Evening star., 1924-03-20
The North Window
By LEILA MECHLIN

dorado Taft the we'll known sculp-
tor, who lectured In Washington last
week at the Central High School
under the auspices of the Washington
Society Of Fine Arts, Is one Of the
most interesting personalities In tho
field OF American art today and is
doing more than almost any one else
in the profession to create love of
art among the people.
Mr.. Taft is Inherently a teacher. It
Is instructive to him to give instruc-
ton, to pass on to others the knowl-
edge which he has acquired through
hard study. This teaching instinct Is
gift just as much as an ability to
which cannot be easily cultivated. To
be sure, II is bred of generous inn
pulse, and only those have Ii who have
a love both for the thing taught and
for their fellow man: -
lished as a sculptor he has gathered
around him q little group of ambitious
students whom he has instructed ana
permitted them to serve as his as
sistants. giving them in this way q
Thus his studio has been In the truest
sense a workshop, an atelier, a
gathering place for artists, center
of production, wherein the art I'M
quarters, has been engendered. Be-
sides this, for some years Mr.. TAFT
has conducted sculpture classes at the
Art Institute of Chicago, one of the
largest, If not the largest, art schools
in the United States. Into this work
and when he was in Washington last
week he told friends of q most inter-
esting experiment that he had been
trying with this class at the Chicago
Art Institute.
~ 4
As is the case in all art schools,
many Of the students have little or
no background OF art knowledge, the
knowledge of the works of the mas
ters of the past which have gone to
build tradition In order to recreate
the atmosphere of the great renais-
sance in Italy, Mr.. Taft has written
a little play which the students are
enacting. bringing in as principal
characters Ghiberti, Brunelleschi,
Donatello, Michaelangelo. Tho play
opens at the time of the competition
for the doors for the baptistry In
Florence: then twenty years elapse
and in the next act the scene shifts
to Donatello's studio.
From Florence Mr.. Taft secured
casts Of a majority of the panels for
the great doors, all that were obtain
practice and to complete the model,
have been made under his supervision
by the students themselves from FULL
size Photographic; $50 plaster model
of the doors will be set UP as a part
Of the scene, and the students who
helped to model them will have come
into close touch with the work of
the master. In the same way the
works in Donatello's studio have been
reproduced and during the process of
reproduction the students have been
led to read about the time in which
Donatello lived-to relive. as II were,
those thrilling days when these mas
terpieces came into existence. Mr..
Tafts delight IN this play-work is
unbounded and his enthusiasm. which
is of the contagious sort, spreads to
the pupils.
II is such enthusiasm as Mr.. Taft
puts in this work among his pupils
which gives true vitality to art. as
Stark Young has pointed out in his
book of charming essays recently
published under the title "The Three
Fountains"
Mr.. Young, who is best known as a
dramatic critic and writer on the
theater. spent some time last year.
or the year before, it matters not
when, travelling in Italy; not after
the fashion of tourists. but as keen
observer and friend, who, through
kinship OF spirit, came close to the
Italians and proved himself capable
Of Hrfo sror svt@ h1y = II
little town in Sicily off the beaten
track of sightseers he passed a
strange night in small inn and had
as his roommate a man of the peo-
pie, who, despite the fact that he
worked all day and studied half the
night. had enthusiasm enough at 2
o'clock in the morning to find delight
rather than annoyance In the song of
the innkeeper's daughter, who sat
late at the piano singing Passages
from grand operA- 1t is this enthusi-
asm for beauty which, as Mr.. Young
t-deathless life-to art
All through this book there are
glints OF understanding of the sig
nificance of art which ii would be
well il more could possess. for pitt
ful indeed is the army Of tourists
which year after year, summer after
summer, often at great personal cost
and sacrifice, troops through Italy
and returns to America without the
least comprehension of the true in
wardness of things seen. Guide books
do not give 1t, lecturers seldom tell
it; it is something to be felt, to be
learned from the people of the land
and to be comprehended In the great
silencea But, as Mr.. Young remarks,
it is this vitality of interest in things
of beauty which is the fount Of peren-
nial youth and which gives to the
Italians, the French and the Span
iards a wealth. even in poverty.
which the northern races lack.
+ + +
In this connection Il Is interesting
to note that in an address made re.
Gently before the Drama League Of
New York. Mr.. Otto H. Kahn express
ed great confidence in the ability of
the American public to find enjoyment
in art I'VE have here" he said, per.
haps the best public to which to ap-
peal that exists anywhere public
eager to learn, quick to perceive and
to respond, sure to appreciate and re-
tain, spontaneous and generous in its