Art Lecture.

Professor Van Dyke delivered the last of his series of lectures in the Jefferson Physical Laboratory yesterday evening. His subject was "The Great Venetians."

The sixteenth century represents the climax of Italian art. During that period elegance, taste, and sensuousness in the highest degree were developed in the work of the Venetian painters, at the head of whom stand Titian, Gorgona, Tintoretto, and Verrezana. The doings of these four are of the greatest importance in the history of art, not only because of what they built up but because of what they pulled down. It was they who dealt the death blow to religion as the object of art. This does not mean that religious subjects were discarded by them, but that they sought art truth rather than religious truth. For them a Venus was as good as a Madonna. They were interested in art for art's sake, not for the sake of religion.

The interest and the glory of these Venetians lie in their masterly use of color. Whatever their subject, it was beautified by wonderful contrasts of light and shade. Color is usually associated with gaiety and frivolity; but those old masters did not treat it gaily or flippantly, and it forms the great charm and beauty of their work. Their bold massing, their sharp and delicate contrasts, have never been equalled.

Unfortunately, Gorgona died young. His work, however, though inferior to that of Titian, perhaps influenced the latter. Calm in mood, dignified in conception, Titian is the embodiment of excellence in painting. He made no attempt to express the inexpressible, but was rather the portrayer of humanity. For ninety-nine years he lived in full possession of his powers, combining a perfect mastery of his art with a wide knowledge of nature. It is generally not permissible to call an artist the best there has been, but if anyone deserves the superlative, it is Titian.

Tintoretto was the most rapid worker of the four, and it is not to be expected that all his work should be up to his highest standard, which was scarcely inferior to Titian. He combined the early line work of Florence with the vivid coloring of Venice and produced an admirable amalgam. Through all his many paintings he shows great invention and startling originality of conception. Throughout the work of Verrezana there is an underlying decorative motive. In pictures brilliant in color and elaborate in decoration, he portrays pomp and magnificence at its highest point, but with nothing trivial about it. He, Gorgona, Titian, and Tintoretto, are the illumination of Venetian art.