New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-25
tCommunicated.l
ARTISTIC CHAT.

| cslled Raphael, an article signed ~. M. ap.
| psared in last Sundays Picayane.
As am not in the habit of expressing any
| views that are not justified by reason,
never alter my opinion and judgment once
published. Perhaps, if the subject was really
| worth profuse discussion, would reiterate
my opinion, but it is not so in the present
| instarce.
Nv present answer is to Mr.. "P. NJ" only,
and not on any of the very poor specimens OF
art to which he would direct my attention.
"P. NJ finds contradiction in my relation
concerning the price of the Theirs fresco
Did he know the size Of il! He had better
| think about that.
Il is quito immaterial to me whether the
80 called Raphael is sold at high price, or
sold at all. The question is business one
and not all artistic IN its purports. Bat
where l can not conceive rashness OF the
gentlemau's assumption, is when he would
make a mere materialist and copyist of
Raphael, the spirtualist and creator per
excellerza.
No painter ever achieved such lofty ex-
pressions o. the beautiful Tor ideal) in his
works us Raphael did. How, then, could
he, the great spiritualist in art, dare to pro-
ducs his Saviour otherwise than with like
ness bearing the expression of the very
superior humility and modesty that raGiate
from every feature combining the ideal OF
Christ of God. Accessories, draperies and
postures are not in question in my criti
cism, which "P H." has certainly misun-
derstood.
In the very came Historic de Raphael by
Quatrenere de Quincy, quo ted by p. NJ !"
there is a letter of Raphael to Castiglioni,
concerning his "Galatea," in which the fol
lowing suggestive declaration reads: GAS
can find NO proper model-human, l
make use of an ideai-mode!, which l
imagine for myself" How could the
Christian believer, the idealistic Raphael,
commit such gross absurdity as to repre-
sent his Lord without any traces in his fea-
lures of that supreme idealistic beauty
| about which he dreams, since he can not
| find Ii on earthl
The beautiful in all of Raphaels works is
not worldly; it is an ideal, an eternal an alb
solute model of which all contingent OBJ
| jects are mere reproduction. Beautiful
things only participate in that sovereign
beauty, which is God himself; origin aud
| fouut of all that is beautiful, Of all that
strikes our sight or our mind. whether
physical, intellectual or moral beauty.
The art of Greece and of Rome sprung from
! intense religious faith, whence it became su-
perior; because it was above nature, that so
many can copy while creating no astonish-
ment, since it is our daily sight
Art as understood BY Raphael da Vlnc,
Pouasin and Michael Angelo does not ini-
tate reality-it improves it, it reproduces
the general, the likely, the possible.
'Tis in the research for the ideal, for a
! type of beauty not afforded by real objects,
but which the artists developed imagina-
tion may conceive, that art pure is character
lied; tie that which constitutes the grandeur
of those masters, among whom Raphael
! is foremost. Art can not constran itself to
the design of agreeable forms; it must es-
sentially reproduce moral expression, en-
bellished, idealzsd. The object of great
artist is rot only to please, but also to
elevate the mind; what then. if Raphael
had adopted the manner preconized by "P.
H. ?" He would have been q mere materialist;
and surely such injustic could not be done
him as to class his name among skilled
workmen, when he is foremost among su-
peIior thinkers and creators.
1t was especially by neglecting strict
reality that Raphael appropriated to him
self that nobility of form and Of expression
which characterizes him, not withstanding
"P. Ms" contempt for the same; and
moreover, he always sought physical beauty
for his figures, because it bears in in itself
a It fection of moral beauty without which
there is no art.
There will be found the superiority OF
spiritualstic elt over the realistic school.
The noble and unbounded conception CT art
will ever be the honor of Raphael, thereby
solely his masterpieces are acknowledged
as models that have not yet and will never
be surpassed. His teachings have re-.
NAMED and will stand as SO many immu-
table rules, notwithstanding all contrary
systems and assertions, those Of Sir Joshua
Reynolds included.
ANY one who has q delicate and real
sense of art is governed by this law of the
ideal beauty, that exists complete nowhere
bat in the minds of the Phidiae, the
Raphaels, the Michael Angel, the Poussins
and the Pugets.
To form that real or imaginary model
which the ancients called the rule, ard that
l quality, the true line or ideal model, no
great artist ever sought its illustration in
nature, borrowing from it or from a num-
bar of individuals, the finest parts, SO as
to constitute the whole. If go, how could
they proclaim the beauty of any of those
component parte; how could they recognize
it, unless they were guided by model or
ideal conception
Hence, Christ in the sense of art, in the
sense of Raphael, is not worldly, his compan-
ions neither. Christ is divine, He is God. His
companions are illumined, are inspired, and
therefore trsnefgured, superior thinkers
and believers, who are to conquer the
world to the Christian faith, on the force of
that superiority Of divine essence that i'm
parts to them the knowledge Of all
Languages, the gift of extraordinary per
suasion.
Such is the ideal OF Raphael. Art, IN
Italy az it had in Greece, followed religion