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diff --git a/25268.txt b/25268.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7ef046 --- /dev/null +++ b/25268.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2427 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Child-life in Art, by Estelle M. Hurll + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Child-life in Art + +Author: Estelle M. Hurll + +Release Date: April 30, 2008 [EBook #25268] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILD-LIFE IN ART *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Anne Storer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE SISTINE MADONNA.--RAPHAEL.] + + + + + CHILD-LIFE IN ART + BY + ESTELLE M. HURLL, M.A. + + + Illustrated + + + Children are God's apostles, day by day + Sent forth to preach of love and hope and peace. + LOWELL. + + + BOSTON + JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY + 1895 + + + + + _Copyright, 1894,_ + BY JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY. + + + University Press: + JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The subject of this little book is its best claim upon public favor. +Child-life in every form appeals with singular force to the sympathies +of all. In palace and in cottage, in the city and in the country, +childhood reigns supreme by the divine right of love. No monarch rules +more mightily than the infant sovereign in the Kingdom of Home, and none +more beneficently. His advent brings a bit of heaven into our midst, and +we become more gentle and tender for the sacred influence. Every phase +of the growing young life is beautiful and interesting to us. Every new +mood awakens in us a sense of awe before unfolding possibilities for +good or evil. + +The poetry of childhood is full of attractiveness to the artist, +and many and varied are the forms in which he interprets it. The +Christ-child has been his highest ideal. All that human imagination +could conceive of innocence and purity and divine loveliness has been +shown forth in the delineation of the Babe of Bethlehem. The influence +of such art has made itself felt upon all child pictures. It matters not +whether the subject be a prince or a street-waif; the true artist sees +in him something which is lovable and winning, and transfers it to his +canvas for our lasting pleasure. + +Art has produced so many representations of children that it would be a +hopeless task to attempt a complete enumeration of them, and the book +makes no pretensions to exhaustiveness. The aim has been merely to +suggest a convenient outline of classification, and to describe a few +characteristic examples in each group. The nature of the undertaking +has, of course, necessitated consulting the works of many standard +authorities, to whom I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness. The names +of the most prominent are included in the bibliographical list. While +faithfully studying their opinions, I have always reserved the right of +forming an independent estimate of any painting considered, especially +when, as in many cases, I have myself seen the original. I am under +great obligations to my friend Professor Anne Eugenia Morgan of +Wellesley for first showing me, through her philosophical +art-interpretations, the true meaning and value of the works of +the masters. From these interpretations I have drawn many of the +suggestions which are embodied in the descriptions of the following +pages. + +While addressing lovers of children primarily, I have also hoped to +interest students in the history of art. I have therefore added a few +notes containing further details in regard to some of the subjects. + + E. M. H. + +NEW BEDFORD, MASS., June 1, 1894. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. CHILDHOOD IN IDEAL TYPES 3 + II. CHILDREN BORN TO THE PURPLE 29 + III. THE CHILDREN OF FIELD AND VILLAGE 57 + IV. THE CHILD-LIFE OF THE STREETS 87 + V. CHILD-ANGELS 115 + VI. THE CHRIST-CHILD 141 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + SISTINE MADONNA Raphael _Frontispiece_ + + THE STRAWBERRY GIRL Reynolds 7 + + PENELOPE BOOTHBY Reynolds 15 + + ANGEL HEADS Reynolds 19 + _From the original painting in the National Gallery, London._ + + NATURE Lawrence 23 + + PORTRAIT OF PRINCE JAMES, DUKE OF YORK Van Dyck 33 + _From a painting in San Luca, Rome, after the Turin portrait + by Van Dyck._ + + PORTRAIT OF PRINCESS MARY STUART AND + PRINCE WILLIAM II. OF ORANGE Van Dyck 39 + _From the original painting in Amsterdam._ + + PORTRAIT OF THE INFANTA MARIA THERESA Velasquez 45 + _From the original painting in the Prado, Madrid._ + + PORTRAIT OF THE INFANTA MARGUERITE Velasquez 49 + _From the original painting in the Louvre, Paris._ + + RUSTIC CHILDREN Gainsborough 59 + + LA CRUCHE CASSEE (The Broken Pitcher) Greuze 71 + _From the original painting in the Louvre, Paris._ + + CHILD'S HEAD Bouguereau 77 + + THE LITTLE RABBIT SELLER Meyer von Bremen 81 + + BEGGAR BOYS Murillo 89 + _From the original painting in the Pinacothek, Munich._ + + STREET ARABS Dorothy Tennant Stanley 98 + + THE MEETING Marie Bashkirtseff 103 + _From the original painting in the Luxembourg, Paris._ + + CASTLES IN SPAIN J. G. Brown 107 + + GROUP OF ANGELS. From the Assumption Titian 119 + _From the original painting in the Academy, Venice._ + + PIPING ANGEL. Detail of Frari Madonna Bellini 127 + _From the original painting in Venice._ + + ANGEL. From Madonna and Child Luigi Vivarini 131 + _From the original painting in the Church of Redentore, Venice._ + + ANGEL. From the Vision of Saint Bernard Filippino Lippi 135 + _From the original painting in the Badia, Florence._ + + MADONNA OF THE CASA TEMPI Raphael 147 + + INFANT JESUS AND SAINT JOHN Boucher 155 + _From the original painting in the Uffizi, Florence._ + + THE CHRIST-CHILD Deger 159 + + HEAD OF BOY CHRIST Hofmann 163 + _Detail of Christ Disputing with the Doctors._ + + + * * * * * + + + + +I. + +CHILDHOOD IN IDEAL TYPES. + + + + + O child! O new-born denizen + Of life's great city! on thy head + The glory of the morn is shed, + Like a celestial benison! + Here at the portal thou dost stand, + And with thy little hand + Thou openest the mysterious gate + Into the future's undiscovered land. + LONGFELLOW. + + + + +CHILD-LIFE IN ART. + +CHAPTER I. + +CHILDHOOD IN IDEAL TYPES. + + +If we could gather into one great gallery all the paintings of +child-life which the world has ever produced, there would be scattered +here and there some few works of a distinctly unique character, before +which we should rest so completely satisfied that we should quite forget +to look at any others. These choice gems are the work of those rare men +of genius who, looking beyond all trivial circumstances and individual +peculiarities, discovered the essential secrets of child-life, and +embodied them in ideal types. They are pictures of _childhood_, rather +than of _children_, representing those phases of thought and emotion +which are peculiar to the child as such, and which all children possess +in common. In their presence every mother spontaneously exclaims, "How +like my own little one!" because the artist has interpreted the real +child nature. Such pictures may justly take rank among the highest +productions of creative art, having proven their claim to greatness by +their unquestioned appeal to universal admiration. + +In work of this kind one name alone is prominent, a name which England +is proud to claim as hers, but to which all the world pays honor,--the +name of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Prince of Child-painters. A simple-hearted +man, of sweet, kindly disposition, the great portrait-painter, bachelor +though he was, possessed in rare measure the mysterious gift of winning +the confidence of children. The great octagonal studio in Leicester +Square must have often resounded to the laughter of childish voices, as +he entertained his little patrons with the pet dogs and birds he used in +their portraits, and coaxed them into good nature with a thousand merry +tricks. Although the greater number of these little people belonged to +the most wealthy and aristocratic families in England, their pictures +do not in any way indicate their rank. Still less do they show any +distinguishing marks of the artificial age in which they lived. Dressed +in the simplest of costumes, of the sort which is never out of fashion +and always in the best taste, and posed in the natural attitudes of +unconscious grace, they are representatives of childhood, pure and +simple, rather than of any particular social class or historical period. + +A list of Sir Joshua's child pictures may suitably begin with one +which, in his own opinion, is among the best and most original of all +his works. This is the Strawberry Girl, exhibited in 1773, and repeated +many times by the painter,--"not so much for the sake of profit," as +Northcote explains, "as for improvement." The model was the artist's +pretty niece, Miss Theophila ("Offy") Palmer, who was named for his +mother, and whom he loved as an own daughter. + +The little girl stands with head slightly drooping, in the sweet, shy +way so natural to a timid child. The big eyes are lifted to ours half +confidingly, half timidly, while a smile hovers bewitchingly over the +mouth. A long, pointed basket hangs on one arm, and the plump hands are +folded together in front like a little woman's. The child wears a +curious round cap on her head, under which, presumably, her hair is +gathered up in womanly fashion, for there are no stray locks to be +seen except the two soft curves on the forehead. Altogether, the figure +presents just that odd commingling of dignity with childish timidity +which we so often notice in our own little maids, and which makes them +at once so lovable and so womanly. + +[Illustration: THE STRAWBERRY GIRL.--REYNOLDS.] + +Some fifteen years after Sir Joshua's niece posed as the Strawberry +Girl, her own little daughter, another "Offy," served the artist uncle +as the model for Simplicity. The great-niece was as lovely a child as +her mother had been, and critics agree in placing Simplicity among the +best works of the painter. The setting is a landscape, in the foreground +of which the child is seated, with her lap full of flowers. The sweet +face is turned aside in a somewhat pensive poise, and the exquisite +purity of its expression is exactly represented by the title. Of a +similar character is the Age of Innocence, which portrays a little girl +looking out into the world with wide eyes and parted lips, a complete +embodiment of the innocence of childhood on the threshold of life. The +face, which is presented in profile, is finely cut, and charmingly +framed in short, clustering curls. + +In looking for ideal types among the child-pictures of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, we need by no means be confined to those which bear fancy +titles. His portraits are as truly interpretative as his imaginative +subjects, and each typifies a distinct element of child-life. The little +Miss Bowles sitting on the ground hugging her dog, and Master Bunbury +looking out of the canvas with breathless eagerness, arouse a universal +interest, which is entirely independent of their individuality. Miss +Frances Harris, the serene, and Miss Penelope Boothby, the demure, will +be loved as child ideals long after their names are forgotten. + +A _protege_ of Reynolds from the first, Lawrence became his successor +as Painter-in-Ordinary to the King, and in process of time rose to the +proud honor of the presidency of the Royal Academy. Holding thus the two +positions which Reynolds had graced so many years, it may be said that +the master's mantle fell upon him more truly than upon any other +follower. + +In technique his painting is criticised by connoisseurs as deficient in +that harmonious blending of the flesh tints with the background which so +delights us in other artists. Then, too, his insight into character was +far less penetrating than that of his predecessor. Nevertheless, his +best work has much of the beauty and animation which we so admire in the +paintings of Reynolds. + +One of his notable pictures is the portrait of Master Lambton, son +of Lord Durham, sometimes called, in imitation of the Blue Boy of +Gainsborough, the Red Boy. The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon +of 1824, where it is said to have completely turned the heads of French +critics, so fascinating was the aristocratic melancholy of the beautiful +boy it represented. + +For a companion piece to this picture, one might choose the portrait of +Mr. Peel's daughter, which is considered an exceptionally fine work. + +Lawrence's groups of mothers with their children are especially worthy +of study. The most famous of these are Lady Dover, with her