Paris: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Paris: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Guidebooks
539. _Murillo._ The Immaculate Conception. Luminous and pretty, in an
affected showy Spanish manner. Foreshadows the modern religious art of
the people. An immense favourite with the inartistic public.
=**=121. _Gerard Dou._ The Dropsical Woman. A triumph of Dutch painting
of light and shade and detail. Faces like miniatures. The lamp and
curtain like nature. Illuminated on the darkest day. Examine it
attentively.
293. _Metsu._ Officer and Lady. Another masterpiece of Dutch minuteness,
but far less fine in execution.
526. _Ter Borch._ Similar subject treated with coarse directness.
=**=551. _Velasquez._ The Infanta Marguerite—a famous portrait.
A little above it (229), _Sebastiano del Piombo_. Visitation. Compare
with the Ghirlandajo in the Salle des Primitifs. A very favourable
example of this Venetian master, painted in rivalry with Raphael. It
well exhibits the height often attained, even by minor masters, at the
culminating point of the Renaissance.
Above, occupying a large part of the wall, =*=_Paolo Veronese_. Christ
and the Magdalen, at the supper in the house of Levi. Another refectory
picture, treated in Veronese’s large and brilliant manner, essentially
as a scene of lordly Venetian life. The Pharisee facing Christ is a fine
figure. Notice the intrusion of animals and casual spectators, habitual
with this artist. The sense of air and space is fine. The whole picture
is instinct with Venetian feeling of the period; scenic, not sacred. A
lordly treatment. Earlier painters set their scene in smaller buildings:
the Venetians of this gorgeous age chose rather the Piazza of some
mighty Renaissance Italian city. Here, the architecture recalls the
style of Sansovino.
This room also contains many good works of the 17th century, justly
skied. Examine them by contrast with the paintings of the best ages of
art beneath them. Return to them later, after you have examined the
works of the French artists in later rooms of this Gallery.
Now proceed into the
Long Gallery
which contains in its =First Compartment= works of the High Renaissance
masters, transitional from the conventionality of the 15th, to the
freedom of the 16th, and the theatrical tendency of the 17th centuries.
Begin on the L, and follow that wall as far as the =first archway=.
_Francia._ Crucifixion, with Madonna and St. John, and Job extended at
the feet of the cross, probably indicating a votive plague offering. A
tolerable example of the great Bolognese painter, from the church of San
Giobbe, patriarch and plague-saint, at Bologna.
_Ansuino_(?) Adoration of the Magi. Note coincidences with others.
308. _Francia._ Madonna. A fair example.
168. _Dosso._ St. Jerome in the Desert. Interesting as showing a later
treatment of this familiar subject.
230. _Luini._ Holy Family. A good specimen of Luini’s easel work.
Compare with the frescoes in the Salle Duchâtel. The hair is
characteristic, also the oval face and cast of features.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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