Curiosities of Christian History Part 45

This picture has commanded the admiration of four centuries for the G.o.dlike beauty and calm majesty of Christ's countenance. His lips seem to be parting with the question, "Whose is this image and superscription?"

while the fingers point gracefully to the coin in the rough hand of his cunning tempter, whose face shows the low self-satisfaction with which he thinks he has outwitted the Master. Vasari says this head of Christ is "stupendous and miraculous"; its conscious sublimity of expressive att.i.tude and movement are well set off by the sharp and cunning profile of the rough and weather-beaten questioner, who is so keen to foil a higher nature. This is thought to be the most perfect picture from the hand of t.i.tian. He painted another great picture in his old age of "Christ at Emmaus," gorgeous in colour and masterly in its att.i.tudes and expression.

t.i.tIAN'S PAINTING OF THE TRIBUTE MONEY (1576).

Scanelli tells the condition under which this renowned picture by t.i.tian was produced. t.i.tian was visited on a certain occasion by a company of German travellers, who were allowed to look at the pictures in his studio.

On being asked what impression these works conveyed, these gentlemen declared that they knew of one master only who was capable of finishing as they thought paintings ought to be finished, and that was Durer. Their impression was, that Venetian compositions invariably fell below the promise which they had given at the first. To these observations t.i.tian smilingly replied that, if he had thought extreme finish to be the end and aim of art, he too would have fallen into the excesses of Durer. But though long experience had taught him to prefer a broad and even track to a narrow and intricate path, yet he would still take occasion to show that the subtlest detail might be compa.s.sed without sacrifice of breadth, and so produced the Christ of the tribute money. All the artists of his time thought this the most perfect work of t.i.tian. The contrast is sublime between the majestic calm and elevation, the G.o.dlike beauty, of Christ and the low cunning and crafty, coa.r.s.e air of the Pharisee who questions Him.

The marble smoothness and fair complexion of Christ's skin is contrasted with the rough, tanned, and weather-beaten skin of the other.

A DIFFIDENT ARTIST OF SACRED PICTURES REa.s.sURED (ADRIANO, 1630).

At Cordova, in Spain, Adriano, a lay brother of the barefooted Carmelites, and who died in 1630, excelled in sacred art, and executed a great picture of the Crucifixion in which the Virgin and Mary Magdalene were leading figures; and this work is preserved in the convent there. This artist was so diffident of himself that he used to deface or destroy his pictures as soon as he had executed them. And so uniform was this practice with him that his friends took occasion to intercede with him for the preservation of his many valuable productions in the name of the souls in purgatory, knowing his attachment to the holy offices in their behalf. By this mode of exorcism the destroying spirit, which his self-dissatisfaction and fastidiousness conjured up, was happily kept in check; and the above and other valuable pictures were, thanks to the souls in purgatory, saved and preserved for the consolation of the living.

RUBENS'S GREAT PICTURES (1577-1640).

The cathedral of Notre Dame at Antwerp contains the masterpiece of Rubens, "The Descent from the Cross," hung in the south transept. The picture is now somewhat misty and has been retouched in some places. The greatest peculiarity is the white sheet on which the body of Jesus lies, and which enhances the colouring. The Christ is said to be one of the finest figures ever invented, and the hanging of the head is exquisitely rendered. Two of the three Marys have more beauty than Rubens usually gives to female figures. The princ.i.p.al light comes from the white sheet. It was said that this picture was given in exchange for a piece of ground on which Rubens built his house; the original agreement was for one picture of St.

Christopher, but Rubens gave them five, including that subject. Another picture of Rubens's in the north transept is "The Elevation of the Cross,"

which is full of life and interesting att.i.tudes, and the horses are spirited. A third picture is the "a.s.sumption of the Virgin," which was painted in sixteen days. A fourth picture is the "Resurrection of the Saviour," where Christ is represented coming out of the tomb in great splendour, the soldiers terrified and falling over each other in their confusion. In the museum at Antwerp is "The Crucifixion of Christ between the two Thieves," by Rubens, where the figures are drawn and grouped with consummate art. The Magdalene is a leading character, and the good centurion is also represented. This is one of the first pictures of the world for composition, colouring, and correctness of drawing. Other sacred pictures of Rubens are to be seen in this collection.

THE MONKS GETTING A BARGAIN OF A PICTURE (TRISTAN, 1469).

