The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-01-20
Art, Music and the Drama.


is absolute in recognition of its genuineness,
and by magnifying glass the date '1665'' has
been decDhered beneath the signature A
satiric account of the discovery OF Holbein Of
marvellous composition in the same city has
imposed on some eastern papers; but the ar
ticles about the Murillo seem TO be made In
good faith. The painting represents St. Anne,
the tabled mother of the Virgin Mary, with
her holy child IN the DESERT ministered to BY
angels. The mother. is work worn Spanish
woman; the child an ideal of beauty with
gold-hright hair, liquid dark eyes, cherub
mouth, oval face, flushed with peach pink.
Both mother and child are clad In blue and
white. The child has her left foot on a SER
pent The coloring and the artistic merits are
ardently praised by the local writer's about tie
picture
The eminent yiolin-maksr, Thomas Zach,
visited London few weeks ago with a splen-
did collection of old italian vioins, several
Gaudaninis, Amatis, Ruggis, and one Stradi-
uarius-the finest instrument, perhaps, of its
kind in Europe. This violin has been with
an old family in Italy for nearly 100 years
without being played upon, and is in the same
condition as when it came from the great max.
er's hand, in 1715. The unique instrument has
been purchased by Greek amateur, Mr. Casa
veei, at very high price.
The Island of Ceylon possesses remarkable
antique, known as the Lion of Pollannar-
uwa," which has been removed from the Jungle
where it has lam for centuries to the new mu.
scum atCalombo. 1t is huge lion finely
sculptured in white stone, and tradition says
that it was used as a Judgment seat by the
Sinhalese king, Nissanka MALTA, or "The Fear
less Warrior" who reigned at Poliannaruwa in
the twelfth century. The arrival of the lion
has created no small stir at Colombo, and has
occasioned the publication by local artist Of
a caricature decidedly above the average of
colonial pleasantries of this sort. 1t Is litho-
graphed from pen and ink sketch, and repre-
sents the stone lien, with ludicrously gro
tesque expression, bearing on his back the
halfreclining figure of Sinhalese king in his
crown and robes of state. On examination,
the kings face reveals the well-known Inca
ments of the present popular governor, w. II.
Gregory. His majesty carries pair of scales
in his right hand, while his'left grasps sword,
and the sketch is headed, ''The shade of King
Nissanka Malta administers JUSTICE
Hamlet is usually considered to have been
about 80 years of age; the grave-digger being
direct authority, and the grave and deep
thoughted utteIaEces Of the prince hardly
allowing us to suppose him much younger than
that. But Mr.. w. Mimic, in The Academy,
maintains that he was II. or possibly 10, and
cites the warnings of Laertes to Ophelia as sig.
nifying that Hamlet was but growing youth;
as Hamlet and his companions were all at the
point of leaving the university, he infers that
they were of the age at which young noblemen
did so in Shakespeare's time,-or from II to 10;
moreover the play is full of illusions to the
youth of the prince and his fellows, and men
OF 80 in that day were not looked upon as
young men; while, also, if Hamlet had been
80, his mother would have. been too old to
tempt Claudius to fratricide for her possession;
and, finally, sad and thoughtful questionings
Of life are more common in boys under 20 than
in men of 80. Mr.. Mimic mentions Byron's
Hours of Idleness" for an example of the
truth of this last assertion. If be knew
American literature he might have cited far
more impressive instance in Mr.. Bryants
"Thanatopsls"
A German tailor at Des Moines has invented
novel piano, the hammer of which strikes
bells instead of strings. There are in this
piano sixty six bells, varying from two inches
to thirteen inches in diameter, all SO adjusted
that each bell shall give its perfect tone In re-
sponse to the touch of the performers hand on
the keyboard
Camilla Urso mas violin, more than two
hundred years old. valued at S2800, and an
other made about 1890, worth $500. She uses
both at her concerts, changing with the style
of music she is to play.
The Liberte, remarking on the.enormous sum
paid by Mr.. Stewart of New York for the last
picture of the French artist Messonier, has
some curious observations on the cost of great
paintings in former times. The "Holy Fam
lily" one of the few pictures produced by Mi
ehael Angelo, who despised painting on canvas,
was executed on the order OF a Fiorentine,
Agnoli Doni, for seventy crowns! Further, that
master wool-comber had the idea of bargaining,
| and the great artist at once doubled the price,
and Vasari relates that Doni hastened to pay,
| lest he should increase his claims still more.
| AS for Correggio, his chef d'euvre, the ''Holy
| Family" of Parma, known under the name of
'San Girolamo," was painted to order for the
| widow of Parmesan noble, Bergonzi Briseide
| Cossa, for forty-seven sequins, about 552f. In
| truth, the poor artist was fed during the six
| months he worked at it, and the widow was SO
satisfied that she gave Correggio, as bonus
the day of his departure, two carloads OF fire.
| wood, some measures of cheese and fat pig
| That great painter, as is known, died poor, as
| did Mozart. The 30O,000f paid to Meissonier
| for his Battle of Friedland" make one think
| OF one of the most admirable pictures of Rapha-
| ell, the "Virgin of st. Sixtus," for which, in
| 1853, the elector of Saxony, Augustus Ill,
| gave 200, ,OO0f, and which is the most precious
| gem of the Dresden Museum, in which are
nothing but chefs doeuvre. The fact is more
over historical, that the works of great painters
| and sculptors have always been covered with
| gold by the rich when those productions were
| not purchased at still higher price by cities
or States. An ordinary marble statue at Rome,
according to Pliuy. was generally worth about
12,OO0f of our money. In Greece. where the
sentiment of art was common to all the inhabi-
tants OF Attica, Lycias refused for one Of his
pictures sixty talents, 324,O00f. Cesar paid
432,OO0f for the two paintings of Timomachus
which he placed at the entrance to the temple
of Venus Genitrix. One by Aristides, Greek
king of Attalus offered to the inhabitants Of
Cnidos to pay all their debts in exchange for
the 'Venus" of: Praxiteles. Have we any oc-
casion to refer to the applause of all France at
the purchase for $50, ,OOOf of Murillo's "Immac-
culate Conception The taste for beautiful
works Observation-Disclosures the least artistic.
Cicero, thorough bourgeois, as is known, i'm
portuned his friend Atticus to send him his
Hermes with bronze head. Verres despoiled
the Sicilian temples, The smallest works of
the Greek sculptors reached fabulous prices at
Rome.
Some time ago.two London thieves put In
practice plan of robbing jeweler which had
been described in story in popular periodi-
Gala piece of pure invention. The jeweler was
furious (he lost 100000, so Il was excusable),
and wrote to the editor of the magazine, asking
him If it was his.mission to instruct thieves in
new ways of plundering the public. my dear
sir" replied the editor, blandly, ''if you had
taken my periodical (Which hope in future
you will do), you would have been put upon
your uuard This comes of naolecting the