Meissonier, his life and his art . inrelief Michelet himself had no keener taste for, no more penetrat-ing intuition of this relief. The past appeared to him in llesh andblood. He saw the persons of a bygone age in their costumes, theirdwellings, their armour, with the customs and passions proper to scene from Shakespeare re-created Falstaffs tavern for his imagina-tion and his brush ; a page of Sullys Mdiuoijrs conjured up the Pont 52 MEISSONIER au Change of Henry reign with its boards and shops. I livedall the Rdcits mdrovingiens he used to say. From this luminous intelligence, t
Meissonier, his life and his art . inrelief Michelet himself had no keener taste for, no more penetrat-ing intuition of this relief. The past appeared to him in llesh andblood. He saw the persons of a bygone age in their costumes, theirdwellings, their armour, with the customs and passions proper to scene from Shakespeare re-created Falstaffs tavern for his imagina-tion and his brush ; a page of Sullys Mdiuoijrs conjured up the Pont 52 MEISSONIER au Change of Henry reign with its boards and shops. I livedall the Rdcits mdrovingiens he used to say. From this luminous intelligence, this deep historic sense, he drewall sorts of ideas as to the renovation of art. Attached as he was tohis own religious belief, he recognised that faith was no longer, couldno longer be, the source of artistic inspiration. And had not thereligious idea reached its highest expression in the Italian school?Great art admits of no returns upon itself. History, on the other hand,had entered upon new paths. Renouncing summary sketches of. CAVALIER OF THE TIME OF LOUIS XIII. (Water-colour drawing in the possession of M. Bemheim.) barren facts and dry chronologies, it was seeking to revivify the aspectof the ages by means of picturesque detail. What fruitful sources ofinspiration might it not find in painting ? Was there any more .spon-taneous, faithful, and expressive witness to the spirit of an age than thecanvases of the primitives ? Look, he said, at the MuranoMadonna, the great lonely figure without the Child, her empty handsoutstretched against the golden mosaic of the sky, imploring was painted when Venice was engaged in a struggle for life, a THE MASTER—THE MAN S3 ceaseless struggle with a daily foe, the lagoon. When she had con-quered, came a time of security, luxury and enjoyment, and with it richand triumphant Madonnas. The aid thus rendered by art to history,art might, he thought, in its turn, demand from history. They aresisters who should raise and support each
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