Levy, Clifton Harby

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^be ©pen Court]'\ A MONTHLY MAGAZINE2>evotc& to tbc Science of IRellgfon, tbe IRelf^ton ot Science, an& tbeBitension ot tbe IReligious iParliament IFDeaEditor: Dr. Paul Carus.^ , (EC HeghlhrAssistant Editor: T. J. McCoRMACK. Assoaatis: \ ^-^^^ Ca?osVOL. XIII. (no. 1) January, 1899. NO. 512CONTENTS:Frontispiece. Montesquieu.An Illustrated Life of Jesus by J. James Tissot. With Portrait and SevenIllustrations. Clifton Harby Levy jAbstraction Prior to Speech. The Beginnings of the Evolution of GeneralIdeas. Prof. Th. Ribot, of the College de France, Paris .... 14''The Wisdom of Solomon.'' Sophia Salomontos. Dr. Moncure D. Conway. 21Montesquieu. (1689-1755.) The Founder of Scientific Sociology and of thePhilosophy of Government. Prof. L. L^vy-Bruhl, of the 6coleLibre des Sciences Politiques, Paris 28An Explanation. In Reply to the Article, ''The Reason Why Abb^ Char-bonnel Failed." M. Victor Charbonnel, Paris 36Santa Claus. The Significance of Myths in the Religious Instruction ofChildren. Editor ....45New Popular Works in Mathematics cjRecent Philosophical Publications -,An American Edition of the Sacred Books of the East c6Heraclitus Transfigured. A Poem. Henrietta R. Eliot 57Book Reviews, Notes, EtcCHICAGO@be ©pen Court IPublfsbfng CompanyLONDON: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.Single copies, 10 cents. Annually, $1.00. In the U. P. U., 5s. 6d.Copyright. 1899, by The Open Court Publishing Co. Entered at the Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter!The Open Court Publishing Company324 DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO. ILL.General Agencies:Agencies for Open Court Publications in the United States and foreign countries are given below. Pub-lii;ations may be examined and orders filled at any of these places.In the United States:CHICAGO: NEW YORK:At the Office of the Publishers, 324 Dear- Lemcke «& Buechner, 812 Broadway.born St. Brentano's, 31 Union Square.A. C. McClurg & Co,, Corner Wabash Ave. and BOSTON :Madison St. Damrell & Upham, 283 Washington St.Brentano's, 218 Wabash Ave. CAMBRIDGE, MASS.Charles McDonald, 5 Monroe St. Harvard Co-operative Society.Foreign Countries:LONDON: AMSTERDAM:Kegan Paul, Trench, TriIbner & Co., Pater- Kirberger & Kesper, Rokin, 134.noster House, Charing Cross Road. TURIN :Watts & Co., 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet St. PALERMO:LEIPZIG: MILANO:Otto Harrassowitz, 14 Querstrasse. Ulrico Hoepli, Librario della Real Casa.ROTTERDAM: CALCUTTA:H. A. Kramers & Son. The Maha-Bodhi Society, 2 Creek Row.Libreria Carlo Claussen.The Monthly Open Court.A FEW RECENT AND FORTHCOMING FEATURES:Biographical Sketches of Great Thinkers, Philosophers, and Scientists.WITH HANDSOME HALF-TONE PORTRAITS.The following have appeared in the series:PYTHAGORAS ZOROASTER LESSING SCHILLER GOETHEDESCARTES MALEBRANCHE SCHOPENHAUER LOBACHEVSKIGALILEO EULER LAPLACE KEPLER LAGRANGE MONGEStudies in Comparative Religion. (Mostly with rich illustrations.)The Religion of the Ancient Persians. Editor. Dr. Bruce on Buddhism. Glasgow Gi£Eord LecturesEschatologv in Christian Art. Editor. for 1898.The Religion of Islam. Pire Hyacinthe Loyson. Norse Mythology. Editor.Catholicism in Italy. Prof. G. Fiamingo. The Trinity Idea. EditorDeath in Religious Art. (A Series.) Animal Worship. Dr. Th. Ackelis, Bremen.The History of Religion.History of the People of Israel. From the Beginning to the Destruction of Jerusalem. By Dr. C. H.Cornill, of the University of Konigsberg. Written especially for The Open Court.Historical Sketch of the Jews Since Their Return From Babylon. With illustrations of Jewish cus-toms and life. By the Rev. B. Pick, Ph. D.The Inquisition. Editor. Illustrated.The Canonisation OF Saints. 'By Professor Fiamingo. Illustrated.The Unrecorded Sayings or Jesus Christ. Thoroughly compiled.Philosophical and Scientific.Lamarck and Neo-Lamarckianism. By Prof. A. S. Packard.Ethnological Jurisprudence. By the late Judge Post of Bremen.On the Photography of Flying Bullets. By Prof. E. Much. Vienna.Popular articles by the First Authorities appear on all scientific and philosophical questions.Announcements.Solomonic Literature. By M. D. Conway. On the Philosophy of Science. Prof, Ernst Mack,On Money. By Count Leo Tolstoi. Vienna.Mathematical Recreations, etc. On the Evolution of General Ideas. Prof. ThHistory of Modern Philosophy in France. By Ribot, of the College de France, Pans.Professor Ldvy-Bruhl, Paris. Assyria. Prof. J. A. Craig,Single copies, 10 cents. Annually, $1.00. In the U. P. U., 5s. 6d.THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO., 3.4Tfrl2?n st.Digitized by tine Internet Arciiivein 2009 witii funding fromCARLI: Consortium of Academic and Researcii Libraries in Illinois^http://www.archive.org/details/opencourt13512caruMONTESQUIEU.