always looks immediately when he thinks of discovering this artist. All
these little tricks of the artist, and many more of the same kind, the
art tourist soon learns, much to his own comfort.
And then he progresses to a kind of knowledge which comes somewhat
nearer to art criticism, but which does not yet amount to the exercise
of any judgment on his own part. He learns to perceive the peculiar
manner of certain artists who painted peculiarly; and though by the
knowledge he so attains he may be led into error,--as when he takes
a Lancret for a Watteau,--still the error is never disgracefully
erroneous. He knows at once the girl by Greuze, with her naked shoulder
and her head on one side; he knows at once the old woman by Denner,
the little wrinkles on whose face, as he looks at them through his
magnifying glass, seem to be so very soft. The unnatural sunshine of
Claude he knows, and the natural sunshine of Cuyp. The blotches of
Rembrandt and the smoothness of Carlo Dolci are to him as A, B, C. The
romantic rocks and trees of Salvator Rosa do not certainly represent
nature,--to which they bear no resemblance,--but to him they represent
Salvator Rosa very adequately. The pietistic purity of Fra Angelico
strikes him forcibly, and the stiff grace of Perugino; though, when he
advances as far as this, he is somewhat prone to make mistakes. And he
learns to note the strong rough work of the brush of Paul Veronese,
and the beautiful blue hills of Titian's backgrounds. He distinguishes
between the graceful dignity of a Venetian nobleman and the manly
bearing of a Florentine citizen; and he recognizes the spears of
Paolo Uccello, who painted battles; and the beards of Taddeo Gaddi,
who painted saints; and the long-visaged virgins with fair hair, by
Sandro Botticelli. And he will gradually come to perceive how those
long-visaged, fair-haired virgins grew out of the first attempts at
female dignity by Cimabue, and how they progressed into the unnatural
grace of Raphael, and then descended into the meretricious inanities of
which Raphael's power and Raphael's falseness were the forerunners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account