“ The weak lines of the boneless fingers with their rounded ends, the long thin noses imperfectly articulated with the mask, and the want of life and character in the figures, betray the facile exponent of a stock formula which made but small demands upon the artist’s observation or his feeling for reality. It was, indeed, due to the cleverness and, if we are to believe Vasari, the commercial astuteness of the Gaddi family that Giotto’s style was crystallized into so lifeless a system of design. But Agnolo, though he inherited too much from his father, was more of an artist. ”

“ The finest Dutch landscape painters have always painted in a minor key; whenever they seek to modulate into the major they lose themselves and become commonplace. This applies equally to Rüysdael and to Jacob Maris; doubtless it is an expression of the national temperament of the Dutchman. Generally upon emerging from a contemplation of the old men into a modern artistic environment a feeling of repulsion creeps over one, but this is not the case here. Rüysdael and Rembrandt seem strangely in harmony with Maris and Mauve, and in this fact may be found a plea for the endurance of the latter. ”

“ It is inconceivable, it is astonishing and unbelievable, that the art of the nineteenth century, the art of illustration, has been so neglected that the original drawings, though they have been always with us, have never yet been properly prized, appreciated, catalogued and collected. I know that old drawings are collected, but the collector’s interest in them to a great extent dates only from yesterday, and even now their price does not equal that of prints from them, of which there may be dozens, or, in fact, nobody knows how many examples in existence. ”

“ Even in its present damaged state, the analogies which it offers to that painting are so apparent that it is more than surprising some passing critic, or even some local art-historian, has not long ago given it back to its true painter, striking and important picture as it is. The similarities between the two Madonnas seem hardly to require comment. The same clearly-outlined figure, the same sedate pose, the same dark mantle with its golden border and broad and simple folds, the same head, eyes, nose, and mouth, the same hands—to dwell longer on these points would be merely to waste words. ”

“ In charm of expression and unaffected grace of pose this portrait is a truly delightful production. An interesting fact concerning it is that it is one of the few portraits by Reynolds painted on a panel; the artist, who, as is well known, was for ever making new experiments in the mediums he employed, selected on this occasion an old Japanese panel, and the reverse of the picture is to this day decorated with a still-life in bold relief, brilliant in colouring and of no mean artistic merit. ”

“ EVERY man of taste will congratulate himself that England is the seat and the refuge of the arts; and that so many genuine remains of ancient sculpture are present in our cabinets.’ So wrote James Dallaway at the beginning of last century, and, although some may think that the arts have now somewhat altered their habits, there is no doubt that this country still remains pre-eminent in the wealth of its private collections of Greek antiquities. If proof were needed, this admirable little collection would afford it. ”

“ Neither does a Portrait of a Lady worthily display the magic and refined art of Terborch, for the painting is careful even to timidity. Better by far is the Portrait of a Young Woman, which, in spite of an unequal tussle with the restorer, still presents some of his most charming qualities. Both the head and hands are in his best manner, and the black dress with its semi-transparent frills is full of such delicate painting as characterizes The Portrait of a Gentleman in the National Gallery. ¶ A most interesting panel, A Lady at a Harpsichord, is ascribed to Palamedes. ”

“ Possibly a replica of the famous picture in the Chamberlayne collection, but also more probably the work of a contemporary copyist, is the Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante, a subject rendered familiar by numerous engravings, notably Bartolozzi’s beautiful colour-print. No doubt whatever is possible in the case of The Little Archer, the figure of a boy lying full length in a landscape; here the methods of Sir Joshua are palpably imitated, but the poor drawing and the ugly obtrusiveness of the boy’s white stockings preclude any possibility of the master having in any way contributed to its painting. ”

