The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-02-14
Art and Artists.

FRENCH, the sculptor of ''The Minute Man
az concord, is now perfecting group for the
custom house at st. Louis, called "Peace and
war. The figures will be cut in granite, of
Meissonier, the French painter, is said to
have accepted short time ago commission
to paint for dealer a small picture containing
only two figures for $4,000. When the picture
was finished he asked twice that sum, giving as
reason the fact that the value of his services
had doubled in the interval
The New York Post remarks upon Mr.. VIM.
Il. O'Donovan's portrait of William Page:
Haziitt says somewhere that to most statues
the spectator puts.questions; but that the best
statues question the spectator. Here is a Dor
trait which you do not examine, or criticise or
make comments upon. You simply mt your
self in your best clothes and on YOUR best be-
havlour, for 1t watching and searching you,
and with soon find out whether in any wise
you are shallow or frivolous or false.
In digging down hillside near the town of
Sieourg, Germany, short time ago, ancient
pottery works were discovered in which many
rare and valuable pieces Of pottery were found,
notably set illustrating biblical history from
Adam and Eve to the ascension of Christ.
Several ovens were filled with fine ware and
among the discoveries were number of quaint
Old patterns. Some of the pottery bore inscrp-
LIONS, aud some was decorated with figures,
such as the Emperor Constantine, Roman god
desses. and the coats of arms of Jullch, Cfeve
and Berg, all beautifully colored and glazed.
Some portions of an ancient colossal statue
to Roland, the hero of Roncesvalles, have lately
been dug up in the market-place at Prenzlau in
digging the foundations for national war me-
morial Old documents prove that this statue
raatnrad in 14QR hut uhon
does not seem to be known. In 1877 it was
destroyed by lightning, and the shattered
pieces apparently buried where the statue had
stood, only the sword and one arm being
preserved and placed in the rathhaus, where
they still remain. 1t is now supposed that the
fragments can be put together and the statue
restored.
Mr.. w. w. Story has finished and sent home
bust of Keats taken from the sketch made BY
the painter Severn. He was the poets faithful
friend, and watched by his bedside on the night
OF his death. AS the agony prolonged itself
hour after hour, the watcher grew heavy with
sleep, and to keep his eyelids open, began to
draw the dying man. He was able to finish
the sketch. The melancholy, moribund face
lies upon the pillow, with closed eyes, the
heavy hair, eyebrows, and strongly marked
features retain all their character; the expires
sion of repose seems silent echo of his words,
'"Thank God, it has GOMEZ Taking this as
guide, Mr.. Story has made poetic work of
mastery simplicity.
There are two marks which characterize
every real work of fine art. The first of these
marks is that it must embody creative
thought, that it must exhibit the power lot the
human spirit to seize, shape, vivify and subdue
under its own dominion the dead matter of un-
formed impression presented to the mind in the
two universes of external nature and internal
feeling. And then, in addition to this charac-
ter of creativeness, a second mark is required
to distinguish aesthetic from scientific produc-
ton. While science values each new thought
only as fresh step toward the intellectual
comprehension of the whole universe, the ar
fist confines himself to thoughts which possess
for him value quite Independent of the infer
ences that may be drawn from them for a
more general body of truth-thoughts to which
he can give self-contained expression, with
out caring to use them as means to a remoter
end. In word every work of art is pro-
duct OF creative thought, having its end within
itself. In science the joy of each new attain
ment is absorbed in the fresh impulse to fur
Their pursuit of truth; the search for kno Wledge
knows no rest until the whole universe has
been subdued. A work of fine art points to no
end beyond itself, and urges directly to no &C
tivity save that of enjoying to the full the sat
isfacslon that accompanies every exertion of
completed mastery Of thought over matter
Quarterly Revie1o