Chamber of Horrors
in old Fairmount Park, which the Park Commissioners persist in styling an Art Gallery, have been bred up to a proper appreciation of the “pageant which rose like an exhalation” before our admiring eyes; upon others, especially foreigners, the effect must have been tremendous.
It is not our intention to criticize the pictures separately, or to draw invidious comparisons between the work of our own and other artists. Courtesy to our late visitors forbids it; and besides, the national peace must be preserved at any cost. We must admit, however, that it struck us that a number of the paintings might have been improved by a liberal paring at the nails from which they were suspended. Some of the Italian sketches looked to us as though they had been painted with raspberry jam. The chiara oscura effect, so to speak, was visibly heightened by the tone of the sombre shades, and the clever intermixture of the mediæval style with the ante-Raphaelite touches—the extreme fulness of the light and motion, and the mellowness of tint, produced, as it were, in the minds of connoisseurs like ourselves, the comparison which we have made.
Artists, like fishes, go in schools. Masters, pupils, janitors, scrapers out, and pot boilers. They were all well represented, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, French, and American schools making the most extensive report. We will mention a few of the biggest paintings in the handsomest frames.
“MURILLO AND RUBENS—
PAINTING AND GLAZING.”Mr. Murillo, a Spanish painter and glazier, sent—in addition to his famous “Madonna”—“The Parable of the Seven fat and Seven lean Cows.” This was a six-foot-square job. The seven fats were done in oil—the leans in water-colors.
Rubens was represented by a magnificent head of “Vasco De Gama;”—his feet were too large to frame. The likeness was excellent. Even a stranger, unacquainted with Mr. De Gama, could have recognized it at once—by the name in the corner.
A fine painting of Marat, executed by Miss Corday, was the biggest little gem in the French collection.
France also sent some sacred paintings, among them “St. Anthony’s Temptation” and “St. Vitus’ Dance.” Great Britain also had two sacred companion pieces—“Christ before the Priest” and “Christ after the Priest.”
In the American Department, a superb work entitled “The Salary,” appealed most directly to our feelings. It could not have been drawn with more ease by a Vandyke or Paganini.
“Wm. Penn treating the Indians” occupied a prominent corner.