Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes

SPRAGUE & CO., LIMITED, 4 & 5 EAST HARDING STREET, E.C.

PAINTING.

From the WESTERN DAILY PRESS, Feb. 20th, 1901.

AN IMPRESSION OF "ECCE HOMO."

To the Editor of the Western Daily Press.

Sir,--First impressions forced upon me by an inspection of the picture, "Ecce Homo," by Mons. de Munkacsy, would be succinctly expressed in few words. It is haply, although not highly, inspired. It constitutes a work of laborious but of average ability, and descends to a lower technical state of imaginative eclecticism and expression than I had indeed expected to encounter in so lavishly-applauded a work. Let it be granted in the first instance that the theme is an onerous one; the problem afforded by the venture should have been met in a manner skilful in art, commensurate with its righteous obligations and its lofty demands by the artist. The one fine attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination, generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." The broad use and disposition of whitish pigment; I mean whitish, snowy light flecked, pimpled, dimpled with tints of orange and purple, like snow about to thaw, here and there, honeycombed or stippled to mark the intensity of its native regard for its own divine, suffering, martyred Lord, would have attracted the attention and won the curiosity, the sympathy, of many finer sensibilities. A dramatic and subtle sense of distance, such a powerful agent of spiritual injection in the hands of real artists is in this work absent; never skilfully employed either for negative or positive reflections of emotion. Linear perspective there is, and employed to much scenic advantage; but aerial perspective, utilised towards expressing overlapping figures, there is not, save in meagre degree. The canvas is too crowded, the sense of vision and admiration is nowhere at all lulled by repose. We may point to successful juxtaposition of individual figures, to masses of harmonious tones, but not to masterly composition. The mind of the artist is intent upon the bitterness of turmoil; it does not reach us directly by imperishably revealing or extolling the divine nature of "The Man," "Homo;" and is throughout the field of interest usually recognised in overstrained partiality for attitude and outline. Hence the title of the picture is almost sought for, expected in the multitude on the left, which should have been isolated. "Ecce Homo," briefly and emphatically, is not so suitable a title as I would suggest, with the utmost regard for reverence, might be described, as the interval between the two cries: "Away with Him," "Crucify Him," such intensely dramatic particles of time finding expression and vent throughout the work in coarse silhouetting.

The crowding of the lawless throng against the front of the tribune, on which the chief characters of the scene are portrayed, though not in a material sense wrong, must be open to much æsthetic dispute; must mar the success and the action of reflex thought, the spiritual contest waging and recoiling between the Divine, meek victim and the surging rabble. At all events, it is sad to trace no direct or secret hint at new or transcendental methods conspicuous or even dimly apparent in the painter's art. Little there is in the effort to draw our finer instincts to spiritual truths. The utmost mechanical skill of the diligent artist is discernible, labouring incessantly without extraordinary or transcendental light to the appointed end, the goal accomplished. It should be understood that as spiritual Art of its own property and nature is beset, environed on all impinging sides with a multifold range, a series of difficult corners around which the sense cannot immediately travel, but would for the fructification or sustentation's sake of its etherealism, a process of counter argument may deduce this aphorism, that in works of art in which the eye travels quickly round all the corners of thought, motive, and expression, the priceless, highest crown of spirituality cannot be awarded to it. The painter, honestly striving with his subject, and on lines of intimate understanding, has none of his physical reasons thrown into shade, either be it for the nobility of his art, or for urgency's sake, or for the softer assuaging of sensitiveness in the breasts of his academic audience, having no inclination to be stung when in the precincts, the hands of Art; for to whom else is the pictorial homily directed? The group of figures upon the raised tribune is classically adjusted to its position of prominence. The spare figure of Christ, "The Man of Sorrows," is well conceived; the face is wan, haggard, the attitude tastefully depicted. A palpable and perilous digression is made by the artist in ignoring the text of Holy Writ, "Wearing the purple robe," electing to substitute for the purpose of his science a scarlet "toga." But the "torso"! This is essentially lacking in consummate understanding, skilful address. In all that assists most to mature a native work of this immense importance it is sound sense, equivalent to the gravest optimism, to express this opinion, that the highest powers of science ought humbly, intelligently to co-operate towards achieving a grand and triumphant finale, perfect, harmonious in all its parts, and responsible to the academic dictates of its sacred title. Such a figure Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, or Rubens would have painted and blessed our reasons with, for a certainty: bountifully inspiring us at once and for time with their divine interpretation of the great, the majestic omnipotence.

Any failure in Art cannot rouse us to this pitch; our sensitive, appreciative spirits would assuredly flag unless some keynote of resonant power were sounded.

The figure of Pontius Pilate is realistically depicted; it has not the aristocratic air of a Roman Governor, yet the face, not caring to meet the gaze of the people, is a work exhibiting some power. It sardonically, satirically suggests the thought, "I find in Him no fault at all," possessing a semblance of three meanings. The people, deputy officers, and supernumeraries assembled upon this elevation are somewhat stiffly grouped, and the architectonic embellishments--no unimportant feature--well conceived, as they form the framework of the drama, and must be considered well painted. Let it be observed that the basket capital of the arch is out of perspective; a like error is to be observed in the roof of certain of the houses on the left; the blue of the distance, although luminous and atmospheric, is too opaque. The arches forming the left-hand middle distance are finely depicted; correct as far as local traditional art will inform us, and of considerable value in such a work as ballast, substance, in steadying the erratic fancies or emotions of the painter. Criticism must justly deal with the figures of the Jewish rabble. The attitudes are telling, but over angular and rather vulgar. 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.