.
8551) and Jaro (pop. 10,681); in 1908 Jaro again became a separate town.
The town is built on low sandy ground, is irregularly laid out, and its
streets are not paved. It has a good government house and a fine church.
The harbour, suitable for ships of 15 ft. draught, is well protected by
the island of Guimaras, and ocean-going vessels can lie in the channel.
The surrounding country, which is traversed by gravel roads leading to
the principal towns of the province, is fertile and well cultivated,
producing sugar, tobacco and rice in abundance. In commercial importance
Iloilo ranks next to Manila among Philippine cities; it has manufactures
of piña, jusi, coconut oil, lime, vinegar and various articles made from
palm wood. Much of the town was burned by Filipino insurgents soon after
its capture by American troops in February 1899.
ILSENBURG, a village and health resort of Germany, in Prussian Saxony,
romantically situated under the north foot of the Harz Mountains, at the
entrance to the Ilsethal, 6 m. N.W. from Wernigerode by the railway to
Goslar. Pop. (1900) 3868. It has an Evangelical church, a modern château
of the princes of Stolberg, with pretty grounds, and a high grade
school, and manufactures metal wares, machines and iron screws and
bolts.
Owing to its charming surroundings and its central position in the
range, Ilsenburg is one of the most frequented tourist resorts in the
Harz Mountains, being visited annually by some 6000 persons. The old
castle, Schloss Ilsenburg, lying on a high crag above the town, was
originally an imperial stronghold and was probably built by the German
king Henry I. The emperor Otto III. resided here in 995, Henry II.
bestowed it in 1003 upon the bishop of Halberstadt, who converted it
into a Benedictine monastery, and the school attached to it enjoyed a
great reputation towards the end of the 11th century. After the
Reformation the castle passed to the counts of Wernigerode, who restored
it and made it their residence until 1710. Higher still, on the edge of
the plateau rises the Ilsenstein, a granite peak standing about 500 ft.
above the valley, crowned by an iron cross erected by Count Anton von
Stolberg-Wernigerode in memory of his friends who fell in the wars of
1813-1815. Around this rock cluster numerous legends.
See Jacobs, _Urkundenbuch des Klosters Ilsenburg_ (Halle, 1875);
Brandes, _Ilsenburg als Sommeraufenthalt_ (Wernigerode, 1885); and H.
Herre, _Ilsenburger Annalen_ (Leipzig, 1890).
IMAGE (Lat. _imago_, perhaps from the same root as _imitari_, copy,
imitate), in general, a copy, representation, exact counterpart of
something else. Thus the reflection of a person in a mirror is known as
his "image"; in popular usage one person is similarly described as "the
very image" of another; so in entomology the term is applied in its
Latin form _imago_ to an insect which, having passed through its larval
stages, has achieved its full typical development. The term is in fact
susceptible of two opposite connotations; on the one hand, it implies
that the thing to which it is applied is only a copy; on the other that
as a copy it is faithful and accurate.
Psychology (q.v.) recognizes two uses of the term. The simplest is for
the impression made by an observed object on the retina, the eye; in
this connexion the term "after-image" (better "after-sensation") is used
for an image which remains when the eye is withdrawn from a brilliantly
lighted object; it is called positive when the colour remains the same,
negative when the complementary colours are seen. The strict
psychological use of the term "image" is by analogy from the
physiological for a purely mental idea which is taken as being observed
by the eye of the mind. These images are created or produced not by an
external stimulus, such as is necessary for a visual image (even the
after-image is due to the continued excitement of the same organ), but
by a mental act of reproduction. The simplest ideational image, which
has been described as the primary memory-image, is "the peculiarly vivid
and definite ideal representation of an object which we can maintain or
recall by a suitable effort of attention immediately after perceiving
it" (Stout). For this no external stimulus is required, and as compared
with the after-image it represents the objects in perspective just as
they might be seen in perception. This is characteristic of all mental
images. The essential requisite for this primary image is that the
attention should have been fixed upon the impressions.
