..,iS)\. OF J9^ c*MINTERS d:^^ O F 4 DI660 ; A BRIEF HISTORY PAINTERS OF ALL SCHOOLS. ILLUSTRATED. ./ a-^ RF.MIJRAVDT'S MOTHER. By Rembrandt. In the fJermilagf, Si. Petersburg '\ Brief History oi THl- Painters of All Scihjols BY LOLIS XIARDOT AND OTHER WRITERS. ILLUSTRATED. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE. 8: RIVINGTON. CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1877. PREFACE o>©{o THE more important parts of this Work — such as the Introductions to the Foreign Schools, and the criticisms upon the pictures of the great masters — are from the pen of M. Louis Viardot, by whom they were originally written for Les Merveilles de la Peinture, published by Messrs, Hachette & Co., in their Bibliotheque des Merveilles. But this author included in his volumes only those painters whom he styles the 'Divinities of Art,' and of their personal history he gives but brief details. In order, therefore, to make a comprehensive book — which may lay claim to be of value to students of art, not only as a brief History of the Painters of all Schools, but also as a work of reference — it has been considered desirable to supplement M, Viardot's writings by short memoirs of many additional artists, whom he has not mentioned. Even then, a list of those whose names appear in the dictionaries, but who are here omitted as but of little importance in the history of art, would fill many pages. M. Viardot has had the advantage of visiting all the great picture- galleries of Europe, and writing his criticisms with the paintings before his eyes. That he may have sometimes erred in judgment is probable ; that he has taken great pains to examine the best pictures is certain, and that he has given us his honest convictions is quite evident. If his enthusiasm has now and then led him to speak of a painting in exaggerated terms of praise, it is hoped that his raptures may be forgiven. The rest of the volume, which consists chiefly of biographical details, has been gleaned with much care from well-known sources ; Le Monnier's annotated edition of 'Vasari;' Charles Blanc's ' Histoiredes Peintresde toutes les ecoles,' whence many of the illustrations have been obtained ; Mr. Wornum's trustworthy catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery ; Lady Eastlake's new edition of Kugler's ' Handbook of the Italian Schools,' by far the most valuable work on this subject that has ever appeared ; the PREFACE. ' German, Flemish, and Dutch schools ' of the same series, lately revised and in part re-written by Mr. J. A. Crowe ; the ' History of Painting in North Italy ' and the ' Early Flemish Painters,' both by Messrs. Crowe and Caval- caselle ; the 'English Encyclopedia ;' Bryan's 'Dictionary of Painters,' and many other standard works. For the English section the editor is largely indebted to Allan Cun- ningham's 'Lives of the most eminent British Painters ;' and Mr. Redgrave's 'Century of Painters' — a charming series of art-biographies; for notices of recently deceased artists, to writers in the ' Art Journal,' the ' Athenseum,' and the 'Academy ;' and for the information concerning American painters, to Tuckerman's ' Book of the Artists.' J. C. SuKunoN, November, 1S76. CONTENTS PREFACE . LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS BOOK I. CHAP. I. Introduction— Classic Greek School— Greco-Roman School , . . i II. Painting in the Middle Ages— Painting in Mosaic— Illumination of Manuscripts— Painting in Fresco and in Distemper— Painting in Oil . 14 III. Italian Renaissance— Romanesque School— Early Tuscan School— Early Sienese School ^^ IV. Early Florentine School V. Schools of Northern Italy— Bolognese—Paduan—Ferrarese- Veronese- Milanese— Cremonese VI. Umbrian School of the Fifteenth Century 73 VII. Venetian School of the Fifteenth Century S8 VIII. Leonardo da Vinci and his School IX. Florentine and Sienese School of the Sixteenth Century . . • 97 X. Michelangelo and his Followers '°^ XI. Raphael and his Followers "3 XIL Titian and the Venetian School of the Sixteenth Century . • '34 XIII. Corkeggio and the School of Parma '53 XIV. The Mannerists II. School of Valencia '59 XV. Eclectic Schools of Bologna, Cremona, Milan, Florence and Rinir. . 164 XVI. The Naturalisti of Rome, Naples and Venice '^2 BOOK II. I. Spanish Schools -Introditc-tion '92 J9S IQQ FIT. School of Andalusia ^' IV. School of Castile ^ '^ CONTENTS. BOOK III. CHAP I. German Schools— Introduction— Schools of Bohemia— Cologne— West- phalia— Swabia—Franconia AND Saxony 231 II. German Painters of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries— the Revival of Art in Germany 254 BOOK IV. I. Early Flemish School— Introduction— Schools of Bruges and Antwerp . 269 II. Revival of Art in Flanders— Rubens, his Pupils and his Followers . 294 BOOK V. I. Early Dutch School— Rembrandt, his Pupils and his Followers . . 321 II. Later Dutch School— Painters of Domestic Life— Painters of Land- scape and Battle-Pieces — Painters of Marine Subjects — Still Life and Architecture 339 BOOK VI. I. Early French Painters 3^9 IL Later French School 387 BOOK VII. I. Early Painters in England 397 II. English School of the Eighteenth Century ...... 402 III. Modern English School ........... 417 IV. Painters in Water-colours .......... 444 BOOK VIII. American School ............ 453 PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS a>tKo The Angelic Choir . Madonna Enthroned Coronation of the Virgin Virgin Enthroned . Marriage of the Virgin . Enthronement of the Virgin Descent from the Cross . The Sistine Chai'el . Madonna della Sedia Entombment St. Jerome (// Giorno) St. Petronilla . Deposition from the Cross The Beggar Boy Water-Carrier of Seville Archbishop Wariiam Nativity of Christ . Itinerant Musicians The "Pala" Madonna . St. Luke painting the Virgin The Money-Changers Duck-shooting . Bear Hunt King Charles the First . Musical Party . Temptation of St. Anthony Rembrandt's Mother Paternal Instruction The Hunchhack Fiddler I'ACK By Benozzo Gozzoli to /ace 55 ,, Signorelli 59 „ Sandro Botticelli . 60 )> Francia . . . . 62 M Perugino . . . . 76 )> Fra Bartolommeo 98 ,, Daniele da Vol terra ,, IIO „ Michelangelo ,, X12 „ Raphael 116 ,, Titian 140 ,, Correggio 154 ,, Oner ci no 175 ,, Rider a ,, 196 ,, Mnrillo ,, 211 ,, Velasquez ,, 220 „ Hans Holbein „ 238 ,, Albrecht Diirer . .. 246 ,, Dietrich 261 ,, Jan van Eyck 272 < ,, Rogier van der lVe}'den 274 ,, Quint in Matsys . 280 „ PaulBril . ,, 291 „ Snyder s 303 M Vandyck 306 >> Jordaens 308 >. David Tcnicrs 314 >> Rembrandt . 334 ,, Gerard Terburg . 340 „ Van Ostade . 340 PRINCIPAL ILL USTRA TIONS. The Encampment The Young Bull Landscape . Flo'.ver-piece Une Fete Galante . Sleeping Girl . Marriage a la Mode Cottage Door . "The Golden Bough" The Valley Farm Village Politicians By Cuyp . Paid Potter . Hobbema Van Htiysum IVatteau Gretize Hogarth Gainsborough Turner Constable Wilkie FACE to face 351 357 363 366 382 384 402 40S 420 422 424 BY MICHELANGELO. PORTRAITS OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS. PAGE Giovanni Cimabue to face 38 TOMMASO GuiDi. (Masaccio) ..51 Sandro Filh'epi, (Botticelli) ,. S8 Francesco di Marco Raiholini. (Francia) ,,64 PiETRO DI Vanuccio. (Perugino) ..77 Giovanni and Gentile Bellini ,,82 Leonardo da Vinci ,,94 Bartolommeo Baccio della Porta. (Fra Bartoiommeo) , . . . .,97 Michelangelo Buonarroti .,105 Raphael Sanzio d'Urbino ,,113 GiULio Pippi de' Giannuzzi. (Giulio Romano) ,, 128 TiziANO Vecellio ,,134 Jacopo Palma. (Palma II Vecchio) ,, 143 Paolo Cagliari. (Paul Veronese) „ 150 Antonio Allegri da Correggio ,, 156 LoDovico Carracci ,, 164 Domenico Zampieri. (Domenichino) ..173 Luca Giordano. (Luca, Fa Presto) ,, 188 Josef de Ribera ,, 198 Francisco de Zurbaran ,, 203 Bartolom^ Esti!ban Murillo ,, 210 Diego Velasquez de Silva ,, 222 Martin Schongauer. (Martin Schon) ,, 234 Hans Holbein ,, 240 ALBRECHT DiJRER ,, 248 Lucas Cranach „ . 252 Friedrich Owerbeck ,, 265 Hubrecht and Jan Van Eyck ,.271 Hans Memling ,, 277 Ouintin Matsvs ,, 282 PORTRAITS OF PAINTERS. Peter Paul Rubens to face 294 Antony Vandyck .... David Teniers, the Younger Luc Jacobsz. (Lucas van Leyden) Rembrandt Hermanszoon van Rijn Adriaan van Ostade . Jan Steen Jacob Ruysdael .... Adriaan van de Velde Nicolas Poussin .... Claude Gelee of Lorraine Jacques Louis David . Emile Jean Horace Vernet Paul Delaroche .... William Hogarth Sir Joshua Reynolds . Thomas Gainsborough . Sir Thomas Lawrence . Joseph Mallord William Turner Benjamin West .... 308 313 321 330 339 345 359 363 372 378 386 392 394 402 406 409 417 421 453 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY PAINTERS OF ALL SCHOOLS CHAPTER I. CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. « -ny /pANY writers," says Vasari, "have asserted that Painting and Sculpture IV/I originated with the Egyptians; others attribute to the Chaldeans the discovery of the bas-relief, and give to the Greeks the invention of painting : for my own part, I hold that a knowledge of Drawing, the creative principle of all art, has existed since the beginning of the world." There can be no doubt that, to a certain extent, Vasari was right. Among the remains of pre-historic times, the dates of which no man can tell, we find, on the blade-bones of animals, drawings of the reindeer and the elephant scratched with some pointed implement by men who must have been artists : sometimes we discover bronze vessels decorated with well-designed tracery ; or ornaments for personal adornment, betraying, though in fantastic shapes, a primitive knowledge of beauty of form. From remains that are left to the present day, we know that the people of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Assyria, of Persia, India, and China, were all acquainted with the art of painting, but it was always symbolical and as an accessory to Architecture. We find fresco paintings as decorations of walls and pillars, manuscripts on papyrus ornamented with coloured figures, and mummy cases covered with hieroglyphics ; but no movable Pictures, in our present acceptation of that term, have come down to us, nor have any been mentioned by the early historians of those Eastern nations. It is not till the fifth century before Christ that we have any record of Painting as a fine-art by itself, and then it must have quickly reached to the highest eminence. It is to Athens that we must give the glory of its birthplace, though, by a fatality ever to be deplored, no work of the famous Greek painters remains to the present day. In spite of the ravages made by time and many generations of barbarians, Archi- tecture and Sculpture have left monuments numerous and magnificent enough to enable us to judge of the state of both these arts in Greece. The master-pieces of two thousand years ago continue to excite at once the delight and despair of the student We can still see the ruins of the Parthenon and the temple of Theseus at Athens and of the temple of Neptune at Pcestum. The museums of Italy are full of beautiful relics of Greek statuary. At Paris are the Fcyius of Mc/os, Diana the Huntress the Gladiator, the Achilles. Munich possesses the marbles of ^gina, and London the frac^ments of Pheidias from the Parthenon. But Painting, using more fragile B ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [b.c. 490. materials, has not been able to survive the tempests which entirely engulfed ancient civilization, and tlirew back the human mind, like another Sisyphus, from the heights it had attained, to the humble commencement of a new road, which it has had to re-mount by a long and painful way. The style of painting adopted by the ancients is, strictly speaking, almost unknown to us, but we can arrive at some estimate of its merits by evident analogies and indications. And firstly. Painting occupied, in the esteem of the people of antiquity, the same place that it now holds, relatively to other arts, in public opinion ; and the names of Apelles, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Polygnotus, Aristides, Pamphilus, Timanthes, Nico- machus, are no less great, no less illustrious as painters than those of Pheidias, Alcamenes, Polycletus, Praxiteles, Myron, Lysippus, as sculptors, or than those of Hippodamus, Ictinus, and Callicrates, as architects. This high esteem in which the ancient painters were held by their contemporaries is shown again clearly in the value which their works commanded. If it be true that a marble statue, made by an inferior artist, was worth currently 480/. of our money in that Rome where statues, as Pliny says, were more numerous than the inhabitants, where Nero brought five hundred, in bronze, from the temple of Delphi alone, and from the soil of which had been dug — in the time of the Abbe Barthelemy — more than seventy thousand ; if it be true that for the Diadiimcnos, Polycletus was paid a hundred talents (21,600/.), and that Attalus in vain oftered the inhabitants of Cnidus to pay all their debts in exchange for the Vcmis of Praxiteles, — the other productions of high art, of which Athens acquired a monopoly, must have risen to a value whicli in our days can scarcely be believed. According to the uniform testimony of Plutarch and Pliny, who would have been contradicted if they had asserted falsehoods or exaggerations, Nicias refused for one of his pictures sixty talents (12,960/.), and made a present of it to the town of Athens; Caesar paid eighty talents (17,280/.) for the two pictures by Timomachus, which he placed at the entrance to the temple of Venus Genetrix ; a picture by Aristides, which was called the Beautiful Bacchus, was sold for one hundred talents (21,600/); and when the town of Sicyon was laden with debts which its revenues were not sufficient to pay, the pictures which belonged to the public were sold, and the produce of these works sufficed to discharge the amount. Enough has been said to show that the painting of the ancients was held by them in equal esteem with their sculpture and their architecture ; it follows that the excel- lence of the remains of the two latter arts proves, at the same time, the excellence of the former. Certainly, if in future ages our civilization were to perish under fresh invasions of barbarians, and that, to make it known to a new generation born in after ages, there only remained parts of St. Peter's at Rome and of the Venetian palaces, with some of the statues which adorn them— would not the men of those future times — seeing in what esteem we hold Leonardo, Raphael and Titian, Rubens, Velazquez and Rembrandt — think that the lost works of these painters must have been equal to the works still preserved of Bramante and Michael Angelo, Palladio and Sansovino ? But there also remain to us some descriptions of pictures in default of the pictures , themselves ; and, yet more than this, some fragments of ancient paintings have been found, which confirm this reasoning, and leave no doubt as to the excellence of the art which these precious remains represent. Passing over the detailed eulogies of Cicero and Quintilian, we have the descriptions which Pausanias gives of the paintings in the Poecile at Athens, and of the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi ; those which Pliny gives of the pictures of Venus and of Calumny, by Apelles, and of Penelope, by Zeuxis, CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. I'-C. 45°-] and that which Lucian gives of Helen the Courtesan, also by Zeuxis. The painted vases, boih of Etruscan and of Greek manufacture, must be included among the actual remains of ancient pictorial art. Such again are the arabesciues in the baths of Titus, discovered under the church of San Pietro in Vincula, at the time of the excavations ordered by Leo X. ; the frescoes found in the sepulchre of the Nasos ; those in the pagan catacombs ; and more recently the frescoes of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which, although merely decorations of ordinary citizens' houses in little towns, fifty leagues from Rome, are of great importance. There are also monochrome designs on marble and stone, for example, Theseus killing the Centaur and the Ladies playing at the game of talus (huckle-bones), wonderful compositions, traced on marble with a red pigment, which Pliny calls einnaharis indica, both in the museum at Naples. Examples of Greek and Greco-Roman mosaics also remain ; amongst others the THE liATTLE OK ISSUS. A Mosaic disccn'crcd at Pompdi in the " House of the Faunr beautiful mosaic found at Pompeii in the " House of the Faun^ so called because it had already yielded the charming little Danei?ig Faun, the pride of the cabmet of bronzes : both are in the same museum at Naples. This mosaic, the most important vestige of the painting of the ancients which has come down to us, cannot be otherwise than the copy of a picture; probably of one of the Greek pictures brought to Rome after the conquest of Greece, not impossibly of one by Philoxenus of Eretria, a pupd of Nico- machus, who is, indeed, known to have painted, for King Cassander, one of the battles of Alexander against the Persians. The mosaic formed the pavement of the trulimum (dining-room). Surrounded by a sort of frame, it contains twenty-five persons and twelve horses, of nearly the size of life, and thus forms a real historical picture. It certainly represents one of the battles of Alexander against the Persians, and probably the victory of Issus, for the recital of (Hiintus Curtius (lib. iii.) agrees perfectly with the work of the pn inter. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [b.c. 450. If the original picture, of which this mosaic was a copy, were of Greek origin, the painter and historian must have drawn from the same traditions ; if of Roman origin, the artist must have described on his panel the details given by the historian of Alexander. A study of the various remains to whicli reference has been made, shows first, that the painters of antiquity knew how to treat all subjects, mythology, history, landscape, sea-pieces, animals, fruit, flowers, costume, ornament, and even caricature ; and also that, while treating great subjects and embracing vast compositions, they knew how to attain a perfect order, a happy arrangement of groups, various planes, foreshortenings, chiaroscuro, movement, action, expression by gesture and by countenance, all the qualities in short of high painting, which the people of modern times have usually denied to the ancients. The works of the best known of the Greek painters have been described by Herodotus, Aristotle, Pausanias, Lucian, Plutarch and Phny; and mentioned by many other classic writers. Dionysius of Colophon, one of the earliest of the Greek painters whose names have been handed down to us, was probably born about b.c. 490 ; it is known that he lived in the time of Pericles. Aristotle and Plutarcli both speak of his works as being forcible and full of spirit. He was probably a good portrait painter (AvOpwiroypacjio^), as Aristotle says " Polygnotus painted men better than they are ; Dionysius, as they are." .'Elian (a Roman author of the third century), says that Dionysius and Polygnotus painted similar subjects — Polygnotus in large, and Dionysius in small. Whether the writer referred to the style of the painters or the size of their pictures, it is difficult to determine. Polygnotus, a native of the island of Thaos, was known as a painter in Athens in B.C. 460. His principal pictures were : In the Lesche, an open hall at Delphi, TAe Taking 0/ Troy ; The Return of the Greeks; and the Ulysses visit'mg the Shades; — fully described in seven chapters by Pausanias. In the porch at Athens, called the Poecile, in which he painted the Destruction of Troy. — For this work it is said he would not receive payment, and consequently the Public Council gave him a house in Athens, and made him a guest of the state at the public expense. — In the temple of the Dioscuri at Athens, The Marriage of the daughter of Lezicippus ; and in the temple of Minerva at Plataea, Ulysses after the slaughter of the suitors of Penelope. It is said that Polygnotus first used the yellow earth found in the silver mines, and a purple colour prepared from the husks of grapes. Aristotle speaks of him as " the painter of noble characters," and Pliny says he was the first who gave expression to the features. It seems probable that the style of painting of the celebrated artists of these days was extremely simple — and very like the best class of decorative art upon the Greek vases in the Louvre and the British Museum. Panasnus of Athens was the brother of the great sculptor Pheidias ; so Pliny tells us. Strabo seems to think he was the nephew. He was one of the earliest of the Greek painters, though younger than Polygnotus and Micon by some few years. Pansenus's most celebrated picture was the Battle of Marathon, in the Ptecile at Athens. This picture contains the Iconics, or portraits of celebrated generals (botli of the Athenians and the barbarians) ; these could not have been portraits from life, for the picture was not panited tilt at least thirty years after B.C. 43o] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. the Ixittlc. Pana^nus painted several pictures on the tlirone and on the wall round the throne of the Olympian Jupiter. I'he subjects of some of these were : Atlas supporting::: Heaven and Earth ; Theseus and Firithous ; allegorical figures of Greece and Sa/amis : The Combat of Hercules with the Nctnean Lion ; and se\ eral other historical subjects. The Puecile was built by Cimon H.c. 470, therefore supposing Pancenus to have painted his great picture ten years after its erection, we may take n.c. 460 to have been about the most important period of his life. Nothing certain is known either of his birth or death. Parrhasius, born about n.c. 470, was instructed in the art of painting by his father, lie was a native of Kphesus, but removed early in life to' Athens, where he became by Hir the greatest artist of his time. He compared the works of Polygnotus, Apollodorus, and Zeuxis, and adopted from each that quality which he most admired. Parrhasius was by no means ignorant of the excellence of his own works. He took for himself the title of the Elegant ('A)8po8tatTos), and called himself the Prince of Painters. Pliny, says, and not without reason, that he was '' the most insolent and most arrogant of artists." Parrhasius excelled especially in outline, form, and expression. Among the principal works of this artist may be mentioned his Allegorical figure of the Athmian People; a Theseus (it w^as probably this picture that gained for him his citizenship at Athens) ; a Naval commander in his artnour ; Meleager ; Hercules and Perseus .• Castor and Pollux ; Archigallus (bought by the Emi)eror Tiberius for 60,000 sesterces, about 510/.), and many portraits of warriors. Pliny says that in a competition with Timanthes of Cythnos he painted The Contest of Ajax and Ulysses ; and that when the award was given to his rival, he said to his friends, " It is not I who should complain, but the son of Telamon, who has a second time become a victim to the folly of his judges." Parrhasius became so rich that at last he would not sell his pictures, saying that no price was sufficient for their value. Pliny also tells us that Zeuxis acknowledged his painting of Grapes to be beaten by the Curtain of Parrhasius. It is related by Seneca tlrat he selected a very old man from among the captives that Philip of Macedon had brought home from Olynthus, and crucified him, in order to see the true expression of pain, as a model for his Prometheus Chained. This story, even if true, could not refer to this Parrhasius, as he would have been about 120 years of age, if living, when Philip took Olynthus. The last record we have of Parrhasius is about B.C. 400. Zeuxis, one of the most celebrated painters of ancient times, was prol)al)ly born between b.c. 460 and n.c. 450, in one of the cities named Heraclea ; Pliny fixes the time at B.C. 400, but this is ajjparently too late a date, for he was at the height of his renown in the reign of Archelaus, which was from B.C. 413 until B.c. 399 (Diodorus Siculus). Lucian terms Zeuxis the greatest painter of his time, but he was unciuestion- ably surpassed by Parrhasius, who w^as his contemporary. The excellence of Zeuxis's painting is noticed by several ancient writers, among whom may be mentioned Aristotle, Quintilian, and Cicero. One of the most celebrated of Zeu.xis's pictures is The Family of Centaurs, the original of which was lost at sea. Lucian graphically describes a copy of it which he saw at Athens ; but even this picture was surpassed by his celebrated Helen the Courtesan, which he painted for the city of CrOton, and which, according to yKlian, he exhibited at a fixed charge. Other famous works by him are: The Infant Hercules strangling the serpait : Jupiter in the assembly of the Gods: Penelope bewailing the absence oj her husband: Menelaus 6 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [b.c. 420. mourning the fate of Agamemnon ; an AtJilete; under which he wrote, " It is easier to find fault than to imitate ;" and a Cupid croivncd with j'oses. It is related of Zeuxis that he wore a mantle with his name woven in gold on the border. ^Elian records that on one occasion he reproved Megabyzus, a high priest of Diana, v/ho while on a visit to the artist's studio, showed such palpable ignorance of any knowledge of art, that the boys whom the artist employed to mix his colours, laughed at him : where- upon Zeuxis quietly remarked, "While you were silent, these boys admired you for the richness of your dress and the number of your servants; but now that you disclose your ignorance they cannot refrain from laughter." Plutarch relates this same story of Apelles and Megabyzus, and Pliny of Apelles and Alexander. The story told by Pliny of Zeuxis deceiving the birds with a picture of ripe grapes, at which they came to peck, and of being himself deceived by a painting of a curtain so ably imitated by Parrhasius that Zeuxis asked him to draw it aside, is often quoted. Zeuxis also painted a picture of a Boy with Grapes, which likewise deceived the birds, but the artist was not entirely satisfied with it, for he justly remarked, " Had the boy been painted as well as the grapes the birds would have been afraid to come near them." It is said that Zeuxis amassed such a large fortune by the sale of his pictures that he would not sell any more. He gave his picture of Fan to Archelaus, and his Alcmena to the town of Agrigentum. The place and date of Zeuxis's death are unknown. Sillig remarks — with justice — that he must have died before the io6th Olympiad (B.C. 355), for in that year Isocrates, in his oration, praised Zeuxis, which he would not have done had the painter been then living. Micon, a contemporary and fellow-worker with Polygnotus, was born about B.C. 450. He excelled in painting horses, which are generally introduced into his pictures. In the celebrated Colonnades of the Poecile, Micon painted The Battle of the Amazons, and assisted Pan^nus in The Battle of Marathon, in which he painted the Persians larger than the Greeks; for this, it is said, he was fined half-a-talent (about 108/.). He also painted battle-pictures in the temple of Theseus ; and assisted Polygnotus with his work in the temple of the Dioscuri. Micon painted horses with such truth to nature, that the only fault an Athenian art critic named Simon could find with them was that he had given lashes to their under eyelids ! Apollodorus, a native of Athens, lived about b.c. 430. It is said that he was the first to introduce light and shade into his pictures ; for this reason he was called the " shadow painter," He must have been surpassed in this branch of painting by Zeuxis, for he complains that the latter had robbed him of his art. The line, " It is easier to find fault than to imitate," which Zeuxis wrote under a picture of an athlete," is attributed by Plutarch to Apollodorus. Eupompus, a native of Sicyon, was more famous as the founder of the school of Sicyon, which Parophilus, his pupil, afterwards more fully established, than as a painter. One of his principles was, that man should be represented as he ought to appear, not as he really is (Pliny). The period of Eupompus is sufficiently certain from the fact that he taught Pamphilus, who flourished from about B.C. 388 to B.C. 348. Timanthes of Cythnos lived about b.c. 400. His paintings were especially admired for their expression and reality of representation. Though Timanthes was undoubtedly one of the greatest painters of his time, only five of his works are mentioned by writers of antiquity. I'liny mentions him with great praise ; he says of his painting, " Though R.c. 350.] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. in execution he was always excellent, the execution is invariably surpassed by the conception." The pictures by this painter of which we read were : a Sleeping Cyclops : The Stoning of I\ilamciies ; The Contest of Ajax and Ulysses (ia^ \s\\\c\\ picture he was declared victor against Parrhasius in a competition at Sanios) ; The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (with which he defeated in competition Colotes of Tecs — an otherwise unknown artist). There is no other painting of ancient times which has been the subject of so much criticism as this, on account of the concealment of the fixce of Agamemnon. Ancient writers have given it unlimited praise, but modern critics have questioned its excellence and called it a trick. The fifth and last work known to us was the picture of a Hero in the Temple of Peace at Rome. Nicias, a native of Athens, was probably born about B.C. 370, for we hear that Praxiteles employed hijn to colour his statues about R.c. 350. He refused sixty talents (12,960/.) offered him by Ptolemy I. of I'.gypt, for his famous picture NcKi'ta, or The Region of the Shades, and gave it to his native town, Athens. Ptolemy assumed the title of king in B.C. 306, when Nicias would be about sixty-four years of age, and consequently likely to be rich and have a reputation, and able to refuse the enormous sum offered by the king. Pliny doubts very much whether the painter of the Nc/cvia and the assistant of Praxiteles can be the same. Pausanias tells us that Nicias was the most excellent animal painter of his time. It is true that he was very studious, even to al«ent-mindedness, for ^lian tells us that he frequently forgot to take his meals. His j)icture of Neniea sifting on a lion is one of the most famous of his works. Nicias wrote on this picture that he had ])ainted it in encaustic. Nicias also painted the interiors of tombs, notably that of the high jjriest Megabyzus. Pamphilus, a native of Amphipolis, lived from about R.c. 388 to r.c. 348. He studied under Eupompus of Sicyon, and helped to establish the style of painting which Eupompus had begun, and which was eventually perfectetl by Euphranor, Apelles, and Protogenes. Pamphilus, Pliny tells us, was himself a man skilled in all sciences: omnibus Uteris eruditus. He occupied himself more with the theory of art anil with teaching others, than with actual painting. He founded a school at Sicyon, the admis- sion to which was one talent (216/.). Pliny says that Apelles and Melinthius both paid the fee, and studied at this school, and that Pausias received instruction in encaustic painting from Pamphilus. The sons of the Greek nobles attendeil the school, and Painting at this time occupied the first place among the liberal arts. Slaves were not allowed to use the cestrnni or graphis. Four pictures only by this artist are recorded : The Heraclidic (mentioned by Aristophanes) ; The Battle of Phliiis ; Ulysses on the raft: and a Taniily Portrait (Plin)-). Euphranor, born in the Isthmus of Corinth, is calletl by Pliny " the Isthmian." He was contemporary with Apelles, and flourished from about r.c. 360 to r.c. 320. He was celebrated as a sculptor as well as a painter, and the same author tells us that he was " in all things excellent." He was chiefly famous as a portrayer of Gods and Heroes. Like Pausias and Aristides of Thebes, he painted in encaustic. Three of his most celebratetl pictures were at Ejihesus : A Group of Philosophers in consulta- tion ; A Portrait of a General; and The feigned madness of Ulysses. But his most celebrated works were. The Tu>clve Gods, and a Battle of Mantinca, painted in the Keramicus at Athens. 8 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [b.c. 340. Theon, a native of Samos, lived about b.c. 350. He was much admired for the gracefuhiess of his painting. Phny mentions two of his works : Orestes in the act of killitig his mother; and Thamyris playing the cithara. NXwxs. describes A youthful Warrior hastening to meet the foe. Athenion, a pupil of Glaucion of Corinth, and a native of Maronea in Thrace, was probably a contemporary of Nicias, and painted about the year B.C. 330. Among •other works, he executed a Portrait of Phyla rchus, the historian, and Achilles discovered by Ulysses disguised as a girl. Pliny tells us that, had Athenion lived to maturity, no artist would have been worthy to be comjjared to him. Pausias, a native of Sicyon, was a fellow-student with Apelles and Melanthius in the school of Pamphilus, and consequently we may place his date at about B.C. 350. He was fond of small pictures, but occasionally painted large ones. He was the first to brine the use of encaustic to perfection. Pausias was celebrated for his fore- shortening, especially to be remarked in a picture — The Sacrifice of an C'.r— which in the time of Pliny was in the Hall of Pompey. He introduced the decorative ceiling paintings, afterwards common, consisting of single figures, flowers, and arabesques (Miiller). A portrait of this maiden, with a garland called the 'S^TccjiavrjirXoKos or garland wreather, was reckoned one of his best paintings. He also painted a picture of a boy, called 'H/xepios, because it was executed in a single day, in order to silence the reproaches of his rivals who said he was a slow painter. Nicomachus, a native of Thebes, lived from about B.C. 360 to b.c. 300. He was the most celebrated of all Greek painters for quickness of execution. In illustration of this Pliny mentions the decorations of the monument erected to the honour of the poet Telestes by Aristratus, the tyrant of Sicyon, which were completed in a few days in order to fulfil the contract that they should be ready by a certain date. A few of the best pictures of Nicomachus were : a Victory in a quadriga ; Apollo and Diana., a Cybele and a Scylla. Stobasus relates that Nicomachus, hearing some one remark that he saw no beauty in the Helen of Zeuxis, observed, " Take my eyes and you will • see a goddess." He had several scholars, the principal of whom was his brother Aristides. The unfinished picture of the Tyndaridce by this artist was valued more highly than any of his completed works. Melanthius was one of the most careful painters of the Sicyonic school. Pliny mentions that he paid the talent — the price of admission — and studied in the school of Pamphilus. He shared with his instructor, according to Quintilian, the honour of being the most renowned among the Greeks for composition. We also learn from Plutarch that Aratus, wishing to make a present to Ptolemy, .sent him pictures by Melanthius and Pamphilus worth 150 talents {32,400/.). Melan- thius lived in the fourth century B.C. Protogenes was bora at Caunus in Caria (according to Suidas, the Greek historian, he was born at Xanthus in Lycia, but Pausanias and Pliny are both in favour of Caunus). He was a contemporary and friend of Apelles, and was at the height of his fame in B.C. 332. Protogenes was by no means a prolific painter, for, as Quintilian. says, " excessive carefulness was his predominating idea." He is said by ^lian to have taken seven years to complete his most celebrated picture. The Rhodian hero lalysus and his dog. Apelles greatly admired this picture. A tale is related that Protogenes, B.C. 330.] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. 9 after trying in vain for a long time to represent the foam at the dog's mouth, to his own satisfaction, in a fit of anger and disgust threw his sponge at the animal's head, and thus by accident obtained in a second that which many hours of labour had been unable to acquire. Pliny tells us that the renown of this picture was so great, that Demetrius Poliorcetes, when besieging Rhodes in B.C. 304, refrained from setting fire to that part of the town in which Protogenes lived, for fear of damaging the picture. It is said that Apelles gave Protogenes fifty talents for each picture that he found in his studio, and thus made the fortune of this artist, who was, Pliny tells us, in very needy circumstances. All ancient writers agree in praising his works. Apelles was a native of the little island of Cos in the ^gean Sea. Neither the date of his birth nor death is known, but he was at the height of his fame in the year B.C. 332. He studied chiefly under the Macedonian painter Pamphilus, at Sicyon, and was a most indefatigable worker. He frequently painted figures of Fe/ius; he also painted many portraits of Alexander the Great, who, it is said, would not sit to any other artist. He received four talents (864/.), for a portrait of this monarch wielding a thunderbolt, which he painted on the walls of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. A picture of Venus Anadyoinene was valued at 100 talents (21,600/.). This was one of the most famous of all the Greek paintings ; the goddess was represented as rising from the sea, wringing from her hair the water which fell in a silver shower around her. A story is related of him which is said to have given rise to the well-known saying, " A shoemaker should not go beyond his last." Apelles exhibited a finished picture, and concealed himself near by in order to hear the criticisms which he rightly imagined would be made upon it. A shoemaker found fault with a defect in a sandal, which Apelles accordingly rectified ; on another occasion the shoemaker, encouraged by the success of his former remark, began to criticise the leg : upon this the artist, coming forth from his hiding-place, angrily told him to keep to his trade. Once, it is said, when Alexander visited Apelles, and remained unmoved before an equestrian portrait, his horse neighed at the sight of the charger represented in the painting : " Your horse," said the artist to the king, '' knows more about pictures than you do." Apelles wrote a work on painting which has unfortunately been lost. Pie is said to have been the original author of the well-known saying, " A'ul/a dies sine linea." Aristides, who was a native of Thebes, was born about b.c. 330. He was a brother and pupil of Nicomachus, and contemporary with Apelles. He excelled in painting battle pictures; one of his most celebrated was The Capture of a City, in which the expression of a dying woman and her infant was much admired : Alexander the Great took this picture to Macedonia. Aristides also painted a Battle 7oith the Persians, in which there were one hundred figures ; this was purchased for a large sum by Mnason of Elatea. Attains, king of Pergamus, bought a picture by y\ristides, A Siek Man on his bed, for 100 talents (about 2 1,600/.), and Pliny says that Lucius Mummius refused more than 200 talents for a Father Bacehus which he captured at the siege of Corinth. Many of the best paintings of Aristides were sent to Rome with the rest of the plunder from the cities of Greece. An unfinished picture of Iris was the most highly valued. Asclepiodorus was contemporary with Aristides and Apelles. He painted twelve figures, representing the twelve Gods, and sold them to Mnason the tyrant of Elatea for five talents (1,080/.) each. Philoxenus, a native of Eretria, and a pupil of Nicomachus, was renowned for the rapidity of his execution. Nothing is known concerning the dates of his birth or death. c ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PALNTERS. [b.c. He probably painted his famous picture of the Battle of Alexander and Darlus,'hy order of Cassander, king of Macedon, shortly after B.C. 315, in which year Cassander succeeded in driving Polysperchon out of Macedon, and certainly not later than B.C. 296, for in that year Cassander died. It is not improbable that the mosaic representing the Battle o/Lssus, found in the " House of the Faun " at Pompeii in 1831, is a reproduction of this picture, for Darius and Alexander are the most conspicuous figures (see p. 35). Only one other work by Philoxenus is mentioned by Pliny. It is a representation of Three Satyrs feasting. Pliny also tells us that Philoxenus discovered various methods of facilitating execution in painting. Timomachus, a native of Byzantium, was imagined by many to have been contem- porary with Julius Caesar, from a statement to that effect by Pliny ('' Julii Csesaris setate "). Durand thinks that ataie is an addition of the copyist. This seems quite within the bounds of possibility, for Pliny himself speaking of him elsewliere mentions him among the ancient and renowned painters of Greece. Timomachus was probably a contemporary of Nicias, and consequently lived about B.C. 300. His most celebrated pictures, Ajax h-ooding over his misfortunes, and Medea meditating the destruction of her children, were bought by Julius Csesar for the enormous sum of eighty Attic talents (17,280/.), and placed in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Ovid alludes to them in his ' Tristia ' : " Utque sedet vultu fassus Telamonius iram, Inque oculis facinus barbara Mater habet." Pliny says that the picture of Medea was not completed, yet it was more admired than any of the finished works of the same artist. The fact that the picture was left unfinished proves beyond a doubt that Timomachus did not sell it himself to Julius Caesar, and therefore was not likely to have been his contemporary. Pliny mentions among other works by this artist an Orestes, Iphigenia in Tauris, and a celebrated picture of a Gorgon. Timanthes of Sicyon (?) is only known to us by his picture of the Battle of Fellene, in Arcadia, in which Aratus defeated the ^tolians in B.C. 240. He was contemporary with Aratus, who lived from B.C. 271 to B.C. 213. He was probably a native of Sicyon, though nothing certain is known either of the date or place of his birth. Neacles, probably a native of Sicyon, painted about the year B.C. 250. Pliny who mentions him with praise, tells us of two pictures by him, a Venus, and a Battle between the Persians atid the Egyptia?is on the Nile. In the latter, he introduced an ass drinking in the stream, and a crocodile, in order that the river might not be mistaken for the sea. It is also related of Neacles that by painting over the figure and intro- ducing a palm-tree in its stead, he managed to save the Portrait of AristratJis by Melanthius and Apelles, from the fury of Aratus. GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. From Athens let us now pass to Rome. Ashamed of being in all matters of taste the disciples of the conquered Greeks, the Romans boasted of having a national school of painting, although the ancient religious law of the Latins was, like that of the Hebrews, hostile to images. Their writers pretended that about IJ.C. ^oo. GRECO-KOMAN SCHOOL. the year a.u.c. 450, a member of the illustrious family of Fabius, surnamed Pictor, who derived his name from his profession, had executed paintings in the Temple of Health. They cited also, in the following century, a certain dramatic poet, named Pacuvius, a nephew of the old Knnius, who had himself painted the decorations of his theatre ; as did also, a hundred years later, Claudius Pulcher. It is related, besides, that Lucius Hostilius exhibited in the Forum, a picture where he had repre- sented himself advancing to the assault of Carthage, which obtained him so much l-LOUA. AittiijiH- Piiiiiting, in the AriLsYiim at A'ti/'/rs. popularity that he was named consul the following year. All this appears as doubtful as the tales of Livy about the foundation of Rome. What is certain is that, when they penetrated as con([uerors into Greece, the Romans showed neither taste for, nor know- ledge of the arts. They began, like true ])arl)arians, by breaking the statues and tearing tho jMctures. At last, Mclcllus and Mummius stopped the stupid fury of the 12 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [b.c. 300. soldiers^ and sent pell-mell to Rome whatever they found in the temples of Greece, without, however, having any true idea of the value of these precious spoils. This Lucius Mummius, who placed in the temple of Ceres the celebrated Bacchus of Aristides, was so ignorant, that after the siege of Corinth, he threatened those who conveyed to Rome the pictures and statues taken in that town, that if they lost the pictures, they must replace them ! The Romans, imitating their neighbours the Etruscans, whose industry and arts they borrowed, became great architects, and especially great engineers ; they constructed roads, highways^ bridges^ aqueducts, which, surviving their empire, still excite our astonishment and admiration. But their only knowledge of the arts of painting and sculpture was through the works of the Greeks. Still more : at Rome itself there were scarcely any artists but the Greeks, who had gone, like grammarians and schoolmasters, to practise their profession in the capital of the world. It was a Greek painter, Metrodorus of Athens, who came to Rome to execute for the triumph of Paulus ^milius the paintings of the Procession of the victorious general. Trans- planted out of their country, reduced to the condition of artisans, the Greek artists had no longer at Rome those original inspirations which independence and dignity alone can give. They formed there a school of imitation, which could not but alter and deteriorate. Architecture, being necessary to the great works commanded by the emperors, was everywhere held in honour : so also was Sculpture, which provided the new temples with statues of the deified Cresars. But Painting, reduced to decorate the interior of houses, became a kind of domestic art, a simple trade. At the same time that the Romans prohibited their slaves from becoming painters, they disdained to recognize the art as worthy of being followed by themselves. It is true that amongst their painters is mentioned a certain Turpilius, belonging to the equestrian order ; but he lived at Verona. Quintus Pedius, the son of a consul, is also cited ; but he was dumb from his birth \ and to enable liis family to allow him to learn painting as an amusement, the express permission of Augustus was required. The painter Amulius, who has left some reputation, worked without taking off the toga {pingebat semper togatus—Y\\\\y), in order not to be confounded with foreigners, and to preserve the dignity of a Roman citizen. The consequent decadence of the art of painting was inevitable. By degrees the Romans came to prefer richness to beauty, the precious metals to simple colours. Pompey exhibited his portrait made of pearls ; and Nero proposed to gild the bronze Alexander of Lysippus ; after having caused himself to be represented in a portrait one hundred and twenty feet high. In short. Painting, losing all nobility and all character, was reduced to the decoration of the interior of houses, in a style in accordance with such a degraded taste. Thus things went on to the reign of the Antonines, who attempted to restore some vigour and dignity to the arts. After Marcus Aurelius, the evil increased, the decay became more serious ; the end approached. Constantly-recurring civil wars, military disasters, internal troubles, risings in the provinces, the resistance to the barl)arians who were attacking the provinces, the general confusion ; in short, all the scourges let loose upon the world in the years which immediately preceded tlie ruin and dismemberment of the Empire, were far from calculated to reanimate taste, to raise fallen art, or to restore it to its brilliancy and power. Here, then, we must no longer occupy ourselves with its transformations, its phases, its fashions of art, but with its very existence. In our next chapter we must inquire if this decay amounted to abandonment or total extinction ; and ask if it be true that ihere is in the History B.C. 200.] GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 13 of Painting an immense lacuna, bounded on one side by the death of ancient art, on the other by the birth of modern art. The most important of the Roman painters of this period that have been mentioned by the classic writers were : — Fabius Pictor, one of the sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus the consul, was called Pictor because he painted various objects in the Temple of the ('lOddess of Health, in \\x. 304. Pliny and Livy l)0th mention these works, which existed until the destruction of the temple in the reign of Claudius. Marcus Pacuvius, a native of Brundusium, was born about n.c. 2 1 9. He was a nephew of Ennius the epic poet, and, though renowned as a painter, was more cele- brated for his poems. Pliny mentions paintings by him in the Temple of Hercules at Rome ; he also tells us that Pacuvius was the last to paint " Jioncstis manibusr He died at Tarentum in the ninetieth year of his age, which, if the date of his birth be correct, would be about n.c. 130. He wrote an epitaph on himself which runs as follows : — " Adolesccns, tamcnetsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat, uti ad se adspicias, deinde quod scripluni est, legas. Ilic sunt pocetae Pacuvii Marci sita ossa. Hoc volebam, nescius ne esses ; vale." Metrodorus, a distinguished painter and philosopher, was born at Athens (?) about n.c. 200. ^^'hen Paulus ^'^hnilius had defeated the Greeks in b.c. 168, he ordered the Athenians to send him their best artist, to perpetuate his triumph, and their most renowned philosopher, to educate his sons. The Athenians paid Metrodorus the extraordinary honour of declaring that he was both their best artist and their most renowned philosopher ; and it is said that ^milius was (juite satisfied. The l)ainting of this Triumph must have been a most stupendous undertaking, for in the procession, which is partly described by Plutarch, there were no less than 250 waggons containing Greek works of art, called by Livy simulacra pugnarutn picta. The spectacle lasted the entire day. Metrodorus, though a Greek, well deserves a mention among the RomanSchool, as he painted at Rome, and very likely helped to introduce a better style of painting among the Romans. Laia or Lala, of Cyzicus, a female artist, lived about b.c. 100. and was especially renowned for her portrait painting. Claudius Pulcher, lived about b.c. 100, and is said to have painted decorations for theatres. There is little else known of him. Ludius, the painter^ lived in the time of Augustus. Pliny tells us he " invented the art of decorations for the walls of apartments, whereon he scattered country houses, porticoes, shrubs, thickets, forests, hills, ponds, rivers, banks — in a word, all that fancy ( ould desire." Paintings of this kind have been discovered at Pompeii and Hercula- neun) and elsewhere. They are very beautiful, though it must be admitted they are but imitations of the Greek works whicli had preceded them. Dionysius of Rome lived about the time of the first Roman Emperors. Pliny tells us that he was a very prolific ]iainter, so much so, in fact, that his ])ictures filled whole galleries. I'liuy also calls him AvOfM-oyixLfpos, because he i)ainteil figure subjects only. 14 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 300. CHAPTER II. PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. IN our last chapter we spoke of the gulf which apparently separates modern from ancient pictorial art. It may perhaps be possible, by taking up the links of the broken chain of tradition, to trace a connection, however slight, between the two periods. Constantine removed the seat of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, precisely at the period to which we have come. This great event obliges us to divide the history of art into two parts. We shall follow it first in the Eastern Empire, until the taking of Constantinople ; then we shall find it once more in Italy. After having enthroned Christianity, Constantine set himself to decorate his new capital — to make it another Rome. He built churches, palaces, baths ; he carried objects of art from Italy, and he was followed by the artists to whom proximity to the court was a necessity of existence. As it happened at Rome under Augustus, who boasted of having found a city of brick and left it of marble, so architecture quickly grew at Byzantium to be the first of the arts. Painting, although occupying an inferior position, was not abandoned. The Emperor Julian, to show at once his tastes, his talents, and his success, caused himself to be painted crowned by Mercury and Mars ; we know, too, that Valentinian, who prided himself on his caligraphy, was also a painter and sculptor. To avenge themselves for the Pagan reaction attempted by Julian the Apostate, the Christians began to destroy many of the vestiges of antiquity anterior to Christ — temples, books, and works of art. " Eager to destroy all that might recall Paganism, the Christians," says Vasari, " destroyed not only the wonderful statues, the sculptures, the paintings, the mosaics, and the ornaments of the false gods, but also the images of the great men which decorated the public edifices." Under the Emperor Theodosius the Great, in the fourth century, the fatal sect of Iconoclasts (breakers of images) arose. This was the signal for a fresh destruction of statues and ancient pictures. However, if the column of Theodosius — the worthy rival of tliat of Trajan — testifies to the cultivation of the arts of design, the writings of St. Cyril, who lived in the time of that emperor, furnish irrefragable proofs of it. In the sixth of the ten books which he wrote against the Emperor Julian, one chapter has for its motto : " Our paintings teach piety " {nostrce pictune puiafan doccnt). In it he entreats painters to teach children temperance, and women chastity. In his book against the Anthropomorphitcs^ the same St. Cyril supports the ojnnion of the artists of his time. A.D. 300. J EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. »5 who believed tliey must make Jesus " the least beautiful of the children of men." It is remarkable that on this question— whether our Blessed Lord should have in His images the beauty that charms and recalls His celestial origin, or the deformity which the extreme humility of His mission seems to require— the Church has never decided. The Fathers, as well as the Schoolmen, have always been divided on this point. The o[)inion that Jesus should \vA be beautiful, sustained by St. Justin, St. Clement, St. THE GOOD SHKl'UKRI). A ftnntiiii^ on the mlitig of the Catacombs at Rome. Basil, and St. Cyril, was then most generally received. Celsus, the Pagan physicLan, triumphed at it. "Jesus was not beautiful," said he : "then he was not God." The most eminent of the Fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Jerome, St. .