The 
 
 Triumph 
 
 Of 
 
 The 
 
 Innocents 
 
 LONDON 
 1885 
 
The 
 
 Triumph 
 
 Of 
 The 
 
 Innocents 
 
 LONDON 
 1885 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS 
 
 EPITOME 
 
 The flight into Egypt I have assumed to have occurred about sixteen 
 months after the birth of Jesus. Guided by Christian tradition, and 
 holding the birth of our Lord to have taken place in December, it 
 follows that the period which I have assigned to the Plight into Egypt 
 is the second April in His life. 
 
 During the spring-time, rich in flowers and first-fruits, the Holt 
 Travellers are represented as passing across the Philistine plain on 
 the road to Gaza at a distance of about thirty miles from their point 
 of departure. The night is far spent. While the declining moon sheds 
 its last rays on the natural objects in the picture, unearthly light reveals 
 the embodied spirits of the martyred Innocents advancing in procession. 
 
 The Virgin is seated on a she-ass of the breed now known as the 
 Mecca race, and the foal follows its mother, as is seen to this day in 
 the East. Signal fires— still lit in Syria in time of trouble — are burning 
 on the slope looking down from the tableland. St. Joseph is watching 
 these fires intent on discovering any signs that may present themselves of 
 a movement of soldiery upon the road. Of the trees that enrich the 
 landscape, the nearest ones shelter a water-wheel used for the irrigation of 
 the land. The more remote group clusters round a village, with its few 
 huts visible by the lights that burn within. Having left the colder climate 
 of the high country, then thickly populated and well cultivated, the 
 fugitives have descended into the rich and more balmy atmosphere of the 
 plain. As they advance nearer and nearer to a place of safety they feel 
 the blessed relief of a sense of .peace after disturbance and terror. 
 
 Conscious of the divine mercy, the heart of Mary rejoicing over 
 her rescued son, feels compassion for the murdered Innocents, and for 
 the childless mothers less happy and less honoured than herself. It is 
 at this moment when the Virgin has been replacing the garments in 
 
4 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 which the infant had been hurriedly wrapped at the time of the escape 
 from Bethlehem, that Jesus recognises the spirits of the slain Innocents, 
 His little neighbours of Bethlehem, children like Himself. They reveal 
 the signs of their martyrdom. Garlanded for the sacrifice, bearing branches 
 and blossoms of trees, they progressively mark their understanding of the 
 glory of their service. An infant spirit isolated in wonder finds no mark 
 of harm, where the sword wounded him, permitted to appear on his 
 glorified body. Behind in the air are the babes as yet hardly awakened 
 to the new life. In differing revelations of sorrow they show the influence 
 of earthly terror and suffering still impressed upon them. Towards the 
 front are other spirits of children triumphing in completer knowledge of 
 their service. One of them in priestly office leads the band. Those who 
 follow cast down their tokens of martyrdom in the path of their recognised 
 Lord. Others encircle the travel-worn foal, wearily following its mother, 
 and so bring it up to the onward group. The shallow stream over which 
 the procession passes, reflecting the quiet beauty of the night sky, is 
 unruffled except by the steps of Joseph. The flood upon which the 
 spiritual children advance forms a contrast to this, by being in motion, 
 The living fountains of water — the streams of eternal life — furnish this, 
 mystically portrayed as ever rolling onward. Instead of being dissipated 
 in natural vapour, the play of its wavelets takes the form of airy globes 
 which image the Jewish belief in the millennium that is to follow the 
 advent of the Messiah. 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 " Behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take 
 the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee 
 wordl: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. "When he arose, he took the 
 young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt : and was there until the death 
 of Herod : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 
 Out <of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the 
 wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in 
 Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time 
 whic:h he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken 
 by J eremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, 
 and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because 
 they are not." 
 
 The Plight into Egypt is generally believed in the West to have 
 occurred a few days after the birth of our Lord. The Eastern Churches 
 on the other hand extend the interval which is supposed to have elapsed 
 to a period of nearly two years. 
 
