The Washington herald., 1922-09-24


pieces Of sculpture in the John Bar
ton Payne collection in the Con-
federate Memorial Institute. or
Battle Abbey. in Richmond. we
will now take up some Of the older
artists there.
The donor of this collection. John
Barton Payne. lives in Washington
but is at present in Europe. HIS
friend and fellow-artist. Arthur
Dawson. arranged the collection.
We fnd here one picture Of the
American school. This Is portrait
by Chester Harding Of James Bar
bour. This one-time governor
wished his epitaph to speak Of him
only as The Originator Of the
Literary Fund" out OF all his
varied and public-spirited activ-
tiles. He was a United states SEN
ator. being elected at the age Of
40.
Guido's "Magdalen.o
But let US see what is to be found
here by the older masters. We are
attracted at once to a Guido REM
"Msgdalen." This is one CT many
Magdalens attributed to the Bolog-
nese painter. and. while they were
not among his best works, still they
are in his typical style. and there
is no mistaking one of them FOR
the work of anyone except Rent
or one OF his follows. The soft
beauty OF form of his Madonnas is
seen in this picture.
A Holy Family" OF Andrea del
sarto is the only painting we have
from the FIorentine school. which
has been classed with those Of
Athens and Venice as the three per
feet schools OF painting. Charsc-
teristic of the mature period of his
activities. from this picture we can
easily see how he came to be called
The FauItIess Painter" As we
gaze at the pure beauty of form in
It's figures. with :heir dark Italian
flesh tints. we can not help think
ing Of the strange. sad life Of del
Sarto In his later years. as told by
his contemporaries, and emphasized
in Browning's Andrea del Sarto,
Called the FauItless Painter"
The Battle Abbey picture by del
sarto represents St. John and the
Infant Jesus. with their two
mothers. and with St. Joseph in the
background. The children and
Mary have some OF the perfection
Of form and expression Of the
Madonna Of the Harpies." but not
in so great a degree. The com.
position is very pleasing. Two
small children on their mothers
knees. and an old man in the back
ground, make a group that is hard
to handle. but del Sarto has done
IT very finely.
Next to the Florentine School in
nure art. and better still in color
ing. was the old Venetian School.
In the collection under discussion
there is a Grand Canal. Venice.
bv Canal Antonio, called Canaletto.
Born in Venice in 1897, he died at
the age of Il. His early study was
that Of his later years. paintings
Of the magnificent palaces and edi-
hces along the canals Of his native
city.
Among the early Flemish paint
ers. We have examples from Peter
Paul Rubens and Cornelis Saftle-
hen. The one by the latter artist
is Death. the Reaper. This is
evidently one Of the most serious
and ambitious works o. the artist.
whose paintings mostly ~epTescntei
interior scenes. poultry. and domes-
tic subjects. including Concert
of Cats" with an owl leading, in
the cologne Museum. The paint
Ing came to Judge Payne through
Mr.. Berghoffer OF Chicago. who
nurchased II from the Hawkins
collection in New Orleans.
..Tribute to the Army" \
The larger. though no. the more
valuable, Of the two works by Ru-
bens is the Tribute to the Army"
Among the various representations
Of sacred and prOfane history he
frequently painted a series of the
same subject. The Mars-like war
rior Is the same as in the picture
Of Mars Going to War" in the Ma
tionaI Gallery. The picture is
painted on copper. and was pur-
chased by judge Payne. at Pau,
while on a holiday trip in Europe.
The other Pubens is The Rescue
Of St. Catharine by st. George.
This artist studied carefully the
works Of Titan and Paul Naronese
in Venice, and through this study
and his native talent he made him
self one of the greatest artists OF
all time. The st. George painting
was purchased by Judge Payne
from the Society of Belgian Artists.
To the earlier Renaissance period
In Bologna belonged Francesca
Francia. as Francesca di Marco
Raibolini was called. The paint
ing Of The Virgin and Child with
st. Anthony the Hermit and an
Angel has the soft. fine Old-ltalian
coIoring. and the long spirituelle
faces Of the period. Though we
have no dates on the painting of
most OF these pictures. this one by
Francia Is probably the earliest one
in the collection.
There are at least fifteen distinct
schools represented in the Payne
collection. The American School
has the greatest number of eX-
TchernikOff to Dance
n TI Enf1