The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-12-28
LOST GEMS OF ART
Many Famous Paintings Have
MysteriousIy Vanished.
WORKS OF THE OLD MASTERS.
Hundreds Of Portraits by Reynolds Are
Among the Missing Treasures, Be-
sides Masterpieces of Corregeio, Tit
an, da vinci and Others.

the old masters that have mysteriously
vanished. They are known to have
been painted, but their whereabouts
has been an enigma for several hun
dred years,
From time to time lost pictures come
again to the knowledge of the world,
as when the original of the Dulwich
Yelasquez, the Phillip w." was found
in a Polish nobleman's castle; when
the portrait of Isabel de Valois, King
Philip lis third wife, by Coeilo-the
original of that by Pantoja de Ia Cruz
in the Prado-was finally identified at .
the Grafton gallery, to which the Gaek- 7
war of Baroda had lent it; when I'll .
tian's "Perseus and Ariadne" was
found by Sir Claude Phillips in the /
bathroom of Hartford House. and Bot |
ticelli's ''Pallas and the Centaur' was
identified by an English critic, forgot
ten and unnoticed in an obscure place
in the Uff1zi gallery-a queer place to
lose picture in.
1t is declared that no fewer than 400
portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds have
disappeared. The historians Of art
the "Anonimo," Vassari and many an
other-speak with admiration of pic
lures SO innumerable which have
passed into the limbo of the unknown
that the announcement of a discovery
is rarely treated with absolute skep-
ticism, even in the case of the greatest
masters. There is plenty Of room for
the appearance of a number of early
works by NaiesqueZ-de Beruete gives
list OF them--but especially the por-
trait of Fonseca, which gave TO NeleS-
Quez his footing in Madrid. and more
particularly the equestrian portrait Of
Philip ", which placed him so quickly
| upon the pedestal.
| Or take COrreggio. There is the pic
| ture of THE Savior" a copy of which
| hangs in the Prado. There is the Re
pose In Egypt" the "Herodias" triptych,
| the st. Bartholomew, the Young
| Man Fleeing From the CaptOrs of
| Christ" THE Birth of Venus" and st.
Mary Magdalen" and others besides
all lost
And Titan "a group of whose mas
| terpieces were burned in a great Eng
fish country house,, where on earth is
his portrait of Isabella GonZaga and
her son, which is known to US through
the copy by Pordenone? Giorgionc
also. He is so rare master-raTe
alike as to numbers and to quality
that the recovery of his Birth OF
Venus would be an event of the very
highest Importance in the world of art.
The Anonimo speaks Of it, but since
his day no other writer, so far as cx-
perts are aware, has ever set eyes
on it.
Although we have so many hundred
canvases of that amazing genius, Ru,
: bens, the loss of a picture such as his
, 'Cambyses and the Judge is a dis
t tinct deprivation, inasmuch as it is
? said to have been one of his finest
: efforts. 1t was painted in 1923 for the
magistrates hall in the town hall OF
Brussels, and no less than 5000 forms
: was paid for it.
We might spare, perhaps, the Head
. of Christ" by Andrea del Sarto paint
q ed in 1924, for similar works of hi'
: exist, but it is otherwise with hi:
Visitation of the same year, if Onl,
d because Andrea was painter of great
$ est Importance, historically considered
d he who broke away entirely frou
e Gothic rightly and introduced a senti
y ment and a delightful sense of gayet.
and sweetness that brought art hom
= to hearts untouched by the earlier dig
2 nifty and gravity which they felt op
f preSsive.
e The portraits of Terburg, again, ar
L a delight, and host of them exist lin
e Guiding not q few not unworthy o
Eim, but really by the hand of his pu
J. pill. Koetsl, yet we cannot read with
u out regret the list of them, as well a
= of his exquisite subject pictures, whic
NJ. Hofstede de Groot's researche
have enabled us to make. We ma
even regard with relative equanimit
II the disappearance of Nicholas Pous
5, sins "Rinaldo and Armida.' But o
/ quite another plane is the mystery o
le the portraits which Leonardo da NfhC
: painted for Ludovico Sforza and wlfic
- vanished into thin air as completel
- as his Mona Lisa" a couple of year
ago.
The jocund lady re-emerged into tn
= light OF day, but the Ludovico POI
traits are practically beyond hope
unless perchance even now, unsuspec
ed of their identity, they are decora
ing the upper corridors of some gre5
house (nlines of unexplored wealth
or the back storerooms of minor dea
ers-New York Press.
Caesar Used Elephants In Britain,
Tradition has it that Caesar brougl
elephants with him to Britain al
that they contributed to his conque
of the isfShd. Having unsuccessful
attempted to cross the Thames, Caest
built large turret on an elephant an
loading it with bowmen and Singer
ordered them to pass the streal
whereupon the Britons, terrified at Il
sight of the unknown monster, fed