{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_74182/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_74182","id":"gutenberg_74182","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74182","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian art and symbolism","Hunt, William Holman, 1827-1910. Triumph of the Innocents"],"text":"[Illustration]\n\n\n  The\n  Triumph\n  Of\n  The\n  Innocents\n\n                                LONDON\n                                 1885\n\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                     THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS\n\n\n\n\n                                EPITOME\n\n\nThe flight into Egypt I have assumed to have occurred about sixteen\nmonths after the birth of Jesus. Guided by Christian tradition, and\nholding the birth of our Lord to have taken place in December, it\nfollows that the period which I have assigned to the Flight into Egypt\nis the second April in His life.\n\nDuring the spring-time, rich in flowers and first-fruits, the HOLY\nTRAVELLERS are represented as passing across the Philistine plain on\nthe road to Gaza at a distance of about thirty miles from their point\nof departure. The night is far spent. While the declining moon sheds\nits last rays on the natural objects in the picture, unearthly light\nreveals the embodied spirits of the martyred Innocents advancing in\nprocession.\n\nThe Virgin is seated on a she-ass of the breed now known as the Mecca\nrace, and the foal follows its mother, as is seen to this day in the\nEast. Signal fires\u2015\u2015still lit in Syria in time of trouble\u2015\u2015are burning\non the slope looking down from the tableland. St. Joseph is watching\nthese fires intent on discovering any signs that may present themselves\nof a movement of soldiery upon the road. Of the trees that enrich\nthe landscape, the nearest ones shelter a water-wheel used for the\nirrigation of the land. The more remote group clusters round a village,\nwith its few huts visible by the lights that burn within. Having left\nthe colder climate of the high country, then thickly populated and\nwell cultivated, the fugitives have descended into the rich and more\nbalmy atmosphere of the plain. As they advance nearer and nearer to a\nplace of safety they feel the blessed relief of a sense of peace after\ndisturbance and terror.\n\nConscious of the divine mercy, the heart of Mary rejoicing over her\nrescued son, feels compassion for the murdered Innocents, and for\nthe childless mothers less happy and less honoured than herself. It\nis at this moment when the Virgin has been replacing the garments\nin which the infant had been hurriedly wrapped at the time of the\nescape from Bethlehem, that Jesus recognises the spirits of the slain\nInnocents, His little neighbours of Bethlehem, children like Himself.\nThey reveal the signs of their martyrdom. Garlanded for the sacrifice,\nbearing branches and blossoms of trees, they progressively mark their\nunderstanding of the glory of their service. An infant spirit isolated\nin wonder finds no mark of harm, where the sword wounded him, permitted\nto appear on his glorified body. Behind in the air are the babes as yet\nhardly awakened to the new life. In differing revelations of sorrow\nthey show the influence of earthly terror and suffering still impressed\nupon them. Towards the front are other spirits of children triumphing\nin completer knowledge of their service. One of them in priestly office\nleads the band. Those who follow cast down their tokens of martyrdom\nin the path of their recognised Lord. Others encircle the travel-worn\nfoal, wearily following its mother, and so bring it up to the onward\ngroup. The shallow stream over which the procession passes, reflecting\nthe quiet beauty of the night sky, is unruffled except by the steps\nof Joseph. The flood upon which the spiritual children advance forms\na contrast to this, by being in motion. The living fountains of\nwater\u2015\u2015the streams of eternal life\u2015\u2015furnish this, mystically portrayed\nas ever rolling onward. Instead of being dissipated in natural vapour,\nthe play of its wavelets takes the form of airy globes which image the\nJewish belief in the millennium that is to follow the advent of the\nMessiah.\n\n\n\n\n                        DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL.\n\n    \u201cBehold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream,\n    saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and\n    flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word:\n    for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he\n    arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and\n    departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod:\n    that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the\n    prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod,\n    when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding\n    wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were\n    in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years\n    old and under, according to the time which he had diligently\n    inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was\n    spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice\n    heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel\n    weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because\n    they are not.\u201d\n\n\nThe Flight into Egypt is generally believed in the West to have\noccurred a few days after the birth of our Lord. The Eastern Churches\non the other hand extend the interval which is supposed to have elapsed\nto a period of nearly two years.\n\nThe considerations which influenced the choice of age for the Saviour\nin the picture are therefore not simply artistic. The view of the\nEastern Churches can scarcely be rejected with reasonable regard to the\ncircumstances of the visit of the Magi, and of the terms of Herod\u2019s\nfiat for the murder of the male children of two years old and under,\n\u201caccording to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise\nmen.\u201d In the Gospel of St. Luke, however, it is said that after the\nPurification in the Temple, which was forty days after the birth, St.\nJoseph and the Holy Virgin returned to Nazareth with the Child, and\nthat there, speaking in general terms after the accomplished fact,\nJesus grew up. An apparent discrepancy is thus pointed out by some\ncritics, but it is one such as often presents itself in all honest\nevidence of facts; and the report in St. Matthew simply requires it to\nbe understood that the Holy Family came back again to Bethlehem from\nNazareth. Indeed, the residence in the latter city does not seem to\nhave been chosen as a permanent one, for, on the return from Egypt,\nit was only accepted because safety was still not so certain in the\ndominion of Archelaus. The motive which had operated in bringing St.\nJoseph and the Virgin to Bethlehem from the north, before the birth\nof our Lord, is generally understood to be the securing of claim,\nunder the enrolment of Quirinius, to the genealogy, and perhaps to\nsome share of family inheritance. This would operate more powerfully\nafter the birth of Jesus in influencing the parents to make the city\nof David their permanent home. There is therefore no contradiction\nbetween the two Gospels, but the comparison of the evidence given by\nthe two Evangelists in my mind strongly establishes the view of the\nEastern Churches, that the Saviour\u2019s birth took place more than one\nyear earlier than the flight. Herod\u2019s estimate of the age of Him who\nwas born King of the Jews was not made without careful calculation of\nthe date from the birth, so as fully to include the Child whom he had\ndetermined to destroy, that he might thus, like the typical politician\nof the great reader of human nature,\n\n                           \u201cCircumvent God,\u201d\n\nand it follows accordingly that Jesus was not fully two years of age.\n\nWhatever reserve of feeling there may be towards a reading which\nconveys a disputable view of a fact in Holy Writ, let it be remembered\nthat an artist treating a subject in which such is offered cannot\ndelay to make his choice. The first part of his study in making his\ndesign is to form a theory in harmony with the intention of the records\nillustrated, as read by the fullest light, and to leave an exploded\ntheory with confidence that his rendering will be approved as either\ncorrect or unobjectionable. In this case no special pleading is needed,\nseeing that St. Augustine puts the Massacre of the Innocents in\nconnection with the Passover. Perhaps he regarded it as an antithesis\nto the slaying of the first-born in Egypt, and understood the quotation\nby St. Matthew from Hosea, \u201cOut of Egypt have I called my son,\u201d as\nhaving a fuller purpose than at first appears. In any case he regarded\nthe festival as not fixing the date of the massacre, and the fact\nargues that neither the date given in the Western Church for the\ncommemoration, nor in the Greek Church, is understood as the date of\nthe sacrifice of the first Christian Martyrs.\n\nThe journey has been across the mountains from Bethlehem towards Gaza.\nThe birth-place of Christ is on the further side of the range, about\nfive miles beyond the highest elevation, somewhat to the right of the\npoint where the star is rising above the distant curve of the hill;\nthe nearer mountains are about 1,500 feet in height. These, with\nintervening valleys, are further on in the highlands overtopped by\nrolling waves of the limestone rocks until they reach the watershed of\nthe country, which is about 2,400 feet in height. Bethlehem lies beyond\nthis 500 feet lower, on a spur overlooking the eastern country, thus\nfalling gradually to the plain of the Dead Sea.