Settignano, Florence
Nov. 4, 1911
My Dear Mr. Walters,
I have received yr. cable whereby you take my Rosselli & Trotti’s Guardiagrele. I enclose photographs of three other pictures in every way worthy of your attention & your collection.
1) A large cassone front representing the telescoped myths of Io & Europa. It is in brisk, youthfully joyous narrative style, & it is delightfully golden in colour, & truly poetical in landscape. It is a capital specimen of the work of a man to whom I have devoted a great deal of study. I have given a chapter to him in my book on Florentine Drawings, & the same appeared magnificently illustrated in the first number of the Burlington Magazine. Since writing those, the actual name of the painter has been discovered. It was Bartolomeo di Giovanni. But I prefer to continue calling him by the descriptive & more euphonious appellation of Alunno di Domenico. Looking at the photograph of the panel I am now offering you, you will not be surprised to learn that he was a prolific book illustrator. I have no doubt that you will find in your own library many a book printed at Florence toward 1500, filled with his woodcuts—The price of this picture is Ł 1000 (one thousand pounds) which I venture to call a bargain. If you will have it kindly cable YALUNNO.
2) A Madonna by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. She is suave, gracious, distinguished, a thoroughly representative work by one of the big wigs of Italian Painting. You may recall his pictures at Perugia of the native school of which he was the greatest figure. He doubtless learned his trade under Verrocchio, but he influenced Perugino & taught Pintoricchio. This panel is again a very great bargain for it is only Ł 800 (eight hundred pounds) export duty included. If yu will take it kindly cable YEREZO.
3) Madonna probably by Mausuerti, an attractive rather meticulous but quite jewell-like work. Mausuerti was a Venetian of the school of gentile Bellini & Carpaccio in companionship with both of whom he worked. I am not certain that this Madonna is by him but think it very likely. At all events it is a very agreeable & yet impressive picture. Its price is Ł 300 (three hundred pounds). If it pleases you cable YESUETI.
As these things are getting visibly rarer you will be well advised to take them all, & in that case please cable simply YEALL.
I can not remember an autumn so beautiful. I have been home a mont & one day has been more sunny, more still than another. I have got to work, & my new secretary promises to be a tower of strength. The house is delightful. The frescoes have disappeared from the big library, & the little new one is a jewell I am eager to show you. All would be well if my heath would only let up. My doctor urges me to go to Combes at Lausanne, & I fear I shall have to submit—Otherwise no news. The Italians are mad with the last of slaughter of flies.
I wonder under what skies & how different from these you will be in when you read these lines. I hope in some soft fair haven down south.
With best regards
Ever yrs.
B. Berenson
December 16, 1911
I Tatti
Settignano (Florence)
My Dear Mr. Walters,
First & foremost our combined best wishes to you for a Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year. The sooner it brings you over to this side the more we shall like it, & before 1912 is past we ourselves will probably be over on your side.
Meanwhile I am working as hard as my stupidly bad heath allow me. And altho’ I do get dead beat daily, I thoroughly enjoy my work. Happily there is little futher to annoy me with regard to the house & my new secretary is almost the ideal person for the job.
I received yoyr cable whereby you took the Alunno de Domenico, the Fiorenzo di Lorenzo & the Mausuerti. They are probably all at Pottier’s by now. The payment for them has not reached me yet, but there is no hurry of course.
I am sending you rolled up four photographs too large to go with this, of two pictures I want you to buy.
One is a Holy Family by Lo Spagna. I need not tell you that hitherto it has always passed for a Raphael, & in a sense one can scarcely blame them, for this picture is very Raphaelesque indeed. It is by Lo Spagna nevertheless, the most gifted of raphael’s pupils under Perugino (It is he, by the way, who in my opinion painted the famous Sposalezio always ascribed to Perugino himself) And this panel now offered to you is in every way the fiest Lo Spagna I have ever seen. It is extraordinarily clear & brilliant, & the photograph gives you a perfect idea of it. Its price is very reasonable, 1,200 (twelve thousand pounds). Please cable YESPAN if you want it.
The two other photographs are unfortunately both very poor representatives of a very remarkable picture that I have known for quite a while. Its fond owner was so convinced that it was by Titian himself that he refused an offer of Ł 5,000 for it made by Bourgeoise of Cologne just before he died.
. . . this picture comes as near to being a Titian as any work I have ever seen that I am sure is not by him. Here the colour is as good as a Titian in his very best years, & it is only a somewhat subtly inferior in the style & in the drawing which makes me quite certain that it is not his. Besides I am as certain that it is by the ablest of his early followers, Polidoro Lanzani, many of whose paintings not so good as this one pass for Titian’s in the Louvre & in the other great European collections.
I want you to buy this canvas not only on its intrinsic merits which really are all but the highest, but also because short of a miracle we are not likely ever to come across a real Titian of the “Santa Conversazione” type. Even if we did, the price would be fabulous. This canvas on the contrary we can have at the very reasonable figure of Ł 2000 (two thousand pounds). I am confident that when the picture reaches you, it will surprise you by its fully Titianesque radiance and magic. It is interesting on other grounds too. Thus the subject matter is quite unique. It is evidently the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter & the Holy Child, all three together, dictating to St. Maark the Gospel that goes under his name. So if you will have it please cable YEDORO, & if you will have the Spagno as well, as I wish you would, cable YEBOTH.
