ITALY. 
109 
painful impression upon tlie lover of art to see so much biilliant 
technical execution, in tlie Italian sculptures, wastecl upon so much 
tiiat was unmeaning. It would lead us too far, were we to entei 
upon tlie principal branches of Italian art-industry as regai ds 
forms and technical management. The skill of the Italians in 
glass and in marble, in faiences, bronzes, and above all in wood- 
carvings, is an inheritance of tlie classical period of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries. The traditional education in the matter 
of form, by means of the schools, is closely connected with these 
various branches of industry. It is remarkable, for instance, that 
in the ornamentation of textile fabrics, which bas for some time 
been ignored in the schools, tlie traditions of the Renaissance 
have died out almost entirely, and foreign (French) elements have 
found entrance to a greater extent than in other departments, — 
a proof of the connection which exists between art-instruction and 
the modiflcation of form in industry. It was commerce, undoubt- 
edly, which prescribed the models for the schools in Italy ; and tlie 
artists trained in the spirit of the Renaissance made the forms of 
the Renaissance traditional; but, when the artists followed the 
fashion in regard to French flowers in the designs for textile fab 
rics, the schools took no notice of the fact. Now, if the design- 
ers in this branch had also been trained in the classical forms 
by tlie schools, these forms would certainly have maintained the 
field. 
In the industrial districts of Italy drawing is indeed more than 
a desideratum, and therefore finds the most careful cultivation. 
The “ scuola tecnica ” very generally has also the character of a 
technical school in which technical aims take the precedenee of 
the elements of general education. The drawings gave evidence 
everywhere of the practical purposes of the decorator, cven in 
linear drawing, in which the geometrical Ornament (mosaic tloors, 
&c.,) always played an important part. The Exhibition had been 
abundantly supplied with drawings by the pupils. All the prov- 
inces of the country, far-otf Sicily not excepted, were represented 
by portfolios ; and, in view of the mass of interesting material, it 
was only to be regretted that no systematic arrangement had 
been made, either geographically, or according to the categories ot 
the schools, and that the government had neglected to delegate a