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
This room also contains a nice little open decorative scene--like a
sketch for a fresco--of the Death of Lucrezia, No. 388, attributed
to the School of Botticelli, and above it a good Royal Academy Andrea
del Sarto.
The next is the best of these small rooms--the Sala of
Prometheus--where on Sundays most people spend their time in
astonishment over the inlaid tables, but where Tuscan art also is
very beautiful. The most famous picture is, I suppose, the circular
Filippino Lippi, No. 343, but although the lively background is
very entertaining and the Virgin most wonderfully painted, the Child
is a serious blemish. The next favourite, if not the first, is the
Perugino on the easel--No. 219--one of his loveliest small pictures,
with an evening glow among the Apennines such as no other painter
could capture. Other fine works here are the Fra Bartolommeo, No. 256,
over the door, a Holy Family, very pretty and characteristic, and his
"Ecce Homo," next it; the adorable circular Botticini (as the catalogue
calls it, although the photographers waver between Botticelli and
Filippino Lippi), No. 347, with its myriad roses and children with
their little folded hands and the Mother and Child diffusing happy
sweetness, which, if only it were a little less painty, would be one
of the chief magnets of the gallery.
Hereabout are many Botticelli school pictures, chief of these the
curious girl, called foolishly "La Bella Simonetta," which Mr. Berenson
attributes to that unknown disciple of Botticelli to whom he has given
the charming name of Amico di Sandro. This study in browns, yellow,
and grey always has its public. Other popular Botticelli derivatives
are Nos. 348 and 357. Look also at the sly and curious woman (No. 102),
near the window, by Ubertini, a new artist here; and the pretty Jacopo
del Sellaio, No. 364; a finely drawn S. Sebastian by Pollaiuolo;
the Holy Family by Jacopo di Boateri, No. 362, with very pleasant
colouring; No. 140, the "Incognita," which people used to think was
by Leonardo--for some reason difficult to understand except on the
principle of making the wish father to the thought--and is now given
to Bugiardini; and lastly a rich and comely example of Lombardy art,
No. 299.
From this room we will enter first the Corridio delle Colonne where
Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici's miniature portraits are hung, all
remarkable and some superb, but unfortunately not named, together
with a few larger works, all very interesting. That Young Goldsmith,
No. 207, which used to be given to Leonardo but is now Ridolfo
Ghirlandaio's, is here; a Franciabigio, No. 43; a questioned Raphael,
No. 44; a fine and sensitive head of one of the Gonzaga family by
Mantegna, No. 375; the coarse head of Giovanni Bentivoglio by da
Costa, No. 376; and a Pollaiuolo, No. 370, S. Jerome, whose fine rapt
countenance is beautifully drawn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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