SINGING AND PLAYING ANGELS These quaint-looking angels were painted almost five hundred years ago by a Flemish artist named Hubert van Eyck. You see that one group is singing very earnestly while the angels of the other group are playing upon antique instruments a strange old organ, a viol and a harp. These angelic musicians wear gorgeous red and black garments, rich with gold embroidery and jewels. Behind them is the blue sky. The two panels upon which the angels are painted form a small part of the altar-piece in a chapel at Ghent, Flanders. The altar-piece is eleven feet high, and fourteen feet from end to end. It was designed by Hubert van Eyck, but he did not live to complete it, and so his younger brother, Jan van Eyck, painted the unfinished portion. No such marvelous work had ever before been seen in Flanders. Usually it was shown only to great nobles or to very wealthy people, but on holidays the public was allowed to gaze upon it. Then such crowds filled the chapel from morning till night that it was difficult to get near the picture. A writer of those times says: "Painters, old and young, and all lovers of art flocked around it, just as on a summer day bees and flies swarm around a basket of figs or grapes." HUBERT VAN EYCK (1366-1426) We know very little about this fine old painter. He was born in what is now Belgium, and probably traveled in foreign lands before he settled at Ghent. There he led a quiet, uneventful life. His greatest interest was his art. After his death his brother Jan finished the Ghent altar-piece. Jan became so famous that Hubert was entirely forgotten, and for many years the altar-piece, which Hubert had designed and painted, was thought to be Jan's work. STRADIVARIUS Cremona is a town in northern Italy. In the little central square stands the Church of St. Dominic, and just opposite the church is the house of Nicolas Amati. Three hundred years ago the men of the Amati family began to make violins. Their instruments were soon famous throughout the length and breadth of Italy. The greatest of all the Amatis was Nicolas. One afternoon when the hot sun was beating mercilessly upon the stone pavement of the square, two young men sat together on a bench in Nicolas Amati's workshop. They were pupils of Nicolas. Day after day and hour after hour they had worked under his direction, finishing the violins that their great master had begun. They fitted in the various parts with exquisite skill and made every surface and edge smooth and perfect. No matter how small and uninteresting the task might be, they performed it with the greatest care. These pupils were named Andrew Guarnerius and Antonio Stradivarius. There were other workmen in the shop as well. All were busy and all were silent. At last Nicolas Amati stepped over to the bench where Antonio and Andrew were seated. They looked up in surprise. The master said: "You boys have become so experienced in violin making that you need no longer spend your time in finishing violins. From now on I will let you make the whole instrument." The young assistants were delighted. They had been waiting long for the happy day when they should be allowed to copy their master's violins. Now they felt that their patient, steady labor was rewarded. They listened reverently while Amati explained his methods. to them. "As you know," he said, "I have experimented with different shapes and sizes. In this way I have discovered certain models which seem to be the best. These you shall copy." After that happy day the two young men were no longer mere pupils. They had become violin makers. It is true that they did not try to create new models. They copied Amati's violins exactly. They made one beautiful instrument after another, always imitating their master. Once, when Andrew had finished a violin and was testing it, he cried: "Never, since the world began, Antonio, have there been such noble violins as these that our master makes! Listen to this one. How mar velously sweet and clear it is in tone!" "These are the finest that have yet been produced," Antonio agreed. "But finer ones may be made in the future." "Impossible!" laughed Andrew. Antonio looked gravely at his friend. "I wish that we could make a violin as sweet-sounding as our master's, but more powerful," he said. Then he bent again over his work. When the famous Amati died, Stradivarius set up a shop of his own opposite the west front of the great church. Almost next door to him was the workroom of the family of Andrew Guarnerius. Andrew's sons and nephew became renowned violin makers. In that little square of Cremona all the finest violins in the world were made. And the very best of the Cremona violins were the work of Stradivarius. Cremona was a rich, busy little city. It was well situated for the manufacture of violins. Far away, on the |