Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-27
THE ARTS IN CHURCH.
all Are Used With Effect Save the
Single One of Painting.
A CHANCE FOR IMPROVEMENT
Picture Frauds and Notes of Interest to the
Brush Wielders.
MIDSUMMER GOSSIP Of THE STAGE

The church is of all places of assembly the
one In which it is calculated to elevate the
mind from the common workaday level to
Things apperraining to higher. purer sphere
Nearly all the fine arts, with one exception, are
employed in this endeavor. The rarest treas
ures OF oratorial and hymnal music are
adapted to the rhythm Of soul-stirring, poetical
gems of spiritual character; ministers vie
with each other in the display OF choicest
rhetoric: and its sister art. elocution. All the
resources of the architect are brought into play
for the purpose Of giving to the churchDullo-
ing nobility of outline blended with homelike
appearances; the sculptor's chisel, too, contrib
utes frequently to the elegance OF the exterior,
and only the painter art is forgotten.
The very nature of the art of painting makes
1t adaptable, almost exclusively. for interior
decoration, and its absence is painfully felt In
many lofty chapel which. BY its elaborate ex-
terror. gives fair promise OF bright and cheer
full interior. Instead of extending friendly
welcome the barn-like halls chill the very heart
of the worshiper with the cold gray OF their
bare walls, their uncomfortably straight t-backed
benches and the uncanny echo that plays the
gossip to every whisper and magniaes the creak
of boot into the discordant groan of falling
tree. The Mussulman is devout, earnest and
solemn in his religious functions. and yet his
mosques are full of sunlight, bright
eSors and pleasing internal architecture
adhere to the excuse that beautiful church
decorations are liable to detract from the
solemnity of the service. Who but did not
feel as if some of the light that pervaded the
church interior on Christmas day had entered
his heart when hundreds of candles lend soft
glow to the gay wreaths and festoons that
deck. for once. the forbidding walls in festive
garb?
Sight and beauty, being forms of perfection,
can only serve the cause of religion, and they
should under no circumstances be lacking in
the very places dedicated to it.
A MOST amusing type of humbug is exhibit
ing lot of poor copies after good paintings in
the small Pennsylvania towns. This enter
prising individual is distributing handbilIs all
over the counties invaded by him, which are
gotten up in style betraying an excellence of
patent that would insure him a place in Della
roche's hemicycle. if it were talent for paint
ing instead OF prevarication. 1t is question
If Esteban Murillo would be more surprised at
the alleged copy after his madonna and
Child" or the liberties taken with his name.
which is spelled "Maurilla." Among other
things the manufacturer of these daubs claims
to have won ''the gold medal of the United
States, three successive medals of Pennsyl-
vania," etc. Now, as matter Of fact, no such
medals exist did exist or, alackaday, will be
stress is lald upon the circumstance that the
paintings are on canvas" 1t might also be
mentioned IN the programme that they were
"hand-painted with real brushes" in order to
prevent mistakes.
SINCE the death of Hans Makart, the vi
emma school Of the Fine Arts. has not produced
single painter of easel pictures, who gives
more than Indifferent promise, and it seems as
If talented young men were giving the prefer
ence to the Munich and Paris art schools
Even Berlin is rising in favor although by no
means the equal of Vienna in point Of thor
ough craftsmanship and technique. The
trouble seems to be the conservatism of the
Austrian Academy. where the entire faculty of
mummytied professors sits only every so years
in solemn conclave to vote pro and contra the
admission Of new idea. American art schools
please take warning.