son, Lord +Clifden, in her arms, and the Countess Gower, with her little daughter +Elizabeth on her lap. + +The latter has been carried by the engraver's art into nearly every +country of the world, and often appears under the title, "Maternal +Love." Both mother and child are looking with intense interest in the +direction toward which the little girl points an eager finger. The +child's face is full of vivacious beauty, the sparkling eyes and parted +lips perfectly representing the alert, imaginative type of child nature. + +The finest of Sir Thomas Lawrence's child pictures is undoubtedly the +portrait of the Calmady children, better known by the title of "Nature." +This is indeed a picture disclosing the essential truth of the child +nature; the two little ones are frolicking together in a perfect abandon +of innocent merriment. + +The pretty story of the sittings in which this portrait was obtained, is +a key to its success. The children romped with the artist as with a boon +companion, and the younger relieved the monotony of the hour by relating +to him the nursery tales of Dame Wiggins, and the Field Mice and +Raspberry Cream. Thus the painter won the confidence of his little +friends, and delineated them in all the fresh charm of their youthful +vivacity. Nature deserves a place beside Simplicity as a true picture of +the heart of childhood. + +But after all has been said concerning the child pictures in any way +similar to those of Sir Joshua Reynolds, it must still be admitted that +his work is entirely unique in what may be termed the _universality_ of +its idealism. Other pictures of child-life there are,--many of them of +equal and even of superior merit as works of art,--which are marked by a +fine quality of idealism; but this idealism is limited in its range to +the delineation of individuals, or of particular classes. These pictures +naturally fall into groups based upon the social classes which they +represent, and by this method of classification, they will be considered +in the subsequent chapters. + +[Illustration: PENELOPE BOOTHBY.--REYNOLDS.] + +Miss Penelope's face is one of the most familiar of Sir Joshua's art +children, and the first favorite with many for the arch loveliness of +her expression. Although her mouth is set in a prim little pucker, we +cannot repress the suspicion that behind it lurks a good deal of +childish fun. The big mob cap and the voluminous mitts add not a little +to the quaint charm of the picture, and make it easily recognized by +many who are otherwise unfamiliar with Reynolds's works. + +As it was a fashion of eighteenth century art to draw subjects largely +from classic mythology, we find among Sir Joshua's child pictures an +Infant Bacchus, an Infant Jupiter, and an Infant Hercules. This last was +painted to fill a commission from the Empress Catherine of Russia, and +is a powerful representation of the young hero, seated on wolf-skins, +strangling serpents. + +Mercury as a Postman and Cupid as a Link-Boy are companion pieces, +painted from the same model,--a mischievous young street boy, whose +simulated gravity is irresistibly droll. The artist's keen sense of +humor is seen again in that most captivating little rogue, Puck. The +saucy elf is perched on a mushroom, resting after a frolic, and +apparently plotting new escapades. + +A complete enumeration and description of Reynolds's child pictures +would fill a bulky volume, so eagerly, through a period of over thirty +years, were the great portrait painter's services demanded by all the +distinguished families of the day. Of special interest and beauty are +some of the portraits of mothers with their children. The lovely Lady +Waldegrave, clasping her babe to her breast, is one of these, while +another is the celebrated beauty, the Duchess of Devonshire, playing +with her infant daughter. A charming group is Lady Cockburn and her +Boys, which has been engraved under the title of the Roman matron +Cornelia and her Children. It is said of this splendid production, that +when it was brought into the Royal Academy exhibition to be hung, it was +greeted by the assembly of painters with a great demonstration of +applause. It is no wonder, then, that this should be one of the few +paintings to which the master attached his signature. + +[Illustration: ANGEL HEADS.--REYNOLDS.] + +Our list of Reynolds's pictures would be defective without some mention +of the famous Angel Heads, which is peculiarly a representative work. It +consists of a cluster of little cherubs, representing, in five different +expressions, the delicate features of a single face, whose original was +Miss Frances Isabella Gordon. Painted in 1786, near the close of his +great career, it seems to gather up into a harmonious whole those +several aspects of childhood which Sir Joshua's long and wide experience +had revealed to him as the typical movements of the child mind. + +The five totally dissimilar expressions embody those varying attitudes +of mind which the child may successively assume in any critical +experience of its young life. The clear-cut profile of the lower face at +the left suggests the face of the child in the Age of Innocence who +first confronts the problem of life. The one just above has the +thoughtful poise of the little girl Simplicity, pondering over an +important question, while the remaining heads stand for those +imaginative and emotional moods which complete the cycle of human +experience. + +The original of this beautiful picture[1] is in the National Gallery at +London, and fortunate indeed are they who have the privilege of standing +before it to delight their eyes with the blonde loveliness of the +sweet faces, framed in aureoles of golden ringlets. + +[Illustration: NATURE.--LAWRENCE.] + +It would be difficult to estimate the incalculable influence which the +life and work of Sir Joshua Reynolds have exerted on the progress of art +in the past century. The influence of his paintings was supplemented by +the series of discourses which it was his duty as President of the +Royal Academy to deliver annually on subjects of art criticism. His +unparalleled success brought forth many followers and imitators; but +among their works few can be selected as worthy presentations of +childhood in ideal types. + +Gainsborough and Romney were considered to some extent the rivals of +Reynolds, but Gainsborough's child pictures were drawn from rustic life, +and Romney's are not worthy of comparison with the master's. We must +turn, then, for the best results of Reynolds's influence to the work of +Sir Thomas Lawrence, who entered upon his career just as the great +portrait-painter was obliged to lay aside his brush from failing sight. + + + + +II. + +CHILDREN BORN TO THE PURPLE. + + + + + For thrones and peoples are as waifs that swing + And float or fall, in endless ebb and flow; + But who love best have best the grace to know + That Love, by right divine, is deathless King. + TENNYSON. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHILDREN BORN TO THE PURPLE. + + +The children of a royal family lead a strange and somewhat lonely life. +Impressed, almost from infancy, with a sense of their superiority, and +recognizing no equals among their companions and playmates, they live +apart in princely isolation, preparing for the future honors which +await them. But even the grave responsibilities of their rank cannot +altogether extinguish the inherent joyousness of youth, and children +will be children to the end of time. The stately ceremonies of the court +have to yield in turn to innocent amusements, and childhood reasserts +its natural right to simple and spontaneous happiness. + +The combination of royal dignity with pure childishness is a unique +subject for art, and one which few have had the genius to portray. Two +great painters are famous in history for their remarkable success in +this line of work,--Van Dyck, of Belgium, and Velasquez, of Spain. + +In many respects the lives of these two painters ran in parallel lines. +They were born in the same year, 1599; and beginning their art studies +when still very young, with great opportunities for the development of +their talent, both had won an enviable reputation by the time they had +reached early manhood. Both held appointments as the court painters +of kings who were unusually liberal and appreciative in their +patronage,--Van Dyck under Charles I. of England, and Velasquez under +Philip IV. of Spain. Both artists drew great inspiration from the +Italian masters, whose works they studied in Venice and Rome, +particularly the great Titian. Here, however, the comparison may end; +for the nature of the subjects which each chose, the influence of their +nationality upon their style, and, above all, their own personal +individuality as artists, have rendered their work strikingly +dissimilar. + +Van Dyck was in every sense a man of the world and a courtier; widely +travelled, broadly cultured, fond of music, brilliant in conversation, +handsome of face, and graceful in bearing, by turns an elegant host and +a distinguished guest. Thus all his thoughts, interests, and pleasures +were thoroughly identified with the court life, and he was peculiarly +fitted for the artistic interpretation of royalty. + +The family of Charles I. of England afforded a most attractive field for +the exercise of the court painter's talent, and many and varied are the +groups in which they were represented.[2] Some of the most interesting +of these are in the collection at Windsor. In one, the king and queen +are seen, with their two sons, Prince Charles and Prince James; while +another portrays the same boys, with their mother, Henrietta Maria. The +latter painting is an exceedingly beautiful work, repaying long study. +The boys have that indefinable air of nobility which Van Dyck knew so +well how to impart to his subjects, and which none can imitate or +explain. Even Prince James, who is an infant in arms, holds his little +head erect, like the prince that he is. The artist has shown us, +however, that royal dignity is by no means incompatible with the true +child nature, and the two young princes are always depicted as genuine +children, with frank, winning faces. + +[Illustration: HEAD OF JAMES, DUKE OF YORK.--VAN DYCK.] + +The most popular of Van Dyck's portraits of the Stuart children is the +famous group at Turin, in which the two young princes, Charles and +James, stand one on each side of their sister Mary. All three bear +themselves with an air of conscious superiority, a gentle and serene +dignity born of their faith in the divine right of kings. Prince Charles +is dressed in scarlet satin, richly embroidered with silver lace, with a +broad lace collar falling over his shoulders. His large round eyes look +out towards the spectator with the dreamy expression of one who builds +splendid air-castles. The Princess Mary is in white satin, and is a +dainty little figure, a second edition of her queen mamma, with ringlets +carefully ranged on each side of her pretty forehead, and her exquisite +hands holding lightly the lustrous folds of her dress. + +The little Prince James is so short that he stands on a platform at the +side, to bring his figure into harmonious relation to the group. His +dress is blue satin, of stiff, full skirt, which, with the close white +cap on his head, makes him a quaint little figure. A chubby, innocent +looking baby, he is nevertheless a personage who fully realizes the +important place he occupies in the family group, and is determined to +fill it with becoming gravity. + +Next in popularity to the Turin picture is a group of five children, the +original of which is at Windsor, and a replica at Berlin. The painting +is dated 1637, fixing the age of Prince Charles as seven. Having now +outgrown the frocks of the earlier pictures, he stands in a graceful +boyish attitude, wearing satin knickerbockers and waistcoat, and still +retaining the beautiful lace collar on his aristocratic shoulders. His +eyes have the same dreamy look as in other portraits. On his right are +his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, the former demurely complacent as +before, the latter timid and dainty. On the left the little Princess +Anne frolics with Prince James in simple childish fashion. As a +composition, the picture is somewhat stiff and artificial, but the +single figures are all rendered with characteristic beauty. + +It is sad to place beside Van Dyck's glowing canvases, the dark pictures +in which historians have painted the after-life of these charming +children. The dreamy-eyed Prince Charles grows at length into the +corrupt and unprincipled King Charles II., whose tyrannies are limited +only by his indolence. The sweet, round-faced baby, Prince James, +becomes King James II., whose reign is even more inglorious than that of +the brother whom he succeeds. The Princess Mary has in the mean time +married Prince William II. of Orange, and now, in England's hour of +need, it is her son, William III. of Orange, who is summoned to the aid +of his mother's native land. With his cousin wife Mary, the daughter of +the unworthy king, he assumes the head of affairs, and wisely conducts +the interests of the people throughout a prosperous reign. + +The fact that the Princess Mary's marriage with William II. of Orange +was productive of so great a benefit to England gives special interest +to Van Dyck's painting of the betrothed lovers, which may now be seen at +Amsterdam. The princess stands on the left side of the picture, bearing +herself with characteristic dignity. Prince William, beside her, holds +her left hand lightly in his right, and turns his face to meet our gaze +with steadfast, serious eyes. He is a fine, manly figure, in every way +the true Prince Charming for his pretty lady-love. Both children have a +thoughtful, intelligent look, far beyond their years, as if conscious +that England's destiny turns upon their union. + +[Illustration: PRINCESS MARY AND PRINCE OF ORANGE.