ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1977, 14 January 1892, Page 46

ART AND ARTISTS.

Meissooiei was proud of his shapely aud delicate bands. He said that his fingers were so sensitive that he could with his eyes shut lay on the exact amount of colour that he ■wanted on a given spot if somebody placed the point of the brush upon ib. Miss Hosraer made a cast of the clasped hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browningjin May 1853, which is now one of the most interesting things in her studio. The autographs of the poet?, with the date, are upon the ends of the wrists, The artiste seem to be hard to satisfy. Regarding female models for artist?, the critics say that the French are undersized and have bad fchouldeis ; the Germans have not classical face 3 and too broad hips ; the Italians are not well rounded ; the English are too tall, and the Spaniards are anatomically deficient. Three new pictures have been added to the collection in the British National Gallery -a "Descent from the Cross," by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ; an inteiior with figures, by Pietro Longbi ; and a very delicately painted head of a Madonna, a work of the French echool of the fifteenth century. M. Chanchard,- the wealthy Parisian who now owns Millet's fainrus picture "The AngeluF," has insured it for L 28.000. In the same collection is Meissonier's "1814," which is insured for L 24.000, while "La Confidence," by the same painter, and t l ie "Taureau," by 'Troy on, have been guaranteed similarly to the extent of LIO.OOO each. A remarkably beautiful bust of George Washington, executed in china by Wedgwood, is on exhibition in Chicago. There ■were seven or eight of these busts executed originally, but the whereabouts of only two is known at prefent. These two were owner 5 in London until recently, when the one now in Chicago cime into possession of T. A. van Laun. It- is valued at L3OOO. The Borghese picture of Csesar Borgia, for which a Kothschild has jusfc given L 25.000, is said in Rome to be as likely to be a Bronzino as a Raphael. By an edict of 1820 this picture belonged to the " inalienable" portion of the Borghese gallery. When the GovernmenFfound that ifc had disappeared, circulars were sent to the custom bouses on the fiontier, bub too late; the picture was over tbe border. The marble statue of the Pope, presented to the Catholic University at Washington by Joseph Loubal, is one of the size known to sculptois as semi-colossal, being 13ft high, and represents the Pope seated on the pontifical throne, vested in cassock, alb, stolr, and cope. On his head is the tiara or tiiple crown. The right hand is raised in the act of giving the blessing, whila the left hand rests easily on the arm of the throne. Tbe sculpt Mr is Guioseppe Luchetti, one of the best known of the modern Italian school. The work occupied over a year, and its total cost amounts to more than LSOOO. The statue was carved from a single block of wbite Carrara marble.