(1689-1755.)Prontispiece'to till- January, 'qq. Open Court.The Open CourtA MONTHLY MAGAZINEDevoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, andthe Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.VOL. XIII. (NO. I.) JANUARY, 1899. NO. 512AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE OF JESUS, BYJ. JAMES TISSOT.BY CLIFTON HARBY LEYY.AT least two great Frenchmen have gone to Palestine for the. purpose of presenting the world with the life of Jesus. Theresult of Ernest Kenan's pilgrimage was a romance charming instyle, incisive in method, but yet so radical a departure from or-thodox conceptions that it is considered by many anything but atrue life of Jesus. Twelve years ago another Frenchman went ona pilgrimage to Palestine for a similar purpose, but he was anartist and at the same time a devout believer in the Scripture.The result of M. James Tissot's work is a remarkable illustratedlife of Jesus which follows closely the lines of Holy Writ and tradi-tion.In 1885 James Tissot was a well-known figure in the art cir-cles of Paris and London. He had painted any number of charm-ing studies in the life of men and women of society. He was athoroughly French artist in the mode of attack, a realist—yet notbound down to a theory so closely as to be a mere photographer.Every one of these early paintings is instinct with life, is full ofsentiment, is an epitome of some phase of human thought or ac-tion. It was during this year that he was completing a series ofpaintings dealing with " The Woman of Paris." One picture in theseries was to be that of a choir singer. So as to get the correctbackground and environment as well as the spirit of this composi-tion, the artist visited the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris. Whileattending service in this church the deeply emotional character ofthe artist was stirred by the solemn mass, and, at the climax of theservice, it seemed to him as if he saw a great picture which wasnot upon the walls of the church. In it were ruins of a modernTHE OPEN COURT.castle into which two peasants, man and woman, had strayed. Op-pressed by the failure of all their efforts, they threw down thesmall bundle of their belongings and sat amid the ruins bowed inJames Tissot.Copyright by James Tiidespair. From force of habit or the very depths of suffering, theycalled upon God, and in answer to this prayer a being seemed toglide toward them through the ruins. In that being they see Jesuscovered with the mantle upon whose border is represented the pic-TISSOT S LIFE OF JESUS. 3ture first of the " Fall of Man " then of "The Passion " denoted bythe kiss of Judas. Jesus leans his head upon the shoulder of theman, extends his bleeding hands as if to say, I am the sacrifice. Iam the solution, the only solution, of hfe and its problems. (P. 4.)This picture so beset the artist that it brought on a fever, afterhis recovery from which he was compelled to paint what was forhim an unprecedented composition, a sacred allegory.Thereafter James Tissot was forced to abandon the earlierspirit with which his work had been animated, although he hadalready turned the half century of his life. It was impossiblefor him to paint or etch, as he had before, pictures of women withGainsborough hats or men and women reclining upon the deck ofa steamer ; his spirit was changed, there was a metamorphosis ofthe entire being.It is true that up to this time M. Tissot had been a Catholicmore by courtesy than by conviction, that he had been interesteddeeply in the problems of spiritualism, hypnotism, and thought-transference, but some such moment as this one in the church wasrequired to affect the whole spirit of the artist's work.After completing his painting of "The Inward Voices " or"The Ruins," as it might be called, he determined to paint thereal