The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-15
Painters and ScuIptOrs.

A. Barry is on private exhibition at the Boyls.
ton art clubhouse in Boston. 1t represents her
as Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, and tho
Boston Advertiser considers it true likeness,
and work of much power "a conventional
oIue nllet, instead of the graceful vine leaves
mot belong by right to Melpomene, confines
hef hoatlng hair; but the drapery is subdued
N coiorlng and well managed. Her right hand
grasps the hilt of a sword and the tragic mask
sue NOUS IN her lett forms q fine foil to her
queenly head"
Two interesting bronze plaques have Just
been received from Nneveh by Mr.. Rsssam in
London. They are of small size and appar-
emily formed portion of the casing of some
brazen gates. The figures are in repousse work
and represent procession of persons bringing
tribute to my majesty" as is indicated by
portion OF an incsed cuneiform Inscription
winch accompanies the figures The art Ia of
good period and the procession is divided into
Two rows by lines of rOsettes These interest
ing fragments will be exhibited by Mr.. Rassam
Archaeology.
Baugniet, who is Belgian, lives in charm.
ing villa at Sevres. His career has been pecu-
liar. He is So years old, and has been paint
er but II years. Before that he drew portraits
for autographs. He to1k up the brushes in
friends studio one day, and set to work on a
picture of young girl sewing. which he sold
Immediately. The English painter Firth saw
1t, and counseled Baugniet to throw aside lith-
ograph work, which he did, to his renown and
profit. He is finishing a large picture repre-
senting an American family decorating with
wreaths the portrait of Washington, which
comes to this country to be engraved. Several
OF this artists best works are in the United
States
1t Is now thought that the decidedly plain
featured Madonna in Michael Angeles circu-
lar "Holy Family at Florence is a portrait of
the great artists mother, not from life, but
from study which is now owned in a private
collection in England. This study is a bust
portrait of a woman bearing striking resem-
blance to the Madonna and of about the same
age; 1t also has likeness to Michael Angeles
own portrait in the second edition of Vasari's
life. The same type of head also occurs in the
unfinished painting OF the "Entombment'
assigned to Angelo in the English national
galleries, in which the Joseph of Arimsthea
resembles the head OF st. Joseph in the Flor
ence Holy Family. 1t seems not unlikely,
therefore, that these two types of heads which
evidently could not be chosen for any particu-
lar beauty, and yet were often repeated by
Michael Angelo, were those of his own father
and mother, and thus endeared to him by affec-
ton.
4AA' oAoihaiu mas uOu6 a HcW tuluR III DOStOu
in opening his art gallery to the public Sunday
evening. Tojetti's elaine is the attraction
there. Blakeslee's gallery has Henry Bacon's
Franklin at Home" which he could not fin
ish in time for the Centennial. 1t represents
the old man sitting at a table under a great
mulberry tree in his Philadelphia home, with
guests around, and his daughter serving tea
By the description it can hardly be very re-
markable picture. At Williams & Everett's
are, or shortly will be, paintings BY Moses
Wight, George L. Brown and Mrs Tyron.
Wight's is cabinet picture OF ladies in a win
dow recess, and is praised as rivalng the best
French artists in that line. Browns 10 view
OF the White Mountain Notch, and fully as
charming as his Italian landscapes are. ''Over
all, the Boston Herald says, sis that deli
cate atmospheric veil which the artist never
torgets, between the spectator and the remote
object OF bis sight, which is the admirable and
inseparable attribute of Mr.. Browns land
scapes."
The exhibition of Pierre Mignots paintings
by his widow in gallery on Bond street, Lon
dons has special interest for Americans. Mgnot
was Louisiana Creole, like Gottschalk, the
pianist, and had a wonderful knowledge and
love of nature. He resided for some sears in
England, and became contributor to the Roy
al Academy. He died in London last year.
