DOI Heft:
No. 214 (December 1914)
DOI Artikel:McCauley, Lena M.: A Western renaissance
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0120
• STUDIO
Copyright, 1914, by John Lane Company
DECEMBER, 1914
VOL. LIV. No. 214
A WESTERN RENAISSANCE
A BY LENA M. McCAULEY
JL k If an enchanted historian who had
spent years in Italy, in Florence, Rome
and Venice, studying the Renaissance, and had
wandered in the museums of Germany, France
and England, should awaken in the heart of
America to-day, he would declare that after cen-
turies of silence art was on the verge of a second
renaissance, but an era in keeping with the spirit
of the twentieth century. It was an art making
its appeal to the many rather than to the few, and
to the humble as well as to the proud. It linked
even the children of the common people with the
palaces of treasure, and concerned itself with
every-day living.
In place of deserted palaces and churches where
magnificent paintings and sculptures displayed
their splendour and gathered dust in solitude,
there were art museums with temptations to in-
vite the people in every community. Their her-
alds proclaimed the service of the beautiful, and
they stood for public education. Processions of
men, women and children made pilgrimages to
look at exhibitions of art, schools were given holi-
days to visit them, and busy men made festivals
in the evenings in order to view the latest work of
their contemporary painters and to learn what
was being done in the varied artistic activities the
world over. Such extraordinary conditions were
not mentioned in previous history, and they must
promise much for the future of the country.
As the observer continued his journey he would
find school buildings, libraries and State houses
adorned with mural paintings within the last quar-
ter of a century. In the State capitol buildings of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, the fore-
most American painters had been employed. In
the market-places of obscure towns in Dakota,
Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Illi-
nois, sculptured monuments to the heroic dead or
the mighty Indian chieftains of the past, modelled
by Lorado Taft, Cyrus Dallin, Charles Mulligan,
THE CITY ART MUSEUM OF ST. LOUIS, WINTER
XXXVII
Copyright, 1914, by John Lane Company
DECEMBER, 1914
VOL. LIV. No. 214
A WESTERN RENAISSANCE
A BY LENA M. McCAULEY
JL k If an enchanted historian who had
spent years in Italy, in Florence, Rome
and Venice, studying the Renaissance, and had
wandered in the museums of Germany, France
and England, should awaken in the heart of
America to-day, he would declare that after cen-
turies of silence art was on the verge of a second
renaissance, but an era in keeping with the spirit
of the twentieth century. It was an art making
its appeal to the many rather than to the few, and
to the humble as well as to the proud. It linked
even the children of the common people with the
palaces of treasure, and concerned itself with
every-day living.
In place of deserted palaces and churches where
magnificent paintings and sculptures displayed
their splendour and gathered dust in solitude,
there were art museums with temptations to in-
vite the people in every community. Their her-
alds proclaimed the service of the beautiful, and
they stood for public education. Processions of
men, women and children made pilgrimages to
look at exhibitions of art, schools were given holi-
days to visit them, and busy men made festivals
in the evenings in order to view the latest work of
their contemporary painters and to learn what
was being done in the varied artistic activities the
world over. Such extraordinary conditions were
not mentioned in previous history, and they must
promise much for the future of the country.
As the observer continued his journey he would
find school buildings, libraries and State houses
adorned with mural paintings within the last quar-
ter of a century. In the State capitol buildings of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, the fore-
most American painters had been employed. In
the market-places of obscure towns in Dakota,
Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Illi-
nois, sculptured monuments to the heroic dead or
the mighty Indian chieftains of the past, modelled
by Lorado Taft, Cyrus Dallin, Charles Mulligan,
THE CITY ART MUSEUM OF ST. LOUIS, WINTER
XXXVII