"The work in question is now so generally accessible, through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter."
Having within no very distant period spent an hour or two in examining the original, with copies lying close at hand for the purposes of comparison, allow me to offer you a few impressions of which, while fresh, I "made a note" in an interleaved copy of Bishop Burnet's curious Tour in Italy, which served me as a journal while abroad. Burnet mentions the Dominican Convent at Milan as in his day "very rich." My note is as follows:
"The Dominican convent is now suppressed. It is a cavalry barracks: dragoons have displaced Dominicans. There is a fine cupola to the church, the work of Bramante: in the salle or refectory of this convent was discovered, since Burnet's time, under a coat of wash or plaster, the celebrated fresco of Lionardo da Vinci, now so well known to the world by plates and copies, better finished than the original ever was, in all probability; certainly better than it is now, after abuse, neglect, damp, and, worst of all, restoring, have done their joint work upon it. A visit to this fresco disenchants one wonderfully. It is better to be satisfied with the fine engravings, and let the original live in its ideal excellence. The copyists have taken some liberties, of which these strike me as the chief:
"First, The Saviour's head is put more on one side, in what I would call a more languishing position than its actual one.
"Second, the expression of the figure seated at his left hand is quite changed. In the copies it is a grave, serious, fine face: in the original, though now indistinct, it evidently expressed 'open-mouthed horror' at the declaration, 'One of you shall betray me.'
"Third, Judas in all copies is identified not only by the held bag of money, but by the overturned saltcellar at his elbow. This last is not in the original.
"The whole fresco, though now as well kept as may be, seems spoiling fast. There is a Crucifixion at the other end of the same hall, in much better preservation, though of the same date; and the doorway which the tasteful Dominicans cut in the wall, through the bottom of the painting, is, though blocked up, still quite visible. It is but too probable that the monks valued the absurd and hideous frescoes in the cloisters outside, representing Saint Dominic's miracles! and the Virgin fishing souls out of purgatory with a rosary, beyond Lionardo's great work."
So far my original note, written without supposing that the received idea, as to the subject of the picture, had ever been questioned. In reference to the question raised, however, I will briefly say, that, as recollection serves me, it would require a well-sustained criticism to convince me that the two disciples at the Saviour's right hand were not designed to express the point of action described in the 23rd and 24th verses of chapter xiii. of St. John's Gospel. Possibly Mr. Smirke might favour us with the argument of his MSS. on the group.
A. B. R.
Belmont.
FONT INSCRIPTIONS.
(Vol. vii., p. 408.)
I have in my note-book the following entries:—