The relation between sense-impressions and mental images is a highly
complicated one. Difference in intensity is not a wholly satisfactory
ground of distinction; abnormal physical conditions apart, an image may
have an intensity far greater than that of a sense-given impression. On
the other hand, Hume is certainly right in holding that the distinctive
character of a percept as compared with an image is in all ordinary
cases the force and liveliness with which it strikes the mind--the
distinction, therefore, being one of quality, not of degree. A
distinction of some importance is found in the "superior steadiness"
(Ward) of impressions; while looking at any set of surroundings, images
of many different scenes may pass through the mind, each one of which is
immediately distinguished from the impression of the actual scene before
the eyes. This arises partly, no doubt, from the fact that the
perception has clear localization, which the image has not. In many
cases indeed an image even of a most familiar scene is exceedingly vague
and inaccurate.
In Art the term is used for a representation or likeness of an animate
or inanimate object, particularly of the figure of a person in sculpture
or painting. The most general application of the word is to such a
representation when used as an object of religious worship or adoration,
or as a decorative or architectural ornament in places of religious
worship. The worship of images, or idolatry, from the point of view of
comparative religion, is treated in the article IMAGE-WORSHIP, and the
history of the attitude of the Christian church, outside the
post-Reformation church of England, towards the use of images as objects
of worship and religion in the article ICONOCLASTS. With regard to the
Pre-Reformation period in England, it is of interest to note that by the
constitutions of Archbishop Winchelsey, 1305, it was the duty of the
parish to provide for the parish church, among other objects, the images
of Christ on the Cross, of the saint to whom the church was dedicated,
to be placed in the chancel, and of other saints. The injunctions of
Edward VI., 1547, ordered the destruction of all images that had been
the objects of superstitious use, and the act of 1549 (3 & 4 Edw. VI. c.
10) declared all such images illegal. This act, repealed in Mary's
reign, was revived in 1604 (1 James I. c. 25) and is still in force. The
present effect of this unrepealed act, as stated in _Boyd_ v.
_Philpotts_ (L.R. 6 P.C. 449), is that it only referred to the images
then subject to abuse, which had been ordered to be removed, and did not
refer to the subsequent use or abuse of other images. In Article XXII.
of the Articles of Religion it is laid down that "the Romish Doctrine
concerning ... Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of
Reliques ... is a fond thing mainly invented and grounded on no warranty
of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." The law in
regard to images, which in this connexion include pictures and
stained-glass windows, but not sculptured effigies on monuments or
merely ornamental work, is contained in various judicial decisions, and
is not defined by statute. The effect of these decisions is thus
summarized in the report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical
Discipline, 1906: "Such images are lawful as objects of decoration in a
church, but are unlawful if they are made, or are in danger of being
made, objects of superstitious reverence, contrary to Article XXII.
against the worshipping and adoration of images. In accordance with this
view, crosses, if not placed on the Holy Table, and also crucifixes, if
part only of a sculptured design or architectural decoration, have been
declared lawful. The question whether a crucifix or rood standing alone
or combined with figures of the Blessed Virgin and St John can, in any
circumstances, be regarded as merely decorative, has given rise to a
difference of judicial opinion and appears to be unsettled." Speaking
generally, articles of decoration and embellishment not used in the
services cannot lawfully be introduced into a church without the consent
of the ordinary given by a faculty, the granting of which is subject to
the judicial discretion of the chancellor or commissary, sitting as
judge of the bishop's court. By section 8 of the Public Worship
Regulation Act 1874, complainants may take proceedings if it is
considered that "any alteration in, or addition to, the fabric,
ornaments or furniture has been made without legal authority, or that
any decoration forbidden by law has been introduced into such church ...
provided that no proceedings shall be taken ... if such alteration or
addition has been completed five years before the commencement of such
proceedings." The following are the principal cases on the subject: in
_Boyd_ v. _Philpotts_, 1874 (L.R., 4 _Ad. & Ec._ 297; 6 P.C. 435), the
Exeter reredos case, the privy council, reversing the bishop's judgment,
allowed the structure, which contained sculptures in high relief of the
Ascension, Transfiguration and Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost,
together with a cross and angels; in _R._ v. _the Bishop of London_,
1889 (23 _Q.B.D._ 414, 24 _Q.B.D._ 213), the St Paul's reredos case, the
bishop refused further proceedings against the legality of a structure
containing sculptured figures of Christ on the Cross and the Virgin and
Child. In _Clifton_ v. _Ridsdale_, 1876 (1 P. & D., 316), a metal
crucifix on the centre of the chancel screen was declared illegal as
being in danger of being used superstitiously, and in the same case
pictures or rather coloured reliefs representing the "Stations of the
Cross" were ordered to be removed on the ground that they had been
erected without a faculty, and were also considered unlawful by Lord
Penzance as connected with certain superstitious devotion authorized by
the Roman church.
