Lorinda Munson Bryant

“ Chardin's color was so wonderful that one of his artist friends cried out: "O Chardin! it is not white, red, or black that you grind to powder on your palette; it is the air and the light that you take on the point of your brush and fix on canvas." ”

“ Titian's picture of the "Virgin going to Heaven" the whole world calls one of the greatest pictures ever painted. Some day I hope you will go to Venice, that Queen City of the Sea, and fasten your gondola at the Museum door while you go in to see this picture. You will be so dazzled with its bright color that you will hardly see the little cherubs circling around the blessed mother. ”

“ The boy has the "Lord of Creation" air that would not be good for him in America. We love the picture, for Rubens, the father, shows us plainly the old idea that the boy rules the home. Naturally the father would know the traits of his own children but not always would he allow us to know them too.
Rubens was so wonderful as an artist, as a man to settle quarrels, and as a beautiful gentleman that all Europe did him honor. He was sent to see the ruling powers in England, in Spain, in Italy, and in France. ”

“ That horse has all the alertness of the trained dogs and is just as eager in overcoming brute force as men are. In fact we are so fascinated with his beauty and intelligence that the cruel sport is almost forgotten in our interest in him and his master.
Rubens painted a number of hunting scenes, and always he manages the hunt with the skill of a master. The confusion of the rough-and-tumble fight between the wild beasts and the horses, dogs, and men in Rubens' pictures seems to untangle itself under his glorious color and skilful arrangement. This is a picture you must see. ”

“ You see the disciples still did not know that the stranger was Jesus, the Christ. But when He sat at meat with them, He took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them. Then they knew that it was the Savior who was talking with them and sitting at the table with them. Rembrandt shows the wondering men as they begin to recognize who their guest is, and he makes us feel the warmth and gladness that fill their hearts when they know that it is the risen Lord. ”

“ He felt that he could not work for any one who was afraid of any one else. He wandered over the country and at last he came to a powerful king and offered to work for him. The king thought it very fine to have a giant for a servant. One day Offero stood by the king's side while a minstrel sang a song about Satan. Every time the name of Satan was spoken the king crossed himself. Offero was puzzled, for he never had heard of Satan, nor of Jesus. When he found that the king was afraid of Satan, Offero went to find the man the king was afraid of. ”

“ Maes's "The Spinner" and Rembrandt's "The Old Woman Cutting her Nails" make the tasks of every-day life very human. We in America owe much to these old Dutch women and to the artists who have made them live for us.
This picture of "The Spinner" is only sixteen and one fourth inches high and thirteen inches wide, yet that old woman at her spinning-wheel is as much a real person in the room where she hangs on the wall as she was when Maes painted her, nearly three hundred years ago. ”

“ One day a noted painter, Cimabue, found Giotto drawing a sheep on a flat rock with colored stones. The picture of the sheep was so lifelike that the great man asked the boy, Giotto, to go with him and become an artist. ”

“ Every artist was willing to help him because he was always ready to do anything he could to help his brother artists.
Raphael only lived to be thirty-seven. When he died all Italy mourned his death, and his funeral was one of the largest of any artist of his time.
When Raphael was only twenty-one he painted the "Madonna del Gran' Duca." He had gone to Florence for the first time. We do not know where the picture was for a hundred years after it was painted; then the painter Carlo Dolci owned it. Again another hundred years went by, and we find it in possession of a poor widow. ”

“ The story always told of him is his killing the dragon. Once upon a time St. George was going through Palestine on horseback when he came to the City of Beirut. There he found a beautiful young girl in royal dress weeping outside the walls of the city. When he asked her why she was crying, she told him that a terrible dragon lived in the marshes near the city. And to keep him from destroying every one in the city, each day two young girls must be fed to him. These young girls were chosen by lot, and this day she, Cleodolinda, the king's daughter, must be eaten by the dragon. ”

“ The Dutch wanted pictures to hang on their walls; pictures they could live with. Now what do you think of the "Sleeping Girl"? Do you know I could live with that picture and feel that I always had something to make me happy? It is so homy. See how comfortable the girl is! Of course a good healthy girl has no business to be sleeping in the daytime, but we can forgive her now that van der Meer has caught her asleep and let us see her. ”

“ When you go to Holland try to visit Dordrecht, and if possible, go into a real Dutch home. There you may see some one, the grandmother maybe, spinning flax; then you will know that this picture is an actual scene.
Nicolaes Maes, who painted the picture, was born in Dordrecht or Dort. This city is said to be the oldest city in the Netherlands; it was founded in the tenth century. An old woman spinning was a familiar scene to Maes. Now look at this spinner closely. She will not mind, for she is too intent on picking up a thread, possibly a broken or a knotted one. ”

“ The French people were not used to having an artist see beauty in the every-day things they were doing; artists had been painting the rich for the rich. Everybody began to love the pictures Chardin painted. ”

“ Rembrandt has painted the scene just as the little girl, in the center of the group, has finished her story. The men are making ready to meet the attack. Some have on their armor, some are polishing their guns, some have their drums, and all are full of excitement.
When the painting was to be put in the new Ryks Museum, in Amsterdam, it was found that the wall was too narrow for the picture. What do you think the authorities did? The stupid men cut a piece off from each side of the picture to fit it in its new place. ”

