The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-28
CHRIST PORTRAITS
 DEPICT HISTORY
Trend of Ages Traced in Various Conceptions - Ancient and Modern De lineations Shown in Lenox Collection At Library.

The pictured Christ-from the mo- safes of the catacombs down to pres ent-day realism through t1e wealth of medieval and Renaissa.l:e repre- senta ton - the pictured Christ, at times ascetic at times majestic, at times effeminate, but preserving from age to age, from canvas to canvas, a -%~lrising sanaeness of conception, is Ss0Tn ii an exhibition at the Public -.ibrary at Forty-second street. New Srrk City.
 4hIs exhibit is made possible through the generosity of John Powell Lenox of Oak Park, H.. who has been patiently collecting it for quarter of a century. Naturally such a collection, contained in efteen vol urneS and including several thousand pictures, cannot be adequately dis played in one single exhibition, but a grouping of subjects, such as the Nativity, the Supper at Emmaus, and the actual portraits of Christ, affords an interesting display.
 This vast delineation of Christ in Art reflects not only the indivfd ual conception of the artist, but his ra- cial and national environment as well. It is possible to trace here the modifications of theological formu- lac, and the trend of the times nun dane as well as spiritual by the varying treatment of the Christ story. Not alone in such guaintness as a representation of the adoratiOn of the Magi by a Flemish painter, where the wise men wear the stiff ruffs and the valet dOublets of the painter S own day. but in the very symbol ism underlying the depletion of the scenes of the Bible story, there are obvious changes due to the inf1u- ences of time and place.
 Mosaic Portraits From CatacOmbS.
 The mosaic portraits of Christ, for instance, taken from the catacombs and made during the persecution of the early church, reflect the cruelty <0F 1@ +& %7NS( -is-+f 11c by the empahsis they place On the gentleness and meekness of the Saw four. It is the Good Shepherd, all mercy, all tenderness, that the trem- bling little band worshipped and rep resented through all the Journalism and rigidness of the conventional mo- safes.
 But wich the accession of Constan- tine the persecution of the Christians ended, and, no longer obliged to wor- ship in caves and underground chapels they built fine churches and stately shrines. To adorn these tenn pies the pictured Christ, still in mo- safes, became the Lord of St. 8ohn's Revelation, the Lord coming in vic tory, Domp, and power to take pos session of his kingdom, no longer the Good Shepherd, but the victorious king.
 There are many reproductions in this collection of these early mo- safes, where the Byzantine becomes
 
 the stiffness and convention of this medium, the naive belief, the in genious alteration Of the artist bring life and warmth to his formal design.
 It is also interesting to note in this collection how the Renaissance drought a struggle between the pagan ideal of physical beauty and the early Christian conception of the asctic and spiritual Christ. Beauty of feature and form triumphs; the sternness of the lawgiver. the spiritual qualities of the nediaeva1 Saviour are merged into an almost Apol' olil1e type of beauty and ef9enins weakness The enlphc sis placed on the sufferings and pnysical agony of the Christ to awaken emotion results in the pallid, ema ciate, and stricken face that is Yet the genius of the individual painter gives it's special significance to even this phase of conventional portraiture, and there is here 8 won the worlds great portraits of Christ, where, whether the virility, the phy- sical beauty, or the majesty of Di- vine qualities is most to be admired, the remarkable similarity of them all can hardly escape the most unob- servant. It is an unusual oppor- tunity to see gathered together so many portraits many of them famil- jar masterpieces, contracted se- verely in treatment and medium yet following common tradition oi featured likeness.
 If one turns from the well known ''Holy Night of Correggio with its host of angels. it's flood of radiance, its nobility of conception to one of the rndern nativities, where there are no trailing clouds of glory, ma- jesty in Magi or humble parents, but where the realism has nevertheless a reverent touch, one begins to realize how far one has come down the cen- turies in this array of scenes from the life of Christ, and how many schools, countries, and mOvem ent g have their place here.
 No one should fail to share the delight of finding many treasures brought together for him at a season so appropriate for their display,