DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63299#0097
THE PICTURE GALLERT OF CHARLES I. 85
to deal on the present occasion, and it is the less necessary to do so,
seeing that in the admirable and often-quoted catalogue of Mr. Law
they are referred to in the fullest detail. This is, indeed, the case with
all the pictures which belonged to King Charles, to his brother, Prince
Henry, or to James II.
Under the head of the Milanese School we must deal with the St.
John the Baptist, famous as a Leonardo da Vinci, which was obtained by
King Charles from Louis XIII. in exchange for the Erasmus of Holbein
in the Salon Carre, and a Holy Family by Titian, not to be identified
among those now in the Louvre. It found its way back into the Royal
collections of France on the dispersion of Charles’s treasures, being
purchased by Jabach and by him ceded to Louis XIV. Many critics of
authority, especially among the French biographers of the master, still
hold the picture to be his ; but to the writer it appears in many points-
as in the drawing and modelling of the nude, and the treatment of the
hair-—-to be beneath his level, and to proclaim itself a Leonardesque pro-
duction, exaggerating the suave mannerisms of Leonardo’s Milanese
manner. That it enjoyed considerable celebrity is proved by the exist-
ence of many copies, taken either from this picture, or like it from the
fountain-head of inspiration. They are for the most part in a lighter,
gayer key, among them being one at the Ambrosiana of Milan, and
two which were, the year before last, in the Exhibition of Italian Art
at the New Gallery. Theophile Gautier, the most delightful of all
those purely literary critics, whose object is less to judge a work of art
on its merits than to weave round it their web of iridescent prose,
said of the St. John the Baptist, strangely, yet not incomprehensibly,
that it was a second Joconde, plus mysterieux, plus etrange, degage
de la ressemblance litterale, et peignant Fame a travers le voile
du corps.”
By Giampetrino is a St. Catherine with a Palm Branch, No. 259 at
Hampton Court, but there is nothing to prove that this was in King
Charles’s collection. The Salome with the Head of John the Baptist,
No. 241 in the same gallery, which was in the Royal collection, is not,
as has been suggested, the repetition of an original by Bernardino Luini,
but the copy with, it may be, some variation, of the picture formerly
in the Orleans Gallery as a Leonardo, and now in the Vienna Gallery
to deal on the present occasion, and it is the less necessary to do so,
seeing that in the admirable and often-quoted catalogue of Mr. Law
they are referred to in the fullest detail. This is, indeed, the case with
all the pictures which belonged to King Charles, to his brother, Prince
Henry, or to James II.
Under the head of the Milanese School we must deal with the St.
John the Baptist, famous as a Leonardo da Vinci, which was obtained by
King Charles from Louis XIII. in exchange for the Erasmus of Holbein
in the Salon Carre, and a Holy Family by Titian, not to be identified
among those now in the Louvre. It found its way back into the Royal
collections of France on the dispersion of Charles’s treasures, being
purchased by Jabach and by him ceded to Louis XIV. Many critics of
authority, especially among the French biographers of the master, still
hold the picture to be his ; but to the writer it appears in many points-
as in the drawing and modelling of the nude, and the treatment of the
hair-—-to be beneath his level, and to proclaim itself a Leonardesque pro-
duction, exaggerating the suave mannerisms of Leonardo’s Milanese
manner. That it enjoyed considerable celebrity is proved by the exist-
ence of many copies, taken either from this picture, or like it from the
fountain-head of inspiration. They are for the most part in a lighter,
gayer key, among them being one at the Ambrosiana of Milan, and
two which were, the year before last, in the Exhibition of Italian Art
at the New Gallery. Theophile Gautier, the most delightful of all
those purely literary critics, whose object is less to judge a work of art
on its merits than to weave round it their web of iridescent prose,
said of the St. John the Baptist, strangely, yet not incomprehensibly,
that it was a second Joconde, plus mysterieux, plus etrange, degage
de la ressemblance litterale, et peignant Fame a travers le voile
du corps.”
By Giampetrino is a St. Catherine with a Palm Branch, No. 259 at
Hampton Court, but there is nothing to prove that this was in King
Charles’s collection. The Salome with the Head of John the Baptist,
No. 241 in the same gallery, which was in the Royal collection, is not,
as has been suggested, the repetition of an original by Bernardino Luini,
but the copy with, it may be, some variation, of the picture formerly
in the Orleans Gallery as a Leonardo, and now in the Vienna Gallery