FINE ARTS.
THE BRIDGEWATER PICTURES.
The Earl of Ellesmere has announced his intention to admit the public to the large gallery of paintings at Bridgewater House, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays ; commencing with next week. Tickets are to be obtained at Messrs. Colnaghi's, Ackerman's, and other leading publishers : and there appears small reason to expect a letter from " C. D." in the Times running counter to " A. R's " as to the ad- missibility of those who do not enjoy his Lordship's personal acquaint- ance. A private view took place on Thursday. The gallery consists of a spacious room, excellently lighted from above; and of three smaller apartments, in which the glare from the windows requires to be tempered in order to afford a full view of the pictures. the Italian school is chiefly represented in the great room; in the others, the Dutch school, i with which some modern works are associated in the last. A few pic- tures are also placed in the adjoining corridor; the whole number being upwards of three hundred. The first work* arresting special attention is "A Riposo of the Holy Family," by Palma Vecchio, of exquisite beauty. There are absolute elevation and simplicity in the infant Christ, which dispense with all superhuman or antihuman adjuncts ; a truly divine grace and love in a truly mortal veil of flesh. The tenderness of action with which the divine infant is embracing the Baptist, and the adoring yet intensely childlike love in the expression of this figure, united to the truth and beauty shining through the whole picture, make it one of the moat perfect em- bodiments the subject can receive. Palma Vecchio was one of the last painters imbued with the old earnest spirit ; his expression of which through the highest technical resources, and with all the glory of Venetian colour, places him in the very first rank of art. Yet his name is known to comparatively few, and even among them does not enjoy due honour. Passing a Sasso Ferrato's Madonna very similar to that in the National Gallery, (it would be a curious item in statistics to discover how many Madonnas and from what number of models Sasso Ferrato painted,) and a copy by Ludovico Caracci after Coreggio's famous "Marriage of St. Catharine " at Parma, we come to a fine solemn work by Claude—" De- mosthenes on the Sea-shore." A peculiar and impressive effect is pro- duced by the vessels at anchor visible against the sunset sky through the columns of a portico falling into ruin. The single Da Vinci in the gal- lery is a " Head of a young Female "—of the most charming truth. The kind sincere smile on the lips brings us in thought face to face with the men and women of old time, with a strange feeling of nearness. This is the very idealism of the simplest beauties of portraiture. Near it hangs a "Portrait of Beatrice Cenci," by Guercino—like Guido's, but with more of peculiarity.
Two celebrated Titians come next : the "Diana Surprised by Actaeon," and " Diana and Calisto "—splendid displays of art, but rotten at the core. Is this a Diana, to he pitiless to Actaeon and Calisto; or are these Nymphs vowed to chastity The " Venus Rising from the Sea," by the same - master, (known as "la Venus it la coquille,") is a study of glorious beauty, untainted by vicious voluptuousness. There is rich colour in Parmi- giano's studiously composed "Virgin with the Infant Saviour, St. John, and the Magdalen" ; the incident of which is not unlike that in Palma Vecchio's " Holy Family." This is followed by Van Dyck's admired and popular "Madonna with the Infant Saviour," (one of three repetitions,) which we cannot but think an uninspired attempt at merely external ele- vation ; and by a small Caracci copy of Correggio's simpler version of the "Marriage of St. Catharine." Guercino's "Abigail meeting David with presents " is a large work of the highest order of executive merit, moat powerful in light and shade. Another "Riposo" by Palma Vecchio, of the intensest beauty, is neighboured by a Domeniehino's "Christ bearing his Cross" : but what a " great gulf" is fixed between them ! Three • We Speak according to the Catalogue ; with which the collection Itself does not" altogether correspond in arrangement. Raphael's Holy Families follow,—the "Sainte Famine au Palmier," the "Belle Vierge," and that where "the Virgin is lifting the drapery from the sleeping Infant" : all too well knewn to need description, too univer sally admired to allow Of comment or criticism ao cursory us our limits would restrict us to. "The Virgin, with the Infant Saviour in her arms," equally famous, transferred by Hae urn from panel to canvass, accom- panies these.
