paintings

"Such is the magic of this work, that we hesitate to admit to ourselves that time and neglect have after all had their say, and that it has suffered from rehandling and restoration. The picture has been flayed, and the left-hand portion of the design badly damaged; patches of repainting have marred the horizon and sky, the reveller who lifts the jar of wine against the light, the singers beyond the bending faun, and the nearest woman who holds the flute. Damaged portions alternate with exquisite passages of well-preserved painting; the restorations seem for some reason or other to have been very drastic where they have occurred, and the last connecting glazes have been removed; it might therefore be described as 'flayed' ... and also badly damaged in part."

"Gorgeous colour gives life to the picture and the desired effect to this scene of wanton merry-making. The warm glow of a summer's day lights up the landscape, the sky is of a deep blue, over which white clouds are slowly rising. Heads, an upraised arm, a single figure stand out dark against this background. The contrast of the dark bodies of the men with the radiant forms of the women is softened by their white and coloured garments. The left half of the picture is overshadowed by a group of trees; the forms of the sleeping nymph and the dancing pair shine out in bright light."

"In the "Worship of Venus" Titian adhered closely to the text of Philostratus. We find here group for group just as described. To the right the lofty marble statue of Venus to whom two nymphs are doing homage, one with the action of a bacchante, a wreath of flowers in her fair hair, in features resembling the shepherd maiden in the "Three Ages"; the other more serious, with pretty gentle features, both of that exuberant style of beauty to be found in the women of the half-length pictures. They are offering oblations to the goddess. At her feet we see the gayest, busiest throng. Hundreds of naked winged children, playing merrily together, loading baskets with the apples they have plucked from the large trees, pelting each other with the fruit or stamping on it with their little feet. Here one is taking aim at another with his bow, one climbs on the back of another and bites his ear, others roll on the ground or play with a hare who is anxiously striving to escape from their clutches. There a couple are embracing each other, and one is lifting laboriously a basket on to his back, as an offering for the goddess. Far off in the distance a ring of merry children are singing and dancing. Jubilant sounds from many little throats rise up among the thick trees and fill the broad meadow-land."

"The 'Sacred and Profane Love' is still in some degree Giorgionesque in mood, but as a design it is more amply spaced, it is mainly in certain details of the landscape that it retains traces of earlier conventions. Compared to Titian's later rendering the foliage is still calligraphic in detail and feathery in its masses, in fact, mere thin spray-forms seen as lace-like silhouettes against the sky. The work is Giorgionesque also in the somewhat arbitrary division of the ground into dun coloured mounds with sweeps of soft warm green in the distance. Were the 'Sacred and Profane Love' cleaned, the green of the mid-distance and trees would emerge from the brown varnish which now reduces them to a nondescript dark mass. We owe to Dr. Wickhoff the suggestion that this picture represents Medea listening to the persuasion of Venus, who would urge her to love Jason, and that the subject illustrates a passage from the Argonautica of Flaccus. The cupid who troubles the fountain would thus acquire a symbolic interest, and the cupids teasing a unicorn sculptured on the sides of the fountain become also associated in the scheme. This painting, to which I have for convenience so far given its old enchanting title, is one of the world's loveliest pictures. In no other work of art, 'Annunciation' or ' Visitation,' shall we discover two figures so enchantingly related to each other: in no other design is the eye more charmed by perfect spacing and ordering of the composing element. Few figures in art possess to the same degree the profound and feminine graciousness which characterises the self-absorbed figure of Medea, as yet unconscious of a tragic destiny; no figure invented by Titian or any other master surpasses in beauty of line the sinuous and enchanting curves which express the contour of the Venus; the invention of the crimson cloak which buttresses this figure, the extended arm against the sky, are each supreme inventions in design. There is a great 'preciousness' of thought in the placing of Medea's gloved hand on a nest of flowers, and the rose spray and leaves on the edge of the fountain are exquisite touches of pictorial fancy. In the masses of the foreground we shall find the purple hellebore and one or two butterflies as a premonition of the exquisite and intimate flowers and details which Titian will place later in his loveliest canvases. We are able to realise the different accent Titian has brought to the drawing in his pictures when we contrast the mass of soft hair on the shoulder of Medea and the two wisps of hair over the left ear, with the more timid, formal and Giorgionesque rendering of these details in the 'Salome.'"

