Evening star., 1926-03-25
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY Leila Mschiin.

leries. New York, this season has az
| & foreword a. quota ton from Ralph
Nevill in which occurs this para
graph: "a characteristic of the
French eighteenth.century engravers
was their love Of pleasure, into the
pursuit Of which the. majority en-
| tered with just az great zest az did
| that fashionable world, the life OF
J which fs reflected in the prints OF
two reasons. explaining as 1t does
the bithe spirit of those charming
prints and re-emphasiZing the fact
| that art re.echoes contemporary life.
Somewhat the same thought Is not
I only expressed but emphasized re
| peatedly in O. series Of Radio Talks on
international Art given by Homer
| Saint Gaudens this season at the Uni
versity Of Pittsburgh and just pub
| lished by the university In phamphlet
| form. In the first Of these talks ne
| said: II will attempt to show you nrst
how the Old Masters reflected the
society Of their day, and then how
the modern artists are rejecting their
surroundings will point out 10 you
how the great masters OF the past
did not try for something but ex-
empIifled the definition which some
/ one once made that :" an artist
IL q man living In a society; a great
| artist is q great man living in great
| society and, when he expresses him-
| self completely, 1t is found that he has
| laid bare not just his own personality.
but the dominating thoughts and
| feelings Of the men with whom ne
lives" What an interesting thought
to take with one to an exhioltlon
| Of cotemporary painting!
This was the thought which Mr..
| Saint C audens took with him last
year when he visited the Leading
countries Of Europe for the purpose
of collecting the interna tional exhi-
bition OF cotempofary paintings,
which was shown first in Pittsburgh
last Fail nd. after making circuit
Of some Of the leading museums, Ia
now TO he seen at the Grand Centfai
Galleries, New York. How the art
OF each country measured up from
this particular angle he mace the
subject Of Ave talks.
| Because of the opening today OF
| the exhibition Of cotemporary Italian
paintings here In our National Gal
lery Of Art the talk on Italy Ia or
peculiar interest and timely. This
exhibition, we must remind ourselves.
| was sent to this country with the
chief purpose of demonstrating the
| fact that italy is alive today artist
cally. is carrying on her great art
| tradition. not merely because or Dut
! In spite OF her supreme ma sters or
the past. Hear Homer Saint Gaudens
| testimony to the same effect: I'm mod
ern Italy the msgniticence that pro-
duced Veronese is gone. Still there
are keen brains, fine scholarship, cul
tured sristocracy. an intelligent middle
class and hardy. courageous peas
antry. There Is natural intelligence
and humor. a sense of beauty and
craftsma nship. a skill of hand and
of eye. q philosophy Of life, and
throughout a vivacity of character
and industry that belongs to the
finest era Of their land. With all this
is coming wave of sensitive art
greater in proportion than that
which We produce with all our
wealth. Why? Because to them art
and religion are not things for can
nibalistlc social highbrows to eat
| each other up about. Art TO them
can be food and wine and little col
ored candle lights on the street. come
ightfal, even IL sometimes 1t is
freezing and raining to boot.
| y
| TO illustrate this point he tells how
on an automobile trip from Bologna
TO Florence one Winter afternoon they
came TO q little village miles from
| anything but clouds" when they met
up with a brass band pa re ding down
the street. headed for q long table
in the square. all covered with bread
| and cheese and the husest Chiantt
| hotties. Every man. woman and
child in the town was taking part in
the festival and the music was
startlingly sood-a demonstration Of
how a community can express its own
spirit with enthusiasm and without
selfconsciousness. despite inclement
elements. Then he tells of the
picturesque farmhouses they passed.
the little hills or mountain tops
crowned by converts or m0nasteries
or churches: the colorful. engaging
life Of the people. q people given to
enjoyment of life despite the need
for terrific work. This" he decls res.
| lis what made Italian art important
in bysone DAYS: this Is what has
produced their brillia Mt ma sters OF the
present"
After this general introduction he
gives glimpees Of some OF ltalv's
| present day artist Mancini, who
is especially well represented by q
| group Of canvases in this present
| exhibition. He pictures him as an
old man, standing at the top Of
seven flights of concrete stairs in a
white.washed. incrusted tenement
| with century old walls. smiling and
| animated. with eyes OF youth seeing
life and color in drab surroundings -
He refers especially to two young
academic painters-RomagnOl and
Oppi. the former a professor in the
| University of Bologna. paid little or
not hing for his teaching. living in
| a room 10 feet square, cooking in
The middle of the floor. doing all
sorts OF things in IAN unhygienic.
colorful way" But. somehow or
other, the Lord Almighty has told
him to paint. and he does" says MIR.
| seems to care who has it. or where
it Is" Oppi. he says. is like him.
Both have taken prizes in the Inter
| national at Pittsburgh.
1T is in Milan and Turin where so
much Of the active and vital modern
Italian art is being produced" says
this writer. "for In every nation today
you find the flne arts flourish as they
have always fiourished, not in regions
OF dead beauty, but in the strong soil
OF industry" He refers, too. to the
hands Of the Italians, which from
the earliest time have been trained to
obey fertile brains
| Il \
The little suggestion that Mr.. Sa int
Gaudens makes that talent never
seems to care who has il" recalls the
! statement Of Mr.. Kahn to the effect
that art is no respecter of persons.
| There Is reason to believe, indeed, that
| genius Is born quite as often, il not
oftener, in the home Of the humble
as in the mansion Of the great; for
| instance. Rembrandt and Constable