- The " Descent from the Cross," by Tintoretto, conveys the sense of silence—a choking wordless agony. Mazzolino di Ferrara's " Circum- cision of the Infant Saviour"—why have painters so often treated this subject?—contains Dutchlike minuteness of expression and colouring. We do not admire Spagnoletto's " Christ Disputing with the Doctors," though it displays some good character of an ordinary kind; nor Car- reggio's " Head of Christ," which has a weak morbid look, utterly op- posed to divinity. No grander portrait is in the gallery than that of " The Doge of Venice" by Palma Vecchio,—which is not, however, well placed for view : authority of character, large strictness of treatment, every requisite of the theme, is present here. We come now to Nicole Poussin's seven pictures, representative of the Sacraments; noble specimens in many respects of his powers of mind and execution, but rank heathenisms. We may point particularly to the " Extreme Unction," which is as unlike a hopeful Christian death as it is possible to conceive ; dim and painful, and rigid with stoicism and des- pair : as such, finely impressive. Yet finer is the picture of the Eucha- rist, where the rapt concentration of the Apostles, hanging on the words of their Lord, is rendered with admirable force : the " Marriage" also, and the "Penance "—Mary wiping Christ's feet with her hair—are works of a very high character. In the " Ordination" we trace the foresha- dowings of French classicism.
The " Descent from the Cross" by Van der Weyde has many of the characteristics of early painting, and possesses much variety of action, with delicate sentiment and beauty. The faults also of early painting are seen here in the thin rickety figures, which seem about to drop asunder at the joints. In " The Passage of the Red Sea," by Polidoro da Cara- vaggio, great physical energy is combined with a strikingly devotional arrangement. The saved Israelites cluster on their knees round Moses, while the ghastly destruction of "the horse and his rider" passes behind them ungazed at and unheeded.
There are no words for Titian's " Allegory of the Three Ages" ; a work steeped in unutterable poetry. We can but feebly attempt to speak of the sleeping infants, next whom the third, replete with joyful life, is represented winged, as though to symbolize the unconfinable ecstacy of childhood; the woman and her lover, lost in each other, and having music with themselves apart ; and the old man distant in the midst, poring over skulls. The words drop aside, and leave the thing unapproached—con- crete there, an utterance of eternal beauty. Paul Veronese's "Judgment of Solomon" attracts by its fine colour and handling : but the soul of it is torpid ; we scarcely know which is the false mother and which the true. There is grace, with nobility of style and colour, in two folding wings of an altar-piece by Andrea di Sa- lerno—Saints Catharine and Rosati:: succeeding which is the most ab- surd perhaps of all affected distortions misnamed flowing line and elegant composition—a " St. Francis Adoring the Infant Saviour," by Anibal Caracci. "The Last Supper" displays its painter, Schiavone, as a kind of Italian Jordaens, less gross, but no whit more holy; while in the " Christ at Emmaus " of Searzellino da Ferrara, one recognizes that the later school was wanting not only in real but even in external elevation of character.
" The Virgin and Infant Saviour, with Saints," by Lorenzo Lotto, is a most quaint picture: but the quaintness has nothing to do with early crudity. On the contrary, this work has somewhat the aspect of an ad- vanced Spanish painting. A green curtain appears to bisect the back- ground; behind which lies to one side a stretch of hill-country, and to the other a massive sky half covered with white cloud. The Christ seems to be unrolling a scroll, but we do not quite catch the action : and the whole picture has an unexplained air which takes the fancy powerfully. A. " Dead Christ, with the Maries and St. John," by Ludovico Caracci, contains remarkably fine colour, almost Titianesque : the sentiment, and especially in the figure of St. john, is by no means to be admired. A very excellent " Landscape, in which is introduced the subject of Jacob tending his flocks," by Salvator Rosa—wild, but with quiet natural truth in the action of the sheep—is to be noticed in this part of the room ; to- gether with two fine portraits by Tintoretto. Of Guido's "Assumption, or Immaculate Conception," we are told that "it is of the loveliest order of visible poetry, the perfection of the ideal in painting,"—which we leave to the faith of Guido's admirers and of those who suppose they ought to admire Guido : and we must in like manner expressly decline to interfere with the "St. Michael driving down Satan," said to be "perhaps a copy by Guercino." With these close the principal Italian works.
Among the Dutch pictures, we remark first Gerard Dow's " Portrait of Himself when about twenty-two years of age "; " A Dutch Peasant toasting a health," by Adrian van Ostade—finely painted ; and a most ex- quisite " Interior of a Church by Torchlight," by Van Steenwick—quite ideal in the perfection of its finish. The " Portrait" by Mireveldt is splendidly modelled ; and that of a "Student," by Ary de Voys, is an excellent head of serious character. Schagen's " Interior, with a young woman nursing a child, Sic.," is a charming example in the highest style of Dutch art ; so also are a small Van Tol, " The Tired Musician sleeping in his chair," and "A School of Boys and Girls," by Jan Steen,— full of character without coarseness, reminding us, to some degree, of the spirit in which Wilkie worked.
