CHRIST BEFORE PILATE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2283, 26 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHRIST BEFORE PILATE.

The New York correspondent of, the Nelson Mail ' thus writes concerning Munkacsy's wonderful picture :—

New York has seen something ,of art, and knows something of advertising, but nothing has appeared in this city for years which touches Munkacsy's " Christ before Pilate." It was heralded before its arrival, with it came the immortal painter himself, and since his arrival he has had a continued round of receptions and fetes, enough to turn his head. This is all right. This is as it should be. The Princes of this western world are not the corrupt descendants of an effete aristocracy, but the men _ who have bought their titles to nobility by the works of their own imperial genius—therefore they welcome Maygar Mnnkacsy.

I cannot speak for those who sole guides are the severe canons of art, bnt to the million the picture is disappointing. I do think it is within the scope of human genius to paint a picture that will satisfy everyone; each man has his ideal, and each wants the picture painted as he conceives it. In this great cartoon there are about forty figures—most of them life size. The principal characters, however, are Christ, Pilate, and Cephas, the accuser of Jesus. Back among the mob is a ragged vagabond who keeps shonting, Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him ; the spear of the Roman guard is all that prevents him from rushing oil the Saviour.

Only one face beams in pity on the sufferer, and it is that of a young woman who holds in her arms a child. Sweet and soothing is the sight of that pitiful face in the midst of that cruel throng. The figure of Jesus is disappointing ; all of the critics have had a fling at it; but it is worth while before pronouncing judgment to ask ourselves if the painter is not positively right, and his critics wrong. What warrant have we for believing that Christ was dignified or handsome. His public life was one continuous scene of persecution and suffering. He slept wherever chance furnished him a shelter, and he ate tho bread of charity, and wo all know what that means. The night before his trial he had been wandering,' tip to the hr.nr of his betrayal by Judas, in the sorrowful garden of Gethseinone. When dragged into court before Pilate, what wonder that he bore the incontestable evidences of his suffering. No halo of glory encircled his head ; no white winged dove hovered over him ; he was human. Already in the stern eye of the consul, he, read his cruel sentence, and in imagination he felt the cruel nails and saw the cruel cross ; and there he stands before Pilate—not a transfigured Christ—not a defiant God—but a man of sorrow with his death sentence ringing in his ears. No in Munkacsy's picture there is neither grandeur nor dignity in the figure of the Saviour,- it is ' all human, and a wrecked and suffering humanity at that, The effect of the figure of Cephas is destroyed by the figure placed behind it,, and which almost appears suspended on the wall. Still the press has been lavish in its praise, and one of the finest art critics in New York, Herman Schaus. assured me it was a wonderful picture. The receipts ,of its exhibition in Europe reached nearly a half a million of dollars.