International studio (16.1902)

Robert Sterl

Besides essays in these different lines, Sterl has also
done interesting studies of the peasants about him.
Perhaps we ought not to call him a commanding
artist, but nevertheless he is more catholic in his
interests than many of the strong men; more, indeed,
than most painters are nowadays. Moreover, it is
surely full of promise that whatever problem he turns
to he always displays earnestness of study, and that
he is gifted enough to attain in the very beginning
a higher standard than so many reach at the end
of their patient efforts. H. W. S.
A curious question was lately raised by M.
Patricolo, conservator of the Ducal Palace of
Mantua. It concerns the clay model of the
celebrated “Studiolo” of Isabella d’Este, exhibited
in the South Kensington Museum. In 1887, the
directors of that institution desired to add to the
existing series of models in relief, representing the
most remarkable examples of polychrome decora-
tion in Italy, a model of one of the most ex-
quisitely beautiful rooms, once occupied by Isabella
d’Este, in the Ducal Palace at Mantua, and known
as the “ Studiolo of Isabella,” or the “ Marchesana.”
As this most precious portion of the famous
Palace was in a dilapidated condition, it was
necessary to have recourse to historical and literary
research, and when, some years since, Charles
Ariarte, the French art critic—a writer more genial

A pond

than profound—published in the “ Gazette des
Beaux Arts ” a series of articles on the artists who
had had relations with Isabella d’Este, the
directors of South Kensington were content to
rely on the researches made by the writer in
question, and had the “Studiolo” reconstructed
accordingly. The late M. Yriarte had presented
an old hypothesis to the effect that there were
paintings on the upper part of the walls, near the
ceiling, including one by Costa, and two by
Mantegna, now in the Louvre, representing
Parnassus and Virtue triumphing over Vice.
Thus, the South Kensington model was enriched
with representations of these pictures. No one
questioned the accuracy of all this until M.
Patricolo came to the front, and, armed with
irrefutable documentary evidence, pointed out the
error of M. Yriarte, and the consequent error of
the South Kensington authorities. For the accuracy
of the model is belied by the “Studiolo” itself.
In fact, M. Patricolo remarks that, precisely in
the spaces where the pictures by Costa and Man-
tegna should be were revolving machines, while
the spaces between the columns were covered by
canvases which could not be replaced by pictures,
especially pictures such as those of Costa and Man-
tegna. The machinery consisted of a cylinder, ter-
minated at one of the extremities by a huge pulley,
acting simultaneously with a smaller pulley above.
All this excludes the possi-
bility of pictures having
hung on these walls. And
if further proof be needed
it may be found in another
recently - discovered docu-
ment dealing with the apart-
ments of Isabella d’Este in
“ Corte Vecchia,” where
were found the pictures sup-
posed to have been in the
“ Studiolo ” of the Ducal
Palace. It should be added
that the paintings were nine
in number, according to an
inventory made in 1542,
while the blank spaces
available in the “Studiolo”
are only six, this again
serving to fortify M. Patri-
colo’s contention that at
South Kensington the
original arrangement of
each picture had not been
by robert sterl respected.


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