HAN DBOO K

OF THE B ENJ A M I N A LTM AN COLL ECT I ON

I OL D WO MAN CUTT I N G H E R NA I LS

By Remb randt T H E M E T R O P O L I T A N M U S E U M l‘ O F A R T

HANDBOOK OF BENJAMIN ALTM COLLECTION

N EW Y O R K

N O V E M B E R M C M ' I V

Tabl e of Conte nts

PA G E LIST OF I LLUSTRATION S I NTRODUCTION

HAN D BOO K

GALLERY ON E Dutcb P a intings

GALLERY Tw o P a intings of Va r i o us

’ Go l dsmitbs Wo rk

Enamel s

Crysta l s GALLERI ES TH REE AN D FOUR Chinese P o rce l a i ns Snufi Bo ttl es Lacquers GALLERY FIVE Scripture Rugs Tap estr i e s Fu rn iture Misce l l aneo us Objects

891

List of Il l ustrations

Ol d Woman Cut t ing her Nail s By Rembrandt The Lady wi t h a Pink By Rembrandt The Man wi t h a Magnifying-Glass By Rembrandt

An Ol d Woman i n an Arm-Chai r By Rembrandt Toilet o f Bathsheba after the Bath By R embrandt

Young Gi rl Peeling an Apple By Nicol aes M aes

The Merry Company By Frans Hal s

Yonke r Ramp and his Sweet hea rt By Frans Hal s

Philip I V o f Spain By Diego Vel a zque z

Luca s van Uff el By A nthony Van Dyck Portrait o f a Man By Giorgione

M argaret Wyatt , Lady Lee By Hans Hol be in the Yo unger v iii L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S

Th e Holy Family By A ndrea M a ntegna

The Last Communion of Saint J e rome By Bo tt icel l i

’ Borso d Est e By Cosimo Tura Portrait of a Man By Dirk Bou ts

The Betrothal o f Sai nt Catheri ne By Hans M e ml i ng

Portrait o f an Ol d Man By Hans Meml ing Triptych

M l anese l ate teenth centur i , fif y

o f d Cup gol and enamel , called the Ros pigl io si Coupe By Benvenuto Cel l ini Triptych o f Limoges Enamel By Na rdon P enicaud

Candlesticks o f Rock Crystal and Silver Gilt

German sixtee nth ce ntur , y

Ta zz a o f Rock Crystal and E nameled Gold

Ital ian s xtee nth centur , i y Portable Holy Water Stoup

Ital an s xtee nth ce ntur i , i y Ewer of Smoke Color Rock Crystal

German s xtee nth centur , i y Rose Water Vase o f Rock Crystal

Ital an s xteenth ce ntur i , i y L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S ix

FAC ING PAG E — Cylindrical Vase of Garniture No s . 1 5 ’ — Fam l l e No ire 1662 1 2 2 i , K ang H si ( 7 )

1— Covered J ar o f Garniture Nos . 5 ’ — Fam l l e No re 1662 1 2 2 i i , K ang Hsi ( 7 ) — Covered j ar of Garni ture Nos . 1 5 ’ — Fam l l e No ire 1662 1 22 i , K ang H si ( 7 )

Y in . I Goddess Kuan , No 7 M ing Dynasty ( I 368 I64 3) Vases Famil l e aune j , ’ K ang H si ( I662— I 72 2 )

. 12 Hawthorn Vase , No ’ — Fam l l e Verte 1662 1 2 2 i , K ang H si ( 7 ) Plate ’ — Fam l l e Verte Hsi 1662 I 2 2 i , K ang ( 7 ) Bust of a Y oung Man By Hans Til man Riemenschne ider Charity By j acopo Sansovino The Madonna and Child By Luca del l a Ro bbia The Y oung Saint John Baptist By M ino da Fiesol e Peace By Al essandro Vittor i a Madonna and Child By A ntonio Ro ssel l ino

Th e Bather By j ean A nto ine Houdon L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S

FAC IN G P AC E 7 5 The I ntoxication of Wine

B Cl aude M chel cal l ed Cl odio y i , n

No . 86 Rug

Centra l P ers an a bo ut 1 80 i , 5

No . 88 Silk Animal Rug

Centra l P ers an l ast hal o six i , f f teenth century

Part of a Rug , Flower and Trellis Design

Ind an a bou t 1 80 i , 5 Prayer Rug with I nscription from the Koran

North P ersian a bout 1 80 , 5 f . 80 o No Tapestry , Adoration the Magi

Fl em sh earl s xteenth centu r i , y i y I nfant Christ Symbolizing His Sacri fic e

Late Go th c end o teenth ce ntur i , f fif y

No . 99 Cabinet

Frenc h R enaissance Cabinet French Rena i ssance Table French Rena i ssance Chair

En l sh l ate seventeenth centur g i , y T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N xi

Introduction

HE collection described in this Handbook was T bequeathed t o the M useum by Benjamin wh o Y Altman , died a t his home in New ork m o f 1 I . o n the seventh October, 9 3 Whether fro a

o r pecuniary an educational standpoint , i t consti t ut e s the greatest gift ever made by an individual

t o f o r o f the M useum , notable alike the wide range interest i t embraces and the uniformly high quality o f its contents in whatever branch o f art they rep

resent . ’ t I t was M r . Altman s ambition t o leave o the people o f the city with which his success in life h ad

fi f o r been identi ed , thei r perpetual use and enjoy

o f o f o f ment , a collection works art the highest

possible standard . With this end steadily in view he acquired the treasures through which he became o ne of the most famous collectors o f his day ; and the intelligence as well as the energy with which his ambition was fulfilled speak for themselves in f the result . I t is an assemblage o masterpieces such as would have been thought impossible a generation xii I N T R O D U C T I O N

n o ne ago to bri g together in this country , and which from the nature of i ts material will be equally at

t o tractive to the public and connoisseurs .

o n 12 M r . Altman was born in this city j ul y , 18 0 o f o ne 4 . The story his life is a simple , and may be briefly summed up as that o f an unremitting devotion t o business from the time when he was l o n twelve years o l d until his death . During this g period he allowed himself but three real interrup

1 — o f tions t o his work . I n 888 89 he made a tour S the world , and his tay in Paris at the end of i t t o Y being curtailed by a call back New ork , he returned there for several months about a year later .

In I 0 9 9 he again visited Europe , but the visit was no longer than an ordinary summer vacation . The se details are more than usually interesting because they show how slight was his acquaint ance with the masterpieces in the great foreign museums ; and as he was almost as unfamiliar with the public and private collections o f his own coun it o f try , is clear that his love for works art , and his desire to collect them , grew from a native instinct rather than from constant association o r a trained knowledge of the subject . He made no pretension to being a connoisseur , but he had to an exceptional degree a flair for fine quality , and i t was this which guided his collecting and made his collection what he left it . To be sure , he constantly sought the advice o f the experts in whom he had confidence in regard t o purchases which he proposed to make , and if they did not approve he would not buy , no matter I N T R O D U C T I O N xiii

h o w much he personally liked the object . Some

an times their disapproval followed actual purchase , in which case the object in question was heroi“cally withdrawn from what he called specifically his co l ” o f o r e lection , and either disposed placed elsewher

. O e i n his house n the other hand , however, not ven an authority in whom he had the utmost confidence could persuade him t o buy a thing which he did not himse lf like , no matter what its importance was

t o no t represented be , and thus his collection only

o wn t o reflected his taste , but acquired a large extent the ha rmony and individuality which he claimed for it , and which made him wish to have i t kept together perpetually .

’

. n 1882 M r Altman s career as a collector bega in , with the purchase o f a pair o f Chinese enamel vases which , for sentimental reasons , he always retained

o f as the beginning a great undertaking , and they are now exhibited with the collection , in GALLERY

C . I 3 , ASE M n the years that followed his tastes e o f vari d , and the character his collection changed accordingly . Chinese porcelains he began to acquire early , and he retained to the last his interest in

no w se e . these , with the wonderful results that we j apanese lacquers were at one period a favorite , but his interest in these was not long maintained .

t o Those that he left were bequeathed the M useum , ” but not as a part o f the collection properly speak ing , though they are a t present exhibited with i t .

For a time he purchased American paintings , and

o f though he afterward disposed these , hi s i nter xiv I N T R O D U C T I O N est in American art is shown by his bequest t o the National Academy o f Design o f o ne hundred thousand dollars t o provide a fund f o r prizes . Then came paintings o f the Barbizon school and

o f a few English paintings , all which were finally

o ut o f n 18 ruled the collectio , and in 93 he purchased the splendid Renaissance crystals of the Spitzer

Collection .

The final stage in his collecting , however , which

1 0 marked i ts zenith , began in 9 5 with the trans

o f ference his residence to his Fifth Avenue house , which was t o include his famous gallery . At that time he owned but two Old Masters— Rembrandt ’ s

o f Man with a Steel Gorget , and the j onker Ramp

. o ne Frans Hals I t is an amazing fact , and well

o f al l worthy record , that with these exceptions the

no w al l paintings in the collection , as well as the

o f sculptures and many the other objects , were acquired by M r . Altman during the last eight years — of his life a period during which his business cares n and respo sibilities were constantly increasing , while at the same time he was handicapped by the illness to which he fi nally succumbed . The Handbook has been prepared by members of f the M useum sta f . The paintings are described by

B B o f ryson urroughs , Curator of the Departmen t

Paintings , the sculptures and other objects by Durr

rie dl e o f o f F y , Acting Curator the Department Deco i f ra t v e . o Arts , and William M Milliken the same department , the latter having contributed the por tions relating t o crystals and enamels . For a fuller

Gall e ry One

D utch

T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

Gal l e ry One

Dutcb Paintings

I GALLERY ON E t h e seventeenth-century Dutch o f t h e pictures are exhibited . Five thirteen Rembrandts which t h e collection contains are

o h e H t o ur placed n t NORT WALL , and with hese

t h e notes begin , each painting being treated in

o f order placing , commencing with the work nearest h t h e door opposite t e entrance , and proceeding to the left .

OLD WOM AN C UTT I NG H E R NAILS By Rembrandt — 1606 1669

o f This , the most remarkable all the pictures in

’ e o f the room , is an xample Rembrandt s l at e t ime

t h e ( date , somewhat abraded , is i t manifests the breadth and beauty o f his painting a t what t o seems us today his greatest period , and shows a t o o f lso the full the intellectual quality this time , 4 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

n n the profou d insight i to human experience , that his work took o n after fortune and popular favor had passed away from him . I t was the year o f the forced sale o f his precious collection (itemized in

t o the inventory which has come down us) , pictures , n n e gravi gs , sculptures , armor and costumes , “stuffed - a- animals , bric brac , and the like , and the fifteen ” books o f various sizes —the things he had brought f together during the time o his prosperity . In 1658al l his possessions were o f necessity sold ” Val e nt ine r at auction , says Wilhelm , yet in this

t h e same year he produced several of pictures which ,

o f compromising least with the claims the actual ,

h is o wn o wn most clearly reveal conceptions , his f vision of the world . Such are the portrait o him self in the Frick Collection and that portrait of Titus i n the Altman Collection which has mistakenly

so been called H aring the Auctioneer . As in these , also in the Woman Trimming Her Nails , his art is

’ o f Rembrandt s comforter, the expression his self

o f . deliverance , the voice his most lofty idealism I t i s a painting o f an old woman poorly dressed wh o stops her work to cut her nails . Every part of the picture , but in particular the old , furrowed face , ff the sti , bony hands , the worn body inside the coarse clothing are made indicative of the sympathy the painter felt , not for his model alone , but for all humanity . All seems to have been analyzed for what it contains that is expressive and significant

so o n o l d toward this end , that the work is a poem age in which the verses are color and light and G A L L E R Y O N E — D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 5

’ Val e nt ine r s o l d shadow . I n Dr . interpretation the woman has been transformed into a sibyl far re

o f - moved from the commonplaces every day life ,

o f and this is equally just , as the ends realism and f idealism meet in pictures o this calibre .

It s 1 history is uncertain before 779, when i t was

o f in the collection I ngham Foster in England . I t i i ff . B b k o o f was bought and taken to Russia by M r , l . M a sa o fi . s St Petersburg , from whom i t passed to M r , I in Moscow . n recent times i t belonged to Rodolphe Kann and was bought when the Kann Collection was disposed of in Paris in 1907 .

TH E LA DY W I T H A P I N K By Rembrandt 1606— 1669

so - This painting and Number 4 , the called M an

- with a Magnifying glass , are companion pieces . l i h o f . Va e nt ne r w o On the authority Dr , has made conspicuously successful studies in the matter o f

’ the identification o f the portraits o f the painter s family , they represent M agdalena van Loo and her

so n o f and husband , Titus , the Rembrandt , were

1 painted soon after their marriage in 668. Dr . Val e nt ine r writes o f them as follows ' She was the

o f an Loo daughter two of his oldest friends , j van S the ilversmith and Anna H uybrechts , whose por

o f traits he also painted . On the tenth February,

1668 a e , Titus was married to Magdalena , whose g , 6 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C TI O N

- twenty seven , was the same as his o wn . One won

so ders why the union was long postponed . Rem brandt and An na Huybrechts were present a t the

’ ceremony . Magdalena s father was no longer liv

ing . So perhaps i t was he who had caused the long

delay . I t is the married pair that appea r in the companion portraits of Titus and Magdalena in the

Altman Collection , which date most probably from

o f the summer 1668. Titus holds a ri ng (not a mag nif in - y g glass , as has often been said) and Magda lena has a flower in her hand I t is remarkable how near to Rembrandt ’ s own death fell those of the members of his family . Titus

1668 died in September, , Rembrandt himself on the

166 fourth of October , 9; Anna Huybrechts must have

and n f died shortly before him , Magdale a ollowed on ” - the twenty first o f October . The only recorded remark of interest or solicitude

’ on the occasion o f Rembrandt s death was made by

Magdalena . She i s reported to have said , I hope

’ Father has not taken Cornelia s gol d pieces , the half ” o f which were to come to me . This Cornelia was

’ St o fle l s Rembrandt s daughter by Hendrickje , who was with Titus the heir to a sum of money which

’ was in Rembrandt s charge . The person in our portrai t appears Older than the

- l i a e n ne r . twenty seven years Dr . V t gives her One

sa sh e n would y was nearer forty , but Rembra dt was not always careful to give to his sitters thei r proper age , as is known from several documented cases . These pictures have remained together as far as

G A L L E R Y O N E — D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 7

- fi is known up to the last twenty v e years . They ’ d Oul t re mo nt were in the collection o f Comte Ferd . B Se de l m e e r in russels , who sold them to Charles y ,

188 of Paris , in 9, francs being paid for the

Lady with a Pink . I t later passed into the pos

o f session Rodolphe Kann , at whose death M aurice B Kann acquired i t . oth pictures were bought by f o u o . M r . Altman t this latter collection

3 P I LAT E WAS H I NG HIS H AN DS By Rembra ndt — 1606 1669

The Pilate o f the Altman Collection sets forth the tragedy o f o l d age no longer willing o r able to cope with forces stronger than itself . Outside the place where Pilate sits i s the clamoring populace , watching him , clashing i ts weapons , determined not to be balked o f its prey . And Pilate yields but

o f n n S washes his hands as a symbol i noce ce , a ign

’ that he does not give his assent . Thus Rembrandt s

o f sc e neg as o ne version the far as I know , the only that he attempted— diff ers materially from the tra

i io n l d t a version in which Christ 15 always present . Rembrandt did not want two principal figures in his drama and , characteristically , left out the Christ

o f to make the aged Pilate the tragic hero . The action is entirely between Pilate and the populace

. As and , moreover, is but incidentally indicated we often find in the work of an artist ’ s late years 8 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C TI O N

o r o f of a Shakespeare a Goethe in literature , a — Beethoven in music the focus o f the action is an

accessory , an almost trivial , inciden t . The washing

of the hands i s ceremoniously depicted . The most

prominent figure is a splendidly dressed boy who , with a richly embroidered napkin thrown over his

shoulder , is pouring water from a golden ewer upon

’ Pilate s hands . H e has nothing whatever to do f with the emotional content o the drama . I n the figure Of Pilate himself the brocaded mantle is al most more noticeable than the head . Nor is the significance made clear o f the o l d man behind him

re who , with his white beard and his headband ,

’ n minds us o f Rembra dt s Homeric figures . He seems to be one of those dumb spectators that were introduced into some of the other pictures of Rem

’ brandt s old age , like the Prodigal Son at St . Peters n burg , merely to supply a co trast to that chief personage whose soul is torn by conflicting emo

I o f . n tions the figure Pilate , however, this con

flic t . is scarcely more than suggested I n fact , there is nothi ng left o f the dram atic passion of

’ Rembrandt s youth . All animated expression of emotion is foregone . Pilate , seeming but half con

o f o f scious the voices those who are nearest him , his exhausted will -power swayed by indefinite sug

sur gestions , bends his head in dumb and tired render . What the picture expresses is the twilight mood o f one who has already almost passed out of

u flarin life , a last p g of dulled but predominantly n tragic emotio s , a speechless brooding in which the 4 THE MAN W I T H A MAGN I F Y I N G -G LASS

By Rembrandt

G A L L E R Y O N E — D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 9 confused clangor of arms seems to sound from a far ” distance . ’ al e nt ine r s o f This is Dr . V interpretation the pic ture and al l that i t is nece ssary t o add is its history

so far as i t is known . I t comes from the collection o f B Lord Palmerston , in roadlands , where i t was in

e t o - 1794 . I t later belong d Lord Mount Temple in S l . e de the same place , and was bought by M r

o f meyer, the Paris dealer, in the late years the last t o century , and sold Rodolphe Kann , from whose collection M r . Altman purchased i t with eight other paintings in 1907 .

4

TH E MAN W I T H A M AGN I FY I NG -G LASS By R embrandt — 1606 1669

o n 2 As has been said i n the note Number , The

o f Lady with a Pink , which i t i s the companion Val e n i . t ne picture , this work is believed by Dr r to

so n o f t o represent Titus , the Rembrandt , and have i 1 been painted n 668. There i s even a greater diff erence in this case between the apparent age of the sitter and that o f the person whom i t is said to

1668 - represent ; Titus died in , in his twenty eighth

o ur year, while the man in painting appears to be

-fiv e o r forty fifty at least .

When the Lady with a Pink was sold by M r .

Se de l m e e r t o 188 y Rodolphe Kann in 9, this picture was o f bought , at a price francs , by M aurice I O T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O c l l Kann , the brother of the latter, from whose o ec

. 1 0 B tion M r Altman acquired i t in 9 9. oth pictures

- were shown by M r . Altman at the Hudson Fulton

Exhibition at the M useum in the same year .

