/in Irts.
THE BEITISH INSTITUTION OLD MASTERS.
It was not to be expected that, in a year when the British possessors of pictures have taxed themselves with so much public spirit for the upholding of the Art-Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, the collection of pictures by the Old Masters at the British Institution, derived from similar sources, should be particularly rich. Accordingly, though the exhibition which opened to private view on Saturday last maintains its respectable character as one of a series, it does not stand out individually.
The most remarkable works are those of Giotto and Giorgione, to which may be added the portraits by Tintoret and Titian. The Giotto, lent by Mr. Davenport Bromley, is a rather small but crowded composition of more than forty figures, "Our Saviour Receiving the Soul of the Virgin,"—agreeing, as the catalogue notes, with Vasari's description of the picture once in the Ognissanti, Florence' "opera molto Iodate, e partieolarmente da Michelagnolo Buonarroti." The picture appears certainly to be genuine, and is marked, if not by the full measure of Giotto's intensity of expression, at least by his powerful conception of it, and his faithful reliance upon what he had seen and all could appreciate. The simple fearless manner, also, in which Saviour, angels, and men, mingle, as if there were nothing more surprising in the supernatural than in the natural, is interesting and significant. The Virgin, that moment expired, lies on a mosaic-bordered block of marble, something between a couch and a sarcophagus ; St. Peter raises the body, and an angel tends the venerable head ; among the other angels is one engaged in swinging a censer, who is blowing upon it to keep the glow alive,—a curious example of the painter's naturalism. Close to the couch Christ stands, receiving his mother's soul in the form of an infant, which stretches out its hands towards Him with an action beautifully blending a touch of the maternal with the childlike manner. The Giorgione is the full-length "Female at a Well" belonging to the Royal Academy, and doubtless of some symbolic meaning ; grand in form, and burning with sunken splendour of colour. Much more wonderful, however, is the colour of Tintoret's "Portrait of a Doge " • the gold and plum-coloured brocade of the robe strangely rich, and strangely deadened and neutralised at the same time. The aged face is wan and yet vigorous, the beard long and inclining to curl. A second portrait by the same painter is also very fine, "The Procurator Baldassare Zeno" • a one-eyed man, whose changeless wink runs the Venetian dignity hard, spite of crimson velvet. A modern sitter and painter would have turned the profile. Of the Titians, the most splendid is the "Portrait of an Admiral" with the grim strong face, despotic but not
altogether unkindly, the black embroidered surcoat, and the scintillating mail which stiffens the thin arm.
For the rest, there are in the Italian section an early Raffaelle of the Peruginesque type, and a tender girl's head by Ghirkuidaio. Rubens is in strength,—albeit of a more sober and less luxuriant kind than is frequently the case; Vandyck and Rembrandt characteristically represented, though not with any single work of the first class ; Teniers, of his kind, good. The Patenier, a "Virgin and Child," is a sweet pure work of the earlier time. In the English section, spite of Reynolds's rivalry, and beyond all sort of rivalry from Romney and Lawrence,—though these also show well,—Gainsborough takes the first place in portraitpainting : the head of "Dr. Johnson" is exceedingly grand and intellectual, and that of " Gainsborough Dupont" most airy and charming in colour and execution.
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