Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-04
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

a study of anatomy, which engaged
Michael Angelo many years in scien-
tific dissection of muscles and bones.
Angelo did not excel a modern surgeon
in his knowledge of the human ma
chine, but no surgeon disputes the
rank Of the great master of the Re-
naissance in expressing the strength
and beauty of the emotions correctly
and with power beyond that of any
other.
There can be no excuse for writer
who is ignorant of grammar, nor for
an artist who would undertake to
paint the human figure without knowl-
edge Of it's skeleton and muscular out
| fit, but such knowledge Is only the
means to the end-the end which is
beauty Of form and of light, and SUI
premely of human emotions. Tech
nique, whether studied In anatomy or
| in the slow movie is indispensable,
but so is facility in playing scales in
| dispensable to a musician, though an
artist who would give recital con-
sisting in his agility in scales would
| not be a Paderewski," declares the
head of one of our art galleries.
The discussion in Paris, as reported
| by the university president, was in
| spired by previous arguments with
| Europeans as to the machine tenden-
| European critics. was killing our art
| conceptions and making all production
| mechanical. Our Washington artists
expressed fear that the professor, in
| seeking to prove the contrary, by
means of slow-movie study, gave away
his case.
ut will be recalled how artists We're
on tiptoe to study motion when pho
| Biography was first perfected so that
it could record the speedy action of a
man running or of a race horse on
the home stretch. At last they would
be able to see the true action! But
| it was Immediately discovered that
the actual positions of the legs of
either man or horse, when 'petrified'
by the instantaneous camera were so
grotesque that the result bore no re-
semblance to the impression as seen
| by naked eyes. The artist, therefore,
while making studies of the instan-
| taneOus cameras products, for his
own guidance and check, was obliged
to revert to impressions rather than
| frozen facts A. canvas or marble
or piece of literature which records
only scientific facts may be very
correct science, but never is art.
Motion has been made vivid and
throbbing-even thrilling-when ex-
pressed in paint Or marble. The es-
sence of motion lies in the effect when
the eye blends one instantaneous pic
ture into the many preceding and fol-
| lowing ito or SO per secOnd-just
as a musical tone is created, not by
one vibration but by the requisite
number per second" declares an i'm
pressionist artist.
| TRUE" answers the scientific
realist, who is a Preraphaelite. but
when we paint all details we get the
reproduction of nature. and when the
slow movie gives US the full success
sion of poses, why Is not that the
real thing?"
| Because it has no blend" answers
the other artist, (which Is itself the
very soul of the real effect. impress
sion of the naked eye alone gives that
blend, and to substitute the one in.
Simultaneous picture alcof from other
instantaneous pictures by the SLOW
movie the eye gets no blended opti-
cal effect and the result is simply
| fantastic"
THAT is certainly true of music"
broke in pianist. "A certain tone
is made up Of a certain number of vi
brations per second. Fewer vibra.
| LlOnS per secOnu give d ulHerent tone.
How much could a musician learn of
tone if he took. say. 200 vibrations per
! second and by slowing process re-
tarded them to 5 per second? He
would get no sound whatever. If he
Espeeded up to 90 per second he would
get low growl, but if the tone nat
urally requires 100 or 500 vibrations
per second. blending the vibrations to-
gether is absolutely the only way one
can hear that tone. Is not the eye
like the ear? Art is not science slow
! ed down, nor realism petrifed."
(Copyright. 1875. BY PaulnF. Coilins.l