“ Even in Florence itself it would be hard to find an altarpiece in which the religious sentiment of the time is expressed in more imposing forms, or in which the decoration is more sumptuous and the execution more refined. It is, moreover, in wonderful preservation, and the pale flat tints of pure heliotrope, dull scarlet and blue, and white flushed with pink, relieved upon a background of elaborately stamped gold, produce an effect of brilliance and variety toned to a perfect harmony which the artists of Florence rarely surpassed. ”

“ The high-waisted figure; the stiff, upright, almost rigid, position; the line of the shoulders and the knees; the peculiar poise of the head; the straight-falling folds of the drapery and the line of the mantle as it catches the arm in its downward flow: all are points which find their counterpart in the works of Vanni, and in those of no other painter. Here, also, we have the same simple, strongly-marked outlines, the same dark field of colour relieved, pattern-like and comparatively flat, against the lighter background. ”

“ Jean Louis Tocqué was already abundantly represented at the Louvre, but chiefly by those official portraits of artist-academicians, of princes and princesses, which made his fortune, which sent him as far abroad as Sweden, Russia and Denmark, but which perhaps charm us less to-day than do those simple and discreet figures which make the society of the eighteenth century itself live once more before our eyes. ”

“ Ricci nowhere loses his sense of proportion, nowhere unduly exalts the subject of his work, and the resulting impression of his long book is to place Pintoricchio in a just relation to the artists of his time: attractive, sweet, agreeable, ‘exuberant and instinctively elegant,’ but almost never entering into rivalry with any master who possessed, in however small a degree, any of the specifically artistic qualities. His treatment, indeed, of Pintoricchio’s greatest work, the frescoes of the cathedral library of Siena, scarcely does justice to the real artistic merits of the decorative scheme. ”

“ The evil has been increased by the insane rule now in force, that the trustees of the National Gallery must be unanimous before any picture is purchased—a rule which, as anyone with sense would have foreseen, has led to an absolute deadlock. Within the last few weeks, for instance, the chance of purchasing a superb work of Frans Hals at a very moderate price has been lost to the nation, simply because one of the trustees of the National Gallery refuses to agree to any purchase that does not suit his own preference for art of what may be called the glorified chocolate-box type. ”

“ If in the Flemish picture there is a certain note of contrast brought out by the sombre dress and the costly jewels, in Titian’s picture these ornaments blend with the costly draperies, glowing in the richest colours which robe the empress here. More important still is the fact that the antithesis is toned down thereby, and something of life comes into the pale face by reason of the warm red robe, while in the other it has a cold and lifeless tone, intensified by the dead black garment. ”

“ It is the Hals that we not only admire but also love, the wonder of the cultured art-loving public, and—may we add it?—the despair of the modern portrait painter. Such brushwork has only been equalled, we shall not say surpassed, by a few masters, of whom Velasquez stands out prominently. When, however, we turn to Van Goyen and his Wife and Child, we have another instance of more than doubtful attribution. The landscape is probably by Van Goyen, for it has many of his characteristics of tree draughtsmanship and sober colour. ”

“ The drapery of Andrea’s Virgin is severely simple—there is a remarkable economy of line and fold, reminding us in this rather of Ambrogio Lorenzetti than of Simone. Her stiff, upright pose, again, has none of the tender grace of Simone’s Madonnas and saints, and is more akin to that of Ambrogio’s statelier figures. In facial type Andrea’s Virgin is, however, distinctly his own. The large rounded cranium, the narrow eyes and small half-covered iris, the delicately drawn mouth, the firm but not obtrusive chin, go to make up a set of features not easily forgotten. ”

“ They both present large views of nature, very peaceful and very simple, banks of wide and sluggish rivers such as the first generation of the Dutch seventeenth-century landscape men loved to depict. The museum at Rotterdam possesses a picture by this same van Ruysdael; and we know that his contemporary, Jan van Goyen, who was his rival rather than his master, also took a special delight in painting the environs of that city on the banks of the Maas, with its great sheet of water spread calmly and majestically under the sky laden with grey or copper-coloured clouds. ”