\n\nThe ass is of the Mecca race\u2015\u2015so called from the fact that they are\nbrought from the Arab city of pilgrimage as descendants from one which\nMohammed rode. They were necessarily always costly, being much sought\nfor on account of their power of endurance, and their surefootedness.\nIt is quite within licence to assume that St. Joseph may have provided\nhimself with such an animal for his journeys. The route taken has been\nby bye-paths across the mountains and fields to the plain with beaten\ntracks from all other cities to Gaza, which, once passed, will put the\nfugitives in safety.\n\nIn eluding Herod\u2019s cruel decree, St. Joseph would have made his route\nas far from the state highway as possible. The distance still to be\ntraversed is about ten miles. The Flight into Egypt is one of the first\nevents in the life of Christ which marked the power of the Prince of\nthis world, whom Jesus Christ had come to combat and to conquer, by\ninnocence and suffering.\n\nIn Bethlehem the Holy Family, as is still the custom, had lain down\nsoon after dusk, and doubtless the intimation by dream was given while\nthe protection of night still offered the longest opportunity of\nescape. It was a voice ringing out its warning after the dreamer had\nstarted up in the darkness, \u201cArise, and take the young child and his\nmother and flee into Egypt.\u201d The Rabbinical writers speak of the time\nanterior to the day of the expected Messiah as destitute of marvels\nand miracles, these having ceased since the death of Simon the Just\u2015\u2015a\nperiod of nearly two hundred years\u2015\u2015and about this date an age of\nspiritual activity is witnessed to by them. Wonders in the heavens\nand on the earth occur, although not of the stupendous kind that had\nbeen expected, and which later the Doctors demanded of Christ. Dreams\nof Divine inspiration are mentioned out of the Gospels as frequently\naffecting the fate of men. St. Joseph had a spirit of profound\nobedience to heavenly authority. The Founder of Islamism declared that\namong all the ancient prophets none was greater than Jonah. To me it\nseems that among the saints in the group which fostered the Christian\nChurch during its first perils, none was greater than Joseph, and this\nfor an opposite reason. He had the very soul of submission and faith,\nbearing all evil report and contumely without resentment when once he\nhad been assured that the Heavenly Father\u2019s purpose needed this. It\nseems to us no confession of weakness in this claim for the first of\nthe Fathers of Christianity to state here that St. Joseph was last\nof all the band of guardians of the infant Church, recognised in its\nestablished days as a saint. It is a further proof of his humility, and\nof that true trust in right doing which leaves all after-issues to God,\nwhen his command sanctifies a course. \u201cPray that your flight be not on\nthe Sabbath, nor in the winter,\u201d may have been said with some family\nmemory of the troubles suffered on the escape from Herod\u2019s cunning.\nIn April short storms of severity occur; the writer has seen on the\neighth day of this month snow three inches deep which had fallen during\nthe night. The picture gives snow on the heights, and to be consistent\nthe beginning of their journey would have been under a cloud-covered\nsky. Dark and forbidding would have been the scene as the travellers\nemerged from the town (walled, in part at least, since remains of such\nare still traceable near the tomb of the mother of Benoni) the wind\nblustering through the exposed valleys and scouring over the heights,\nthe anger of heaven and earth alike dictating stealth and silencing all\nconverse.\n\nIn succeeding generations fancy decorated the story with many legends,\nbut although these are often innocent, and even poetic beyond the\nordinary mark of the apocryphal Gospel narratives, they are all avoided\nin this conception. Here no legend is taken for authority. The attempt\nis to put together the detached links of the story, and I rely only\nupon my personal knowledge of the country and climate, acquired by many\nyears of residence throughout all its seasons, to understand how the\nsorrows of that night would be intensified by the angry elements.