CHAPTER XI
THE SACRED AND THE COMIC SIDES OF ART
PART I.—THE SACRED SIDE OF ART
It is a beautiful legend, and Gabriel Max has illustrated it as, without exception, no man before him ever did.
The dimness and uncertainty have aided the painter’s conception. It is not so much a face as the shadow of a face which is presented to us—the shadow of a lamb-like face, full of infinite meekness and patience, dirty and wounded, with masses of hair draggled and stuck with the blood which has trickled down the brow and cheeks to that indefinite beard.
This, to me, constitutes the great charm of this masterly work; that the painter has left to the spectator the task of embodying this divine shade.
The trick about the eyes is the weak and common portion of an otherwise matchless work of subtlety. It may please the people, and make a multitude of inartistic minds marvel at the cleverness of the illusion, but it is only a small trick at the best, and unworthy the mind which could conceive and execute all the rest.