ART.
THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB.
Tin gallery of the Club has been hung with a number of pictures of different schools and dates, but possibly, from their being the choice of one man, the Iate Mr. Eolford, they all accord. with each other in a remarkable way. The three fine Rem- brandts lose nothing by being associated with Italian primitives; their qualities of mystery, especially in the ease of the Titus (33), loom from out the dark with the authentic magic of the poet. The portrait of Rembrandt himself (31) and the Wife of Justus Liptirte (32) are rather more everyday in appearance, but the old lady is a work remarkable for grandeur and reticence. Entirely different, but very fine indeed,, is the early Italian portrait attributed to Alessio Baldovinetti (12). It is the usual prafile on a dark background, but there is nothing conventional or made-to-pattern in this, girl's alert head. Of very great charm is the portrait of a boy ascribed to John Bellini (9); the head droops like a flower, but is saved from affectation by its charm. A fine Venetian portrait is to be seen by Cariani (16) ; the sitter seems to be merely an ordinary merchant with no particular distinction of face, but the splendid massing of the forms of the clothes and the grandeur of the style of painting have ensured a work of art.
There are to be found here more than one small canvas by Veronese showing his felicities of arrangement and colour, and there is a Tintoretto portrait (22). A. good deal might he said about the altar-piece by Marco Palmezzamo (24). It is formal ; the figures by themselves are not particularly interesting ; they seem to be types which were the common property of the epoch and school to which the painter belonged. But when these objections have been raised, we have to recognize a mastery and certainty—difficult to find in these days ; the painter bad the power of saying with ease exactly and unmistakably what. he intended to say, and he could make a deep and satisfying colour harmony.
The Madonna (27), attributed to one of the Croce family at the beginning of the Cinquecento, owes much of its undeniable charm to its reminiscences of other and greater painters, though its author may be credited with a very beautiful arrangement in the way in which the figure of the seated Virgin combines' with the stems of the trees behind her head.
The pleasure of an exhibition like the present one is greatly increased by the scholarship of the catalogue, with its sugges- tions as to authorship ; too often loan collections are made irritating by the inappropriate setting down of great names in impossible places.
Previous page
