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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1897)
THE COURIER. i THE ANNUNCIATION IN MODERN PAINTINGS. c A New Ideal of Womanhood. Of the five different epochs in the pictured life of the Virgin, the An nunciation .seems the natural accom paniment of the Easter season, and Is the theme that appeals most generally to modern painters of sacred subjects. It Is scarcely necessary to say that there are comparatively few painters of teliglous themes in this country. The life of the art student of today is in the Latin quarter rather than the cloister, and naturally Madonnas do not abound In the Paris salon. In America there are practically no painters of note who treat religious subjects. In England, here and there great men like IJurne Jones. Dante Gabriel Itossetti, and Sey mour, occassional- select a thme for a picture from the life of the Virgin. Burne- ones' "Angel of the Annun ciation," with Us marvellous-beauty. original treatment, and intricate work manship, and his "Angel at the Tomb," are both excellent examples of the handling '.f sa'red .-ubjects by modern aitifts. Hut Dant? Gabriel Hossetti. the English po t-paliiter. in his "Ecce An c'.IIa Comini." is far more poetical anl spiritual In his treatment of this theme than any ot.ier modern English painter. The Virgin Is white-robed and beauti ful, an ideal of girlish innocence: while the Angel Gabriel is graceful and digni fied, with a strange, mysterious beau.y of fac and mUn. In his hands he bears the stalk of pure white lilies, stripped of leaves and stamens, the symbol of the Annunciation, the Virgin's flower, from earliest days. In the Annuncia tion by Walter S ymour there is beauty of form and outline but little spiritual ity It is the characteristic modern treatment of t.ie subject. A conven tional stak of Easter lilies Is a some what necessary aid In telling the story. Bouguereau. the typical French mod ern painter of sacred themes, returns to early Italian treatment of the An nunciation, even to introducing a wjrk basket near the pot of lilies, there jy symbolizing the domestic qualities of the Ideal woman. Pictures of th- various epochs of th? Virgin's life occasionally cjme from the brush of Delaroche and Hebert In Paris, and from Mueller, Plockhorst. Gabriel Max and Sinkel in Germany: but the enthusiastic spirit, the religious symlolism. the Ideality, is almost al ways lacking. Gabriel Max's pictures of the Virgin are of hearty, wholesome, red-cheeked frauleins. who suggest t Clicking girlhood and a comfortable, fat. old age, but never a Spiritual ideal. The question has been asked again and again why are there so few paint ers of the life of the Virgin in modern times why are there absolutely none in America? And the answer seems to be. that this century has brought to us a still newer conception of womanhood, not ;i ni'bler. perhaps, but a broaJer woman hood. Every one. consciously or un cw.l. usly. is familiar with the new tyre f woman. She Is Just as patient, gentle, tender and : lf-sacrlficlng as of yore, but to spirituality she adds Intellectuality. She can think as well as love, she is brave as well as good, she can play golf as well as s-w. She is exerting a vast, and on the whole probably a ben eficial Influence on the art and litera ture of her times. The poet or painter no longer looks to mediaeval models. He has In the typical American girl of today a new ideal. MARY AN.VABLE FAN'TON. Copyright. 1897.