“ No prince in the land had more magnificent horses, and no cavalier could ride with more grace and ease than Rubens.
When Van Dyck, the artist who painted "Baby Stuart," was ready to leave the studio of Rubens to travel in Italy, the master gave him a beautiful horse from his own stables. Van Dyck probably used this horse as a model in his picture of "Charles I and his Horse." ”

“ William was very short and Mary was quite tall. It would not do to have Mary taller than her husband, so a stool was brought for William to stand on. Now they are the same height as they are crowned King William III and Queen Mary II of England. When William and Mary ruled England the country was happy and prosperous because love reigned in the royal household. ”

“ He used to say that some day they would both be famous. That was more than four hundred years ago, and to-day this picture of "The Madonna of the Chair" is one of the most famous Madonna pictures. It is found in almost every home in America and is a treasure that belongs to all of us though it hangs in a gallery at Florence, Italy.
We know, too, that Raphael did not let any of his helpers work on "The Madonna of the Chair"—in Italian, "Madonna della Sedia." He painted every brush stroke himself, which makes it still more dear to us. [27]
Courtesy of Pratt Institute
Fig. ”

“ They are singing on the street or in some back yard just as singers do to-day, though they lived nearly three hundred years ago.
Hals was such a rapid painter that he could make a picture while you wait. The story is told that one time young Van Dyck, the Flemish painter who painted "Baby Stuart," went to see Hals in Amsterdam when Hals was an old man. Van Dyck did not tell the old artist that he was Van Dyck but simply asked him to paint his portrait, knowing what a rapid painter Hals was. ”

“ At the breakfast-table the young artist told his father what he had done and showed him the sketch. His father knew the man and sent for him. When the man was accused of stealing the pears he denied it, but when he was shown the picture Thomas had made of him he confessed that he had taken the pears.
Artists, like all of us, want to lay down rules for every one to follow who is doing their same kind of work. Sir Joshua Reynolds said, "The masses of light in a picture ought to be always of a warm, mellow colour—yellow, red, or yellowish white ”

“ Somehow we feel the birds are twittering as they go to bed and the flowers are nodding their heads, they are so sleepy. Soon it will be dark and the owl will screech and the night insects will buzz. Come, we must go home or we cannot see our way! ”

“ The grown people are Joseph and Mary, the father and mother of Jesus; they had no last names at that time. The children are Jesus and his cousin, John the Baptist, six months older than Jesus. Sometimes the little John's mother, Elizabeth, is in the picture and sometimes his father, Zacharias, is there also. ”

“ Fill your lungs full of that glorious breeze whipping their hair and clothes. Open your eyes wide like the baby and let the salt air polish them until they sparkle like diamonds as the baby's do.
Winslow Homer loved old ocean, and so do we! Let us love his pictures of old ocean for he has taught us that that mighty power is under a greater Power. [19]
Fig. 9. The Gale. Homer. Courtesy of Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts Please click here for a modern color image
[20]
MADONNA DEL GRAN' DUCA Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)
want you to learn everything you can about Raphael. ”

“ Offero started. The storm grew worse and the water rose high and the child grew very, very heavy. When Offero set the child down, he said, "I feel as though I had carried the whole world!" The child answered:
"Offero, you have carried the maker of the world. I am Jesus, whom you have sought. You shall be called Christ-Offero—the Christ-bearer—from now on." [91]
Fig. 45. St. Christopher. Titian. Doges' Palace, Venice Please click here for a modern color image
[92]
THE BLUE BOY Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
ainsborough began to draw and paint when he was a child. ”

“ I want you to love these little Dutch pictures; they are so honest and true and tell us about real people and real things, and they make us feel that beauty is everywhere. Now look at your grandmother as she mends your stockings and see how beautiful she is with the light on her dear old face and hair. [53]
Fig. 26. The Spinner. Maes. Ryks Museum, Amsterdam
[54]
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON Vittore Carfaccio (1440?-1522)
t. ”

“ Ye are beholden unto God your Creator, and always and in every place it is your duty to praise him! Ye are bounden to him for the element of the air which he has deputed to you forever-more. You sow not, neither do you reap. ”

“ Santa Maria Formosa, Venice Please click here for a modern color image
[16]
CHARLES I AND HIS HORSE Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)
he horse in this picture of Charles I is probably the one Rubens gave to Van Dyck. It is said that Rubens gave it as a present after Van Dyck had painted a portrait of Helena Fourment, the master's second wife, and presented it to him. Van Dyck was twenty-two years younger than Rubens. You will remember that he was the master painter's favorite pupil. Having Rubens as a teacher did not make the pupil a great painter. Van Dyck was never more than a prince ”

“ He then went to Regan, his second child, but she too refused to make a home for him. The third daughter, Cordelia, loved her father dearly and wanted him to live with her that she might care for him in his old age. ”

“ Van der Meer had a way of catching people without their knowing it. He seems to have cut a piece out of the wall where he peeped in and painted what he saw. We are glad the girl left the door open into another room so that we can see the table and pictures and part of the window-frame. ”

“ Instead of having street-cars and horses and taxicabs everybody goes in long boats called gondolas. The main street in the city is the Grand Canal, and in this canal come all sorts of people with all sorts of water-crafts. ”