SPANISH AND GERMAN PICTURES
The National Gallery is not by any means complete in its representations of the Spanish painters, though it has a number of excellent pictures. By Velasquez one bust portrait alone, that of Philip, is worth a day’s journey to see. There probably never was a more perfect presentation. It not only shows the physical but the moral and mental in the sitter in a most convincing way. There are several full-length portraits here ascribed to Velasquez, but they are not entirely by his hand. The “Christ Bound to the Column” is a great picture and the Rokeby “Venus” is another masterpiece; but neither of them can be attributed with certainty to Velasquez. He was the master-painter of Spain, and Murillo, with his “Holy Family” and “St. John and the Lamb” looks very weak and sentimental beside him. Ribalta who preceded Velasquez, and Goya, who came long after him, were painters in the Velasquez tradition if they were not of his class.
The German pictures in the gallery are quite as limited as the Spanish with only one masterpiece of commanding importance. The large “Ambassadors” by Holbein is not that one, it being a rather commonplace affair for all its vastness; but the “Portrait of Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan,” makes amends for it. Here Holbein is at his simplest and his noblest. The lady is dressed in black velvet and silk with fur edgings, and is shown against a blue background. She stands there looking at us with a faint attempt at a smile, with her beautiful hands crossed in front of her. This is one of the ladies that Henry VIII wished to marry. He had this portrait of her painted by Holbein, but did not succeed in marrying her. The portrait is a wonder of good drawing and good taste. There is nothing of value by Dürer in the German collection, and the only other notable picture there is a portrait of a young girl by Lucidel.
HEAD OF A GIRL, LOOKING UP
By Jean Baptiste Greuze
PORTRAIT OF MRS. SIDDONS
By Sir Thomas Lawrence
THE PARSON’S DAUGHTER
By George Romney