,fiur 21,rto.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
The pictures bequeathed by Lord Colborne, and those bought at Mr. De Bammeville's sale, have recently been placed on the walls of the Na- tional Gallery. The former amount to eight. The two Rembrandta—a Portrait of a Girl and a Portrait of a Man—are grand; the first in a style of which we had not before any precise counterpart, the second a noble face, worn and sad, which looks as if it had a history. Wilkie's Village Beadle is well known, and a Wilkie such as England may be willing to show, if not of the first class in either subject or treatment. The colour, though not true to an out-door effect, and in the asphaltum building of the background audaciously false, is stronger and warmer than in the painter's first days, more firm than in his last. The Spagnoletto, a Shep- herd, is a reasonable specimen of an uninteresting manner. The Van- derneer's Moonlight and Teniers's Trictrac, although as infallibly familiar to you before you have seen them as afterwards, deserve to find a place in a public gallery. As much should scarcely be said for the Berghem- a so-so example of a so-so man, or of the Dead Game and Dog by Ween- inx—a "penny-a-lining " kind of affair. Where the style of art is so intensely devoid of intellect, execution quite first-rate ought to be a sine qua non. We had understood originally that one of the four pictures bought at the De Bammeville sale was the Lorenzo di San Severino. This, however, does not make its appearance ; but the Masaccio, of St. Bernard writing from the dictation of the Madonna, does. We are sorry to lose the one, if lost it is, but still more glad to find the other. It is a work wonderful in the hush of its mystic suspense and solemn thought of things heavenly,
" Toccando un poet In vita futura " :
if truly a Masaceio, an invaluable acquisition, and, whether or not, "far above rubies." Pachierotto's Madonna and Child shows how much grace and innocent softness, of a Da Vinci type almost cloyingly sweet, may consist with a thorough incapability for the celestial de- ment in the subject. The Niceolo Alunno is a mistaken purchase ; a ghastly Byzantinism coming too late to be excusable, and, though not abominable like the "sacred" works of pretenders of after times, cer- tainly of no value to us. If England could yet afford to buy pictures simply on historical grounds, this would deserve to be bought; but for some time to come we must absolutely combine intrinsic worth with historic importance. The Head of a Senator by Albert Darer is not ex- traordinary for finish, but remarkable for fulness. No point that would need to be there in an elaborate work is omitted to be indicated ; but it is specified, not developed. The expression of life is given, without its roundness. We can imagine the portrait to be one painted for money, into which the great artist put as much art as his love of art exacted, and not more money's-worth than the commission called for.
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