IMAGE WORSHIP. It is obvious that two religious votaries kneeling
together before a statue may entertain widely different conceptions of
what the image is and signifies, although their outward attitude is the
same. The one may regard it as a mere image, picture or representation
of the higher being, void in itself of value or power. It is to him,
like the photograph hung on a wall of one we love, cherished as a
picture and no more. But the other may regard it, as a little girl
regards her doll, as an animated being, no mere picture, but as tenement
and vehicle of the god and fraught with divine influence. The former is
the attitude which the Latin Church officially inculcates towards sacred
pictures and statues; they are intended to convey to the eyes of the
faithful, especially to the illiterate among them, the history of Jesus,
of the Virgin and of the saints. The other attitude, however, is that
into which simple-minded Latin peasants actually lapse, as it is also
that which characterizes other religions ancient or modern which use
pictures or sculptures of gods, demons, men, brutes, or of particular
parts and organs of the same. With the latter attitude alone does the
present article deal, and it may conveniently be called idolatry or
image worship. For the history of the use of images in Christian worship
see ICONOCLASTS.
The image or idol differs from the fetish, charm, talisman, phylactery
or miraculous relic, only in this, that either in the flat or the round
it _resembles_ the power adored; it has a prototype capable of being
brought before the eye and visualized. This is not necessarily the case
with the worshipper of _aniconic_ or unshaped gods. The Semite or savage
who sets up a sacred stone or Bethel believes indeed that a divine power
or influence enters the stone and dwells in it, and he treats the stone
as if it were the god, kisses it, anoints it with oil, feeds the god in
it by pouring out over it the blood of victims slain. But he is not an
idolater, for he has not "made unto himself any graven image, nor the
likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the water beneath or
in the water under the earth."
The question arises: must the stage of aniconic gods historically
precede and lead up to that of pictures and images? Are the latter a
development of the former? In the history of human religions can we
trace, as it were, a law of transition from sacred stock and stone up to
picture and image? Is it true to say that the latter is characteristic
of a later and higher stage of religious development? It was perhaps the
facility with which a pillar of stone or wood can be turned into an
image by painting or sculpturing on it eyes, ears, mouth, marks of sex
and so on, which led anthropologists of an earlier generation to
postulate such a law of development; but facts do not bear it out. In
the first place, what we are accustomed to call higher religions
deliberately attach greater sanctity to aniconic gods than to iconic
ones, and that from no artistic incapacity. The Jews were as well able
as their neighbours to fashion golden calves, snakes and the minor idols
called teraphim, when their legislator, in the words we have just cited,
forbade the ancillary use of all plastic and pictorial art for religious
purposes. And of our own Christianity, Robertson Smith remarks as
follows: "The host in the Mass is artistically as much inferior to the
Venus of Milo as a Semitic _Masseba_ was, but no one will say that
medieval Christianity is a lower form of religion than Aphrodite
worship."
Here then in the most marked manner the aniconic sacrament has ousted
pictures and statues. It is the embodiment and home of divine
personality and power, and not they. Equally contradictory of any such
law of development is the circumstance that the Greeks of the 5th and
4th centuries B.C., although Pheidias and other artists were embodying
their gods and goddesses in the most perfect of images, nevertheless
continued to cherish the rude aniconic stocks and stones of their
ancestors. If any such law ever operated in human religious development,
how can we explain the following facts. In the shadowy age which
preceded the Stone age and hardly ended later than 10,000 B.C., the
cave-dwellers of the Dordogne could draw elks, bisons, elephants and
other animals at rest or in movement, with a freshness and realism which
to-day only a Landseer can rival. And yet in the European Stone age
which followed, the age in which the great menhirs and cromlechs were
erected, in which the domestication of animals began and the first corn
was sown, we find in the strata no image of man or beast, big or little.
