From Mrs Margaret Duggan
Sir, - I read with real pleasure the Revd Dr Nicholas
Cranfield's review of the Moroni exhibition at the RA (Arts,
2 January). I have managed to visit it twice, totally bewitched
by the vitality of the personalities in his portraits. Across five
centuries, one really knows these people, almost expecting them to
speak or to proffer a handshake. I hope for a chance to go
again.
But I am surprised that Dr Cranfield did not comment on the
contrast between Moroni's portraits from life and his holy pictures
painted from his imagination. Though competently painted, they
completely lack the vital spark to be found in his portraits. I
could find no character, particularly in his portrayals of Jesus,
though I had hoped to find something revealing in them. Clearly, he
needed a real person to animate his genius.
This is well shown in the painting you reproduced A
Gentleman in Adoration before the Baptism of Christ. The
gentleman is alive, and Jesus and John are merely pictures.
In fact, had the exhibition been of his altarpieces alone, I
certainly would not have gone back a second time, and might even
have passed them as "just another Italian holy picture" of average
merit.
MARGARET DUGGAN
23 York Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive, London SW11 4DL