PAINTING 



1448 



PAINTING 



Musical cherub, soar, singing, away! 



Then when the gloaming comes, 



Low in the heather blooms 

 Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be ! 



Emblem of happiness 



Blest is thy dwelling place 



O. to abide In the desert with thee ! HOGG. 

 9. Composition. By composition is meant such 

 an arrangement of the objects in the picture as 

 will clearly and forcefully express the theme, or 

 the artist's idea. 



The girl, silhouetted against the sky and field, 

 is the dominating feature of the picture, but the 

 lark is the center of interest. The hazy horizon 

 and the soft light tell that the hour was at the 

 break of day, and the entire setting is planned to 

 lend emphasis to the bird and its morning song. 

 The depth of sky gives the effect of lofty flight ; 

 the houses in the background show that the girl 

 has come from the village and the foreground is a 

 field of stubble from which the harvest has been 

 gleaned. 



Every line of the figure of the girl is indicative 

 of strength, endurance and buoyancy. Though 

 her task is long and hard, she is not overcome by 

 it. Her countenance is expressive of hope and 

 happiness, and, cheered by the song of the lark, 

 she goes forward to her daily toil with a light 



heart. Notice the simplicity of the figure, and 

 how by a few lines and the use of well-chosen 

 colors the artist has brought out this idea. 



3. Purpose and Message. No real artist paints 

 for the mere purpose of making a picture. The 

 picture is to him the means of conveying a mes- 

 sage to the world. What message did Breton 

 wish to convey? Before we can answer this 

 question we need to know something of the artist's 

 life and tastes (see BRETON, JULES ADOLPH). 

 Breton loved nature and the French peasantry, 

 whom he sought to idealize in his paintings. 

 Someone has said that his peasant women are too 

 beautiful for the fields, but they reflect his own 

 attitude towards them, and the message he has 

 brought to the world through these ideals is, that 

 it matters not how humble the task or how irk- 

 some the toil, one may rise above it and go to 

 his task with a song of joy in his heart. 



In the main this plan can be applied to the 

 study of any picture. It needs variation only 

 in its details. The great questions to ask 

 and answer are: What did the artist express 

 in the picture? How did he do it? What mes- 

 sage does the picture convey to me? What 

 benefit have I derived from its study? 



History of Painting 



Early Beginnings. Pictures were first made 

 to assist in the description of objects. Figures 

 traced upon rocks in caves and those found on 

 monuments that had been buried for ages tell 

 us that this crude sort of picture making be- 

 gan very early in the history of the race. The 

 Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and 

 other ancient nations all had their systems of 

 art in which painting was more or less promi- 

 nent. But the paintings of these early periods 

 and those of the first centuries of the Christian 

 Era are of little interest to the general reader, 

 although they occupy a position of importance 

 in the history of painting. 



The Medieval Period. Painting in the medi- 

 ( v;tl period w:is an adjunct of architecture 

 and was employed for both decoration and il- 

 lustration. With the rise of Christianity paint- 

 ing gave its services to the Church, under whose 

 dominating influence it remained for more than 

 a thousand years. For centuries its chief pur- 

 pose was to give religious instruction. Before 

 the invention of printing (about 142.5) only 

 the priests and monks could read. Copies of 

 the Scriptures were to be found only in mon- 

 asteries, and this condition continued far into 

 the sixteenth century. The walls of the 

 churches were covered with scenes from the 

 Bible, that the congregations might read in 

 pictures the truths told from the pulpit. 



These pictures showed a radical departure 

 from the beauty of the Greek art, which the 

 early Christians regarded as licentious and sin- 

 ful in the extreme. Sad-faced Christs, melan- 

 choly monks and forlorn saints looked down 

 upon the worshipers from the walls of every 

 church edifice, and it was not until the four- 

 teenth century that marked changes for the 

 better began to appear. During the Renais- 

 sance (which see), 1400 to 1600, painting along 

 with other arts made great progress. 



Italy. In the thirteenth century a few Italian 

 painters, stimulated by the influence of Gothic 

 sculpture, began to break away from the old 

 traditions and to make more lifelike figures. 

 The great leader of this movement was Gio- 

 vanni Cimabue. He was the first to give indi- 

 vidual life, grace and movement to his figures; 

 his draperies were less rigid, and on the whole 

 his paintings were characterized by a natural- 

 ism heretofore unknown. With Giotto, his 

 famous pupil, the revival of art was accom- 

 plished. He was the first master of real crea- 

 tive genius that Christianity had yet, produced. 

 He was a student of nature, big enough to 

 break through the fetters of tradition, and by 

 his daring naturalism he not only effected 

 an entire change of the art of his time but 

 influenced for centuries artists who followed 

 him. 



