branch, the anchor, the fish, the while He sojourned upon earth . ship. There too were painted the We have known students in Rome series of types and antitypes from who would not surrender the conthe Old and New Testaments: Noah viction that the early heads in the ark, Moses striking the rock, the Saviour retain at least some Jonah swallowed by the fish, Jonah shadowed memory of their divine thrown from the fish's mouth, original. We have ourselves searchDaniel between the lions, Christ ed the Catacombs in the hope restoring Lazarus to life, the mir 5 that evidence might be collected acle of the loaves, the lame man which should justify a belief so taking up his bed, with a central accordant with the desires of the figure of Christ as the Good Shep- human heart. Yet we are bound herd bearing a sheep upon His to say, the further the inquiry was shoulders. prosecuted the more untenable beAffectionately, as we have said, came the assumption that any one does the mind cling to these forms, of the many presumed portraits however crude, through which the of Christ were trustworthy. The first Christians speak to us in their calm and impartial manner in ashes. Yet, if ever there were which Lady Eastlake has conneed for circumspection, it is here : ducted the difficult inquiry which just in proportion to the sym- brings her to the same conclusion, pathy which moves to easy and is worthy of all commendation. pleasant credulity is the necessity We recollect that the first tentafor the coolness of judgment tive proposition at which we ourwhich shall guard against apoc- selves arrived was, that the many ryphal pretence. There cannot and somewhat conflicting portraits be a doubt but that the Romish could scarcely point to one and Church has sought to make capital the same person ; and, that each out of the Catacombs ; with this, individual work 'simply reflected * however, we have here nothing to and reproduced the type, style, and do. Our duty is to declare the treatment peculiar to the period simple truth, even though appa- and the people which had given it rently to the prejudice of Christian birth. Under the same persuasion art. Let us say, then, once for all, Lady Eastlake tells us that “the that Christian art is not like the first known conception of the Sax tables of the law, written by the iour's features was inspired by the finger of God—not like those tongues lingering feeling for classic form, of fire which came at Pentecost; and is found in the earlier monubut, of more mundane birth, it rises ments of the Roman Catacombs. among the mists and vapours of Here the type of Christ is simply the earth, it shares the infirmity of that of a youth, and of the expresour race, it is darkened by human sion proper to that period.” Then, passion, it falls in the decay of na- coming into the wide realm and tions, and only reaches its divine long reign of Byzantine art-though ing of Christian civilisation, grows traditions—we enter into another strong in arm and noble in soul. The one question in the pic distinct form of the human countorial history of our Lord which the Lord. above all others incites to specu- centre of the forehead lation - the authenticity of the said to constitute an unfailing sign early portraits of Christ—has received from Lady Eastlake dispas- was nothing in this feature compare of identity. At the same time there sionate consideration. The mind, vent the utmost possible difference as we have said, clings fondly to in every other. We find, accordliable tradition may have been left origin, as much diversity as might of the personal appearance of Jesus be expected from the differing The hair divided in the may here be con 2 581 the generally received characteristics and ever-deteriorating pattern, to to this time. The conception of Christ's the work of such artists who, though countenance in English miniatures has Web conforming in treatment of subject a certain earnest downrightness; in Passing northward of the Alps, It will by this time have become we enter on distinct races and evident that the number and the i the one nationalities, and are in the midst variety of these heads of the Sav- truth, the mere fact that, by the sixth century, every principal Chris- more interest. Christ is here more prolific offspring of fertile imaginaEred wai tis strictly separate: the disciples have tion. Among the many claimants, nbat eting one class of features, being chiefly given which, asks Lady Eastlake with with classically - formed profiles, the reason, was the true portrait ? “That possessed by the Romans ? or that represented by the Hestrange sense of the supernatural, per- brews ? or that treasured by the pema: fectly in keeping with the abstract na- Greeks ? or that worshipped by ople wbies ture of the more general conception, the Ethiopians ?—since all in turn which represents our Lord in glory. maintain that Christ had borne the are few and equal, as if by a hand ac- held at Constantinople in 754, all id in the customed to incise them on a harder the pictures purporting to have dehe Ponude material. Another form, with a bushy scended direct from Christ or His wig of hair, is more fantastic, though apostles were condemned.” And here may be allowed to end a conto that person and self-intersecting to be pursued in troversy which, for the deep inter"the Terms this brief notice. The human head ests involved, has scarcely an equal of course, as in all Art, to in the entire range of Christian art. e listinguish one school from another, Yet, rightly viewed, is this endbut it would be perilous to attempt any ing but the starting-point to a new nicety of connoisseurship.” beginning. The ground which the Then referring to a woodcut critical intellect surrenders is at he burime taken from an English MS. of the once taken possession of by creafirebalo fourteenth century, the following tive imagination, and the blank left contribution is made to the ethno- on the page of history is at length supplied by the pencil of art. A writer conscious of original power work will supply ample proof of the likes not to be bound strictly within diversities of representation during this a prescribed barrier of facts ; he and previous centuries. Generally desires rather to call forth his speaking, however, and without affect- characters out of the dimness of VOL. XCVI.NO. DLXXXIX. 