Whence this seeming blight and decay of art? Salomon Reinach, guided by
the analogy of similar practices among the aborigines of Australia, and
noticing that these primitive pictures represent none but animals that
formed the staple food of the age and place, and that they are usually
found in the deepest and darkest recesses of the caves where they could
only be drawn and seen by torchlight, has argued that they were not
intended for artistic gratification (a late motive in human art), but
were magical representations destined to influence and perhaps attract
the hunter's quarry. In a word this earliest art was ancillary to the
chase. It is a common practice in the magic of all ages and countries to
acquire control and influence over men and animals by making images of
them. The prototype is believed to suffer whatever is done to the image.
Reinach, therefore, supposes that in the Stone age which succeeded,
pictorial art was banned because it had got into the hands of magicians
and had come to be regarded as inevitably uncanny and malefic. This is
certainly the secret of the ordinary Mahommedan prohibition of pictures
and statues, which goes even to the length of denying to poor little
Arab girls the enjoyment of having dolls. It is felt that if you have
got a picture of any one, you have some power of harming him through it;
you can bind or loose him, just as you can a Djinn whose name you have
somehow learned. It is as dangerous for your enemy to have a picture of
you as for him to know your name. The old Hebrew prohibition of graven
images was surely based on a like superstition, so far as it was not
merely due to the physical impossibility for nomads of heavy statues
that do not admit of being carried from camp to camp and from pasture to
pasture. Possessing no images of Yahweh the Jews were also not exposed
to the same risk as were idolaters of having their gods stolen by their
foes and used against them. Lastly, the restriction to aniconic worship
saved them from much superstition, for there is nothing which so much
stimulates the growth of a mythology as the manufacture of idols. The
artist must indeed start with imaginative types, revealed to him in
visions or borrowed from current myths. But the tendency of his art is
to give rise to new tales of the gods. There is perpetual action and
reaction between picture and myth; and a legislator desiring to purify
and raise his countrymen's religion must devote no less attention to
their plastic art than to their hymnology.
Motives drawn from homoeopathic magic may thus explain the occasional
disuse and prohibition of pictorial and plastic art in cult; they may
equally explain its genesis and rise in certain ages and countries.
Prayer is much more hopeful and efficacious for a worshipper who has
means of bringing near to himself, and even coercing the god he
worships. An image fashioned like a god, and which has this advantage
over a mere stock and stone that it declares itself and reveals at a
glance to what god it is sacred, must surely attract and influence the
god to choose it as his home and tenement. And having the god thus at
hand and imprisoned in matter, the simple-minded worshipper can punish
him if his prayers are left unanswered. Dr E. B. Tylor accordingly (in
his chapter on "Idolatry" in _Primitive Culture_, ii. 170), reminds us
of "the negro who feeds ancestral images and brings them a share of his
trade profits, but will beat an idol or fling it into the fire if it
cannot give him luck or preserve him from sickness." So Augustus Caesar,
having lost some ships in a storm, punished Neptune by forbidding his
image to be carried in procession at the Circensian games (Sueton.
_Aug._ 16).
In certain cases the wish to carry elsewhere the cult of a favourite or
ancestral cult, may have dictated the manufacture of images that declare
themselves and reveal at a glance whose they are. Thus a Phoenician
colonist might desire to carry abroad the cult of a certain Baal or
Astarte who lived in a conical stone or pillar. Pilgrims visiting
Paphos, the original home and temple of Astarte, could of course be in
no doubt about which of the heavenly powers inhabited the cone of stone
in which she was there held to be immanent; nor was any Semite ever
ignorant as to which Baal he stood before. It was necessarily the Baal
or Lord of the region. But small portrait statues must surely have been
made to be carried about or used in private worship. Meanwhile the
shapeless cone remained the object of public adoration and pilgrimage.
The Egyptian writer Hermes Trismegistus (c. 250), in a work called
_Asclepius_ (cited by Augustine, _De civit. Dei_, viii. 26), claims that
his ancestors discovered the art of making gods, and since they could
not create souls, they called up the souls of demons or angels and
introduced them into the holy images and divine mysteries, that through
these souls the idols might possess powers of doing good and harm. This
was the belief of the pagans, and the Christians for centuries shared it
with them. Not a few Christian martyrs sought and won the palm by
smashing the idols in order to dislodge the indwelling devil;
occasionally their zeal was further gratified by beholding it pass away
like smoke from its ruined home.