 The considerations which influenced the choice of age for the Saviour 
 in the picture are therefore not simply artistic. The view of the Eastern 
 Churches can scarcely be rejected with reasonable regard to the cir- 
 cumstances of the visit of the Magi, and of the terms of Herod's fiat 
 for the murder of the male children of two years old and under, 
 " according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." 
 In the Gospel of St. Luke, however, it is said that after the Purification in 
 the Temple, which was forty days after the birth, St. Joseph and the Holy 
 Virgin returned to Nazareth with the Child, and that there, speaking in 
 general terms after the accomplished fact, Jesus grew up. An apparent 
 discrepancy is thus pointed out by some critics, but it is one such as often 
 presents itself in all honest evidence of facts ; and the report in St. Matthew 
 simply requires it to be understood that the Holy Pamily came back 
 again to Bethlehem from Nazareth. Indeed, the residence in the latter 
 city does not seem to have been chosen as a permanent one, for, on the 
 
6 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 return from Egypt, it was only accepted because safety was still not 
 so certain in the dominion of Arclielaus. The motive which had 
 operated in bringing St. Joseph and the Virgin to Bethlehem from the 
 north, before the birth of our Lord, is generally understood to be the 
 securing of claim, under the enrolment of Quirinius, to the genealogy, 
 and perhaps to some share of family inheritance. This would operate 
 more powerfully after the birth of Jesus in influencing the parents to 
 make the city of David their permanent home. There is therefore no 
 contradiction between the two Gospels, but the comparison of the 
 evidence given by the two Evangelists in my mind strongly establishes 
 the view of the Eastern Churches, that the Saviour's birth took place 
 more than one year earlier than the flight. Herod's estimate of the age 
 of Him who was born King of the Jews was not made without careful 
 calculation of the date from the birth, so as fully to include the Child 
 whom he had determined to destroy, that he might thus, like the typical 
 politician of the great reader of human nature, 
 
 " Circumvent God," 
 
 and it follows accordingly that Jesus was not fully two years of age. 
 
 Whatever reserve of feeling there may be towards a reading which 
 conveys a disputable view of a fact in Holy Writ, let it be remembered 
 that an artist treating a subject in which such is offered cannot delay to 
 make his choice. The first part of his study in making his design is to 
 form a theory in harmony with the intention of the records illustrated, as 
 read by the fullest light, and to leave an exploded theory with confidence 
 that his rendering will be approved as either correct or unobjectionable. 
 In this case no special pleading is needed, seeing that St. Augustine 
 puts the Massacre of the Innocents in connection with the Passover. 
 Perhaps he regarded it as an antithesis to the slaying of the first- 
 born in Egypt, and understood the quotation by St. Matthew from 
 Hosea, " Out of Egypt have I called my son," as having a fuller purpose 
 than at first appears. In any case he regarded the festival as not fixing 
 the date of the massacre, and the fact argues that neither the date given 
 in the Western Church for the commemoration, nor in the Greek Church, 
 is understood as the date of the sacrifice of the first Christian Martyrs. 
 
 The journey has been across the mountains from Bethlehem towards 
 Gaza. The birth-place of Christ is on the further side of the range, about 
 five miles beyond the highest elevation, somewhat to the right of the point 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 7 
 
 where the star is rising above the distant curve of the hill ; the nearer 
 mountains are about 1,500 feet in height. These, with intervening 
 valleys, are further on in the highlands overtopped by rolling waves of 
 the limestone rocks until they reach the watershed of the country, which 
 is about 2,400 feet in height. Bethlehem lies beyond this 500 feet lower, 
 on a spur overlooking the eastern country, thus falling gradually to the 
 plain of the Dead Sea. 
 
 The ass is of the Mecca race — so called from the fact that they are 
 brought from the Arab city of pilgrimage as descendants from one which 
 Mohammed rode. They were necessarily always costly, being much 
 sought for on account of their power of endurance, and their surefooted- 
 ness. It is quite within licence to assume that St. Joseph may have 
 provided himself with such an animal for his journeys. The route taken 
 has been by bye-paths across the mountains and fields to the plain with 
 beaten tracks from all other cities to Gaza, which, once passed, will put the 
 fugitives in safety. 
 
