2106. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.
Benedetto Gennari (Bolognese: 1633-1715).
The artist was the nephew and scholar of Guercino. He came to England in 1674, and was for some time in the service of Charles II. and James II. "I once saw," says Lanzi, "a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, and the latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of hand.... Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in England, more polished and careful, and exemplified it more particularly in his portraits."
2107. HAGAR IN THE DESERT.
Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). See 84.
2118. MADONNA AND CHILD.
Giovanni Francesco da Rimini (Umbrian: dated 1406).
2127. PORTRAIT OF THE MARCHESE GIOVANNI BATTISTA CATTANEO.
Van Dyck (Flemish: 1599-1641). See 49.
It has been said in our notice of Van Dyck that many of his best works are to be seen in Genoa. Two of the portraits made during his "Genoese period" are now in our Gallery; having found their way to Paris and thence to England from the palace of the Marchese Cattaneo in Genoa, and having been bought by the Trustees from Messrs. Colnaghi. The price paid for the picture before us was £13,500. The portrait has not the pathetic charm of the "Gevartius" (52), to which it now forms a pendant; but in strength and vitality it is one of the painter's masterpieces. The Marchese lives before us, instinct with nervous energy; seeming, as has been well said, "at once to interrogate the spectator, and haughtily to repel interrogation."