Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-23
The North Window
by LEILA MECHLIN

At this season Of the year many
are sketching. Stark Young in re-
cent issue ! OF the New Republic.
writes from Italy that Siena is full
of sketchers. And how cheerfully,"
he exclaims. after jam and toast
these painters go FORTH" "A dear,
lovable lot. loving the world as they
do, its surfaces and shapes and
changing lights" but apparently ac-
complishing SO little. That 1t Is good
for the sketchers 10 sketch Mr..
Young realizes, but loving Siena he
Is moved to lament that painting Is
not a cure instead Of an art" Prob
at some time submerged in an artists
colony has had the same ieeilng'
without, perhaps, the power TO voice
II so well. For here, again, II Is true
that many are called but FEW are
chosen" and one often wonders what
becomes of the innumerable sketches
which are precious in the eyes OF
their authors but by no means worthy
OF preservation.
AS some knowing person once re-
marked, there is almost nothing SO
pathetic in this world as mighty
ambition and puny capacity. Ana
yet one would not forbid the sketch-
ing, even if one could. Cndoubtediy
it opens the eyes OF the feeblest 10
beauty in nature and opens the way
to appreciation of greater art. But
one can readily sympathize with MT.
Young in his distress at seeing his
dear Siena violated daily at the hands
Of the merciless sketchers.
x II X X
Stark Young is not an art critic.
That is, it has not. up to the present
time. been his chosen field OF en-
deavor. He is j southerner by birth
and has had some years of instructor
ship in several colleges. Most lately
he has been professor of English at
Amherst. which position, however, he
has resigned. The drama has en-
gagged much of his attention. in fact
he has written play or TWO MN
self. and he is associate. editor or the
Theater Arts Magazine. but just the
same he writes most understandingly
(and possibly because 1t has not yet
become habituaD on the arts OF paint
ing, sculpture and landscape archi-
lecture, and it is refreshing when an
author of this caliber writes on art
Of this sort.
For instance, a delightful essay by
Mr.. Young. entitled Two Walks,
which appeared in the June number
of the North American Review. These
walks were at the villa dEste at
Tivoli. and Addison's Walk at oxford,
England. the one essentially a work
of art, the other a bit of nature care
fully preserved. He finds in them
the substance of the difference be-
tween the two. and he is led to
definition of art which is we'll worth
while. Art is a translation" he
says. by which the material is stated
in terms of something else. and
something is added which was not
there before" This is a distinction
which many do not often make, but
which explains the charm OF the
courts at Versailles as well as the
gardens of the Villa d'Este. In both
instances one has design. pattern; ar
rangement-not- art as something
forethought and ability OF mans mind
to select and TO compose with pic
turesque and lovely effect. II has its
message. Its human relationship.
In many ways nothing made by the
hand of man can be as lovely as
! work of nature, but the original of
a painting. the subject from which the
painting is made. has only in rare
instances the power TO move the be-
holder as the work OF art when great.
AS Mr.. Young says. THE garden OF
the Villa d'Este commits human ma
ture to full expression. 1t takes
the natural world and uses it to en-
press an idea Like a painter with
his colors, 1t uses the resources of the
earth out of which it creates. In il
nature and art together are translated
into one complete art" And the in
teresting thing is that all this is
equally applicable 10 other great
works of art-sculpture, painting,
architecture.
Artists have a tendency 10 feel that
/ none but a practicing artist can fully
appreciate a work of art, and in the
majority OF instances they may have
right on their side. Certainly if one
stands by and watches the crowds OF
tourists with perfectly blank express
sions pass through the great galleries
of Europe during vacation time,
checking their Baedekers. seeing with
| their ears rather than with their
eyes. giving no backward look over
their shoulders, one would be inclined
to think that there was little real
appreciation of art among those who
travel. A humorous story is told of
! two little children who had been
a
| on high stool immovable, the other
! walking around with a book in her
hand and nose buried therein. When
asked what they were doing they eX-
planned that they were playing tour
lists, one impeysonating the statue.
the other the Visiting hordes.
!: < ::
But there are exceptions. and Mr.
Stark Young has found one of them.
! young Texan from a ranch north of
San Antonio. For some years this
young man had not been away from
| the ranch house, and his life had been
comparatively solitary until they
STRUCK OIL Then his father sent
| him abroad. But despite the distance
between Texas ranch and an Italian
! hill town he is reported to have felt
at home in Assist. and without know
| ing much about the various periods Of
/ art, found evident delight in discov
| ering their manifestations for him
self. Without guide, without fore
| knowledge, he had come under the
spell of the artists of the Renaissance.
and though day after day he said he
must go en-, he stayed. There is many
another of this order in America to
| whom great art would speak had it the
F; opportunity. 1t is contact that is need
ed, not the spoken word, and some
| times 1t would seem that nothing to
! unlearn were a blessing.
x X X
1t seems curiously difficult to di-
vorce the idea of commercial vulgar
| ism from American ideals in the mind
of the Britisher. A distinguished
| writer on art in the London Archi-
tectural Review, treating Of American
sculpture. recently said: american