The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1912-05-11

desperate
seLf-defense the part Of the hard-pus quarry
"nen the antlered monster charged down unon
Ill., crushing him to death before he had time
~ "lthdraW his Invaluable flint? That bit of
oone-encased rock-what tragedies of the Stone
age does it not suggest? ~--@Fts""@-s :~.~. ~
But we have strayed far afeld from the real
purpose or these lines, which is none else than
to make the reader acquainted with tho 1in,nines
OIL an INFINITELY less remote age but which, as
samples or finished drawings of sporting scenes
yet rank among the oldest we have.
Florentine Of the Forentines, though Flemish
oy birth, for he was born in Bruges in the year
1913, Giovanni della Strada, or to use his Latin
lied name with which he frequently signed his
WORK. Joannes Stradanus, had acquired by his
apprenticeship to Michael Angelo many of the
famous artists peculiarities and mannerisms, as
a glance at Stradanus' prancing, heavily-maned
steeds and glant-limbed men discloses Strada-
nus was born at most opportune moment for
the craving for pictorial matter making itself
felt in the second half of his century was Great
Ing demand which far exceeded the supply, and
though your Bodies and Tschudis and even ear
Her art critics. insist that this craving helped
more than any other circumstance to prostitute
art, debasing the divine inspiration of the painter
to common craft, it must not be forgotten that
but for men like Stradanus, Theodore de Bry,
Hans Boil the multitudinous Gale family at Ant
werp, Collaera, Wierx Mallery Sadeler and Colt
zius, as well as the De Passe family who all
worked with extraordinary energy in turning out
pictures of the day." our knowledge of the daily
life and OF occurrences In that tempestuOus CEN
fury would be nothing like correct and init
mate as 1t Is. What progress, for instance art
made in the halfcentury between 1917 and the
year 1867, when Stradanus drew his one hundred
and four Venat1ones sporting pictures, glance
at "Theuerdank." Emperor Maximilian's famous
book Of adventures, and at the prints appertain-
Ing to the frstnamed series, will show Both the
designer of the pictures and the welder of the
graver had made giant strides in the interval and
as we can see from reproductions of original
drawings by Stradanus' hand many master of
the eighteenth century would have done we'll to
study the Italianised Flemng's method and
touches.
The drawings afford amusing evidence of the
widespread ignorance which then prevailed in
connection with certain forms of sport Perhaps
the most characteristic in this respect is the pic
ture OF mountain sport-viz., the chase OF the
chamois. When first saw the print of this
picture and ones astonished gaze rested upon the
delineation of the agile mountain beast carrying
horns that are crooked forward instead of back
ward, one naturally assumed that this extraordi-
nary mistake was made by the engraver and not
by the artist who drew the animal whose hodv
and pose are in other respects correct Rut IN
this one would have done the busy Antwerp en-
gravers an injustice was disclosed when the
original came into ones possession for there
1mmortalized by master hand, prance about not
one but several channels with this curious NAL
formation
In other respects, too, Stradanus drew upon his
imagination in eoncoctng this drawing for he
represents the man Of Michael Angelolike limbs
Swapping stelgeisen, or crampons to his naked
teet, which, OF course was never DONE To turn
to another form of sport-elephant and ostrich
>nuntlng-Stradanus in the former picture drew
MS quarry of very understood dimensions. a mis-
take not usually made either by him or by other
artlsts OF his age, who, as rule, magnifed the
size OF foreign animals. Take instance
our reproduction of engraving after another
drawing by the same Florentne artist Here we
have elephants which if we accept the ordinary
human form as our scale, must have stood some
thing like eighteen feet high, though probably,
as the inscription below tells us that the man In
the act Of hamstringing~ his quarry is q trogio.
dyte or cave dweller, race who weres believed
to be of dwarf stature. the disproportion is In
tended to be as great as 1t is. As an early pic