The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-12-06

The revival OF the arts and learning
in the Renaissance and the great
painters of the Florentine school
whose accomplishments have remain
ed unriValled in the centuries since
they lived and painted were described
by William Dudley Foulke in his gal
lery talk The F1orentine School" de-
livered Tuesday afternoon in the Pub
lie Art gallery before the art depart
ment of the Woman's club in connec-
ton with the exhibition of color
prints, loaned from his collection,
which is now hanging in the gallery.
Commencing with Cimabue Mr.. Foulke
gave short histories OF the artists and
explained their pictures which are
hanging in the exhibition showing
their exceptional merits and their
faults.-from the works of Cimabue
and Giotto to Leonardo da Vinci and
Michael Angelo. Following are ex-
Cerpts from his address:
Between four and five hundred
years ago a great change was passing
over the civilization of the world. The
Middle Ages--a period of comparative
darkness resulting from the chaos that
followed the dissolution of the Roman
Empire and the disappearance of an
Gent Civilizations period when both
the minds and the bodies of men were
subject to the despotism, the one of
The church and the other of the feudal
systematic Middle Ages were gradu-
ally being superseded by a period in
which the individual human spirit be
gan to emancipate itself from its fet-
tiers. The learning of antiquity was
revived, its art was renewed and mod
ern science began to be established
This period was known as the Renais-
sanCe or re-birth.
Human Spirit Liberated.
But it was not altogether a new
birth of mere ancient civilization; its
literature, art, and science were essen
TALLY original. Its chief feature was
the liberation of the human spirit, the
blishment of literae humaniOres,
of human origin. During the Middle
Ages, this earthly life was held as
nothing, the future world was the
great reality-so the church taught
and so mankind believed. But with
the Renaissance there came again the
10Y of existence, the love of beauty
and therefore of art
The Renaissance, both in letters
and in art. began in Italy. Its ap-
proach was gradual; the first great
poems and the first great paintings
appear before the close of the Middle
Ages. They were the precursors of
the general spirit of the Rebirth.
Dante was the first great poet since
antiquity and his contemporary, Gil
otto was the first really great painter
since the decline of ancient art.
This ancient art stood very high:
in architecture and in sculpture, il is
still supreme. The Pdrthenon, the
Venus Of Milo, the Hermcs of Praxite-
les. are still unrivalled. In painting.
however. it had its limitations: in
mere form it has never been exce1led
but in perspective, in the power to
represent distance and atmosphere,
the painting of the Greeks and the Ro-
mans was incomplete
Painting Degraded
About the time of the advent OF
Christianity. ancient civilization de-
ctined, painting became degraded. The
asceticism of the early Christians did
not encourage art, at least not for the
sake of beauty. Its only excuse for
being was to remind men of God and
religion. For this purpose it was not
realistic nor beautiful. but formal, con
ventional and symbolical As the Ro-
man world sank lower and lower in
ignorance painting became more and
more crude. The study of the nude
figure was abandoned until artists be-
came ignorant of real outlines of the
human form which hal been so per
tectly represented in ancient Greek
and Roman art. Nature was totally
disregarded Art became the mere
rerVant of superstition Even sacred
scenes were represented in a way to
make them hardly human. For centur-
les St. John and the Virgin stood in
the same attitudes by the Cross and
Christ was depicted erect. with wide
open and placid eyes which no agony
could dim. All originality of concep-
lion was forbidden and emotion was
considered irreligious.
The emancipation of art from these
letters began in Itaf@ near the close of
The Middle Ages The first Italian
painter to break the bonds was a Flor
entine. Gina bue 0240-13O2). There