Evening star., 1939-01-08

Efforts Being Made By the
Loyalists to Protect Works
OF Art in Spain.
Apropos of the exhibition of por-
traits of loyalist leaders, mention
may be made of the effort Of the
loyalist government to protect the
works Of art in Spain. Early last
summer pamphlet was issued by
the Office International des Musees
of the League of Nations giving a
full account, by Jose Renau, d.
recteur general des beaux arts of
the Republic of Spain, of the pro-
tective measures taken to preserve
the Spanish artistic and historical
monuments and treasures during the
civil war. This, written in French,
was fully illustrated and through
text and Illustration gave q very
complete survey of the extraordinary
care and labor entailed. These pro-
tective measures related to sculpture
in public parks and squares which
could not be moved, as well as to
paintings, tapestries, ETC., stored IN
bombproof vaults. In these days
when death and destruction descend
from the air as we'll as approach on
earth, it is necessary to make roofs
bombproof as we'll as cellars. This
the Spaniards have done.
Notwithstanding there has been
much damage and irreparable loss,
to give an idea of which the govern
ment Of the Spanish Republic has
most lately issued for distribution
in this country a series of Is photo
gravures of buildings so ravaged.
Among these is the room in the
Prado which once displayed paint
ings of the Italian School of the
18th century-the walls. happily,
bare, but the skylight broken and
falling, the floor strewn with break
age, the walls cracked; the interior
of the church IN which Cervantes
was baptized with all but the font
wrecked; the grand staircase in the
Duke of Alba's Palace utterly ruined
with, strangely enough, a figure of
a Greek statue of Venus, leaning
against fallen rafter; to say moth
ing of gorgeous painted ceiling in
the National Palace with bomb
hole torn through its design. Such
works of art as these could not be
protected from the devastating hand
of warning man. Seeing is believing.
These photographers were issued as
documentary proof.
Steps have been taken in the past
and are being taken now to frame
an international agreement to ex-
empt from the ravages of war, works
of art, monumental and otherwise,
which may be regarded as world
treasures-but short of the mil
lenium, when there shall be no war,
this seems in all probability a con-
summation to be desired but not
realized. However while lamenting
the losses it is possible to give thanks
for the salvage-for full assurance
is given that the wealth of the Prado
is beyond the range of loss and that
other great works of art have also
been secured for the future. There
are many rumors, but no one outside
the confidence of the Spanish gov
ernment, knows how or where. May
they abide in safety and with the
cease of war and rumors of war be
restored.
According to recent press release
some OF the very famous Spanish
paintings are to be lent by the gov
ernment for exhibition at the Golden
Gate Exposition next summer. But
again, all considered, the risk of such
would be appalling. No amount of
insurance can compensate for that
which is irreplaceable. So much for
the dangers of both war and peace.
Striking Personalities Set Forth
In Autographs By
TOulouSe-L1utrec.
The exhibition of lithoeraphs.
drawings and posters by Toulouse
Lautrec, which may now be seen
in the print rooms of the Phillips
Memorial Gallery, will well repay
attention. There is indeed some
thing very captivating about these
drawings made on stone, or on
paper for photographic transference,
as we'll as something very original.
They are, in the first place, as
elusive as smoke, but upon inspec-
ton they are found to be almost
pltilessly precise, incisive. On
background of vapor there is whirl
OF lines from which emerge a few
telling strokes. Nothing more from
the artists standpoint remains to
be said-the life history of the indi-
vldual pictured is laid bare. For the