The Giotto and the two Rubenses which were bought at
the Rogers sale for the National Gallery are now to be seen there ; but the space left for the Bassano above Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne was still vacant when we visited the Gallery at the beginning of the week. Another ac- quisition just hung up is a Sandro Bottioelli—a circular picture, painted in tempera. It is a representation of the Virgin and Child, attended by the youthful Baptist, and by another youth, in the garb of an acolyte, who, although wingless, would appear intended for an angel. The In- fant is at the breast. Barring this figure, which is neither pleasing nor elevated—and indeed the number of figures of the Infant Christ at all satisfactory is extremely small—the work has considerable charm, as well as value and interest. It is a decidedly characteristic example of the master, though deficient in the dark ruddy glow of colour by which his style is distinguished. There is a fervour in the expressions which keeps up a certain tradition of the more abstract religious manner despite the naturalism of Botticelli's tendency ; and the excessive plainness, not to say poverty, of the surface-work, with the defined bounding-lines of contour, are salient and well-known peculiarities.
Previous page
