ART.
THE OLD MASTERS AT THE ACADEMY.
THE French have many expressions qualifying successes. Nacces de snobisine is one. This kind of success, it is to be feared, has been forced upon a great early Raphael. When the Madonna di Sant' Antonio was lent to the South Kensing- ton Museum it was hung in an inconspicuous corner, and no attention was paid to it. The Louvre and the National Gallery were uninterested; no clamour was raised in the Press that a treasure must be secured for either country. The experts could not deny the authorship of the picture, for the pedigree was unusually complete, so they contented themselves with remarks on the ruined condition of the work. The picture left South Kensington, and no one asked where it had gone to. After passing through the hands of two dealers, it has reappeared in London. It is now to be seen hung in the post of honour in the large room at the Academy (No. 8.5), hung round with glorifying draperies to keep it apart from its neighbours. What has caused this change of treatment ? The picture has been bought by a very rich man, who has paid a sensational price for it. Therefore Londoners now stand before it open- mouthed, who passed it by unheeded at South Kensington.
The Sant' Antonio picture was painted about the same time as the Ansidei Madonna in the National Gallery, though it does not equal it in quality. The freedom of line and model- ling, the ease and balance of expression, are wanting. Never. theless, the work is a very fine one. Look at the way it domi- nates the wall on which it is hung. How many pictures hung in this place in past spring exhibitions, and acclaimed master- pieces—of the year—in spite of the resources of modern art and experience, lay, hold on one as does this work by the youth of Urbino ? Many of the heads are "wooden," and much' of the colour has darkened. Formality, due to the acceptance of the traditional manner of this teacher, is everywhere seen :—
" Le dessein est sec, at Is couleur mauvaise,
Et ce n'est pas ainsi que paint Paul Veronese."
But after all objections are raised and all flaws looked for and found, there remains an indefinable impression which only the inspiration of genius can produce. Above the square panel with the enthroned Virgin surrounded by saints is a lunette, which is perhaps the finest part of the work. It seems to have suffered less by darkening than the lower part. The colour of the angels against the deep blue of the sky is of the greatest beauty. In this picture we have a consummation of the splendour of Perugino, but not the colour harmonies, new to the world and peculiar to Raphael, which appear in the Ansidei Madonna, and are found throughout his career, as in the Baldasarre Castiglione. When, two hundred years ago, the nuns at Perugia sold their Raphael altar-piece to pay their debts, the main portion' of the work was separated from the little pictures which were parts of the whole. Four of these predelle from different English collections are to be seen in the present exhibition. It seems a strange lack of intelli- gence not to have replaced these little satellites as near to the old places in their system as possible, instead of at the distance of two rooms. The best of these predelle is the Agony in the Garden (No. 11), which is a beautiful little picture. Besides these early works there is a very beautiful Madonna by Raphael (No. 82), lent by Miss Mackintosh. The picture, which suggests the early Roman period; is in an equivocal condition. Is it only a beginning, with the flat masses of pale underpainting waiting for the accents of dark colour, or have these been removed by the energy of those restorers who have ruined so many masterpieces ? The absence of all dark shadow gives the work a curiously vague and evasive character, but there is no indecision in the painting. The master has established broad, flat masses everywhere, to be broken up into ,smaller planes later. On the whole, it seems as if the picture is unfinished, though it has had ill- usage as well. The composition of this Madonna is of perfect beauty. The space is filled faultlessly and inevitably, and as a lovely arrangement of detail could the Virgin's left sleeve be bettered?
There is no lack of interest in the galleries this year. Whether we look at the works of the primitives, the Nether-. lands painters, or of Claude Lorraine, there is variety, and in each division excellence. One room is devoted exclusively to Claude Lorraine, and certainly these pictures gain by being seen together and alone. The sameness and artificial arrange ments of the classic style are not so obvious as when there is immediate contrast with work less dependent on a formula. Claude Lorraine was the beginning of landscape art in the modern sense, his pictures depending on a natural, and not a human, motive ; but the materials out of which his pictures were composed were often far more removed from the facts of Nature than were the landscape backgrounds of many of the early Renaissance Italians. The Enchanted Castle (No. 67) is a real poem, and the best of the many works by the painter here. The cool colour and the dignity of the composition are both delightful, and so is the deep feeling of romance. The classical lady sitting in the foreground is no longer a studio " property," but suggests and helps the calm mystery of the picture. Among the many fine primitive pictures none are more wonderful than the two splendid Cassone fronts attri- buted to Pesellino (Nos. 10 and 18). To describe the endless incidents and episodes of this illustration of the story of David and Goliath would be as tedious as it would be useless, for they must be seen. The variety and characterisation of the faces are wonderfuL The first room is so rich in fine works by the early masters that it is only possible to indicate a few, and to advise the visitor to be sure and not miss the delicate portrait of a boy by Gian Bellini (No. 41), the Adoration of the Shepherds (No. 36) ascribed to the same painter, but much more probably by Catena, and the Portrait of a Man (No. 22) to which no name is assigned. This last is an expressive head powerfully modelled. The portrait of Aida Gambara (No. 35) by Beltraffio is not only a very fine work, but has special interest, as in it the painter has rendered a head in direct sunlight with cast shadows, a very unusual proceeding in Renaissance art. The effect•is very fine, and carried out in a
large and solid manner _ • .
Among the Dutch pictures hung in the Water-Colour Room, the Lady Playing on a Harpsichord, by Jacob Ochterveldt (No. 217), should be looked at, for it is so curiously modern. If it were Ming at the New English Art Club it would only astonish by its excellence. Vandyck achieves a notable success in the large portrait of a lady in red (No. 102) with a little child in blue standing by her. It is the way in which these two colours are harmonised and op- posed that makes the picture so striking. The picture belongs to what is generally called the painter's Genoese manner, which was larger and grander and more beautiful than his later style. Velasquez is not represented largely in this collection, but the sketch for Las Meniiias (No. 105), whatever the experts may decide as to its authenticity, is an interesting and beautiful work ; the painting is so free and yet so restrained, and the airy spaciousness of the room so con- vincingly rendered.
In the large room there is a beautiful head and shoulders of a Venetian woman (No. 95) which is interesting, not only as showing us another fine work by those endless lesser masters of Venice, but by the influence the picture has had upon its owner, Mr. Watts. Not that the modern has copied, for what could be more different than the execution of the two painters P In the present article it has only been possible to point to a few of the most notable works, but it must be said that the exhibition is a remarkable one, there are in it so many fine things. In reverting to the " Old Masters " the Academy has shown that the wealth of the mine has by no means been worked out, and we can only hope that next year's collection will be a continuation of the present. H. S.
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