EXTRACTS: illustrators issue 3 © 2013 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

5 delineated by a master’s hand. The series was a triumph. That was until his painting of Richard II with his child bride Isabella, when the infirmities of age finally seemed to latch themselves onto Matania’s brush. The work when it was eventually delivered to Matthews, closer to the deadline than either artist or editor would have preferred, was unfinished, Matania having evidently struggled with the rendition of an eight year old girl as well as having failed to complete several other elements of the painting. Matthews was disappointed, the painting was still sufficiently good to go to press with, but it was nowhere near as good as its predecessors. Matania evidently felt equally discomforted and offered to rework the painting, as not only was it to appear in Look and Learn, but Matthews, ever the patron of the arts, wanted it to take its place alongside the other paintings in the series for his own collection. So the painting was returned to Matania and, ever the perfectionist, the artist set about resolving all the problems that had so beset the painting prior to its delivery to Matthews. The painting was duly completed, but, before it could be returned to Matthews, Matania died. There were to be no more Matania paintings for ‘A Pageant of Kings’, and the painting of Richard II and his little princess remained amongst the great man’s effects while arrangements for his funeral were made . The story of Fortunino Matania’s rise to pre-eminence as the greatest Courtesy of Richard Gardner Antiques Text continues on page 11 ABOVE: Scanned from the original artwork, the revised version, completed by Matania shortly before his death. The princess has been extensively reworked while the rest of the painting has been further refined to draw the viewer’s attention to the two figures expressions.