Evening star., 1941-08-31

pCOplCS dIIu dSCS, uIlc ClSlQ Mu6cuIfl,
Chicago, wherein are finely dis
played Malvina Hoffman's interpre-
tations of the Races of Mankind" :"
and recently the Walters Gallery,
Baltimore, with exhibits illustrating
the history of the art.
To these may now be added our
National Gallery of Art, wherein,
sculpture, because of very skillful
and beautiful arrangement, takes
its appropriate place with world
masterpieces in painting, compile
menting and supplementing them
as it properly should. For the most
part. the sculpture in the National
Gallery was produced in Italy dur
ing the Renaissance, and so ampli-
f1es the paintings made during the
same period, in which the gallery is
so superlatively rich. Like the paint
ings, they were collected and given
by Andrew w. Mellon and Samuel
Kress, the latter, after his great
gift was made, having added several
additional works. nominally as tenn
porary loans. The catalog numbers
run to something over so, to which
the loans and most recent acqulSl-
tions must be added. Seventeen OF
the sculptures which Mr.. Mellon
gave came from the famous collec-
ton of the late Gustave DreyfuS OF
Paris, to whom their pursuit and
ACQUISITION had been a lifetime
passion, while those presented by
Mr.. Kress were gathered as oppor-
tunity offered, here in America, as
we'll as abroad, and are likewise
fully authenticated and pedigreed.
Enchanting Figure.
The visitor to the National Gal
lery is introduced to the joy OF its
collections almost Immediately IN
entrance. being greeted by the en-
chanting figure of Mercury which
surmounts the fountain in the ro-
tunda and typifies for all time the
soaring of the spirit above mundane
things of earth-which is, as every
one knows. the reaction produced by
the arts, severally and collectively,
through the eye, the ear, the emo
tions and the intellect, when one is
sympathetic and understanding.
The sculptor of this buoyant.
graceful figure in bronze, poised on a
gust blown from the mouth OF a
wind god, as if in the act of ascend
ing. was Giovanni Bologna, who was
born in Douai, Flemish stronghold,
in 1924, and, after living most of his
life in Italy, to which country he
journeyed at the age of 80, died in
1903. He is, therefore, numbered
with the Florentines, but consti-
tutes an additional tie between
art of Italy and that of Flanders.
There are two other versions of the
Mercury by this same sculptor, one
In the Bargello, Florence, and the
other in the Louvre, Paris. This one
came to Washington via Rome and
San Marino, Calf, it having been
brought to America by the late
Henry E. Huntington. The last
thing the visitor will think of this
piece of sculpture is that it is IAN
exhibit" so completely does it seem
an essential part of its surroundings
That it is by no means dwarfed by
IT'S environment. the circle OF COL
INNS by which the fountain is sur
rounded, the height of the dome, is
evidence of its artistic worth, the
perfection of artistic skill ever main
tanning balance of power when
weighed against bulk. or size.
In the long, stately halls which
extend east and west from the ro-
tunda to the garden courts, certain
pieces of sculpture have been placed;
such as, in that to the west, two
bronzes by Jacopo Sansovino OF the
Florentine- Venetian School, 1896
1870. One of these is figure OF
Venus Anadyomene, the other rep
resents Bacchus and Young Fawn'
Both works date from the artists
Florence-Rome period and are class
ical in feeling and not little ren1i-
niscent of the colorful Venetian
painting of the time. Bonaparte, in
1897, confscated both these works
and. taking them to Paris, set them
up in the Palais Royal. In 1871, a
fire occurred therein, and the Venus
was thrown from window to the
ground with slight resultant per-
sonal injury and the loss of dol
phin at her feet; but the damage
was not irreparable, nor the dolphin
essential. and here she and gay Bac-
chus and Faun now are for our own
delectation.
There is something very modern
about both these bronzes and, at the
same time, essentially of all time
The treatment is naturalistic, a BIT