\n\nThe looking back upon a home from which a family is driven by\noppression has ever been regarded as a motive for compassion, and to\nthis calamity the Holy Family had to submit. The heights to the south\nof \u201cBeit Jala\u201d\u2015\u2015by some writers recognised as Rama\u2015\u2015give an extended\nview, the mountains of Moab far away to the east, and the Dead Sea\nbelow, the great plain of Philistia down in the west. A storm thence\nseen produces the impression of sublime purpose. The lightning gathers\nbeyond the great hollow which includes Jericho and the lost Sodom\nand Gomorrah, and then wavers, as the fingers of a mighty player\nupon the keys of a musical instrument, collecting the errant forces\nof the air, and tremulous with dancing flame in the south over the\nextending table-land it seems to linger as though searching the plain\nof Philistia for its special mark, and there darts down in fury; but\nthe sword which was to pierce the breast of the mother, \u201cblessed withal\nabove all women,\u201d was of man\u2019s forging. According to our order of\nevents the noisy elements would not have endured long, for soon the\npeaceful snow followed falling with its wandering flakes. It would be\nthen that the cry would sound, which St. Matthew quotes Jeremiah to\ndescribe, \u201cIn Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping\nand great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be\ncomforted because they are not.\u201d We are not debarred from thinking that\nthe mother suffered some of her pain in the wonder natural to humanity,\nthat the powers of evil should be able thus to prevail over the pure\nand the righteous.\n\nIt is natural to follow the mind of the mother in such distraction\nof love, while the wintry mountains are traversed, and the fugitives\ndescend into the rich plain with its genial breath, the more placid\nfrom the cleared sky. We can understand the comfort that would be\nprayed for\u2015\u2015a higher Knowledge of the Divine mercy\u2015\u2015and we can conceive\nhow this came to her through her pure maternal charity, in the form of\never increasing tender regard for the woes of the children torn from\ntheir mothers\u2019 breasts for ever, and of the bereaved childless women\nmourning their dearest ones. She searches her much harassed mind to\nfind consolation for the weeping neighbours of her home. The party pass\nthrough the rich corn-fields, among villages of peaceful slumberers.\nThe whole air is balmy and soothing. They feel the comfort of peace\nafter a storm. The torrents would no longer be in broken cascades but\nflowing along in deep channels to the sea, the further from the uplands\nthe greater the change in the temperature. Recently the travellers have\nmade a turn in their course to find a crossing sure to be provided in\nRoman days over the deep river which has to be crossed in the path to a\nvillage on the road. The garments which the Mother is about to arrange\nhave been carried with other needful gear in the saddle-bags. Her own\nunder-garment is the wedding-dress of Bethlehem, worn by a bride until\nit is past service. While her Child is being re-dressed, and is thus\nengaging her solicitude, He calls her attention to the holy company\naround them. The spirits of the children of Bethlehem troop along by\nthe side, they bear the signs of their martyrdom. Garlanded as were\nancient sacrifices and bearing branches of blossoming trees; like\nenrolled saints they appear \u201cin habit\u201d as they lived, the forward ones\nalready rejoice in the knowledge of their high service. Midway there\nis an infant bewildered to find that his new spiritual body bears no\ntrace of the fatal wound. Behind in the air are babes; this sleeping,\ngrieving group is the only one in the picture which in its sorrowing\naspect connects the idea of human pain with the fate suffered, for the\nrest, in degrees differing, death is already seen to have no sting, the\ngrave no victory.\n\nThe foal accompanies the mother ass, in a long journey the young\ncreature lags behind whinnying in remonstrance at the ceaseless steps,\nand only hurrying on in bounds when there is fear of the parent ass\ngetting beyond reach and sight. The glorified infants are encircling\nthe weary laggard, who is thus brought up to the onward group. The wild\ndogs which have come out of the mill-house to bark\u2015\u2015as is their wont\nwith nocturnal travellers striving to pass a homestead in silence\u2015\u2015are\ncowed at the unusual apparition and steal away in fear. The leader and\nfather of the party, St. Joseph, regards not the ghostly attendants.\nHe is engaged in securing the best means of safety while passing the\nnear village. He watches the distant fires to discover any signs there\nmight be of pursuit. He is passing over the shallow stream supplied for\nirrigation by the creaking water-wheel. The liquid surface is\n\n                  \u201cPavid with the image of the sky,\u201d\n\nand burdened lightly with the fallen flower from the hand of one of\nthe foremost seraphic children. In contrast to this mundane reflection\nof Heaven\u2015\u2015which takes the leader\u2019s steps for the moment\u2015\u2015are the\nwaves on which the children dance along. They are not clouds such as\nangels may be portrayed upon. They are from the fountain of the water\nof life, given to them that are athirst freely (athirst for fuller\nlife). It is the spiritual eternal stream provided in exchange for\nthe life that perisheth which has been to them so brief. These first\nChristian martyrs no longer walk on the earth, but they travel on the\nliving waters of life, bringing comfort to their late fellows and to\nall future disciples who have yet their burdens to bear and their\nvictory to win. \u201cHow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him\nthat bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good\ntidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy\nGod reigneth.