PLEASURE IN PICTURES 



i59 



ful in tragedy. In conception it is supreme art, despite the faults of the 

 lesser painter who finished it. The mother of Jesus looks on the body 

 of her son with the deep, calm grief of heroic character; Joseph of 

 Arimathea, a strong man of the formal sect of the Pharisees, is on his 

 knees looking into the face of Jesus with the tenderness of a woman; 

 Mary Magdalene, in uncontrolled passion. Brings into relief the serf- 

 restraint and power of the Virgin; and the marble statues of the Old 

 and Xew Dispensations are raised in cold contrast with the human 

 emotions below. We are not simply shown a harrowing incident; we 

 are led into the experience of profound love, impossible to know with- 

 out this suffering and expressed in monumental power. We feel each 

 character in relation to the others, and the incident itself becomes 

 inseparable from these characters. 



In looking on this picture we live much, live deeply and rightly. 

 We see far more than we ever could with our own eyes. We are lifted 

 out of the circle of our habitual thoughts, and experience the deepest 

 emotions that have led mankind from the animal into his high estate. 



In great dramatic pictures, closely associated with this principle of 

 constructive emotions there is the element of heightened mental power. 

 The easy grasp of the relations among the persons, and between them 



Pieta," by Titian and Palma the younger. Academy of Fine Arts, Venice. 



