DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0163
MANTEGNA.
159
King Charles’s pictures were sold by the Parlia-
ment after his death, the Triumph of Julius Ctcsar
was purchased for 1000/., but on the return of
Charles II. it was restored to the royal collection,
how or by whom does not appear. The nine pic-
tures now hang in the palace of Hampton Court.
They are painted in distemper on twilled linen
which has been stretched on frames, and originally
placed against the wall with ornamented pilasters
dividing the compartments. In their present faded
and dilapidated condition, hurried and uninformed
visitors will probably pass them over with a cursory
glance, yet, if we except the Cartoons of Raphael,
Hampton Court contains nothing so curious and
valuable as this old frieze of Andrea Mantegna,
which, notwithstanding the frailty of the material
on which it is executed, has now existed for three
hundred and sixty-seven years, and, having been
frequently engraved, is celebrated all over Europe.
Andrea retained through his whole life that taste
for the forms and effects of sculpture which had
given to all his earlier works a certain hardness,
meagreness, and formality of outline neither agree-
able in itself nor in harmony with pictorial illusion;
but in the Triumph of Julius Casar the combina-
tion of a sculptural style with the aims and beau-
ties of painting was not, as we usually find it,
misplaced and unpleasing ; it was fitted to the de-
signed purpose and executed with wonderful sue-
159
King Charles’s pictures were sold by the Parlia-
ment after his death, the Triumph of Julius Ctcsar
was purchased for 1000/., but on the return of
Charles II. it was restored to the royal collection,
how or by whom does not appear. The nine pic-
tures now hang in the palace of Hampton Court.
They are painted in distemper on twilled linen
which has been stretched on frames, and originally
placed against the wall with ornamented pilasters
dividing the compartments. In their present faded
and dilapidated condition, hurried and uninformed
visitors will probably pass them over with a cursory
glance, yet, if we except the Cartoons of Raphael,
Hampton Court contains nothing so curious and
valuable as this old frieze of Andrea Mantegna,
which, notwithstanding the frailty of the material
on which it is executed, has now existed for three
hundred and sixty-seven years, and, having been
frequently engraved, is celebrated all over Europe.
Andrea retained through his whole life that taste
for the forms and effects of sculpture which had
given to all his earlier works a certain hardness,
meagreness, and formality of outline neither agree-
able in itself nor in harmony with pictorial illusion;
but in the Triumph of Julius Casar the combina-
tion of a sculptural style with the aims and beau-
ties of painting was not, as we usually find it,
misplaced and unpleasing ; it was fitted to the de-
signed purpose and executed with wonderful sue-