Page 674 : FINE ARTS (SCANDINAVIAN) — FINLAND
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fountains and flowers. Peterhof is a weak imitation of Versailles, and everything that could be gilded glitters and sparkles with the brightest of gold. Russia boasts one of the finest collections of art-works, installed in the Hermitage, and her painters are prominent exhibitors at the various salons of the world.
Among the notables are Répine, Aivazovski, Siemiradski, Makovski, Volkoff, Peroff and Verestchagin. Everyone who attended the Columbian Exposition will remember the Russian Wedding-Feast by Makovski, and Vasili Verestchagin's great battle-scenes are familiar to many Americans. No painter has accomplished so much to tear the veil of glamour from the awful face of war as this apostle of peace. We understand something of the dense forests, wide marshes and desolate coasts of this distant country, when we stand before the canvases of Volkoff, and we appreciate more the mingled pride and cruelty of the early rulers when studying Rapine’s marvelous rendering of that last scene between Ivan the Terrible and his son. See The Tsar and his People by Eugene de Vogue"; Russian Art by Alfred Maskell; Studies in Russia by J. C. Hare; and Russian Art by Viollet-le-Duc.
SCANDINAVIAN ART
Northern Europe is noted for its love of rugged outlines and bold, pure color. These traits are manifested in Norway and Sweden, where cliff and precipice reign permanently and the skies change from clear bright blue to stormy black. Denmark is a charming foil; here all is gentle and undulating, and the predominating color is a misty gray. Norway contains a number of very old timber-churches with lean-to roofs above building and porch and but four small windows. The interiors are lighted by lamps which give additional warmth. The houses of the nobility in Norway and Sweden are composed of huge timbers with plastered walls, which are painted in many colors. The elaborate dadoes and doors of the Crown-Prince's palace at Stockholm are typical of the national spirit in decoration. In WestgSt-land, Sweden, there is a castle where the arms of the family, accompanied by huge scrolls, are arranged about the main portal like a pyramid. The scroll and the dragon design are the two principal motives in Scandinavia, and are turned and twisted in every conceivable way. Inlaid wood is one of the arts, and may be seen at its best in some exquisite panels in the palace at Kalmar. The wainscoting of the Golden Hall in this huge quadrangular edifice is worth much to the student of design. Baroque architecture seems to have reached its height in Denmark, where dropsical figures are arranged about the doors and
windows or sport as goddesses on ceiling-decorations. Bert el Thorwaldsen, whose grave is found in the court of the massive building where his sculptures are exhibited, was the leading sculptor of the nineteenth century. His love of Greek art gave his work a repose which had been entirely lost in the exaggerated style of the Rococo.
Danish painting is homely and precise, as one sees it in the productions of Eckers-berg, in Vermehren's charming cottage homes, in Viggo Johansen's captured mo-> ments of real life. The historical painter, Christian Zahrtmann, searches for spiritual feeling and expression, and Kroyer paints the wooded coasts in soft bluish-grays indescribably Danish.
Since 1860, in Norway, great interest has been manifested in the promotion of a national art, and the typical men who
Eaint in a rough, angular but healthy and -ank manner have made themselves felt. We hear most of Wenzel J5rgensen, Kolstoe and Krohg, painters of fisher-folk, and of Fritz Thaulow, whose glitter of ice and snow and little red houses at Christiania are so delightfully familiar and homelike.
Swedish artists are the Frenchmen of the North. They paint with grace and spirit. Stockholm possesses several historical canvases by Roslin, who lived in Paris in princely style. The Swedish painter of painters is F. J. Hoeckert. The museum of Lille owns his masterpiece, Divine Service in Lapland. The ultra-modern Anders Zorn, who has painted many portraits of distinguished Americans, is best known here. His manner of handling the brush is independent and bold, and his perception of character and temperament is as keen as discreet. See Dictionary of Architecture by Russell Sturgis; History of Modern Painting by Miither; and Norway, Sweden and Denmark by Baedeker. A. S. HALL.
See, as representatives of French art, MILLET, COROT, MEISSONIER and others; of Dutch art, VANDYCK, RUBENS, REMBRANDT; of English art, HOGARTH, GAINSBOROUGH, TURNER, MILLAIS and others; of American art, INNES, HUNT, WHISTLER, LAFARGE, SAINT GAUDENS and others.
Fin′gal’s Cave, a cave or grotto on the island of Staffa, on the west coast of Scotland. It is probably named after Fingal, the Gaelic hero. The cave is 227 feet long and 42 feet broad at the entrance, and can be entered by small boats, the sea being 20 feet deep at low water in the cavern. It looks somewhat like a Gothic church, with its tall pillars and stalactites of many colors, and is one of the most picturesque grottoes known.
Fin′land (Swampyland or land of the Fens), a grand-duchy of Russia annexed by her in 1809. It is bordered on the nortn by Norwegian Lapland, on the east by Russia, on the west by the Gulf of Bothnia