5

AN OLD WOM AN I N AN A RM -CH A I R By R e mbrandt 1606— 1669 This is the earliest of the five pictures on this

16 . wall . I t is dated 3 5 The subject was not prom i ising for a portrait , a plain old lady who would s t upright in her chai r in the attitude o f a peasant who poses for the village photographer, and who insisted on having herself shown with a pleasant expression . Rembrandt has made a great picture o f her , nevertheless , by the sheer force of his tech nic al power, the masterly unobtrusive drawing , the just and reasonable color, and the logical and easy handling . The uncompromising pose , in his hands , counts in the clarity of the characterization as much

- as the homely face , the gnarled , hard working hands , and the neat dress .

Val e nt ine r o f I t reminds Dr . Hals , who at the time of the picture was at Amsterdam pai nting some of his corporation groups , and whom Rem n bra dt emulated . The quality o f pure expression which Rembrandt manifests so supremely in the great pictures done for his own satisfaction is not apparent in this

u T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N l do ph e Kann Collection . I t formerly belonged to

E and . Secretan , in Paris , before that to the Comte

Po d st at z k B y , in ohemia .

7 YOUNG G I RL AS L E E P By j an Ve rmeer of De lft 1632— 167 5 As Vermeer ’ s life was short and his painting most deliberate and painstaking , he produced but few

- pictures . Some thirty eight i n all are known to ex

- o f ist at this time . Twenty one these were sold at auction i n Amsterdam i n 1696 among other paint

. 8 ings by various artists Number of this sale , cat al o gue d as A Drunken M aid Serva nt Asleep behind

62 flo rins. a Table , by Vermeer , fetched This is the

o ne f Altman picture . I t i s o eight authenticated

o f paintings by Vermeer now i n America , which two others are exhibi ted in the M arquand Gallery , The

Woman with a Water J ug , belonging to the M useum , and A Lady Writing , lent by j . Pierpont Morgan . Our picture shows a young girl asleep behind a

o n table covered with a Turkey rug , which are a n blue dish with fruit , a apkin , a jug , and a knife . O At the right is a door , half pen , leading to another room where a table i s seen with a small picture

o f hanging above i t . On the wall back the figure is

o f a picture representing Cupid , only a part which

’ o ne is shown . This is of Vermeer s belongings that

Be he utilized several times in his backgrounds . — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 13

sides i ts use in the Altman picture , i t occurs in A

Lady at a Spinet , which is in the National Gallery , and again in the Music Lesson , belonging to Henry

C . Frick .

’ Vermeer s supreme quality is his painting o f the

ff . cool , di used light of an ordinary room Each part of his pictures is steeped in light . Though every detail is insisted upon , his handling remains broad

o f and ample , and he attains a beauty smooth , lus trous surface that has never been exceeded .

’ Though counted among Rembrandt s pupils , he never studied directly with the master, having been

’ taught by Rembrandt s scholar , Carel Fabritius .

o f so The influence the great genius , which is apt to be crushing to the young artist , was far enough re moved in his case to enable him to follow his own trend , which he attained at an early age and varied iffi but slightly afterward . On this account it is d cult to assign a sequence to his production beyond

his earliest examples .

The picture was exhibited by M r . Altman at the

- 1 0 Hudson Fulton Celebration at the M useum in 9 9.

I t comes from the Rodolphe Kann Collection .

8 WH EAT F I ELDS By j a co b va n R uisdae l 1629— 1682

Dutch painters Ruisdael is the one wh o

his own country most nobly . He has its 14 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

o amplitude , its sadness , its almost glo my placidity , ” n its mo otonous and tranquil charm . I n these E words ugene Fromentin , whose contribution to the literature o n Dutch art is by far the most valu

o f able , begins the chapter the Old Masters which is concerned with this artist , whom he ranks next t o Rembrandt . Ruisdael was a painter o f land scapes only . I f a figure was necessary in the pic

o r tures , some friend , Adrian van de Velde another, was called upon for help . I n his prime he painted

o f suf scenes his native country ; in his later years , f e ring from the early blight which affected Dutch un art , he attempted more sensational subjects ,

t o — suited his nature torrents , mountain gorges , and the like— views for which he utilized the pictures and sketches o f other painters . His colors a re generally brown and green with

h e at fi l d s no grayish skies . The W e is t of the usual

o f sun sort , as the picture is lighted by a streak light and the colors are appropriate t o that effect . He sometimes painted the se a and wi nter scenes like the little picture which j ohn G . j ohnson lent

o - t the Hudson Fulton Exhibition , but his favorite themes are an undulating country with a winding

o f road , groups trees , forest scenes , and always wide stretches o f sky . No other painter has rendered the sky with such sympathy and understanding . o f Little is known his life except that , like the other great Dutch masters , he died in poverty and

o f neglect . His pictures tell us the sterling qualities ' the man possessed seriousness , probity , thoughtful — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 15 ‘ ness , an austere poetry , vir“tues often coupled wi th love o f the open country Did his fate vouchsafe him other th“ings to love than the clouds ? wonders nd Fromentin . A from which suffered he the more , if he suffered , the torment of painting well or the ” torment o f living? U nlike the work o f Rem brandt , in which can be read the desires and dis

’ t s o f R uisdae l s il l usio nme n his ardent life , pictures , o ur only archives , tell us merely how the painter felt in the presence o f the forms of nature which he created . The Wh e at fie l ds was o ne o f four pictures which

o ut o f u n M r . Altman acquired the Ma rice Ka n Collection in ParIs I n 1909 and i t was shown at the

- Hudson Fulton Exhibition in the same year . I t was formerly in the possession o f the Comte de

Colbert La Place .

9 TO I L ET OF B ATH S H E B A A FT E R TH E B ATH By Rembrandt 1606— 1669

Bathsheba l S seated o n a stone bench covered with carpets near a bathing pool in a garden .

o l d Squatting before her, an woman with spectacles

o e- trims her t nails , and a servant standing behind

her combs her hair . The light is concentrated o n

o f B the nude figure athsheba , and there are al l o f sorts glittering things nearby , a ewer, jewelry ,

and rich stuff s . I n the background is foliage open m T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N ing at the left where in the distance appears the n royal palace , wi th the dim figure of Ki g David on its roof . Two peacocks are in the shadow by the

o n steps which lead to the pool , and the stonework

1 is the signature Rembrandt Ft . and the date 643 . This is a famous picture and i ts history may be pretty closely followed from the early eighteenth

o f o f century . Here is a list the collections which i t is known to have formed a part , and the prices i t has fetched i n changing hands at public sales '

COLL ECTION SOLD IN

Will am Six Amst e r am 1 i d , 734 Am st e r am 1 0 He e r He n ric k . d d , 74 wie t e Th e Ha ue 1 Van Z n g , 743 Co mt e d e B ru h l Dres e n 1 6 d , 7 3 l in Paris 1 80 f rancs Po ul a , 7 Le Brun Par s 1 1 f rancs i , 79 Al exis d e l a Hant e Lo n o n 181 10 o un s d , 4 5 p d Sir T h o mas Lawre nc e Lo n o n 18 0 1 0 u ne as d , 3 5 g i L o n 18 1 1 uine as G . Ve rno n o n J . d , 3 5 3 g T Emm e rso n Lo n o n 18 2 2 0 uine as . d , 3 4 g Her s Co l o ne l d e Bire o f i ( , Brusse l s Paris 18 1 f ranc s ) , 4

St e e n rac h t Th e Ha ue Paris 1 1 f r n g ( g ) , 9 3 a c s

o f I t is a record a long wandering , from about ninety years after Rembrandt painted i t , up to its

’ journey s end here in t h e M useum . I t has passed

t o from Holland Germany , then to Paris , where two years before the Terror i t sold for francs

' t o n '24o . oo I t was taken E gland with many other works during the Revolution , stayed there for more

t o than sixty years before it returned Paris , and l thence returned to its o d home in Holland . Then 9 TOILET OF BATH S H E BA

By Remb randt

18 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O of this is proved by the fact that when certain B stories from the ible come to mind , particularly n those in which the human i terest is uppermost , i t \ is so often in t h e c o nc e pt io ns o f Rembrandt that we picture them .

O RT RA I T O A O P OF A Y UNG M N , KN WN AS T O AS ACOBZ A R I H M J H NG , O R TH E AU CT I ON E E R By Rembrandt 1606— 1669

’ o n This , it is said , is a portrait of the artist s s n n Titus . I n this case he would be in his seve tee th 8 16 . year, as the work is dated 5 I t should be com pared with the likeness a t the north end o“f this wall (Number 6) painted three years earlier The por traits (o f Titus) o f 165 7 and 165 8show no l o ng e r a f re sh ff plump countenance , but haggard , su ering features , dull eyes , and sunken cheeks . I t must be avowed that the three years have made a great difference

’ in the boy s appearance , but perhaps the artist , in

o wn in these pictures done for his pleasure , lacked t e re st in the e xactness o f t h e portrait . He may have use d the features o f his sitters and t h e eff ect of light and shade merely as the vehicle for the ex pression o f the mood by which he was dominated

o f . at the time , and been careless other things

ne f This i s o o the pictures which M r . Altman

o f acquired ut o the M aurice Kann Collection . I t was

- shown at the Hudson Fulton Exhibi tion in 1909. — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 19

PO RT RA I T OF A YOUNG WOM AN By Rembra ndt — 1606 1669

This is the earliest o f the Rembrandts o f the 16 Altman Collection , being dated 3 3 , when the

- artist was twenty seven years old . He had moved — from Leyden t o Amsterdam t wo years before and

we l l o n was launched his career of success , having

finished the Anatomy Lesson the previous year . The Y oung Woman is an excellent and character ist ic o f o f example his work the time , marked by faithful likeness , discreet characterization , detailed and accurate drawing , and an impeccable surface . “ ” T f o . he best p“ortrai t painters the time , says Dr Val e nt ine r , masters like Thomas de Keyser, M iere

R av e st n Mo re e l se velt , y , and , might have fel t proud had they been able so to infuse with life such a characteristic head . As a composition i t diff ers in in no way from their works , but the interpretation o f the personality Rembrandt seems t o unite the — best qualities o f them all the accuracy o f M iere

’ ’ v e l t s o f Mo re e l se s drawing , the tenderness model

o f Rav e st n ing , the strong seriousness y , the fresh

o f ness and naturalness De Keyser, while with the modesty o f genius the young painter hides himself ” behind his work . The picture was in t h e collections o f the Princess

o f Nie s iz in Radziwill at the Castle w Lithuania , and

Lac h nic k i of von in Paris and Warsaw . 2 0 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

A LA DY PLAY I NG TH E TH EO R BO By Gerard Terbo rch — 16 17 1681 ?

Terborch is the most aristocratic o f the Dutch m genre painters . H is subjects are si ilar to those o f

Me t su . Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch , and He was formed in the influence o f Rembrandt but his style was modified by that of Hals , Van Dyck (with whom he came in contact duri ng a visit to London i n and Velazquez who seems t o have been a deter mining factor In his development . The Velazquez traits are particularly evident in his portraits , small

o f pictures the most austere arrangement , mostly full lengths in a silvery gray tone with little or no f positive hue . His gamut o colors reminds us o f

’ Whistler s , but his drawing is far more impersonal

i i c and his point of view more anonymous . D st n tion and reserve were the qualities he cultivated , though at one stage of his career, of which the Soldier and a Y oung Woman in the Louvre is a famous example , his characterization is more de

a t cided . Generally , however , his personages are

o f tractive types the upper middle class . This is the case in the models for the Altman picture . A young lady in a blue jacket trimmed with ermine is seated beside a table playing the theorbo , her music book before her . A gentleman with long

o n o n n hair, his hat his knee sits the table listeni g

h 18 to her music . A watc close to his hand , and as G A L L E R Y O N E H D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 2 1 o ne is tempted to read a story in these pictures o ne would say that she is finishing her practising while her impatient cavalier waits t o start o n the walk o r V isit which they have arranged . There is a fireplace back

o o f the lady and a map is hanging n the wall . Terborch painted a number o f pictures o f a simi n lar motive , ladies making music and listeni g gen

t l e m e n n so . , music parties , music lesso s , and forth The o ne which resembles o ur picture most closely is in the Dresden Gallery . Here the people and the setting are the same , the lady in the same pose ff though the gentleman has a di erent posture . The Lady Playing the Theorbo was acquired by

ut o f Ash b r M r . Altman o the collection of Lord u ton in England .

13 H EN D R I C KJ E STO F F E LS By Re mbra ndt 1606- 1669

’ Hofstede de G root wrote o f this p1c t ure in l Art Flamand in 1909 and there pronounced it to be a work o f Rembrandt o f about 1656 and t o represent

Hendrickje Stoffels . Hendrickje was a peasant girl from North Holland who came to Rembrandt ’ s house at first as a servant . She soon rose to a posi tion o f intimacy with her master and remained with h im a long time . She was the model for many pic

o f sh e tures , in some which is shown as a person o f n n n pleasant appeara ce , the most promi e t example 22 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

Lbuv re being the famous picture in the , painted

16 2 about 5 . There is also an attractive likeness of B f o 16 6 . her at erlin , the date which is about 5 The woman in o ur picture has no great claim to good looks , and a shadow on the upper lip does not add to her charms . V l i . a e nt ne r Dr , agreeing with De Groot , writes of ' the work as follows Although , i t may be added , this portrait of Hendrickje reveals the comfortable kindliness and gentleness of her nature , i t lacks the — charm of some others for example , of the one in B the M useum at erlin . Hendrickje , i t should be remembered , was merely a girl of the people , and i nto so simple a model Rembrandt could not always read his own ideas , especially when , as seems here to have been the case , his main concern was for a ” special problem o f light and shade .

This picture comes from the collection of J . Os maston in England .

14 I NT E R I O R W I TH A YOUNG COUPLE By P ieter de Hooch — 1629 1681

Th e connection between Pieter de Hooch and

Rembrandt is not established by records , but the influence either o f Rembrandt o r o f his pupils is

’ evident in much o f De Hooch s work . The painter began his career as footman and painter in the house of a rich m e rchant , J ustus La Grange , who is known — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 2 3

’ t o have owned many o f the artist s early pictures . After leaving La G range ’ s service he settled in Delft o r where Vermeer was living , and in emulation imi ’ t at io n of this master, De Hooch s best painting was

o f o f produced . Many his pictures this time have

o f been mistaken for works the greater artist . H is place in the Rembrandt influence is somewhere

o f Nic o l ae s between that Vermeer and Maes , both o f whom he recalls . His peculiar accomplishment was the expression o f the calm and peace o f the

Dutch houses , their tempered light , simple c o m fort , and immaculate tidiness . His interiors show us that the Dutch housewife of t h e seventeenth century was as scrupulous in sweeping and dusting f i as her descendant o today . He s ‘f o nd o f opening doors in his background and showing the room beyond with quiet light streaming in at a window, or perhaps a glimpse o f a garden o r a street with a sluggish canal beyond . Th e I nterior with a Y oung Couple is a character o f ist ic production . I n front a bed by an Open window a young woman is standing . At her left

w o o sits a man h snaps his fingers t call a litt le dog . Another room with gilt leather hangings shows through a door beyond . H ofstede de Groot places

’ the picture around 1665 and in the artist s best

’ o f period . This date is toward the end De H ooch s sojourn in Delft . H is work deteriorated steadily after this time , as he sacrificed his great talent in

ff t o e the e ort to be popular, paint grand peopl in rich costumes and magnificent halls . 24 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

The picture was formerly in the collection o f

Rodolphe Kann .

15 YOUNG H E RDS M EN W I TH COWS By Ael bert Cuyp 160 5— 1691

The cattle pictures for which Cuyp is chiefly f a mous were but one of the branches of painting which — he practised . H e painted everything landscapes,

o f portraits , animals , genre scenes gentle folk or peasants , and still life . His landscapes with their golden haze appear to have been at first the o ut

o i o f come those J an van Goyen , but he developed the manner of h is prototype into somethi ng far more n weighty and robust , at the same time retai ing a“nd even accentuating the eff ect of enveloping air A

E ro m e nt in I beautiful Cuyp , says ugene F , s a painting at the same time subtle and heavy , tender

e . and robust , a rial and massive The Y oung Herdsmen with Cows comes from the Rodolphe Kann Collection and has been cited B by various authorities , ode , Michel , De Groot , and f others . I t is a picture o f the end o an afternoon with cows lying o r standing in a field by a river bank . They are guarded by young herdsmen who are talking to a woman whose back is toward the

o f spectator . Across the river is a wide view undu lating country , with the distance lost in the golden light which pervades the picture . The work is signed below a t the left ' A . Cuyp .

— G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 2 5

16 YOUNG G I RL P E E L I NG AN A PPL E By Nicol aes M aes 1632— 1693

Nic o l ae s Maes was a pupil of Rembrandt whose

16 0 . studio he entered about 5 His best work ,

h e painted before reached middle age , shows the _ ’ impress o f Rembrandt s manner at the time M aes

’ fell under his influence . Rembrandt s Portrait of

o f 16 Titus this collection , painted in 5 5 , gives the approximate style which M aes imitated . Genre subjects such as the Altman picture are conceived ’ in the style of his master s biblical subjects o f this

. sun epoch The handling , color, and concentrated

o ut o f light all come directly Rembrandt , but the motive is his own and has the simplicity and direct ness which he preferred .

l aIn Against a p wall , from which a lamp i s hang in o n . g , sits a homely young woman intent her work

On a table beside her, covered with a carpet , is a

o f basket apples , and on the floor is a bucket for the peelings . The scene is lighted by a bright ray

o f of sunlight . I t is a study from some member his household probably . There is a charm and a con t e nt me nt that never wear o ut about these simple paintings without any labored composition o r under n lyi g idea . The work was in England in the early part of the last century . I t was in the collection of Ralph

Be h e i se rnal in t t wenties , wh e re t was en by Smith 2 6 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

and described in his Catalogue Raisonné . M r . Alt man acquired i t from the Rodolphe Kann Co l l e c

1 0 . t ion , which was dispersed in 9 7

I 7 PO RTRA I T OF TH E A RT I ST By Rembrandt — 1606 1669

o f 1660 This portrait is a dated picture when , fif t - though he appears older, he was but y four . More than fifty o f these self-portraits by Rem brandt have come down to us and in this series the evolution o f his genius and t h e development o f his personality may be clearly traced . At first they are experiments in light and shade o r in the study o f e o r are assumed xpressions , incited by his love

. e o n for fantastic costumes As tim goes , they become more and more profound in psychological

o f expression , several thes“e late works being mas i f t e r ec e s o . p portraiture Mirror pictures , as we ” “ l i . Va e nt ne r know , says Dr , usually hide under a forced expression that veritable self which drops il ” the Ve only when i t is unobserved . Perhaps there is a wilful assumption o f expression in some o f so these portraits , but it i s sustained throughout and so convinci ng a record o f the thought o f the ff moment that it ceases t o be a ectation . Those who happen to be familiar with the self-portrait of

o r so . a year earlier, belonging to Henry C Frick , which had the place of honor in t h e H udson - Fulton — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 2 7

E o f o f xhibition , will find a comparison the moods

that picture and o ur work an interesting o ne . I n

the port rai t owned by M r . Frick , though i t was also t t painted in a troubled ime , he pain s himself as though he were a philosopher o r prophet t o whom all

things but his o wn thoughts are indiff erent . I n the Altman picture he is prematurely aged by his

is troubles and pestered with worries , the little ” cares and anxieties o f daily life . H is forehead is wrinkled and t h e mouth is drawn , but the cap is tilted a little jauntily on o ne side and t h e head is erect and proud . The painting was owne d in France in t h e eigh

e e nt o f Due t h century , being in the collection the

l n in i I 1 2 Va e t o s. t E 8 6 de appears in ngland in , when it was not e d by Smith in his Catalogue Rai

sonné as belonging t o Lord Radstock . I ts owner h before i ts purchase by M r . Alt man was Lord As

burton .

