ART OF MANY AGES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18500, 22 February 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

ART OF MANY AGES.

TREASURES FROM ITALY. EXHIBITION IN LONDON. An unbroken file of people passed through the turnstile from 9.30 a.m. until 7 p.m. to see the Italian art treasures at Burlington House. The occasion was unique and that unbroken file of sightseers would probably continue until the end of the exhibition. Never in the past have so many famous and priceless masterpieces been brought together under one roof, nor is it likely that such an opportunity for the enjoyment as well as for the serious study of Italian art will be offered again in this generation. One can only surmise the joy of the student who has made a study of the Italian masterpieces from the written page and now has the advantage of seeing the works themselves, of making comparisons and of examining those details about which so much has been written. Somewhere a long way behind the student’s appreciation comes that of the layman. For the latter such an exhibition is entirely a new thing. He may be critical of small things. He may even be tempted to look for a presentable and human babe among the scores and scores of picture of the “Madonna and Child.” Nevertheless, in the presence of something which instinct tells him has more masterly qualities than defects he is silent. The works are sacrosanct and this idea is borne out by the great silence that prevails in all the galleries of Burlington House, even though the rooms are so crowded that it is difficult to get even a peep at some of the more famous works.

Evolution of Art. The hanging committee has, as far as possible, followed a rough chronological order round the galleries, and illustrated by the choicest examples the whole sequence of evolution from the first attempts of such 13th century Viennese and and Florentine masters as Ducio and -Cimabue to infuse life into the hieratic images of Byzantine art, through the epoch-making innovations, step by step, of Giotto, Masaccio, Piero dei Franceshi, Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Giorgione, Titian and Tintoretto to the 17th century, the period of immense technical ability, unaccompanied either by inventiveness or genuine inspiration or intellectual curiosity. Room one opens with the Trecentist pictures and some of the Quattrocentists. Here hang the Primitives, those first tentative breakings away from the Byzantine tradition. Early Italian art was. from the nature of its origin, history and environment, religious in character, and this character persisted even to the end. Church and Biblical subjects, Madonnas and Saints are alone to be found in this first room. In room 11. the mood changes. There is an exploring of a new world, experimenting and inventing. The vision of the artists is directed not only to heaven, but to earth. The Royal Academy has a tradition that room 111. should be devoted to some supreme masterpieces. Hence, we have in this gallery not only pictures of the 15th century, such as Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” but of the 16th century, such as the "Cornaro Family" by Titian. “The Birth of Venus,” best known perhaps to the layman, has pride of place at the end of the gallery. It illustrates the Homeric Hymn describing Venus, on her shell, being wafted to land by Zephyrus, and received by the Houri. All can admire this beautiful work without having acquired any taste for It might have * been painted yesterday or at any time during the past few hundred years, so free is it from the fashions which mark a period.

Other Masterpieces. In this room many people are to be seen before Mantegna’s picture of “The Dead Christ.” On a marble slab lies the almost nude body of Christ, seen from the feet. His head rests on a pillow, and in the drooping hands can be seen the marks of the nails. To the left - stands the Virgin, her face distorted with grief. Room V. is devoted to 15th century work of the Venetian and North Italian schools, and rooms VI. and VII. complete and carry on the tale of the ripe Renaissance, so various in its outlook, so decorative in its presentat: so penetrating and human in its interpretation of men and women. So on until in the 12th and 13th naileries we find the brilliant virtuo.ity of the 18th century, and finally, in the 14th gallery there are the works of the 19th century, so remote from the primitives that called for attention in the first gallery.