theos-talk.com

[MASTER INDEX] [DATE INDEX] [THREAD INDEX] [SUBJECT INDEX] [AUTHOR INDEX]

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: Theos-World Portraits of the Masters: "They look like spooks"??

Sep 18, 2006 07:26 PM
by Cass Silva


My first thoughts on seeing these portraits years ago was that they resembled Jesus.  I would like to see the faces without the beard and moustache.

Cass

danielhcaldwell <danielhcaldwell@yahoo.com> wrote:                                  Portraits of the Masters:
 "Class B" works of art??? "They look like spooks"??
 
 Jake writes about the Schmiechen portraits of the Masters Morya and 
 Koot Hoomi as follows:
 
 "Quite frankly I'm a little embarassed by those portaits of the 
 adepts, they're definitely 'class B' works of art, and I'm a little 
 amazed they were regarded highly (except for the spirit behind 
 them.) They look like spooks. M may have 'helped out' Schemlein(?) 
 the artist, but I doubt art was his forte, which was more likely 
 sword-play."
 
 Now I invite interested readers to compare and contrast what Jake 
 wrote above with what Colonel Henry S. Olcott wrote about the 
 portraits.
 
 It should be remembered as one reads Olcott's words that Colonel 
 Olcott testified that he actually met the two Adepts in their 
 physical bodies.
 
 Writing about "the paintings by Schmiechen, of the magnificent 
 portraits in oils of the ... [Master Morya] and another Master [Koot 
 Hoomi]", Colonel Olcott observed:
 
 "...the likenesses are so perfect and so striking as to seem endowed 
 with life.... They are an inspiration rather than an illustration of 
 thought-transference...." Old Diary Leaves, Volume 1, p. 372.
 
 And turning to Old Diary Leaves, Volume 3, pp. 163-164, Colonel 
 Olcott wrote again about Schmiechen's portraits of the Masters:
 
 "....[The portrait of Master Morya is] as pefect a portrait of my 
 Guru as he [Schmiechen] could have painted from life.... In the 
 picture he has got all - the face, complexion, size, shape and 
 expression of eyes....This is also true of the companion portrait 
 which Schmiechen painted of our other chief Guru [Koot Hoomi]...."
 
 Of course, one should keep in mind that SOME photographs of these 
 portraits may not due justice to the original paintings (or to the 
 copies of the paintings also made by Schmiechen).
 
 Again for comparison and contrast, I provide a webpage titled 
 "4 Paintings by Herman Schmiechen".
 
 See:
 
 http://blavatskyarchives.com/schiemiechenportraits.htm
 
 On this web page one will find (side by side) reproductions of the 
 Masters' two portraits as well as reproductions of 2 portraits of 
 H.P. Blavatsky also painted by Schmiechen.
 
 I think that most readers will be able to recognize that the woman 
 in the two portraits is in fact H.P. Blavatsky (as seen from various 
 photographs of her).
 
 Does this observation concerning H.P.B.'s portraits tell us anything 
 about the Masters' portraits and their likenesses to the physical 
 men known by their initiatory names Morya and Koot Hoomi??
 
 Daniel
 http://hpb.cc 
 
 
     
                       

 		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


           

[Back to Top]


Theosophy World: Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application