It seems an odd turn in the kaleidoscope of Fortune that associates a
Prime Minister of the Sandwich Islands--where the only pictorial Art
is a kind of illumination laboriously executed by the natives on each
other's skins, thus forming a free peripatetic gallery--with a
collection of pictures by early Italian masters. It is certainly a
striking illustration of American multifariousness. From the dawning
civilization of Hawaii Mr. Jarves withdraws to Italy, where culture
has passed far beyond its noon, and finds himself equally at home in
both. From Italy he has returned to America with by far the most
important contribution to historical Art that has ever reached us. It
is not easy to overestimate its value, whether intrinsically, or as an
aid to intelligent and refining study. We can hardly expect, it is
true, ever to form such collections of Art in this country as would
save our students the necessity of visiting Europe. This, indeed,
would be hardly desirable; since a great deal of the refining and
enlightening influence of foreign travel and observation is not
received directly from the special objects that may have drawn us
abroad, but incidentally and unexpectedly, by being brought into
contact with strange systems of government and new forms of thought.
But what we might have is such a collection as would enable those of
us who cannot travel to enjoy some of the highest aesthetic advantages
of travel, and would send our students to the galleries of the Old
World already in a condition to appreciate and profit by them. Mr.
Jarves's pictures afford the opportunity for an excellent beginning in
such an undertaking.
Mr. Jarves's object has been to form a gallery that should exhibit the
origin, progress, and culmination of Italian Art from the thirteenth
to the seventeenth century, in such chronological order as should show
the sequence and affiliation of the various schools and the various
motive and inspiration that were operative in them. To quote his own
language, Mr. Jarves began his undertaking with no "expectation of
acquiring masterpieces, or many, if any, of those specimens upon which
the reputation of the great masters is based. These are in the main
either fixtures in their native localities or permanently absorbed
into the great galleries of Europe; and America may scarcely hope ever
to possess such. He did propose, however, to get together a collection
which should _fairly_ represent the varied qualities of the masters
themselves, and the phases of inspiration, religious, aesthetic, or
naturalistic, by which they were actuated. And he claims now to have
succeeded in this to an extent which in the outset he did not dare to
hope, and to have secured for the collection the approving verdict of
European taste and connoisseurship in the recognition of it as a
_valuable historical gallery of original paintings of the epochs and
schools they claim to represent_.
"In putting forward this claim, he does it in full view of the
character of the criticism and doubts such an assumption naturally
begets. The public are right in doubting; and they should not be
convinced except upon sound evidence. Therefore, while he
unhesitatingly claims for the collection the foregoing character, he
expects and invites from the public the fullest measure of impartial
and intelligent criticism.
"The object of the collection is a nucleus for an American Gallery, to
be established in the most fitting place and upon a broad basis,
sufficient to gratify and improve every variety of taste and to
advance the aesthetic culture of the people.
"With this aim, he has declined repeated overtures pecuniarily
advantageous to divert it in whole or part to other purposes; and in
bringing it to America at his own risk and expense, it is solely to
test the disposition of the public to second such a project. If it
meet their approbation, the means best adapted for the purpose are to
be maturely considered; but if otherwise, it is his intention to
return the gallery to Europe.
"It is a simple question, whether, after having had the opportunity of
becoming acquainted with the collection and his object in making it,
the American public will sustain perfect this humble beginning of a
Public Gallery of Art, or abandon the formation of one to future
chances, when the difficulties will be much greater and the
opportunities for success much fewer. It must be considered, that, at
this moment, while genuine works of Art are growing more and more
difficult to be procured, the rivalry of public and private collectors
is rapidly increasing. It is true that the existing great galleries
come into the market only for pictures specially wanted to fill some
important gap in their series, for which they pay prices that would
startle our public economists. America will have to undergo the
competition, even if she now enters this field, of several important
foreign galleries in the process of formation, among which are those
of Manchester, with a subscribed capital, _as a beginning_, of
£100,000; of the Association of St. Petersburg, for the same purpose,
under the patronage of the Imperial Family; and of one even in
Australia."
