. The painters of the school of Ferrara. treatment of landscape, with its playof light and shadow amidst the quivering foliage ofwoods and forests, fascinated his contemporaries evenas it does ourselves. At times, the very trees seemimbued with a mysterious poetry, as though themselvesimpregnated with the fantastic or solemn nature of thescene over which they watch, taking life almost as inRossettis Song of the Bower, where :— The trees wave their heads with an omen to tell. Among Dosso*s earliest pictures are the Nymphand Satyr of the Pitti, formerly attributed toGiorgione, and, perhaps, Mr.
. The painters of the school of Ferrara. treatment of landscape, with its playof light and shadow amidst the quivering foliage ofwoods and forests, fascinated his contemporaries evenas it does ourselves. At times, the very trees seemimbued with a mysterious poetry, as though themselvesimpregnated with the fantastic or solemn nature of thescene over which they watch, taking life almost as inRossettis Song of the Bower, where :— The trees wave their heads with an omen to tell. Among Dosso*s earliest pictures are the Nymphand Satyr of the Pitti, formerly attributed toGiorgione, and, perhaps, Mr. Bensons Circe alreadymentioned. The beautiful St. Sebastian, now in theBrera, was painted for a church in Cremona, possiblyduring the artists residence at Mantua. Mr. Berensonis, I doubt not, right in regarding as a comparativelyearly work of Dossos the smaller Immaculate Con-ception at Dresden (usually erroneously called the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, or, no less ques-tionably, the Four Church Fathers ) : one of those » » .. .titlfdS DOSSO Dossi THE JESTER To face page 15u DOSSO AND BATTISTA DOSSI 151 pictures in which, as very frequently with this painter, the groups are so arranged that, in looking at thelandscape, one seems to be looking out upon it fromwithin a cavern. ^ In this beautiful picture, thegolden-haired, white-robed Madonna kneels on theclouds before the Eternal Father, who is about totouch her head with the mystical wand, the sceptre ofAhasuerus. Below in a garden, beyond which isDossos characteristic landscape with its little Italiantown, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Ambroseanticipate the discussion of the mystery, while , seated apart, actually beholds it with assuredcertitude.^ The whole rendering of the theme is farmore poetical than in Dossos later treatment of thesubject, the one unsatisfactory passage being the banalfigure of the Eternal Father, who, as Signor Venturiremarks, has the attitude of a music-master.^ Accord-ing
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