Studio: international art (21.1901)

Studio- Talk

smooth, unpolished grey Aberdeen granite, the more intense by the darkness of the background,
three stories above that to the eaves cornice being and consequent obscurity to the left of the picture,
alternate deep courses of creamy white Pavonazza behind the Madonna, The background is formed
marble and narrow bands of deep green Cippolino by a thick hedge of orange-trees through which
marble, the moulded window dressings being all red the evening light barely filters athwart the back of
Ruabon terra-cotta, with a like material for the main the rosy-tinted, kneeling Virgin. The movement
cornice. Above all, the broad surface oi a high- of the Virgin's hands and head, the expression on
pitched roof is covered with Westmoreland green her face, are well felt and expressed. The fore-
slate, the whole composing a decorative colour shortening of the Child is perhaps a little question-
scheme that gives promise of retaining its interest able. In any case, the picture is both religious
without injury from a smoky town atmosphere and and artistic in sentiment and execution.

climatic influences. H. B. B. --

Sig. Margotti's picture, be it observed, was not
LORENCE.—At the beginning of this painted expressly for the competition; and this is
year there was held in the rooms of the perhaps one reason of its success. It is difficult
" Permanente " an exhibition of the pic- to believe that these competitions, whatever other
tures sent in to
compete for the prize
offered by Cav. Vittorio
Alinari, the well-known
photographer. The subject
set for competition was a
Madonna with the Holy
Infant, or a Mother and
Child, Alinari stipulating
for the exclusive right of
reproducing the picture to
which the prize should be
awarded.

F

The jury assigned half
the prize to Signor Giuseppe
Ricci (whose Questua nell'
Oratorio was mentioned
in The Studio last
year) for his Madonna del
Fiore, and the other half to
Signor Francesco Margotti
for his Sonni di Gesii. Both
were creditable pieces of
work.

Sig. Margotti's concep-
tion shows a combination
of pictorial sense with
religious sentiment. The
slender grace, the girlish
purity of the kneeling
Virgin are illuminated by
the mystic light which
emanates from the Holy
Infant, the Lux Mundi
over which she bends, "fishing boats" by mary mccrossan

and this light is rendered (See Liveipool Studio-Talk)

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