Halfway Down, A Door To The Left Opens Into An
Oval Chamber, Devoted To An Eclectic Set Of Masterpieces Of Every School
And Age.
The gallery ends in a circular room of French and German
pictures, on either side of which there are two great halls of Dutch and
Flemish.
On the ground floor there are some hundreds more Flemish and a
hall of sculpture.
The first pictures you see to your left are by the early masters of
Spain, - Morales, called in Spain the Divine, whose works are now
extremely rare, the Museum possessing only three or four, long,
fleshless faces and stiff figures of Christs and Marys, - and Juan de
Juanes, the founder of the Valentian school, who brought back from Italy
the lessons of Raphael's studio, that firmness of design and brilliancy
of color, and whose genuine merit has survived all vicissitudes of
changing taste. He has here a superb Last Supper and a spirited series
of pictures illustrating the martyrdom of Stephen. There is perhaps a
little too much elaboration of detail, even for the Romans. Stephen's
robes are unnecessarily new, and the ground where he is stoned is
profusely covered with convenient round missiles the size of Vienna
rolls, so exactly suited to the purpose that it looks as if Providence
sided with the persecutors. But what a wonderful variety and truth in
the faces and the attitudes of the groups! What mastery of drawing, and
what honest integrity of color after all these ages!
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