The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-17 00:00:00

THE £2,000 PAULO VERONESE!

A handful of fairy gold turned into dead loaves
—a pig in a poke—Hobson's choice—anything
most ridiculous in the shape of a " bad bargain"
would be just a treasure trove to the preposterous
addition recently made to the National Gallery !
The big picture called " The Adoration of the
Magi," painted by the grand old master Paolo
Cagliari, otherwise known as Paulo Veronese ! A
picture paraded in the place of honour—at the
top of the principal apartment. A picture having
the one conspicuous quality, no doubt, of being
very large--but having other qualities, besides,
not a jot less conspicuous—qualities rendering
it, to us, at least, decidedly unpleasant as a sub-
ject for contemplation. In it, we look in
vain for the distinguishing characteristics of
the masterhand from which the painting no
doubt emanated —we look in vain for each
familiar sign-manual of Paulo Veronese, his fine
warm colouring, his rich and noble composition.
The arrangement of the picture is not only thealri-
cal, but actually inelo-dramatic. The colouring
is not only tawdry, but positively lurid. We speak
of this boasted work of art after having examined
it carefully where it hangs now at the head of our
national collection. After traversing the outer
rooms, in ,order to approach the new iniportaTion
—we defy any person but the most infatuated
believGr in the infallibility of the taste of Sir C.
Eastlake to examine this huge canvass which he
has brought over to England from the Continent
as such a "God-send " without experiencing sen-
sations of mingled dismay and disappointment.
Passing through the outer rooms before we get to
it, there are the dear old favourites familiar to us
all—that divine .P.'cce Homo of Corregglo ! that
matchless Christ and the Doctors of Leonardo !
that wonderful Poly Fainily of Alurillo !
that astonishing Old Man's Head of Vandyck !
that exquisite Cuyp ! those delicious C4nalettos !
those marvellous Rembrandis ! Together with
glimpses, besides all this, of what Thompson sang
in his " Castle of Indolence"—

" Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue,
Or Savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew."
Beholding in the angelic features of the St Catherine
and in the colossal fragment of the Massacre of
tits Innocents testimony actually before us of the
truth of Dyrderes couplet—

" See Raffaella there, his forms celestial trace,
-Unrivalled sovereign of the realms of grace."

