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The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple.
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Truth to Nature being the principle of his art, he desired to get as near as possible to the probable aspect of the scene he was attempting to depict. The Temple he had to construct for himself, and this he did after studying Eastern, and especially ancient Jewish, architecture, the only part painted from an actual fact being the marble pavement. This he copied from the floor of the Mosque of Omar, which, according to tradition, is the only remaining portion of Herod's Temple. He experienced great difficulty in getting models for his figures, owing to the suspicion having arisen that he was a Christian missionary in disguise. By the end of eighteen months, however, he had painted in all the adult figures from actual models, and, returning to England, he managed, by the help of Mr. Mocatta, to get a boy from the Jewish community in the East-End of London to sit for the figure of Christ. Every detail of the picture has a symbolic interest. The rabbi on the left, clasping in his arms the _Torah_ or sacred roll of the Law, is blind and decrepit, and the other rabbis, with their phylacteries and scrolls, are all characteristic of the proud, self-righteous, sects to which they belonged. Joseph carries his own and Mary's shoes over his shoulders--even in their haste they had remembered the injunction to remove them when entering the house of the Lord--and Mary is clad in robes of grey and white, with a girdle fringed with orange-red, the colours of purity and sorrow. Christ wears a _kaftan_, striped with purple and blue, the colours of the royal house of David. He is pulling the buckle of the belt tighter--
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--and in spite of the
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Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business? has one foot advanced in readiness to go with His earthly parents. Through the doorway the builders are still at work; they are hoisting into position the block which is to be