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The Exhibition of French Primitives

pinks and greys, such as the Frate employed, while among the saints who kneel on either hand Angelico's types predominate; and though the individual traits are more underlined, Charenton has much of the Italian's ecstatic devotional feeling. It is scarcely possible to doubt that Charenton travelled in Italy before he settled at Avignon in 1447, and M. Bayle's 20 researches help us to understand how this may have happened. He gives reasons for supposing that Charenton's father may have been a certain Jean Carenthon, a banker from Lucca, who settled in Avignon and became the agent for Enguerrand, the last Sire de Coucy, a fact which would account both for the artist's name and his birth in the Laonnais. His relations at Lucca would then explain an Italian journey, and this fact derives support from the likeness to Pisan architecture which one notes in certain buildings in the Coronation. But, for all the Italian influence, we have here an essentially French spirit: the type of the Virgin is purely French; French, too, are the vivacity of movement and the nervous delicacy which distinguish the drawing of the hands. What strikes one most is the singular justness, the measure and restraint, shown in the rendering of expression which still remains vivid and passionate. The ecstatic adoration of the saints, the anxious expectation of those whom the divine sacrifice will deliver, the intimate look of recognition which passes between the liberating angel and Adam, show the artist's power of rendering the highest forms of passion. There is here, too, a power of individual characterization united with epic grandeur which is rare. In all these ways Charenton contrasts with the ruder, more humorous,

20 G. Bayle, 'Contribution à l'histoire de l'École Avignonaise,' Nimes, 1898. This work seems to have been overlooked by the authorities of the exhibition. It is not quoted in the catalogue. M. Bayle describes another important picture which can be shown by documents to be Charenton's work. It represents the Presentation in the Temple, and belongs to M. Gilles at Eyragues. It is to be hoped that M. Bouchot will find an opportunity to publish a reproduction of this work, which, if we may judge from the description, should be of great interest.

dramatic feeling of Burgundian artists like Malouel; it was the influence of Italy, one may suppose, that taught him to modulate expression by so large a sentiment for pure beauty.

The other great picture of the southern school, the Pietà from Villeneuve-les-Avignon," is perhaps the greatest, as it is certainly the most impressive, work in the exhibition. It has in a high degree that large constructional power, that architectonic feeling for design, which we have found for the most part wanting in the true French painters. This is a quality which comes but hardly to the northern genius, while it is the birthright of the Mediterranean races, so that Italian and Spanish painters of even second-rate abilities at times give splendid proof of its possession.

Here the bare, gaunt forms towering up above the horizon line of the low desolate hills and sandbanks of the Rhone remind one irresistibly of pictures at Vicenza, of certain Montagnas, or of Buonconsigli's stupendous rendering of a similar theme; not indeed for any likeness of form, but by a community of spirit. The design has the same overpowering effect which this particular relation of the figure to landscape arouses, the sense that the whole earth lies under the same weight of tragic solemnity that oppresses the protagonists. And as with the great Italians, so here the effect on our emotions is, like that of great architecture, aroused directly by the building up of lines and masses. And in this the artist shows a daring and an assurance which come of profound inspiration. It is the four parallel diagonal lines to the right cut at right angles by the wilfully rigid line of the dead torso and balanced on the left by the prominent mass of the donor that convey to us, quite apart from their meaning as representation, so deep a sense of pity and awe, which is intensified when we realize how perfectly these great angular shapes

"1 Reproduced on page 377.

express the inert dependence of the lifeless body, how they give value to the position and movement of the head and explain its predominance. No less remarkable than this power of composition, unmatched elsewhere in primitive French art, is the sense of structure shown in the drawing, the feeling for bony framework of the form, rendered with a large, dry, almost harsh vigour which reminds us of later Spanish art, of Ribera or El Greco. One hopes indeed that some day we may come to a knowledge of the authorship of this, which must count, though it has Michaelangelo's rendering for a rival, as one of the supreme interpretations of the most moving theme that Christian mythology affords.22

Such, then, was the character of the native southern school, capable of works of the highest imaginative conceptions and the most grandiose design. But these were not artists who could satisfy the demands of a prince like King René of Anjou. He was more of a naturalist than an artist, a lover of curiosity to whom the meticulous realism of Flemish art was an irresistible attraction. In Nicholas Froment he found the painter he wanted, a capable and laborious craftsman unencumbered by genius or strong artistic feeling. René required artists who could give pictorial expression to his taste for fantastic and far-fetched symbolism and his love of natural history, and in this sense we may consider the Buisson Ardent as the result of royal collaboration. It has a certain odd charm, but artistically Froment was merely derivative

22 Meanwhile we may note one or two indications. Besides the traditional Sienese gold background and halos, the peculiar form of the letter D on the inscriptions is Italian. The minute realism with which the minarets and mosques of the city of Jerusalem are rendered suggests an artist who had actually travelled in the east. A picture representing a Calvary with two donors (No. 73), unfortunately badly exposed, helps to connect the great Pietà with Charenton's Coronation. In general design of the figures on a gold background it reminds one of the Pietà, while in the distant town we find exactly the same peculiar onion-domed turrets that occur in Charenton's picture. Since the above was written another piece has been brought forward by M. Bouchot in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, namely, the Virgin of Mercy at Chantilly. This is now known to be by Charenton and Pierre Villate, and M. Bouchot, who had not, however, seen the Chantilly picture, suggested that Villate is the great unknown author of the Pietà. This requires confirmation.

and insignificant. He apparently learned his art from Albert van Ouwater, though even in him Italian influences are not wanting.

