III-TITIAN'S PORTRAIT OF

ARIOSTO

HE news that Sir George Donaldson has very liberally passed on to the National Gallery the famous early work by Titian, known as the portrait of Ariosto, which belonged to the Earl of Darnley, will be welcome to all who are interested in the progress of the collection at Trafalgar Square. Once more the nation has to thank private donors -in this case Mr. Astor, Mr. Beit, Lord Burton, Lord Iveagh, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage-for subscribing more than half the purchase price of £30,000.

Important and interesting as the picture is in itself, it is still more important in relation to the national collection; not only because the lack of a portrait by Titian has hitherto been one of its most obvious defects, as compared with the great continental galleries, but also because none of our other works by the greatest of the Venetian masters fully represents the all-important period when his genius was developing under the influence of Giorgione.

The policy of acquiring pictures of the greatest importance, even at a price commensurate with their rarity, is undoubtedly the correct one for the director of any great public gallery in these days. The works of minor masters required to complete a historical sequence exist in considerable numbers, and can always be acquired Fine works by the if properly sought for.

greatest masters, on the other hand, are the possessions on which the reputation of a great gallery really depends, but they are so few, and are being so rapidly absorbed beyond all hope of recovery, that the loss of any chance of securing one is a permanent and irrevocable loss. So far as historical completeness is concerned our collection is already perhaps the most nearly perfect in the world, in spite of a few obvious defects. To make it as important as it is complete, the addition of a few more works of the highest rank is needed, and for that reason the purchase of such a picture as the new Titian is a step which can be commended upon every ground.

IV THE NEW GREEK BRONZE AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM In connexion with this important acquisition (with which we hope shortly to deal in detail), we note with pleasure that the National Art Collections Fund once more came to the help of the Treasury in making up the purchase-money. The action is one upon which all concerned deserve to be congratulated. No better stimulus could possibly be given to those who have to buy for the nation than the consciousness that, in their efforts to make the best use of the limited grants allowed to them, they have the active sympathy and support of a society which is not only generous and public-spirited, but which has at its disposal a mass of expert knowledge such as that at the back of the National Art Collections Fund.

MONG the more curious of the early paintings acquired by H.R.H. Prince Albert as part of the collection of Prince Ludwig von Oettingen - Wallerstein was a series of seventeenth-century copies of icons and other sacred pictures, probably executed by a Greek priest, Emmanuel Tzane, at Venice, about 1640.

I

One of these represents the Likeness of Christ, the Holy Kerchief or Mandilion, and is of special interest, as being a copy, apparently fairly accurate, of the sacred portrait of Jesus Christ preserved in the chapel of the convent of San Bartolommeo degli Armeni, at Genoa, now belonging to the Barnabite congregation, which purports to be the original portrait, sent, according to the legend, by Christ Himself to Abgarus, king of Edessa.

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE is not the place in which to reopen the discussion, which has been continued for centuries, upon the authenticity, or otherwise, of certain paintings or stained cloths' which claim to bear the likeness of the Saviour of mankind. It will be sufficient to note the various legends from which the traditions as to the portraits have been derived, and to try to distinguish them, since from early days the various legends got so intermixed that a crop of new legends became easily produced. Much time and great industry and learning have been expended

this subject. The present writer is upon indebted to Professor Ernst von Dobschütz, of Jena, for some valuable information as to the portraiture of Jesus Christ in general, and the portrait at Buckingham Palace in particular. Professor von Dobschütz's remarks will follow upon this short notice.

1 Plate I, page 519.

The different classes into which the reputed portraits of Jesus Christ fall can be stated roughly as follows:

I-The portrait reputed to have been sent by Christ Himself to Abgarus,king of Edessa, by which the king was healed of a disease.

II The likeness which, according to a legend, was imprinted on the cloth which was handed by St. Veronica to the Saviour to wipe the sweat from His face during the march to Calvary.

III The likeness stated to have been miraculously transferred from the dead body of Jesus Christ to the shroud in which His body was wrapped at the Entombment.

