452 APPENDIX TO PART II

grace, or for daylight, in the upper part at least. Beyond her the wall is completely covered with rows of pewter plates, but grandly treated in the extreme; so also the comfits and almonds lying in flat round dishes along the horse-shoe table. By-the-bye, the centre figure of the upper row in the opposite Cana marriage [No. 1192] seems to be the cook beating beefsteaks tender.

In both these pictures the multiplicity of costume, though grotesque and startling, is not revolting; for the impression of feasting, and of various guests, was necessary or allowable in both subjects. But in the one of Emmaus [No. 1196], in the solemn recognition of their risen Master by the two disciples who were walking together, and were sad, the introduced extra figures are altogether unendurable and reprehensible, and mark truly depraved taste, or utter want of thought. The lower parts of the Cana are very much more careless in handling, and more thick in paint, than those of the Pharisee [No. 1193], so much so that I should scarcely have supposed them by the same hand; the Pharisee one is peculiarly thin, the canvas showing almost disagreeably throughout.

§ 11. The finest Titian in the Gallery [No. 1584: “The Entombment”], glowing, simple, broad and grand. It is to be opposed to “The Flagellation” [No. 1583], in which the shades are brown instead of grey, the outlines strong brown lines, the draperies broken up by folds, the light very round and vivid, and foiled by deep shades; the flesh forms the highest lights, and the draperies are subdued.

In “The Entombment” every one of these conditions is reversed. Even the palest flesh is solemn, and dark, in juxtaposition with bright golden white drapery. All the masses broad and flat, the shades grey, the outlines chaste and severe. May be taken as an example of the highest dignity of impression, wrought out by mere grandeur of colour and composition, for the head of Christ is entirely sacrificed, being put in the deepest possible shade, against clear sky, and it is disagreeable in itself. The head of the St. John and St. Joseph are however grand conceptions, and the foliage of the landscape graceful in the extreme. It is curious that in this broadest of all broad pictures there should be one of the most delicate transitions of colour I remember. It begins with St. John’s robe-crimson, in shade intensely dark; then same in light. Then St. Joseph’s face nearly purely crimson, carried off by the juxtaposition of the robe. Then his neck, paler; then his arm, paler still, which joins robe of Magdalen, which is warmed near it by a few reflected lights, but in its palest part, joins and unites with the corpse-cold hand of the Madonna.

The colour throughout amounts to little more than exquisite staining. The bright draperies and the chequers upon them exquisitely delicate, and finished and full of hue, appear the result of the same operation as the dark retiring ground; incorporated with it, and showing no edge in many places. The most palpable piece of painting is the white drapery under the Christ which is visibly superimposed, and has a raised edge.

§ 12. Titian’s white in No. 1577 [“The Virgin and Child adored by Saints”], which is another grand one, is as nearly as possible the colour of one of Turner’s yellow sunsets. The Infant in this picture, as well as in 1578 [“La Vierge au Lapin”] is remarkable for the fine tapering of the limbs and excessive smallness of the feet.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]