The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-06-15
ART FEATURES OF THE CENTEN-
NAL EXPOSITION.

GO O0fOQlclo, Wf1t1nS IIOiu llllstuCi'h i'
says: The Art Department of the Cen
tennial Exhibition occupies a beautiful
marble structure called Memorial Hall,
which coTeres an acre and half, and an
annex of about the same size. These
buildings are to be left standing after
the close of the exhibition, and are there
fore more solidly constructed than those
intended for only temporary occupancy.
Memorial Hall cost 81, 500, 900, was
paid for by Pennsylvania and
Philadelphia jointly, and will be
continued as an industrial art museum.
It has dome $50 feet high, with fig
ure of Columbia atop; and the general
stye of the building combines solidlty
and beauty. This and the annex, tenn
porarily partitioned, afford 1850
square feet of wall space for pictures,
and 10000 of floor for statuary; and
nearly all of the room is used by exhlb-
its from Great Britain, France, Ger
many, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, the
Argentine Republic and the United
States. I have described Che receptacle,
and propose to stop there. A volume
would have to be made big to hold full
notices of the objects contained in the
two buildings. Tie titles fill seventy
closely printed pages in tie catalogue.
The Art Department, CT ntrary to the
anticipation of those who under-esti-
mate the love of art in this country, is
daily the most thronged of all the parts of
the great show. More discrimination
too, is used than might Lave been
expected of an assemblage not drawn
together expressly to look at art objects
The good things and not the gaudiest or
most conspicuous, as rule, get their
deserved share of attention.
THE NUDE IN ART.
The fact is apparent to me, as [ wan
der from room to room, and from look
ing at the inanimate exhibits turn to
studying the people, that Americans
have not learned to look placidly upon
the bare human figure as put on canvas
or on stone. In European cities art
galleries are numerous and easily Access
sible, and the public becomes thorough
ly familiar with such sights. Here art
is comparatively new, and training of
taste in that direction is generally lack
ing. I do not mean to say that admira-
ton of the beautiful is any less con-
spicuous trait of Americans than of for
eigners, but simply that large portion
of us have not ceased to be shocked by
the nakedness in marble or oil. Nine
American women out of ten are ashamed
while they view the sculptured shapes of
women. L detect the sentiment in spite
of their forced equaniInity. I notice
that the cheeks of the pretty girl, who
rs she leans on her escorts arm, is made
TO face a picture of A Jewish Mother
Defending her Seven Sons, grow roster
in tinge, and that her eyes droop. The
sons have been cr1ciied and are depicted
the size of life and utterly nude, without
concealments by skilfful arrangement of
attitudes or bits of drapery. Facing
a row of seven men in that plight, even
in a picture, is hard ordeal for this
sensitive girl as well as many others.
She bears it with steady nerves, how
ever, although the blush will come.
observe, too, that a dry-visaged woman,
presumably maiden, bolts hurriedly
past oil the undressed figures in the
sculpture rooms, with averted eyes and
compressed lips, and will only stop by
the lubberly children that the Italians
have chiseIed, end sent here. She dis
approves of the public disclosures of
human anatomy, and doesn't care who
knows her opinion. Even among the
stone children she finds a little fellow
who ofiends her by lacking fg-leaf or
any substitute for q fig-leaf, and she
hurries Disguised out of the building.
As [ guess their thoughts, there are few
among the spectators who really disas-
sociate pure love of art from grosser
consciousness of what it is they are see
ing. They do not for an instant forget
that The representations are such as
would not be thought of in the reality.
Doubtless there will come change in
this regard. A few more years Of in
creasing familiarity with such things may
educate us to the point of indifference
which Europeans have attained. Then
French bronzes may be put into our
houses as they are imported, and pub
lie exhibitions may not be places for
girls to blush in. The acquisition of
this accomplishment has already extern
ded far in what we call CULTIVATED
classes, as I also observe in my wan
dering through the Art Department..
REALISTIC wAX-wORK.
There is one thing in the Art Depart
ment about which there can be but
condemnatory feeling, Judging it from
the standpoint of propriety. Our folk
may learn to look unbashed at nudeness
in pictures and sculpture, wherein the
best representations of the human form
are only approaches, close or remote, to
perfect naturalness. There is always
the sense of inanimateness that blunts
the shock to modesty in some degree.
But IN the exceptional thing to which I
allude even that blush-saver is lacking.
In the main corridor of the Memorial
buildings annex, where the most casual
visitors are not likely to miss it. wax