DOI article:
Lemont, Jessie ; Trausil Hans: Old subjects in new vestments
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0008
Old Subjects in New Vestments
triumphs over the effect of hopelessness; it pos-
sesses, even under the weight of the remorse
which bows its proud strength and dims its
vitality, a vivid intensity of life.
The handling of this painting of Eve is bold and
strong. There is rhythm and movement in its
sweeping curves; in colour it is almost a mono-
chrome of browns, as if significant of autumn,
although a scarcely perceptible touch of green
faintly flecks the earth in places, like a last, linger-
ing touch of a luxuriant departed summer, whose
warmth and life the woman is leaving behind her.
The dark figure, the brown, bare branches of the
tree, the dun earth, are but
heavy shadows against the
golden glow of a far dis¬
tance.
There is no other con¬
ception just like this in
painting and none other of
like significance in sculp¬
ture, save, perhaps, the Eve
of August Rodin, whose in¬
terpretation by Rilke might
also be a fitting elucidation
of the Eve of Augustus
Tack. Rilke writes: “The
gesture of the standing fig¬
ure develops further, it
withdraws into itself, it
shrivels like burning paper;
it becomes stronger, more
concentrated, more ani¬
mated. That Eve that was
originally to be placed over
the Gates of Hell stands
with head sunk deeply into
the shadow of the arms
that draw together over
the breast like those of a
the figure with the cross into sharp relief. His
great back is bent, his rugged head is thrust for-
ward till the line along the back of the thick neck
is horizontal; his mighty arm and leg muscles
strain with effort. The man’s body is naked save
for a scarlet tunic that covers his loins; his dark
hair and beard are thick and curling; his skin is
brown and toughened from the burn of the sun
and the lash of the winds; he has worked in the
open and possesses resolution and endurance; his
great hands grasp the rough wooden cross with an
iron grip, the big arm muscles dilate, the sinews in his
legs stand out like cords, the strong toes press into
the earth and clinch it with
each step; each step repre-
sents a mighty impulse of
the will; he rises up—up
the steep ascent with un-
faltering tread. The great
figure is the embodiment
of gigantic strength and
invincible determination.
There is a note of tri-
umph in this figure; it is so
powerful that it conveys
conviction that it will
reach the journey’s end
and then, perhaps, with
one supreme final effort of
the will, the bowed head
and bent back will
straighten up and the
mighty arms will lift the
cross and plant it upright
like a banner.
Mystery surrounds the
story of Simon of Cyrene.
Biblical history relates that
chance turned the steps of
this strong stranger toward
Sketch for a large canvas
“WOMAN, BEHOLD
THY SON”
BY AUGUSTUS V.
TACK
freezing woman. The back is rounded, the nape
of the neck almost horizontal. She bends for-
ward as though listening over her own body, in
which a new future begins to stir. It is as though
the gravity of this future weighed upon the senses
of the woman and drew her down from the free-
dom of life into the deep, humble service of
motherhood.”
There is a marked psychological difference in
colour effect in the second picture of the group,
Simon of Cyrene. Here, outlined against the vast
distance of the background, the powerful figure of
a man is seen, dragging a huge cross up the rocky
steep of a mountain. The far-away glow throws
the city of Golgotha; fate placed him in the midst
of a mob, who seized him and compelled him to
carry the cross on which Jesus was to be cruci-
fied, to the top of Mount Calvary. None knew
who he was, nor whence nor wherefore he was
journeying, and the whole testimony of the three
apostles who wrote of him is summed up in their
books in a single short paragraph; then the epi-
sode is lost sight of in the whelming contrast of a
greater tragedy.
For this reason, perhaps, the figure of Simon of
Cyrene has seldom before been portrayed in litera-
ture or in art. On this canvas of Augustus Tack
there seems to emerge from that dark time a
IV
triumphs over the effect of hopelessness; it pos-
sesses, even under the weight of the remorse
which bows its proud strength and dims its
vitality, a vivid intensity of life.
The handling of this painting of Eve is bold and
strong. There is rhythm and movement in its
sweeping curves; in colour it is almost a mono-
chrome of browns, as if significant of autumn,
although a scarcely perceptible touch of green
faintly flecks the earth in places, like a last, linger-
ing touch of a luxuriant departed summer, whose
warmth and life the woman is leaving behind her.
The dark figure, the brown, bare branches of the
tree, the dun earth, are but
heavy shadows against the
golden glow of a far dis¬
tance.
There is no other con¬
ception just like this in
painting and none other of
like significance in sculp¬
ture, save, perhaps, the Eve
of August Rodin, whose in¬
terpretation by Rilke might
also be a fitting elucidation
of the Eve of Augustus
Tack. Rilke writes: “The
gesture of the standing fig¬
ure develops further, it
withdraws into itself, it
shrivels like burning paper;
it becomes stronger, more
concentrated, more ani¬
mated. That Eve that was
originally to be placed over
the Gates of Hell stands
with head sunk deeply into
the shadow of the arms
that draw together over
the breast like those of a
the figure with the cross into sharp relief. His
great back is bent, his rugged head is thrust for-
ward till the line along the back of the thick neck
is horizontal; his mighty arm and leg muscles
strain with effort. The man’s body is naked save
for a scarlet tunic that covers his loins; his dark
hair and beard are thick and curling; his skin is
brown and toughened from the burn of the sun
and the lash of the winds; he has worked in the
open and possesses resolution and endurance; his
great hands grasp the rough wooden cross with an
iron grip, the big arm muscles dilate, the sinews in his
legs stand out like cords, the strong toes press into
the earth and clinch it with
each step; each step repre-
sents a mighty impulse of
the will; he rises up—up
the steep ascent with un-
faltering tread. The great
figure is the embodiment
of gigantic strength and
invincible determination.
There is a note of tri-
umph in this figure; it is so
powerful that it conveys
conviction that it will
reach the journey’s end
and then, perhaps, with
one supreme final effort of
the will, the bowed head
and bent back will
straighten up and the
mighty arms will lift the
cross and plant it upright
like a banner.
Mystery surrounds the
story of Simon of Cyrene.
Biblical history relates that
chance turned the steps of
this strong stranger toward
Sketch for a large canvas
“WOMAN, BEHOLD
THY SON”
BY AUGUSTUS V.
TACK
freezing woman. The back is rounded, the nape
of the neck almost horizontal. She bends for-
ward as though listening over her own body, in
which a new future begins to stir. It is as though
the gravity of this future weighed upon the senses
of the woman and drew her down from the free-
dom of life into the deep, humble service of
motherhood.”
There is a marked psychological difference in
colour effect in the second picture of the group,
Simon of Cyrene. Here, outlined against the vast
distance of the background, the powerful figure of
a man is seen, dragging a huge cross up the rocky
steep of a mountain. The far-away glow throws
the city of Golgotha; fate placed him in the midst
of a mob, who seized him and compelled him to
carry the cross on which Jesus was to be cruci-
fied, to the top of Mount Calvary. None knew
who he was, nor whence nor wherefore he was
journeying, and the whole testimony of the three
apostles who wrote of him is summed up in their
books in a single short paragraph; then the epi-
sode is lost sight of in the whelming contrast of a
greater tragedy.
For this reason, perhaps, the figure of Simon of
Cyrene has seldom before been portrayed in litera-
ture or in art. On this canvas of Augustus Tack
there seems to emerge from that dark time a
IV