I can recall it with
perfect distinctness, and often return to ponder it in my heart.
In this room there was also the _chef-d'luvre_ of Correggio--his
celebrated Notte, or the Nativity of Jesus; and, that you may know
what I ought to have thought, I will quote you a sentence from Wilkie.
"All the powers of art are here united to make a perfect work. Here
the simplicity of the drawing of the Virgin and Child is shown in
contrast with the foreshortening of the group of angels--the strongest
unity of effect with the most perfect system of intricacy. The
emitting the light from the body of the child, though a supernatural
illusion, is eminently successful. The matchless beauty of the Virgin
and Child, the group of angels overhead, the daybreak in the sky, and
the whole arrangement of light and shadow, give it a right to be
considered, in conception at least, the greatest of his works."
I said before that light and shadow were Correggio's gods--that the
great purpose for which he lived, moved, and had his being, was to
show up light and shadow. Now, so long as he paints only indifferent
objects,--Nymphs, and Fauns, and mythologic divinities,--I had no
objection.
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