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.
GREAT VENETIANS
Bellini was as famous for his pupils as for his work, he having been the master, or the influencer, of almost all the great Venetians. Giorgione (Jor-jo´-nee) and Titian were his direct pupils, and the difference between the portrait of the “Doge Loredano” and the portrait of “Ariosto” by Titian is the difference between master and pupil. Both portraits are reproduced herewith in photogravure, and the student has a good opportunity to compare them. Bellini belonged to the Early and Titian to the High Renaissance, and, in a measure, the portraits emphasize a difference in time, though they may have been painted in the same year. Bellini lived to be old—lived into the High Renaissance—and must have painted this portrait after 1501, when Loredano became Doge; Titian was young, and probably painted the “Ariosto” about 1508; but the style of the one is early, the style of the other late. The “Doge” has great dignity, but with it rigidity of poise, sharpness of line, paucity of light and shade, thinness of color. It is emphatic rather than insinuating, and a little awkward in its positive truth. The “Ariosto,” on the contrary, is superb in its easy graceful poise, its inherent nobility of look, its perfect repose. The workmanship of it is infallibly right in its composition, its full light and shade, and its gamut of greys, browns and flesh colors. Compare the drawings of the robes for the difference between the men, and other differences will make themselves manifest. Both portraits are excellent, but they are by no means alike in point of view or method.
A YOUNG LADY AT A SPINET
By Jan Vermeer
