PICTURES AND THE MESSAGES

Evening Star, Issue 21822, 11 September 1934, Page 13

PICTURES AND THE MESSAGES

At the Theosophical Hall last Sunday evening Miss E. Starkey gave an, interesting address on ‘ Some Great Painters: Their Pictures and Messaged Having visited the National Art Gallery and Tate Art Gallery of London, the Bristol Academy, the Louvre in Paris, and palaces or Versailles and Fontainbleau, the speaker based her remarks on the wonderful paintings gathered together there for centuries. War pictures, she said, speak of sacred duty, and stir us into a desire to overcome enemies—whether without or within. Other pictures touch life’s minor key, and stir within us feelings of sympathy and tenderness. Yet the flowers of art, which appeal to man’s better nature, and bring him back to the simple truths of life, are not so popular. In the 12th century, the life of St. Francis of Assisi was instrumental in enlarging the spiritual outlook of the _ people, and consequently the paintings of Giotto show a deep insight into the nature of man’s soul. Leonardo da Vince, Michel angelo, and Raphael possessed a comprehensive grasp of nature, together with controlled imaginative spirit, which made them supreme masters of their art. Yet the genius of each is quite distinct. Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt excelled in portraiture. In the magnificent forest of Fontainbleau stands the house of Jean Millet, who, from these studio windows, painted his ‘ Gleaners,’ and * The Angelys.’ The rural scenes are still as beautiful as when he lived. In his picture, ‘ The Sower,’ stern in its simplicity, unadorned by false trappings, we see blended into it the idea of a majestic image of a man, for whom outward things serve only as materials for the .soul’s growth. _ The pictures of George Fredrick Watts are dear to the hearts of thousands of people. Perhaps ‘ Hope ’ is his best loved work; it was painted in his sixty-eighth year. All his works show him as a mystic, and man of great inner knowledge. In St. P.aul’s Cathedral hangs the picture most New Zealanders have seen—‘The Light of the World,’ by Holman Hunt, who depicts Jesus of Nazareth, not as the man of sorrow, but as the King of men. Hundreds daily, pass this great picture and admire it. The audience was also favoured with the artistic rendering of several songs by Mr C. Wessman,