--VAN DYCK.] + +From Van Dyck's exquisitely idealized portraits of royal children we +turn to the work of Velasquez, to find a faithful reproduction of the +totally different type of child-life represented at the court of Spain. +Appointed court painter at the age of twenty-four, and retaining this +connection until his death, in 1660, the Spanish artist has left to +posterity a vivid panorama of the royal life at Madrid during a period +of nearly forty years. His delineations are so realistic, his technique +is so masterly, his posing of figures so entirely natural, that his +pictures seem to place the living reality before us. Often representing +the characters he painted as occupied in their customary daily pursuits, +his works are a truthful reflection of the life of his times, and are as +full of historical interest as of artistic merit. + +The court to which the young painter was introduced in 1623 might almost +be called A Court of Boys, the king, Philip IV., being but eighteen +years of age, and his two brothers, the Cardinal Infant Don Fernando, +and the Prince Carlos, seventeen and thirteen respectively. The youthful +king was, of course, his first royal patron, and was painted in a +magnificent equestrian portrait, which at once established the artist's +fame. + +With the birth of the king's first child, the Prince Balthasar Carlos, +in 1629, the court painter's duties began in earnest; and from that time +on he was most assiduous in portraying the royal family. + +Prince Balthasar was represented in almost every imaginable position, +first as a tiny child in frocks, and later as a young boy in court +dress,[3] military costume, or hunting-garb. + +In his most attractive portraits he is a gallant young horseman, seated +with an easy grace, as if born to the saddle. Two of these are scenes +in the riding-school, and are admirable compositions. The most +remarkable, however, is that in the Madrid Museum, in which the little +prince rides alone on a bright bay. The beautiful pony bounds out of the +picture with great spirit and grace, guided by his happy, round-faced +rider, whose right hand lifts a baton, and whose left holds the bridle. +The brilliant colors of his riding-costume make the picture exceedingly +effective in rich, warm tints,--the green velvet jacket and the +red-and-gold scarf,--while the young cavalier's fluttering streamers and +the horse's sweeping mane and tail give a swift breezy motion to the +whole scene. + +Next in age to Prince Balthasar came the Princess Maria Theresa, who +afterwards became the queen of Louis XIV. of France. Velasquez painted +various portraits of this little princess to be sent to the European +courts where negotiations for her marriage were under consideration; +but, unhappily, the fate of most of these is shrouded in mystery. One +interesting painting, however, may be seen in the Royal Gallery at +Madrid.[4] The child has a sweet, demure face, which seems very narrow +and delicate-looking in its broad frame of elaborately arranged hair. +Her bearing is dignified, in spite of her uncomfortable dress. In one +hand she carries an immense handkerchief, and in the other a rose, both +resting lightly on the outer edge of the huge hemisphere, of which her +slender figure forms, as it were, the central axis. Her sad and lonely +after-life as a neglected queen, in the gay and dissolute French court, +makes the picture singularly pathetic. There is a look of sweet patience +in the face, which seems to anticipate the coming years. + +[Illustration: PRINCESS MARIA THERESA.--VELASQUEZ.] + +By King Philip's second marriage he brought to the Spanish court as +his wife the Princess Mariana of Austria, who was then only fourteen +years of age. The young queen was of course frequently portrayed by the +court painter, but she did not make a very attractive subject for his +skill, with her rather dull eyes and her full lips, and cheeks +plentifully bedaubed with rouge. + +As there was a difference of but three years in the ages of the +child-wife and the Princess Maria Theresa, the two were constant +companions; and when the Princess Margaret was christened, the elder +sister stood as godmother with great dignity. A pretty story is related +that on the way to the chapel for the christening, Maria Theresa let +slip from her finger a costly ring, which a poor woman picked up to +return to her. "Keep it," said the little princess, with true royal +tact; "God has sent it to you." + +The Princess Margaret became the darling of the court, and her blonde +beauty is immortalized in many portraits by Velasquez. The most famous +of these is the picture called "Las Meninas," or The Maids of Honor, in +which the young princess is the central figure of a group of devoted +attendants. The composition is a veritable masterpiece, representing +with perfect naturalness a daily scene in the palace. The princess rules +with a sweet, complacent smile, and one can well imagine what an object +of admiration her fair hair and blue eyes must have been among the +swarthy, dark-eyed Spaniards. + +[Illustration: PRINCESS MARGARET.--VELASQUEZ.] + +Another celebrated painting of the same child is in the Louvre at Paris, +where it is a centre of attraction for art lovers and copyists, on +account of the exquisite delicacy of its technique. It is a half-length +portrait, showing a winning face, with wide, earnest eyes, and a +demure little mouth. The fair hair is parted at one side, where it is +caught back with a ribbon bow,--a style which the princess is said to +have retained even after her marriage with the Emperor Leopold. + +From an artist's point of view, the beauty of the Velasquez child +portraits is greatly injured by the grotesque fashions of the times. A +long stiff corset and an immense oval hoop entirely precluded any +possibility of grace in the attitude of the little princesses, while a +ridiculously artificial style of dressing the hair completed the +absurdity of a costume which was the laughing-stock of Europe. + +Van Dyck was in this respect far more fortunate in his surroundings, and +the full, lustrous folds of satin in which the English royal children +were arrayed, gave him ample scope for an exquisite disposition of light +and shade. + +Independently of purely artistic principles, we should be sorry to +lose from the pictures of either artist that element of interest and +fascination which the costumes of an earlier epoch always arouse. The +Princess Maria Theresa would be less interesting without her big hoop, +and the Princess Mary less dignified without her voluminous satin; +Charles would scarcely be the prince that he is, if lacking his broad +lace collar, and Prince Balthasar would lose much of his charm, deprived +of his red and green bravery. There is, in fact, no detail in any of +these pictures which does not throw light upon the phase of life which +they portray. + +Other great masters besides Van Dyck and Velasquez have been called to +the portraiture of royalty,--Titian,[5] Holbein,[6] Rubens,--but for +various reasons they painted but few pictures of royal children, and +these are by no means notable when compared with their other works. + +Van Dyck and Velasquez, therefore, stand out the more prominently for +this unique class of court portraits, and so long as their works endure, +they will take first rank as a revelation of the peculiar grace and +charm of the life of children born to the purple. + + + + +III. + +THE CHILDREN OF FIELD AND VILLAGE. + + + + + O for boyhood's painless play, + Sleep that wakes in laughing day, + Health that mocks the doctor's rules, + Knowledge never learned of schools, + Of the wild bee's morning chase, + Of the wild-flower's time and place, + Flight of fowl, and habitude + Of the tenants of the wood;-- + + For, eschewing books and tasks, + Nature answers all he asks; + Hand in hand with her he walks, + Face to face with her he talks, + Part and parcel of her joy,-- + Blessings on the barefoot boy! + WHITTIER. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CHILDREN OF FIELD AND VILLAGE. + + +The most fortunate children in the world are those whose first lessons +in life have been learned on the lap of Mother Nature. Taught by her to +know and love all the beautiful things of the glad green earth; versed +in the mystic language of woodland birds and beasts; trained to the +skilful use of eye and muscle,--they possess the secret of a happiness +which knows no equal. Theirs is a life of perfect liberty, untrammelled +by the false conventions of society, uninjured by over-indulgence, +untainted by contact with vice. Growing up under these conditions into a +healthy and vigorous beauty, the children of field and village have +long been a source of delight and inspiration to both poet and painter. + +In _genre_ painting, Holland gave the initiative to the art world in the +works of Jan Steen, the Teniers, and others. The influence of the Dutch +school at length made itself felt in England; and after the renaissance +of British art, in the middle of the eighteenth century, many painters +arose to interpret the conditions of rustic life peculiar to England. + +First on this list stands the name of Thomas Gainsborough.[7] From early +boyhood he loved nature with all the intensity of a true artist's soul, +and many picturesque scenes in the vicinity of his native Sudbury were +indelibly impressed upon his youthful mind. Later in life, when at the +height of his success as a great London painter, his favorite summer +resort was Richmond, where, wandering about the country from day to day, +he met many an interesting village child whose face was transferred +to his canvas. Fortunate little models, these; for the artist always +rewarded them for their sittings with lavish generosity. + +[Illustration: RUSTIC CHILDREN.--GAINSBOROUGH.] + +One particular boy, Jack Hill by name, so charmed Gainsborough that he +actually adopted the lad, and immortalized his handsome features in two +paintings.