New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-16


old masters is to be enjoyed 1t is because Mr..
Berenson feels this that he is often a most en-
gaging and helpful companion among these
souvenirs of the past. but more than one
passage in his work declares. he has been en-
pIoyed upon it for number Of years, and there
still hangs about his text something Of the
regrettable atmosphere. derived from MorellI
which until very recently. he was alone content
to breathe. He is dOgmatic, often TO the point
of arrogance. and says things which might bet-
ter have been left unsaid. For example, at the
close Of his first volume. in taking leave OF
Florentine draughtsmanship in the person OF
Rosso. he aIludes to a certain drawing, and says:
with this design We have reached point
whence Form in Line has almost disappeared;
whence over desert and marsh and stagnant
pool we can dimly describe the banners OF an
other schooI-a school which strives for form
not in line. but in lights and shade and color
This is a misleading passage. inasmuch as II
tacitly denies feIicties Of form in line to men
primarily masters of light and shade and color
an obvious error since some Of the greatest
colorists have been great in line also. Further
more to hold this philosophy is to go deeper
and to make the F1Orentines self-cOnsciOUs, so
to say in their linear work. 1t is true that their
paintings are based to a great extent on feeling
| for line but we do not believe that this feeling
| amounted to the positive preOccupatiOn which
Mr.. BerensOn seems all along to be inclined to
see in it. In other words, we may be sure that
| BotticelH and Leonardo and Antonio POllajuOlo
and all the rest regarded themselves as paint
ers, and while employing actual line in their
| drawings. and linear effects in their paintings.
with abundant appreciation Of what they were
doing never. in their drawings. held that al
most professional point Of view which. IL we
/ follow Mr. BerensOn, to ascribe to them
That attitude left for the modern pen
draughtsman. Verge, for example, to adopt.
Yet if this author is on some points open to
question. on others he writes most persuasiveIy.
and especially in those pages which afford him
opportunity for discussion little aside from his
main theme. The chapter on the POajuolO is
| delightful in its disentanglement of individual
traits lying beneath the surfaces of divers paint
ings over which controversy has ragged: the &C
count of LeOnardos drawings is rich in side
| lights the artistic character Of that great
genius. and in dealing with Michael Angelo Mr..
Berenson has surpassed himself. giving US one
of the best dscursive essays on the master We
have in long time Referring to one
enterprise of the sculptor which came TO moth
ing. he has a paragraph so good that must
| quote it almost intact:
One thing is fairly clear to me- and it is that
| the chief sinner was MichaelangelO himself To
/ begin with he seemed not yet to have learned
/ that while to him. great creator we know him
to have been. conception came with a thauma-
/ turgic SwiftneSS and with the rapture of apo
| theOsis, the execution of his mighty conceptions
was easier a task for him than for others.
/ In truth. given the VaStneSS of his undertaking,
given the material difficulties of his taSk-the
| very laws of gravitation and the hard facts OF
| time and place offering at least a passive and
| ever constant resistance-his schemes were hard
| to achieve in exact proportion they were
| great Adj that he impatient and scOrnfu,
| almost as hard to get with own Car
| lyle, and that as he must have made life bur
| den for his less competent assistants, who. OF
| course, were the majority. he thus got less work
| out OF them. 1 suspect, too, that MiChaelauSelO
had his moments Of lStleSSuess. long months,
| perhaps of pOttering about, when he could not
| easily concentrate his attention upon anything
/ so that we find, alongside even of haSty
| drawings. aimleSS phrases from the Prayer
| Book. snatCheS from Petrarch, and attempts At
| original verse making, which perhaps begun in
this fashion out of mere liStleSSneSS finally set
| tied into habits of deliberate composition Ca
top of all these difficulties from within and from
| without. which should have taught him caution
| in undertaking fresh tasks, came a greater dill
| Guilty than any, arising, perhaps, from a vague
| dread of finding himself some day without work.
| perhaps also from the ambition to be in the en-
pIoy of the great. / cannot get myself 10 be-
| Iieve for instance, that he undertook with any
thing like real reluctance either OF the two tasks
which to make the proper completion OF
| the Tomb of julius impossible 1 allude, OF
course, to the FACADE and to the New Sacrlsty or
| S. Lorenzo.
| This is interesting both as comment upon
Michael Angeles character and as one on the