The San Francisco call., 1908-12-20

drapery, the face is wan and the head
uneasy under It's weight of jeweled
crown. vasnetzoff's Madonna and
Child" one of the most venerated icons,
presents dolorous expression on the
face of the Virgin and a preternatural
seriousness in that of the child. with
his strangely dilated eyes and eager,
suffering little face. These two nys-
terious faces, whose eyes fix you
sternly, yet compassionately. are OF a
nature to appeal to the mystic Russian
and harmonize with all the vague
longings and forebodings Of that re-
ligion of human suffering of which
Tolstoi and Destsievsky are the literary
apostles.
We may have to wait a eentury or
two for our example of Christian art
from Japan. 1t is sure to be expressed
sooner or later as Shintoism gives way
to Christianity. but what may we rea-
sonably expect? VIII the Japanese art
ist give his people slant eyed. pearl
tinted Madonna with the snowy heights
of Fujiama towering in the distance
and in the foreground, where Raphael
put his Singing Angel, the three sacred
monkeys of Japan? Two things are
certain. Christian Japan will have a
Christian art of it's own, her temples
will be churches and beautiful Madon-
mas, whether Professionalism or Cathol-
icism prevails, will be painted. The
Virgin while expressing the little maid
of Nazareth will reflect the national
type and the result will be worth wait
ing for.
Coming down to contemporary French
art no more could, the heart of France
feel the deep reverence for a Ho1bein
or vasnetzoff Madonna, who stares awe
eyed from her canvas. her hair and
draperies hanging limp and careless.
No, Notre Dame executed. by true
French artist, while none the. less a
saint is still very much woman. Her
eyes, gazing heavenward. have not nee
essarily lost their trick of gathering
in the alteration from the world below.
She, too, may stand on nebulous clouds,
but she is not so far from earth as
to have lost certain chic poise and
conscious. grace. Thus throughout the
various schools of art, while we have
the divine spark that evinces itself
in treatment, the reverent love for the
subject. Rubens produces a Heilige
Frau while Corregio produces Santa
Maria Misericordia. because the Virgin
must be always, Of the national type. .
while the representation of Christ are
prescribed by tradition to one type.
In English and American art this
feeling of sympathy with the popular
ideal seems to be intensified, notwith-
standing the skepticism creeping into
our faith. Our Madonnas come closer
to the heart OF, humanity than those
of any of the old masters, probably for
the reason that our best type is that
of woman Of our own time-the high
est example of Christian womanhood--
a woman whose heart and brain are
alive to all the sin and misery as we'll
as the beauty and goodness OF the
world. She is neither the little maid
of Nazareth who sings her 'sMagnif-
cat only half cornprehending its mean
ing, nor the wide eyed virgin mother
awe stricken by her exaitation. She
has seen many wonderful things and
treasured them up IN her heart. There
is no grief she has not known. no sor-
row she has not borne. They have
taken away her child, the one alto
gether lovely and crucified him She
has seen him despised and rejected of
men; she has trodden with him the
via dolorosa. seen the insults, the crown
of thorns, the agony. OF the cross. But
the same deep eyes looking straight
into the great beyond has also seen
foreshadowings OF the resurrection and
the fulfllment of the prophecy: His
name shall be called Wonderful, Coun-
selor, the Mighty God. the Everlasting
Father the Prince of Peace"