The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-07

stands in its turn, calmly awaiting the arrow,
gracefully twisted into suitable and symme-
trical number of weLl-arranged coils. The
object of Greek art is to exhibit the grace of
bodily action; never to show any mental
emotion. Florentine art, on the contrary,
represents the action of the mind. 1t is ex-
pressive, in its saints and madonnas, of hu-
mlity and gentleness; and the whole figure
even the drapery-is disposed with the view
of bringing out this idea. The mere beauty
of the face is nothing, and is held of no
account, because the first idea of Christian
art is that love, of itself, makes the unlovely
lovely. Hence, the Pre-Raphaelites were
right in their pictures notwithstanding the
severity of the criticisms passed upon them,
in making the faces devoid of beauty.
Greek art combines in itself all simplicity
and all complexity. IL is perfectly simple;
it is always free from any weak or monstrous
decoration. 1t gives life to what is dead,
and chashsement to what is untrue. Even
the smallest Greek coins are full of lovely
veracity. 1t avoids all heavy ornament, such
| as we find on the lifeless figures on an Indian
temple. The function of Greek art is identi-
cal with that of the mechanical skill of
! Dadalus.
At the same time, Greek art is most COM
plex. 1t loves things which are varied and
double. 1t is full of exquisitely divided va
ration and chequeredness, and minute oppo-
]
the Greek in the works of Albert Durer aud
Rembrandt, and Velasquez. 1t may also be
traced in the fantasy of Arabian walls, as well
as in the latest work in the front of Rouen
Cathedral.
The real secret of the success of the Greek
and Florentine artists is, that they we're gen.
tlemen, in the best sense. In England, we
have a theory that the clown should produce
art, and the gentleman look at it. The rule of
oil Ilxy ~ &c aakI fha &c
this. The true artist must be q cul-
| tivated gentleman; in fact, the special cha
racteristics which tended to develop the
schools of Greece and Florence, are those
which principally raise and cultivate the mind
of mani
/. The capability of enthusiasm, and the
recognition of it as the highest state of man
forth prominently alike in Greek and medieval
gentlemen.
2. Obedience to seen and unseen authority
The love of law, the submission to those set
over them, was strong in Greek times, and
still stronger in the Middle Ages.
3. Habitual living in the presence of death,
and of death regarded as the end of life, not
as the beginning of a new existence. Death
was accepted as an evil, but it was regarded
without horror.
4. Purity of thep pattern oflove. In thisrespect
the Florentine school was far in advance of
the Greek, for although the Greeks dwelt on
the sanctity of domestic love, yet the abso-
Lutte necessity of purity in the highest love
was an essentially Christian idea.
5. Imaginative or actual dwelling in the
presence of pure spirits. The Greek pictured
the Christian his belief was q living and a
present reality. But the Greek had no idea
of receiving from these spirits pardon and
the forgiveness of his sins; so that hope and
humility were impossible to him. Here again
the Florentine school was at an advantage.
In Giotto's ''Hope" we have a typical repre-
sentation of the first of these virtues. In
Filippo Lippis "Annunciation," of the
second.
Perhaps the best type of medieval figures
is Luini's est. Catharine." Luini is the only
artist who can draw hair flowing loose, and
yet can, at the same time, keep the expression
of perfect purity. He alone, of medieval
artists, could combine beauty and saintliness.
The invasion of Italy by the Lombards and
Visigoths was necessary to the develop
ment of medieval art. In the Lom-
bard history of Rosamond are found the
elements of all subsequent art The Lom-
bard legend, like the Lombard art differed
very materially from the Greek. No Greek
king of the heroic age would have made his
queen drink out of her fathers skull. In the
Lombards there was a fiercer spirit subj
| TO more SuDUlo lntel6ctudl law ana 10 q
frmer discipline. There was violent ami
NAL passion ruled by a fixed and undertaking
code of laws. This appears in Florentine
art in the dragon, everywhere present, but
everywhere subdued.
Chivairy aided in the development of me-
dieval art. 1t was a recovery from the SEN
suality of Rome its aim was absolute
chastity, and it regarded the relation of the
sexes entirely apart from sensual passion.
This arose from anticipating an ideal state,
where there is no marrying or giving in mar
riage. Such belief rouses men to an effort
after an imaginative purity of love. This
is why Dante was absolutely free from
the animal pain of jealousy. The
chivalric idolatry of sentiment was
even pushed so far as to raise discussion
whether true love could exist between mar
ried persons, and whether it is not de.
stroyed by the passion of the body. This
question was actually brought before the
Court of Love of the Countess of Cham.
pagne in 1147, "Utrum inter conjugatos
Amor possit habere locum, and was decided
in the negative by some sixty high-born
ladies'. This kind of imaginative affec
ton must be distinguished from monastic
chastity; but yet the true life of religion:
orders was not modification of the body, but
satisfaction of the spirit it was the laying
aside of the crswn of humility; it was the
adoption, in the place of turbulent life in
the world, of the VOW to learn all that could
be learnt of the star which sold of peace in
heaven and goodwill to men.