ECCLESIOLOGIST 104862 (NEW SERIES VOLUME XVI) "Surge igitur et fac et erit Dominus tecum” PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE ECCLESIOLOGICAL SOCIETY VOLUME XIX LONDON JOSEPH MASTERS ALDERSGATE STREET AND NEW BOND STREET MDCCCLVIII ECCLESIOLOGIST. "Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum.” No. CXXIV.-FEBRUARY, 1858. (NEW SERIES, NO. LXXXVIII.) SOME REMARKS ON GLASS PAINTING.—No. IV. IN continuation of the remarks made in a former paper, the applicability of naturalistic principles of representation to the great scenes and events of Scripture has now to be considered. In the last paper these principles were considered, mainly, in reference to the persons ;—the great characters-Apostles, Prophets, Saints, and Martyrs, both of Scripture and of ecclesiastical history; and more especially with reference to His Person Who, though in the form of man, is in reality far above all men, and Who therefore must, of necessity, be unworthily represented, if delineated only in His human character. And in thus carrying on these remarks, from the persons to the scenes in which, while they were on earth, they were the principal actors, much which would otherwise have to be said, will have been already anticipated. But yet there remains also much which will serve to bring out in still greater clearness the unfitness of any such principles, even in the field to which naturalistic painters chiefly confine themselves-the scenes and events recorded in the Bible. It cannot have escaped the eye of any one, who has paid any sort of attention to the subject, that the naturalistic school chiefly delight in Bible scenes as the subjects for their windows, in preference to single figures. In fact, it is here, in this preference, that one of the most obvious differences between this school and that which has taken the medieval painters exclusively for their model, is to be looked for: and it is therefore on this their own peculiar ground that the fitness or unfitness, of their principles of representation in sacred art shall now be further tested. In the first case, then, what is there to be gained by the introduction of these principles into the school of glass painting? More correct drawing, it is said, of the figures, greater truthfulness and accuracy in the details. So far as the correct delineation of the human form is secured by the adoption of naturalistic, or any other, principles of representation, little opposition to their introduction need be feared; but |