[8] Jack Hill did not live up to his privileges, and, +preferring his old free life to the restrictions of a more elegant +household, he ran away. He was, however, never forgotten; and after +Gainsborough died, his good widow provided amply for the youth's +welfare. + +Perhaps the most extensively known of all Gainsborough's delineations of +country child-life is the Rustic Children of the National Gallery. The +central figure is a young girl, standing, with a child in her arms; a +boy sits on the bank beside her with a bundle of fagots. The group is +artistically conceived, with one of Gainsborough's characteristic +landscapes as a background, showing a cottage home. The children are +graceful and natural, with that indefinable poetic charm peculiar to the +painter's work. + +A picture attracting a great deal of admiration in the lifetime of +Gainsborough, was the Boy at the Stile. While this treasure was still in +the hands of the artist, he was visited one day by Colonel Hamilton, +then considered the finest violinist of his times. Gainsborough, a +devoted lover of music, begged him to play, and when the first air was +finished, rapturously exclaimed, "Now, my dear Colonel, if you will but +go on, I will give you that picture of the Boy at the Stile, which you +so wished to purchase of me." + +In half an hour the prize was won, and both parties were well satisfied +with the agreement. + +In studying Gainsborough's rustic children as a class, it is noticeable +that he emphasizes the pathetic side of their life; instead of a +thrifty, tidy appearance, in which England's village children are by no +means lacking, he gives his subjects a careless, neglected air. The +Rustic Children of the National Gallery are unnecessarily ragged; their +hair is wild and dishevelled, and their general appearance untidy. Many +of the children of the most celebrated pictures are attractive from a +delicate, refined beauty, rather than from the robust and healthy +vitality we naturally associate with country life. This makes their +surroundings incongruous, and we feel sorry that they are not in their +true sphere. The child who stands, half-clad, before the hearth-fire, in +the painting called the "Little Cottager," has the delicate features of +a true aristocrat. No cottage boy this, with shapely hands and large, +melancholy eyes. His wistfulness is so touching that we would fain +snatch him from his surroundings, and set him down amidst the soft +luxuries which belong to him by right. + +The Shepherd Boy in a Storm has the face and expression of a poet, as he +lifts his beautiful eyes to the overhanging clouds, with nothing of fear +or shrinking, but with apparent admiration for the grandeur of Nature. + +Gainsborough painted many scenes of child-life in which animals are +introduced, as in the picture of a girl holding a child on a donkey, and +in one representing two shepherd boys looking on at fighting dogs. He +did not hesitate before a subject which would have appalled most +artists, and which, in other hands, would have been vulgar and +common,--A Girl Feeding Pigs. This he painted with such skill that +Reynolds instantly recognized its greatness, and eagerly purchased it +for a sum far in advance of the price modestly named by the painter. The +amusing anecdote is related concerning this work that a countryman, who +studied it attentively some time, gave it as his opinion that "they be +deadly like pigs; but nobody ever saw pigs feeding together but what one +on 'em had a foot in the trough." + +Gainsborough[9] is pronounced by Ruskin the purest colorist of the +English school, taking rank beside Rubens, and adding a lustre to the +fame of British art which time can do nothing to dim. His style is so +peculiarly individual in its characteristics that it cannot properly +be compared with that of any other artist; but his predilection for +subjects drawn from rural child-life finds a parallel in the work of his +French contemporary, Jean Baptiste Greuze.[10] + +The pictures by which Greuze made his early reputation, and which +perhaps he never excelled in later times, were the Father Explaining the +Bible to his Children,[11] and the Village Bride.[12] Both represent +family scenes among village people, and contain, as their most charming +features, some delightfully natural children. One could scarcely find +anything more deliciously childlike than the mischievous little ones who +gather about the table to listen to the Father Explaining the Bible, and +whose love of fun even this solemn occasion cannot repress. Equally +attractive are the young people gathering affectionately and tearfully +about their pretty elder sister, the Village Bride, who comes with her +lover to receive the parental blessing. + +The appearance of these two compositions made their artist famous, +and won for him the ardent admiration and powerful friendship of the +encyclopaedist Diderot. Continuing his work along this new[13] line of +subjects, Greuze went on to paint many other scenes in the child-life +of the country. Two notable companion pictures of this kind are the +Departure of the Cradle, and the Return from the Nurse, founded upon +a phase of French village life quite unknown in many other countries, +namely, the custom among busy working-people of sending their infants +out to board with nurses. Unnatural as was the custom, it by no means +indicated a lack of family affection, as is seen in these charming +compositions. In both cases, the child, at first an infant, and later +a little boy a year or two old, is the centre of the group, fondled and +admired by all. + +The pre-eminence of Greuze was due not only to the entire novelty of his +chosen range of subjects, but to the exquisite beauty of his technique. +He excelled in painting those fresh carnations, "mixed with lilies and +roses," as the French used to say, and diversified with blue-gray +shadows and warm reflected light. Such characteristics are easily +carried to extremes, and were often exaggerated by Greuze himself; but +when held in true control they are a delight to the eye of the true +color-lover. + +An example of his coloring, in its most lovely aspects, is the Trumpet. +The scene is a cottage interior, in which a young mother, with a babe in +her arms, sits beside a cradle containing another little one, and turns +to quiet her roguish boy, who stands somewhat sulkily by her chair, +reluctant to forego the pleasure of blowing on his trumpet. "Silence! do +not awaken him!" is what the mother seems to say; and these words form +the title under which the picture first appeared. + +Greuze could not altogether escape the blight of that artificiality +which was everywhere characteristic of his times, and nowhere more +conspicuous than in France. "Soyez piquant, si vous ne pouvez pas etre +vrai," was his advice to a fellow artist, Ducreux; and his own work too +often shows evidence of the sacrifice of truth to piquancy. His single +figures and heads are not, as a class, so true to nature as his +compositions, although they are much better known to the public. +Scattered far and wide through all the great art galleries of the world, +they have been greatly admired for their delicate coloring, and for +those qualities of prettiness which are always attractive. + +Nearly all these purport to be representations of children, but they are +certainly not like the children of our own households, nor, indeed, like +those of the same artist's domestic pictures. They reverse the proverb, +by being young heads on old shoulders, the face and features of +childhood on the mature and well-developed figure of womanhood. The +expression, too, is a curious combination of childlike simplicity with +the sentimental melancholy of young maidenhood; and one cannot escape +the impression that the models are not genuine peasant children, but +pretty and somewhat worldly young women, masquerading in pastoral +costumes for a fancy ball. + +From the long list of examples of this class, both figures and heads, a +few well-known subjects will suggest the type: The Milkmaid, the Little +Pouter, Simplicity, the Girl with an Orange, and the Broken Pitcher. + +[Illustration: THE BROKEN PITCHER.--GREUZE.] + +The last is probably more familiar than any other work of Greuze. It +attained an immense popularity in the lifetime of the artist, attracting +many people to his studio. Among the visitors was Mademoiselle +Philipon, afterwards known to fame as Madame Roland, and her delightful +description[14] gives a complete idea of the picture:-- + +"It is a little girl, naive, fresh, charming, who has just broken her +pitcher; she holds it on her arm, near the fountain where the accident +occurred. Her eyes are downcast, her lips half parted; she tries to +account for her mishap, and does not know if she is in fault. Nothing +could be more piquant and charming. The only criticism one could suggest +is that Monseiur Greuze has not made the little maid sorry enough, so +that in the future she will not be tempted to return to the fountain!" + +The heroine of the broken pitcher is dressed in white, has blue eyes and +auburn hair, cherry lips, and pink-and-white complexion. + +For twenty-five years Greuze was the fashion in Paris. With all his +faults, he was immeasurably superior to his French contemporaries, and +his work was a decided step towards a new era. With the great political +and social changes inaugurated in France early in the nineteenth +century, an entirely new style of art, literary and graphic, was made +possible, and a new school of painters arose to portray French peasant +life. + +No modern artist has chosen a field which exactly corresponds to that of +Greuze, the tendency being rather to neglect the child element to which +he devoted so much energy. One painter may be mentioned, however, who +has contributed a few valuable additions to this department of +art,--William Adolphe Bouguereau. + +The remarkable number of works which Bouguereau has produced since his +first great success in 1854 have made him distinguished for a large +variety of subjects; but the pictures by which he has touched the hearts +of the people are those in which he portrays the peasants of his own +sunny land,--sweet, shy, dark-eyed girls, with masses of black hair +pushed back loosely from their foreheads. + +One is a Little Shepherdess, who stands with careless grace poising a +crook across her shoulders, while her eyes meet ours with a frank yet +modest gaze. Again the same girl rests from her labors, sitting on a +stone, lost in revery. Another sweet child is the girl seated by a well, +with a broken pitcher lying on the ground beside her. Her hands are +clasped on her knee, as she bends slightly forward in a pensive +attitude, her large eyes full of childish pathos. Cajolery also belongs +to this set, and is so named from the caresses with which a little girl +begs some favor of an older sister, whose merry eyes show that she +fully understands the secrets of child diplomacy. + +Younger than any of these children is the bewitching little gypsy, whose +tangled curls frame a round, dimpled face, with rosebud mouth, and big +black eyes looking bashfully askance. There is a peculiar charm in the +child's shyness, as if, like some wild creature of the woods, she would +turn and flee before a nearer approach. + +Bouguereau's work, academic in style, and always refined and elegant in +manner, has qualities of artistic excellence which place him in the +foremost rank; and we are glad to believe that for many generations to +come his lovely little peasant girls will be widely known and loved. + +[Illustration: CHILD HEAD.--BOUGUEREAU.] + +From the dark-eyed children of sunny France to the fair-haired sons +and daughters of the Saxon race is a long step, which introduces us +to child-life of a totally different type. Childhood in the rural +districts of Germany and Switzerland has been very completely portrayed +by Johann Georg Meyer, better known as Meyer von Bremen,--the name he +has taken in honor of his native city. + +With an intense sympathy for all the pleasures of childhood, Meyer +unites a wonderfully delicate sense of the artistic and picturesque. His +fertility of invention seems well-nigh inexhaustible. He has given us +cottage scenes and out-of-door life with impartial liberality, and has +shown equal skill of treatment, whether he handles groups or single +figures. + +His subjects are drawn largely from life in the Hessian, Bavarian, and +Swiss Alps, where he has carefully studied the manners and customs of +the people. The cottage interiors have all the characteristic quaintness +and charm of these peasant homes. High wooden chairs, of the +"fiddle-back" pattern, are the conspicuous pieces of furniture; rich +old cabinets stand against the walls, and oddly shaped earthern jars are +ranged on shelves. The light comes through little diamond-paned windows, +and gleams on floors of hard wood, unadorned with carpet or rug. In +these surroundings, groups of flaxen-haired children sport in all the +sweet innocence of healthy, happy childhood. Sometimes they gather +eagerly about the table to play with their Pet Canary; at another time +they cluster about their mother's knee to peep admiringly at the +wonderful new baby in her arms, and to hear the mysterious announcement +that The Storks Brought It. Again, the centre of their attention is the +tiny brother gleefully taking his first uncertain steps towards the +outstretched arms of his young mother. + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE RABBIT-SELLER.