. The study and criticism of Italian art : second series. aps we should considerthis drawing chiefly as a study of drapery. As suchit lacks little of perfection. How the folds flutter asshe dances ; and yet they mould the form underthem, the breasts, the waist, the hips, each with itsutmost plasticity ! Apply the test from which master-pieces alone emerge: imagine this sheet torn totatters; like fragments of great Greek art, everyshred would betray its value and function, conjuringup the whole. The Allegory is as elaborate in execution as itis enigmatical in intention. Is the king in hisbloate
. The study and criticism of Italian art : second series. aps we should considerthis drawing chiefly as a study of drapery. As suchit lacks little of perfection. How the folds flutter asshe dances ; and yet they mould the form underthem, the breasts, the waist, the hips, each with itsutmost plasticity ! Apply the test from which master-pieces alone emerge: imagine this sheet torn totatters; like fragments of great Greek art, everyshred would betray its value and function, conjuringup the whole. The Allegory is as elaborate in execution as itis enigmatical in intention. Is the king in hisbloated nakedness esconced on a globe kept firm bysphinzes, Emperor of the Fools, or is he Midas ? Isthe hag beside him Envy, and the bandaged maidJustice ? And what may be the meaning of the 1 She has been transferred with but little change of action tothe Parnassus, where, however, she figures as Venus. Draperyand head apart, the Venus here is in figure and movement almostidentical with the Uffizi Judith, which, as we remember, isdated 1491. ANDREA MANTEGNA. Bruckmanu photo.~\ DRAWING OF A MUSE [Munich. ANDREA MANTEGNA 61 other group : the nude girl about to leap over theprecipitous wall ; the dancing faun; the pipingsatyr, and the uncanny figure led by a crawling dog,his own head wrapped in a handkerchief tied aroundhis neck, as we tie a rag over a stopper? He ofcourse is Blindness; but what does it all signify P1 Fortunately our purpose is not the guessing ofcharades, but the appreciation of the work of art,and as a work of art the Allegory is not judge it at its full value we should regard it notas the hot transcript of a dazzling idea, but as awork finished even to the finger-nail ; whereupon ittakes rank among Mantegnas masterpieces. Thefirmness of the modelling, the loading of the limbs,the pressure upon the joints, are one and all directlyforce-communicating. Much is here sacrificed tocontour; but the beauty of the outlines almostweans one from that fusion of form
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectartital, bookyear1902
