International studio (35.1908)

The Scrip

Nor is the execution in the repainting without
merits. It lacks somewhat the lightness of touch,
the fluent, easy brushwork of such a picture as, for
example, the Magdalen with the Alabaster Box,
also in Mr. Bancroft’s collection, which shows
Rossetti’s art at its ripest moment. But the draw-
ing is firm and distinguished, the color is kept com-
pletely in harmony with the rest of the picture, and
the power and restraint of the modeling are such
as to give a curious effect of nobility to the head, so
ignoble in its “literary” significance. Perhaps no
artist of any country—certainly no other modern
artist—could so perfectly have matched the art
to the idea without robbing either of the qualities
appropriate to it.
In the Coltart water-color there is no such union.
The face is again one of merely human loveliness,
and has, for that matter, a somewhat empty ex-
pression that is not to be seen in other pictures for
which Fanny Schott was the model. Both as an
intellectual achievement and as an artistic creation
it is distinctly inferior to the oil color. Which,
however, is not to deny its extraordinary beauty
or its value as an example of that fervent, isolated
genius which has no counterpart in the history of
modern painting.
A MASTERPIECE OF SPANISH ART,
THE HERRARA IN THE WORCES-
TER MUSEUM
One of the most interesting museum
acquisitions of recent date is the painting by Her-
rara the Elder in the Worcester Museum. The
subject is Christ Disputing with the Doctors, and
the picture, which contains eight life-size figures, is
extremely well-preserved and is brilliant and strong
in color.
Francisco Herrara the Elder is historically im-
portant as the first master of Velasquez, although
their relation was short lived, Herrara’s rough tem-
per having passed into the legends of the time as the
cause of their separation. Herrara has the reputa-
tion, founded upon early criticism, of being the first
to break away from the academic traditions of his
day and establish a method of painting adapted to
the expression of the Spanish temperament, al-
though Palomino, his first biographer, found much
in his work that suggested Italian influence. Dr.
Bode rather scornfully suggests that at least his
workmanship is eloquent of Spanish indolence.
At all events, by the time his monument was erected
it was fully impressed upon his countrymen that in
his art he was the most Spanish of Spaniards.

Herrara had an immense facility, drew with a
broad heavy line, and detached his figures from
one another with an effect of strong relief. His
power of characterization was highly developed,
and he occasionally was violent in his expressive-
ness. His painting is bold and free and he uses
strong rich colors in striking combinations. All
of these characteristics appear in the Worcester
picture. The figure of the boy Christ is nearly
in the center of the composition, with three of the
doctors on one side and four on the other. The
face of the Christ is childish in contour, unhack-
neyed in type and lovely in color and expression.
One hand is extended and with the other the boy
seems to be counting off the points in his argu-
ment. The gesture is natural and vivacious and
the expressions on the surrounding faces betoken
lively emotions and vivid interest. One of the
doctors on the right is poring eagerly over an old
book, and another book has fallen to the floor on
the left.
The painting of the volumes is closely realistic
and amazingly skilful. The skin of the faces and
limbs in the case of the old men is rather leath-
ery in color and texture and deeply wrinkled.
The arms and feet are powerfully and realistically
modeled. The Christ wears a bright red blouse
and a mantle of myrtle green. There are sage-
green yellow, a tawny brown and a rich red in the
colors of the other costumes, the heavy folds of the
drapery and the weight and texture of the ma-
terials are broadly but definitely suggested, and
the whole picture speaks of competency and intel-
ligence on the part of the artist, as well as of
emotional zest. Although Herrara’s work may
show, as some of his critics state, an excessive
freedom of execution and a rough carelessness of
detail, it is not probable that he was unequal to
subduing his zeal to fine lines and close detail, had
he chosen to do so. He was an engraver as well as
a painter, and a rather indefinite story attributes
a period of imprisonment which he underwent to
his skill in counterfeiting coins. M. Mantz, in an
article on Herrara’s work in the Gazette des Beaux
Arts of 1859, suggests that in place of criminally
counterfeiting he may very well have merely trans-
gressed some law in regard to the making or copy-
ing of medals, but in any case the incident pre-
supposes his ability to work on a small'scale with
delicacy and exactitude, and to my own eye the
Worcester picture supports such an assumption,
its breadth having the synthetic quality that im-
plies preliminary knowledge and observation of
detail. E. L. C.

cxxx