18 PO RTRA I T OF TH E A RTI ST By Gerard Dou — 16 13 1675

t at e Dou s udied under Rembrandt an arly t ime , 16 0 quitting him in 3 , and like M aes was influenced by t h e quality of t h e work his master was produc a D ing t the time . With on this influence persisted H throughout his whole life . e developed in t h e o f o f matter elaboration , the crowding detail , and f a certain e fort after picturesqueness . A favorite 28 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

invention in this latter line was the trick of pai nt n ing people at an open wi dow seen from the outside , using the mouldings of the window as a sort of

h o n frame for t e figure the panel itself . He soon found i t popular to add to this setting bas - reliefs

o f and other architectural ornaments , vases flowers ,

V o ne climbing ines , a bird cage , curtains , and thing o r another . These accessories occur in the Altman n picture , in which the pai ter, when about forty

o l d n o f n years , is shown sta ding back a wi dow, turning the leaves of a book with o ne hand and hold ing a palette and brushes with the other There i s an eighteenth- century record of this work

’ in the Voyer d Arg e nso n Collection in 175 4 . I t is ’ described in Smith s Catalogue Raisonné as b e

n o f longi g to the Chevalier Erard Paris , who bought

1 2 i t in 8 5 for francs . I t has since passed

M r. through the collections o f M r . Kalkbrenner and

Say , of Paris , and so to i ts late owner .

I9 A YOUTH W I TH A M AN DOL I N By Frans Hal s 1584 ?— 1666

After Rembrandt , who was his junior by a gen e ra t io n , Hals is the next great name in Dutch painting . His peculiar excellence is i n the spon

ane i t t y and vivacity o f his pictures . H e was a

o f art ic u practician extraordinary skill , as well , p l arl y in the manipulation o f obvious brush strokes . — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 29 I t is a technique which has been and is fashionable

and among many modern painters , this fact may account in part for the high appreciation in which

o f the artist has been held late years , after almost

t wo centuries o f comparative neglect . Of his por “ traits the Altman Collection comprises no example , this work approaching portraiture more nearly than the t wo other pictures by him hanging o n the east B wall o f the gallery . Like the Hille abbe and the Smoker belonging t o the M useum (exhibited in Gallery the Y outh with a M andolin partakes o f the nature o f a subject or character-picture as well as o f portraiture . The young man probably posed for the work but the painter ’ s interest was n not in the like ess , though doubtless the resemblance I is excellent , but rather n the expression of a mood o f joyousness and abandon .

o f The young man is seated in front a curtain , a n mandolin resti g against his left arm . H e is laugh in n g and holds an emptied glass i n his right ha d ,

n o f n o n pouri g the last drops the wi e his left thumb , indicating thereby , no doubt , that the glass is empty n and that he wa ts i t refilled . E . W . Moes , in his

o n book Hals , lists this picture under the title The

o n - o f Ruby the Finger nail , some slang phrase the

o f time probably referring to this state affairs . The picture comes from I rela nd and was shown

o f 1 in the Dublin Exhibition 85 7 . I t comes from f o . o f the collection J Napper Lough Crew Castle , o f County Meath , and was sold by the Bishop o f

1 06 Meath in 9 . 30 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E O T I O N

2O MAN W I TH A ST E E L GO RG ET By R embrandt — 1606 1669

16 o r so This picture is dated 44 , a year later than the famous Night Watch , the style of which i t approaches . The pose o f the sitter in o ur picture o f B is similar to that anning Cocq , the central figure o f that famous work , particularly in the posture of o ut f the hand held in front o the figure . I t is “an t o effort secure relief and depth in the work , a desire to produce something startling , something as l i V e t n r. . a n e yet unachieved in portraiture , says Dr U B nder the title Le Connétable de ourbon , Smith in his Catalogue Raisonné describes our picture

o f when i t was in the collection Lord Radstock , in

2 I 1 81 18 6 . t 8 London , in was sold in London in for

8 0 10 5 pounds , shillings , and has passed through the collections o f E . Secretan of Paris and Adolphe Thiem

188 . of San Remo , who paid francs for i t in 9

2 1 TH E M E R RY COM PAN Y By Frans Hal s — 15 84 1666

A man with a flushed face and a string o f sau

’ sages , pickled herring , and pigs feet about his shoulder holds o n his knee a young woman o f none o it t o mode st appearance . They s before a t abl e on

— G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 3 1

which are all sorts o f food and drink and a stein wi th T F . wo the signature . H . in gothic letters men are standing back o f them ; the o ne a t the right leans o n the chair-back and looks down at the lady with an expression which shows t hat t hey unders t and o ne

another . The other, with a wooden spoon stuck in l t o . a his cap , yawns as he holds his hand his face F staff and Doll Tear- sheet at the inn o f Dame

o ne sa B Quickly , would y , with Poins and ardolph

looking o n . The three pictures by H als in t h e Altman Col 1 2 1 2 lection (Nos . 9, , and 3) all show the artist in his most jovial and rollicking mood . They seem t o have been selected with t h e purpose o f showing the wide diff erence i n outlook between him and b e no u Rembrandt . There could f rther extremes in expression t han between t h e boisterous humor o f

e o n o n t h e this picture and the oth r Hals this wall , o ne o n h e t h e side , and t other deep comprehension and the all -encompassing pity i n the Old Woman

H . H t h Cutting er Nails als had his sober times , as e portraits o f Heer and Vrouw Bo do l ph e (in Gallery ‘ 26 ; . t t lent by J Pierpon Morgan) estify , but even e o f o l d h e in the days of depr ssion his age , could not lose the chance t o laugh i n his sleeve at his models and bring o ut their droll peculiarities . Pictures like these in the Altman Collection are the records o f a frankly jolly life without any Puri f tan restrictions . They are renderings o the gay

o o f . life in the taverns , r other places worse repute “ ” B o f The Catalogues , says Wilhelm ode , speaking 32 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 0 paintings of this sort in his Masters o f Dutch and n Flemish Pai ting , usually describe the society rep in resented these pictures as aristocratic society , but the o l d Dutch catalogues of sales leave no doubt about the matter as they briefly designate them as

rd dt bo ee jes or something similar . The virtuosity of these works is even more brilliant and astounding than in his portrait commissions . This freedom of handling and color is particularly noticeable in the two principal heads in the Merry

Company . They seem to have been done in a half

o f hour great exhilaration , and the rest of the pic — ture the two men who stand back , the carefully

- executed still life , and the almost painfully exact lace collar and the embroidered stomacher— appear f to be the work o a much calmer time .

B 16 16 Dr . ode dates this work at about . From

’

. Mo e s s E . W Life of Frans Hals we learn that at about this time the artist was a member of the Har lem society of De Wyngaerdtrank en (the branch of the vine) and also o f another club called L i eft l ooven

H In a t (Love first of all) . is membership these organizations may have fostered the type of subject of which these Altman pictures give such lively ex

amples . The painting was exhibited at the H udson - Fulton

Exhibition at the Museum in 1909. I t was formerly

Co c t . . re in the collection of M r , Paris Dirk Hals , the

o f younger brother the painter, copied with slight variations the figures i n our picture for the principal

group o f his Fete Champetre in t h e Louvre . — G A L L E R Y O N E D U T C H P A I N T I N G S 3 3

2 2 ENT RAN C E TO A V I LLAG E By M e indert Ho bbema 1638— 1709

o Hobbema was a pupil f J acob van Ruisdael . When he was thirty years o l d he married a servant

o f B o f in the house the urgomaster Amsterdam , and nfl fi by his i ue née was made an of cial o f the excise .

After this he painted only occasionally , and later

o f seems to have given up his art entirely . Most the great number o f his works were executed before his appointment , though his masterpiece , The Avenue of M iddelharnis , in the National Gallery , i s late , being dated in a way which is generally read

1689. I n distinction from his master there is little m ood o r poetic feeling in his pictures . His work is easy t o distinguish o n account o f its general similarity o f conception and technique . The Entrance t o a Village is an example o f his

. O usual plan There are buildings , trees , and an pen

S space with houses and a church pire beyond . The

t o . . panel is signed below the right , M Hobbema The picture is described i n Smith ’ s Catalogue Raisonné under the title o f A View o f a Wooded

t o Country , where i t is said have been imported by Thomas Emmerson and sold t o the proprietor a t the

o f time John Lucy Charlecote Park , London . More recently i t belonged to Baron Lionel de Roths in child London , and then to Rodolphe Kann . 34 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O

2 3 YON KE R RA M P AN D H I S SW E ETH EA RT By Fra ns Ha l s 1584 — 1666

This picture is of similar type t o the Merry Com

. 2 1 o n . Y pany (No ) the same wall onker Ramp , o r e Lord Ramp , as i t could be translated , must hav been a famous roisterer of Harlem in his time , and Hals has left several likenesses o f him in various stages of tipsiness . I n all probability he was as familiar a figure t o the townspeople as was Hille

B fishwif e abbe , the old whose jolly and dissipated u personality is preserved in several famo s canvases , o ne of which , the property of the M useum , is shown in Gallery 2 6 . E . W . Moes calls the rubicund gen t l e man Y of the Merry Company , onker Ramp , but he and the young man o f this picture could not be the same . Even were the Merry Company as late t h e Y as onker Ramp and hi s Sweetheart , which 162 f latter i s signed and dated 3 , instead o being f several y ears earlier, as is the case , the dif erence

t wo in ages between the precludes the possibility ,

- the red faced man being well past middle age , and in this work Y onker Ramp is in his first manhood . The picture shows him shouting out a drinking song as he holds up a glass o f wine while a hilarious young woman with her arm around his neck cuddles as near him as his great feathered felt hat will allow .

o f The speed the painting is bewildering , but the brush strokes are dashed on the canvas with perfect 23 YON K E R RA M P AN D H I S SWE ETH EA RT By Frans Hal s

36 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E Q T I O N

n . the i scription Smith , in his Catalog ue Raisonné , describing the picture in the early part of the last n century , at which time i t belo ged to Lord Ash

burton , thought that the portrait must have been done from another portrait or drawing by order of

some friend o r admirer o f the deceased bishop . The style o f the work shows that i t must have been n B pai ted in the early forties , and Wilhelm ode cata lognes i t as An Elderly M an with a Poi nted G ray i B anse n us. eard , erroneously called Cornelius J I t was sold in Paris in 181 1 from the collection o f n M r . Sereville for fra cs , and belonged later to

the Prince de Talleyrand . Smith , the compiler of

18 1 00 the Catalogue Raisonné , bought it in 3 for £ 5 and from him i t passed to the collection o f Lord n Ashburton , in the ha ds of whose descendant it remained until recent times . Gall e ry Two

Paintings of Various Sc h ool s

’ Gol dsmith s I/Vork

Enamel s

Crystal s

T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 39

Gal l e ry Two

Paintings of Various Sch ool s

GALLERY Two are placed the early pict ure s o f t h e collection and four seventeenth-cen t ury pain t ings o f the Spanish and Flemish schools which i t has been found convenient t o show with Th them in this temporary arrangement . e notes begin with t h e paintings o n the EAST WALL and follow the arrangement o f the pictures around t h e room t oward t h e left .

2 5 C H R I ST AN D TH E P I LG R I M S OF EM M AU S By Diego Vel azquez — 1599 1660

t so I e t Withou dissent , far as can asc r ain , the mode rn authorities agree that this picture is an authentic work by Velazquez dating from his early

o r time , as early indeed as his nineteenth twentieth year . The picture shows the attitude o f mind o f a student interested above all in his power o f re pre senting things as they actually appeared to him , and ab sorbe d in t h e delight o f e xe rcising his t al en t in 40 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

n this dire ction . The figures are models acti g the parts a nd the accessories are all real . There is no

o f suggestion the mystical significance of the scene ,

t o the presence of which , compare i t with a supreme manifestation at the other extreme , makes Rem

’ brandt s little panel o f the same subject in the Louvre one of the most moving and poignant pic tures of all European art . Nor has i t the poetry of the filling of space , what the painters of the last e generation called valu s , which the developed Velaz quez attained in the highest degree , or the flower ” like color o f his later work . I ts excellence lies in the vigorous modeling and the precise outlines and

n o f pla es , in the weight and solidity the things f n o . represe ted , and in the clarity the craftsmanship e n I n these qualities the work is pre mi ent .

and I t is reproduced described by A . de Beruete

o n in his work Velazquez , where he speaks o f the fact that the heads , hands , and draperies are modeled with great relief and with the care peculiar to the

first manner o f the artist . The picture has passed through the collections o f Se fio ra C afiav e ral a nd Se fio ra Viuda de Garzon in Spain and of Don Manuel de Soto of Zij ric h .

F E D E R I GO GON ZAGA By Franc i a 1448?- 15 17

Federigo Gonzaga was the so n of Gian Fra ncesco

G o f Ma t h a I a onzaga , Marquis ntua , and e f mous s . — G A L L E R Y T w o P A I N T I N G S 4 1

’ d Est e o o f bella , the patroness f the great artists her day . For her Mantegna painted the Parnassus and the Combat between Virtue and the Vices , both now in the Louvre , where also are allegorical paintings by

Costa and Perugino , likewise executed at her order for the decoration o f the room where sh e was in the

’ M e na habit o f receiving artists and poets . ant g s Virgin o f Victory in the same museum contains a

o f n portrait Gian Fra cesco , the kneeling knight whom the Madonna blesses . This was a votive

1 b at t l e picture , ordered in 495 , commemorating the o f o f Fornovo where , as general the Venetian army , he won a victory over Charles V I I I . But the M arquis afterward changed sides and in

1 0 and 5 9, when commanding the imperial forces the Milanese , he was surprised and taken prisoner by the Venetians at Legnago . H e was liberated in

1 10 o f 5 by the influence the Pope , who demanded , however, that the young prince Federigo , then ten l o d . years , be sent to the papal court as a hostage

n t o n o f o ur This , bei g agreed to , led the pai ting picture ; for I sabella , having to part with her son ,

t o wished have a portrait o f him to keep by her . B On his way to Rome the boy passed through ologna , where his father was at that time , and Lorenzo

Costa was asked to execute the portrait . Costa was unable to undertake the commission and so it was

t o wh o given Francia , began work , as we find in ’ o n 2 1 10 I sabella s correspondence , J uly 9, 5 , and del“ivered the finished portrait before August l o t h . I t is impossible to se e a better portrait or a closer 42 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N B n . “resemblance , I sabella wrote to her agent in olog a I am astonished t o find o ut that in so short a time

t o so the artist has been able execute perfect a work . One sees that he wishes to show all the perfection ” of which he is capable . I n sending the art“ist thirty ducats of gold in payment , she asks that he retouch lightly the hair which is too blond

’ Franc ia s answer is as follows ' The thirty ducats is a m unifice nt gift o f your Highness ; the trouble we have t aken in the doing o f the portrait o f the Lord Federigo does not deserve such a handsome

reward . We remain your grateful servant for ” life . The Marquis wished to show the picture to the Pope and at the papal court it fell in some way into

o f the hands a certain Gian Pietro de Cremona ,

wh o t o tried appropriate it , but it was eventually ’ “ I returned and Casio , sabella s agent , wrote , The portrait has been recovered and I have brought Francia to the house o f the most illustrious Lord

Federigo and made him compare the two together . Our conclusion was that i t could not be better than i t is and that i t wil l completely satisfy your lady

ship . I t is not pleasant t o think that I sabella gave away

o f so n the likeness her , but such seems to have been t F the fact . The recipien was a gentleman of errara named Zanine l l o wh o had done some service for

t o sh e the Marchioness , and whom had already w o wn . sent her portrait H e writes her, My lo ly l o f dwelling is now exalted , have become an object

44 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N . Jacob Burckhardt considered the most beautiful

’ D c k s painting of Van y Genoese visit .

28 PH I L I P I V OF S PA I N By D iego Vel azquez 1599- 1660

According to the records , this picture was pur chased by Dona Antonia de Y pe fiarrie t a from Velaz quez in 1624 and was in the possession o f her de

sc e ndant s 1 1 1 until 9 , when i t passed into the hands

o f M r . Altman . For about two hundred and twenty five years i t hung in the Palace o f Corral and Narros at Zarauz ; in the middle o f the last century it was

removed to the Villahermosa Palace in Madrid .

There is an article by August L . Mayer in Art

1 1 in America for October, 9 3 , treating of this picture

’ o f and its companion piece , the portrait Philip s o n f minister Olivares , both known account o their “ ” provenance as the Villahermosa examples . The story of t h e discussion o f which these pictures have been the subject in late years and the relation which our picture bears to two similar works in American B ’ collections , the portrait from R . ankes collection

at Kingston Lacy , now belonging to M rs . John L .

o f B e B Gardner oston , and the exampl in the oston 1 0 Museum which was acquired in 9 4 in M adrid , B o f are told I n this article . oth these variants are

b o ur pronounced by Dr . Mayer to e copies f o

painti ng .

G A L L E R Y T W O — P A I N T I N G S 4 5 B A . de eruete agreed with this decision finally , though his first opinion was against the authenticity of both th“e Villahermosa pictures . H e speaks of the Philip as evidently not taken from nature because it lacks that firmness o f execution which Velazquez always displayed when working from the living model . He also believed the person portrayed I might be the nfante Don Fernando , a younger brother of the king , but all doubts on this head were se t aside by the discovery in 1906 by José Ramon M elida in the archives of the ducal house o f Corral and Narros at Zarauz of the autograph

162 o f receipt by Velazquez dated December 4 , 4 , 1 which the translation reads , , Diego Velasquez , painter to his Majesty , declare that I have received ‘ from SCfiOl J uan de C e no s 800 re al l e s in accord ance with the specifications of this document which

’ d Es ino sa I received through Lope Lucio p , a resi

n o f B de t urgos , which money I received on account o f the three portraits of the King and of the Count

Se fio r G arc i e re z of Olivares and of p , in witness where of my signature given at Madrid on the 4t h of De ” mb e r 1 2 c e 6 . , 4 Diego Velasquez . This precious document passed i nto the possession o f M r . Altman with the picture and now belongs to

the Museum . I t definitely disposes of the question of authorship and also dates our picture as before

162 n December 4 , 4 , when the pai ter was in his - B twenty sixth year . oth points are of extreme

interest to historians .