 In eluding Herod's cruel decree, St. Joseph would have made his 
 route as far from the state highway as possible. The distance still to be 
 traversed is about ten miles. The Flight into Egypt is one of the first 
 events in the life of Christ which marked the power of the Prince of this 
 world, whom Jesus Christ had come to combat and to conquer, by 
 innocence and suffering. 
 
 In Bethlehem the Holy Family, as is still the custom, had lain down 
 soon after dusk, and doubtless the intimation by dream was given while 
 the protection of night still offered the longest opportunity of escape. 
 It was a voice ringing out its warning after the dreamer had started up 
 in the darkness, " Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee 
 into Egypt." The Rabbinical writers speak of the time anterior to the 
 day of the expected Messiah as destitute of marvels and miracles, these 
 having ceased since the death of Simon the Just — a period of nearly 
 two hundred years — and about this date an age of spiritual activity is 
 witnessed to by them. Wonders in the heavens and on the earth occur, 
 although not of the stupendous kind that had been expected, and which 
 later the Doctors demanded of Christ. Dreams of Divine inspiration are 
 mentioned out of the Gospels as frequently affecting the fate of men. 
 St. Joseph had a spirit of profound obedience to heavenly authority. 
 The Founder of Islamism declared that among all the ancient prophets 
 none was greater than Jonah. To me it seems that among the saints in 
 the group which fostered the Christian Church during its first perils, none 
 
8 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 was greater than Joseph, and this for an opposite reason. He had the 
 very soul of submission and faith, bearing all evil report and contumely 
 without resentment when once he had been assured that the Heavenly 
 Father's purpose needed this. It seems to us no confession of weakness 
 in this claim for the first of the Fathers of Christianity to state here that 
 St. Joseph was last of all the band of guardians of the infant Church, 
 recognised in its established days as a saint. It is a further proof of his 
 humility, and of that true trust in right doing which leaves all after-issues 
 to God, when his command sanctifies a course. " Pray that your flight 
 be not on the Sabbath, nor in the winter," may have been said with some 
 family memory of the troubles suffered on the escape from Herod's 
 cunning. In April short storms of severity occur ; the writer has seen 
 on the eighth day of this month snow three inches deep which had fallen 
 during the night. The picture gives snow on the heights, and to be 
 consistent the beginning of their journey would have been under a cloud- 
 covered sky. Dark and forbidding would have been the scene as the 
 travellers emerged from the town (walled, in part at least, since remains 
 of such are still traceable near the tomb of the mother of Benoni) the 
 wind blustering through the exposed valleys and scouring over the heights, 
 the anger of heaven and earth alike dictating stealth and silencing all 
 converse. 
 
 In succeeding generations fancy decorated the story with many 
 legends, but although these are often innocent, and even poetic beyond 
 the ordinary mark of the apocryphal Gospel narratives, they are all 
 avoided in this conception. Here no legend is taken for authority. The 
 attempt is to put together the detached links of the story, and I rely only 
 upon my personal knowledge of the country and climate, acquired by 
 many years of residence throughout all its seasons, to understand how the 
 sorrows of that night would be intensified by the angry elements. 
 
 The looking back upon a home from which a family is driven by 
 oppression has ever been regarded as a motive for compassion, and to this 
 calamity the Holy Family had to submit. The heights to the south of 
 "Beit Jala" — by some writers recognised as Rama — give an extended 
 view, the mountains of Moab far away to the east, and the Dead Sea 
 below, the great plain of Philistia down in the west. A storm thence 
 seen produces the impression of sublime purpose. The lightning gathers 
 beyond the great hollow which includes Jericho and the lost Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, and then wavers, as the fingers of a mighty player upon the 
 keys of a musical instrument, collecting the errant forces of the air, and 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL, 
 
 9 
 
 tremulous with dancing flame in the south over the extending table-land 
 it seems to linger as though searching the plain of Philistia for its special 
 mark, and there darts down in fury ; but the sword which was to pierce 
 "the breast of the mother, " blessed withal above all women," was of man's 
 forging. According to our order of events the noisy elements would not 
 liave endured long, for soon the peaceful snow followed falling with its 
 wandering flakes. It would be then that the cry would sound, which 
 St. Matthew quotes Jeremiah to describe, " In Rama was there a voice 
 Iheard, lamentation, and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for 
 her children, and would not be comforted because they are not." We 
 are not debarred from thinking that the mother suffered some of her pain 
 in the wonder natural to humanity, that the powers of evil should be able 
 thus to prevail over the pure and the righteous. 
 
