GIOVANNI BELLINI

ST. PETER MARTYR

National Gallery

An example of the glowing light characteristic of Venetian interiors.

XXXII. ST. PETER MARTYR. BY GIOVANNI BELLINI

SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

"The Raising of Lazarus" appears to have been done in a similar method, except that the ground has little of Titian's solid light, and is by contrast a heavy chocolate colour. In exaggeration of one of the master's devices, everything has been sacrificed to the white of the draperies, by a too free use of asphaltum over most of its surface.

BASSANO

The student, when painting the nude from nature, should make an exhaustive study of "The Good Samaritan," one of the gems of our collection; and remember in copying it that the [149] method is that of Titian, although the greys are somewhat cooler in Bassano's flesh. Nothing could be finer than the foreshortened torso, the modelling of the bent leg, the two heads, and the swing of the interwoven figures.

Much that has been said of the " Bacchus and Ariadne " is applicable to this canvas, and were it not for the more sparkling flesh impastos, it might well pass for a work of Titian himself.

JACOPO DA PONTE

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

National Gallery

The scheme of colour throughout this picture is of great beauty, and the painting of the nude figure of rare distinction.

XXXIII.THE GOOD SAMARITAN. BY JACOPO DA PONTE

TINTORETTO

"The Legend of the Milky Way," possibly a ceiling panel.

This is by no means a representative example of that prolific and virile master. His "Miracle of St. Mark " and his " Crucifixion," in Venice, are two of the great pictures of the world, brilliant and glowing in. colour ; and it is recorded of them that they were accomplished with almost incredible rapidity.

According to some experts, the " St. Mark " was painted in egg tempera-that is to say, the medium used was yolk of egg ; but once such tempera is varnished there is nothing to distinguish it from oil-painting. We incline to take for granted much that is said about methods with insufficient proof. By a careful scrutiny of the external evidences, it is easy to prove that many of these assertions are without foundation.

One feature to which I desire to attract your [150] attention in the picture before us is the nature of the cast shadow across the central nude, a transparent glaze over the solidly and more lightly modelled torso. Here it is obviously cast by the flying figures; but frequently the source of such shadows is not traceable in the design itself.

When Paolo Veronese was asked for the origin of such a shadow without apparent reason on a group that told dark against a light mass, he said, there is "a passing cloud."

Titian was one, if not the first, to break up landscape masses with accidental light and shadow, as in the " Bacchus and Ariadne," and its aid is resorted to by both landscape and figure painters in concentrating the light interest on a main incident, on the heads and shoulders of portraits, to obscure distracting detail, and to invest with mystery, when discreetly used, what might often be bald and unpicturesque without it.

In the corner of this picture there is a wonderful note of colour quality in the wing of the cherub.

" ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON."- A daring harmony, made of the blue dress and the rose of the flying drapery of the running female figure, draws one to this picture. The madders, glazed over a white ground with touches of Naples yellow like golden threads interwoven, make of these folds a glorious chromatic scheme.

TINTORETTO