There is nothing new. The unspeakable war in Tripoli is keeping out Italian acquaintances away from us. They are too well aware what they would think of any one else who committed murder & robbery in this fashion upon peaceable householders—I am not referring to the so-called massacre which I believe to be foul calumny, but to the ethics of falling upon Tripoli as the Italians have done. The economic effect upon Italy will be disastrous but nothing comparable to the moral debasement. A people like the Ialians which so recently became a nation not by its own strength but thro’ the sympathy, pity & powerful aid of stronger nations, has no right to become the cowardly oppressor of weaker races.
I do not know Mrs. Jones’s address, so will you be my angel & give her & Miss Sadie my good wishes for a Happy New Year?
Sincerely yours,
B. Berenson
Jan. 16, 1912
I Tatti
Settignano (Florence)
My Dear Mr. Walters,
Many thanks for your delightful letter of the 5th. I regret that you were bothered by my telling you that the money for Fiorenzo, lunno di Domenico, etc. had not arrived. As a matter of fact Messers Barrings wrote a day or two later to tell me they had arrived.
I am so glad you are taking the Polidoro Lanzani & the Spagna, each the finest of its kind. I am confient the originals will not disappoint you.
This time I have two more pictures to bring to your notice. The finer is a truly lovely & poetical Madonna by Niccolo Appiani. Nic. App better known as the “Pseudo-Boccaccino” is at the same time a follower of Alvise Vivarini & of Leonardo da Vinci. The consequence is a blend of Venetian with Milanese qualities which makes him one of the most fascinating of Leonardo’s pupils at Milan. The Madonna I am proposing is as fine as any of his that I Know. I am acquainted with larger & more elaborate works by him, but none finer. It is in excellent condition. The price is Ł 500, & I think it will be amply worth that to your collection.
The other Madonna is by Antonio Vivarini, the brother of Bartolommeo, & the uncle of Alvise. He was thus at least the patriarch of the Muranese branch of the Venetian school, & in a sense the founder of the whole. For any historical collection like yours a work by him is obviously very desirable, & for that reason alone it would be advisable to acquire a picture by him. The Madonna I am proposing however has decided merits of its own, as you will see for yourself. It is on a gold ground. Its price is modest, being Ł 350.
If you will have them both, kindly cable YEBOTH. If only the Nic. Appiani YENIC; if only the Vivarini YEANT. I think however YEBOTH would be well.
I am afraid that I agree only to well with what you say about the unrest that has overtaken this tiny pebble of an earth during the last ten years. You think it is worst in our country. I, who live over here, think it is worst in Europe, & most of all in Italy. And bad it really is. One can’t conceive it getting still worse without society disintegrating utterly. And I should be ashamed to tell you how full of dread I am for the future, & of regrest for the past, all of the decencies & homlinesses & old-world (relatively) conditions I was brought up among.
And yet it has always been so. Since man has beedn advanced enough to leave record of his thought, he has taught that after him only the deluge could mend things. And the deluge never comes, but children are born into the world, & pass happy enough childhoods. Then comes love with all its joys and sorrows, & life is very precious. But at forty we begin to look at things with the cold eye of reason, & reason is suicidal. The truth is life is a miracle enacted for the delectation of childhood & youth. Grownups go on till middle age on the impetus derived from earlier years. But after forty, it really does require faith, hope, & charity to live without being a b nuisance to one’s self, & a worse to one’s neighbors.
I need not say we look forward with real pleasure to your visit. Pray let us know as soon as you decide on your plans when we may hope to see you, here. We are both in fair health, & I am working as hard as I can, & enjoying it thoroughly.
With our kindest regards
Sincerely yours
B. Berenson
Nov. 9, 1912
I Tatti
Settignano (Florence)
My Dear Mr. Walters,
I wrote about three weeks ago to propose an interesting Madonna by Gregorio Schiavone. I hope the letter reached you. I told you that as soon as I got the photographs I should write you of several other pictures. I do so now, seding you the photographs rolled up separately by registered post.
The large photograph is of an altarpiece by Bicci di Lorenzo. It is one of the most delightful works painted soon after 1400, & is the masterpiece of one of the most interesting figures of that time. It has never suffered the least touch of restoration, but unfortunately, the ultramarine has been strpped off the Virgin’s mantle leaving that white spot which you will recognize in the photograph. Putting that “scar” aside it is one of the completest & most elaborate & really satisfactory Italian paintings that have been on the market for quite a while.
It is on wood of course 1.6 × 1.44 m. high, & its price is Ł 2200 (two thousand two hundred pounds).
The second picture consists of two panels, originally no doubt forming part of some polyptych, & representing the Annunciation. They come from the Saracein Collection at Siena whence also came the Paoplo di Giovanni predella that you got from Grassi in May 1911. These are immaculately free from retouching as those, & they were painted by a far more remarkable artist, namely by Andrea Vanni of Siena. He was the friend of St. Catherine, the master of Sassetta, & the painter of the Madonna on my staircase which you like so much.