The famous Chandos portrait of Shakspere, which Lord Ellesmere pur- chased at the sale at Stowe, not only possesses (or is believed to possess) that highest of qualifications authenticity, but is moreover an admirable work of art, and in fine preservation. l'ke air of age, and indeed of de- cay, is unmistakeable enough; but it is uniform and corrosive, not in any part violent, leaving the portrait relatively perfect ; and we may expect it to remain so for an indefinite term yet. "A :Young Woman threading her needle," by Nicholas Maes, is an ex- quisite little piece—a complete resume of the sentiment and the subject, carried to precisely the right point and no further : but we take the ex- pression and figure to be more childish than is implied in the title, which appears to us a misnomer. "The Prophetess Hannah hearing Samuel repeat his prayers " displays Rembrandt's grand feeling for colour. The same master's "Portrait of a Burgomaster ' seems to belong to his earlier
style, and possesses -fine Tintoretlike character Pollens's Mestiiry `bearing Hebe hiss arms to. Olympuss" awessaustssin-eonaciesaoessle- notince as a disgusting jumble of ,keellopedetah? albsids; and lishht Blake called r` She rattletraps of isiythetogY.''Venus could never have got into-her car .-by tar means ; her Si'iu dor .5 would be enough to overbalance it. "A Lawyer in his:sandy, perusing-a deed, while his anxious client stands by his ,side With a present of game," by °stades is not to be ,sinpassed itr quiptIriintfel with a ' spiee of the early sincerity, and in perfeetionsof working.. Near this hangs "A Mastiff Dog chained to his KennelrbyJohn Fyt,— an admirable study, More neatlyprefisuring the atyle''014indseer than is at all common with the old animal-painters. A-.sPlendul, "l'ortrait Ifiruself" by Velaaquez; and Rembrandt's -"Portrait of Himself,"iwon- derfully wrought. in flesh-painting, are near together .: also a "Portrait of a Lady" by the latter, very beautiful, with deep quiet eolours The Vandervelde, "A grand Sea-view, exhibited under the-effect of stormy weather and a rolling sea," is a fine example: Still better? glowing with itsali
health, sun, and life, is a marine picture by-Cuyp, " The aing'of Prince
Maurice at Dort." : Peculiar interest attaellessto a study of the "Head of Charles I" by Dobson, with its forlorn broken-down aspect, and beard turning grey. The famous Gerard Dow, " The Interior of a Studyyin which the artist has introduced his own portrait," comes scion-after. . A large ".Marine View " by turner, same fifty years old, painted as a companion to the Vandervelde just mentioned, is as utterly opposed as possible -to what is now currently known of the painter. 'We were unable thoroughly to examine the picture, owing to its position Oppesite a window ; but its merits appear to be rather of the ,correct and respectable than of the poetical order. In the "Portraits of a Family of distinction, with an Ayah or Hindoo Nurse," by 'Sir Joshua Ilesrnolds,—altogether a very flue work,—the figure of the child is delightful fur innocence 04 truth. The two Ruysdaels, "A Bird's-eye View of a CoUntry in the neighbourhood of Haarlem," and "A Landscape represented under . the aspect of a cloudy day," are highly, eftbctive, yet totally 'free frtim pre-
tension. 9-
" The Virgin and Child, with two Saints," by Steinle, is a work of lofty class, scientific drawing, refined and elevated sentiment : in the Saints particularly, AugUstine, and Boniface, the evangelizem of England and Germany, there is fervour of religious expression. Yet in this, as in als most all modern German works of the sacred order, there is a something' unsatisfying, mechanical, and but half felt. It numbers a few, true 'Works, and among these some by Steirde himself ; yet it is but a bastard style after all. The French school is represented by Delaroche's "Soldiers of the Parliament offering insults to Charles I. after his trial,"—known ex- tensively by the engraving ; a picture of an elekated Standard, and con- taining admirable points a character, (this might be taken. on trust, in- deed, from the mere name of the painter) ; brit failing; we think, so thoroughly to express the general feeling. as it records the particular acts of cruel and insulting triumph. On the corridor walls are to be noticed "Cupid shaping his Bow," by Parmigiano,—the colour cold, and the god somewhat girlish, but inspired with a lively fanciful grace; a " Tantalus " of the Bolognese school, pos- sessed with a kind of unintelligible horror, rather by virtue of its subject than of any merit of treatment ; a "St. John Baptist" by Louis de Vargas, of large character ; and a " St. John baptizing our ,Saviour," oar cribed in the catalogue to the style of Francis, rather unceremoniously towards the reputation of that great painter.
Many other works, some of distinguished merit, especially in the Dutch school, including examples of Vanderneer, De Heem Van Mieris juniqr, Hobbema, Backhuysen, Cornelius Bega, Gabriel lietzu, Snyders, Ter- burg, and Hondekoeter, we have been compelled to pass in silence, other- wise than by thus calling to them the attention of intending visitors to the Bridgewater collection.
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