The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-27
THE MADONNA ON VIEW
WORK OF JOSEPH A. KITCHELL AND
ELLIOTT DAINGERFIELD.
1t IL Pronounced by Critics to BE the
Greatest Ever Produced
A Description.

The Kitchell-D aingerield composite ma
donna is now on private view at the studio,
1126 North Pennsylvania street. where it
will be shown for another day. after which
1t will be exhibited in the American CAL
lery in New York, and then taken to Paris
In August.
1t is the collaborative production of Mr..
Joseph A. Kitchell. of this city. and Mr..
Elliott D%aingerield, of New York-the
81 eatest American painter of madonnas.
The picture is done in oil and is life size.
1t is from the famous composite photograph
made by Mr.. Kitchell. with the errors in
drawing unavoidable in the composite
process, corrected by Mr.. Daingerfield.
The usual formula is to make the photo
graph from the painting. but in this in
stance the photo was the important basis
and the painting became the reproduction.
In studying this painting ii must be re-
membered that the original composite pho
tograph from which IL was made was a
blend of several hundred madonnas painted
by old masters. None of the modern madon-
mas whatever were used, Mr.. Kitchell
leaning to the belief that madonna paint
ing. pure and simple, attained its highest
development during the period embraced
within the thirteenth and the seventeenth
centuries: that 1t was a natural product of
the conditions of those times and indica-
tive Of them; it was the consistent out
put of a school Influenced by the early
priests and m~onks-the Ecclesiastical art.
rooted as a power in the church. He says:
"A splendid woman of the period posing for
the modern artist. with hands clasped and
eyes upturned. is wanting in all the ele-
ments of devotional feeling and spiritual
quality that make true madonna painting
a specific and bygone class of its own. The
qualifications are lacking in both the artist
and his model, one being deficient In the
possession of the true religious impulse,
and the other to begin with is wanting in
typical verify. To the casual eye, that does
not discern in the truly beautiful painting
of the madonna by Bodenhauser q mere
travesty of the Sistine masterpiece by
Raphael, the true appreciation of the old
maconnas Is denied. for to such IL is diff
fcult to reconcile the modern ideal of fem
mime beauty with the lofty conceptions of
the mother of Jesus that filled the hearts
of the old masters and stimulated their
genius with almost holy Inspiration"
Mr.. Daingerfield describes his part in the
collaborative production as follows: II have
sought TO be entirely faithful to every line
and plane In the original Kitchell madonna,
making only those changes which the me-
chanical errors, unavoidable in the method
OF securing a composite of so many heads.
lii1dC necessary d1u lie pdlnIlns VIII De
found TO contain every line and lineament
In the composite blend-but also / saw the
mystery which lay beneath line and plane,
and this Is what l tried TO preserve and
intensity by a little surer placing of line
and more subtlety of molding. 1t has been
an intensely interesting work for me and
L have learned much in painting 1t, and
apart from any personal connection, il
has. l think. a face at once beautifully dig
niied and w~insome-noble and yet gentle
ness itself with loftiness, strength and
patient endurance; while the eyes tell of
the intensity of thought. still the tears are
not far away. I should say that it is quite
a type of the Italians of the fifteenth CEN
fury with more of the human quality I'm
excange for the extreme asceticism of
that period. The background in the paint
ing suggested In the photograph Is a com
posite Of various forms of the halo and the
nimbus."
Critics prophesy for the picture an endur-
ing place In art, averring that IL will be-
come famous as the most important ideal
ization OF the madonna during many dec
AIDES. and that Ii Is the greatest madonna
painting ever produced in America.
The picture is most effectively framed I'm
a heavy carved Florentine frame. draped
In rich velvet, surmounted by a canopy
and the lighting reflected from above by an
electric search light.