File:Great pictures, as seen and described by famous writers (1899) (14598153659).jpg

Identifier: greatpicturesassx00sing (find matches)
Title: Great pictures, as seen and described by famous writers
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930, ed. and tr
Subjects: Painting
Publisher: New York : Dodd, Mead and Company
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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nute detail. This picture is theAdoration of the Magi, now in the Tribune of the Uffizi atFlorence. Mary sits on the left, looking like the happiestof German mothers, with the enchantingly naive Infant onher knees; the three Wise Men from the East, in magnifi-cent dresses glittering with gold, approach, deeply moved,and with various emotions depicted on their countenances,while the whole creation around seems to share their joyousgreeting, even to the flowers and herbs, and to the greatstag-beetle and two white butterflies, which are introducedafter the manner of Wolgemut. The sunny green oncopse and mountain throws up the group better than theconventional nimbus could have done. The fair-hairedVirgin, draped entirely in blue with a white veil, recallsvividly the same figure in the Paumgartner altarpiece. Aerialand linear perspective are still imperfect, but the technicaltreatment of the figures is as finished as in Diirers bestpictures of the later period. The outlines are sharp, the
Text Appearing After Image:
ADORATION OF THE MAGI 217 colours very liquid, laid on without doubt in tempera, andcovered with oil glazes; the whole tone exceedingly fresh,clear, and brilliant. If it was Barbaris fine work which in-cited Diirer to this delicate and careful method of execution,he has certainly far surpassed the Venetian, not only in formand ideas, but also in the solidity of his technique. Thistechnique is undoubtedly of Northern origin, as is also theharmony of colour, which Diirer here realizes, and doesnot soon again abandon. It must not be forgotten, however,that the difference between this technique and that practisedby Giovanni Bellini is one of degree and not of principle;judging at least by the unfinished painting of Giovannisin the Uffizi, in which the design is sketched either withthe pencil or brush, and the colours then laid on in tempera,and afterwards repeatedly covered with oil glazes. Diirerappears to have owed the opportunity of producing this hisfirst masterpiece in painting to a

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