Sala dell' Anticollegio, painted in 1578. Tintoretto died in 1594, of fever complicated with some internal complaint. Probably we have a more imperfect idea of the color of Tintoretto than of the other great Venetian painters, owing to his having painted on dark, generally deep-red, grounds, which at the time aided to harmonize the after-painting, but which with age came through and blackened the entire work, affecting most the transparent colors of the shadows and increasing the difference between the solid impasto and the thinner tints. This practice of Tintoretto's is entirely opposed to that of Bellini and Titian, who painted on white or light neutral-gray grounds with a carefully prepared foundation of solid color in the laying in of the subject, and 1 Boschini, who lived near to the day of Tintoretto and was one of his most enthusiastic admirers, says: "Whenever he had to do a work for the public, he first went to see the place where it was to go, to ascertain the height and the distance, and then, conformably to these, in order to form his conception of the story, he arranged on a table models of figures in wax made by himself, arranging them in groups, serpentine, pyramidal, capricious, eccentric, and animated. . . . When he had guarded still further against change by leaving the picture to dry thoroughly between paintings, as did Titian, or by painting over a first painting of tempera, as did Bellini. The preparation of Tintoretto's canvas made it possible for him to get through his work with his characteristic rapidity, and was better suited than the orthodox Venetian method to his impatient and unmethodical temperament. The romance of his life is in the story of his daughter, to whom he was much attached, and who died before him. He was buried in the church of S. Maria dell' Orto, where, as his monuments, are the "Last Judgment," the "Worship of the Golden Calf," the "Presentation of the Virgin," and the "Martyrdom of St. Agnes." 1 W. J. Stillman. decided this important distribution, he laid in the picture in monochrome (chiaroscuro), having always some principal object with reference to which to arrange the general mass. And then he often, having sketched a great canvas, put it in its place to be surer of its suitableness; and if he saw something which made discord, he was capable not only of changing a single figure, but even, on account of that, many others around it also, not minding fatigue or time in a question of glory and honor." NOTES BY TIMOTHY COLE. THE HE legend of the "Miracle of St. Mark" is as follows: A certain Christian slave in the service of a nobleman of Provence disobeyed the commands of his lord in persisting to worship at the shrine of St. Mark, which was at some distance, and in this practice he spent much of his master's time. One day, on his return from his devotions, he was condemned to the torture; he was haled into the public square, bound hand and foot, and the torture was about to be inflicted, when the saint himself came down from heaven to his aid. His bonds were burst asunder, the instruments of torture were broken, and the executioners were dumfounded and amazed. The picture hangs in Sala XV, called the "Sala dell' Assunta," of the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice. It is painted on canvas, and measures 13 ft. 8 in. high by 19 ft. 6 in. wide. It would be vain to attempt to give any idea of its richness and glow of color. The sky is green of a mellow tone, grading off into a golden light toward the horizon. The flying robe of the saint is an orange-yellow, burning like an August moon in a sea of green. The portion of the robe about his body is a rich crimson. I invert my opera-glass and gaze at it through the larger end, and the painting, reduced to a miniature, blazes like an array of precious stones. The woman holding the child is a jasper of brownish yellow. The man above, as well as the one clinging to the pillar, is jet-black. The one standing on the pedestal of the pillar has a ruby vest, very dark and lustrous. The figure kneeling over the slave is of a turquoise-blue. The amber flesh of the slave is relieved against a chocolate-colored ground, or rather pavement. The draperies above are in mingled hues of saffron, blue, gold, and crimson. The Turk holding up the splintered instrument has a creamy-white head-dress figured with blue. His robe is of a soft neutral-greenish tone. The judge, seated on high, is clad in an upper vestment of a deep, rich cardinal. The robe over his knees is yellow, soft, and low in tone. The soldier seated on the step toward the front, with his back turned to the spectator, has a vest of red, bright and of a crimson hue. The shadows are very strong, and have blackened a little with time. The whole, however, is harmonious, glowing, and gem-like, and is painted with great vigor. It is said that there are three portraits of the painter in the body of the work: namely, the figure immediately above the woman holding the child; the one next to the turbaned Turk, with the feather from the apex of his turban; and that in the extreme right of the picture, next to the soldier clad in chain-armor. The portrait of the donor is also to be seen, in the lefthand corner; he is in the attitude of prayer, kneeling at the foot of the column, with eyes closed. T. Cole. ETUL prizes days paph LES CRISE PARIS Quatrieme 1744 THE BILL-STICKER. BY BOUCHARDON, 1742. THE PICTORIAL POSTER. F"Post no Bills" were the universal law nowadays, those of us who have the good fortune to live in Paris or in New York would be deprived of one of the most interesting manifestations of modern decorative art. Perhaps it is not wholly unfair to suggest that this nineteenth century of ours is a day of little things, and that our silverware, our pottery, our tiles, our wall-paper, our woodcuts, our book-covers, each in its kind, and when it is at its best, are better than our historic painting, our heroic sculpture, or our grandiose architecture. The minor arts have their place in the hierarchy of the beautiful; and more often than we are willing to acknowledge, they