And after wandering through the gallery—look-
ing to the right hand and to the left, to the faded
but exquisite Venus of Titian, to the golden
glories of our own Turner's Lido Building
Carthage, to the St. John of Parn3egiano, and the
Landscape of Rubens, to school after school, to
masterpiece after masterpiece, we come at last to
the great, grand, crowning triumph of the whole
collection, as we are led to expect—this vaunted
picture of the Adoration of the 11.1a,gi, by Paulo
Veronese. The horridest specimen of a great
master that perhaps could well be conceived—
coupling its demerits with its magnitude !
One gazes at it without a single, even
momentary, sensation of pleasure. Nay—the
very reverse. Our emotions are diametrically
opposite to the pleasurable. We have already de-
scribed them, tend described them we believe cor-
rectly, as those of mingled dismay and disappoint-
ment. And fox this—for this " thing"—we are
coolly informed that 1,9891., in fat just close
upon 2,0001. in round numbers, have been paid
out of the public purse in obedience to the ad-
vice of our maundering President of the Royal
Academy! No, wonder the hon. member for Staf-
ford appeared to be incredulous of the fact on
Friday evening, until informed of the perfect ao-
curacy of the rumour by Mr. Wilson, the acquiescent
mouthpiece of their very easy-going Lord-
ships of the Treasury. 1,97 7/. for the picture
and 121. for its carriage from Paris—paid over
with the concurrence, at the suggestion, by the
advice, of Sir Charles Eastlake ! Even now the
reality of all this seems scarcely conceivable!
We knew perfectly well of course—the cir-.
cumstances being familiar to almost every
student in azt—that Paulo Veronese had oc-
casionally vieflated the laws of painting as
in the instaece of his picture of Perseus and
Andromeda, in which, contrary to the strict
rules of his art, he had represented the principal
figure in shade. But then we could remember
that he acted thus at those moments of apparently
unaccountable caprice, for a purpose—as in the
very case alluded to, where his intention, accord-
ing to the saeacious view of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
was " solely to produce an effect of light and
shadow ; evorythisg being sacrificed to that
one intent, and the capricious composition of
that picture suiting leery well with the style which
he professed." But this big, melodramatic,
straggling, lurid painting of his—The Adoration of
the Magi--it stands apart altogether—beyond any
previous conjecture of ours as to the extent of his
violation of th.e rules of his art, as to the daring
of his capriciousness ! Vainly should we look in it
for any justification of the famous panegyric pro-
nounced by Du • Fresnoy " Paulo Veronese
was wonderfully graceful in his airs of women,
with great variety of brilliant draperies, and
incredible vivacity and ease ; nevertheless," adds
the author of the Arte Graphica, " his composi-
tion is sometimes improper, and his design incor-
rect [as, certainly, in this instance !] : but his
colouring, and. whatsoever depends on it, is so
very charming in his pictures, that it surprises at
the first sight,, and makes us totally forget those
other qualities in which he fails." Unhappily in
The Adoration of the Magi even this redeeming
merit of rare colour is altogether awanting ! • The
picture, to oter mind, was never intended by
Paulo as a deliberate manifestation of his genius
—it was rather a huge canvass requiring to be
filled in with as little regard as possible to colour,
or drawing, or composition. Altogether—a truly
wretched evidence of evil taste on the part of the
President of our Royal Academy ! A blunder
that ought to preclude him, henceforth, from the
possibility of squandering again the public money
thus preposterously.
Alre4dy we have given Mr. Hurlestone's opinion
upon the matter. Subjoined we may now add
that of another intelligent correspondent ;
Sir,—Some years since a committee of inquiry sat
and heard evidence which, to the public at least, proved
that our national collection of pictures included several
specimens indifferently representing the masters by
whom they were painted, as well as sonic absolute copies
which cost the nation large sums of money. These pro-
ceedings, however, were futile, inasmuch as the pictures,
those condemned by the concurrent testimony of men of
acknowledged judgment, still disgrace the walls in Tra-
falgar-square. It would seem as if some fatality neu-
tralised all attempts to assert Beglano's netion;4i ;Appre-
ciation and patronage of the fine art painting. Thus.
when a collection of painting', by native arti,ts—ranking
second only to that of Mr. Vernon—was bequeathed to
the people, it was consigned for a long tune to i!;car-
ceration in cellars, and thence transported to IVlorl-
borough-house, where it still Lybernates ie a sort of
darkness visible. The eext step was to appoint a
keeper of the National Gallery, and then a traveller, at
a heavy charge to the potpie, and what are the results ?
Elolbein, a " School of Belline," (No. 234 in the
catalogue) and " The Adoration of the Magi" just pur-
chased—the first long since sentenced--tile second,
whiCh cost 5001. at Woodburn's, are perfectly worthlese;,
and the third a convincing proof of the inc nvetency of
those to whom it is permitted to expend in pictures by
old masters, the small amount of money voted periodi-
cally for the purpose of enriching our national collection:

The two salaries and heavy travelling es:pensee are
certainly paid in vain, when we find that they end in the
further outlay of nearly 2,000/. in the acquisition of a
specimen of Paulo Veronese, which has nothing to re-
commend it unless it be its magnitude.
I totally disagree with those who term " The Adora-
tion of the Magi" a copy—there is little doubt it was
a commission (something of the nature of an order for a
drop scene), to be painted for a specified sum of money,
of certain dimensions, as an attraction to the edifice for
which it was destined—for it was evidently not executed
with any regard to the fame of the artist, and although
the design is comprehensive, it is theatrical rather than
seriously impressive, and having been much injured,
many portions of the picture have been so clumsily
repaired, that the bungler's work is patent to the most
inexperienced eye; then the contemptuous expression of
the Virgin—the convulsion of the Infant, the nonde,cript
lambs are actually such gross caricatures that one might
be led to suspect the painter had designedly expressed his
estimate of the terms of the commission. How any men,
even had they never seen another picture but No. 26,
" The Consecration of St. Nicholas" from the hand of
Paolo Cagliari, could so misapply the funds entrusted
to them as to purchase for their employers this debate-
able specimen, when they were already possessed of
that work, which is in the best manner of the master
and in excellent condition, is a mystery which, to men
of common sense, is inexplicable ! And whilst on the
subject of No. 26, let me avow that a cleaning has, in