\ugustine, and St. Chrysostom, vainly sustained the contrary opinion. Va.nly again, in the twelfth century,, did St. Bernard affirm that, as the new Adam. Jesus surpassed even the angels in beauty. Tlie greater number of theologians, down to Saumaise and the Bene- 1 6 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 400. dictines, Pouget and Delarue, in the last century, reproached painters with having taken too much Ucence in ascribing physical beauty to Him of whom the prophet Isaiah said, " He hath no form nor beauty that we should desire Him." In any case, the writings of the Fathers suffice to prove that Christian paintings were till the seventh or eighth century very common. They frequently assumed allegorical forms. Jesus was represented, as well as His mission and sacrifice, under the features of Daniel in the den of Uons ; of Jonah swallowed by the whale ; of the Good Shepherd carrying back to the fold the.lost sheep ; of Orpheus charming the animals ; of the Submissive Lamb ; and of the Phosnix rising from its ashes. It was the Council of Constantinople, held in a.d. 692, which ordered artists to abandon emblems, and to return to the painting of Sacred History. Taste, however, continued to change more and more, to the detriment of painting. That only was considered beautiful which was rich. When marble seemed too poor a material for sculpture, when statues were made of porphyry, of silver, or gold, they could no longer be contented with pictures on panels. Painting existed, no doubt, for it is stated that the portraits of the emperors were sent into the provinces at their accession ; for example, with Eudoxia, the wife of Arcadius, when she took the title of Augusta, in 395. And Theodosius II., who erected, in 425, a sort of university at Constantinople, cultivated painting, like Valentinian. But the more brilliant mosaic, often formed of precious materials, was preferred for the decoration of temples and palaces. Later — at the time of the sanguinary disturbances which accompanied and followed the reign of Zeno (a.d. 474 to A.D. 491)— painting was prostituted to the lowest employment to which it could descend, serving to trace those coarse and strange figures used as talismans, abraxas, and amulets of all sorts, which had become fashionable amongst a super- stitious people. It is known that Justinian ordered great works in architecture. He caused a new temple (St. Sophia) to be erected to The Divine Wisdom, by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, and was called, like Adrian, Reparator orlns. It was at this period, and precisely on the occasion of these architectural constructions, that the complete triumph of mosaic over painting took place. Procopius says positively, that to ornament certain rooms of the emperor's palace, they employed instead of fresco or painting in encaustic, brilliant mosaics in coloured stones, which commemorated the victories and conquests of the imperial arms. From that time mosaic was held in honour, and dethroning true painting, it became especially the art of the Greeks of the Eastern empire. With them taste was becoming depraved, and their works, as well as their actions and character, showed great debasement of mind. Architectural art, corrupted by oriental taste, was seldom anything but a confused prodigality of capricious ornaments. Statuary, no less degenerated and strange, created only small images in metal, or even mixtures of metals ; and Painting itself became merely a working with enamels and precious stones, with chasings in gold and silver. After Justinian, the bitter theological quarrels led to civil wars; and whilst Mahomedanism, itself iconoclastic, grew up almost in the vicinity of the holy places, the sect of the Iconoclasts, still increasing, finished by ascending the throne in the person of Leo the Isaurian (a.d. 726). The other Leo, the Armenian, and Michael the Stammerer, joined themselves to the same party, which carried their proceedings against their opponents to such a point, that Theophilus, the son of Michael, caused a monk named Lazarus to be burned, in a.d. 840, as punishment for having painted A.D. 450.] PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 17 sacred subjects. At last Basil the Macedonian, an enemy to the iconoclastic party and its excesses, re-established in a.d, 867 the worship of images, and restored to the arts their free exercise. It seems that either old artists must have been preserved from the pro- scription, which, indeed, had only alighted on religious images, or new artists must have speedily arisen ; since historians tell us that Basil, the greatest constructor of edifices after Constantine and Justinian, had in his palaces so many pictures representing the batdes he had gained and the towns he had taken, that the porticoes, the walls, the ceilings, tind the jjavements were covered by them. Delivered from the Iconoclasts, the Arts of design could take breath again, and continued to flourish unchecked to the time of. the Crusades, at the end of the eleventh century. Everyone knows that these great armed migrations threw Europe as much on Constantinople as on Antioch or Jenisalem ; and that in 1204 the capital of the Eastern Empire was carried by assault by the Crusaders, under Baldwin of Flanders. In the sack of this town the Jupiter Olympius by Pheitlias, the Juno of Santos by Lysippus, and other great works of antiquity, perished at the same time with a number of works of art which a fashion in bad taste had laden with precious ornaments. But after the brief division of the Grecian empire between the French and the Venetians, and after the establishment of the Genoese and Pisans in the Bosphorus, when a more regular state succeeded to the disorders of conquest, the communication of ancient Greek art to the western nations commenced. The monuments of that art were then much better preserved at B}zantium than at Rome, which had been so many times sacked by the barbarians. At the same time with the ancient, a new art was also communicated, that of the modern Greeks, who had dieir architecture, their statuary, their frescoes, and their mosaics. Then, after the expulsion of the Crusaders and the destruction of their ephemeral empire, Michael Palreologus, who raised for one moment the Greek empire, also restored some life to the fine arts, and amongst them painting was not forgotten. This prince had his principal victories depicted in his palace, and j^laced a portrait of himself in St. Sophia. After Michael, the empire was occupied almost exclusively with resistance to its enemies until the time of Mahomed II., who carried Constanti- nople by assault, on the 29th Ma}', 1453. Arts and letters then alike took refuge in Italy, where we sh.dl resume their history from the reign of Constantine the Great. Between the translation of the seat of empire to Byzantium and the taking of Rome by Odoacer and the discontented mercenaries in a.d. 476, there is little to relate beyond the attacks and the invasions of barbarians. We must then start from their conquest of Rome. It is known with what frightful disasters this was accompanied, and how many inestimable objects jierished in the reiterated pillages that Rome had to undergo. During the short rule of the first hordes from the north, a deep slumber seemed to have fallen on all the works of intellect, and the only jjroductions of this sad period which can be considered as in any way belonging to painting are some mosaics serving as pavements in the halls of the bath-rooms. At last the Goths appeared, drove out tlie nations which had preceded them, and founded an empire. Their appearance in Italy was a deliverance, as it was also in Spain, for in both peninsulas they showed the same mildness of manners, the same spirit of justice, order, and of conservatism, l^nfortunately for Italy, their rule was of i8 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 600. shorter duration there than in Spain. The great Theodoric — great at least until his old age — who had attached to himself Symmachus, Boethius, and Cassiodorus, stopped the ravages as much as he could, and took every care to preserve the monuments of antiquity. "Having had the happiness," to adopt his own expression, "to find at Rome a nation of statues and a troop of bronze horses," he had several buildings erected to receive them. We are surprised to find this barbarian recommending the imitation of the ancients to bis architect Aloisius, whom he had made a Count {comes), and whom he called your sublimity., and especially urging him, by a rare instinct of good taste, to make the new buildings agree with the old ones. His worthy minister, Cassiodorus, himself cultivated painting, at all events that of the time. He relates in his ' Epistolae,' that he took pleasure in enriching the manuscripts of the monastery he had founded in Calabria, with ornaments painted in miniature. Bede, who had, it is asserted, seen these figures and ornaments of the manuscripts of Cassiodorus, says, that nothing could be more carefully executed or more perfect. Unfortunately all these works afterwards perished, and nothing of this period has been preserved to us but mosaics. The Goths, " closely resembling the Greeks," says their historian Jornandes, did not stand long against the civil wars which broke out after the death of Theodoric ; the attacks of the Romans from Byzantium, conducted by Narses ; and those of the fresh tribes which precipitated themselves across the Alps from the North. In the middle of the sixth century, the Lombards, under Alboin, made themselves masters of Italy. The dominion of these new conquerors was continually disturbed by intestine quarrels, and contested by the exarchs of Ravenna, acting as lieutenants of the emperor at Constantinople. In such a situation, when feudal anarchy was beginning to people Italy with petty tyrants, the arts could be but feebly cultivated. However, the king, Antharis, who had become a Christian to please his wife Theodelinda (as Clovis had at the prayers of Clotilda), caused churches to be built or repaired, which he decorated with sculptures and paintings. Then Theodelinda herself, when a widow and queen, founded the celebrated residence of Monza, near Milan. We find in the writings of the Lombard Warnefridus of Aquileia, known by the name of Paul the Deacon, a minute description of the paintings in the Palace of Monza, which recorded the exploits of the Lombard armies. From these pictures, which were before his eyes, he described all the accoutrements of his fellow-country- men, or rather of his ancestors, for he lived two centuries later. Luitprand continued the work of Theodelinda. An enemy to the Iconoclasts, he began, by the advice of Gregory III., to decorate the churches with frescoes and mosaics. The removal of the imperial court, in the first place, and then the rule of the barbarians — now become Christians and devotees— had given great importance to the bishops of Rome. Under cover of the long wars between the Lombard kings and the exarchs of Ravenna, the popes founded their temporal power, acquired territory, and became sovereigns. This circumstance was fortunate for the arts, which found in them natural protectors, and Rome, restored by the papacy, became the centre and the capital of art. In spite of the approach of Attila, whom St. Leo stopped at the gates of the holy city — in spite of the pillage to which Genseric, less awed than the fierce king of the Huns, delivered it — we see the successive labours of the popes for the restoration of Rome begun and continued. Before leaving that ancient capital of the world, Constantine had built the old St. Peter's, the old St. Paul's, St. Agnes, and St. Lawrence. The popes decorated these churches magnificently, and we may A.u. 700.] PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 19 mention principally the great work of St. Leo, who caused the w liole series of popes from St. Peter to himself to be painted on the wall of the basilica of St. Paul. This work, begun in the fifth century, has lasted to our own day, having been spared in the great fire which destroyed the greater part of that edifice in 1824; and Lanzi jusdy quotes it in proof of the assertion with which he begins his book : " That Italy was not without painters, even during the dark ages, appears not only from history, but from various ])ictures that have resisted the attacks of time. Rome still retains some of very ancient date." In the ' Liber Pontificalis,' Anastasius the librarian, or whoever else may be the author of that book, gives a very complete detail of the sculpture, the carving, and the works in gold and silver in the churches founded by Constantine. As for the paintings, of which he also speaks, they have all perished, except the mosaics and frescoes* in the Christian catacombs. But Anastasius speaks of the new kind of painting, which was just becoming fashionable, in those times when metals alone were considered valuable ; I mean painting in embroidery, that is to say, worked with gold and silver threads on silk stuffs. He speaks among other things of a chasuble of Pope Honorius I., a.d. 625, the embroidery on which represented the Deliverance of St. Peter and the Assumption of the Virgin. The art of embroidery had been brought from the East by the Greeks of Byzan- tium. It was known to the ancient Greeks, even from the earliest times, as is evidenced by the tapestry of Penelope, wherein figures were represented in difterent colours. It was also known to the Romans, according to Cicero's allusion when reproaching Verres with his thefts in Sicily (" neque ullam picturam, neque in tabula, necjue teytili fuisse "). In the time of St. John Chrysostom (fourth century), the toga of a Christian senator contained as many as six hundred figures, which made the eloquent orator say with grief, '•' All our admiration is now reserved for goldsmiths and weavers." It was especially in Italy that the art of embroidery gained ground. It is enough to mention the famous tapestry of the Countess Matilda, -that celebrated friend of Gregory VII.. who reigned over Tuscany, Modena, Mantua, and Ferrara, from 1076 to 1 125, and who by her donations so largely added to the "■ Patrimony of St. Peter." When Charlemagne, after having destroyed the Lombard kingdom, was crowned, at Rome, Emperor of the West, there was a moment of great hope for the arts, ^^'hat might not have been expected from the powerful protection of a prince who understood — though without possessing it — the advantages of science, who collected around his person the Lombard Paul the Deacon, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, the English Alcuin, and his pupil Eginhard ? But continual military expeditions left him too little leisure to permit him to give an impulse to arts which would have recjuireil his whole care and time. Charlemagne only caused some bas-reliefs, mosaics, and illuminated manuscripts to be executed for his much-loved church of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), But the popes, tranquil in Italy under his j)rotection, took the part he could not fulfil. Adrian I., who praises in his letters the works of painting ordered by his predecessors, caused a picture of Feeding the poor to be painted on the walls of St. John Lateran ; and his successor, Leo III., had the PreacJiing of the Apostles represented in fresco in the gallery of the triclinium at the palace of the Lateran, the vaulted roof of which was decorated in mosaic. The division and the weakening of empire of Charlemagne tended to the aggran- disement of the popes, whose jiolicy always was to foster disunion in Italy in order to profit by ii. Hut as this division increased, their own power became more 2 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. iooo. frequently attacked and their reigns more turbulent. The great schism of the East, the numerous anti-popes, the long quarrels of Gregory VII. and the emperor Henry IV., from which arose the factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, — from these causes sprung up such sanguinary and prolonged troubles, that for the second time we find the cultivation of the arts interrupted. There is, between the ninth and eleventh centuries, that is to say, during the period of the grossest ignorance and thickest darkness of the middle ages, a complete blank, of which no memorial is left us. In. this period we can only find, in the way of painting, the works of some cenobites who illuminated their missals in the peace and obscurity of the cloister. There was then, as the annotators of Vasari (MM. Jeanron and Leclanche) judiciously remark, " less an ignorance of the works of antiquity, of which so many remains still existed, than a general weariness of the ancient science, an insurmountable apathy for its requirements, a perpetual indifference to its formulas." It was in the eleventh century, — after that terrible year i ooo, which it had been generally expected would bring the end of the world, during that period when, favoured by the ever-reviving quarrels between the emperors and the popes, the Italian republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and Siena, were in process of forma- tion, and when the Normans regaining Sicily from the Arabs, were establishing an empire in the south of Italy, — that we see clearly how to take up the links of the tradi- tional chain, and find the first symptoms of the future revival It is to this time that the different images of the Virgin, which have been attributed to St. Luke, the paintings also in the vaults of the Duomo of Aquileia, of Santa Maria Prisca at Orvieto, the Madonna delle Grazie, and the Madonna di Tressa, in the cathedral of Siena, all belong. At the same period, and even before the crusades, an intercourse was begun between the artists of the Eastern Empire and those of Italy. This had become very important to the latter, after such a long interruption in the practice of art. Many Greek paintings were then brought from Constantinople and Smyrna, amongst others a Madonna, which is at Rome in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, and another Madonna in the Camerino of the Vatican, which is said by Lanzi to be the best work of the Byzantines in Italy, both in regard to its painting and its state of preservation. It was also in the eleventh century that the Venetians sent for Greek workers in mosaic, to whom we owe the large mosaics in the singular and quite oriental basilica of St. Mark's at Venice. Other Greek workers in mosaic were invited to Sicily, and many were found already there, m the twelfth century, by the Norman William the Good, when he built his celebrated cathedral of Monreale. Then at last national art awoke in Italy, and after the long period of obscurity which we call the dark ages, the first streaks of light were seen announcing the dawn of a new civilization soon to arise on the world. And yet this was not because the country was either peaceful or prosperous. The quarrels of the Emperor Otho IV.- and the Pope Innocent III. had revived the hatred of the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions. Under Frederick II. the league of the Lombard towns, the claims of Gregory IX. and Innocent IV., kept up the incessant war between the empire and the papacy. But in the midst of these conflicts, not only of words, but also of arms, and in which every one wished to prove that he had right as well as might on his side, intellect had thrown off its drowsiness, and the human mind once more moved forward. Notwithstanding his reverses, Frederick II. contributed much to this movement. He was a clear-sighted jjrince, learned for his period, and had gathered around him a polite and elegant court. King of the Two Sicilies, as well as emperor of Germany, he A.I), iioo.l PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. almost constantly resided in Italy. He composed verses in the vulgar idiom and causetl a number of Greek or Arabian books to be translated into Latin. He erected several palaces, which he delighted in decorating with columns and sUxtues. The medals of his reign are of a style and finish till then forgotten since ancient times. Lastly, he had books of his own composition illuminated with miniature paintings, the execution of which he himself directed and superintended. The princes of the house of Anjou followed his example, anil the po[)es would not yield to the emperor in art any more than in the rest of their pretensions. The sovereign pontifls of this age, Honorius HI., Gregory L\., Innocent IV., Nicholas IV., caused the porticoes and the immense galleries of their churches to be ornamented with frescoes antl mosaics. By a result scarcely perhaps to be expected, even the agitation of the period fostered an increased .growth of all the sciences, and also especially of art. The republics, the free cities, the small states, all the fragments of divided Italy, in every- thing disputed pre-eininenre with each other. Each wished to triumph over its rival by the importance of its establishments and the beauty of the works of its artists. Again, the rulers whom the greater number of these states had chosen, or those who had raised themselves to be masters, each considering himself a new Pericles, antl forestalling the Medici, wished, whilst he flattered the vanity of his fellow<-itizens, at the same time to occupy their attention and to satisfy their wishes. We can under- stand what this double sentiment, this double want, must have produced. From it there resulted indeed vast cathedrals, sumptuous monasteries, grand palaces, and halls. From the same cause sprang up a universal taste, a spirit of emulation, a passionate ardour, all the stimulating qualities of a noble labour perfonned publicly, which, while it seeks, is at the same time rewarded by the i)ublic approval. When in a.d, 1204 Florence decreed the erection of her cathedral, the podest^ of the seignory was enjoined " to trace the plan of it with the most sumptuous magnificence, so that the industry and power of man shall never invent and undertake anything more vast or beautiful ; inasmuch as no one ought to put his hand to the works of the community with any less design than to make them correspond with the lofty spirit which biniis the souls of all the citizens into one single, uniteil, identical will." Who is it that holds such magnificent and haughty language ? Was it Pericles giving orders to Ictinus and Pheidias for the erection of tlie temple to the virgin daughter of Zeus ? No. It was simi)ly the seignory of Florence ; — but Florence was then a modern Athens. Having succinctly given the history of art in general through the events and changes of political revolutions, it remains for us to trace the i)articular historv of the various processes which form the links between ancient and modern art. There are three princijjal kinds of jjainting which have come down to us l)y tradition from the ancients, and the cultivation of which, although sometimes interrupted, has never been really abandoned : mosaic, illumination, and painting properly so called, whether in fresco, distemper, or in oil. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. PAINTING IN MOSAIC. We have already said that mosaic was really the link connecting the two epochs of painting, ancient and modern, and that this branch of art suffered the least from alteration and interruption ; that, transported from Italy to Byzantium, it was carried on there with more success than any other kind of painting, and that the Greeks of the Eastern empire, in their turn, constantly furnished the Italians with models, not only at the period of their expulsion from the Bosphorus and their return to the West, but during the whole of the intermediate time. Working in mosaic is very ancient, as ancient as painting itself It was cultivated by the Greeks, who taught it to the Romans. The latter employed it so much that it became at once an object of art and of domestic use. It was at first a simple pavement, called, according to its material and design, op2is tesselatiim, opus scctile, opus vermiculatunu In the latter style, by the use of vitreous pastes, the Romans succeeded both in imitating paintings, and making pictures themselves. According to Pliny, they adorned the pavements, the vaults, and the ceilings of their dwellings with mosaics ; and Caesar, according to Suetonius, carried mosaics with him in his military campaigns {in expeditionibus tesselata et sectilia circumtulisse). These were the opus tesselatum and the opus sedile, which latter M. Quatremere calls marqiieterie de marbre. Some mosaics of antiquity found in excavations, having been thus preserved in the bosom of the earth from the devastations of men and of time, suffice to teach us to what a degree of perfection the ancients carried this branch of art. Such is the mosaic of Hercules at the Villa Albani, that of Perseus and Andromeda in the museum of the Capitol, that of the Nine Muses, found at Santi Ponci, in Spain (the ancient Italica, founded by the Scipios), and also that previously mentioned, of the Battle of Issus, at Pompeii. The Greek artists of the Eastern empire made mosaic work their principal study. In their hands and in their time it became the most highly prized style of painting ; they carried into it the false taste of the period, which mistook the rich for the beauti- ful, and mixed gold with everything. Mosaics were made at Constantinople by slipping under the pieces of glass gold and silver leaves, enamels and precious stones. As for the cultivation of mosaic in Italy after the destruction of the Roman empire, memorials left from all ages prove that it was never abandoned or interrupted. In the primitive churches of Rome and Ravenna there are still found mosaics of the fourth and fifth centuries, amongst others those in Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, which represent the siege of Jericho and other scenes from the Old Testament. The mosaics in the church of St. Paul beyond the walls belong to the sixth century, as do also the mosaics in the churches of Torcello, near Venice, and of Grado in Illyria, where the patriarch of Aquileia had fixed his residence about the year 565. To the seventh and eighth centuries are to be attributed several Madonnas, also Si. Agnes, Si. Euphemia, a Nalivily, and a Transfiguration. To the ninth belongs the famous mosaic of the Triclinium, which St. Leo caused to be added to the Lateran palace for the celebra- tion of the ayaTrr/. This mosaic represents Charlemagne, in the midst of his court, receiving a standard from the hands of St. Peter. Until this period it is difficult to distinguish between the work of Italian artists and that of the Greeks. There is no PAINTING IN MOSAIC. doubt that during the time between the invasion of the barbarian.-> and liic tenth century there were many mosaics executed in Italy by Italians, but there is no doubt, also, tliat a great number were done by CJreeks. After the tenth century, the darkest period of the middle ages, the work of the Greek artists in Italy is no longer conjectural but historical. In the eleventh centur)', under the Doge Selvo, the Venetians brought over some Greek mosaic-workers to decorate their Basilica of St. Mark, the construction of which had been commenced by the Doge Orseolo towards the close of the preceding century. Their principal works were the Baptism of Christ and the celel)rated ' Pala d'oro.' This wonderful work of art, which still remains, forms a kind of reredos over the high altar of the church. It was made at Constantinople, and subsequently enlarged at Venice. It is composed of gold and silver plates coated with translucent enamel. It represents various sacred events narrated in the gospel of St. Mark, surrounded by symmetrical ornaments. MOSAIC riCTl'RE : Forming the floor of a house at Pompeii. among which are introduced semi-barbarous Greek and Latin inscriptions. There are both on the inside and the outside of the same basilica a number of other mosaics of the same period and by the same artists. After the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders (a.d. 1204), the Cireek mosaic-workers in Venice founded in that city a corporation and a great school, which soon extendeil itself to Florence, where it flourished until after the time of Giotto, and furnished artists to the whole of Italy. It is also to the eleventh century that the two large mosaics in the old church of St. Ambrose at Milan belong, one of which represents The Saviour seated on a golden throne., having St. Gervasius and St. Protasius at his side ; the other, an event in the life of St. Ambrose. About the same time (a.d. 1066), Didiei, abbot of Monte Cassino, sent for Greek workers in mosaic to execute embellishments — of which portions still remain- -for that cclchratod monastery. When, a hundred vears later, the Norman 24 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. William, surnamed the Good, built his famous church of Monreale, in Sicily, he employed, for the interior decorations, Greek mosaic-workers, whom he could easily find in Palermo without sending to the East for them. In fact, when the Normans took possession of Sicily under Tancred de Hauteville, at the end of the tenth century, they found a number of Greeks, who had been settled in that country ever since its conquest by Belisarius under Justinian. As for the mixture of arabesques with Byzantine paintings in the Siculo-Norman churches, they are evidently imitated from the works of the Arabians, who had remained masters of Sicily for two hundred and" thirty years until the Norman conquest, and who have left many memorials in that country. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all the mosaics executed at Rome were the work of Florentines, pupils of 'the Greek school at Venice. We may mention among the principal works of that time, and by those artists, those in Santa Maria Maggiore and in Santa Maria in Trastevere, both of which represent the Assumption of the Virgin. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, after Andrea Tafi and Fra Mino di Turrita, the Sienese painter Duccio began to bring mosaic pavements into vogue. On this account Vasari calls him the inventor of painting in niarhlc. It was continued by his pupil Domenico Beccafumi, who was also a painter and worker in metals. At the same period the decorations of the ancient fa9ade of Santa Maria Maggiore were executed by the Florentine Gaddo Gaddi, a pupil of Cimabue, himself a disciple of the Greeks, whom he had seen paint in Santa Maria Novella. At length Giotto constituted himself the restorer of this mode of painting by composing his famous inosaic of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, usually called the Navicella, in which we admire, not only the well-arranged colours and the harmony of light and shade, but also a movement — ra feeling of life and action which was unknown to the Greek workers in mosaic. After Giotto, and from the time of his pupil Pietro Cavalli, the conventional type of the Byzantines was more and more abandoned. They had confined themselves to putting in the figures evenly on a background devoid of per- spective, and had made mosaics simply architectural decorations ; but now the art followed the progress of painting step by step. Several fine works were executed in the fifteenth century under the Popes Martin V., Nicholas V., and Sixtus IV., even in small towns like Siena and Orvieto, and, towards the close of the century, the brothers Francesco and Valerio Zuccato of Treviso began the magnificent modern decorations of St. Mark at Venice. These are no longer the stiff, motionless, conventional images of the Byzantines ; true painting is to be found in them, with all its qualities and effects. 'J'he Zuccati executed these mosaics in the same way that frescoes were then done, by means of coloured cartoons, furnished by the best artists, among whom were a'fterwards included Titian himself, Giorgione, Tintoretto, and Palma. At a somewhat later period we have Giuliano and Benedetto of Maiano, uncle and nephew, who, both architects, brought into fashion the art of marquetry, the continua- tion of mosaic, and carried it to the highest degree of perfection ; Alesso Baldovinotti, a painter in mosaic, who taught his art to Domenico Ghirlandajo, Michelangelo's master ; Mariani, the architect of the Gregorian chapel ; the Cristofori, who boasted of being able to produce on glass cubes as many as fifteen thousand varieties of tints, each divided into fifty degrees, from the very lightest to the darkest ; and lastly, the Provenzale, who brought into the face of a portrait of Paul V. one million seven hundred thousand pieces, the largest of which was not the size of a millet-seed. (' Annotations sur Vasari,' par MM. Jeanron et Leclanche.) ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. 25 We must also mention the famous copies of the Transfi^ration from Raphael ; q{ St. Jerome, from Domenichino : oi St. Petronil/a, from Guercino, etc.: works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which now occupy in St. Peter's the places of the original pictures transported to the museum of the Vatican. The authors of these well-known mosaics carried their art to such a state of perfection as to rival all that a j)ainter can do with the colours on his palette, even to imitating the transparency of the sky and water, the dititerenc e between the beard and hair of men, the fur and feathers of animals, the materials and colours of clothes, and the expression of faces, in short, to copy all the refinements of drawing and all the charms of colouring. If in future ages, and among the calamities of a fresh invasion of barbarians, the original pictures were to perish, these admirable mosaics, as durable as the building which contains them, would be sufficient to teach the men of a later age what painting was at the greatest period of Italian art, and what those masterpieces were that are here copietl with so much fidelity and completeness. ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. If it be true that the pictorial representation of beings and objects preceded written language, we might carry back the art of painting on manuscripts to a very distant age, as the first manuscripts must have been, like hieroglyphics, nothing but a series of objects represented by drawing, ^^'e will not, however, lose ourselves in such remote antiquity, we will merely take up the art when it was separated, by the brilliancy and arrangement of the colours, from the simple ornaments which had been at first traced either with a pointed pen on tablets covered with wax, or on pajHTus and parchment with a reed dipped in ink. After the sacred and symbolical writing of the Egyptians, we must look to ancient Greece for the origin of this mixture of j)ainting and manuscrij)t. Pliny says expressly that Parrhasius painted on parchment (/// vwinbranis). There is no doubt that the ' Natural History ' of Aristotle, written under the patronage of Alexander, combined pictorial representation with the text. There must have been books of this kind in the library of the Ptolemies at Alexandria, since under the seventh of these princes (him who is called Euergetes II.), a "painter" was attached to the royal library. Again, the vo/uviinn, which Paulus /Kmilius and Sulla caused to be borne before them in triumph among the spoils of Greece, could have been nothing but these rich manuscripts. At Rome, where the example of the Greeks was followed, there are positive memorials of the mixture of painting with writing. It is spoken of in the 'Tristia' of Ovid (Kleg. 1), and in Pliny in Book xxviii. It is also known that Varro added portraits to the ' Lives of the Seven Hundred Illustrious Persons,' which he wrote. Vitruvius had combined designs with the ilescriptions contained in his treatise ' De .Vrchitectura,' designs which, unhappily, have not come down to us. Seneca also says that peoi)le liked to see the portraits of authors with their writings ; and Martial seems to allude to this custom when he thanks Siertinius, " who wished to place my portrait in his library " {qui iinaginem meant ponere in bibliothec& sud vobiit). It is known that, by a special order, the rescripts of the emperors were traced in gold and silver letters on sheets of a purple colour. From this, the imperial scribes E 26 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. received the name of chrysographs. The same method was adopted for the sacred books, and also for certain secular writings, which the public veneration had surrounded with a kind of religious homage. Thus, the Empress Plautina gave her young son, Maximin, as soon as he could read Greek fluently, a Homer written in golden letters, similar to the decrees of the emperors. This custom was very ancient. At a later period, after simple embellishments had been employed, that is to say, illuminated capital letters, margins adorned with designs, and arabesques surrounding the text, painting at length was introduced into the manuscripts. There was then, as Montfaucon explains (' Palaeog. Graeca,' lib. I. cap. viii.), a class of copyists who became real artists. Usually two artists worked at the same manuscript, the scribe and the painter ; and to the latter we may accord this title, since he himself claims it, as is shown by one cited by Montfaucon, who signed himself Georgius Staphinus, pidor. After the establishment of the Christian religion, and especially after its final triumph under Constantine, this art of illumination seems to have been used exclusively for the Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and liturgical works. We can trace it, as we have already done the art of mosaic, first in the lower empire and then in Italy. Illuminating manuscripts soon became the common occupation of the anchorets, with whom the Christian countries of the East were quickly filled, and who gave to the West the example, together with the precepts of the monastic life. In the fifth century there was an emperor surnamed the Caligrapher, because of his taste for illumination. This was Theodosius the younger, grandson of Theodosius the Great. At a later time we find Theodosius III., who was dethroned in a.d. 717, occupying his leisure time, when he had become a simple priest at Ephesus, by writing the Gospels in golden letters and embellishing them with paintings. During the triumph of the Iconoclasts there was a time when illumination was only carried on in secret, and the emperors caused a number of these illustrated books to be burned. But afterwards the taste returned more strongly than ever, and assumed all the ardour of a long-suppressed religious feeling. In the ninth century, Basil the Macedonian and Leo the Wise applied themselves to revive the art of illumination. It was in the same century that the Emperor Michael sent to the Pope Benedict III. a magnificent copy of the Gospels, enriched with gold and precious stones, as well as with admirable illuminations by the well-known pencil of the monk Lazarus. In the tenth century the East made a still more important gift to the West — the famous Mcnology of the Emperor Basil II., which, a long time afterwards, came into the possession of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, then into that of Paul Sfondrati, who made a present of it to the library of the Vatican, whence Benedict XIII. took it in order to publish a fac-simile. This Menology was a kind of missal, which contained prayers for every day in the first six months of the year, and also four hundred and thirty pictures, representing a number of figures of animals, temples, houses, furniture, arms, instruments, and architectural ornaments. The greater part of these pictures — very curious for the illustration they afford of the history of painting, as well as for the light they throw on the habits and costumes of the period — are signed by their authors, Pantaleo, Simeon, Michael Blachernita, Georgios, Menas, Simeon Blachernita, Michael Micros, and Nestor. The custom of illuminating books lasted without interruption, in the East, to the time of the last emperors — the Palasologi ; and since the ATeno/ogy, there are magni- ficent illuminated manuscripts of all periods, even of that which immediately preceded the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. One, of the eleventh century, in the ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. 27 library of the Vatican, contains drawings of surgical operations. This reminds us of the Arabs, who, not being able to embellish their manuscripts with paintings properly so called, and being reduced, as in their mosques, to simple ornaments, added drawings to the text of their scientific treatises. There are, for example, at least thirty diflerent instruments represented in the manuscripts of the book of Al-Faraby, entitled ' Ele- ments of Music,' from which the Maronite, Miguel Casiri, has translated several l)assages in his ' Bibliotheca Arabico-escurialensis.' We have already seen in Italy the first kings of the Ostrogoths encouraging illumi- nation, and Cassiodorus, the minister of Theodoric, becoming a caligrajiher in Calabria. In the ninth century an abbot of Monte Cassino, the Frenchman Bertaire, spread the taste for illumination in the south of Italy ; whilst at Florence, many monks had made themselves celebrated in the art of illuminating manuscripts. Vasari mentions several of these in the course of his book. Many real painters, some of them celebrated, did not disdain to use their pencils in illumination. Both Cimabue and Giotto had been thus occupied in their youth. Dante, a little later, mentions Oderissi of Gubbio, and Franco of Bologna — " Onor di qucir arte Ch'alluminare c cliiainata in Parisi — " who must have enjoyed great renown, since he represents them as expiating in Purga- tory the pride with which their skill inspired them. It was Simone Memmi, of Siena, who painted the illuminations in the ' Virgil ' of Petrarch, preserved in the Ambrosian Library at Milan ; and in the fifteenth century, when this art of illuminating attained l)erfection, there flourished at Naples the famous Antonio Solario, surnamed the Zingaro (the Gipsy), and at Florence, Bartolomeo della Gatta, who devoted himself to the same work. Under these two masters Rent^ of Anjou, count of Provence, studied the art of illuminating whilst disputing the crown of Naples with the princes of Arragon. Last came the illustrious Fra Angelico da Fiesole, who left in Santa Maria del Fiore (the cathedral of Florence) two enormous volumes, filled with illuminations painted by his hand, and of whom it might be said, even before the execution of his admirable pictures and monumental frescoes, that he had attained a very high position in the art of illuminating. At the end of the fifteenth century valuable illuminated manuscripts were executed for the Sforza, the Gonzaga, the Sicilian princes of the house of Anjou, those among the kings of Arragon who were also kings of Naples, for the dukes of Urbino, Ferrara, Modena, for Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, Henry V. of England, Rene of Provence, and for the Medici and the popes. Amongst others we may distinguish the illuminations of a certain Attavante, otherwise unknown, those of Liberals of Verona, especially those of the celebrated Dalmatian, Giulio Clovio, wiio was buried with great pomp in San Pietro in Vincula. England also had its illuminators, who were no way behiml their Continental neighbours in decoration. Among the Saxons at the close of the tenth centur}-, says Sir F. Madden (in the Introduction to Shaw's ' Illuminated Ornaments ; selected from MSS., and early printed books, from the sixth to the seventeenth century ') a peculiar style of ornament prevailed, which for boldness, correctness of design and richness, is not surpassed by any works executed on the Continent at the same period. The ' Benedictional of St. Ethelwold,' belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, written and illuminated between 963 and 970, is the most complete example of this art in England (see the accompanying engraving). It was executed liy a monk of Hyde Abbey (then the most celebrated place in England for such works), named Godeman, for Ethelwold. 28 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. Bishop of Winchester. It is a foHo of 119 leaves of vellum, measuring 11^ inches in height, by 8i in width, and contains thirty large and richly-coloured drawings. (See Mr. Gage's ' Dissertation on the St. Ethelwold Benedictional ' in the ' Archseologia,' vol. xxiv. p. 22, where all the illustrations are engraved.) For further details on this subject we must consult the Histoirc de PArf par Ics /^ Q (gj B © [S] FROM ST. ETHELWOLD S BENEDICTIONAL. ILLUMINATION V. Alo/iiiiiicnts, by Seroux d'Agincourt. He makes known, by descriptions and plates, the most celebrated manuscripts of different centuries to be found in the library of the Vatican, which now contains not only the library of the popes, but also those of the electors Palatine, of the dukes of Urbino, and of Queen Christina of Sweden. PAINTING IN FRESCO. 29 We shall rest in the conviction that, if these illuminations are not of equal excellence with frescoes and pictures, they have at least been better preservecl, and hence, like mosaics, are memorials of periods of which every other jjainting has been lost, and are of great value in marking and in proving the traditional succession of art. PAINTING IN FRESCO AND IN DISTEMPER. \\ c have no means of learning what were the usual processes of painting among the ancients. Neither examples of their paintings, properly so called, nor the treatises of Parrhasius and Apelles on the theory of painting, remain to us ; and the written descriptions are too incomplete and uncertain to enlighten us much about pictures which have long since perished. Although Pliny relates that there were two schools, the Greek and the Asiatic, and that the (ireek was divided into Ionic, Attic, and Sicyonic ; although he speaks of a very fine black varnish which Apelles put on his works when comi)lete(l, and which, while giving lustre to the colours, preserved them from dust and damp ; althougli, further, he incjuires, without however answering the tiuestion, who was the inventor of encaustic, or of painting by means of wax and fire : all this teaches us but little of the processes employed by the painters of antitjuity. The mosaics, even if copies of paintings, teach us nothing more on this subject. We are then reduced to the paintings on walls found in excavations, which are improperly called frescoes, and which may have differed as much from the paintings on canvas or wood as, in modern times, frescoes difter from easel-pictures. The fragments of Egyptian painting presei-ved in the subterranean caverns of Thebes and Samoun, those of Assyrian painting which adorned the sculptured slabs of Nimroud and Khorsabad, and also the remains of Grecian or Roman painting found in the catacombs, in the baths and ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, are paintings in distemper, a sort of body colour executed on a prepared plaster, with which the wall was covered. It is indeed easy to recognise the fact that this painting does not mix with the layer of lime, plaster, or alabaster, like real fresco, and that it may be efiaced either by scraping or even by washing, without injuring the surfoce upon which the pencil of the artist has been employed. But whatever the painting of the ancients may have been, it is certain, that until the employment of oil-painting, and during the whole intermediate time, painters only usetl fresco and distemper, or sometimes encaustic. Fresco-painting, employed in the decoration of edifices with a view to its remaining as a part of the architecture, is that which is executed on a single layer of lime still fresh (J'resca) and damp, so that the colours with which this layer remains impregnated, dry at the same time as the material itself, and become a part of the ])laster of the wall. Vasari calls this manner of painting ** the most masterly and the most beautiful, because," he says, " it consists in completing in a single day that whicli in other manners may be retouched at one's pleasure." Is not this to take the van(iuished difticulty as an advantage ? Painting in distemper (,'M\o\\\qx proles sine mat re crcata. Like Italian art, it derived its origin from the Byzantines, who had preserved, though not without modifications, the ancient art of Rome and Athens. There is no doubt of the fact that, in the times of the iconoclastic emperors, in the eighth century, some Byzantine artists took refuge in Germany, as others did in Italy, and that the sovereigns in their palaces, the bishops in their cathedrals, the abbots in their monasteries, eagerly employed these foreigners. Others came in the train of the (keek Princess Theophania, who married Otho II. in the following century. It is also beyond doubt that the successors of Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor of the West at Rome, frequently brought from their states in Italy to those in Ciermany, artists educated in the Byzantine schools of Venice, Florence, or Palermo. Otho III., for example, had for his painter and architect an Italian named Giovanni, who could only have been a pupil of the Byzantines established in Italy. From the eleventh century, when the Venetians and Normans of Sicily sent for (ireek mosaic-workers to embellish their oriental basilicas of St. Mark and Monreale. all the arts in Germany — aichitecture, sculpture, and painting— became Byzantine. At the time of the Crusades, the intercourse with the East became more acti\ e, and the models more common. The nobles, and the monks who followed their standards, brought back into every jxxrt of Euroi»e. Byzantine paintings, valued by them as objects of luxury as well as devotion, and notably those Greek Madonnas, so long looked upon as the work of St. Luke. Ciermany kept uj) this intercourse both with the Greek empire — through its frontier jjrovinces and the trade on the Danube — and with Italy, where the ever-recurring (|uarrels of the i)oi)es and the emperors lasteil until the end of the thirteenth century. German art of the fourteenth century was then, like Italian art, founded on that of the Greeks of the Eastern empire, and, like Italian art, it soon asserted its indepen- dence. It had already thrown off the traditional symbolism of Greek religious art, and had aimed at the free imitation of nature in the full independence of the artist The German ])aintings of the fourteenth century are still called Byzantine ; but merely because, before the invention of oil-painting, artists employed the Byzantine processes of painting on a gold background, and in distemper, with encaustics to brighten and preserve the colours. However, they are free from the shackles of symbolism, and enjoy all the liberty which the great Giotto and his disciples had obtained in Italy. 38 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. And now, in order that students may the more easily refer to the Avorks of each painter under his own particular school, we propose to give short biographical accounts of all the principal masters, enlarging more fully on those of the most distinguished. Giunta of Pisa was born in 1202. We have already mentioned the frescoes painted in the church of Assisi, in 1235, Let us take the most important of them, the Crucifixion. It is a very large composition, of fine and noble conception, but in it the personages are symmetrically arranged, grave and motionless, as in Greek compositions, always in strict submission to the rules then universally followed by painters. The colouring, much inferior to that of the earlier examples, is composed only of yellowish and reddish tints, which, standing out from a dark background, indi- cate the flesh and the draperies. A thousand minor details besides disclose the Grecian origin of this picture ; thus, the figure of Christ is fastened to the cross by four nails, and his feet are placed on a large tablet, serving as a support, ac- cording to the constant custom of the Greeks ; the angels also are clothed in long garments, and their bodies terminate in empty clothing, under which nothing indicates either legs or feet ; they end /;/ aria, as Vasari says, another feature wholly Byzan- tine. Among other existing works attributed to this artist, are a Crucifixio?i in San Ranieri at Pisa ; a picture of Saints in the chapel of the Campo Santo ; and a Martyrdom of St. Peter in San Francesco at Assisi. Giunta died, it is believed, in or about 1258. Guido of Siena improved the style of painting imitated from the Greeks, but still continued to copy it. It is enough to mention his great picture in the church of San Domenico, at Siena, which bears the date 1221. In the painting of the Virgin, the Child, and the choir of angels grouped on a gold background, it is impossible not to recognise the style, the forms, and all the peculiarities of the painters of Byzantium. Andrea Tafi, who was born at Florence in 12 13, is famous for having been the first to introduce the art of mosaic-painting to his fellow-citizens. He was instructed in this art by Apollonius of Venice, whom he induced to remove to Florence, where they conjointly executed several important works, which were much admired. Tafi died in his native city in 1294. Margheritone w^as born at Arezzo in 12 16. He executed many works in that city in tempera and in fresco. Most of the works by this artist have now perished, but that, which, according to Vasari, Margheritone considered one of his masterpieces, namely San Frajicesco, is still in existence. There is in Santa Croce, in Florence, an old wooden cross painted by Margheritone which is placed by the side of a similar work by Cimabue. Vasari says that Margheritone was even more successful as a sculptor than as a painter ; he was also celebrated as an architect. " Weary of life," Margheritone died at Arezzo in 1293, and was buried in the old cathedral of that town. There is a painting (No. 564) by this artist, in the National Gallery, represent- ing the Virfi^in and Child, with Scenes fj-om the Lives of the Saints, which was formerly in the church of Santa Margherita at Arezzo. Giovanni Cimabue, who was of a noble family, was born at Florence in 1240. He '4.a)'-^f-* GIOVAXXl cniADUi:. A.l). 