 It is natural to follow the mind of the mother in such distraction of 
 love, while the wintry mountains are traversed, and the fugitives descend 
 into the rich plain with its genial breath, the more placid from the cleared 
 sky. We can understand the comfort that would be prayed for— a higher 
 knowledge of the Divine mercy — and we can conceive how this came to 
 her through her pure maternal charity, in the form of ever increasing 
 tender regard for the woes of the children torn from their mothers' breasts 
 for ever, and of the bereaved childless women mourning their dearest ones. 
 She searches her much harassed mind to find consolation for the weeping 
 neighbours of her home. The party pass through the rich corn-fields, 
 among villages of peaceful slumberers. The whole air is balmy and 
 soothing. They feel the comfort of peace after a storm. The torrents 
 would no longer be in broken cascades but flowing along in deep channels 
 to the sea, the further from the uplands the greater the change in the 
 temperature. Recently the travellers have made a turn in their course 
 to find a crossing sure to be provided in Roman days over the deep river 
 which has to be crossed in the path to a village on the road. The 
 garments which the Mother is about to arrange have been carried with 
 other needful gear in the saddle-bags. Her own under-garment is the 
 wedding-dress of Bethlehem, worn by a bride until it is past service. 
 While her Child is being re-dressed, and is thus engaging her solicitude, 
 He calls her attention to the holy company around them. The spirits of 
 the children of Bethlehem troop along by the side, they bear the signs of 
 their martyrdom. Garlanded as were ancient sacrifices and bearing 
 branches of blossoming trees ; like enrolled saints they appear " in habit " 
 as they lived, the forward ones already rejoice in the knowledge of their 
 
10 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 high service. Midway there is an infant bewildered to find that his new 
 spiritual body bears no trace of the fatal wound. Behind in the air are 
 babes ; this sleeping, grieving group is the only one in the picture which 
 in its sorrowing aspect connects the idea of human pain with the fate 
 suffered, for the rest, in degrees differing, death is already seen to have 
 no sting, the grave no victory. 
 
 The foal accompanies the mother ass, in a long journey the young 
 creature lags behind whinnying in remonstrance at the ceaseless steps, and 
 only hurrying on in bounds when there is fear of the parent ass getting 
 beyond reach and sight. The glorified infants are encircling the weary 
 laggard, who is thus brought up to the onward group. The wild dogs 
 which have come out of the mill-house to bark — as is their wont with 
 nocturnal travellers striving to pass a homestead in silence — are cowed at 
 the unusual apparition and steal away in fear. The leader and father of 
 the party, St. Joseph, regards not the ghostly attendants. He is engaged 
 in securing the best means of safety while passing the near village. He 
 watches the distant fires to discover any signs there might be of pursuit. 
 He is passing over the shallow stream supplied for irrigation by the 
 creaking water-wheel. The liquid surface is 
 
 " Pavid with the image of the sky," 
 
 and burdened lightly with the fallen flower from the hand of one of the 
 foremost seraphic children. In contrast to this mundane reflection of 
 Heaven — which takes the leader's steps for the moment — are the waves 
 on which the children dance along. They are not clouds such as angels 
 may be portrayed upon. They are from the fountain of the water of 
 life, given to them that are athirst freely (athirst for fuller life). It is 
 the spiritual eternal stream provided in exchange for the life that 
 perisheth which has been to them so brief. These first Christian 
 martyrs no longer walk on the earth, but they travel on the living 
 waters of life, bringing comfort to their late fellows and to all future 
 disciples who have yet their burdens to bear and their victory to 
 win. " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
 bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings 
 of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion, Thy God 
 reigneth." 
 
