The populace, I
may remark, are too excited; such sustained, extravagant attitudes,
whether in a picture of large or small scale, but particularly in the
former, are upon canvas rarely satisfactory; they mock with littleness
at a Providence that made Art, and become puppets in the hands of
artists. The heads of not a few of the spectators are too large,
coarse, and expressionless. Here and there, in the distance for
instance, amongst the living panorama, there appears a figure hinting
at a better type of gesture, with a human heart, suggesting an
acquaintance with refinement, but the breadth of awe, the girdle
of salvatory redemption, even in coarse brutality is not even here
apparent. The work is a mute exposition of gesture. The higher, the
acute, the really more intense connection of poetry is absent.
J. ATWOOD.SLATER
4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol.
_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 25th, 1901_
"ECCE HOMO."
_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press._
Sir,--A correspondent whose letter is to-day published, calling
attention to my remarks upon the celebrated picture "Ecce Homo," of
February 20th, cannot, I suppose have understood that the motive which
impelled me in my previous letter was that the enlightenment of the
public having the interest of art might follow; next to whom, as
derivees of fresher, newer light, the spectators of the painting
"Ecce Homo," impersonally and politely apostrophised as "his academic
audience," may now be mentioned.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25