1200.] R OMANESQ UE SCHO OL. 39 was a more intelligent imitator of the Greeks than his predecessors, but still not emancipated from the school of his masters, and having neither indei)endence nor originality. Let any one examine his famous Madonna, painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, and religiously preserved there to this day ; that picture which Charles I. of Anjou went to see in tlie studio of the painter — ^that picture in honour of which a public procession was held, with sound of trumpets, as though to welcome in it the full revival of art ; or his frescoes in the church of St. Francis at Assisi, or the //Vrj.r aux ani:^ts which is in the Gallery of the Louvre, and he will be convinced that although superior to Guido of Siena, and still more to Giunta of Pisa, THK MAl^ONNA ENTHRONED. From the colossal picture by Cimabne, in Santa Maria Novella, at Florence. yet Cimabue is not, as V'asari terms him, the first of Italian jjaintcrs, but, accordinq; to the opinion of D'Agincourt and Lanzi, the last of the Cheek painters. Cimabue died about 1302. A Madonna atid Child by this artist — formerly in Santa Crocc at Florence — is now in the National Gallery (No. 565). Jacobus de Turrita. The name of this artist is found inscribed on the mosaics on the tribune of San Giovanni in Laterano, and Santa Maria >Liggiore in Rome. These works were executed about 1290, and are in imitation of the style of Cimabue. Jacobus di Camerino, a Franciscan monk, who assisted Turrita with the mosaics in tlie church of San Giovanni in Laterano, is knov/n to have worked about a.d. 1290. His compositions are in a style similar to tliosc of Cimabue. 40 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1250. Gaddo Gaddi, who was born at Florence in 1249, '^^^ ^'^ artist in mosaic. He executed the Coronation of the Madomia in Santa Maria del Fiore, which still exists. This picture gained him great fame all over Italy, and in 1308 he was ordered by- Clement V. to execute mosaics in the church and palace of San Giovanni in Laterano which had been lately rebuilt after the fire of 1307. There is a Madonna by this artist in the cadiedral of Pisa. Gaddo Gaddi died in 13 12, and was buried in Santa Croce. EARLY TUSCAN SCHOOL. Giotto di Bondone (x\ngiolo, Angiolotto, Giotto), was born at the village of Vespignano, in 1276. It is to this little shepherd-boy, whom Cimabue found drawing his sheep upon a stone, and whom, out of charity, he took as a student — it is to Giotto we must ascribe the honour of having founded the modern Italian school, and the still greater honour of having been the true promoter of the Renaissance in all JESUS STRIPPED OK HIS VESTMENTS. By Giotto. the arts. A painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, worker in mosaic and illuminator, embracing, in short, all the arts known at that time, Giotto served as a model to the whole of Italy, through which he travelled from Avignon — where he had followed Pope Clement V. — to Naples, where he had worked a long time for Robert of Anjou, surnamed the Wise. At Lucca he made the plan of the impregnable fortress of the Giusta ; at Florence he designed the Campanile, afterwards carried out by his pupil Taddeo Gaddi ; at Rome he executed his celebrated mosaic called the Navicclla di San Pietro. But it is the art of painting especially which is most deeply indebted to him. Called from Padua to Rome by Pope Boniflice VIII., Giotto, by a happy inspiration ("/^r dono di Dio" as Vasari says), freed himself entirely from the imitation of the Greeks, and copied only from Nature. Without being less elevated, his treatment of the subjects was more varied, more animated, and more appropriate. A. a 1300.] ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 41 His drawing became simple and natural, without conventional forms, or types settled beforehand and rigidly adhered to ; his colouring also improved, and showed tints at once true anti more deep and varicil. He revived the forgotten art of portrait- painting ; he first daretl to employ foreshortening and perspective ; he carried draperies to a perfection which remains unsurjiassed ; he found expression, to the great astonishment of his contemporaries, who might have said of him as Pliny of the (ireek Aristides, " He painted the soul, and expressed human feelings." This painting, which the men of that time called miraculous, was indeed real painting— art escaped from the trammels of servitude. Giotto also improved the materials and the technical ])rocesses of his art. as the preparation of colours, and of the wooden panels and canvas, On viewing the princii)al works of Giotto, dispersed over the whole of Italy— for example, the series of pictures called the Life and Death of San Francesco ifAssisi—wQ recog- nise how much he surpassed his immediate predecessors ; in his pictures we see Italian separating itself from Greek art ; we understand and repeat the magnificent praises heaped on him by Dante, Petrarch, Pius II., and by Poliziano, who makes him say: "Ille ego sum per qut-m pictura extincta revixit" (I am he through whom extinct painting has again lived). A\ hen Pope Boniflice wished to decorate the interior of St. Peter's he despatched an envoy to Florence and Siena for examples of the ability of the fiimous artists of those cities. Giotto simply sent a circle drawn in red paint with a brush, without aid of compasses. This circle was so true that the Pope was more struck with it than with the elaborate specimens of the other competitors. According to Vasari this is the origin of the well-known saying, " Rounder than the O of Giotto." Giotto dieil at Florence in 1336, and was buried with much pomj) in the Cathedral. Taddeo Gaddi was born at Florence in 1300. He was a son of the before- mentioned Gaddo Gaddi, after whose death he resided for twenty-four years with Giotto, who was his godflither. Taddeo is the most distinguished of Giotto's scholars. Vasari attributes to him the five subjects from the Life of the Magdalen on the altar- piece of Santa Croce in Florence. Taddeo was equal, although not superior, to his mstructor, Giotto, in exjjression, and was undoubtedly the best artist of his time. He was also distinguished as an architect ; he acquired great riches, by which means he established his flimily, which was for many centuries one of the most important in Florence. His most distinguished scholars were Giovanni da Milano and Jacopo da Casentino. Of his sons Giovanni antl Agnok>, the former died young, after having given great promise as an artist; the latter will be mentioned immediatelv. Rumohr has shown that Taddeo Gaddi was still living in 1366, but it appears that year was also the date of his death. There are three of his i)aintings-(Nos. 215. 216, 579) in the National Gallery. Agnolo Gaddi, who was born about 1326,- excelled in colour and the technicalities of his art. He was a son of the above-mentioned Taddeo CJaddi, whom he imitateil. He painted several large works, especially in Santa Croce, and realised a considerable fortune, cliiefly through his painting and mercantile pursuits. Agnolo Gaddi died in 1396. Buonamico Cristofani, called Buffalmacco, was born 1262. and was a pupil of Andrea Tafi. Rumohr and Kugler and many other writers have doubted his existence, but his name has been discovered in the register of tlie Florentine Company of Painters, with tlie dale 1351 (Crowe and Cavalcaselle. vol. i. \\ 3S7, note). Boccaccio G 42 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1350. nicknames him Bufifalmacco, and some suppose that the name Buonamico, used by Ghiberti, is a nickname also. Vasari mentions many works by Buffahiiacco, few of which still remain. Of these, some are in the Campo Santo and some at Arezzo. Others, which no longer exist, are mentioned by Vasari, as being superior to those at Pisa and Arezzo ; he adds that Buftalmacco, when he chose, could paint as well as any of his contemporaries. Most absurd stories have been related of this artist by Vasari, and by Boccaccio in his ' Decameron.' He seems to have been a man of a keen sense of humour. Vasari states that he died in 1340, but Baldiucci says he was still living in 135 1, as indeed the date in the register of the Florentine painters proves. Giovanni Jacopi, who was called Giovanni da Milano from his birthplace, was a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, and to him, together with his fellow-worker Jacopo da Casentino, Gaddi intrusted the care of his two sons, Giovanni and Agnolo, the former of whom died young. Giovanni painted several works in conjunction with his instructor, but nothing now remains of them. Very few works by his own hand alone still exist. The date of his death is unknown; he is known to have painted about 1360. Stefano, called Fiorentino, was born at Florence, in 1301. He was called " La Scimia della Natura " — ^the ape of nature — because he copied nature so closely. He is supposed to have been the father of Giottino. All his most celebrated pictures in Florence and Rome have perished, but he deserves to be mentioned, not only on account of his having been a pupil of Giotto, but because, according to Vasari, he surpassed his master in every branch of his art. There is no authentic picture by him in Tuscany. Stefano died in 1350. Giottino, who was so called from the resemblance of his works to those of Giotto, was born at Florence, 1324. His real name has never been discovered. Vasari speaks of him as " Tommaso di Stefano," called Giottino. Ghiberti mentions some frescoes in Santo Spirito at Florence, and says they are by one Maso, and Vasari mentions the same frescoes, only remarking that they are by Giottino. The inference is that Maso and Giottino were the same. He is supposed to have been the son of the above-mentioned Stefano Fiorentino. Vasari says he finished his works with great care. Giottino died in 1356. Pietro Cavallini was born at Rome in the latter part of the thirteenth century. He was one of the earliest painters of the modern Roman School, He was both painter and architect, and also worked in mosaics. Cavallini assisted Giotto in the naviceUa of the porch of St. Peter's : and some of his own mosaics, in Santa Maria in Trastevere, are still in existence. All his paintings have now perished ; the last were destroyed by the fire in 1824, which consumed almost the whole of the Basilica of San Paolo, though a few mosaics by the same artist were spared. Manni and Lanzi state that he died in 1344; but Vasari says he was still living in 1364, and that he was eighty-five years old when he died. Don Sylvester, a Camajdolese monk, was celebrated for his illuminations. Very few of his works still exist. A few drawings by liim are in the Liverpool Institution. He painted about 1350. Andrea da Florentia is celebrated for having painted several frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. Several illustrations of the life of San Raniero, after having been for a long time attributed to Simone Memmi, have been finally ascertained to be by A.D. 1350.] ROMANESQUE iiCIIOOL. 43 k _^^__ Andrea da Florentia and Antonio da Venezia ; Andrea doing the three upper ones, and Antonio the three lower. Tliis artist painted about 1380, Andrea di Clone, c illcd Orcagna, was born at Florence, according to Vasari, in 1329, some say about 1315 to 1320. He was the son of one Cione, a celebrated goldsmith of Florence. To Rumohr is due the credit of first discovering that the name given to this artist was 1' Arcagnuolo (the Archangel), corrujjted by Vasari into Orcagna, and by which he is usually known. The Triumph of Death and the Last Judgment in the Campo Santo were supposed to be by Orcagna and his brother Bernardo Cione, but Signor Cavalcaselle, by recent research, has proved that this is incorrect, for the style is not like that of the known works of this artist in Santa Maria Novella. Orcagna was painter, sculptor and architect. He was also a poet, and Vasari mentions some sonnets which he addressed to Burchiello. Orcagna painted, in conjunction with his brother, the Heaven and Hell from Dante in the Strozzi chapel. He also painted the Triumph of Death in Santa Croce. The Coronation of the Virgin by Orcagna, now in the National Gallery (No. 569), was formerly an altar-piece in the church of San Pietro Maggiore in Florence; in 1677 it was removed to the Delia Rena chapel; and in 1857 was purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi collection by the trustees of the National Gallery. This picture is painted in tempera on wood ; in the middle is Christ crowning the Virgin, with two angels standing on each side of the throne ; in each of the side pictures are twenty- four saints kneeling in adoratiofi. Nine other pictures (Nos. 570 to 578 inclusive) were formerly portions of the Coronation of the Virgin. Orcagna was the greatest of all Giotto's followers, and appears to have been a man of great genius and of noble mind. He died at Florence in 1376. Antonio da Venezia, one of the best of the Italian painters of the fourteenth century, was born about 1309, Vasari says, at Venice; Baldinucci states that he was a native of Florence, Antonio studied with Agnolo Gaddi at Florence, and acijuired a certain likeness in style to that artist. He was employed by the seignorj-- of Venice to paint one of the walls of the council-hall in fresco, which he did in a masterly manner, but owing to some petty jealousy he did not receive a reward befitting the work, and consequently left Venice in disgust, and went to Florence, where he had previously resided for some time. There he painted in the convent of Santo Spirito, and elsewhere, but all these works have since perished. From Florence he went to Pisa, and executed several paintings in the Campo Santo illustrating the life of San Raniero, which was begun by Andrea da Florentia. Tow^ards the close of his career he turned physician, in which capacity he obtained great fame. Antonio da Venezia was remarkable for the purity of his colouring, the truth and grace of his composition and beauty of expression. He died of the ])lague at Florence in 1384. Jacopo Landine, called Jacopo di Casentino, was born at Prato Vecchio in the Cascntino, about 13 10. He studieil under Taddeo Gaddi, and, as has been before stated, sharetl with Giovanni da Milano in the education of Agnolo Gaddi. He exe- cuted a large number of works in his native place, and in Arezzo and Florence. In 1350 he founded the academy of St. Luke in the latter city, in the chapel of which he painted one of his most famous pictures, .S7. Luke draicing a portrait of the Virgin. Jacopo's most celebrated scholar was Spinello d' Arezzo, who was the last painter of merit of the school of Giotto. His best work, which represents St. John the Ei'angelist 44 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1350. . » lifted np into Heaven, with various saints, and other scenes from the Ufe of the EvangeUst, in all twenty-two pictures, is in the National Gallery (No. 580). This picture was formerly in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, at Prato Vecchio, and was purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection. A Predella in the Ufhzi (No. 1292) is also by this artist. Jacopo was chiefly famous as a fresco painter. He died at the age of eighty, in his native place, about 1390. Spinello di Luca Spinelli, commonly called Spinello Aretino, was born at Arezzo, about 1330. He was a pupil of Jacopo Casentino, whom he surpassed. He worked chiefly at Casentino, Arezzo, Pisa, and Florence. He obtained a reputation by the frescoes he painted in a church dedicated to San Niccolb at Arezzo ; these procured him an invitation to decorate the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence. At Arezzo he painted, also in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, frescoes illustrating the History of Lucifer, and the Fall of the Angels, which have been recently destroyed. Spinello painted the frescoes in the Campo Santo, illustrating the lives of SS. Efiso and Potito, which he finished in 1392, and which are considered by Vasari to be his masterpieces. A Coronation of the Virgin is in the Academy at Florence. A picture in the National Gallery (No. 581), St. John the Baptist^ with SS. John the Evangelist and James the Greater, was formerly in the Hospital church of SS. Giovanni e Niccolb, near Florence. It was purchased, with many others from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection in 1857. Vasari says that Spinello's sketches were better than his pictures, and that he was a better painter than Giotto. He excelled in expression, and though his execution is slight his colouring is good, and he painted drapery with great skill. The absurd story that Vasari relates of Spinello's dying from fright at the apparition of Lucifer, who had come to reproach him for painting him too black in his frescoes of the History of Lucifer, is entirely refuted by the fact that Spinello was living long after the reputed vision. The date of his death is uncertain, but he died at a great age — Vasari says ninety-two — at Arezzo, about 141 8. Cennino di Andrea Cennini, a distinguished scholar of Agnolo Gaddi, was the author of the earliest existing treatise on painting — ' Trattato della Pittura ' — which was written in 1437. It has been translated into English by Mrs. Merrifield. EARLY SIENESE SCHOOL. Duccio di Buoninsegna was born at Siena about 1260. He was the first of this school to throw aside the Byzantine style and to strive to imitate nature. In 1285 he entered into a contract to paint, for 150 florins, an altar-piece for the chapel of the Virgin in Santa Maria Novella at Florence. His masterpiece, which still exists, is the high altar-piece in the Cathedral of Siena. It occupied him from the 9th of October, 1308, till the 9th of June, 13 10, when it was carried with great pomp — like the Madonna of Cimabue — to the cathedral. For this great work Duccio received only sixteen soldi (or pence) a day, but the materials, Avhich were very costly, owing to the amount of gold and ultramarine used, amounting to upwards of 3,000 gold florins, were supplied for him. As the high altar was open all round, Duccio painted pictures on both sides. The front represented the Virgin and Child, with numerous saints and angels, and four bishops A.D. I350.] Jle, dated 1342, in the Scuole Regie, but it is much injured. He painted three immense allegorical pictures in the Sala delle Balestre, in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena, representing the Effects of Good and Bad Government. They occupied him from 1337 to 1399. There are several pictures in various galleries attributed both to Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, without evidence of their author- ship, but there is a genuine one by Ambrogio in the Academy of Siena, representing the Annunciation. In painting he came nearer to Giotto than any others of the Sienese School, and is placed by Ghiberti before Simone. His brother Pietro deserves the same fame. The date of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's death is unknown. Taddeo di Bartolo was born about 1362. The earliest specimen of his art is an altar-piece, painted for San Paolo of Pisa, dated 1390 : this picture is now in the Louvre. In 1400-1401 Taddeo painted in tlxe Palazzo Pubblico; but of the works he executed then only nine small panels exist. In 1403 he painted, at Perugia, an altar-piece representing the Virgin and Child, ivith St. Bernard and tivo Angels. A A.D. 1400.] ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 47 Descent of the Holy Ghost, also painted in 1 403 in the church of Sant' Agostino at Perugia, is especially to be admired. In 1406 he was commissioned to paint jiictures on the walls of the chapels of the Palazzo della Signoria at Siena, representing incidents in the Life of the Virgin. Taddeo di Bartolo upheld the Sienese School by the excellence of his painting, but he did not raise it above the style of his prede- cessors. He died in 1422. Ansano di Pietro Mencio was licjrn in 1406. He was a very prolific painter, which fact, perhaps, helped to keep him in a lower grade than he might otherwise have held. His paintings were less crude than those of his predecessors, and he is remarkable for the delicacy of his execution. He is sometimes called " Angelico da Siena," from the resemblance of his painting to that of the celebrated Fra Angelico. A Virion and Saints, now in the Academy of Siena, in which gallery there are no less than forty- seven pictures by Ansano, is signed and datetl 1443. The most important work by him is a fresco of the Coronation of the Viri^in, in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, dated 1445. He died in 14S1. Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo, called Matteo da Siena, was born at Siena (?) about 1435. He was considered one of the best Sienese painters of his time, though he was decidedly inferior to his Florentine contemporaries. The Madonna della Neie at Siena is a fine example of his art; it is signed and dated 1477. Matteo painted several pictures rejjresenting the Murder of the Innocents, two of which are still ])reserved in Siena. A Madonna in the Sienese Academy, engravcil in Rosini. is a good specimen of this artist. Matteo da Siena died in 1495. 48 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1300. CHAPTER IV. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. AT the period of the Renaissance — notwithstanding the aspirations of Dante — Italy was divided into a number of states ; every state had its own school, and hence every school requires a separate history. We shall conform to this necessity by following the usual division, and, having already spoken of the Early schools of the fourteenth century, shall begin with Florence ; for in a history of Italian art it is to Florence that the first rank most incontestably belongs. We have seen that the celebrated Tuscan Giotto was the great promoter of the revival in all the arts. After him, the most illustrious name found in the annals of Tuscan painting is that of a monk to whom public admiration gave, even during his lifetime, the title of " Fra Beato Angelico." Guido di Pietro, born in the town of Vecchio in 1387, took the name of Fra Giovanni da Fiesole when he entered the order of Dominicans in that town in 1407. Modest, simple, pious, charitable, sober, and chaste, Fra Angelico. set a good example in virtue as well as in talent. He refused the archbishopric of Florence, and caused a poor monk in his convent to be nominated by Nicholas V. instead of himself. A very labo- rious and fertile painter of altar-screens, frescoes, pictures, and illuminations, he never painted without a special prayer, nor commenced any work without the permission of his prior ; and he never retouched any of his works, saying that God wished them to be as they were. After Fra Angelico, his pupil Benozzo Gdzzoli alone remained faithful to strictly religious and mystic art, without any intermixture from pagan antiquity. The date of the birth and death of Fra Angelico show sufficiently that he painted in distemper, for he could only have known oil-painting at the close of his life, at an age when an artist no longer changes his processes. Among the best of the numerous works he has left is his Descent from the Cfoss, which is to be found in Florence, in the Academy of the Fine Arts. But there is in the Louvre one of the finest works of the Angelic Painter. The Coronation of the Virgin is a large composition which contains more than fifty figures, and is surrounded besides by seven medallions, in which the miracles of St. Dominic are represented — he being the patron saint of the convent for which the picture was painted. It is of this noble work that Vasari says, " Fra Giovanni surpassed himself in a picture ... in which Jesus Christ crowns the Virgin in the midst of a choir of angels and saints ... so varied in attitude and expression, that one feels an infinite pleasure and delight in regarding them. It seems A.U. 1400.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 49 as if the happy souls can look no otherwise in heaven ; for all the saints, male and female, assembled here, have not only life and expression most delicately and truly rendered, but the colouring of the whole work seems done by the hand of a saint or angel like themselves. As for myself, I can affirm with truth that I never see this work without finding in it something new, nor can I ever satisfy myself with a sight of it, or have enough of beholding it." This Coronation of the Viri^in, about which August Schlegel has written a whole volume, and which M. Paul Mantz rightly calls " an enormous miniature," was placed for a long time in the church of San Domenico at Fiesole, and in some degree worshipped as a holy relic of its saintly author. Th6 Predella of an altar-piece formerly in the same church is now in the National Gallery (No. 663). This picture contains two hundred and sixty-six figures, " so beautiful " says Vasari, " that tliey appear to be truly beings of paradise." Fra Giovanni died at Rome in 1455, and was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. CORONATION OF THE VIRCIN.— BY KRA ANGELICO. /// the Miisettm, of the Loinn; Paris. Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini, called Masolino da Panicale, was born af Florence in 1383. Masolino has hitherto been chielly known by frescoes in the Carmine— which he probably commenced, but recent research has proved that many of them are the works of Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. Some frescoes, signed " Masolino da Florentia pinxit," have lately been brought to light in the church of Castiglione d'Olona near Milan, which are believed to have been completed in 1428 for Cardinal Branda Castiglione; and are undoubtedly by Masolino. He is supposed to have been the instructor of Masaccio. He died in 1430. h 50 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1400. Don Lorenzo, called II Monaco, was a Camaldolese monk who lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The most famous of his remaining works is a Corotiatioji of the Virgin in the Abbey at Cerreto, painted in 141 4. One of his best preserved paintings is in the Bartolini chapel at Florence, where he mostly resided. Two side wings of an altar-piece in the National Gallery (Nos. 215, 216), of the school of Taddeo Gaddi are attributed by some writers to II Monaco, and indeed Vasari says that he adhered to the style of that master, though he seems to have acquired a little from that of Fra Angelico. The dates of 11 Monaco's birth and death are unknown. Andrea del Castagno, who was born in 1390 in Castagno in Mugello, near Florence, was the son of a peasant, and an orphan when very young. He was first induced to study painting by an itinerant artist. Attracting the attention of Benedetto de' Medici, he was sent to Florence, where he practised his art under very straitened circumstances. Castagno has long been accused of the murder of his friend and fellow-artist, Domenico Veneziano, from whom it is said he learned the secret of oil- painting, that he might be the sole possessor of the knowledge of that art. This accusation is simply refuted by the fact that Domenico survived Castagno by about four years. Castagno's style of painting is anything but pleasing, it shows a coarse \ igour in which form and colour are very unattractive, though his outlines are bold and full of life. He executed a portrait of Niccolo di Tolentino — in imitation of an equestrian statue — in the Cathedral of Florence. He also painted Pazzi, and other conspirators concerned in the murder of Giuliano de' Medici, hanging by their feet, on the fagade of the palace of the Podesta, by which he earned the name of Andrea degli Impiccati (of the hanged). This was his best work, but it has long since perished. Andrea del Castagno died in 1457, and was buried in Santa Maria dei Servi. Domenico Veneziano was probably born in Venice or in one of the Venetian states. The first record we have of him is in 1438, when he was working at Perugia ; in 1439 he was paintmg in the Chipel of Sant' Egidio in the Church of Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, with Pietro delta Francesca and Bicci di Lorenzo as his assistants. After this Domenico may have gone to Venice for a time, and acquired the secret of varnish painting of Antonello da Messina who had lately imported the Van Eyck method into Italy. Vasari says that Domenico returned to Florence and painted the Chapel of Sant' Egidio in oil. As we have stated above (see Andrea del Castagno), the story told by Vasari, of Castagno killing Domenico after having learned the secret of oil- painting from him, is now entirely refuted. Though Domenico was probably a Venetian, yet his style of painting is far removed from that of the Venetian school. The only surviving specimens of Domenico's art are an altar-piece in tempera in Santa Lucia de' Bardi at Florence, and a fresco, originally a tabernacle on the wall of a house in the Canto de' Carnesecchi ; the principal part, representing the Madonna enthroned, is in the possession of Prince Pio at Florence. Two heads — part of the same — are in the National Gallery (Nos. 766, 767) ; they were obtained by Sir Charles Eastlake, and bought from his collection. Thus of the two surviving works of Domenico, one is executed i?i tempera, and the other is a fresco, so we have little beyond Vasari's statement to prove that he ever painted in oil. Domenico Veneziano died at Florence in 1461. Paolo Doni, called Paolo Uccello, from his love of painting birds, was born at Florence in 1396. He was apprenticed to Ghiberti the sculptor, and assisted him in the construction of the first pair of his celebrated gates for the Baptistery of Florence. T O ^1 M A S O G U I D I. (Masaccio.) Page SI. A.D. I 400.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. Uccello, as he is commonly called, was the first to reduce to rule the principles of perspective, and has been called the founder of linear perspective, though Pietro dcUa Francesca seems to have more justly deserved that title. Uccello studied geometry with his friend Giovanni Manetti, with whom he used to read Euclid. Vasari says that he wasted so much time over his favourite science of perspective, that he became " more needy than fomous"; and his wife complained that he sat up the whole night to study it, and the .only answer she got to her remonstrances was. Oh ! die dolce cosa e qucsta prospettiva — what a deliLihtful thing this jwspective is ! He painted frescoes in terra vcrdc of the Crcati -n of the World and History of Noah, in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence ; they arc very much damaged by the weather and neglect, but still show his excellence in perspective. In the Cathedral of Florence there is a colossal figure of Sir John Hawkwood (called by the Italians, Giovanni Aguto), an English adventurer, who died in the Florentine service in 1393 ; this, too, is in terra verde, and is signeil Pauti Ueeelli Opus. It cannot have been a i)ortrait from life, for it THE CALLING OF ST. PETER AND ST. ANDREW.— BY MASACCIO. In the Church of the Carmelites, Florcuce. will be seen that Hawkwood died before the artist was born. Uccello also painted some Giants in the Casa de' Vitali in Padua, which, says Vasari, were greatly admired by Andrea Mantegna. Each giant was painted in a single day for one ducat— a large price, considering the value of money at that time. The same writer records four pictures by Uccello, of battles painted for the Bartolini family in Gualfonda. Of these, three are still extant, one in the Uftizi, one in the Campana (^.allcry in the Louvre, and the third and finest in the National Gallery (No. 583). It represents the Batth- of Satif Ef^idio (in 14 16), and is painted in tempera on wood. On a i)anel, now in the Louvre, Uccello painted the heads, life-size, of Giotto to represent Painting, Dona- tello for Sculpture, Brunelleschi for Architecture, Manatti for Mathematics, and himself for Perspective. He died at Florence in 1479, and was burietl in SanUi Maria Novella. Tommaso Guidi, better known as Masaccio (the sloven), the son of a poor shoe- maker, was born at Castel San Giovanni, according to recent researches, in 1402. Masaccio differs entirely from the monk of Fiesole ; he drew in the style of Michel- 52 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1400. angelo, and with much of his force. Unfortunately, dying young, he left but few works. Munich possesses a Monk's Head in fresco ; a St. Antony of Padua, in dis- temper and on wood ; and the portrait of the painter, wearing the red cap of the Florentines, like Dante and Petrarch. In the National Gallery is His own portrait (No. 626), ascribed to Masaccio, but now believed to be the work of Filippino Lippi. At Florence, in the museum of the Uffizi, is an astonishing Head of an Old Man, said to be painted by Masaccio, but this also is now considered doubtful. It is at the church of the Carmine in that town that we can study and admire him best. It is there that his great frescoes are to be seen ; the Expulsion from Paradise; the Tribute MoJiey ; St. Peter baptizing; and the Infirm cured by the shadoiv of St. Peter. This series of frescoes was begun by Masolino, and finished by Filippino Lippi fifty years after the death of Masaccio. Masaccio died at Rome in 1429, in his twenty-seventh year. Sir Joshua Reynolds said that he was the first who discovered the path that leads to every excellence, and may therefore be justly considered one of the fathers of modern art. Fra Filippo Lippi was born in Florence, probably in 1412. This artist, according to Vasari, was one who disgraced his profession in his private life ; but many doubts have since been throAvn on the story, which may be briefly thus related. Left an orphan at an early age, Lippi was placed by an aunt — Mona Lappaccia by name — in the Carmelite Convent del Carmine when eight years old. He soon displayed great talent and liking for painting, and the prior wisely allowed him to follow his favourite amusement as a profession. In 1432, at about the early age of twenty, on leaving the convent, Lippi gave up the frock, — so says Vasari,— and during a pleasure excursion from Ancona, he and his companions were taken prisoners by Moorish pirates, and carried slaves to Barbary. After eighteen months' captivity Lippi drew a portrait of his owner with charcoal on a white wall, which excited so much wonder and admiration among the Moors, that his master, after getting him to execute several works in colour, sent him safely back to Italy. He landed at Naples, where he stayed only a few months, and then returned to Florence. In 1458, while employed in painting at the Convent of Santa Margherita, he carried off Lucrezia Buti — a young Florentine lady, who was being educated by the nuns — and who was afterwards the mother of Filippino Lippi. No evidence has been found of his reputed stay at Ancona, his capture by pirates, or his residence in Naples, at which town he is supposed to have landed on his return from Barbary. When he left the Convent of the Carmelites in 1432, he does not appear to have given up the frock, for later in life he signs himself " Frater Filippus," and in the register of his death in the Carmine Convent, he is called " Fr. Filippus." As regards the tale of Lucrezia, it is not likely that a monk who had led a scandalous life would have been appointed chaplain of a nunnery in Florence, and rector of San Quirico at Legnaia, both of which facts are now certain ; therefore it is better to give Lippi the benefit of the doubt, especially as everything which has since been discovered tends to show the fallacy of Vasari's statements regarding him, and nothing has been found to corroborate them. It is supposed by some that Filippino Lippi was an adopted son of this artist. In the Convent del Carmine, Filippo Lippi is said to have studied under Masaccio, who was at that time employed in the chapel of the convent, but it is more probable that he studied more from the pictures of that master than from the artist himself. He painted frescoes both in the church and convent, and amongst others A.D. 1450.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. .3 the Confirmation of the Rules of the Carmelites, in the cloisters ; these are no longer in existence; those in the church were destroyed by fire in 177 1. Lippi painted frescoes in Prato from 1456 to 1464, with numerous interruptions. He died at Spoleto — it is supposed of poison administered by Lucrezia's friends (Vasari) Octol)er 8th, 1469, He was buried in the Cathedral of Spoleto, and a marble monument was erected over his grave by Filippino Lippi, at the desire and the cost of Lorenzo de' Meilici. Lijipi was an excellent draughtsman, but he understood neither perspective nor foreshortening. He was exceedingly fond of elaborate ornamentation, and excelled especially in colouring, in which branch of his art he must be allowed to stand pre- eminent among the painters of his time. He painted various pictures in Florence, Fiesole, Arezzo, and Prato, in the choir in the Duomo, in which place are his most important works — frescoes representing the History of St. Stephen. Vasari calls the Martyrdom of St. Stephen his masterpiece. A Nativity, in the Louvre, in which Lucrezia is represented as the Virgm, generally attributed to Lippi, is now said to be by some other painter. He painted frescoes from the Life of the Viri^in in the Cathedral of St. Catherine at Spoleto, but died before the completion of the work, which was afterwards finished by his scholar Fra Diamante. Pictures ])y Lippi are in most of the principal galleries of Europe— notably that of Berlin. In the National Callery there are five (Nos. 248, 586, 589, 666, 667). representing respectively, the Vision of St. Bernard, painted about 1447, for the Palazzo de' Signori ; the Madonna and Child enthroned, supposed to have been painted about 1438, for Gherardo di Bartolommeo Barbadori, for the church of Santo Spirito of Florence ; an A?igel pre- senting the Infant Christ to the Virgin; the Annunciation; and St. fohn the Baptist and six other Saints ; the two last were painted for Cosmo de' Medici, and bear his crest. Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, known as Benozzo Gozzoli, was born at Florence in 1420, He was the scholar of Fra Angelico, whom he assisted in the Cathedral of Orvieto. In 1450 he painted several pictures in the churches of San Fortunato and San Francesco at Montefalco, near Fuligno. In these pictures the style of his instructor may readily be traced. In 1469 Gozzoli went to Pisa and commenced his celebrated frescoes in the Campo Santo ; these are a continuation of those by Pietro di Puccio on the north wall, and represent the History of the Old Testament from the time of Noah to Solomon. They are twenty-four in number, and occupied him till 1485. He was, by agreement, to pamt three every year, and to receive for each 66 lire or about ten ducats (equivalent to about ^100 at the present time). In 1478 the authorities were so much pleased with the work already done, that they presented Gozzoli with a somewhat solid testimony of their approbation, in the shape of a sarcophagus bearing the following inscription : Hie tumulus est Benotii Florcntini ,/ui proximc has pinxit historias. Hunc sibi Pisanorum donavit humanitas mcccci.xxviii., the date of which led Vasari into the pardonable error of supposing that tliat was the year of his death; subsequent documents have proved that he died after 1496, probably in 149S. In 1479 Gozzoli was at Florence for a time, and decorated the walls of the Palazzo Medici (now Riccardi) with scenes from X\\c Journey of the three Kings to Bethlehem. The walls next the altar are covered with choirs of angels (see woodcut), which are painted with great feeling and tenderness. In early life Gozzoli studied the works of Mas.iccio in the Brancacci cha] el. 54 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1450. especially as models for his figures, but in later life he adopted a style of his own. He painted landscape backgrounds overflowing with towns, houses, rivers, and trees, THE ANGELIC CHOIR. — BY BENOZZO GOZZOI.I. In f/ie Riccardi Palace, Florence. and whenever he had room he put into his pictures all kinds of animals, both domestic and wild, and birds of all sizes. In painting interiors he displayed great richness of v.n. I450.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 55 form in his architecture, and his colours were bright and cheerful. The easel pictures of this artist are scarce. The Academy of Pisa possesses two ; the Louvre, one, .SV. Thomas Aquinas. In the National Gallery there are two ; the Vir^n and Child enthroned (No. 283). This picture was painted by contract, no other hand but Gozzoli's was to touch it ; it was to be completed within a year after the signing of the contract, and was to be similar in mode and ornamentation to the Vir^n enthroned, by Fra Angelico, over the high altar of San Marco, Florence (now in the Florentine Academy). The National Gallery picture was originally the altar-piece of the Compagnia di San Marco, Florence. It became the property of the Rinuccini family, and was purchased from their heirs in Florence. The Rape of Helen (No. 591), this little picture was formerly in the possession of the Marchese Albergotti of Arezzo; it was i)urchased in 1857 from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection. Alessio Baldovinetti, who was born at Florence in 1422, is supposed to have been the pupil of Paolo Uccello, and claims the lionour of having been the teacher of Ghirlandajo. He was particularly renowned for the minuteness of his painting ; and was much interested in mosaic-work. In 1481 he repaired the mosaic over the portal of San Miniato al Monte. Very few works of this artist now remain. There is a fresco by him in the church of the SS. Annunziata, and a Vir^nn and Child m the Uffizi. Baldovinetti died in 1499. ^^^ was buried in San Lorenzo at Florence. GiuUano d'Arrigo Giuochi, called Pesello, was born in 1367. There is great confusion as regards this artist and his grandson Francesco Pesellino ; and very little has been ascertained of him. He is known to have been a great animal-painter ; and is said to have kept all kinds of creatures, wild as well as tame, in his house in order to be able to paint from nature. No certain work remains by him, but Sir Charles Eastlake considered that the Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi— if by either— was by the elder Pesello. Giuliano died in 1446 (?). Francesco di Stefano called Pesellino, the grandson of the above-mentioned Giuliano Pesello. was born at Florence in 1423. His father died before he was five years old, and he was consequently brought up by his grandfather. He is said to have been the scholar of Fra Filippo Lippi whose style he greatly copied. No signed work by this artist has yet been discovered, and very few authenticated pictures by him now remain. Two paintings, illustrating the Triumph of David, in the Palazzo Torrigiano at Florence, are attributed to him ; and a Predella by him is in the Casa Buonarroti at Florence, but his masterpiece is a Trinita in the National Gallery (No. 727), represent- ing the Eternal Father, seated, surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim, and encircled by a Nimbus. It is painted in tempera on poplar wood, in the form of a cross, and was formerly in the church of Santissima Trinith in Pistoja ; it was afterwards in Mr. Ottley's collection, and was purchased for the trustees, at the Davenport-Bromley sale. Pesellino was one of the best painters of the fifteenth century ; he died in 1457, at the early age of thirty-five. Antonio PoUajuolo was born in Florence about 1430, the exact date is uncertain. He was apprenticed to the goldsmith Bartoluccio, the step-fuher of Cihiberti ; and subsequently assisted the latter in modelling his celebrated gates for the Baptistery of San Giovanni, which were completed in 1452. Soon after this, Antonio PoUajuolo started as a goldsmith on his own account, in which capacity he became very famous. He was also celebrated as a sculptor. In 1484 he was invited by Pope Innocent VIII. to Rome, where he executed the monument of Sixlus IV., in 1493- ^-^"^^ on the death of 56 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1450. Innocent VIII. he also erected one to that pope. Both tombs still exist in St. Peter's. We know that Pollajuolo made his will in 1496, died in 1498, and was buried in San Pietro in Vinculis. It was not till late in life that Antonio took to painting, when he executed several important works in conjunction with his younger brother Pietro ; they excelled especially in knowledge of anatomy, and Vasari tells us that they were the first who had recourse to dissection for the purpose of art ; their works are mostly remarkable for muscular action, as may be seen in the Hcrades overcoming the Hydra and tlit T)cat/i of Afitcms both in the Uffizi. It is difficult to determine the work of one brother from that of the other ; a masterpiece, which is usually attributed to Antonio alone, is the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, in the National Gallery (No. 292). This was finished in 1475 f'^r the altar of the Pucci chapel in the church of San Sebastiano de' Servi at Florence, and was purchased of the Marchese Pucci in 1857. This is supposed to be one of the first Italian pictures painted in oil, but though not tempera, the vehicle is not that which was used by the Van Eycks. Two other pictures by Antonio Pollajuolo are in the National Gallery. The Virgin adoring the Infant Christ (No. 296), formerly ascribed to Ghirlandajo, was originally in the possession of the Contugi family of Volterra, and was purchased by the trustees in 1857. The Angel Raphael acco7npanies Tobias on his journey into Media (No, 781), was formerly in the collection of Count Galli Tassi at Florence. Other pictures by this artist are in Florence and in various other public galleries on the continent. Pietro Pollajuolo, the younger brother of the above-mentioned Antonio Pollajuolo, was born at Florence in 1443. He was a pupil of Andrea del Castagno, and worked a great deal in conjunction with his brother Antonio. Pietro has only left one signed work of his own, a Coronation of the Virgin., in a church of San Gimignano. He shared with Antonio the fame of being the first to study dissection for art purposes, and of being the first Italian to abandon tempera and work in oil. The date of Pietro's death is uncertain, — it was before 1496. Andrea Verrocchio, who was born at Florence in 1432, was a goldsmith, sculptor, architect, carver, painter, and musician. He first made himself famous as a goldsmith, both in Florence and Rome ; then he turned his attention to sculpture, and became, according to Baldinucci, a pupil of Donatello ; in this branch of art he became most famous, especially for his equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleone at Venice. There is only one certain painting by Verrocchio, the Baptism of Christ, in the Accademia of Florence. It is related that he asked his pupil, Leonardo da Vinci, to paint an angel in this picture, and that Avhen it was completed he was so disgusted with his own work that he gave up painting and confined himself to sculpture. Vasari mentions many designs and cartoons by Verrocchio, but it is difficult to determine what is really his work or that of Leonardo da Vinci, and it may be that many now attributed to the latter are by the former. Paintings in various public galleries have been ascribed to Ghirlandajo, Pesello, the PoUajuoli, Lorenzo di Credi, and Leonardo, thus showing that there must have been great similarity in the styles of these artists. Andrea Verrocchio died at Venice in 1488, of a cold he caught in casting his celebrated statue of Colleone. His body was removed by Lorenzo di Credi to Florence, and was placed in the vault of Michele di Clone in the church of Sant' Ambrogio ; over the vault is the following inscription : " S. Michaelis de Cionis et Suorum et Andr^ Verrocchi, filii Dominici Michaelis, qui obiit Venetiis mcccclxxxviii." Among Verrocchio's scholars may be A.D. 1500.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 57 mentioned, besides Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and Lorenzo di Credi, painters ; Nanni C.rosso and Francesco di Simone, sculptors. Cosimo Rosselli, who was bom at Florence in 1439, was instructed in art by Nerodi Bici, to whom he .was sent when fourteen years old. He remained with this master till 1456, in which year he painted his celebrated picture representing the Removal of a Minulc-u>orking Chalice from the Church to the episcopal Palace, in a chapel in the Church of Sant' Ambrogio at Florence. In 1480, he, with numerous other celebrated jjainters, was invited to decorate the chapel — now known as the Sistine — in the Vatican ; the Pope offering a prize for the most successful designs. Conscious of his inability to cope with his more renowned and more skilful competitors, among whom may be mentioned Ghirlandajo, Signorelli, and Perugino, and ecjually conscious of the Pope's ignorance of art, Rosselli loaded his pictures with high colours and ornamentations, which would be likely to please the eye of one who merely desired decorations for his chapel, and thus gained the prize. Rumohr observes that Rosselli at first adhered to the style of Fra Angelico and Masaccio, but, after a few examples of his brilliant ability, he forsook the study of those masters and of nature for a lifeless and unpleasing mannerism. The frescoes in the Sistine chapel still exist; of these the Sermon on the Mount is undoubtedly the best. Those from the Life of Moses and tlie Last Supper are very inferior. Rosselli made his will in 1506 ; after that year, nothing more has been recorded of him. There is a picture by Rosselli in the National Gallery (No. 227), St. Jerome in the Desert, with various saints. It was formerly an altar- piece in the Ruccellai chapel, in the church of the Fremiti di San Girolamo at Fiesole. It was purchased of Conte Ricasoli, of Florence. Luca d'Egidio di Ventura, called Luca Signorelli, and sometimes Luca da Cortona, was born at Cortona in 1441 (?) — some writers say in 1439. He was a pupil of the celebrated Pietro della Francesca, with whom he worked at Arezzo in 1472. Luca was one of the competitors for the prize offered by Pope Sixtus IV. for paintings in the Sistine Chapel in 1480, and his History of Moses is worthy of great praise. In 1484 he returned to Cortona, which he afterwards made his home. His native city still possesses several of 'his works ; a Deposition from the Cross, and a Last Supper are in the Cathedral. In 1484 Luca painted the altar-piece in the Cappella Sant' Onofrio in the Cathedral of Perugia ; it represents a Madonna enthroned with saints. The design, though hard, is full of power, and displays a beautiful conception of the subject ; this picture may justly be considered one of Signorelli's masterpieces. In Siena he painted frescoes in the Convent of Monte Uliveto and in the Petrucci Palace. In Volterra altar-pieces by his hand still exist. The most famous of all Signorelli's paintings are the frescoes of the Last Judgment in the chapel of San Brizio in the Cathedral of Orvieto. This great work was commenced in 1447 by Fra Angelico, who executed the figure of Christ and the attendant saints and angels. After waiting a considerable time for Perugino, the authorities engaged Signorelli to finish it. By the contract, which is dated April 5th, 1499, Signorelli undertook to complete the ceiling for 200 ducats and the walls for Coo ducats, besides free lodgings and two measures of wine, and two quarters of corn per month. The ceiHng was finisheil in 1500, but the date of the completion of the walls is not known, though, judging from the time Signorelli took to execute the ceiling, it was i)robabIy about 1503. Tlie frescoes comprise the History of the Antichrist; the Resurrection of the Dead; ILll and Paradise. Great power and vigour are ilisplaycd in these i\ainlings, especially in the naked figures and the I 58 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. foreshortening. Vasari says that Michelangelo always admired Signorelli's works, and that he adopted some of his inventions in regard to forms of angels and demons. He also tells us that Signorelli was a man of high and noble character and was '^'^f ^l i' TllK MADONNA KNTllRUNED. AN AL'l'AR-PlECE— BY LUCA SIGNORELLI. Ill the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. respected and beloved by all. Signorelli was still living in 1524; the exact date of his death is not known. Sandro Filipepi, called Botticelli, from the name of a goldsmith to whom he was at fust ai)prcnticed, was bora at Florence in 1447. He was afterwards a scholar of Fra ^ SAXDRO F I LI PEP I. (Botticelli.) /•; -, SS. A.D. i^oo.l FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 5<) Filippo, whose style, to some extent, he copied. Between 1480 and 1484 Botticelli painted in the chapel of the Vatican — afterwards known as the Sistine Chapel — for Pope Sixtus IV., frescoes illustrating the Life of Moses anil the Temptation of Christ. Twenty-eight figures of the Popes, between the windows, are also by this artist. The Madonna and Child with angels in the UHizi is attributed to the early part of his life ; the angels are supposed to represent members of the Medici family. Botticelli's pictures are especially noticeable for the natural expression given to the faces. Among his most imj)ortant works may be mentioned, the Venus and the Calumny of Apelles in the Uffizi : an allegory of Spriu}:;, and a Coronation of the Virgin in the Accademia ; and an Adoration of the Kint^s, painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, in wliich the kings were ])ortraits of Cosmo, Giuliano, and Giovanni de' Medici. Botticelli illustrated Dante's ' Inferno,' and attempted to engrave his designs : how many he did is not exactly known, but those which are attributed to him are not worthy of so great a painter. Three pictures, in tempera, rejjresenting the Afadonna and Child — of which subject he jjainted a great number — are in the National Gallery (Nos. 226, 275, and 7S2). Botticelli died in great poverty at Florence in 1515 (Vasari says 1510), and was buried in the church of the Ognissanti. Domenico Corradi, called Ghirlandajo, from the flxct that his flither, a goldsmith, was famous for his garlands — made either of hair or silver for the adornment of the Florentine women — was born at Florence in 1449. It was at first intended that he should follow his father's business, but the ability he displayed in drawing the portraits of passers-by, induced his fother to apprentice him to Alessio Baldovinetti. In 1480 Domenico executed some frescoes in the Vespucci Chapel of the Ognissanti, which were whitewashed over in 1616 ; a fresco of St. Jerome in the nave, and a Last Supper in the refectory, executed in the same year, are still in existence. In the Palazzo \'ecchio at Florence is a i)icture of St. Zenohio enthroned., and two other saints. On the invitation of Pope Sixtus IV., Ghirlandajo left Florence and went to Rome, to compete in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. He painted there the Calling of Peter and Andre^o, undoubtedly superior to the productions of his fellow-workers in point ot c omposition ; and the Resurrection of Christ, which has been greatly injured and very badly restored. In 14S5 he had finished the frescoes of the Life of St. Francis in the Sassetti Chapel in the Trinity Florence. In 1490 Ghirlandajo was employed to replace the damaged frescoes of Orcagna in the choir of Santa Maria Novella, and he there illustrated the Life of the Virgin :ind oi John the Baptist. In the picture representing the Birth of the Virgin, he has introduced the portrait of a celebrated Florentine beauty, Ginevra de' Benci, attired in a magnificent dress. As portraiture was the first branch of art which Cihirlandajo attempted, so was it the branch in which he excelled. He was especially fond of putting portraits of his contemporaries — not as actors but as spectators — into his pictures ; Kugler compares them to the chorus in the Greek tragedies. Ghirlandajo also excelled in mosaics, though little that he did remains to this day. He will always be famous as the master of the celebrated painter and sculptor Michelangelo. He died in 1498, or probably a little earlier. Frescoes executed by Ghirlandajo are in the chajjcl of San Fina at San Gimignano, between Florence and Rome ; and pictures by him are in various ])ul)lic galleries; an Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, an Adoration of the Shepherds — in which a sarcophagus does duty for a crib — and one other, in the Florentine .Xcadeniy ; a Visitation in the Louvre, and others in the Dresden and Munich galleries and in private collections. 