DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61022#0045
THE LARGE COMPOSITIONS
position is utilised, and instead of being, as it is in the
Peruginian picture of the 4 Assumption of the Virgin ’ in Sta.
Maria Maggiore in Bologna, or the ‘ Resurrection of Christ ’ in
the Vatican, shown at right angles to the observer, its position
at an oblique angle gives perspective, and its disappearance
among the apostles at once throws them into a group.
This is the central feature of the picture. For the rest, there
is a striking mixture of care and of carelessness in the execution.
Some of the heads among the apostles are studied and strongly
painted with a faithful rendering of structure, others are loose and
unskilled reproductions of conventional Peruginesque types. The
attitudes of Christ and the Virgin are fresh and free variations
upon stock themes, their lightness and absence of particular
character recalling the studies from boy models which still exist.
The angels show in their studied poses and gracefulness the
manner of the school, while their heads, rounded and with beady
eyes, are of a form which is not traditional. Hands and feet are,
save for the feet of the angels, uniformly careless, coarse and
without character, drapery falls into heavy folds and the shadows
are blackish. The landscape is careful if not remarkable, while
the lightness of the half-conventional flowers is fresh and exquisite.
Two of the three predella pictures (Plate n.), the ‘Annun-
ciation ’ and the 4 Presentation,’ follow closely upon pictures by
Perugino,—the Albani altar-piece and the predella to the altar-
piece at Fano. The third, the ‘Adoration,’ recalls the more
crowded compositions of Florentine painters. The choice of a
semi-classical architecture marks an advance upon the Fano
predella, but remains within the circle of Perugino’s conceptions.
A curious feature of the group is, that while the figures and the
groupings show more freedom of pose and ease in disposition than
do the majority of Perugino’s pictures, the heads, at any rate in
their present state of preservation, are indistinguishable from the
stock productions of his studio.
Inequalities of execution and inconsistencies of type are still
23
position is utilised, and instead of being, as it is in the
Peruginian picture of the 4 Assumption of the Virgin ’ in Sta.
Maria Maggiore in Bologna, or the ‘ Resurrection of Christ ’ in
the Vatican, shown at right angles to the observer, its position
at an oblique angle gives perspective, and its disappearance
among the apostles at once throws them into a group.
This is the central feature of the picture. For the rest, there
is a striking mixture of care and of carelessness in the execution.
Some of the heads among the apostles are studied and strongly
painted with a faithful rendering of structure, others are loose and
unskilled reproductions of conventional Peruginesque types. The
attitudes of Christ and the Virgin are fresh and free variations
upon stock themes, their lightness and absence of particular
character recalling the studies from boy models which still exist.
The angels show in their studied poses and gracefulness the
manner of the school, while their heads, rounded and with beady
eyes, are of a form which is not traditional. Hands and feet are,
save for the feet of the angels, uniformly careless, coarse and
without character, drapery falls into heavy folds and the shadows
are blackish. The landscape is careful if not remarkable, while
the lightness of the half-conventional flowers is fresh and exquisite.
Two of the three predella pictures (Plate n.), the ‘Annun-
ciation ’ and the 4 Presentation,’ follow closely upon pictures by
Perugino,—the Albani altar-piece and the predella to the altar-
piece at Fano. The third, the ‘Adoration,’ recalls the more
crowded compositions of Florentine painters. The choice of a
semi-classical architecture marks an advance upon the Fano
predella, but remains within the circle of Perugino’s conceptions.
A curious feature of the group is, that while the figures and the
groupings show more freedom of pose and ease in disposition than
do the majority of Perugino’s pictures, the heads, at any rate in
their present state of preservation, are indistinguishable from the
stock productions of his studio.
Inequalities of execution and inconsistencies of type are still
23