A Handbook to the Paintings by Ancient Masters in the Art Treasures Exhibition (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857. Excerpt: ... colours only; that is, with those only which have been mixed with more or less white paint. The majority of the Velasquez portraits are painted in this solid manner; the Nicholas Maes picture (057 and 658) are fair examples of it, and most of the works of Nicholas Poussin, especially "the Triumph of Bacchus" (598), are painted in solid colours, or, as the technical phrase is, impasto. To return to the Venetian school when at its full glory, we can find no grander or more characteristic instance of the special powers of Titian than the Europa (259), from the Orleans gallery. In this the colours are nearly all laid on according to the process already described, but a very carefully-modelled ground-work was first laid on in the more solid colours. The distant rocks and groups of distracted nymphs are dashed in with the most extraordinary vigour. This picture is fortunately so placed as to present the minutest details of execution to the inspection of the student, and to afford also an excellent general effect viewed across the room. The " Casette" of Titian (277), the painter's daughter holding up a casket on a dish, with both hands, is also an admirable piece of drawing and colouring; it is from the Orleans collection, and has been contributed by Lord De Grey. The sketch for the "Rape of Proserpine" (262), is by Lambert Suster, not Titian; but it is an admirable specimen of the processes of the Venetian school. The finished sketch for the "Gloria" (279), seemingly on paper, is full of interest, both artistically and historically. It seems to have been the identical picture which was held up to Charles V. in his dying moments, at the monastery of St. Juste. This sketch was for a certain period lost, and discovered about the year 1808, in a gambling-house at ...