GLORY OF ITALY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 19

GLORY OF ITALY.

THE "MUSIC" OF PICTURES. TJNBJVALLED COLLECTION. EXHIBIT AT BURLINGTON HOUSE: (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 31. What is this glamour that surrounds the art of Italy? The unprecedented attendance yesterday when the 10,000 members^—or a very large number of them-came .and besieged Burlington House is but a portent of what will happen throughout, the nextthree months, during which the exhibition Italian pictures will be open. And it makes us ask, Why? Even counting out those- who, sheeplike, follow a lead, there must be members who feel their strong attraction. . There must be a something m them a glamour to which people react. I find, some explanation -given by one of the greater critics thaft they can described sis "musical' art. _ He says: "Without going into an elaborate discussion of what is. meant by formal beauty' it can be said that the qualities in a work of visual art which persist, m space—that is to say, at a distance at which the subject of the work becomes unrecognisable—are the most likely persist in time; and it is only necessary to stand in the middle of any of the rooms at the Royal Academy to understand why Italian painting has remained our standard for the art. Without taking in the subject of any of the pictures a person of ordinary sensibility would still carry away a visual impression cornpaiable to that received through the ear at a concert of music; and, at a first visit, the best way to regard the exhibition is as a glorious musical enter^m- ' Apart from the spiritual aspect of this exhibition, in what respect is this exhibition" unique? There may be better examples of -the different schools of Italian painting to be seen elsewhere, but there never has been so representative of the glory of Italy as thu and the committee deserve congratulations, especially Lady Chamberlain, Sn Robe-t Witt and Mr. W. G. Constable; and Mr. Roger Fry and the secretary Jlajor Lohgden; and notably the Com-missioner-General for Italy, the 3 rea jC'ommendatore Modigliam. Major Lono-den is well known in New Zealand for he was in the _ Dominion for the Christchurch Exhibition. Ancient .Ban Removed. There are reasons why no such catholh —in its proper sense of all-embracing-y exhibition, has ever been seen in, thi; country before. Untilßecently theßntisl Government has refused to lend u. national art treasures abroad, am foreign countries have done the one good thing the recent : Royal Coin mission did was to .remove the embargo hence not only Italy, which has provide. 50 per cent of the pictures, but al* American public galleries and collectors, in Austna, Belgium, Denmail, Germany, Holland, Sweden and amon; the British Dominions, the Irish iie State are . represented. The exhibits serves to underline a lesson wiinj. w want badly, the realisation that here . "Fno-land in spite of the dram made b S America,? buyer,, there renmn some treasure, for nearly oiie f-hp. Tiirtures were lent by EnghbU ownei. There aJe three Royal exhibitors oi ratler, lenders of who hass sent some of hto BncfanJba Palace treasures, and tlle * Vl | th Sweden; while, ot course, some of th Italian ones are Royal should be an increased u e e o our o« picture galleries when it is realised tha there, too, one can see examples

finest Italian art. But to the art student the assembling of this truly great codec- < tion is an event of a life time. Assuredly j many' have strained their resources to i buy a season ticket so that they may crain by intensive study here in London i what would cost the time and expense of much-travel all over Italy. In such a wealth of beauty what can one single out? Undoubtedly the "Birth : ol Venus," by Botticelli, is tie centre of attraction. Placed in the position of honour* —on the wall usually devoted to Royal portraits—it is visible at the end of a long vista through two other galleries and the central hall. "Low' did— 11 must say it —rat&er a low thing in using this picture as a basis for a cartoon, for now everybody is doing it, and even advertisements are being made ot the picture. Such is fame. - But even such things cannot detract from the delightful picture. I have not been to Florence, and therefore had never seen the picture. The reproductions of it- are, however, to be seen the world over, and I felt that I had_ expected something deeper ill tone than 3 to be on the west: wall of Gallery HI. But that effect of paleness, I learn, is no result of fading in the colours, but is the effect of the dark red wall on which it is hung. The red has drained the Venus of some of its colour. One of the newer art critics _ays. "Perhaps Botticelli shines out. the. most triumphantly, and all the more so because in his case there was rather a nee for'rehabilitation. .Since Pater s overfervid praise, one had associated him. ' with a decadent kind of elegance and found something .too cloying m Jus sweetness. But at Burlington House he emerges a master of line and of clear bold execution.", - "The Birth of Venus' m lesser hands would have been loose and empty. Botticelli has made it a superb exercise in spatial content. The delightful _ ec *" ding Feast" and "Calumny" might so easilv have been crowded and disorderly; with" Botticelli their composition seems somehow inevitable, each figure and gesture slipping at once into its place. An above all there is a sense of mystery about his work, which gives it an attraction lacking in the clearer statements of. manv of his peers. Michael Angelo is the one great master of whom there are only a few examples, nnd of these all except the marble fisurs "David" are drawings. This beautiful figure is companioned in the Central Hall ! bv two other Davids—Donatello's and "Verrochio's. r Giorgone, Raphael, Titian. Giorgone, whom one critic call 3 "the ' rarest °of supreme masters," is repre- ' sented by "The Tempest." _ There are but I two other works of his shown—the ! "Trial of Moses," from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, is probably known to some New Zealanders, and his "Portrait of a : Man," lent by Budapest. . One could go on unendingly. There «? 3. Fra Angelico's perfect 1 There are Raphael's "Head of an Angel," i his Esterhazy "Madonna," and his large 1 "Altar Piece" from A""ona, the latter t largely known to stuf-nts through reproductions. although the work, lfroeli is ' not normally 'accessible to the >üblic. i There is Titian's "La Bella" (Pitti Gal--3 lery, Florence), his "Venetian Family" 0 which was lent by the National Gallery : ' here hi* "D : nna and Actaeon," lent bv ? the Earl of Harewood, and his "Portrait 1 of an Englishman," from the Pitti Pale acp. Florence. The Venetian school, which had a pas--7 sion for landscape, is well represented— s Canaetto's work among them His f "Grand Canal Venicem, with the House ■ of the English Consul" is well known as •' a reproduction, but there is also a_Lonr don scene which to me wa? surprising. n since he is so identified with Venicef "Whitehall from Richmond House, lent e bv the Duke of Eichmond and Gordon— e a" scene strange to us although one or n two familiar points are to be seen, sucto tlas the spire of St. Martin'? Church bee fere Trafalgar Square^xisted.

Impossible to single out more from a :ollection in which the third rate would rank anywhere else as first rate. Suffice :t to say that here we have a collection in which figures a crucifixion which was ione when Giotto was born and Ciinabue was a young man,, down .to example? of !ast century. Of other nations one can iissert that two or three painters represented their art at its highest. But of Italian art one cannot do this. Gianta appear down through the years.