The San Francisco call., 1908-12-20

hearts of the people naturally partook
OF the different national types.
When Raphael painted his wonderful
Madonnas, their dark eyes glowing with
spiritual understanding and human
sympathy, the warm flesh tints and
supple grace of figure were Of the
Italian type. So true was he. to the
ideals of the people that In his Ma
donna of the Chair we have a little
contadina as she clasped her child to
her breast watching street procession,
sketched to the life on the top of a
barrel The face and fcostume are that
of woman of the time, and 1t is the
artists faithfulness to his subject and
the momentary paueity of materials to
which we are indebted for the pictures
circular form.
But when the art that had reached
such perfection at the hands of Raphael
and his contemporaries and followers
found as worthy exponents in Spain as
Murillo, Nelasqueth and the Herrares,
the Madonna, still the inspiration of the
artist and the mother of consolation
to the people. is now of distinctly
Spanish type. A deeper coloring, less
oval contour of face, a greater length
of limb and the Virgin looks down from
her canvas in Spain as La Virgen de la
Servilleta, or perhaps she is Nuestra
Sonora de la Merced For these artists,
Murillo notably, while losing nothing
of the sweet purity and youth of the
Italian creation, have taken their ideals
of beauty. models and modes of ex-
preston. from their own people. SO that
Conception" it was queen of Spain he
made queen of heaven.
It is doubtless because the Virgin of
the Catholic countries touched the life
of the people so closely that she must
always be one of them. Consequently it
is the same virgin mother-Santa Maria
de la Grazia of Italy or Nuestro Sonora
de la Merced of Spain-whose type is
metamorphosed by the German artist
Now the Madonna is Unser Heilige
Frau and again the artist. his ideals
shaped by his surroundings, casts the
countenance of the Queen of Heaven"
after the type of round eyed buxom
little haus-frau. Holbein frankly takes
model whose full faced countenance
beams with wholesome human love
and whose angel faces are rollicking
boys, fresh skinned and we'll fed, for
to him the Madonna of the Italians.
with her dark eyes, wine and olive
tints and slender grace, is an, alien and
stranger. The sorrowing mother who
lights a taper at the Virgins shrine
Frau as it would not be possible to a
foreigner. The shame faced young
Gretchen who steals down the aisle to
pray Unser Heilige Frau to send her
the love of some burly Hans would not
pause an instant at the shrine of a
Nuestra Sonora for fear thatyinstead of
her fair haired. blue eyed Hans she
would find some dark skinned foreigner
with stiletto in his sash who could
not speak her tongue.
Even while Russian art is SO closely
allied with the French. and while one
may admire the beauty OF Madonna
of foreign school in an art gallery.
here is the line drawn most strictly of
ali. In the church, where devotion
transcends mere admiration, 1t is not
to an alien type the sorrowing mother
or supplicating maiden pours out her
heart. Although the early Russian
icons are borrowed from the Byzantine
art. as was also that of Italy, it quickly
settled into a national type. Church
walls covered with Madonnas and saints
show lean weird faces, attenuated
limbs, lank hair and severe aspect. all
executed according to the orthodox
formula laid down in the icono-
graphist's manual of painting. And
while the glory of the Russian metal
workers. q RI rio In uimhliq and