1309. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.
Bernardino Licinio (Venetian: painted 1524-1541).
The above are the earliest and latest dates on his pictures. He was a native of Pordenone, in Friuli; a pupil and relative of the better known painter who is called after that place. There are two pictures by Bernardino at Hampton Court—"A Lady playing on the virginals," of rich though muddy colouring; and "A Family Group" (dated 1524)—monotonous in composition, but brilliant in colour (see Mary Logan's Guide, p. 25). He also painted altar-pieces, among which one in the Frari at Venice is the best.
A young man with feminine features. His black gown, lined with gray fur, is left open at the chest and discloses a gold chain and pendant. On the stone plinth whereon he leans is an inscription, "Stephanus Nani. abavro XVII. MDXXVIII·Lycinivs. P."
1310. "ECCE HOMO!"
Cima da Conegliano (Venetian: 1460-1518). See 300.
This picture was sold as a Carlo Dolci; but the attribution was an obvious absurdity. There is no resemblance whatever between the affected sentimentality of Dolci and the sincere pathos of this picture. Its deep and rich colouring also is very different from Dolci's. Sir Frederick Burton labelled his trouvaille "Giovanni Bellini." But its attribution to Cima is now accepted. "This type of Christ," says Mr. Claude Phillips, "of a perfect, manly beauty, of a divine meekness tempering majesty, dates back not to Gian Bellino but to Cima. The preferred type of the elder master is more passionate, more human. Our own Incredulity of St. Thomas, by Cima, shows in a much more perfunctory fashion a Christ similarly conceived" (The Earlier Work of Titian, p. 31 n.). To the same effect a writer in the Academy (July 26, 1890) says: "The modelling—not precise or searching enough for Giambellino—resembles that of his gifted pupil, the parted lips being one of his especial characteristics, as may be noted in his great 'Incredulity of St Thomas' (816). The treatment of the heavy wig-like masses of the hair, with its fine lines, is very similar to that of the Saviour's parted locks in the larger work, while a certain want of flexibility in the muscles of the face is also a distinguishing mark of the master. More striking still is the coincidence that from the head of Christ issue in both instances single rays, disposed in three distinct and separate fasciculi—an arrangement not found, as far as we are aware, in the works of Giovanni Bellini, and never common in Italian art. The peculiarly brilliant blue of the drapery is paralleled by that of the little 'St. Jerome' from the Hamilton Palace Collection, and approached by that of the 'Virgin and Child'—both these panels being sufficiently representative examples of Cima. Comparison has in these remarks been restricted to works in the National Gallery, as being most readily available for purposes of verification. The influence of Antonello—from whom Bellini himself borrowed so much—is, in the new acquisition, undeniable, and may account for a virility and an intensity of pathos not often reached even in the better productions of the sympathetic Bellinesque painter to whom we would attribute it."
1311. A WINTER SCENE.
Jan Beerestraaten (Dutch: 1622-1687).
This painter was the son of a cooper of Amsterdam. He travelled much in Holland, staying in all the towns he visited, and copying their monuments, squares, and thoroughfares, and leaving everywhere on his route a great number of sketches and pictures. He painted Italian views also, but these pictures may have been founded on local sketches by other Dutch artists. "His manner of painting was vigorous; delicate finish and precision of touch were less his aim than freedom of handling combined with broad contrasts of tone, where the colour, of a subdued richness, shows brilliancy and often loses itself in harmonies of gray" (Official Catalogue, and Havard's Dutch School, p. 239).