Ex Voto | Page 8

the Cross are placed on the ascent, he thought those at
Varallo might as well remain on the ascent also, and that it would be
safe to call them "stations." It is the writer in the 1874 edition who first
gave him or her self airs about a cultivated eye; but he or she had the
grace to put in a saving clause to the effect that the designs in some
instances were "full of grace." True, Sir Henry Layard has never seen
the designs; nevertheless his eye is too highly cultivated to put up with
this clause; so it has disappeared, to make room, I suppose, for the
sentence in which so much accurate knowledge is displayed in respect
to Tabachetti and Miel d'Anvers. Sir Henry Layard should keep to the
good old plan of saying that the picture would have been better if the
artist had taken more pains, and praising the works of Pietro Perugino.
Personally, I confess I am sorry he has never seen the Sacro Monte. If
he has trod on so many ploughshares without having seen Varallo, what
might he not have achieved in the plenitude of a taste which has been
cultivated in every respect save that of not pretending to know more
than one does know, if he had actually been there, and seen some one
or two of the statues themselves?
I have only sampled Sir Henry Layard's work in respect of two other
painters, but have found no less reason to differ from him there than
here. I refer to his remarks about Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. I must
reserve the counter-statement of my own opinion for another work, in
which I shall hope to deal with the real and supposed portraits of those
two great men. I will, however, take the present opportunity of
protesting against a sentence which caught my eye in passing, and

which I believe to be as fundamentally unsound as any I ever saw
written, even by a professional art critic or by a director of a national
collection. Sir Henry Layard, in his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci, says
-
"One thing prominently taught us by the works of Leonardo and
Raffaelle, of Michael Angelo and Titian, is distinctly this--that purity of
morals, freedom of institutions, and sincerity of faith have nothing to
do with excellence in art."
I should prefer to say, that if the works of the four artists above
mentioned show one thing more clearly than another, it is that neither
power over line, nor knowledge of form, nor fine sense of colour, nor
facility of invention, nor any of the marvellous gifts which three out of
the four undoubtedly possessed, will make any man's work live
permanently in our affections unless it is rooted in sincerity of faith and
in love towards God and man. More briefly, it is [Greek text which
cannot be reproduced], or the spirit, and not [Greek text which cannot
be reproduced], or the letter, which is the soul of all true art. This, it
should go without saying, applies to music, literature, and to whatever
can be done at all. If it has been done "to the Lord"--that is to say, with
sincerity and freedom from affectation--whether with conscious
effusion, as by Gaudenzio, or with perhaps robuster unconsciousness,
as by Tabachetti, a halo will gather round it that will illumine it though
it pass through the valley of the shadow of death itself. If it has been
done in self- seeking, as, exceptis excipiendis, by Leonardo, Titian,
Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, it will in due course lose hold and
power in proportion to the insincerity with which it was tainted.
CHAPTER II.
THE REV. S. W. KING--LANZI AND LOMAZZO.

Leaving Sir Henry Layard, let us turn to one of the few English writers
who have given some attention to Varallo--I mean to the Rev. S. W.
King's delightful work "The Italian Valleys of the Pennine Alps." This

author says -
"When we first visited Varallo, it was comparatively little known to
travellers, but we now found that of late years many more had
frequented it, and its beautiful scenery and great attractions were
becoming more generally and deservedly appreciated. Independently of
its own picturesque situation, and its advantages as head-quarters for
exploring the neighbouring Vals and their romantic scenery, the works
which it possesses of the ancient and famous Val Sesian school of
painters and modellers are most interesting. At the head of them stands
first and foremost Gaudenzio Ferrari, whose original and masterly
productions ought to be far more widely known and studied than they
as yet are; and some of the finest of them are to be found in the
churches and Sacro Monte of Varallo" (p. 498).
Of the Sacro Monte the same