The Portland daily press., 1875-03-24

| which has greatly preiudiced the American
public against old masters" and he fears, put
oack the interests of art museums in America.
More and better pictures, he says, can be
bought IN Europe for one tenth the value put
upon tne Montpensier paintings by the duke.
Mr. Jarves says: There are only two ways
OF securing choice objects. Either you pay
their full value, or rare opportunity throws
them into your hands for nothing. There Is
no medium price for things of real importancs.
1 have known Perugino bought for 80 francs,
Titan for 80, a valuable antique Grecisn
bronze in the street for six, and so on, Every
| one has heard of the Fortune of Michael An
gelo, tempera panel, bought of an old clothes
man for four francs, and at once sold for 1900
francs cash and pension of five francs a day
for two lives; but which proved bad fortune
to the buyer being, after all only an old copy"
The freaks of fortune sometimes attend
ing valuable objects are quite curious. That
unique Greek easel painting on slate at Cor
tona, known as the Muse so perfect as to
prove that classical painting was on par with
sculpture, was used for time by It's finder
to stop hole In his oven. Now IL Is worth its
weight in diamonds. Recently peasant near
Siena picked up what appeared to be a heavy
metallic ring incrusted with dirt, and gave it
to his children to play with. A peddler pass
ing took it up, scratched it, and offered him
ten francs for it. Had he said one, he would
have given it him; but ten francs excited sus-
picioI; so it was taken to a jeweler, who gave
the finder 500 francs. 1t proved to be an Etrus-
can armlet of pure gold, beautifully wrought,
and worth not less than 10000 francs. Tho
Prince Chigi, to whom the land belonged,
brought an action to recover it; but the precious
relic had been resold and probably gone to the
crucib'e, for no further trace Of it could be OBJ
tanned" The average of sales, says Mr..
Jarves. of the regular bric-a-brac dealers OF
Florence, is computed at 1000, 900 francs, and
the private sales at about 100000 more. Ven
ice almost rivals Florence, and since the occu-
patton of Victor Emanuel, Rome Is doing con-
siderable in the same line, while all the smaller
cities OF Italy have their collectors and deal
ers Many of these art treasures and curiosi-
ties nowadays come to America.
Spare the Birch" is the strange name Of q
new pay in which Miss Nelson will act at an
early date. The scene is laid at Manchester,
England, and divorce suit is one of the incl
DENTS
advanced towards completion an interesting
view of the singular shore line of the island Of
Farallone, off the coast of California, near
San Francisco. The subject of the study is
the great limestone arch, one Of the curiosites
Of the island drawn against a brilliant sunset
sky. The foreground is in shadow, and the
rugged character of the rock formation, to-
gether with the group of sea-lions near the
waters edge, is in striking contrast with the
glowing tones of reflected light which flash
through the great arch. The glimpse of the
Pacific given is painted with great spirit, and is
in accord with the wild character of the shore
scenery. Mr. Berstadts Academy picture gives
a ''View in the Sacramento Valley, California"
in the early spring season.
A writer in the Boston Advertiser tells of
the Gorcoran gallery of art, which, though the
building was begun in 1859, was not opened for
its purposes until the winter and spring of 1874.
1t cost S25O,OOO and Mr.. Corcoran has endowed
it with fund of 100000, yielding at present
S62, 900 year, beside giving it his private col
lecsions, valued at 100000; and the special
beauty of it is that this is not beqaest, bus
given during the donors life. The collection
of casts and marbles. is very rich; there are
nearly 100, including 1S0 feet of the Parthsnon
frieze very fine cast, 1S by 123, from the
west bronze gate [Ghiberti'sl of the baptistry
at Florence; a colosal head of the first Napo-
leon, In marble, by Canova; and copy of the
Ariadne deserted, which was called Cleopatra
for 300 years, but was rechristened by Visconti.
OF course there is a troop of Venuses, but three
have a room, with dark backgrounds, all to
themselves; they are Gibson's Venus Victrix,
TLorwaldsen's Venus Victrx, and Canova's
Venus. In the hall of bronzes the most promi-
nent place now is held by Barye's statuettes
and groups of animals, rs in number, which
will be retired as the hall is filled. There are
12O pictures in the galleries of painting, many
of them poor, yet some admirable, among them
Gerome's "Dead Caesar" Here the senate
chamber is dim and desolate. the chair of state
is overthrown, and the dead Caesar lies alone
on the marble floor, at the foot OF Pompey's
statue; his mantle Is stained with blood and
,the flight Of the murderers Is marked by the
bloody footprints they have left. The fore
shortening of the figure is bold and successful,
and the blood and hoaror of the scene, though
so clearly indicated, are quite subordinate TO
the sentiment and expression. IL is not mere
ly murdered man that you look upon; it is
the master of the world powerless and desert
ed, with "none so poor to do him reverence."
The collection of portraits in this gallery is
good.
Miss Abbot the American prima douna to be,
is at present very chary Of her charming voice'
and refuses to sing for acquaintances and
friends. Another young singer stddying in
Paris is Blanche Tucker Of Chicago, who Is
beautiful, graceful and winning, and has sin
gularly sweet voice, wanting volume. Mamie
Louise Hart, Cleveland girl, is singing in
Italy under the alias of Alexandria Merrisini;
she is said 20 resemble Parepa Rosa in voice as
we'll as in person. Henry Stan6eld OF New
York is singing with success at Pisa in Mar
chetti's ''Ruy Blas;' having first anagrammed
his name into "Del Fantis," and put signor
before it. This is an abominable habit Of the
minor artists. Stage names have seldom rea-
son in them, but these foreign versions are the
worst of all. The best reason for an alias is
Lawrence Barretts, whose real name Larry
Brannigan," would be so much dead weight