The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-06-20
METROPOLITAN MUSINGS.


always accompanied by sword ind l. being slow of
speech and dden in the presence Of youth and beauty
Hammered out iucoheront sentences which my
young friend good enough to assent to- and to accept
as very clear calculation Of somewhat misty subject
What / ought To have said was this
Early art was mostly legendary from the necessities OF
the The only literature which existed amongst the
people legendary the chivc not yet having been
born When therefore, the world began 10 awaken
from its medieval sAp, it found itself the possessor
of wonderful accumulation Of traditions half fab
ulous, and more wholly so, to which the pencil was
TO give expression. These legends into the
spiritual life of the masses and after short struggle the
church yielded to the popular demand and soon GER
tain set Of symbols spoke ntelgibly to the beholde
as the printed page speaks to And this to be
a fitting place to rente the popular faacy that the
church Of the middle ages dictated the symbols and le
gends which Art has immortazed the truth is, that
venerable institution ocntended long and vigorously
against the adc Of much OF the legendary literature
and issued edct after cdict to check the food trad
tions for which Art furnishing channel But, at
last yielding to the pressure Of the pentup thought and
emotions of the dcvou il gracefully accepted the minis
try it had vanly striysn to destroy and Beauty in
uncouth forms and with symbolic attendants duly
installed the preacher and priest for the people strongly
my young friend, and all others interested in
the highest form of culturethc love of Artto read
if it be procured somewhat rare English work
titled Sacred and Legendary Art by Mrs Jamison 1t
thoroughly exhaustive of this great field of interesting
research and as it is book take the liberty to
oondense and digest interesting items All the
paintings of early date divided by Mrs. Jamison into
two great classes the historical and devotional and of
the first class there the two divisions of the scptura
and the Legendary In all these there many sym
bols employed, most of which have unvarying
ing Even the coors made subsidiary to the teach
ing Of the picture in very early art White represented
innocence, purity, JOY, and humility red symbozed
fire. divine love, the creative power royatyn bad
sense, red sgnited war; hatred, punishment; blue
pressed heaven, truth, fidelity Christ and the Virgin
the red tunic and the blue MANTLE indicative of
heavenly truth and heavenly love while the Spanish
painters clothed the Saviour in violet to typify love
united with suffering black was appropriated to mourn
ing wickodQss, DEATH and Satan. 1t is curious to OBJ
how the leading ideas Of this symbolism of the
colors remain in common speech when the philoso
ply of the symbols is almost forgotten,
To return to my young friends inquiry. The sword
always accompanies pictures Of ST. Paul. because it be-
longs to him symbol and attribute As an at
tribute it signifies that it the instrument Of martyr
DOM and for this it given to St Paul st Cath
crime, and others symbol it means violent death
Arrows introduced attributes in pictures of ST.
bastian, St Christina and St. Ursula and cauldron APP
pears in those Of St John the Evangelist and ST Cecilia
When skull is introduced it Is to indicate penance
and the palm borrowed from the symbols of paganism
TO be placed in the hands of those who suffered the
TRUTH to symbolic their final victory the powers of
sin and death Sometimes in the accessories Of picture
will be found skull and lion This as in the ST. Je-
of Titan at Milan is to indicate penance in the
desert Sometimes the symbols become Of great import
in deciding the subject Of painting; the death
of Mary Magdelene for instance, might easily be mista
ken for the death Of Mary Of Egypt if it were that
the latter always accompanied by lion who either digs
the grave hicks the feet of the Saint The Evangess
have their special symbols To ST. Matthew belongs the
book, to st Mark the winged on Though sometimes it
is lion without wings which, however properly belongs
to St. Jerome ST. Luke is accompanied by OK, which
is sometimes winged, and st. John has bestowed upon
him the meaning symbol which has become own ma
tonal sign eagle. There is very curious specimen
of symbolism in the figures of the Evangests by Angel
lea da Fesole, wherein the form of has the head
of the aninaI-symbol. Thus ST. Matthew is simply a
man holding open book but st. John is represented
as the form of upon the shoulders Of which is
eagles head and so with the lions head of Mark and
the head Of Luke But the sangest thing connected
with this treatment Of sacred symbols is the resemblance
which ST. John thus made to bear the figures which
have been discovered in Ninevah in which the form of
man combined with the head and wings Of eagle and
the suggestion is at and naturally started was not
not those strange stony monstrosities have world of
heroic meaning locked up in their giant forms? If their
cold lips could be made to speak, might they not
histories Of virtue and wisdom which they designed
to perpetuate the recital of which would thrill and per-
haps shame u.s. proud Christians Of the nineteenth centu
Ey3 The world is very old, and has undergone many
changes but goodness also, is old and virtue outves
human mutations There is many mummy buried in the
sands Of Egypt who knew nearly much and whose life
was quite noble, that Of my masculine q young
quantance, Par Venue, jr Also there is depicted ON
many smoky canvas and attended by skull and lion
the portrait of many woman lovely my young
lady friend whose inquiry prompted this gossp-moe
fra it may be, because tempted-more holy In
appearance, but venture to say not in reality
desert that would paint in company with my young
friends fair face, but the dove which means simplicity
of soul, and the lily which means womanly purity and
affection SO let her, and all my young friends master
the realities that the embles may have significance
For all life is embleinatc rank wealth. and dignity
ought to be symbolic of worth and ON the great can
of the world forms should always appear in COM
pany with whatever may virtue gentleness hon
esty, and rectitude
Going TO Europe.
This gossip carries us over the sea and while in
the oldWorld atmosphere beg to suggest to summer
peasureseckers that voyage the Atlantic will
consume time and cost more money than
couple of months at fashionable watering place be-
sides being vastly beneficial There are two classes