6o ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. Filippino Lippi was born at Florence in 1460, Some writers think this is too late a date. He was the son, either by birth or by adoption, of Fra Filippo Lippi, from whom he takes his name. On the death of the Frate in 1469, Filippino became the scholar of Sandro Botticelli. In 1480, he painted the Vision of St. Bernard in the Eadia at Florence. In 1485 he was employed to complete the frescoes — left unfinished by Masolino and Masaccio — in the Brancacci Chapel in the Church del Carmine in Florence, where he also painted St. Paul before Nero, the Crucifixion of St. Peter., and St. Peter liberated f'om Prison. In 1492 Filippino visited Rome and painted, for Cardinal Caraffa, frescoes illustrating the Glorification of the Madonna and of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Cappella Caraffa, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Returning to Florence from Rome, he painted the Histories of the Apostles John and Philip in the Strozzi Chapel of Santa Maria Novella. There are three pictures by Filippino in the National Gallery. The Virgi7i and Child (No. 293) painted for the Ruccellai Chapel in the church of San Pancrazio at Florence ; purchased of Cavahere Giuseppe Ruccellai. The Adoration of the Magi (No. 592) formerly in the possession of the Marchese Ippolito Orlandini, of Florence ; purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection; and a St. Francis in Glory (No. 598), formerly in the collection of the Marchese Giovanni Costabili at Ferrara, from which it was pur- chased. In the National Gallery, a reputed Portrait of Masaccio (No. 626), said to be by Masaccio himself, is considered by Mr. Wornum and other writers to be the work of Filippino ; as also is another so-called Portrait of Masaccio in the Uffizi. Filippino, though not equal to Fra Filippo in the higher qualities of art, surpassed him in general details ; he followed more closely the style of Botticelli than that of the Frate. His pictures are especially to be noticed for the richness of their architecture and drapery. Fihppino Lippi died at Florence, April 13th, 1505. Raffaellino Capponi, called del Garbo (the graceful), was born at Florence in 1466. He was at first a pupil of Filippino Lippi, but later in life studied the styles of Michel- angelo and Raphael ; in these, however, he was not so fortunate, for his later works do not possess the charm and beauty of his earlier productions. Among his best paintings are, a Madowia and Child, attended by two angels, a very graceful and pleasing work, in the Berlin Museum, where there are four other pictures by him ; a Resurrectiori in the Florentine Academy ; and a Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre. He also executed paintings on the ceiling of the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva at Rome, but these are in his latter style. Raffaellino died in 1524. Francesco Granacci was born at Florence in 1469. He was a fellow-pupil with Michelangelo in the studio of Ghirlandajo, and was much attached to the former, whose style he at first greatly imitated. Granacci was one of those artists who went to Rome to assist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, but when the master, finding he could not manage to get on with his assistants, shut both the door of the chapel and of his own house against them, Granacci was justly incensed. Not many pictures by this artist remain ; there are some in the Pitti, the Uffizi, and the Accademia at Florence, Berlin, Munich, and elsewhere. Granacci died in 1543. 4 ^ *ife;s*^ CORONATION OK I'lIK VIKGI.V. By Sanpro Bjrricm.i; /»* tit Uffiti Catttry, FUrtm,. A.D. 1350.] BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. 61 CHAPTER V. SCHOOLS OF NORTHERN ITALY. WHILE tli£ painters and princes of Florence were, as we have seen, working together for the advancement of art and the future glory of their country, it must not be supposed that the other cities of Italy were standing by in idle amazement. At Bologna, Modena, and Parma, close by, and at Mantua, Verona, and Venice, further north, there were at the same time schools of art all emulating the Florentine, and producing masters whose names will be remembered with never-dying fame. To treat of the rise and progress of each school separately would be an endless task : the truest and best information we can give is through the lives of the more eminent men, and we will begin with those of the BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. Vitale, one of the earliest painters of the school of Bologna, was called '' iMa Madonna" from the frequency with which he painted pictures of the \'irgin. He was probably born at Bologna. There is a picture by him in the Bologna Gallery, and another in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican. Vitale was an artist of second-rate ability. He painted between 1320 ami 1345- Lippo di Dalmasio also earned the title of '' lic/hi Madonna" from the number of pictures he painted of the \irgin and Child. He was a scholar of Vitale, and painted with great tenderness and care. One of Dalmasio's best works is a fresco in San Procolo of Bologna. A picture by him in the National Gallery (Xo. 752), rejjresents a Madonna and Child in a circular glory with angels above ; signed " Lippus Dalmasii pinxit." It was formerly in the Ercolani Palace at Bologna and was purchased from Signer Michelangelo Gualandi, of Bologna. Malvasia tells us that Dalmasio's Madonnas were in such request and popularity, that no family was considered rich that did not possess one. Dalmasio painted, 1376-1410; in the latter year he made his will, and no further trace is to be found of him. Tommaso di Barisina da Modena has been claimed by some German writers for Bohemia, without any further grounds than the possession of some of his works. In 1357 he went to Prague, and was employed by Charles IV. to decorate his 62 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1400. castle of Carlstein, where there are still two pictures on panel by his hand. An altar-piece — which was formerly there, but which is now in the Belvedere Gallery of Vienna — representing the Virgin and Child between SS. Wenceslas and Pa/jnafii/s, patrons of Bohemia, was said to be an oil-painting, and in Van Mechel's catalogue to have been painted in 1297 ; but, though signed, it bears no date, and a recent chemical analysis has shown that it is in tempera. The picture bears the following inscription : — ■ Quis opus hoc fin-xit ? Thomas de Mutina pinxit, Quade vides lector Barisini fihus auctor. There is only one picture — in six parts — by this artist in Modena, of which city, from his signature, he is believed to have been a native ; this work has been how- ever so much damaged and restored that no opinion can be formed of it. Nothing is known regarding his birth or death. Jacopo degli Avanzi is chiefly known by a Crucifixion in the Colonna Gallery at Rome. There are three pictures in the Bologna Gallery also by this master. He painted, in conjunction with artists of no great importance, frescoes in the church of the Madonna di Mezzarata near Bologna, which Malvasia says were praised by Michelangelo and the Caracci ; they have, however, been whitewashed and afterwards restored, and only fragments of them remain. Vasari says they were completed in 1404. Marco Zoppo was born at Bologna in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. He studied with Andrea Mantegna in the school of Squarcione. He painted in the Eremitani Chapel in Padua, though what part of the frescoes attributed to Squarcione's pupils he did, is not known. A small Madonna and Child in the Manfrini Collection, Venice, is signed " Opera del Zoppo di Squarcione. Another picture representing the Madonna enthroned, in the Berlin Museum, is signed and dated " Marco Zoppo da Bologna pinsit mcccclxxi in Vinexia." A St. Dominic, in the National Gallery (No. 597), is a better specimen of Zoppo than either of the above-mentioned pictures. It was formerly in the collection of the Marchese Giovanni Costabili, at Ferrara, from vvhom it was purchased for the National Gallery. The dates of Zoppo's known works extend from 147 1 to 1498. Francesco di Marco Raibolini, commonly called Francia — from the name of the goldsmith to whom he was at first apprenticed — was born at Bologna about 1450. At first a goldsmith, engraver of medals, and director of the mint, Francia, who studied secretly under old Marco Zoppo, suddenly produced before the astonished eyes of his contemporaries an excellent painting, which he had modestly signed " Franciscus Francia aurifex." This was in 1490, when the new artist was about forty years of age. The well-merited praises he received for this picture induced him to add the profession of a painter to that of a goldsmith. There is not yet a single certain work by liim in the Louvre, though a half- length portrait of a young man clothed in black, which was till lately ascribed to Raphael, is thought by some to be by Francia ; and hence this painter has not received in France all the consideration to which he is entitled. In order to make him better known and appreciated, we do not think we could do better than quote the opinion of Raphael, who, in a letter written in 1508, compares Francia to Perugino and the Venetian Giovanni Bellini. He is indeed their equal, both from the merit of his works A.D. 1500.] BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. and also from havinjr founded a great school. Raphael had the highest opinion of Francia ; he loved liini, consulted him, and often wrote to him, and wlien he sent his St. Cici/iaio IJoloijni, modestly begged Francia to correct any defects he might find in It. It is not known on what grounds Vasari founded his assertion that the old painter rilli VIRGIN ENTIIRONKD, ATTKNDED FiV SAINTS.— BV KRANCIA. Jn the Piuacothcca, Bologtia. died of grief and jealousy on seeing the superiority of the younger man's work. Vasari was mistaken. Francia lived for sc\eral years after the arrival of the St. Ccdlia in his native town, as Malvasia, the author of the Fclsina pittiicc, has proved ; thus vindicating his illustrious fellow-citi/en from the careless accusation of the Florentine. '64 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a. d. 1400. The Pinacotheca of Bologna contains six important works by Francia, We must mention in particular a N'ativity in the manger at Bethlehem, where there are grouped around the Virgin-mother not only several angels, and some saints who lived long after the event, but also Antonio Galea Bentivoglio, the son of John 11. , who ordered the picture, and the poet Pandolfi da Casio, crowned with laurels, who, perhaps, had sung of him in his poems. We must also mention a Glorified Madonna, whose throne is surrounded by St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John the Baptist, St. Proculus the warrior, St. Sebastian, St. Monica, and a certain Bartolomeo Felicini, who had ordered the picture. It is signed " Opus Francice auriticis." It speaks more in favour of its author than the others, for it is easy to make the comparison suggested by Raphael (see woodcut). Near this picture is one by Perugino, on the same subject, a Madonna worshipped by St. Catherine, the Archangel Michael, John the Baptist, and St. Apollonius. It is one of the finest works of the much-loved master of Raphael, and was as such selected to be brought to the I.ouvre, when Italy was a province of the French empire, and conquest gave the right or the power to take from it the masterpieces of all ages. Let any one take the pains to compare attentively these two analogous works, and it will be soon allowed that Francia deserves the high renown which he has attained. According to Raphael, he formed an intermediate school between those of Florence and Venice, between Perugino and Bellini, by uniting form and colour. • The National Gallery has not only one of those G/oriJied Madonnas (No. 179) which were a favourite subject with the old master — and indeed with painters of every time — it also possesses two other works. A Dead Christ (No. 180), whose body, extended the whole length of the frame, rests on the knees of His mother, who is in the centre. Two kneeling angels fill the corners. In this picture the style and expression are admirable. And what gives it the greatest merit is, the powerful colouring, rare even in this master, who was more of a colourist than his contemporaries. This, with the Madonna men- tioned above, formed an altar-piece originally in the Buonvisi chapel of the church of San Frediano at Lucca. Also a Virgin and Child with saints (No. 638), purchased from M. Edmond Beaucousin. At Munich also there are several fine ATadonnas by Francia,' and at Dresden, among several other pictures, may be noticed a Baptism of Christ, dated 1508. Jesus only places His feet on tlie water, as He did later when calling St. Peter to Him in order to prove his faith. His figure is long and thin, as is also that of St. John, like the figures of Perugino, Bellini, Cima, and all the masters of that time. But this Baptism, a great and lofty composition, may be considered one of the best works of Raphael's old friend. Francia died at Bologna on January 6th, 1517. PADUAN SCHOOL. Giusto di Giovanni de' Menabuoi, called Padovano, or Justus of Padua, was born at Florence in the earlier half of the fourteenth century. He was a follower of Giotto, and studied the works which that master had executed in Padua, of which town Giusto was made a citizen in 1375. He is supposed to have executed several frescoes in Padua, but those in the ba])tistery of the Cathedral and in the chapel of St. Luke of the Church of Sant' Antonio, which were formerly ascribed to hiui, FRANXESCO DI MARCO RAIBOLINI. (FUANCIA.) /'.. .(-,4. A.n. 1400.] PADUAN SCHOOL. 65 are now declared to be the work of Giovanni and Antonio da Padova, two unimportant painters who were probably his pupils. Giusto died on the 29th of September, 1400. The only authentic picture by him is a triptych in the National (iallery (No. 701); it represents, in the centre, the Coronation of the Virgin, with various saints. On the interior sides of the wings, are the Birth and Crucifixion of our Lord and the Annunciation. On the exterior wings are various scenes in the Life of the Virgin until her marriage. The picture is signed at the back, "Justus pinxit in archa," and dated in the front mccclxvii. It was formerly in the Wallerstein Collection, and was [)resented to the National Gallery by Her Majesty the Queen. D'Avanzo da Verona has long been confused with Jacobo degli Avanzi of Bologna ; but the remains of an inscription in the Cappella San Giorgio point to Verona as the birthplace of d'Avanzo. He painted decorations, in conjunction with Aklighiero da Zevio, in the Cappella San Felice and the Cappella San Giorgio in the church of Sant' Antonio at Padua, in 1377. It appears that the principal frescoes in the Cappella San P'elice w^ere the work of Aldighiero ; and of those in the Cappella San Ciiorgio, which were recovered from oblivion in 1837 by Dr. E. Forster, the portion to be assigned to Aldighiero has given rise to much dispute ; but it is probable that d'Avanzo executed the principal portion. The frescoes represent the earlier part of the History of our Lord, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Crucifixion, and legends of various saints; they prove the painter to have been an artist of no common genius, and Kugler, in his admirable description of them, speaks of his art as being above that of his contemporaries. D'Avanzo also painted two triumphal processions in a public hall of Verona, which have long since perished. He died about the end of the fourteenth century. Aldighiero da Zevio was born at Ze\io, in the neighbourhood of \'erona. As is stated above, Aldighiero assisted d'Avanzo in the decoration of the chapels of SS. Felice and Giorgio at Padira. While the principal part of the frescoes in the chapel of San Giorgio is attributed to the latter, for the former are claimed the first seven pictures in the chapel of San Felice — formerly San Jacopo — illustrating the Life of St. James the Greater ; and from documents it appears that the payment for the frescoes in San Felice was made to Aldighiero. Liibke says that he displayed in his works a lively conception and a richly furnished colouring, and, indeed, with the exception of Orcagna's, his paintings, together with those of d'Avanzo, are the best productions since the time of Giotto. It is not known when this artist died. He painted as late as 1370. Francesco Squarcione, who was born at Padua in 1394, was brought up to the trade of an cmbruidorer ; but, abandoning that calling, he travelled in Greece and luily, .collecting on his route many specimens of ancient art. On his return to Padua he established a school, which was so well stocked with models that he had many pupils — it is said that he had the large number of 137 — among whom were the famous Andrea Mantegna and Marco Zoppo. He appears to have been better adapteil for imparting instruction to younger artists than for painting, and whenever he received a commission he was in the habit of giving it to his scholars to execute. It is very difficult to tell with any certainty what pictures are the work of Squarcione or of his pupils. An altar- piece in die Paduan Gallery is attributed to him. His signature on a small picture of the Madonna and Child in the Manfrini Collection, Venice, is now pronounced to be a forgery (' Handbook of Painting.' Lady Eastlake, p. 292). Squarcione died in 1474. K 66 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1450. Amono- other scholars of Squarcione we may mention Marco Pizzolo, the most important of those who painted frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel at Padua. The First Person of the Trinity, in the semi-dome of the chapel, and the Virgin supported by Cheruhim, on the apsis, are attributed to him by Vasari : according to the same authority he perished while yet young in a street brawl :— Bono Ferrarese, who has signed his name to the St. Christopher hearing the Infant Christ in these frescoes. A St. Jerome in the Desert, in the National Gallery (No. 771), signed " Bonus Ferariensis Pisani Discipulus " — thus showing that he was a pupil of Vittore Pisano — was formerly in the Costabili Gallery, Ferrara, and was purchased from the collection of Sir Charles Eastlake in 1867. The only known date of Bono's painting is 1461, when he was eno-ao-ed on work in the Cathedral of Siena. His style partakes ^■ery much of that of his fellow-pupil Mantegna : — and Gregorio Scliiavone, a native of Dalmatia ; a signed picture by him is in the Berlin Museum. Another is in the National Gallery (No. 630), it represents the Madonna and Child enthroned with various saints ; and is signed " Opus Sclavoni, Disipuli Squarcioni, S." It was formerly in the Dennistoun Collection, and was purchased at Paris from M. Beaucousin. Schiavone painted about 1470. Andrea Mantegna, whose work and fome render him almost equal to Giotto, allowing for the century and a half between them, was born near Padua in 1431. He was, like Giotto, a shepherd in his childhood ; afterwards, under the lessons of the old Squarcione, almost as precocious as Raphael under Perugino. After his marriage with the sister of the Bellini, he joined the primitive Venetian school, and by his works exercised a happy influence over the schools of Milan, Ferrara, and Parma. Ariosto was right in mentioning him among the three great names in painting, of the period immediately preceding Raphael. Mantegna has left numerous works in the principal towns of Italy. Three of the most important of these are in the Tribune of Florence, an Adoration of the Kings, a Circumcision, and a Resurrection. The museum of Naples possesses his St. Euphemia, which is considered his master- piece. However, in order to dwell a little on the qualities and style of Mantegna, we prefer to select those of his works whicli are to be found in the Louvre. There are four of these : first, a Calvary, painted in distemper, perhaps before he had adopted the processes of the Fleming Jan van Eyck, which were not generally employed in Italy until the middle of the fifteenth century. This conjecture seems probable, if we consider that Mantegna painted the high altar of Santa Sofia of Padua when eighteen years of age — the same age at which Raphael produced his Sposalizio — and as his biographers declare, was admitted into the corporation of painters of Padua at the age of ten, as Lucas Dammesz was at Leyden. This Calvary shows great firm- ness in the drawing, and a deep expression of sadness. The soldier who is seen in the foreground is thought to be a portrait of Mantegna himself. Next comes the Vierge a la Victoire, a beautiful Christian allegory in honour of the Marquis of Mantua, Francesco Gonzaga, who could not, however, even with the help, of the Venetians, stop the passage or the return of tlie French troops under Charles VIII. He was the zealous protector of the painter, and was repaid in flattering praises during his life, and eternal fame after his death. This picture, intended for the church of Santa Maria deila Vittoria, which was built on plans furnished by Mantegna, who practised all the arts, was painted in distemper, according to Vasari, by whom he is mentioned with praise. Now, as this Vierge a la Victoire cannot be anterior to the retreat of the French in 1495, it is evident that Mantegna returned by taste and voluntary choice to the old ;oo.] FERRAKESE SCHOOL. 67 Byzantine i)rocesses. This is curious, and shows us how it h:. 1500.] VERONESE SCHOOL. 69 village in the territory of Verona. He was both a medallist and a painter, and was especially celebrated as the former. He painted in the Council Hall in Ferrara ; and in St. John Lateran at Rome he executed frescoes with Gentile da Fabri:ino, whose uncompleted works he finished ; but these specimens of his art have all perished. A {^\s works by Pisano are still preserved in Verona, but his best work e.xtant is in the National Gallery (No. 776). It represents St. Antony and St. George, the former with his pig — here represented as a boar — and the latter with his horse and the vamjuishcd dragon at his feet ; above is a vision of the Virgin and Child in a glory. This picture is believed to have been painted for Leonello d'Este, of Ferrara ; it was formerly in the Costabili Collection, and was presented to the National Gallery by Lady Fiisilakc in 1867. Pisano is said to have been a pupil of Doinenico Veneziano, but little is known of his life with certainty. He was a good animal painter, and his works were highly prized in Ferrara even in his own time. He died about 145 1. Bartolommeo Montagna was a native of l>rescia. He is first heard of as a painter in Vicenza about 1470. An altar-piece in the Brera, representing the MaJonmi and Child enthroned., with saints and angels, is one of liis best works. There are many pictures by him still extant, chiefly in Italy. Among the galleries which possess his works we may mention the Venice Academy, the Vicenza Gallery, and the Louvre. Late in life he visited Padua, some of the churches of which town possess specimens of his art. Montagna died in 1523. He left a son, Benedetto Montagna, who was, however, far inferior to him as an artist. A signed j)icture by him is in the Brera; dated 1528. Benedetto Montagna was also renowned as an engraver. VERONESE SCHOOL. Liberale was born at Verona in 145 1. He was at first a miniaturist, but afterwards adopted oil-painting. He imitated Jacopo Bellini and Mantegna, and it is believed .that he painted part, at least, of some pictures attributed to the latter. He attained to no great merit as an oil-painter, though some of his miniatures were fiiirly executed. Liberale died in 1536. Francesco Bonsignori — erroneously called by Vasari Monsignori — was born at Verona in 1455. He was a pujjil of Mantegna at Mantua. Specimens of his painting are to be seen at Mantua, Verona, both in the Museum and in San Fermo, and in the Br6ra at Milan. Bonsignori was a good portrait painter, and was especially famous for the correctness of his architectural perspective. It is said he painted animals with such truth to nature, that they occasionally deceived other animals, whence he obtained the name of the " Modern Zeuxis." Bonsignori died at Caldiero, near Verona, in 15 19. A portrait of a Venetian Senator (No. 736) by this artist in the National Gallery, is signed and dated, " Franciscus Bonsignorius Veronensis P. 1487." It was formerly in the Cappello Museum in Venice; and was purchased at Verona, from Dr. Cesare Bernasconi. Giovanni Francesco Carotto, who was born at Verona in 1470, was first apprenticed to Liberale, but afterwards painted with Mantegna in Mantua. His style did not partake much of tliai of his masters ; he is especially noted for the warmth of his 70 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. colouring. Works by him are in the Modena Gallery ; in the Berlin Museum ; in tlie churches and in the galleries of Verona; and in Mantua. Carotto died in 1546. Francesco Morone was born at Verona in 1474. He was the son of Domenico Morone, a painter of little note, who instructed him in the art of painting. Francesco has left works of considerable importance in the Church of Santa Maria in Organis, Verona. A Virgin and Child by him in the Brera is dated 1504. Another Madonna and Child., signed " Franciscus Moronus Pinxit," is in the Berlin Museum. Morone was chiefly famous for his portraits. He died at Verona in 1529. In the National Gallery is a Madonna and Child (No. 285) by this artist; it was purchased from Baron Galvagna at Venice : it has been attributed to Pellegrino da San Daniele, and to Girolamo dai Libri, but it is undoubtedly the work of Francesco Morone. Girolamo dai Libri was born at Verona in 1472. His father was an illuminator of manuscripts, whence he derives his only known surname dai Libri. He was brought up as a miniaturist, and was one of the best painters in Verona at that time. In San Giorgio Maggiore there is a Madonna enthroned., signed, and dated 1526. Two altar-pieces by him are in the Verona Gallery. A Afadonna and Child is in the Berlin Gallery ; and a Madonna., Infant Christ, and St. Anna, is in the National Gallery (No. 748), signed " Hieronymus a Libris, F," it was formerly in Santa Maria della Scala, in Verona; it was purchased from the Counts Monga of that town. Girolamo died at Verona in 1555. Paolo Moranda, called Cavazzuola, was born at Verona in i486. His best picture is a series of five subjects from the Passion of our Lord in the Verona Gallery. His last work, painted in the year of his death, is also in the same gallery — it represents the Virgin and Saints. There are two pictures by him in the National Gallery, St. Roch with the Angel {^o. 735), signed " Paulus Moradus, V.P." It is recorded as having been dated mdxviii^ but the last five figures have been obliterated ; it was formerly over the Cagnoli altar in the church of Santa Maria della Scala, afterwards in the Caldana Gallery, Verona; it was purchased from Dr. Cesare Bernasconi. And the. Madonna and Child (No. 777), with St. John the Baptist and an Angel^ signed " Paulus, V. P." (V, P. = Veronensis Pinxit) : purchased at Verona from Count Portalupi. Moranda died at Verona, in 1522, at the early age of thirty-six. MILANESE SCHOOL (INCLUDING THE SCHOOL OF CREMONA). Altobello Melone was a native of Cremona^, who painted in the style of Bocaccino. He executed frescoes in the Cathedral of Cremona representing the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt, which have been greatly praised by Vasari and other writers ; the latter is dated 15 17. A Christ and the Disciples going to Emmaus (No. 753) is in the National Gallery, it was formerly in the Carmelite church of San Bartolomeo at Cremona ; and was purchased, at Milan, from Count Carlo Castelbarco, in whose collection there is a picture under the name of Raphael attributed by some to Melone. Vicenza Foppa was a native of Foppa, in the province of Pavia. The first we hear A.D. 1500.] MILANESE SCHOOL. -, of him is, that, in 1456, he executed some frescoes at Milan, which have now perished. A St. Jerome and a Crucifixion in the Carrara Academy, Berfjamo, are by him, as are also a St. Sebastian in the Brera — a portion of a much larger fresco — and a Virion ami C/ii/it, dated 1485 ; there is also an altar-piece by him in the catliedral of Savona. Foppa painted chietly at Milan. He died at Brescia in 1492, and was buried in the church of San Barnaha of that town. Foppa left a son, Vicenza, who was also an artist. Bernardo Zenale was born at Treviglio (?) in 1436. He worked conjointly with Bernardo Buttinone— an artist of no great merit — in the cloisters of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan, and also in tlie catheilral of Treviglio. A Afai/onna, by Zenale alone, is in the Brera. He died in 1526, and was buried in that church at Milan, which he had helped to adorn. Andrea da Solario, or Andrea da Milano, was born at Solario, near Milan, about 145S. He is believed to have been a pupil of Leonardo. In 1509 he was summoned, to France by Cardinal d'Amboise, for whom he worked at (Jaillon for twenty sous a ilay : the frescoes that he executed in the chapel of the Castle perished during the Revolution of 1793. A portrait of Charles iV Avihoise, by Andrea, in the Louvre, long passed under the misnomer of " Leonardo da Vinci," till the late Mr. Miindler corrected the error. A picture, called Le Coussin W-rt, and a Crucifixion, by Andrea, are in the same gallery. He returned to Italy, and, in 15 15, or a little later, he was commissioned to jxiint an altar-piece rei)resenting the Assumption of the Virgin, for the Certosa at Pavia ; he, however, only lived to complete part of this work. In the Casa Poldi at Milan there are several works by his hand. A St. John the Baptist, dated 1499 ; and a Madonna and Child, signed "Andreas Solario Mediolanensis, 15 15." In the National Gallery (No. 734) there is a portrait of Giovanni Christophoro Longono, a Milanese nobleman, signed '* Andreas D. Solario, F. 1505"; purchased from Signor Giuseppe Baslini, of Milan ; and a Portrait of a Venetian Painter, recently acquired. Bartolommeo Suardi, was called Bramantino : it is supposed, from the fact that he studied under Bramante, the architect, whom he accompanied to Rome about 1495. There he painted for Pope Julius II. a series of portraits in the Vatican, which the Pope afterwards destroyed to make way for Raphael's J/Zn/rA' ' in the church to that Saint between Spoleto and Foligno. Lo Spagna died in 1533. In the National Gallery are two pictures by this artist : the Glorification of the Virgin (No. 282), formerly in the Ercolani Collection at Bologna ; and an Ecce Homo (No. 691), bequeathed by Lieut.-Gen. Sir W. Moore. In the earlier i)art of his life Lo Spagna adopted the style of his master Perugino, but afterwards imitated closely the works of his fellow-pupil Raphael, so closely that various works by his hand have been ascribed to the great artist : among these Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle include the altar-piece called the Ancajani Raphael in the Berlin Museum. Domenico di Paris Alfani, who was born at Perugia in 14S3, was a i)ui)il of Perugino. His earliest known picture representing the Madonna and Child, with SS. Gregory and Nicholas, is in the Collegio Gregoriano at Perugia, it is dated 1518. In 152 1 he painted an altar-piece in the Cathedral of Citta della Pieve. In 1553 Domenico painted, in conjunction with his son Orazio, a Crucifixion for San Francesco at Perugia. Father and son were so much in the habit of i)ainting in conjunction, that it is difficult to ascertain, with any certainty, the authorship of works ascril)ed to both. (.)ne of the best of the disputed ones is a Holy Family in the tribune of the Uffizi. Domenico was a great admirer of Rai)hael. It is believed that he died in 1553. Orazio di Paris Alfani, son of the above-mentioned Domenico, was born at Perugia in 15 10. His renown was greater than that of his father, in conjunction with whom, as we have before stated, he frequently worked. There are many paintings by this artist in Perugia, both in the gallery and in the churches. A Marriage of St. Catherine in the Louvre (No. 26), dated 1548, is attributed to him. Orazio is celebrated as having been the first president of the Academy of Perugia, which was founded in 1573. He died at Rome in 15S3. So ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1400. CHAPTER VII. VENETIAN SCHOOL.- FIFTEENTH CENTURY. AFTER the general glance that we have taken in the preceding chapters, at the origin of painting in Italy till the time of the Renaissance, and the formation of the different schools, we shall not have to go back very far in the history of the one of which we are now treating. We have already spoken of the old mosaicists of the eleventh and twelfth centuries who succeeded in turning Venice into an oriental and Byzantine town. It will be sufficient now to mention a few of the more important artists who helped to form the school of Venice in the fifteenth century. Niccol6 Semitecolo may be called the first painter of the early Venetian School, whose works are known to us. There is a large altar-piece in the Venetian Academy by him, signed and dated 135 1. It represents scenes from the Life of the Virgin. Another altar-piece representing the Life of St. Sebastian, dated 1367, is in the Chapter House of the Padua Cathedral. Semitecolo was living in 1400. His style of painting bore no trace of the after-glory of the Venetian School. Gentile di Niccolo di Giovanni Massi, known as Gentile da Fabriano^ was born at Fabriano in the Marc of Ancona about 1370 — probably a little earlier. His father instructed him in physical and mathematical sciences, and then placed him under Allegretto di Nuzio to study painting. Gentile executed many frescoes in Gubbio, Orvieto, Florence and Siena. In 1423 he painted a Madonna for the Cathedral of Orvieto, and in the register of that Cathedral he is called — " Egregius Magister Magistrorum." In the same year he painted at Florence d.n Adoration of the Kings, for the Sacristy of Santa Trinita, which is now in the Academy of that city. But his master-piece, according to Vasari, with the exception of two fragments — repre- senting four saints^s now lost; it was painted in 1425, and was an altar-piece of the Virgi7i in the church of San Niccolo at the gate of San Miniato ; the fragments are still in that church. Gentile was much renowned for his painting both at Venice and Rome. The Senate of the former city presented him with the patrician toga, and he received also a pension for life for his painting in the council-chamber, the I'ictoiy of the Venetians over the feet of Barbarossa in 1177. This work perished in the sixteenth century through neglect. At Rome he painted frescoes from the Life of John the Baptist in San Giovanni in Eaterano, and a fresco of the Madonna and Child in Santa Maria Nuova ; these works have also perished. It was the fresco in Santa A.u. 1450] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 81 Maria Nuova whicli ciuised Michelangelo to say " aveva la niano simile al nome." (ientile was one of the best artists of his time, and his painting was especially to be admired for its colouring and execution. He was exceedingly fond of the use of gold in his paintings, dentile's most famous scholar was Jacopo Bellini, to whose son he stood godfather. He left wTitings on art matters, but it is believed that they have perished, (lentile died about the year 1450 at Rome, and was buried in Santa P>ancesca. Jacopo Bellini was born at \'enice about 1405. He was a i)upil of Gentile da l-abriano, whom he accompanied to Florence in 1422 ; and who, as we have already stated, stood godfather to his first child. Though an excellent painter, Jacopo is chiefly known as the father of the renowned Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and as the father-in-law of the celebrated Mantegna. Only two — much injured -- panel-pictures by Jacopo remain to us. They both represent the Madotnia and C/iiU ; one is in the collection of Count Tadini at Lovere, the other is in the .-\ccademia at Venice (No. 443). There are frescoes by him still extant in Verona ; he also worked for some time at I'adua. Jacopo excelled in jjortrait-jxiinting, and among those who sat to him we may mention Lusignano, king of Cyprus, and the Doge Comaro. Jacopo's fome as an artist rests chiefly on his sketth-l)ook, which is now in the British Museum. It is signed and dated ''Venice 1480," and contains specimens of every- thing that one could suggest as being useful to a painter, from the minutest object of still life to the grand and majestic study of the human frame. In this sketch book are many subjects from the Old and New Testament, intermingled with studies of mytho- logy and scenes from country-life : they are executed with the pencil and tinted with tifra vcrde, but unfortunately are very imperfect. Jacopo Bellini died about 1470. Michael Giambono was born at Venice about the beginning of the fifteenth century. An altar-piece representing Christ and four Saints is now in the Venetian Academy. He also executed mosaics in the Cappella de' Mascoli in St. Mark's, Venice, repre- senting the Life of tlie Virgin. Giambono's painting was remarkable for its depth and softness of colouring. He died about 1450. Antonello degli Antonj, called Antonello da Messina, who was born at Messina about 141 4, is chiefly famous as having been the first to introduce the method of oil-painting into Italy. His father Salvadore, who was also a painter, after instructing him for some time in his art, sent him to Rome to complete his studies : thence he went to Palermo, and then returned to Messina. After a short stay in his native town, Antonello went to Naples, where he saw the Adoration of the Magi by Jan Van Eyck (now lost), which had been sent to Alphonso V., King of Naples, about the vear 1442. This picture produced such an impression on Antonello that, abandoning every other thought, he set out for Flanders. Vasari relates that he there cultivated the friendship of Giovanni da Bruggia, which has been usually taken as meaning Jan Van Eyck ; but this is not possible, for Van Eyck died in 1441 — a year before Antonello saw the Adoration of the Magi at Naples. Mr. AVeale, of Bruges, has suggested that as Hans Memling — who did not die until 1499 — was also known as Giovanni da Bruggia, Vasari might have referred to him. Anyhow, it is certain that Antonello did learn the secret of oil-painting in Flanders. After a short stay in that country, where he acquired the habit of excessive finish and minute attention to detail, he returned to Messina. In the year 1473 1*^ removed to Venice, where he eventually died about 1496. .M ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1450- That Antonello imparted to Domenico Veneziano the secret of oil-painting has been doubted. Among the best-known pictures of Antonello we may mention : the Salvator Mwidi (No. 673) in the National Gallery, signed and dated 1465— purchased at Genoa of Cavahere Isola ; a Portrait in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, dated 1474; a Portrait in the Louvre, dated 1475; ^ Crucifixion, in the Ertborn Gallery, Antwerp, also 1474; a Portrait in the Berlin Museum; a Triptych, \\\ San Gregorio at IVIessina, dated 1473, probably the last picture which the artist painted in that town ; and a Dead Christ, in the Belvedere, Vienna. Antonello's painting was a curious blending of the styles of Italy and Flanders : generally speaking, his portraits were far superior to his religious subjects. Gentile Bellini, born at Venice in 142 1, was a solitary painter, a traveller, who, strictly speaking, had no pupils, and who did not make art his profession. He even limited himself to anecdotal painting, a kind for which his travels afforded him ample material. It is known that he passed several years of his life at Constantinople, whither, in spite of the curse of the Prophet against every image of a living person, he had been called after the conquest by Mahomet II., who employed him in numerous works. It was to him, it is said, that the alarming adventure occurred, to see a slave decapitated at the order of the sultan, who wished to show the painter, from nature, the movement of the muscles of the neck. There is, at the Louvre, a most curious work by Gentile Bellini, the Reception of a Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople, which represents, with scrupulous fidelity and remarkable talent, the scenes, costumes, and manners, in the nev.- capital of the Ottomans. Two composi- tions of the same kind have also been secured by the museum at Venice. These are of two miracles, in which, by means of the relics of the Holy Cross, he had been preserved during the course of his life ; the one on the Square of St. Mark, the other on the Great Canal. Gentile was very old when he painted them, yet they are as interesting for the manner in which they are executed as for their subject. They are still true pages of history, and serve as records of his time. Gentile Bellini died in 1507. Giovanni Bellini, the true founder of the Venetian School, was born at Venice in 1426. He had received his lessons from his father, Jacopo Bellini, a disciple of old Gentile da Fabriano, surnanied Magister magistronim ; but, according to Borghini and Ridolfi, by obtaining admittance, under the disguise of a patrician, to the studio of Antonello of Messina, who had then returned from Flanders, and by seeing him prepare his colour, he discovered the secret of oil-painting. Giovanni Bellini was in his youth the master of Carpaccio and Cima, who both retained his earliest style ; afterwards in his maturity, the great Venetians, Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto were his pupils. His painting is correct and highly finished. His marvellous patience in the representation of the smallest objects strikes one as much as the purity of his taste and his appreciation of the beautiful. A great colourist also, though somewhat timid, Belhni is in this point the leader of the school Avhich followed him ; and when in his old age he saw the beautiful effects of chiaroscuro produced by Giorgione, he learnt himself to give more warmth to his style and greater breadth to his pencil. He became the pupil of his pupil in the same way that Perugino was of Raphael. At first natural and simple like his predecessors. Belhni's style afterwards became more skilful and bold like that of his successors. There is nothing belonging to him at the Louvre, not even his portrait, because the two young men placed opposite each other in the same frame, which are assumed to be GIOVANNI AND f.KNTILH BELLINI. A.D. 1450.] VENETIAN SCHOOL. s- the Portraits of t/ic Bellini., taken by the younger, are e\ ideiUly wrongly named. The youthfuhiess of the portraits is in manifest contradiction to the style and touch which would belong to the oUl age of the painter. \'enice, happily, has collected several of the most beautiful works of Bellini. Besides a good many pictures which have remained in the churches and are for the greater part much defoced, the Academy of Fine Arts possesses five. AH are (Glorified Madonnas. One is called the Muilonna with four Saints, another the Madonna icith six Saints, like that of Cima da Conegliano. There, amidst five Christian saints, we see the old patriarch Job,— the painting having been originally executed for the now supi)ressed church of San Giobbe. It is a magnificent composition, worthy, from its noble style and beautiful execution, to be placed in the first rank of Bellini's works. " It is remarkable," M. Charles Blanc says, " that in spite of the rich, intense, and varied colouring of this picture, it yet appeals to our heart rather than to our eye. Its soft murmur soothes us in the midst of the uproar of the Venetian school." Bellini has painted none but religious pictures ; indeed, almost exclusively Madonnas, — from the one who holds the Child to her bosom, to that in which she bears on her knee the body of her dead Son, and at last shares in heaven the glory of the three persons in the Holy Trinity. One of these Madonnas is possessed by the museum of Leipsic. The Studj of Naples, however, can boast of a Transfiguration, which is an excellent as well as curious painting. This Transfiguration, in imitation of Giotto, only represents the principal episode, Jesus between Moses and Elias, rising above the group of apostles. But it gave to Raphael the idea of treating the same subject in vaster proportions, adding the people at the foot of the mountain, the child possessed with a devil, and all the details given in the gospel of Saint Matthew. In the National Gallery there are five authentic pictures by Giovanni Bellini : a Portrait of the Doge Leonardo Loredano (No. i8g) ; in it the physical decrepitude, the strong mental intelligence and inexorable obstinacy, of the founder of the State-inquisition are admirably depicted ; it was formerly in the Grimani Palace at Venice, eventually passed into the possession of Mr. Beckford, from whom it was purchased by the tiustees ; a Madonna and Child (No. 280), purchased from Baron Galvagna; Chrisfs Agony in the Garden (No. 726), purchased at the Davenport- Bromley sale; St. Peter Martyr (No. 808), purchased at Milan from Signor Giuseppe Baslini ; and the Death of St. Peter Martyr (No. 8 1 2), presented by Lady Eastlake. A ^V. Jerome in his study (No. 694), in the National Gallery, purchased from the Manfrini Gallery, Venice, is also attributed to Giovanni Bellini. The portrait of a young girl combing her hair before a mirror, by Bellini, bearing the signature ''Johannes Bellinus faciebat, mdxv," in the Belvedere at Vienna, is valuable for the rarity of its subject, Giovanni lived to an old age almost as astonishing as that of Titian; he died in 1516. Giovanni da Murano (one of the Venetian Isles), also called Alamaunus, is supposed, from the latter name, to have been a German. He worked in conjunction with Antonio da Murano of the Vivarini fiimily. They executed two pictures now in the Academy at Venice; a Coronation of the Virgin, signed and dated "Johannes et Antonius de Muriano, 1440 ;" and a Madonna and Child enthroned, signed and dated *' Gio de Aleinagna e Antonio da Murano, 1446." Several i)ictures by them are still in the ("hapel of San Zaccaria at \'cnice. Alamannus painted from 1440 till 1447, after which )car nothing is recorded of hmi. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1450- Antonio, of the family of the Vivarini, called Antonio da Murano, a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano', worked afterwards in company with Cliovannida Murano, called Alamannus. They executed jointly two works in the Venetian Academy and paintings in the Cap- pella San Zaccaria, at Venice. Antonio executed alone a picture representing SS. Peter and Jerome, now in the National Gallery (No. 768), formerly in the Zambeccari Gallery, Bologna ; purchased from Sir Charles Eastlake's Collection. After the death of Alamannus, Antonio was joined by his younger brother Bartolommeo Vivarini in 1450. Antonio was known to have been living in 1470. Bartolommeo Vivarini, also called Bartolommeo da Murano, joined his elder brother Antonio, as we have already stated, in 1450, in which year they executed the celebrated altar-piece now in the Bologna Academy. Bartolommeo is said to have painted the first oil-painting executed in Venice ; it represents St. Augiistifie enthrotied, and is now HI the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo ; it is dated 1473. in which year, it is said, Antonello came to Venice and imparted the secret which he had acquired in Flanders (see life of Antonello). A Virgin with the Child in her arms, by Bartolommeo, is in the National Gallery (No. 284). It is signed "Opus Bartolomei Vivarini de Murano;" it was originally in the Contarini Gallery, and was purchased at Venice from Conte Bernardino Carniani degl' Algarotti. The dates on Bartolommeo's pictures extend as late as 1499. There is an altar-piece by him in the Naples Gallery, and several works in various churches of Venice. < Luigi Vivarini was a younger member of the same family as Bartolommeo and Antonio Vivarini. It was supposed formerly that there were two painters of the name of Luigi ; this supposition arose from the large space of time over which the dates appended to the signature extended. But the earliest date, 141 4, has been, by many critics, declared to be a later addition and an error. Among the various pictures by Luio-i, we may mention, a Madofina enthroned, in the Berlin Gallery, St. John the Baptist and Virgin and Child enthroned, and other paintings in the Venetian Academy. He is recorded to have painted in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, but the pictures which he executed there perished by fire in 1577. Luigi Vivarini commenced an altar-piece, representing the Enthronement of St. Ambrose, for tlie church of the Frati at Venice, but died before its completion. It was afterwards finished by his pupil Marco Basaiti. Carlo Crivelli was born at Venice in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is said to have studied under Jacobello del Fiore, an early Venetian painter of whom little is known. The earliest date on any picture by Crivelli — 1468 — is on an altar- piece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa, between Macerata and Fermo (Mr. Wornum). In 1490, Crivelli received the honour of knighthood from Ferdinand II. of Naples, after which date he appends " Miles " to his signature. Among other of his pictures may be mentioned two altar-pieces, one in the Cathedral, and the other in San Domenico at Ascoli where he chiefly resided ; various works in the Brera, and also in Earl Dudley's collection, and a Pieta dated 1493, in the Oggione collection, Milan — this is one of Crivelli's best works, and is also the best known painting by his hand. In the National Gallery there are six works by this artist. The Dead Christ (No. 602), formerly in the Church of the Frati Conventual! Riformati at Monte Fiore near Fermo, purchased at Rome, from Cavaliere Vallati ; the Beato Ferretti (No. 668), purchased from Mr. A. Barker ; the Madonna and Child enthroned, with SS. Jerome and Sebastian (No. 724), formerly in the church of the Franciscans at Matelica, purchased from Conte Luigi de Sanctis. The Annunciation (No. 739), originally A.D. 1500.] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 85 in the convent of the Santissima Annunziata at AscoH, presented to the National Gallery by Lord Taunton; the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints (No. 788), an altar-piece in thirteen compartments, purchased at Paris from Mr. G. H. Phillips ; and the Madonna and Child enthroned, with SS. Francis and Sebastian (No. 807), presented by the widow of the second Marquis of Westminster. In the South Kensington Museum, on the south-east staircase, there is a Canonized Cardinal and St. Catherine., by Crivelli, bought frcm the Soulages Collection. Crivelli's painting, though somewhat hard, is especially remarkable for the beauty of its colouring. He was very fond of introducing fruit and flowers, and even animals into his pictures, which were always painted in tempera. A relation of his, Vittore Crivelli, was a very second-rate artist. Carlo Crivelli died at Florence in 1537. Marco Basaiti was born in Friuli — accortling to some writers, of Greek parentage — in the middle of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been an assistant of Luigi Vivarini, whose unfinished altar-piece in the church of the Frati at Venice he com- pleted. Among Basaiti's best works we may mention : a Dead Christ with two Saints, the Calling of SS. Peter and Andreu<, and the Agony in the Garden, which is considered his masterpiece, all in tlie Venetian Academy ; a Calling of SS. James and John, dated 1575, in the Belvedere, Vienna, and two pictures in the National Gallery, St. Jerome reading (No. 281), purchased from M. Marcovich in Venice, and the Infant Christ asleep on the lap of the Virgin (No. 599), purchased in Florence of Signor Achille Farina. Marco Basaiti was a fine colourist, and succeeded better than his contemporaries in blending his figures with the landscape backgrounds of his pictures. The dates of his paintings range from 1470 till 1520. Vittore Carpaccio was born at Venice (?) about 1450. He appears to have been the disciple of Luigi Vivarini, and reminds us, by his simple grace, his delicate touch, and his poetic feeling, both of Fra Angelico of the Italians, and of Memhng of the Flemings. He is not well known except in his own country, to which he seems to have bequeathed all his works. Amongst these are nine great pictures which depict the legend of St Ursula a fid her Companions, from the arrival of the ambassadors of the King of England to demand for his son the hand of the young and noble maiden of Cologne, to the apotheosis of the eleven thousand virgins. There is plenty of imagination in this painting, and also clearness and order. Another is on the legend of the Execution of ten thousand Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat : Carpaccio we may see was not afraid to handle vast subjects or to introduce his personages by thousands. Lastly, there is a Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, in which the old Simeon is singing his canticle between two cardinals. This is a work full of both grace and vigour : and, but for some stiffness of outline, would deserve to be compared with the most beautiful works of the school. In the Belvedere at Vienna is a fine work, Christ adored by Angels, signed, and dated 1496. In the National Gallery there is a Madonna and Child ivith saints (No. 750), a votive picture, painted for the Doge Giovanhi Mocenigo, on the occasion of the plague, in 1478 ; purchased from one of the Doge's successors. Carpaccio died about 1525. Giambattista Cima da Conegliano was born at Conegliano, near Treviso, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Referring to the name of his native town, he used to put a rabbit [co/iiglio) in some corner of his paintings. It was his signature, as Garofalo's was a gilliflower. A sense of youthful freshness in liis compositions, an almost childish symmetry, a studied correctness of drawing, a natural nobility in his heads (too small, 86 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. however, generally for the length of the body), have given him the. name of tlie Masaccio of Venetian art. A glorified Virgin called the Madonna with six Saints, a representation of the legend of St. Thomas touching the Sick, are still at Venice, to testify to his merits. But they may be recognized even at the Louvre in another picture of the Virgin, to whom Mary Magdalen is offering a vase of perfume. The rocky landscape which forms the background is a view of the country of Conegliano. There are three pictures by Iiim in the National Gallery : a Virgin and Child (No. 300) ; a Madonna (No. 634) \ and the Incredulity of St. Thomas (No. 816). Marco Marziale was a native of Florence ; the year of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, as he assisted that artist in the decora- tion of the "-reat Council Hall at Venice in 1492, for which he received payment at the rate of twenty-four ducats per annum. This artist was one of the painters of Venice who Albrecht Diirer said copied his style. Among Marziale's pictures may be mentioned : the Supper at Emmaus, signed and dated 1506, in the Venetian Academy ; a painting representing the same subject, in the Berlin Gallery, signed and dated ''Marcus March. Venetus pinxit, mdvii. ; " and two in the National Gallery: the Circumcision of the Lord (No. 803)— this picture is signed and dated 1500, and bears the " Nunc dimittis " inscribed on the arches of the chapel — it was painted for Signer Tommaso Raimondi, and placed in San Silvestro, Cremona, and was purchased for the National Gallery from Signer Giuseppe Baslini, of Milan ; and the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints (No. 804), signed and dated " Marcus Marcialis, Venetus P. mdvii. ; " this was formerly in San Gallo, Cremona, and was also purchased of Signor Baslini. The dates on Marziale's known pictures extend from 1499 to 1507, but, as we have mentioned above, it is certain that he painted as early as 1492. The date of his death is not known. Giorgio Earbarelli, called, from his handsome stature, Giorgione, was born near Castelfranco m 1477. He was a fellow-pupil of Titian with Giovanni Bellini, and quickly earned great reputation. By showing the secret of thick layers of colouring, by throwing out bright lights by means of deep shadows, bright, in short, by all the most skilful and wonderful effects of chiaroscuro, Giorgione led the whole Venetian school into the worship of colour. He became, as we have before said, the master of his master ; he was also the master of his fellow-students. Titian, among others, only surpassed him because he outlived him by more than sixty years. It was of Giorgione that the President de Brosses said with justice and truth, " I should place him as a colourist in the same rank with Michelangelo as a designer." As he died so young, and had employed himself principally in painting frescoes, either for the palace of the Doges or for the facades of edifices since destroyed (amongst others the Chamber of Commerce, called Fondaco de' Tedeschi), Giorgione has left but few works of the easel that can be strictly termed pictures. The churches and convents of Venice, so numerous and so rich in works of art, do not possess a single painting, neither does the ducal palace. The Academy of Fine Arts has only succeeded in obtaining one composition, St. Mark stilling the Tempest, and only one portrait, that of an unknown nobleman. In his own city we can best become acquainted with Giorgione at the Manfrini palace, which possesses the picture called the three portraits, so justly celebrated by Lord Byron. Florence has fared better. The Uffizi has inherited a Moses, a Judgment of Solomon, and a Mystical Allegory, as well as the portraits of a Knight of Malta, and of Eras mo da Narni, better known as A.D. 1500] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 87 Gattamelata, both of marvellous beauty and vigour. The Pitti Palace also proudly displays a Moses saved from the water, a Nymph pursued by a Satyr, and a Musical Concert, a favourite subject of tliis master, who was an excellent musician, and sought after by the Venetian nobility both as a singer and lute-player. But, in truth, perhaps Giorgione is seen to greater advantage out of Italy than even at Venice or Florence itself In Spain, for instance, he can be much better understood and admired. His picture of David hi/ling Goliath, which is now in the Museo del Rey, exhibits that boldness and ease so entirely Venetian, of which he had given the first example. But all the (jualities of this great master are .still more brilliantly shown in a picture brought from the Kscurial, to which we can give no other name than a Family Portrait. In front of a gentleman in complete armour, who seems, like Hector, to be setting out for the war, a lady, a second Andromache, tears herself from the caresses of a young Astyanax, to replace him in the arms of her attendant. This is the whole subject of the picture, and the half-length figures are of unknown persons. But, in its way, it delights and at the same time saddens us ; for in this magnificent work, the last exi)ression of the artist's genius, we read what Giorgione might have become, and to what height his glory might have reached, if he had had the time to be as fertile as he was bold and powerful. There are only two specimens of his best style in the Louvre : one is of a subject in which he took interest, because he was not less celebrated for his musical talents and amiable disposition than for his great genius as a painter — it is called A Rural Concert; the other is a superb Holy Family, called a St. Sebastian, because the centre group is placed between tins young martyr and a St. Catherine. These two pictures came, after passing through the galleries of the dukes of Mantua and of Charles I., by Jabach and Mazarin, to the cabinet of Louis XIV, Although they cannot be placed in the first rank of Giorgione's works, they yet present fine examples of those skilful contrasts, that happy blending of detail in the general effect, that deli- cacy of tint, and that powerful colouring, of which Giorgione had the honour of first exhibiting a perfect model. In German galleries are to be found a few of those rare works in which Giorgione has carried to its extreme limits the knowledge and power of chiaro- scuro. One of the best is in the rich gallery at Dresden, the Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, in the midst of their servants and flocks. Tl^e Belvedere at Vienna, with the excellent portrait of a Knight in. armour, the Voung Man crowned with vine-leaves. who is accosted by a bandit, and the David carrying the sword of Goliath, also possesses the picture known by the name of the Three Surveyors, who are, rather, three astrologers ; this is a noble and spirited composition, possessing the additional merit of an excellent landscape, quite a rarity then, and, indeed, almost a novelty in Italy. Munich possesses the splendid Portrait of the Painter by himself In the National Gallery are two pictures by Giorgione : the Death of St. Peter Martyr (No. 41), formerly in die possession of Christina, Queen of Sweden — it subsequently passed into the possession of the Rev. W. H. Carr, who bequeathed it to the National Gallery ; and a Knight in Armour (No. 269). formerly in the collection of Benjamin West, P.R.A. ; bequeathed to the Gallery in 1855. Giorgione has a large head;, full of strength and energy ; an open, noble, and intelligent flice, and looking at this excellent likeness of a man so richly gifted, one can hardly forgive the fickle beauty whose desertion, it is said, killed the great artist in the ])rime of life. Giorgione died at Venice in 15 11. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. |a.d. 1450. CHAPTER VIII. LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. TOWARDS the latter end of the fifteenth century, there rose up, in various parts of Europe, as if by magic,. a succession of painters who have been well called the Divinities of Art. In truth, after two or three centuries of earnest rivalry, Art had nearly reached its perfection, and men of the highest genius were found among her ranks. In a succeeding chapter we shall say more of this, the most important epoch in the History of Painting ; but the master of whom we must first speak came into the world and made his fame a little sooner than the rest. Leonardo da Vinci, the natural son of Piero, a notary of Florence, was born at Vinci in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, in 1452. He was placed in his youth with Andrea Verocchio, who, when he saw the immense superiority of his pupil's painting in comparison with his own, abandoned the art in disgust, and directed his attention to sculpture. The first original picture by Leonardo, mentioned by Vasari (no longer in existence), was the Rot ell a del Fico, so called because it was painted on a round board of fig-tree. The young artist collected every description of reptile that he could lay his hand upon, and mingling these together, produced a creature so hideous and fierce, as to defy description. The father, who had requested his son to paint this for one of his tenants, was so struck with its power, that he took it to Florence and sold it to a picture-dealer for a hundred ducats, purchasing in its place a cheap picture, which he sent to his tenant. The Rotelia del Fico was afterwards sold to the Duke of Milan for three hundred ducats. Besides being an excellent painter, Leonardo was equally well educated in sculpture, architecture, engineering, mechanics, and mathematics ; he was also a poet and a performer on the lyre. He was especially proud ofhis engineering and mechanical knowledge, as may be seen by reading the letter — still preserved in the Ambrosian Library, Milan — which he addressed to Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, when seeking employment in his service. We give a few extracts : " I can make bombs most convenient and portable, which shall cause great confusion and loss to the enemy .... indeed I can construct fit machines of offence for any emergency whatever .... I can make vessels that shall be bomb-proof. In time of peace I think I can as well as any other make designs of buildings for public or private purposes .... I will also undertake any work in sculpture, in marble, in bronze, or in terra-cotta : likewise in painting I can do what can be done as well as any man, be he who he may." He then offers, if the Duke doubts the practicability of the execution of any of his proposi- A.i). 1500.] LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 89 tions, to make experiments in proof of his statements. Leonardo entered the Duke's service at Milan about 1483, where he founded, in 1485, under his patron's superinten- dence, an academy of arts, and executed various works, inchiding portraits of Cecilia Gallcrani and Luaczia CrivcHi, fovourites of the Duke, and the model for the bronze equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, which was afterwards destroyed. In 1494, Leonardo accompanied Duke Lodovico when he went to meet Charles VIIL at Pavia, where he made the acquaintance of Marc Antonio della Torre ; returning with the I.A VIKRGF. AUX RDCHEUS. BY I,F.nNARnn PA VINCI. /;/ ///(• LoHi've. Duke to Milan lie executed many important works, among others, tlie celebrated Last Supper. In 1499 he left Milan and returned to Florence, enraged at the barl)arous conduct of the soldiers of Louis XII. of France, who destroyed many of his works, including the model of his statue of Sforza, which they converted into a target for their arrows. In Florence he was welcomed by the Gonfaloniere Soderini, who caused him to be enrolled in the list of artists employed by the Government, and to receive a yearly salary of 180 gold florins. The first important work which he executed in this city was the cartoon of ^V. Anna and the Virgin for the church of tlie Annunziata — go ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. that picture which Francis I. in vain requested him to colour, after he had had it removed to France, and which is now in the Royal Academy, London, In 1502, Cesare Borgia, the Captain-general of the Pope's army, made Leonardo his architect and chief engineer, which appointment caused him to visit in that year several places in the Roman State. He revisited Milan in 1507, and again in 15 12, when he painted two portraits of Duke Maximilian, the son of his late patron. Quitting that town in 15 14, he went in the train of Duke Giuliano de' Medici to Rome, where, after a little time. Pope Leo commissioned him to execute various paintings for him : on going to visit the artist one day, and seeing much apparatus and preparations for varnishing, but no signs of commencement, the Pontiff exclaimed, " This man will never do anything ; he thinks of the end of his work before the beginning." This uncourteous behaviour, combined with the invitation to Rome which Leo X. sent to Miclielangelo, offended Leonardo's dignity to such an extent that he left the city and sought employ- ment at Pavia under Francis L, who received him with joy, and gave him a yearly salary of 700 crowns. After visiting Bologna with him, Leonardo accompanied the KintT to France in 1516 ; but his health was then in such an enfeebled condition, that he could scarcely be induced to execute any more painting—not even to colour the cartoon oi St. Anna and the Virgin. He died on the 2nd of May, 15 19, at Cloux near Amboise, where fragments of his tombstone have lately been discovered. Let us now pass to the contemplation of his works. In the Louvre there are but five paintings by his hand. In the half-length portrait of St. John the Baptist, the saint is represented as resembling rather a young, delicate woman, than the rough preacher of the desert, the ascetic feeding on locusts. But, as this same fault of effeminacy is found in the St. John by Raphael, which is in the Tribune of the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, it is evident that the conventional ideas of the Baptist were not, at that period, in accordance with those we gather from the Gospel narrative. The Madonna called the Viergeaux Rochers, already much decayed, will soon be known only through engravings and copies. The authenticity of this Madonna, as a work. of Leonardo, is denied by some connoisseurs, and it is generally supposed that a portion only is by his hand. St. Anna, 7vith the Virgin and Child, though an authentic work and really a fine one, is in some parts little more than a sketch, and has suffered much injury : it is more precious from the delicacy of the work than from the dignity and nobility of the style. We may even venture to find a little fault with the strange affectation of the attitudes and arrangement. There remain two portraits of women. One is called La Belle Ferronniere, because it is thought to represent the last mistress of Francis I., the wife of that iron merchant {ferronJiier)\\\\o avenged himself so cruelly for the wrong done him by the king. It is from the title assigned to this portrait that ladies have given the wxca^ ferronniere to a jewel worn in the centre of the forehead and fastened by a ribbon behind the head. Others suppose this portrait to be tliat of a duchess of Mantua, or of the celebrated mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Lucrezia Crivelli. It seems certain that this cannot be the portrait of the Fernmniere, inasmuch as Leonardo Da Vinci, who came into France weak and ill, did not paint a single picture in that country, while Francis I. died in 1547, that is to say, twenty-eight years after Da Vinci. The fifth picture by Leonardo in the Louvre, and the authenticity of which is beyond doubt, is known as La Belle Joconde (Mo.na Lisa, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo). This portrait, at which it is said the painter worked for four years without having finished it to his own satisfaction, is rightly considered one of the chefs-d'ceuvre of this master and of his style. We may A.D. 1500.] LEONARDO DA VINCI. 9' find in Vasari the loving description and the high praise he bestows on this picture ; " rather divine than human, as hfehke as nature itself ... not painting, but the despair of other painters." "This picture attracts me," adds M. Alichelet {la Renaissance) ; " it fascinates and absorbs me ; I go to it in spite of myself, as the bird is drawn to the serpent." " La Joconde " is worthy of representing to us this great man, who, taken merely as a painter, unites anatomical knowledge to that of chiaroscuro, and the study of reality to the genius of the ideal, who preceded Correggio in grace, Michelangelo in force, and Raphael in beautv. l.A iihl.LK JOCONDK. — BY LEONARDO IJA VINCI. In the Louvre. There is nothing very remarkable by Leonardo da Vinci in the German galleries, if we except one of the two Madonnas in tlie gallery of Prince Esterhazy, now at Pesth.' The Holy Mother is here placed between St. Barbara and St. Catherine, and is holding the infant Jesus, who is taking a book from the table. At the bottom of his dress are these words: Vin^inis Mater. Yet it is not St. Anna: the writer doubtless meant to say Virgo Mater. A more serious fault may be found with it ; namely, that the three female heads are singularly alike. And yet this half-length group, which reminds us by its excellent arrangement of llie fine Holy Family we shall presently speak of in Madrid, is 92 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. almost equal to that painting in importance and beauty. Tliis picture is much injured but has not been restored \ and certainly the marks of age and the havoc which time has produced are more respectable than unskilful restorations. Not more fortunate than the galleries of Germany, the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, until lately, possessed only weak and doubtful specimens of the works of Leonardo. It has, however, now acquired, from the Litta Gallery at Milan, a work the historical authenticity of which, joined to its own high qualities, gives it a great importance. This is a Madonna, quite equal to La Joconde of the Louvre, and which Dr. Waagen includes among the ten pictures which he analyses in his book on the Florentine master, while M. Rio, in his " Christian Art," lavishes on it the most enthusiastic encomiums. \\\ the National Gallery, there is no authentic work by Leonardo da Vinci, though one has been attributed to him. It is Christ Disputing with the Docto?-s (No. 18), which is said to have come from the Aldobrandini Palace, and to have been engraved for the collection entitled " Schola Italica." It recalls in its details the style of the immortal author of the Last Supper. But if it be indeed by Leonardo, it is neither one of his best nor even one of his good works. As is usually the case in pictures where the figures are half-length, the subject is badly arranged. Dr. Waagen says it is by Luini. In the Museo del Rey at Madrid, there were until quite recently two replicas only of works by this great master, repetitions with some slight variations of the Joconde and of the St. Anna with the Virgin and Infant Saviour in the Louvre. But the Escurial has recently ceded to this gallery, and thus restored to public view, another Holy Family, which has not yet been engraved, but which is certainly one of the best paintings of this master. Mary and Joseph are here represented nearly of the size of life, standing behind a table on which the infant Saviour and his companion are seated, both naked, embracing one another. Beautiful and smiling, full of love, solicitude, and reverence, Mary has thrown her arms lovingly round the children, whilst Joseph, standing a little behind, and with one hand supporting his head, looks with tenderness at the scene before him. The Virgin's face is a little like that of La Belle Joconde, but of a less worldly beauty. Her delicate hands, the fine transparent materials which encircle her forehead and breast, with their soft tints artistically combined, the mild and noble head of Joseph, standing out in relief although in shadow, are so many com- plete perfections^ which mark the limits of human art. This picture, still scarcely known in spite of its being nearly four hundred years old^ is a marvellous work, and has hitherto almost entirely escaped the ravages of time. At Naples they show with pride, in the Museum degli Studj, an admirable Madonna by Leonardo; at Rome, in the small gallery of the Sciarra Palace, there is the cele- brated allegory — two heads full of expression, which explain each other — called Vanity and Modesty ; at Florence, less fortunate, the Pitti Gallery can only show a portrait of an unknown man, and that of a woman, who is called the Ntm {la Monaca), because her head is enveloped in a hood. Even these portraits, before they were placed in the collection of the Grand Duke, were merely spoken of as belonging to the " school" of Leonardo da Vinci. It was at Milan that Leonardo, attracted by the bounty and retained by the friend- ship of Ludovico Sforza, passed the greater part of his life as an artist, and it is here that we should expect to find most of his works. However — and this proves how rare they arc — the Ambrosian and Brera Galleries have only two sketches by him, both Holy Families, one of which was finished by his worthy pupil and rival, Bernardino Luini. His other remaining works are merely studies and sketches, including some A.D. 1519.J LEONARDO DA VJNCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 93 portraits, amongst which are those of his protector, // Moro, and Beatrice d'Estc, his wife ; also his own ])ortrait in profile in red chalks, a fine and noble face. Let us now enter the refectory of the ancient convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, at Milan : there we may admire the remains, the relics, we might say, of the celebrated Last Supper {il Cetiacolo) which Leonardo painted towards the close of the fifteenili century, by order of the ])rince whose service he had chosen— that duke Ludovico Sforza, who, having been made i^risoner by the French, died miserably at the castle of Loches in Touraine, after ten years' captivity. Francis L wished to carry this picture back with him to France, that it might form the finest trojjhy of his victory ai AFarignan, which had given him possession of Lombardy. It could not, however, bo detached from the wall. This enormous fresco, the masterpiece of its author, ami perhaps even of all modern painting, has been for a long time in the most dej)lorable state of decay. In the sixteenth century, the cardinal Federigo Korromeo reproached the Dominicans with their culpable neglect of this precious work of art ; and yet it was these same Dominicans who, in 1652, to enlarge the door of the refectory, cut oft' the legs of the figure of Christ and of the nearest disciples. When, at the end of the last century, during the wars of Italy, the convent of Santa Maria was converted into cavalry barracks, and the refectory into a store for Jodder, we can well imagine that the hussars were not more scrupulous than the monks. General Bonaparte, in 1796, had indeed written, using his knee as a desk, an order that this place, consecrated by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, should be spared from having soldiers quartered in it ; but the necessities of war were stronger than his respect for the arts. It was long afterwards that Prince Eugene, viceroy of Italy, had the refectory of the Dominicans cleaned, and raised a scaffolding before the picture, which allowed it to be examined nearer, but which also allowed it to be injured by curious and ignorant tourists, desirous of carrying away souvenirs. It rs thought that Leonardo da Vinci did not paint this wonderful composition in fresco, that is to say, in distemper, on and in the damp wall, but in oil ; or that, at all events, he covered his fresco with an oil varnish. From this arose its rapid decaw Everything has assisted in the destruction of this great work. It is not merely time, the infiltration of water, the carelessness of the monks, and the insults of the soldiers, that have caused ruin. ]\Iore than anything else it has been produced by unskilful restorations, which changed what they touched, and rendered what they respected more fragile. However, the outline of the composition, the attitudes of the figures, and even the general efi'ect of colour, can still be vaguely seen. This is sufficient to make the coldest and most superficial spectator, and even one ignorant in the arts, bow with resi^ect, as did Francis I., before this sublime work, antl, rendenng the homage of ardent admiration to I>eonardo da Vinci, repeat the just and beautiful eulogy which Vasari has given of this wonderful man : '• Heaven, in its goodness, sometimes grants to one mortal all its most precious gifts, and marks all the works of this privileged man with such a stamp that they seem less to show the power of human genius than the special favour of God." The Last Supper is too well known for it to be necessary that we should give a detailed account of it.' One remarkable thing is, the enormous number of copies made of rt by the brush, the pencil, and the burin or engraver's tool, without counting the innumerable stuilies of detached parts, which, since the time of Leonardo da Vinci, artists and amateurs have continually been making before his fresco. At Milan is the copy b\ \cspino (Andrea Bianchi), which the Ambrosian Gallery possesses, and thai of 94 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1500. Bossi, at the Brera, both incorrect, and unworthy the original; then, in the same museum, that of Marco da Oggione, in reduced proportions, the colour and effect altered, but the correct drawing of which renders it certainly the best of the three. A fine copy, by Marco da Oggione, is in the possession of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. ' There was also at Milan, in the convent of Santa Maria della Pace, now a manufoctory, a copy, made at twenty-two years of age by Lomazzo, that interesting painter who, becoming blind while still young, and thus forced to give up working, dictated his " Treatise on Painting." Copies are also known by De Rossi, Perdrici, and that which Gagna made in 1827 for the palace at Turin. In France, there was a copy brou"-ht back from Milan by Francis I., and which was at Saint-Germain I'Auxerrois ; that "of the chateau d'Ecouen of the same period, and that which has long been exhibited in the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre, and which was thought to have been done in the studio of Leonardo and under his own eye. Two recent mosaics, one made in 1809, which is at Vienna, the other made more recently by the Roman Rafaelli, have reproduced the " Last Supper " in unchangeable enamel. Engraving has been employed not less than painting or mosaic in perpetuating the remembrance of this celebrated work. It has been engraved successively by Mantegna, Soutman, Rainaldi, Bonate, Frey, Thouvenet, and many others, and lastly by Raphael Morghen, who, making use of a fine drawing by Teodoro Matteini, and devoting six years to his copy, as Leonardo to the original, has surpassed all his predecessors, and produced, m his own art, another masterpiece. FOLLOWERS OF LEONARDO. (FLORENTINE SCHOOL.) Piero di Cosimo, so called from his master, Cosimo Rosselli, was born at Florence about 1460. He was the son of a Florentine jeweller of the name of Lorenzo, and is said to have rivalled Leonardo da Vinci in his early Florentine time. In 1480 he accompanied his master to Rome, when the latter went there in order to decorate the Sistine Chapel. Piero is described as a man of a strange character, and preferred mythological to theological subjects, but with all that, he was an excellent painter and is greatly admired for his landscapes. It is said that he painted the landscape background to Rosselli's Sermon on the Mount in the Sistine Chapel. Piero di Cosimo died at Florence in 152 1. There are pictures by this artist in Florence, in the Louvre, and in the Berlin Museum. In the National Gallery is the Death of Frocris, with Procris (No. 698) and her dog Lelaps and a Satyr. Lorenzo Sciarpelloni, called Lorenzo di Credi, was born at Florence in 1459. He was a fellow-pupil with Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino in the atelier of Verrocchio. He was much devoted to Leonardo, but was especially fond of his master, whose attachment for him was also great, for, when Verrocchio went to Venice to model the Colleoni Statue, he left Lorenzo in charge of his affairs in Florence ; and in his will, in 1488, he ex]3ressed a desire that Lorenzo should finish the statue, which Verrocchio left unfinished ; he also made him his principal lieir. Lorenzo, however, did not complete the statue, and it is said he only retained Verrocchio's works of art, giving everything else to his master's relations. Lorenzo, when old, retired to Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, and died there in 1537. His painting is chielly remarkable for its careful execution and minute finish, which is seen better m his small than in his large pictures. He painted in oil, and was very careful LEONARDO DA VINXI. /'jr^v 94. A.a 1525.] LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 95 to keej) liis i)alette in order and his brushes clean. His favourite subject was the Holy Family, of which he painted a great number. There is a fine picture by this artist in the Duomo at Pistoia ; two Nativities are in the Uffizi. The Berlin Museum possesses numerous specimens of his art ; but for Paris is reserved the honour of having his masterpiece. In the Louvre (No. 958) is the Madonna and Child enthroned ivith SS. JuUan and Nicholas, painted for the chajiel of the Convent of Cestello, also rei)resenting the Madonna and Child. In the National Gallery there are two pictures of the Virgin and Infont Christ (Nos. 593 and 648). FOLLOWERS OF LEONARDO. (MILANESE SCHOOL.) Bernardo Luini was born at Luini, on Lake Maggiore, in the middle of the fifteenth century— the precise date of his birth is not known. Very little is recorded of his life, though Vasari evidently refers to him when he speaks of the paintings of Bernardino da Lupino in the church of the Madonna at Saronno. He was the most famous pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, whose style he so closely imitated that many of his works have been mistaken for those of the great painter ; amongst these may be mentioned the sole representative of Leonardo in the National Gallery (No. 18), Christ disputing with the Doctors, which, according to Dr. Waagen and other critics, is by Luini. Pictures by this artist are spread diffusely over Europe, for he was a most prolific painter ; among his best works may be mentioned, a .S7. John and the Lamb, in the Rothschild Hotel ; the Marriage of St. Catherine and the Litta frescoes, in the Lou\re ; a laro-e altar^ piece, at Legnaio near Milan ; a Crucifixion, which is extremely fine, in the church of Lugano, Lake Maggiore ; and the frescoes in the Brera Gallery at Milan. Luini, like Lorenzo di Credi, is noticeable for the minuteness of his finish and the beauty of his colouring ; he greatly excelled in painting women. He died, soon after 1530. Cesare da Sesto, called also Cesare da Milano, was bom at Milan (?) about 1460. He was pupil of the great Leonardo, though in later life he studied the style of Raphael, whose friendship be made at Rome. A Baptism of Christ by him, with a landsca})e background by Bernazzano, an unimportant landscape painter, is in the possession of Duke Scotti at Milan. There is a St. Roch with the Virgin ajid Child in the Casa Melzi at Milan. The Vierge aux Balances in the Louvre, formerly attributed to Rnjihael, is considered by many writers to be by Cesare da Sesto. Giovanni Antonio Beltraffio, born at Milan in 1467, studied art under Leonardo da Vinci as an amateur, for he was a nobleman. There is a Madonna and Child with SS. John the Baptist and Sebastian, painted in 1500 for a church in Bologna, now in the Louvre ; another picture representing the same subject is in the Frizzoni (Gallery, Bellaggio. A third Madonna and Child h in the National Gallery (No. 728). It was formerly in the Northwick Collection, and was purchased at the Davenport-Bromley sale. Beltraffio died at Milan on the 15th of June, 15 16. Marco da Oggione, sometimes called Uggione, was born in the neighbourhood of Milan about 1470. He was placed with Leonardo da Vinci as early as 1490. He painted frescoes for the church of Santa Maria della Pace at Milan, which were removed afterwards to the Brera. There is also an altar-piece by Oggione in the Bonomi Collection, Milan ; and another in the Louvre. But Oggione is chiefly famous for his co])ies of the well-known fresco of the Last Supper by Leonardo. One, painted in oil in 15 10, for the refectory of the Certosa di Pavia. from the original when in a 96 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1550. perfect state, is now carefully preserved in the Royal Academy of London. Another, executed in fresco for the refectory of the convent of Castellazzo, is still preserved in that place ; and a third— a small one— from which it is said he copied his two larger works already mentioned, is in the Hermitage. Marco da Oggione died in 1530. Francesco Melzi, a Milanese noble, the date of whose birth is unknown, was a friend and follower of Leonardo. He painted also as an amateur, and assisted Leonardo in a Madonna and Child, on the wall of the castle of Vaprio. In the Berlin gallery a Vertumnus and Pomona, which was formerly attributed to Leonardo, is now said to be by Melzi. He accompanied his instructor to France, and on his death in 1519 Leonardo left his manuscripts and all things pertaining to his art to Melzi, who was his executor. It is said that the latter supplied Vasari and Lomazzo v/ith records of the principal events of Leonardo's life. It is not known when Melzi died. Gaudenzio Ferrari, born at Valdugga in Piedmont in 1484, was a celebrated painter of the Milanese school of Leonardo. It is believed that he studied under Luini, and it is known that he went to Rome and worked with Raphael in the Farne- sina Palace. Of his oil paintings the most celebrated are the Aladonna and Child with saints, in San Cristoforo at Vercelli ; a Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in the Brera ; and a Dead Chriit, int he Turin Gallery. Of his frescoes, may be mentioned the History of SS. Joachim and Anna, transferred from Santa Maria della Pace to the Brera ; a Procession of Spectators of the Crucifixion, in the chapel of the Sacro Monte at Varallo ; the History of Christ, in the convent of the Minorites ; an Adoration, in Santa Maria di Loreto, near Varallo ; a Glory of Angels, in the church of Saronno near Milan ; various scenes from the Life of the Virgin, painted from 1532 to 1535, in San Cristoforo, Vercelli; and his last work, the Flagellation, ^■mxX.^A in 1542 in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Gaudenzio Ferrari died at Milan in 1549. He was mentioned with absurd praise by Lomazzo as one of the seven greatest painters of modern time, but though not deserving of so great honour, he was one of the best of the Milanese painters who were influenced by Leonardo. He is correct in design and finished in execution, but his colouring, though brilliant, is devoid of harmony and taste. Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, born about 1491, was the scholar of Lorenzo di Credi, whom he greatly imitated, as well as Andrea del Sarto and Perugino. His works are often mistaken for those of his master. Pictures by him are in the Torrigiani and Panciatici Galleries at Florence ; there is also a copy of Lorenzo's Adoration of the Shepherds in the Berlin Museum. He died in 1544. Bernardino Lanini, born at Vercelli about 1508, was a scholar and imitator of Gaudenzio Ferrari ; he also studied the style of Leonardo. He painted chiefly in fresco. One of his best works is an altar-piece at Borgo Sesia ; it is signed " Bernar- dinus pausillum hoc quod cernis eftigiabat, 1539." He executed various frescoes in the cathedral of Novara. A Holy Family, by him, is in the National Gallery (No. 700), signed and dated '' Bernardinus eftigiabat, 1543." Lanini died about 1578. Among the scholars of Leonardo, who are not of sufficient merit to warrant an individual notice, may be mentioned Andrea Salaino, or Salai — a favourite pupil — he painted a Madonna and Child with SS. Peter and Paul, now in the Brera ; Giovanni Pedrinia — a Magdalen by him is in the Brera, and a St. Catherine in the Berlin (iallery ; Girolamo Aliprandi, who painted at Messina a Christ dispntifig with the Doctors, mentioned by Lanzi, but which no longer exists ; Gaudenzio Vinci, of Novara, who painted an altar-piece at Arona, near Milan ; and Bernardino Fassola, of Pavia. -b BARTOLOMMEO BACCIO BELLA PORTA. (Fka Bartolommeo.) F,w 97- A.I). 1500.1 FLORENTINE SCHOOL, 97 CHAPTER IX. FLORENTINE SCHOOL, SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE iuBuence of Leonardo da Vinci was felt fiir beyond the limits of his own time or that of his scholars. His paintings were the wonder of the age ; and the beginning of the sixteenth century saw a race of artists spring up in Florence who emulated his works and who have heli)ed to glorify the renown of that flimous city. Among the most celebrated of these masters were Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto. Bartolommeo Baccio- usually known as Fra Bartolommeo — was called della Porta, because he resided near the Gate of St. Peter's, at Florence. To avoid such a long name, and to distinguish him from the old Fra Bartolommeo della Gatta, a painter, illuminator, and architect, of the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italians usually call him II Frate (the Monk). He was born in the district of Savignano in 1469. A romantic event in his youth induced him to adopt the monastic lite. Whilst still a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, whose studio he had entered in 1484, he listened eagerly to the preaching of the fiery Dominican, Fra Geronimo Savonarola, and became one of his most ardent disciples. He even burnt his studies in the kind of auto-da-fe made by the people on the Shrove Tuesday of the year 1489, in the Square before the convent of St. Mark. When, after a reign of three years over Florence, the Italian Luther was obliged to shut himself up in the convent of which he was the prior, and to undergo a siege, Bartolommeo was at his side, and, in the heat of the combat, made a vow to adopt the monastic life if he escaped the danger. After the death of Savonarola in 1498, he took the vows in thac same convent of the Dominicans of San Marco. Hence his name of " II Frate." He remained four whole years without touching a pencil, and wdien he yielded at length to the solicitations of his friends, his fellow monks and his superiors, it was on condition that the convent should receive all the produce of his labours. In 1498 and 1499, Fra Bartolommeo painted tlie (elebrated fresco of the Last Judgjuent in Santa Maria Novella, the lower ]iart of which was finished by his friend Albertinelli ; and in 1509 he entered into a partnership with that painter. They executed several works in conjunction, among which were the Marriage of St. Cathe- rine, doled 15 1 2, now in the Pitti Palace ; and a picture representing the Patron Saints of Florence, in the IHfizi. This partnership was ended by the death of Albertinelli in 15 15. About 1514 the Frate went to Rome, where he painted the figure ol St. Paul ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.i;. 1500. . and part of that of St. Peter, which he was obliged to leave to his friend Raphael to finish, — it is supposed, on account of ill-health. These two figures are now in the Quirinal. We cannot judge of him by the specimens in the Louvre, which consist of an Annunciation, once in the cabinet of Francis I. at Fontainebleau, and a Marriage of St. Catherhie, dated 15 11, given to Louis XIL by a French ambassador, who had received it from the seignory of Florence. We must seek his nobler works at Florence. There, in the Uffizi, is another painting of the Virgin seated on a throne, surrounded by her celestial court, one of the greatest compositions of this painter, and the last which he executed. In the Pitti Palace we find an Entombment ; and with it the most celebrated of all Fra Bartolommeo's works, the .5"/. Mark, which went to Paris during the conquests of the first empire. This colossal St. Mark, a gigantic figure, was painted by the Frate for the fagade of his convent, to disprove an accusation which had been brought against him of want of grandeur in his style; and notwithstanding some faults of exaggeration, it is perhaps the most complete expression of strength and power that painting has produced, — as the Moses of Michelangelo is in sculpture. If the Pitti Palace had been able also to obtain the St. Sebastian by the snme master (a picture which was sent to Francis I. by the monks of St. Mark, and which is now lost), it would have possessed both the masterpieces of the Frate, the one remarkable for its grandeur, the other for its exquisite beauty. The Belvedere Gallery at Vienna has a very fine work of this master, the Presentation in the Temple. At Panshanger, in the collection of Earl Cowper, there is a very fine Holy Family, painted in 1509. We find in all his works purity and nobility of style joined to a brilliancy of colouring, though with a tendency towards employing too much red ; his draperies are charac- terised by elegance and truth. As expressive as Leonardo da Vinci, as graceful as Raphael, as imposing as Michelangelo, as a colourist almost equal to Titian, inspired by the knowledge and the feeling of all, yet without servility, without effort, the Frate was really, with Andrea del Sarto, the summary of Florentine art of his time. We must not forget that Fra Bartolommeo by several years preceded Raphael, with whom, Avhen the latter visited Florence in 1504, he exchanged lessons that were useful to both ; we must not forget either that painters are said to owe to him the invention of lay-figures. Fra Bartolommeo died at Florence, in 15 17. Giuliano Bugiardini, born near Florence in 1471, was a pupil of Mariotto Albertinelli, and studied in the garden of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he made the acquaintance of Michelangelo, from whose designs he executed various paintings. His works have been classed in several galleries under names of much greater artists than himself. Among some of his best pictures we may mention a Madonna and Child in the Ufiizi ; a Marriage of St. Catherine at Bologna, and above all a Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in the Cappella Ruccellai in Santa Maria Novella at Florence. There are many other works by him in Italy and elsewhere. Bugiardini died in 1554. Mariotto Albertinelli was born at Florence in 1474. He was apprenticed, when young, to Cosimo Rosselli, in whose studio he was a fellow-pupil with Fra Bartolommeo. In the year 1509 they had entered into partnership, and they painted conjoindy many works; some of which bear the monogram of a cross with two interlaced rings. When Fra Bartolommeo retired into monastic seclusion, his friend and partner finished some of his uncompleted works. It is related, by Vasari, that Albertinelli at one time, bemg enraged at some criticisms which were made on his painting, abandoned the brusli ENTHRONEMENT OF THE VIRGIN. By Fra Bartolommeo. In the Callerv o^ the Uffizi, Florence. A.D. 1525.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. gg and opened a public-house ; it is certain, however, that he returned to his art again, but on his return from a journey to Rome he died at Florence in 15 15. In paintin"- he resembled Fra Bartolommeo as closely as one artist ever resembled another. He is especially to be admired for the design and the chiaroscuro of his pictures. Amono- those works in which Albertinelli assisted the Frate, may be mentioned a Madonna and Child, in Santa Caterina at Pisa ; the Marriage of the two SS. Catherine, dated 15 1 2, in the Pitti Palace; and an Assumption in the Berlin Museum, the lower part being by Fra Bartolommeo, and the upper by Albertinelli (Dr. Waagen). Among the pictures executed by the latter alone, we may mention the Visitation of the Virgin his masterpiece— in the Uffizi ; a Madonna and Child, in the Louvre ; an Annuncia- tion, in the Accademia, Florence ; and a Virgin and Child, in the National Gallery (No. 645), purchased from M. Beauconsin. Marc Antonio Francia Bigio, sometimes called Franciabigio— a friend of Andrea del Sarto, antl a pupil of Albertinelli — was born in 1482. He painted, in 15 13, in the court of the SS. Annunziata the Marriage of the Virgin; the monks happened to remove the screen before the picture was (luite finished, and thereby so enraged the artist, that with a hammer he dealt several angry blows at the Virgin's head, causing riiuch damage to the painting, which he could never be prevailed upon to restore. The signs of his violence remain to this day. In 151S-19 he executed two pictures from the Life of fohn the Baptist, in the Scalzo. Among other works by him we may mention an Annunciation in the Turin Gallery, and a Madonna and Child in the Uffizi. Francia Bigio was a good portrait-painter, and many pictures by him are classed under various other names : a Portrait of a young vmn, in the Pitti Palace ; two portraits in the Berlin Gallery ; another of a Factor of the Medici, in the state drawing-room at Windsor Castle, attributed to Andrea del Sarto ; and a fifth in the possession of Lord Yarborough, ascribed to Raphael, All these bear Francia Bigio's signature, " F. B." He died in 1525. Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, who was born at Florence in 14S3, was the only son of Domenico Ghirlandajo v.-ho followed the profession of artist. It is said that he studied under Fra Bartolommeo, and it is known that he was a friend of Raphael, and that that artist tried to induce him to go to Rome in 1508, but Ghirlandajo, being ^•ery well contented with his success in Florence, preferred to remain where he was. He painted many works for processions of all kinds, more especially on the occasion of the marriage or the death of one of the Medici. He died, wealthy and at an old age, at his native town, in 1560. Among his easel pictures we may mention St. A'nobio raising a dead Child, and the Burial of the Saint, in the Uffizi; a Nativity, in the Esterhazy Gallery, Vienna; and a Coronation of the Virgin, in the Louvre. Andrea Vannucchi, or d'Agnolo, surnamed del Sarto, because he was the son of a tailor, was born at Florence in 1487. At first he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but became afterwards the pupil of Piero di Cosimo, that strange man, as great a cynic as Diogenes, whose works prove him to have been a tolerable colourist but an incorrect draughtsman. Andrea del Sarto never visited either Rome or Venice ; he studied the frescoes of Masaccio and Ghirlandajo, paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, and drawings by Michelangelo. He never left his native country except for one short visit to France, whither he was invited by Francis I. in 15 18, and he died at Florence in 1531, when only forty-three years old, struck down by a contagious malady, and ILLUSTRATED HLSTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1530. abandoned by his wife and friends. Thus sadly ended a hfe which we cannot but regard as obscure and miserable for one possessing such great talents and honoured with so much posthumous renown. His principal works are to be found in Florence, Berlin, and Madrid. The Pitti Palace contains sixteen pictures by Andrea del Sarto, the greater number of them very important. First, his Dispute on the Holy Trinity, an analogous subject to the Dispute on the Sacrament, painted by Raphael, in one of the Stanze of the Vatican, \\'ithout wishing to establish any comparison between these two works, which resemble each other in name only, we may say that this picture of Andrea's appears to constitute his highest title to fame ; there, as elsewhere, we know nothing which can give a higher and more complete idea of his original and learned composition, of his THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST. — BY ANDREA DEI. SARTO. Ill the Museum of t lie Louvre, Paris. elevated and grand style, of his vigorous expression, and, in short, of all the qualities of execution which make him the first colourist of the Florentine school. We may also mention, before leaving the Pitti Palace, an Entombment, taken to Paris with the other Italian masterpieces ; two Holy Families, of about equal merit ; two Assumptions, bearing much resemblance to each other; and two Annunciations. Of the latter, the larger of the two is very different from the ordinary and traditional forms : the scene does not take place in the Oratory of the Virgin, but in the open air, and before a palace of fantastic architecture. Gabriel does not come alone to perform his mysterious mission ; two other angels accompany him. The Virgin, as represented, is too masculine for a young girl. This last fliult is more or less common to all the figures of Madonnas or women painted by Andrea del Sario ; A.i). 