Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/50

30 Venice. This picture has now been restored to its original place and nothing can exceed its charm when seen in the afternoon, with the western sun shedding a golden glow over the light in the room and rendering all the color in the picture luminous and gay.

If we are to give pictures their full value it is necessary to reproduce as nearly as possible the conditions under which they were painted or for which they were painted. Thus in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, the room which is devoted to the earliest Italian painting, although top-lighted, is so screened by glass as to give quite the effect of the dimly lighted church. Almost all early painting was intended for churches, and while it would be both unwise and stupid to try to reproduce the dimness of the church interior, it is also poor policy to provide too strong a light. We have all suffered in visiting churches for the purpose of seeing paintings, not only from the obstruction of candles, but also from the dimness of the light. In Italy, where the light is so strong outside, the windows in the churches are correspondingly small, and most of us have to accustom ourselves to the lack of light before we can begin to see the treasures that are hidden in this darkness. In France and Germany, on the other hand, where the light outside is never strong,