Ei h t h undre d real u v l n o b o u o d o l l g es is t h e e q i a e t f a t f rt y ars. 46 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

2 9 LU CAS VAN U FFEL By A nthony Van Dyck 15 99— 164 1

Both this picture and the other Van Dyck o f the Benjamin Altman Co l l e c t l o n date from the time of

’ t o the artist s visit I taly , whence he returned in his

- sa twenty seventh year . Gustav Waagen w the

Uff e l ff Lucas van at Sta ord House , the property of

o f a nd o f the Duke Sutherland , wrote i t in his Treasures o f Art in G reat Britain as follows ' The

o f o r portrait an astronomer mathematician in dark ,

furred mantle . The manner in which the figure

has risen from the chair, as if some sudden circum

stance had interrupted his studies , gives the por

trait all the interest o f an historical picture . The ”

0 t oo . price paid for i t , £44 , i s by no means much The Duke o f Sutherland paid this sum for the work

1 in Paris in 837 . Lucas van Uff e l was a merchant and patron of

the arts from Antwerp who lived in Genoa . H e was

’ n o f D c k s wh o a frie d Van y , dedica“ted to him his ’ etching o f Titian and his M istress in segno d af f e z io ne ed inclinazione amorevole . Another por

Uff el trait of van , painted somewhat later, accord ff B ing to Emil Schae er, i s in the museum a t runs

o f n wick . H e was a keen collector pictures , owni g ’ B at one time Raphael s althazar Castiglione , now

in the Louvre . His collection was sold at Amster i n dam n 1639. Rembrandt atte ded the sale and 29 LUCA S VAN U FFEL By Anthony Van Dyck

48 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O to agree as to the genuineness o f the Altman ” picture . The portrait is that of a sensitive young man o f melancholy aspect with long hair and a carefully

. o ne trimmed beard The frame (a very beautiful ,

t h e o f by way , and the time of the painting) cuts o ff his figure a little below the shoulders but shows his hands raised in the act o f pulling o ff the right

i a glove . H e is of most dist nguished and poetic p pe aranc e ; and as he is looking straight at the b e

it no holder, is strange that ingenious critic has claimed i t as a portrait of the artist himself . The head certainly fits the popular and legendary con i i i ’ c e pt o n o f G o rg o ne s personality . This theory might be upheld equally well as the o ther that it

represents Ariosto , of whom the only likeness that has come down to us is a woodcut after a drawing

o f n Furio so by Titian , published i n the edition Orla do

1 2 in 5 3 , which shows the poet as a man of advanced age . o f I The known history the picture is meagre . t belonged to Walter Savage Landor who bought it

I G rim am in taly , i t is said , from the family , though

the fact has not been substantiated . The Grimani were an important Venetian house which furnished

o ne o f three Doges to the Republic , whom , Antonio

o f G rimani , had command the Venetian squadron

o f while Giorgione was alive . After the death

186 Walter Savage Landor in 4 , the picture was taken

t o E ngland , where i t remained until purchased by

M r . Altman . 3 0 PO RTRA I T OF A MAN

By Gi orgi one

— G A L L E R Y T W O P A I N T I N G S 49

3 1 F I I O TO A RC I S O OF L PP ARCHIN , H B H P M I LAN By Titian — I477 P 15 76

1 00 o r Filippo Arc h int o was born about 5 , a little

- o f . earlier, a well known Milanese family After

studying and practising as a lawyer, he entered I I I the church and became prominent under Paul , with whose policies and ambitions he identified him f He o . self, and was made Archbishop Milan for warded the cause o f t h e Jesuits and was for a time 1 governor o f Rome under Paul I V . From 5 54 to

15 56 he was sent as a legate to Venice , when Titian may have painted his portrait . He lives in a famous anecdote which is repeated by Bernhard Berenson in the catalogue o f the John

. e G . Johnson Collection I t seems that wh n gover nor o f Rome he was called upon t o decide who was

the father of a certain child . Of t h e t wo claimants o ne o rc was a German and ne a Spaniard . A h int o caused food and wine t o be brought and bade the child eat and drink . This he did but would drink only water, whereupon the Archbishop told the t no German tha i t was child of his , because , had he

German blood in his veins , he would never drink water when wine was within reach .

Arch int o B 1 died an exile in ergamo in 5 58. o f Another portrait him is in America , in the John

G . Johnson Collection at Philadelphia . I n the 5 0 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

t o . o h nso ri painting belonging M r J , which is pre c isel y the same pose line for line , the sitter has not the vigorous aspect which the Altman portrait

and shows , there is a peculiar transparent veil over

al l half the picture covering almost the face , which B n may refer, says M r . ere son in the Johnson cata t o logue , the comparative neglect and obscurity in

n 1 6 which he regarded himself as livi g in 5 5 . The B Altman picture M r . erenson would place two or three years earlier .

32 M A DONN A AN D CH I LD W I TH SA I N T ANN E

By Al brecht Durer

147 1— 15 28 Several other similar compositions by Durer exist

Gustav Waagen mentioning no less than ten , either paintings or drawings , known to him . Of these our example is the most famous . I t has a pyramidal arrangement . Saint Anne , with fixed look , her head and chin covered with a white drapery , rests

’ her l eft hand on the Virgin s shoulder and holds the sleeping Christ Child in her lap . Ma ry, her ’ n - head lower than Saint An e s , with half closed eyes and joined hands adores the Child . An exact study for the Saint Anne exists in a fine drawing in Chinese ink o n gray paper heightened with white which is in the Albertina at Vienna .

The picture is signed and dated 15 19. I t comes — G A L L E R Y T W O P A I N T I N G S SI

from the Royal Gallery at Schleissheim near M unich , a country house o f the Kings o f Bavaria . With a number o f other pictures from the same place i t was sold a t auction in 185 2 ; Joseph Otto Entres o f

Munich , described as a sculptor and picture dealer, purchased i t at that time for the sum o f 5 0 flo rins . It s l o w price is explained by the statement that it was covered by a heavy coat of discolored varnish , which gave i t a forbidding appearance . I t was later bo ught by Jean de Co uriss of Odessa at a price of

t o francs and came M r . Altman from the

o f Co uriss wh o collection M adame de , also owned the Filippino Lippi of this collection . In the middle of the last century this picture was the subj ect o f a discussion between Ernest Forster

o ne on side , who considered i t to be undoubtedly an

Dil re authentic work by r, and Gustav Waagen and

Mil ndl e r o n Otto the other , who questioned this T i . h aus n o n attribution Moriz g , in his monograph the artist , reports the arguments (which may be read in full in the Deutsches Kunstblatt for 1854) and judges that those who pronounced against i t did not take into due consideration the qualities o f

’ Dii re r s painting at the period , which , though show ing no diminution in force of conception , is marked by a certain impatience i n the rendering . They

’ were inclined , he says , to exclude from the master s work the pictures of lessened charm that came from his workshop . I t belongs to a time when the artist was chiefly concerned with e ngravi ng or drawi ngs for e ng rav p T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N — . art ing His three masterpieces in this the Knight ,

Death , and the Devil ; the Melancholia ; and the Saint J erome in his Cell— were produced a few years 1 1 before , and in 5 9 he was engaged o n the great

o f o f Triumph Maximilian , the last a long series o f drawings which he made for his imperial patron . I Engraving was more profitable than painting . n

t o H o f a letter J aco“b eller Frankfort , written in 1 0 I o 5 9, he says , wish from now n t o confine myself t o my engravings ; had I so decided years ago I might now be the richer by a thousand ”

flo rins.

3 3 A R A R ET ATT A M G WY , L DY LE E By Hans Hol be in the Younger — I497 1543

1 This portrait dates from abou t 5 39, when Hol o f bein was i n the heydey his success in England , painting all the people o f importance at the court of

VIII e Henry , whos successive queens and candidates

1 f o r queens were posing for him . I n 5 38 he went to Brussels t o paint the portrait o f Christine o f

of o f . Denmark , the widow the Duke M ilan The painting (now i n the National Galler“y) was finished in three hours , said a witness , and the portrait is

. I 1 h o f o f perfect n 5 39 t e picture Anne Cleves , of VIII the Louvre , decided Henry to make that lady

o f his wife . I t was while executing commissions this promin e nce t hat t h e Lady Le e was pai nted .

— G A L L E R Y T W O P A I N T I N G S 5 3 The fashion of her dress enables us to date i t pretty

exactly .

She was the sister of Sir Thomas Wyatt , courtier m o f and writer of poe s , a drawing whom , by Hol

. bein , is in the Royal Collection at Windsor She

had a sister, Mary Wyatt , who attended Queen

o n f o f Anne Boleyn the sca fold , the Dictionary

National Biography tells us , but i t makes no men

tion o f the lady of our picture . The reasons for believi ng her t o be Lady Lee are rather slight ; a copy o f o ur picture in the possession of Viscount

Dillon a t Ditchley , Oxfordshire , is the likeness , it

s o f t o . eems , that lady , according family traditions Y e t these reasons were sufficient for the compiler o f the catalogue o f the Exhibition o f Early English Portraits at the Burlington Fine Arts Club i n 1909 to label the picture with her name followed by a

question mark ; and Arthur B . Chamberlain in his book on Holbein speaks of it as being now identified with some degree o f certainty as a portrai t o f Sir

’ Thomas Wyatt the elder s sist e ri

- Our portrait , painted in her thirty fourth year,

- o f shows her a sharp faced , rather calculating lady

u ncertain temper . She wears a dress of dark brown damask dotted with little golden ornaments like

tags . A black velvet bonnet o r hood decorated with a band of gold filigree and pearls , almos t hides

her reddish hair . At the breast her dress is clasped

o f by a red enameled brooch in the shape a rose , and a gold medallion with a figure of Lucrece hangs from a ribbon at her waist . 54 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition i n 1907 and a t the Exhibition o f Early English Portraits at the Burlington Fine Arts Club

0 o f in 19 9. I t was in the collection M ajor Charles

Palmer at Dorney Court Windsor, where , according

It to the family archives , remained from the time o f King Charles I until late years , and from which i t was taken previous to its purchase by M r . Alt man in 19 12 .

34 THE V I RG I N W I TH TH E CH I LD AN D ANG E LS By B ernard van Orl ey

1493— 1542

Bernard van Orley was the best known o f the B russels artists o f the sixteenth century . I t i s said

o f that he went to I taly , where he became a friend n Raphael . The productio s of his maturity display a strong preference for I talianized compositions and

details .

o f . This is a work his youth , painted , Max J a and Fie re ns- Friedl nder Hippolyte Gevaert believe , B in russels before 15 14 . I t certainly shows the

local influences , that of Massys particularly , and

o n seems to us , perhaps that account , better than o f his more ambitious compositions . I t is a picture the Virgin fondling the nude Child by a fountain on the terrace of a palace of strange architecture debased Gothic combined with fantastic Renais G A L L E R Y T w o — P A I N T I N G S 5 5

o f sa nce . Some Flemish lady rank cuddling her

sh e baby whom has just bathed , one would say , were

wo - wh o it not for the t little child angels nearby , sing intently out o f an antiphonary laid on a bench in front of them . The setting i s designed to combine al l the delights which the arti st could imagine as belonging to a no b l e country residence . The green terrace dotted

o n with wild flowers , which the figures are placed , is confined by masonry carefully joined with lead and a brick wall coped with stone , where peacocks

o f strut . The fountain , which is bronze , throws a jet o f water into a pool at the left . There is a paved court to the palace and beyond is a Gothic wall . Trees are at the left and in the distance is a precipitous hill with two groups of buildings joined by a drawbridge . Two angelic figures appear in the clouds and a hunter with his dog trudges up the hill . This picture was sold at Frankfort in 190 1 under

m o f Dii re r . o ut the name of to J E den Hamburg , of whose collection it was bought indirectly by M r .

Altman .

3 5 LA DY R I CH By Hans Hol be in the Younger l 497“ 154 3

Lady Rich was Elizabeth , daughter and heiress to William Jenks , a prosperous grocer of London . 56 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

Nothing is known of her history except that in 15 3 5 sh e married Richard Rich , an unscrupulous but suc c e ssf ul 1 8 lawyer, who in 54 was raised to the peer

o f age and made Lord Chancellor England , and that sh e was the mother o f ten daughters and three sons whose names have been preserved . She was

I d 1 a nt e 6 . p about 5 3 , shortly after her marriage There is a beautiful study for this picture in t h e

Windsor Castle Collection , where i s also a drawing of her husband , whose portrait Holbein painted , in

o f . all probability , though no trace i t exists

Wo rnum Ralph N . speaks of this work as a fine ,

o ne o f expressive portrait , those examples which give us the decided impression that Holbein troubled his sitters as little as possible and worked alone , relying largely o n the preliminary drawing and the accuracy o f his memory . She wears the English hood o f the time and a black dress with a flaring collar fastened with an exquisitely rendered gold medallion , which is decorated with the figures o f a man and a woman standing by a dead body . Her face is fat and flab by ; in this the painting differs from t h e p re l imi o nary drawing , where the f rms as well as the character o are more decided and more str ngly marked . I n the early seventeenth century this picture was

o f the property the Right Reverend Herbert Croft ,

Bishop of Hereford . His granddaughter married into the Mosely family and from about 1700 i t was in their possession . I t was purchased from Cap B tain H . R . Mosely of uildwas Park , Shropshire , in

2 19 1 . G A L L E R Y T W O — P A I N T I N G S

36 UL R I C H FUGG E R

By Hans M al er zu Schwa z

Little is known o f this painter . H e was from

T St ri e l the Austrian yrol and was influenced by g , i l éi Sc h aiif e l in . . r e d nde r , and Amberger Max J F , in

' f tIr 18 the Repertorium Kunstwissenschaft , 95 , has

o f made the latest reconstruction his work , listing

o f twenty pictures by him , most which have hereto fore been labeled as o f the School o f Bernhard

o f St rige l . The earliest these which is dated is of

1 1 1 2 . the year 5 9, the latest 5 9 Our picture is

’ ie dl an e r number fourteen in Dr . F r d s list . On the back o f the panel is the following inscription ' DOMIN I M D ''V ANN O C V R ENTE x x xv ETATIS

A replica , evidently by the master but without inscription or date , is in the collection of Count

- Fugg e r Babenhausen in Augsburg . Ulrich Fugger was o f the famous and wealthy family o f merchants and bankers in Augsburg .

Originally linen weavers , they were later interested in mines and in trading in spices and silks in many f o . U o f of the great cities Europe lrich , the father

o f o ur t wo the original picture , and his brothers

t o George and J acob were ennobled by Maximilian ,

t h e whom they had made large loans , and family 58 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N contributed great sums to the e l e c t ioh o f Charles V t o the imperial throne in 15 19. At this time the representatives o f the house were J acob and his two — U nephews l rich , whose likeness we have , and f o U . Hieronymus , both sons lrich the elder Our picture was painted , as the inscription says , in the

’ -fif t h o f thirty year the sitter s age , which was also

1 0 1 2 . his last , as he was born in 49 and died in 5 5

o f The portrait shows the features a shrewd , hard headed man wh o did not allow any emotions he might have to interfere with his decisions .

37 A LA DY OF RAN K AS SA I NT B I B I ANA By Barthol ommeo M ontagna — ABOUT 14 5 0 15 2 3

It was the fashion in the Renaissance for persons o f quality t o have themselves painted with the attributes o f their patron saints . This young lady holds a palm leaf in the right hand and an ugly short dagger pierces her left breast through the jeweled strip of ornament that edges her green bodice . The palm and dagger are the symbols of B Saint ibiana , a young Roman lady who suffered martyrdom in the reign of J ulian the Apostate ,

first scourged and then pierced with a dagger . The name of the person who posed for o ur picture must then have been Bibiana and that is all we know o f her except what the portrait tells us about her good

art ic u looks and her fondness for jewels , pearls p

60 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

r so— restored picture in the Dresden Galle y , the called

Eastlake M antegna , where Saint Elizabeth is intro d uc e d in the place which the M agdalen occupies in the Altman picture and the infant Saint John is

added . Our painting also has marked analogy with a work of doubtful authenticity in the Verona

Museum , representing the Virgin and Child , Saint

Joseph , and Mary M agdalen . The accepted date for

Is 1 these compositions placed at about 495 , toward n which time the Altman picture can safely be assig ed . Seymour de Ricci points out that o ur work corre s o nds p with the description of a painting , since dis in appeared , which was mentioned Ricche Miniere

Bo sc h ini della pittura Veneziano by , published at

n 16 . Ve ice in 74 A picture by M antegna , The Ma n don a and Child , Saint Joseph and Saint Mary

o f M agdalen , is there spoken a“s being in the Hos pital for I ncurables in Venice . As no genuine M an tegna but the Weber (Altman) picture shows the ‘

same sub e c t . j “, says M r de Ricci in disposing of the question , we may confidently identify the two paintings and can thus establish the original prove

nance of this Holy Family .

39 PO RT RA I T OF A YOUNG MAN (CALL E D TH E A RT I ST) By A ntonel l o da M ess i na ABOUT 14 30— 1479?

I can not ascertain o n what grounds the debonair young person whom this picture represents has been 3 8 THE HO LY FA M I L Y

By Andrea M antegna

62 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E CT I O N

kneels Saint Mary M agdalen between Saint Domi nic

n n at the left and Sai t Thomas Aqui as at the right , both wearing the black and white habit of the Domin

B o f ican order . ack Saint Dominic stand the Virgin B Mary , a ishop Saint probably Saint Augustine , and

Saint M ary Salome . I n corresponding positions at

the other side are Saint John Evangelist , Saint Fran

o f cis , and Saint Elizabeth Hungary . There is a palm tree o n each side o f the cross and a landscape

o f background , which consists low hills and a wide

o f sk o f expanse twilight y , much in the spirit the

painting o f the last century .