The monks of La Sislo, near Toledo in Spain, were anxious to have a picture of the Last Supper painted for their refectory, like that painted by t.i.tian for the monastery of Lorenzo, and applied to Dominico to execute the work. Dominico, on the ground of indisposition, declined it, but recommended his pupil Luis Tristan, who was accepted. The picture was finished, and the monks were highly pleased with it, but they thought the artist's demand of two hundred ducats (90) exorbitant. In their perplexity they referred to Dominico, who, though ill of the gout, drove to see the picture and a.s.sess its value. He looked at it, and then, turning with a threatening and angry countenance to his pupil, told him he had utterly disgraced himself and his profession by asking such a sum as two hundred ducats for such a picture as that. The monks were delighted and triumphant at this deliverance. Dominico, still looking fiercely, told his pupil at once to roll up his picture and take it away to Toledo, for he was certain to get five hundred ducats for it, and he then began to state reasons, and spoke in raptures of it as a masterly performance. At this turn of affairs the monks looked at each other with astonishment and vexation; and after a slight pause said, that upon the whole they thought they would keep to their bargain, and they then and there found the money and paid the sum agreed. Since then the Fathers had good reason to be well pleased; for all the critics of Europe, on seeing it, offered them far more than the price if they would part with it. Tristan died at Toledo in 1469.

VELASQUEZ'S "CRUCIFIXION" (1660)

In 1639 Velasquez produced one of his n.o.blest pictures, "The Crucifixion,"

painted for the nunnery of San Placido at Madrid. Unrelieved by the usual dim landscape or lowering clouds, the cross in this picture has no footing upon earth, but is placed on a plain, dark ground, like an ivory carving on a velvet pall. Never was that great agony more powerfully depicted. The head of our Lord droops on His right shoulder, over which falls a ma.s.s of dark hair, while drops of blood trickle from His thorn-pierced brows. The anatomy of the body and limbs is executed with as much precision as in Cellini's marble, and the linen cloth wrapped about the body, and even the firwood of the cross, display his accurate attention to details. Our Lord's feet are held each by a separate nail; at the foot of the cross are the usual skull and bones, and a serpent twines itself round the accursed tree. The sisterhood of San Placido placed this picture in their sacristy in a badly lighted cell, where it remained until the French came to Madrid and sold it in Paris, whence it was redeemed at a large price, and presented to the Royal Gallery of Spain.

HOW THE MONKS GOT THEIR FINE PICTURES (1671).

At the beatification of St. Benozzi in 1671, the monks of the order of Servi were anxious to have their church of the Annunziata at Florence suitably decorated. The sacristan of the convent wished to get the work done well and cheaply, and stimulated the vanity of rival artists by representing how their works would have the advantage of being exhibited in a church where such numbers of the devout constantly attended. He would not hold out the hope of large pay, but he promised abundance of prayers; and, above all, he dwelt on the favour which their performances would no doubt obtain from the Blessed Virgin herself, to whose especial honour they were to be consecrated. Andrea del Sarto yielded to these representations, and put forth all his strength. He painted on one side of the cortile two scenes from the life of the Madonna--"The Birth of the Virgin" and "The Adoration of the Magi"; and on the other side scenes from the life of San Filippo Benozzi. Every figure in those sublime groups is now familiar to the lovers of art. Other masterpieces were added by Andrea to that glorious church.

THE DIVINE MURILLO (1682).

Murillo, the Spanish painter, according to Sir D. Wilkie, adapted the higher subjects of art to the commonest understanding, and seems of all the painters the universal favourite. His paintings of "St. Elizabeth" and "The Healing of the Paralytic" are rich in colour and of singular beauty.

He himself thought "The Charity of St. Thomas" was his best picture. His picture of "The Virgin of the Napkin," though executed hastily, as a present to a cook who begged some memorial of him, shows a face in which thought is happily blended with maidenly innocence, and the Divine Child, with His deep, earnest eyes, leans forward in her arms, struggling, as it were, almost out of the frame, as if to welcome the saintly carpenter home from his daily toil. The picture is executed with a brilliancy of touch never excelled; it glows with a golden light, as if the sun were also shining on the canvas. Another picture, "The Guardian Angel," shows the chief figure in a rich yellow robe and purple mantle, pointing as he goes with the right hand to heaven, and with the other leading a lovely child--the emblem of the soul pa.s.sing through the pilgrimage of this world. Never was an allegory more sweetly told than in this picture, which is painted with great lightness of touch, and the transparent texture of the child's garment is finely rendered. In his pictures of the Virgin Murillo's celestial attendants are among the loveliest cherubs that ever bloomed on canvas. Hovering in the sunny air, reposing on clouds, or sporting amongst their silvery folds, these ministering shapes give life and movement to the picture, and relieve the Virgin's statue-like repose.

