Studio: international art (13.1898)

Studio- Talk

Simberg's little picture, Jardin, struck a distinct encrusted with dust, with holes knocked through

note of originality both in regard to handling and them, step down from the churches into the

subject. A fine seascape by Waldemar Toppelius, pleasant studio in Via Guelfa to be overhauled and

of which we give an illustration (page 119), at- patched up.

tracted a good deal of attention, as did also Elin

Danielson's clever study of candle-light effect, en- There were two windows from Santa Croce under

titled Soir, a reproduction of which appears upon treatment when I went there. One of them, just

this page. arrived, had been put up against the light, and was

being carefully examined to see what pieces should

In the sculpture department, Mr. Vallgren had be kept and what taken out. It was the figure of a

an oxidised bronze door-knocker, and both Mr. saint holding a book with a highly ornamental cover

Stigell and Mr. Vikstrom showed several good busts, and edges. " It is curious," said Prof, de Matteis as

The latter has been particularly successful in his we stood before it, "how one's respect for the old

Invocation, of which an illustration is given on makes one leave things one could so easily do better,

page 122. Of the objets aTart the most noticeable Compare that clumsy oak wreath in the top of

were Mr. Finch's charming pottery and Countess the window with the exquisitely finished black and

Sparre's extremely beautiful album-cover, an illus- gold ornamentation on the robe below. That bad

tration of which accompanies these notes. work was put in carelessly by an inferior hand ;

but there were plenty of artists who could have done

LORENCE.—" If seven or eight men it perfectly well had they liked. Why can't I take
were to work for a hundred years they it out and paint it again as one of them would

■ \ could scarcely put in order
the windows that need re-
pairing in our churches."
So said Prof. Ulisse de Matteis as we
stood in the suite of rooms that serve
as studios for himself, his wife, and his
daughters. For this is a family of artists
in stained glass; artists so true that
they will let no work go out of their studio
which they have not superintended from
beginning to end. Hence they have
not only their painting-rooms, but ad-
joining offices, filled with glass of every
description, where glass-cutters are at
work, and furnaces where Prof, de
Matteis personally superintends the
firing of the finished windows.

There was some talk, at one time, of
installing Signor de Matteis in the locale
of the Government factory of Florentine
mosaics ; for, as may be seen from the
Professor's own words, there is much to
be done and few hands are capable of
doing it. But the matter dropped after
the untimely death of Niccolb Barabino,
President of the Artists' Club, who had
proposed it in the hope that the fusion
of the two industries under Government
superintendence would prevent either of
them from languishing. So. Prof, de
Matteis continues an independent "soir" from a study by elin danielson

worker, and the poor battered saints, {See Helsingfors Studio-Talk)

121

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