There is on exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum for a few days a painting on panel by Gentile de Fabriano, representing the Madonno, seated with the Christ-child. It is a singularly beautiful work by a rare master of the school now called "International," and it is hoped that it may be secured for the University. In 1876 it was exhibited in the Royal Academy. Its rich, deep reds and blues against a gold background make of it a striking bit of decoration, as well as a very great work of art.
It is attributed to Gentile by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A. Colosanti and B. Berenson, as well as by the members of the Fine Arts Department.
Conference on Picture Tuesday.
Professor Edgell will give a conference on this picture next Tuesday afternoon at 3.30 o'clock. The Fogg Museum gives the following account of Gentile's life and work. "Gentile was an Umbrian artist who was subjected at various times to different influences. At first he felt the Byzantine and Gothic, and later was influenced by Florentine naturalism and Sienese refinement. He was a good story teller and better still, was a poet. He influenced not only Umbrian masters, but the painters of the Marches, Venice and North Italy. In 1423 he painted his most famous work, the "Epiphany," now in the Florence Academy. Colosanti thinks that the picture now in the Fogg Museum was painted at about the same time. Finally, in 1428, while still at work in the Lateran in Rome, he died. This incompleted work caused Roger van der Weyden to call him the foremost of Italian painters. It is interesting that Michaelangelo, who had no regard for artists generally, said that Gentile was as charming as his name."
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