Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1914-12-31
LOST GEMS OF ART
Many, Famous: Paintings Have.
Mysterious|y Vanished.
WORKS OF THE OLD MASTERS.

Hundreds of Portraits by Reynolds Are
Among the Missing Treasures. Be- !
sides Masterpieces of Correggio, TIL
an, da Vinci and Others.
There are many famous paintings by
the old masters that have m~ysteriously
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
Velasquez, 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 P%antoja de la Cruz
in he Prado-was finally identified at
the Grafton gallery, to which the Gaek-
war of Baroda had lent it; when III
tian's "Perseus and Ariadne" was
found by Sir Claude Phillips in the
VI AASiC lolu l1ouSC, anu DOL-
ticellfs "Pallas and the Centaur'' was
identified by al English critic, forgot
ten and unnoticed in an obscure place
in the UffiZi gallery-a queer place to
lose a 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
o~ther-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 q number Of early
works by Valesquez-de Beruete gives
a list Of them-but especially the por-
trait of Fonseca, which gave to Veles-
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 EST. Bartholomew" the Young
Man Fleeing From the Captors Of
| 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? Giorgione
also. ue is so rare a master-rare
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 ex-
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
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-
ed in 1924, for similar works Of his
exist. but it is otherwise with his
visitation of the same year, if only
because Andrea was a painter Of great
est Importance. historically considered
he who broke away entirely from
Gothic rigidity and introduced a senti-
ment and Il delightful sense Of gayety
and sweetness tEp drought art home
to hearts untouchGr by the earlier dig
nifty and gravit,' which they felt op
pressive.
The portraits Of I'erburg. again. are
IL delight. and a host of them eXisS*in-
Guiding not Il few not unworthy of
him. but really by the hand of his pu.
PHI. Koets,, yet we cannot read with,
out regret the list Of them. as we'll us
of his exquisite subject pictures, which
M. Hofstede de Groot's researches
have enabled us to make. We may
even regard with relative equanimity
the disappearance of Nicholas Pous
SIMS ''Rinaldo and Armida." But or
quite another plane is the mystery Of
the portraits which Leonardo da Vine
painted for Ludovico Sforza and which
vanished into thin air as completely
as his "Mona Lisa" a couple of years
ago.
The jocund lady re-emerged into the
light of day, but the Ludovico por
traits are practically beyond hope
unless perchance even now. unsuspect
ed of their identity, they are decorat
ing the upper corridors of some grea'
3 house (mines Of unexplored wealth
or the back storerooms of minor deal
ers.-New York Press.
Caesar Used Elephants In Britain.
Tradition has it that Caesar brough
CLAIMANTS with him tn Rritain ant