MARLBOROUGH HOUSE: MODELS By THE ITALIAN MASTERS'
A very remarkable collection is temporarily deposited at Marlborough House, where it will remain visible till the 10th instant. It consists of models in clay and wax, supposed to be original studies by Miehel Angelo, Raffaelle, Donatello, Giovanni da Bologna, and others, which have been offered for sale to the Government, and are displayed to court an expression of public opinion. A Signor Gherardini, of Florence, or rather, it would seem, his wife, is the owner of the collec- tion; which was found in his house a few years ago, accompanied by a set of drawings, by the same or other Italian masters, having lain there, overlooked and uncared for, for an indefinite period. An old priest, inno- cent of such matters, was the last preceding occupant of the house. The whole collection was first offered to the Florentine Government, but at a price which precluded its purchase; afterwards to the French and the Austrian. The former, however, had not yet recovered from the exhaus- tion produced by its ridiculous waste of the 26,400/. upon an indifferent Murillo ; the latter bought the drawings, and declined the models. These are now tendered to England for 3000/., being at the average rate of some 100/. a piece. The miscellaneous John Bull will feel his breeches-pocket, grin at the models, and smile at the idea : but his opinion is not final. These are things of a kind in which the untutored eye can only see ugliness and dilapidation, while the artist will study and love them—partly for their own sake, chiefly for that of their authors. That the models are in many instances good, indeed excellent, wed° not hesitate to affirm ; that they are genuine, as far as internal evidence is to be judged by, we believe ; how far they are valuable by the money-estimate, must depend on the establish- ment of their genuineness. If they are notthe works of the great men to whom they are ascribed, they are still able studies or excellent forgeries, but worth little or nothing ; if they are by those men, the price is considerable, not absurd. " A number of distinguished painters and sculptors, mem- bers of the Academy of Florence and others," are reported to have certified their opinion of the genuineness of the chief models. Extrinsic evidence on the subject, it is admitted, there is none whatever ; but, should compe- tent judges at home indorse this opinion, we consider the collection to be decidedly worth acquiring. That they are small, the majority unsightly, and many mutilated, is little to the purpose. Among the chief specimens may be mentioned—by Michel Angelo, an anatomical model, beating some resemblance to the figure of the Bac- chus, and held to be illustrative of Vasari's statement that the master made studies of this kind as the first step in a work ; the half-closed hand, moulds of which are extensively known ; a mask somewhat terrible in expression ; and studies for the arm of the David; for the whole figure, differing materially from the completed work ; for the Apollo of the Florence Gallery; and for Hercules and Cacus, which was never exe- cuted. By Raffaelle, the figure of Jonah which was sculptured by Lorenzotto in the Chigi Chapel, but with less of a backward sway in the pose. By Giovanni da Bologna, a study of the famous group of the Rape of the Sabines. By Donatello, or ascribed to him, a marble has- relief figure of the Infant Baptist, and a terra-cotta cow, both in good preservation. Models of Buonarroti's Nate, of Giovanni's Diana, and some others, do not profess to be the original work of the masters, though they are respectable studies, and apparently old.
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