 The stream is portrayed as ever rolling onward and breaking — 
 where it might if real water be dissipated in vapour— into magniied 
 globes which image the thoughts rife in that age in the minds of pi3us 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 11 
 
 Jews, particularly of those in great tribulation, of the millennium which 
 was to be the mature outcome of the advent of the Messiah. The 
 promises to the Patriarchs are progressive as is all the teaching of 
 Revelation. The dream at Bethel first clearly speaks of the union of 
 Earth and Heaven. This was the dawn of the exaltation of the Jewish 
 faith, and accordingly the large orb reflects dimly the Patriarch asleep 
 with a twofold ladder or pathway up and down, which is traversed by the 
 servants of God. The intention is to combine with the first beautiful 
 dream of the Patriarch other ideas of Messiah's reign which harmonise 
 with this, and which were developed later. Heaven is indicated by the 
 adoration by the elders of the spotless Lamb, and the brokenheartedness 
 of those who turn towards Heaven is illustrated by the fallen penitent, by 
 the burden-bearing of the faithful pilgrim, and the leading of the lion by 
 the young child, while the tree of life in the midst bears the fruit for the 
 healing of the nations. 
 
 So far it has been recognised that for the guidance of spectators who 
 have no unlimited time to work out for themselves the intention of the 
 picture, an explanation of my purpose was necessary. I however remember 
 with gratification that when the picture was yet incomplete, the main 
 intention of the design was apprehended by some of the few visitors to 
 my studio, and that Professor Ruskin on seeing it, while the principal 
 group was then only crudely expressed, in the impulse of generous 
 appreciation, alluded to the purpose of the children in the picture in 
 words of such correctness as well as exquisite expression and measure 
 that, had they described the complete design, the painter might well 
 have dreaded to provide any other. Shortly afterwards I had to abandon 
 the first painting from defects in the canvas on which it was painted, 
 after excessive loss of time and repeated disappointments which then 
 nearly disposed me to give up the subject and turn to some other. 
 Without the spontaneous appreciation of our great writer on art, to 
 whose championship in the early days of preraphaelitism I owe so much, 
 I should scarcely have persevered to save the work of so many alternating 
 feelings of joy and pain. The Art Professor now kindly permits me to 
 quote from his Lectures on the Art of England : 
 
 "Por all human loss and pain, there is no comfort, no interpretation 
 worth a thought, except only in the doctrine of the Resurrection ; of 
 which doctrine, remember, it is an immutable historical fact that all the 
 beautiful work, and all the happy existence of mankind, hitherto, has 
 depended on, or consisted in, the hope of it. 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 " The picture of which I came to-day chiefly to speak, as a symbol 
 of that doctrine, was incomplete when I saw it, and is so still ; but enough 
 was done to constitute it the most important work of Hunt's life, as yet ; 
 and if health is granted to him for its completion, it will, both in reality 
 and in esteem, be the greatest religious painting of our time. 
 
 " You know that in the most beautiful former conceptions of the 
 Flight into Egypt, the Holy Family were always represented as watched 
 over, and ministered to, by attendant angels. But only the safety and 
 peace of the Divine Child and its mother are thought of. No sadness or 
 wonder of meditation returns to the desolate homes of Bethlehem. 
 
 " But in this English picture all the story of the escape, as of the 
 flight, is told, in fulness of peace, and yet of compassion. The travel is in 
 the dead of the night, the way unseen and unknown ; — but, partly stoop- 
 ing from the starlight, and partly floating on the desert mirage, move, 
 with the Holy Eamily, the glorified souls of the Innocents. Clear in 
 celestial light, and gathered into child- garlands of gladness, they look to 
 the Child in whom they live, and yet, for them to die. Waters of the 
 River of Life flow before on the sands : the Christ stretches out His arms 
 to the nearest of them ; — leaning from His mother's breast. 
 
