e glory of art has passed away. The hope is not vain that there comes
a rekindling of former fires; art uprising from the dark night breaks as
the morning's dawn; "a new life can spring only from the depths of a new
love." Let us hold that Art like Nature renews her youth. The soul alone
can comprehend the truly beautiful; the eye gazes but on the material
veil--the union of the inner soul with the outward form constitutes the
noblest art. Nowhere are to be found more eloquent utterances on "the
Bond between Art and the Church," but in all is overlooked the simple
fact that "the Celestial light" cannot be made appreciable to mortal eye
otherwise than through the medium of matter, and according to the laws
of vision. And to such oversight is greatly to be ascribed the
infirmities of Overbeck and his school. It is forgotten that the most
holy of motives cannot save a picture which is not good as a picture.
Schlegel discusses the question, What is needed by the Christian
painter? The following phrenzy, though wordy, is worth reading:--

"The answer is that the beautiful truths of the Christian faith should
not be received into the mind as merely lifeless forms, in passive
acquiescence to the teaching of others: they must be embraced with an
earnest conviction of their truth and reality, and bound up with each
individual feeling of the painter's soul. Still even the influence of
devotion is not alone sufficient; for however entirely religion may be
felt to compensate for all that is wanting to our earthly happiness,
much more is required to form a painter. I know not how better to
designate that other element, without which mere technical skill, and
even correct ideas, will be unavailing, than by calling it the inborn
light of inspiration. It is something quite distinct from fertility of
invention, or magic of colouring, rare and valuable as is the latter
quality in painting. It is no less distinct from skill in the
technicalities of design and from the natural feeling for beauty
inherent in some susceptible minds. The poet and the musician should
also be inspired, but their inspiration is more the offspring of human
emotion; the painter's inspiration must be an emanation of celestial
light: his very soul must, so to speak, become itself illumined, a
glowing centre of holy radiance, in whose bright beams every material
object should be reflected; and even his inmost conceptions and daily
thoughts must be interpenetrated by i