Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-18
ART HAS TRANSLATED
LEGENDS TO CANVAS


r. tan era down through all the ages
to the present year the great lords
of art have knelt and worshiped before
the Babe who nestled in swaddling clothes
| in the old stable near the Bethlehem inn
: To His service they have done magic
with brush and color. having devoted
their best talent Ancient and modern
pictures !. of the wonderful child differ
widely in many particulars, yet there is
something which seems to blend in all
of them, making for one ideal of the
youthful. savior,
Michelangelo, MurillO, Raphael, Guido
Rent, BelHni, Perugina, Veronese. Fra
Angelica, Moretto, Bouguereau Leonardo
| dA vinci. Botticeln, Filippo, Lippi, Cor
reggie, Titan, Durer and Bodenhausen
are but a few Of -the great men of art
who have attempted in warm colors to
delineate the Christ Child ana incidents
Of his early life. ,at.f,.599,~ <
These pictures, better perhaps, than
any printed words, furnish sthe modern
world with ideas, ideals anu essarming
thoughts out of which it is possible to
picture to the minds eye. so to speak,
the infancy and boyhood of Christ.
It is well that it is SO, and that in the
masterpieces of the worlds great paint
ers we have something ideal in which
to build the story of the childhood OF
Christ. For, as for facts, there are but
few of the days and doing Of the boy
Jesus in Nazareth. The four gospels tell
us comparatively little. 1t is but natural.
therefore. that the world Of art has, from
the earliest period of the Christian era,
which has woven vesture about the
early existence of the adorable child.
With the artists it is interesting to re-
view for a moment, at this Christmas
season, the legends which they have stud
led of the boy Christ.
i
The Holy Family returned from Egypt
when Jesus was old enough to walk. In
many of. the old pictures we see the Di-
vine Child leading a mule or clinging
close to His mother. OF that early life
| in the land of the pyramids early tradi-
ton has woven a pleasing fabric of leg
ends.
Among the oldest~of these is the an
cient belief that whenever the Blessed
Mary placed the clothing Of the Holy
Babe upon trees to dry the barren limbs
burst into bloom.
Another is that when the Child wan
dered into the forest. where lions and
pantherS and all manner of wild beasts
lived, they came forth to do Him homage.
Still another that, during the flight from
Bethlehem, when HerOd pursued them,
mountains opened to receive Joseph and
Mary and the Holy Babe into a secure
refuge; that on hot days, they re-
posed under trees the bOughS bent over
TO shield them from the sun. and that as
they passed along flowers sprang up in
their pathway from the arid sand, and
that the barren desert doomed where
they crossed 1t.
Some writer's Of old say that the Holy
Child never went to school. They love
to write of His wanderings alone into the
forests and talking to the birds and in
sects. And they tell how dumb beasts
were endowed with speech when He was
with them.
One Sabbath morning, with a half dozen
playmates, the Child Jesus, one old leg
end runs. went to play by the banks OF
the River Jordan. There had been a
heavy rain the night before, and the tall
trees were still dripping and the sand
was wet.
Sitting on the sand, the little ones be-
gan to fashion, children-wise, animals OF
various kinds Jesus, fashioning dogs and
| cats and all manner of wild things. raised
His hand and spoke, and-lo; the animals
| Of sand lived and moved!
The children shouted. Their laughter
of delight rang through the fresh morn
| ing air. Some Of the animals ran away;
others were changed into sand again.
| Then digging His small hands into the
sand, the Child said:
"I'll make twelve sparrows."
| And He sat them in row before him
BY this time several Pharisees. who had
seen the children playing happily on the
Sabbath. returned with Joseph, whom
they said should censure Jesus.
Thou art breaking the Sabbath, my
Child said the old man.
The Child pondered. looked at the birds
| Of His creation. then rising. He
| Clapped His hands and. 10!
They chrruped. spread their wings and few
| away.
Many old legends concern the early
schooling of the boy Christ. 1t Is re-
lated that when a child He was taken to
Zaccheus. who began to try to teach Him
the alphabet.
MY teacher" the marvellous boy Is said
to have uttered, thou wouldst teach me.
but I shall teach thee"
| And then, while the old man listened,
Ithunderstruck, He repeated an alphabet
which the other had never learned. He
told Zaccheus He had lived from all time
and knew all things. Zaccheus, amazed,
| declared he could teach the Child nothing.
Many stories are told of the child Jesus
having raised people from the dead in