The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-02-05
THE CHRIST CHILD IN ART
HOW PAINTERS REPRESENT
THE NATIVITY.

| HE NATIVITY.
The beginning of the nineteenth
century witnessed unique return to
the artistic ideals Of the Middle Ages,
writes Rev. e. Frederick, in the
Catholic Northwest Progress. Back to
the glorious art of the Mother
Church, become the motto of a gal
axy OF aspiring young artists.
Rome, the center of the Christian
world, naturally enough became
the rallying point of the new school
The Irish-Italian Franciscan monas-
terry of st. lsadore on the Pincio was
the first abode of the Nazarenes
the name Of the new school in the
history of art-and to this very day
the Nazarene creations adorn our
Bible histories Edification was the
prime object of those ardent German
/ enthusiasts, and in this they have sue
ceeded in a notable measure. The
| gentle Frederick Overlook. Joseph
Fuehrich, Edward Steinle and Philip
Veit are easily the brightest stars OF
the NaZarene constellation.
The Child Christ of the Nazarene
/ pictures is not an original production
lit harks back to the Italian Qua
trocento, the old German masters, and
4 the Renaissance OF the latter
Albrecht Duerer is the greatest repre-
| sentative. Duerer in his turn con-
meets with the early Italians masters
and the Renaissance through the
Venetian school, disciple of which
he had been. We are retracing our
| steps, therefore, to the earliest Italian
masters.
Single Pictures of Christ Rare.
Before proceeding any further we
must note the fact that single pic
lures of Christ as child are rare in.
| the realm of religious painting, main.
| ly because of the artistic possibilities
of whole scenes from the life of
Christ. Indeed, the nowadays most
popular presentations of the type are.
the central figures of Heinrich Hof-
mann's Finding of Christ in the
Temple in the Dresser gallery, a
/ type of the most refined beauty, and
Holman Hunts "Christ Among the
1 Doctors one OF the really great
masterpieces of English pre- Raphael
itism. Like the Nazarenes, the
English re-Raphaelites gradually
| arose from an almost unconditional
surrender to the technique and the.
ideals of the Quatrocentro to a fuller
recognition of Raphael's work, the
apex and elimination of Catholic art.
18th Century Representations.
Owing to the pagan environment
of the early Church, religious art was
| slowing coming into it's own, though
a piOus old tradition relates that st.
Luke, the evangelist and physician,
| painted the Blessed Virgin with the
Christ-Child. In Byzantine art, how
ever, the touching scene is rigid and
entirely conyentionalized, just as in
later panel-painting. A wonderful
change occurs at the close of the
thirteenth century. In the Florentine
Cimabue's works Christ at last be-
comes child-like and tender. More
tenderly than the rest of Tuscany,
4 Siena, the quiet hill city, Incorporated
the mystic ideal of the Madonna and
Child" thus a noted modern art critic
i sums UP. The Siennese are the
| first lyric painters of modern art. AS
1 they impaired to their pictures neat
and dainty element and a splendor
of color and gliding that recall
/ Byzantine art, so also their works
reflect the wealth of ecstatic feeling
that had come into the world through
st. Francis. While Byzantine art en-
/ phasized age, here the youthful,
lovely and graceful prevail; if there
all was stormy and rigid, the pre-
| vailing characteristic here is slender,
/ supple grace. II seems as if the
stone walls of the churches had sud-
denly become transparent, and the
i eye gazed upward into the real
heaven, where tender ethereal beings,
singing and praising the Highest,
/ lived in eternal youth and lovingly
gazed down upon mankind. In his
! great Madonna of the Cathedral
j Duccio gave the first impulse. This
Mary is no longer severe and digni-I
fed, but mild and gracious, as if she
had had pity upon the longing soul
of the believer; for a soft, dreamy
melancholy transffgures her fea-
lures. Her relation to the Child also
is changed; she is no longer the in
voluntary Mother of God, but a tender
mother. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the
gentle poet, painted her, tenderly
pressing her cheek against the
Child's face, and giving nourishment
to Him; motherly and yet maidenly,I
proud and yet modest. To this ten
der mysticism the realist Giotto fur
nishes the contract. he represents the
| Christ-Child sticking his finger In his
mouth, playing with q bird, or on the
point Of climbing into his mothers
| lap.
csnters If Hslislcus At
/ The idsalism e the Quatrccentro
fell uron 4 proptioss zoil II Germany.
The panels On the altar OF tbs Blessed
Virgin in the Cologne cathedral are
unsurpassed III delicacy Of sentiment
and workmanship particularly the six
middle paintings representing the
childhood Of Jesus. AS Assist In
/ ItalY 50 Colegns il German became