Studio: international art (81.1921)

THE STUDIO

SPANISH PAINTINGS AT BUR-
LINGTON HOUSE 000

THE preliminary announcements re-
lative to this exhibition aroused ex-
pectations which have not been realised.
The impression was given that the
treasures of the Prado Museum and other
important institutions in Spain would be
drawn upon, and that we should see on
the walls of the Royal Academy's galleries
some at least of those masterpieces of the
art of painting which hitherto it has been
the privilege of only a comparatively
small number in Great Britain to see and
study directly. But if the non-fulfilment
of these hopes has naturally caused dis-
appointment, still the exhibition as a
whole may assuredly be reckoned as an
event of first-rate importance, and though
it is still necessary to visit Madrid, Toledo

and other Spanish cities to see the greatest
achievements of Vel zquez, El Greco,
Murillo, Ribera, Goya and other famous
masters of the Spanish School, the serious
student has every reason to be grateful
for such facilities as are provided by the
collection for studying at first hand the
development of this great school from
its beginning to the present day. 0 0
Among the great old masters of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who
are represented in this exhibition, the
group of ten works of Domenico Theoto-
copuli, now universally known as El
Greco, has undoubtedly excited paramount
interest, partly because he is not so well
known as the great founder of the
naturalistic school in Spain, Diego
Vel '-zquez, represented here by an equal
number of works (though the authenticity
of two of them has been challenged), but

"a pest house." by fran-
cisco de goya y lucientes-

(Marquis de la Romana, Madrid)

LXXXI. No. 334.—January 1921 3