Some of them bear the large white lilies, others roses, sprays of olive and palm boughs, like those which are still annually blessed in churches, and hung as charms on balconies and portals. As a painter of children Murillo has caught with matchless insight all the nameless ways and graces of the bright-eyed Andalusian boys and girls he loved to depict.

CANO'S PICTURE OF THE VIRGIN (1690).

The most beautiful of Cano's pictures is that of "Our Lady of Belem," or Bethlehem, painted at Malaga for the cathedral of Seville. In serene celestial beauty this Madonna is excelled by no image of the Blessed Mary to be found in Spain. Her glorious countenance lends credit to the legends of the older art, and is such as might have been revealed in answer to the prayers of the saintly Vargas or of Joanes. The drapery is a crimson robe, with a dark blue mantle drawn over the head. The head of the Divine Child is perhaps not childlike; but there is much infantine simplicity and grace in the att.i.tude, as He sits with His tiny hand resting on that of His mother. These hands are as usual admirably painted; and the whole picture is finished with exceeding care, as if the painter had determined to crown his labours and honour Seville with a masterpiece. Cano was the artist who was once engaged to model a statue of St. Antony for an accountant, and after it was finished and the price spoken of was deemed large, the accountant asked how many days' labour it had cost. The answer being that it took twenty-five days, the patron at once rather indignantly observed, that at the rate charged it would be four doubloons a day--a most extravagant sum. To this Cano rejoined, "Yes, and I have been fifty years learning to make such a statue as that in twenty-five days."

A PAINTER INCAUTIOUSLY WATCHING EFFECTS (1734).

When Sir James Thornhill was painting the cupola of St. Paul's and adorning it, as he supposed, with masterpieces of sacred art, he was, like all great painters, absorbed in thought, and was frequently changing and improving his details. One day, when mounted on his lofty scaffold, he moved backwards step by step to view the effect of some of his touches, and had reached the very edge apparently without knowing his danger, for a fall there would have been instant destruction. The artist's servant, having observed the danger, with great presence of mind instantly threw the contents of a pot of paint over his master. This happy thought had the effect of recalling the absent-minded artist to real life, for he immediately rushed forward to resent the outrage. On the attendant's object, however, being explained, his wrath was with equal suddenness changed into lively grat.i.tude.

ORIGIN OF CHURCH BELLS.

The Romans used bells in their baths. The Hebrew high priests also wore small bells. When Porsena, King of Etruria, was buried, and a magnificent monument with pyramids at each end was erected, small bells were suspended so delicately that the least breath of wind would sound them. Pope Sabinia.n.u.s, about 604, in imitation of the bells of Porsena's tomb, introduced the same in the charnel-houses, for the sound of bells was then supposed to frighten away evil spirits. Hence the bells came to be sounded at funerals, and pa.s.sing bells have since been common. The G.o.ddess of Syria was anciently worshipped with the sound of bells, from which custom it is supposed the Christian Churches took the hint of hanging them in their steeples. The use of bells, however, was not coeval with the Church, for it was a considerable time before the Christians dare openly avow their profession or could venture on the publicity of such a mode of summoning their worshippers. Turkey and Greece are the only countries where the use of large bells has almost been abolished. Greece in this particular has degenerated, and Turkey has at length opposed their reception. The Dutch long excelled in the construction and management of their bells. The large bells of the Netherlands are so well tuned and hung, that any slow melody may be performed upon them with the greatest facility and as perfectly as on a church organ. The church bells were formerly regularly baptised, anointed, exorcised, and blessed by the bishop. The priest sprinkled the bell with holy water, while all the gossips laid hold of the rope, bestowing a name on it.

SANCt.i.tY OF BELLS.

In Spain all the church bells are marked with a crucifix; the devil, it is believed, cannot come within hearing of the consecrated peal. On the hearing of the Ave Maria bell, the Spaniards who happen to be in the theatre, and even the actors on the stage, fall down on their knees, and then rise again and carry on their diversion as before. A French gentleman who happened to be present on one of those occasions was so surprised and diverted that he somewhat irreverently called out, "Encore! encore!" The religious of Rome had great contests about ringing the Ave Maria bell. At length it was adjudged that "they who were first up should first knoll."

CHIMES ON CHURCH BELLS.

Chimes or carillons were invented in the Low Countries, and were brought to the greatest perfection there. They are of two kinds: one is attached to a cylinder like the back of an organ, which always repeats the same tunes, and is moved by machinery; the other is of a superior kind, played by a musician with a set of keys. In all the great towns there are amateurs or a salaried professor, usually the organist of a church, who performs with great skill upon this gigantic instrument placed high in the church steeple. So fond are the Dutch and Belgians of this kind of music, that in some places the chimes appear scarcely to be at rest for ten minutes either by day or night. The tunes are usually changed once a year.

