ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 46

ART AND ARTISTS.

• . • The city of Pittaburg, U.S. A , will in time, thanks to the generosity of one of its inhabitants, possess probably tbe finest collection of modern art in the whole world. A fund is now available which will admit £10.000 a year being spent upon picture*. The programme which has teen adopted is both elaborate and costly, A deputation will visit Europe each year and select pictures for an exhibition to be held at PiCtsbutg every autumn, the first opening next mouth. From this exhibition a jury. of two artists of note from each country represented will sel ct pictures to the amount of money at their disposal, the jury visiting Pittsburgh and havirg. all th*ir expenses paid.

■ • . • Holraan Hunt began life as a clerk to an. auctioneer and estate agent. - One ice!- . dent of this tedious yet ambitious -period of the artist's life .never ceased to, afford ;hfm; amusement.' 'Jhe windows in his room were made of ground glass and a? h3-ilsod little | to do he epenfc much of .bis time in drawing flies upon its roughened tu/face. A' blot of ink sufficed for the boHy and some delicate pencil strokes for the wiogp, and at a djsi tance the deception W6s peifect. Dj.y fey day the number in created, and one mornirg his employer came in, stopped before the window, an>\ exclaimed, " I can't make oat how it is. Every day that I come into this room there teem to b8 more and more flies " ; and taking out his handkerchief he attempted to brush them away. STORIES OF FAMOUS PICTURES. - "(JHUIST BBA.BIKG} THE C 8053." PAINTED By BAPHAEL. No picture, perhaps, has had so romantic an adventure or so miraculous an escape as R .phael's " Chrißt Bearing the Ores?." It was ordered by the fraternity of Mount Olivet at Palermo, the brothers wiihing to have a specimen of the celebrated Italian painter* work' hanging in their monastery. The picture is remarkable for the troth with which the painter has pourtrayed the suffering of the Saviour as He bends beneath the heavy load. ADVENTURES BY SEA. Raphael painted it in B)me, where he carried out so rcu^h of his work, and the . picture was carefully packed and despatched • by sea to §ioHy. Daring the short voyage 5*5 * storm arose, and the wind and waves became so violent that the vessel was wrecked. ' f - The crew and passengers perished, and no trace of the ship or her cargo was seen agaip, save the picture, which, floatiDgin its case on the water, was washed ashore and ■discovered ' by the expectant monk*. ' -;. Oii the case being opencdit was found that the sea water had in no way injured the divine beauty of the painting, which was hang up at Palermo amid great rejoicing and thanksgiving at its miraculous escape. Raphael painted several portraits of bis chief patron, Pope Julius 11. No fewer than 12 are extant, but the majority were, at any rate partially, painted by bis pupils. The three-quarter length figure of the famous Pope which hung in our National Gallery was painted on board. The round picture of the Holy Family, which has been so often reproduced, was also painted on wood, Raphael, it is said, having seized the bottom o£ a tub and sketched the figures upon it, for lack of more Euitabla material. Amorgst his pountrymen he was known as "II Divino"— "The Divine Raphael." He was the son of an artist named Giovanni Sinzio, from whom his first lessons in art were' received. Later he became a pupil of Perugino, who quickly recognised his genius, and undor whose tuition he executed, while still a mere youth, works which not onlj " eqaalled but surpassed those of bis master.

THE EA.PHA.EL CARTOONS.

Raphael lived only 37 years, and tho amount of work he executed was indeed extraordinary. It is small wonder that aucli undertakings as the frescoes on the second floor of the Vatican and the cartoons for tha Sixtine tapestries wore his .strength away. (The originals of these cartoons hang in out National Gallery.) The last work upon which Raphael wa« employed was a paintiDg o£ "The Transfiguration." He died of fever, and was buried io. the Pan'heon.