DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0160
CHAPTER VI
LATER WORKS
IF the more epic works of this time have suffered so
severely, fortunately some of the smaller paintings are
fairly well preserved. To the same post-Roman period
belong three small canvases, which, though catalogued
as drawings, have every right to a place among the
paintings, being finished works in Mantegna’s usual
medium of varnish-glazed tempera. These are The
Judgment of Solomon, of the Louvre, the Mutius
Scoevola, of Munich, and the Judith, formerly belonging
to Colonel Malcolm, now in the Dublin Gallery.
They are no mere studies, but finished paintings, and
very characteristic of this time—shortly after the visit to
Rome—when Mantegna was deeply impregnated with
the sculpture of its bas-reliefs. The latter deals with a
theme treated twice by Mantegna with grandeur and
dignity—the slaying of Holofernes. Less beautiful
than the Judith of the Uffizi (to be considered later),
it yet takes its place among his noblest and most classic
works, and this woman with her stern, yet tender face,
and sacrificial mien, might stand as a personification of
Nemesis. Many times is this subject treated by his
disciples, always with the dignity derived from these
originals, sometimes indeed so grandly that only by
slight technical differences, and the absence of the
LATER WORKS
IF the more epic works of this time have suffered so
severely, fortunately some of the smaller paintings are
fairly well preserved. To the same post-Roman period
belong three small canvases, which, though catalogued
as drawings, have every right to a place among the
paintings, being finished works in Mantegna’s usual
medium of varnish-glazed tempera. These are The
Judgment of Solomon, of the Louvre, the Mutius
Scoevola, of Munich, and the Judith, formerly belonging
to Colonel Malcolm, now in the Dublin Gallery.
They are no mere studies, but finished paintings, and
very characteristic of this time—shortly after the visit to
Rome—when Mantegna was deeply impregnated with
the sculpture of its bas-reliefs. The latter deals with a
theme treated twice by Mantegna with grandeur and
dignity—the slaying of Holofernes. Less beautiful
than the Judith of the Uffizi (to be considered later),
it yet takes its place among his noblest and most classic
works, and this woman with her stern, yet tender face,
and sacrificial mien, might stand as a personification of
Nemesis. Many times is this subject treated by his
disciples, always with the dignity derived from these
originals, sometimes indeed so grandly that only by
slight technical differences, and the absence of the