 " To how many bereaved households may not this happy vision of 
 conquered death bring in the future, days of peace. 
 
 " I do not care to speak of other virtues in this design than those 
 of its majestic thought, — but you may well imagine for yourselves how 
 the painter's quite separate and, in its skill, better than magical, power of 
 giving effects of intense light, has aided the effort of his imagination, 
 while the passion of his subject has developed in him a swift grace of 
 invention which for my own part I never recognised in his design till 
 now. I can say with deliberation that none even of the most animated 
 groups and processions of children which constitute the loveliest sculpture 
 of the B-obbias and Donatello, can more than rival the freedom and 
 felicity of motion, or the subtlety of harmonious line, in the happy wreath 
 of these angel-children. 
 
 " Of this picture I came to-day chiefly to speak, nor will I disturb 
 the poor impression which my words can give you of it by any immediate 
 reference to other pictures by our leading masters." 
 
 A brief explanation of the history of the production of this picture 
 is called for both as an apology for the long interval since last I ex- 
 hibited a large picture, and also of the fact that the painting now shown is 
 a repetition of my first attempt to illustrate this imaginative episode in 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 " The Elight into Egypt," which before long, will also be exhibited, cured 
 of its defect. I may be allowed, perhaps, to state that first in the year 
 1854, I acted upon a resolution formed earlier to go to Palestine. This 
 was to revivify on canvas, if it were possible to me, the facts of Scripture- 
 History, by study not made in sketches to be incorporated in subject 
 pictures afterwards in England. My aim was rather to advance nearer 
 to the truth than had yet been done, by patiently working out a whole 
 picture, surrounded by the very people and the circumstances of the 
 life in Judea of old days. To strive — while not forgetting the vital 
 ambition of an artist, which is to serve as high priest and expounder of 
 the excellence of the works of the Creator — choosing the highest types 
 and combinations of His handiworks, as the Greeks taught the after-world 
 to do, so that men's admiration may be fascinated by the perfections 
 of the works of the Great Author of all, and men's life thus may be a 
 continual joy and solace, and at the same time to embody the events by 
 which God in His providence led the foremost of the people Israel to be 
 prepared to act as teachers and prophets to the whole Gentile world. I 
 did not — let me say — wish to condemn any artistic manly treatment of 
 similar subjects by others. My idea suggested the experiment to me as 
 worth making for myself. The attempt was beset with difficulties beyond 
 expectation, and being away for long, put me at many disadvantages in 
 my profession, but I have many reasons for rejoicing at the course taken, 
 arid I have now to gratefully acknowledge the recognition of the public 
 who, from the time of the exhibition of the first result of my Eastern 
 labours — " The Scapegoat," have ever given exceptional attention to my 
 paintings, produced only, I regret to say, at long intervals, owing to 
 circumstances external to the limits of this statement. 
 
 In 1875 I returned to Jerusalem after an absence of two years. 
 I had taken the care usual with experienced travellers to have all my 
 luggage studiously packed and directed before leaving England. It was, 
 however, an omission of mine, which seemed a trivial one at the time, not 
 to see them delivered into the hands of the agent for the carriers to Jaffa. 
 On my arrival in Syria the cases containing all my precious materials 
 for my work had not arrived. Every effort possible was made to obtain 
 information of my missing boxes, and I delayed for months to commence 
 my picture. The excitement during this period, fanned by fanatical 
 Moslems, grew very fierce. The miseries caused by the conscription for 
 the Russian war, and still more those caused by the rapacity of governors 
 who found the opportunity a good one for increasing their dishonest 
 
u 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 exactions, drove the poor fellaheen well nigh mad with ferocity, and it 
 was easy then, as it was in Alexandria, and as it will ever be under 
 similar circumstances, to make the poor people believe that all such 
 miseries are sent by Heaven as a curse on them for not extirpating the 
 enemies of Islamism. We lived always in doubt as to what a day might 
 bring forth. Had the people been less dangerous I would have left my 
 family for two weeks or so, and purchased canvas in Naples or Borne. 
 As it was- 1 dared not leave them. When first the uncertainty about my 
 materials seemed serious and altogether inscrutable, I felt forced to 
 purchase the best piece of linen to be found in Jerusalem. This I 
 prepared with the tempera ground, which before had proved to be 
 perfect. When this was ready, however, I still lingered over my 
 preliminary work, in hope that the proper canvas would arrive; but 
 months further went by mocking my hopes, and eventually I had to 
 undertake my deferred labours upon the sheeting which the fortune of 
 the day had compelled me to choose. 
 
