Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-11
FREEHAND NOTES.
TIE EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY OLD
MASTERS.
Expression in Painting-Dance
of the Loves
Correspondence of the RECORD UMos.l

spotted reddish brown tint wherever thew
are not the neutral tinted green of a
promising bruise, and that an Incorporate
need Of wardrobe i, among the first i'm.
pressions CLEANED by the entering stranger.
The Nahl collection, however, repays long
study even by a wandering ignoramus io
search of nothing better or more tech.
nically elevated than the picturesque as he,
the wanderer, understands it. There js =
capital catalogue OF the collection. which
gains spice OF naivete from the fact that
1T has apparently been translated from the
German by German who has partially
mastered English, as the expressions " in
the distance Satyr plays the Pans flute, b
and holy Catherine, where we should
say SAINT Catherine, seem to prove.
Mastery painted is another thoroughly
German phrase. Tintoretto's "E,ce
Homo is the picture so described. 1t
gives one feeling of recalcitrant skeptic
ism.to read the very great names so pro-
digally scattered through the catalogue /;
the names we have believed in and re.
vered, the more perhaps because we had
never seen the works that consecrated
them.
THE NEXT FEELING
lis cautious admission to oneself that if
the pictures in the Nahl collection are not
genuine old masters, they at least possess
very strong attractions of their own, and
last-this is after one goes home-the feel.
ing is strong 10 favor of TIER being really
all that is claimed for them. These old
fellows had an odd way of putting a great
deal more meaning into their pictures than
they seem at all willing to account for by
tne names they give them. Anton Rafael
Mengs has painted woman lowering with
rebellion and discomfort enough for a cap.
tive Zsnobia or jealous Cleopatra, and
has TRANQUILITY provided her with palette
and brushes, dubbed her "The Artist, I"
and hung her up on the wall to scowl for
ever at that something "painted out of
sight, like the gensleman's valet, which
perhaps Is the best part Of every picture.
Rafael Mengs is represented again by a
penitens Magdaien, pudgy, cross little
schoolgirl whimpering over difficult les
son apparently. There are two or three
Msgdalens in the gallery, one-Antonio
Babies, marked = Very OId"-shows
something of the real abandon of grief
The canvas is as dark as if it had been
smoked, indeed, like Hogarth's sketch of
"FATHER TIME"
And his meerschaum-so dark that the
alleged crucifx, Bible and skull are all but
invisible. The fine outline of Magdalen's
head and the locks of her falling hair keep
the eye, however. Another Magdalen, bv
Rubens, is on the opposite wall. and seems
like q parody on Hawtnorne's well.taken
point in the marble Faun about the alb.
solute necessity of giving Redeemed eyelids
and bloodshot eyes to weeping face if the
artist is bent upon showing 1t in grief.
But Rubens never read the marble
Faun," poor Peter Paul, and his ideal of a
repentant sinner is of a very battered young
Amazon indeed. Some French poet speaks
of "red ideal" This Magdalen must
'embody it she is certainly most lurid
female; but she is woman, which is
something for painter to succeed in show.
ing, for most OF these figures are like Dor.
traits of bronzes, and highly serene. COM
posed bronzes at that. There is passion
of human agony in this thing, elemental
and barbaric, but still the look that makes
the one looking on say, at hurts !" She
appears in fact ike Biddy who has re-
ceived one furious blow from her unpleas-
ant master and confidently expects an.
other. Her hair is beautiful-to comrlete
the Irish whole-the soft, brown, luxuri.
aut fleece that almost calls the hand upon
Jt. Leigh Hunt said there was love in
Frir, which was rather good-fcr Leigh
Al ut.
1.-THE DEATH OF MAGDALEN"
IL small picture copied by J. Wilhelm
Nahl-the owner of the collection until
lSS0-from an original by Carlo Cignani, a
seventeenth century Italian. The lady is
rolled in gauze, and is rolling apparently
on stony ledge just at the mouth of the
cave where she is popularity supposed to
have spent her days of penitence. A flight
OF little cherub heads, neatly cravatted
with their wings, swarm about her. and
the pink flush with which J. Wilhelm Nahl
Is SO liberal, both in his copies and origi.
mails, pervades the picture and yet Mag
dalen is pretty woman. With all their
resources and gifts and materials, why did
not the old masters produce something bet.
ter worth looking at? 1t seems as if they
suggest a possibility which yet they never
realize. The three or four fsvorites in the
gallery are Correggio, ''Venus and Gu.
pid, the Venus with the most detestable
look in her eyes that could possibly be put
there by brush of flesh and blood a
t Bathing Nymph," by Giorgione, uuneces.
sarily labeled Larger than Life" quite
the hugest of young women-a Titan nymph
before whom even the very stoutest San
Franciscan must appear fragile; "Lucretia
and Tarquin, also by Giorgione, in which
by far the most delightful thing is the
wicked little wide-eyed darky hiding be.
hind the curtains. Lucretia is a marvel OF
stupid calmness, and Tarquin seems in I'll
OF Observation-Disclosures trying to remember
something he mas forgotten.
"DANCE OF LITTLE LOVES
Led by Cupid" by Raphael, is called in
the catalogue the gem of the collection.
The intensity OF expression in the chill
dren's eyes is remarkable it is a vivid
look that follows one round the gallery
The youngsters have all Joined hands. and
little negro is one of the seven, proving
that Raphael believed in black love as vel
as white, or perhaps proving merely that
ne liked something for the white tones Of
his cherubs' flesh TO be relieved upon. A
tipped-over vase Is In one corner of the
picture, and the substance pouring out Of
it, which exceedingly resembles thick
skein of yarn, appears, on reference to the
catalogue, to be honey. OF course all the
accessories of the picture are symbolic, and
what has yarn TO do with love, whereas
honey has been the synonym for sweetness
time out of mind. Guido RENTS "Slaugh.
tered Innocents" is another fascinating
picture. The soft, golden curls of three Of
tie children, and the little velvet head oil
the fourth, are to the life-oply they are
SO very dead, poor little things.
MERCILESsLY STABBED
And thrown together in heap, they, the
babies that would have liked to live, while