Arts of the World

“Many years ago, I began delving into the graphic and glyptic arts from various parts of the world. In 1906 I brought out my observations and the theories resulting therefrom in a preliminary work: Comparative Art. This, as far as I know, was the first attempt ever made to examine into and classify the fine arts of all races. From that time on, my wife and I have continued the study of art from a comparative standpoint in the field, in art museums, in ethnographic museums, from our own collection, from photographs and from illustrations in books. In 1918, we published a book Art and Man (also being published by Cosmo), a twenty- fold enlarged and elaborated presen-tation of the theoretical parts of Comparative Art. The present work records once more the observations made before 1906 together with those we have made since that date; and with the addition of a few fresh deductions formulated since the publication of Art and Man. Certain parts of this work, how-ever, necessarily deal with prehistory or history. The data about these we have gathered as far as possible from leading authorities in their special fields. —Excerpt from the Author’s Introduction