“ Light clouds float over the blue sky and betoken weather fair but fickle. ¶ When one turns from these two kindred spirits to their brother Matthew Maris one is struck by the contrast. For Matthew lifts us at once from things earthly into a spiritual atmosphere; everything that he touches he envelops in mysticism and poetry. Yet perhaps his work is more difficult of appreciation; he appeals to a more exclusive circle. Yet what magic contour of line, what exquisite rhythm, what consummate balance of composition, we find in it. ”

“ Croce, he depicts a stirring narrative, his line, at other times mechanical and slow, becomes alert and expressive of at least the more obvious dramatic effects, while at all times he shows a refined taste and originality as a decorator in the more limited sense of the word. Judged as an imaginative rendering of a supreme event, this picture is certainly cold and inadequate, but as a piece of elaborate decoration it is charmingly designed and brilliantly executed. The brocade hanging, which reminds one of Orcagna’s school, is painted with the utmost skill ”

“ It is impossible to speak with any degree of certainty, but as the Spanish inventories always speak of one portrait only we may assume that the latter hypothesis is the more likely to be correct. ¶ While the double portrait has been lost, the picture of the empress has found a place in that incomparable collection of Titian’s works which the Prado gallery in Madrid comprises. It is one of Titian’s most important works; perhaps, indeed, it takes the first place among his portraits of women. Never is his taste more exquisite than here. Its courtly splendour strikes one as a matter of course. ”

“ But I also know that, within the last hundred years, drawings, illustrations, have been made in England and America that will rank with any, ever made anywhere, in any age, and that these works of art are absolutely ignored. And they are ignored simply because they have not been collected, because in this country the British museum cannot purchase the work of living British artists, and often it is during the lifetime of the artist only that they can be secured, because in France there is no place to exhibit drawings save in a corner of the Luxembourg ”

“ When all is said and done, Greek art will always serve as an admirable corrective—within its limits of course, for painting is obviously excluded—and that is at least some comfort in these impressionist days, when new creeds lie about like leaves in Vallombrosa. ¶ I overheard one day a visitor to this exhibition angrily resenting the suggestion that Greek art at its best could be compared for a moment with the master works of the middle ages. ”

“ The sunlit road with its strongly painted trees conveys an admirable idea of summer heat and foliage, in which the artist boldly achieves his aim without any aid but his own sheer force. Such a work shows powers which are never brought into full play when he attempts to see with other eyes. Apart from landscape there is but little of interest in the exhibition. An exception, however, must be made in favour of the fine canvas by Christopher Bisschop, Prayer Disturbed (29) , which is a strong and powerful piece of painting, and also intensely sympathetic in realization. ”

“ Hope is the least successful panel of the series. Clad in dull green draperies with a brown scarf flowing from her shoulders, she stands in a somewhat awkward position, her hands uplifted and her face averted towards the light which pours upon her through the clouds. Charity can, on the contrary, rank with the finest of Sir Joshua’s pictures; his model in this instance was Mrs. Sheridan, the lovely wife of the author of ‘School for Scandal,’ who had also sat to him for the figure of the Virgin in the Nativity. ”

“ In not a few instances the ancient furniture thus preserved, the objects of art and especially the pictures, the latter usually grouped round a nucleus of family portraits of successive periods, would rival many a public collection for the perfection of the examples, their artistic and monetary worth, and even their actual number. The more therefore is it to be regretted that they are so rarely accessible to the artist, the student, the public at large. ”

“ It has long been my conviction, as it has been that of no less an authority on Sienese painting than Mr. Berenson before me, that this picture is a work of Andrea Vanni. I am quite well aware of the surprise which this sudden attribution will cause to many, as I am also of the difficulties in proving my point with the limited and unsatisfactory aid which photographs afford. In an article supported only by photographic reproductions, that most important of all arguments, quality, and, as in this case, the hardly less convincing one of colour, must in great part be laid aside. ”