Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1906)
4 G TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX. : PORTX AND. DECEMBER 9, 1906. ' M Till v Jiiuiia3 MM1 on HQ 1 ' v vr mmmm lit'1 cJ Uk HTREASURES which the Boston Museum of Art will soon install in the most perfectly designed building of OSTO.V. Dec. 2. (Special Corre The Sunday Ore- spondonce of gonlan.) With thousands of Americana going; abroad every year tc. visit the art galleries of the Old World It Is Interesting to note that Europeans who come to this country often express surprise at the excellence of our art collections, of which nearly all of any consequence have been gathered within a generation. Thev great galleries of Europe represent in many instances the Krowth of centuries; while the really Important permanent exhibitions of works of painting, sculpture and the applied arts in this country have been made since 1870. In that time so rapid lias' been the advance that predictions are already heard of a day when Euro pean students will visit American gal leries for the purpose of becoming ac quainted with some of the most impor tant of the world's masterpieces.. Such Institutions as the Metropolitan Mu seum of Art. in New York, the Art In stitute, of Chicago, the Corcoran Art Gallery, in Washington, and the Mu seum of Fine Arts. In this city, have already gained international reputa tion, while Philadelphia, through the consolidation of the John G. .lohnson, William U Klkins and I. A. B. Widener collections, is destined very shortly to have one of the most notable museums if the country. At the same time, In smaller cities, there has been a similar iiwakctiing, so that the place of 100,000 inhabitants without some kind' of art collection open to the public is excep tional. Ideal HoubIiiic of Treasures While. American museums have nec essarily drawn largely upon the treas ures of the "Old World in building up their collections, it has remained for this country to take the lead In pro- j viding a suitablesetting for art treas ures. A new point of view in the hous ing of the great collections forming In this country appears in plans which' have recently been adopted in Boston for a group of buildings to accommo date the Museum of Fine Arts, founded In 1870, and situated for . many years past In an ornate structure fronting on Copley Square, hard by the famous Bos ton Public Library. The tiew museum will, it is said, be the most perfectly designed Institution of Its kind in the world, for the- plans are based upon elaborate studies made, among Euro pean and American art .museums by a Special committee of experts. At the Came time, exhaustive investigations Into the proper lighting and arrange ment of objects of art have, been con ducted with the aid of specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology. . When, three years hence, re moval from the present overcrowded and unsuitable building has been matie possible, the immense treasures in the keeping of the Museum will be housed as art collections never were before, and entirely in a way to make them most accessible to the American public. The modern art museum Is much more than a collection of painting and tculpture gathered at random. It cov ers so wide a range, both in time and place, that Its collections become an rpttome of ancient and modern civiliza tion, as revealed In art. There are objects, for example, in the Boston Mu teum which were fashioned when the indent civilization In the Valley of the Nile was still at Its dawn. Visitors see etatuettes in' limestone and wood .which Were carved and painted nearly 3000 years before the birth of Christ.' Of later date is a recent accession, the sarcophagus of King Thothmes I, who lived from 1540 to 1515 B. C. The great Hone, one of the first to be so used, which was hollowed out to receive his remains and was covered with quaint t-arving was found In 1903-4, in tha tomb of his daughter. Queen Hatshep ut. In the Valley of the Kings at 0'hebes. Ksjptian Skill. Nearly everybody is, in a way, familiar with Egyptian art as seen in the archi tecture of temples and burial-places. 1-css "familiar are other evidences of the skill itf the Egyptians. Included in the Boston collection is a gazelle skin robe, myste riously and wonderfully wrought, that has been surmised to be an earlier form of the epoch of the Bible, a garment which ' has heretofore puzzled the learned. At first glance the robe seems to be made of woven meshes, but closer inspection shows its main portion to consist of single gazelle skin, the effect of the meshes being obtained by piercing the in terior with minute cats about 40 to the Inch and perhaps a hundred thousand In total number. Nearly 3500 years have come and gone since an Egyptian artisan made from' this skiln a fabric almost as tlelicate as lace-work; yet the fragile hair still clings to several spots missed by the Workman's knife and very few of the meshes are broken. The Egyptian department of the Mu fceum had its beginning In 1872, when Mr. C. Granville Way presented a number of Interesting antiquities, and since that time has been In steady process of de velopment until it has become so large that in the present building only a limited number of the possessions can be shown. Many of the objects, such as two great tnastabas, or stone tombs, have neces t-arily been tftorcd outside the building. Ample provision for the proper display lf such works has. of course, been made in the plans for the new home of the institution. Early Japanese and Chinese Art Together -n-tth the treasures discovered In excavations on the banks of the Nile are others whffch represent the art of China and Japan from early times to the present. The collection of Chinese and Japanese art which the Museum of Fine Arts has In its keeping are equalled only In the Imperial Museums of Japan, while the collection of Japanese pottery, made by Professor Edward S. Morse, Is more completely representative of the pottery pf the Island Kingdom than the acqut ltions of all the other museums In the world combined. The Japanese who, at the'time of the recent war with Russia, overran and took possession of Korea.