Jesus if it were possible. To do this he recognised the abso-lute necessity of a pilgrimage to Palestine. He was dissatisfiedwith the ordinary presentation even of the figure of Christ, for itseemed to him that in hardly any instance had even the greatestartists been able to free themselves from slavery to their environ-ment and native country. It has been remarked over and overagain that every land has a Jesus of that land; that the Frenchpainters paint French Jesuses, the Italian painters, Italian, theDutch school, Dutch. M. Tissot wished to paint Jesus the Jew ofthe first century, not of the nineteenth or any other period. Hewent to Palestine intent upon this design of painting a picture ofthe real Jesus and perhaps his apostles. After his preliminarystudies when he was about to return to Europe with the sketchesgathered during his travels of a few months, he felt dissatisfied atthe incompleteness of his work and decided to return and makeperhaps fifty more. But when these were complete neither theconscience of the artist nor of the believer was satisfied, and it wasonly after ten years of labor and the completion of three hundredand sixty-five paintings and one hundred and fifty pen and inkdrawings that M. Tissot was content to exhibit and publish his'".' .-^1TlSSOl S LIFE OF JESUS. 5work as a real reconstruction of the life and surroundings of Himwhom Christendom worships.Jesus and His Mother.These paintings and drawings have now been brought to theUnited States and are being exhibited under the auspices of theA Voice Crying in the Wilderness.Copyright by James.Tissot, 1898.tISSOT S LIFE OF JESUS. 7American Art Association in New York, Chicago, Boston, Pitts-burg, Washington, Philadelphia, and other cities.The pictures have also been reproduced in several volumes,being grouped in chronological order under various heads. Thefirst division deals with the "Childhood of Jesus" in mostsympa-thetic fashion. Here the artist has been forced to utilise the typeswhich he had gathered from his studies of the inhabitants of Pales-tine, and especially of Jewish children, that he might give theTHE OPEN COURt.world as realistic and truthful pictures as were possible, of Jesus,the boy at Nazareth. That composition entitled "Jesus and HisMother" is perhaps one of the best illustrations of the artist'smethod of furnishing the actual Oriental background and costume,TISSOT S LIFE OF JESUS. Qas well as a poetic presentation of the figures and their expres-sions. (P. 5.)In the next grouping, dealing with the " Ministry of Jesus,"we have the most complete study of those three years of ministrythat had yet been given to the world by the hands of a master artist.He begins with the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, (p. 6)and outlines each incident in the career of Christ that has beenchronicled either by legends or Scripture. In the picture, for in-stance, of "Jesus Ministered to by Angels" we have a strange,mystic conception far different from the usually accepted interpre-tation of the statement. Here it is not a ministry by food anddrink, but a ministry of the touch, a transference of spirit, so tospeak. This picture is not reproduced.In the Oriental grouping, where Jesus is admonishing theapostles, we have the background of waving palms and that digni-fied figure of the leader addressing his disciples as he understoodthe character of each and every one. The faces of the apostlesthemselves are character studies of no small value ; the coloring ofthe original adds infinitely to the effect which must be imaginedwhen seen in a black-and-white reproduction. (P. 7.)The picture of "Jesus Asleep During the Storm" serves as astriking instance of the artist's combination of truth and sentiment.The boat, which is tossed high by the waves, is just such a boatas Jesus must have used on this perilous journey. The figure ofJesus himself sleeping so calmly while the crew rushes about madwith terror is doubtless intended by the artist to typify the wonder-ful serenity which is one of the leading characteristics of the Jesusof the New Testament. (P. 8.)B_;t, M. Tissot has not forgotten any of the minor charactersin the great Christian tragedy. Not a parable fails of illustrationto make it both clear and comprehensible. His pictures of theminor personages are as striking as those of the leading