Bernardino Luini

MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY . . T. LEMAN HARE
BERNARDINO LUINI
In the Same Series
PLATE I.—MADONNA AND CHILD. Frontispiece
(In the Wallace Collection)
This is another admirably painted study of the artist’s favourite subject. The attitude of the child is most engaging, the painting of the limbs is full of skill, and the background adds considerably to the picture’s attractions. It will be noted that Luini appears to have employed the same model for most of his studies of the Madonna.
LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.


In the beginning of the long and fascinating history of Italian Art we see that the spirit of the Renaissance first fluttered over the minds of men much as the spirit of life is said have moved over the face of the waters before the first chapter of creation’s marvellous story was written. Beginnings were small, progress was slow, and the lives of the great artists moved very unevenly to their appointed end.
There were some who rose to fame and fortune during their life, and then died so completely that no biography can hope to rouse any interest in their work among succeeding generations.
There were others who worked in silence and without réclame of any sort, content with the respect and esteem of those with whom they came into immediate contact, indifferent to the plaudits of the crowd or the noisy praises of those who are not qualified to judge. True servants of the western world’s religion, they translated work into terms of moral life, and moral life into terms of work. Merit like truth will out, and when time has sifted good work from bad and spurious reputations from genuine ones, many men who fluttered the dovecotes of their own generation disappear from sight altogether; some others who wrought unseen, never striving to gain the popular ear or eye, rise on a sudden to heights that might have made them giddy had they lived to be conscious of their own elevation. They were lowly, but their fame inherits the earth.