The Burlington magazine

by Unknown

TWO ITALIAN BAS-RELIEFS IN THE LOUVRE

THE two bas-reliefs reproduced were not only known but also celebrated before they came to the Louvre. The first, a bust and profile, represents a juvenile figure, almost feminine, clothed in shining armour, wearing a helmet decorated with a surprising dash and fantasy, round which may be read this unexpected and rather unusual inscription: ‘P. Scipioni.’ It is not known under what circumstances this was acquired by M. Paul Rattier, an amateur of Paris. On his death he bequeathed it to the Louvre with reserve of usufruct on behalf of his brother. The latter has just died, and the museum thus enters into absolute possession of the legacy. In the various exhibitions where this bas-relief has been displayed it has not failed, as may be imagined, to attract the attention and excite the curiosity of students and critics. As it recalls by the expression of the face a great number of Leonardo’s figures and, in the decoration of the armour and the helmet, motives frequent in the work of the master, notably the celebrated warrior in the Malcolm collection, we think firstly and very naturally of Leonardo da Vinci. We know, too, that he was a sculptor as well as a painter; he himself says expressly in his treatise on painting that, having practised the two arts with equal care, he has a good foundation for pronouncing on the difficulties of both. But we know of no authentic sculpture from his hand which could serve as a starting-point or as a means of comparison for the purpose of making a decisive attribution. Is the St. John the Baptist in the South Kensington Museum, which came from the Gigli Campana collection, really from his hand? No one can prove it. And of the busts of children and women which, according to Vasari, he executed in clay (‘Facendo nella sua giovanezza di terra alcune teste di femine che ridono, che vanno formate per l’ arte di gesso, e parimente teste di putti che parevano usciti di mano d’ un maestro’), none have come down to us. ¶ Bode, who was the first to pronounce the name of Leonardo in connexion with the Scipio of the Rattier collection, proposed, afterwards, that of his master Verrochio. The reasons which prompted him are as follows: Vasari has told us that Verrochio had made ‘due teste di metallo; una d’Alessandro Magno in profilo; l’ altro d’ un Dario, a suo capriccio, pur di mezzo rilievo, e ciascuno da per se, variando l’ un dall’ altro ne cimieri, nell armadura od in ogni cosa; le quali amendue furono mandate dal magnifico Lorenzo vecchio de’ Medici al re Mattia Corvino in Ungharia, con molte altre cose....’ Why should not the Scipio belong to the same series? The ornamentation of the helmet, the design of the streamers which decorate it, especially the modelling of the mouth, do they not recall other works of Verrochio, and notably the execution of the mouth of his David? These arguments, no matter on what authority we have them, are not decisive. Courajod, Muntz, Muller-Walde, and the latest historian of Verrochio, M. Mackowsky, incline rather towards maintaining the name of Leonardo da Vinci or of his school. All that can be said with certainty is, that the sculptor who turned out this brilliant piece of work must have been a very skilful decorative artist, and that he was evidently inspired by the achievements and the spirit of the master. But it would be very rash to assert that the hand of Leonardo himself worked this marble.

ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS; VENETIAN SCHOOL; FROM THE LEUCHTENBERG COLLECTION

ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS, VENETIAN SCHOOL; IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY

BAS-RELIEF; SCHOOL OF LEONARDO DA VINCI; RECENTLY ADDED TO THE LOUVRE

BAS-RELIEF BY AGOSTINO DI DUCCIO; RECENTLY ADDED TO THE LOUVRE

If There does not seem any possibility for doubt or difference of opinion with regard to the attribution of the other bas-relief which, only a few days after the arrival of the Scipio, was acquired by the museum. To him who has seen the interior decoration of the temple of Rimini, the front of San Bernardino at Perugia, and the Madonna of the Opera di Duomo at Florence, the name of Agostino di Duccio invincibly presents itself. This bas-relief was found framed, over an altar, in the wall of a little church in the department of the Oise, a dependent of the commune of Neuilly-sous-Clermont. This rural church was originally the chapel belonging to the chateau of Auvillers, which belongs to the family of Bonnières-de-Wierre. One of the general officers of Bonaparte’s army was a member of this family, and brought this precious bas-relief home with him (the archives of the family might possibly reveal to us the place and the circumstances under which he found it), and he placed it in the chapel belonging to the chateau. It was thence that the Louvre, with the consent of the members of the family of Bonnières and of the commune, acquired it. A former lamented head of the department of Mediaeval and Renaissance Sculpture, Louis Courajod, published, in 1892, in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, an account of this charming piece of sculpture, and, to put it out of the reach of any attempts that might be made by collectors or merchants, he had it placed on the list of historical monuments. Events have proved that this was not an unnecessary precaution; however, the admission of this bas-relief into the Louvre puts a stop to all competition.

ANDRÉ MICHEL.