As he went in, still staring at Madame
Marneffe's windows, he ran against a young man with a pale brow and
sparkling gray eyes, wearing a summer coat of black merino, coarse
drill trousers, and tan shoes, with gaiters, rushing away headlong; he
saw him run to the house in the Rue du Doyenne, into which he went.
Hortense, on going into the shop, had at once recognized the famous
group, conspicuously placed on a table in the middle and in front of
the door. Even without the circumstances to which she owed her
knowledge of this masterpiece, it would probably have struck her by
the peculiar power which we must call the _brio_--the _go_--of great
works; and the girl herself might in Italy have been taken as a model
for the personification of _Brio_.
Not every work by a man of genius has in the same degree that
brilliancy, that glory which is at once patent even to the most
ignoble beholder. Thus, certain pictures by Raphael, such as the
famous _Transfiguration_, the _Madonna di Foligno_, and the frescoes
of the _Stanze_ in the Vatican, do not at first captivate our
admiration, as do the _Violin-player_ in the Sciarra Palace, the
portraits of the Doria family, and the _Vision of Ezekiel_ in the
Pitti Gallery, the _Christ bearing His Cross_ in the Borghese
collection, and the _Marriage of the Virgin_ in the Brera at Milan.
The _Saint John the Baptist_ of the Tribuna, and _Saint Luke painting
the Virgin's portrait_ in the Accademia at Rome, have not the charm of
the _Portrait of Leo X.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128