characters,for he recognises the fact that nothing is of slight importance toChristendom which bears upon those three years of activity. Hisdrawings of Mary Magdalene, before and after her conversion,are eloquent commentaries upon the significance of Jesus's atti-tude towards her and her class, as well as of her personal changeof life. (P. 10.)The later groupings of the paintings under the headings "HolyWeek," "The Passion," and "The Resurrection," include manycompositions illustrative both of careful archaeological study anddeep devotion. The artist found it necessary to restore JerusalemMary Magdalene After Her Conversion.Copyright by James Tissot, 1898.TISSOT'S life of JESUS. 11itself in the light of modern discoveries in order to paint Jesus andthe closing scenes of his career there. The Temple of Jerusalemitself is no small triumph in reconstructive archaeology. CalvaryEli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani.Copyright by James'has also been restored, giving to Christendom the truer conceptionof that place as a little mound, not more than twenty-two feet high,upon which the final scene of the tragedy was enacted. The artist12 THE OPEN COUkt.omits nothing of all the events appertaining to that final week.The arrest, the various trials before conviction, and the supremesufferings afterwards are all pictured in detail. In fact, somecritics have objected to the too great detail with which this themehas been treated. They object to the pictures dealing with "TheDriving of the First Nail," "The Driving of the Nails Into theFeet," "The Elevation of the Cross," etc. But the artist replies :"If men are to understand all of the sufferings which that mosthorrible of Roman customs, crucifixion, brought upon Jesus, theymust see each and every act."Possibly the finest of all this series is that painting of the lastmoments when the martyr quotes from the Psalms the memorablephrase, "Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani ! " (P. ii.)In dealing with the Resurrection the artist employs most sim-ple devices picturing the several appearances of Jesus to thosewho had believed in Him.In the book in which the pictures are reproduced each compo-sition is accompanied by an extract from the Gospel furnishing thebasis of that picture. These extracts are taken from the Vulgateand the authorised version, appearing on the left and right handsides of the pages, respectively. In addition to the Biblical basisof the compositions the artist has found it necessary to write alarge number of notes explaining the reasons for which he paintseach picture as he does, at the same time giving very full accountsof the customs of the Jews at the time of Jesus, by which it ismade possible to understand otherwise inexplicable incidents.The work of M. Tissot will interest not merely the believersin Chrsitianity, who are desirous of knowing all they can about thefounder of the faith, but inasmuch as the artist has not reliedmerely upon intuition, but has studied the ground carefully andhas listened to the instructions even of the rabbis in Jerusalemupon important points, it interests also the Jews and other studentsof history who desire to understand this important epoch morefully.There can be no doubt of the value of these ten years of laborspent upon a period of which the world knows so very little. Theobjection raised by some who have seen the paintings, that Jesusseems so human, will not be considered anything but praise bythose who regard him as one of the world's greatest men. Thefact that this artist who was seeking the truth was compelled topaint Jesus first as a child, then as a man, in order that he mightpresent him first as a martyr and then as a God, is no small trib-TISSOT S LIFE OF JESUS. I 3ute to the conscientiousness with which, Christian believer thoughhe be, M. Tissot has done his work.When these pictures were exhibited in Paris In 1894, and inLondon two years following, they created a great sensation, and itis probable that their effect in the United States will be no lessremarkable.

An Illustrated Life of Jesus by J. James Tissot. With Portrait and Seven Illustrations

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An Illustrated Life of Jesus by J. James Tissot. With Portrait and Seven Illustrations

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