FEAST OF ART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1938, Page 12

FEAST OF ART.

LONDON EXHIBITION.

, 17 th century masters. 1000 PRICELESS PICTURES. (By NELLE M. SCANLAN.) LONDON. January 7. liile you enjoy sunshine out then and we are freezing, under grim, gre, skies, we at least Lave much to b thiinkfnl for in some directions. Climati cally, we may be far behind you, bu artistically, London is one of the great est centres or tlie world. So much is t be had for so little effort. Every winter, Burlington House better known as the Royal Academy stages a special exhibition of art. Tb summer show is for present-day Britisl [ artists, but the winter collection ii something apart. One year it wa Chinese art, another Persian, or Italiai | or French. This year the authoritie have gathered together the masterpiece of the 17th century, a century extremely | rich in art. I can recall, long years ago, one pic j ture, "The Light of the World,' bj ITolman Hunt, being brought to Nev Zealand and exhibited in most of tin towns. This was regarded as quite ai event, and crowds went to see this singli picture—a picture which, to-day, is no | regarded as having particular merit. I belongs to a period which has fallen fron favour. Imagine an exhibition, with over i thousand works of art. many of then almost priceless, crowded under one roof The trouble is there are really too man) major works to permit a full apprecia tion of them alltion of them all. The King lias lent over eighty pictures and other art treasures, which he has sent from Windsor Castle and Bucking ham Palace. These include a port rail of the artist by Rubens and a portrail of a lady by the same artist. Othei Rubens pictures were "St. George anc the Dragon" and "A Farm at Laekan,' both from Buckingham Palace. In all there were over forty paintings bj Rubens. Words Are Inadequate. It is impossible to describe these pictures; words are quite inadequate tc describe these centuries-old paintings and one has to see them to realise-then magic qualities. The dim. dark Rembrandts, the softness of the Mtirillos, the varying interpretation of the "Madonna and Child," a subject painted over and over again by the great artists of every nation. Each country and each period has its own particular standard of beauty, and how different are the Dutch Italian, Flemish, and French in their ideal. I can only make those of you whe love such things envious of the richness that is spread - before us here for the small sum of 1/6 at the door. For months past, a famous old expert, ■ who has spent his life packing and transporting the most priceless works oi | art, has been on the job, often travelling the lonely roads of England at night! with his van filled with paintings worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Manv of them are very large, and only in public galleries or ancient castles or manor houses is there wall space sufficient to hang them. Many of the artists are little known to-day, but the great ones are familiar to you all. A dozen pictures by Annibale Carracci, half a dozen by Castiglione, thirty odd by Claude Lorraine, thirtyfive by Van .Dyck, three -wood carvings by that famous English sculptor. Grinling Gibbons, with his pea-pod signature. Then half a dozen by Franz Hals, bestknown .for his "Laughing Cavalier." a a half dozen by Sir Peter Lely, some lent by the King, four magnificent pictures by Murillo, twenty by Nicholas Poussin, eighteen Rembrandts, a Valesquez or two, and one outstanding example of that more famous of SpaniSh painters. El Greco. "Adoration of the Magi." ( This panel, about fifteen feet high, "The Adoration of the Magi," was lent from Rumania- by King Carol, and owing to its worth, it was escorted all the way across Europe, and protected by every device. This is one of the greatest attractions at the exhibition. Though this picture was painted in l.">» 0, nearly three and a half centuries ago, it has much in common with the best modern work of to-day. It looks modern. -In a manger, mysteriously lit, the Virgin shows the Christ child to the shepherds, an angel kneels in adoration, and in the' sky is a glory of angels, holding a scroll inscribed: "Gloric in excelsis deo." It was painted for the Church of the C'ollegio de Da Maria de Aragon jn Madrid. After passing through various hands, it was finally bought by Charles 1, King of Rumania in 18«8. El Greco was born in Crete, trained m Venice under Titian, and later in Rome. He went to Spain in 15.76 and settled in Toledo for the rest of his life, and he is generally referred to as Spanish when his work is being discussed, though he belongs to the Italian school. He was profoundly influenced by Byzantine paintings, with which he I was familiar in his youth, but later he produced the first thoroughly baroque pictures. Rembrandt's Colour and Form. Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch painter,, developed first the Italinate school. His most obvious 'characteristic i® the way he builds up colour and fdrm from shadow. Faces and form seem to emerge from rich dark backgrounds. Reubens is of the Flemish school, but -he, too, studied in Italy, where he formed his style. Later he visited France, Spain and England, where he had a profound influence upon local art. Valesquez Was entirely Spanish, both in .birth and draining.; He 'started in Seville, but came to Madrid when he was appointed Court Painter: A word about the fortunate owners of these «wonderftil pictures. Many of the ducal houses stripped their walls to enrich this exhibition at Burlington i House. The Duke, of Buccleucli lent 42. the Duke of Devonshire 40, the Duke of Portland- 30, the Duke of Norfolk four, the Duke of Rutland" two, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon two. Earl Spencer five, Countess of Suffolk four, the Duke of Westminster two. the Duke of I Wellington two, the Marquis of Salis- j bury one, the Ear) of 12. And so it goes on. The full list would read i like pages from Debrett. Cathedrals I and universities also lent their treasures. Beside paintings, there were some fin? examples of large tapestries, old gold and . silver work, miniatures most | exquisitely framed, sometimes set in jewels. And a couple of rooms were " devoted to architectural drawings, sketc >s and water colours. And there was some beautiful glass of the period as well. The only complaint is that there was rr.tllv too much. It k impossible to dwell on one picture at a time, with sol many others clamouring for attention.',