DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0136
THE TRIUMPH OF CESAR
75
is so microscopically finished. The ever - growing
tendency of Mantegna was to a broader conception of
his theme and a corresponding largeness of treatment,
a subordination of all minor motives to the principal
figures. With this he adopted the use of canvas in
preference to panel, as being more suitable to a freedom
of brushwork, and it will be noticed that after this
period — presumably somewhere between 1481 and
1488, he concentrates his attention almost entirely on
the principal figures, and bestows less and less on
details of background, often omitting them altogether.
In the little panel of the Uffizi (Plate 22) Mantegna
is at his best in the combination of grand effect and
attention to detail. Notwithstanding its actual di-
mensions of a few inches we are impressed by a sense
of largeness and spaciousness. The Virgin, seated on
the bare ground, with the rugged rock behind her, and
the ordinary work-a-day life going on around, is one of
his stateliest, most regal figures. The landscape is
treated with a truth and science which make it seem as
convincingly real as a view through a window. We seem
able to enter into it, to follow the winding path, and,
pausing where the labourers stack their corn, to be able
to look back at the grand motionless figure in its deep
blue mantle. We seem to know the other side of the
brown, split rock as accurately as its quarried face, and
the exact distance to be traversed between it and the
little walled town. The panel in Vasari’s day was in
possession of Francesco dei Medici. It is in a state of
perfect preservation, which allows us fully to appreciate
the beauty of the figures and the exquisite delicacy of
the colour.
75
is so microscopically finished. The ever - growing
tendency of Mantegna was to a broader conception of
his theme and a corresponding largeness of treatment,
a subordination of all minor motives to the principal
figures. With this he adopted the use of canvas in
preference to panel, as being more suitable to a freedom
of brushwork, and it will be noticed that after this
period — presumably somewhere between 1481 and
1488, he concentrates his attention almost entirely on
the principal figures, and bestows less and less on
details of background, often omitting them altogether.
In the little panel of the Uffizi (Plate 22) Mantegna
is at his best in the combination of grand effect and
attention to detail. Notwithstanding its actual di-
mensions of a few inches we are impressed by a sense
of largeness and spaciousness. The Virgin, seated on
the bare ground, with the rugged rock behind her, and
the ordinary work-a-day life going on around, is one of
his stateliest, most regal figures. The landscape is
treated with a truth and science which make it seem as
convincingly real as a view through a window. We seem
able to enter into it, to follow the winding path, and,
pausing where the labourers stack their corn, to be able
to look back at the grand motionless figure in its deep
blue mantle. We seem to know the other side of the
brown, split rock as accurately as its quarried face, and
the exact distance to be traversed between it and the
little walled town. The panel in Vasari’s day was in
possession of Francesco dei Medici. It is in a state of
perfect preservation, which allows us fully to appreciate
the beauty of the figures and the exquisite delicacy of
the colour.