in eyes accustomed to the cruder tints of modern work. Some, however, are known and cherished as family jewels. One in particular, which came unexpectedly on our sight,a lovely Francia, in the fulness of its Christian purity and repose, still nestles in our memory like a messenger dove from a promised land. Others there are, forced into mixed and dubious company by the dictum of a fashion that makes the rich man, in the untutored exercise of an unformed taste, the sport and prey of tricky dealers abroad. Were a gallery once established, acquisitions would flow to it from all such sources; some from an amiable ostentation of giving, others because they were not valued at home, and many more, we hope, out of the generous spirit which a true love of art inspires, holding its possessions to be in trust for the benefit and joy of all.

But we are not entirely dependent upon a resource so precarious. At the present time there are in America two collections made with special reference to our needs and uses. One is the Bryan Gallery of the Cooper Institute, New York, numbering more than two hundred pictures, chiefly of the Dutch, German, and French schools of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, but including a few of the early Italian. Mr. Bryan loved pictures, and so he collected them. He had no definite aim beyond securing good ones, such as his opportunities in Europe offered to his sympathetic taste and practised eye. His gallery, therefore, was based, as most private galleries are, upon his individual preferences and chances. Among many pictures of no general interest or value, and which it might be well for its reputation as a whole to discard, there are several of rare merit. From the first, Mr. Bryan's public spirit has been most praiseworthy. At no light charge to himself, he threw open his pictures to the public, and at one time tendered them as a free gift to Philadelphia, his native city, only to have his offer refused, because the authorities would not incur the expense of providing a place for their reception. Many artists and critics have discouraged and ridiculed his enthusiasm, or chilled it by supercilious indifference, thus to some extent and in certain circles creating a prejudice against his efforts; so that his praiseworthy endeavor to instruct and interest the people at large in art, had

it depended upon those who profess to be its critics and friends, would have wholly failed. But art is a sympathetic power. Our people are too much accustomed to form opinions for themselves, and are too intelligent and well-read, as a whole, to be long misled in any direction. The Bryan Gallery has finally, on its own merits, unaided by any prestige of European approval, established its reputation, and in a quiet, unostentatious way is enlarging the views of thousands of impressible minds, who, without such a collection to appeal to, might narrow their ideas and tastes to the dominant American school.

The Catalogue calls it a collection of "Christian Art." This is a misnomer, comparatively few of the pictures having their motives in Christianity. The greater part are portraits, always interesting in a psychological as well as technical sense, genre subjects, scenes from Flemish life, and the quasi landscape in vogue a century or two back. We have space to mention only one or two of those that deserve. particular notice. The Mantegna, catalogued as an Andrea, but which seems to us his son Francesco's work, is a beautiful specimen of the Paduan pseudo-classical school in manner rather than motive. It is quite German in its elaboration of details, fine, firm handling and finish, and quaintness of expression. But the gem of the Gallery, one to us of priceless value, is the "Marriage of St. Catherine," by Emmelink. This brilliant and delicate work displays the best features of the German school of the Van Eycks. Its elaborate finish, richness of detail, and precision of outline, are softened by an exquisite idealism, homely in one sense, as compared with the loftier Italian type of religious art, yet very captivating from its unobtrusive sincerity and holy feeling. It speaks more from the heart than the imagination. In its present exposed situation it cannot fail to be injured, if not finally destroyed. Why not protect its delicate surface with glass? David Teniers the younger is admirably represented. Nowhere is there to be seen a finer example of his naturalistic art and imaginative diabolism than in No. 141, "The Incantation." The qualities which have established his popular reputation are also to be noted in several other pictures, all in perfect VOL. LXXII. - 5TH S. VOL. X. NO. II. 19

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condition. They well deserve, as do more of this collection, a particular description, but we must pass on to the other gallery we have in view, calling attention, however, before we leave the Bryan pictures, to the low-toned, silvery-skyed, clear, Castilian landscape of Velasquez, with its clever hunting group, No. 168, as a rare specimen of this master.

The "Descriptive Catalogue" of Mr. Jarves's pictures represents a collection made in accordance with a definite idea and for a special object. In this respect it is perhaps unique, although a similar system of chronological sequence according to schools is now introduced into several European galleries. Mr. Jarves, however, started with the idea of tracing the development of Italian painting, from its revival in the thirteenth century to its final decadence in the seventeenth, with particular reference to the religious motives which inspired it. By so doing he judged that not merely an historical and technical exhibition could be formed, most useful to the amateur and student, but the psychological and æsthetical aspects of art could be seen in the precise order and quality of their development. Such a plan combines the museum with the gallery, and implies the acquisition of many examples for other reasons than mere mechanical excellence. So far as is practicable, every artist who contributed to the progress of painting, rising above the average of his contemporaries, or who was remarkable for specific traits, should be found in such a collection. Above all should we find those who may be termed representative artists, on account of their great genius and the new developments it led to in painting.

