Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21

art one always anas the mother knecling 90 n
worshiping her child.
Old masters portrayed Christ's birth In three
forms-the Nativity" the Alteration of the
Shepherds" and the "AdOration of the Wise
Men or Magi" Although In the fifteenth Gen.
tury numerous pictures were made OF the shep-
herds close TO the manager, 1t was the three
wise men who captured the romantic fancy Ct
the artists and inspired Incompatible engrav-
ings and paintings. Picturesque indeed were
the delineations Of those three mysterious for
eign kings who followed the star that led them
10 the Manager. rs, ,s,5
UndoubtedIy, che legend Of the mAgi is the
most fascinating part Of the Bethlehem mar
rative. Pictured with great turhans and g0r-
geous robes of Oriental splendor, followed by .
retinue of attendants, laden with precious gifts
Of gold franldncense and myrTh, it Is easily
understood how they have come to oyerShaaoW
perhaps all other Biblical characters except
Christ and his mother. The ancient writer Bede
wrote Of them: 'MelchiOr, an old man with
long white hair and long beard, offered gold
symbol Of the divine kingdom. The second.
named Casper, young and beardleSs. with
rudy countenance, honored Christ in pre-
senting incense, an offering pointing to HIS
divinity The third, named Balthazar with q
dark skin and fun beard, testified I'm his offer
ing of myrrfa that the Son of Man must die"
That mysterious German artist known as the
Master E. S." because only his initials 81. s."
and sometimes the dates 1886 and 1857 are an
that distinguish his engravings has left par
ticularly interesting engraving OF the ~Adora-
ton Of the Magi"s ~--t-s. .t.-' -s fs5se-+
1t is thought that e. S. was narive OF
Strassburg and that his family name was
Rfbeisen About S23 Of his engravfngS are
known. Although this enigmatic gentleman
is not rated exceptionally high as an artist. he
was one of the greatest inffuereec in the prog
ress of the art Of engraving Very probably he
- H.
coming adept at engraving devoted all OF his
talent to that. Art critics are unanimous In
giving him credit for establishing engraving as
q fine art.
1t is interesting to study the details In his
Alteration of the Magi" The scene and style
of clothing are typical Of fifteenth century
StraSsburg-not of Bethlehem. The three visa
men pictured true to type-one very old
another middle-aged and the third a youthful
king of black race. OF course. the animals.
are present in their stalls; in the distance q
shepherd with his fiock is pointing to star
which an angel seems to be placing in the sky.
Joseph, looking very much like any German OF
that day kneels praying beside Mary and the
child
A MOTHER celebrated portrayer of the Christ
mas scene is Martin Schongaaer who fol-
lows the Master E. s. i'm the annals of German
art. He was the most important German artist
during the second half Of the fifteenth century.
He first saw the light at COlmar in I440 and
died there in 1533. His contemporaries called
him Handsome Martin" because of his bearti-
ful engravings, which are now exceedingly g
scarce and costly, for few Of his works are In
existence today VaSari the famous Italian
biographer of art celebrities, says that Schon-
gauer'S engraVings were introduced into Italy
in great numbers and one Of them so appealed
10 the great Michelangel0 that he made .
careful copy Of it i'm oils. -.n- <rti ~
Very probably Handsome Martin" learned u
engraving in the workshop Of z. s. but athongiR
his technical manner b. reuiniscent Of GtAnEs Al
master. his imagination and powers Of observes y
ton place his work AbOve the earlier work WfEA
'a's' .5te7yG s<t - .-f,af slssta :Ssatd +si