Full text: Volume (2)

PITTI GALLERY. 
168 
countenances of Doni and his wife are serious ; Maddalena’s 
is expressive of goodness, whilst there is more force and talent 
in the face of Angelo. In both there is a defect in the perspec- 
tive, the farther eye being placed too high. They were painted 
during Raffaelle’s second visit to Florence, when he was still 
very young, and had not yet attempted portraits. 
Between these pictures is a splendid portrait of a young 
man in armour, by Rembrandt, said to be of himself. 
High on the wall to the left is a Holy Family, painted by 
Andrea, in 1521, for Zanobi Bracci, at the time when the artist 
was employed by Ottaviano de’ Medici in the decorations of the 
Palace of Poggio a Caiano for Leo X. The children, especially 
St. John, are easy and graceful. The Virgin gazes at her Son 
with a sweet and happy countenance ; the colour is rich and 
warm, and the group natural, without any attempt at scientific 
display. 
Beneath this is a Madonna and Child, by Murillo. The 
Child stands on His Mother’s knee and rests His right arm on 
her bosom. She has the refinement and modest girl-like sim- 
plicity, with which this Spanish artist usually represents her. 
A Pietà over the door, is by Fra Bartolommeo (1475-1517). 
The expression of the dead Christ is touchingly beautiful, mild, 
dignified, and sad. The gentle resignation of the sorrowing 
Virgin, and the passionate grief of the Magdalene, who clasps 
His feet, are given with the simple truth of nature. The colour 
is pure and correct. 
Near the window is a portrait of Andrea del Sarto, by him¬ 
self, and beneath it, a Magdalene, by Titian. This picture has 
obtained a great reputation, though it has suffered severely from 
the hand of the cleaner. A still more beautiful representation 
of the same subject by this great artist, is in the Durazzo 
Gallery at Genoa, and there was a third in Venice which has 
been sold into Prussia. In both these last pictures the Magda- 
jene has less regularity of features, but greater nature and 
beauty of expression than the Magdalene of the Pitti. A large
	        
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