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International studio — 16.1902

DOI Heft:
No. 63 (May, 1902)
DOI Artikel:
Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0237

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Studio-Talk


HAI.L and staircase in a doctor’s house m. a. kuhne, architect

Mr. Kiihne is an architect by training and a
decorator by talent. The majority of our best
German decorative artists of the new school were
originally painters. If one compares Kuhne’s work
with that of the Darmstadt artists, whose achieve-
ments in the direction of the building and deco-
rating of their houses each to his heart’s content,
without any restraint, have created much interest
lately, it will be noticed at once that they
exceed him in imagination, while he is beyond
diem in matters of science. Kuhne’s plans, dis-
position of rooms and halls, of window space and
doors, etc., are excellent. Moreover, he has a
singular talent for making a little go a long way.
Gne of his best feats has been to completely re-
decorate one of the largest cafe's at Dresden, within
the limits of a sum so ridiculously small that scarcely
any one else would have undertaken the task at

Signor Sant’ Ambrogio,
a well-known writer on
artistic subjects, discusses
the matter in a recent
number of “ Arte e Storia.”
He refers to the claims of
priority advanced for
Leonardo’s altarpiece in
London and in Paris, and
considers the former the
earlier work; but contends
that the much smaller altar-
piece now in the church at
Affori is the prototype of
the two, and is entirely
from the hand of Leonardo, without assistance from
his pupils. The leaden reflections which dis-
tinguish the work of Ambrogio de Predis, and
which are observable in the London picture, are
absent in the Affori painting, in which the colouring
is warm and mellow, and the technique and drawing
perfect. It bears, moreover, evident traces of
Verrocchio’s influence, and this would make for its
earlier date, while the delicate oval of the Virgin’s
face, with its half-shut eyes and melancholy smile,
closely resembles theface of the Christ in Leonardo's
Last Supper, which dates from 1490-1494. The
plants which spring up among the rocks are in
the Affori picture painted with the scrupulous
care of a botanist, as we know Leonardo to
have been; they can be recognised without
difficulty as the Anemone coronaria, Arnica mon-
tana, Aquilegia vulgaris, Taraxacum, Hieracium
217

all. It is astonishing what
a splendid effect he has
been able to produce, con-
sidering the little money
placed at his disposal in
this case. To tasteful sur-
face ornamentation (panel-
ling, tinting, and painting of
walls) he owes this success.
H. W. S.
Florence.—The
world of artists
has been greatly
stirred by the
discovery at Affori, near
Milan, of a painting which
appears likely to be the
original of Leonardo da
Vinci’s Vergine del/e Rocce.
 
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