The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-12-25
BLUNOERS
Reckless Franks Played With
Heavenly Bodies.
IMPOSSlBILITIES IN NATURE.
A Rainbow Depicted Wrong Side Out
and Moons In Positions and Forms
That Could Not Occur Amusing
Anachronisms by Old Time Artists.

commit many errors of fact is hardly
q cause for wOnde Rather, it is as
tonishing that they are not found Of
tener at fault in view Of the great
variety Of knowledge required in their
work. Despite this, however, there is
no manner Of excuse for certain alb
yurdities.
For example. there is the case OF an
English painter who depicted an elab-
crate rainbow. Unfortunately he
painted it wrong side out. But we
forget amazement at such stupidity in
admiration for the artists magnificent
audacity when we learn that he
charged Ego additional for repainting
the rainbow colored in accordance
with nature' arrangement.
Painters are very prone to distress
the astronomers by their reckless
FRANKS with the heavenly bodies, par
ticularly with the moon One artist
presented Il scene In which a Il
crescent moon low in the eastern SKY
directly opposite a setting sun. More
over, this genius disdained the criti-
cismS Of the learned. He insisted that
this arrangement was necessary for
the composition. inasmuch as the rest
Of the picture would be destroyed by
a full muon-the only Ii possible in
such a situation.
Other artists have tritied with the
moon by turning its cunveXity away
from the sun. which is, Of course, i'm
possible in nature. In one picture the
moon was placed near the rOnStella-
ton of the Great Bear, though as a
matter Of fact the satellite never ven
lures into this part Of the heavens.
There are. too. oft recurring errors
made in the bulk of the orb. An
American astronomer amused himself
by measuring the moons I'm a number
Of paintings. He established the fact
that by reckoning from the satellites
size the average height OF the hills in
these landscapes was forty-three
miles. One of the mountains. indeed.
had the ~stupendous altitude Of a hun
dred miles.
Artists OF old time were often out
%rageously wrong. sometimes necessari-
ly 10y reason OF the limitations imposed
by the ignorance Of the period. A
Dutch artist painted the garden OF
Eden with well clipped borders and
yew trees trimmed into fantastic
shapes. He wrought in all innocence,
for Of such sort were the only gardens
Of his experience. But the excuse
does O apply to a Dutch painting OF
1894. This showed Abraham about to
slaughter Isaac by means of a blunder-
buss-the product OF an age 5000
years after the time OF the patriarchs!
Yet this mistake occurs again and
again. There have been elaborate
paintings OF the children Of Israel
crossing the Rec sea with muskets on
their shoulders. 4 beautiful ivory
tankard, an Augsburg carving Of the
early seventeenth century. was sold
for a high price in London not long
ago. The design, which Is exquisite
In workmanship. shows the good Sa-
marian, with his attendants. In the
Jericho road. One of the servants
carries Il gun,
Many a child as well as some older
persons has puzzled over that beam
tn the eye of which the New Tesla
ment speaks. 1t IS not always under
stood that this means a beam Of light.
But 1T was left to Solomon Bernard,
In his woodcuts Illustrating the Bible.
published at Lyons in 1853. to picture
this beam as n OF wood. rectangular
In section and several feet in length,
The matter Of costumes offers vast
ny,ynnrf,rpsty- Fnp go rr,c V,bS,n %h. ros,+
ers have not failed to seize. In the
national gallery at Edinburgh Pha-
raoh's daughter and her accompanying
women are exhibited CARRIED in the
long wasted bodices and hoped
skirts OF Europe in the sixteenth cen
fury, The national collection in Lon
don has a picture of Joseph and his
kindred in Egypt, here the buildings
shown are not at all Egyptian in their
style Of architecture, but distinctly
Italian. In the same gallery Paolo
Veronese's THE Family of Darius at
the Feet of Alexander After the Battle
Of lssus" displays the women of the
group in the pointed waists and inhat-
ed skirts that made the familiar dress
Of Venetian women in the painters
time.
Errors that have to do with armor
may be more readily p%ardoned, though
the artists fail lamentably In knowl-
edge as to the earlier forms Of metal
protection. Thus In some paintings
showing the time Of Christ the war
riors are seen clad In beautifully da-
mascened mail, yet this form of armor
did not come into actual use until halt
a thousand years later.
Similarly, In other pictures Of Christ's
time. monks are portrayed In their
robes, with tonsures. In fact, how
ever, they did not exist In the church
prior to the fourth century A. D.
A curious Illustration Of the limita-
lions set on genius by circumstance is
exhibited in one Of the worlds most
famous paintings. "The Last Supper"
Leonardo da Vinci simply did not
know that the table, the cloth, the
plates, the knives and forks and salt
cellars were mDoSsihiitios In tho