PART IV
Motherhood in Art
CHAPTER XX
Gospel of Beauty. Mary of the Hebrews; Saint Monica and Her Son. Mothers in Renaissance Painting.
"A woman who creates and sustains a home, and under
whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure men
and women, is a creator second only to God."—Helen Hunt.
The poetry of art is drawn from the poetry of nature. All pictures are not on canvas, nor are they wall paintings. Here is a picture to listen to. Let your mind supply the color, the light and shade and the spirit, which is the life of all true beauty. The sketch is from life, from the "Birks o' Aberfelde," hidden amid the Scottish Highlands.
The Sabbath morning air was radiant, pure and clear. At the foot of the birches on the steep hillside the woodland stream rushed, rippled, and splashed into sparkling light and glee.
The church bells had chimed, and the breezes
Had wafted the echo along,
Till lost in commingled music
Of the forest's leafy song.
The birds above and around me,
In a carnival of glee,
Poured forth their sweetest praises
On wing, on bush, and tree.
The slender white steeple of the little kirk pierced the thick foliage. Neat white homes faced the road that surrounded the sacred precinct of the village common, hedged about by hawthorn in full bloom. Each side of the common had a stile of its own. No one was seen on the street till the bell called them, then from every doorway, with reverence in voice and mein, old and young turned their steps toward the door of the kirk. Young men and maidens carried the Bible, but more often James took that of Janet with his own; or Donald plucked a spray of bluebells that blushing Ruth accepted and tucked in the edge of her bodice, as he handed her over the stile. O
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