"No one will deny the exquisite charm of his early works. The grace and loveliness of his Madonnas, the brilliancy, the gaiety, the spirit of his mythological pictures, attract us irresistibly. It is easy to explain why of all Titian's works "Sacred and Profane Love" is the most extolled and the most popular, why the "Madonna with the Cherries" or the "Madonna with St. Anthony" are among the favourites of the public."

"The darkening and patching of the base of this masterpiece ... have obscured the beautiful motive, the river of wine, which was the principal item Titian had to illustrate. Pressed from heaped-up grapes by the Polyphemus-like figure upon the heights, the wine, trickling among the hollows of the hill, flows past the sleeping figure in the foreground, who still holds a cup, whilst her hair pours over a gilded jar with which she had come to gather wine; near her, a glass, half submerged by the rush of the current, sinks into the brook which flows past the revellers gathered at its brink to form into a pool from which a Satyr and a Silenus gather it in flasks and goblets. One of the revellers holds a crystal jar against the light; in the bay beyond a large foolish ship basks and lingers in the sun. Titian is here a prodigal of details so delicate and at times so homely that we are plunged into a feeling of amazed delight. On a few yards of painted cloth Titian has condensed all the inimitable magic of some other 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' These Dryads and Nymphs are at truce with Oberon and his fairy court, the most beautiful imaginings and recollections,—thoughts full of voluptuous melancholy, half thoughts, implied silences and visible sounds, each follows each, pauses and passes like the movement of some silent music played in the secret places of the mind. Titian has painted the very hum of the revel, he evokes in us a strange blend of emotions, and a sense of something which is fugitive in its essence, as time or pleasure, caught for this once and made perpetual."

"The fiery gift of the god is pouring out like a stream from a hill in the background and has loosened all restraint. Bronze-faced men and voluptuously beautiful women give themselves up to enjoyment. "Chi boist et ne reboit ne çais qua boir soit" is the device we read on a roll of music lying in front on the ground. So the dark-eyed beauty holds her cup aloft into which a cup-bearer is pouring the wine, another raises a half-filled crystal cup, one fat reveller drinks from a large jug and another catches the liquid as it flows along the ground like a stream. Here a man and woman are dancing together, their garments fluttering in the wind, whilst in the foreground a fair bacchante, completely nude and overcome by the fumes of wine, has fallen down fast asleep."

"The 'Garden of Loves' has been over-cleaned, the sky and statue repainted; for the rest it is luminous and brilliant in pitch, highly wrought, and with the colour scheme and local colours well defined. Technically it continues the blond, fresh method inaugurated in the 'Three Ages of Man.' The blue of the sky is carried throughout the design in the blue wings of the cupids. The brightly coloured draperies on the ground, the baskets decked with jewels, the tiny flowers, the grass and fruit, every portion of the work reveals the highest and most delicate finish, the most tender care. This masterpiece would seem to have established the canon of proportion for all artists who have studied children; it has been copied and imitated by Rubens, Poussin, and il Fiammingo."

"It was fortunate for Titian that the theme suggested to him by others fitted in with what was then already occupying him in his art. In the "Assumption" he had been painting children's figures for the first time in great numbers and had felt inspired by the charm of their undeveloped forms and innocent unconscious movements. Now it was open to him, in fact it was imposed on him by the task set him, to represent children in active motion. Primitive art may succeed in reproducing the seriousness of manhood, it is reserved for a riper period to present the roguish loveliness of childhood."

"[T]he "Flora" is attuned to a scale of golden and light violet tones.Titian puts forth the highest art of his palette to present in all her splendour this magnificent model, who had fascinated his artistic nature. No one before him, and few after him, have succeeded in rendering with such an impression of softness the full form coming out of the white, gold-bordered chemisette; and probably Titian alone, in later life, more freed from everything material, was able to reproduce the subtle play of light on fair hair. This magic charm of artistic power, which rises far above mere technical skill, has to compensate us for the absence of any indication of individual character in the features, which, as, for instance, notably in the "Flora," are curiously devoid of expression. Who could blame Titian that his painter's eye was attracted and that he caught his inspiration from the perfection of mere physical beauty?Probably he was thinking of this and of other creations of the kind, also belonging to his later years, when he once remarked, as Pietro Aretino reported to Vasari, "that he never saw a maiden without discovering in her features a touch of sensuality" ("lascivia"). He has neither veiled nor toned down this "touch" in his pictures—he set himself each time a colour problem and solved it, without reflecting upon problems of morality."