Mr. Jarves's collection is not confined by any means to what may be
called the _curiosities_ of Art. It contains one hundred and
twenty-five pictures; and, rich as it is in works that mark the
successive stages of development in Italian painting, it possesses
also specimens of its later and most perfect productions. Examples of
the pure Byzantine bring us to those of the Greco-Italian school, and
these to the early Italian, represented (in its Umbrian branch) by
Cimabue, by Giotto and his followers, the Gaddi, Cavallini, Giottino,
Orgagna, and others; while of the Sienese we have Duccio, Simone di
Martino, and Lorenzetti, with more of less note. Of the Ascetics we
have, among others, Frà Angelico, Castagno, and Giovanni di Paolo. The
Realists are ushered in by Masolino, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, and go
on in an unbroken series through Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and
Cosimo Roselli, to Domenico Ghirlandajo, Leonardo, Raffaello, and a
design of Michel Angelo, painted by one of his pupils. Nor does the
succession end here; Andrea del Sarto, R. Ghirlandajo, Vasari,
Bronzino, Pontormo, and others, follow. Of the Religionists, there are
Lorenzo di Credi, Frà Bartolommeo, Perugino, and their scholars. The
progress of landscape, history, and anatomical drawing may be traced
in Paolo Uccello, Dello Delli, Piero di Cosimo, Pinturicchio, the
Pollajuoli, and Luca Signorelli. Here also is Gentile da Fabriano.
Venice gives us G. Bellini, M. Basaiti, Giorgione, and Paul Veronese.
And of the later Sienese, there are Sodoma, Matteo da Siena, and
Beccafumi. The list includes, also, Domenichino, Sebastian del Piombo,
Guido, Salvator Rosa, Holbein, Rubens, and Lo Spagna.
The names we have cited will be enough to show those familiar with the
subject the scope of the collection and its value as a consecutive
series, embracing a period which few galleries in any country cover so
completely, since few have been gathered on any historical plan.
The chief question, of course, is as to the authenticity of the
pictures. This cannot be decided till they are exhibited and Mr.
Jarves's proofs are before the public. It is mainly to be decided on
internal evidence, and it is on such evidence that a great part of the
very early pictures in foreign collections have been labelled with the
names of particular artists. The weight of such evidence is to be
determined by the judgment of experts, and we are informed that Mr.
Jarves has a mass of testimony from those best qualified to decide in
such cases,--among it that of Sir Charles Eastlake, M. Rio, and the
directors of the two great public galleries of Florence. After all,
however, this appears to us a matter of secondary consequence. If the
pictures are genuine productions of the periods they are intended to
illustrate, if they are good specimens of their several schools of
Art, the special names of the artists who may have painted them are a
matter of less concern. The money-value of the collection might be
lessened without affecting its worth in other more considerable
respects, as an illustration of the rise and progress of the most
important school of modern Art.
Every year it becomes more difficult to obtain pictures of the class
of which Mr. Jarves's collection is mainly composed. The directors of
European galleries have become alive to their value, and are sparing
no effort to fill the _lacuna_ left by the more strictly _virtuoso_
taste of a former generation. As far as the general public is
concerned, such pictures must, no doubt, create the taste by which
they will be appreciated. The style of the more archaic ones among
them may be easily ridiculed, and the cry of Pre-Raphaelitism may be
turned against them; but we should not forget that these earlier
efforts, however they might fail in grace of treatment and ease of
expression, are sincere and genuine products of their time, and very
different in spirit and character from the productions of the modern
school, which aims to reproduce a phase of Art when the thought and
faith that animated it are gone past recall.
Mr. Jarves is desirous that the gallery should remain in his native
city of Boston, and to that end is willing to part with it on very
generous terms. We cannot but hope that there will be taste and public
spirit enough to realize his design. By the side of the Museum of
Natural History under the charge of Agassiz, we should like to see one
of Art that would supply another great want in our culture. The Jarves
Collection gives the opportunity for a most successful beginning, and
we trust it will not be allowed to follow the Ninevite Marbles.
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