The Louvre: Fifty Plates in ColourBrockwell, Maurice W.
History
The Louvre: Fifty Plates in Colour
Brockwell, Maurice W.
Musée du Louvre
In the Catalogue sixteen pictures are assigned to Paolo Veronese. The
_Portrait of a Lady and a Child playing with a Dog_ (No. 1199) is an
early work. The _Disciples at Emmaus_ (No. 1196), which is signed
“PAOLO VERONESE,” is another of the master’s imposing canvases, as
also is the _Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee_ (No. 1193),
which was presented to Louis XIV. by the Venetian Republic in 1665, and
was for many years hung at Versailles. This artist is also officially
credited with the _Burning of Sodom_ (No. 1187), a _Holy Family, with
St. George, St. Catherine, and a Male Donor_ (No. 1190), a _Holy
Family, with St. Elizabeth and St. Mary Magdalene, and a Female Donor_
(No. 1191), a _Christ heeding Peter’s Wife’s Mother_ (No. 1191A), a
_Christ fainting under the weight of the Cross_ (No. 1194), a _Calvary_
(No. 1195), and an _Esther fainting before Ahasuerus_ (No. 1189).
The _Susan and the Elders_ (No. 1188) is a replica of a picture in
the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. The _St. Mark crowning the
Theological Virtues_ (No. 1197), and the _Jupiter hurling Thunderbolts
on Criminals_ (No. 1198), were originally executed as ceiling paintings
for the Doge’s Palace. The _Christ with the Terrestrial Globe_ (No.
1200) and the _Portrait of a Lady in Black_ (No. 1201) are only studio
pictures.
Little artistic ability is shown in the empty abstractions, and
at times meaningless productions, of many of the late sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth century Venetian artists. Felice Riccio
(Il Brusasorci the Younger) (1540-1605) is given as the painter of a
_Holy Family_ (No. 1463); Alessandro Turchi (Orbetto) (1582-1648) of
three pictures (Nos. 1558-1560); Sebastiano Ricci (1659?-1734) of four
compositions (Nos. 1458-1461); Antonio Pellegrino (1675-1741) of an
_Allegory_ (No. 1413); Alessandro Varotari (1590-1650) of an utterly
uninspired _Venus and Cupid_ (No. 1574); and Pietro della Vecchia
(1605-1678) of a dull _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1576).
A century later than the stupendous achievements of Tintoretto and
Veronese the art of Venice had passed into decline, but a glimmer of
the genius that had found expression in the gorgeously decorative art
in Venice in the sixteenth century was yet to be reflected in the work
of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1692-1769). His _Last Supper_ (No. 1547)
was purchased for £400 in 1877, and his sketch for the _Triumph of
Religion_ (No. 1549A) for £1200 in 1903. By him also is the _Banner_
(No. 1549), depicting on the one side _St. Martin saying Mass_, and on
the other _The Madonna and Child_. An _Apparition of the Virgin to St.
Jerome_ (No. 1548) is one of the less striking pictures in the La Caze
collection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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