Part 16 (1/2)

[25] Not the ”sole bidder,” as Allan Cunningha the pounds guineas,” Mr Lane would be bidding against hi which occasionally occurs at auctions, but is not recommended We have failed to find any other account of this transaction than that supplied to Nichols for his second edition of 1782, pp 225-7, by Mr Lane hiham seems to have derived his inforely transforms it We can but surhest bid is given as 110, instead of 120--a rather unfortunate ood many people

THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS

(_LEONARDO DA VINCI_)

THeOPHILE GAUTIER

The engraving has popularized the _Vierge aux Rochers_,[26] that corace of thewith stalactites and sharply pointed rocks, the holy Virgin presents the little Saint John to the Infant Jesus, who blesses hi face,--a celestial her maiden and the youth but superior to either in his ideal beauty,--accoreat household atches over the child of the king with led respect and protection Hair of a thousand crisp curls frauished Certainly this angel occupies a very high rank in the hierarchy of the sky; he should, at least, possess a throne, a dominion, or a principality The Infant Jesus draws hie of foreshortening, and is a in is of that char Lombard type in which under chaste innocence appears thatThe colour of this majestic picture has blackened, particularly in the shadows, but it has lost nothing of its harmony, and perhaps it is inal freshness and the natural tones of life

Doubts have been raised regarding this picture Some critics have wished to see here e hand, or even simply the copy of another canvas painted for the chapel of the Conception of the church of the Franciscans in Milan But none other than Leonardo could have drawn such firh those learned grades that give to the body the roundness of sculpture with all the softness of skin, or rendered his favourite types so superbly and delicately

[Illustration: THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS

_L da Vinci_]

_The Madonna of the Rocks_, the engraving of which is so well known, belongs to and may be considered the type of Leonardo's secondis pursued with a care not found in those painters who are not fa chisel The roundness of the bodies obtained by gradation of tints, the exactness of the shadows and the parsiht in this unparalleled picture betray the habits of a sculptor We know that Leonardo was one, and he often said: ”It is only inthat the painter can find the science of shadow” For a long tiures which he made use of in his ere preserved

The appearance of the _Madonna of the Rocks_ is singular, rotto shelters the divine group placed on the bank of a spring which shows the stones of its bed through its lirotto we see a rocky landscape dotted with slender trees and traversed by a streae; the colour of all this is as indefinable as those chih in dreaures

What an adorable type is the Madonna! It is quite peculiar to Leonardo, and does not in the least recall the virgins of Perugino nor those of Raphael: the upper part of the head is spherical, the forehead well developed; the oval of the cheeks sweeps down to a delicately curved chin; the eyes with lowered lids are circled with shadow; the nose, although fine, is not in a straight line with the forehead, like those of the Greek statues; the nostrils see with respiration The ives to all the faces of his woles there with the expression of purity and kindness

The hair, long, fine, and silky, falls in waving locks upon cheeks bathed in shadows and half-tints, frarace

It is Lombard beauty idealized with an admirable execution whose only fault is perhaps too absolute a perfection

And what hands! especially the one stretched out with the fingers foreshortened M Ingres alone has succeeded in repeating this _tour de force_ in his figure of _La Musique couronnant Cherubini_ The arrangement of the draperies is of that exquisite and precious taste that characterizes da Vinci An agrafe in the form of a medallion fastens on the breast the ends of a mantle lifted up by the arance

The angel who is pointing out the Infant Jesus to the little Saint John has the sweetest, the finest, and the proudest head that brush ever fixed upon canvas He belongs, if we hest celestial aristocracy One h birth accustomed to place his foot on the steps of a throne

Hair in waves and ringlets abounds upon his head, so pure and delicate in design that it surpasses feives the idea of a type superior to all that roup that he is pointing at, for he has no need to look in order to see, and even if he did not have wings on his shoulders, we should not be deceived regarding his nature A divine indifference is depicted upon his char face, and almost a smile lurks in the corners of his lips

He accoiven him by the Eternal with an iin, no woman, ever had a more beautiful face; but the ence shi+ne in those dark eyes, fixed vaguely upon the spectator who seeks to penetrate their mystery

We kno difficult it is to paint children The scarcely settled fore lend themselves aardly to art expression

In the little Saint John of the _Madonna of the Rocks_, Leonardo da Vinci has solved this problem with his accustomed superiority The drawn-up position of the child, who presents several portions of his body foreshortened, is full of grace, a grace sought-for and rare, like everything else that the sublime artist ever did, but natural, nevertheless It is i more finely modelled than this head with its chubby dimpled cheeks, than those plump little round ars half folded in the sod The shadow advances towards the light by gradations of infinite delicacy and gives an extraordinary relief to the figure

Half enveloped in transparent gauze, the divine _Ba his hands as if he were already conscious of his esture which the little Saint John repeats after the angel

With regard to the colour, if in beco smoked it has lost its proper value, it has retained a harmony preferred by delicate minds for the freshness and brilliancy of its shadows The tones have deadened in such perfect sympathy that the result is a kind of neutral, abstract, ideal, and mysterious tint which clothes the forms like a celestial veil and sets them apart from terrestrial realities

_Guide de l'Amateur au Musee du Louvre_ (Paris, 1882)

FOOTNOTES:

[26] The National Gallery and the Louvre each claiinal of this celebrated picture and that its rival is a replica

The former was purchased in Milan, in 1796 by Gavin Hamilton, who sold it to Lord Suffolk, in whose collection at Charlton Park it was long an ornament It was purchased from him in 1880 for 9,000 The Louvre picture is first ns for it are in Turin and Windsor, and in these the outstretched hand of the angel appears This does not occur in the London _Madonna of the Rocks_, which differs in several details; for exaures and John the Baptist carries a cross--ES