Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1882 — THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. [ARTICLE]

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

Mr. Ruskins has sold Mesonier’s Napoleon for $30,000. He gave $5,000 tor it as an example of bad art. M. Munkacy is engaged on a draw* Ing for the “Cricifioti >u,” which is to be as large as the ‘.Christ Before Pilate.” In the scientific gunnery experiments at Woolwich the flight of a shot was measured to within the mil lion th part of a second. In Berlin it is customary to have ananalyaisinade of the air in the cellar defore hiring a house. One can tiine form some notion of whether the house is healthy or not. Before sailing for Europe, Mr. W. M. Chase finished his portraits of Mr. W. M. Evarts and ex-Presldent Hayes. The former is to hang in the State Department building at Washington, the latter in the Harvard Memorial Hall. Mr. J. Q. A. Ward has received the commission for the statue of Washington to be placed in the sub-treasury building at Washington. At preseut he is engaged upon a statue of Lafayette that is to be placed in the grounds ol the University of Vermont. Mr. John P. Howard is the donor. Cassell’s Art Journal: “Seven thousand pictures were offered for exhibition at the Paris Salon. As only 2,600 were admitted, there were 4 500 disappointments. 01 9,000 submitted to the English viewers at Burlington House, 7,000 were rejected. Room for an exhibition of rejected pictures in both, Paris and Lcndon.” The collection ofcoins, medals, etc., of the late Charles I. Bushnell, announced forsale by Messrs. Bangs & Co., June 20 and 24, is of usual value, many of the coins never having been offered for sale before. Among the best known pieces are the famous “Good Samaritan” shilling, valued at $1,000; the Lord Baltimore pOnny, for Which Mr. Bushnell paid SB7O, and the Ephraim Brasher doubloon, valued at SI,OOO. Some Interesting and successful ex pertinents have behn made recently at the laboratory of the international Ice Machine Company,at Green Point N. Y.. on a new method of making ice This is called, the "low pressure binary System,” and its noval features is the liquefaction of theamonia employed at low pressure by glycerine. The system is called ‘‘binary” because two liquids are_employefi instead of one. Do you want to grow’salt, and at the same time have an interesting, handsome ornament? The proceed ing is a novel chemical experiment that may be tried by anyone. Put in a goblet one tablespoorful of salt aud one spoonful of bluing; fill the goblet two-thirds foil nf water, and set in a position where it will have plenty of warmth and sunlight. In a little while sparkling crystals will commence forming on tne outside of the glass, and it is both a novel and interesting sight to watch it gradually growing, day by day, until the outside of the goblet is entirely covered over with beautiful white crystals. Another variation of this beautiful experiment would be to take a goblet with I the base broken off and fasten it in the center of a thin piece of board, which may be round, square or oblong. After the crystals nave formed on the glass, set it on' a tiny wall bracket and place a bright holiday or birthday card in front of it; this will hide the base, on which no crystals will form. After this is done fill the goblet with flowers or dried grasses, and you will have a vase which will cost comparatively little, and In reality adds to the bric-a-brac of the room.—[Troy Times. Munkacy’s “Christ Before Pilate,” exhibited at the Conduit-street Galleries, London, is one of the most remarkable of modern pictures. Its method is so powerfol and cofopletS as to make it, in respect to mere technical quality, almost a work of genius. It is over thirty feet long, and lofty in proportion; it is crowded with lifesize figures; it is full of notable effects of light and shade, and mass and line, and the artist seems to have got over the enormous difficulties of his work without an effort.. As a composition, for instance, it is a kind of masterpiece. There is not a detail but is necessary to the general effect, not a part but is of vital importance to the rest. The thing has been conceived as a whole, and, as produced, is organic throughout. Again, it is painted with the breadth*, freedom and assurance of a great painter, and it is finished after the artist’s own manner and lo the point at which he thought fit to stop, to absolute perfection. The coloring is strong, daring and true; the draperies are argely handled and finely realized. In texture and in mass »t is the same with the marble of Pilate’s chair, the steel of the soldier’s nelmet, the stone of the wall behind; the effect of the whole is singularly vigorous and lust. Nor is the picture less remarkable in respect of character and type, and of action and gesture every figure is in 'kerne sert human and personal—is representative of one or other element in the scene, of one or other of the many passions proper to the drama that is taking place; each is strikingly invented and not less strikingly produced; the Christ and His fierce accuser, the snouting ruffian, the stolid and indifferent governor, the massive and stately soldier, the testifying rabbis—all are individual and appropriate. “It is needless to quarrel with the picture as to archselogy or to history, as needless is it to debate the typical fitness and beauty of Its central flgUre - . Black measles and scarlet fever are fegingfearfoliy among the children of the Russian half breeds in Alaska.