Evening star., 1928-04-22
BY WILL DURANT, Ph. d.,
Author of
''The Story of Philosophy"

perspective appeared in the work OF
Ucello and MaSaccio "Ah Paolo," said
Donatello to Ucello, with this perspec-
tive you are leaving the substance for
the shadow" How could the great
sculptor know that In these shadows
and distances lay the promise OF
Leonardo and Rembrandt?
OF Masaccio we know nothing except
that in a pitifully brief career the was
born in 1902 and died at the age OF
26l he did the finest painting between
Giotto and Botticelli and contributed
to the Renaissance almost brutal real
ism that makes him more akin to CO.
temporary art than any of the famOut
figures that superseded him. Here is
his Adam and Eve Expelled from
Eden" The two figures, says Taine,
ARE Florentines whom he has un-
draped, the man with slim thighs and
blacksmiths shoulders, the woman
with short neck and clumsy form, and
both with ugly shaped legs: they are
artisans who have not led, like
the Greeks. naked existence. and
whose bodies have not been fashioned
by gymnastics" These frescoes in the
Church of the Carmine at Florence be-
came. famous, shocking and faScinat-
ing Masaccios age and the next. Al
most every great artist came to study
them - Verocchio, Ghirlandaio, Botti-
celIi, Leonardo, Fra Angelica. Fra Lippo
Lippi, Fra BartolOmmeo, Perugino and
Michelangelo himself. But Masaccio
died homeless at the age of 26, without
a stone to mark his grave.
How different is Angelica! There
was something hard and Zolaesque In
these frescoes which did not quite
express the piety of the age. nor the
lust for beauty that fills the Italian
soul. No wonder that we find, off on
a siding from the main line Of Renais-
sance development, figure of compen-
sating gentleness, man left over from
an earlier and more believing age, liv-
ing in the simplicity of Francis. deVot-
ing his life and his art to the order OF
which he was a brother refusing bish-
oprics and any honor. finding MS hap
piness in painting. over and over again,
old-Style religious figures OF the Virgin
and her Son They seem little absurd
to us, these Madonnas and these Cruci-
fixions, for we no longer share Fra An
geiicos tender faith: but artists, who
know better. reyel in their delicacy Of
coloring and profound but quiet feeling;
Napoleon had the grace To steal Fra
Angelico's Coronation of the Virgin.
we EdHIlut uIluGISbdIu AAl-SC RA@SAANo
because We are once more pagan; we
look for splendid bodies. but bodies
here do not count. the soul is every
thing. With Fra Angelica we are still
in the Middle Ages
&%
And vet. even in the monasterieS. the
pagan influence of the rediscoyery of
Greece appears. and the flesh makes it,
self heard even in the home of the
spirit. Art grows out of religion. be-
cause profound feeling longs for ex-
preston and faith struggles to give
some fair form to its imaginings; but
art grows also. and even more aborig-
inally out Of desire and love. since all
sense of beauty is primitively sexual
Therefore secret hostility turks be-
tween art and piety even when piety
Is In command. Supernatural religion
Is too often aScetic and gloomy. while
art wishes to be sensuols and joyful.
Art fourishes best. and religion worst.
where the senses have been freed
So we find Fra BartoIommeo. piotls
Dominican monk. fervent under the in
fiusnce Of Savonarola. suddenly paint
Ing nude St Sebastian: and so like
the very flesh that women confessed II
had suggested evil thoughts TO them
whereupon the monk gave orders that
II should never be shown again And
Continued on Fifth Page)