From a Copley Print
SAINT CATHERINE
Mary L. Macomber
"One feels, on looking at the Madonnas, Annunciation, or any of Miss Macomber's pictures,... that she must have lived with and in her subject. Delicate coloring harmonizes with refined, spiritual conceptions.... Her most generally liked picture is her 'Madonna.' All the figures wear a sweet, solemn sadness, illumined by immortal faith and love."—Art Interchange, April, 1899.
Magliani, Francesca. Born at Palermo in 1845, and studied painting there under a private teacher. Going later to Florence she was a pupil of Bedussi and of Gordigiani. Her early work consisted of copies from the Italian and other masters, and these were so well done that she soon began to receive orders, especially for portraits, from well-known people. Among them were G. Baccelli—the Minister of Public Instruction—King Humbert, and Queen Margherita, the latter arousing much interest when exhibited in Florence. Portraits of her mother, and of her husband, who was the Minister of Finance, were also recognized as admirable examples of portraiture. "Modesty and Vanity" is one of her genre pictures.
Mangilla, Ada. Gold medal at Ferrara for a "Bacchante," which is now in the Gallery there; gold medal at Beatrice, in Florence, 1890, for the "Three Marys." Born in Florence in 1863. Pupil of Cassioli. One of her early works was a design for two mosaic figures in the left door of the Cathedral in Florence, representing Bonifazio Lupi and Piero di Luca Borsi; this was exhibited in 1879, and was received with favor by the public.
This artist has had much success with Pompeian subjects, such as "A Pompeian Lady at Her Toilet," and "A Pompeian Flower-Seller." She catches with great accuracy the characteristics of the Pompeian type; and this facility, added to the brilliancy of her color and the spirit and sympathy of her treatment, has given these pictures a vogue. Two of them were sold in Holland. "Floralia" was sold in Venice. To an exhibition of Italian artists in London, in 1889, she contributed "The Young Agrippa," which was sold to Thomas Walker. Her grace and fancy appear in the drawings which she finds time to make for "Florentia," and in such pictures as "The Rose Harvest."
This highly accomplished woman, who has musical and literary talent, is the wife of Count Francessetti di Mersenile.
Mankiewicz, Henriette. Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. A series of her mural decorations was exhibited in various German cities, and finally shown at the Paris Exposition of 1890(?), where they excited such applause that the above honor was accorded her. These decorations are in the form of panels, in which water, in its varying natural aspects, supplies the subordinate features, while the fundamental motive is vegetation of every description. The artist has evidently felt the influence of Markart in Vienna, and some of her conceptions remind one of H. von Preusschen. Her technique is a combination of embroidery, painting, and applications on silk. Whether this combination of methods is desirable is another question, but as a means of decoration it is highly effective.
At an exhibition of paintings by women of Saxony, held in Dresden under the patronage of Queen Carola in the fall of 1892, this artist exhibited another decorative panel, done in the same manner, which seems to have been a great disappointment to those who had heard wonderful accounts of the earlier cycle of panels. It was too full of large-leaved flowers, and the latter were too brilliant to serve as a foreground to the Alhambra scenes, which were used as the chief motive.