It would require an article by itself properly to criticise the paintings of this collection. We must be content with pointing out some of their general characteristics, with a suggestion as to a feasible means by which the project of their proprietor might be matured into a public gallery that would prove a unique and distinguishing feature of any city establishing it.

The earliest works date back to A. D. 1000. They are of Byzantine and Italian origin, archaic and rare, but showing in the first-named class traces of olden Grecian grace and dignity struggling for life amid the mysticisms of the new

theology. Italian art of that time was more dramatic in tendency than its rival, and far inferior in execution to the Byzantine. Both were exclusively religious, confined to illustrating the dogmas and traditions of the Church, sometimes with touching though rude simplicity, but more often so quaintly as to excite at first view, in modern minds, sentiments quite opposed to the real feeling which inspired their authors.

Giunta da Pisa and Cimabue are the pioneers of progress in Italian painting of the thirteenth century. They are admirably represented here, as well as their contemporary, Margaritone of Arezzo, whose altar-piece serves to show the starting-point from which sprung into existence the noblest school of painting the world has yet seen. In comparison with all who preceded him, Giotto comes to us as a revelation, a truly representative artist. Neither he nor his great scholars can be thoroughly appreciated outside of their frescos, although this collection suffices, so far as easel pictures can, to give their general characteristics of style, and to illustrate the motives which inspired both branches, the epic and lyric, of the noble school of religious art inaugurated by Giotto. It includes its most noteworthy names, as, for instance, Simone Martini, Gaddi, Orgagna, Sano di Pietro, Giottino, Laurati, and Fra Angelico, some of whose works, as shown in this collection, are as fine and precious examples of gold-background pictures in tempera, enshrined in the Gothic framework of their period, as can be found in any gallery in Europe. We discover, also, the delightful Gentile da Fabriano, Dello Delli, Paolo Ucello, Piero di Cosimo, and their pupils, with whom began landscape, historical, and illustrative art, and the study of animals. These men were conscientious students, animated by a lofty devotion to their profession, and in color and sentiment quite superior to the general tone of the prosaic naturalism of our day. We acknowledge their rudeness in the science of design and perspective, but no one can fail to note their earnestness, fidelity, and thoroughness, which permitted no slackness of hand or trickery of touch to conceal superficial work or reveal the impatience of indolence. What they did, they did knowingly and profoundly; and they sought not to conceal their ignorance by artistic affectations. Their speech is clear and beautiful, befitting their exalted topics.

The collection possesses an example of Masaccio's work, most precious and rare in the history of art; in his epoch his was as great a name as Leonardo's at a later period. Indeed, he was the founder of the historical and naturalistic schools, based upon a faithful study of nature, idealized in composition and character to the loftiest, purely human standard of thought and feeling. We are able to trace the scientific development of their art from him through a remarkable series of great men, the Lippis, Botticelli, D. Ghirlandajo, Roselli, Matteo da Siena, Credi, Fra Bartolomeo, the Pollajuoli, and Verrochio, to Leonardo himself, in whom, although he preceded a little in point of time some of those named, culminated the entire strength of this band of artists. A single picture of Leonardo's establishes the reputation of a European gallery. Here we have one to our mind not only convincingly authenticated, but in better condition - having escaped both cleaner and restorer-than we usually find. Thus not a single link is wanting in the series that so admirably illustrate the Tuscan schools of this era, except Michel Angelo, who is beyond the hope even of any collector. One of his compositions appears, painted by Venusti, so it is conjectured, an able pupil of Buonarroti. Its tone and design indicate that master sufficiently well to give an idea of his manner. Luca Signorelli is finely presented, in a painting unsurpassed for its perfect condition and those grandiose and dramatic qualities which won the energetic commendation of Michel Angelo himself. Of the contemporaries of Raphael we find fair examples of Francia, Albertinelli, an exquisite Lo Spagna, Sodoma, and an injured fresco of Andrea del Sarto, lovely even in its ruins. Perugino is characteristically represented in a Baptism, with his curly-toed angels, and we have by the boy Raphael a charming specimen of his Umbrian manner, in a Pieta, done before he left Perugino's studio.

Excepting Titian and Tintoretto, a great gap,- the Venetians show well, beginning with Bellini, Giorgione, and Basaïti, and coming down to Sebastian del Piombo, Paul Veronese, and Paris Bordone. Correggio is wanting, and perhaps ever will be to America. The later Bolognese school contributes examples of Guido, Domenichino, and Ludovico