International studio (59.1916)

• STUDIO

Copyright, 1916, by John Lane Company

OCTOBER, 1916

VOL. LIX. No. 236

The art collection of an
ANTIQUARIAN
BY LOUISE E. TABER
One of the most interesting and
important exhibits that went to the Panama-
Pacific International Exposition from a foreign
country was the collection of art works and an-
tiques displayed by Mr. Ercole Canessa, in a
mediaeval building after the style of the city halls
in Perugia and Piacenza, with its staircase ex-
tending along the facade up to the first story
and its square campanile. One of the largest
and most characteristic buildings of the Italian
group, it was assigned in its entirety to Mr.
Canessa, when it was known that he desired to
enter his artistic treasures in Italy’s display. The
exhibit, which may now be seen in New York,
demonstrates what is needed to make a museum,
as it represents all the important objects in
sculpture, painting, tapestries, majolicas, enamels,
ivories, jewels, embroideries, laces, etc. The col-
lection commences with the Egyptian period, the
eighteenth dynasty, and ends with the Napo-
leonic period. Every object represents the con-
summate art of the period in which it was created.
The greatest museums and the choicest public
and private art galleries of Europe and the
United States are indebted to Mr. Canessa for
some of their most notable relics; but where the
activity of the Italian antiquary has had its
widest field of action, has been in the formation
of the marvellous Morgan collection.
The greater part of the art works and antiqui-
ties displayed in San Francisco were on exhibition
in Paris, and removed because of the risks of war.
Many of the treasures of this collection have
received public notice from illustrious archaeolo-
gists, making noteworthy points of reference in
historical-artistic literature; others come from old

Italian houses, and preserve still, in addition to
their intrinsic value, the charm and nobility of
the environment from which they came.
Of Egyptian art there is in rock crystal a half
bust of a king of the eighteenth dynasty. The
monarch has the appearance of a warrior and
wears upon his helmet the symbolical serpent. It
is difficult enough to find a sculpture in quartz of
these dimensions, but its rarity becomes even
greater considering that it very probably was
part of a complete statue wrought out entirely
from this very hard and precious material. The
quality of the quartz used by this unknown
Egyptian sculptor is more beautiful because in
its limpid transparency it has magnificent red
reflections. It was found at Karnak.
There is a collection of treasures found in the
tombs of Scythia, the workmanship bearing
Greek influence of the sixth century B.c. These
treasures are made up of numerous pieces of
gold, bronze, silver and hard stones, from the
province of Kuban in the Caucasus, a part of
southern Russia, which at the time of Herodotus
was called Scythia. This region has yielded many
antiques, which, with the exception of these in
the Canessa collection, are to be found only in
the museums of Petrograd, Moscow and Tiflis.
The Greek art of the fourth century b.c. is
represented by a beautiful and exceedingly in-
teresting marble head of a poetess in the guise
of a Muse. This head, in the marble from Thasos,
possesses very charming qualities in grace and
fineness of execution. The delicacy of the face,
the graceful, clean-cut profile, the harmony that
pervades every detail and conveys such an im-
pression of finished art, makes this an interesting
specimen of Grecian sculpture in which it is pos-
sible to recognize the characteristics of the work
of Silanion. The manner of dressing the hair is
one of the most interesting details of this mas-

LXXIII