Art
THE British Antique, Dealers Association has collected together for their exhibition of Art Treasures at Christie's an incredibly large number of objects, many interesting ,and beautiful, but so miscellaneous that it is impossible to give any coherent idea of the exhibition as a whole. It is; in fact, not one exhibition but twenty, all taking place in the same rooms and inter- mingled with each other. The only possiblemethod, therefore. is to call attention to the most conspicuous objects in each section. The paintings, a very random collection, are definitely disappointing. The star piece is evidently Sir Joseph Duveen's Rembrandt, Aristotle, formerly in Mrs. Huntingdon's collection, a dignified and moving composition, but which proves to be less well painted than one had hoped. The other Rembrandt. Portrait of a Turk, shows his fondness for the effects produced by rich materials, but it lacks his more serious qualities. A dull portrait by Batoni and a Venus and Adonis by Tintoretto are both unworthy of the names attached to them. Quanti- tatively the paintings of the English school dominate this section. Conspicuous amongst these by its size is a large, empty Raeburn (1851), balanced by an almost equally large and equally empty Martin Arthur Shee (1372). The most important English painting is Gainsborough's portrait of James Christie, the founder of the firm which has so generously lent its rooms for the exhibition. This portrait is exquisitely painted, but, like many Gainsboroughs, is uncomfortably skew in composition. Stubbs' Grey Hack with Groom and Dog is the best sporting picture and makes the horses in Morland's The Corn Bin look too humanly sagacious.
There are a few objects of mainly historical interest, notably the sumptuous throne (1) said to have been used by Queen Elizabeth (almost incredibly there is no bed shown here in which-she is said to have slept), and a Prayer Book (288) tra- ditionally believed to have belonged to Archbishop Laud. The display of furniture is splendid and extensive, among the most attractive pieces being two magnificent Charles II cabinets lacquered in the Chinese manner (29 and 31), and several early eighteenth-century chairs and settees upholstered in contemporary needlework. The tapestries are, on the whole, dull, the best piece being perhaps a panel of Soho tapestry (286), with a good design of grotesques but poor colouring. In the sculpture section there is a Parthian bas-relief (1231), with two finely-decorative winged beasts. The highest general level is attained by the exhibits in the pottery and porcelain section. Among the Chinese pieces is a case full of admirable porcelain animals (1009) mostly the familiar Dogs of Fo, but including also an exquisite figure of a deer in a curious matt vish porcelain. There is also a group of unusually good Chinese armorial powe- lain of the eighteenth century (1070). Italian wares are repre- sented by two of the rare fern-leaf jars of the early fifteenth century (1147 and 1148) and a lovely Faenza plate (1154) of the Three Graces, painted mainly in an attractive dull blue with the usual rich yellow in the ground and border. Of the Hispano Moresque dishes the best is one in blue and copper lustre with an immense eagle sprawling over it, regardless of ridges and changes of plane (1145). There is a quantity of respectable eighteenth-century European porcelain figures, both English and German, all of which are made to look rather silly by a brilliant Nymphenburg figure of a ballad singer (830) modelled by Bustelli, which, apart from its technical merits, has a poise and a humour lacking even in the Meissen pieceS immediately surrounding it.
The Tercentenary Exhibition of Sir Christopher Wren could certainly have no more appropriate scene than the Galleries of St. Paul's, though from the point of view of convenience they are not ideal. The exhibition centres round the great model of Wren's second scheme for the cathedral which has not been much seen since its recent restoration. This is a magnificent work and gives a good idea of what Wren might have made of St. Paul's had he been given a free hand. Otherwise the exhibi- tion is disappointing. There are too many documents which are mostly so obscure that they can only interest an expert, and too many objects whose only importance is that they belonged to Wren or to his- friends. There are one or two architectural drawings and plans, but the history of the building of St. Paul's itself is represented only by half a dozen photographs of the various schemes, and these are hung almost on the floor.
ANTRONY BLUNT.
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