1530] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. ,01 and arises no doubt from his taking for his model his own wife, Lucrezia della Fede, a beautiful widow, whom he married while still young. She persuaded him to commit a great fault, that of wasting in foolish expenses the money entrusted to him by Francis I. for the purchase of pictures and statues. She became the torment of his life, and finally left him to die alone. We must also mention the Portrait of himself , a fuie, mild foce, rather sad and suftering ; and also the last of his works, the Vircrm and four Saints, which his sudden death prevented him finishing. His pupils, among whom were Vasari, Pontormo, and Razzi, completed it. Of a timid, modest, simi)le nature, without ardour or pride, but possessing a " genius full at once of kindness and forethought, of pliancy and boldness, of reserve and enthusiasm," the very excellent Andrea del Sarto, as Vasari calls him, received the noble surname of '' Senza errori," from the purity of his design, the correctness and power of his colouring, the grace of his attitudes, and the harmony and unity of his compositions, which can be understood at a glance. The admirers of Del Sarto should not leave Florence without visiting the old church of the SS. Annunziata, the cloister of which contains a precious series of frescoes by Poccetti, Rosselli, and others ; but these are all eclipsed by the admirable and celebrated Madonna del Sacco, which Andrea painted over the entrance-door, to accomplish the vow of a good woman at confession. In the Pinakothek of Munich there are two Holy Families, in the larger of which St. Elizabeth and two angels complete the composition. They are equal to' the best works in the Pitti Palace. At Berlin there is another great composition, no less finished and complete in execution than in conception, and in which Del Sarto displays all his power. This is also a Virgin in Glory, that sul)ject which has been treated by painters of every school and period, and which seems to have aroused the emulation of them all. On a throne, supported by the clouds and surrounded by cherubim, the Holy Mother is seated, holding the infant Saviour in her arms. Two groups of saints form her celestial court : to the right are St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Onophrius ; to the left, St. Mark, with the lion, St. Antony of Padua, and St. Catherine of Alexandria ; the two first of each group are standing, the third kneeling ; in the foreground are half-length portraits of St. Celsus and St. Julia. We know of what importance is a picture by Del Sarto containing twelve personages ; but this is still more striking for its merits than for its size. It is painted on panel, and though rubbed in some parts, this magnificent picture yet joins the most brilliant colour to the greatest elevation of style. We do not hesitate to declare that this is the most precious work of art from Italy in Berlin. The date it bears is 1528. Andrea, then, must have painted it on his return from France, and two years before the plague terminated his short life. Among the six pictures by Andrea which are in the Museum of Madrid, there is one — the Sacrifice of Isaac — which is thought to have been one of the two paintings which on his return to Italy he had intended to have sent to Francis I., to implore his forgiveness for his fault. If the other were as admirable as this, the two might have equalled the value of the money which that prince had confided to him for the purchase of works of art, and which, notwithstanding an oath he had taken on the Gospels, Andrea allowed to be frittered away. But that which we consider the most astonishing work in Spain by this painter is a portrait of his wife, Lucrezia della Fede. This portrait has been placed as a pendant to the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci in tlie Madrid Gallery. It deserves and justifies such an honour. It is equal in painting, and, thanks no doubt to ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.u. 1550. the beauty of the original, is still more charming and lovely. It is one of the most delightful portraits of a woman ever painted. The beauty of the model— idealised perhaps by love— the grace of the position, the exquisite taste in the dress, and the wonderful execudon of the whole, combine to render this picture interesting in the history of painting. It has a double title to be so, as it is the type of all the women painted by Andrea, even of his Madonnas, and also it is a masterpiece in his style, as the Madonna della Sedia is in that of Raphael. And really these two pictures, so different in subject, bear a singular resemblance to one another. There is the same modest beauty which attracts homage ; there is the same powerful and victorious charms in both pictures. In the National Gallery there are but two pictures by Del Sarto, a Holy Family (No. 17), and a Portrait of himself i^o. 690), signed A. A. (Andrea d'Agnolo). Jacopo Carrucci, commonly known as Jacopo da Pontormo from his birthplace, was born in 1494. He was a scholar of Andrea del Sarto, and later in life the teacher of Angelo Bronzino. He painted somewhat after the style of Michelangelo. His chief works, which occupied him eleven years, were frescoes in San Lorenzo at Florence, representing the Deluge and the Last Jiidi^nicjif. They have been long since covered with whitewash. Among works attributed to him we may mention the predella of Andrea del Sarto's Annunciation in the Pitti, and two pictures from the Life of Joseph in the same gallery. Pontormo, as a portrait-painter, possessed no common merit. A portrait of one of the IMedici by him is in the Uffizi ; there are two by him in the Berlin Museum ; and a Portrait of a Boy is in the National Gallery (No. 649) —formerly in the collection of the Duke of Brunswick. Pontormo died at Florence in 1556. Kosso de' Rossi, called by his countrymen II Rosso and by the French Maitre Roux, probably because he had red hair, was born at Florence in 1496. He was an imitator of Andrea del Sarto and Michelangelo. He painted together with other assistants of Andrea in the court of the SS. Annunziata. About the year 1538 Rossi went to Paris and superintended, for Francis I., the decoration of the Palace at Fontainebleau ; while he was engaged on this work he lost a considerable sum of money, and accused his friend and assistant Francesco Pelligrino of the theft; he was accordingly put to torture, but was declared to be not guilty. That he should have accused an innocent man, it is said, caused Rossi such remorse that shortly afterwards, in 1541, he put an end to his life. Among his works may be mentioned a Madonna and Saints in the Pitti Palace, and a SalutatioJi of the Virgin in the Louvre. SIENESE SCHOOL, SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Jacopo Paccliiarotto was born at Siena in 1474, where he resided until 1535, when, joining a conspiracy of the people against the government, he was obliged to leave the country ; he took refuge in France, where he became acquainted with II Rosso ; and it is said that he executed paintings for Francis I. at Fontainebleau. He appears to have returned to Siena in 1536 : three years afterwards he was again in trouble with the government, when he was outlawed ; but by the intercession of his wife Girolama he was pardoned, and in 1540 restored to his family; no record has been found of him after this date. Owing to the fact that Pacchiarotto is not mentioned by A.iJ. 1550-] SIENESE SCHOOL. jo^ Vasari, great confusion has arisen regarding him. Many of his works have been attributed to Perugino, but on the other hand, many paintings by Girolamo del Pacchia have been ascribed to Pacchiarotto. The fresco in Sta. Caterina at Siena, representing the Visit of St. Catherine to the body of St. Agnes at Montepiilciano, long attributed to Pacchiarotto, has now been proved to be by Del Pacchia. Among other pictures by the latter wliich liave been attributed to the former, may be mentioned a Madomia and Child (No. 246) in the National Galler\-. Two pictures in the Pinakothek at Munich -a St. Francis of Assisi, -mmX 'x Madonna and ChiM—hoih. formerly in San Bernardino at Siena; jjurchased by Ludwig I. of Bavaria, when Crown-prince, in 1818 —are attributed to Pacchiarotto, as are also several works in the Academy of Siena. Speth, in speaking of this artist, terms him " the second hero of the Sienese school" — Razzi being the first— and says that to designate him as of the school of Perugino, is only to magnify the injustice he has already undergone in having many of his best works attributed to that master ; and adding, '• what Perugino supphed was only the spark which in Pacchiarotto grew into a flame." But Speth himself evidentlv attributed to the latter, works by Del Pacchia, for he praises as Pacchiarotto's work'tlie above- mentioned / 'isit of St. Catherine. Girolamo del Pacchia was born at Siena in 147 7- He painted in Rome from 1 50S till 15 1 1, but the pictures which he executed there are only known to us by record. In 1 5 18 he painted frescoes with Beccafumi and Razzi in San Bernardino at Siena ; he disap- peared from that town in 1535, and no further record has been found of him. As we have before mentioned, many of his works have been attributed to Pacchiarotto, among others the frescoes in Santa Caterina, representing the Fisit of St. Catherine to the body of St. Agnes, which are greatly praised by Speth and Lanzi— and the Madonna and Child (No. 246), in the National Gallery. A Coronation of the Virgin, in Santo Spirito, and a jWadonna and Child, in the Academy at Siena, are by this artist. Del Pacchia is only incidentally mentioned by Vasari in his life of II Sodoma. Giovanni Antonio Razzi, or Bazzi, also called II Sodoma; was born at Vercelli in 1479. The first works on which we find him engaged are the twenty.six frescoes -representmg the History of St. Benedict-in the convent of Sant' Uliveto Ma-iore near Siena; these were painted about 1502. Some time after this. Pope Tuhus II' employed him at Rome, but nearly all his paintings were destroyed to make way for the great Raphael. In the Farnesina are the Marriage of Alexander and J^oxaua, and Alexander in the tent of Darius, painted for Agostino Chigi. On his return to Siena Bazzi executed in the chapel of Santa Caterina da Siena, in San Domenico a work which IS considered by some critics to be his masterpiece ; it represents scenes from the Life of St. Catherine. He also executed, in conjunction with Del Pacchia and Becca- fumi, the History of the Virgin, m tlie oratory of San Bernardino. Other works bv this artist are : in Siena, frescoes in the Sala Consiglio of the Palazzo Pubblico, and also in Santo Spirito, and an Adoration of the Kings, in Sant' Agostino ; a St. Sbastian in the Ufiizi, Florence; an Aseension, in the Naples Gallery; a Fla^r.llation, in the \cademv of Siena. A Sacrifee of Abraham, painted for the Cathedral of Pisa— exhibited in the Louvre in 1814, but returned to Pisa in 1815-is now in the choir of the cathedral • and lastly a portrait of Lueretia, in the Public Gallery of Hanover. Annibale Carracri says of Bazzi, that he "appears to be a master of the very highest eminence and of the greatest taste" He died in 1549. 104 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1550. Baldassare Peruzzi was born at Accajano near Siena, in 1481. He was l)oth painter and architect. It is not known under whom he studied art, but his first works of any importance were executed at Volterra. Thence he removed to Rome, where he painted scenes from t\\e Life of the Virgin, in Sant' Onofrio, and various works in Santa Maria della Pace. About this time he built for Agostino Chigi the famous Villa Farnesina, on the western bank of the Tiber. In 1520 he was appointed successor to Raphael as architect to St. Peter's. In the following year he visited Bologna, where he made designs for the facade of San Petronio, but returning to Rome, on the sack of that city in 1527, he was robbed of all his possessions and escaped with great difficulty to Siena. Before the Imperial soldiers would let him go, theymade him paint a picture of their general, Constable Bourbon, who had been killed in an attack on the city. In Siena he was well received, and was made city architect, but he returned to Rome in 1535, and commenced the Palazzo Massimi, the completion of which he was not destined to see. He died at the end of 1536 and was buried near Raphael in the Pantheon. Other works by Peruzzi, who was more celebrated as an architect than as a painter, are a figure of Charity with three Children, in the Berlin Museum ; an Adoration of the Kings, in the Bridgewater Gallery; and another Adoration of the Kings, in the National Gallery (No. 167) — a drawing in chiaroscuro made for Count Bentivogli at Bologna in 152 1. This drawing, together with a print from the plate engraved by Agostino Carracci, was presented to the National Gallery by Lord Vernon. The Adoration of the Magi (No. 218), in the same gallery, is a copy of the above, probably by Girolamo da Trevigi, unless, as has been reported, Girolamo's picture perished at sea. Several other copies were made of Peruzzi's drawing. Domenico Meccherino, known as Beccafumi, from the name of his patron, was born of poor parents, at Siena, in 1484. He was first placed with an unimportant artist named Capanna, under whom he chiefly copied the works of other masters, especially those of Perugino, whose style he acquired. He visited Rome during the Pontificate of Julius J I., where he studied the paintings of Raphael and of Michelangelo. In later life he imitated the latter, but not to the improvement of his own style. He died in his native town in 1549. Besides working in conjunction with Bazzi in the Oratory of San Bernardino, Becca- fumi executed many paintings in Siena, Florence, Pisa, and elsewhere, among which we may mention a St. Catherine receiving the Stigmata, in the Sienese Academy. In the cathedral of that town he executed on the pavement some mosaics of marble in the style of niello, which have been engraved by Andreani and Cosati. After Bazzi, Beccafumi was considered the best Sienese painter of his time. He was famous for his perspective, his foreshortening, and for the reflections which he used to put into his pictures. He executed also works in sculpture and in engraving. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTL Pas^ 105. A.D. 1475.] ROMAN SCHOOL. 105 CHArTl'.R X. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTL IF any one were to ask who, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, were the two great rivals whose contest was watched with the greatest eagerness by the whole of Europe, politicians might reply, Francis L and Charles V. ; but artists, Raphael and Michelangelo. These illustrious men, both of whom received their early education in Florence, went to Rome to execute their most famous works, and founded the first school of art in that city. " They have been the only conquerors in art," say the annotators of Vasari, "and nothing can be compared to the enthusiastic acclamations of the people who saw them produce the Cartoon of the Pisan War, the paintings in the Stanze of the Vatican, the frescoes m the Sistine Chapel, and the Transfiguration. Not a single voice arose to contest their victory ; more than a century passed before emboldened criticism dared to stammer out its first objections. . -. After vain attempts to attack Raphael and Michelangelo, it at last had recourse to the expedient of the lapidary, who attacks the diamond with the diamond. It opposed Michelangelo to Raphael and Raphael to Michelangelo ; but though continually brought into opposition for more than three centuries, Raphael and Michelangelo only appear the more radiant."' Michelangelo Buonarroti, the great sculptor, painter, and architect, was born at Castel Caprese, in the diocese of Arezzo in Tuscany, on the 6th of March, 1475 (owing to the Florentine year beginning on Annunciation day, the 25th of March, his birth is usually said to have taken place in 1474). His father was Lodovico Buonarroti, governor of the Castle of Caprese, his mother, Maria Bonda, of the family of the Ruccellai. His foster-mother was the wife of a stonemason. When quite young he displayed great talent for drawing and expressed a desire to be a painter, to which his father most strenuously objected, but the youth was very decided and at last gained his point. On the ist of April, 1488, when but thirteen years of age, Michelangelo was apprenticed for three years to Domenico dhirlandajo, who was, at that time, engaged on work in Santa Maria Novella at Florence ; and it was agreed that he should receive, for his assistance, eight florins yearly — a most unusual cir- cumstance. It is said that Ghirlandajo, on seeing a sketch which his pupil had made in his leisure time, exclaimed, "This boy knows more than I myself do." It was about this time that he studied in the Garden of the Medici, where Lorenzo took him into his favour, ww^X, on seeing a mask of a Fami which he had executed in marble. io6 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF P AINTE RS. [ a-D- iS^o- employed him to make various works in sculpture. On the death of his patron in 1492, he removed to his fother's house for a short time, v^here he executed the Hercules— now perished. Returning to Florence, he was employed by Pietro de' Medici— the son of Lorenzo -who, caring little for real art, is said to have induced the young ardst to mould a colossal figure in snow. In the next year, Michelangelo, dissatisfied with the state of things in Florence, left that city and repaired to Bologna, where he carved figures on the shrine of St. Dominic in the church of San Petronio. In 1494 he returned to Florence and worked for another Lorenzo de' Medici ; among other things he executed a Sleeping Cupid, which was sold in Rome, for 200 ducats, as an antique. This induced him to go to the Papal capital, and during the first visit he sculptured his famous /'/>/'(?, now in St. Peter's. He leturned to Florence about 1501, in which year he undertook to execute his David from that block of marble which Simone da Fiesole had abandoned in despair, on finding that he had commenced a work entirely beyond his jjower and knowledge, and which had been ofi"ered to Donatello, who had refused to undertake to make any- thing of it. Three years after, Michelangelo had completed this wonderful monument, for which he received six gold florins per month, while engaged on it. About 1503, Michelangelo received a commission from CJonfaloniere Soderini to decorate one end of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence ; the o])posite end being oftered to Leonardo da Vinci, who commenced but never completed his Batfle of the Standard. Michelangelo apparently never advanced further than his celebrated Cartoon of Pisa, representing Pisan soldiers surprised by Florentines, while bathing in the Arno. He comjjleted this cartoon about 1506. This wonder in the art of drawing became the common topic of praise among all the artists of Italy. Taking advantage of the troul)les with which Florence was agitated at the time of the flill of the republic under Gonfoloniere Soderini and the recall of the Medici, in 15 12, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, an arrogant, envious, and cowardly rival, obtained admittance to the hall where this masterpiece was kept, and cut it to shreds. The engraving, which has preserved a part of it, was made from a copy taken before this wanton crime was committed. In the beginning of 1505, Michelangelo went to Rome, at the invitation of Pope Julius II., for whom he commenced a design of the mausoleum which the Pope intended to erect to himself in the church of St. Peter's. On being refused admittance to Julius II., on one occasion Avhen he visited him, the sculptor felt himself so much slighted that he went home and wrote thus to the Pope : " Most Holy Father ; I was this morning driven from the palace by the order of your Holiness. If you require me in future, you can seek me elsewhere than in Rome." He then sold all his possessions in the city and returned to Florence. The Pope sent for him as soon as possible demanding his return, but Michelangelo, conscious of his right of protection as a Florentine citizen, refused ; l)ut on the Pope's writing to the Seignory, the Gonfaloniere sent for Michelangelo, reprimanded him strongly for his behaviour to his Floliness, and said that he could not risk the anger of the Vatican on his account. Michelangelo eventually made peace with the Pope, at the end of 1506, at Bologna ; where he designed the celebrated statue of Julius II., three times the size of life — afterwards destroyed. In March 1508 he was called to Rome by the Pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chai)el, which, after some hesitation, he undertook, saying that the work was not suitaljle to him, nor he to the work, and suggesting that it should be entrusted to Raphael. Vasari tells us that. he completed these frescoes in twenty months; but these months MICHELANGELO BUONARROTL 107 were not consecutive, for the ceiling was commenced in 1508, and was not finished until All Saints' Day, 15 12. The Sistine Chapel of the Vatican is for Michelangelo, as a painter, what the Stanze are for Rai)hael — his domain, his kingdom, his triumph. Twelve immense frescoes, the works of eminent artists, Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, Cosinio Rosselli, ("ihirlandajo, and Perugino, entirely cover the two side walls, and show at once by their preservation and beauty what may be expected from frescoes. But all these are crushcti l)y the superiority of the works by Michelangelo^ — the decorations of the ceiling ami the Last JiiJi:^/ncnf ; though the impatience of Julius II., who felt that he was growing old, did not allow the painter to finish his frescoes as he would have desired. The Pope wished that he should enliven his pictures with ornaments. " Holy Father," he rei^lied. " the men whom I have jxainted were not wealthy, but ]>ious THE CREATION OF MAN. — BY MICHEI.ANC.EI.O. /;/ l/ic Sistiiic' Chapel. persons, who despised riches." As he made his own sculptor's tools, so he made for himself, in order to work during the night, a cardboard helmet, at the top of which he fastened a candle, thus leaving both hands free, yet carrying his own light. He shut himself up during whole days in the chapel, the keys of which had been given him, and allowed no one to enter — not even to prepare his colours. It is however believed that Bramante obtained leave of entrance for his nephew Raphael, who thus studied the style of Michelangelo before commencing the frescoes in the Stanze and the Loggie, and who certainly imitated him in the figure of the Prophet Isaiah in the church of Sant' Agostino. The ceiling of the Sistine contains, in its numerous compartments of all shapes, several subjects taken from the Old Testament, and, in its twelve pendentives, different isolated personages, such as patriarchs, prophets, and sibyls. All these compositions are known from engravings, and it is seen with what wonderful skill Michelangelo adjusted them in the frames so ill-contrived for large painting. When he had to depict, for example, the Creation of the IVor/J, there was so little room, that he was io8 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1530. only able to show the head and hands of the Eternal Father. But that head and those hands which fill the whole frame give a clear idea of the Great Creator— all intelli- gence and power. In the midst of these strong, terrible, and sometimes grotesque figures, with which the capricious compartments of the vault are filled, the Creation of Eve is a picture of such charming grace, that it arrests the spectator. As for the Creation of Man, " it is, in my eyes," says M. Constantine, " the most sublime point to which modern art has risen." . . . Amongst the prophets w^ see Isaiah buried in such profound meditation that he seems to turn himself slowly even at the voice of the ano-el who calls him. The sibyls have a middle character, between the inspiration of a saint and the fury of a sorceress, which well accords with the strangely equivocal part assigned to them by the church. It is vex'atious not to be able to admire at leisure the infinite details of this magnificent ceiling, in which Michelangelo seems to have understood the beautiful, like the ancients, by seeking it in greatness, and the true, which excludes neither simplicity nor grace. But besides that it is not easy to penetrate into certain parts of the chapel, the paintings are too flir from the eye to be seen clearly, and it is jiainful to look up at them. This is the inconvenience of all ceilings. In 15 13 Julius II. died, but Michelangelo, in compliance with the wishes of the Pope's heirs, continued to work for three years on the mausoleum, which however he was never able to finish. It was during this time that he executed his grand figure of Moses, now in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, and the two unfinished statues of Captured Slaves in the Louvre. He next accepted a commission from Leo X. — the successor of Julius II. — to erect a facade to the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which purpose he was obliged to be much, at Carrara, in order to select the marble, but in the spring of 15 19 the work was abandoned, and Michelangelo settled in Florence. In 1529 he was appointed superintendent of the Florentine fortifications, but he fied from that city in the September of the same year and went to Venice ; in November he returned to Florence and remained there during the siege. In 1530 he executed the celebrated tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici in the Medicean Chapel at Florence, including those four colossal figures representing Dawn and Twilight, Day and Night, which are so well known. In 1534 he left Florence and went, to Rome, and commenced, in the Sistine Chapel, his Last Judgment. Always fond of solitude, and having passed a life without pleasures or amuse- ments, and without any other passion but that of art, — his imagination still full of the horrors of which he had been the witness and almost the victim at the taking of Florence by the Medici, and the sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V., — his mind filled with the poems of Dante, — a faithful disciple of the Reformer-Martyr, Savonarola, — all the wild melancholy with which the soul of Michelangelo was filled burst forth in this composition. We need not go into all the details of this vast poem, in which appear three hundred personages. It is sufficient to mention that Michelangelo has depicted the scene described in this verse of St. Matthew : " They shall see the Son ot Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ;" that in the centre of the higher part or celestial seat of Christ is the inexorable and terrible judge, who weighs in just balances the actions of men, without being softened even by the tears of His mother ; that around Him, and the prophets or saints attendant on Him. a group of criminals await anxiously the sentence of His mouth ; that the angels who execute His decrees take up the saints to heaven or deliver the condemned to the hands of devils ; that in the lower or terrestrial part, where on one side the dead awake at the blast of the everlasting trumpets, on the other a group of the condemned, A.D. 1540. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTL 109 personifying sins and vices, are piletl on the fatal boat which is about to be engulfed ni the mouth of hell. As for the qualities of the work, the majesty of the arrangement, the grandeur of the whole, the variety of the details, the beauty of the groups, the unrivalled perfection in the drawing, the boklness of the attitudes and foreshortening, the knowledge displayed of muscular anatomy, it would be childish to dwell on these difierent points, and to add our ])raises to the long acclamations of all artists, who for more than three centuries have proclaimed the wonderful merit of this gigantic masterpiece. "We may esteem oursehes happy," exclaims Vasari, '"when we have seen such a prodigy of art and genius." The Last Jiiiigiiu-nt, much injured by time, damp, the smoke of incense and THE 1R(M'UET JOKL. THE DELI'UIC SIBYL. On the ceitiiig of tlic Sistinc Chapel. tapers, and much neglected by the guardians of the \'atican. has been ignominiouslv spoiled by an alteration in the architecture which has cut off all the higher central part of the fresco, that in which the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit were represented, and which thus completed the meaning of the comjiosition. This part is now only known by old copies made before the end of the sixteenth century. About 1540 Michelangelo commenced the Crucifixion and the Conversion of St. Paul, in the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican ; these frescoes were his last jxaintings of imi)ortance. In 1547 Michelangelo, " for the honour of C.od," agreed to become director of the building of St. Peter's, as successor to Antonio da San Gallo, but he ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1564. would receive no salary ; and from his plans the great dome of St. Peter's was built. He did little work of importance after this, and on the 17th of February, 1564, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, this great man died at Rome. He was buried, according to his express desire, in the church of Santa Croce in Florence. It is known that Michelangelo professed to esteem fresco painting alone, and that he despised easel pictures. " It is the occupation of a woman," said he, meaning possibly Raphael. Hence the easel pictures he has left us are extremely rare. Besides his l^ortrait in the Museum of the Capitol, which is perhaps by him, there are only two known in the whole of Italy. That in the gallery of the Uffizi is supposed to represent the Virgin kneeling, who presents the child Jesus to Joseph over her shoulder, and in the background are naked figures as if leaving the bath. It is called a Holy Family, but it is merely a human family and the personification of the three ages. It was painted for a Florentine gentleman named Agnolo Doni, who having at first thought the terms fixed by Michelangelo (seventy crowns) too high, hastened afterwards to give double what the artist proudly demanded, for fear he should raise the price. Although Vasari quotes this picture in the gallery of the Ufifizi as one of the most beautiful of those by Michelangelo, we must not seek in it either simplicity of composition or graceful or powerful expression. It is a confused mixture of heads and limbs, of the boldest drawing certainly, and even of great finish, but in which the hard outlines and dry colouring take away all charm. The second picture by Michelangelo is in the gallery of the Pitti Palace. It is of the Parcce. or Fates. All the good qualities and defects of the before-mentioned painting are to be found in it ; the same boldness of design and finish in execution ; but also tlie same hardness of outline and dryness of colouring. The ancients, who everywhere sought and required the beautiful, made the Fates three beautiful young girls like the Graces. Michelangelo has made them old, and belonging rather to the family of witches. Perhaps it is owing to him that this transformation has passed into a tradition. But it is possible that besides the Three Ages and the Three Fates, there may yet exist another easel-picture by Michelangelo. At the exhibition of art in Manchester in 1857, connoisseurs agreed to restore to the great painter of the Sistine, an unfinished ]ncture that had been ascribed until then to his master, Ghirlandajo. It is a Aladoiiiia loith the infant Saviour a>id St. John, surrounded by a group of four angels, now in the National Ciallery (No. 809). It is said to be superior to the other two works of the same nature, known to be authentic. A very remarkable, though unfinished, painting of the Entombment (No. 790), attributed to Michelangelo, was acquired by the National Gallery in 1868; and there is also in the same gallery a Dream of Human Life (No. 8), supposed to ha\e been painted, from a design of Michelangelo, by one of his pupils. " Michelangelo terminated the cycle of Florentine art vvhich had been begun by Giotto. He is himself the representative of the whole of the sixteenth century, with its melancholy regrets, its bold hopes, its long agony of trial, its gigantic resuU. Michelangelo is the true statue of that age, its most faithful and complete image. For a long period he reigned alone, acknowledged by all as the legitimate, all- powerful monarch. When Michelangelo died Galileo was born, and Science advanced to take the place of Art." "This great man," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "possessed in the highest degree the mechanism and poetry of drawing. The noble character, the air, the attitude, which he has imparted to his figures, were all found in his sublime imagination, and A.D. 1564.] MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. even antiquity had not furnished him with models. The Homer of painting, his sibyls and i)rophets awake the same sensations as the reading of the (ireek poets." In I IlK IJKSCK.M KRO.M THE CROSS. — BY HANIELE DA VOLTEKRA. /// ///,■ Church of Santa Trinita de" Monti, Rovic. conclusion : Michelangelo, who was a painter and architect like Bramante, a painter and sculptor like Alonzo Cano, a painter and poet like Orcagna, Bronzino. and Salvator, 112 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1565. a painter and statesman like Rubens, and greater than tliem all in every way, — Michelangelo, when already old, executed, almost at the same time, the three master- pieces which have immortalized him. He carved the Moses, he painted the Last Judgment, and he raised the dome of St. Peter's. SCHOLARS OF MICHELANGELO. D^niele Ricciarelli, called Daniele da Volterra, from his birthplace, was born in 1509. He studied at first under Bazzi and afterwards under Peruzzi at Siena. He thence went to Rome, where he worked as assistant to Perino del Vaga. Subseciuent.ly he became a pupil of the great Michelangelo, who supplied him with designs for the works he executed in the Farnesina Palace. His be.st known^and indeed world-famed - work is the Descent from the Cross (see engraving), one of the series of the History of the Cross, which he executed in the Trinita de' Monti at Rome. It is said that Pope Paul IV., thinking that some of the figures in Michelangelo's Last Judgment were too nude to be compatible with the sanctity of the Sistine Chapel, meditated destroying it, and that Daniele undertook to clothe the naked bodies, which he did — it is said with the sanction of the great painter — and thereby acquired the nickname of " il Rracchettone." Daniele da Volterra died at Rome in 1566. Among other works by him, may be mentioned a Baptism oj -Christ, in San Pietro in Montorio at Rome; a double picture in the Louvre representing David and Goliath from two different points of view, for a long time attributed to Michelangelo; and a Massacre oJ the Lnnocents, in the Ufhzi. Marcello Venusti was born at Mantua in the early half of the sixteenth century. He was at first a pupil of Perino del Vaga at Rome ; afterwards he worked under Michelangelo, whose Last Judgment he copied for Cardinal Farnese ; this picture is now in the Naples Callery. A painting of Christ appearing to the Souls in Hades, by him, is in the Colonna Gallery, Rome. Venusti executed many pictures from designs by Michelangelo. He died at Florence about 1580. Pellegrino Tibaldi, born at Bologna in 1527, was both architect and painter. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Bagnacavallo, but studied the works of Michelangelo, and adopted the style of that master to such an extent that the Carracci called him "II Michelagnolo riformato." After executing many good works in Italy he Avas invited to Spain by Philip II. , for whom he decorated the Escurial. He was much honoured in Spain, where he remained nine years, but most of his works have perished. Of his Italian pictures, we may mention a Marriage of St. Catherine, in the Bologna Gallery : and a .SV. Cecilia, in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna. It is supposed that Tibaldi died in 1 600. IHE STSTINE CHAPEL, IN THE VATICAN, ROME. S/it>7ving the position oj Xickelig/iira>ni, who is called the Florentine Cicero; of the Cardinal Bernardo Davizi de Bibiena, who wished Raphael to marry his niece ; lastly a full-length portrait of the Pope Leo X.,\\\\\\ the two cardinals Julius de' Medici and de' Bossi. \Ve know what the portraits of Raphael are, especially when they belong, like this last, to his greatest style ; and all praise on our part would be superfluous. One of his most famous pictures is the Vision of Ezekiel. Taking as his subject the sacred narrative as given in the first chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel, a subject at once vast, grand and complicated, Raphael has found means to represent it, without diminishing its grandeur, within the compass of a frame of a foot square. In this little gem, so wonderfully finished, Raphael has proved that the greatness of a picture depends not on the dimensions of the frame, but on the style of the jjaintino-. The other comi)ositions of Raphael at the Pitti Palace comprise the three different forms oi Madonnas which he has so often and so variously repeated. The first is one of those glorified and triumphant Virgins, who from their throne receive the worship of the angels and saints. The second is a complete Holy Family^ where no person is wanting from the traditional number. The others are simple Madonnas, that is to say, the Virgin Mother bearing her Child in her arms, and sometimes accompanied by his young precursor, St. John the Baptist. The name given to the first is the Madotina del Baldacchino, because the throne on which Mary sits is covered with a canopy. This picture has several points of resemblance to the Madonna di Foligno in the Museum at Rome, and the famous Madonna del Pesce, at Madrid. Another Holy Fajnily has been called deir Impannata, or of the paper window, because the house of the carpenter Joseph is represented with this humble substitute for glass used in dwellino-s of the poor. One of the two remaining Madonnas is called del Gran Duca, or del Via5 all the known limits of art. La Belle Jardiniere is extremely beautiful, and almost as wonderful as the Madonna del Cardellino, the pride of Florence. There now remains the Holy Family (called "de Francois Premier") and ^7. Michael overthroioin;:^ the Dragon. These two pictures are intimately connected by bearing the same date, both having been painted in 1518 ; and by the same history. It has often been related, that having received an enormous and unheard-of price for his ^V. Michael., from Francis I., Raphael, not wishing to remain his debtor, imme- diately sent him the Holy Family, begging him to accept it as a mark of homage ; to which Francis replied, that " men celebrated in the arts, sharing the immortality ot kings, might treat with them," and it is said he added a price double that of the St. Michael to this royal compliment. All these anecdotes are contradicted by the writings of the time, amongst others by the letters of Goro Gheri da Pistoja, gonfa- loniere of Florence, collected in the Carteggio of the Doctor Gaye. These letters prove that the ^V. Michael and the Holy Family were ordered of Raphael by the duke of Urbino, Lorenzo de' Medici, and that in the year 1518 they were sent through a commercial house at L-yons to this prince, who was then living in France. They must have passed from him either by gift or purchase to the palace of Fontainebleau, where they were received with great pomp and solemnity. Of the Holy Family, we would say that, painted by Raphael towards the close of his life, at his best time and in his best style, it is at least equal to his most celebrated compositions on the same subject, and that without any partiality we may put it in the first rank among all the Holy Families which are scattered through Europe. Turning from France to England, we may mention, first, those in the National Gallery, which possesses five of Raphael's paintings : a Portrait of Julius LL. (Xo. 27) — there are many repetitions of this work, the original of which is in the Fitti Palace ; the St. Catherine of Alexa/ulria (No. 168), painted about 1507, formerly in the Aldobrandini Collection in the Borghese Palace, Rome ; the Vision of a Knight (No. 213) in his very early style; the Madonna, Lnfant Christ, and St. John (No. 744), now known as the '" Garvagh Raphael," formerly in the possession of Lord Garvagh, who sold it to the National Gallery in 1865; this also is from the Aldobrandini Collection (of this picture there are several copies) ; and lastly a replica of the Madonna of the Bridgewater Gallery, bequeathed by Mr. Wynn Ellis in 1875. Earl 1 )udley possesses a Crucifixion ivith four Saints, and the Three Graces, Raphael's earliest mythological painting. A Christ on the Mount of Olives, painted at Urbino in 1504, is in the possession of Mr. Fuller Maitland. At Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, is the beautiful Madonna and Child enthroned with St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas of Bari. In the Bridgewater Gallery are : \\\^ Holy Family ivith the Palm-tree : a Madonna and Child, painted in 151 2, in an imperfect state ; and the Madonna del Passeggio. At Panshanger, in the possession of Earl Cowper, is a Madonna and Child, dated 1508 ; another of a similar subject is in the same collection. In the South Kensington Museum, we now find the celebrated cartoons which so long adorned the galleries of Hampton Court. It will be well to explain how these cartoons, painted in Rome for a poj)e, are in an English museum and belong to a Pro- testant sovereign. It is a simple story, which may be related in very few words : " His Holiness Leo X.," says \'asari, " desiring to have rich tapestry wo\en of gold and silk, Raphael himself made ready the cartoons, which he coloured with his own hand. They were sent into Flanders (to Arras) to be woven, and when the cloths were finished ihev were sent to Rome. Xolhing can be more wondcrlul. This work, which would 126 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1520. be taken for the work of a skilful pencil, seems rather the effect of a miracle than of human art. The tapestries cost 70,000 crowns." These cartoons, which Raphael hnished in 1520, the same year that he died, represent scenes from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles ; the work of copying them in tapestry was over-looked by Bernard van Orley and Michael Coxcie, Flemish painters who had been pupils of Raphael in Italy. There were originally twelve cartoons ; but, either in the manufactories, where they were cut into strips, or in the journey, or through accidents of which tradition has preserved no remembrance, five of them have disappeared. The seven that have been preserved, which are happily the finest in composition and style (as is easily discovered from the twelve tapestries themselves), were bought for Charles I. by Rubens, after his residence in England (1629) and the secret embassy with which Philij) IV. of Spain had entrusted him. Charles I. left these venerable strips for a long time buried in their cases. After his death they were taken care of by Oliver Cromwell ; Charles II., it is said, would have sold them to Louis XIV. had he not been restrained by Lord Danby, who would not allow such treasures to leave the country, and finally they were collected and restored under William III., who devoted to them a large gallery built for them by Sir Christopher Wren, in his favourite palace of Hampton Court, where they were framed in the wood-work and arranged in suitable order. " They are well kept," wrote the Comte de Caylus in 1722 ; "I did not think they were so well preserved." The subjects represented by the seven cartoons are the Miraculous Draught of Fishes : St. Peter and St. John curing the Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Tempk ; Ely mas the Sorcerer struck with Blindness ; St. Paul and St. Bar)mbas at Lystra ; St. Paul preaching at Athens ; Jesus giving the keys to St. Peter ; and Ananias struck dead. These cartoons of Raphael are not, like most cartoons, simple chalk drawings on grey or white paper. To serve as copies for tapestry, they were obliged to be coloured. Thus they are really pictures in distemper, and when fitted into the walls, have the effect of fresco paintings. The name cartoon only gives a very imperfect idea of them. It would doubtless be superfluous to attempt even a succinct description of these wonderful compositions, which are well known through engravings, and by photo- graphs. Among them, we should name, first, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, and the Preaching of St. Paul. These pictures, designed in the last year of Raphael's life, when he had attained the summit of his genius, seem the highest expression of great monumental painting. Perhaps we must not except even the Sistine chapel, where the ceiling and fresco of Michelangelo are to be found. Northern Europe does not possess many of the works of Raphael : in the Hermitage, at St. Petersburg, is the Madonna of the Casa d' Alba ; and in the Berlin Gallery is a sketch of an Adoration of the Shepherds. But let us pass on to Dresden, where we shall find the most precious of all the spoils carried out of Italy — the Madoufia di San Sisto. This picture was ordered for the high altar of the convent of the Benedictines of St. Sixtus at Placentia, and was bought in 1753 by the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus III., for the sum of 20,000 ducats (rather more than 8,000/.). Every one knows the Madonna di San Sisto, at least by engravings, amongst others by that of poor Miiller, who from having so long contemplated the picture lost both his reason and his life when he had completed his magnificent work. (A new engraving, by Steinla, of the Madonna di San Sisto, which was pubhshed in 1858, is perhaps the most faithful copy of Raphael's masterpiece.) We shall only say a very few words of explanation about this picture. In order to understand it well, we must not forget what the artist meant to express and what the A.D. I520.] RAPHAEL U URBINO. 127 exact subject is. We should be mistaken if we were to seek in it a simple Madonna, a representation of the mother of our Lord, such as the artist imagined her and offered to the piety and a(hiiiration of men. There is more here ; it is like a revelation of Heaven to Earth ; it is an Appearance of the Virgin. This word explains the whole rendering of the picture ; the green curtains drawn aside in the uj)per part, the balustrade at the bottom, on which the two little angels lean, who seem by their up- turned glance to point to the celestial vision ; and St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, kneeling on either side of the Virgin, like Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor at the Transfigu- ration. We must also notice that the two angels at the bottom, whose presence few people understand, give a third plane to the picture, or as the Italians say, three orrizonii, — first these angels, then St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, and lastly the Madonna and Child, who are thus placed at a greater distance. When we understand this, we can appreciate all the merits of this composition. What symmetry and variety are to be found in it ! What noble attitudes ! In what Avonderfully graceful positions are the Virgin and the Child in her arms ! And what ineffable beauty is there in everything that composes the group ! What could be more thoughtful, pious, and holy than the venerable head of Sixtus I., crowned by the glory of the saints, the thin golden circle of which shines brightly on the blue background, composed of innumerable faces of cherubim ! What more noble, more tender, and more graceful than the holy martyr of Nicomedia, who unites every kiml of beauty, even that creamy complexion so celebrated by the old fathers of the primitive church ! ^V'hat could we find more super-human than that Child with the meditative forehead, the serious mouth, and fixed and penetrating eye, — that Child who will become the wrathful Christ of Michelangelo ! And is not Mary a radiant and celestial being? ^Vhat eye could gaze on her without falling? And what moves the inmost depths of our hearts, is the irresistible power of moral beauty which beams in the face of the Virgin mother, whose veil is lightly thrown aside as if by the breeze ; it is her deep glance, her noble forehead, her face, at once grave, modest, and sweet ; it is that indefinable look of something primitive and wild, which marks the woman brought up far from the world, and havmg never known its pomps or deceitful gaieties. Let us say a few words to conclude our praises of Raphael. In all the schools of painting, and still more, in the whole history of modern art, there has been no one to ecjual him. After three centuries and a half of animated discussions, of frequent re\olts, after interminable debates which have taken place in every party and every sect, Raphael, calm and trancpiil, has ever occupied the throne of painlmg, and no other artist has ever disputed his legitimate empire. FOLLOWERS OF RAPHAEL. (ROMAN SCHOOL.) Timoteo della Vite, a cousin of Raphael d'Urbino, was born at I'rbino in 1470. When about twenty years of age he removed to Bologna to learn the business of a jeweller, but showing great talent for painting he, according to Mahasia, entered the school of Francia, with whom he remained for about five years ; Vasari tells us that he was his own instructor. When about twenty-six he returned to Urbino, and some time afterwards was in\ited by Raphael to assist him at Rome. After a comparatively short stay in this cilv he relurneil to Urbino, where he executed many works in the 128 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1520. Cathedral, the churches and elsewhere. He died in 1523. Among his pictures may be mentioned, in Urbino, a St. Apollonia in the church of the Santa Trinitk, and a Magdalen in the Cathedral ; a Noli me tangere in Sant' Angelo at Cagli ; a Madonna and an Immaculate Conception in the Brera ; a Madonna and saijits and a St. Jerome in the Berlin Gallery. In painting, Timoteo shows many traces of Francia's style as well as the grace and beauty of Raphael, which he acquired during his short stay in Rome, though with all this his manner is sometimes hard and dry. In the British Museum there is a fine Portrait of Timoteo by his friend Raphael — one of the grandest chalk drawings in the world. Giulio Pippi, rightly cle' Giannuzzi, commonly called Giulio Romano, was born at Rome in 1492— a document discovered at Mantua says 1498. He was apprenticed to Raphael when quite young, and assisted him in the A^atican. Among the works designed by the great master, the execution of which is attributed to Giulio, may be mentioned the Battle of Constautine in the "Stanza di Costantino ;" the Creation and the Histories of Adam and Eve, of Noah, of Joseph, of Moses, and of the Neio Testament, in the Loggie ; the Holy Family under the oak, in the Madrid Gallery ; the Madonna della Gatta, and the Madonna col divino aviore, in the Museum at Naples. Giulio also assisted Raphael in many other works. While in Rome he painted frescoes in the "Villa Lanti" and the "Villa Madama." He also painted frescoes in the church of Santa Trinita de' Monti. By his will Raphael made Giulio joint-heir with Gianfrancesco Penni, on condition that they should complete his unfinished frescoes in the Vatican. In 1524 Giulio went to Mantua and entered the service of Federigo Goixzaga, duke of that city. He was architect for the Palace del Tfe, and, assisted by numerous pupils, decorated the interior with frescoes representing the Defeat of the Giants — his greatest work — and scenes from the History of Cupid and Psyche. He also painted at Mantua, in the " Ufifizio della Scaccheria," frescoes representing Diana at the Chase, and the History of the Trojan War, and frescoes in numerous churches, especially the Cathedral, which, however, he was not able to complete ; for, having accepted the post of architect to St. Peter's at E.ome, as successor to Sansovino, he was about to set out for that city when he died at Mantua on the ist of November, 1546. Among his easel-pictures we may mention a Madonna in the sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome ; in the Louvre, a Madonna, a Circumcision of Christ, and a Portrait of himself ; in the Dresden Gallery, La Sainte Famillc an Bassin ; and four in the National Gallery (Nos. 225, 624, 643, 644) — the best of these is the Infancy of Jupiter (No. 624), repre- senting the infant sleeping in a cradle, with three women on a verdant island ; in the background are the Curetes playing musical instruments in order to drown the cries of the young Jupiter. This picture was formerly in the Orleans Gallery; thence it passed into the possession of Lord Northwick, from whom it was purchased in 1859. Giulio was as celebrated for his architecture as for his painting. He erected many churches and other buildings in Mantua. His drawing is bold and powerful — he has indeed been compared with Michelangelo — but there is an absence of the knowledge of the true laws of colouring, for he combines the highest lights with the deepest shadows. While at Mantua he had numerous scholars, among whom were Rinaldo and Fermio-Guisoni. Giovanni Francesco Penni, called II Fattore, because he was at first employed by Raphael as his steward, was born at Florence in 1488. Next to Giulio Romano, he GIULIO PIPPI DE' GIAXNUZZl (GiULio Romano.) I\ue 12S. A.I). 1540.] SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. 