Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-24
PAINTERS BLUNDERS|
Reckless Franks Played With
Heavenly Bodies.
FlMPosslBlLlTIEs IN NATURE.

IA Rainbow Depicted wrong S'oe Oue
and Moons In Positions and Forms
That Could Not Occur - Amusing
Anaehronisms by Old Time Artistic.
That artists, like authors, should
commit many errors Of fact is hardly
a cause for wonder Rather, 1t 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 abb
Eurdities.
For example, there, is the case of an
English painter who depicted an elab-
arate 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 f2o additional for repainting
THE rainbow colored in accordance
with natures arrangement.
Painters are very prone to distress
the astronomers by their reckless
sranks with the heavenly bodies, par
ticulafly with the moon. One artist
presented a scene in which was a
crescent moon low in the eastern sky
directly opposite a setting sun. More
sorer, this genius disdained the criti-
Icisns of the learned. He insisted that
this arrangement was necessary for
fhe composition. inasmuch as the rest
pf the picture would be destroyed by
a full moon--the only one possible In
sueh situation.
Other artists have trif1ed with the
moon by turning it's convexity away
from the sun, which is, Of course. i'm
possible III nature. In one picture the
moon was placed near the conste]la-
zion OF the Great Bear. though as a
matter Of fact the satellite never ven
FureE 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
nf 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 hun
dred miles.
Artists Of old time were often cut
Tageously 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
SeSv5 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 Dutch painting Of
1904. This showed Abraham about to
slaughter Isaac by means of blunder-
buss-the product of an age 5000
years after the time of the patriarchs!
Yet this mistake occurs again and
Rgain. 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 workmanship. shows the good Sa-
marian, with his attendants, in the
Jericho road. One Of the servants
carries gun!
Many child as well as some older
persons has puzzled over that 'beam"
In the eye OF which the New Tesla
ment speaks. It is not always under
stood that this means 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 us 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-
faoh's daughter and her accompanying
women are exhibited CARRIED in the
long wasted bodices and hoped
skirts of Europe in tho sixteenth cen
Fury. The national collection in Lon
aon 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
Htalian. In the same gallery Paolo
Reronese's "The Family Of Darius at
tho Feet Of Alexander After the Battle
of 1ssus" displays the women of the
group In the pointed waists and indat-
I'd 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 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-
nascened mail, yet this form Of armor
did not come into actual use until halt
thousand years later.
Similarly, in other pictures OF Christs
lime, 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. ..
curious Illustration Of the linita.
etons set on genius by circumstance Is