Studio: international art (48.1910)

Charles Ricketts

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overmastering impulse to write. The demand for "The Bacchus and Ariadne has haunted Rubens,
- a book floats into his orbit, and the book is and Vandyck and Watts; and for three more
written, in a caligraphy so small that the pic- centuries it will haunt the Vandyck and the Watts
turesque chapter on the " Death of Aretino " in of the future. As mere painting no work equals
his "Titian" could be almost inscribed upon a it. We may. prefer to this result the art of
postcard. Perhaps as I have shrunk from attempt- Michelangelo or the art of Rembrandt, but they
ing to report Mr. Ricketts' talk I may be allowed are supreme in different fields of human endeavour,
to quote a few passages from his new work, that and might, as far as comparison is possible, be the
on " Titian," beginning with a passage ' on the denizens of some different planet."
technique of " Danae " : " The gold, rose, the And here is the conclusion of the matter follow-
mauves of the skin are the result of lucky revisions ing shortly after the penetrating statement that the
and ' over paints' by which the richness of texture tragic art of Michelangelo rules in the kingdom of
and tissue are conveyed, for Titian's contention the mind ; to the great Venetian the aspect of the
that flesh cannot be painted alia prima rests on a outer world counted for more,
knowledge of the various layers of superimposed " Greatness in art has been defined as strength
skin upon a varicoloured basis by which Nature tempered by sweetness, and if we recognise in the
herself constructs the bloom of human flesh, which unrivalled art of Michelangelo (to whom this defini-
emulates the gleam of a pearl, and the luminous tion has been applied) a superhuman strength,
grain of a camellia." tempered by a sense of something beyond power,

This on what he considers Titian's masterpiece : and by a sense of compassion equal to his strength,

with Titian there is no
such contrast in aim : we
leave the abrupt moun-
tain world of thought for
happier tablelands spread-
ing out beneath the light
under which it is good to
live; his art is rich as
Italy, profound and tran-
quil as the Mediterranean,
his strength has its roots
in the wealth of a nature
outwardly placid, yet
varied and strong with the
strength of perfect sanity
and health ripened by
the richness of the sun."

Few artists, I imagine,
have such a knowledge of
the history of art as Mr.
Ricketts, or are able to
visualise and describe
eloquently, even to the
cracks and re-paintings,
pictures he has seen.
This would seem to be
an instinctive gift. He
can recollect seeing his
first Old Master at the
age of three, and he re-
members it. By the age of
sixteen he knewthe British
Museum thoroughly.

: DON JUAN AND THE STATUE" BY CHARLES RICKETTS Have I Said enough ? It

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