Part 1 (1/2)

Great Pictures, As Seen and Described

by Faleton

Preface

The cordial reception of ”Turrets, Towers, and Teiven to a book treating thein a similar manner

Great writers and literary tourists have occasionally been inspired to record the ialleries andof these, not necessarily professional, I have tried to bring together in the following pages My object has been not to reatest pictures in the world, although many that have that reputation will be found here, but rather to bring together those that have produced a powerful ireat minds

Consequently, when the reader is disturbed at the o hireat writers instead ofhis favourite

My task has not been a light one A feords of rapturous ades of art-lovers, but a syle work is rarely found General coiven artist's work is also plentiful, while discri praise of individual canvases is scanty The literary selection has, therefore, involved a great deal of research

From time to tiely, but no matter what inconstant fashi+on may dictate, or what s never lose their prestige, but annually attract as rims as Lourdes or Fusi-San

Of modern painters I have only included Turner and Rossetti

It is interesting to compare the example I have chosen from Rossetti with Leonardo's ”Monna Lisa” Pater has ad too much upon it, the charination of the great artist who created her for all tiether ten thousand experiences, is an old one Certainly Lady Lisa ht stand as the embodiment of the _old_ fancy, the symbol of the _modern_ idea”

In a similar sense Lilith the siren, the Lorelei, the eternal enchantress, in her modern robe, is the embodiment of a _new_ fancy, the symbol of the _ancient_ idea; and just here across four centuries the thoughts of two great artists meet

The types of beauty and woestion to the fancy From Botticelli's ”La Bella Sih all the periods of painting the reat influence upon the painter's work, and upon this point nearly every essayist and critic represented in these pages dwells In many of the essays, such as Pater's on Botticelli, and Swinburne's on Andrea del Sarto, the author strays away froives us so thoroughly the spirit of that painter that a fuller light is thrown upon the picture before us

I have included a few criticisue, Lafond, Giron, Guiffrey, and Reynized authorities upon the artists whose works they describe; and I have selected Fro sure that this thoughtful criticismatical work

I have been careful to take no unnecessary liberties with the text In the translations from Gruyer, Goethe, Fro to be included entire, I have not allowed myself to condense, but only to cut This is true, also, of the English extracts

ES

NEW YORK, _September_, 1899

GREAT PICTURES

DESCRIBED BY GREAT WRITERS

THE FISHERMAN PRESENTING THE RING TO THE DOGE GRADENIGO

(_BORDONE_)

THeOPHILE GAUTIER