- the hermit kingdom, were studying modes of artistic expression .more than a. thou- its kind I rf-vn Ml tt s" y , t ' ' - $&m I ' vA - - " - ; v - - ' I V K, 4 9 KWANNON. THE ANGEL OF MERCY. One of the most beautiful concep tions of Japanese mythology, repre sented in a statuette, which dates back to the eighth century, when Europ was still in the Dark Ages. sand years ago. under tfie tutelage of the now despised Koreans. . Thus the Japa nese potter derived certain methods of technique from these people, and for that reason there has been Included In the Jap anese collections a small collection of Korean pottery, the objects- ranging in age from a thousand years and more to the present time. In the cabinets devoted to Chinese and Japanese art are objects which are of unique popular interest. Thus among the Ames gifts is the celebrated Fei-Tsui jade tree, a present made to the Emperor Tung Che when he ascended the throne in the Eighteenth .Century, and, by him' given to Chung How. minister to Russia. A flask-shaped Jade, said to be the largest single piece in the world, is mounted upon a pagoda or pure gold, and bears a tree of twisted gold branches and leaves of jade of various colors. -.. ' Important as Italian. Several of the painting in the Chinese and Japanese departments are as import ant in oriental art as so many Raphaels, Tltians and Rembrandts would be in a collection of European paintings. Back in the year ' IMS, Chinkal, a celebrated Japanese monk-painter, repaired a paint ing which was than '400 years old. Chin kal placed an-Inscription upon the picture, stating that he had repaired it, and it is through this Inscription that he has been introduced to the art lovers of the Amer ica of the Twentieth Century. This little picture, painted a dozen centuries' ago. Is extremely valuable, for Japanese paint ings of the Eighth Century are rare, there being, perhaps, only a dozen ex tant, besides certain wall paintings. It is half a millennium older than the revival of European ' paintings Jn Italy. Some time after the monk Chinkal had repaired n .... mmmm.m i t i m iB' r . mm i n ,1'inr ,BHiMjrxwuu3f f rural "to. a ia sum i . --jiiiv . v y- i - THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE LTKENESS OP GEORGE WASHINGTON. Often as the Father of His Country posed, this unfinished portrait by Gilbert bluart, now in- tnc Boston Museum, Las ahvavs been regarded as the best. - AM the other "Stuart Washmctons" are. replicas of this one. - - i, "the old picture, a set of three rolls was painted, depicting battle scenes of the Helji era, and one of these, known as the Keion'roll,. has come into the keeping of the Museum of Fine Arts, the other two being owned respectively by the Mi kado and by Baron Iwasaki, of Tokio. In Bhuddist sculpture the Museum Is rich, and out of many examples one may es pecially be selected, a beautiful example . "AN "OUTGROWN ARTISTIC IjANDMARK. 1 Tlie present biiildihg occupied by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. , in Copley square, near the Public Library and Trinity Church. The collections arc shortly to be removed to a million-dollar structure in the Fenway district.' of Japanese art, dating back to- , the Eighth Century,, a bronze statuette of Kwannon, angel of mercy. It Is especially to the collection of origi nal works of Greek art contained in the - -4 -?f "-I ii 11 it I . . -w s--,-J i 4? THE ONLY ORIGINAL HOMER HEAD IN AMERICA. An imaginary likeness in ancient marble of the poet who hegped hjs bread through Greek cities three thousand vears ago. It is the work of a late Greek sculptor, and has been declared on good author ity io surpass every oiner or its Naples. i ii -iimii I , Bja Jtf Mi 5 ajt mi A SPANISH PRINCE AND HIS DWARF. This canvas represents Velasquezjhe greatest of the world's painters, in the maturty of his powers, just as the celebrated portrait of Philip TV, which uuijks urn io it, is a woi-K oi n.is yonui. nip 4, -ft v in,;;. Museum of Fine Arts that the visitor's attention should be directed. Owing to the difficulty of getting original works, American - museums -have often -been - ob liged to . present Greek art through the Kind, including the famous head in rf -"x A 9 - T '2 -1 medium of plaster casts and oLher re productions. The wide popularity of cast and the almost total absence of original works has caused many persons to form a definite, but false, idea of Greek art. the more subtle qualities of which cannot be studied in reproductions. In view of these facts it is a subject of congratulation that so many phases of Greek art may be studied in Boston by means of original collections of the first rank, both for comprehensiveness and beauty. In the United States this collection is quite unapproached. A. very great sphere of usefulness for such a col lection is found in the illustrations It furnishes at first hand for the studies of school and college students and teachers. Many of the text books now in use could adequately be illustrated by objects se lected from the Museum of Fine Arts alone. The specimens of the minor arts of Greece are of an exceptionally high grade. This is especially true of Greek vases and terra cotta statuettes, gema and coins, usually scantily, if at all, represented In our museums. Yet the importance of Greek vases In art is altogether exceptional. Not only do they give us a great part of our information concerning the whole course of painting and the decorative arts ia Greece, but it is to them that every investigator and teacher in every branch of Greek (Studies must turn for information and illustration. Professor Furtwangler o Munich, perhaps the foremost historian of classical art. has stated in a pub lished letter: "The collection of Greek vases at Boston is worthy of compari son with many" of the famous collec tions of Europe, such as that of the Vatican, especially In its examples of the finest period of Greek vase painting of which it has specimens of the choicest kind and of the greatest value; the col lection of ancient goldsmith's work con tains four pieces of the very first qual ity, each of them quite unique, all prod ucts of the greatest period of art and of exceptional perfection." In the same letter . he says, referring to a lifesize terra cotta head of a Roman. "It is without a blemish and its like Is not to be found in any museum of Europe. The collection of marbles is also extreme ly choice." Among the marbles thus referred to, three in particular , should be noticed. The first is a head of Homer, the only Concluded on Fage 48.)
