A Wanderer in FlorenceLucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
History
A Wanderer in Florence
Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
Art -- Italy -- Florence; Florence (Italy) -- Description and travel
The second Sala di Botticelli has not the value of the first. It
has magnificent examples of Botticelli's sacred work, but the other
pictures are not the equal of those in the other rooms. Chief of the
Botticellis is No. 85, "The Virgin and Child with divers Saints," in
which there are certain annoying and restless elements. One feels that
in the accessories--the flooring, the curtains, and gilt--the painter
was wasting his time, while the Child is too big. Botticelli was seldom
too happy with his babies. But the face of the Saint in green and blue
on the left is most exquisitely painted, and the Virgin has rather less
troubled beauty than usual. The whole effect is not quite spiritual,
and the symbolism of the nails and the crown of thorns held up for
the Child to see is rather too cruel and obvious. I like better the
smaller picture with the same title--No. 88--in which the Saints at
each side are wholly beautiful in Botticelli's wistful way, and the
painting of their heads and head-dresses is so perfect as to fill
one with a kind of despair. But taken altogether one must consider
Botticelli's triumph in the Accademia to be pagan rather than sacred.
No. 8, called officially School of Verrocchio, and by one firm of
photographers Botticini, and by another Botticelli, is a fine free
thing, low in colour, with a quiet landscape, and is altogether a
delight. It represents Tobias and the three angels, and Raphael moves
nobly, although not with quite such a step as the radiant figure in a
somewhat similar picture in our own National Gallery--No. 781--which,
once confidently given to Verrocchio, is now attributed to Botticini;
while our No. 296, which the visitor from Florence on returning to
London should hasten to examine, is no longer Verrocchio but School
of Verrocchio. When we think of these attributions and then look at
No. 154 in the Accademia--another Tobias and the Angel, here given
to Botticini--we have a concrete object lesson in the perilous career
that awaits the art expert,
The other pictures here are two sunny panels by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio,
high up, with nice easy colouring; No. 92, an Adoration of the
Shepherds by Lorenzo di Credi, with a good landscape and all very
sweet and quiet; No. 98, a Deposition by Filippino Lippi and Perugino,
in collaboration, with very few signs of Filippino; and No. 90,
a Resurrection by Raffaellino del Garbo, an uncommon painter in
Florence; the whole thing a tour de force, but not important.
And now let us look at the Angelicos again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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