have a charm of their own and a value likely to be as lasting as those of their more pretentious elder sisters. The idyls of Theocritus and the figurines from Tanagra -are these so tiny that we can afford to despise them? We are all of us prone to underestimate the value of contemporary labor when it is bestowed on common things. Often we fail altogether to see the originality, the elegance, the freshness, - in a word, the art,-of the men who are making the things which encompass us roundabout. Possibly the Greek did not consider the beauty of the vase he used daily, the form of which is a pure joy to us; and probably the Oriental worker at the loom cannot guess the pleasure we shall take in his subtle commingling of color in the wools of the rug he is weaving. So it is small wonder that the pictorial posters which adorn our blank walls pass unperceived, and that we do not care to observe the skill which has gone to their making. Yet the recent development of the pictorial poster in France and in America is worthy of careful consideration by all who take note of the artistic currents of our time. BOUTET DE MONVEL. From collection of George B. De Forest. (21 x 29 inches.) Hugues Le Roux. A consideration of these scattered publications will lead one to the belief that the pictorial poster, however humble its position, has its place in the temple of art, just as the shop-card has when it is designed by William Hogarth, or the book-plate when it is devised by Albert Dürer. M. Sagot's priced catalogue is very far from being complete, but it contains more than two thousand numbers, and nearly all these are from Parisian presses. Among the French artists of this century who have designed posters, usually lithographed and mainly placards for the publishers of books or of operas, are the Devérias, Celestin Nanteuil, Tony Johannot, Raffet, Gavarni, Daumier, Cham, Edouard de Beaumont, Viollet-le-Duc, Gustave Doré, Grévin, Manet, and De Neuville; and among contemporary French artists who now and again have made unexpected essays in this department of their craft are M. Vierge, M. Vibert, M. Clairin, M. Boutet de Monvel, M. Regamey, M. Robida, and the Franco-Russian man of genius who calls himself Caran d'Ache. Few of This development has not passed wholly without notice. In 1886 M. Ernest Maindron published in Paris a sumptuously illustrated volume, "Les Affiches Illustrées," in which the history of outdoor advertising among the Greeks and the Romans and the modern French is set forth with the aid of colored engravings. Then there was an exhibition at Nantes in 1889, and one at the Grolier Club here in New York in 1890. Next there was held a special exhibition in 1890 at the gallery of the Théâtre d'Application in Paris, devoted entirely to the extraordinary posters of M. Jules Chéret; and in M. Henri Beraldi's "Graveurs Français du XIXème Siècle," M. Chéret's works were carefully catalogued. Finally, in the fall of 1891, M. Edmond Sagot, a Parisian dealer in prints, issued a priced catalogue of pictorial posters, prepared with conscientious care and serving as an iconography of the art in France. Also to be noted are articles in M. Octave Uzanne's "Livre Moderne" for April and May, 1891, as well as essays on M. Chéret in the "Certains" of M. Huysmans and in the " Figures de Cire" of M. WILLETTE.. From collection of Richard Hoe Lawrence. (22, x 2, inches.) don" and for his edition of the "Wandering Jew." But for the most part the posters of the painters I have named are muddled and ineffective; they lack the solid simplicity of motive which is the essential of a good advertisement; they are without the bold vigor of design which the poster demands; and they are without the compression and relief of lettering which it requires. These are qualities which the ordinary artist, not seeking, has not achieved, perhaps because he half despised his task. These are the qualities which no one could fail to find in the work of the masters of the poster in France, M. Jules Chéret, M. Willette, M. Grasset. In their advertisements we discover a perfect understanding of the conditions of this form of pictorial art. The first condition is that the poster shall attract attention at all costs; and the second is that it shall satisfy the eye at all hazards. Thus we see that the poster may be noisy,and noisy it often is, no doubt,- but it must not be violent, just as even a brass band ought ever to play in tune. In the little group of Frenchmen who are developing the possibilities of a new art, the supremacy of M. Jules Chéret is indisputable. He is the pioneer, and he is also the man of the most marked originality. His is the hand which has covered the walls of Paris with lightly clad female figures, floating in space, and smiling with an explosive joy. He it is who has evoked the fantastic and provocative damsels of the most brilliant gaiety, who invite you to the Red Mill and the Russian Mountains and the other places in Paris where Terpsichore is free and easy. The radiant freshness of these flower-like beauties, and the airy ease of their startling costume, carry us back to Boucher and Moreau. As M. Armand Silvestre has said, "The French taste of Fragonard and of Watteau here lives again in a conception of woman quite as elegant, and quite as deliciously sensual." That the best of M. Chéret's flying nymphs are delicious is beyond question, but that the most of them are sensual, in the lower meaning of the word, I take leave to deny. Gallic bacchantes as many of them seem, they are never lewd, and one might venture to say that they are never without a decorum of their own: they are not immoral, like so many of the delicate indelicacies of Grévin, for example. M. Chéret is a Frenchman who was brought up as a lithographer. When he was only a lad he went to London, and began to design and put on stone show-cards for Mr. Rimmel, the perfumer. It was Mr. Rimmel's capital which backed him when he returned to Paris nearly a quarter of a century ago, with the intention of producing a new kind of pictorial advertisement. Almost his first attempt was a poster |