A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
History
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
National Gallery (Great Britain); Painting -- England -- London -- Catalogs
makes the pathos of the expiatory sacrifice of Calvary turn upon this
consideration. This is the strictly Renaissance point of view" (J. E.
Hodgson, R.A., in _Magazine of Art_, 1886, p. 215).
The original picture has a legend attached to it. "Correggio," says
Lomazzo, "was accustomed always to value his works at a very low price,
and having on one occasion to pay a bill of four or five _scudi_ to an
apothecary in his native city, he painted him 'Christ Praying in the
Garden,' which he executed with all possible care." The picture was
sold shortly afterwards for 500 _scudi_. It was subsequently in the
royal collection at Madrid, and after the battle of Vittoria it was
found in Joseph Bonaparte's carriage by one of Wellington's colonels.
Wellington hastened to restore it to Ferdinand VII., who, not to be
outdone in courtesy, presented it to the duke. The picture in our
Gallery was part of the Angerstein collection.
77. THE STONING OF ST. STEPHEN.
_Domenichino_ (Eclectic-Bologna: 1581-1641). _See_ 48.
78.[90] LANDSCAPE WITH RUINS.
_Nicolas Berchem_ (Dutch: 1620-1683).
Nicolas Pietersz, son of Pieter Claesz, a painter, called
himself Berchem, by which name he is entered in the town
records of Haarlem, and by which he signed his pictures. He
married the daughter of his master, Jan Wils (No. 1007). In
1642 he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke at Haarlem.
No authentic information exists about his visiting Italy,
but that he had travelled in that country is clear from the
views represented in his pictures, and from the character
of his landscapes generally. His style resembles that of
another Dutch "Italianiser," Jan Both (No. 71), and there
seems to have been some rivalry between the two men. It is
related that a burgomaster of Dordrecht, Van der Hulk by
name, commissioned a picture from each painter, promising an
additional premium to the one whose work should be thought
the better. On the completion Of the pictures, the patron
declared that the admirable works had deprived him of the
capability of preference, and that both were entitled to the
premium. The picture painted on this occasion by Berchem is the
"Halt of Huntsmen," now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg.
Berchem's landscapes are taken, says Dr. Richter, "from the
mountainous countries of Italy, and the types and costumes of
the figures therein represented are also entirely Italian,
though not copied direct from nature. He probably painted
most of his Italian landscapes in Holland. What characterises
him principally is a brilliant and easy touch, with which
he renders nature with more art than exactitude. He is more
ingenious in his conceptions than profound or true." The
mannerism and monotony of his works accord with what is told
of his life. In 1665, when at the height of his reputation, he
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