7 JUNE 1834, Page 20

PICTURES AND ARTISTS.

THE CORREGIOS IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

Tna two pictures by Conar.c.to, purchased by the Government at 11,5501. for the National Collection, are now open to public view in the temporary gallery, 105, Pall Mull, next door to the Travellers Club. Whatever price may have been paid for them more than they might have been bought for, as works of art they are invaluable ; and we congratu- late the nation upon its possession of two chefs d'amere of a master whose pictures are as exquisite as they are rare. The subjects are " Ecce Homo' and "Venus and Mercury teaching Love." The figures in the first are of the life size, but only half of them is shown; those in the latter arc whole-length, but smaller than life. They are both painted with a wonderful power and elaboration of execution and richness of colour and chiaroscuro, and with that harmony and breadth of effect and those subtle gradations of tint that characterize the works of CORREGIO. They are in tine preservation. The " Ecce Homo," which is in the lower room, represents Christ crowned with thorns, his hands bound, and wearing the crimson robe which a soldier has just put over his shoulders. His mother is fainting with agony at the awful sight, in the arms of a female in the foreground (so to speak); and Pontius Pilate is seen in the background, saying to the Jews, "Behold the man!" The head of Christ is painted with the utmost refinement of art, and the expression of pain is conveyed with extreme pathos, and without the slightest distortion ; but the godlike dignity and serenity of mind does not shine through the weakness of the man, it is only a patient martyr, not a divine person that stands before you. The face of Mary, over whose beauty the pallid shade of horror has cast a veil, is the image of loveliness and tenderness in death ; her eyes, dim and half closed, straining as if still to keep in view the features of Christ ; her bands drawn back reluctantly as she sinks swooning in the arms of her attendant; and the expression of pain in the bloodless lips and the open mouth, as though the tongue clove to it, are depicted with the power of RAPHAEL superadded to the delicacy of CORREGIO. The introduction of Pilate—an (unmeaning old man, with a ludicrous air of importance, who, by the smallness of his form, is meant to appear at a little distance, though he is close to the eye— would almost spoil the picture, but that, while it creates a smile at the simplicity of the painter, it is in a manner a guarantee for the genuine- ness of the feeling that pervades it. It is this unsophisticated earnest- ness of intention, this unalloyed sincerity of purpose, that constitutes the great charm of the old painters. If they do not always succeed completely in accomplishing what they wished, you not only see what they meant, but that they were in earnest in their endeavours; and the elaborate care and pains bestowed upon the work proves that they thought no labour and skill too great to achieve it and to do honour to the subject. It is like witnessing an net of devotion : though you may smile at the simplicity or quaintness of the devotee, you cannot but ad- mire and be affected with his faith and patience. The execution of this picture is extraordinary: the hands of Christ are absolutely real ; but the figure is not so well painted, and the head does not sit well on the body. The colouring is glowing : the hue of the flesh of Christ is too warm, indeed, for that of a man in a state of extreme suffering.

The " Venus and Mercury teaching Cupid " is a cherimog picture, whose subject and character are a relief to the painful intensity of the other. It is fresher in its tone of colour too ; though less profound in its expression, it is scarcely less true. Mercury, seated, is teaching Cupid, while Venus stands hy "in naked grace," with a bewitch- ing smile, looking out of the picture. The attitude and action of Mer- cury and Cupid are extremely simple and natural. They are both in- tent on what they are about. The look of the little urchin is very characteristic and infantine ; be seems actually tryieg to spell a word,

stooping his head with his knees bent in, and -his finger on the paper as though he would pick out the letters. The winged god seems a pleased and patient schoolmaster ; but his position denotes that he has but sat down for a short time, and will be off presently. his golden cap and buskins, though winged, seem too heavy for flight, however; neither is his forni eminently light and tapering. The figure of Venus is out of drawing, and loes, therefore, some of its grace ; she has a redundancy of hip that the Hottentots would admire if she were but black ; the limbs are solid, and the flesh is pure white with roseate tints where the blood beneath is visible.

There is something meretricious in the expression of Venus, that makes one doubt whether the painter bad a definite idea of the feeling that be should put in her face : she is not in any way concerned in the teaching of Cupid, but is coquetting with the spectator. This peculi- arity, and also the feebleness in the head of theChtist, is thus accounted for by that penetrating critic Hama' r ; who seems almost to have had these two works in his eye when he wrote the remarks on the CORREGIOS at Parma.

" There is the master band, no doubt, but tremulous with artificial airs— beauty and grace carried to a pitch of quaintness and conceit—the expre:sion of joy or wo, but lost in the doting contemplation of its own eestacy or agony, and after being raised to the height of truth and nature, .hurried over the brink of refinement into effeininaey, by a craving after impossibilities, and a wanton dalliance with the ideal. Corregio has painted the wreathed smile of sweet- ness, but he does not stop till he has contorted it into ajfictation ; he has ex- pressed the utmost distress and despondency of soul, but it is the weakness of euffiring without strength. his pictures are so perfect and so delicate that the sense aches at them."—Journry through France and Italy.

These two pictures may be ranked among the brightest ornaments of the National Collection. They are far superior to the other smaller works of the same painter here—a Holy Family, and "Christ's Agony in the Garden "—in the last of which are to be seen only his mechani- cal beauties and defect of expression. Its fame has surpassed its merits. The largeness of manner and gusto of the two groups of heads by Coneruto, contrast with these miniature pictures as remarkably in sentiment as in style.

We had not before seen the National Collection in its new lodging. It looks more numerous than it did ; the pictures 'being scattered. We will say nothing of the light—or darkness, rather—in which many of them are bung, because their abiding-place is temporary, and we are glad to be able to see even a few. But until they are properly placed in the new Gallery, let no visiter charge his disappointment upon the fault of the painter.