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New York 22, New York

January 2, 1959

My dear Sir:

May I be so bold as to take issue with Mr. Kenneth B. Sawyer's article "Renaissance Sculpture at the Walters" published in your issue of last Sunday, December 28th.

It just so happens that I made a special journey to Baltimore for the express purpose of studying the Exhibition of Bronzes so effectively presented by Mr. Phillipe Verdier and his colleagues at the Henry Walters Gallery. My early art education, partly achieved at the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, nearly half a century ago - fortunately at a time when the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were given due credit - and my continued attachment to this field, I believe give me the right to at least an opinion on the subject.

Furthermore, it is one of the cherished privileges of my lifetime to have known Mr. Henry Walters well and I cannot agree with Mr. Sawyer's claim that, "The Messrs. Walters...had propensities toward elegance, not strength...", for this remarkable man had too keen an insight into aesthetic matters to sacrifice the real values of art - truth and strength - to mere elegance. (The Renaissance was a period of elegance; that it managed to combine this with truth and strength is one of its chief delights.) The high quality of the collection begun by William T. Walters and continued by Henry Walters, needs no attestation from me. If at some time enough space is given to show in its entirety all the precious objects bequeathed as a token of love to the city of Baltimore, the Walters Collection will take its proper place (publicly - it already has it among scholars) among such world-famous groupings as the Wallace Collection of London, the J. P. Morgan Collection now in the Metropolitan and the Morgan Library, and the H. C. Frick Collection. It would be difficult to find many other privately formed collections (and one thinks of the Rothchilds of Paris) which can compete in richness of quality and preciousness of individual items.

However, to return to Renaissance Bronzes. That Mr. Sawyer should prefer Greek and Roman sculptures is indeed his privilege, but why condemn the small Italian Renaissance bronzes which were so important a part of all great collections of their time (and of all times until the present)? To glorify Phidias one does not have to condemn Sansovino. Only a few weeks ago, Mr. John Pope-Hennessy, Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, journeyed to this country for the express purpose of lecturing on the subject of small bronzes of the Italian Renaissance, speaking at a number of Museums and Universities.- including

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