\u201d\n\nThe stream is portrayed as ever rolling onward and breaking\u2015\u2015where it\nmight if real water be dissipated in vapour\u2015\u2015into magnified globes\nwhich image the thoughts rife in that age in the minds of pious Jews,\nparticularly of those in great tribulation, of the millennium which was\nto be the mature outcome of the advent of the Messiah. The promises to\nthe Patriarchs are progressive as is all the teaching of Revelation.\nThe dream at Bethel first clearly speaks of the union of Earth and\nHeaven. This was the dawn of the exaltation of the Jewish faith, and\naccordingly the large orb reflects dimly the Patriarch asleep with\na twofold ladder or pathway up and down, which is traversed by the\nservants of God. The intention is to combine with the first beautiful\ndream of the Patriarch other ideas of Messiah\u2019s reign which harmonise\nwith this, and which were developed later. Heaven is indicated by the\nadoration by the elders of the spotless Lamb, and the brokenheartedness\nof those who turn towards Heaven is illustrated by the fallen penitent,\nby the burden-bearing of the faithful pilgrim, and the leading of the\nlion by the young child, while the tree of life in the midst bears the\nfruit for the healing of the nations.\n\nSo far it has been recognised that for the guidance of spectators who\nhave no unlimited time to work out for themselves the intention of\nthe picture, an explanation of my purpose was necessary. I however\nremember with gratification that when the picture was yet incomplete,\nthe main intention of the design was apprehended by some of the few\nvisitors to my studio, and that Professor Ruskin on seeing it, while\nthe principal group was then only crudely expressed, in the impulse of\ngenerous appreciation, alluded to the purpose of the children in the\npicture in words of such correctness as well as exquisite expression\nand measure that, had they described the complete design, the painter\nmight well have dreaded to provide any other. Shortly afterwards I had\nto abandon the first painting from defects in the canvas on which it\nwas painted, after excessive loss of time and repeated disappointments\nwhich then nearly disposed me to give up the subject and turn to some\nother. Without the spontaneous appreciation of our great writer on\nart, to whose championship in the early days of preraphaelitism I owe\nso much, I should scarcely have persevered to save the work of so many\nalternating feelings of joy and pain. The Art Professor now kindly\npermits me to quote from his _Lectures on the Art of England_:\n\n\u201cFor all human loss and pain, there is no comfort, no interpretation\nworth a thought, except only in the doctrine of the Resurrection; of\nwhich doctrine, remember, it is an immutable historical fact that all\nthe beautiful work, and all the happy existence of mankind, hitherto,\nhas depended on, or consisted in, the hope of it.\n\n\u201cThe picture of which I came to-day chiefly to speak, as a symbol of\nthat doctrine, was incomplete when I saw it, and is so still; but\nenough was done to constitute it the most important work of Hunt\u2019s\nlife, as yet; and if health is granted to him for its completion, it\nwill, both in reality and in esteem, be the greatest religious painting\nof our time.\n\n\u201cYou know that in the most beautiful former conceptions of the Flight\ninto Egypt, the Holy Family were always represented as watched over,\nand ministered to, by attendant angels. But only the safety and peace\nof the Divine Child and its mother are thought of. No sadness or wonder\nof meditation returns to the desolate homes of Bethlehem.\n\n\u201cBut in this English picture all the story of the escape, as of the\nflight, is told, in fulness of peace, and yet of compassion. The travel\nis in the dead of the night, the way unseen and unknown;\u2015\u2015but, partly\nstooping from the starlight, and partly floating on the desert mirage,\nmove, with the Holy Family, the glorified souls of the Innocents. Clear\nin celestial light, and gathered into child-garlands of gladness, they\nlook to the Child in whom they live, and yet, for them to die. Waters\nof the River of Life flow before on the sands: the Christ stretches out\nHis arms to the nearest of them;\u2015\u2015leaning from His mother\u2019s breast.\n\n\u201cTo how many bereaved households may not this happy vision of conquered\ndeath bring in the future, days of peace.