Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Volume 17, No. 097, January, 1876 by Various
page 36 of 286 (12%)
page 36 of 286 (12%)
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lineaments, set in the accessories of their day by the ablest hands
guided by eyes that saw below the surface, and not feel that we have new readings of British annals. [Illustration: WOLSEY.] Among the most ancient heads is a medallion of Henry VII. by Torregiano, the peppery and gifted Florentine who executed the marvelous chapel in Westminster Abbey and broke the nose of Michael Angelo. English art--or rather art in England--may be said to date from him. He could not create a school of artists in the island--the material did not exist--but the few productions he left there stood out so sharply from anything around them that the possessors of the wealth that was then beginning to accumulate employed it in drawing from the Continent additional treasures from the newly-found world of beauty. The riches of England have grown apace, and her collectors have used them liberally, if not always wisely, until her galleries, in time, have come to be sought by the connoisseurs, and even the artists, of the Continent. [Illustration: PORTICO LEADING TO GARDENS.] The last picture-gallery we traverse is the only one at Hampton Court specially built for its purpose; and it is empty. This is the room erected by Sir Christopher Wren for the reception of the Cartoons. It leads us to the corridor that opens on the garden-front. We leave behind us, in addition to the state apartments, a great many others which are peopled by other inhabitants than the big spiders, said to be found nowhere else, known as cardinals. The old palace is not kept wholly for show, but is made useful in the political economy of |
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