Heinrich Hoffmann - Othello and Desdemona

Othello and Desdemona, by Heinrich Hoffmann
Identifier: artartistsofourt04cook (find matches)
Title: Art and artists of our time
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Cook, Clarence, 1828-1900
Subjects: Painting Painters
Publisher: New York, S. Hess
Contributing Library: Brandeis University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



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dors ofcostume. The reader in his closet, if he have full symi^athy with his poet, can see in hisminds eye a lovelier Verona, a more enchanting Venice than any that the stage-carpenter canshow him, even if an Irving or a Booth should give him his design. And the painter isbound to be an enchanter, too; we have a right to ask of him that he leave the poet whom heattempts to illustrate, in the realm of the imagination where he found him. But what hasHofmann done in his Othello ? Is this stout, well-fed lady, laid so comfortably abed, andsleeping the sleep of a year-old child—is this the Desdemona whom her father described aLittle before: A maiden never bold: Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion Blushd at herself ? Is this the delicate being whom we heard but now singing her song of Avillow, and sawbeating her torn and bleeding wings against the net that villainy had wove about her ? Evenon the stage, surely, such a Desdemona would be regarded as ill-suited to the character. So
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ART AND ARTISTS OF OUR TIME. 187 very neat! So carefully adjusted! AVitli such a becoming niglit-dress a la Grecque; fibula,and golden pendant too, all complete, and suitable for the purpose! This might be Imogen,now, as lachimo saw her lying asleep, and took note of her perfections before he slipped thebracelet from her arm. I will write all down: Such and such pictures; there the windows; such The adornment of her bed ********** She hath been reading late The tale of Tereus; heres the leaf turned downWhere Philomel gave up. * * * * There might be some reason in the picture then, and it would be economy in the artist tomake a few changes—throw away Othellos dagger (with which he has no business, any way!),take the kinks out of his hair, make an lachimo of him, and so get two pictures out of one!This was the cheap expedient often i^ractised by men tis no offence to call superior to Mr.Hofniann—Tintoretto, for example—and therefore we may make bold to recommend it. Asfor Othello