The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-11-17

Greclan vase"
Beauty is truth. truth beauty THAT is all
We know on earth or ever need to know,
All the speculations concerning
beauty and all the questions about
those many-colored facts that we call
truth are crystallized and illumined
by the magic touch OF the poet in
these two brief lines. And because
Keats was himself 50 thoroughly i'm
bued with the Greclan quality this
inspiration came to him in just this
distinctive way. We cannot imagine
the reference being made to the ar
itistic work of any other people and
1t is so strongly and clearly definitve
because every page of Grecian history
attests that these people loved the
beauty and the truth which abide
forever in all fine harmony.
such beauty and such truth in the
best Hellenic period was in very deed
all they knew and all they needed to
know The form of government was
as nearly perfect as human systems
may possibly be. The religion, i'm
adequate as 1t appears in the light Of
Chris'' nifty, fostered the noblest and
most unselfish forms Of artistic en-
deavor. The country was full of
poetic charm, yet there was struggle
enough in its conditions to make the
people steadfast and strong. The
race itself had those original qualities
which made the progress toward
physical perfection natural sequence
fostered as it was by such spiritual
development. And so constantly
nourished and inspired by truth and
beauty, all their creation bore this ex-
allied character. They faced the facts
of life with splendid courage and
vitality, the very breath within them
was the breath of freedom, and they
were in many senses the foundation
builders OF Western civilization.
But in spite of their oriental heri-
tsge and their remarkable forces they
had in the art of painting very
crude beginning. We are told that
the first artists naively wrote the
names of the characters they had de-
picted beside the mimic figures, and
from the simple shade drawing filled
in with color, they advanced in care
full degrees, until one Eumars gained
skill enough to distinguish the sexes,
andCleonae introduced toreshortening
represented muscles and veins, ana
gave to drapery some sufficient eX-
preston. In course of time Poly
gnotus established painting ON an
equal footing with architecture and
sculpture, and while his draw ing
and composition were remarkably
fine, the subjects were still treated as
a bas-reief without background. The
roundness and solidity of nature had
been comprised by Phidias, his great
sculptor contemporary, but it was not
until the next generation that Appel
lodorus mastered the gradations of
fight and shade that opened the door
way to relief and tone. He was also
the first who proved the superiority
of the pencil over the encaustlc
methods which had been before this
time 40 closely followed.
Then came ZeuXis. and he so far
surpassed Apollodorus that he COM
plained that his pupil had out
stripped him on his own ground. He
was celebrated for his color and
though his style was strongly marked
by Asiatic influences his master.
piece was picture of Helen which
expressed the combined loveliness OF
the five most beautiful maidens in
.Croton. This shows that he was
ideal, which always meant the selec-
ton ana union of the desired qualities
from a number Of living examples,
rather than an imaginary notion OF
what such perfection ought to be.
Zeuxis must have mastered in large
measure the secret of relief but Par
hassius Is given the credit for intro
ducing this essential quality into the
practice of painting. However this
may be, Grecian painting, with these
two friendly masters, reached the
power of making things "allve."
They had succeeded in representing
the "human form divlnen upon fiat
surface 80 that 1t would stand out as
Nividly and boldly as a statue, and
yet approximate the softness and
color of the breathing reality. Slowly
and surely the various workers had
mastered drawing and invention,
color and relief, but for some strange
reason they still had the vaguest
notions of perspective. We have the
record of but one noted landscape
painter among the Grecian masters
and as this kind of painting was &c
little attempted 1t may be that they
were cOntented with such depth and