WOMAN IN ART
conversion and baptism of Augustine, who became the most potent of the four great fathers of the early church.
Ary Scheffer has given the world a wonderfully spiritualized painting of that mother of prayer and faith, whom we know as Saint Monica, and her son St. Augustine. Did the mother's faith and influence prevail? The artist has pictured them seated on the rocky coast of Southern Italy, seemingly looking over the blue sea toward their native Idumia. They are in deep thought, peaceful, tranquil, mother and son in loving spirit communion, hand in hand. She is his mother, he is her son. God made that relationship with a great purpose in it. They do not yet know that full purpose. They are illumined by two great lights : the glow and glory of the setting sun and the indescribable rapture of the spirit light in the soul.
They seem thinking over the experiences of the bygone years when with the eagerness of a strong will and a spirit determined in its search for the truth the youth was dipping and delving into the philosophies, creeds, and writings of the various nationalities and cults, that pervaded the intellectual atmosphere of that tumultuous period. Not only had Augustine been saved from degradations of life in Rome under the most degrading and wicked of all the Caesars, but he had been saved and prepared for the mission ap- pointed him by the Son of the Mother of Bethlehem, for in the name of the Son of God, Augustine preached and wrote, shedding spiritual light where humanity was groping in midnight darkness.
What Plato uttered in 400 B.C., Paul preached in 52 A.D., and fourteen hundred years later no less a painter than Botticelli set it forth in his day as a new truth—"The principle of beauty lies within." Particularly is this true of motherhood, for the child learns from the mother's spirit before it can speak or understand a word. A woman is never so beautiful as when she is mothering her children, which includes her teaching them this principle of beauty that lies within and develops character as well as beauty.
It is indeed a fine art that can express soul in the painting of the human face, that can illumine the countenance with spirit.
One of the world's twelve masterpieces gives a beautiful example of such high art. The face, pose, and spirit that you feel as you look upon it, is full of a holy beauty. In Murillo's "Immaculate Conception" the Virgin is exalted in spirit to the spirit realm. She is graced with purity and meekness. The space above her is vibrant with the spirits of babes — cherubs we call them. The Virgin's foot on the crescent moon is symbolic, but note that
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