The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-01
TALKS OF MADONNAS.
Artist George n. Stone Discusses Re-
ligious Paintinps

George NJ Stone spoke last night at
Unity church on Religious Art" MI.
Stone studied for several years in Paris
and has visited many of the famous art
centers OF Europe. Mr.. Stone said:
The first religious paintings were
made to ornament the shrines and
chapels of the early Christians. Some
have been found in the catacombs at
Rome where Christians of the second
century fed for refuge from pagan
Rome. The work of these primitive
artists is childlike in its simplicity, re-
sembling the pictures children draw on
their states. The faces are nearly al
ways drawn in profile and the legs and
arms also to avoid the necessity of
foreshortening and perspective which
was unknown to them.
There is another popularity of these
early pictures and that is that the chill
dren look like diminutive men and wo-
men. was at a loss to account for this
at first until discovered that the pro-
portions of the body to the head was
the same as in those of grown people,
whereas, in a child the head should be
about one-fourth or one-fifth the length
of the body and in an adult should be
One-Seventh or one-eighth.
THE coloring was dull and lifeless,
the flesh being as a general thing leath-
cry and the back ground entirely devoid
of atmosphere. I often wondered what
was the mental attitude of these ear
lier painters to their work. Was there
any talk among themselves of art for
arts sake and did they think they were
as near to nature as they could get in
their rendering? or were they only alb
Sorbed in the religious sentiment and
was their work a form of worship?
I incline to the former. They were pio-
neerS and had to blaze a way for them
selves in the unexplored realm of art
and nothing but the inspiration of true
genius could have sustained their en-
thusiasm. Probably they had stormy
debates over questions of drawing and
color just as we have now. imagine
the storm of protest that must have as
sailed the first impressionist who dared
to draw face in front view with the
hose pointing toward you instead of in
profile. The public probably displayed
the same amount of culture and discern
ment in their praise OF blame that they
do today.
"One of the most pleasing of the ear
lier religious painters was Botticelli.
There is a flower like grace about his
Madonnas and the expression of the
faces is sweet and life like. The figures
are rather attenuated, with long slen-
der fingers and a generally teherea1 eff
feet which is in marked contrast to
Raphael's buxom and matronly Madon-
mas with their healthy, rosy children. I
think we might say that Botticelli, Raph-
ael and Murillo are the painters par
excellence of Madonnas. The Madonna
della Sedia and the Sistine Madonna
are certainly master pieces unapproach-
ed by anyone but Murillo with his por-
trayalS of like subjects.
Il remember that in the Louvre there
was always someone copying Murillo's
superb canvas of Mary in Heaven. The
union of maternal and celestial love
| and feminine and infantile beauty pre-
sented by the subject or the Madonna
| has always been an attractive one for
! artists but know of no one who has so
| beautifully portrayed it as has Edel-
| feldt, a Norwegian painter in a picture
| exhibited at the World's fair of 1889 in
| Paris. It is a truly modern picture in
| color and handling but the divine and
| human sentiments are SO effectually
| blended in the mothers face that one
| feels hushed and awed in it's pres
| ence.'