"We can admire among the better-preserved portions of the 'Flora' the fine tresses on the shoulder, the linen and hueless brocade round the right hand."

"[T]he technical aspect of the 'Flora' (or what remains of it) belongs to an earlier phase of Titian's career than might be surmised from the reproduction, and the over placid and almost animal expression in this symmetrical face."

"The popular Flora of the Uffizi, a beautiful thing still, though all the bloom of its beauty has been effaced, must be placed rather later in this section of Titian's life-work, displaying as it does a technique more facile and accomplished, and a conception of a somewhat higher individuality. The model is surely the same as that which has served for the Venus of the Sacred and Profane Love, though the picture comes some years after that piece."

"No painter of our time maintains a firmer or more consistent adherence to those severe principles of design which have received the sanction of great examples in the past. Frederick Leighton has never lowered the standard of his work in deference to popular demand, and for this persistent devotion to his own best ideals he deserves well of all who share his faith in the power of beauty."

"to adorn an olive bough with garlands of laurel and other flowers, and place on the top a brazen globe, from which were suspended smaller ones. In the middle was placed a number of crowns, and a globe of inferior size, and the bottom was adorned with a saffron-coloured garment. The globe on the top represented the Sun, or Apollo; that in the middle was an emblem of the moon, and the others of the stars. The crowns, which were 365 in number, represented the sun's annual revolution. This bough was carried in solemn procession by a beautiful youth of an illustrious family, whose parents were both living. He was dressed in rich garments which reached to the ground, his hair hung loose and dishevelled, his head was covered with a golden crown, and he wore on his feet shoes called Iphricatidæ, from Iphricates, an Athenian who first invented them. He was called Δαφνηφóρος, 'laurel-bearer,' and at that time he executed the office of priest of Apollo. He was preceded by one of his nearest relations, bearing a rod adorned with garlands, and behind him followed a train of virgins with branches in their hands. In this order the procession advanced as far as the temple of Apollo, surnamed Ismenius, where supplicatory hymns were sung to the god"

"The procession is seen defiling along a terrace backed by trees through which the clear southern sky gleams. A youth carrying the symbolic olive bough, called the Kopo, adorned with its curious emblems, leads the procession. He is clad in purple robes and crowned with leaves. The youthful priest, known as the Daphnephoros (the laurel-bearer) follows, clothed in white raiment. He is similarly crowned, and carries a slim laurel stem. Then come three boys, in scanty red and green draperies, which serve only to emphasize the beauty of their almost naked forms, the middle and tallest one bearing aloft a draped trophy of golden armour. These are seen to be pausing while the leader of the chorus, a tall, finely modelled man, whose back is turned, is giving directions to the chorus with uplifted right hand; in his left hand is a lyre, and the left arm from the elbow is characteristically draped. The first row of the chorus is composed of five children, clothed in purple, crowned with flowers; two rows of maidens, in blue and white, come next; and these in turn are succeeded by some boys with cymbals. The interest of the passing procession is very much enhanced by the effect produced on two lovely bystanders,—a girl and child in blue, beautifully designed, who are drawing water in the left foreground. In the valley below is seen the town of Thebes."

"Such delicacy and precision of drawing, and such sincerity of modelling, and such poetic finish are rare."

"In the highest sense 'The Daphnephoria' is a beautiful picture; there is not only the poetry of the whole scene in its dignity as a religious festival, with the enthusiasm of devotion, but in every detail the exquisite harmonies of line and colour are enchanting. The scent of laurel leaves seems to impregnate the air, already laden with the aromatic perfumes of the pines.""