2 R person: lake te eling for here serves, Brzanter Te enters 1 of the do theretet tute an unes om the dite a distance. And so likewise the artist divine beauty; he is permitted to jangat rejoices in themes remotely re- form for himself an image of all moved from the foreground of that is most fair on earth and in actual and immediate experience, heaven; he is bidden to enter, as subjects which transcend the life Fra Angelico, the house of prayer, of common day. Perhaps the total and there seek in vision for ababsence of any portrait of Christ, solute perfection ; and then, after which in some moods of mind we all, behold, the infinite rises still are tempted to mourn over, may above and beyond him. He strives on the whole be regarded as after it in vain. But even in providential denial of what had his failure have we the measure proved a dangerous, though a of the summit to which he has priceless possession. But whatever ascended. The finite may have doubt we may have on this point, failed to circumscribe the infinite ; assuredly there can be no question art may have faltered as it essayed that art could scarcely receive a to transcribe the nature which is at higher boon, or be intrusted with above all nature. Yet does the la a nobler mission, than that of form- effort bring its own reward; and ing for itself, and not for itself the artist who waits for whispers only, but for the entire world, from the world of spirits shall , as a tabernacle wherein the Eternal Beato the Blessed, have power to Word might find an earthly dwell- paint in forms and colours which ing. We have already shown that speak as revelations. Thus it will Christianity brought fulfilment to be seen that, instead of a porthe art-aspiration of the nations; trait which, from generation to it satisfied the desire for the union generation, should lose its original of the perfect God and the perfect worth, art commenced with a Here, then, as we have said, germ which, though at first rude , is a theme before which genius may gathered around it the accumu. bow the head ; here a subject that lative thought and devotion of imagination strives after in vain; successive minds and masters, borhere a goal towards which every rowing, assimilating, and rejectfoot tends, and yet no pilgrim shailing from each in turn, till at ever reach. Yet he who is per- length, after the lapse of wellnigh mitted to converse with the Lord in fifteen centuries , was attained the the mount shall, perchance, as the fully developed type, the highest lawgiver of old, descend with glory pictorial manifestation yet known round the brow. We repeat thať, of the divine nature incarnate in in the truest interests of art, no- human form. “The fifteenth centhing better could have been de- tury," writes Lady Eastlake, “ did sired than that the image of the not Saviour should be left as now in profoundest conception of the Son apse without bequeathing the late the uncertainty of conjecture. In- of Man which mortal hand has ever stead of a portrait marred, which, executed. Most of our readers will century by century, should receive think of that dim ghost of a head , like the suffering Saviour himself , still lingering on the walls of an cruel indignity, until shorn, there refectory in Milan, which, like its she may be reason to fear, of the last divine original, has suffered the con rays of Godhead form thus disfigured, lying even, it defies the world to produce its - instead of a tempt and injury of man, yet still may be, as a stumbling-block' at equal.” the gate of heaven, an impediment Art, whether she assume the rather than an aid-each mind is guise of prose or of poetry, whether artist is told to go fortń and simple narrative of facts , or add to to a gather throughout creation every description the colour of images scattered member of the body of nation, still is ever performing man. of old یہ نہیں ۔ * divite beach eix the function of a language ; not, legion, we are scarcely able to deper form for bodia indeed, a language of sounds, but tect a single break or blank in the of that is made the silent speech uttered through all-embracing picture. A rapid herren : be del forms. Pictures and the plastic sketch of the volumes before us, Ee Fr Angeles al arts being thus the embodiment of whereof, as we have seen, the outline I and their seri o i thoughts, they necessarily follow was drawn by Mrs Jameson, and the sociate prestar at closely upon the ebb and flow of details and enrichments furnished dy bebed, the is the great tidal ideas which from age by Lady Eastlake, will best elucisture and bestia: to age sweep over seas and conti- date the line of thought to which Liter it in te nents. The arts of Greece swelled we have here given but imperfect Es tai?'re har på with the outburst of poetry, rose expression. { the summit u te with the elevation of philosophy, Even as the entire Bible, from ceitdedThe fit and as a mirror reflected the master the first book of Genesis to the last ad un ciemacia thoughts of the national religion. verse of the Revelation, points to may hare it is What rhapsodists sang, what wise or portrays the history of our Lord ; in seribe the uz men taught, what the people be- so does art, which is, as we have all nature ! lieved and worshipped, the painter seen, a mirror set up to reflect the tring is una delineated and the sculptor carved. collective thought of Christendom, se who are Thus it is that any complete cycle of depict Jesus first as the creator of roldse art is as a book, perchance of many the world and finally as its judge. Relateral de chapters and divided under diverse Indeed, the Son being coeval with cas miss heads, wherein may be read the the Father, the history of our Lord relatives ideas which have accumulated into is made to stretch back