Evening star., 1945-09-09
'TheArt
Word
Rosenwald Collection
Is Richly Augmented
At National Gallery
By Florence S. Bergman.

repositories of graphic arts 1t opens
this afternoon an exhibition of about
100 outstanding prints and drawings,
comprising cross section of new
acquisitions in the Rosenwald COL
lection. The original gift, made in
March, 1943, added about 10000
superb works to the gallerys small
but distinguished collection of
graphic arts. Since that time,
through the generosity of Lessing j..
Rosenwald, 1884 prints and draw
ings have been added.
The new exhibition is arranged
chronologically from the 18th CEN
tury to the present, in order to dis
play some of the significant new
gifts in each period. The 18th GEN.
tury material, which was unusually
strong in the original gift, has an
outstanding addition in set of SO
Italian woodcut playing cards. APP
parently unique and undescribed,
this set was recently discovered in
side a binding of volume of Fuse
bius' "Chronicon" which was print
ed in Venice in 1888 The playing
cards, printed on sheets and not cut
apart, were made in Venice about
1470 and constitute the second Ital-
ian set known in point of time. The
Vatican library has the earliest re-
corded cards, composing an Easter
table dated 1866. 1t is the work of
an unknown French artist.
XVI Century Prints
The great 10th century is repre-
sented with prints by the Master
E. S., Schongauer, Durer, Lucas van
Leyden, Montagna and Giovanni da
Brescia. Of several engravings by
the Dutch master Van Leyden, there
is an exceptionally fine impression
of THE Poet Virgil Suspended in A
Basket This is entirely medieval.
Although ostensibly depicting an ep-
isode in the Roman poets life, the
print actually represents a legend
which originated in the Middle Ages.
About II centuries after Virgils
death. he acquired widespread pop
ularity, not for his real gifts as
poet, but for his supposed skill as
a magician A large number OF fan
tastic legends grew up around his
name, one of which Van Leyden de-
picts-a lady kept Virgil suspended
in a basket. to avenge which indig-
nity he caused all the fires in the
city to be extinguished. We see. in
this engraving, not Roman city OF
the 1st century BIC. but a Dutch
CITY of 1925 or thereabouts, and the
peoplain the streets, worrying about
their fires, are Van Leyden's con-
temporaries. The same is true of
his engraving, Joseph Telling His
Dreams" which has no connection
with the Bible, save its title.
In fact, an outstanding charm OF
many of these old prints (quite
apart from their Importance in the
history of print-making and their
revelations of the artists mastery
of media) lies in their authentic
glimpses of their respective periods,
people, costumes, cities, landscapes,
beliefs. One bay of the exhibition
is devoted to examples of landscape
etchings made in the 18th century
by Hirschvogel and Lautensack.
One Of the latter's works is entitled
Flight Into Egype," with the
Holy Family constituting only a
small detail. The subject gave
Lautensack an opportunity to depict
the lovely countryside along the
Danube, with handsome medieval
cities in the distance His Land
scape With a Winding River" a
beautiful work. will doubtless make
most visitors long for vacation in
the country And what an in
triguing glimpse of home of four
centuries ago we get in HirschvogeI S
Castle Yard dated 1916.
The National Gallery staff stresses
the fact that these prints are sell
dom to be found in such brilliant
crisp impressions. Indeed, the ex-
cenent. condition of all the prints is
so uniform that visitors may over
look it entirely. Mr. Rosenwald has
spurned examples. however rare, il
they were badly damaged, faded OF
printed after the plate had become
worn and details lost.
XVII Century Prints
Diversity in subject and style
gives great interest to the group
of 18th century prints representing
many schools. Among them are
two very rare etchings in early
states by Van Dyck: Christ
Crowned With Thorns" and Titan
and His Mistress" He made only
a few etchings, but such is their
quality that they placed him in the
foremost ranks of printmakers
Rembrandt and several Italians and
French masters are represented
Six little genre etchings by Van
Cstads are also among the arresting
items in the 18th century group.
.ngland's 18th century, as COM
pretended in the original Rosen-
wald gift, has been greatly strength
ened by two nearly complete COL
lections of the political and social
caricatures of Rowlandson and
Hogarth, along with the famous set
of Cries of London" after Wheatley
The first two provide an uninhibited
panorama of the seamy side of the
Georgian period. Still another
aspect of that time is seen in five
large, simple pencil sketches by the
mystic, religious William Blake, in.
tended as illustrations for the 'Bool
of Enoch," but never carried out a.
such.
French color printmakers of th'
18th century are beautifully repre-
sented in large. richly colored aqua
tints by Jean Francois Janinet
DISCOUNTS and others. Many visitor
will particularly covet these TO
their decorative qualities.
A varied group of prints by mod
ern artists brings the exhibition III
to the present and provides startling
contrast to the works of the earle
centuries. Picasso, Roualt an
Braque represent the French schoo
Miro the Spanish, Nolde and Beck
mann introduce the German ex
pressionists, and there are severa
na.<>y,or>orarv ,MeYicans the Enc