Show 124 STUDENT LIFE spiritual symbolism lies in the freedom of its lines upward They are the infinite perpendicular without horizontal entablature or confinement by those elemental features of Grecian architecture which cut short aspiration heavenward and bound it firmly and solidly to the earth But the Grecian style by the way fully expressed the Greek religious ideals for in no art can man express himself with greater power than in architecture By architecture the Almighty has provided for man scope for his noblest development of beauty in matter in the degree that our intelligence is cultivated are we awed or elated at its suggestiveness of power beauty and wisdom and in the presence of noble structures we are conscious of a greater degree of spiritual life for men recognized in architectural greatness the spirit of something akin to their own souls We find in this Renaissance period the painting and sculpture closely following architecture in ideas At first these were expressed by symbolical figures the cross signifying sacrificial death and redemption the palm eternal peace the peacock immortality etc but this soon led to the representation of scriptural scenes and these were placed in the cathedrals for the enlightenment of the people So the services of the painters and sculptors were employed by the church and as a result of this we have those great paintings of the Annunciations the Crucifix ions the Resurrections and Last Judgements and those great sculptures of Madonnas Saints Prophets and Sibyls It was in this spirit that the great sistine ceiling by Michael Angelo was executed the most sublime piece of painting the world has ever produced And so we find that religion produced the arts of Egypt Assyria India Greece and the Renaissance and that art from the dawn of history down to the present time has a universal language by which man has struggled to express the thoughts which have oppressed him his ideas and conceptions of the universe and of the creative unseen power behind it his religious beliefs and aspirations This religious idea and feeling is not necessarily shown by choice of subject The deepest meaning lies within ourselves If we study any of the paintings of Rembrandt and Millet we feel the suggestion of infinity behind them and most of them would make excellent illustrations for the Bible not at all because they were biblical in subject for most of them were not but because these men saw in the life around them which they placed upon canvas the universal pity and tenderness of the Bible story its human side its perpetual lessons They realized its being of and for all times a synopsis of all human life In all great work regardless of age or subject whether it be human animal or landscape we find this spiritual significance Every man must believe something every artist lives more or less in a world of his own for his communions with nature have a tendency to isolate him but his representations of these reflections are very often the expression of an inner life a point of view which is not paraded around for public inspection Very often this suggests certain qualities and feelings tinges a work if you will without being directly related to the subject represented This recalls a conversation between two artists A painter wa9 speaking with a sculptor whose beautiful work was touched by a certain elegance approaching sadness They were admiring a beautiful model and as the sculptor was describing with the enthusiasm of the artist some particular delicate subtlety of form that he purposed to embody at some future time there came an expression in his face which made the other been a means jbu 4" Jf |