--MEYER VON BREMEN.] + +The out-of-door scenes have the picturesque mountain scenery of the Alps +for their background, and sometimes a pretty cottage is included in +the scene. A characteristic example is the Little Rabbit-Seller. A group +of children gather round a little girl, who carries, suspended from her +shoulders, a large basket of rabbits. Two of the number peep with +intense interest into the basket, delighted with the opportunity to feed +the pretty creatures. The others are talking with the young merchant,--a +school-boy with book satchel held behind him, and an older girl holding +a curly-haired child on her back. The pure, gentle face of the young +girl is one not to be easily forgotten, and which reappears on other +canvases of the artist. The affectionate care of this older sister for +the child she carries is one of many instances in which the same trait +is shown in Meyer's pictures, and is eminently characteristic of the +Germans. + +The earnest piety in which the children of these simple-hearted people +are reared is beautifully expressed in the companion pictures, Morning +Prayer and Evening Prayer, as well as in one called Simple Devotion, +where a little girl offers a bouquet to the Virgin of a wayside shrine. + +In whatever mood the children are portrayed, they are always entirely +unconscious of observers, never posing for the artist, but caught +unawares on his canvas, in the midst of their pursuits. In this way they +always make pictures with "stories" in them, of just the kind to delight +the heart of a child. + +Such art carries a beautiful and enduring lesson, whether the scenes it +represents are German or French, English or American. In these visions +of the simple and joyous life of the country, we are brought, as it +were, face to face with Nature, to enjoy her sweetest and most +beneficent influence. + + + + +IV. + +THE CHILD-LIFE OF THE STREETS. + + + + + When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend nor a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; + When I could not sleep for cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain! + LOWELL. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE CHILD-LIFE OF THE STREETS. + + +Ragged, dirty, and unkempt; untrained in all the pretty graces of +refinement; deprived of all the fostering care of the home, how can the +children of the street afford the artist any subjects for his canvas? +Because, in spite of deprivation and poverty, they possess the +imperishable treasure of a happy heart; and happiness is the true secret +of the beauty of childhood. The child's buoyant vitality is proof +against any disadvantages in his external surroundings; for his horizon +is limited to the present. Yesterday's hunger is quickly forgotten in +to-day's plenty; the fatigue of the morning's toil vanishes in the +evening's frolic; even the wounds of a cruel blow are readily healed by +a friendly word. Unconscious of any disparity between himself and +others, he is equally contented with his lot, whether his clothing be +velvet or rags, whether his play-ground be a royal park or the streets +of a great city. + +The artistic possibilities of street material lay long undiscovered +through the first centuries of the Art Renaissance, when the subjects +were chiefly religious and mythological. It is then to Murillo and his +matchless pictures of the beggar boys of Seville that we may attribute +the real origin of this department of _genre_ painting. Murillo had +himself known something of poverty and homelessness. Left an orphan at +the age of eleven, he was thrown entirely upon his own resources at +nineteen, his equipment for life being a few years' apprenticeship in +the studio of his uncle, Juan del Castillo. In the years of hard work +that followed, he laid the foundations of a career destined to be one of +the most notable in the history of art. + +[Illustration: BEGGAR BOYS.--MURILLO.] + +There was held one day every week, in a large public square of Seville, +an open-air market called the _Feria_, at which meat and fish, fruit and +vegetables, old clothes and old iron, were heaped upon stalls or piled +upon the pavement for the examination of customers. Last but not least +of all the commodities here displayed were paintings, offered for sale +by the artists themselves, who were supplied with brushes and colors to +adapt the details to the purchasers' taste. It may be imagined that +these pictures of the _Feria_ were not works of high art, nor was there +much stimulus to artistic talent in their production. Nevertheless, it +was in this business that the young Murillo began his career; and it +was in this way, doubtless, that he came to observe closely, and to +store up in his artist's memory the picturesque effects among the +children who swarmed in the sunny square. Perfect types of glowing +health were these nut-brown sons and daughters of Andalusia, enjoying +life with the indolence and simple merriment characteristic of a +southern race. It was Murillo's delight to portray them in their +happiest moods. Sometimes they are playing games on the pavement, as in +the Dice Players; again, they are feasting upon the luscious native +fruits, as in the celebrated pictures of the Munich Gallery. With what +delicious enjoyment do the little vagabonds poise above their open +mouths a cluster of purple grapes or a slice of rich melon! Their ragged +garments scarcely suffice to cover them; their arms and legs are bare; +their abundant dark curls have known no combing, and they are +undeniably dirty. And yet they are perfectly charming. The rich tints of +their sunburned skin; the dark liquid eyes of the Spanish race; the +beautiful curves of their plump necks and shoulders; the free grace of +their attitudes,--all combine to make them picturesque and attractive. + +The dirt is rendered with an unsparing realism which, in a few +instances, is carried beyond the limits of good taste. Such is the case +with El Piojoso of the Louvre, which represents a little beggar removing +vermin from his body, and which Mr. Ruskin has severely denounced. +Another picture in Munich, and one at St. Petersburg, belong to the same +class; but these may be considered exceptions to the rule. The general +statement holds true, that the real _motif_ of Murillo's beggar-boy +pictures is the simple, natural enjoyment which may render attractive, +and even beautiful, the most unlovely surroundings. + +The artist shows a fine insight into human nature in his appreciation of +the companionship between the street boy and the small dog. The famous +Beggar-boy of the Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg is a capital +example. The boy, standing by a wall, with a basket of fruit in his +hand, turns to smile at his dog, with a perfect expression of good +comradeship. In several other paintings, where the boys are eating, a +little dog stands by, watching the tempting morsels enviously, with the +hope of getting a share in due time. + +England is especially rich in examples of Murillo's street scenes. +Besides the well-known picture in the National Gallery, there are three +fine works at Dulwich College,[15] and many others scattered through the +galleries of private collectors. This fact may be the reason that +Murillo was first popularly known in England for this class of +subjects, rather than for his religious art. + +One of Murillo's most ardent admirers among modern English artists is +Mrs. Henry M. Stanley, first known in the art world as Dorothy Tennant. +She gayly avers that the most interesting object to her, when as a small +girl she was taken for her daily walk, was "some dear little child in +tatters." The small young lady's interest in street children was +something more than philanthropic; it was intensely artistic. As soon as +she could wield a pencil, she began to make ragamuffin pictures, and to +dream of a career as the "champion painter of the poor." Gifted with a +keen sense of humor, she was quick to see the happy side of a life whose +exterior is apparently one of misery; and it was this side which she +determined to portray. Murillo's happy beggar boys were her ideal; +Hogarth's work also commanded her admiration. Following in the +footsteps of these great predecessors, she sought for her models "the +merry, reckless, happy-go-lucky urchin; the tomboy girl; and the plump, +untidy mother, dancing and tossing her ragged baby." + +Such subjects would naturally be more difficult to find in London than +in Seville; and one could not walk about the streets of the bleak +northern metropolis without seeing many little waifs whose pitiable +condition contrasts sadly with the jocund poverty of Murillo's +Andalusian beggars. Thus it is that, in spite of the most cheerful +intentions, Mrs. Stanley has often produced pictures full of pathos. The +wan little violinist, sitting on the edge of his poor bed, and clasping +his sister in his arms, is a sad little figure. Another picture, that +brings tears of sympathy to our eyes, is the hungry-looking boy, also +a violinist, gazing wistfully into the window of a pastry-cook's, where +a placard proclaims that hot dinners are five-pence. Equally pathetic is +a scene inside the same shop, where a little waif is held, fainting, in +the arms of the proprietor, while other children gather round to see. + +[Illustration: LONDON STREET ARABS.--DOROTHY STANLEY.] + +It is a relief to turn from these to the subjects which are the artist's +most characteristic field, and to enjoy with her the romps and pranks of +the street Arabs. A clever picture of this class is the big boy using a +smaller one as a wheelbarrow, the small boy's arms supporting the +machine, and his legs furnishing the handles. Of kindred nature is a +sort of double pick-a-back, or pyramid, in which three ragged urchins +are enjoying themselves hugely in the attempt to carry out so remarkable +a feat. In the line of gymnastics, also, is the really admirable +painting exhibited at the New Gallery in 1890, which portrays three +delicious youngsters turning somersaults over a rail, while a little +girl at each end looks on admiringly. The original of the little chap +hanging head downward may have been the "Boy Taylor," of dragon fame, of +whom the artist writes in her "Street Arabs." Having once figured in a +circus as a green demon, or dragon, his experience made him very quick +at catching attitudes; and, proud of his powers of endurance, he begged +Mrs. Stanley to paint him standing on his head, assuring her that he +preferred that position to any other! + +Larger pictures of merry street life are a company of young people +dancing to the music of a hand-organ, a group of children playing +blind-man's buff, and so many others that the description would become +tiresome. Many of these were made to illustrate children's stories in +"Little Folks" and the "Quiver," while others adorn the collections of +fortunate possessors. All of them illustrate admirably the artist's firm +conviction that "no ragamuffin is ever common or vulgar." + +The sympathetic interest and enthusiasm which Mrs. Stanley has shown for +the London street Arab finds an interesting parallel in the work of +Marie Bashkirtseff. Though Russian by birth, Mademoiselle Bashkirtseff +passed the greater part of her short life in France, and, belonging to a +wealthy and distinguished family, was educated amidst all the luxuries +and gayeties of fashionable Parisian life. But the girl's indomitable +spirit was not to be hindered by the bonds of social restraint, and she +devoted herself to art with an almost passionate intensity. Struggling +constantly against the inroads of a fatal disease, and cut down on the +very threshold of life, she produced but few works to show to the world +what heights she was capable of attaining. Of these, the two which rank +first, and which are best known to her admirers, are studies of the +Paris _gamin_. + +Jean and Jacques was exhibited at the Salon of 1883, and not only won +the high praise of many eminent artists, but also received "honorable +mention" from the committee. The picture is described in the artist's +journal as "two little boys, who are walking along the pavement, holding +each other by the hand; the elder, a boy of seven, holds a leaf between +his teeth, and looks straight before him into space; the other, a couple +of years younger, has one hand thrust into the pocket of his little +trousers, and is regarding the passers-by." + +Scarcely had this picture been completed, when another street scene +suddenly flashed upon the imagination of the ambitious young painter, +and she straightway set to work upon it. The result was The Meeting, +exhibited at the Salon of 1884. It represents a group of six boys, +standing at a street corner, engaged in plotting some mischief. From +the oldest, a school-boy of twelve, to the little fellow in a pinafore, +they are intent, eager, alert; absorbed in the scheme which they are +discussing. They have sometimes been criticised for being ugly; but as +the artist wittily says, "One does not see such miracles of beauty among +the little boys who run about the streets," and the models were chosen +for the _expressiveness_ of their faces. + +The painting met with instantaneous approval, not only from eminent +artists, but from the public, whose judgment on such subjects is even +more conclusive. All the leading periodicals obtained permission to +engrave it, and it became the talk of the hour. The signature, "M. +Bashkirtseff," left the sex of the artist an open question, and there +were those who could not believe that it was the work of a woman, and +a young one at that. + +[Illustration: THE MEETING.--MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF.] + +Mademoiselle Bashkirtseff found great amusement in visiting the +exhibition, watching the people look at her picture, and laughing in +her sleeve to imagine their amazement should they know that the +elegantly dressed young lady sitting near it was the artist. + +The sequel is full of pathos. In spite of all the praises heaped upon +it, The Meeting did not receive a medal. To the ambitious young girl the +disappointment was most humiliating, and with characteristic sincerity +she did not try to conceal her indignation and chagrin. Justice came at +last, but all too late. When the bright young hopes were stilled in the +quiet of death, the picture was honored with a place in the Luxembourg, +where it hangs to-day, an admirable representation of that most +interesting genus, the Paris _gamin_. + +The American street boy is a distinct type: his ambition is to rise in +the world. Wealth, fame, and power may be his, if he will but labor to +attain them, and to this end he throws himself ardently into the +building of a career. For a certain portion of the day he is a man of +affairs. Dashing through the net-work of wheels, in the thickest traffic +of crowded thoroughfares, jumping on and off moving cars and carriages, +pushing his way with untiring zeal, he shows a reckless daring and a +dauntless energy which are unmatched among any other people. His duties +done, he is a gentleman of leisure. He may amuse himself now as he +pleases, and his recreations show the same versatility displayed in his +business enterprises. Possessed of a lively imagination and a keen sense +of humor, he is never at a loss for a source of fun. He is as generous +as he is mischievous, always willing to share his good things with his +companions. Altogether, he is an interesting and attractive figure, and +it is no wonder that he has long since made his appearance on the +canvas. + +[Illustration: CASTLES IN SPAIN.--JOHN G. BROWN.] + +Probably the most conspicuous painter of American street subjects is +John George Brown, of New York. A resident of this city for more than +forty years, Mr. Brown has made it his life-work to study the character +and customs of the poorer classes of children. Newsboys and boot-blacks +are his special friends, and among them he finds many fine examples of +the best characteristics of human nature. + +The Wounded Playfellow shows how easily the street boy's sympathies are +touched by the suffering of an animal. A little urchin carefully holds a +dog in his arms, while another deftly binds a bandage about the poor +creature's broken leg. A third boy and a small girl are the interested +spectators. The intense and eager interest with which the entire group +regard the operation is admirably portrayed. + +The natural bent of Young America towards politics and oratory is seen +in the Stump Speech, an oil painting which was exhibited at the +Columbian Exposition. + +Mr. Brown uses water colors, as well as oils, for a medium of +expression, being the president of the Water Color Society, which he +helped to found. An example of this kind of work is his picture called +"Free from Care." A bright-faced boot-black stands leaning against a +wall, with one thumb thrust in his trousers pocket, and a general air of +having thrown aside business responsibility for a good time. + +Equally "free from care," and happy in this privilege, is the boy, +seated on a box, blowing soap-bubbles. His simple delight in this +innocent pastime, and the almost dreamy look with which he watches the +fairy bubble, show a hitherto unsuspected vein of poetry in the +street-boy nature. + +The boot-black appears ordinarily in the most prosaic light, as a +practical individual, whose chief concern is the struggle for daily +bread. But this is only half the truth. Under his rough exterior he +hides a heart keenly responsive to beauty. His youthful imagination is, +in Lowell's happy phrase, a veritable Aladdin's lamp, with which he +transforms the meagreness of his surroundings into the splendid luxuries +of a castle in Spain. + + + + +V. + +CHILD-ANGELS. + + + + + He shall give his angels charge over thee, + To keep thee in all thy ways. + They shall bear thee up in their hands, + Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. + PSALM XCI. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHILD-ANGELS. + + +To represent the perfect innocence and purity of an angel, a being whose +native atmosphere is the very presence of God, a creature not subject to +the limitations of physical laws, ever speeding on divine errands from +heaven to earth and back again to heaven, nothing could be more natural +than that art should use the face and form of innocent human childhood. + +Child-angels were first seen in art during the Italian Renaissance, and +formed a conspicuous feature in the religious paintings of the period. +One of the most interesting and beautiful forms in which they appear is +as a great host, or "glory," filling the background of a composition. + +From the announcement of the Saviour's birth to the Galilean shepherds, +to the vision of Saint John on the Isle of Patmos, we find various +allusions in the New Testament to the presence of angel companies in the +affairs of human life. It was therefore entirely legitimate and +appropriate to introduce a visible embodiment of the heavenly hosts into +the many sacred scenes portrayed in art, whether these were +representations of the actual incidents of Bible history, or the +imaginative embodiments of religious ideals. + +The Sistine Madonna suggests itself at once as a most beautiful +illustration. The entire canvas is studded with tiny child faces, +delicately outlined,--a veritable cloud of witnesses, dissolving into +the golden glory with which they are surrounded. What a contrast is the +exquisite spirituality of this conception to Perugino's angel glories, +where baby faces, each with six many-hued wings are ranged at regular +intervals throughout the composition! + +A less notable example of Raphael's unique treatment of the angel host +is in his Vision of Ezekiel, a small painting of earlier date than the +Sistine Madonna. Here the idea is manifestly drawn from the prophet's +description of his vision of the four living creatures in a great amber +wheel, which was "full of eyes." + +Turning from Raphael's clouds of dimly suggested cherub faces to those +representations of the angel throngs in which the child forms are more +distinctly delineated, we find that the great masters have made use of +the myriad figures to express a corresponding variety in mood and +character. Thus, when the emotions of the principal personage in a +composition are too complex to be adequately expressed on a single +countenance, the angel faces surrounding may each, in turn, convey some +one of the many aspects of thought or feeling which go to make up the +entire conception. + +The Crucifixion[16] is a striking instance of the mingling, of +contrasted emotions,--bodily suffering and spiritual victory, worldly +defeat and heavenly triumph,--all of which cannot be depicted on the +face of the Christ, but which a throng of attendant cherubs may fully +interpret. The same principle is illustrated in the many scenes of which +the Madonna is the central figure, as the Immaculate Conception, the +Assumption, and the Coronation. + +[Illustration: FRAGMENT FROM THE ASSUMPTION.--TITIAN.] + +Of such paintings, Titian's Assumption is the most splendid example. +The ascending, Virgin is surrounded by a wreath of child-angels, of +surpassing grace and beauty. It is of these that Mrs. Jameson has +written, in her incomparable way, that they are "mind and music and +love, kneaded, as it were, into form and color." From a compositional +point of view they serve an important purpose in directing the attention +of the spectator to the principal figure of the picture. All the +gracefully intertwined limbs of the angelic host--outstretched arms and +floating figures,--form the radii of a great semicircle centering in the +beautiful Madonna. + +If Titian's child-angels stand for the highest attainment in the +idealization of child beauty, those of Rubens, on the other hand, are +the most human and lovable ever conceived in art. Their lovely baby +forms cluster in countless numbers about the glorified Virgin, joyously +bearing palm and wreath in token of her triumph. + +The name of Murillo also occupies the first rank in the delineation of +companies of child-angels. Called in turn the Titian and the Rubens of +Spain, he is like his Venetian and Flemish prototypes in his intense +sympathy for childhood. His angels have not that transcendent +superiority to mortals which distinguishes Titian's, nor are they the +dimpled bits of pink-and-white babyhood characteristic of Rubens. They +belong somewhere between the two extremes, and are remarkable for their +innocence and purity of expression. As the Immaculate Conception was +Murillo's favorite subject, it is here that we see his child-angels at +their best. He has also introduced them into the Holy Family of Seville, +as well as into that most wonderful painting of the Christ-child +Appearing to Saint Anthony of Padua. + +A beautiful method of introducing child-angels into religious pictures, +differing widely from the treatment of angel hosts, is to represent +one[17] or two, sometimes three, in attendance upon the Madonna and +Babe, or the Christ. This is especially appropriate where the subject is +treated devotionally, and the central figure is elevated on a throne or +pedestal, with the angels at the foot. + +Among the Florentine artists, the two friends Raphael and Bartolommeo, +as well as their contemporary, Andrea del Sarto, furnish many examples +of these angel attendants. With Andrea del Sarto, as was characteristic, +they are bewitching winged boys; while with Bartolommeo and Raphael they +partake of a more delicate spirituality, which marks them as truly +celestial. + +The Madonna of the Harpies, which is considered the masterpiece of +Andrea del Sarto, contains two charming cherubs, which may be taken as +excellent types of the artist's rendering of these subjects. The Two +Angels, from his great painting of the Four Saints, are somewhat above +his average plane. These lovely and graceful figures originally stood in +the centre of a large composition, but were at a later date removed from +the canvas to make a separate picture. Their real significance is to +show forth the beauty of a saintly life. Each carries a scroll, and one +points upward. + +In the work of Bartolommeo the finest cherubs are those of his Throne +Madonna, the Madonna Enthroned, and the Risen Christ. All three show the +same masterly hand, and express a similar conception of the office +filled by the angels. In every case one is looking up with a rapt +expression of joy, while the other is more contemplative, drooping the +head as if in reflection. The contrast suggests the distinction of +early theology between the seraphim and cherubim, the former being, +according to etymological significance, the spirits who love and adore, +and the latter, those who know and worship. This distinction was +scrupulously adhered to in early art by representing the seraphim as +red, and the cherubim as blue. Although later artists no longer observed +any discrimination between two classes of celestial beings, it may be +that the difference between Bartolommeo's two angels is due to the +influence of this idea. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the +opposition between them in face and attitude is exactly appropriate to +symbolize one as love and the other as reflection. + +This is very marked in Raphael's work, as may be seen in his Madonna del +Baldacchino, a painting whose style of composition is strikingly like +that of Bartolommeo. Of the two singing angels at the foot of the +Madonna's throne, one studies eagerly the meaning of his music, while +the other sings with the happy unconsciousness of a bird. Comparing with +this Raphael's grandest achievement, the Sistine Madonna, we find the +same _motif_ carried to its highest realization. The two beautiful +cherubs who lean upon the parapet at the bottom of the picture are +perfect impersonations of the serene content and the thoughtful +deliberation with which varying types of Christian believers have +received the great fact of the Incarnation. + +The Venetian painters delighted to put musical instruments into the +hands of their child-angels, representing them as choristers, hymning +the praises of the infant Saviour. Of these, many notable examples were +produced in the _botteghe_ of the two rival artist families, the Bellini +and the Vivarini. Jacopo Bellini and his two sons, Gentile and +Giovanni, were the real founders of the Venetian school, and the work of +Giovanni became an ideal standard, which his contemporaries essayed to +follow. Luigi Vivarini was so successful as his imitator that his +paintings are often incorrectly assigned to the greater artist. + +[Illustration: PIPING ANGEL.