VENUS, CUPID, FOLLY, AND TIME

National Gallery

Brilliancy, the outcome of a perfect technical method.

XXVIII. VENUS, CUPID, FOLLY, AND TIME. AN ALLEGORY. BY ANGELO BRONZINO

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CHAPTER II

ITALIAN SCHOOLS

ANGELO BRONZINO

" VENUS, LOVE, AND FOLLY."-In the large Tuscan room at the National Gallery this picture detaches itself from its surroundings by reason of its extraordinary brilliancy.

You will no doubt be struck by the fulness of the panel. This amplitude, like the head on a fine Greek coin that practically fills its circle, is due to the influence of Michael Angelo, the painter's master, two of whose unfinished works are among the treasures of the National Gallery.

When chaperoning my literary friend around these Galleries, I found myself, when asked why we stopped before certain works, using repeatedly the word " luminosity." This luminosity is without doubt the supreme test of the painter's craft. Age will give a "patina," and enhance that glow of light in work that has been carefully wrought; on the other hand, it obliterates much of the original brightness when the method followed was ill-considered or careless. There is no caprice in Nature's apparent favouritism.

[130] The figure of Venus, being in full light, has no unnecessary accents to impair its largeness; for over-modelling is inimical to brilliancy and freshness, and that brilliancy is again enhanced by the subduing of all other incidents that might compete if lighted equally, such as the torso of the cherubic Folly, which is no less tenderly and broadly modelled than the principal figure.

One can only attribute the freshness of the flesh tones to a pure white under-painting in which there was little oil (for oil tends to darken), and to the very direct completion of each large passage. The unity of the whole aspect would not be preserved as it is had there been many succeeding re-paintings. The actual colour is glazed in some instances, and used with but slight opacity in others. The transparent drapery on the figure of Venus is thinly wrought over dry paint, as are the leaves that cut across the outline of the Cupid.

Its inexorable drawing is undoubtedly due to the use of a completed cartoon, as there are no signs of change in the original intention, which after so many centuries we should not fail to detect.

The making of a cartoon for every picture was a common practice with the masters of decorative design. Fresco-painting, on which most of them were engaged, exacted such a provision. It was well-nigh impossible to make changes in the original composition when working on the intonaca or wet plaster surface ; and it is to the survival of this habit that the brightness of the earlier works owes so much.

ANDREA DEL SARTO

PORTRAIT OF A SCULPTOR

National Gallery

Remark the beautifully drawn foreshortened mouth, and the finely disposed arrangement of the figure in its setting.

XXIX.PORTRAIT OF A SCULPTOR. BY ANDREA DEL SARTO

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ANDREA DEL SARTO

This is an exquisitely constructed portrait. The unerring precision of the mouth is a fine example of foreshortened drawing.

The tonal relation of the face and neck to the white shirt, the transparency of the shadows, the slightly impastoed touches following and accentuating the modelling under the near eye, are other technical points to note. In copying this picture, model it first in a cool " grisaille," taking care to keep the shadows lighter than they appear; the subsequent glazes will bring them to the requisite depth, and so you will retain the translucent effect in them, so remarkable in the neck. Meanwhile, until you are prepared to make such a copy, draw it in your sketch-book, not only the head, but the whole arrangement, for the figure is placed in its setting with great artistry. An inch more on this side or that would upset its perfect balance, which fact is in itself a good test of the justness of design.

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