4 1 M A DONNA AN D C H I LD By A ndrea del Verrocchio 1436?— 1488

The London Times in its account o f t h e sale in 19 1 1 o f B o f the utler“Collection , which this picture formed Th e o f a part , said , great surprise the sale was the price paid for the Madonna and Child catalogued as

o f o f by Andrea del Verrocchio , a work great beauty the finest period o f Florentine art ; so much unc e r tainty is attached t o the work o f Verrocchio that a picture like this will always be much discussed , and this work is very close t o the famous altarpiece in the Accademia in Florence ; the picture is o n panel and

’ Far uh ar s 18 at Sir Walter R . q sale in 94 (when i t was catalogued as by Pe se l l ino ) i t realized 4 30 guineas ; yesterday i t started at 100 gui neas and at G A L L E R Y T W O — P A I N T I N G S 63

guineas fell t o M r . Harvey who was acting for Col

. o f naghi and Co I t is interesting , as an example the rise in value o f certain pictures in these times to know that Sir Walter Farquhar paid the sum o f 64

12 pounds , shillings for this M adonna and Child at the Bromley Davenport sal e in 1863 . I n less than fifty years i ts value had increased almost a hundredfold . The famous work in the Accademia that the Times

B o f o ne refers to is the aptism Christ , in which of the angels has a certain likeness to the Madonna in the

U z Altman picture . There is a drawing in the f fi i generally accepted t o be the study for the head o f

o u this angel . This has downcast eyes like r o wn

Madonna and is in exactly the same position , though the forms in the drawing are more vigorous and sculp t ure sq ue . The Accademia picture i s an early work

’ of the master s , begun , i t has been surmised , about

1465 .

42 TH E LAST COM M UN I ON OF SA I N T J E ROM E By B o tt icel l i 1447P— 15 10 B otticelli , says the Anonimo Gaddiano , made very many little paintings which were most beautiful and among the rest a Saint J erome , a singular work . Our Saint J erome may well be the singular work re ferred to . I t comes from the collection Of the Mar c h e si F arinola at the Palazzo Capponi in Florence , being inherited from Gino Capponi , the statesman 64 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

and historian , in whose time i t was attributed to

Andrea del Castagno . I t has excellent credentials . Giovanni Morelli pointed out that i t was an original by Botticelli and all the modern authorities o n the school since his time have commented upon it . The fullest account is found in Herbert Horne ’ s Botticelli (page 174 and following) and this account has been freely drawn upon in the preparation o f this notice of the picture .

o l d t o o At least two copies are known exist , ne in the Palazzo Balbi at Genoa and the other formerly

1 1 1. in the Abdy Collection , sold in 9 The subject is derived from a legendary history o f Saint Jerome translated from the Latin into I talian , the Letters of

B 1 0 the lessed Eusebius , printed in Florence in 49 , about the time of the painting of this picture . These

o f relate how Saint J erome , sensible the approach o f

o f death , took leave those about him with admonish

. o ments and directions When he had finished , ne o f the monks brought him the Holy Sacrament . After he had confessed , he received the Eucharist and threw himself upon the ground singing the canticle o f Sim ' m f0 h e t se rv u . eon the p p , N unc dimittis tuum After this there came a divine light in the room and some saw angels passing away o n every side ; others did not se e the angels but heard a voice which called to f J erome promising him the reward o his labors . And there were some wh o neither saw the angels nor heard the voice from Heaven but heard only the

wh o B t o voice o f the dying man said , ehold I come ' e e me t t Thee , merciful J esus R c ive whom hou has

— G A L L E R Y T W O P A I N T I N G S 65

redeemed with thy precious blood . Then his spi ri t left his body Botticelli has pictured the story with the simplest means , leaving out the supernatural elements but los

six ing none o f its religious fervor . There are but

t wo figures . Saint J erome , aided by monks , has left his bed and kneels t o receive the sacrament which a priest in a rose-colored chasuble and blue stole ad ministers t o him . Two acolytes carrying lighted candles attend . The action takes place in Saint

’ c e l l o f Jerome s , built wattled reeds and shown , as

o ne . on the stage , with wall removed The figures

f . are at the foot o the bed At its head are a crucifix ,

’

. sk palm branches , and a cardinal s hat The clear y , blue toward the zenith and fading into a luminous gray below , shows above the angles of the gable and

o ne o f through t wo windows , at each side the narrow room . H o f M r . orne finds fault with the exaggeratio“n the size o f the head o f Saint J erome but adds this is perhaps the o ne defect in a picture which otherwise ’ must be placed among the finest o f Botticelli s smaller ” works .

4 3 V I RG I N AN D C H I LD W I TH ANG E LS By Sebastiano Ma inardi ABOUT 14 50— 15 13

The Virgin , with her head bowed and her hands

o f joined in an attitude prayer , is seated in the center 66 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N of the picture with the Christ Child poised half lying on her right knee . He is supported by a child angel and raises His hands toward His mother . The com position is balanced by another angel whose arms are B folded over the breast . ack of the Madonna is a strip o f brocade and on each side are glimpses of landscape . The work was formerly in the collection of Baron

Lazzaroni in Paris .

44 BO RSO D ’ EST E By Co s imo Tu ra 14 32 ?- 1495

On the authority of Bernhard Berenson this admir able little portrait is thus ascribed in the Altman catalogue . I t has borne many names . When lent to the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in

18 5 7 by William Drury Lowe , i t was called Por trait of a Y outh in Profil e by Pietro della Fran cesca and at the Leeds Exhibition in 1868i t appeared under the same title . This was changed at the Royal Academy Exhibitions of 1884 and 1893 to the Por trait of Sigismundo Malatesta by Pietro della Fran cesca . The collection of M r . Lowe was catalogued

1 0 o ur in 9 3 by J ean Paul Richter, who judged pic

o f h e o f ture to be t school Ferrara , attributing it to

ac Francesco Cossa , which attribution was generally B ’ c e pt e d up to the time o f M r . e re nso n s pronounce ment . Dr . Richter saw in the sitter not Malatesta , the

G A L L E R Y T w o - P A I N T I N G S 67

o f terrible condottiere Rimini , but rather a member

’ o f m a nifice nc e - B d Est e the family of the g loving orso ,

E . perhaps his younger brother, later Duke rcole The publication o f the firm o f art dealers from A whom M r . ltman acquired the work gives the name o f the artist as i t now appears but returns to Mala

testa a s the person represented . The publication “ ” states tha t this head i s clearly a perfect portrai t of him and reproduces a medal by M atteo de Pastis

in proof . The resemblance i s not convincing , how

o f ever, either with this medal , which shows a man

o r middle age , with a far more famous example

o O which was n t cited , the portrai t f Sigismundo i n prayer before his patron saint by Pietro dell a Fran cesca a t Rimini .

f fi t o On the other hand , i t is di cul t reconcile the ’ — dates o f Borso d Est e as sitter ( 14 13 147 1) with those o f Tura as artist ( 14 32 ?— 1495) i n relation t o the

o portrai t of a youth wh o appears t be scarcely twenty . Several undoubted portraits o f Borso exist and it is evident that there i s a strong resemblance i n t h e n features , the nose , mouth , and chi particularly , between these portraits and the young man o f the

Altman picture . One would call i t a family likeness

. I in any event , agreeing thus far with Dr Richter . n

’ ’ ’ l Art e l d Es d Erco e I . t e Ferrarese nel Periode , Adolfo Venturi shows that i n his capacity as court painter

’ under Borso and E rcole o ne o f Tura s important functions was the painting of portraits o f the reign ing family which , according t o the custom o f the

o time , were presented r exch anged o n sta te occa 68 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

o e t r h l r b o t a S. sions , such as marriages Though none o f the many existi ng records o f these portraits could

r apply t o o u picture , the theory that i t might have

been painted for such a purpose is not improbable .

45 TH E V I RG I N AN D C H I LD W I TH SA I NT J OS E PH AN D A C H I LD ANG E L By Fil ipp ino L ippi — A B OUT 14 5 7 15 04

o n The Virgin is seated holding the Child her knee , n Saint Joseph is at the right , and a child a gel at the

left . Two diminutive , diaphanous cherubs hold a ’ h veil back o f the Virgin s head . I n t e background are half- ruined arches through the openings of which is a landscape o f strangely formed rocks and distant

hills . The picture belongs among the later productions

1 00 . o f the artist , its date being about 5 I t was for many years in the collection of Madame de Co uriss

at Dresden .

46 PO RT RA I T OF A MAN By D i rk Bouts

The sitter is a thin -faced man o f early middle age

with strong and earnest features . H e is posed in the manner so frequent in Flanders in the fifteenth cen n tury , his fingers joi ed as if in prayer . Only the

G A L L E R Y T W O — P A I N T I N G S 69

I v 15 ib l e upper part o f the hands s , the frame cutting off o the rest . As is apt t be the case in these por traits , the composition appears somewhat crowded , as if the panel were small for all that the thrifty o ne o f painter made i t contain . The person reminds a certain figure in the Legend of Otho series , now in B o f the russels M useum , only two panels which , the last of his commissions executed for the town hall o f

’ o f Louvain , were completed at the time the artist s death . This resemblance would indicate , as M ax J . o ut o ur Friedlander has pointed , that picture dates ’ B from the later part o f t h e painter s life . outs was “ ” 1 6 o f appointed in 4 4 portraitist Louvain , his re t aine r o f o ut , as the records show , being a piece cloth o“f which t o make a dress o f ceremony and ninety l p e c k e n t o buy a lining for i t . As painter to the city he was required t o accompany the annual pro

n o f cessio the Holy Sacrament and the Kermesse , receiving with the other functionaries at the end o f f the procession a pot o Rhine wine .

o r Tie rr B Dirk y outs , as he is sometimes called , is counted among the founders o f Flemish painting and

o f o f fif t e e nt h - one the greatest century artists . He may have been born in Holland ; certainly he studied h f there , though t e paintings o J an Van Eyck were Bu the real foundations o f his art . t in distinction

o ne to his Flemish contemporaries , fancies that there is somethi ng o f Dutch seriousness and reserve in his people , and that the human sympathy revealed in his pictures p re fig ure s in that sense the work of R embrandt . T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N o

47 AN D 49 T HOM AS PO RT I NA R I AN D M A R I E O RT I A R I I F E P N , H I S W By Hans M eml ing — A B OUT 14 30 1494 These portraits were freely discussed at the time ’ o f B 1 02 the ruges exhibition in 9 , where they were exhibited by their owner at the time , Leopold Gold

. o f schmidt Georges Hulin , the compiler the cata

o f logue the exhibition , enters them as they are here named . The attribution has been contested by some critics , J ames Weale suggesting that perhaps they might be the work of Hugo van der Goes .

o f Thomas Portinari , the agent the Medici i n

o f Flanders , though a person importance in the com me rc ial o f and social life his time , is remembered today as a patron o f the fine arts and by the fact that the portraits o f himself and o f his family appear

o f in the great altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes , one o f U fi the summits Flemish painting , now in the f zi

Gallery a t Florence , but until lately in the church for which i t was intended , Santa Maria Nuova .

’ This church was founded in 1280 by Tomaso s anc e s

’ o f tor, Folco Portinari , who was the father Dante s 1 6 Beatrice . The altarpiece was painted about 47

o f and , judging from the age the sitters , these Altman portraits must have been executed several years ear

o ne sa . lier , ten o r twelve years a t least , would y I t has been pointed o ut that the necklace which the lady wears in o ur picture is the same that appears in her

72 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N B Saint arbara reading a breviary , and her tower with

o n its three windows is in the background . Tw a gel musicians in priestly garments are o n either side o f the Virgin 'the o ne a t the left looks smilingly at the n n Christ Child , his ha d on the keys of his orga ; the other in a rich dalmatic sings softly as he touches the

flo e r- harp strings . Beyond the w covered space where

. t the figures are , i s a quiet landscape A plain wi h n trees , a horseman passi g along a road which leads t o a towered gate in a wall , people on an arched bridge over a little river , a round building , and a low hill are the i tems which make up the picture , of which the loveliness and tranquil piety escape the power of words .

’ No theme fitted the qualities o f M e ml ing s genius so perfectly as the Mystic M arriage of Sai nt Cath erine . Three versions of the subject by him are

n . o f k own The earliest of these , the triptych Sir

so m J ohn Donne , called fro the English nobleman n f who commissio ed the work , is in the collection o the Duke of Devonshire i n Chatsworth House . The arrangement of the central p ane l o f this triptych is similar to the Al tman picture , excep t that the figures o f Sir John Donne , his wife , and daughter kneel in the foreground and that the setting is an open hall with columns instead of the garden . I t is probable that this pai nting was executed about 1468when Sir John visited Flanders in the train o f Margaret o f Y ork at the time of the marriage of that princess to

Charles the Bold of Burgundy . After this in date comes the astounding Mystic 48 TH E B ET ROT HA L O F SA I N T CATH E R I N E

By Hans M eml ing

74 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O the work i t was in the collection o f Leo po l d Gold

schmidt in Paris .

50 PO RT RA I T OF AN OLD MAN By Hans M eml ing — ABOUT 14 30 1494

’ This picture is worthier o f M eml ing s reputation as portraitist than are the likenesses o f Portinari and his wife . Like them it was shown at the Exhibition

f B 1 0 I o Flemish Primitives in ruges in 9 2 . t was B there ascribed by its owner, aron Albert Oppen

t o . o f heim“, J an Van Eyck J ames Weale speaks i t as remarkably fine but o f a later date than Van

E o f yck and probably the work a German painter . Georges Hulin in the catalogue o f the e xhibition pointed o ut that i t could not be by Van Eyck and

t o o f was much nearer the work Memling , and the attribution there tentatively suggested has been since generally accepted . A t o ccording the students , it is an early work , as e arly perhaps as the Triptych o f Sir John Donne mentioned in connection with t h e Betrothal o f Saint

But no u Catherine . early as i t may be , there is n o r certainty in the modeling characterization . With

’ out Van Eyck s miraculous power o f rendering what was before him , Memling in his portraits shows con ’ v incing reality and at t h e same time an ability in o wn inte rpreting personality , according to his con

c e t io n . p , which the greater master did not attempt ’ Me ml ing s Opinion o f the o l d gentleman wh o posed 5 0 PO RTRA I T OF AN OL D MAN

By Hans M eml ing

76 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N are shown about half length against a gold back

at ground ; Christ stands the right , the Virgin and

the two other Marys at the left . The picture is de scribed and illustrated in the supplement to the Zei t

f ii r B 1 1 1 schrift ildende Kunst , May , 9 , in which Wil helm Val e nt ine r deals with the pictures by David which have passed into American collections since

’ ' the publication of Bo d e nh ause n s book on David in

190 5 . Here i t is referred to as having been executed

’

during the later part of the artist s full maturity .

' ’ Gol dsnuths Work

H E three cases in the middle of G ALLERY 2 are arranged with the smaller and more precious

objects I n the Benjamin Altman Collection . I n de scribing them the four pieces of Goldsmiths ’ Work B n C . a d J ewelry in ASE will be discussed first Next ,

the Enamels will be taken as a whole , passing from the two earlier pieces in CASE B to the remai ning

C . pieces in the central case , ASE C Finally the Rock n Crystals will be described , proceedi g from the four

pieces in CASE B to the remaini ng pieces i n CASE A . I n CASE B t h e eye is immediately attracted by the o f exquisite Triptych M ilanese workmanship , late

n sur fifteenth ce tury , the oval of the triptych proper

mounted by a crucifix with the figure o f our Lord . The doors are o f gold enameled in translucent colors — —basse ta il l e with a representation o f the Nativity

S o n and on the outer ide ; the inside , to the right left GOL D AN D ENA M EL TR IPTY C

M l anese l ate teenth centu r i , fif y

8 E A L T M A N C L L E C T I O N 7 T H O .

sixteenth century . I t belonged formerly to Prince

Ro s i l io si p g of Rome , who inherited i t from his grand i l i i . Ro s o s father , Prince D Clementi p g , Grand Master

at the court o f the Grand Duke o f Tuscany . Prince Ro spigl io si did not have any documents o f a nature t o establish positively the absolute authenticity o f

. c rit i the attribution On the other hand , modern c ism has been able to trace definitely , from the de

’ sc ri t io ns Cel l ini s p in writings , but one of the larger pieces which Benvenuto classed under the compre “ ”

i . h e ns v e term grosseria This single piece , the salt

o f cellar made for Francois I France , is now at Vienna .

However , Plon and other men , who have devoted

t o o f themselves a study Cellini and his works , hold “ ” that this Ro spigl io si Coupe is undoubtedly his

su handiwork , the sumptuousness of the design , the b t l e t y of its workmanship , and the richness of the enameling corresponding t o a taste of which no other

o f . artist the time was capable I t is entirely of gold ,

o f the basin fashioned in the form a shell , polished

t o on the inner side receive the salt , if this be in

reality a sal t cellar . A fantastical dragon with wings outstretched supports the basin and is in turn sup

ported by a tortoise enameled in yellow and black . But it is upon the Sphinx , seated upon the rim o f the

shell , that Cellini has lavished the utmost resources

of his workmanship . The figure is beautifully mod

e l e d , while the wings and tail are enameled with

o f e xt rao rdi transparent greens , reds , and blues an

nary brilliance . A great pearl falls from her breast

and smaller pearls are in her ears . GOL D AN D ENA M E L A LL E D T H E , C ROSP IG L IOSI COU P E

By B envenu to Cel l ini

80 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E‘C T I O N

. U i i used pon the metal base , usually gold , the nt r cacies of the design were traced by means o f tiny flat n te ed wires soldered to the ground . The cloisons ,

so that is , the compartments formed , were then filled

with the various pastes , fused , and the surface

smoothed and polished . This was the method o f the B n yza tine school . Champlevé , the mediaeval proc O ess , was the direct pposite of cloisonné . The artist i with his bur n hollowed out the metallic surface , later filli ng his de sig n wit h the enamel to form a c hampl eve or field of color raised t o the original level o f the sur n face . I n the thirtee th and fourteenth centuries this technique reached the fullest development in the great French school o f Limoges and the German

schools of the Rhine and the Moselle . I n this collection there is o ne example of champlevé C B enamel , from Limoges , a Chasse in ASE , dating n from the second half of the thirteenth ce tury . The

C o f hasse , the most primitive type mediaeval reli

uar o r q y , represents in form a gabled house church and was placed upon the altar t o house the relics o f a ff saint or martyr . I t is particularly e ective in color, B the figures of the lessed Saviour , Saint James and

Sain t John , the Agnus Dei and the angels , which are

reserved in the copper gilt , contrasting splendidly

with the enameled cobalt ground , the light blue and

the turquoise o f the medallions . I n technique it shows workmanship typical o f the later half o f the thirteenth century when the figures were reserved in

the metal and the background enameled , an exact reversal o f the earlier practice which became general

82 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N therefore usually covered with a White enamel and

- o f U the reverse with a contre enamel waste . pon the enamel base the design was worked o ut and laid in

in the desired colors . I n other words i t was pai nting W in enamel , the colors being united It h the base by

fusion . Seven examples o f this technique are exhibited in

C . the central case , AS E C The earliest piece is t he ”

o f Mo nv ae rni . al l Kiss J udas by This , in proba

’ il it b y , was not the artist s name , but by a curious mistake i t has come t o be applied to a class o f primi t iv e s with certain characteristics o f style which c an be roughly dated t o the last quarter o f the fifteenth

century . The dominant colors are blue and gold . The blue ground is sprinkled with clo uds and stars o f gold and the greater part o f the robes are blue but

- with innumerable cross hatchings of gold . While the

composition is crowded and overdone , there is a splendid sincerity and a naivete which cannot fail to appe aL The great master o f the early school was Nardo n

Pe nic aud o f o f , the first an extraordinary family

o f enamel workers . He was born in the later half the fifteenth century and the period o f his greatest

activity was between the years 1495 and 15 20 . We are especially fortunate in having in CAS E C three very

characteristic works from his hand , three Triptychs . Two have a central representation o f the Adoration t h e o f o f the Shepherds , wings each , when taken to

o f gether, representing the incident the Annunciation , o t h e o n e t h e n one side Angel Gabriel , the oth r ‘ Mdlk mbtsarebluebut “dull Whilethe

v here isa l d oum, t

CAN D L E ST I C KS OF ROC K C R Y AN D S I LVE R G I LT

Ge rman s xteenth centu r , i y

84 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

artists were his equal , a few his superior, but none e surpassed him in personal fam and renown . H e was

1 0 o f born about 5 5 at Limoges , but the decisive fact his life was his removal to Paris at the command of e the King . Ther he came into direct contact with I the new movements , for Francois was the great patron of the French Renaissance . I n Nardo n Peni c aud we have the lingering Gothic influence ; in Léon ard Limo sin the untrammeled art of the full Renais sance . His art covered a wide field , for he fashioned not only decorative pieces and plaques but a very large number o f portraits . These portraits are his

e s most charact ristic works , since they con titute his personal contribution t o the history o f enameling .