Image worship then is a sort of animism. It is a continuance by adults
of their childish games with dolls. In the Roman religion, on a feast of
thanksgiving for a great victory, couches were spread in the temples for
the gods, whose images were taken down from their pedestals and laid on
the couches, and tables set before them loaded with delicate viands.
This was called a _Lectisternium_. So Marco Polo (i. chap. 53) relates
how the Tatars had each a figure of Natigay, the god of the earth, who
watched over their children, cattle and crops. The image was made of
felt and cloth, and similar images of his wife and children were set on
his left hand and in front of him. "And when they eat, they take the fat
of the meat and grease the god's mouth withal, as well as the mouths of
his wife and children." The old Greek statues moved of themselves, shook
their spears, kneeled down, spoke, walked, wept, laughed, winked, and
even bled and sweated,--a mighty portent. Images of Christ, of the
Virgin and saints have achieved many a similar miraculous portent. A
figure of Christ has been known even to give its shoes to a poor man,
and a Virgin to drop a ring off her finger to a suppliant. In Umbrian
villages on Easter Sunday the images of Jesus and His Mother are carried
in rival processions from their respective chapels, and are made to bow
when they meet face to face. The spectators applaud or hiss according as
they make their bow well or ill. In antiquity it was a common ceremony
to arrange a holy marriage between male and female images, and such
unions acted on the earth as a fertility charm. Much of a priest's time
was given up to the toilet of the god or goddess. Thus Isis was dressed
and coiffed every day by her special attendants according to Apuleius
(_Met._ xi. 9). Like the statue of St Agatha of Catania to-day, her
image was loaded with jewels, and an inscription of Cadiz (_C.I.L._ ii.
3386) contains an inventory of the jewels with which Isis had been
endowed by Spanish devotees.
Idolatrous cults repose so largely on make-believe and credulity that
the priests who administered them, perhaps oftener than we know, fell
into the kind of imposture and trickery of which the legend of Bel and
the dragon represents a classical example. "Thinkest thou not," said
King Astyages, "that Bel is a living god? Or seest thou not how much he
eateth and drinketh every day? Then Daniel laughed, and said, O King, be
not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did
never eat or drink anything." In the sequel Daniel proves to the king
that the priests with their wives and children came in through privy
doors and consumed the viands set before the god; and the king, angered
at their trickery, slew them all and gave Bel over to Daniel for
destruction.
The invectives against idolatry of the early Jewish and Christian
apologists, of Philo, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Arnobius, Lactantius
and others, are very good reading and throw much light on the question
how an ancient pagan conceived of his idols. One capital argument of the
Christians was the absurdity of a man making an idol and then being
afraid of or adoring the work of his own hands. Lactantius preserves the
answer of the pagans so attacked (_De origine Erroris_, ii. 2): We do
not, they said, fear the images themselves, but those beings after whose
likeness they were fashioned and by whose names they were consecrated.
Few such rites of consecration remain, but they must have been similar
to those used in India to-day. There the Brahmin invites the god to
dwell within the image, specially made hollow to contain him,
"performing the ceremony of _adhivasa_ or inhabitation, after which he
puts in the eyes and the _prana_, i.e. breath, life or soul."[1]
Similarly Augustine (_De civ. Dei_, viii. 23) relates how, according to
Hermes, the spirits entered by invitation (_spiritus invitatos_), so
that the images became bodies of the gods (_corpora deorum_). Thus the
invisible spirits by a certain art are so joined unto the visible
objects of corporeal matter that the latter become as it were animated
bodies, images dedicated to those spirits and controlled by them (see
CONSECRATION). Such statues were animated with sense and full of spirit,
they foresaw the future, and foretold it by lot, through their priests,
in dreams and in other ways.
See E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ed. 1903 (list of authorities
and sources vol., p. 171); L. R. Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_
(London, 1905); Jacob Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, translation by J.
S. Stallybrass. (F. C. C.)