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DOCUMENTS

Alienating Ecclesiastical Property, The Power of, granted to Ordinaries in

the New Code is further Defined by the Congregation of the Council 337

Apostolic Letter of Benedict XV on the Propagation of the Faith through-

out the World

510

to his Eminence Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris

429

to Most Rev. Dr. Patrick J. O'Connor, Bishop of Armidale,

offering Congratulations on Erection and Consecration of a new

Cathedral

523

to the Bishops of Switzerland assembled at Sion

524

to their Eminences Cardinals Gibbons and O'Connell and the

other Bishops of the United States

62

to the Rector and Doctors of the University of Louvain

331

Application of the Decree ‘Redeuntibus'

82

Australian Apostolic Delegate, Extension of the Jurisdiction of the

159

Bleseed Joan of Arc, Decrees regarding the Canonization of

65, 345

Bishop's Power to Alienate the Votive Offerings of the Faithful to a par.

ticular Church, Doubt regarding the Extent of a

520

Custody and use of a Confirmation Book, Dispute regarding the, settled

by the Congregation of the Council

156

Constitution of certain Ecclesiastical Tribunals, Doubts regarding the

68

Election of Bishops in Canada, Decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congre-

gation in reference to the

72

Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father making Appeal for the Starving

Children of Central Europe

507

Erection and Constitution of Quasi-Parishes or Missions of certain Dioceses

in accordance with the New Code, Declaration regarding the

332

Feast of St. Patrick is retained as a Holiday of Obligation, and the Law

of Fast and Abstinence on that day is dispensed by the Holy See 62

Foundation of certain Ecclesiastical Benefices, Doubt: regarding the

Fulfilment of Conditions prescribed in the

75

Indult of the Congregation of Rites empowering Ordinaries to Permit

the Celebration of a Requiem Mass on Sunday, November 2, and
on One of Five specified Sundays in the Months of October and
November, 1919

431

Innocent a Bertio, Priest of the Order of Cappucins Minor, Decree intro-

ducing the Cause of Beatification and Canonizaion of the Servant

of God

79

'Inter reliquas,' How far the Decree (referring to Religious attached to

Military Service), is affected by the Promulgation of the New Code 172

Irish Bishops, Statement of the, adopted at the June Meeting, 1919

328
Statement of the Standing Committee of the, on the pro-
posed Education Bill for Ireland

504

Irish Capuchin Martyrs, The-Introduction of the Cause of Fr. Fiacre

Tobin, O.S.F.C., of Kilkenny, of Fr. John Baptist Dowdall,

O.S.F.C., of Ulster

242

Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XV to the Prioress and Community

at St. Mary's, Cabra, on the Occasion of the Bicentenary of their
Foundation in the Archdiocese of Dublin

153

Letter of the Holy Father to the German Bishops urging the Restoration

of the Work of the Church in Germany after the Sanction of the

Peace Treaty

167

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THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD

LEONARDO DA VINCI'S LAST SUPPER'

'' (AN APPRECIATION)

BY REV. P. A. BEECHER, M.A., D.D.

As this year marks the fourth centenary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (he died on 2nd May, 1519), it may not be out of place to make a few remarks about his Last Supper,' which is known wherever the Catholic faith has penetrated. When Da Vinci painted this picture on the wall of the Dominican convent in Milan, he inaugurated a new era in painting, an era in which it reached a higher perfection than during the 150 'golden years of Greek painting. Doubtless, the Greeks, in that technique which aimed at painting nature to the point of illusion, still remained unrivalled; but, after all, such illusion was not a high motive, and could not for a moment be compared with the lofty aim-soaring even to the Godheadof Da Vinci and his contemporaries. Here, too, as a background, is a something which the Greeks never attempted in their golden period—they did later, with only partial success-a genuine piece of landscape. In order to realize what this painting did for that art of which the Church has ever been the patroness and highest inspiration, it is necessary to take a retrospective view. I shall try, however, to be as brief as possible. The early Church was completely dependent for its art on the Romans; and the Romans were largely dependent on Greek artists who came to their shores, they themselves being too utilitarian to have any firm grasp of its secret. We can understand, then, how, with the decay of the Roman Empire, the hand lost its cunning (as we can see in the catacombs, in which the older paintings are the better) and how, after a time, the

FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XIV-JULY, 1919.

laws of linear and aerial perspective, with their corollary fore-shortening, were completely lost; and, without these laws, painting, as we see amongst the Egyptians, must remain primitive and crude indeed. All through the Middle Ages, even at the time when architecture attained its highest perfection, these laws were hidden in obscurity, and the Church had to be satisfied with a mere symbol, or with the crude conventionalities of the Byzantine style. Cimabue, in the 13th century, made the first great effort to break from this latter, and on the day when his enthroned Madonna was unveiled, the picture was carried in triumphal procession through the streets of Florence to the altar prepared for it; and so great was the joy that a square was named Borgo dei Allegri. His pupil Giotto so far surpassed him that he and not Cimabue is commonly named the Father of Modern Painting; but even he had a long way to go.

Over a hundred years elapsed, during which there were many efficient painters, such as Masolino and Masaccio, but none could be said to have so improved on Giotto's work as to constitute a distinct epoch until we come to Fra Filippo Lippi, his pupil Botticelli, and his (Filippo's) son, Filippino Lippi. They succeeded, indeed, in giving us beautiful, idyllic Madonnas, and each name, in turn, stands for marked progress; but the laws they were striving for were not yet fully mastered“; so that, in this sense, it is true to say that painting is the youngest of the fine arts. At last, Da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' which not only put everything up to that time in the shade, but established a new era in painting, an era as marked, in its own way, as that which saw the leap of Greek architecture from its inchoation in Assyrian and Egyptian. Filippino Lippi, the greatest of the three afore-mentioned, acknowledged the supremacy of the master, and later, at Florence,

1 Duccio of Siena should be mentioned also, but instead of trying to break with the Byzantine style he attempted to improve it. 2 Dante represents the illuminator Oderigi as saying :

'In painting Cimabue fain had thought

To lord the field ; now Giotto has the cry,
So that the other's fame in shade is brought.'

Purg. xi. 93, 3 I am considering only Italian painters, as it would be going too far afield to refer to Flemish and other artists.

4 They had a good knowledge indeed of those laws, but not mastery, as we see difficult problems in perspective avoided by, for instance, the deft introduction of portions of buildings.

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