The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-02-20
W..TTERSON ON ART.
The Colonel Visits Madrid and Talks
Of Picture Galleries.

4AC JOO1ICy OC(WS SC41 1e@A SN~OAANS
and Madrid, unlike that betwixt Dan
and Beersheba, is, and very decided
ly, all barren
You leave Barcelona at $50 in the
evening, and reach Madrid at 11.2O
next day. There is fair sleeping-car
accommodation. The cost is exactly
double that charged by the Pullman
Company in the United States. Re
calling the value Of the Pullman stock
and the millions of Pullman surplus,
one may surmise the enormous earn
ings of the Compagnie Generate des
Wagons-Lits of the European CONT
nent. These earnings, however, DO
not represent profits. More than hall
of them go to a corruption fund for
the purchase of governmental favors
of one sort and another. The Wagon
Lifts people piece it out with a chain OF
hotels, beginning with the Elysee Pal
ace Of Paris and extending to Rome,
Vienna, and Constantinople. where
they guess the size Of the tourists
purse and charge him accordingly
much as they do in Florida.
The best parts of Spain are very
like the worst parts of Florida. Look
ing from the car window as one wax
ems a night out from Barcelona on us
way to Madrid, he might fancy him
self trayersing the chad lands Of
North Dakota; gravel beds and stub
bic, with a glimpse of far-away snow
mountains such as one begins to
descry as he approaches the foothills
of the Rockies.
Madrid itself sits upon an arid
plateau among the foothills Of the
Guardaramma, an ugly, haf-oullt
imitation of Paris There is little to
be seen here, or hereabout. except the
Museum, with its rich deposits of Mu-
rillos, Velasauez. and Goyas, and the
Escurial. with its not very rich depos-
its of royal bones, topped by those
Charles V. and Philip IL. of memory
hated, or sainted, according to the
theologic point Of view.
Picture galleries, let me say at once
have never very much taken my fancy
I remember them for-the most part by
the mill and rate them at their market
value. Doubtless the "old masters
were on to their jobs. They drew sci
entifcally, I dare say. They had made
a close study Of nature and anatomy
They had learned the trick Of color.
There was time to throw to the birds,
and no hurry. Every now and then
there breaks out from thei stiff can
vases a beaming face, or flashing
thought. But their subject themes
mainly affront and disgust me.
do not like the naturalization Of
Heavenly things, the attempt at a
visible presentment Of the spiritual.
Murillo's Virgin Mary is the loveliest
portrait of shepard girl to my poor
ewes, nothing gmore-Velasquez Cru
cifxion Of Christ most realistic and
horrible. Alike in the galleries of the
Ufizi at Florence, in the Louvre at
Paris. and here in the Real Museo de
Pinturas the endless Bible pictures
seem perfunctory, hard, and cold, as
if made to the order Of some grim re-
cluse, or dogmatic controversialist,
who says believe as I do, or 1 will
kill YOU" That kind of religion, even
that kind of politics, has never greatly
appealed to me.
1t is easy to see that Michael Angelo
was q. great man; that Rubens and
Claud Lorrian, Murillo and Velasquez
were great artists. Bits Of their work
are charming. Many of their concept
ions are appalling. All Of their port
raits-particularly those Of Raphael
and Rembrandt-are lifelike. Yet, do
I prefer the modern, and would not
swap a Turner or Gerome for room
full of Guidos, Titians, and Tintorettos.
The Germans especially please me.
To nv mind. there is more good work
in Munich than in Madrid. In truth,
there is nothing so successful as sue
cess. "Give a dog a good name me'-tne
adage is something nusty, but it has
for two or three centuries we'll served
a group Of literary immortals, who
are never read, of literary immortals,
which. but for the need Of covering the
walls of the Public Galleries, would
be rarely seen.
know modern Temptation Of st
Anthony" hanging neglected in an
atelier at Florence, which is worth ii
the nude creations Of these ancients.
It is realism incarnate. 1t has drawin9
and color. But Mr. Morgan sees it 10,