The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05

IL CHURCH OIL the END or the F1Tteentn
ana the beginning of the sixteenth CEN
turies-San Zaccaria of Venice.
Through all the ornamentation and ac-
cessories of the renaissance period the
primal divisions and their respective
Importance are seen and recognized.
Churches in which this system of d.
Visions does not exist form a very small
exception from one end of Italy to the
other. When the Italians built towers
they built them apart, so that they
would not interfere with the pure
church architecture, and so, too, that
the towers could be seen and admired
from every side. A dome, not a spire,
was the fitting perpendicular termina-
ton of church. The front of st. Fac
caria is magnificent, one OF the very
finest specimens in existence of early
renaissance.
Come back to Modena and see the
kind of sculpture in which the Count
ess Mathilde rejoiced You see it on
each side of the main entrance and
over the door of the right hand aisle.
The view includes only bit of the
left hand doorway. These reliefs must
be examined in detail, for they are
among the very earliest Independent
efforts of italian sculpture, preceding
independent statues in the round.
First look at one of Mathilde's lions.
What grand beast, and how proud
he Is to serve his mistress in her pious
endeavors. Look also at the fine work
on the jambs of the door. The six
apostles on the inner side of the jamb
are heartily visible. They bear such a
resemblance to the apostles at Ferrara
that critics assert that all must be by
the same hand. On the outer side OF
the jamb a man seems painfully sup
porting a complex tree, amid the
branches of which men and monsters
are savagely fighting. have search
ed book after book for the explanation
of this and other sculpture on this
cathedral, but so far in vain. You
may imagine, IL you please, that the
man is carrying the burden of his own
sins, represented by the monsters and
their combats
The next view shows the door to the
| left of the entrance. of which but bit
was given in a former view. This
view shows how the relief was fitted in
above the doorway. The scenes repre-
scented are, first, the Almighty In a
nimbus, supported by angels, with his
| word in his hands, meditating creation.
| The next scene is the creation of man,
! then the rib creation of woman, and
then the temptation.
! Draw closer, SO as to see the details
| of this early work of art. On the
book is written, as well as ! could
make it out. Il am to the world the
| true way Of eternal life From these
| words It may be inferred that our
Saviour is represented as creator
| In the scene to the right Adam seems
| to be so frightened at the idea of being
| created that his legs renble beneath
him. Notice that he Is created with
| long, well-arranged hair and with a
| beard symmetricallyi divided into
| curls.
| In the next scene Eve is not present.
| ed as the beauty of later art, while the
| contortions of Adam gorilla body un-
| der the operation should not be taken
as indicating aversion to matrimony.
! Adam is twice as big as in the first or
| in the third scene. This is to atone for
! the loss of impression from the figure
! being reeumbent.
IN the third scene Adam is tanning
i into his mouth the remnants Of the
! Eve-bitten apple received from the SER
/ pent. The Introduction of drapery at
this exact moment Of time shows the
artists thorough acquaintance, and
full sympathy, with the orthodox yer-
sion of the story.
The story is continued on each side
| of the main entrance-,tirst, the discov-
/ cry and the reprimand; then the ex-
pulsion; and then our first parents at
work fully and modestly attired. In
the first of these scenes the Almighty
4 carries a scroll, on which is written
something l could not at ali make out
| In the second scene the figures are
very much defaced, but the attitudes
of grief and detection are well rendered
and appealing. In the third scene our
/ first parents have assumed sizes to en-
able them to bear the hardships of ag-
ricultural life. They are working with
| energy and submission, and are I'M
doubtedly fully convinced of the enor-
nifty OF their transgression and of the
| justice of their punishment.
| on the other side of the main en-
trance is the story Of Cain and Abel
their sacrifice, the murder and finally
the sentence put upon Cain. Beneath
the altar in the first scene is supposed
| to be recorded the name of the artists
and the date of execution. The names
are supposed to be Nicholaus and Will
gelmus, and the date 1899. The letters
and figures must have been very much
more distinct when they were decipher-
ed than they are now, for the ordinary
eye to-day can see nothing but few
blurred marks and signs which bear
little resemblance to figures or letters.
| Notice how much larger Cain is than
Abel Note the effect of the crack on
| the head on Abefs knees. Notice that
| the arches have corbels except where
| there happens to be head to take the
\ place of a corbeI. Notice that the fig
ures seem standing on a shelf, with a
dip to the front That is to give space
for the feet and to avoid the weakness
of early Greek sculptors who knew no
better way of disposing of feet than to
put them in absolute profile, though
| the figures to which they belonged
might be standing full to the front
| With the exception of the hair and
| beard which remind one of the heads
of Cesnola's Metropolitan Museum fig
ures, there seems nothing derived from
the east through Byzanchium, and GER
tainly nothing derived from classic