SACRED AND RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS During the golden age of art in the sixteenth century, paintings were to the people very much what books are to us to-day. These people could not read nor write, but they could understand pictures. So the pictures performed a great work in teaching and inspiring the mass of the people. As the Church was a great patron of art, many of the world's famous pictures relate to sacred subjects. Previous to the great men whose works we shall examine, there began to be an improvement over the stiff and lifeless paintings of the Middle Ages. The men who began to learn a new way of painting were called Primitives. They were quiet, gentle, contemplative men and strove to put the "fair sweet faces full of divine tenderness," which they saw in their visions, upon can vas. Cimabue (1240-1302) was the first notable artist in this reform, and his great pupil, Giotto (1266-1337), the shepherd boy who designed "Giotto's Tower" in Florence, was another. Others came, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, men who helped to free painting more and more from its rigid lines and crude coloring. Purity and delicacy mark their work. Flesh begins to look alive. We notice for the first time warm shadows. Their drawing is still poor, the feet look wooden, but there is some thing very lovable about their works. Many of them remain to us to-day, still as beautiful in color, it seems, as the day they were painted, in the galleries of Florence chiefly, but a few elsewhere in Italy and even in America, waifs of serene beauty, appealing to all by reason of their sincerity, faith and calm joy. Next came Perugino (1446–1524) and then in a few years, dimming by their glory and spendor all who had gone before, came the great Leonardo da Vinci, the great Raphael and, greatest of all, Michelangelo. These last three were the great figures in painting of the period known as the Renaissance, or new birth, in Italy in the fifteenth century. THE LAST SUPPER By Leonardo Da Vinci of the Florentine School (Born 1452, died 1519) Only five or six pictures of this great master are recognized as his beyond dispute. One of them “The Last Supper," painted in oils on a wall in Milan, surpassed everything that had been done up to that time. Time and events have nearly ruined it, but even today there is a certain grandeur about it. Others had painted the Last Supper, but though there had been sincere and dignified attempts there had never before been anything so dramatic. In the picture Leonardo has seized the moment when Christ, surrounded by his twelve disciples, said: “One of you shall betray me." There were other dramatic moments at this fateful meal, as when Christ said: "He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me." This remark, if made the subject of the picture, would fix all attention upon two and show Judas convicted. But Leonardo chose the remark upon which all present would show the greatest possible amazement, while the figure of Christ would be the center of all interest and observation. Vasari, whose "Lives of the Painters" is a well of information and delight which should be read by all, says of this: "Leonardo succeeded to perfection in expressing the doubts and anxiety experienced by the Apostles, and the desire they felt to know by whom their Master is to be betrayed: in the faces of all appear love, terror, anger, or grief and bewilderment, unable as they are. to fathom the meaning of their Lord. Nor is the spectator less struck with admiration by the force and truth with which the artist has exhibited the impious determination, hatred and treachery of Judas." There is a story about this painting, relating to this very Judas' head. It seems that Leonardo did not get on with his painting fast enough to suit the prior of the monastery. Leonardo, we know, sometimes made long pauses in his works. If he was uncertain how to proceed he always waited until his mind was made up. We might guess that "Be sure you are right, and then go ahead" was his motto. But this prior was in a hurry to have the picture finished and kept talking about it and asking when it would be completed so that the staging could be removed. Leonardo told the Duke of Milan, in whose service he was, about the prior's impatience, and he explained to the duke that two heads were yet wanting - one of them the head of Judas. This had caused him some anxiety since it was difficult to imagine the features that should properly render the countenance of a man who, after so many benefits received from his Master, had possessed a heart so depraved as to be capable of betraying him." When the picture was finished, the head of Judas was so successful as to be indeed the true image of treachery and wickedness - but it proved to be also a portrait of the impertinent prior. Another story of this picture is that the King of France (Francis I) was so impressed by the great painting that he employed architects and builders to try to devise some way of securing it, regardless of all expense, so that it might be removed to France. But no one dared to undertake such a task. The painting is so large that the figures are more than twice life size and being upon plaster it could not be moved without breaking. This French king's love and patronage were of great assistance to Leonardo in his later years. Turn to the picture and select if you can in turn each of the figures described in the following characterization. "One in the act of drinking puts down his glass and turns his head to the speaker. Another twisting his fingers together, turns to his companion, knitting his eyebrows. Another, opening his hands and turning the palm toward the spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth expressing the liveliest surprise. Another whispers in the ear of a companion, who turns to listen, |