Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-12-24
! B.L.UNDERS
Reckless Franks Played With.
Heavenly Bodies.
IMP POSSIBILITIES IN NATURE.

.lMP0 DISABILITIES IN NATURE.
"A Rainbow Depicted Wrong Side Out
u and Moons In Positions and Form.
That Could Not Occur Amusing
Anachronisms BY Old Time Artists.
That artists, like authors, should
sommit many errors OF fact is hardly
II cause for wonder. Rather, it is as.
lonishing 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
surdities.
\ For example, there is the case Of al
English painter who depicted an elab-
orate rainbow. Unfortunately he
painted 1t wrong side out. But we
forget amazement at such stupidity in
admiration for the artists magnificent
audacity when we learn that he
charged f20 additional for repainting
the rainbow colored In accordance
with natures arrangement.
Painters are very prone to distress
the astronomers by their reckless
pranks with the. heavenly bodies, par
ticularly with the moon. One artist
presented scene in which was a
crescent moon low in the eastern sky
directly opposite, a setting SUM- 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
full moon-the only one possible In
such situation.
Other artists have hifled with the
moon by turning its convexity away
from the sun, which is, Of course, Inn
possible In nature In one picture the
moon was placed near the constella-
tion OF the Great Bear, though as
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 In 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 hum
dred miles.
Artists Of old time were often out
rageously wrong, sometimes necessari-
" by 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 not apply to a Dutch painting Of I
1884 This showed Abraham about to-
slaughter Isaac by means Of blunder-
uss-the product Of an age 5000
years after the time Of the patriarchs!
Yet this mistake occurs again ana
again. There have been elaborate
paintings Of the children Of Israel
crossing the Red sea with muskets on
their shoulders. A beautiful ivory
tankard, an Augsburg carving Of the
early seventeenth century, was sold !
for high price In London not long
ago. The design, which is exquisite
In orkmanship, shows the good Sa-
maritan, with his attendants, In the
Jericho road. One Of the servants
carries gun! n.
Many a child as well as some older
persons has puzzled over that "beam''
In the eye Of which the New Testa-
ment speaks. II Is not always under
stood that this means beam Of light.
But It was left to Solomon Bernard,
In his Woodcuts illustrating the Bible,
published ut Lyons in 1858, to picture
this beam as one Of wood, rectangular
in section and several feet In length!
The matter OF costumes offers vast
opportunity for flaws, which the paint
ers have not failed to seize. In the
national gallery at Edinburgh Pha-
raoh's daughter and her accompanying
women are exhibited garbed In the
long wasted bodices and honped
skirts Of Europe in the sixteenth CEN
tury. The national collection in Lon
don has picture Of Joseph and his
kindred in Egypt, where 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 Issus" displays the women of the
group In the pointed waists and infiat-
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 pardoned, though
the artists fall lamentably In knowi-
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, vet this form OF armor
did not come into actual use until half
thousand years later. 8s
Similarly, In other pictures Of Christ,s
time, monks are portrayed In their
robes, with tonsures. In fact, how