A wanderer in London (1906) (14766218782)

The Entombment after a picture by Rogier van der Weyden in the National Gallery
Identifier: wandererinlondon00luca (find matches)
Title: A wanderer in London
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall), 1868-1938
Subjects: Art -- England London London (England) -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : The Macmillan company London, Methuen & co.



Text Appearing Before Image:
...Tomb make itmemorable: these and the distant view of Florence thebeautiful. But personally I would rather have his Portrait of a Young Man just inside Room I. Among the other minor portraits in the National Gallery one of the most fascinating is No. 1230, here, — the Portrait of a Girl by Domenico del Ghirlandaio. To this quiet Italian face I return again and again. We are weak in the National Gallery in Ghirlandaios work: we own only this portrait and one other near it, a boy: nothing to compare with the Louvres treasures. One other picture I would mention, No. 701, by Justus of Padua, a small tryptich which I like for the little woman at a wash tubin one corner. With Room IV we journey north for a while and come tohints of domesticity and a homelier landscape—for Room IV belongs to the early Flemish masters. The cheerful piety of Francesca and Fra Angelico, and the sheer love of innocent beauty of Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, are nomore. A note of sadness has come in, a northern earnest-
Text Appearing After Image:
TIIK ENTOMHMKXT AFTK.lt TIIK IK Tl ItK IIY KiMilKK VAN KKK WKVIKN IN IIIK N A I K )N.\ I, <iAM,i;ilY ; THE EARLY FLEMINGS 93 ness, and also the beginning of a realistic interest in hu-manity. The full materialism of later Netherlandishart is not yet: there is still much left of the rapt religious spirit; but these early Flemish painters have an eye onthis world too. It is in their minds that living men andwomen deserve painting as much as the hierarchy of heaven. We find realism at its most extreme in No. 944, the Two Usurers of Marinus van Romerswael, a miracle of minuteness without compensating allurement of any kind. Joachim Patinir introduces us to domestic landscapein Nos. 1084 and 1082, both incidents in the hfe of the Virgin but more interesting for their backgrounds of fairy-tale scenery, busy with romantic Chaucerian happenings.Even more remarkable as innovation is No. 1298, from the same hand, one of the most exquisite pieces of colour in the whole colleclion — a river scene fr