129 was Raphael's favourite scholar, but he was not a first-rate artist. Of the easel-paintings of Raphael, the Visitation in the Madrid Gallery, and the Madonna del Passeggio in the Bridgewatcr C.allcry, are attributed to Penni, from the design of his master. He also painted the lower-half of the Coronation of the Viri^in for the convent of Santa Maria di Monte Luce at Perugia — now in the Vatican — but it is verj' inferior to the upper portion, the work of Giulio Romano. He also finished, from Raphael's design, the Histories of Abraham and Lot and Lsaac, in the Loggie of the Vatican ; and in the " Stanza di Costantino " the Baptism of Constantinc, which is inferior to the work of Giulio. in the same room. Penni is thought to have executed a greater part of the painting of the celebrated Raphael Cartoons, seven of which are now in the South Kensington Museum. He made copies of Raphael's Transfiguration and Entombment ; that of the former is in the Sciarra Golonna Gallery, Rome. This artist was Raphael's joint-heir and executor with Giulio Romano. After his master's death, he left Rome and went to Naples, where he died in 152S. Andrea Sabtatini, called Andrea da Salerno Irom his l)irthplace, was born in 1480. He was placed in the school of the Donzelli— early Neapolitan painters — to study the art ; seeing some of the works of Perugino he set out in order to join him, but his course was arrested in Rome by the flxme of Raphael, whose pupil he became. The death of his father caused him ro leave Rome in 1513 ; he then settled in Naples, out of which city very few of his pictures are to be met with. Sabbatini died in 1545. Among his works we may mention an Adoration of the Kiiif^s. in the Naples Gallery. The churches of that city possess several of his works. Bartolommeo Ramenghi, called Bagnacavallo from liis birthplace, was born in 1484. He is said to have been a follower of Francia at Bologna for some time ; he then went to Rome and entered the school of Raphael, whose works he studied devoutly ; after the death of the great master he returned to Bologna, and introduced the style of Raphael to the inhabitants of that city, where he painted in 1542 his Crucifixion for the church of San Pietro. He died at Bologna in 1542. It is said that Carracci studied BagnacavalIo"s works with interest. There is in the Gallery of Bologna a LJoly Family, and many churches of that city possess pictures by Bagnacavallo. In Rome there are a Prophet and a Saint in Santa Maria della Pace, and a Troop of Warriors in the Colonna Palace. We may also mention a Madonna in glory in the Dresden Ciallery — considered by .some to be his masterpiece. Bagnacavallo had a son. Giovanni Battista, who assisted Vasari at Rome ami Trimaticcio at Fontainebleau. Girolamo Marches! da Cotignola was born at Cotigiiola in 14S6. He was a pupil of Francia, and painted for a long time in the style of his master, but ultimately abandoned it for that of the great Raphael. Amongst his works we may mention : in the Pinacoteca at Bologna, a Marriage of the Virgin and a Madonna and Child 7C'ith saints ; in the Berlin Museum, a Coronation of the Virgin and a Madonna with saints : in the Louvre, a Christ bearing the Cross; and in Lord Ashburton's collection, a Nativity^ signed and dated 151,3. Girolamo is said to have died at Rome in 1549. Francesco Primaticcio was born at Bologna in 1490. He studied fust under Innocenzio da Imola and Bagnacavallo ; he then went to Mantua, and worked with Giulio Romano in the Palace del Te and elsewhere. In 1531 he was recommended by Frederick of Mantua to Francis I. of France, for whom he executed a great number of works at Fontainebleau ; though the greater part of the frescoes, witli which Francis s 13° ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1545. wished to decorate his Palace, were not finished until after that monarch's death. Owing to jealousy, an ill-feeling arose between Primaticcio and II Rosso, who was then painting for Francis, and the King therefore sent Primaticcio to Rome to collect antique worlss of art. He was, however, recalled to finish some paintings which II Rosso's death, in 1541, had left uncompleted. The most renowned of his works in France were the scenes from the Odyssey in the Palace of Fontainebleau, which were entirely destroyed in 1738 when the great gallery was pulled down to make room for some new apartments. Primaticcio painted also under Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX. Francis I. made him abbot of St. Martin de Troyes, and gave him a revenue of 8000 crowns. He died in 1570, eighty years of age. Works by this artist are rarely seen out of France ; we may mention, as an exception, a Return of Ulysses at Castle Howard, which is described by Dr. Waagen as the best of the pictures by Primaticcio which he had then seen. Giovanni Nanni, commonly known as Giovanni da Udine, from his birthplace, was born in 1494. Early in life he displayed an ability for painting — especially animals and fruit — and was placed under Giorgione at Venice. After some time he removed to Rome and painted under Raphael in the Vatican, where he superintended the execution of the stuccoes and decorations in the Loggie. He executed also a frieze in the Villa Madama at Rome ; and was employed with Perino del Vaga, by Clement VII., in the Vatican. In 1527, after the sacking of the city, he left Rome and went to Florence — where he painted for the Medici — and other cities in Italy, but returning to Rome he died there in 1564, and was buried in the old Pantheon near the body of Raphael. As a specimen of Giovanni's art we may mention a Christ amo?ig the Doctors, with the four Fathers of the Church in the foreground, now in the Venetian Academy. Polidoro Caldara, called Polidoro da Caravaggio, from his birthplace, was born in 1495. H^ ^^'^ employed as a mason in the Vatican, where he acquired a taste for art, in which he induced a Florentine painter, Maturino by name, to instruct him. They then executed conjointly many works in chiaroscuro, which nearly all perished, though they are, to a certain extent, preserved to us by the engravings of Alberti, Galestruzzi, and others. The sack of Rome in 1527 caused a dissolution of partnership of these two artists, when Polidoro went to Naples and remained there some lime in the house of Andrea da Salerno, but, being discontented with the lack of appreciation, as he thought, of the Neapolitans, he removed to Messina, where in 1536 he was entrusted with the superintendence of the triumphal decorations on the occasion of the return of the victor, Charles V., from Tunis. In 1543 Polidoro, having acquired great wealth in Messina, resolved to return to Rome, but on the night previous to his departure he was treacherously murdered for the sake of his money, at the instigation of an old servant, who, confessing his crime, was hanged for the offence. Polidoro was buried in the cathedral of Messina. Among his pictures are a Christ bearing the Cross — his masterpiece — with various other works by him in the public gallery at Naples ; and a Psyche in the Louvre. Pierino Buonaccorsi, called Perino del Vaga, after one of his masters, was born at Florence in 1500. His first instructor in art was one Andrea de' Ceri ; he then studied under Ridolfo Ghirlandajo and Vaga; the latter took him to Rome, and A.1). 1545] SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. recommended him to Giulio Romano, who spoke well of him to Raphael, by whom he was employed with Giulio and Penni, on the frescoes in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Loggie, the execution of which is attributed to Perino. are the histories o{ Joshua and of David; the histories of Moses and of the Nciv Testament ■^c[t, by some, attributed to Perino, by others, to (liuHo. Perino also assisted Giovanni da Udine in the stuccoes and the arabcsciues in the Loggie. He painted, too, the Creation of Eve in San Marcello. After the sack of Rome in 1527, Perino left that city, and went to Genoa, where he was employed by Prince Doria to decorate his palace, which he did much in the same style that Giulio employed at ISIantua. Among the pictures which he executed in this palace, were the Shipxvreck of .Eneas, on the ceiling of the great hall, now whitewashed over, and Jupiter destroying the Giants, on the ceiling of a neighbouring room. These fine paintings have now nearly all perished. After a stay of some years at Genoa, Perino returned to Rome, where he was employed by Pope Paul III. Towards the end of his life, his pictures were in such request that he merely made the designs, leaving the execution of them to his pupils, among whom we may mention, Pantaleo Calvi and Lazzaro, painters of no great merit. Perino died at Rome in 1547 — it is said that he hastened his end by intemperance — and was buried by the side of Raphael and other great painters in the old Pantheon. Among his pictures we may mention The Muses and the Tierides on Mount Tar.iassus in the Louvre, and a Portrait of Cardinal Pole in the possession of Lord Spencer at Althorp. There are works by him in Rome, Tivoli, Florence, Lucca, and Pisa. Innocenzio Francucci da Imola, was bom at Imola in 1494, or perhaps a few years earlier, for in 1506 he is said to have entered the school of Francia at Bologna — when he quitted Francia he studied under Albertinelli at Florence. He never resided at Rome, but he was one of Raphael's most devoted followers ; he even carried his admiration for the great master so far as to copy whole figures from his subjects in his own. Among his pictures, we may mention an altar-piece, painted for San Michele in Bosco, representing above the Madonna and Child loith Angels, and below the Archangel Michael vanquishing Satan, with SS. Peter and Benedict at the sides ; this picture, which has been called his masterpiece, is now in the Bologna Academy, which also possesses a Holy Family, formerly in the church of the Corpus Domini. Various public galleries in Europe contain works by Imola. He died in 1549. Niccolb Abati, who was born at Modena in 15 12, was instructed in art by his father Giovanni Abati, a second-rate painter of that town. He is said to have studied under the sculptor Begarelli, and also under Correggio. In the castle of Scandiano he painted frescoes, which have been engraved by Gajani, representing scenes from the .Eneid of Virgil; these have been much admired. In Bologna, to which city he removed in 1546, he painted an Adoration of the Shepherds in the Portico de' Leoni, mentioned by Count Algarotti as combining " the symmetry of Raphael and the nature of Titian with the grace of Parmigiano." In 1552 Abati went to France with Prima- ticcio, whom he assisted in the frescoes at Fontainebleau ; he i)ainted the Adventures of Ulxsses, and other works from the designs of Primaticcio, but they shared the same fate as his master's, and perished in 1738, when the building was removed to make room for some new apartments. Abati painted in France up to the time of his death, which took place in Paris in 157 i. .\mong his eascl-i)ictures, may be mentioned a Martyrdom of St. Paul in ihe Dresden Gallery, and a Rape 0/ Proserpine in the Stafford Gallery. 132 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1550. There are also some frescoes by him in the Institute of Bologna, which have been compared to the works of Titian ; Malvasia praises them greatly. Vasari says that Abati never retouched his paintings when dry, and attributes to this the evenness and beauty of his colouring. Agostino Carracci praises him most highly in a sonnet, saying that he possessed every requirement for making a great painter, and comparing him to the celebrated artists of Italy. Abati's son Giulio and his grandson Ercole were painters of some merit. FOLLOWERS OF RAPHAEL. (SCHOOL OF FERRARA.) Benvenuto Tisio, usually known as Garofalo, from his native town in the Ferrarese, whence he often puts a gilliflower {garofalo) as a monogram in his pictures, was born in 1 48 1. He studied first under an unimportant artist, Domenico Panetti at Ferrara, then under Boccaccino at Cremona for a short time ; but, leaving him in 1500, he set out for Rome, where he remained for fifteen months. Then, after a journey among other towns, he stayed two years with Lorenzo Costa at Mantua ; removing to Ferrara, he stayed there for four years, but ultimately apprenticed himself to Raphael in Rome in 15 15, to assist him in the Vatican. After a stay of a few years, domestic arrangements called Garofalo to Ferrara ; he set out intending to return as soon as possible to Rome, but this, much to Raphael's disappointment, he found himself unable to do. He remained at Ferrara, where, after suffering the affliction of total blindness for nine years, he died in 1559. Garofalo seldom endeavoured to attain a grand style. We find only four large pictures by him : the Sibyl before Augustus, in the Museum of the Vatican ; the Descent from the Cross, in the Borghese Palace ; the Martyrdom of St. La7vrence, in the Museum at Naples ; and the Apparition of the Virgiti to St. Bruno, in the Dresden Gallery. This last, a very large picture, bearing the signature of the master and the date, 1530, may be considered as his best work. In this painting he displays his graceful and elegant, as well as firm style, which, even when confined within narrow limits, rises to grandeur. Among other works of Garofalo, Ave may mention a Salutation of the Virgin, in the Doria Gallery, Rome ; a Betrayal of Christ, in San Francesco at Ferrara ; an allegory representing the Triumph of the Nezv Testament over the Old, in the Public Gallery of the same town ; and four in the National Gallery — the Vision of St. Augustine (No. 81); the Holy Family with Elizabeth and the young St. John (No. 170) ; Christ" s agony in the Garden (No. 642) ; and the Madonna and Child enthroned (No. 671), a work of great merit, originally the altar-piece of San Guglielmo at Ferrara. Dosso Dossi was born in Dosso, near Ferrara, in 1474. He, with his younger brother Giambattista, was a pupil of Lorenzo Costa. On leaving him they studied at Rome, after Raphael's death, and at Venice. They then returned to Ferrara, and executed frescoes in the Ducal Palace, .some of which still remain, Dosso doing the figures, in the painting of which he excelled, and Giambattista the background. Dosso Dossi made illustrations for " Orlando Furioso," and painted the Portrait of Ariosto — now in the Academy of Ferrara — by whom, he and his brother are mentioned with praise (" Orlando Furioso," xx.xiii. 2). Dosso Dossi died about 1560. Among his pictures may be mentioned a Madonna and Child ivith saints, now in the gal]er\- of Ferrara ; the Four Doctors of the Church, SS. Gregory, Ambrose, Augustus and A.D. 1530. J SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. Jerome; and the Drcani, in the Dresden Gallery ; the Bacchanal, in the Pitti Palace ; the Circe, in the Borghese Gallery ; and the Adoration of the Magi (No. 640) in the National (iallery. Giambattista Dossi was born at Dosso, near Ferrara, about 1480. He, as we have already stated (see Dosso Dossi), studied under Lorenzo Costa, and also at Rome and Venice, Giambattista worked mostly in conjunction with his elder brother Dosso, but had to content himself, for the most part, with the minor portions of the pictures ; such as putting in the backgrounds to Dosso's tigures, for wliich he was particularly adapted as he excelled in landscape painting. Giambattista also assisted his brother in the works in the Ducal Palace at Ferrara. He died about 1555. Two pictures by Giambattista Dossi are in the Borghese Palace, Rome ; one representing Demons in the wilderness, and tlie other an Encampment on the shore. Lodovlco Mazzolini, called also Lodovico Ferrarese, was born at Ferrara about 1481. Owing to Vasari's silence regarding him, great confusion has arisen. He is only slightly mentioned by that author as " Malini," whence he has been, so to speak, divided into two— " Malini " and "Mazzolini." He has also been confused with Mazzuoli (Parmigiano), owing to the diminutive " Mazzolino " having been given to the latter by Lomazzo. Mazzolini, who next to Garofido may be considered the most celebrated of the Ferrarese painters, was a fellow-pupil with that artist under Lorenzo Costa, but little is known of his life ; he died in 1530, at Ferrara. His pictures, which are very scarce, are noticeable for their architectural backgrounds and the excellence of their colour. MazzoUni is represented at Rome, in the Capitol and in the Doria Gallery ; in the Berlin Gallery, where amongst others is his celebrated picture of Christ disputing with the Doctors, painted in 1524; in the Gallery of Bologna ; and also in the Nadonal Gallery, where there are three pictures, two — (Nos. 82 and 169) representing the Holy Family — and one (641) the Woman taken in adultery. Works by this artist are sometimes assigned to other masters. Giambattista Benvenuti, called L'Ortolano, because his father was a gardener, v/as born at Ferrara about 1490. Little is known of him with certainty; he studied the works of Raphael and Bagnacavallo at Bologna about 1512. It is said that he died in 1525, when quite young. Pictures by him are in various churches of his native town, but his masterpiece is a St. Sebastian, St. Roch, and St. Demetrius (No. 669) in the National Gallery, formerly the altar-piece of the' parochial church of Bondeno, near Ferrara. 134 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1530. w CHAPTER XII. TITIAN, AND THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. E must now complete our brief history of the great school of Venice ; which included, as we shall see, some of the most celebrated painters of Italy, all of them remarkable for the greatness of their powers as Colourists. Tiziano Vecellio, usually known as Titian, was born at Capo del Cadore, in the Venetian territory, in 1477. He was first placed with Sebastiano Zuccati to study art; afterwards he went to Gentile Bellini, whom he also soon quitted for the studio of his more famous brother Giovanni Bellini, where he was a fellow-pupil with Giorgione. Owing perhaps to the great age of Giovanni Bellini, Titian was engaged to complete a work, which liis master was unable to finish — the Homage of Fcderigo Barbarossa to Pope Alexander III in the Sala del Gran Consiglio — which he executed so much to the satisfaction of the Senate that they conferred on him the office of " La Sanseria," with which he received a yearly income of about 120 crowns; this office obliged him to paint, for eight crowns apiece, the portrait of every Doge who might happen to be appointed during his office. About 15 14 Titian went to Ferrara and painted at the court of Duke Alfonso I., among other works, his Bacchus and Ariadne — now in the National Gallery ; while at Ferrara, in 15 16, he painted the Portrait of Ariosto, who in return mentions the artist with great praise in his " Orlando Furioso " (Canto xxxiii. 2). In the same year (15 16) Titian returned to Venice, and executed there many important works. In 1 530 he went to Bologna at the invitation of the Emperor Charles V. , whose portrait he painted ; then, after a short visit to Mantua, he executed another portrait of the Emperor, whom, some say, he accompanied to Spain. Certain it is that the Emperor created him Count Palatinate of the Empire and Knight of the order of St. lago. In 1545 Titian paid his only visit to Rome, where he painted the portrait of Pope Paul III for a second time. At Rome, too, Vasari and Michelangelo visited the great Venetian, while he was engaged on the Jupiter and Dande, and the historian tells us that his companion praised the picture most highly while in Titian's presence, and also commended the colouring and execution greatly afterwards, merely adding at the same time it was a pity that the Venetian artists were not early initiated in sound ])rinciples of drawing. The same historian tells us that Pope Paul III. offered Titian the office of keeper of the leaden seals — rendered vacant by the death of Sebastiano del I'iombo in 1547 — but this offer the painter refused. Leaving Rome in 1546, Titian a-clurncd to Venice, visiting Florence on his way. For the rest of his life he chiefly TIZIANO VECELLIO. /'"/'' 134- A.D. 1530.J VENETIAN SCHOOL. 135 resided at Venice. He visited Charles V. twice at Augsburg— once in 1548 and again in 1550. And after the Emperor's abdication, he executed many works for his son Phihp II. At Venice he was visited a second time by Vasari, who found him, though nigh upon ninety years of age, still wielding his brush. Titian, the chosen friend of Emperors, the greatest painter of the Venetian school, and the best colourist of all the schools, died at Venice, of the plague, at the advanced age of ninety-nine, on the 27th of August, 1576 ; and was buried in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa de' Frari. Little is recorded of his private life. He married about the year 151 2— but lost his wife in 1530. He had two sons, Pomponio and Orazio — the latter of whom was a good portrait-painter — and a daughter T.avinia, whose features are immortalized in the celebrated picture in the Berlin Museum. Venice is very fortunate with regard to her favourite painter. Many of his best works are preserved in her museum and churches, and in the palaces of her doges and patricians ; and amongst these are several of his most important and most justly famous productions. In the Accademia delle Belle Arti, his whole history is written. There are the first trials of a yet uncertain youth, the perfection of his middle age, and the last occupations of an old age, voluntarily laborious. A Visitation of St. Elizabeth is considered the earliest existing work of this great man. He painted this picture when scarcely more than a child, hesitating between the ■imitation of his master, Giovanni BelUni, and the new style of his fellow-student Giorgione. The forms are stiff and the colours tame, but one can ah-eady clearly see the direction in which his natural inclinations were leading him. His last work, on the other hand, is a Descent from the Cross, whicli death prevented his finishing. On examining tliis picture closely, we can see the confused and heavy work of a trembling hand and dim eye. Some parts of this venerable Deposition which had been left incomplete were finished by Palma Vecchio, accorcHng to the ])ious inscription traced at the bottom : " Quod Titianus inclioatum reliijuit, Palma reverenter absolvit, Deoque dicavit 0])us." The two large compositions at the Accademia representing the commencement and the close of the History of the Virgin — her Presentation in the Temple, and her Assumption to Heaven — indicate the maturity of the genius of Titian. The first is a singular imagination, suggested doubtless by tradition. In it are seen the external flight of stairs leading to the vesdbule of the temple, the neighbouring houses, the streets in perspective, mountains in the background, and a crowd of people. Mary, the young girl who ascends the steps alone, is the least part of tlie i)icturc, whicli is none the less an admirable specimen of the Venetian style. The two kinds of merit in painting, the real and the ideal, which ought to be inseparable, are seen together in the Assumption, so widely celebrated, and now so well known' from having been reproduced in every possible method. It is indeed useless to extol its various beauties, to attempt to describe the mysterious majest\- of the Eternal Father, the dazzling radiancy of the group of the \'irgin, borne b\ thirty little angels, or the vigorous reality of the witnesses of the miracle; it is sufficient to say, that in this picture Titian fully merits the name given him by his biographers and admirers, — the greatest colourist of Italy. Another of the great masterpieces of Titian, the Murder of St. Peter Martyr, was till recently in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (usually called San Zanipolo). 136 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1530. This great work was destroyed by fire in 1867. The subject of this vast com])osition was the death of a Dominican monk named Pietro di Verona, who was assassinated m a wood, while returning with another monk from some ecclesiastical council. He was canonized, and his tragic death recorded amongst the best authenticated legends. No kind of honour that could have been paid to this picture was wanting : first, the senate of Venice having learnt that a rich man had offered to pay eighteen thousand crowns DEATH OF ST. PETER MARTYR. — IIV TITIAN. Fornicrlv in Ihc Chunh of SS. Gio7'aiini ,• Paolo, Venice. for it to the Dominican possessors of the church of San Zanipolo, forbade the monks, under pain of death, to allow it to go out of the territory of the republic ; then Domenichino made a copy of it, which, in spite of its eminent beauties, did not attain to the grandeur of the original ; lastly, it was brought to Paris after the conquest of Venice, and there, like the Spasinw of Raphael, it was restored to all its beauty by being taken off the worm-eaten wood and placed on new and durable canvas. All A.I). 1540.] TITIAN. 137 these honours fully corroborate the saying of Vasari, that " Titian never in all his life produced a more skilful and finished work." Besides those in the museum and the churches, paintings by Titian may be found in the houses of the ancient nobility of Venice ; for instance, in the Barbarigo Palace, where he lived many years, and where he died in 1576. Although bands of robbers despoiled it with impunity during his last moments, and his unworthy son, the priest Pomponio Vecellio, dissipated his heritage, the Barbarigo Palace has yet preserved three of his pictures : the Magdalen, with which Titian would never part, but used as a model for all the others, and of ^\ hich we know at least six copies ; a Venus, which has been wilfully spoilt in order to clothe it; and a St. Sebastian, which he was sketch- ing when death overtook liini. The paintings of Titian are to be found in every museum and gallery of importance in the ancient states of Italy. Florence, especially, in spite of the richness of her own school, has collected many treasures of the great Venetian. At the gallery of the Uffizi, in the Venetian room, are \.\\o Holy Families, a St. Catherine of Alexandria, in which he has painted the features of the beautiful queen of Cyprus, Catarina Cornaro ; a half-clothed woman, called Flora, from flowers she holds in her hand ; and a sketch of the Battle of Cadorc, between the troops of the Empire and those of the Republic— which is all the more precious, as the picture destined for the palace of the doges, for which this was prepared, has perished. In the Tribune are the two celebrated pictures of Venus, placed opposite to each other. One, which is a little larger than nature, and behind which a Cupid is standing, is called, perhaps incorrectly, the wife of Titian. The other, supposed to represent the mistress of a duke of Urbino, or of one of the Medici, is known in France as the Venus au petit Chien. Both are perfectly nude, but neither bold nor immodest ; they preserve as much decency and dignity as the " Aphrodite " of Greek statuary. Both are painted with a touch vigorous, delicate, and tender, the secret of which only Titian, the great painter of women, seems to have discovered. The latter, however — superior to the other in delicacy of drawing, in the charm of the attitude, and the beauty of the foce, in whicli a sweet voluptuousness breathes— justly enjoys the greater fome. Below it is an excellent and magnificent portrait of the Cardinal Beecadell(i, which Titian painted at Venice in 1552, when the prelate came there as papal legate. The artii^t was then in his seventy-fifth year ; but as he painted for twenty years longer, this may almost be considered a work of his youth. Among the thirteen paintings liy Titian in the Pitti Palace, we prefer to mention the portraits, for certainly no other collection contains so great a number, nor such perfection. Several also are celebrated through the name of the person represented ; there is the portrait of Andreas Vesalius, the great physician and anatomist, who, like (ialileo, was persecuted by superstition, and who was driven to the Holy Land to die of hunger; there is Pliilip II. of Spain, taken during his youth; I'ietro Aretino, the dreaded satirical poet, for thirty years the friend and counsellor of the artist, who was perhaps the only one of his contemporaries whose love for the poet was unmixed with fear. Others, on the contrary, are valuable less for the name of the model than for the artist's merits. Thus, to show the greatest height to which art can reach in the simple representation of the human being, in the expression of life, it is sutficient to mention the portrait of the okl man, Luigi Cornaro, or that of the young man opposite, whose name is not known. For personal grace and brilliant costume we must mention the portrait of a lady, called Titian s Mistress. Again, the i)ortrait in which the most T 138 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1540. wonderful effects of light and shade are to be found, is the portrait of the Cardinal IppoHto dc Medici, clothed as a Hungarian magnate. Nothing can be found superior to these four portraits in the whole of Titian's works, and in this style Titian has never been surpassed by any school or in any country. Amono-st the works of Titian that have remained in Rome, is the Sacrifice of Isaac, in the Doria Palace, and a St. Sebastian in the Vatican. These are magnificent ST. SEBASTIAN — BY TITIAN. In the Vatican, Rome. works, and among the most perfect in every way that have been left by the great painter of Cad ore. Several of his works are to be found in the Studj Gallery at Naples : in the first place, Pope Paul III. seated at a desk, and raising the young prince Ottaviano II. of A.D. 1550.] 'JJTIAN. 1,^9 Parma, who is kneeling before him. The other portraits by Titian arc i>i hni^mus oj Rotterdam, in his extreme okl age, and Philip II. of Spain, when young ; both are excellent. The latter is signed, " Titianus Vecellius eques Cresaris." It was no doubt painted a short while after the time that Charles V. had conferred the order of knight- hood, with a pension of two hundred crowns, on the great painter whose pencil he had condescended to pick up : on his accession Philip II. doubled this pension. It is in a sort of private cabinet (in which however any one maj- enter) that the J)audi\ seduced by the golden shower, and whom Love watches smiling, has long been hidden. This Dande was painted for the duke Ottavio Farnese at Rome, when Titian, although sixty-eight years of age, yielded to the pressing solicitations of Paul III., and appeared at the pontifical court, to which Leo X. had not succeeded in attracting him. This picture was much admired, but the austere Michelangelo, to whom it was shown, added a reser\'ation. " It is a great i)ity," said he, " that at Venice they do not make it a rule to draw well ; this man would have no eiiual if he had strengthened his natural genius by the knowledge of drawing." At Madrid a whole museum might be formed of the works of Titian alone. Sent for three times to Augsburg, to paint Charles \'., and then Philip II., who all through his life kept up a lamiliar correspondence with the great Venetian artist, Titian appears to have bequeathed to Spain the greater part of the immense labours of his prolon<^ed life. The biographers of the painter mentioned several compositions, and some of his most important ones, which could neither be discovered at Venice nor anywhere else, and which in consecjuence were considered lost. A great number of these having been found in the catacomb-like galleries of the Escurial, have been restored to the light of day in the museum of Madrid, and have increased the glory of that o-reat gallery. Spain, however, has not preserved all she possessed by Titian. The terrible fire of the Prado, in March, 1608, probably consumed the. great allegory called Religion, which has entirely disappeared. Other precious pictures have perished under the ravages of time and of men ; for instance, the large and magnificent painting of the Last Sn/>J>er,the rival of that by Leonardo da \'inci, at which Titian laboured seven years, and which he considered the best of his works, even after he had painted the Assumption, revered at Venice as the most sacred relic of its painter. Too dilapidated to bear a removal, the remains of this great composition were obliged to be left fastened to the walls of the deserted Refectory in the Kscurial, where it has been mutilated by impious hands. And yet, even after these cruel losses, Spain is the most richly endowed of the nations who have inherited the works of Titian. The Museo del Rey at Madrid contains as many as forty-two works by this illustrious I)ainter. ^^'e will merely mention briefly the princi])al among ihcin, beginning with the portraits, and following the order of the works from the simplest to the most important. The best among the portraits would have been a C/inrlcs V. on fioisdmck, in full armour and with his lance in rest, like a knight-errant, if this splendid picture were not unfortunately nnuh injured. \\e must then give the first place to another C/iar/es J'., on foot, and clothed this time in civil costume, a black cap, doublet of cloth of gold, and white mantle and hose ; he rests his hand on the head of a large dog — an historical personage who was for several years the favourite of this emperor. This picture is as remarkable for its ]jerfect preservation as for the wonderful execution of every part, and the expression of majesty which pervades the whole. A third Charles v., brought from the Escurial, was painted at the close cf his reign, with a whitened beard, when the weariness and disgust of jjublic affairs led the concjueror of Pavia, the I40 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.u. 1550. sacker of Rome, to the monastery of San Yuste. Philip II., with his pale, fair, and effeminate face, is twice represented, on foot and in half-length portrait, and both times admirably, although even when young he could only have been painted in the old age of Titian. Several other portraits no less remarkable come afterwards j those of Isabella of Portugal, the wife of Charles V., and of a Lady dressed in white, whose name is unknown; those of different men, one playing with a line spaniel, another closing a book of prayers, one wearing a large white cross on his breast, another, the Marquis del Vasto, holding in his hand a general's baton : and lastly one of Titian himself, old and venerable, with a long white beard, in which he has rendered, with admirable simplicity, his calm, noble, and expressive face, still youthful even in extreme old age. Amongst the paintings of single figures, there is a bold Eccc Homo, painted on slate ; a Mater Dolorosa, which is nothing more than a lady in affliction, and like many other pictures, both ancient and modern, would be much improved by the name being changed ; two of St Margaret, one of them a half-length figure, on the point of being devoured by the dragon, which, according to the legend, swallowed her alive, but from which she emerged making the sign of the cross ; the other is a full-length figure, having the dead dragon at her feet, — both are as remarkable for the beauty of the features and the serenity of the expression as for the vigour and transparency of the touch ; and lastly the Daughter of Herodias, who is taking the head of St. John the Baptist to her mother on a silver charger. We have reserved this picture, which was brought from the Escurial, as the last of the series, because it is the most wonderful. Never has Titian, always so strong^ so true, so powerful, shown more strength, truth, and power. It is before this beautiful and terrible daughter of Herodias, that we recal and accept the saying of Tintoretto, " That man paints with pounded flesh." It was indeed flesh, but animated, living flesh, which he found on his palette, and which he placed on his immortal canvas. The pictures containing several figures may be divided into sacred and profane. Among the former, which are the least numerous, we may notice a CJwist hearing his Cross, much smaller than the Spasimo of Raphael, and in the early style of Titian, when he imitated Giorgione ; an Abraham restrained by the Angel, greater in its proportions, but not in its style, than that by Andrea del Sarto on the same subject ; and Eve presenting the apple to Adam: on this painting Titian lavished all his knowledge of chiaroscuro and all his depth of colouring. Afterwards come two Entombments, exactly alike except for a few differences in the colour of the vestments. We must also mention an Assuiiption of the Magdalen, containing only the figure of the beautiful sinner, become a rigid anchoret, and the group of angels bearing her triumphantly towards the celestial dwellings. Lastly we come to the great Allegory, half religious, half political, in which is seen the imperial family, Charles V., Philip II., and their wives, presented in heaven to the Trinity. This painting is called the Apotheosis of the Imperial Family. Heaven is there represented open ; the Divine Trinity occupy the throne of glory, on which Mary is also sitting, and like the white dove, which represents the Holy Spirit, seems to melt away into the brilliant waves of light from above ; the Trinity appears to be composed of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin, all alike clothed in long sky-blue mantles. Above them are choirs of archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, while angels are introducing into the celestial court the four sovereigns from the earth, who with clasped hands and bent heads are supplicants before the throne. Standing in front of the group, Charles V. has already put on the monk's white frock, Philip and A.I). 1560.] TITIAN. 141 the two (iiicens ])reservc their nnal ,i,Mrments. This (ircumsiince gives a ilaie 10 the jncture ; it could only have l)een painted after the abdication of the emperor, in 1556, when Titian was eighty years of age. And yet in this strange composition, which was doubtless ordered by the filial love of the successor of Charles V., we may recogni/e the hand of the great artist who had painted the Assumption half a century before. In the series of proHine compositions we may mention rapidly two pictures of Wnus almost alike, and strongly resembling those in the Tribune at Florence ; then the group of Venus and Adonis, of which there is a flic simile in the National (iallery in London. It is certain that under the features of the hunter, tearing himself from the embraces of his celestial lover, Titian has painted Philip II., who, when still very young, fresh, and delicate, was considered, like Francis I., and every prince not actually deformed, the handsomest man in the kingdom. This picture is said to be one of the masterpieces of the painter. I'nder the title of Sacrifice to the Goddess of Fertility, he has painted one of the most wontlerful scenes that the most adventurous colourist could imagine. In a beautiful landscape at the foot of the statue of the goddess, to whom two young giils are offering presents of fruit and flowers, an in- numerable band of young children scattered in different groups over the whole picture, are struggling and playing with the innocence and vivacity of their age. There is another masterpiece, entitled the Arrival of Bacchus at the Isle of Naxos,\\\\\i^ is, indeed, like its pendant, the Bacchus and Ariadne in the National Clallery, a true Bacchanalian scene. The scene is, of course, on the sea-shore and on the blue waves : in the distance is a white sail, which indicates either the departure of the ungrateful Theseus, or the approach of Bacchus the consoler. The abamloned Ariadne, still asleep, is lying naked in the foreground of the picture ; she is surrounded by different groups of Bacchantes, dancing, singing, and drinking, whilst old Silenus is also sleeping among the bushes on a hill. This Bacchus at Naxos, although only about half the size of nature, is one of the greatest works of Titian. The colour and effect in it are wonderful ; it attracts the spectator, and it is difficult for him to tear himself from the profound admiration its contemplation e.vcites. There is also a large historical painting which required the greatest j)owers of the artist; i\\\s '\s \.\\Q Allegory of the Battle 0/ Lepanto. Through the open window, at the end of a long gallery, are seen some incidents of a naval combat. Nothing in this work speaks of the weakness of old age. The thought is still clear, the hand firm, and the execution brilliant. Who would not be surprised on hearing that Titian began this painting when he had comjiletetl his ninety-fourth year? After this wonder- ful effort the only other work of his we can find is tlie Deposition from the Cross, in the Museum of Venice, which he left unfinished, and which was completed by Palma Vecchio, of which we have previously spoken. Very few of Titian's works are found out of Italy or Spain. No museum or gallery in the north of Furope can boast of possessing any of his large comjiositions of the first rank : they have only portraits by him, although, if we may believe the names on the picture-frames at Vienna, there are almost as many of Titian's portraits there as at Madrid, and the two capitals must have divided the inheritance of Charles V. At Berlin is the celebrated picture of the girl with fruit known as Titian's Daughter. Dresden pos.s;esses, besides a Holy Family with Saints, the famous Cristo delta Moneta, which represents our Lord's discourse respecting the tribute money. There are but two figures in this painting, Christ and his interlocutor, merely seen in half-length, and 142 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a. a 1560. yet the subject is perfectly clear. The magnificent colour and wonderful finish of the execution make this picture a real masterpiece. Paris is not much richer than Munich or Vienna. Of the four Holy Families attributed to Titian in the Louvre, one alone, that called the Vierge an Lapin, is of any importance, the authenticity even of the others is doubtful. But the Christ crowned with thonis, the Eutoiuhmcnt, and the Disciples at Emmaus, are three fine paintings, in a grand style of vigorous execution, and worthy the illustrious chief of the Venetian school. As for the i^;^/w;//w7(?;//, remarkable for high qualities which Titian did not always attain, or even aim at, depth of sentiment and power of expression, it is only one of the numerous repetitions of a subject which he treated several times, almost without variation, and of which the Manfrini Palace boasts of possessing the original. But we may see at the Louvre how Titian excelled in portrait painting, in which, indeed, no one has surpassed him, and in which he has given immortality to all his models. It may be said of his portraits that we do not look at them but meet them. The best is, perhaps, that of a young patrician called D Homme au Ga?it, his name is unknown. We must also notice the portrait of the Marquis de Guast {Alonzo de Avalos, Marquis del Vasto), placed in a sort of allegory, in the same frame with that of his wife or mistress ; and especially the portrait of a young woman at her toilette, combing out her long dark hair before a mirror, called La Maiiresse de Titian ; but there is nothing to justify this name. The National Gallery possesses, beside the Bacchus and Ariadne (No. 35) and the Venus and Adonis (No. 34), already mentioned ; the Portrait of Ariosto (No. 636), in a crimson and purple dress; a Concert (No. 3), once the property of Charles L ; a Holy Family (No. 4), from the Borghese Palace; the Rape of Ganymede (No. 32), with a background by Carlo Maratti ; the Tribute Money (No. 224), three figures, half- length ; a Noli me tangere (No. 270), bequeathed by Mr. Samuel Rogers; and a Madonna and Child, with SS. John the Baptist and Catherine (No. 635), signed " Tician." Among the pupils of Titian who are worthy of special mention, we may name his son, Orazio Vecellio, who was born at Venice in 15 15. He was celebrated as a portrait painter, and is said to have spent much of his time in the study of alchemy. He died at the same time and of the same epidemic as his father in 1576. And his nephew, Marco Vecellio, who was born at Venice in 1545 ; he was a great favourite of his uncle, whom he used to accompany on his travels. He painted much after his style, but with only second-rate success. He died in 161 1. THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. Andrea Previtali, who was bom at Bergamo in the latter part of the fifteenth century, was a follower of Giovanni Bellini. Among the works by Previtali are an altar-piece in Borgo Sant' Antonio, a Crucifixion in Sant' Alessandro at Bergamo, and many others in the churches of that town, where he died of the plague in 1528. The Madonna ami Child (No. 695) in the National Gallery is attributed to Previtali. Pier Francesco Bissolo was a native of Treviso ; the date of his birth is not known. He studied in the school of Giovanni Bellini. Among his pictures may be mentioned J A C O P O P A L M A. (PAT^^rX iL YF.cauo.) ra^r 14: A.i). 15 25. J THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. 143 a Christ exchanging the crown of thorns of St. Catherine of Siaia for a croton of gold., in the Venetian Academy, signed " Franciscus Bissolo," formerly in San Pietro Martire at Murano : a Resurrection of Christ, in tlie Berlin (iallery ; and a Portrait of a Lady (No. 631) in the National Gallery. Eissolo's pictures are chieHy remarkable for the beauty of their colouring (a characteristic of the Venetian School) and for their gentleness of execution. He painted from 1500 till 1528. Jacopo Palma — called II Palma Vecchio, to distinguish him from his nephew J acopo I'alma. surnametl Palma (liovane, of whom but scanty record has been handed down to us — was born at Serinalta, near Bergamo, about the year 1480. Palma is supposed to have studied under Giovanni Bellini, but his painting was much influenced by the styles of Giorgione and Titian. He lived chiefly at Venice, where he died, when forty-eight years of age, about 1528. In \'enice there are a St. Peter 7cith saints in the Academy ; an altar-piece, in Santa Maria Formosa, representing St. Barbara and other saints (one of his best works), and various other paintings. In the Colonna Palace, at Rome, are a St. Peter, the Virgin, and donor, and SS. Lucia, ferome, Joseph and an Angel — ascribed, with various other works by this artist, to Titian. In the Belvedere, among other paintings of Palma, are two Sante Conversazioni, and a portrait of his daughter Violante, and one o{ Lucretia. The Dresden (iallery possesses the beautiful Three Graces (supposed to be portraits of his three daughters; and a Venus. Palma especially excelled in female portrait painting, in which branch apart he may be said to have rivalled Titian himself. Lorenzo Lotto was born at Treviso about 1480. He removed when young to \'enice, where he lived for some time, but he returned to his native town, and then in 1 5 13 settled in Bergamo, whence he is sometimes called " Bergamasco." He resided also at Trevigi, at Recanati, and at Loreto, • where he died about 1558. Though changeable in his places of residence, he was still more so in his manner of painting. He copied the works of Bellini, of Giorgione, of Titian, and of Correggio ; and his works have passed under the names of all these i)ainters. Among these misnomers we may mention a Portrait of Andrea Odoni at Hamjjton Court, long attributed to "Correggio (the signature, " Laurentius Lotus, 1527," had been painted over) ; a portrait at Munich, under the name of Giorgione ; and one in the Belvedere, Vienna, ascribed to Titian. Bergamo possesses several good specimens of Lotto's painting ; we may mention, as examples, altar-pieces representing the Madonna in Santo Spirito and in San Bernardino. Various towns in the March of Ancona possess works by him. In the Berlin Gallery is a Portrait of himself; and in the National Gallery, a picture representing Portraits of Agostino and Xiccolb ,de/la Torre (No. 699), purchased in Bergamo from Signer Morelli. That works by Lotto should have been mistaken for the protluction of such great masters as Giorgione, Titian and others, proves him to have been a painter of no common merit, and Lanzi e\ en goes so tar as to say that he could scarcely be surpassed by Rai)hael or Correggio. Giovanni Antonio — called by Vasari and others Licinio, whence he has been confuscil with a supposed relative Bernardo Licinio, a painter of second-rate abilities ; sometimes " de Corticellis," from his father's birthplace near Brescia ; sometimes " Regillo " (which title he assumed in 1535 on being knighted by John, king of Hungary) — is commonly known as Pordenone, from his birthi)la(e in the Friuli. He was born in 1483, and studied under Pellegrino da San Daniele, but imilateil the styles of 144 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1540. Giorgione and Titian ; lie was for some time the rival of the latter. He excelled especially in fresco work. A story is related by Ridolfi, that Pordenone received his first commission from a tradesman, and that while his employer was away at mass, such was the quickness of his execution, he painted an entire figure of the Madonna. About 1505 Pordenone quitted his native town and is supposed to have journeyed about in tlie Friuli and in Lombardy. In 15 13 he returned to his native town, which he visited at intervals until 1535 when he took up his residence in Venice, where he executed important frescoes, which have unfortunately perished. The last work which Pordenone undertook was a series of designs, the subjects of which were taken from the Odyssey — for tapestry for Duke Ercole of Ferrara, in which town he died (it is said, of poison) in the commencement of 1539, after a stay of but a few days. He was buried in the church of San Paolo. Among the most noteworthy of Pordenone's works are the Madonna of Mercy in the Cathedral of Pordenone, painted in 1515 ; the Conversion of St Fa id and an Assumption, in the Spilemberg Cathedral ; a St. Lorenzo enthroned, signed " Joannis Antonii Portunaensis," in the Academy at Venice, a St. Roch with ^6'. Catherine and Sebastian in San Giovanni Elemosinario, Venice ; an Entombment in the Monte di Pieta at Treviso ; the Daughter of Herodias luith the head of the Baptist, in the Doria Palace, Rome ; a St. George and the Dragon in the Quirinal ; scenes from the Fas si on of our Lord, in the Cremona Cathedral. Besides these, many other works by this great painter are in various towns in Italy ; in Udine, in Conegliano, and in several small towns near Pordenone. An Apostle (No. 272) in the National Gallery is attributed to this artist. Sebastiano Luciani, who was surnamed del Piombo when the second Medicean pope, Clement VII., nominated him keeper of the piombi, or seals of the Roman chancery, was born at Venice in 1485. He was at first a musician, but afterwards taking a fancy to study art, he worked under Giovanni Bellini and subsequently under Giorgione. About 15 10 Sebastian was invited to Rome by Agostino Chigi, for whom he executed works in the Farnesina Palace. Having obtained (in 1531) a good income tlirough an ofiice whicli was really a sinecure, by a favour which the popes usually granted rather to their own friends than to artists, Sebastian only thought of enjoying himself, and ceased working. He had however received lessons from Giorgione at Venice and from Michelangelo at Rome, that is to say, from the greatest masters of colouring and drawing. He had also succeeded in uniting the style of his two masters. But idleness, carelessness, and good living, gained the day over love of glory and even love of gain. For this reason, the works of Sebastian del Piombo are still rarer than those of Giorgione himself. Sebastian died at Rome in 1547. At his native Venice there is an altar-piece in San Giovanni Crisostomo, representing the Magdalen, SS. Chrysostom, John the Baptist with other saints; painted in 15 10. The Pitti Palace possesses a large and fine composition, the Martyrdom of St. Agatha, in which may be seen, in equal degrees, a style at once noble and severe, and the vigorous effects of chiaroscuro, those two qualities which so seldom are found together, and whose union forms the distinctive merit of an artist who was half Venetian and half Florentine in his style. The museum of Naples is more fortunate in possessing excellent portraits of Fope Alexander VI. and An?ie Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII., and also a Holy Family, in which the young St. John completes the group of the A.u. 1540.] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. , ,5 Madonna and Child. It has, it is true, been placed in the hall of ilic • dip: ,/ .av,? . " l)Ut it should have been i)laced opposite the other Holy Family, signed by Raphael. It fully deserves the honour of this competition, for more vigorous colouring could not have been united to more correct drawing or a grander style. Mar)' is a ty])e of severe beauty, which it would be difficult to equal. This jiicture must fill witli admiration all those who are not led away by brilliant colours or a mannered grace. In the Doria I'alace, Rome, is the celebrated portrait of Amlrea Doria. In London, in the National Ciallery, also may be seen portraits and a large composition by Sebastian del Piombo. One of the portraits (No. 24) was formerly tliought to be that of the beautiful and holy Gii/lia Gonzai^a, but the forms are rather thick, and the i)roi)ortions are probaljly larger than nature. In another frame(No. 20) are the j)ortraits of the Canlinal Lppolito tic Mcilici, the patron of the artist, and of Sd>astian himself holding in his hand i\\c piombo or .seal of his oftice. The last picture, the Raisifii^ of Lazarus, enjoys a great celebrity ; it is signed, *' Sebastianus Venetus Faciebat." Having come from the collection of the tlukes of Orleans, it was sold in 1792, by Philippe Kgalite to Mr. Angerstein, from whom it was bought in 1S24. In the catalogue it is marked No. i, as it was in some degree the foundation stone of the collection. Its history alone wouUl be sufficient to give it a high importance. We know that the Traiisfii:,itratioii was ordered of Rai^hael by the cardinal CJiulio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII., for the high altar in the cathedral at Narbonne, of which he was archbishoj). But, not wi.shing to deprive Rome of the oainter's masterpiece, (jiulio de' Medici ordered of Sebastian del Piombo another picture of e(iual dimensions to take its place at Narbonne : this was the Raisin^;; of Lazarus. Vasari says that Michelangelo, charmed to see another rival to Raphael arise, not only encouraged Sebastian in the contest, but traced the whole composition and even painted the figure of Lazarus. "I thank Michelangelo," wrote Raphael, "for the honour he has done me in considering me worthy to strive with him, and not with Sebastian alone." These historical circumstances give much interest to the work of the Venetian ; but on the other hand they provoke a formidable comparison, which he could not sustain, and which perhaps lessens his real value. In the Raisiuq- 0/ Lazan/s we see a rather confused scene, and we may wish that it possessed rather more clearness and vivacity. The firm drawing of Michelangelo is abused in it, as well as the violent chiaroscuro of Giorgione, which really seems to transform all the personages into mulattoes ; we might almost believe that the scene took place in luhiopia. The details are finer than the composition, and the attitudes are rather varied than combined with a view to the whole subject ; in short, it is a collection of admirable parts rather than an admirable whole. Some drawings for i)arts of this composition (ascribed to Michelangelo) which were formerly in the ]iossessi()n of Sir Thomas Lawrence, are now in the British Museum. It was the Escurial which gave the Descent into Hades to the Museo del Rey. This fine work contains fewer figures than the Raising of Lazarus ; but there are no faults of coldness in the composition, of e.xaggeration in the shadows, or of narrowness of l)erspective. The style is no less severe and imposing, but it has an advantage over the Lazarus in the scene being better grouped, more animated, and of powerful colouring, worthy in every respect of Giorgione, and i)erfectly in accordance with the subject. This magnificent Christ in Llades seems to present, in its highest e.xpression, the severe and vigorous style of Sebastian del Piombo. There is a Visitation bv him in the Lou\re, and a Pieta — painted on stone— in the Berlin Gallery. u 146 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [a.d. 1550. Girolamo Romanino was born about i486 at Romano, on the Serio, whence he has derived his name. He Uved chiefly at Brescia, and signed himseh"" " de Brixia." He was estabUshed as a painter in that city as early as 1502, which date is seen on an altar-piece of the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints, in San Francesco. This is one of his best works, and is especially to be admired for the beauty of its colour. When Brescia was convulsed with war in 1511-12, and thus rendered uninhabitable to a man of peaceful habits, Romanino removed to Padua, where he painted in the church of Santa Giustina. About 1520 he is known to have been at Cremona, in the cathedral of Avhich town he painted, among other things an Ecee Homo, signed " Hier. Ruman. Brix." (Hieronymus Rumanus Brixianus), but he shortly after returned to Brescia, where he probably remained until his death in 1566. Romanino imitated the styles of Giorgione and Titian, with very good result. Brescia possesses many of his works, both in its galleries and its churches. Of these we may mention a Nativity, in San Giuseppe; and a Communion of St. Apollonius, in Santa Maria Calchera. The Berlin Museum possesses a Pieta, painted for the church of Santa Faustina in Brescia. The National Gallery has one of his best works, a Nativity (No. 297) ; painted in 1525 for the high altar of Sant' Alessandro at Brescia. Alessandro Bonvicino, commonly known as II Moretto da Brescia, from his birth- place, was born about the year 1490. He first studied under a painter of Brescia, Fidravante Ferramola by name, but subsequently at Venice under Titian, whose style he for some time imitated, but afterwards abandoned in favour of that of the great Raphael. Litde is known of his life, and the date of his death also is unrecorded. It was probably about 1 560. Moretto was the master of the portrait- painter Moroni. Among the works which he executed in Brescia, we may mention, the Coronation of the Virgin and the Transfiguration, in SS. Nazaro e Celso ; the Madonna and Child 7vith saints and the Marriage of St. Catherine, in San Clemente ; the Enthronement of St. Antony of Padua, in Santa Maria delle Grazie ; St. Nicholas of Pari, in Santa Maria de' Miracoli ; and St. Margaret with SS. Jerome and Francis, in San Francesco. In Santa Maria della Pieta at Venice is one of his best works, the Feast of the Pharisee, signed and dated "Alex. Morettus Brix. F. m.d.xliiii." The Belvedere Gallery at Vienna possesses a St. Justina, formerly ascribed to Pordenone, and the National Gallery owns two pictures by Moretto, a Portrait of an Italian Nobleman (No. 299), Count Sciarra Martinengo Cesaresco, of Brescia; and a St. Pernard of Siena with other saints (No. 625). Bonifazio Veneziano, who was born at Verona about 1491, was a follower of Giorgione and Titian, under whose names several of his best works have passed. Among his pictures, most worthy of mention, are an Adoration of the Kings and the Dives and Lazarus in the Accademia, Venice ; a Return of the Prodigal Son in tlie Borghese Palace ; and a Madonna and saints in the Colonna Palace. There were two other painters of the name of Bonifazio, relatives of the above- mentioned artist, and consequently much confusion has arisen concerning them. Bonifazio Veneziano was a good colourist, but his drawing and the expression of his faces are not much to be admired. He died in 1540- Vincenzo di Biagio, called Catena, was born at Treviso about 1495. He was an imitator of Giovanni Bellini. There are pictures by him in the Venetian Academy in the Manfrini Gallery, and in many public galleries of Europe. A painting representing a Warrior adoring the Infant Christ in the National Gallery (No. 234), was former!)- in A.D. 1575.1 THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. 147 the possession of Mr. Samuel Woodburn, by whom it was attributed to Giorgione. It is now pronounced to be of the school of Bellini, and by some critics to be by Catena. This artist made his will in 1531, and is believed to have dieil in that year. Martino da Udine, commonly known as Pellegrino da San Daniele, the son ol Battista da Udinc, was i)robably born in Friuli, thoui;li the dale of his birth is noi known. He was called Pellegrino by Giovanni Bellini, whose pupil he was, and he derived the name of San Daniele from his residence in that litde Friulian town, where in the church of Sant' Antonio he executed frescoes representing the Life of Christ and the LiXfnJs of St. Antony; these frescoes were commenced in 1498, in which year he signs his name " Pelegrinus." Owing to the wars which then convulsed the Friulian territory, Pellegrino left San Daniele and went to Venice. In 1 5 1 2 he returned and painted in Sant' Antonio until 1522, in which year the frescoes were completed. A large altar-piece, representing the Madonna and Child enthroned is in Santa Maria de' Battisti, at Cividale ; there is also a Madonna and Child enthroned with saints, by him in the National Gallery (No. 778) — formerly in the possession of Count Ugo Valentinis, of San Daniele. Pellegrino died in 1547. Paris Bordone, who was born at Treviso in 1500, studied under Titian at Venice. He copied the style of Giorgione, and several of his works have been ascribed to that master, noticeably a Female Portrait in the possession of Lord Enfield at Wrotham. x-Vbout 1559, Bordone was invited to France by Francis II., who conferred on him the honour of knighthood. He afterAvards returned to Italy, where he executed many works, mostly portraits, and died at Venice in 1 5 7 1 ; he was buried in the church of San Marziale. Among his best works may be mentioned, a Fisherman presenting the ring of St. Mark to the Doge — his masterpiece — and the Emperor Augustus and the SiinI, in the Venetian Academy ; an Annuneiation, in the Siena Gallery ; and a Daphnis and Chloe (No. 637), and a Portrait of a Lady (^o. 674), both in the National Gallery. Bordone was chiefly fiimous for his portraits of women. Giovanni Battista Moroni, one of the best of Italian portrait-painters, ami the i)upil of Muretto, was born at Albino, near Bergamo, about the year 15 10. It is said that Titian was wont, whenever any of the Bergamaschi came to him to ]ia\ e their portraits executed, to recommend tliem to go to their countryman Moroni. Among the most celebrated pictures by tliis master we may mention the Portrait of himself, in the Berlin Gallery ; the portrait of the Jesuit, in the Duke of Sutherland's collection ; the Portrait of a Tailor (No. 697), and the Portrait of a Laayer (No. 742), both in the National Gallery. Moroni, besides portraits, executed works of ecclesiastical subjects, but these were of second-rate merit. He died at Bergamo in 1578. Jacopo da Ponte, the founder of a small school, who obtained the honour of being the first genre-painter in Italy, and who is called II Bassano from his birthplace — was born in 15 10. His father — an unimportant painter of the school of die Bellini — was his first teacher in art. He studied afterwards under Bonifazio at Venice, where he consulted the works of Parmigiano and Titian. He had acquired considerable fiime in Venice when the death of his father called him, about the year 1530, to Bassano, where he chiefly resided until he died in 1592. His native town possesses two of his masterpieces ; a iVativify, in San Giuseppe, and the Baptism of St. L.ueilla, in the c hurch of San Valentino. At Venice he painted a fresco representing Samson destroying the Philistines— a work of great power. 1 48 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1580. But Jacopo da Ponte can be appreciated better in Madrid than elsewhere — even in Italy. There are several pictures by him in the Museo del Rey, most of them of the large size he principally adopted, and on subjects which suit wonderfully the habit he had of introducing animals everywhere, so as to turn a drawing-room or a temple into a farmyard. With him animals constitute the principal part of the composition. One of these subjects chosen by him is the Entrance into the Ark., in which all kinds of living creatures on the earth, in the air, and in the water advance in couples towards the floating dwelling of Noah, like an army marching in double file, in a thousand uniforms. Another is the Leaving the Ark., which is only a pendant of the other, though its subject is of smaller dimensions and of less importance. We might also mention a View of Eden., in which the Almighty reproaches our first parents witli their disobedience, the subject being a mere pretext for assembling around them all the animal races ; an Orpheus attracting even wild beasts by the sounds of his lyre ; a [ourney of Jacob, a picture of beasts of burden, horses, camels, mules and asses, etc. The style of Bassano is more elevated in his Moses and the Hebrews, which rej^resents the people resuming their march after the miracle of the water gushing from the rock ; but he attained the highest grandeur in the painting of Christ driving the Money Changers out of the Temple. This picture, taken from the Escurial, and in which his much-loved animals come in quite naturally, is perhaps the finest of all the works of . Bassano. Never has he shown himself more ingenious and animated in the com- position, more natural and brilliant in the colouring ; and never has he displayed more fully the various qualities of the painter who first introduced into Italy the worship of simple nature and painted scenes of real life. He was the forerunner of the Dutch school. A replica of this Christ driving the Money Changers out of the Temple is in the National Gallery (No. 228), which possesses two other works by this artist : a Portrait of a Ge7itleman (No. 173), and the Good Samaritan (No. 277), formerly in the Pisani Palace, Venice, and afterwards in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Jacopo da Ponte had four sons, Francesco, Giovanni Battista, Leandro and Girolamo, all of whom were artists. Of these, Francesco da Ponte (called "the younger," to distinguish him from his grandfather) is the only one worthy of mention. He was born at Bassano in 1548. (?) After studying with his flither at Bassano, he painted chiefly at Venice. One of his best works is an Ascension in San Luigi de' P'rancesi at Rome. His ceiling-paintings in the Palace of the Doge at Venice are also worthy of mention. He died at Venice in 1591. Jacopo Robusti, who is called II Tintoretto because he was the son of a dyer (/////■(P/r), was born at Venice in 15 12. His artistic qualities were so early developed, that Titian, urged by a feeling of jealousy for which he afterwards nobly compensated, sent from his studio this scholar, whose rivalry he feared even when almost a child. This was of service to Tintoretto : instead of imitating his master servilely, as all his fellow-disciples had done, he formed a more original style for himself, by endeavouring to follow the rule he had adopted — to unite the drawing of Michelangelo with the colouring of Titian. He wrote on the wall of his atelier, " // disegno di Michelangelo c ' I colorito di Tiziano." But after varied and laborious studies, the numerous orders he received, as soon as he began to be known, and the feverish eagerness of his work, which acquired for him the name of "il Furioso," hindered Tintoretto from giving the same care to his painting ; there are even some evidently done in great haste, or rather with that desire to do much quickly, which may be called negligence in work. Hence A.i). 1580.] THE FOLLOWERS OF T/TJAN. MQ Annibale Carracci said justly, if playfully, that Tintoretto, if sometimes equal to Titian, was often inferior to Tintoretto. He has filled the temples and palaces of Venice with his works ; for, endowed with a wonderful fiicility of conception and execution, he laboured diligently during a life of eighty-two years. Tintoretto died at his native town in 1594. If space did not fiiil us, we should describe the large Criiiijixion,\n the church of San Zanipolo ; a Lust Su//>cr, m San Trovaso, a work wholly unworthy of the sub- ject ; the ^/. A^^ns rfs/on»i: to life the son of the Prefect Senipronius, in Santa Maria deirOrto, a magnificent painting, which was taken to Paris with the pictures by Titian ; Awd the ceiling in the hall of council (now the lil)rary in the ducal palace), called the Ch>ry of L\xradise. This is certainly one of the largest paintings an artist ever under- took, for it is thirty feet in width and sixty-four in length. Although a production of his old age, confused in some parts and very unskilfully restored, this picture still produces a powerful eflect. In tlie Louvre there is one of the sketches used in its preparation ; but unfortunately nothing else by Tintoretto, unless it be ILis aicn />ortniif, taken when he hatl white hair and beard, after the sad death of his much-lovetl daughter. In Madrid there is another sketch for the same ceiling, better and more valuable than the other, as it is the one he preferred and re-copied. This sketch, brought by Velasquez to Philip IV., presents, in reduced proportions, an infinite number of cherubim, angels, patriarchs, i)rophets, apostles, martyrs, virgins, and saints of every sort, grouped around the Trinity, and in this sketch, as in the picture, we can trace his fiery and often unreflecting impetuosity, that feverishness which procured him his surname. As for the galleries in the north of Europe, those of London, St. Peters- burg, Holland, and of the whole of Germany, they have scarcely anything of Tintoretto's but portraits, among which we may distinguish his own and that of his son, which he presented to the Doge. The National Gallery possesses but one picture— a St. Gcon^e desfroyiiii^ the liragon (No. 16). We must now study his important works in the Accademia in Venice. There we shall find the fine portrait of the Doge Mocenigo, the Ascension of Christ in the presence of three senators; a Madonna 7Vorshippcd by three senators: and an Enthroned Madonna betiocen SS. Cosmo and Daniian—o. perfect and unsurpassable marvel in colouring. Oi)posite tlie Assumption of Titian, which occupies one of the principal panels in the large hall, has been placed the Miracle of St. Mark, which was paintetl for the Scuola di San Marco, with three others ; the Exhumation of the body oj St. Mark at Alexandria; the Transportation of the body to the ship ; and the Miraculous f>rescn'ation of a Saracen sailer by St. Mark; these three are still in the Scuola di San Marco. Tintoretto painted the Miracle of St. Mark (the first mentioned) at thirty-six years of age. It represents the deliverance of a slave, condemned to death, by the miraculous intervention of the patron of Venice. It is an immense scene in the open air and contains a number of figures, grouped without confusion, and all contributing to the completeness of the subject without interfering with its unity. In the midst of these people, assembled in order to witness the execution, and who become spectators of the miracle, the slave lying on the ground, whose bands are breaking of them- selves, and the Evangelist (extended in the air, as if supj)orted by wings) present foreshortenings of great boUlness and success. Besides the commanding power of the touch, the disposition of the light, the harmony anil delicacy of the colours, the vigour of the chiaroscuro, all the magic power of colouring carried to its greatest extent, form a dazzling and wonderful work, which might be called the Miracle of Tintoretto instead I50 ILLUSTRATED LIISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1588. of the Miracle of St. Mark. The Scuola di San Rocco possesses no less than fifty-seven pictures by this artist. The most noteworthy of these is a large Crucifixion, painted in 1565, and engraved by Agostino Carracci in 1589. We must here mention Tintoretto's son Domenico Robusti, who was born in 1562, and died in 1637, and who followed in the steps of his father, but as Lanzi says, " like the young Ascanius, ' non passibus ^equis ' f also Marietta Robusti, his daughter, who was born in 1560 and died at the early age of thirty, and who was so much celebrated as a portrait painter, that she was invited to Spain by Philip II. Andrea Scliiavone, who was born in 1522, settled in Venice, where he became a follower of Titian, from whom he acquired a fine taste for colour ; his drawing is of second-rate ability. Among his best pictures we may mention, a Christ before Pilate, in the Naples Gallery; an Adoratioji of the Shepherds, in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna; and four landscapes at Hampton Court. To Schiavone, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe a Christ with his disciples at Eminmis, in the Uftizi, which is there attributed to Palma Vecchio. Schiavone died at Venice in 1582. Paolo Cagliari (or Caliari), whom we call Paul Veronese, was born at Verona in 1528. He was instructed in design by his father Gabriele Cagliari, who was a sculj^tor, and in painting by his uncle Antonio Badile, an artist of second-rate abilities. After painting in Verona and Mantua, Veronese visited Venice, where he executed many works, especially in the church of San Sebastiano. Of these the best are three scenes from the History of St. Sebastia?i, painted between the years 1560 and 1565 at intervals, for in 1563 he paid a visit to Rome in the suite of the Venetian ambassador Girolamo Grimani. A few years after his return, Veronese was invited to Spain by Philip II., but being satisfied with the number of his commissions for paintings and with the honour done him in Venice, he refused the invitation. During his life, he visited many of the towns in his native country, executing works as he travelled ; he died eventually at Venice on the 20th of April, 1588, and was buried in San Sebastiano, where a tomb was erected to his memory by his sons Carlo and Gabriele. We shall find the collection of the works of Veronese at Paris is greater and more complete than at Venice. We may then pass by the magnificent ceiling in the hall of the Council of Ten, in the ducal palace, which is considered, after the Sistine, the most beautiful ceiling in Italy. This represents the Apotheosis of Venice. " In it may be seen," says M. Charles Blanc, "the Republic borne on the clouds, crowned by Glory; celebrated by Fame ; accompanied by Honour, Liberty, and Peace — the whole executed in a style, less impetuous certainly than that of Tintoretto, but full of mind, warmth, and movement." We may also pass by the celebrated Rape of Eiiropa, which was considered the first of Paul Veronese's works in Venice. In it, as in the Last Supper, and other works intended to be religious, he clothed the figures in Venetian costume. Europa is magnificently dressed. The visit of this painting to Paris was not as profitable to it as to the St. Peter Martyr of Titian. The process of the painter not being understood ; it was first cleaned, then varnished ; and the operation unhappily took off the delicacy and transparency of the most delicate tints. In the course of his life, shorter, but not less laborious and fruitful than those of his illustrious predecessors, Paul Veronese painted four works, which, resembling one another, are yet distinguished from all others by the nature of the subject and the unusual size of the composition. These are the four Feasts, or Ccnacoli, painted for the refectories of four monasteries : the Marria,i;r at Cana, for the convent of San rai-i-y' f \ ' ^..^,11 'Jf£l M ^ '^ '.'/// ^) •V I'AOLO CAT. LIAR I. (I'ALL \'ERONESE.) A.IJ. 1588.] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAX. Oiorgio Maggiorc ; the L'\ast in t/w house of Simon tin- J*/tarisit\ for the convent of the Servite brethren : the Frnsf ^qijrn />y Lein, for the convent of Santi diovanni e Paolo : antl the Sufptr in t/ir house of Simon the Leper, for the convent of San Sebastiano ; all at Venice. The senate of the Republic presented one of these, the Feast in the house of Simon the Pharisee, to Louis XIV. Under the Empire, the three others were taken to Paris ; but two of them (the Feast i^^iven by Levi, and the Supper in the house of Simon the Leper) were afterwards restored to Venice, where they were placed, not in the refectories of convents, but in the Academy, between the Assumption of 'I'itian and tiie St. Mark of Tintoretto. As for the fourth and principal " Feast," the Marriai^e at Cana, it remnins at Paris, — M. Denon having succeeded in persuading the Austrian 1:11. MAKTVkliiiM OK SI'. lUSTlNA.- I!V lAl'I. \ KRON I;>1.. /;/ ///,• Church of Santa Giiislitia, I\utua. commissioners to take, in exchange for it. a jiirture bv Charles I,cl)ruii. on a similar subject, the I-lepas ehez le Pharisien. There are then at Paris two of the four great " Feasts " by \"eronese, and these are the more valuable two ; for while the Marriage at Cana is considered sujierior to the others, the Feast in the house of Simon the Pharisee is the liest iircserved of the four. The celebrated .]farria!::^e at Cana is about thirty-two feet in length by twentv-two in height. If we except a few grand mural paintings, such as the Last /uL<:^ment by the elder Orcagna in the Campo Santo of Pisa, that of Michelangelo in the Sistine, or the great ceiling by Tintoretto in the palace of the doges; if we speak merely of easel pictures, which are movable, this Marriage at Cana, by Veronese, is we believe tlie largest picture ever painted. It is knov/n that under pretence of these festive scenes Paul Veronese painted simply the feasts of his own times, giving the architecture and the costumes of \'oiiire in the sixteenth century, with concerts, dances, ]iages. children 152 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1588. fools, dogs and cats, fruits and flowers. It is also known that the persons collected in these vast compositions were usually portraits. Thus, among the guests in the Marriage at Ca?ia, around Jesus and Mary and the servants, who with joyful surprise find the water in their jars turned into wine, some have recognized, or thought they recognized, many eminent personages. In the group of musicians placed in the centre of the long table, in the shape of a horse-shoe, may be recognized with more certainty Paul Veronese himself, dressed in white silk, seated, and playing the violoncello. Then his brother Benedetto Cagliari, standing with a goblet in his hand ; then Tintoretto playing the violin, the aged Titian the double bass, and Jacopo da Ponte the flute. All these circumstances certainly increase the historical interest of the picture. We must notice that the enormous size of the picture, and the unusual number of the figures in it, constitute — in the disposition of the groups and the variety in the attitudes, in the arrangement of the light, and avoidance of confusion or monotony — such difticulties as appal the imagination. Thus, while making a reserva- tion for the style of conceiving and rendering subjects contrary to religious sentiment and historic truth, or even taking away the Gospel names, and calling them simply Venetian feasts, we cannot praise too highly, in these great works of Veronese, the sumptuous and magnificent elements of which they are composed, the beauty of the architectural framework, the truth and variety of the portraits, the elegance of the ornaments, the correctness of the drawing, the charm and vivacity of his silver colour- ing contrasted with the gold of Titian and the purjile of Tintoretto, and in short the deep and practical knowledge of all the qualities which form the art of painting. " Paul Veronese," says M. Charles Blanc, " is not either a philosopher, an historian, or a moralist; he is merely a painter, but he is a great painter." Among the recent acquisitions of the National Gallery, that which is most praised is the Family of Darius at the feet (f Alexander (No. 294). This work, which contains portraits of members of the Pisani family, is certainly fine ; but it has lost much by being brought near pictures of higher style and deeper character. Certainly Veronese is a great painter, and especially a skilful and brilliant colourist. But knowing nothing of ideal creations, all his merits are superficial. The merits of his Family of Dariits are all on the surface. If, after having contemplated and even admired this painting in the place of honour which has been given it in one of the principal rooms of the National Gallery, the visitor turn, and allow his eye to rest on the portraits by Rembrandt, Veronese is overwhelmed. The National Gallery also possesses the Consecration of St. Nicholas (No. 26), Bishop of Myra in the fourth century; the Rape of Europa (No. 97), a finished study for the picture in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna ; and the Adoration of the Magi (No. 268), dated 1573, formerly in San Silvestro, Venire, where it was much admired. The Dresden Gallery has, among others, the Adoration of the Icings, and a Snfpcr at Einmaus ; and the Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg has an Entombment, a work of o-reat merit. A.i). 1534.1 CORKEGGIO. CllAPTl-.R XIII. CORREGGIO AND THE SCHOOL OF PARMA. WK must now speak of an artist of the early part of the sixteenth centur)-. who belongs to none of the schools we have mentioned, and who may he said to stand alone among the painters of that time. " If," says Hermann Cirimm, " we were to imagine streams issuing from the minds of Leonardo, Michelangelo. Rajjhael and Titian meeting together to form a new mind, ("orreggio would he produced." Antonio AUegri, usually known as Correggio from his birthplace, was born at a small town of that name in the duchy of Modena at the beginning of 1494. Little is known with any certainty of his early life. Some writers, especially Vasari, state that he was of humble origin, and very poor ; others, among whom is Mengs, say that he was of .a noble fomily. It is now established that his father was a merchant in a very good position. He prol)ably received instruction in art from his uncle Lorenzo Allegri, and from one Antonio Bartolotti, a Corregese painter of no great importance. In 1511 Correggio, driven away from his native town by the plague, went to Mantua, where he stuilied the works of Mantegna, which produced a lasting eflect on his style of painting. In 15 18, by the invitation of the abbess of the convent of San i'aolo, he visited Parma, where he afterwards chiefly resitled. He married, in 1520, Ciirolamo Merlini, a lady of ALantua, who is suj)posed to have been the original of the Madonna in La Zingarclla, and with whom he is said to have received a fair dowr)'. Correggio died at his birthplace on the 5th of March, 1534, without having .seen cither Florence, \'enice, or Rome, and without having known any of the great works of his time, except that picture of Raphael (probably the St. Cecilia of liologna), before which he uttered his well-known e.vclamation, AnclC io son pittorc ('* I too am I painter"). The story that he died from the effects of pleurisy, caused by over- heating himself in carrying away on his back a large ([uantity of co])iier money, which he had received from some monks in payment for a picture, is now looketl upon as '|uite fabulous. ("orreggio lived chiefly at Tarma, and at Tamia are tiie greater i)ari of his works. A I twenty-six years of age he jiainted the cupola of the church of San Ciovanni. It has been thought, on seeing the gigantic figures and imposing effect of these frescoes, • that they had been suggested by the Last Jini}:^iitcnl of Michelangelo ; but, besides the fact that Correggio had never seen the Sistine Chapel, the dates forbid any accusation of ]>lagiarism. The cujiola of San Ciovanni was painted between 1520 and 1524, whilst X 154 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1534. the fresco in the Sistine was only terminated in 1541. He could have known the colossal figures on the ceiling only through drawings. This Ascension was only a sort of essay or prelude, to enable him to undertake the magnificent Assumption which fills the whole cupola of the Gothic cathedral of Parma. This composition, which he finished in 1530, is stilll arger than the other. The apostles, a number of saints, and all the heavenly hosts, from the archangels with unfolded wings to the faces of the cherubim without bodies, who welcome the Virgin at her entrance into heaven, in the midst of songs of joy, are the actors in this immense scene. The churchwardens of the time, perplexed by such a number of figures and preponderance of legs, said to the painter, " You have served us with a hash of frogs ! " But it was in speaking of this Assumption that Ludovico Carracci said to his cousins, " Study Correggio ; in him everything is grand and graceful." Annibale Carracci did not know how to express his admiration of it. " In this painting," says Vasari, " the foreshorten ings and the perspective from the bottom to the top are really wonderful." At the close of the last century there was found, in a convent of the Benedictines, after having been forgotten two huhdred years, another admirable fresco by Correggio, divided into several parts, and containing a number of small subjects, all of them pagan — Diana, Minerva, Adonis, Endymion, Fortuna, the Graces, and the Fates. This fresco had been ordered by his patroness, the abbess Giovanna di Piacenza. It was she also who procured him the order for the Ascension and the Assumption. These are the works which Correggio has left in the buildings of Parma. The little museum of the town also boasts the possession of some, amongst them two of his greatest masterpieces, the San Girolamo and the Aladonna dclla ScotieUa. It is not well known why the first of these pictures, sometimes called // Giorno (the day), in opposition to La Nottc (the night), of Dresden, has received the name of St. Jerofue. It represents Mary holding on her knees the Holy Child, whilst Mary Magdalene humbly kisses his feet ; two angels and St. Jerome, with his lion, complete the scene. The great doctor of the Latin church is only a secondary personage, placed in profile in a corner of the picture, like St. Paul in the St. Cecilia of Raphael. Annibale Carracci said that he preferred this St. Jerome even to the St. Cecilia of Raphael. It is in this picture that is to be seen the greatest degree of that delicate charm which first appears in the works of Correggio ; elegance could not be carried further without affectation ; grace is here united to grandeur and the magic effect of colouring. But it seems that the Madonna dclla Scodella, which Vasari called divine, yields to the St. Jerome nQ\i\\e\' m the general effect nor in the details, in expression nor in execution ; it has also the advantage of being better preserved. It is rare, indeed, for a picture to retain after three centuries its firmness and freshness. In the Tribune of the Uffizi at Florence is the Virgin adoring the hf ant Jesus : presented by a duke of Mantua to Cosmo II. de' Medici. This picture, in every respect worthy of Correggio, is remarkable for its arrangement; the same drapery which envelopes the, body of the Virgin is also drawn over her head, and on the end of the drapery the Holy Child is sleeping, so that he would be awakened by the slightest movement of his mother. This arrangement seems to explain the immobility of the personages, and gives the spectator a sort of anxiety which is not without a charm. The paintings of Correggio are everywhere as eagerly sought for as they are rare ; there are only four compositions by him in the gallery of the Studj at Naples. Ihese are, a simple sketch of a Madonna, and three masterpieces of delicacy and fine execution ; the Madonna, called by some del Coniglio, by others, della Zingarclla : T. JKRr)Mr •■II c.lORN'O.") Hy CoKRKOoro »'/« Cailify. A.D. 1534.J CORREGGW. 155 Hagar in the desert; and the Marriage of St. Catherine. The Hagar is a perfect jewel, of the most exquisite feeUng and wonderful execution. As for the Marriage of St. Catherine, which has been so often imitated, copied, and engraved, it is quite unnecessary to praise that. Although its purchase by the kings of Nai)les was made a long time ago, it is said to have cost 20,000 ducats. In the Museo del Rey is the picture so well known as the Noli me tangere, rejjresenting the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection to Mary Magdalene. On her knees, her hands joined, her head cast down, the Magdalene drags her rich garments in the dust. The attitude of the Saviour, in whose hands the painter has placed a spade, is truly admirable, as also is the expression of his countenance. Nothing can surpass the execution of that fine figure, the soft tints and harmonious colours which stand out against the deej) blue of the sky and the dark green of a thick foliage. This is a true and comi)lete Correggio, a chamiing picture, which without possessing through its proportions and subject the importance of his great compositions in I'arnia or Dresden, yet yields in charm and value to none of the rare works of its immortal author. The National Gallery possesses four pictures by Correggio and two Groups of Heads (Nos. 7 and 37), which are copies. First a Holy Family (No. 23) — sometimes called La Vierge ait Panier — which is not a foot square, but which is equal to the Hagar of Naples or the Magdalen of Dresden, that is to say, rises to the first rank in Correggio's miniatures ; for it is a charming work in which nature, grace and expression are rendered with the utmost delicacy of the pencil. Then Mercury instructing Cupid in the presence of Venus (No. 10), which, with the Ecce Homo (No. 15), cost eleven thousand guineas. They were both formerly in the Murat Collection, and were purchased of the Marquis of Londonderry. In the Mercury instructing Cupid we find all the niost charming qualities of the master. In the Ecce Hojno, the head of the Virgin who falls back fainting, is of great beauty, in the expression of deep grief, in the boldness of the attitude, and in the delicacy of execution. Christ's Agony in the garden (No. 76) is a repetition of the original, now in the possession of the Duke of Wellington, which is said to have been painted in order to cancel a debt of four scudi to an apothecary. It was presented to the late Duke by Ferdinand Yll. of Spain. There are two pictures by Correggio at Paris. One of these is called the Marriage of St. Catherine, and as it is placed in the square room, near a jiainting by Fra Bartolommeo of an enthroned Madonna, who under the dais of her throne is also presiding at the union of the young ascetic of Siena with the Divine Child, we may make a useful and interesting comparison. To be Christian, the Frate is austere ; to _ be graceful, Correggio becomes almost pagan. In one i)ainting all is grave and solenm ; it is, indeed, the mystical union. In the other, everything is smiling and charming ; it is really love. The other picture of Correggio in the Louvre, the Sonimeil d'Antiope, is more im- portant in its dimensions and more appropriate in its subject to the taste and incli- nation of the master, who was the most pagan of all the painters of the Renaissance. This wonderful Sommeil d'Antiope can only be compared in its style to the Education of Cupid, and, indeed, if we were obliged to choose between them, we should give the preference to Antiope. There we see all the beauties of Correggio, that supreme elegance of which he was so fond, that it sometimes led him to the brink of affectation, in which, indeed, his imitators plunged ; that charming grace which so often accom- jianies power; that (lee|) knowledge of chiaroscuro, and that exquisite harmony which llic chariaor ((Hin and tlic magic of colour combine to produce. 156 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1534. Dresden, as we have already said, possesses the finest of Raphael's works to be found in the north of Europe. In Dresden also we shall find no less than six original paintings by Correggio, and no other city can show a grander selection. These six paintings were placed in the Saxon museum, when the Elector- King Augustus III., in 1746, bought the collection of the Dukes of Modena for the moderate sum of 120,000 thalers (18,000/.). From Venice he had already acquired, for the sum of 28,000 Venetian lire, the Madonna of Holbein, ^om the Delfino family ; then in 1755 he paid 40,000 Roman scudi to the convent of San Sisto at Placentia for the Madonna of Raphael. With these pictures he formed the first museum in Europe, a museum which is and will ever be the pride of his beautiful capital. Among the paintings by Correggio there is the portrait of a man dressed in black, who is believed to have been the Physician of the artist, some village friend who did THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE. By Correggio. — In the l.ouvre. not preserve his illustrious patient from an early death. A portrait by Correggio is very precious, and this one is excellently painted. We must next notice the Redding Magdalen. This is painted on copper and is not more than a foot square, and yet it is everywhere known by copies and engravings. The penitent, lying on the thick grass with her bosom half veiled by her hair, is supporting her head with her right hand, in order to read in a book she holds in her left. The charm of this graceful attitude, the profound attention of this converted sinner, her grace, her beauty, the boldness and happy eftect of her blue drapery contrasted with the dark green of the landscajje, the wonderful delicacy of the execution and of the colours, all place this Magdalen in the first rank of what are called the " Small Cor- rcggios,"- -before the Holy Family of London, the Madonna with the rvv/at Florence, ANTONIO AI.IJCORI DA CORRKGGIO. A.D. 1534.] CORREGGIO. 157 and even before the Hagar of Naples. It was stolen in 1788, but the thief restored it in order to get the reward of a thousantl ducats. The four other works are " C'.reat Correggios," and indeed the greatest that are to be found after the frescoes of San Giovanni and of the Duomo of Parma. Three of them 2iXQ Madonnas, which only differ in the arrangement and surrounding figures ; the other is a Nativity. In order to distinguish between these Madonnas, each has been named after the most consjncuous saint in its little court. One is called St. George, another St. Sebastian, and another St. Francis. As for the Nativity, which was originally destined for the town of Reggio, it is usually called La Notte di Correggio. If we dared to place these four celebrated and magnificent compositions in order of merit, we should mention first the St. George, that is to say, the Madonna enthroned, worshipped by St. John the Baptist, St. Peter of Verona, St. Geminianus, near to whom an angel is holding a model of the church he had built at Modena and dedicated to the Virgin, and lastly the martyr-prince of Cappadocia, the slayer of the dragon, whose arms are borne by four angels. l""rom his having destined this painting to be viewed at a considerable elevation, Correggio evidently intended to make it a mural picture. It would indeed be much better placed over the high allar of a cathedral than in the panel of a gallery. In the St. Sebastian, the Virgin is in the midst of what is termed i\ i,'/ory, surroundetl by a choir of celestial spirits. Three saints worship her on the earth ; in the centre, the bishop St. Geminianus, once more with the model of his church ; to the right, St. Roch. dying of the plague, like the poor wretches he had tended at Placentia ; and to the left, the warrior saint of Narbonne, fastened to the trunk of a tree and pierced with arrows. Although we must regret a little confusion in certain parts, the whole picture is wonderfully grouped, and the colouring, which is very delicate, is no less distinguished for its vigorous effects of chiaroscuro. The largest of the four pictures is that which is named after .SV. Francis. At tlie foot of the throne on which Mary is seated, holding the Holy ChiUl on her knees, the devotee of Assisi has prostrated himself in atloration, whilst the Virgin appears in the act of blessing him. Behind him is his disciple St. Antony of Padua, holding a lily in his hand ; opposite is St. Catherine, bearing a sword and a palm branch ; while John the Baptist, still naked and wild as in the desert, jjoints with his finger to Him whom he had announced to the world as the Saviour come to redeem mankind from the sin of our first parents, whose history and fall are traced on the pedestal of the throne. It would be (juite superfluous to say that this powerful composition, as well known through engravings as the Magda/en, is in the noblest style. It is the only picture under \\hich he inscribed the name -'Antonius de Allegris" (Antonio Allegri), which fiime has since rei)laced by the name of the town which boasts the honour of his birth. And yet La Notte of Correggio surpasses even the St. Francis in public opinion. Many place this composition above all those to be found in Europe, and proclaim it the artist's masterpiece. We may say, at all events, that it yields to no other in style. Yet perhaps Correggio might be reproached, in the conception of this picture, with a sort of over-carefulness. We see here the manger in which the Holy Infant was laid : it is night, and the scene is only rendered visible by a supernatural light, which spreads from the body of the Child lying on the straw. This light illumines the tace of the Virgin Mother, as she bends over her first-born, and dazzles a shepherdess who has liastened in on hearing of the " glad tidings." It extends lo Jose])h, who is seen Icatling the ass lo the Ixuk of the stable ; it also lights up the ani;els hovering m the air. wlio 158 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1534. " seem rather," as Vasari says, " to have descended from heaven than to have been created by the hand of man." Francesco Mazzuoli, called II Parmigiano, or sometimes II Parmigianino, was the son of one Filippo Mazzuoli, an old Parmese painter. He was born at Parma in 1504. Losing his father when quite young, he was brought up by his uncles Michele and Pietro Flavio, who also instructed him in art. Parmigiano imitated the works of Correggio, who visited Parma in 15 19, and in 1522 he painted the Madonna and CJiild with SS. Jerome and Bernard for the convent Delia Nunziata. In the following year he removed to Rome, where he remained until the sacking of the city in 1527, when he went to Bologna. He quitted the city, however, in 1 531, after executing several works of merit, among which werp, the St. Roc/i, painted for the church of San Petronio ; the Madomia delta Rosa, now in the Dresden Gallery ; and lasdy the St. Margaret, painted in 1527, now in the Academy of Bologna, wliich was preferred by Guido to the St. Cecilia of Raphael. When he left Bologna, Parmigiano returned to his native Parma, where he entered into a contract to paint, for four hundred gold scudi (half of which he received in advance), frescoes in the church of Santa Maria della Steccata, which were to be completed by the loth of November, 1532. Owing to illness, and other causes, he had executed but little of his work by about 1537, when the authorities threw him into prison. They, however, released him on his promising to complete the frescoes. Instead of fulfilling his word, he fled to Casal Maggiore, in the territory of Cremona, where he" died shortly afterwards, on August 24th, 1540. Of the paintings by this brilliant and precocious artist — who, according to Vasari, " had rather the face of an angel than that of a man," and who, on his return to Parma after having studied at Rome, ended by gliding into mannerism, then abandoned painting for alchemy, and died half mad — London has obtained the Vision. of St. Jerome {^o. t,t,). This picture was painted in 1527 for the chapel of the Buffalina family, at Citta di Castello, a chapel which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1790; it was rescued from under the ruins, and has since passed from hand to hand until it has come to the National Gallery. It is said (for pictures have legends attached to them) that in the taking and pillage of Rome, the soldiers of Charles V,, struck with admiration at the sight of this painting, respected both the artist and his dwelling. This picture is badly hung ; it should be seen from below, and from a distance. By placing it on a level with the eye, and almost within reach of the hand, the whole effect is destroyed. , There are seven or eight of his works in the Studj at Naples, amongst others, one of Lticretia stabbing herself, which no other of his pictures surpasses, or perhaps even equals. Amongst his portraits there is one of the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who has given his name to the new world, and another is that of a man who is still young, of a fine and resolute countenance, who is said to be the Genoese sailor who discovered it, Christopher Columbus. This is at least the opinion of the Neapolitans, but it seems a manifest error. It is certain that Parmigiano, who was born in 1504, could not have known Christopher Columbus, who, about the year 1480, left his native country for ever, to offer his services first to Portugal and Spain. We must also mention a Cupid making his knc (painted about 1536), now in the Vienna Gallery, and the Madonna (known as " Tlic Madonna with the long neck") in the Pitti Palace. A.D. 1550.] MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 159 CHAPTER XIV. THE MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. IN tlie works of Leonardo ila Vinci, Michelangelo, Raplvtcl, Titi m, and the other renowned masters, Art in Italy nearly reached perfection. Putting aside the idea of surpassing the conceptions of these masters, to have maintained an equal merit would have been a great success ; but this was not to be, and we have now to record the names of those artists, who assisted in the decline of art in the land in which it had so long been pre-eminent. So great was the demand for paintings in the middle of the sixteenth century, that art was practised merely as a trade, and the man who executed works in the least possible time, with a surflice-show of merit in them, was sure of attaining success. The school of the Carracci — known as the Eclectic — of whom we shall speak hereafter, made a stand against this shallow style, and revi\C(l art for a time, but it soon afterwards declined and, as fiir as Italy is concerned, nearly died out. It must not be su])i)ose(l tliat all the Mannerists were without merit : on the contrary, many were men of great attainments, and it was only by the ])ernicious example of the style of the time, that their paintings have so little tlepth of feeling, and please but for a moment. We have room only to mention the most prominent of the artists of this school. Angelo Bronzino, the poet and painter, was born at Monticelli near Florence in 1502. He studied first under an obscure painter, then under Raftaelino del darbo, and subsec|uentl\' under Jacopo da Pontormo, some of whose unfinished works he completed ; he died at Florence in 1572. Like his friend Vasari, Bronzino was a great admirer of Michelangelo, and like him too he succeeded better in portraiture than in historical subjects. His largest work is a Descent of Christ into Hades, in tiie (ialleiy of the Uffizi at Florence, which town still possesses many of his portraits of members of the Medici family. The National Gallery possesses four works by Pronzino ; a Portrait of a Laity (No. 650); Venits, Cupid, Folly and Time {;xx\ allegory. No. 651, originally painted for Francis I. of France) ; a Knight of St. Stephen (No. (i']o),7i.\\(\'\ Portrait of Cosmo I. Duke of Tuscany (No. 704), presented by her Majesty the Queen in 1S63. Pronzino painted both in fresco and in oil. Of his pupils we will mention but one, his nephew, Alessandro AUori, who was born at Florence in 1535 ; he was sometimes called by the name of his uncle Pronzino, and occasionally signed himself so in his pictures. He painted a Crucifixion at the i6o ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [a.d. 1570. early age of seventeen, but his works never rose above mediocrity. Allori died in 1607. He wrote a book on Anatomy for the use of artists. Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, a pupil of Pierino del Vaga, was born in 1504. He painted chiefly at Rome, and died in 1580. Among his best works we may mention an Adoration of the Shepherds in Santa Maria della Pace at Rome, and a Pietci in the Gallery of Count Raczynski at Berlin. Sermoneta painted much in the style of the followers of Raphael. Giorgio Vasari, the great historian and painter, was born at Arezzo in 15 12. As an artist, he is not deserving of any great praise. He was instructed in design by his father Antonio Vasari, and worked under several painters, including Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, and Francesco Salviati. He subsequently had many scholars, but none of merit. In 1544, his pupils painted, from his design, an immense ceiling for Cardinal Farnese, in a hundred days, but the execution was so little to Vasari's taste, that he determined, from that time, never to intrust to them the completion of any of his works. Vasari was greatly patronised by the Medici at Florence, where he died in 1574. He was buried at Arezzo. As a painter his execution was rapid. He says himself, " We paint six pictures in one year, whereas the earlier master took six years for one picture," and his pictures lacked that depth of feeling which is only to be acquired by long study of the subject. His works are too numerous to be mentioned here; many of them were painted from his designs, by his pupils. His historical pieces are much surpassed by his portraits, of which we may mention that o{ Lorenzo de' Medici, in the Uffizi, and several of Cosmo I. (a good specimen is in the Berlin Museum). He was a great admirer and imitator of Michelangelo. It is for his great historical work that Vasari is so justly famed. His ' Vite. de' piu eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti,' was first published at Florence in 1550. A second edition, revised by himself, appeared in 1568. Many later editions of this work have been published at various cities in Italy ; of these the Le Monnier edition, published at Florence in 1846, contains many valuable corrections, and is in every way the most trustworthy. In Germany it has been translated by Schorn ; and in England by Mrs. J. Foster, and published in the Bohn Series. This ' Vite de' Pittori,' &c., has been most severely (and no doubt justly) criticised, as being of doubtful authority, and nearly every writer on art has endeavoured to find fiiult with Vasari's statements ; but, when we consider that it was written, in a great measure, from verbal evidence only, we must allow that excuses are to be made for those inaccuracies — and they are by no means few — which have crept in. Vasari has not made his book instructive only, it is amusing. Intermingled with the drier details of biography, are many interesting anecdotes and jokes. And above all, though inclined a little towards the Florentines, he contemplates the merits and demerits of each artist most fairly. Vasari was also famous as an architect. Francesco Rossi, commonly called del Salviati from his patron Cardinal Sal- viati, was born at Florence in 15 10. He studied under Andrea del Sarto, with whom Vasari was also at the same time working. The latter and Salviati became firm friends, and executed several works in conjunction, but Salviati soon surpassed his partner, who paid him the honour of saying that he was the best artist in Rome at that time. Salviati painted in the church Delia Pace at Florence, the Anminciation and Christ appearing;; to Peter, both of which were much praised. After executing other works of importance, he left Rome and went to Venice in 1540; among the A.i). 1575.1 MAA'NEJ7i Rome; bui it was about the year 1614 that he painted his masterpiece the Com- munion of St. Jerome for the church of San C'.irolamo della Carith, which is now in the Vatican. Domenichino, disgusted with the petty jealousy of the artists of Rome, and the bad usage he received from them, left the city and repaired to Nai>les. He was however indued to return to Rome by Gregory X\'.. who made him chief pamter Till-. lASI COMMUNION OF ST. JEROMK.-RV I>OMKNHlll No. /// ///,• I'lifinui, /\\