Chimes were in existence at Bruges in 1300. The most eminent performer was Matthias van der Gheyn, who died in 1785. The finest chimes are at Antwerp, composed of sixty-five bells; Mechlin, forty-four bells; Bruges, forty bells; Tournay, forty bells; Ghent, thirty-nine bells; Louvain, forty bells.

THE SWISS HORNS PRAISING THE LORD.

It was a custom at one time among the Swiss shepherds to watch the setting sun. When he had already left the valleys, and was visible only on the tops of the snow-capped mountains, the inhabitants of the cottages which were in the most elevated situations would seize their horns, and, turning towards their next neighbours beneath them, sing out through the instruments the words, "Praise the Lord!" The sounds were then taken up in the same manner by those to whom they were addressed, and again by those lower down, and thus were repeated from Alp to Alp. And the name of the Lord was re-echoed and proclaimed in song, till the music reached the valleys below. A deep and solemn silence then ensued, until the last trace of the sun, when the herdsmen on the mountain tops sang out "Good-night,"

which was repeated and re-echoed as the other words had been, till every one retired to rest.

EARLY CHURCH MUSIC.

Over and above the preaching of sermons, which were deemed an important part of the public Christian service, and which shorthand writers employed themselves in taking down for circulation, there was much care given to sacred music and singing of hymns. A choir was often formed. The Psalms, as well as hymns and doxologies, were chanted. Some spiritual songs were composed by Ambrose of Milan and Hilary of Poitiers. But there were always objectors to anything being used in Church music which was not taken from the Sacred Scriptures. In the fourth century the Egyptian abbot Pambo inveighed against the introduction of heathen melodies as too apparent, while the abbot Isidore of Pelusium complained of a style of singing too theatrical, especially among the women. Jerome, in his comments on St.

Paul's Epistles, said that Christians should not be like the comedians, who smoothed their throats with sweet drinks in order to render their theatrical melodies more impressive, but that it was the heart alone which could properly make melody to the Lord.

SINGING IN CHURCH.

It was said that St. Ambrose introduced the method of alternate singing in churches. The whole service in the primitive Church seems to have been of a very irregular kind till the time of Pope Gregory the Great, for the people sang each as his inclination led him, with hardly any other restriction than that what they sang should be to the praise of G.o.d.

Indeed, some special offices, such as the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles'

Creed, had been used in the Church service almost from the first establishment of Christianity; but these were too few to prevent the introduction of hymns and spiritual songs. The evil increased, and the Emperor Theodosius requested the then Pope, Damasus, to frame such a service as should be consistent with the solemnity and decency of Divine worship. The Pope readily a.s.sented, and employed for this purpose a presbyter named Hieronymus, a man of learning, gravity, and discretion, who formed a new ritual, into which he introduced the Epistles, Gospels, and the Psalms, with the _Gloria Patri_ and Hallelujah. And these, together with certain hymns which he thought proper to retain, made up the whole of the service.

ORIGIN OF SINGING IN CHURCH SERVICES.

The first change in the manner of singing was the subst.i.tution of singers (who became a separate order in the Church) for the mingled voices of all ranks, ages, and s.e.xes, which was compared by Ambrose, the great reformer of Church music, to the glad sound of many waters. The antiphonal singing, in which the different sides of the choir answered to each other in responsive verses, was first introduced at Antioch by Flavia.n.u.s Diodorus.

Milman observes that it is not improbable that this system of alternate chanting may have prevailed in the Temple service at Jerusalem. The antiphonal chanting was introduced into the West by Ambrose; and if it inspired or even accompanied the _Te Deum_ usually ascribed to that prelate, we cannot calculate too highly its effect on the Christian mind.

So beautiful was the music in the Ambrosian service that the sensitive conscience of the young Augustine took alarm, lest when he wept at the solemn music he should be yielding to the luxury of sweet sounds rather than imbibing the devotional spirit of the hymn. Though alive to the perilous pleasure, he inclined to the wisdom of awakening weaker minds to piety by this enchantment of their hearing. The Ambrosian chant, with its more simple and masculine tones, is still preserved in the church of Milan; in the rest of Italy it was superseded by the richer Roman chant which was introduced by Gregory the Great. The cathedral chanting of England has almost alone preserved the ancient antiphonal system, now discarded by the Roman Catholic Church for its greater variety of instruments.

THE ORGAN IN CHURCH MUSIC.