Page:Woman in Art.djvu/301

WOMAN IN ART dying Christ, emaciated by pain, fasting and grief of soul far more than pain of body, was painted for the saving grace that the God-man brought to the earth-man.

The motive of those painters was religious.

In that non-age of books (save the Latin of the clergy) such sad and gruesome panels in church and cloister enforced the lesson, "A life for a life." None of us enjoy those paintings of the pre-renaissance period, but we learn something of the thought and development of that time through those agonizing pictures. They began with the fact of sorrow and suffering. As the effect of that redeeming sacrifice and the love that prompted it grew through the centuries, enriching the hearts that accepted it, artists painted from the cross back to the cradle. They painted disciples, Magdalens, cripples and suffering humanity that crept and crowded with the throng, reaching out to touch the robe of the human-framed Divinity who healed their diseases. Backward were those painters led through the dark of sin and suffering till they gazed on the Morning Star and found the Babe of Bethlehem.

That epoch marked the dawn of the renaissance of art, of faith, of letters, and the Christ-child became its most luminous cause and effect. Correggio's "Holy Night" illustrates just that, for the light that radiates from Him, the Bethlehem Babe, reveals Himself to those who seek him. He is the Light of the World. If one looks long at this painting it seems to increase in luminousness. Note the woman shielding her eyes from the light.

Art and religion went hand in hand and the Psalm of the Psalmist began its fulfillment in the hearts and on the canvases of men,—"And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." And the beauty came, not from without, but like the beauty of the lily it came from the inner growth outward.

The renaissance was not confined to painting; it was the awakening of soul, gifted with new vision, new thought, and looking higher for its inspiration. No wonder painting was considered a divine art. Artists brought a scripture knowledge to their work in chapel, church, wall and window. No immoral person was permitted to work on any sacred edifice.

Mothers with children in arms or trailing at their skirts stood awestruck before Nativities, Miracles, Crucifixions and Ascensions. Remember, there were no books, no libraries for the populace, and adults as well as children learned of the Bible and life from pictures. The Lamb symbolized meekness. The dove taught a fluttering lesson of incomprehensible spirit and peace. The faces of men and women were changing, influenced by a 241