His English and other European landscapes
are admirable in color and feeling, but the best
work is still his American, and the chief piece
exhibited is a view OF the Horseshoe fall of
Niagara. 1t is painted as seen frsm Terrapin
tower Com down some years ago, and unfor-
tunately, not likely TO be replacedl the time is
just after sunrise, when the light tints the east.
ern side of every high wave throwing its other
side III soft green shadow. Three colors alone
are employed in the vast picture. but the de-
grees and shades of these are SO infinite in num-
her that the ia fil1pd with anirta6
and surprises. Many artists visit the galleries
simply to gaze upon and study this picture, and
some of them declare that no living artist can
paint such water and foam.
Elihu Vedder is lvingiwith wife and children
at villa in Perugia, in, the midst of olive
groves, vineyards and orange trees in tubs.
His house is a charming outcome of an artists
and woman's taste-for Mrs. Ve1der has ideas
of her own. Their sitting room is large sa-
Ion, whose walls are hung with the quaint and
delightful gray and white rice-paper pictures of
the Japanese; the ceiling is delcately frescoed,
and there is hardly anything else except books
and magazines and women's work in baskets
"We think great deal of Vedder in Rome,"
says Anne Brewster, writing to the New York
World; 'Story says 'Vedder has ideas; he thinks
you cannot say that of everyone. And that's
very true. The Boston Museum of fine arts has
two of Vedder's best ideas, pictures, both of
them, that made sensation wheu they were
first exhibited. One is THE Lair of the Sea
Serpent" the other "The Sphinx They are
both weird and haunting, the latter in spite of
the burlesque on it. For before that mysteri-
GUS creation of old Egypt stands a brown and
wild old Arab. applying his ear to its solemn
lips as if eager for revelation; and there is de-
risive expression somehow conveyed into the
stony face, as if the sphinx still found delight
in battling man with riddles.
Cabanel has been VISITED by Mrs. Hooper;
he resides in the Pare ::Monceau, not far from
Messonier and Detaille and pext door to the
chocolate prince, Meunier, and is described as
'fgraceful, courteous, elegant, very picture
himself, with his fue features, dark, brilliant
eyes and profuse silvery locks and beard, and
in his loose coat of black velvet, his white
hands and spotless wristbands showing no
traces of his work" He has Just finished for
| Mr.. Avery of New York, a painting which
represents the heroine of one of the most
| touching episodes of Dante's 'Purgatorio,' the
| eailtless lady, Pia di Tolomei, who was ban
| ished to the plague-stricken lands of the Ma
| remma by her jealous husband, there to perish
| slowly from malaria. With the fatal fires of
the fever already burning in her veins. the
| lady leans against a marble column looking
1 abroad over the dreary, marshy waste that lies
before her. A dusky circle surrounds her
| dark dilated eyes, her lips are touched with a
sickly pallor, and her attitude is eloquent of
| languor and suffering. Not so the pose of her
| head, theclasp of her slender interocked hands,
| the expression of her noble though wasted fea-
| lures; these tell of high resolve and an uncon-
| quered spirit. She knows that she IS dying,
| but she knows she is innocent. She wears the
| rich habit of her patrician tank, loose fitting
| robe of pale yellowish green brocade, mantle
| of violet velvet and round beretta-like cap,
| set amid the profuse tresses of her hair. Far
| in the horizon on which her gaze is fixed, are
| to be seen the fires lighted by the pessantry in
| the vain hope of purifying the noxious atmos-
| phere." Cabanel is now engaged on por-
trait of beautiful American woman; fact
| which he mentioned half Iegrettngly, because
| it prevents him from making a fully represen-
tative collection for the Paris exhibition of
| 1878.
| A singular chapter of the monumental his
tory of Rome could be written, were the causes,
more or less problematical, of the singular dis
| persion of several classes of monuments stud.
led. 1t is known, for instance, that Acta Ar
valium, or annals of the Arval colleges were
engraved on the base of the temple of the Dea
Dia, of which the remains are to be seen still
at the Vigna Ceccarelli, five miles from Rome
Yet there is not spot in the interior of the
city, or IN the suburbs, which has not yielded
| fraOnnantS of tho Aota rualiupn Thau bava