CASE C contains two very typical pieces , the Portraits

t wo - of well known Huguenots , Francois de Maurel and Claude Co ndine t . They are signed in a usual 1 0 manner, L L , and both are dated 5 5 , a period when

Léonard Limo sin was at the height o f his powers .

Limo sin 1 28 The other piece is a Plate by J ean , 5

’ 16 10 o f , a close relative Léonard s without a doubt , but i t is impossible t o establish the exact relationship . The plate is decorated with pure Renaissance ara b e s ue s and q masks , the bowl with a most amusing representation of Abimelech gazing down from the

o f top a classic portico upon I saac and Rebekah , while i n the background the herdsmen of Gerak and

h e o f E I saac strive for t wells sek and Sitnah . The o f 2 6 artist has added the chapter Genesis , Chapter ,

o so that we shall make n mistake about the scene .

The colors are very striking , the opaque colors con

86 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

o f undbr in the period greatest luxury the Empire , that this precious material came t o be regarded as of

so extreme value and to be sought for , that i t might be worked into drinking cups . A mania took posses

n sion of the fashionable world , enormous sums bei g

. in paid for perfect vessels We know that Nero , formed that his Empire was lost to him , dashed to the ground two crystal bowls engraved with scenes from Homer , that the world should be the poorer by their loss and that he might in some degree revenge himself upon mankind . With the decline and fall o f the Empire the demand

o f and the art declined , yet we find mention crystals here and there through all the Middle Age in chron

l e s and n . ' ic i ventories We read that Gregory , in

12 1 7 , sent by Marco Polo many fine vessels of crys tal as presents to the G reat Khan , the most splendid and precious things that the Pope could command . But i t was at the beginning of the fifteenth century

n that rock crystal again came into its own , reachi g the height of its popularity and technical perfection

t o in the sixteenth century . I t is this finest period

o f that the pieces in this collection belong , the work

o . t w schools , the I talian and the German The first piece in date (CASE B) is a Covered Cup o f fif t e e nt h - German workmanship , the only century example in this collection . The cup is cut to twelve faces , each decorated with circular depressions , the foot supported by three putti , the whole mounted in — se t o f silver gilt , with jewels a barbaric beauty sap

h ire s . n p , rubies , emeralds , and pearls The significa t PO RTA BL E HO L Y WATE R STOU P

Ital an s xteenth i , i century

88 T H E A L T M A N C O L ‘L E C T I O N

portable holy water stoup , formed parl of the eccle SIast Ic al furniture of the great Spanish cathedral o f

Valencia , used in its ceremonials , carried by an aco lyte as the priest sprinkled the congregation with the

holy water before the celebration of the high mass . I t

n n is of perfect form , the body gadroo ed and e graved

with floral festoons , the handle mounted i n gold enameled in beautiful colors and set with pigeon

blood rubies . Another noteworthy piece is the Plate B Il attributed to Valerio elli , called Vicentino , whose

’ work marks the culmi nation of the e ngraver s a rt i n

n n the first half of the sixteenth ce tury , Vasari referri g m n to him with extre e praise . He was oted for his int agl ii modeled o n the antique and for numerous n works in rock crystal , his services bei g sought by

popes and princes . This piece merits the attribution by the refinement o f its technique and a classical treatment closely resembling the workmanship i n pieces definitely known to be from his hand . The Pax came from a chapel i n the Cathedral o f

. o f Avila in Spain This i s unusual beauty , prob ably o f Milanese workmanship . I n design i t corre spo nds t o a type generally introduced in the four t e e nt h century when the pax took a form inspired by the archite cture o f the period . I n the same manner

t o this pax , dating as i t does the sixteenth century , reflects the more florid architectural fancy o f the

High Renaissance . The central representation o f the ' o f verre e l omise Adoration the Magi is in g , framed in

se t - gold with pigeon blood rubies , which vie with the glowing colors in the robes of our Lady , Saint Joseph , EWE R OF S MO K E COLO R ROC K C R Y S

German s xtee , i nth century

90 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

ing as the only example in this collection o f a unique

l y beautiful and much prized variety of crystal . The o f I three other pieces are talian workmanship , the B owl with the dolphin handles , the Cup i n the form e o n of a lobed shell , an eagl resting the lip , and the Rose Water Vase used t o sprinkle the hands o f the guests at the ceremonial banquets . WAT E R VA S E OF ROC K C R Y STA L

Ital an s xteent i , i h centu ry

T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 93

Gal l e rie s Th re e and Fo ur

se Porce l ai s S u Bo l es Chine n , n ff tt and Lacquers

LTHOUG H in the other sections o f the Hand boo k to the Altman Collection the objects I n the different rooms are noted in the

o f order in which they are placed , the arrangement the Chinese porcelains in GALLERI ES 3 and 4 has been necessarily governed by the character o f the exhibits , which are grouped more with regard to color and eff ect than t o t h e historical sequence o f the pieces . As i t is impossible to give a clear idea of such porcelains without considering the chrono

o f logical development the art , it has been thought best in the account o f these two galleries t o disre gard the arrangement o f the material and to treat the contents o f both rooms from the historical standpoint and as one undivided collection . Con

o f sequently , instead leading the visitor in an unin t e rru t e d p progression about each gallery in turn , he i s referred t o diff erent varieties o f material and to individual objects in their chronological order by a system o f case letters and catalogue numbers . The 94 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 0 lettering of cases , which is repeated in each room , begins at the visitor ’ s right as he enters the gallery and is applied first t o the wall cases and then to those o n the floor . Numbers are given only to those pieces which receive special mention in the text .

Chinese Porce l ains

Introduct io n

I TH the Chinese porcelai ns purchased from

Samuel P . Avery nearly forty years ago , and

the magnificent J . Pierpont Morgan Collection of the o n 18 Mu same ware exhibited here loan since 94, the seum display o f later Chinese ceramics has long been among the best anywhere available to the public— a display which the Altman bequest now makes of unri

- valed importance . The four hundred and twenty nine examples o f porcelain in the Altman Collection are al l

pieces of very high order, typifying the best of which

Chinese art was capable in its last brilliant period ,

’ ’ and illustrating phases o f K ang Hsi and Ch ien Lung wares heretofore only partly represented among por

l ins . n c e a shown i n the M useum As a result , Chi ese porcelains may now be seen in greater number and of proportionately finer quality in this M useum than

o f in any other, and the unending variations a splen did art can here be followed with a more complete series of illustrative examples than is found elsewhere throughout the Occident gathered together under a

single roof .

96 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

produced by painting the design in c Ob al t on the dry

su rface of the piece , which is then dipped in glaze and

placed in the kiln , where i t is subjected to the intense

rand eu n heat of the g f , emergi g finished and complete in all essentials , as an example of the large class of

n . porcelain termed u derglaze blue I f, however,

the piece is to be practically solid in color, no paint in g with the brush is necessary , metallic oxides being

rand eu mixed with the glaze , which under the g f w assumes either idely variegated tints or else plain ,

deep hues of translucent brilliancy . Sometimes the color in powder form is blown through gauze on to a clear wet glaze and the result is the well—known powder blue and other colors with similar f“aintly t mo tled texture . Such pieces are classed as plain ” “ ” colors or monochrome s and usually require no

second firing . The third method is used for poly

chrome enamels , which , being fugitive under the high temperature necessary to vitrify the body of the

o n porcelain , are applied the white surface of a piece

which has been previously glazed and fired . These “ ” “ ” enamel or overglaze colors are then fused into the surface of the object by one or more additional firings at a lesser temperature in what is called the ” muffle kiln . I t may be noted here that whichever o f these processes is used probably no piece of Chinese

o f o ne porcelain is entirely the work man , and that some o f the more splendidly decorated specimens are said to pass through the hands of seventy workmen

before completion . This may very well be true o f a

of e m number vases in the Altman Collection , which C Y L I N D R I CA L VA S E OF GA RN I T R E NOS U ,

Fam il l e No i re

’ K N G H SI 1662— 1 22 A , 7

8 E A L T M A N C O L L E C T N 9 T H . I O

the mountain sides in hundreds . A portion o f these kilns produced porcelain f o r the imperial court only and were controlled directly by governors designated by the Son o f Heaven to rule the province as well

o f as the city , four whom , appointed successively

o f during the epoch the greatest fertility , were pot ters o f remarkable genius and gave their names t o numerous inventions which are now recognized as’ among the most noteworthy in the history of po r l i c e a n. With a few exceptions all the Chinese porcelain in the Altman Collection dates from the era o f these four governors and the period o f full accomplishment in the art o f porcelain manufacture when consummate knowledge o f the m at e rial and unfailing Success in its manipulation were combined with a vigorous decora tive sense and a mastery o f the principles of design . This brilliant epoch lasted little more than a century

t wo and a quarter and may be divided into parts ,

. the first c o inc 1ding with the reign o f the Emperor

’ Hsi 1662 t o 1 22 K ang from 7 , and the second with the Y ’ rule of his successors , ung Ch ing , who occupied the ’ 1 throne until 735 , and Ch ien Lung , who abdicated

o f Al l 1 6 . in 79 , after sixty years power three were princes who through intelligent and unremitting per sonal interest stimulated the porcelain industry t o its most productive phase and their names are in disso l ub l y connected with the art . The wares o f this period were the first t o reach Europe in any quantity ; for although occasional examples of earlier porcelain had been carried through COVE R E D AR OF GARN N OS ITU R E . 1 J i , 5 Fam il l e N o i re

’ K N G HSI 1662— 1 2 2 A , 7

100 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N o r three hundred years before that type of porcelain began to be issued from the kiln . Although the his t o ric al information of our china-collecting ancestors was fanciful , they invented for their possessions a useful classification according to ornament and color . Thus among pieces decorated in polychrome certain general classes were established and called by the

am l l e verte am l l e no re am l l e French terms of f i , f i i , f i

aune am l l e ro se o r j , f i , as green , black , yellow, “rose n happened to predomi ate in their color . Haw ” thorn vases , which may belong to any of the first

of three groups , were named because the subject of their decoration and are more fully mentioned below .

In san de bce u cl a r de referring to the monochromes g f , i ’ bl a nc de Ch ne ro u e d or l une , i , g , and other old French phrases descriptive of color have been incorporated into every porcelain collector ’ s vocabulary and are heard much more often than their E nglish e q uiv a lents . One word , however , came directly from the “ ” East into the English language , the term china which we now use to apply to al l manner of po rc e l an ous wares .

The Co l l e ction

o f A number the Altman pieces , in so far as their history can be traced , were brought to Europe shortly after their manufacture and have been known since the eighteenth century . Among these are several specimens in the most outstanding group of the col H lection , the forty splendid HAWT ORN VASES , which rank both in number and in quality among the finest COVE R E D AR a OF GA RN I T R E — J NOS. 1 U , 5 Famil l e N o i re

’ K N G HSI 1662- A , 172 2

IO2 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

in the collection , is unexcelled among porcelains of this variety . The collection includes twenty-three specimens of FAMI LLE VERTE ware in which green against a white background is the predominant color among the

o f . C variegated enamels the ornament ASES A , C , E ,

o f o f S , and T GALLERY 3 contain most the exam

f o f ples o this comprehensive species porcelain . The

. 12 1 1 charming decoration of Nos , 3 , and 4 , indicates the appearance of a Hawthorn vase before the col

o f ored background is added , but because the omis sion here o f any tinted ground these vases are classed as famille verte , although the prunus flower appears

1 among the ornament . No . 5 is inte“resting in that the subject o f the decoration is the Hundred An

tiques , legendary treasures often depicted in Chinese 6 . . 1 C art No , ASE S , is unusual in having underglaze

blue combined with overglaze enamels . The figures C R C E in the ENT AL ASE , C , on the AST WALL in GAL

o f e LERY 3 , are almost all the famille vert , although

. 1 o f Y in b n fi the large statuette No 7 , Kuan , the e e

B o ne o f cent uddhist deity , is the few porcelains in

’ the Altman Collection antedating the reign o f K ang

. 18 Hsi . This and the smaller figure , No , are pro

uc t io ns o f o f d the end the sixteenth century , late in

o f re the Ming dynasty , and are typical the more st ric t e d color scheme and bolder conception o f form

’ o ut o f which developed the K ang Hsi specimens

grouped about them .

n H Amo g the MONOC ROME PORCE LAINS , which are

N G D E B (E U F distributed through both galleries , the SA NO . 17 GO D D ESS KUAN Y IN

M n D nast 1 68— 16 i g y y , 3 43

104 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 0 o ne tion , but with sweetmeats sent from friend to another o n the New Y ear . The name originated in the early days of trade with the East when the European importers put their porcelains to uses which the makers had never intended . The decoration of blue and white porcelain is varied in design , the more closely patterned pieces being in a general way the

o f earlier . Most those shown here date from the

’

. 2 2 K ang Hsi period , but , among others , Nos and

2 . 3 are fine examples of later ware The small box ,

2 No . 4 , also of the second part of the eighteenth cen

re re se n tury , is interesting in having on its cover a p

’ io n o div inat io n a t at f the eight trigrams of , symbol

Of ancient Chinese magic . Y With the new Emperor , ung the gov e rno r n b e succeeding Lang , the or ament of porcelain came feminized and the old strong colors were re

o f placed by a variety of softer tints . An example

. 2 C the productions of this reign is No 5 , ASE N ,

GALLERY 3 , although as a whole the distinction is not sharply drawn between wares of this transition period and those of the following epoch , when the master potters of the Emperor Ch ’ ien Lung carried to highest pitch the refinement of structure , surface , and ornament of porcelain . Dating from Ch ’ ien Lung ’ s time and grouped chiefly in CASES I and K of GALLERY 3 are the vases

F so of the AMI LLE ROSE , called from the characteristic

’ pale crimson or rouge d or, the most noteworthy color among the enamels . This opaque tint , which is pro d uce d by gold , was invented at about the same t ime VA S E S

Famil l e j aune

’ K NG HSI 1662— 1 22 A , 7

106 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N O - H The several beautiful ALL W ITE VASES , which have always been popular si nce the beginning of

Chinese ceramics , and which are usually considered as a single class , with regard rather to quality and

t o C color than chronology , are represented in ASE E ,

GALLERY 4 . Among the others No . 3 3 is typical of

o f n n the later stage the porcelai i dustry , dating from

’ ’

N . . o Ch ien Lung s time 34 , with its fine incised

’

. 6 ornament is K ang H si , while Nos 3 5 and 3 are much more ancient , being specimens of the white Y porcelain produced in the Sung and uan dynasties , and Tin Yao o f termed g from their place manufacture .

o r No s . The three small libation wedding cups, 37 ,

8 a nd C 3 , 39 in AS E E , GALLERY 4 , i t may be noted , f o Y in NO . 0 together with the figure Kuan , 4 , in

C o f AS E C GALLERY 3 , were probably made at a

o f n factory in the province Fuchie , which specialized in uncolored ornamental pieces and manufactured much delicate white ware o f this type and glaze l l known in France as blanc de Chine . A the other pieces in the collection were presumably made a t

- - é é . 1 n t c h n . o f Chi g The graceful bowl , No 4 , is special interest in that it is o ne o f the famous Yung Lo porcelains which bear incised in the fragile paste the seal o f the Emperor o f that name who ruled from

2 U 1402 t o 14 4 . ntil very recently these pieces were thought t o be beyond question documents o f that n period , but it has lately become known that a J apa ese potter o f the early nineteenth century produced Similar ware and signed i t with the ancient Chinese seal , which he was lawfully entitled to use through

m8 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

their huge sleeves . Such are the e ail y jade amulets presented to the M useum last year, and such , from

o ne - a later age , are the hundred and seventy one ff - C F small snu bottles in ASES and H of GALLERY 4 , which rank among the most interesti ng and valuable t he objects in Altman Collection , both from the pre c io us materials used i n their manufacture and from the meticulous care which has been lavished o n their

. f o r ornamentation They were used scents , cos ff metics , and medicines , as well as for snu , and may be

t o t wo divided according material into classes , the o ne o f o f porcelain , the other hard stones . The earliest o f the porcelain bottles date from the l at e

Ming dynasty , but the majority correspond both in period and type with the larger porcelains i n the co l

o f o f lection , and examples most the varieties o f ware

’ ’ ’ Hsi Y made under K ang , ung Ch ing , and Ch ien Lung may be found repeated i n delicate miniature

ff - among the snu bottles , although the structure and finish o f the small pieces are far finer than in the large specimens . The hard stones include such precious and semi precious minerals as sapphire , amethyst , turquoise , a jasper, carnelian , agate , s rdonyx , chalcedony , lapis f . o lazuli , crystal , alabaster, and jade The charm color in these rare materials , as well as the ingenuity o f the lapidaries wh o have carved from them so in

r st in o f t o t e e g a series subtly varied shapes , brings mind perhaps more clearly than the more monumen tal objects the exquisite quality o f Chinese civiliza tion in its culminative years . P LAT E

Famil l e Verte

’ K N G H SI 1662— 1 22 A , 7

I I O T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N ' I n CAS E M are three i ron and bronze sword-guards 2 of good quality , Nos . 5 and 5 3 having a background “ ” of nanako o r fish -ro e and dating from the early

No . nineteenth century , while 5 4 is about forty years older and was made for a sword belonging t o some member o f the Daté family o f Sendai . The metal knife- handles i n this case are works o f the same time and the same craft which produced the three sword

o f e guards . Most these small objects wer made for and preserved as delicate examples o f the armor ’ ’ t er s art , more suitable for the collector s cabine than for hard usage . Such handles were changed from time

o o t time n the same blade , amateurs keeping a large reserve store o f them f o r various occasions . The combination o f finely wrough t gold o r silver ornament o i n a rugged i ron ground , found not only n sword

o f guards but in much other metalwork the period , was a con trast o f which Japanese art in the eighteenth century was especially fond . Gal l e ry Fiv e

Scul ure R u s Ta es ries pt , g , p t

Furni ure and t ,

Miscel l aneous

1 1 T H E 4 A L T M A N C O L L E.C T I O N I' , at the left , and proceeding always in that direction until he is again at the point where he '

entered . Here the numbering o f rugs begins and the same order is followed as in t h e case o f the

sculptures . This order is again repeated with the

miscellaneous objects , but the furni ture is considered

in groups rather than piece by piece .

