DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0216
212
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
with other pictures to be disposed of in England.
The two pieces were valued at 4000Z.; after some
negotiation our government obtained them for the
National Gallery at the price of 35001.
The works of Francia were, until lately, confined
to the churches of Bologna and other cities of Lom-
bardy ; now they are to be found in all the great
collections of Europe, that of the Louvre excepted,
which does not contain a single specimen. The
Bologna Gallery contains six, the Berlin Museum
three of his pictures.* In the Florentine Gallery
is an admirable portrait of a man holding a letter
in his hand. In the Imperial Gallery at Vienna
there is a most exquisite altar-piece, the same size
and style as the one in the National Gallery, but
still more beautiful and poetical: the Virgin and
Child are seated on the throne in the midst of a
charming landscape; St. Francis standing on one
side, and St. Catherine on the other. The Gallery
at Munich contains a picture by him, perhaps the
most charming he ever painted: it represents the
Infant Saviour lying on the grass amid roses and
flowers; the Virgin stands before him, looking
down with clasped hands, and in an ecstasy of love
and devotion, on her divine son: the figures are
rather less than life. A small but very beautiful
* One of these (No. 253) is a repetition of the Pieta in
our National Gallery.
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
with other pictures to be disposed of in England.
The two pieces were valued at 4000Z.; after some
negotiation our government obtained them for the
National Gallery at the price of 35001.
The works of Francia were, until lately, confined
to the churches of Bologna and other cities of Lom-
bardy ; now they are to be found in all the great
collections of Europe, that of the Louvre excepted,
which does not contain a single specimen. The
Bologna Gallery contains six, the Berlin Museum
three of his pictures.* In the Florentine Gallery
is an admirable portrait of a man holding a letter
in his hand. In the Imperial Gallery at Vienna
there is a most exquisite altar-piece, the same size
and style as the one in the National Gallery, but
still more beautiful and poetical: the Virgin and
Child are seated on the throne in the midst of a
charming landscape; St. Francis standing on one
side, and St. Catherine on the other. The Gallery
at Munich contains a picture by him, perhaps the
most charming he ever painted: it represents the
Infant Saviour lying on the grass amid roses and
flowers; the Virgin stands before him, looking
down with clasped hands, and in an ecstasy of love
and devotion, on her divine son: the figures are
rather less than life. A small but very beautiful
* One of these (No. 253) is a repetition of the Pieta in
our National Gallery.