"The composition of the picture is quite remarkable for its simplicity in depicting a scene of fervid activity. There is no confusion: every figure is distinct and yet united in a completely satisfactory whole. There is dignity, such as that of the Cartoon-men, and there is balance, so that no one part outshines another.. The eye at a glance takes in the whole subject without fatigue, with no misjudgment. In it religion and poetry, beauty and pathos are all combined.The drawing is supreme. Leighton has here left his Cimabue model and taken up instead his Greeks—the differences in form, features, and characteristics are at once apparent. The pencilling of graceful and vigorous limbs is distinct and articulate, and every fold of white drapery is as pliant and natural as are his effects with heavier stuffs. The lips are moving, the feet are stepping, the pulses are beating, and the contour and suppleness of the bodies leave nothing to be desired.The colour-scheme is most refreshing. The garishness of strong hues is absent, and instead we have a sequence of creamy pinks, pearly blues, and creamy, greyish green, thrown up by backgrounds of dull red, dark purple, and staid-brown. The carnations are lovely and full of rich young blood, and exactly toned to race and age and sex. The eyes are full of fervid intelligence and reverent concentration. The lights and shadows are well disposed. The time of day is about evening, for, whilst the city is bathed in the westering rays of sunshine, the thick trees bestow a sweet and grateful shade over the path which the procession takes. There is perhaps a trace of the Tuscan purple haze over the blue mountains, but the atmosphere is clear and dry. Perspective and proportion are true to line and projection.The finish is perfect: nothing more could be done. Everything exactly reflects the character as well as the art of the painter in one word—thorough! What strikes the beholder at once, and what is borne in upon him more and more as this masterpiece is studied, is the enchanted spirit of dedication which pervades the solemnity. Each moving figure is under the spell of the Sun-god the beauteous Apollo—and, enwrapped in an aroma of profound reverence, is being drawn irresistibly to his mystic shrine.The "Daphnephoria" combines exhaustively all the ideals which Leighton set himself to achieve. Its subject is in perfect accord with his temperament, and lends itself absolutely to the luxurious interpretation of nature which he loved so earnestly. In it he revels in harmonious lines and in pleasant contrasts, and its technique agrees completely with his imagination. It is a lyric poem in most graceful Grecian measure. The "Cimabue’s Madonna" and the "Daphnephoria" are the Alpha and Omega of the Art of Leighton."

"And Palma Vecchio, too, must be held in grateful reverence for his Santa Barbara, standing in calm, grand beauty above an altar in the Church of Santa Maria Formosa. It is an almost unique presentation of a hero-woman, standing in calm preparation for martyrdom, without the slightest air of pietism, yet with the expression of a mind filled with serious conviction."

"It is impossible for sight or spirit to be indifferent to the spell of that exquisite countenance of St. Barbara; we have never been able to pass by Santa Maria Formosa without stopping for a moment to pay our devotions to the lovely patroness of the gunnery of the Most Serene Republic. The drawing of the drapery is superb, the flesh and hands admirable for life and softness; it is the beauty of goodness, the noble serenity of a saint who is still a woman."

"Having convinced herself that Mr Casaubon was altogether right, she recovered her equanimity, and was an agreeable image of serene dignity when she came into the drawing-room in her silver-grey dress—the simple lines of her dark-brown hair parted over her brow and coiled massively behind, in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect. Sometimes when Dorothea was in company, there seemed to be as complete an air of repose about her as if she had been a picture of Santa Barbara looking out from her tower into the clear air; but these intervals of quietude made the energy of her speech and emotion the more remarked when some outward appeal had touched her."

"The Mona Lisa, to me, is the greatest emotional painting ever done. The way the smile flickers makes it a work of both art and science, because Leonardo understood optics, and the muscles of the lips, and how light strikes the eye — all of it goes into making the Mona Lisa's smile so mysterious and elusive."

"Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam, whether it takes ultimate shape in a law of physics or a law of the land, a poem or a policy, a sonata or a mechanical computer."

"Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep They just lie there, and they die there Are you warm? Are you real, Mona Lisa? Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art?"

"Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you You're so like the lady with the mystic smile Is it only 'cause you're lonely they have blamed you? For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?"

"The genius of Leonardo as a painter came through unfolding the mystery of life... "Look at the grace and sweetness of men and women in the street," he wrote... The whole world was full of a mystery to him, which his work reflected. The smile of consciousness, pregnant of that which is beyond, illumines the expression of Mona Lisa."

"To you, a prostitute is some kind of beautiful object. You respect her as you do the Mona Lisa, in front of whom you also would not make an obscene gesture. But in so doing, you think nothing of depriving thousands of women of their souls and relegating them to an existence in an art gallery. As if we consort with them so artistically!"

"Florence Thompson, the Mona Lisa of the 1930s, a migrant mother whose picture haunted the nation."

"Prese Lionardo a fare per Francesco del Giocondo il ritratto di mona Lisa sua moglie."

"[S]ince art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa."