Part 19 (1/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Painted by Veronese and by Zelotti and Bazzaco under his direction

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

ANONYMOUS

titian's nificent pictures in the Ducal Palace were, all but one, destroyed by fire the year after his death; but his impetuous rival, Tintoretto, is abundantly represented there With regard to _him_, as usual, our admiration for frequent manifestations of extraordinary power is but too co, and the unexpressive wholly uninteresting character of roups, which seem introduced merely as exercises or exhibitions of technical skill, rather than as appeals to our iain tempted to be somewhat out of conceit with Tintoretto, till you pause in the Ante Collegio, or guard-room, before a picture of his so poetically conceived and ad in all respects, that you wonder stillcharacter of soostentatious, barren displays of technical power, has once again had the gentleness and patience to reeable Ariadne, a beautiful and noble figure, is seated undraped on a rock, and Bacchus, profusely croith ivy, advances fro; whilst above, Venus, her back towards you, lying horizontally in the pale blue air, as if the blue air were her natural couch, spreads or rather kindles, a chaplet or circlet of stars round Ariadne's head Here, those who luxuriate in what is typical, may tell us, and probably not without truth, that Tintoretto wished to convey a graceful hint of Venice crowned by beauty and blessed with joy and abundance Bacchus arising froifts, and the watery path by which they come to her; and the lonely island ny, inal forlornness of Venice herself, when she sat in solitude aune, aloof froed by the Hun or the Loures and their light transparent shadows, and thetheof the picture, are still beautiful, and no doubt were far , occasioned, it seeht; you feel quite out of doors, all on the airy cliffs, as you look on it, and almost taste the very freshness of the sea-breeze

_The Art Journal_ (London, 1857)

LA CRUCHE CasseE

(_GREUZE_)

THeOPHILE GAUTIER

One arth, that the moral scenes which he represents appear to have been posed for and acted by excellent actors rather than copied directly froh an interpretation and under a travesty of rusticity

All is reasoned out, full of purpose, and leading to an end There is in every stroke what the _litterateurs_ call ideas when they talk about painting Thus Diderot has celebrated Greuze in the most lyric strain

Greuze, however, is not a enre_ unknown before his time, and he possesses veritable qualities of a painter He has colour, he has touch, and his heads, modelled by square plans and, so to speak, by facets, have relief and life His draperies, or rather his rurossly in a systeive full value to the delicacy of the flesh, reveal in their very negligence an easy brush _La Malediction Paternelle_ and _Le Fils Maudit_ are homilies that are well painted and of a practical e_, on account of the adorable head of the _fiancee_; it is ier, fresher, inal, if these tords may be connected Greuze, and this is the cause of the renohich he enjoys now after the eclipse of his glory caused by the intervention of David and his school, has a very individual talent for painting woman in her first bloom, when the bud is about to burst into the rose and the child is about to becohteenth Century all the world was somewhat libertine, even the moralists, Greuze, when he painted an Innocence, always took pains to open the gauze and give a gli bosom; he puts into the eyes a fiery lustre and upon the lips a dewy sht very easily become Voluptuousness

[Illustration: LA CRUCHE CasseE

_Greuze_]

_La Cruche Cassee_ is the enre_ The head has still the innocence of childhood, but the fichu is disarranged, the rose at the corsage is dropping its leaves, the flowers are only half held in the fold of the gown and the jug allows the water to escape through its fissure

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

PORTRAIT OF LADY cockBURN AND HER CHILDREN

(_REYNOLDS_)

FREDERIC G STEPHENS

The nuiven, probably it cannot be ascertained with precision; it is beyond all question marvellous, but not less so is the variety of the attitudes in which he placed the sitters, that of the ideas he expressed, and of the accessories hich they are surrounded; to this end, and to sho successfully he fitted things together, background and figure, compare the portrait of _Elizabeth Haraved by W dickinson, with that of Lady Betty Delme It is the salish school of portrait-painters of which he was the founder, was the happiest in introducing backgrounds to his works; to him we are for the most part indebted for that aptitude of one to the other which has so great an effect in putting the eye and mind of the observer into harmonious relationshi+p hat may be called the _motive_ of the portrait, which, indeed, elevates a mere likeness to the character of a picture, and affords a char field for the display of art in pathos, which is too often neglected, if not utterly ignored, by Reynolds's successors We think he exhibited more of this valuable characteristic than any other contemporary artist

Lawrence aimed at it, but with effect only co Of old, as before the Seventeenth Century in Ger _per se_ was inefficiently cultivated, at least expressed with irregularity, although occasionally with force enough to show that the pathos as well as the beauty of nature were by nolike the extent which has been commonly represented by writers on Art Reynolds probably took the hint, as he did rounds to his figures: between these painters no one did much, or even well in the pathetic part of the achievement Since Reynolds, none have approached him in success It will be understood that the object of these reest for the reader's consideration who painted the best landscape backgrounds as landscapes, but who most happily adapted them to his more important themes We believe Reynolds did so, and will conclude our remarks by another exae of Innocence_ is as thoroughly in keeping with the subject as it can be: thus here are fields easy to traverse, a few village elms, and just seen above their tops the suiven that the child, all innocent as she is, has not gone far fros

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF LADY cockBURN AND HER CHILDREN