=*=419 and =**=417. Two admirable portraits by _Rembrandt_.
=**=250. _Mantegna._ Crucifixion, predella or base of the great picture
in San Zeno at Verona. Notice the admirable antique character of the
soldiers casting lots for Christ’s raiment. The rocks are very
Mantegnesque in treatment. One of the artist’s finest pictures. Spend
some time before it. We will return again to this fine painting.
381. _Andrea del Sarto._ Holy Family. Showing well the character of this
master’s tender and melting colour: also, the altered Renaissance
treatment of the subject.
Beyond the doorway, two dainty little _Memlings_. Marriage of St.
Catherine (the Alexandrian princess) to the Infant Christ; and, the
Donor with St. John Baptist and his lamb. When a saint places his hand
on a votary’s shoulder, it usually indicates the patron whose name the
votary bears.
Near it, graceful little St. Sebastian of the Umbrian school. Compare
with others. This plague-saint is one of the few to whom mediæval piety
permitted nudity.
=*=370. _Raphael._ The great St. Michael, painted for François I^{er}.
Admirable in its instantaneous dramatic action. This picture may be
taken, in its spirit and vigour, as marking the culminating point of the
Italian Renaissance as here represented.
Near it, _Titian_. The Man with the Glove: a fine portrait.
=**=19. _Correggio._ The Marriage of St. Catherine. This is a
characteristic treatment, by the great painter of Parma, of this
mystical subject. St. Catherine is treated as an Italian princess of his
own time, on whose finger the infant Christ playfully places a ring. The
action has absolutely no mystic solemnity. Behind, stands St. Sebastian,
with his arrows to mark him (without them you would not know him from a
classical figure), looking on with amused attention. His smile is
lovely. In the background, episodes of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian,
proving this to be probably a plague picture. But the whole work, though
admirable as art, has in it nothing of religion, and may be aptly
compared as to tone with the Education of Cupid by the same artist in
the National Gallery. Nothing could surpass the beauty of the light and
shade, and the exquisite colouring. Study it as a type of the last word
of the humanist Renaissance against mediæval spirituality. Compare it
with the Memling close by: and, if you have been at Milan, with the
exquisitely dainty Luini in the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum.
Above it, a Holy Family by _Murillo_. Spanish and theatrical.
The greater part of this wall is taken up by an enormous canvas (95), by
_Paolo Veronese_, representing the Marriage at Cana of Galilee, from the
refectory (or dining-hall) of San Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. Pictures
of this subject, or of the Last Supper, or of the Feast in the House of
Levi, were constantly placed as appropriate decorations to fill the end
wall of monastic refectories (like the famous Leonardo at Milan), and
were often therefore gigantic in size. This monstrous and very effective
composition (proudly pointed out by the guides as “the largest
oil-painting in the world”) contains nothing of sacred, and merely
reflects with admirable skill the lordly character of the Italian
Renaissance. In the centre of the table, one barely notices the figures
of the Christ and the Madonna. Attention is distracted both from them
and from the miracle of the wine by the splendid architecture of the
background, the loggias, the accessories, and the gorgeous guests, many
of them representing contemporary sovereigns (among them François
I^{er}, Eleanor of Austria, Charles V, and Sultan Soliman). The group of
musicians in the centre foreground is also composed of portraits—this
time of contemporary painters (Titian, Tintoretto, etc.). As a whole, a
most characteristic picture both of the painter and his epoch, worth
some study, and full of good detail.
=**=39. _Giorgione._ Pastoral scene, with nude figures. One of the few
undoubted pictures by this master, whose genuineness is admitted by
Morelli, though much repainted. Should be studied as an example of the
full flush of the Venetian Renaissance, and of the great master who so
deeply affected it. Notice the admirable painting of the nude, and the
fine landscape in the background. Contrast with the Bellinis in the
Salle des Primitifs, in order to mark time and show the advance in
technique and spirit. Giorgione set a fashion, followed later by Titian
and others. Compare this work with Titian’s Jupiter and Antiope in the
Long Gallery.
Above it (=*=427) _Rubens_. Adoration of the Magi. A splendid picture.
Interesting also as showing how far Rubens transformed the conceptions
of the earlier masters. Compare it with the Luini in the Salle Duchâtel,
and other Adorations in this gallery. Full of gorgeousness, dash, and
certainty of execution.
37. _Antonello da Messina._ Characteristic hard-faced portrait by this
excellent Sicilian artist.
=**=459. _Leonardo._ St. Anne and the Virgin. This great artist can be
better studied in the Louvre than anywhere else in the world. This
picture, not perhaps entirely by his own hand, is noticeable for the
beautiful and very Leonardesque face of St. Anne, the playful figure of
the infant Christ, and the admirable blue-toned landscape in the
background. The smiles are also thoroughly Leonardesque. Notice the
excellent drawing of the feet. The curious composition—the Virgin
sitting on St. Anne’s lap—is traditional. Two or three examples of it
occur in the National Gallery. Leonardo transformed it. He is the great
scientific artist of the Florentine Renaissance.
208. _Hans Holbein_, the younger. Admirable portrait of Erasmus. Full of
character. Note carefully. The hands alone are worth much study. How
soft they are, and how absolutely the hands of a scholar immersed in his
reading and writing.
108. _Clouet._ Elizabeth of Austria. A fine example of the early French
school, marking well its hard manner and literal accuracy. It shows the
style in vogue in Paris before the School of Fontainebleau (Italian
artists introduced by François I^{er}) had brought in Renaissance
methods.
=**=162. _Van Eyck._ Madonna and Child, with the Chancellor Rollin in
adoration. Perhaps Van Eyck’s masterpiece. Notice the comparatively
wooden Flemish Madonna and Child, contrasted with the indubitable
vitality and character in the face of the Chancellor. This picture is a
splendid example of the highest evolution of that type in which a votary
is exhibited adoring the Madonna—the primitive form of portrait: “paint
me in the corner, as giving the picture.” Every detail of this finished
work deserves long and close inspection. Notice the elaboration of the
ornaments, and the delicious glimpse of landscape through the arcade in
the background. Compare with the Memlings; also, with contemporary
Italian work in the Salle des Primitifs.
=**=362. _Raphael._ Madonna and Child, with infant St. John, known as
_La Belle Jardinière_. To the familiar group of the Madonna and Child,
Florentine painters and sculptors early added the infant Baptist, as
patron of their city, thus forming a graceful pyramidal composition.
This exquisite picture, by far the most beautiful Raphael in the Louvre,
belongs to the great painter’s Florentine period. It should be compared
with the very similar Madonna del Cardellino in the Uffizi at Florence.
For simplicity of treatment and beauty of colouring this seems to me the
loveliest of Raphael’s Madonnas, with the exception of the Granduca.
Look at it long, for colour, design, and tender feeling. Then go back to
the St. Michael, and see how, as Raphael gains in dramatic vigour, he
loses in charm.
407. _Rembrandt._ Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus. A fine study in
light and shade, and full of art, but not a sacred picture. Compare with
other pictures of the scene in this gallery. The feeling is merely
domestic.
433. _Rubens._ Tomyris, Queen of the Scythians, with the head of Cyrus.
A fine, vigorous painting, with the action frankly transferred to the
court of Henri IV. Dash and colour and all the Rubens attributes.