The study and criticism of Italian art . der solicitude for our conversionconveyed by the ascetic Baptist, the prelatical de-termination depicted in the concentrated figure ofAnthony Abbot, the youthful candour of the gooddeacon Lawrence, and the skyey height of thedolorously patient Sebastian pierced with arrows,the severe simplicity of these figures as patterns,and their deep yet glowing colour, affected mepowerfully. At that time they familiarized me withthe name of Alvise Vivarini, and it is perhaps dueto them that I began to take so great an interest inthat painter. It had, as yet, scarce
The study and criticism of Italian art . der solicitude for our conversionconveyed by the ascetic Baptist, the prelatical de-termination depicted in the concentrated figure ofAnthony Abbot, the youthful candour of the gooddeacon Lawrence, and the skyey height of thedolorously patient Sebastian pierced with arrows,the severe simplicity of these figures as patterns,and their deep yet glowing colour, affected mepowerfully. At that time they familiarized me withthe name of Alvise Vivarini, and it is perhaps dueto them that I began to take so great an interest inthat painter. It had, as yet, scarcely occurred to me to questionattributions, unless they were flagrantly inconsistentwith the little knowledge I had already , when I had learnt to test every attributionseverely, I questioned this particular one feebly,because, by that time, the Bagatti-Valsecchi had taken rank in my mind as the standardwork of Alvise, and I found a certain correspond-ence, as indeed there is, between her and these 62 wpq oo oc p. FOUR BELLINESQUE TRIPTYCHS 63 Saints. I was not blind to difficulties, but I got ridof most of them by placing the Saints in some asyet unknown early phase of Alvises career. For itshould be remembered that at that time we sup-posed Alvise to have been born considerably earlierthan the date now established. So much was still tobe explored and mapped out! There was always thehope of coming across works that might serve asconnecting links between these Saints and Alvisesearliest signed and dated work, the polyptych ofMontefiorentino. And there I left these panels, until a little whileago, when, after twenty years, I could again give un-divided attention to the Venetians. But meanwhile various things had happened. Onthe one hand, Prof. Paoletti had proved that thesefour figures were not, as I had supposed, isolated waifsand strays, but had formed, along with others whichhe succeeded in identifying, four triptychs paintedbefore August 1471, for the
Size: 1550px × 1611px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubje, booksubjectartitalian
