Nicole Page-Smith
Time is of the essence:
a sensibility of taste
Several trips to Europe followed, before in Paris, at the Lourve, I ascended to the painting department on the top floor. There are signs saying Leonard's Mona Lisa is this way. Other Leonardo da Vinci paintings appeal. "The Virgin of the Rocks" painting similar to the Leonardo in the National Gallery in London is much more pleasant to look at. Previous trips to the Louvre were either spent looking at Italian sculpture in the basement or Hellenistic sculpture from the Borghese collection. The Canova Cupid and Psyche is another highlight. The Italian paintings settle in my mind and maybe from several exhibitions visited throughout Italy my mind was piqued to their mystery. The sensibility of Italian painting is of its own culture and has a religious quality. You feel you are invited into the paintings as the world of the artist and their patrons. Although, some works are from the altarpieces of churches you do not feel as though you were graced with the mantlepiece works from someone's loungeroom more you are allowed access to an artist's studio. Details are sketchy about who the paintings were often painted for and nor do we know the sensibility of individual collectors other than a sensibility of taste.
