THE ROSARY IN ART

New Zealand Tablet, 11 October 1917, Page 13

THE ROSARY IN ART

(For the N.Z. Tablet, by "CM.")

| INTRODUCTION. | Christian art aims at symbolising for us the great eternal truths of our holy religion it seeks to render visible what is invisible to mortal eyes, tangible what is far removed from earthly sense. To clothe the truths of heaven in the most beautiful raiment of earth; to find and tread the stepping-stones from the creature to the Creator to enter in spirit the very gates of heaven, and with a soul charged with heaven's beauty to descend again to earth: such the aim of the• true Christian artist. ' Then, and only then, when hie fingers tremble ■, with the gold-dust of heaven, and his: eyes still drink of the beauties of God and His mansions, can the artist hope to find the inspiration of soul that lives in works of deathless genius. If Christian art, then, be a tangible expression of man's relations with his God, it must necessarily centre around the God-made Man for us. Christ, in His perfect Humanity, must be in the heart of hearts of the Christian painter or sculptor: with our Lord must the artist begin and end, for all beauty is from Him, in Him is the very breath of the artist's life. , But, after Christ, surely Christ's Mother is the one great source of inspiration to the artist's soul: in her the artist finds the link between the eternal God, Who is a Spirit, and the God that walked the earth for us. Seeking to know and realise the Christ, the artist first looks to Mary and finds, in her, the Son of Mary. "Riguarda omai nella faccia, ch'a Cristo Piu si somiglia, che la sua chiarezza Sola ti pub disporre a veder Cristo." Dante. "Look now into the face that unto Christ Hath most resemblance, for its brightness only Is able to prepare thee to see Christ." Longfellow's Translation. Hence it is that in all the most precious works of Christian art, suffusing them all with a strangely beautiful grace, is found the Woman "blessed among women," now clearly presented to us, now surely suggested to us, or again lingering in some elusive trailing of her glory. Always She is there: the artist's hope and despair, the Christian's perfect Woman and divine Mother, the Co-redemptrix of the human race. 4 Of the pictures in the great galleries of Europe, far the largest and the most beautiful portion is that dealing with the life and character of the Blessed Virgin. This was a theme of which her artist-lovers never wearied, and in their Madonna-guided hands it became one of the noblest and loveliest of all themes. In such representations, lovingly offered in Mary's honor, human genius has achieved of its best. Kneeling before the canvas dedicated to Mary, the artist, ennobled- by her love, found himself in sweet commune with his chaste and gentle Queen, and at his hands the graces and beauties of Mary found expression in manifestations of genius that must abide for all time. It is not strange that in the earliest years of Christianity we find but few representations of the Mother of God. During the life-time of her Divine Son, His glory was too dazzling to permit the halfblinded eyes of men to attend to the glory of the Mother. But after the Ascension, when the clouds at last hid Christ from human sight, men could look, unblinded, upon the figure of her who gathered to herself the;.soft-reflected rays from His departed glory. Then did men think more, and ever more lovingly and tenderly, of her who bore Him. And the more men reflected on that divine Motherhood, the more did their hearts burn with love for her in whom He lay hidden all thosei rapturous months. y) /V;. Cf" : > , Nature gives us nothing so sacredly intimate, as the relation between Mother and Child. But Mary is the Mother of God, and" no !other son has * ever ; been *' can ever be, so; dependent on his. mother as Christ was

dependent on Mary. That one wordmother—for us the dearest, the holiest, and the deepest emotions of the human heart. In vain do we seek to sound the depths of meaning in that blessed. word; for therein is lovingly enfolded all the eloquence, the pathos, and the poetry of the greatest love. Do we not all » • • • feel that, in the heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, ■' Know not among their burning words of love A more endearing name than that of Mother"? "We may have many friends, but only one mother," so writes our poet Gray. This divine Motherhood of Mary a loving faith soon realised; but soon, too, the early Christian grasped the touching and consoling truth that though Christ was lost to his longing eyes, -yet was he not an orphan, for with St. John all could now hail Christ's blessed Mother as. their Mother too. Such a love and veneration as now filled men's hearts could not but render her human form and personality of enthralling interest. Our Lord was flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone. Her pure blood coursed in the veins of the Word made Flesh'. His face, His limbs, were made* of Mary's substance, and hers alone. No other mother is like to her. Men, then, would look upon the form, the features, the beauty, of her they loved as His and their Mother. This great yearning stirred in the breasts of all the lovers of Mary, and inspired the first ■ Christian artists to reflect in some poor humble way the glories of Mary. Thus, it would seem, was Christian art born of Mary's love, and the foundation laid of that glorious gallery of Our Lady in art. To this treasury of sacred art each succeeding age has witnessed its master-artists hasten to consecrate their genius at Mary's Shrine, lovingly to make offering to the Madonna hailed by their, brother-artist as "Seraph of Heaven ! too gentle to be human. Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman All that is unsupportable in thee Of light, and love, and immortality ! Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse ! Veil'd glory of this lampless Universe ! Thou moon beyond the clouds ! Thou living Form Among the Dead ! Thou Star above the storm ! Thou Wonder and Thou Beauty, and Thou Terror ! Thou harmony of Nature's art! Thou Mirror In whom, as in the splendor of the Sun, All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on!"