ITALIAN MASTERPIECES
Beyond doubt the Italian pictures here are the most important, both in quality and in quantity. No gallery in Europe quite equals that of London in its Renaissance masterpieces. And its Pre-Renaissance pictures are not to be despised. Of their kind nothing could be finer than the altar-piece by Orcagna (or-can´-ya) and the panels of Duccio (doo´-cho) or Monaco; but they are not carried so far, or so effectively, as the works of the later men—the “Doge Loredano” by Bellini, for example. Bellini is not the final word in art, but how perfect of its kind is this portrait of the Doge (doje) with its serene poise and supreme dignity! How devoid of anything like ostentation or display! And how direct it is in the revelation of the stern old warrior, who, when Doge of Venice, did not hesitate to wage war against France, Germany, and the Papacy—all three together. There are a number of attractive Madonnas by Bellini in the gallery, and an “Agony in the Garden” with a famous landscape at the back; but none of them quite comes up to the Doge in force or conviction of reality.
THE ANNUNCIATION
By Carlo Crivelli
In the same vein, but with less nobility and more detail, is the “Portrait of a Young Man” by Antonello da Messina and the “Young Venetian” by Basaiti—(ba-sa-ee´-tee) both contemporaries of Bellini in Venice. They were not his equals, however. Basaiti was his follower, as was also Catena, who is represented here by a large “Warrior Adoring the Infant Christ”—a notable picture for Catena. Among the early Venetians in the gallery Crivelli makes a distinct impression. There are half a dozen altarpieces by him, and one hesitates to say which is the best, so very perfect in workmanship are all of them. The “Annunciation” is perhaps the type, and for pure decorative charm few pictures go beyond it. The architecture of it, the rugs, curtains, bedspread, costumes, even the peacock and the children, are all put in for color effect and to carry out the scheme of making the picture beautiful to look at, as well as interesting in story. It fairly reeks with color. Crivelli’s pictures are the most brilliant and the best preserved in surface of any of the early Venetian works; and, oddly enough, they are all painted, not in oil, but in distemper—the medium used before the introduction of oil. It was the Antonello da Messina mentioned above who is credited with bringing oil-painting to Venice about 1470, but Crivelli declined to use it.