rk
should not be consulted in studying the styles of great periods or the
higher manifestations of an art. These paintings were the first to leave
China and find their way to Europe. There is no reason for analyzing them
here.

To sum up, Chinese painting of the last two centuries still numbers
masters of the first rank. This alone indicates that the sacred fire is by
no means extinct. Who shall say what future awaits it amidst the
profound changes of today? After a period of indecision which lasted for
twenty-five years, Japan has found herself anew and is seeking to revive
her artistic traditions. It is to be hoped that China will, at all costs,
avoid the same mistakes and that she will not be unmindful, as was her
neighbor, of the history of the old masters.

[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. HALT OF THE IMPERIAL HUNT
Ming Period. Sixteenth Century. Collection of R. Petrucci.]

* * * * *

CONCLUSION

This brief survey has shown how the distinctive features of China's
artistic activity were distributed. Though subjected to varying
influences, this evolution possesses a unity which is quite as complete as
is that of our Western art. In the beginning there were studies, of which
we know only through written records. But the relationship existing
between writing and painting from the dawn of historic time, permits us to
carry our studies of primitive periods very far back, even earlier than
the times of the sculptured works. We thus witness the gradual development
of that philosophical ideal which has dominated the entire history of
Chinese painting, forcing it to search for abstract form, and which
averted for so long the advent of triviality and decadence.

The goal sought by Chinese thought had already been reached in painting
when, in the third and fourth centuries, we are vouchsafed a glimpse of
it. It is a vision of a high order, in which the subtle intellectuality
corresponds to a society of refinement whose desires have already assumed
extreme proportions. Like Byzantium, heir to Hellenistic art, the China
of the Han dynasty and of Ku K'ai-chih was already progressing toward bold
conventions and soft harmonies, in which could be felt both the pride of
an intelligence which imposed its will upon Nature, and the weariness
following its sustained effort.

[Illustration: PLATE XXIV. PAINTING BY CHANG CHENG
Eighteenth Century. Collection of M. Worch.]

This refinement,