The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-10
THURSDAY EVENING,
to the kind fortune which put this In my
possession, I must tell you more.


with teacher and interpreter. Well,
then, to give you the facts, for have no
talent to give you the spirit and beauty
| of this department, The intellectual aspect
OF it is this-it affords an excellent course
of study in the arts Of painting and
sculpture together with the history Of the
artist. It is like having your tuition
paid for a terms work in some art
institute.
Beginning with the history Of painting,
1t passes on up thru the growth and
development of the art up into the art
OF to-day. Like the work in natural
science. 1t is classified and organized
knowledge. You are introduced to an
artist not as an isolated individual who
distinguished himself by some great crea-
ton Of art, but you go back to the begin
ming and come on up the centuries in the
growth and development Of art and you
find that the artist and his art are what
they are because Of the place and part
| they take In the great evolution Of CIV
| tlized world. So, in the same way we
study the plant we study the artist In his
relation to the growth and condition of
| the world in which he lives, and know
his labor as the product Of that which
| preceded and environed him-the only
| way to know and appreciate a workman
and his work.
Work Classified.
! Thus the artist is great for his achieve
ment and the achievement is great for it's
value and Importance. The work is classi-
| fled and ranges from the inception Of
modern painting in the thirteenth CEN
fury to Whistler, whose life has gone out
since began the reading. In this way
you are able to locate your painter
friends (for this gives you such intimate
acquaintance that friends they seem)-
locate them as belonging to the painters
| of tha RenaiSSan tho
the Venetian school, or the Spanish, Ger
| man. Flemish, Italian, etc. Each painter
is surrounded by his own masterpieces,
not only in pen description and interpre-
tation, but the worlds choicest pieces are
| reproduced In these pages in excellent
soft, black and white ones. TO one who
| has never had this privilege you can fancy
the value Of such a work. To have in
| ones possession such a work on art is
| wealth.; to possess even copies Of such art
| treasures IS immeasurable wealth. There
are many sources and volumes from all
Of which could be gotten this same
amount of art instruction, but never
before found any one that consolidated
and centralized the essentials in such a
many sided completeness and in a style
so attractive that to begin the study Is
to complete it. And to think am not
only the happy possessor of library, but
an art gallery as we'll. wander at my
leisure from the Flemish section to the
Italian or the Spanish to the English,
comparing. enjoying, reveling in the best
| the world has produced and all this wealth
in my own unpretentious home. I may
stand in Milan before Leonardos Last
Supper" or step into the Uffizi gallery
and feast my eyes on the Coronation of
the Virgin" bordered with angels, till I
feel the beauty of holiness as none but
Fra Angelica has ever so perfectly ex-
cn1. icft tIa icti OH ~
stand before that fresco Of frescoes, "The
Last Judgment" and know the powers of
Michael Angelo at their best-know the
soul Of the great Florentine; or stand
dumb with delight in the dignity and
power of Titian's Assumption of the vir-
GIN; or bring before me an array of
the worlds madonnas climaxed by Ra-
phaers Madonna di San Sisto.' In the
early art, with it's ''endless series, Virgin,
| Babe and Saint we have learned to
understand the spiritual side and how
much this treasure is indebted to me-
dieval Christianity and that it represents
the soul of the worshiper homesick for
the infinite"
BY contrast I find delight in the "spir-
itual features Of peasant life and the
human dignity of labor" in Millet's
"Sower,' THE Angelus" or 1.-THE Clean
ers'; or delight in the pure, poetic land
scapes Of Corot, or the pure, vivid flesh
tints of a Rembrandt portrait, and so on
all the way up on the road from long
ago till now" to a master decorative
painting by John La Fargo, and even pay
visit to our own Metropolitan Museum of
Art In New York city. =. =. ..-..
Sculpture.
With some appreciation Of art thru
sound and color, we are ready for art
(which demands the largest measure of
artistic culture''-sculpture Treated in
/ ol..,
department, the section on sculpture just
= adds another art treasure to the collec-
ton. Beginning with the history of
l sculpture, way back in the twilight of the
ancient Egyptian life,' we trace the art
in its development thru Babylonian, AS
syrian, Persian and Greek sculpture. Here,
. again, as in painting, the sculptor Is sur
rounded by his work and is known in his
F relation to the time and place in which he
+ lived and wrought and the conditions
!. which made his work what it Is. I am sc
grateful again that this intimacy with the
fine arts and the great artists is not alone
to the few, but that it is possible for the
. humble home and those deprived Of col
, lege education to form acquaintance an6
even a sympathetic friendship with those
who have crystallized beauty and left il
to whomsoever will enjoy it. Here, again
with infinite JOY, turn the pages and sc
, turn back the centuries till I stand with
-
!. chisel his victor Of the games or his
PhilocteteS at Syracuse, or watch PraX-
;. iteles "permeate his works in marble with
the paths of the soul,' as he turns ou
. the Marble Faun" or a "Hermes''; OF
watch Michael Angelo in the full enthusi
= asm of his genius when he brings out Of
:. stone the Bound Captives" or an i'm
: mortal Moses" whose stone personalit!
. Expresses majestic calm and breathe!
), the authority of him who has talked alone
- with God within the cloud Of Sinai"
= So on we come up the centuries, visiting
- the sculpture of all schools and peoples
ending with the sculpture of our owl
8 youthful nation in Gaudens' statue o
!. = Lincoln in the city Of Chicago. TIL,
pages too, form the statuary halls wher,
. he who cannot visit the originals may ST
by his own f1reside and do that which Il
:, always next best, know them by descrip
= ton and picture.
It would seem as tho this must hav,
: covered the field Of fine arts. But Their
= Is Just one more little touch that mean
). so European Church Architecture
u and It's Influences on Building in tn
= United States" What lover Of art blu
It longs for full appreciation Of Christian
h architecture dome and arch, cruciforn
: and .basilica and here he gets it with TIL
: effect on American commercialism an,
e American money making.
V Manual Training Department.
In modern institution of learning Xix
n this (for as such I am coming to loo
. upon this work with its various well
/ organized departments from househol
- and kindergarten to the most gradual