New-York daily tribune., 1844-02-20

,, XIII IBy TRAVELLING Nzw YORKER
co,scn Correspondence of the New-York Tribune.
.s TIVE LAST sUPPER-ERERA GALLERY
,vsRos1AN LIBRARY-MosrlTALs AND TYRANTs.
M,,N is remarkably inferior, not only to the
tho, great cities of Italy-Venice, Florence
p.ne and Naples-but even to many smaller
aoos in its collections Of paintings but it contains
one great work, which is more valued than most
,rhole galleries. This is the famous CENACoLo,
:. LAST SUFFER- painted by Leonardo da Vinc
conyept of Domnicans, attached to the Church
of Santa Maria dele Gra2ie in Milan All the
World is familiar with engrayings of it., and vet
none give the slightest idea of the beauty Of the
original, faded, broken, and injured as this Is
The twelve Apostles, with their master, SIT at the
farther side of long narrow table. With ordi.
nary painters this arrangement gives stiffness and
mouotony, but the genius of Da Vinci has d.
yided the Apostles INTO four groups, each perfect
in ITSELF and yet each directing the eye and the
mind to the central figure, and thus making a
most symmetrical and harmonious whole. Each
figure has marked character and physiognomy
Of his own, so distinct and peculiar, that any one
familiar with the lives of the Apostles, could here
recognize and name each one. The words have
lust been uttered, One of you shall betray me- y
The young and beautiful John is moved with deep
sadness Zebedee leans forward with eager affec-
ton; Judas, whose face alone is enough to con-
denim him, looks up hastily, with the suspicious
ness of guilty conscience the other groups arc
full of impassioned excitement, some expressing
horror, astonishment and detestatlon of the crime,
and others venting their feelings more quietly;
but all are turning towards Christ, who sits in
the midst with hands extended, and head gently
inclined to one side with downcast eyes, full of
tender sorrow His face is the perfection of di-
vine sweetness, and yet the painter declared that
he had never been able TO finish it, or to realize
his conception of the celestial beauty which it
ought to possess. When we sec its present love-
illness, faded and deiaced as it now is, we may
imagine the perfection Of the idea existing iii the
mind Of the great artist.
LEONARDO DA VINcI was universal genius; a
mathematician, engineer, astronomer, physlogno-
mist and poet, as well as painter, but the very
proffcsess of HE inventive powers has been the
ruip Of this, his masterpiece, He was not con-
tent with the usual style of painting IN reseo, On
which the colors are laid on while the mortar of
the walls is wet, and which, therefore, admits of
no retouching,) but as painting IN OIL had been
lately introduced in smaller works, he determined
to apply it to walls by means OF composition OF
his own invention. Unfortunately for his repu-
tation. and still more so for our enjoyment, his
process proved failure He began the picture
in the year after the discovery of America and
was engaged upon it for sixteen years. The frst
beauty of the result justified his experiment; but
in time the damp insinuated itself between the
wall and the oil colors, and the paint began to
peel off in little patches. Itrcqulred frequent re-
pairs, and each of these left it defaced and some
what changed, and always of necessity tor the
worse, In 1859, the monks at the end of whose
relectory it was painted, cut door through the
the bottom of it leading into the kitchen, so that
they might get their dinners hotter. This great
" injured it, and it was again repalnted. In
1896. the soldiers of Bonaparte were there quar-
tered, and they amused themselves with making
the picture their target for pistol practice. 1t is
now scaling off all over, and leaving hlotches
which show the white preparation below ana
vet half ruined as it now is, 1t is still one OF the
finest paintings in the world. With much rea-
son did the old monk say to Wordsworth
when see my brothers around me dying ana
passing away, and then look on these tgurcs'
ever there unchanged, l am almost inclined to
believe tina, thew are the realities, and that we
are only the shadows
The BRERA GALLERY of paintings contains over
four hundred nearly every one OF which Is on d
sacred subject Most Of them are by early pant
ers scarcely known out of Italy, and very many OF
them have little value except as curious oocu-
ments in the history of art. Most OF these were TAX
Ell from old Churches, where they served as altar
pieces, or as decorations of the building OF which
they formed an essential part. It is not generally
known that it is only within the last two or three
centuries that pictures have been painted or useo
as mere ornaments, to hang on walls and DC moved
indlferenty from place TO placs faintihg was
at FIRST used only to adorn Churches and othef
buildings, and to preserve there the semblances
OF the Saints, and to tell on the walls the stories
OF fsacred history for the benefit of the pious un-
learned, who could only read them when narrated
IN this universallanguage Its only OF late years
that cabinet pictures such as now decorate the
houses of every person of taste, have come INTO
use. Most of the pictures ofthe old masters have
been detached from articles of ecclesiastical or
civil furniture of which they were necessary con-
sntuents. Of this nature are large portion OF
those In the Brera, They are usually very stun