beyond the a system, grown into a history, and days of creation into the depth covered, as it were, a wide territory of an unfathomed eternity. Thus of national thought. And if this the fall of Lucifer and his rebel be true of art in general, more espe- angels, as in the epic of our great ecially is it true of those arts which English poet, constitutes the open congregate around Christianity, and ing scene to the drama of a paradise have come to illustrate and glorify lost and won. 6. The fall of Lucifer the history of our Lord. The thick is found in all forms of the specuand closely packed volumes now lum salvationis, always commencbefore us are indeed convincing ing the history of the world :" testimony, if evidence were want- Michael Angelo intended to have ing, of the abounding materials executed the overthrow of the anout of which Christian artists gels on the vast wall of the Sistine reared visible bulwarks to faith. which faces the ‘ Last Judgment;' It seems, indeed, that whatever the Spinello Aretino painted that “ prophet in vision had seen, what- in heaven, when Michael and his ever Christ and His apostles did angels fought against Satan ;" Ruand suffered—whatever, indeed, the bens poured forth cataracts of Church believed and held most figures,” the overthrow of the damn-acred, just so much was the painter ed : and then as a typical incident nd the sculptor ready to set forth in the great battle which overnd proclaim in the language which whelmed the sky in its fury, we e unlettered multitude could best have various pictures of St Michael derstand. Hence it is that the crushing Satan, among which we tory of our Lord as narrated may mention as pre-eminent the the artist stands out the com- well-known designs by Raphael e counterpart of the story told and Guido. he theologian, and of the faith The connecting idea between this dear by the people. Taking first act, the overthrow of Satan, survey, indeed, of the vast and the second act, the creation of tian diagram which through man, is supplied by one of those pse of eighteen centuries has fictions in which legendary art ed re-touchings and addi- abounds. God created man, it from artists whose name is is said, to repair the breaches in war heaven occasioned by the lapse in the mind's eye to re-fashion, and of so many angelic spirits! The to clothe again, those scenes which six days' creation, together with the amanuensis of Deity may have the temptation, the fall, and blotted in the writing. This, we the expulsion, which constitute a think, is specially evident in the cycle, closing in the climax of a various treatments, some mean, catastrophe, have received curi- others grand, of the theme just ous and occasionally lovely illus- mentioned the creation of Eve. tration both in painting and The genius of Michael Angelo sculptured bas-relief. The dis- has given to this subject bis wonted tinction already indicated between largeness and power. Again, in the literal prose narrative with the doors of Ghiberti - declared, which early art was content, and it is well known, worthy to be the poetic amplifications and adorn- the gates of heaven-creation is less ings to which later and more devel- a physical operation than a supreme oped periods became addicted, is act of thought. God speaks, and it specially obvious in subjects of this is done; the Almighty, with outseries such as the creation of Eve. stretched hand, calls Eve into being, When sculptors and painters were and forthwith she rises a form so as yet tentative of their powers, beauteous that the angels bend they gave to the Biblical story a from heaven to gaze on her; she reading which savours in its un- floats upborne by attendant ministempered grossness of the grotesque. ters, and bends to give to her Maker For example, in the bas-reliefs on thanks for life bestowed. the facade of the Cathedral of The group of subjects closing Orvietto, executed in the thir- with the expulsion from Eden and teenth century by the school of the the death of Abel, is succeeded by Pisani, Adam lies under profound the series of Biblical types which sleep, his side yawns open in a deep point to the coming of Christ, and gash, an actual rib protrudes from prefigure His mission and office. the wound, and the Creator, as More correctly speaking, indeed, accoucheur, is found in the act of the one series overlaps and runs performing the operation with a into the other; for the first Adam, kind of surgical intensity”. This whose side was opened at the ribs, direct translation of a verbal myth became, by an ingenuity which in into a visual reality, is one of the this legendary art is as amazing as most egregious examples of a blunder it is but too frequently amusing, common to all times, the confound- the symbol of the second Adam ing of the conditions prescribed to whose side was pierced upon the separate arts, the transferring of cross. This straining after distant the shadowy metaphor of words analogies we cannot but regard as into the substantial body of visible puerile. Such childish conceits, forms. We may rest assured that which do violence to rational reif, instead of a revelation through ligion, and mar the beauty of poetic the instrument of speech, the thought, must, however, be laid to Creator had spoken through the the charge of theologians rather language of art-a state of things than against artists, who, at the not impossible to conceive of-the worst, were merely but too ready imagery and figures appropriate to to do as they were bid. This idea the medium of words would have of types having been once started, assumed plastic and pictorial forms. the indefinite multiplication of the And those artists have approached symbol was matter of little else most nearly to the divine mind than fictitious conjecture. It were who dared to use somewhat of hard, indeed, that a lawgiver, a the poet's licence, who brought to prophet, a priest, or a king under the verbal text the suggestions of the old dispensation should not, at fancy, and who thus were enabled least in some one or more points, |