If we except Froment and his still feebler followers 23 the southern school appears to have a certain consistency which would no doubt become more apparent did more results remain of the great artistic activity which we may infer from documents.

Two other works of considerable importance have been attributed to the southern school-namely, the two diptychs representing scenes from the life and death of St. George (Nos. 33-36). These are in a style quite distinct from anything else in the exhibition, or indeed from anything with which one is familiar. In spite of a certain grotesque exaggeration they show great artistic power-the power of a rude, almost fierce dramatic composition and vigorous design. The great diagonal line made by the mule which drags the saint's body shows that power of expressive pictorial composition which indicates a southern origin. In the brilliant but rather coarsely patched tempera technique and the dark bluish-green tones of the shadows we are reminded of Italian art, of Stefano da Zevio in particular. It is a use of tempera quite distinct from Charenton's. M. Martin Leroy possesses a large and imposing triptych which is incontestably by the same hand, and which by the architecture of the frame proclaims its Spanish origin. If this painter belongs at all to the French school, which I doubt, it must be to a school of the Spanish border quite distinct from the Avignonese. The great interest of these works is in the indication they give of a Spanish school dominated by Italian rather than Flemish influence. An artist of such power as this can only have come out of a considerable tradition, and we must hope that more remains of its activity will come to light.

23 Such as the author of the Miracle of a Saint carrying his Head in his Hand (No. 80).

A YORKSHIRE COLLECTION OF ENGLISH FURNITURE

BY R. S.

ORKSHIRE has always
been noted for its old furni-
ture.
The fact is indispu-

table, though it is not easily accounted for. It would not be surprising if, on looking at the history of the county as regards its furniture, we found it a quarter of a century or so behind London; but this is far from being the case, for in the middle of the eighteenth century it was the most up-todate of any part of the provinces. When Chippendale published the first edition of his 'Director,' many of the London trade subscribed; yet, except for Yorkshire, the names of the country cabinet-makers are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. One copy went to Liverpool, another to Nottingham, and one to Scotland, while Yorkshire ordered fifteen.

The wave of prosperity which the long peace had brought about accounts to some extent for the possibility of such a thing, but it does not explain why Thomas Chippendale's name was already a household word in Yorkshire when it was still practically unknown in the other manufacturing centres. Whatever may be the reason, and it is difficult to leave artistic perception out of account, it is certain that the eighteenth-century cabinet-makers of Yorkshire moved with the times, and that the descendants of their customers carefully preserved their productions when people who thought they knew better were breaking them up for firewood.

As will be seen by a glance at the illustrations, which are necessarily only a part of the collection, Dr. Horne, of Scarborough, has taken full advantage of the chances open to him during his long residence in this happy hunting-ground. A collector is born, not made, and Dr. Horne by no means confines himself to eighteenthcentury furniture, for his collection embraces old oak, china, and a rowth o'

CLOUSTON

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auld nick-nackets,' on which the writer could only speak as one of the scribes. He began picking up antique articles before it was the fashion to do so, and it is amusing to hear him tell of his mother's fears for his sanity when, as a lad, he came home one day with an old brass fender and a grey-beard.

Perhaps the only subject for regret as regards this collection is that much of it was acquired at a time before the value of the patina was appreciated, when whatever passed through a dealer's hands was fortunate indeed if it escaped scraping and French polish.

From another point of view the furniture is of very exceptional interest, as it has not been got together on the ordinary lines. There has been no attempt, for instance, at large sets of chairs; but fine specimens, even if 'singles,' have been added whereever possible. From the mere dealer's point of view this, of course, decreases the value of the whole, but from the scientific side it greatly enhances it, for, by careful choice, the collection has been made representative of the furniture design of a whole period.

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In the group in Plate I, the Queen Anne chair belongs to the transition period between that style and Chippendale.' The two styles were carried on together for some time; sometimes, as in this instance, almost pure; sometimes mixed, as in the table shown in the same illustration, in which the shell ornament is thoroughly Queen Anne, but the more graceful line of the cabriole leg purely Chippendale. Where dates can be fixed in this somewhat difficult but most interesting period, they simply serve to show that there was no hard-andfast dividing line. In the Soane Museum, for instance, there is a set of chairs known to have been made in 1720 which are not only utterly unlike what one would expect in shape, but are also covered with a mass of

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