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The memorial window of the class of '60 has a companion which has been placed near it-that of the class of '80, in the Memorial Hall at Cambridge. The subjects treated in the two compartments are in strong contrast to the figures of the youthful soldiers in the deep-toned battle picture or the opposite side of the hall. Homer the mighty, Virgil the sweet-voiced, are the figures chosen to adorn this window. The composition is charming. The fault which some people have found with the '60 window, of its admitting too little light, cannot here apply. It is pale in tone compared to the window just named, and lets in as much light as the weak casement at its side. It is a cool-looking window and pleasant to look at in the hot summer days. The light passing through its pale green hues seems to bring a suggestion of cool green waters, transparent and flecked with foam. Mr. Lafarge is here at his best.
The majestic figure of Homer is treated as the Greeks treated the figure of Jove. The grand head has heavy clustering hair and beard, the mighty chest is bare to the waist. The figure is seen in full face, the attitude is self-reliant, commanding, king-like. A staff is grasped in one hand, the other holds the drapery which comes from the shoulders and covers the lower portion of the body and the lower limbs. The modeling of the chest and limb is masterful, the pose of the head majestic. The pale dull red, green and yellow of the background, and the Graeco-Roman details of the decorative panels above and below the figure, are the same in both halves of the window. In nothing else does the glass in which Virgil is portrayed resemble Homer, save in the fillet of bays which encircles the brows of both poets.
Virgil is represented as a young man, beautiful, poetic and graceful in pose and face. He stands, his hand upon his hip, turned half away, his head slightly thrown backward. The artist has made the Latin poet to look behind him toward the great singer of Greece, as if asking for sympathy from the shadows of the past: a poetic conceit, but one which has been sadly thwarted by those in charge of placing the windows. According to Mr. Lafarge's design, the figures should turn slightly toward each other, the younger poet as if appealing to his great predecessor. As the windows are now placed, the design is exactly reversed, and the graceful Virgil holding his scroll of verses turns his back upon the blind bard. It is to be hoped that this error will be corrected, as it might be at a small expense and trouble. If one did no know of the fault, one would probably fail to detect it, yet after it has been pointed out, it lets us see and think of nothing else. There is a certain appropriateness in the juxtaposition of Homer and Virgil, which in some of the other windows is sadly lacking Men who in no wise belong together are put amicably side by side. Though not so vividly or so brilliantly beautiful as is the window of the class of '60, the new glass at Memorial Hall is a very serious and valuable work. -[Transcript.
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