File:Great pictures, as seen and described by famous writers (1899) (14761807416).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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Text Appearing Before Image:
rt. The upperportion, which is arched, represents Paradise, Glory, asthe Spanish say in their ascetic language : garlands of angelsfloating and submerged in a wave of light of uncalculabledepth, stars scintillating in the flame, and brighter glints ofthe everlasting light form the aureole of the Father, whoarrives from the depths of the infinite with the action of ahovering eagle, accompanied by an archangel and a seraphwhose hands support the crown and the nimbus. This Jehovah, like a divine bird appearing head-foremostand with body horizontally foreshortened beneath a waveof drapery flying open like wings, astonishes us by itssublime boldness; if it is possible for the brush of a humanbeing to give a countenance to divinity, certainly Titianhas succeeded. Unlimited power and imperishable youthradiate from that white-bearded face that need only nod forthe snows of eternity to fall: not since the Olympian Joveof Phidias has the lord of heaven and earth been repre-sented more worthily.
Text Appearing After Image:
The Assumption of the Virgin. Titian. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 121 The centre of the picture is occupied by the VirginMary, who is lifted up, or rather who is surrounded by awreath of angels and souls of the blessed : for she has noneed of any aid to mount to Heaven; she rises by thespringing upward of her robust faith, by the purity ofher soul, which is lighter than the most luminous ether.Truly there is in this figure an unheard-of force of ascen-sion, and in order to obtain this effect Titian has not hadrecourse to slender forms, diaphanous draperies, and trans-parent colours. His Madonna is a very true, very living,and very real woman, with a beauty as solid as that of theVenus de Milo, or the sleeping woman in the Tribune ofFlorence. Large, full drapery flows about her in numerousfolds; her flanks are wide enough to have contained a God,and, if she was not on a cloud, the Marquis du Guast mighthave put his hand on her beautiful bosom, as in the picturein our Museum. Yet nothi

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