\n\n\u201cI do not care to speak of other virtues in this design than those of\nits majestic thought,\u2015\u2015but you may well imagine for yourselves how\nthe painter\u2019s quite separate and, in its skill, better than magical,\npower of giving effects of intense light, has aided the effort of his\nimagination, while the passion of his subject has developed in him a\nswift grace of invention which for my own part I never recognised in\nhis design till now. I can say with deliberation that none even of the\nmost animated groups and processions of children which constitute the\nloveliest sculpture of the Robbias and Donatello, can more than rival\nthe freedom and felicity of motion, or the subtlety of harmonious line,\nin the happy wreath of these angel-children.\n\n\u201cOf this picture I came to-day chiefly to speak, nor will I disturb\nthe poor impression which my words can give you of it by any immediate\nreference to other pictures by our leading masters.\u201d\n\nA brief explanation of the history of the production of this picture\nis called for both as an apology for the long interval since last I\nexhibited a large picture, and also of the fact that the painting\nnow shown is a repetition of my first attempt to illustrate this\nimaginative episode in \u201cThe Flight into Egypt,\u201d which before long,\nwill also be exhibited, cured of its defect. I may be allowed, perhaps,\nto state that first in the year 1854, I acted upon a resolution formed\nearlier to go to Palestine. This was to revivify on canvas, if it were\npossible to me, the facts of Scripture History, by study not made in\nsketches to be incorporated in subject pictures afterwards in England.\nMy aim was rather to advance nearer to the truth than had yet been\ndone, by patiently working out a whole picture, surrounded by the very\npeople and the circumstances of the life in Judea of old days. To\nstrive\u2015\u2015while not forgetting the vital ambition of an artist, which is\nto serve as high priest and expounder of the excellence of the works\nof the Creator\u2015\u2015choosing the highest types and combinations of His\nhandiworks, as the Greeks taught the after-world to do, so that men\u2019s\nadmiration may be fascinated by the perfections of the works of the\nGreat Author of all, and men\u2019s life thus may be a continual joy and\nsolace, and at the same time to embody the events by which God in His\nprovidence led the foremost of the people Israel to be prepared to act\nas teachers and prophets to the whole Gentile world. I did not\u2015\u2015let me\nsay\u2015\u2015wish to condemn any artistic manly treatment of similar subjects\nby others. My idea suggested the experiment to me as worth making for\nmyself. The attempt was beset with difficulties beyond expectation, and\nbeing away for long, put me at many disadvantages in my profession,\nbut I have many reasons for rejoicing at the course taken, and I have\nnow to gratefully acknowledge the recognition of the public who,\nfrom the time of the exhibition of the first result of my Eastern\nlabours\u2015\u2015\u201cThe Scapegoat,\u201d have ever given exceptional attention to my\npaintings, produced only, I regret to say, at long intervals, owing to\ncircumstances external to the limits of this statement.\n\nIn 1875 I returned to Jerusalem after an absence of two years. I had\ntaken the care usual with experienced travellers to have all my luggage\nstudiously packed and directed before leaving England. It was, however,\nan omission of mine, which seemed a trivial one at the time, not to see\nthem delivered into the hands of the agent for the carriers to Jaffa.\nOn my arrival in Syria the cases containing all my precious materials\nfor my work had not arrived. Every effort possible was made to obtain\ninformation of my missing boxes, and I delayed for months to commence\nmy picture. The excitement during this period, fanned by fanatical\nMoslems, grew very fierce. The miseries caused by the conscription\nfor the Russian war, and still more those caused by the rapacity of\ngovernors who found the opportunity a good one for increasing their\ndishonest exactions, drove the poor fellaheen well nigh mad with\nferocity, and it was easy then, as it was in Alexandria, and as it will\never be under similar circumstances, to make the poor people believe\nthat all such miseries are sent by Heaven as a curse on them for not\nextirpating the enemies of Islamism. We lived always in doubt as to\nwhat a day might bring forth. Had the people been less dangerous I\nwould have left my family for two weeks or so, and purchased canvas\nin Naples or Rome. As it was I dared not leave them. When first\nthe uncertainty about my materials seemed serious and altogether\ninscrutable, I felt forced to purchase the best piece of linen to be\nfound in Jerusalem. This I prepared with the tempera ground, which\nbefore had proved to be perfect. When this was ready, however, I still\nlingered over my preliminary work, in hope that the proper canvas would\narrive; but months further went by mocking my hopes, and eventually\nI had to undertake my deferred labours upon the sheeting which the\nfortune of the day had compelled me to choose.