Evening star., 1911-05-27

Il the early part of the third cen
tury and the middle of the
eighteenth century has just been placed
on exhibition I'm the southwest gallery
of the Library of Congress under the d.
rection of the division Of prints About
600 portraits are set forth. all OF which
have been taken from the Gardiner
Greene Hubbard and T. Harrison Gar
rett collections. 1t Is indeed a brilliant
galaxy, and one which 1t would be hard
to duplicate Scarcely celebrity seems
10 have been omitted. and IN better COM
pany one could not be found. There are
popes and prelates. kings and noblemen,
great writer's. great poets, famous paint
ers and engravers. reformers, discoverers.
statesmen and patrons of art. They are
arranged chronologically. according to
the date of the birth of the person por-
trayed. For instance, Urban !, though
painted by Raphael from tradition). is
given first place because he lived in the
early part of the third century. whereas
portraits OF Hogarth, the painter. and
Bartolozzi the engraver, who lived in the
eighteenth century, come toward the last
Portraits of Dante and Petrarch follow
shortly after that of Urban, leap being
made over several centuries. and they In
turn are almost directly followed Dy Johh
Cover and Chaucer.
Transcriptions are shown of all three OF
Holbein's portraits of Erasmus Tnere
are portraits OF Durer, da Einci. Michael
Angelo. Raphael, Titan. Rembrandt. Ru-
beris and Van Dyck, painted in most In
stances by the artists themselves and en-
graved by men of note. The reformers
are represented by Martin Luther, Zwing-
ii. Melanchthon and Calvin: great days In
art are recalled by portraits of Marc An
tonic Raimond, the Italian engraver. and
Cellini, the worlds most famous crafts
man. Cosimo de Medici, the banker.
statesman and patron of art. Is admirably
pictured as is also his son, Francois de
Medici who was painted by Rubens and
engraved by Edelinck. Then there are
portraits of Tasso, Shakespeare, Bacon
Beaumont Milton. Moliere. Dryden. And
in the midst of these great literary lights
one comes across lingo Jones. the English
architect who was a man of visions and
great builder and upon Mansart, the
French architect, whose name Is assocf-
ated with the style of roofs he designed
and during the time of Louis XIV
brought into fashion. The French paint
ers of about the same period are not for
gotten, portraits of Vatican and Boucher
being set forth. nor is the king left with
out witness: In the whole collection no
! those of Louis XIV engraved by Robert
Nanteuil.
There is, it will be seen. a three-fold in
terest in this exhibition: first. the person
ality of those whose portraits are shown:
second. the Importance of the painters
whose works are reproduced. and. third
the intrinsic worth from the technicel and
artistic standpoint of the engravin'
There is nothing more interestins; than
J our fellow-men and when to ordinary hu-
manity is added the distinction of attain
ment or renown the interest naturally
, deepens. The better one is acquainted
with u great writer's works, or u great
| painters pictures. the more one will be
piqued with curiosity in regard to his ap-
! pearance. Judging from majority of
| the portraits of our day. some question
might arise as to whether or not paint
ters' testimony should be accepted as au-
thoritative In this respect. but there were
| better portrait painters in the preceding
centuries. and the works in this collec-
| ton ia most instances carry conviction.
! 1t may be that Burgomeister Six did not
| look as Rembrandt portrayed him, but
| he will always be regarded as a distinct
| personality. And so with many others.
/ These engrayings do not merely repro
duce features. they interpret character:
! they are exquisitely finished. complete in
| themselves, but they have vitality and in
/ terpretative power They are mastery
human documents-extraordin works
of art.
| In most instances portrait engravers
are copyistS, reproducing paintings made
| by others rather than executing their
| own work. There are exceptions. how
| ever. and. perhaps. most notable among
these is Nanteuil who has already been
| referred to. He OF all the great
| French portrait engravers probably the
/ greatest. and though ne did at times
produce portraits painted by others the
ma ajorty OF the portraits he engraved
| were from his own drawings made from
/ life lie born about 1923 (author-
I tiles differ as to the exact date, and his
most prolific years were between 1861 and
| %. when he engraved on an average of
| more than ten plates Year. Some of
| these were very large. in fact, life size.
| and were purposed TO be hung the
walls OF stately rooms without loss of ef
| feet.
| Nanteui is splendidly represented in
| the collection now on view, a larger num-
| Der OF his works being shown than of
| any other engraver. Obviously IL is the
| noted F'renchmen of his own day, the
| courtiers scholars and statesmen of the
| reign of Louis XIV, that he depicted.
I Pos sibly he fattered his sitters. but GER
! tainly he gave each individuality and dis
! tinction. To observe the variance in ap-
| pearance set forth under the same stamp
of nationality is interesting in the ex.