OCR Text |
Show Hope deferred is apt to give the promoter cold feet. HAS INSPIRED GREAT ARTISTS Subject of the Resurrection Always Al-ways One That Has Called Forth Their Best Efforts. THE Christian artist, about the fourth century, when he made his first hesitating attempts to treat the subject of Easter, carefully refrained from showing the risen Lord at the moment of resuscitation. With a proper reverence rever-ence for the Scriptures, he refused to show what they did not reveal. He depicted de-picted an empty tomb, watched by the Roman guard, or visited by the holy women. A sarcophagus in the Lateran museum simply shows a labarum, or Roman standard, under which the keepers are fast asleep. Even the tomb Is only suggested. The Louvre has a bas-relief in silver-gilt which formerly belonged to the Abbey of St. Denis, where we see an angel showing the Savior's empty tomb to the two Marys. A more realistic representation is Thomas touching the Savior's wounds, which may be seen upon an early sarcophagus, sar-cophagus, preserved in the church of St. Celso at Milan. This chaste reserve, which was content con-tent to depict only what was described by the Gospel narrative, was maintained main-tained by Christian art until the thirteenth thir-teenth century, when, under the influence influ-ence of the Renaissance, men began to paint the actual resurrection itself, with a conscious striving for dramatic effect. There is an early representation representa-tion which shows the upper half of the Savior's body appearing above the grave, and also a representation of his appearance to Mary Magdalene, by Duccio of Siena (1255-1319), who, with Giotto of Florence, first attempted attempt-ed to find a new artistic formula in the observation of life. It is to Giotto that we owe our first representation of the resurrection. In a small picture, which formed one cf a series of panel decorations upon a press for sacred vessels, in the sacristy of St. Croce, Florence, now in the Florence academy, acad-emy, he shows us the risen Christ, lightly standing with the cross and banner of victory in his right hand, upon the heavy slab which covers the still closed tomb. The angel does not appear, but the Roman guards are sleeping beside the tomb. The Savior's feet barely touch the tomb and the whole impression is that of an ethereal body, no longer subject to the physical A RED NOSE L "Say, Uncle Dick, papa says you use nose paint and I want to borrow some to -o'rr my Taster eggs." , laws which attach us to this earth. This now becomes the characteristic feature of all resurrection pictures. Taddeo Gaddi adheres to this in his magnificent fresco, and so does Peru-glno. Peru-glno. Among the many disciples of Giotto there was but one great artist, the painter-monk, Fra Angelico of Fiesole. There is an indescribable sweetness in his virgins and angels, enhanced by . his exquisite drawing and delicate, luminous lu-minous color, but his very sweetness often palls upon our modern taste. As Reinach says:- "We long for a few wolves in this impeccable sheepfold." Fra Angelico treated the resurrection subject several times. In one of his pictures he still has the pre-renaissance reserve. He shows us the wondering women and the angels at the sepul-cher. sepul-cher. In another he combines the old version with the new. In the third picture he shows the actual resurrection resurrec-tion scene. Fra Bartolomeo, the teacher of Andrea An-drea del Sarto, though not a master ot the first rank, treated this subject with great success in his picture, which is now in the Pitti palace, Florence. Rafael Ra-fael also painted it. In his picture the keepers are not sleeping, but they are witnesses of the resurrection. Anni-. Anni-. bale Carraci goes a step further. He was not satisfied to prove by a witness wit-ness that Christ really arose from the dead. He sets out to show that he arose in a miraculous manner. He not only paints a closed tomb, which is scripturally correct, lor the Gospels describe the great eaithquake and the rolling away of the stone as taking place after the act of resurrection, but Carraci places a sleeping guard, lying full length across the top of the altar-like altar-like tomb. There can thus be no doubt that the Savior who soars above must have miraculously passed this double barrier. It is a relief to turn from the con templation of such ridiculous puerili ties to the strength of Martin Schoett gauer's engraving. Albrecht Duerer's resurrection in his Smaller Passion series of wood cuts is rather empty: his Larger Passion shows us a much more worthy and noble composition. Rembrandt also treated this subject As usual with him the great problem was the treatment of light. He -does not show the Savior, but he selects tin moment of the great earthquake ami the appearance of the angel as the sub ject for a most wonderful etching, wherein he again, as Couture says, "with black and white makes color." Whenever the risen Lord is shown in these resurrection pictures, he ap pears as the victorious conqueror of death and the grave. This conception has also passed into hymnology, for the Lutheran hymn writer, Paul Gerhard, Ger-hard, sings: They in a crave did sink Mm, The foe held Jubilee: B.'fore lie can bethink him, Lo, Christ again Is freu. And "Victory!" he cries, And weveth toward the skies His banner, for the field Is by the hero hell Perhaps the most natural and. there fore, the most common representation of the resurrection is the picture of the women at the empty sepuleher. Like the kings who came to adore (he inf3nt Savior, their number is always three. We find them in the very earliest resurrection res-urrection pictures and carvings, as well as in the richly Illuminated Gospels Gos-pels of the tenth and eleventh centuries: cen-turies: Duccio's treatment of this subject sub-ject is fine, especially the expression of awe in the women, and the action of the angel, who points to the empty tomb. Christian Herald. Easter lilies softly swinging. In the breezes gently singing, Echci sweet their bells are ringing, At Eastertide. |