It may be further noted that these three classes in their turn represent three different aspects of the Divine Face.

1. Living, in health; the Hagion Mandilion, or Kerchief.

2. Living, but in agony and suffering; the Sudarium.

3. Dead; the Shroud.

It is with Class I alone that these pages have to do. The details to be narrated by Professor von Dobschütz will give the history of the Abgarus-legend, and its development from the mere dispatch, after the Crucifixion, of Thaddeus, one of the disciples, with a letter for Abgarus, to the discovery of the sacred portrait in the gate of Edessa and the miracles wrought by its presence; and also the subsequent history of the sacred portrait from the time of its removal to Byzantium in 944 A.D., to its disappearance from thence during the French siege in 1204 A.D.

Three places, as Professor von Dobschütz shows, have claimed to be the resting-place of the sacred portrait from Edessa.

1. The Sainte Chapelle at Paris, where the holy relic was destroyed in the Revolution of 1789.

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2. The church of San Silvestro in Capite at Rome, whence the holy relic was transferred for safety to the Vatican in 1870.

3. The church of San Bartolommeo at Genoa.

Of these the Paris example has perished, and both the portrait at Rome and that at Genoa are inaccessible to the student. It is therefore only from copies that the student can judge of the value and importance of these portraits as historical documents. Fortunately the artist Thomas Heaphy the younger, during the course of some careful investigations into the traditional authorities for the Likeness of Christ, obtained not only access to the sacred portraits in San Silvestro and at Genoa, but leave to copy them. Heaphy's original drawings were purchased in 1881 for the British Museum, where they are now preserved in the Print-room.

Heaphy's drawing from the Genoa portrait 2 is of special interest, as it shows the portrait free from the ornamental frame superimposed, which is all that can be seen by the faithful on the occasion of the annual exhibition of the sacred relic.

This frame contains the series of ten little paintings in enamel, representing the story of King Abgarus and the portrait of Christ, which will be described by Professor von Dobschütz. It is the portrait, within its frame, which has been copied in oils at a later date, probably, as stated before, by Emmanuel Tzane, at Venice, and which now hangs at Buckingham Palace. (See Plate I.) LIONEL CUST.

One of the oldest legends of Christianity is the story of Abgarus (V. Ukhâmâ), prince of Edessa, who wrote requesting Jesus to come and heal him. As Jesus was unable to leave Palestine He promised to send to Abgarus one of His disciples after His

2 Plate II, page 523.

ascension to Heaven.

This promise was

fulfilled when Thaddeus, one of the seventy, at the bidding of the apostle Thomas, came to Edessa and cured Abgarus, who was then baptized together with all his people. This is the version of the legend as told by Eusebius (about A.D. 325), who is the first writer who refers to this story, which probably originated in the third century, when Abgarus IX, a descendant of the above, and his family became Christians.

As may be seen, there is no mention of a portrait of Christ in this the earliest form of the story. And, in fact, the legend contains no reference to a miraculous portrait until the worship of pictures became customary in the Church.

It was in the time of the Emperor Justinian, 544 A.D., when the Persians laid siege to Edessa, that the existence of a picture was made known to the bishop by means of a revelation telling of a portrait miraculously produced by Christ Himself and sent to King Abgarus which had been concealed in the wall over the gate of the city at the time of a persecution of the Christians in the days of the son of Abgarus. Thus recovered, the miraculous portrait of Christ helped to destroy the enemy and obtained a great reputation even among the Persians. It was considered the most sacred relic, the palladium, of Edessa until in 944 A.D. the Byzantines took advantage of the decline of the caliphate, and under certain conditions got possession of the holy Likeness of Christ, together with His autograph letter to King Abgarus, and thus these two most precious relics were added to the famous collection in the royal chapel in the palace of Bukoleon.

The conveyance of this relic from Edessa to the capital was a notable event to the whole empire. Splendid was its reception in the town, the entire royal court taking part in the magnificent procession which conducted the Lord's portrait