\n\nIt was a chapter of accidents bearing pain and long long trial to\nme. The earliest part of my work was the sketching in of the whole\ncomposition and the painting of the background. No test of the\nsuitability of my surface could have been more satisfactory as far as\nwas needed for the point reached. I almost dismissed anxiety about the\nfinal results, and I had advanced considerably with my work before\nthe missing boxes arrived. It seemed a great and needless waste to\nrecommence my labours when so much apparently had been done. It would\nhave been well for me, however, had I thrown all my work aside, and\nbegun again, and this indeed it would have been even years later, for\nfrom the moment when I suspected with what fatal consequences my first\nstart had been beset, until the moment, when in England, at the end of\n1882, I gave up the picture, I always had reason to persuade myself\nthat a little more patience\u2015\u2015perhaps even the perseverance further of\ntwo more weeks\u2015\u2015might overcome the difficulty intervening between the\nstage arrived at and the entire completion of the picture. I will not\nweary the reader with a statement of all the vexatious incidents of my\ntrouble, but it is only a needful excuse for me to state that a studio\nbuilt specially for me by German instead of Arab builders, let in the\nrain as though the roof had been made of open wire, and that when\nthis worry had passed, I was under summons to come back to London by\na certain date, and this made the difficulty greater of deliberately\nestimating the amount of danger which I incurred in advancing my work\non the imperfect surface.\n\nWhen I opened the picture in London and placed it in a fair light I\ncould not fail to see how much precious time had been wasted from the\nfact that all my drawing and modelling and colour indeed was marred\nby irregularity of the plane on which they were given. I called in an\nexpert to help me in the course to be followed, and he, as it happened,\nurged me still to trust to the means already used to overcome the evil,\nexpressing the opinion that it was then nearly at an end. Alas! this\nproved to be far from the case, although I called in the best judgment\nto guide me at intervals, and I confided the work for relining on the\nstrongest sailcloth canvas to the hands of one of the most skilful of\nrestorers. Every revived hope ended in disappointment, until I having\npersevered with it for seven years and a half, finally abandoned it,\nand commenced on the new painting on January 1st, 1883. Since then,\nwhen away for my health, the reliner again had the old picture to treat\non a plan of a radical character agreed upon between us. It was to cut\nout the central part of the sheeting containing the group of the Virgin\nand Child, to lift up the surrounding cloth, to fray out its edges,\nto insert a piece larger by an inch than the opening, with margins\nalso frayed in the opposite direction, and to place the whole already\nrelined picture upon another sailcloth. Unlimited time was given\nfor this experiment, and I am happy to say that now the picture is\nthoroughly sound, and that it will soon be ready. The present exhibited\npainting is about four inches broader and two inches higher than the\nJerusalem picture: it is also changed in several points, some of which\nmodifications I have since adopted as improvement for the old picture:\nother additions, however, are only in the present painting.\n\n                                                      W. HOLMAN HUNT.\n\n  DRAYCOTT LODGE, FULHAM,\n    _February 23, 1885_.\n\n\n          RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.\n\n\n\n\n                                  The\n                       Triumph of the Innocents\n\n\nThis Picture, now being exhibited by the FINE ART SOCIETY, 148, New\nBond Street, will be reproduced by Photogravure on a scale of 20\u00bd\ninches by 33\u00bc inches, in its engraved portions.\n\nIt will be published at the following prices:\n\n                    ARTIST\u2019S PROOFS      \u00a310 10  0\n                    LETTERED PROOFS       \u00a35  5  0\n                    PRINTS                \u00a32  2  0\n\nSubscriptions are now being received by the FINE ART SOCIETY, 148, New\nBond Street.\n\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Punctuation, and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.\n\n \u2015\u2015Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.","title":"The triumph of the Innocents","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":5683}