ART
GALLERIES
made more frequently and with greater care, and where the system of classification is such that the value of the pictures is enhanced rather than diminished by their display. In 1900 it was partly rearranged with great effect. The feature of the Louvre is the Salon Carre, a room in which the supposed finest canvases in the collection are kept together, pictures of world-wide fame, representing all schools. It is now generally accepted that this system of selection not only lowers the standard of individual schools elsewhere by withdrawing their best pictures, but
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does not add to the aesthetic or educational value of the masterpieces themselves. In Florence the Tribuna of the Uffizi gallery is a similar case in point, while in London the danger that such a central gallery should be made within the national collection passed away thirty years ago. Probably the two most widely known pictures in the Louvre are Watteau’s second “ Embarquement pour Cythere ” and the “ Mona Lisa,” a portrait by Leonardo da Yinci, but each school has many unique examples. The original drawings should be noted, being of equal importance to I.
II.
the collection preserved at the British Museum. The last collection to be mentioned under this heading is that known as the Royal Galleries in Florence, housed in the Pitti and Uffizi palaces. In some ways this collection does not represent general painting sufficiently to justify its inclusion with the galleries of Berlin, Paris, and London. On the other hand, the great number of Italian pictures of vital importance to the history of international art makes this one of the finest existing collections. The two great palaces, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, are joined together and contain the Medici pictures. They form the largest gallery in the world, and though many of the rooms are small and badly lighted, and although many paintings have suffered from thoughtless restoration, there is a charm and attraction which certainly
make them the most popular galleries in Europe. The Pitti has ten Raffaelles, and excellent examples of Andrea del Sarto, Giorgione, and Perugino. The Uffizi is more representative of non-Italian schools, but is best known for its works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Yinci, Michael Angelo, and Sodoma, the schools of Tuscany and Umbria forming the bulk of both collections. Admission to the galleries is by payment, and the small income derived from this source (in 1890 all the galleries and museums in Florence only received £4000) is devoted to maintaining and enlarging the collections. As to the ground plans of the National Gallery, London (Fig. 1), and of the Imperial Gallery at Vienna (Fig. 2), it will be observed that while the former has the advantage of uniform top-light, the new galleries at Vienna S. I. — 86