 It was a chapter of accidents bearing pain and long long trial to me. 
 The earliest part of my work was the sketching in of the whole composi- 
 tion and the painting of the background. Iso test of the suitability of 
 my surface could have been more satisfactory as far as was needed for the 
 point reached. I almost dismissed anxiety about the final results, and I 
 had advanced considerably with my work before the missing boxes arrived. 
 It seemed a great and needless waste to recommence my labours when so 
 much apparently had been done. It would have been well for me, 
 however, had I thrown all my work aside, and begun again, and 
 this indeed it would have been even years later, for from the moment 
 when I suspected with what fatal consequences my first start had been 
 beset, until the moment, when in England, at the end of 1882, I gave up 
 the picture, I always had reason to persuade myself that a little more 
 patience — perhaps even the perseverance further of two more weeks — 
 might overcome the difficulty intervening between the stage arrived at 
 and the entire completion of the picture. I will not weary the reader 
 with a statement of all the vexatious incidents of my trouble, but it is 
 only a needful excuse for me to state that a studio built specially for me 
 by German instead of Arab builders, let in the rain as though the roof 
 had been made of open wire, and that when this worry had passed, I was 
 under summons to come back to London by a certain date, and this made 
 the difficulty greater of deliberately estimating the amount of danger 
 which I incurred in advancing my work on the imperfect surface. 
 
DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL. 
 
 IS 
 
 "When I opened the picture in London and placed it in a fair light 
 I conld not fail to see how much precious time had been wasted from the 
 fact that all my drawing and modelling and colour indeed was marred by 
 irregularity of the plane on which they were given. I called in an expert 
 to help me in the course to be followed, and he, as it happened, urged me 
 still to trust to the means already used to overcome the evil, expressing 
 the opinion that it was then nearly at an end. Alas ! this proved to be 
 far from the case, although I called in the best judgment to guide me at 
 intervals, and I confided the work for relining on the strongest sailcloth 
 canvas to the hands of one of the most skilful of restorers. Every revived 
 hope ended in disappointment, until I having persevered with it for seven 
 years and a half, finally abandoned it, and commenced on the new painting 
 on January 1st, 1883. Since then, when away for my health, the reliner 
 again had the old picture to treat on a plan of a radical character agreed 
 upon between us. It was to cut out the central part of the sheeting 
 containing the group of the Virgin and Child, to lift up the surrounding 
 cloth, to fray out its edges, to insert a piece larger by an inch than the 
 opening, with margins also frayed in the opposite direction, and to place 
 the whole already relined picture upon another sailcloth. Unlimited 
 time was given for this experiment, and I am happy to say that now the 
 picture is thoroughly sound, and that it will soon be ready. The present 
 exhibited painting is about four inches broader and two inches higher 
 than the Jerusalem picture : it is also changed in several points, some of 
 which modifications I have since adopted as improvement for the old 
 picture : other additions, however, are only in the present painting. 
 
 W. HOLMAN HUNT. 
 
 Dbaycott Lodge, Fulham, 
 February 23, 1885. 
 
 RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
The 
 
 Triumph of the Innocents 
 
 This Picture, now being exhibited by the Fine Art 
 Society, 148, New Bond Street, will be reproduced by 
 Photogravure on a scale of 20^ inches by 33^ inches, in 
 its engraved portions. 
 
 It will be published at the following prices : 
 
 Artist's Proofs £10 ic o 
 
 Lettered Proofs £5 5 o 
 
 Prints £2 2 o 
 
 Subscriptions are now being received by the Fine 
 Art Society, 148, New Bond Street.