--BELLINI.] + +The Frari Madonna, however, is an undoubted Bellini, and here the +Venetian conception of the child-angel is seen in its loveliest aspects. +Two eager little choristers stand on the lower steps of the Madonna's +throne, "exquisite courtiers of the Infant King," as Mrs. Oliphant +gracefully calls them. One, myrtle-crowned, is blowing on a pipe, while +the other bends gravely over a large lute. + +The Madonna of the Church of the Redentore[18] shows another pair of +angel musicians, sitting on a low wall in the foreground, one at the +head and the other at the feet of the sleeping Babe. Both are playing +on lutes, and the serious, absorbed air with which they fulfil their +task is delightful to see. With lifted face and faraway eyes, they seem +to be listening to a heavenly chorus, of which their own melody is an +echo. + +Any mention of the Venetian type of angels would be incomplete without +adding the names of Palma Vecchio and Carpaccio to the list of those who +most delicately interpreted the subject. Examples of their work are +scattered over Northern Italy, but none perhaps are more representative +than Carpaccio's Presentation, in the Academy at Venice, and Palma's +altar-piece at Zerman. + +[Illustration: ANGEL FROM PAINTING IN CHURCH OF REDENTORE.--VIVARINI.] + +The child-angel as a playmate and companion of the Christ-child is a +conception which has not infrequently been represented in art with great +appropriateness. Both Van Dyck and Lucas Cranach have given us the +Repose in Egypt, enlivened by the presence of a company of frolicsome +cherubs sporting about the Divine Babe. Rubens painted a lovely group of +the Infant Jesus and Saint John, seated on the ground, playing with +their celestial little visitors. A Holy Family, by Ippolito Andreasi, +represents angel children gathering and bringing grapes to the Saviour. + +With a small circle of Florentine artists, led by Botticelli, and +including Filippo Lippi and Filippino Lippi, a unique class of +child-angels is in great favor. These are children of a larger growth +and maturer appearance than the infantine cherubs of contemporary +artists, and might properly be called angel-youths. In the best examples +their expression is an admirable mingling of strength and purity. As +attendants to the Christ-child, they serve in various capacities with +loving and reverent grace. + +In Botticelli's famous "round Madonna" of the Uffizi, one holds the ink +vessel into which the Virgin dips her pen as she writes the Magnificat, +two others hold a starry crown over her head, and two more complete the +group, as companions of the Saviour. In the Holy Family, by the same +artist, only two angels are introduced, one of whom leans over a +balustrade, with a beautiful lily-stalk in his hand, in token of the +Virgin's purity. + +Filippo Lippi's charming rendering of angel-youths is best seen in the +picture which represents the Christ-child borne by two attendant cherubs +in exemplification of the psalmist's words, "They shall bear thee up in +their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." The Madonna +stands before the Divine Babe, with hands clasped in adoration, a lovely +impersonation of the Madre Pia. + +[Illustration: ANGEL FROM VISION OF MADONNA APPEARING TO SAINT +BERNARD.--FILIPPINO LIPPI.] + +The Madre Pia is also the subject of one of Filippino Lippi's most +exquisite angel pictures. The Infant Saviour lies on the ground, in a +garden, while his mother kneels to adore him. Angel-youths surround him, +kneeling, and one stands showering rose-petals down upon him. + +The masterpiece of Filippino Lippi is the Vision of Saint Bernard, in +the Badia at Florence, and here again angel-youths are introduced with +charming effect. Two are in the rear, with hands clasped in adoration; +two are beside the Virgin, bearing the weight of her mantle, and raising +their earnest young faces with sweet reverence. One of these faces is +presented in profile, and has a delicately cut, pure outline, of rare +gentleness and beauty. + +The artist's ideal is wonderfully helpful to the imagination, and the +thought is full of comfort, that it is loving and tender presences like +these which are "in charge over us, to keep us in all our ways." + + + + +VI. + +THE CHRIST-CHILD. + + + + + And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: + and the grace of God was upon him. + + LUKE ii. 40. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CHRIST-CHILD. + + +Among the innumerable pictures in which the world's great religious +painters have represented the scenes of the earthly life of our Lord, it +is amazing to note the large proportion of subjects relating to his +infancy and childhood. What else can this mean than that the hearts of +worshippers ever yearn towards that which they can understand and love, +and that thus, of all the varied aspects of Christ's character, it +appeals to us most forcibly that He was once a babe in the Bethlehem +manger. + +To find the earliest delineations of the Christ-child we must go to +the Catacombs of Rome, and on the walls of their strange subterranean +chapels retrace the fading features of the Divine Babe as painted there +centuries ago to cheer the hearts of Christians. Two of these primitive +frescos are in the Greek chapel of the Catacomb of S. Praxedes,[19] +where they are a constant object of interest to the art pilgrim. +Considered aesthetically, they have of course no intrinsic beauty; but +to the thoughtful mind they stand for the beginnings of a great art +movement which culminated in the canvases of Raphael and Titian. + +From the frescos of the Catacombs the next step in the progress of +Christian art was to the mosaics ornamenting the basilicas; and here the +Christ-child again appears as a conspicuous figure. Some of the most +interesting of these mosaics[20] represent the Babe receiving the +gifts of the Magi,--as at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and at Saint +Apollinare in Ravenna. In others, as at Capua, the Child shares with the +enthroned Virgin the adoration of a surrounding group of saints. Still +another of peculiar interest is at Santa Maria in Trastevere (Rome), +where the Infant is suckled at his mother's breast. + +When we enter that strange period of history known as the Dark Ages, +we find the art products few and uninteresting; but even then the +Christ-child is not forgotten, and again and again he appears sculptured +in marble over the portals of cathedrals, or painted in stiff Byzantine +style over their altars. + +Thus it was that in the new birth of art in Italy, when Niccolo Pisano +in sculpture, and Cimabue in painting, awakened the sleeping world to a +love of beauty, the Madonna, with her heaven-born Babe, was the first +subject to arouse enthusiasm; and it was for a picture of this sort +that all Florence went mad with joy, as it was borne along The Street +of Rejoicing. + +In early representations, both in mosaics and paintings, the Child is +dressed in a tunic, white, red, or blue, often very richly ornamented +with gold embroidery. This method obtained as late as the fourteenth +century, when Fra Angelico still painted the Babe in the elaborate royal +garments of a king. But art at last returned to nature, and from the +fifteenth century the Holy Child was painted partially and sometimes +wholly undraped, with beautiful rounded limbs and soft pink baby flesh. + +It was then that Italy was transformed into a paradise of art, and all +the important cities were full of great painters whose hearts were aglow +with the sacred fire of genius. In the host of beautiful works which +were produced in the next three centuries, every type of treatment was +exemplified, varying from the most simple naturalism to the loftiest +idealism. The naive realism of Filippino Lippi's chubby baby, placidly +sucking his thumb as he looks out of the picture, is matched in the +frolicsome boys of Andrea del Sarto's many paintings, smiling +mischievously from the Madonna's arms. At the other extreme is the +strangely precocious looking child of Botticelli, raising his eyes +heavenward, with a mystic smile on his serious face. + +And when it would seem that every conceivable type of infancy, and +every imaginable situation had already been realized on the canvas, +Raphael[21] arose to create an entirely new ideal. His life was so +short, his work so surpassingly brilliant, that it was as if a splendid +meteor suddenly flashed across the starry firmament of the Cinque-Cento. +Perugino, his master; Pinturicchio, his employer; Fra Bartolommeo, his +friend; Andrea del Sarto, "the faultless painter," all paled before his +rapidly increasing glory. When he laid down his brush at the age of +thirty-seven, he had finished a career which is one of the miracles of +history. His work is a complete epitome of religious art, including all +the great themes, and enveloping each with an atmosphere of pure +spirituality, indescribably elevating to mind and soul. + +His conception of the Christ-child ranges from the sleeping Babe from +whose innocent face the Madonna of the Diadem softly lifts a veil, to +the grave boy whom the Chair Madonna clasps in her arms. Every shade of +playfulness, of affection, of dignity, and of contemplation, is mirrored +in the long series of pictures in which he embodied his ever-changing +ideal of the Divine Infant. + +[Illustration: MADONNA DI CASA TEMPI.--RAPHAEL.] + +The magnificent versatility of his genius is admirably illustrated by +the contrast between two of his finest works,--the Madonna of the +Casa Tempi and the Madonna di San Sisto, standing the one for the human +aspect and the other for the divine, in the incarnation of the Son of +God. The first shows an ideal mother fondly pressing her darling's cheek +against her own; the second is a vision of ideal womanhood hastening +down the centuries to present the Word to the waiting world. + +The Christ-child of the Tempi painting is a dimpled baby shyly nestling +against his mother's breast; the Sistine Child is a royal messenger +lightly enthroned upon the Madonna's arm. In one conception, Mother and +Son are absorbed entirely in each other; in the other, they think only +of their mission to humanity, their wide eyes searching the future with +far-seeing gaze, and their thoughts intent upon the coming of the +heavenly kingdom. + +We can appreciate the Tempi Madonna at the first glance; the meaning of +the Sistine Madonna we can never fully reach, though to contemplate it +day by day is to feel our thoughts become purer and our aspirations +nobler. + +A feature of the child-life of Jesus upon which Raphael loved to dwell +is his companionship with his cousin John, a boy of nearly the same age, +whose destiny was indissolubly linked with the Christ. Following the +Gospel description of the Baptist when he came forth from the desert +"clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins," +the artist has represented the child John as a dark, faun-like boy, with +a little skin garment girt about him,--a picturesque figure to contrast +with the fair beauty of the Christ-child. + +The two boys are most charming, when, as in the Madonna of the Pearl, +the little John seeks with childish eagerness to please his cousin. +Here he is running gleefully to Jesus, with his skin garment full of +newly gathered fruit. The Christ-child, seated on his grandmother's +knee, beside his mother, stretches out his hands for the gift, his face +shining with simple, child-like pleasure. At another time Saint John +brings a goldfinch to the Virgin's knee, and the two children lean +lovingly against her, Jesus turning his earnest eyes towards the bird, +which he thoughtfully strokes. A very pretty incident is embodied in the +Aldobrandini Madonna, where the Christ-child reaches from his mother's +arms to smilingly bestow a flower upon Saint John. + +Other pictures introduce, more or less definitely, an element of +devotion on the part of the infant Baptist, as in the Madonna of the +Meadow, where he kneels to receive the cross from the hands of the +Christ-child. The devotional relation is still more marked in the Belle +Jardiniere of the Louvre. In the Holy Family of Casa Canigiani, Jesus is +giving Saint John a banner with the words _Ecce Agnus Dei_. + +The two boys, as the central figures of the Holy Family, have engaged +the brush of nearly every great religious painter, some producing +familiar and domestic scenes, others emphasizing the symbolic and +religious significance of the theme. Andrea del Sarto treated the +subject many times, and usually portrayed the children in a natural