Sculpture

O - o f M NG the twenty seven pieces sculpture , all but SIx o f which are Shown i n GALLERY

I re re se n 5 , the talian school has the largest p

t a t io n — , fifteen examples in all marble , terracotta ,

. are stucco, and bronze Nine pieces French ,

o ne o ne o ne . is Dutch , German , and Roman The I talian sculptures are o f the fifteenth and sixteenth

o ne o f centuries and the French , with exception , the

eighteenth , while the other works fall into inter

mediate periods . As has been stated , the sculp tures are treated individually in the following notes and are not grouped according t o schools .

5 2 PO RTRA I T OF A P R I EST By Mino da Fie sol e 1 0—1 8 FLORENTIN E , 4 3 4 4

All Florentine sculptors o f the fifteenth century

o ne delighted in portraiture and M ino da Fiesole , h is o f the most appreciated among them , began — G A L L E R Y F I V E S C U L P T U R E 1 15

- career by making portrait busts , from which he passed t o the larger and more monumental works for which he is famous . A considerable proportion o f his importan t sculptures are monuments for o f great prelates and nobles , which a number still

o f exist in the churches Florence and Rome . They generally include a portrait bust o r figure o f the deceased worthy , and i t is probable that the relief o f an unknown priest in the Altman Collection originally formed part o f such a memorial . I t was placed i n a circular frame o r medallion and can scarcely be fairly judged without its setting , but its strong characterization and fine modeling are obvious without the further definition o f any frame . The bust i s regarded as an unquestioned work o f Mino ’ s and has been illustrated and described as such by Wilhelm Bode in his De nkméil e r der Renais ” -Sc ul t ur sance p Toscanas , under Mino da Fiesole , o f Plate 395 . The marble formerly formed part

- the well known Hainaue r Collection .

5 3 C A R ES I' I F RA C E H L , K NG OF N By Germa in P il on

H 1 - 1 0 FRENC , 5 3 5 59

Pilon spent most o f the productive period o f his life in working f o r the French Court , which under

Catherine de Medici and her sons , offered employ ment t o a host o f artists in widely diversified fields . Among the sculptors o f the epoch Pilon was the n 6 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

s b most uccessful , his only considera le rival being

Jean Goujon , whose genius was constantly thwarted by il l luck and wh o accomplished far less than his more fortunate contemporary . The marble head included in the Altman bequest is

’ interesting no t only as an evidence o f Pilon s tech nic al a i ttainments , but also for its historical s g ifi n c ance . I' o f The subject is Charles , King

so n o f France , and second Henri I I and Catherine de Medici . He was born in 15 5 0 and bore the title

’ o f Duc d Orl e ans until o n the death of his brother

1 60 . 1 he ascended the throne in 5 H e died i n 5 74 , remembered chiefly , and not enviably , as having

o f been the tool his mother and ‘the instrument through which sh e brought about the Massacre o f Sain t Bartholomew which the King decreed in 1 5 72 . The bust was executed toward the end o f

’ the young King s not very creditable life , and can scarcely have flattered the royal sitter . This work ’ o f o f Pilon s remained from the time its execution ,

o f until recently , in the ancestral chateau the Duc de Montmorency Laval .

54 B UST OF A YOUT H School of Verrocchio H FLORENTIN E , FI FTEENT CENTURY

The round-faced smoothness o f adolescence in this lifelike bust o f an unknown youth does no t conceal the personality never lacking in the Floren

1 18 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

ber of statues in marble , bronze , and terracotta , many o f which still survive in the architectural settings he

designed for his work . Besides the larger Operations on which he was e n

t o co nsi gaged , he evidently found time create the d e rab l e number o f small decorative sculptures which

t o o r modern investigators confidently assign him , at‘ least t o influence directly a school o f modelers who worked from his designs . Chief among the products o f this school are many small bronzes intended f o r

- o f o f semi useful purposes , which the two pairs monu mental andirons in the Altman Collection are typical

o f examples , evidencing the desire the period for splendor and artistic quality even i n the more pro saic details o f household equipment . The pair sur mounted by statuettes o f Mars and Venus are per haps less finished than works generally accepted as

’ by Sansovino himself , but that artist s inspiration is obvious both i n the type o f the figures and in the sumptuous variety o f motives which are assembled to form the bases .

57 J UL I U S CA ESA R In the manner of Antonio R o ssel l ino F 1 2 — 1 8 LORENTIN E , 4 7 47

As is said in referring to the M adonna and Child , 66 No . , Rossellino , the sculptor whose influence may be seen i n this bust , chose rather to depict the gentler aspects o f character than the more h e ro Ic ; I n this imagined portrait the world ’ s conqueror has the face 5 8 BU ST OF A YOU N G MAN

By Hans Til man R i emenschne ider

mo T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

hundred years after the revival o f classicism had I I become an unchangeable fact i n taly . n Ger

many , from Romanesque times onward , art always persisted in the established mode long after other

nations had changed their ways , and at a time when the fever for the Renaissance was sweeping all before it , artists from the South German mountains were the most reluctant o f the fraternity t o relinquish H their Gothic inheritance . owever, they could scarcely resist the inevitable , and this bust by Hans

o f o f Wii rz b ur Tilman Riemenschneider , the School g , o ne o f - the best known sculptors of the region , shows an assimilation o f Renaissance realism with a style which is still fundamentally Gothic and conventional . Riemenschneider was a leader among Wood- carvers o f t his generation , who at tha time exhibited the highest facility i n this favorite German medium .

o f The subject the bust is a youthful , unidentified man , probably a saint , and the type may be com

’ pared with the Madonna of Riemenschneider s school , recently purchased by the M useum . The Altman bust retains much of i ts original painted sur t face . I was formerly I n the Schreiber Collection in

il rt emb e r . Esslingen , W g

59 TH E V I RG I N ANN UN C I AT E By Benedetto da M ajano

1 2— 1 FLORENTIN E , 44 497

This terracotta is the sketch Benedetto made f o r the figure o f the Blessed Virgin in the famous altar 60 CHA R I T Y

By j acopo Sansov ino

u z T H E A L T M A N C O L L E q T I O N school . The group o f Chari ty included among the

Altman sculptures , repeats the type o f these t wo it Madonnas , although is finer in quality and e xe cut io n than t hey and may be accepted as a work ’ from the master s o wn hand and an especially happy o f example his skill . Sansovino always achieved in his figures some thing of t h e nobility and amplitude

o f sought after as an ideal among artists the time, and even in so small a group as t h e Charity o ne feels the splendid grace of the superhuman beings he strove t o create . The piece was probably a sketch for a larger figure ; a heroic group depicting t h e same sub

e c t ff st il l j , but with a di erent handling , exists i n the

o f . Church S Salvatore in Venice, where Sansovino worked as sculptor and architect . Of the t wo Chari A t ties , the ltman erracotta is much the more satis factory and illustrates within its small compass the most conspicuous merits o f Venetian sculpture dur ing the High Renaissance .

6 1 TH E M A DONN A AN D C H I LD By Luca del l a Ro bbia

1 —1 82 FLORENTIN E , 399 4

This charming group will doubtless win f o r itself an aff ectionate regard above that accorded to any other sculpture in the Altman bequest and above most o f the Della Robbia figures available t o t h e American I public . n its fine simplicity and unpretending beauty

o f e i t is excelled by f e w works those Florentine mod . 6 1 MA DON NA AN D C H I L D

By Lu ca del l a R o bbi a

124 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N Q to trace between the t wo sculptures by Mino da Fie so l e in the Altman bequest similarities in general

t o ne conception and in detail , even hough is a por trait and the other an imaginative presentation o f a sacred personage . Despite the fact that age i s rep resented in the bust of a priest and youth in the head o f Saint John , both faces have the same pointed oval outline, the same sensitive nose , and the same round eyes with lids overlapping at the corners . The type t i s hardly beautiful , but Florentine sculptors sough for other t hings t han beauty and the young Baptist is alert , vigorous , and infused with the lively realism f l l ’ o a . Mino s work The bust was , until recently , the f i property o the Conte Raspo n Spinelli o f Florence .

63 V I RTU E OV E RCOM I NG V I C E By Gian Bol ogna

1 28—1608 FLORENTIN E , 5 B Giovanni da ologna , as he was formerly called ,

t h o f e is e most typical sculptor the Lat Renaissance, wh o through personal force dominated an age o f artis

B o f tic decadence . orn in Flanders , he became a pupil

o f Michelangelo and worked most his life in Florence ,

o f executing many famous pieces statuary, among

o f B so others the Flying M ercury the argello , well known the world over . He made, probably about

1 66 - e s 5 , a full size group , Vic and Virtue , the ame A subject as the marble in the ltman Collection , and

b e this t oo now rests in the Bargello . The relief ’ longing t o the M useum shows the sculptor s suave 62 T H E YOU N G SA I N T J OH N BA PT I ST

By M ino da Fi esol e

u 6 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E CT I O N

B u o Renaissance into the aroq e . I t is n t easy t o dif

e re nt iat e o f f the fluid style these later masters , but the supe rior merit o f this pair o f fire -dogs fully justi

t o fies their attribution Vittoria himself, while it makes almost e qually defensibl e t h e attribution to

Sansovino , as whose work they have often been re garded . Vittoria was the sculptor o f t h e t erracotta

o f portrait Simone Contarini , typifying another phase ’ o f this artist s manner, which was purchased by the

M useum t wo years ago . Th e earlier t aste for allegory still survived a t the o f t h b ut end e Cinquecento, chiefly as an excuse for giving names t o works o f art which were otherwise without very definite characterization . The vague way in which t h e attributes o f these t wo symbolical figures are assembled indicates how much more in t e re st e d t h e sculpt or was in making graceful stat nettes than in expressing an idea , although he could not ye t quite bring himself t o disregard the tradi t io nal insistence o n a t itle and a meaning f o r his

wo work . The color of t hese t figures is typical of t h e patina and added charm which age and careful usage bring t o the surface o f bronze .

66 M A DONNA AN D CH I LD By Antonio Rossel l ino F 1 2 — 1 8 LORENTIN E , 4 7 47

Charm o f sentiment and a fine artistry distinguish al l Fl o re nt ine sculpture o f the fifteenth century and 65 P EAC E

By Al essandro Vitto r ia

12 8 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

67 M A DONN A AN D CH I LD By Do natel l o 1 86—1 66 FLORENTIN E , 3 4

The poignant drama o f the relation between the Child Christ and His Mother filled the mind o f the o f wh o i sculptor this relief, handled the theme w t l i ever-growing intensity in the frequent repetitions o f the subject which every artist of the time was called upon t o execute . Donatello was a prophet in his generation and his work has an austere strength and a deep poetic quality found only in the creations o f supreme masters . His Madonnas are majestic in u their mingled tragedy and tenderness , q alities which in this example are reflected to the full . Donatello made a number o f similar reliefs in terracotta o f which tha t known as the Veronese Madonna exists

o ne o f in several repetitions , which was purchased f by the Museum t wo years ago . I t dif ers somewhat from the Madonna in the Altman Collection , but both show a general similarity o f type and may be ’ ascribed t o the same period in the master s work , when toward the middle of the fifteenth century he was in Padua executing his superb sculptures for the Th . e Church o f S . Antonio Altman relief was at t o t h e o ne time attributed Michelozzo , contemporary - o f and fellow workman , although scarcely the equal , t o Donatello , but the attribution the greater artist e e n is now ge ne rally accepted . The reli f, which is o f was closed in a characteristic frame the period , 66 MA DON NA AN D C H I L D ,

By Anto nio Rossel l ino

130 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N 0 this , which is chiefly familiar through the better known version in sandstone existing in the National

M useum in Florence . The relation between these two repetitions of the same relief and a third in marble , no t o f which is perhaps even the period of the others , now in private possession , is an interesting and un solved question , but it is generally considered that the

c o f Altman stu co is the first essay Donatello, from which the Bargello version in less workable stone was

wo ff afterward made . The t di er slightly in details o f the features and drapery, and materially i n the

o f ornamentation the background , the stucco being the more elaborate in its setting . I n feature and ex pression the relief in Florence is gentler and less tense

o f than this , which has in it something the exaltation and solemnity with which the young Saint John must have foreseen his prophet future . The parted lips and the wide , fixed eyes have here scarcely the charm o f B the dreamy argello youth , but they evidence , ’ al l Do nat e l l o perhaps the more , s insight into the minds of saints and hero es and his o wn august nature . The relief formerly formed part of the collection o f

M aurice Kann in Paris .

7 1 B UST OF A MAN

BC . o rst . Roman rst centur t centur A D . , fi y fi y Such artistic genius as the Romans possessed found its expression in realistic portraiture rather than in more imaginativ e wo rks ; for t h e Roman mind could — G A L L E R Y F I V E S C U L P T U R E 13 1

o f grasp the practical facts an existence , the poetical and fanciful aspects o f which i t could only partly

apprehend . M uch o f Roman art is an echo and repe

o f tition the more vital Greek expression , save in those instances where the Roman sculptor worked directly from the living model and concerned himself only with making an exact replica in bronze o r mar

o f se ble the subject t before his eyes . Further than that he could rarely go ; but the extent t o which he excelled in the art o f portraiture is illustrated by the

B o f impressive ust a M an in the Altman Collection . I t represents the t ransIt Io n period in Roman art b e B C . tween the first century . and the first century D f A . . when t races might be discerned o an idealizing tendency borrowed from Greece , a tendency which had not yet , however, perverted the native Roman realism that gives the portrai t its splendidly lifelike charact er . The ivory with which the eyeballs are

t o t ff inlaid contributes greatly his e ect , especially when o ne imagines the b ronze o f the flesh in its

m s original golden color ; and with the and pupil ,

o r which have disappeared , inlaid in lapis other

t e material , h lifelike quality must have been still

o f furthe r accentuated . The loss these details and the removal o f a portion o f the ancien t patina are the only injuries which the portrait has undergone . M iss

t o G . M . A . Richt er was the first publish this bust ;

NO . . I 2 in her account in Art in America , Vol , , April ,

1 1 sh e asc ri 9 3 , discusses at length its subject and p

al so o f tion , and the general characteristics this

- interesting class o f portrait sculpture . 132 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

72 T R I TON By Adr iaen de Vr ies

D H 1 60— 160 UTC , 5 3

B Adriaen de Vries worked in I taly , ohemia , and l - n . Bo o na Germa y As a pupil of Gian g , De Vries adopted an I talian manner which had in it but little

n B n trace of Teuto ic character . esides umerous impo s ing works carried out at Prague for Rudolph I I and at

n Vien a , he made two fountains of Hercules and Mer cury , at Augsburg , wherein he followed the example of his master in usi ng the familiar figures of allegory a nd classical tradition combined with prodigal gener o sity and executed in a full and splendid style . The bronze Trito n may be a study for o ne o f the auxiliary

n n figures in such a fou tain , as the design would i di cate , but this cast has never apparently served its n n purpose . I t is of the same period as the Sa sovi o n terracotta exhibited in this gallery , but belo gs to a nother though no less typical phase o f the sculpture of the day .

7 3 M E RCU RY TY I NG HIS SAN DAL By j ean B apt i ste P igal l e

F N H 1 1 — 1 8 RE C , 7 4 7 5

Pigalle was o ne of the most masculine of the eigh t e e nt h - century sculptors and in spirit belongs more t o the days of Louis 'IV than to the less g randil o

B 4 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

cute the famous portrait- statue o f Washington and o n the same visi t carried o ut a number of lesser works

which have remained here ever since . I n more recent years other sculptures o f his have been brought from

abroad , but none exceeds in distinction the Bather

o ne o f in the Altman Collection . I t is the compara

t iv e l o f y few works art with a complete history , which has been ably expounded by M . Paul Vitry ,

o f o f Curator Sculpture i n the M useum the Louvre , from whose article , published in Art in America for

1 1 I . August , 9 4 , Volume I , No V , the following slightly ab“ridged accoun t i s quoted Among the most important works o f H0udon in

i B o f Amer ca , the ather the Altman Collection must be put in the foremost rank . Together with the celebrated Diana o f the Hermitage i t is o ne of the most important and significant works in marble o f But the sculptor . , whil e the Diana i s characteristic o f the revival o f taste for the classic style and the correctness o f perfect forms (a correctness which often B degenerated into dryness) , the Woman athing is in t h e true French eighteenth-century spiri t and exhibits the essentially naturalistic tendencies o f ’ f Ho udo n s . A o genius lthough the same date , i t therefore off ers an absolute antithesis t o the Hermit

a o B a neuse age statue . Half a century g this ig was l i thought t o have been o st . Anatole de Mo nt a g

o f o f lon , in his study Houdon , scarcely speaks the

t o Dél e ro t group which i t belonged , and says dis t inc t l y that the group was destroyed during the

. In 182 . so 8 Revolution Fortunately this was not , 74 THE B ATH E R , MA R BL E

By j ean Anto ine Ho udon

136 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

inclemencies of the weather , to which it owes its pre sent pati na and the careful restorations which it has undergone . The leg which had been repaired in 1793 and u had again to be restored , the foot now rests pon n a fragme t of rock which has been added to the base . n Notwithstandi g these repairs , and the slightly peculiar pose which the picturesque composition of the group must have made appropriate , this statue is a most valuable and fasci nating work because of the

o f m and easy grace and beauty the move ent , of the

o f n . subtlety the modeli g The head , which is less n regular t han that of the Dia a , recalls somewhat

Al l e rain and the naturalistic figures of g , is assuredly , like them , studied directly from the living model .

