1472. "THE BEWITCHED."
Francisco Goya (Spanish: 1746-1828). See 1471.
A scene from a play ("El hechizado por fuerza"), showing a player on the stage, dressed as a padre in complete black, and in the act of pouring oil into a lamp which is held by an obsequious demon, while a team of ghostly and affrighted mules are rearing in the background. Goya, who has been called the Hogarth of Spain, specially delighted in satirising the clergy, whose enchantments and incantations he parodied, and whom he was fond of portraying in the form of asses or apes.
1473. PORTRAIT OF DOÑA ISABEL CORBO DE PORCEL.
Francisco Goya (Spanish: 1746-1828). See 1471.
"The lady was evidently a plump and rosy voluptuous woman, having large and liquid eyes with much dilated pupils, as well as coarse and full lips, and wearing her loose brown tresses about her eyes and ears, while a black mantilla fell from a lofty comb upon her shoulders. It is obvious—and this accounts for the lady's flushed carnations and glittering pupils, not frequent elements in Goya's work—that she prepared herself for sitting, not only by blacking her eyelids with kohl, but using belladonna to dilate her eyes, and rouge for her cheeks" (Athenæum, July 4, 1896). This portrait, says Sir Edward Poynter, "is perhaps as good an example as could be found of the brilliancy of execution and vivid portrayal of character which characterise Goya at his best."
1476. JUPITER AND SEMELE.
Andrea Schiavone (Venetian: 1522-1582).
Andrea Meldolla, called Il Schiavone (from his birthplace in Dalmatia, the country of the Slaves), was born of poor parents, and died, we are told, "after a life of much suffering as well as labour"—his works, by which the dealers enriched themselves, barely supplying him with the means of existence. He was employed at very small remuneration to paint the outside of houses and panels for furniture. It is said that he was rescued from obscurity by Titian. He was a good colourist, and had considerable imagination. "The colouring of Schiavone," says Zanetti, "was much admired by Tintoret, who kept a painting by that artist in his studio and advised others to do the same." Among the illustrious painters who followed Tintoret's advice was our own Lord Leighton, from whose collection the present picture was bought.
The picture illustrates the myth which told how Jupiter came to Semele, whom he loved, attended by clouds, lightning, and thunderbolts. This panel was doubtless painted, as described above, for some piece of furniture.