The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-10-04

CINCINNATI, Oct. g. 1879.
10 the Subscribers to the Building Fund:
The Commissioners, desirous of making
Thursday, October r9th-'CincinnatiD Day.
> memorable day in attendance, &C., and al
the same time to recognize the obligation
due the public-spirited subscribers to the
Duilding Fund, have decided to issue ad
mission tickets, good for October 9th, in
exchange for the dollar" and other sub
scriptiOns. By presenting your certificate
to the Secretary you will be entitled to re-
neive tickets on account thereof in sums
not less than one dollars worth to any
amount inside of your subscription.
Respectfully, &C.,
VIM L. ROBINSON,
Chairman Commissioners.
PICTURES IN GENERAL.
The picture gallery maintains its peren.
niRl freshness at the Exposition, and the
crowd never slackens 1t is true that there
are times when there are fewer people to
look at the chef d'oeuvres upon the walls,
but never when the gallery is deserted.
Ths world appears never to weary of pic
tuses and good ones entice the visitors to
rs4urn again and again to look and to ad.
mire. 1t is mistake to suppose that only
the aesthetic and the cultivated
come to look and to enjoy them.
Everybody almost comes and everybody
nearly finds something that pleases Some
one thing and some another. A group of
farmers will stand before DeHaas' Hol-
land cattle and admire and criticise, or
Verbeckhoven's sheep, and discuss the
question as to whether the former are good
mixers, or the latter are merino, or some
thing else. One pair of lovers will stand
discussing the helpless fate of Rizzio, who
dared to lift his eyes to the proud and
beautiful Marie Stuart. The noble picture
of the Early Christian Martyrs attracts a
great deal Of attention, and appeals,
Pefhaps, to the popular feeling
more strongly than anything else in
tho collection. The connoisseur
tn vain criticses the details of this striking
work by claiming that it is too suggestive
pf the roll call at the conciergerie; that the
hgUre of the child in the immediate fore
sround standing with the unconscious in
nocence OF youth by its mother who has
tainted on the prison floor is badly drawn
and colored, that some Of the other figures
are not exact in proportion and perspect
Are, still the sentiment is so expressed that
the masses can drink in the meaning and
feel the tragic horror OF the scene. Dimly
through the prison door is suggested,
lnther than shown, the impatient
Roman .populace waiting in the vast
Coliseum for the hapless Christian victims
to be brought for the savage beasts to rend.
The devoted faith of the martyrs is happily
portrayed, and arouses the active sympathy
of the masses who stand in groups all day
long admiring the dramatic power of the
artist in portraying the agonizing scenes
through which Christian liberty walked to
the freedom it enjoys throughout the world
to-day.
Another powerful picture is 1903, the
Duke of Arno meditating the murder of
his wife Parisina by A. Gastalde, of the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Phil
adelphia The scene represents the sleep
Ing Duchess, Parisina, who tosses appar-
emily reslessly upon her couch. The
Dnke in his night dress has risen and
reaches for the dagger on the side table
where the night lamp is burning. The
drawing of the head and bust and partly
lore shortened arms of the sleeping lady is
some of the most remarkable execution in
the gallery. Evidently the Duchess is rest
less, and tosses and mutters in her dreams,
while the Duke on murderous deeds
intent glances furtively about him,
half persuaded and yet half reluctant to
undertake the damning deed. The draw
ing of the Dukes figure is masterpiece
Of work, as also is that of the Duchess.
The drapery of the couch and the curtain,
In which the Duke is half enveloped, are
all we'll managed, and bespeak the true ar
tistic perception in the master who planned
and executed the picture. The scene is
less perspicuous to the average visitor than
the one by Rothermel, before described,
but shares with that in interesting and at
tracting the visitor. Others are likewise
admired, but we speak of these in illus
tzating the influence that pictures of cer-
tain dramatic power exert upon the mas
Bes of people, and that they do fix atten-
tion Elay be seen any day by watching the
crowds come and 60 and by listening to
their conversation as they look and discuss
the various works exhibited. The long felt
want of permanent art gallery for Gin.
cinnati comes home to the mind whenever
m exhibition of this sort is held, and ne
witnesses the hunger of the people to see
and enjoy piCtures-a taste rs inherent in
mankind almost as The love of food to
the hungry. OF course We can not gather
all at once the treasures of an advanced civ
ilization, but the progress made by Cincin-
natl in this direction in the ten or fifteen
years past seem to make nothing impossi- !
Bile in the way Of attractive features to our
American Paris, and the Art Gallery is of
course inevitable There is one eminent
citizen here who has the taste and the
means to give tangibility to the dream of
which we speak, but it is for him or others
to give, and not for the public to solicit.
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