File:Studies in pictures; an introduction to the famous galleries (1907) (14796228883).jpg

Identifier: studiesinpicture00vand (find matches)
Title: Studies in pictures; an introduction to the famous galleries
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Van Dyke, John Charles, 1856-1932
Subjects: Painting -- Study and teaching Painting
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons

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ago. Do you wonder, then, that theyperhaps blink a little under the strong sky-lights ofthe Louvre, or look somewhat dull and mournfulpushed into the little pocket cabinets of the Brera? The famous pictures of the Pitti are seen only bythe light of side windows, and in consequence manya one has never been seen properly. The manage-ment of the gallery has done its best to obviate thediiliculty by having the larger pictures hung onhinges so that they may be swung in or out to catchthe light from the windows; but nothing seems tochange the directness of the light—its want of diffu-sion. It is hopelessly bad for gallery purposes. Thatportrait of the so-called Young Englishman—supposed to be the Duko of Xorfolk—()*Iate 2C>), byTitian, is without doubt one of his finest canvases,and as noble a portrait as ever painter produced;but it cannot he seen to advantage in its room in thePitti. Pocontly it has been placed upon an easel andpushed into a window recess where the light is even
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Ill,—TITIAN, La Bella (Duchess of Urbino). Pitti, Florence. OLD MASTERS OUT OF PLACE 11 more disastrous than bclorc. This is equally trueof Titians La Bella (Plate 3), of the splendidaltarpicces by Andrea del Sarto, the great canvasesby Fra Bartolommeo and Perugino, and many asmaller work by Eaphael that hangs there. The Sistine Madonna at Dresden is anotherillustration to the point. It was executed, as youknow, for the church of San Sisto in Piacenza andpainted to be seen by the dim light falling upon thehigh altar. Perhaps for that very reason it was laidin with rather high, primary tones of color that itmight be seen clearly from all parts of the church.It is now in a small room of the Dresden Gallerywhere it is seen only by the glaring light from aside window; and people standing within ten feetof it wonder that the color is not more subtle, aswith Whistler, and the brush work more like thehandling of Velasquez and Manet! Even artists ofhigh rank in our own day, being quite unab

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