Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-02
PAINTERS BLUNDERS.
Reckless Franks Played with Heaven
ly Bodies.

That artists, like authors. should
commit many errors of fact is hardl!
1, cause fer wonder. Rather, it is as
tonishing that they are not found of
tener at fault in view of the great
variety of knowledge required il their
work. Despite this, however, there il
no manner of excuse for certain all
surdities
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 anazement n such stupidity IL
admiration for the artists magnificent
audacity when we learn that ht
charged f20 additional fer repaintin.
the rainbow colored il accordance
with natures arrangement.
Painters are very prone to distress
the astronomers by their reckless
FRANKS with the heavenly bodies, par
ticularly with the moon. Che artist
presented 4 scene in which was Il
crescent moon low in the eastern SKY
directly opposite setting sun. More
over. this genius disdainel the criti-
cisnls of the learned. He insisted that
this arrangement was necessary for
the composition, inasmrch as TIE rest
of the picture would be destroyed by
n full moon-the only one possible liz
such situation.
Other artists have trifcd with the
moon by turning its convexity away
from the sun, which is, of course. iln-
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
tures into this part of tie heavens
There are, too oft recurring errors
made in the bulk OF the orb An
American astronomer amused himself
| by measuring the moons IN Il number
| OF paintings. He established the fact
| that by reckoning from the satellites
| size the average height of the hills III
| these landscapes was forty-tbree
miles. One of the mountains. indeed
had the stupendous altitude of hun
dred miles.
Artists of old time were often out
| rageously wrong. sometimes neccssari-
| ly by reason of the limitations imposed
Ivy 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
1874. This showed Abraham about TO
| slaughter Isaac by means of q bluI,dcr-
buss-the product Of an age 1900
| 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 Red sea with lnusizets on
their shoulders. A beautiful ivory
taHkard, an Augsburg carving of the
/ early seventeenth century, Was sold
| fer 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 read One of the servants
carries gun!
/ Many a child IS well as some older
persons has puzzled over that beam
l II. llic eye VI VII lile NEW 1GSlu-
ment speaks. 1t 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 at Lyons In 1868, to picture
this beam as one Of wood, rectangular
in section ard 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 CARRIED in the
, long WASTED bodices and hoped
! skirts of Europe in the sixteenth GEN.
tury. The national collection in Lon
don has a 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 Paole
Veronese's The Family of Darius a!
the Feet of Alexander After the Battle
1 OF ISSuS" DISPLAYS the women of the