They are to be had for a very reasonable price, Ł 600 (six hundred pounds) & I think you will take great pleasure in them if you get them. If you want them please cable YEVANNI.
The third photograph is of an appealing Leonardesque work of delicate sentiment & delicious colour by Butinone, one of the most interesting painters of Milan in the 15th century. It is a late work by him, influenced on the one hand by Leonardo & on the other anticipating the most delightful Milanese master of the next generation, I mean Borgognone. The naĭvete of the landscape background is not easily to be surpassed, & the whole panel has an unusual sincerity & heartiness about it. It is in perfect condition.
Its price too is quite modest being Ł 750 (seven hundred and fifty pounds). If you want it please cable YEBUTINONE.
Or if you will take them all please cable YEALL. I strongly urge you to, as pictures worth having are getting distressingly rare.
Our elections are over, & I hope we are none the worse for the election of Roosevelt in 1916. Short of a miracle the democrats will spoil their best chances & give Ted a free run for next time. I confess though that I feel almost as bad over the collapse of the Republican party as I do over that of Turkey. I too haave got to the age when I’d rather not see such startling even though long prepared innovations.
Please do not forget the catalogue you kindly promised to send me if you can find a copy.
With kindest regards
Sincerely
B Berenson
H. Walters
Room 916
Empire Building
71 Broadway
New York
January 4th, 1910
My Dear Mr. Berenson:
I have your two letters of the 6th and 7th of December, upon returning from an extended trip to the South.
My photographer has gone for a sea voyage to South America and will not be back until near the end of January. As soon as he returns he will carry out your wishes as to larger negatives and details. Doubtless also by that time I will have from you other memorandum as to the details of other paintings, photographs of which I have sent you.
In buying the Massarenti collection I understood quite well there were few pictures therein which could be considered masterpieces. I do, however, believe I could retain a sufficient number of works to present fairly a history of Italian Art, it being my intention to add, from time to time, a few important Italian pictures to improve the average.
I had already discarded when you saw the Galleries, over four hundred and fifty pictures, Italian, French, Dutch and nondescript, and I am quite prepared to add to the rejected one hundred more.
About fifteen of the Italian pictures now hung were not of the Massarenti Collection: the most important one being the Madonna of the Candelabra by Raphael, which I bought from a nephew of Monro, of Novar, it having been taken from the Borghese Collection by Napoleon I and given to the Queen of Eturia, from whom it passed to the Duke of Lucca, who sold it at Christie’s in London, where it was bought by Mr. Munro. A fine copy of this picture was taken to Paris from Rome by Ingres. It was sold at his death with the contents of his studio and bought by a poor English clergyman. At his death, with other copies of pictures, it was sold at Christies and bought by Sir Robinson for seven Pounds, who now claims it as an original and has been trying for several years in vain to sell it to the National Gallery.
Like others, I doubt if Raphael painted the two angels, but there are few obtainable pictures by him that I would have in preference to the Madonna of the Candlabra.
With best wishes for a happy New Year.
Yours very truly,
H. Walters
Robinson was curator of Queen Victoria’s pictures.
You doubtless know him.
Florence
Meme Maison
Hotel Italie—Florence
Florence, May 24, 1910
My Dear Mr. Berenson,
In accordance with our understanding it will be most interesting for me to place at your disposal between July 1, 1910 and July 1, 1911 the sum of Seventy Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000), or so much thereof as you may require during that period, to pay for purchases for my collection of pictures particularly of the Italian schools, in order to fill out its historical value and increase its average quality.
Before purchasing, each picture to be submitted to me by photograph and my acceptance or other decision to be transmitted to you promptly (preferably by cable).
To give this arrangement a proper business relation you are to receive as commission from me upon each purchase made and at the time of each purchase ten per cent of its cost. Export duties and other expenses of shipment from place of purchase to Paris are to be paid by me and not included in the $75,000. All purchases are to be consigned to Monsieur Pottier, 14 Rue Gaillou, Paris, who will attend to the Consular invoice, packing and shipment to America. It will be necessary however for you or the seller to to furnish Pottier with your name as seller and a guarantee that the object is a work of art and more than one hundred year old.
At the time I transmit to you my acceptance of each of your recommendations, I will at the same time send you by mail exchange on London, Paris or Italy as you may desire made to your order for 115% of the purchase price. You are to attend to the payment of export duties if any and it seems to me most desirable if possible to make the price of purchase include delivery to Pottier for yor account, you afterwards in each case giving Pottier instructions to ship the object to me at Baltimore, and at the same time furnish him with the necessary guarantee as to art and antiquity, and the name of seller all of which is required under the United States import laws.
The above method of payment will of course require from time to time financial adjustments between us.
You will note from above that I prefer to have all settlements with you direct so that my name will not except in exceptional cases appear to the seller. In other words so far as I am concerned in the settlements you pay out this money for me. I hope this will not be objectionable to you.
Sincerely yours
H. Walters