The Orientals went to the opposite extreme. They delighted in bright and gorgeous decoration to an extent that, but for their many intensely realistic works, would lead to the belief that the production of certain effects in color was the highest object of their artists. Their strength lies in their coloring. Nowhere else can the same skill be found in the harmonizing of shades usually deemed discordant, and nowhere else have colors the same brilliancy and depth (Fig. 12). The Japanese and Chinese, in particular, appear to have thoroughly grasped the true place of color in the decoration of curving surfaces, from which the brilliant glaze reflects the light. The artists of Sèvres, anticipating in a manner Ruskin’s idea, embellished their vases with compositions similar to those on canvas. They made the mistake of thinking that the artist’s work is independent of the surface on which it appears, whereas perspective is altered and sometimes destroyed by the curvature of a vase and the brilliancy of the enamel. The artists of the Orient, on the other hand, either restrict themselves to subjects which can be treated upon a judiciously limited part of the surface, or throw aside compositions entirely, and trust to floral designs, isolated figures, repetitious decoration without unity of design, or to beauty of colors alone. Everything contributed to exalt their estimation of color for its own sake, and to it we accordingly find that they devote the regard entertained by the Greeks for form. Any ulterior use of color, as for picture-painting on the flat surface of porcelain plaques, does not appear to have occupied their attention to any very great extent. It is in isolated figures and flowers that we can best study the marvellous delicacy of the Chinese or Japanese brush, and the fidelity with which the suggestions of nature are followed. There is little absolute imitation. Color is paramount, and its beauty obscures the incongruities of Oriental art.