75 TH E I NTO'I CAT I ON OF W I N E

B Cl aude M chel cal l ed Cl odion y i ,

F N H 1 8— 181 RE C , 7 3 4

Cl o dio n and Houdon are today held in almost equal honor, although the former must always be remem bered as an artist who did a small thing c o nsum

’ mately well , whereas the latter s genius extended over

ne a far larger field . The work of the o is an expres sion o f the unrepentant paganism o f the eighteenth

o f century , that the other represents the grave but by no means gloomy attitude of the philosophizing intellectuals of the epoch . No artist ever excelled Cl o dio n in complete mas t e r and o f y over his medium , i n the manipulation the 7 5 THE I N TO'I CAT I ON OF W I N E

B Cl aude M chel cal l ed Cl odio n y i ,

U 8 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

77 ACC S I T C I B H U AN D A N YM PH , W H UP D

B Cl aude M ic l al l d o io y he , c e Cl d n

H 1 8— 181 FRENC , 7 3 4

B I n this group , as in the acchante and Satyr , No .

’ Cl o dio n s 75 , naive and happy paganism is expressed with a Sophistication and finish rarely equaled in art and possible only in the century which produced him . His knowledge o f form and his especial aptitude for the depiction of children are shown in the laughing

wh o B Cupid attends the acchic revelers , while the

o f firm , round limbs and delicately modeled bodies the two chief figures o f the group are as co nv InCIngl y alive as any substance not flesh and blood can be . The group was formerly the property o f Lord Wemyss

in London .

78 LOU I S E B RONGN IART By j ean Anto ine Ho udon

F H 1 1— 1828 RENC , 74

Among al l the portrait b usts of distinguished ex

e l l e nc e c which Houdon executed , his frequent studies o f children are , perhaps , the best , since fondness for his small sitters led him to put especial devotion into any subject in which children had a part . Many o f these portraits are o f members of his o wn large fam ily , whose chief claim to fame is that their features

’ still survive in Ho udo n s work ; but o f the sitter f o r t h e bu st in t h e Al tman Collect ion nothing is known 86 NO . RUG

C n ral P ers an a out 1 80 e t i , b 5

140 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N . o f color and design , but during the last century before

se t the decadence in , the factories founded in I ndia under the Mogul sovereigns produced rugs which have never been approached for their almost inc re di b l e fineness o f texture . With an innate genius for design the Persians subordinated every motive i n

t o I their rugs the general pattern , while the ndian weavers sought for a greater fidelity to the natural objects they generally chose to represent . I n con

a sequence Persian rug , although i t may show, as in H the famous unting Carpets , an imaginative assem blage o f men and beasts mingled with conventional

o r e a f t motives derived from nature Chines , keeps I these details flat and impersonal , where the ndian production displays an ordered collection o f realisti cally drawn plant o r animal studies worthy o f an

o f herbal o r bestiary . The influence the courts is strongly evident in t h e finest rugs o f the sixteenth I and seventeenth centuries , which , both i n ndia and

Persia , were mostly woven in imperial factories for royal use , and from designs which repeated the deco rat iv e schemes found in the contemporary miniature paintings made for the manuscript books of the rulers ’ libraries .

I o f n the choice rugs , as in every other variety o f o f n material , the founder the Altma Collection showed his preference for work o f culminative epochs

o f insis rather than primitive , and his fastidious

o ne tence o n perfection o f tech nique . With earlier exception , therefore , the sixteen rugs hung in GAL

L E R IES 3 and 5 , date from the sixteenth and seven 88 NO . S I L K AN I MA L R UG

Central P ers an l ast hal f of s xteenth tu r i , i cen y

8 NO . 9 PA RT O F R G FLOW E R AN D T R E LL I S D E I G N U , S

Ind an a out 1 80 i , b 5 — G A L L E R Y F I V E T R U G S 14 1

e e n h o f t t centuries , and include some examples car

- Th pet weaving as perfect as exist in any museum . e individual rugs are noted in order and are grouped as far as possible according to period and place o f manufacture .

I o f t h e n the center GALLERY 5 i s earliest rug, 8 o f No . 3 , and the only example the more primitive weaves in the collection . I t was made i n North Persia at the beginning o f the fiftee nth century and displays the conventions in design and t h e restricted

o f . No . 8 color the more archaic carpets 4, the first ’ rug on the visitor s right as h e enters from GALLERY

e o r 4 , is of the type known as Polonais Polish rugs because they were formerly t hough t t o have I . t e been made in Poland is now establish d , how

r e n t h e ever, that such ugs wer wove in impe rial Persian manufactories in the first half o f t h e seven t e e nt h century and were intended largely as gifts t o E m t h e uropean sovereigns fro reigning Shah . Th e color schemes o f these carpets are pale b ut vivid ; red

nd e t e is little used , a the gold and silv r hr ad woven into the background increases t h e brilliancy o f t h e

r r fabric . About four hundred rugs a e all t hat a e thought t o have been preserved o f t his rare and i precious variety . This example was e xhibited n the Exhibition o f Early Orien tal Rugs held at t h e M useum in 1910 and is fully described in the catalogue as No . 37 . 8 Nos . 8 86 8 The next three large rugs , 5 , , and , are al l C e nt ral m o f Persian , probably fro the region f 1 80 . o Kashan , and may be dated about 5 They are 142 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N silk very minutely woven and represent the acme of

- o ne o f f Persian rug making . I n square inch each o the three there are between five and seven hundred hand tied knots , and the result is a texture as fine and soft 8 as V elvet . No . 5 was formerly in the J . E . Taylor

NO . 86 Collection in London ; , which i s noteworthy for the Chinese symbols occurring in the design , was E No . a n 29 in the M useum xhibition ; d No . 88

o f o r Animal is a fine example the Hunting Carpets , so called from the beasts which figure in the pattern , a type much appreciated in both East and West Since the time o f its manufacture . f o No . 8 o n With the fragment a carpet , 7, the same

o f r wall , the series I ndian ugs begins , which includes

’ 8 0 1 2 . 8 . 6 Nos 7 , 9, 9 , 9 , 9 , and 94 i n this room and No 9 l in GALLERY 3 . These I ndian rugs are almost a l finer in weave than the Persian and average from seven hundred t o twelv e hundred knots t o the square

. h e inch , while the small fragment , No 94, contains t almost incredible number o f knots in o ne inch o f o f its surface . No other portion the rug from which this fragment comes is known t o exist and this single piece must rank as technically the most remarkable example o f rug-weaving which has reached the Occ i

o f dent . The stronger colors the I ndian carpets are

a o we apparent t a glance , as is the debt they to their

8 o f . E Persian prototypes . No 7 shows traces uropean

2 influence and No . 9 , like the famous carpet made at ’ 16 Lahore i n 34 for the Girdlers Company in London ,

o f o r is the I ndian version the I spahan , Herat , type

0 o f Persian rug mentioned below . No . 9 was also in

— G A L L E R Y F I V E R U G S 14 3 the Museum Exhibition in 19 10 and is described as

O . o f I N . 47 in the catalogue Most these ndian rugs

o f were made at Lahore , the seat the imperial looms during the reigns o f Akbar Shah ( 15 56— 1605) and his second successor Shah J ehan ( 1628— 16 sovereigns wh o brought the art o f rug- making in I ndia t o its

. U highest development nder their rule , besides A Lahore , the cities of gra and Fathpur supported other thriving manufactories o f rugs t o which the coarser weaves are usually attributed .

. a n The last rug in this gallery , No 93 , is Persian d is an interesting and unusually early example o f the prayer rugs patterned after the niches se t i n the East ern wall o f Mohammedan mosques . I n the niche e hangs t h lamp familiar in such mosques , while the borders a re composed o f religious inscriptions o f prayer and praise from the Koran . This rug , which

’ is reproduced in F . R . Martin s History o f Oriental

20 o f Carpets , figure 3 , formed part the M useum ex h ibit io n already referred t o and the various decora tive inscriptions are t ranslated under No . 3 1 in the catalogue issued at the time .

o f I n GALLERY 3 hang four rugs which , because restricted space could not be placed with the others N E o . i n Room 5 . On the AST WALL is 95 , a large Persian carpet dating from the first half of the seven t ee nt h century with a tree design drawn from archaic

6 o f . H I originals . No 9 on the NORT WALL is ndian , a slightly later date , and exemplifies a less ornamental and more useful kind of carpet t han the other I ndian h w e . T e t o piec s in the collect ion remaining rugs , M4 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

. 8 Nos 97 and 9 , belong to the widely known variety called incorrectly I spahan , from their port of ship ment to the West and more properly Herat from thei r place of manufacture . They are Persian and date from the seventeenth century , No . 97 being perhaps N O . 8 fifty years earlier than 9 , as is shown by its O clearer color , firmer drawing , and more pen pattern .

Tapestries N GALLERY FIVE are hung three tapestries Of

high excellence , the largest , No . 79, being the

t h e . I earliest of three t is a late Gothic example ,

B 1 00 made in russels about the year 5 , finely woven t h e l with gold and silver threads among inen , silk ,

o f and wool which the main fabric is composed . The tapestry , like others of its period , is divided by archi t e c t ural partitions into smaller fields which contain

o f B scenes from the life the lessed Virgin . I n the lower left- hand division the Annunciation is depicted and above it the Presentation o f the Virgin ; i n the

- lower right hand corner is the Adoration of the Magi , surmounted by the Visitation ; while in the upper center is the Assumption o f the Virgin with a land scape below and a choir o f angels above . The draw ing has all the character o f late Gothic work with an added touch o f the incipient realism o f the Renais

’ e sance , while design , color, and techniqu typify in this example al l that is best in tapestry . The piece was at o ne time in the Spitzer Collection and later in h manuf ac t h e Hainaue r. It is of t e same period of

8 NO . 1 I N FANT H R I ST S Y M BOL I Z I N G HIS SAC R I F I C E C ,

La te Go th c e nd o teenth cen tu r i , f fif y

m6 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

n r Him . Around the panel is an i sc iption , at first

f fi se e di cult to , from Ecclesiasticus , Chapter L , which , when translated from the L“atin o f the Vulgate in ' which i t is written , reads H e stretched o ut His

o f o f hand in sacrifice and poured forth . the blood the ” grape . The tapestry is late Gothic , dating from about the same time at the end o f the fifteenth cen

. c tury as the large hanging , No 79, whi h represents f m o . scenes fro the Life the Virgin The small piece , which is heavily interwoven with gold and silver, is

o f finest i n texture all the tapestries i n the collection , and the workmanship i n the border is even more per f e c t than that o f the central portion . A v e ry similar panel , drawn from the same cartoon but with added

figures , was i n the Spitzer Collection in Pa ris , but no others o f the type are known .

No . 82 The fourth and last tapestry is , in GALLERY

o f n 4 , another age and another manner, whe the desire to make a picture in a woven fabric had super se de d the more formal decorative expression o f Gothic

I t h e times . n eighteenth century , when this hang

no s m ing was made , there was longer a wish for y metry and balance in the design , but rather for the

o f o ne opposite , and a tapestry the period is simply of the informally arranged paintings o f the day trans lated into the paler colors and flatter modeling o f a B woven fabric . Francois oucher, the painter from whose cartoon the Altman example was made, lived between 1703 and 1770 and during that period pro duc e d a large number o f decorative works which mir ro r mo st faithfully o ne aspect of eighteenth- century NO . 99 CA B I N ET

French Rena i ssance

148 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

Furniture

H E thirty-nine pieces o f furniture included in the Altman bequest represent a period o f manufacture extending over little more than the hundred years be t ween the third quarter o f the six

o f t h e t e e nt h century and the end seventeenth , a time which saw the last fruition o f the Renaissance and t h e transition through the style o f decoration e known as the Baroque toward that call d the Rococo . I t was an age marked by the use o f richly carved o f f walnut wood , and each the various examples o cabinet-making now owned by the Museum exhibits in a high degree the skill o f hand which characterized

‘ the woodworkers o f the period and that fo ndness for rich ornamen t and elaboration o f finish which is ap o f paren t in e very artistic product the time . The pieces are practically all French and English and offer visible evidence t hat the decorative impulse o f t h e Renaissance had , i n the lesser arts as well as the

I h e o h greater, passed from taly i n t south t t e more

nat IOns wh o t h e o l d northern , renewed motives with fresh vigor and finally transformed them into a new and charact eristic expression o f national tempera ment .

h o f t e t I . With exception hree talian chairs , Nos

100 10 1 10 al l , , and 3 , the earlier specimens among the Altman furniture are French and highly typical o f o the las t phase f the French Renaissance . The two

102 . cabinets , Nos . 99 and , and the three tables , Nos 10 106 10 m o f u i 5 , , and 7, form a re arkable group f rn NO . 102 CA B I N ET

French R ena i ssance

— G A L L E R Y F I V E F U R N I T U R E 149

o f o f ture this type , which combines a plethora familiar decorative t hemes derived from I talian sources with a northern crispness and opulence o f f . i execution Such furniture , where sphinxes , gri f ns , terminal and grotesque figures , carved in bold relief f l l o r in the u round , play the leading part in the orna

t o m“entation , is thought have been made by the Burgundian o r southeastern school o f French carvers , principally at Dijon , where the fountain

o f head the style was Hugues Sambin , a designer and architect wh o published a book o f engravings illus t r iv e o f 1 2 at furniture i n the year 5 7 , thereby giving his name t o the fashion in furniture which grew o ut 10 of his designs . The table , No . 7, is a particularly fine example o f the school although the top is a

102 modern restoration , while the cabinet , No . , is unusual in having painted ornament in addition t o tha t carved in low , middle , and high relief . A third

' . 10 o f cabinet , No 4 , a t the south end GALLERY 5 ,

~ reflects another contemporary fashion in furniture ,

o f o r Il e that Paris the de France , where a rival to the Burgundian mode flourished in the later part o f the f sixteenth century . The leaders o this second school

e t o f du n al l wer hree members the Circea family ,

wh o accomplished architects , were employed on the Tuil l e rie s and the Louvre and wh o in their designs for furniture preferred architectural motives t o

flamboyant grotesques , infusing into their work a delicate refinement o f line and ornament not found B i in the urgundian productions . The pieces o f f urn t ure already men t ioned are typical of t h e sumptuous 15 0 T H E A L T M A N C o L L E C T I O N o tastes o f the court which under Catherine de Medici and her sons persecuted the H uguenots and built

Ch no nc e au e , Fontainebleau , and other famous cha t e aux o f France . Such furniture is the French equiv f al e nt o the Elizabethan cabinet work o f England .

o f I n the center this gallery stand three chairs ,

. 10 1 10 1 1 1 t Nos 9, , , a century later i n date han the pieces already mentioned . They are representative

’ examples o f the furnishings o f Louis the Fourteenth s time, and their dignified lines , gilded frames , and especially t h e pattern o f the finely woven t apestry with which they are covered are i n the manner o f

B t o erain , court designer the Grand Monarque and indissolubly connected with the artistic phases o f the

. t t reign These apestry backs and seats , ogether with

1 1 that covering the sofa , No . 3 , in GALLERY 4 , were

at B made at the royal manufactory eauvais , about

1680 t h e o f , and illustrate best output t hat well

1 1 c 1 known nst t ut 10n . “The ph e r monogram woven into - C . the chair backs is P . , repeated and reversed , a circumst ance which bears o ut the statemen t that this upholstery was formerly the property of that Prince de Condé and Duc de Bourbon who buil t Chantilly and left behind him o ne o f the most illustrious

o f names i n French history . The sofa shows a design apes playing with the colored Wools and spindles used

o f in the weaving tapestry, such creatures being popular with designers o f the day wh o were fond o f

n n r o f creati g si ge ies o f many sorts . I n the center the

o f seat is a monogram of the interlaced L , the cipher

Louis the Fourteenth , surmounted by the crown , an

— G A L L E R Y F I V E T F U R N I T U R E 15 1 evidence that this tapestry was woven for o ne o f the royal palaces . The table grouped with the c h aIrs I n the center o f

GALLERY 5 is some thirty years later than they , and o f is typical of the style and taste the Regency , when the use o f gilded bronze o r ormolu mounts

o applied t wood was a favorite decorative method . Around the walls o f this room are placed seven

E h aIrs of nglish c the late seventeenth century . The

1 1 1 1 finely carved pair, Nos . 4 and 5 , date from early

o f wh o in the reign William and M ary , ruled England

1688 t o 1 02 from 7 , while the five remaining chairs ,

6— 120 . 1 1 Nos , are a few years later , although prob ably made under the same sovereigns . With their cane backs and seats and the sharply foliated carving o f t r nsmu their walnut frames , these chairs show the a t at io n which the contemporary fashions o f the French court under Louis the Fourteenth had undergone in their passage across the Channel by way o f the

Netherlands . The carving o n the se t o f six is espe c ial l y typical i n a small way o f a time when G rinling Gibbons and his School were carrying o ut with daz z l ing success precisely the same sort o f ornament o n a larger scale in mansions over the whole of England .

Misce l l aneous Obj ects

H E ALTMAN COLLE CT I ON includes a small number o f objects o f varying character not already referred t o and exhibited mostly in GAL

LERY 5 . Beginning with the WEST WALL o f this 5 2 T H E A L T M A N C O L L E C T I O N

ab o v C room , the four large plates hung the cabinet , o f No . 99, are interest as exemplifying three almost contemporary but widely diff erent forms of faience

. . 126 or majolica The uppermost plate , No , is Syrian ,

from Damascus , made in the sixteenth century ; the

12 128 - two central dishes , 7 and , are Hispano Mores

que , dating respectively from the end and middle o f the fifteenth century— the o ne o n the right being the

No . 12 earlier ; while the plate hun g at the bottom , 9, U is I talian , decorated at rbino with grotesques in the

o f manner Raphael , also i n the sixteenth century .

On O o n the pposite side of the room , placed the table ,

10 No . 5 , is a case containing four more pieces of o f faience , all Oriental , which the plate and globe ,

nd 1 o f ix . 1 1 a s Nos 3 3 3 , are Damascus pottery the o f t e e nt h century . A globe this type was used as an ornament o n the cluster of cords whereby such a

1 0 mosque lamp as No . 3 was suspended in the sanc

uar . t y This lamp , however, is not of the same ware,

o r b al l scale , importance as the , which when i ts period and place of manufacture are borne in mind is unusual among ware o f the kind both for its size and i ts fine

o f o ness o f ornament . The lamp is that variety f pottery often called Rhodian because Rhodes was the chief market for the gaily decorated faience manu o f n f ac t ure d in the coast cities i n the west Asia Mi or, where the industry throve during the sixteenth cen

t o tury , and , a lesser degree, for many years after

1 2 o f ward . The plate , No . 3 , the same period as the

e o f other piec s ceramics i n this case , is Persian , and was made at Ko ub at c h a in the northeastern part of

OF THIS HANDBOOK COPI E S HAV E B E EN PR INTED IN N O B R C ' VEM E , M M IV