The next acquisitions were a number of paintings collected by M. Reiset, who had already, as we have seen above, passed on his drawings to the indefatigable Duke. The price paid for these was 600,000 francs, and they include no less than twenty-five pictures of the Italian School, amongst which we may mention the following: a small panel representing the Death of the Virgin, attributed to Giotto (unfortunately much repainted); The Coronation of the Virgin, by Giovanni del Ponte di San Stefano; an allegorical figure representing Autumn, attributed to Botticelli[23]; an Annunciation by Francia and a Holy Family by Jacopo Palma; several Luinis and two small Filippo Lippis; and an exquisite little Madonna holding the Infant Christ by Bissolo. The Marriage of St. Francis of Assisi to Poverty, by Sassetta (formerly assigned to his pupil Sano di Pietro) is one of the most attractive works by this master. It once formed part of an altarpiece at S. Severino, long since broken up and dispersed. Several smaller panels from the same altarpiece are to be found in the Chalendon Collection in Paris, and one belongs to M. le Comte Martel; whilst the central portion is in the possession of Mr. B. Berenson.[24]
In the painting at Chantilly Sassetta may be seen at the height of his imaginative power.[25] An atmosphere of religious calm breathes over the landscape from which the three figures of Chastity, Humility and Poverty are floating upwards; the latter turning to wave a last friendly greeting to the Saint whom they are leaving on earth. It is full of the naïve sentiment for which this artist is so conspicuous.
Another interesting painting which belonged to the Reiset Collection is the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, formerly assigned to Pollaiuolo, but attributed by Dr. G. Frizzoni to Piero di Cosimo. Simonetta was a young Genoese lady renowned for her beauty, who came to Florence as the wife of a Cattini. Poliziano wrote sonnets upon her charms, and Giuliano dei Medici fell madly in love with her. Among the numerous likenesses of her by Botticelli and others, in the National Gallery, at Berlin, and elsewhere, this one in the Musée Condé seems to be the most lifelike. Reiset bought this portrait in 1841 from the last member of the Vespucci family.
Attention may here be drawn to a fine sea-piece by Everdingen, the master of Ruysdael; to two small portraits of a Husband and Wife of the Van Eyck School; and to a Procession attributed to Dierick Bouts—all excellent examples of the Dutch School.
An extremely interesting picture, now known to be of French origin, came also from the Reiset Gallery, namely, The Virgin as Protector of the Human Race[26]—a work executed in 1452 by Charonton and Vilatte for Jean Cadard and his wife, and of special importance in the history of French painting.
Plate XXIII.