and +playful intimacy. Pinturicchio painted them running across a flowery +meadow to get water from a fountain. Guilio Romano has given us the +decidedly domestic scene of Jesus in the bath, with Saint John merrily +pouring water upon him. Sometimes, as in a lovely work by Angiolo +Bronzino, Saint John is affectionately kissing the sleeping Babe. + +It was a beautiful thought on the part of some few artists,--notably +Palma Vecchio, Luini, and Murillo,--to introduce a lamb as a playmate +for the children, the suggestion having its origin in the Baptist's +description of Jesus as the "Lamb of God." + +In Botticelli's Holy Family, Saint John stands by with clasped hands, +adoring the Infant. Perugino places him kneeling at a little distance in +the rear,--a perfect embodiment of childish devotion. In a painting by +Titian, also, he kneels apart, leaning on his cross, and in one by +Guido, he humbly kisses the Christ-child's foot. + +In a lovely picture by Murillo, called the "Children of the Shell," he +kneels to drink from a cup which the little Jesus holds to his lips. +Here the contrast between the two is exquisitely rendered, both from +the artistic and the religious point of view, the Christ-child bearing +the unmistakable stamp of superiority, in spite of his childish figure, +while the infant John is a charming impersonation of reverent and loving +humility. + +The religious spirit of the old masters has not been successfully +imitated by any modern artist who has attempted to delineate the Infant +Jesus and Saint John, nor is this to be expected. There are many +pleasing works of art, however, which, though differing widely from +early Italian standards, have an attractiveness of their own. + +Such, for instance, is Boucher's painting, thoroughly characteristic of +the artist, and, when considered in itself, a very pretty thing. The two +plump babies are bewitching little figures, irresistibly lovable in +their dimpled beauty. Sweet cherub faces peep from the surrounding +clouds, regarding the holy children with wondering awe. + +[Illustration: INFANT CHRIST AND SAINT JOHN.--BOUCHER.] + +The figure of the Christ-child alone does not belong to the early +Renaissance, but by the seventeenth century, the subject had found favor +with Guido and Franceschini in Italy, and with Murillo and Zurbaran in +Spain. With all these artists it was a favorite custom to depict the +child Jesus asleep on the cross. Murillo's Infant Saviour, plaiting a +crown of thorns, also belongs to this class. These forms of symbolic +illustration have their modern counterpart in the work of several German +artists. As the Gospel narrative furnishes no actual incidents of the +early childhood of Jesus, he is shown in some attitude which will +suggest his divine calling. Painted by Ittenbach, he raises his right +hand to point the heavenward way, while with his left he indicates his +name inscribed in the letters I. H. S. on the breast of his tunic. In +Sinkel's picture he holds a tablet of the Commandments, with his finger +on the fourth, a sweet expression of Sabbath peace on his face. + +Professor Deger's picture expresses a unique and lovely conception of +the Christ-child in the fields, communing with his Father, and preparing +for his ministry. He is a dreamy-looking boy, of delicate features, and +broad, high brow, with fair curls blowing away from his face. Though +alone, he lifts his hand in blessing, as if, in his prophetic +imagination, the meadows were already peopled with the throngs to whom +he is to teach the sweet lessons of the lilies and the sparrow. + +[Illustration: THE CHRIST-CHILD.--DEGER.] + +The childhood of Jesus came to an end at the age of twelve, when he +awoke to the realization that he must be "about his Father's business." +It was a great moment in the quiet life of the Nazarene lad. Mary and +Joseph having to make their annual journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the +Passover, had brought him with them, and allowed him to wander from +them. Supposing him to be among the company with which they were +travelling, they were well on their homeward way, when they discovered +that he was missing. Returning to the city, and seeking him hither and +thither, they at length found him in the temple, "sitting in the midst +of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all +that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." + +It was the latter part of this account which the early masters seized as +the _motif_ of the Dispute in the Temple, and interpreted as meaning +that the boy Christ assumed the position of teacher and preacher to the +doctors. In the paintings of Duccio and Giotto, he is sitting on a +platform, with the mien and gesture of a learned doctor; while other +artists place him on a sort of throne or pulpit. It was left to modern +art to conceive the true significance of the event, and to put before us +the eager boy, listening and asking questions. + +Professor Heinrich Hofmann's beautiful picture shows a profound insight +into the wonderful childhood of Jesus, as well as a fine sense of +artistic composition. The boy stands in the midst of the group, lifting +his eager, inquiring face to the learned doctors surrounding him. His +expression conveys all the earnestness of his questionings, and at the +same time shows the depth of that power of understanding which so amazed +the listeners. Looking from his bright young face to the staid +countenances of the professed expounders of the law, a new light flashes +upon that mysterious utterance which fell in after times from the +same inspired lips: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, +that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast +revealed them unto babes." + +[Illustration: HEAD OF BOY CHRIST.--HOFMANN.] + + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTES. + + + + +NOTES. + +CHAPTER I.--PAGE 3. + +[1] Of this picture, Claude Phillips justly observes that it +has been "not a little cheapened and obscured by frequent copies, in +which the delicate essence of the original has been allowed to +evaporate; but a glance at the picture itself renews the magic spell +of the master." + +The plate for our illustration, being made from a photograph taken +directly from the original painting, reproduces the spirit of the +picture with remarkable fidelity. + + +CHAPTER II.--PAGE 29. + +[2] The children of the English court were not alone in the +good fortune of being immortalized by the brush of Van Dyck. The great +artist also painted a little Prince of Savoy, with his sister,--a +picture which is now in the Royal Gallery at Turin. + +[3] A portrait of Prince Balthasar in court dress, by +Velasquez, is in the Belvedere at Vienna. + +[4] Dr. Carl Justi has various strong arguments to prove that +the Prado portrait of Maria Theresa is incorrectly so called, and, in +reality, represents the Infanta Marguerite. The picture is, however, +widely accepted as a genuine Maria Theresa, and is catalogued as such by +Curtis. I have, therefore, thought best to follow the opinion of the +majority on this point. + +[5] Titian painted a charming portrait of the Princess Strozzi, +which is now in Berlin. + +[6] Holbein painted the little Prince Edward, afterwards Edward +VI., in two extant portraits,--one, a miniature, in the possession of +the Duke of Devonshire, another at Windsor. + + +CHAPTER III.--PAGE 57. + +[7] The dates of Gainsborough's life are 1727-1788. + +[8] The two pictures for which Jack Hill served as model are +Jack Hill in a Cottage, and Jack Hill, with his Cat, in a Wood. + +[9] Gainsborough was followed by several English artists +celebrated for their pictures of the child-life of the country. Of +these, the most notable were Sir David Wilkie and William Collins. +Wilkie's Blind-Man's Buff, and Collins's Happy as a King are +representative examples of their work. + +[10] Jean Baptiste Greuze was born in 1725, and died in 1805. + +[11] The Father Explaining the Bible to his Children is now in +the Dresden Gallery. Mrs. Stranahan, in her History of French Painting, +calls attention to the fact that the poet Robert Burns celebrates the +same scene in his Cotter's Saturday Night. + +[12] The Village Bride, called in French, "L'Accordee du +Village," is in the Louvre, Paris. + +[13] Although Greuze is usually spoken of as introducing a new +line of subjects into French art, it is fair to say that Chardin +(1699-1799) had already given the initiative. The Little Girl at +Breakfast, exhibited at the Salon of 1737, and Le Benedicite, from the +Salon of 1740, are highly praised by Mrs. Stranahan for their +sympathetic treatment of domestic scenes in humble life. + +[14] This description, which I have rendered somewhat freely +into English, is an extract from a letter addressed by Mademoiselle +Philipon to the Demoiselles Cannet. + + +CHAPTER IV.--PAGE 87. + +[15] The three paintings by Murillo in the Dulwich Gallery, to +which reference is made, are:-- + +The Flower Girl, Two Boys and a Dog, and Three Boys,--one eating a tart. +The gallery also contains a religious painting by Murillo. + + +CHAPTER V.--PAGE 115. + +[16] The representation of the Crucifixion, with attendant +angels, is very frequent in Renaissance art. For examples among the +earlier painters, Duccio and Giotto may be mentioned, while in a later +period Luini and Gaudenzio adopted the same _motif_, with characteristic +results. + +[17] For examples of single child-angels, see Raphael's Madonna +di Foligno, in the Vatican at Rome, and Bartolommeo's Madonna and +Saints, in San Martino, Lucca. + +[18] The Madonna of the Church of the Redentore is popularly +attributed to Bellini, but is more probably the work of Luigi Vivarini. +For arguments, see Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North +Italy, vol. i., pages 64 and 186. + + +CHAPTER VI.--PAGE 141. + +[19] My authority on these frescos is Charles I. Hemans, who +states (page 70 of Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art) that "conjecture +has assumed antiquity as high as the first century" for some paintings +in the catacombs of S. Praxedes, but does not mention whether these are +of the number. + +Van Dyke, in his Christ-child in Art (page 120), describes an +interesting third century fresco in the catacomb of SS. Marcellinus and +Peter, representing the Adoration of the Magi. + +[20] The mosaics at Santa Maria Maggiore are assigned to the +fifth century; those at S. Apollinare Nuova, Ravenna, to the sixth +century. See Hemans, Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art. + +For further descriptions of the mosaics at Capua and at Santa Maria in +Trastevere, Rome, see Mrs. Jameson's Legends of the Madonna. For an +engraving of the Virgin and Child in the Ravenna mosaic, see Van Dyke's +Christ-child in Art. + +[21] The present location of all the works of Raphael mentioned +in this chapter may be seen in the following list:-- + + Madonna of the Diadem, Louvre, Paris. + Chair Madonna (Madonna della Sedia), Pitti, Florence. + Madonna of the Casa Tempi, Munich. + Sistine Madonna, Dresden. + The Pearl, Madrid. + Madonna of the Goldfinch (del Cardellino), Pitti, Florence. + Aldobrandini Madonna, National Gallery, London. + Madonna of the Meadow, Vienna. + La Belle Jardiniere, Louvre, Paris. + Madonna of the Casa Canigiani, Munich. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + + ALLAN CUNNINGHAM: Great English Painters. + + RICHARD REDGRAVE: A Century of Painters of the English School. + + NORTHCOTE: Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. + + CLAUDE PHILLIPS: Sir Joshua Reynolds. + + HENRY PERCY HORNE: Catalogue of the Engraved Pictures of Gainsborough. + + WILLIAM HOOKHAM CARPENTER: Memoirs of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. + + STIRLING-MAXWELL: Annals of the Artists of Spain. + + CARL JUSTI: Velasquez and his Times (translated by Keane). + + STRANAHAN: History of French Painting. + + CH. NORMAND: Greuze. (In Series: Artistes Celebres.) + + CROWE and CAVALCASELLE: History of Painting in + Italy: History of Painting in North Italy. + + T. COLE (Engraver) and W. J. STILLMAN: Old Italian Masters. + + EUGENE MUENTZ: Raphael: His Life, Works, and Times. + + MRS. ANNA JAMESON: Sacred and Legendary Art; + Legends of the Madonna; History of Our Lord. + + CHARLES I. HEMANS: Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art; + Mediaeval Christianity and Sacred Art. + + HENRY VAN DYKE: The Christ-Child in Art. + + MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF: Journal. + + DOROTHY TENNANT STANLEY: Street Arabs. + + KARL KAROLY: The Paintings of Florence. + + CHARLES L. EASTLAKE: Notes on the Pictures in the Louvre. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Child-life in Art, by Estelle M. 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