By Jeffrey Moran

The teachings of the Royal Academy of Art would often limit the scholars to following a set structure of rules that would hinder the use of the artists’ imagination. The expectation of copying classical works superseded the individual’s ability to innovate and build on the fundamentals they were taught. This criticism of academic art is parallel to John Ruskin’s criticism of the manufactured goods of England during the Industrial Revolution, such as the furniture and “knick knacks” of the time. The works during the Industrial Revolution were particularly ornate and intricate in design; however, they were mass-produced. Their detail and designs, while of fine quality, were produced on a large scale rather than handcrafted. The “artisan” operated machines and levers to create their works. As Ruskin commented in The Stones of Venice (1851-53) machine operators had “the strength of them . . . given daily to be wasted into the finesses of a web, or racked into the exactness of a line” (637). Rather than allowing them to express their imagination, they were focused on fulfilling simple and methodical tasks. Similarly, at the Royal Academy, students were kept busy with copying and imitating the past rather than experimenting.

The furnishings depicted in Holman Hunt’s Awakening Conscience (1853) exemplify the over-complication of technical skill. The most striking piece is the upright piano engraved with designs all across its frame. The table behind the couple is also finely engraved along its edge and legs. Objects placed around the edges of the canvas seemingly only fill space. Underneath the table is a fallen roll of music, a cat, and a bird, all symbolic but also all mass-produced. At the foot of the piano rests a bundle of yarn and other patchwork. One could also consider the books atop the table, and knick-knacks adorning the piano as comments on the mass production of craftworks.

The gaze of the woman is also noteworthy, as she turns away from her lover and seems to ignore the mass-produced furniture and looks out the window into nature. This could be seen as Hunt following the idea of Nature being the guide in art rather than the technique and pedagogy of the academies. By restraining themselves to the confines of the methods in the academies, the Academy-trained artists become no more than the workers in the workshops producing the furniture decorating the man’s room in Awakening Conscience. They simply operate machines and levers, metaphorically, to create works that add meaningless detail in a desperate attempt to distinguish themselves, rather than letting their imagination work for themselves.