Identifier: sacredlegendarya02byujame (find matches)
Title: Sacred and legendary art
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 1794-1860 Hurll, Estelle M. (Estelle May), 1863-1924
Subjects: Christian art and symbolism Saints
Publisher: Boston, Houghton, Mifflin
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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of the river, Christ beckonsto him for aid. 5. Engraving, — Old German. St. Christopher seated onthe bank of a river; the Infant Christ is in the act of de-scending on his shoulders. 6. Engraving, — F. Amato. St. Christopher offers his ser-vices to the Infant Christ, who is seated on the ground. 7. I have seen an old coarse engraving, in which St. Chris-topher is represented on horseback, — the whim, I suppose, ofan ignorant or capricious artist. 8. Engraving. St. Christopher wades through the waters,bearing Christ, who has one foot on a large globe, and, insteadof the hand extended in benediction, he is impatiently urgingthe saint with a drawn sword, which he brandishes over hishead. Full of spirit, but a most capricious and irreligiousversion of the subject. 9. In Van Eycks wonderful altar-piece, at Ghent, the pil- 1 (From this description it would seem that allusion is made to the picture inIhe Munich Gallery attributed to Dierick Bouts.) 442 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CHKISTENDOM
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St. Christopher (Lucas van Ley den) grims, who approach to worship the Lamb of God, are led bythe giant Christopher, who strides on before the rest, graspinghis palm-tree; his voluminous crimson mantle sweeps theground, and a heathenish turban decks his head. This is oneof the few instances where he is without his divine burden;the poetry and significance of the allusion will be understoodat once. 10. M. Didron tells us, that in the Greek churches hefound St. Christopher often represented with the head of a ST. CHRISTOPHER 443 dog or wolf, like an Egyptian divinity; he adds, that he hadnever been able to obtain a satisfactory explanation of thispeculiarity. These figures, which are ancient, have in someinstances been blurred over and half effaced by the scruples ofmodern piety. ^ The history of St. Christopher, as painted in the chapelsdedicated to him, for instance by Mantegna in the Eremi-tani, at Padua, is comprised in three subjects: his passageacross the river, the conversion of

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