PEDANTRY IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY. pro THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—On paying a visit to the National Gallery, I was dis- appointed to find that the old familiar names of the painters had disappeared from the pictures. Sebastian del Pionrbo, Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Paolo Veronese, Raphael, Gaspard Poussin, and Vandyck—I write them as they come to my memory—are names that you may now look for in vain. Names that are as music, which thrill one, which are sacred in the history of Art, and which have all some interesting bit
of biography or trace of ancient custom about them, are gone; and what have we in. their place P A motley gathering of unfamiliar sounds,—Luciani, Vecellio, Robusti, Barbarelli, CaHari, Sanzio, Dughet, Dyck, and the like. I dare say that there are many who know from reading that these are the surnames of the painters, and that there are a few who have taken the trouble to carry these names in their heads. But of what use to any one is this cheap array of pedantic learning ? What boots it to be reminded of a name which one cannot use in speaking or writing without being considered an insufferable prig ? And to the thousands who in these holiday times will wander round the galleries, the names are worse than useless. They suggest nothing. It might interest many to see that they were looking at the work of some one of whose name they had heard as of one of the great names of the world, whose praises had been for centuries in the mouths of the noble and the cultured ; but the sight of a name of which not one of the crowd can by any possibility have heard, can awaken no feeling. I am quite aware that there is some convenience to experts in having the correct name of the artist given on the picture as accurately as may be, the popular names not being always the same in every country of Europe ; but surely popular feeling might be consulted also, and the customary English appellation of the artists be given—in brackets if need be—below the others. I trust that those who prefer that the educational value of such splendid institutions as the National Gallery should not be sacrificed to mere antiquarian precision, will see to this small change being effected.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Barite Club, Piccadilly, April 20th. J. DOVE WILSON.
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