DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0125
INTRODUCTION.
81
Madonna of Raphael, pausing to bless the greeting of the
divine boys; and there still in the pictures of Claude,
“ Earth breathes in one great presence of the spring.”
Though seasons have come and gone, and autumnal leaves
been shed and swept away, there has not faded one tint from
those blue distances and ever sunny skies, and perpetual
pomp of groves, arid garniture of fields! No, they remain
the same: the eye may be dimmer that gazes on them, but
they are bright as ever; the slow, softening, imperceptible
change wrought by Time—who lays his hand so gently on
them, as though awed by their perfection*—only endears
them the more to the fancy.
Whether we love pictures as representations of beauty
or truth, or as emanations of mind; in every province of
ideal or imitative painting there is here sufficient to form
the uncultivated, or enchant the cultivated taste. Yet, not
merely because of the value, variety, and interest of its
contents; not merely that, through the munificent spirit
of its late, and the generous and enlightened views of
its present owner, it has been the most accessible of the
private galleries in London, does the Bridgewater col-
lection take the first rank, but its history is so connected
with the history of the progress of art in England, as
to render it peculiarly interesting. Of all the private col-
lections, it will be found to be the one which has had the
most favourable, the most refining influence on the public
and individual taste.
Some account of the formation and dispersion of the
Orleans Gallery has already been given. The Italian part
of the collection had been mortgaged for 40,000Z. to Har-
man’s banking house, when Mr. Bryan, a celebrated col-
lector and picture-dealer, and author of the “ Dictionary
* “ For time hath laid his hand so gently on her,
As he too had been aw’d.”
Joanna Baillie.
E 3
81
Madonna of Raphael, pausing to bless the greeting of the
divine boys; and there still in the pictures of Claude,
“ Earth breathes in one great presence of the spring.”
Though seasons have come and gone, and autumnal leaves
been shed and swept away, there has not faded one tint from
those blue distances and ever sunny skies, and perpetual
pomp of groves, arid garniture of fields! No, they remain
the same: the eye may be dimmer that gazes on them, but
they are bright as ever; the slow, softening, imperceptible
change wrought by Time—who lays his hand so gently on
them, as though awed by their perfection*—only endears
them the more to the fancy.
Whether we love pictures as representations of beauty
or truth, or as emanations of mind; in every province of
ideal or imitative painting there is here sufficient to form
the uncultivated, or enchant the cultivated taste. Yet, not
merely because of the value, variety, and interest of its
contents; not merely that, through the munificent spirit
of its late, and the generous and enlightened views of
its present owner, it has been the most accessible of the
private galleries in London, does the Bridgewater col-
lection take the first rank, but its history is so connected
with the history of the progress of art in England, as
to render it peculiarly interesting. Of all the private col-
lections, it will be found to be the one which has had the
most favourable, the most refining influence on the public
and individual taste.
Some account of the formation and dispersion of the
Orleans Gallery has already been given. The Italian part
of the collection had been mortgaged for 40,000Z. to Har-
man’s banking house, when Mr. Bryan, a celebrated col-
lector and picture-dealer, and author of the “ Dictionary
* “ For time hath laid his hand so gently on her,
As he too had been aw’d.”
Joanna Baillie.
E 3