The Louvre: Fifty Plates in ColourBrockwell, Maurice W.
History
The Louvre: Fifty Plates in Colour
Brockwell, Maurice W.
Musée du Louvre
The _Madonna and Child, with St. Catherine (? St. Agnes), and St. John
the Baptist as a Child_ (No. 1579), which has been enlarged by the
addition of a strip of canvas down the left side, contains a glimpse of
the country near Pieve di Cadore, the native place of Titian. Fourteen
of the twenty pictures here officially credited to him are to be
regarded as authentic. Polidoro Lanzani (1515?-1565), an imitator of
Titian, however, painted the _Holy Family with St. John the Baptist_
(No. 1580), and the _Holy Family and Saints_ (No. 1596) in the La Caze
Room; while Andrea Meldolla (Schiavone), who was a pupil of Titian,
no doubt executed the _Ecce Homo_ (No. 1582) credited to the great
Venetian artist, as well as the _St. John the Baptist_ (No. 1524) which
is rightly assigned to him.
The German painter Johan Stephan von Calcar, who to Italian biographers
is known as Giovanni Calcar (1499-1546), was a pupil of Titian. He
painted the imposing _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1185). He is seen at
half length standing, and holding a letter in his right hand; his left
hand to his waist. On a column in the background is painted the coat
of arms, reputed to be that of the Buono family of Venice, which is
repeated on the bezel of the ring on the forefinger of his left hand.
Below his right hand is the inscription:
ANNO 1540
ÆTATIS 26.
Paris Bordone (1500-1570), who “painted women with more of an eye on
the fashion-plate than on the expression of their features,” is not
the author of a _Portrait of a Lady_ (No. 1180A), nor of the _Portrait
of a Man and a Child_ (No. 1180), which seems to be a Flemish rather
than a Venetian picture. His _Vertumnus and Pomona_ (No. 1178) is less
representative than his _Portrait_ (so called) _of Jeronimo Croft_ (No.
1179). It takes its title from the inscription, “_Spss. Domino Jeronimo
Crofft ... Magior suo semper obsero ... Augusta_,” which is written on
the letter held in the right hand.
The last dying echo of the “fire” and poetry of Giorgione is seen in
some of the works of Bonifazio Veronese (1487-1553), who was also a
pupil of Palma. Bonifazio is now regarded as a single individual,
although formerly the varying differences in his style of painting
led certain critics to regard him as three different members of the
same family. The varied grouping seen in the large canvas entitled
_Holy Family, with St. Francis, St. Anthony, St. Mary Magdalene, St.
Elizabeth, and St. John the Baptist_ (No. 1171), and the colouring
of this canvas, seem to prove its authenticity. The smaller picture
of a _Holy Family_ (No. 1172), with a similar pedigree and a Greek
inscription, which includes the same saints, is a mediocre work. The
_Madonna and Child, with St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, St. Paul,
and St. Ursula_ (No. 1674D) is a poor picture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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